Besides holidays, dancing and makan, I am glad to see that there are others in our membership coming up and sharing their ideas, although they may not want to raise their ideas in the Club forum for members to discuss. One main reason is being slammed down by experts and Mr Know Alls, even before the topic gets underway. Sometimes, I wonder how some members know that I am in Singapore. Well, I found out that if these members see that I have registered for an event, it is likely I am around that day. I do make an effort to come for discussions, if my time permits.
This discussion is interesting; it had been raised before during the early days of the SilverHairsClub; but it had been slammed down due to I forgot what. Start again. We had discussions about a physical club and a place. It has always been “Why not? Members need a physical place to call home. We never got anywhere. Today’s property prices are high. It may drop after cooling measures. Prices may also go up and higher too because of limited land in Singapore, unless a major disaster happens. During the recent business networking meeting, I had a chat wit a fellow member, who was looking at some properties. What not we share to buy a property? Maybe for investment. Of course, there will be nitty gritties, risks and …., but we have so many experts within SHC. We have so many members, maybe 50 or 100 are looking to invest in a property, something. I dont want to over jump the options. We have financial experts, property experts, bankers, … lawyers, and investors. Some want to invest, others want keep their money in the bank, and others put their money under the flower pot.
Let’s discuss an idea. If, for example, we use a number of SGD 3m. We aim to raise that number. Let’s say we have interest participation for 40 people. If this works, this would mean 75,000 per lot. Let’s say we raise this over 6 months. There will be 3m in the kitty. This will be one group. They come up with options, buy backs, interests, the financial managers, etc.
Meantime, another group can look at what to do with the 3m. Maybe, buy a commercial property. Maybe take over a company or business. Invest in a co-operative. Sure, if there is 3m, it is easier to talk. Without, it will still be easy to talk. Perhaps, IvanL, you may have some ideas too. Maybe we can do something that will benefit us, through our SilverHairs years. So, the 2nd group looks at the investment opportunities.
I think we can have the last group, which will look at protecting the investors. Many times, we failed in such discussions, because we are all talking about retirement money. If it fails, what happens. Are the pluses attractive vs the negatives. Can we buy back? Etc. I guess a lot to discuss. Experts, experienced members, and ordinary members, how can we take this forward.
I think there some members will offer very negative comments and viewpoints. While I agree there can be negatives, how about thinking how to make the idea work. We have enough brains and expertise to fine tune the idea.
So, let’s use $3m as the target to raise to invest, look at what we can invest with 3m and finally how to safeguard our interest.
** Thank you to the people who caught me when I had some time in Singapore. I love to listen to ideas. So, let’s start.
Terence Seah
