Nightmare Is The Forecast Of Singapore’s Dividend Growth

According to Markit Ltd., Singapore’s 2016 dividend growth forecast is among the worst. On the other hand, the South Korea’s dividend growth forecast is among the best in the Asia-Pacific region. This is with the exclusion of countries such as Australia and Indonesia as they are foreseen to cut payouts.

For those of you who are less knowledgeable about the stock market, a dividend is the payout or the distribution of the company’s earnings to its stakeholders. These are issued as cash, shares of stock, or other properties.

Markit, a global provider of financial information services, based its dividends outlook on what is supposed to be reported in 2016. Thus, the year-on-year comparison is in accordance with the dividends reported in 2015 (FY14 final + FY15 interim) and in 2016 (FY15 final + FY16 interim).

Markit foresees Singapore to distribute S$15.865 billion in 2016 – only greater by 0.3% from last year’s S$15.824 billion. If specials are included, the distribution is predicted go down by 2.5% (S$16.2 billion) compared to 2015’s S$16.6 billion.

Continue to sleep well if you are a stakeholder at Singapore banks because as a sector, it remains to be the highest dividend payers.

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons

In fact, a Markit analyst said that the three Singapore banks’ (i.e., DBS Group Holdings, OCBC Bank, and United Overseas Bank) contribution to the total dividends increased to 27.2% last year from about 25% since 2011. However, this number is estimated to go down slightly to 27.1% this 2016.

OCBC Bank and DBS Group Holdings are presumed to observe single-digit increases while United Overseas Bank is improbable to pay a special dividend in its final 2015 results. In the past few years, United Overseas Bank has paid special dividends of 5 cents in 2013-2014 and of 10 cents in 2012.

Image Credits: pixabay.com (License: CC0 Public Domain)

Image Credits: pixabay.com (License: CC0 Public Domain)

Once again, these numbers are solely based on the predictions of Markit and are not entirely carved in stone!

Sources: 1, 2, & 3

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How to Earn Extra Cash in Singapore

SGD10

Growing your side-income is way better than thrift. Why? Because there is a limit to how much you can cut from your cost of living, but not how much you can earn. Here’s a quick rundown on how to earn a bit of extra cash on the side:

  1. For “Quick Fix” Cash, Think Service and Not Skills

If you need quick cash (not a long term side income or business), focus on what people immediately around you want. Don’t just fixate on finding something that matches your skills or forte. For example:

Say you are a qualified accountant. Your first impulse, when it comes to making a spot of extra cash, might be to offer accounting services. Or it may be something closely related, such as offering tutoring services for someone trying to pass business accounting.

However, in your fixation on keeping it “skills oriented”, you may miss more immediate opportunities. These opportunities can be as simple as painting someone’s walls for S$500, being a mystery shopper for insurance companies, or even helping to install Windows in a bunch of workstations. Look for simple, one-off things that people around you need all the time.

  1. Invest for Dividends

You don’t need to be a stock market expert to make money with shares. An easy way to generate passive income is to identify shares with high dividend yields, and then buy and hold.

(Some shares provide dividend pay-outs, often every six months.)

A financial advisor can help you identify such shares. Alternatively, you might choose to buy a simple index fund (e.g. the Straits Times Index Fund). There is no trading (having to buy low and sell high) in this approach to stocks, so you will not need to track stocks all day and get stressed out.

  1. Provide Referrals

Many companies pay referrals when you bring in a customer. These companies can range from financial services to even specialist retailers. Think of it as being an unofficial, commissioned salesperson – when you refer someone to the company, and they buy something, you get a small cut of it.

This can also work in business to business (B2B) dealings. For example, many small courier services will be willing to give you a small referral fee, if you find a shop willing to sign a service contract with them.

It is best to do this with businesses you know well or have worked with before. While lucrative, it may not be worth your time to learn about a product from scratch to sell it.

  1. Use a Credit Card with Cash Rebates

If you pay your credit card in full (and you should) try using a cashback card. This returns a percentage of what you spend as a rebate, typically 3 – 6%. Assuming you use the card for essential purchases, and make full repayment each month, you would be getting money for an expenditure you had to make anyway.
You do need to make sure the cashback card matches your purchases, and the cashback limit (the maximum possible rebate) is not too low. You can find the best cashback credit card for your needs on SingSaver.com.sg.

(This article is brought to you by SingSaver.com.sg)

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