Tea with AK71: Lipton, Twinings, TWG et al.

I think we would not have missed much if we stayed away from the stock market the last few days. So, we might as well take it easy and have a cup of tea once in a while. My usual is a cup of Lipton tea which is inexpensive and quite good, I feel.

I had Twinings before which is supposedly more atas. Is it really?

Then, when a friend from Hong Kong came to visit, he went into this very atas looking tea drinking place, TWG, in ION Orchard. He was looking to buy some TWG tea because they were not available in Hong Kong. He and his wife bought some in Canada and enjoyed it. I looked at the prices and anyone looking at me then might have wondered whether to call an ambulance. Super expensive!

What inspired this blog post? I recently ordered some supplements and was given a packet of very atas looking tea. It is St. Dalfour Classic Breakfast Tea. It is organic tea from Ceylon and blended in St. Dalfour, France. Wah! If it doesn't sound atas to you, you must be drinking more atas tea than this. Please help to educate me.

Note for non-Singlish speakers: The word "atas" in Singlish means "high class".

Borrow money and be paid to do so!

No, there is no typo in the title of this blog post. Yes, you read it correctly!

So, where can we go to borrow some money and be paid to do so? Who are the people lending us money and paying us for it? Maxi-Cash?

Nope, not Maxi-Cash. What I am describing is happening in Germany and, unfortunately, the option is not open to us. So, it would remain a dream.

Hey, day dreaming is actually good for health, you know?

BERLIN: Investors paid to lend Germany money for six months at an auction on Monday, the country's central bank said, as they flocked to the safe haven of Europe's top economy.

The yield or rate on the auction of six-month debt was a record low -0.03 percent, the Bundesbank, which organised the auction, said in a statement.

Source: CNA, 9 July 2012.
Read the full story: here.

In ASSI, we talk of growing our wealth and beating inflation. We also say that if we want to protect our wealth, we have to take risk. So, to find investors parking billions of Euros in bonds with a negative yield is simply mind boggling! For these investors, they cannot even talk about how the interest they receive is not keeping up with inflation. Upon maturity, they would get back a smaller amount! (Keeping my money at home would at least ensure that the nominal value stays the same, wouldn't it? I think I am missing something here.)

Some would argue that these investors are paying the borrower to keep their money safe. Now, I am going to say something which you might find enlightening (or not): Keeping our money safe is not the same as keeping our wealth safe.

Related posts:
1. Grow your wealth and beat inflation.
2. To protect our wealth, we have to take risk.