Cebu Pacific, the Philippines' second-largest airline, has reduced its year-round `Go' fares for most of its domestic routes.
"We are doing this because we want to stimulate air travel even more especially for the bus and ferry markets that we serve. We've seen how our earlier seat sales have successfully enticed people to travel so now were making these fares available all year-round. We also want to reward those people who book ahead of time," Cebu Pacific Vice President for Marketing and Product Candice Iyog said. The one-way fare for the Manila-Laoag, Manila-Legaspi and Cebu-Iloilo services have been slashed by more than 65 per cent.
The lowest fares for these routes now start from P99 (US$2.21). Including taxes and surcharges, one-way fares are less than P900.
One-way year-round fare from Manila to most Visayas destinations was reduced by close to 50 per cent from P568 to P288.
A one-way fare for Manila to Tagbilaran and Tacloban have been cut by almost 60 per cent from P688 to P288.
The all-inclusive year-round fare for this group is now less than P1,300 one-way.
The year-round one-way fare for services from Manila to any Mindanao destination have been reduced by more than 30 per cent from P998 to P688.
This is equivalent to an all-inclusive one-way fare of a little over P2,000.
"We encourage everyone to plan their trips and buy their tickets as early as possible, and ideally at least a month before their travel date, so they get the best availability of these super low year-round fares," Iyog said.
She added that the airline's fare reduction to domestic destinations will allow guests to spend less on air travel and more on their business and leisure activities.
Now in its 12th year, Cebu Pacific has the youngest fleet in the Philippines at just over one year.
It operates 14 Airbus aircraft to its 20 domestic and soon to be 12 regional destinations with the addition of Shanghai, Xiamen, Guangzhou and Macau in the next quarter.
Cebu Pacific's additional flight destinations to nearby Asian countries would be a boost to the country's tourism industry.
It recently inaugurated the airline's Manila-Taipei flight offerings at the Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
Some more Stock tips
1. New products, services or leadership. If a company has a dynamic new product or service, or is capitalizing on new conditions in the economy, this can have a dramatic impact on the price of a stock.
2. Leading stock in a leading industry group. Nearly 50% of a stock's price action is a result of its industry group's performance. Focus on the top industry groups, and within those groups select stocks with the best price performance. Don't buy laggards just because they look cheaper.
3. High-rated institutional sponsorship. You want at least a few of the better performing mutual funds owning the stock. They're the ones who will drive the stock up on a sustained basis.
4. New Highs. Stocks that make new highs on increased volume tend to move higher. Outstanding stocks usually form a price consolidation pattern, and then go on to make their biggest gains when their price breaks above the pattern on unusually high volume.
5. Positive market. You can buy the best stocks out there, but if the general market is weak, most likely your stocks will be weak also. You need to study our "The market talks. Listen, to spot the best." - Module 8 and learn how to interpret shifts in the market's trend.
6. You should not buy on dips. This is a strategy that doesn't give you a strong probability of making a profit. Remember a stock that has dipped 25% needs to rise 33% to recover the loss and a stock that has dipped 50% needs to double to get back to its old high.
2. Leading stock in a leading industry group. Nearly 50% of a stock's price action is a result of its industry group's performance. Focus on the top industry groups, and within those groups select stocks with the best price performance. Don't buy laggards just because they look cheaper.
3. High-rated institutional sponsorship. You want at least a few of the better performing mutual funds owning the stock. They're the ones who will drive the stock up on a sustained basis.
4. New Highs. Stocks that make new highs on increased volume tend to move higher. Outstanding stocks usually form a price consolidation pattern, and then go on to make their biggest gains when their price breaks above the pattern on unusually high volume.
5. Positive market. You can buy the best stocks out there, but if the general market is weak, most likely your stocks will be weak also. You need to study our "The market talks. Listen, to spot the best." - Module 8 and learn how to interpret shifts in the market's trend.
6. You should not buy on dips. This is a strategy that doesn't give you a strong probability of making a profit. Remember a stock that has dipped 25% needs to rise 33% to recover the loss and a stock that has dipped 50% needs to double to get back to its old high.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Guaranteeing you a regular income after retirement
There comes a point in every saver’s life when it’s time to stop saving and start spending. There are lots of calculators to help you figure out how much regular income you’ll need once you stop working. But where will this money come from?
The traditional sources of retirement income, often referred to as the three-legged stool, belong to a bygone era of Nehru jackets and Rubik’s Cubes. These three income sources - company pensions, social security and individual savings - worked together to create retirement security. There was little risk of running out of money - if these three sources contributed their fair shares. While longevity is certainly a wonderful thing, when it comes to retirement planning, it’s a wild card.
Defined-benefit pensions are a guaranteed source of income, an assurance that no matter how long you live you will continue to collect a cheque. The same is true of social security, which provides inflation-adjusted payments for life. Current retirees receive some 69% of their incomes from these two sources, according to the Employee Benefit Retirement Institute. But today’s workers can expect these two sources to account for just a third of their income needs.
That leaves individual savings to assume a bigger role. The only problem is, “You can outlive your personal savings,” says Bill Reichenstein, professor of finance at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Milevsky, Reichenstein and others say that future retirees should strongly consider annuitisation, a process of converting some savings into predictable income. There are several ways to achieve this, but the goal is to secure a steady cheque month after month.
According to Constantijn W A Panis, manager with Deloitte Financial Advisory Services in Los Angeles, having an income stream that funds at least 25% of your retirement spending boosts retirement satisfaction to almost 70%.
People who derived much of their retirement resources from an annuity exhibited fewer depression symptoms, a study says. At any given level of income, just having a portion of retirement resources in the form of annuities was perceived as having more money.
Reducing risk
Retirement today is filled with risks that personal savings alone can’t address. The biggie is longevity. The longer you live, the more money you’ll need and the greater your chances of running out. While average life expectancy is 77 years, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, those who reach age 65 can expect to live another 18 years to age 83. In fact, the over-85 set is the fastest-growing segment of the population.
Another biggie is inflation risk, or not being able to keep up with ever-rising prices. Finally, there is investment risk, the possibility that a market downturn will hit your portfolio just when you need the money most.
Annuitisation can take the sting out of all three risks. First, there’s no fear of running out of money, since by its very nature annuitisation provides lifetime income. Second, you can invest your other assets in higher-risk fare that has a better chance of beating inflation. And third, if a bear market strikes, you can ride out the storm.
“If you don’t have to touch the stocks in your portfolio, there’s your investment hedge,” says Rande Spiegelman of Schwab Centre for Investment Research in San Francisco.
Milevsky and Chen earned a patent in 2006 showing that the right combination of annuitised and non-annuitised assets in retirement can significantly reduce a person’s chances of running out of money. For example, with a portfolio composed of 60% stocks and 40% bonds where an investor takes systematic withdrawals to meet his or her income needs, the pair found that the chances of depleting assets starts to rise before age 80 and runs to about 49% at 100. But annuitising about half of such a portfolio greatly enhances the chances of not running out of money.
According to Constantijn W A Panis, manager with Deloitte Financial Advisory Services in Los Angeles, having an income stream that funds at least 25% of your retirement spending boosts retirement satisfaction to almost 70%.
People who derived much of their retirement resources from an annuity exhibited fewer depression symptoms, a study says. At any given level of income, just having a portion of retirement resources in the form of annuities was perceived as having more money.
How to annuitise assets
Workers who are lucky enough to have a pension are usually better off opting for a lifetime annuity payout rather than a lump sum if presented with the choice. It might be tempting to get one big pot of money all at once, but most of us are pretty lousy at managing that kind of money and making it last.
The most straightforward of these products provide a fixed monthly amount. However, you can also purchase a variable annuity and tie the amount of the benefit to the performance of fairly conservative investments such as intermediate bonds that could help you keep up with inflation.
Shop around for the lowest fees and make sure you go with a well-established insurance company with solid financial backing before making a purchase.
Figuring the annuity amount
Once you’ve decided to go with some type of annuity, you need to figure out how much of your income it should represent. That depends largely on your resources. Those who receive a generous pension, combined with their social security income, won’t need to do more. Ditto for the superrich.
For those in the middle, experts recommend that you convert about a quarter to a third of your assets into an annuity if you don’t have a pension. Together with social security, about half of your income needs can be annuitised.
Of course there are downsides to annuitising. The biggest is giving up control of your assets. There’s always the possibility that you’ll make the wrong bet. In other words, you won’t live long enough to get the full benefit and in the meantime you’ve given up a chunk of your assets.
Think of annuities as insurance. For example, good drivers usually feel like they’re getting ripped off with car insurance. Bad drivers, on the other hand, come out ahead because their accidents get covered. If longevity runs in your family, chances are pretty good that you’ll be like one of those bad drivers getting the most from the insurance company.
The traditional sources of retirement income, often referred to as the three-legged stool, belong to a bygone era of Nehru jackets and Rubik’s Cubes. These three income sources - company pensions, social security and individual savings - worked together to create retirement security. There was little risk of running out of money - if these three sources contributed their fair shares. While longevity is certainly a wonderful thing, when it comes to retirement planning, it’s a wild card.
Defined-benefit pensions are a guaranteed source of income, an assurance that no matter how long you live you will continue to collect a cheque. The same is true of social security, which provides inflation-adjusted payments for life. Current retirees receive some 69% of their incomes from these two sources, according to the Employee Benefit Retirement Institute. But today’s workers can expect these two sources to account for just a third of their income needs.
That leaves individual savings to assume a bigger role. The only problem is, “You can outlive your personal savings,” says Bill Reichenstein, professor of finance at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Milevsky, Reichenstein and others say that future retirees should strongly consider annuitisation, a process of converting some savings into predictable income. There are several ways to achieve this, but the goal is to secure a steady cheque month after month.
According to Constantijn W A Panis, manager with Deloitte Financial Advisory Services in Los Angeles, having an income stream that funds at least 25% of your retirement spending boosts retirement satisfaction to almost 70%.
People who derived much of their retirement resources from an annuity exhibited fewer depression symptoms, a study says. At any given level of income, just having a portion of retirement resources in the form of annuities was perceived as having more money.
Reducing risk
Retirement today is filled with risks that personal savings alone can’t address. The biggie is longevity. The longer you live, the more money you’ll need and the greater your chances of running out. While average life expectancy is 77 years, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, those who reach age 65 can expect to live another 18 years to age 83. In fact, the over-85 set is the fastest-growing segment of the population.
Another biggie is inflation risk, or not being able to keep up with ever-rising prices. Finally, there is investment risk, the possibility that a market downturn will hit your portfolio just when you need the money most.
Annuitisation can take the sting out of all three risks. First, there’s no fear of running out of money, since by its very nature annuitisation provides lifetime income. Second, you can invest your other assets in higher-risk fare that has a better chance of beating inflation. And third, if a bear market strikes, you can ride out the storm.
“If you don’t have to touch the stocks in your portfolio, there’s your investment hedge,” says Rande Spiegelman of Schwab Centre for Investment Research in San Francisco.
Milevsky and Chen earned a patent in 2006 showing that the right combination of annuitised and non-annuitised assets in retirement can significantly reduce a person’s chances of running out of money. For example, with a portfolio composed of 60% stocks and 40% bonds where an investor takes systematic withdrawals to meet his or her income needs, the pair found that the chances of depleting assets starts to rise before age 80 and runs to about 49% at 100. But annuitising about half of such a portfolio greatly enhances the chances of not running out of money.
According to Constantijn W A Panis, manager with Deloitte Financial Advisory Services in Los Angeles, having an income stream that funds at least 25% of your retirement spending boosts retirement satisfaction to almost 70%.
People who derived much of their retirement resources from an annuity exhibited fewer depression symptoms, a study says. At any given level of income, just having a portion of retirement resources in the form of annuities was perceived as having more money.
How to annuitise assets
Workers who are lucky enough to have a pension are usually better off opting for a lifetime annuity payout rather than a lump sum if presented with the choice. It might be tempting to get one big pot of money all at once, but most of us are pretty lousy at managing that kind of money and making it last.
The most straightforward of these products provide a fixed monthly amount. However, you can also purchase a variable annuity and tie the amount of the benefit to the performance of fairly conservative investments such as intermediate bonds that could help you keep up with inflation.
Shop around for the lowest fees and make sure you go with a well-established insurance company with solid financial backing before making a purchase.
Figuring the annuity amount
Once you’ve decided to go with some type of annuity, you need to figure out how much of your income it should represent. That depends largely on your resources. Those who receive a generous pension, combined with their social security income, won’t need to do more. Ditto for the superrich.
For those in the middle, experts recommend that you convert about a quarter to a third of your assets into an annuity if you don’t have a pension. Together with social security, about half of your income needs can be annuitised.
Of course there are downsides to annuitising. The biggest is giving up control of your assets. There’s always the possibility that you’ll make the wrong bet. In other words, you won’t live long enough to get the full benefit and in the meantime you’ve given up a chunk of your assets.
Think of annuities as insurance. For example, good drivers usually feel like they’re getting ripped off with car insurance. Bad drivers, on the other hand, come out ahead because their accidents get covered. If longevity runs in your family, chances are pretty good that you’ll be like one of those bad drivers getting the most from the insurance company.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Forex Exchange Rate - How Does It Get Calculated?
In the Forex market the value of two separate currencies and how they relate to one another is what is known as the Forex exchange rate. Usually the Forex rate is how much of one currency is needed to buy a unit of another. Knowing the basics regarding the Forex exchange can help you get started in understanding it even better.
Just to give you an example of how the Foreign exchange rate can work and to help you better understands it we can compare the United States dollar with the Japanese yen. Let's say that on a certain day the US dollar is able to buy one hundred and ten Japanese yens, this would indicate that the exchange rate for that day is 1:110 or a one to one hundred and ten ratio. This ratio in the exchange rate is also known as pairing. When you take it vice versa you can use it to indicate how many US dollars a single unit of Japanese yen can buy. Another term that is used in the Foreign exchange rate is 'cross rates'. This term however is only used when it does not involve US dollars; it is only used when relating two foreign currencies.
A few other terms used in the Forex exchange are pips or basis points, which are actually two terms used for the same thing. These terms are used to indicate Forex rates that are calculated up to four decimal points and whether or not these are negative or positive movements. An example of this would be if you were to exchange euros with yen at a value of 135.1030, but then the euro rate goes up to 135.1035, it is called a five-pip improvement.
In using the Forex exchange rate you are required to use two currencies and this means they are quoted as 'two tier' rates. Also in the Forex market its price basis is called a bid/ask. Using the previous ratio between the yen and the US dollar in the Forex market, if this trade is made it is called a ten pip 'spread' and is secured. This term means it indicates the difference between the buying and actual selling price. A lot of things can change the spread and affect it. These things include market conditions and traders' instincts about the strength of certain currencies, which can fluctuate greatly from day to day. One thing you should remember however when it comes to the Forex is that only Forex traders who are licensed can access official quoted rates. This means therefore that smaller investors may not receive their currency at a very good rate, because they usually receive them from commercial banks.
One last thing concerning the Forex exchange rate is that it is independently determined. This is why it thrives so well, because solely buyers and sellers and their supply and demand of certain currencies determine it. In the end individual governments and banks cannot decide the values.
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