Private vs Public Investments

Comparing apples and oranges

Investment ideas can come from everywhere but it is important to understand that public and private investments are as different as apples and oranges. Investment ideas from personal connections, private companies and structured schemes come to us. It is very tempting to put money to work thinking that we are getting good risk reward. But we must be very discerning.

Personal and private investments cannot be compared to what is publicly listed or legally verified instruments backed by the governments or large institutions. For example, we see a private investment our friend brought to us, or perhaps even endorsed by Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, because they have put money in, which shows 20% annual return on paper. We cannot say that this is better than buying DBS stock (Singapore’s largest bank), which can only generates 10% annual…