Im thinking about moving to Singapore...thoughts? Singapore has the #1 business friendly economy in the world. I think I might fare pretty well over there.

What kind of business are you in?

I dont want to be too specific. However, I see every business booming in Singapore. 2% jobless rate. Americans are having an easier time finding work in Singapore then in America.

I severely doubt there are many Americans showing up in Singapore without a job and then finding their career niche there. If you seriously want to move overseas, find an employer to move you there on an ex-pat package.

Actually, I would find it amusing if Portege moved to Singapore to try to make money there. After he fails and then blames his miserable life on the government there, he could file a report on how it feels to get caned by a government employee.

I'd personally love to see Portege's 1000 word essay on Singapore's immigration/temporary guest worker program.

"Wait, you mean exploiting the cheap labor of the temp workers from the 4th world is a GOOD THING?"

Based on the radical postings of Protege, I think it is best to encourage him to move to Singapore. One less nut job in the US...that is a good thing!

I think it is all pretty obvious in the comparison he makes - a country of about 5 million, with a territory that covers a slightly smaller area than that of New York City, to that of the USA.

I guess if I was President Obama there would be a slight difference in governing Singapore over the USA and driving unemployment rates.

Actually, Im very serious and yes there are Americans showing up in Singapore to find employment. Here is an article for you to read:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/story/2011-09-14/asia-jobs/50389020/1


If I was young and coming out of college, then I would probably look for a job over there. Asia is growing rapidly where as America isnt growing so much.

If I moved to Singapore, I wouldnt be going there to find a job. I do not want to disclose too much on this board. I would be going there to join with other people on a certain business venture. My dealings are in the construction and oil industry. I have had 3 businesses in my lifetime. My largest operation employed about 200 people and that was sold a while ago. I have some friends in the oil and automotive industry based in Asia who I am going to go in with on a deal.

It wouldnt be just about Singapore though, but it would be a starting off place for the rest of Asia. Hong Kong and other Chinese cities are highly polluted and I would like to stay away from that. I wouldnt want to live in those places.


(Message edited by Portege on October 25, 2011)

Both Porker and LAGuy offer up negativity and discouraging words about moving to Asia for business. However, if there is money to be made then there is money to be made. For some here in America, there isnt that much opportunity...lets face it, I dont know anyone who is hiring. There is one guy I know in this forum who is going back to school and can't find work. There seems to be plenty of work in Singapore and other countries throughout Asia. Why get more education when you can go to a place like Singapore and work? Believe me, there are a lot more oppportunities there then you think. I would start by looking at the internet job boards and also go through a recruiter:

http://www.jobsdb.com/

The thing about Asia is there is plenty of people, but there are not so many people with a lot of experience in anything or know how to manage people. Why wait to get a job offer? Why not just jump on a plane and see whats there for yourself?

One thing about Singapore that I like is that Jim Rogers chose to live there. Jim Rogers is truly a character with his bowtie, but every time I have listened to that man I have made money...every time I chose not to listen to him I have lost money.

Finally, this Gary Ng guy seems to be inspiring. Filming himself with 30 Singapore chicks in 500 films. It kind of makes you go hmmmm....there is a big party going on in Singapore. The only party going on here in America is a bunch of so called protesters down at the Occupy camps. I dont see anyone getting cained over in Singapore...I see them getting laid in Singapore...

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_620736.html

Portege,

Take the amount of money you're making now, deduct 35% for being white and not knowing Singapore's culture, deduct another 27% for thinking that you know about Singapore's culture and another 10% for ignoring good advice already given you to.

If you can survive on that amount, by all means go ahead and make the move. You will receive everything you richly deserve. And, while you're at it, can you take Romney, Cain, Bachman, and the other Republiturds with you?

Good luck, you're going to need it.

EA

Smith is also looking to move abroad, perhaps Portege and Smith could be roomies?

I believe you guys are missing the point and are using your own misconceived ideas/impressions to fit me into your own image. Porker/LaGuy stereotype me into some guy in his 30s looking for a job. El Apodo/Catocony think Im some misguided soul who doesnt know what Im getting myself into.

I havent had a job in over 40 years. I believe it was 1971 when I worked for someone. After that, I found another way of doing things and that is owning/operating businesses. Its not hard to find people like myself. Just drive into your town and go into the businesses which exist. You will find someone like me in one of them.

If you think Im going to travel to Singapore to get hustled, then think again. Ive been the hustler, Ive been hustled and that goes back to owning 3 different businesses over the years. My plan is to start a business in Asia and Singapore seems like the ideal place.

Im sorry that you guys havent found the way yet. Like I said, just go into your local town, introduce yourself to some business owners and they might show you a trick or two and get you onto the right path. I was done in 1971 with the jobs you guys do and decided to do it all myself. Good luck to you!

I think you're a simple-minded guy in his 60s who thinks he knows what he's talking about but doesn't. A guy who tries to act like he's a bigwig of some sort, but isn't. A dullard who wrote trip reports about places before he visited. A weirdo who seems to think that a $15 a night hotel with a free breakfast buffet is the way to travel, while also claiming to have been in a lot of fistfights A guy claiming to have been the CEO of companies with hundreds of employees, but also saying he never went to college or has much of an education. A guy who claims he's a self-made man, but doesn't seem to realize the residency and visa requirements for Singapore.

I think you're a crank, and you back up that assessment with your weird political postings on a whoremongering board that professes great love for Republicans.

Maybe can find a job or business deals using Facebook. Several suggestions below:

Spanking cains,
Prozac for Americans that cannot find a job there,
Start a low cost airline from Las Vegas to Singapore,
Sell used B of A ATM's,
Open a rice farm,
Import fuel efficient water buffalos to replace fuel inefficient taxis.

I am sure you will have plenty of other great ideas.

MM

I disagree with Cat, I just think you're a blow hard who sees the world through your own special rose-colored glasses. You're entertaining, but, based on the sheer lunacy of most of your reports here, certainly no one to take serious.

Best of luck with your move to Singapore or which ever Asian country of the month that peaks your interest. Please post all of your experiences, we need the laugh.

EA

Hehe. I never called myself the CEO, I preferred "owner" and the most I had on my staff was about 200 give or take. Thats about as many peoople as several stores, two large restaurants in NYC, one car dealership or a single mining/drilling operation. I thank you for giving me the title of CEO and labeling me a "bigwig", but the reality is the operations I own and ran were small time. I was happy with what I had though.

Now if me owning a 200 person operation is somehow intimidating to you then I have to laugh. It is very telling of the background you are from where a small time owner of a business can somehow make you insecure about yourself.

My opinion of you is you are truly a low class asshole.

(Message edited by Portege on October 25, 2011)

Your last post above say why you are not liked here.

I think you call people an "asshole" more than anyone on this board.

Maybe you should start over in the far far far away east. Hopefully, on an island where you can land with a parachute, no landing strip, and no boat service.

You could be the first proctologist there Potege. Since your are such an expert on proctology, I am sure you will do well with all of the assholes there.

Good luck buddy. We arse all pulling for you.

MM

Hehe. Im not going away from this board anytime soon. So go ahead, litter the board with threats and profane language, but Im not going away.

Portege writes: "Porker/LaGuy stereotype me into some guy in his 30s looking for a job."

Wrong again dimwit. You are the stereotypical rigid bitter old man.

I would be remiss, however, if I failed to point out you are also viewed by many here as the village idiot. But not the cute cuddly type who everyone wants to pat on the head as he passes by. No, you are the aggressive fist-fighting type of village idiot who, as you have pointed out in your posts, many people in "real life" hate, and who has an extremely dysfunctional personality that begs for an intervention.

Having stated these facts, I shall now move on to some educated speculation about how you got this way. Some might suppose you are a Nam vet with post-traumatic stress syndrome, a conclusion based on a number of tidbits you have posted previously. Nothing against vets with combat-related mental disorders as a general matter, but in my experience they do sometimes have unfortunate personality disorders, in extreme cases as bad as yours.

On the other hand, you recently attacked the homelessness you saw in Seattle and Portland, and given that about 25 percent of the homeless are vets, and between 40 and 50 percent of the homeless have serious mental illnesses, it would be a bit incongruous for a Vietnam vet with a mental illness to be attacking homeless vets and the mentally ill the way you did. So, I'm a bit on the fence as to whether you are a Nam Vet with a mental illness, or whether there is another cause (or multiples causes) for your affliction.

Along these lines, we all observed how you starting lashing out after many here noted you had slept with a "being" in the Dominican Republic that based on the photo you posted looked very much like a tranny, I would say more so than just about any other photo I have seen anywhere. Particularly given your rigid old man personality I suspect your psyche may have been permanently damaged by this revelation, one that to this day you seem unable to cope with. So you snapped and haven't recovered psychologically. Fair enough.

But as I noted elsewhere, and as others are now beginning to also note, you are good for a laugh so all is forgiven.

So Portege, entertain on my friend, entertain on.

Surprised that nobody has noted that this self-professed developer (i.e. construction) and oil man is repelled at the idea of living in "polluted cities" in Asia. Finding "green streaks" in the most unlikely places these days.

Laguy, You can write essays about me all you want. You can say the most profane stuff. I might read it if I need a good laugh, but whatever you do, Im not going away.

Unless Hombre decides for you to go away which is always an option if enough of us that are important want you gone...think about it.

Whats to stop him of just signing up again under a different handle?

If Hombre decides to pull the plug then he pulls the plug. Im not going to sneak back on with another nick-name. At least I am averaging a trip report a year with generous amounts of pictures. If you dont like the reports then thats you...at least I am posting reports. Some of my critics have not posted a report or a picture in years. I think if you are going to take a jab at someone else then you should at least have some reports and pictures under your belt.

Besides, this post is about moving to Singapore and the usual trollish suspects have thrown it off topic. If I were Hombre, I would ban that Laguy. He hasnt posted reports in years and has a total of 4 pictures to his name. All he does is throw threads off topic, tells us he visits Asia but posts no reports and then comes out saying weird things like when he told us how the political threads on ClubHombre could somehow sway the next election. Im not sure if he was just trolling, joking or actually being serious...

I actually lived in Singapore as an expat for a number of years. While not an entrpreneur myself, I developed friendships with locals who owned their own business.

Singapore is a good place for an expat to start a LARGE business. With large money, the Singapore government will definitely be your friend and facilitate success. However, if you are not investing at that level and starting a small enterprise, then you really have to deal with a different more local network. This network is not very kind or accommodating to expats. To get things done and not get screwed royally in your supply and sourcing you will need strong social capital (network) in the Lion City. Almost no western expats have that.

There are many stories circulating in the media about Singapore, HK, and South Korea being the best places for expat to start a business. The key here is START, this is solely a reflection of the government bureaucratic hurdles one most overcome to open your business. It doesn't reflect the cost of doing business, marketing opportunities and the ultimate probability of success. I just didn't see more than one or two successful small expat owned businesses. The same studies touting Singapore, rank places like China, Thailand, Vietman at the bottom but all of those places seem to have many more success stories. If I wanted to start a small business in Asia (under 1 million in capitlization) as a western expat, conditional upon the market for my product being the same, I would look more to the more hungry emerging market places. If I was coming in with 50 million or more in Captilization then I would look to place like Singapore.

Good luck in your endeavors.


PS. If you do pursue your dream in Singapore, the have strong laws to protect you, but you must also obey all the laws and regulation. You should start by looking here for the proper way to move to Singapore http://www.mom.gov.sg/Pages/default.aspx

i know a couple guys that live and work in sin. they went to hk straight out of college in the late 80's and got jobs. one in logistics (mainly containers via ship, rail, trucks) and one in technology (chips - semiconductors). a few yrs ago they both ended up in singapore with new jobs (laid off in hk in 08/09). interviewed for jobs while in hk, before moving to sin. one guy already quit and moved back to hk. didn't like singapore relative to hk. the other guy is still there but wants to leave. they make good money, north of 250,000usd/yr. but their working hours are pretty tough, practically 24 hrs a day. and the cost of living is high, they tell me 5,000usd/mo gets you a small two bdrm in sin. but this is in a quality residence.

on the other side of the coin, you have people coming from emerging market economies looking for low income work in sin which translates to high income relative to their home countries. they can't spend a dime on anything in sin as it costs too much and they need to send money home. so they work, go home and sleep, and work again.

neither one of these options sounds all that great to me. i doubt whether portege or anyone else is going to just head on over to sin and start up a successful business. the chances are better if you have ALOT of money in the bank now. then rely on some local partners to guide you as you are the bankroll. but of course that could end up as a failure and then you are broke.

there is no way to go to sin and start up your own small business such that you are calling the shots, have an easy work schedule and are making money right and left. this is just a dream that turns into a nightmare.

as for nightmare, another guy i know in HK has been bankrolling a condo development in bkk in ratchada. he is really suffering. partnered with a native sin guy and a thai guy. the place took 4 yrs to build and they still haven't closed any units. he's got a million usd invested in this 'debacle', started with $500,000 but then the invevitable cost overruns came in to play. no more bank money so these guys had to kick in the $$$ (mainly my buddy as the partners suddenly came up a bit short on the capital call front). hoping to start getting people in next month but then the floods came along.......

in summary, making money in asia doesn't seem real easy/fun to me.

ps. i know things aren't so great in the US but i only know one person who doesn't have a job. and he pretty much chose that course. collected unemployment for 2 yrs and didn't even look for work.

Feeding the troll or humoring the stooge?
You decide.