May 21, 2009 – stlplace

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on May 28, 2009 by stlplace

I have talked about investing in China many times in this blog. Recently a good friend of my wife asked this question: how to protect her parents retirement (life style) now that they are near retirement?

I think this is a very good question, also a very common one. Recently I read Charlie Munger’s book Poor Charile’s Almanac, and he said three stocks are enought (diversified) if they are good stocks and the person trully understands it. I agree.

So, let me apply this three stocks approach and run a hypertheoritical portfolio for my wife’s friend (‘s parents 🙂

The first stock comes to mind is 601628.SS, China Life Insurance (NYSE: LFC; HKSE: 2628.HK). I talked China Life couple times, during its Shanghai IPO (secondary offering to be precise), and “Got Yuan” post. I believe China Life is uniquely positioned to take advantage of weakened competitors (China Ping’An and AIG China subsidiary), and this down market.

China Life Insurance logo

Prepaid cell phone getting popular in the US?

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on May 21, 2009 by stlplace

Did a google news search on this. From my own experience, prepaid phone card is very popular in China. I have used those from time to time when I visit China. I believe most of China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) subscribers are prepaid customers, which is opposite to the AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers in the US (where most customers have a calling plan and pay monthly).

T-mobile is doing a $25 prepaid card promotion on its prepaid phone. T-mobile is a distant 4th wireless carrier in the US, and it’s trying to take advantage of the recession to get more customers. Sprint is doing similar things with its boostmobile subsidiary.

Video below: one of the prepaid phone at T-mobile web site; source: YouTube.