Encourge people to acquire the skills for real jobs

The headlines in the Straits Times read "Job woes part of transition to quality growth: Lim Swee Say".

Is it?

I saw another article reporting that graduates from private schools found it difficult to get jobs.

When will our ministers realize the folly of the government policies practiced over the past few decades? It has resulted in a high influx of foreigners to do the real work in Singapore while our citizens pursue paper degrees that are not suited to the needs of the economy.

Some of these jobs are in the public sector, such as:

a) Police and immigration officers
b) Nurses

The bad policies of the government include:

a) Stopping the career path of non-graduates. This has recently been reversed for the Police service.
b) Paying low salaries for non-graduates jobs. This has led to outsourcing of immigration and security jobs to foreigners.

The public sector must set an example to pay adequate salaries and give career growth to people with experience, even if they are non graduates. Many of the real jobs in the economy need people with real skills that come through experience, and not from paper qualifications.

The public sector should reserves its policies of discriminating against non-graduats. It should set the examples and provide benchmarks for salaries and career growth to people who are willing to do the real work and to acquire the experience to do them well.

Unable to find a suitable job

I met an old friend. He has been unemployed for nearly ten years after his previous company closed down. He applied for many marketing jobs but did not get any response.

I asked him to register in c-jobportal.com. If any employer advertised a job that he is interested in, he will receive an email alert. He can apply for the job with just one click.

c-jobportal.com

Wish him good luck.

Invest in an index fund

I have uploaded a video on investing in an index fund. This is a "must learn" for young people. If you invest your savings correctly, you can get 50% more than the poor investments that most naive people make.

To learn about the index fund, you can watch the video in this website.
http://www.tankinlian.com/learn.aspx

Troublesome to sign in to DBS website

The DBS Ideal 3 system is quite troublesome. I have to enter my company code, personal code, PIN, token password, function 1 and the token OTP.

That is not enough for DBS.

The first time that I enter, the webpage said "You have made a mistake".  So I have to enter all the numbers one more time. It accepts my entry on the second attempt.

This has been occurring over the past few months. Each time, it only accept my entries on the second attempt. I suspect that there is something wrong with the DBS webpage.

It is not enough for DBS to design a complicated sign-in system. They insist on making the customer go through it twice.

Indonesian tax amnesty

My Indonesian friend told me. The Indonesian authority wanted to reach out to the Chinese community to tell them about the tax amnesty. They went to give a talk in the churches.

Normally, the attendance at the church is about half full. When the congregation heard about the talk on tax amnesty, the church overflowed. Many of the attendees had to listen to the talk from outside the main hall.

The tax amnesty plan was successful. Many people are taking advantage of the amnesty to declare their past earnings and be forgiven. They only have to pay a tax of 2%.

I read a report in Jakarta post that the take-up was initially low, but i the participation had increased tremendously in recent weeks.

President Jokowi had implemented this plan successfully.

Transport concession for Workfare recipients

I saw this fare table at the bus stop. It has the adult fare, senior citizen fare and student fare. But what is WTCS fare?

The legend says that it is the Workfare Travel Concession Scheme.

Why do we need this special fare structure? It is wasteful to create many schemes. There is the cost of implementing the change in fare structure into a few thousand buses and train stations and issuing the WTCS cards.

A better approach is to give a higher benefit to the Workfare recipients and make them pay the ordinary adult fare.

We are penny wise and pound foolish. We spend large sums of money that are unnecessary and could be avoided.

It is important to understand the question

I is important to understand the question before arriving at the answer.  For example - someoe may ask me - "Is X a good investment"?

Before I arrive at the answer, I need to study X. I study the document for X and look for the key facts. I evaluate the facts and then come to my conclusion.

In giving my reply, I present the key facts and my conclusion.

It is important for the readers to go through my process of arriving at my conclusion. They have to check the facts and the reasoning. They can then form their own conclusion, which may or may not be the same as my conclusion.

By going through this process, they will learn how to approach a similar question in the future.

NTUC Income Asian Bond Fund

I've been approached by a friend to invest in the NTUC Income Asian Bond Fund.
Being not a savvy investor even after reading its fine prints I'm still uncertain
whether this is a good product to take up. Would you be kind enough to advise
if this bond fund is profitable & safe for a low-risk appetite investor?

My answer is given here:

http://fisca.sg/Info/385

Swiber bonds

How to avoid being caught in Swiber bonds and similar investments.
http://fisca.sg/Info/384/Swiber-Bonds

Videos on financial planning and insurance

I have created four videos on financial planning and insurance. They are targeted at young people. I want to help them to make the right decisions for their future.

You can sign in with your Facebook or Google account and view these videos.

http://www.tankinlian.com/learn.aspx

Whistle blowing

The best weapon in the fight against terrorism and commercial fraud is whistle blowing. The authorities can make the best use of information from ordinary people who encounter the terrorists and fraudsters in the daily life and work.

We need an effective system for the information to be recorded, screened, evaluated and acted.

We also have to overcome two difficulties:

a) The reluctance of the whistle blower to come forward - as they stand the risk of reprisals.
b) An effective way to process the large volume of data and information that is generated, so that the authorities are not overwhelmed.

The current approach taken by the authorities do not address the root problems. As a result, whistle blowing has not been effective. We need a new approach.

If the people in charge are keen to explore a new approach, they can contact me.

How to get the insurance company to review a rejected claim

The policyholder claim for cancer was rejected on the grounds that the cancer did not meet the condition for coverage. I helped the policyholder on how to get the insurance company to review the rejection.

http://fisca.sg/Info/382

Long delay in developing a new project

This new development, called the Flora, has been under construction for four years. It used to be the Seletar Gardens. There were a few coffee shops and eating houses which were well patronized.

When the project went for a collective sale a few years ago, the nearby residents lost the coffee shops and eating houses. The long delay makes the loss of the facilities more keenly felt by the residents.

Why should a new development take so long to be ready? The delay must also add to the cost of the development and the selling prices that have to be paid by the new owners. Surely, we can be more efficient in getting the new development ready within a short time?

My grand daugher, Nadya, was three years old when the old place was demolished. She is now seven years. I asked her if she remembered the coffee shop that she used to visit. She could. What happened to it? She said - there is a new construction.

I hope that the new development will be up soon. But it will probably take another two years.

Help to prevent suicide

I saw this poster at a bus stop. It is a wrist band with a message to help people who are suicide prone to seek help. There must be a high suicide rate that prompts this kind of action.

We need to address the root of the problem, rather than to treat the symptoms. I suspect that the high pressure to get good grades， lack of job opportunities and inadequate finances for the elderly must be the top causes.

Pregnant women are discriminated at workplace

Quote:

Being pregnant should be the happiest time in a woman’s life. Unfortunately, many have to choose between family and career, because having a bun in the oven could get you passed over for a promotion, sidelined or even fired. While mothers and wives continue to help out with the family finances and fulfil their household duties, most are still getting the short end of the stick, writes Audrey Vijaindren

FINDING their positions redundant, being denied promotions, being placed on prolonged probation, demotion and even getting sacked — these are among the unenviable positions many Malaysian women have found themselves in, especially when they are with child.

Shocking as it may seem in this day and age, a recent Workplace Discrimination Survey by the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) revealed that more than 40 per cent of women polled have experienced job discrimination due to their pregnancy.
Unquote:

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/pregnant-jobless-040343043.html

My view:
The government must understand the root cause of this problem. Many employers do not like to pay full salary to mothers for a few months. They react through these discriminatory measures.

There is a solution. The government should pay the maternity benefit and recover it through a payroll tax.

Yip Pin Xiu and Paralympics

I congratulate Yip Pin Xiu for winning the second gold medal at the Paralympics Games. You have made Singapore proud!

I also congratulate her parents for their tremendous sacrifice in supporting their daughter to achieve these medals.

A rigged election in the USA

Many people in USA felt that their political system is rigged. Here is another event to support their view.

Quote

Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein have failed to qualify for the first presidential debate, and their running mates will not be in the vice presidential debate, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced Friday.

The decision means Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump will be the only two candidates on the stage, and Tim Kaine and Mike Pence, their running mates, will be the only participants on October 4.

Johnson has publicly said that being excluded from the debates would doom his campaign.The commission said it will review the criteria for the second and third debates in the future.

Unquote
A fairer alternative solution is quite simple. Allow the top four candidates to participate in the debate, regardless of their share of votes.

In the Republican primary process, the debate was held with 17 candidates.

It is quite practical for the general election to have four candidates. Currently, the debate organiser set the bar at 15% of votes from the polls for a candidate to be eligible. Clearly, it is an attempt to restrict the process to two political parties.

Pay $2,500 a month for a rubbish collector

From a friend.
I wish to share a story (from a Media Corp program which I saw) of a 50-60 year old Malay man who had 10 kids and made only $ 1000 a month as a rubbish truck collector.

When I was an apprentice in Sydney 40+ years ago, the rubbish collectors were paid well and lived in detached houses. Not only that, they have pride in their vocation.

Lets look at the scene in Singapore over the past 40 years. The rubbish collectors get paid a personal survival only salary. And I am sure they do not have the self esteem that I see in the same class of workers in Australia 40 years ago.

I then ask a big WHY and ask what can we do to help? I ask why we cannot pay all those who have to cling onto the back end of the rubbish truck and smell the unbearable odour a salary of $2500 for their horrible nature of work.

If we do this, there will be people lining around the block to get into these jobs. We will have rubbish collectors who have high self esteem and who will provide better for their family. We will have helped uplift their impoverished children. Would not this be a right idea? A noble idea?

We will have workers who do not need as much help from the government as they do today on their low income. How many collectors do we need, 1000 to 2000 ?

If we amortise the increased cost on everyone, it would cost us 1 -2 dollars more each per month. In public or private tenders, we ask the suppliers to pay their workers such salaries and establish a level starting point for all. We do not have to bring in the foreign workers.

Together we citizens can share the burden to help our fellow citizens and their children, our future citizens.

Rising unemployment, difficult to get jobs

The employment situation for locals is bad and will become worse in the near future.

http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/mom-statements/2016/0915-statement-on-labour-market-developments

More people are being retrenched. It will be a big hassle to find jobs.

I hope that this job portal can help to make it easier for job seekers to find the few available jobs, and will encourage employers to post their jobs to find suitable job seekers easily.

www.tklcloud.com/jobs

This job portal is now in testing mode. It will be launched live on 1 October 2016.

Encourage locals to be drivers

My friend made the following observations.

a) It cost more than $4,000 for a person to get a driving licence, including the tuition fees.
b) Many young people who come from low income families cannot afford this expense to get a driving license.
c) We now have to depend on employing foreign drivers
d) The foreign drivers are not familiar with Singapore roads.
e) Some of them could pose a security risk.

He made this suggestion:
a) Get bus companies to provide apprenticeship to drivers.
b) The employers pay for the cost of training the drivers to get a licence
c) The drivers are bonded to work with the employer for a certain period.\
d) They can be paid well, so that driving becomes a respected job.
e) At a later date, the drivers can upgrade their skills to drive heavy or specialised vehicles
f) This will create many well paying opportunities for locals.
g)  The drivers will improve their skills with many years of experience.

He said - we need a national policy to keep driving jobs for locals. 

Training of bus drivers

If you stand in a crowded bus, it is very uncomfortable because the bus is jerky.

I wonder if this is unavoidable, or if the driver could have been more careful in applying the brakes. As they are seated, they may not realize the problem that a jerky bus gives to the standing passengers.

A good way to train the bus driver is to make them stand as a passenger on a crowded bus during peak hours. Maybe, they should take at least four full journeys. If they realize the impact on the passengers, perhaps they will be more careful.

Elected President in Singapore

Here is the government's White Paper on the Elected Presidency. As expected, the next election will be reserved for a Malay candidate. 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/…/elected-pres…/3126520.html…

Singapore - a smart city?

This is very nice piece of public relations (which makes our government leaders very proud), but it is far from reality.
http://readwrite.com/2016/09/12/pragmatism-keeps-singapore-global-smart-city-leader-cl4

We are inefficient. It is difficult to interact with the government agencies. We have to spend a lot of time to make online transactions. Many companies write cheques because online payments are badly designed. We don't even display the name or sequence number of the bus stops or make any voice announcements. Commuters have to figure out for themselves.

Business Simulation Game

You will now receive a Certificate of Participation when you complete a business simulation game.

The Certificate looks like this.
http://tklcloud.com/BSG/page/6

Rejected critical illness claim

I give this advice to the claimant on how to respond to a rejected critical illness claim.

Style of governance

For discussion:What is the difference between a government that is run by military leaders, and one that is run by civilian leaders?

Singapore can be considered as a government run by military leaders. PM Lee has a background from the SAF. His approach is largely based on his experience from SAF.

He has appointed many ministers with military background. He also appoints these people to be in charge of key government agencies.

My perspective:A leader with a military background operates in a command and control mode. He lays down detailed instructions in standard operating procedures (SOP) and expects the subordinates to follow these SOP without question and without exercise of common sense.

This has been our mode of operation in Singapore for the past three decades. Most people now operate blindly and automatically based on SOP. Even if the SOP are producing wrong results, they continue to follow them blindly.

Do you agree?

Dread disease claim - rejected as not satisfying the claim criteria

A policyholder asked for my help over a dread disease claim that was rejected. He was diagnosed for cancer but acted on the advice of the doctor to remove the cancer using surgery. The claim was rejected as not satisfying the criteria for a claim.

CPF Investment Scheme

It takes the government a long time to realize what has already been obvious to many people. If they have been more willing to hear the message from the ordinary people and the independent experts, they would have acted much earlier.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/…/government-t…/3123854.html…

Dual currency investment is risky

It is highly risky to invest in dual currency investment. Many investors are not aware of this risk. Mr. Tan explains why it is risky.

http://fisca.sg/Info/379

Planning a vacation in Spain

I am planning a vacation in Spain. This will be my first visit to the country.

I booked my air ticket to London online. From London, I book a Ryanair ticket to Madrid. I also booked a 4 day tour of Madrid, Cordova, Seville and Granada and return to Madrid.

I booked my hotel online for my stay in Madrid and after the tour. I also checked on the airport transfer and found the fare for a taxi.

I watched Youtube for videos to Madrid and the other cities. This gives me an impression of what to expect.

One visitor said that a few words of Spanish would be helpful for visitors. I went to the Duolingo app to brush up on my Spanish. I would also be listening to my favorite Spanish songs which also teaches me a few words of Spanish.

The world has changed a lot with the internet. It is for us to make the best use of it.

Bus Rapid Transit in Guangzhou

Our Land Transport Authority should visit Guangzhou, China and learn about how they introduced the BRT - Bus Rapid Transit system. It is popular and highly successful.

And they do not need million dollar salaries for their leaders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80Z4xnSNAHs

Amazing Grace - Cherokee Prayer

Hold on to what is good
Even if it's a handful of earth

Hold on to what you believe
Even if it's a tree that stands by itself

Hold on to what you must do
Even if it's a long way from here

Hold on to your life
Even if it's eaeier to let go

Hold on to my hand
Even if someday I'll be gone away from you.




Oh, Great Spirit whose voice I hear in the winds
And whose breadth give live to all the world, hear me
I am small and weak
I need your strength and wisdom
Let me walk in beauty
And make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset

Make my hands respect the things you have made
And my ears sharp to hear your voice
Make me wise so that I may understand
The things you have taught my people
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
In every leaf and rock

I seek strength
Not to be greater than my brother
But to fight my greatest enemy
Myself.

Make me always ready to come to you
With clean hands and straight eyes
So when life fades, as the fading sunset
My Spirit may come to you without shame

Delay in receiving payments can kill a small business

Someone told me.

Quote:
I run a business selling specialised equipment to government agencies. I have to submit a competitive tender to win the award. The equipment can cost a few hundred thousand dollars. The government agencies can take a few months to pay me.

I have to chase them. Their excuse is that a payment above $50,000 requires the signature of the director. The director is now overseas.

As my cash flow is tight and I am paying high finance charges, the delay can kill my business. I face this problem with large companies, but government agencies are the worst. I also have to waste my time chasing for payment.

Many other small businesses supplying products and services to government agencies face the same problem. They have to pay their supplier, pay GST and pay their employees upfront and wait a few months to get payment from the buyers"
Unquote

I agree with him. It is a bad practice for the large companies and government agencies to take advantage of small business in this way.

Insurance company obtained patient's records without consent

The policyholder submitted a claim. She was shocked to learn that the insurance company asked for her past medical history from medical providers without getting her consent.

Rejection of claim under the "care and custody" provision

A consumer sought my help on a travel insurance claim.

She bought a travel insurance policy to cover the period that she was overseas. She rented an apartment. She was shocked to find that the apartment was burgled and the wallet, which was kept in the bag, had been thrown on the floor, with the money taken away.

She made a policy report and filed an insurance claim. She was shocked to receive a rejection of the claim as the money was not in her "care and custody". The travel insurance policy cover theft of money that was in her care and custody.

The claim officer interpreted this provision to require that the wallet kept in the bag was not in her "care and custody". I wonder if the officer expect the policyholder to keep the wallet with her even whe she was sleeping?

My interpretation is that the travel insurance policy should cover money belonging to the insured and also money from someone else that is given to the insured for "care and custody". It will not cover money belonging to other people that were not given to the insured for "care and custody".

I am surprised that the claims officer of the insurance company could have interpretation the "care and custody" provision in the manner to reject the claim.

Interview with The New Paper on Elected President

http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore-news/tan-kin-lian-why-i-wont-stand-president-again

Train to be an actuary

I develop this website to help students train to be an actuary.

This link shows how to upload data on motor insurance claims and to run the procedure to compute the rating factors for the various rating codes.

It displays the rating factors and the pricing for motor insurance based on these factors. This is shown in the quote.

http://tklcloud.com/Actuary/page/10

If any student needs help on understanding this topic, send an email to kinlian@gmail.com.

Oppo R9

I received the Oppo R9 mobile phone today. I bought it as it allowed me to install 2 SIM cards (for my Singapore and Indonesian cards).

It was quite easy to install the SIM cards and to set up the phone to use. The features were well designed. I did not have any trouble in getting use to this new phone.

My earlier phones were Samsung and HTC. I had a lot of trouble with these phones. The Oppo was easy. Maybe, I have become more experienced with using mobile phones. Maybe their user interface is better.

My report on Oppo - Excellent!

Tips to get a job in a weak market

My friend told me.

Friend - My daughter graduated from Nanyang Technological University. She took 6 months to find a job. In past years, graduates with her degree got a job before graduating. The employment prospects this year seem to be quite bleak. However, I don't know if she was being choosy".

I did not ask me for more details about the type of degree and the job that she was looking for.

My advice to graduates -

a) Get a job that is available, even though it is below your expected level and salary or the job may be not what you like.

b) If you enter at a lower level, and you perform well, you are likely to be promoted when the opportunity comes. Your employer is likely to give the job to a person that they know, rather than someone from outside.

c) If you don't get the promotion, you are getting working experience that will give you a better chance to get another job with another employer. They look for people with working experience in the same line.

d) If you do not like the job, you may have the chance to change the way that work is done. It is called improvement. I call it "initiative".