Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Views on investing your money

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Views on investing your money

COMMENTS POSTED IN MY BLOG

1) KEEP YOUR MONEY IN FIXED DEPOSIT AND CPF

I think it is perfectly fine for a person to buy Term insurance and not invest but use the money for other purposes - go for travel, catch the latest movies/musical, buy a branded watch, touch-up the house etc.

Whether he invest or squanders it away, that is his business. You all have no right to force people to invest. If i think investing is too troublesome, then I don't invest. I have this choice.

I think it is rubbish to force someone to invest. You can still live a good stress-free life with decent income.

I hope this blog do not use fear of inflation, fear of not enough for the future, fear of losing out, to scare people into investing. Using this emotion is just as bad as scaring people to buy insurance.

I find some of the comments and articles on this blog using this "scare" tactics to force people to invest. Your money in 20 years time will halved, etc. This is nonsense.

I have not invested my money for the last twenty years and my money is safe with CPF and I am still have money for travel and others. my insurance cover is $20,000 and I have 3 kids. So?

I don't understand why you all want to force people to invest in low-cost funds. "Low cost" is still cost right?

Are you saying our government is incompetent in managing our money? I think not. Inflation projection is just a "projection". If you saying inflation is 2% p.a, can you guaranteed that next year this time, everything in Singapore go up by 2%?

Therefore, I rather keep my money in fixed deposits and CPF, where it is truly no costs. If investing in low cost funds is right way, our government would have help us to invest already. If Mr. Tan wants to push his own products as part of his retirement business, that's his choice but please don't force people to invest because they have a choice not to and still stay happy and stress-free.

Anonymous.

2. EDUCATING THE PUBLIC

I think that is your business whether you wish to invest or not to invest. Whether you have enough for retirement is also your business. Everything is your business. You have complete freedom.

There is no force nor touting nor promotion of any product. I think you got it all wrong to think Mr. Tan's blog is to promote his products and that he has vested interest whether you agree or not agree to his advice or to other posters' advice.

This blog is to educate the buying public to do what is right. If you disagree with the comments you should rebut or debunk the advice, instead of accusing Mr. Tan of instilling fear and exploiting emotion as tactics to make people buy his products or ideas. He has none of these.

You must be very rich and have a huge balance in your CPF to care whether you earning a decent rate or will have enough to retire. This blog is not for you.

It is for those poor souls who are inevitable victims of unscrupulous insurance agents ..... You are safe from these agents but the poor ones are not. They are uneducated, ignorant, gullible, and too trusting that they get cheated ...................They need protection and help with their personal finances.

So you see the objectives of this blog is not to force anyone to invest in low cost funds. You can invest under your pillow ......... It is your freedom if you think that is the best place to invest your money.

The blog is also to educate and to create awareness of ........ agents on the loose and how to spot them out. It is also to identify the good products from the bad ones. This is a service to people who want to know about insurance and investment.

Zhumeng

3. DISAGREE WITH MY VIEWS

My blog is for people who find my advice to be helpful.

There are people who disagree with my views for the following reasons:

a) They are quite knowledgeable and find my views to be too simplistic
b) They are intermediaries making a living on selling high cost products

If you disagree with my views, you can ignore them, or stop visiting my blog. I am not forcing anyone to my point of view.

I expect to be challenged by intermediaries with a vested interest to sell high cost products. I allow their views to be posted, so that they can give an alternative point of view. I will only edit statements that are offensive and defamatory.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: Wow! if every body is like the above poster , our government will have no headache. No need to worry to think how to invest the peoples' money(Singapore's reserve)to earn 16% a year for 30 years. No worry about annuity; no worry about providing jobs for the people; no worry and no worry...Just earn and earn and earn.
But wait a minute..... no job how to earn big salary? You said no need to invest, what! then how to create jobs? You think those foreign idiots put their money here, no need to think of cost, risk and return.They open factories to give jobs to nice Singaporeans like us, so good, eh?
They also want to make money. If they can't, then there is somehting wrong with their head, right?
Yesterday when i ate my favourite 'Bak Cho Mee" i was shocked that it cost $3.50 instead of the price of $2.50 i used to pay. That is too much. But the seller says , you can don't eat. This is my business.You don't eat other people want ot eat. I have to keep up with the inflation. i have to earn more to pay for those things that also increase in price.They can i cannot , ah?
Wah low!! it is passing the cost game they play now. But there are people who are not affected because they have a store room of cash.
It's 'sap sap sway', aiya.; January 03, 2008 10:26 AM
Anonymous said...: to anon 10.26: that's because you ate at the same stall - if you don't think expensive, eat somewhere else where it is cheaper.
inflation is created by demand. if there is no demand, inflation will be lowered.

to zhumeng: you have a certain agenda - but I was only commenting on the heavy undertone of investing. there is nothing wrong in sticking to CPF and FD, but nobody said anything. i am a simple person who lived by traditional ways and who has better things to do that to monitor this and that. so to me low cost is still cost and investing is too complex for me.

to mr. tan: thanks for posting my earlier post. sometimes, people disagee with your views, sometimes they agree. nobody is "against" everything about you. i think it worthwhile to note that in reality, it is true that people can be "cowered" into investing. personally, i dun invest much either and I find comments by other readers to invest too strong sometimes. i place my monies for many year in fixed deposits and T-bills and they have served me well. I also collect rent.

btw, your "amazing cards" thing should stop at card 6. no point going beyond 63 or if you insist on card 7, at least goodness sake fill in your numbers to 127. how to get the numbers? that's pretty obvious, so don't waste time printing it.; January 03, 2008 9:26 PM
Anonymous said...: Mr. there aren't many people like you who can afford to "stash' their cash in low interest paying instruments.Did you know that your money is losing its value to inflation if you don't protect them? If you have a lot, shrinking a bit is nothing to you.
Apparently you don't care.Not many people can afford this attitude. If you have read about the plight of the poor people in China or India becuase of inflation rising to as high as 7% and 8% respectively you would understand the need to protect your hard earned money by investing in other financial instruments other than the T-Bills and FDs.
Switch to another 'bak chor mee' is fine.It is not essential. Try switching rice to grass, or sugar to sand.
Any way this is your business. This blog is not targeting at people like you.; January 04, 2008 5:35 PM