Growth in the foot

This is a famous foot with a growth.  My private doctor said there were two possibilities.
a) It is a tophus and is caused by gout attacks
b) there is a growth in the bone of the foot - but it is benign.

To find out what caused it, I visited the polyclinic for the first time in my life. I had to join 6 queues over 3 hours and only saw the doctor for 10 minutes. I now know why Singaporeans loved the time spent in queues - especially if they can take the time off from their work.

The polyclinic took an X-ray of my foot. The doctor studied the image and reported that is is most likely a tophus. I will be visiting a specialist in the hospital to see if they can remove the projection.

Foreign workers get better health care

The government charges higher rates for permanent residents and foreigners using the public health services. Some of the charges are higher than the charges by private doctors and hospitals. So, the foreigners have to visit the private doctors.

But the foreigners are working in Singapore and their medical bills are paid by their employers directly or through their company insurance.

What is the final result? Foreign workers are attended by private doctors and citizens have to waste a lot of time at the public clinics. This is ironic! But it is what happens in Singapore. What a short sighted government!

Too many queues in polyclinic

I have a growth in my foot. My private doctor said that an X-ray is needed to determine the cause. He suggested that I go to the polyclinic to see if they can do the X-ray and identify the problem, in case surgery is needed,

I visited a polyclinic today for the first time in my life. I searched Google and found their opening time to be 8 am. I arrived at 830 am. The waiting area was more than half occupied. I got a queue number. I asked the staff how long is the waiting time for registration. I got the typical answer -don't know. She follows the usual habit  -how to avoid responsibility.

I observed that it takes 3 minutes to register a patient. There were 15 patients ahead of me. It should take 45 minutes to be registered. What is the point of attending a world class school system when the staff cannot make this estimate?

That was the first queue. I have to wait in a total of 6 queues to complete the visit:

1) To register
2) Wait for the doctor - kept in the dark on how long to wait or which room to enter
3) Wait for the X ray
4) Wait to see the doctor after the X ray
5) To register an appointment to visit the hospital - they still can't give me a date, as the hospital will call me back
6) To pay the bill.

The total visit took 3 hours, with 80% of the time spent in the 6 queues. Now, I now why Singaporeans love to queue!

But, they do provide comfortable seats. I could spend the time reading content from my iPad. And, if I were a worker, the wasted time will be on the employer's account. 

Now you know why it is so costly to run a business in Singapore!

Complicated bill from a polyclinic

This is the bill  that I paid at the polyclinic. It was only $11.15. But I had to spend 3 hours in 6 queues, including a queue to make this small payment.

The bill contain only 2 chargeable items  - consultation and radiology. But it contains 9 items. As the amount is so small, why not deduct it from the Pioneer Generation balance, instead of asking me to pay it?

When are we going to simplify our lives and avoid all the unnecessary work and waste?

Collective buying

My friends wants to set up an online buying club. He will list the popular products and find buyers who are willing to join in for a bulk purchase and get a discount.

I heard that this kind of online website has been quite successful at one time, but there seem to be less news about them today. Are there successful operations still going on?

This is different from an online store, such as eBay, Amazon, Qoo, etc.

Are you a doctor or a data entry clerk?

I visited my doctor (GP). He was busy entering his claim in the online system of the Ministry of Health.

Me - are you a doctor or a data entry clerk?

Dr - what to do? The govt expects me to enter these figures to get my claim under the CHAS scheme. It is too complicated for my clinic asst to enter the figures.

This is how PM Lee waste the time of our doctors. He creates complicated schemes that are "calibrated" to provide assistance to some groups of people, but he ended up wasting the time of doctors. The doctors should be doing their medical practice, instead of entering data.

Apply your knowledge and gain practical experience

I met a young man "George" who had graduated many years ago from our polytechnic with a diploma in mechanical engineering. He had continued part time study and obtained a degree in the same field.

He has been working  in a Swiss company for many years. The company sells fasteners to manufacturing firms to be used in their products.

His job was to understand the requirements of the manufacturers and offer suitable products from his company to meet their needs. He was able to apply what he had learned in his diploma and degree course into his job, such as the physical characteristics of different types of materials and how they are affected by temperature and physical forces. He quoted a few examples of how his solutions were bought by the customers and gained their loyalty and support.

I remarked that he would be very valuable to the company. His job will be secure as the company would find it difficult to get another person to replace him. He agreed with my observation.

He is a rare example of a person who has developed strong technical skills by staying in the job that he had been trained for, and by gaining practical experience from the job. This is a sharp contrast from most other people who moved to a career that is entirely unrelated to their training and who moved from one job to another, without gaining the solid experience.

He told me that many diploma holders, with similar training, had joined his company but left after a year to become property and insurance agents, as they did not like the technical job. I recommend our school leavers to follow the footsteps of "George".

Difficult to file the annual return to ACRA

I have just filed the annual return for my company to ACRA. I had a difficult time and had to call their hotline for help. I could not find the place to file the annual return. They have a tab that is hidden in a drop down list. They expect the public to know how to find it.

After I signed into the website with my SingPass (fortunately, my password was remembered in my browser, otherwise it would be another big hassle), I had to search the entire page to find the link to file an annual return.

I was then confused by a statement that I had to file the return in XBRL format (what is that?). Finally, I decided to ignore this statement and went to fill in the form. It turns out that the XBRL format was the form that was presented to me.

I finally managed to complete the filing. It asked me if I wish to save the page and provided me with the webpage option. That is not suitable. I found that I could print the page into a PDF, which worked well for me.

For a professional accountant or secretary who files ACRA return regularly, the website is easy to use. For a director who files the return once a year, it is a nightmare. This is the 5th year that I am filing it, and it remains a nightmare.

The people who designed the ACRA website do not understand how much unnecessary difficulty they are giving to the general public.

I also recall that ACRA has not been sending me a reminder to file the annual return for some time. Maybe, they are waiting for me to miss the deadline before they impose a fine on me.

No need to buy life insurance for a child

Hi Mr Tan
CompareFirst does not work for baby or kids. Are you aware about this?

REPLY
Buy Medishield Life for your baby and kid. Do not buy any other type of insurance. It is not necessary. They are not earning any income for a long time. There is no need to protect against loss of income which is non-existent.
If you wish to save for your child's future financial needs, make the saving in your own account. Invest in an indexed fund for the long term.
Attend this talk on 25 July.
http://c-onyx.com/page/2274

Off the radar, for the time being

The following key issues were in the headlines in past months:

1) War in Ukraine
2) Greece bailout
3) War against ISIS

The problems are still around, but these issues have since gone out of the radar.

But they could come back and hit the world headlines at any time! Do not be complacent!

United Nations issues a statement on Amos Yee's case

The United Nations Human Righst Office is now getting involved in Amos Yee's case. They have issued a strong statement that the punishment is disproportionate to the offence.

I agree with this view. I am amazed at the thinking of the prosecution in Singapore in going so far. This shows the weakness in our system - where the people yielding power seems to be out of touch with what most people consider to be appropriate.

Read this article.  We should recognize the good work of Kenneth Jeyaretnam in bringing this issue to our attention. 

Online insurance

The online market for insurance is developing well in China.They are ahead of Singapore. While the China regulator complained about lack of variety, they still offer more products than are available online in Singapore.

http://www.asiainsurancereview.com/…/…/id/33082/Type/eDaily…

Look for the nice things about people you know

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of  their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students  left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of  paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.  

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I  didn't know others liked me so much,' were  most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with  themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of  the  students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to  bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Mark talked about you a  lot.'

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went  together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

'We want to show you  something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without  looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the  good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said. 'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'

All of  Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'

Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.'

'I have mine too,' Marilyn said. 'It's in my  diary'

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and  showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of  people in society is so thick that we forget  hat life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will  be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

And One Way To Accomplish This Is.... Forward this message on. If you do not send it, you will have, once again passed up the wonderful opportunity to do something nice and beautiful.

If you've received this, it is because someone  cares for you and it means there is probably at  least someone for whom you care.

If you're 'too  busy' to take those few minutes right now to forward this message on, would this be the VERY first time you didn't do that little thing that would  make a difference in your relationships?

The more people that  you send this to, the better you'll be at reaching out to those you care about.

Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own. 

How to use the information in the CompareFirst website

Hi Mr. Tan
I visited the MAS CompareFirst website. It contained a lot of useful information, but I find it hard to understand how to use the information to make my decision. It looks like I still need to depend on the insurance agent to guide me. Is this the right approach?

REPLY
Yes, it is a right approach to ask the right kind of financial adviser to guide you. It is similar to a person who falls sick and need a doctor to advise them on the right medicine to take. But, you have to pay a fee to the financial adviser for his time, similar to paying a doctor. The financial adviser will then give you the right advice.

If you are keen, you can consult one of the financial advisers listed here

FISCA will also conduct a talk on how to understand the information on the website. The last talk was held in June. The next talk may be held in September. Details of the previous talk can be found here:

The management of a posh restaurant put up this sign. On paying the bill, the customer sees this box at the counter:

The maths behind election results

Here are some interesting statistics from the US Presidential election of 2008 and 2012. The results are broken down by ethnic groups, and are affected by turnout rate and party preference. It makes interesting reading.

It would be interesting to have a similar analysis for Singapore according to income groups, housing types, ethnic groups and age groups. Sadly, the statistics are not available or may only be available to a privileged party.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-22/the-real-math-behind-hillary-clinton-s-candidacy

Most helpful people in the world

Where do you find the most helpful people in the world? Where does Singapore stand? The results are show in this chart.

How to stop ponzi scheme from operating

Here is another Ponzi scheme. The investors get a good return, 8% in 1 week, and put in more money. The Singaporean who promoted the scheme in China could be doing it for the commission, but is now facing the brunt of the anger of the investors. This type of scams will continue from time to time, until the government wakes up and put a stop to it.

The government has to pass a law that require all investment schemes to be licensed. An investment scheme is one that promises a return to the investor. Anyone promoting an unlicensed scheme will be committing a crime. These scams will never be approved or licensed.

When will the government wake up and do its duty?

http://www.straitstimes.com/…/scam-victims-china-who-allege…

Bad experience with life insurance policies bought by the parents

This consumer had bad experience with the life insurance policies that were bought by his parents. 

1. What financial product did you buy

My parents bought 2 whole life insurance policies as well as a savings plan from 3 different insurance companies for me. These  policies were cover critical illnesses, hospitalization bills and give small dividends of about $3000 every 6 years.

In the end, we still made a loss of about $12000 from each policy after cashing them out.

2. Was it good or bad for you?

We initially thought the policies were good since it gave plenty of coverage (critical illness, disability, hospitalization) for a premium of about $75 per month, back in 1995. However, the premium of each policy has since increased to be about $200+ per month. When we questioned the insurance company on why the premiums increased when we were promised back in 1993 that we would only pay $35 throughout the life span of the policy, the insurance company cited "market reasons" as the main factor for the increase in monthly premium. 

My family decided to cash out on most of the policies during the 20th year in 2013, when I was 26 years old. We lost about $12000 from each policy. 

The original agent who sold us the policy could no longer be contacted as she was no longer working in the company. Throughout the lifespan of some of the insurance policies, some our insurance agents were replaced several times by another insurance agent, making it very difficult to have a fixed contact person to look up to should we have any issues. Insurance agents in Singapore have no fiduciary requirement to their clients and therefore, can just ignore their clients after selling the policies to them. My mum even met insurance agents who became disinterested in answering my mum's questions after they had sold her the policies.

3. Would you have bought it, if you knew what it really was?

We would not have bought the policies if we knew that the premiums would increase by than nearly 10 times within a span of only 15 years! 

Critical illness coverage is nearly useless for a young person like me because the chances of a young person contracting critical illness is nearly zero. If my mum had knew this, she would NOT have bought the policies!

4. Did you continue or terminate it, and did you make a loss up to now (based on the cash value)?

We terminated most of the policies in the last few years as we did not want to continue paying $200+ per month per policy. This was a very huge strain on our financial resources, especially during the period when both my parents were unemployed. 

At one point in time, we even had to pawn some of our jewelery just to pay for the policies. The people running these insurance companies have no conscience and do not care about the welfare of their customers. They are only interested in getting their monthly premiums from common folk like us in order to fund their lavish lifestyles.

5. Would you like to attend a talk to learn about alternative ways to invest that are good for the buyers?

Yes, I would like to attend more talks to learn about alternative ways to invest. Do not trust anyone to invest for your money for you, especially when you do not know what they actually do with your money. In my opinion, learning about investment is a MUST for everyone.

HZW

Comparing three generations of leaders of Singapore

An ex Director of the Internal Security Department made this comparison between the first, second and third generation leaders of Singapore. I agree with his analysis. 
http://www.tremeritus.com/…/ex-isd-dir-compares-pm-lees-te…/

Challenge the corrupt policeman

We hear many stories about how the Police harass Singapore car owners for traffic offences on Malaysian roads in order to receive bribes.

My friend told me this story. He was stopped by the Police for driving above 110 kph. The policeman said that the fine is 150 ringgit but he could pay less "on the spot". My friend replied, "You have my particulars. Send the fine to me and I will pay it". He spent only 10 minutes in the police station.

He never received the fine. The policeman was too lazy to key the particulars into their computer system. He was only interested to receive the bribe "on the spot". Perhaps the policeman was afraid that my friend would report the attempt to collect the bribe.

How the civil service works

Someone said that this is how the civil service works:

Quote:
Do you know how government make decisions whether it’s regarding what to teach, interest rates, defense, welfare all the stuff that impacts you? Middle management hears a statement from a minister and tries to guess what he means. Doesn’t want to ask in order not to look stupid. He doesn’t know what to do, so he asks the most junior guy to write a paper. The junior guy does his best and the paper floats up to his head, it bounces back an forth a few times between them, then it bounces to a director then a few times with another higher up. There are many layers. By then, it is morph into something completely different and it gets implemented. A senior guy once told me that writing papers and second guessing your boss correctly is key to success. Practical experience, actual care for serving the interest of Singaporeans actually a detriment.”
Unquote:

The Watchman said...

Today all these whole life, endowment products border on scam and they are meant for insurance agents to make a living OFF you and to leave you under insured because you can't afford more. Why is FAIR necessary? because insurance agents are not interested to put your interest first because they are only interested in their own pockets and insurers love these agents because they bring cheap money for the insurers. FAIR's objective is to address this problem and to get rid of these agents.
You are better off buying term insurance and invest the difference.
Go to www.comparefirst.sg to check out before buying directly from the insurers . You get good deal because you don't pay commission to anyone.
Example: to insure yourself for $400K for death, TPD and critical illness until age 65 the annual premium is only $1018. This is from AXA insurance.
Buy this plan and for this amount of coverage you DON"T need another one for a very long time. It serves you till when you are married with kids.If CI or TPD strikes you first you can claim $400K and if death follows your dependants can claim another $400K and all for a premium of $1018. If you have a coverage like this, compared to $180K, I am sure you will have peace of mind and not pieces of mind which insurance agents deliberately , knowingly plan it for THEMSELVES and NOT YOU because they can have excuses to "REVIEW" your insurance needs in the future. They know the $180K is NOT enough and they create this future business opportunity for themselves to "review". To them 'review' means to sell you another policy. And with $400K coverage it will be a long time before you need a review, ie. you are adequately covered for your dependants' need if you should pass away prematurely and for your medical needs in the event of a CI. So visit www.comparefirst.sg to evaluate before making any decision.
I will post and show you why buy term invest the rest is a superior strategy than buying all those crap whole life and endowment products.I will show you great coverage at low premium and great return.. Remember , COST is the greatest enemy of return and wealth besides INFLATION.

Is it safe to leave deposit with foreign based banks?

Mat Alamak
Is it less safe, as compared to a local bank, to put even a fixed deposit in a foreign based bank here, eg one from Malaysia? Some of these banks are giving very attractive interest rates, even upfront whole interest payment some more. Whereas the local banks are paying comparatively much lower rates even for fixed deposit, and this can make a big difference in interest (even up to 4 figures) for those with big deposit sums.

REPLY
If the bank is licensed in Singapore, the depositor enjoys the same protection as local banks for a sum of up to $50,000. If you have more than this sum, you can place them in deposits of $50,000 in each bank, to enjoy the full protection. Read this FAQ for more detail.

The foreign banks are able to pay higher interest rates because they do not have a deposit base of low cost funds provided by their depositors.

Civil servants who do not take responsibility

A member sent a motion for discussion at the AGM of the Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE). He forwarded a copy to me.

He had raised the issue of the non-licensing of private schools for more than 10 years. He felt that it should be the duty of the Ministry of Education to licensed these schools and ensure that they kept to minimum standards.

In his motion, he mentioned the names of several MOE officials that refused to reply to his communication over the years. They ignored him.

This seems to be the pattern of our civil service nowadays - do not take responsibility, and refused to give a reply.Why has our civil service, under PM Lee, deteriorated to such a deplorable state?

Vivolife 180 - is it a good policy?

Hi Mr. Tan,

May I please seek your opinion - I am 28 years old and am planning to buy Vivolife 180 and pay an annual premium of $5,919 over 5 years only to get a coverage of $100,000 for death, total permanent disability, and 30 critical illnesses. NTUC tops up the coverage to $180,000 until the age of 69. I have attached the benefit illustration.

Do you think this is an attractive whole life policy?

I am not so keen on term life insurance. I also prefer finishing paying the premium of my life insurance over a short period (in this case 5 years). Hence I am considering this policy. I intend to invest my other assets in other investment forms to generate yields (Equities, bonds, etc.).

My reply is given in the attached PDF.

Perverse use of "sub judice"

Kenneth Jeyaretnam explains the concept of "sub judice" and points out that the Attorney General had used it "preversely". Read his article here.

Unnecessary and wasteful activities to "calibrate" subsidies

All the unnecessary work and trouble, just because somebody wants to "calibrate" the subsidy according to household income and type of housing. The actual amount is quite small but the cost of the work is probably a lot.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/…/deadline-ext…/1927164.html…

When will Singapore get rid of these wasteful activities and focus on reducing cost for the people?

Life insurance agents are poorly trained - from the horse's mouth

Hi Mr Tan,
I saw your post on Facebook regarding insurance agent being poorly trained. I absolutely agree with your post. Being an agent myself, I notice several things thought doing agent and product training.

They are,
1) We are taught  that by selling some of the products, we are helping people to diversify their portfolio and hedged against inflation , ie ILP and  Savings Plan
2) Most of the product training only covers the good part and not the disadvantages. We are taught , the policies are for long term.
3)We are taught, we are the guardian angel as we are helping people. This is true, if we sell term policies.
4) We have KPI and sales target to meet, which to me contradicts point 3.

Thank You

(name removed).

Weak property market

Property developers in China had gone through a difficult time. They had high inventory of unsold houses and are now offering big discounts to sell their new properties. Will property developers in Singapore face the same pressure over the next few years?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-17/buy-a-flat-get-a-free-porsche-as-china-developers-rush-to-sell

Host countries usually win more gold medals

The Jakarta Post showed the number of gold medals won by Indonesian during the recent SEA Games. They won 45 gold medals at the 2015 games in Singapore. But in 2011, when the SEA games were held in Palembang, Indonesia they won over 200 gold medals.

It seems that the host country usually wins more gold medals than usual. I was told that the host country could decide on the games to be played, and they chose the games where they are expected to do well.

Convert cleared land as parks

When Jokowi was governor of Jakarta, he cleared the squatters living around Pluit Reservoir in a North Jakarta. The cleared areas were converted into parks and sports play ground for use by the public. He chose not to sell the land for development which could bring a lot of money for the Jakarta government. That was a wise decision. It avoided demands from the cleared squatters for compensation.

The new governor Ahok developed six islands through reclamation in the sea off Jakarta. That brought in the funds for the city.

Company drivers

Many companies in Jakarta employ drivers for their company cars and for the managers. The salary of a driver is around $300. This is 10% of the cost of a manager.
The manager does not have to worry about driving in the congested roads in Jakarta or in finding a parking space. This is the job of the driver.
The drivers are able to find employment. They usually earn more due to overtime and tips.
It works as a win-win arrangement.

Salary of Prime Minister

Dear Mr tan 

I am a Singaporean this year 24, i am not happy with prime minister salary. Something must be wrong, Japan is richest than singapore, the prime minster is Shinzo Abe. Japan population rate is 127 million and Singapore population rate is 5.4 million

Japan prime minister salary is around usd 30,000 per month ( 127 million population ) Singapore prime minister salary is around usd183,000 person ( 5.4 million population )

I have a question 

1) Are Singaporean are going to pay more tax for the prime minister salary because japan have 127 million population and Singapore have 5.4 million?

2) Why there the cleaner job is usd 3000? than sSngaporean cleaner job is usd1000?

REPLY

1) The tax that Singaporeans have to pay is not affected by the salary of the prime minister. The prime minister gets $2 million a year. As there are 5.5 million people in Singapore, the cost to each taxpayer is less than $1 a year. But if we add the total cost of the government, and include the salaries of the ministers, members of parliament and the top civil servants, then the cost to the taxpayer could be more of a burden - but still not that serious. 

2)  Many countries (not only Japan) pay their manual workers quite well. Singapore pay our manual workers quite poorly. We should pay more.

 

Handling corruption in China

I heard this story about Robert Kuok who was the "sugar king" and the founder of the Shangri-la Hotel Group. He was among the first entrepreneurs to venture into China in the very early days .

I asked a friend who worked for RK. How did RK handle the rampant corruption in China at that time? Did he have to give bribes?

He told me this story. RK developed a golf course in Guangzhou. During the development, his manager had to get a licence from the provincial officer. The official asked his manager, "How many free golf course membership will you give to me in return for my signature?".

His manager approached RK who instructed him "You tell the provincial official that I can give him the free golf club memberships, but will he dare to accept them?".

The provincial official checked with his friends and learned that RK knew the top government officials in Beijing. He came back with his signature on the licence and dared not accept any bribes.

I was not able to verify if this story is true, but it was nice to hear it, all the same!

Situation in Indonesia is worsening

The situation in Indonesia is getting to be quite bad. The economy has been weak for several months. The popularity of President Joko Widodo had dropped significantly since he took office 8 months ago. The headlines in the Jakarta Post today says "Exports continue to weaken".

When I arrived at the immigration desk yesterday, the office asked me for my purpose. I replied "consultancy". He then said softly, "kopi kopi". I replied "no". So, he stamped my passport. This was the first time in six years that I encountered such a request.

I recalled that there was a large sign two years ago at the immigration desk "The giver and receiver of a bribe will be prosecuted". This sign has since disappeared.

How to avoid a big mistake in investing your money

Each year, over 10,000 school leavers make a big financial mistake by investing in the wrong life insurance policy which locked up their savings in a poor yielding investment for 30 years. One of them share his experience here:
http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/…/this-new-fisca-member-wish…

If you wish to avoid this mistake, you should attend this talk now. Do not delay and fall into the same trap that many fell into every year.
http://c-onyx.com/page/2274

Legislators in Hong Kong speak up for consumers

The legislators in Hong Kong are quite active in speaking for consumers who were misled into investing in bad insurance policies that cause them to lose a lot of their savings due to the upfront fees.
They spent the time to understand the problem and were able to speak up with a good knowledge of the issue.
We need our legislators in Singapore to be full time legislators who can also understand the many issues facing the people.
Read about what the legislators say in their legislative council, which is the equivalent of our Parliament in Singapore. Click here to read the article.

A personal story from a new FISCA member

This new FISCA member wishes to share his personal experience.

1. How I knew FISCA

I get to know about FISCA through a shared post in Facebook about insurance and investment. Before I get to now about FISCA, I have been doing a lot of homework in researching a bad investment link plan (ILP) which I have bought. Back then, I was not confident about terminating my ILP as I would face an immediate loss of thousands. My research did point out I should terminate the plan as I would face a potential 200k+ loss after 40 years but taking a decision to take the immediate loss was not a easy one, afterall it was my hard earned money.

On that particular Facebook post, the recommendation hit exactly to where my research has pointed. That is where I knew I must attend this talk. Most would say insurance is a necessity but who would stand out to say some of the insurance products are just out there to ripe you off. Till date, I still face questions from my friends on why are those products are not recommended. They are surprised by my explanation and gladly, they are convinced.

2.  Talks I have attended in

I have attended one of Mr Tan's talk on on Financial Planning at the cost of $30 and I strongly recommend all individuals to attend this talk.

3.  Why I recommend you to attend this talk

1) You should managed your own financials instead of being lead by financial adviser.  

2) Low cost at $30, compared to the thousands I lost - If only I attended this talk a year earlier.

3) The speakers are very sincere and the purpose of the talk is purely on educating the public.

4) Prevent yourself to be a victim like me.

I have seen many young working adults wouldn't mind spending hundreds of dollars a month in insurance products (protection + savings). The problem is that they do not have a full knowledge of how what these products actually are and they will eventually pay >100k until they are old. It will be like a drug where it is difficult to get out of this plan due to the losses and you have to continue paying the premium. Thanks to Mr Tan, I got myself out of this and started my own savings plan. This will be much simpler than you would think.

Please do attend Mr Tan's talk. The talk is sincere with lots of takeaways. You can also take it as a educational tool to upgrade yourself and learning how to manage your own financials.

BYC

Learn from Apple to make it easy for user

A few years ago, I was given the SingTel internet dongle as part of my subscription to the fiber network in the office.

Initially, I tried to set up the dongle. It was a complicated process and was most discouraging. They provided too many facilities that I did not need, but had to provide to complete the process. Finally, I managed to get it set up, but with a lot of trouble.

Since then, I hardly used the dongle, as Wifi is now widely available. On the few occasions that I used it, I had some trouble or another, in spite of the "seamless connection" that was provided.

Most people used the dongle to connect to the Internet. They would not want to use the added facilities provided by SingTel. It is better to provide a setup of the basic facility, so that the setup is made easy.

For those who need the added facilities, they can go through an "Advanced" tab and learn how to use it.

SingTel should not impose the full facility on users who do not require it. I find the SingTel approach to be quite common in Singapore. Somehow, they make things more complicated than necessary. We should learn to follow Apple - they really know how to make things easy for the user.

A confusing pop-up message

I used the SingTel dongle to connect to the Internet. The process was complicated (in spite of their Seamless Connection) and the response was slow - probably due to some environmental conditions. Finally, I got the "Connect" button. When I clicked on this button, I got a pop-up to say "Connected" with a "Cancel" button.

I was confused. If I clicked on "Cancel", would it cancel my connection that I took some pain to set up? I looked for some other way to remove the pop-up without risking the connection, but there was none. I finally clicked on "Cancel". It removed the pop-up and kept the connection.

SingTel could have given a better message "OK" rather than "Cancel".

Expensive training courses on investments

Hi Mr, Tan

Here is something I would like to share regarding all those overhyped, overpriced and unregulated financial training courses out there.

'Rich Dad Poor Dad' Robert Kiyosaki Exposed - Part 1 of 3 Investigative Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE6nT0oyPt8
'Rich Dad Poor Dad' Robert Kiyosaki Exposed - Part 2 of 3 Investigative Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv6feHB0AE4
'Rich Dad Poor Dad' Robert Kiyosaki Exposed - Part 3 of 3 Investigative Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iimvyVCEGA

In the videos, reporters went undercover by posing as one of the participants in a training programme endorsed by famous financial author, Robert Kiyosaki. It can be seen from the videos that most of the trainers are unqualified people trying to teach harmful information to the public.

Even in Singapore, I see a lot of people falling victim to such seminars and I strongly feel that all these must stop. Most of the trainers conducting these training courses are nothing more than salesmen (I would even go as far as to call them conmen) masquerading as financial gurus. 

The participants getting cheated in these courses come from all walks of life including businessmen, retirees, teachers, engineers, housewives and even school children, so anyone can fall prey to them.

HZW

Confusing Terms and Conditions on the use of NETS CashCard

I bought a NETS cash card and it failed within a month. DBS Bank told me that I could get the refund of the deposit of $5 but I had to complete a form.
After submitting the form, NETS replied that the $5 is not refundable. The staff explained that it was refundable only for a faulty card found at the time of the first purchase.

I asked for the terms and conditions and they gave me this link to their website. The terms and conditions confused me and seemed to be overlapping and contradictory. Here are some of the relevant clauses:

8 REFUND AND REPLACEMENT

8.2 Subject to these Terms, the Cardholder shall be entitled to a refund of the Deposit, if any, and the Stored Value of the NETS CashCard effected pursuant to Clause 8.5 hereof within four years after the Validity Period, PROVIDED THAT if a refund of the Deposit, if any, and the Stored Value of the NETS CashCard is requested or effected more than two years after the Validity Period, NETS shall be entitled:
a) to forfeit the Deposit, if any; and
b) to levy a service charge of S$1.00 per month or such other amount as NETS may determine from time to time, such levy to be deducted monthly from the Stored Value commencing the month after the end of the aforesaid two years until the refund of the Stored Value (less such service charge) of the NETS CashCard or when the Stored Value is fully depleted, whichever is the earlier.

8.3 The Cardholder shall not be entitled to a refund of the Stored Value after the lapse of four years after the Validity Period whereupon the Cardholder shall have no claim whatsoever against NETS and the Approved Banks.

8.7 In the event a NETS CashCard is defective (not through any fault or act of the Cardholder) during its first use for payment for, or a transaction of, NETS CashCard Services, NETS shall replace the defective NETS CashCard with a new NETS CashCard. No replacement shall be made by NETS for any NETS CashCard found to be defective at any second or subsequent use.

REMARKS
I am totally confused. Am I entitled to a refund of the deposit of $5? The NETS staff replied that there is no refund for a faulty card after the first purchase. (She must be reading clause 8.7). But clause 8.2 and 8.3 suggest that I am entitled to a refund.

You should read the entire Terms and Conditions to get the feeling that this is a badly written document that is confusing to consumers. How can the Monetary Authority of Singapore allow NETS to get a license to operate a public financial service based on such Terms and Conditions?