Getting replies from Government websites

I received this email from the CPF each month.  It is difficult to get the reply from the CPF website. The process is time consuming and troublesome.
It is much easier for me if they sent the reply directly to my e-mail address or use the OneInBox that was announced two years ago and still not implemented yet. It is a simple system, but is taking ages to implement. Singapore has become quite inefficient.

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Dear Employer
The electronic Record of Payment (eROP) for payment received on 02 Jan 2013 under CPF Submission Number 200700231C-PTE-01 is ready for viewing. To view:

1) Please login to CPF e-Submission website and select "View Record of Payment".
2) Select the Statement No. to view the eROP.

Yours faithfully
Electronic Submission Section
Central Provident Fund Board

Opening a SGX e-learning account

Here are the instructions to open a SGX e-learning account. This is required for people taking the SGX Online Test to buy ETF.
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=729&IID=735

Review of public health care, 2013

The Ministry of Health is embarking on a major review in 2013 to ensure that

public health care remains accessible and affordable to Singaporeans.

I hope that the review should involve all sectors of our society in the spirit of 

the "National Conversation".

Our current system of paying from health care through many sources, known

as the 3M approach, plus personal savings, should also be reviewed. 

We should consider alternative approaches, such as the single payer system, that is used 

successfully in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Taiwan.

A single payer system allows better control of the health care bill and reduces 

the heavy administrative cost.

An alternative approach, used in Japan and several European countries, allows

a large part of the bill to be paid from a single insurance plan, instead of the 

fragmented sources adopted in Singapore.

I have been personally involved in the medical insurance business for a large

part of the past 20 years. I know the practical aspects of managing a national insurance 

pooling scheme and also the confusion faced by the patients of dealing with our 

current fragmented payment system . 

If we have to retain the 3M approach, there is much that can be done to 

streamline the system and remove the gaps and inefficiencies that have been created. It

requires the fundamental flaws to be addressed, instead of the "tweaking" approach that 

has been adopted in past years. 

A group of eminent health care professionals have have put in nine months of study to 

produce a paper entitled "SDP national Healthcare Plan: Caring for all citizens". These 

professionals have personal experience in the provision of health care, know the underlying 

problems and have come out with a possible solution. 

I hope that they will be engaged in the review and their proposals should be considered.

Tan Kin Lian

Balloting of COEs

Singapore introduced the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) for purchase of cars 

22 years ago. It served a useful purpose in controlling the number of cars on 

the road.

Over the years, many people have complained that the system of bidding for the COE 

favors the wealthy at the expense of "more deserving" families that cannot compete in

paying the high price for the paper.

The suggestion of balloting the COEs have been raised many times, but was 

not accepted by the government on economic arguments, that scare resources are

 best allocated through market pricing. With the high prices of COE in recent months, 

the calls for the use of the ballot system have re-surfaced.

Balloting is not unusual in Singapore. For decades, we have been 

using it to assign new HDB flats to purchasers and primary school places to pupils. The system

was also implemented to give higher priority to certain groups, for example, pupils with
siblings in the same school.

If COEs are balloted, it is possible to fix the rice to reflect demand, but there is no need to
suffer the wild swings and panic buying that are seen in the current system. If the demand
exceed supply, the COEs can be balloted, with a higher chance being given
to "more deserving" families, such as families with children or does not now
own any car.

FISCA Talks for 2013

FISCA talk. I urge readers to register for the FISCA talks to be held over the next few months. Details are available here:
http://easyapps.sg/assn/Org/Event.aspx?id=5
The talks are for three hours and the fee is $10 (FISCA members) and $30 (non-members). Join FISCA ($36 a year) and get back more than your fees when you attend two talks.

Wait for lower COE prices

William, an ex- car dealer, advises the public  not to rush and buy a car now, but to wait 1 or 2 years for the COE price to drop.
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=728&IID=734

SGX Online Test

Here is a proposal for someone who wish to get coaching to pass the SGX online test and invest in the STI ETF immedicately.
http://tankinlian.com/Admin/File.aspx?ID=727&Frame=1

Invest in an indexed fund

An index fund is a low cost fund that is invested in a stock market index. In Singapore, the index comprise of the 30 largest companies listed in SGX; most of which are blue chips. You can buy the index fund through the STI ETF (offered by SPDR and by Nikko).

To understand more about ETF, read the following articles posted in my blog
http://tankinlian.blogspot.sg/search?q=etf

Why I speak out against bad products

Some insurance agents or financial advisers curse me for exposing the bad features of the life insurance products that are on the market today. They write in my Facebook, "how can an veteran of 30 years who has benefited from the business in the past, now talk bad about the business?"

To these naive or crooked advisers, let me tell the honest truth.

When I was in the insurance business, the products offered to consumers take away less than 1.5% from the yield. If the insurance fund earn 6.5%, the consumers take a yield of 5%.

Today, more products take away 3 to 4% from the yield. Some even take away as high as 6 to 8%; which is like daylight robbery.

When the life insurance industry is "robbing' people in this fashion, it is my duty to warn consumers to avoid these products.

Many new insurance agents may not be aware that the products are so bad. They are naive. I like to advise them to calculate the reduction in yield, using the example, shown in this article
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=716&IID=722

Look into the mirror and and ask if you really want your client to suffer this type of loss?

Remember, you have the option of selling the proper insurance package to them as shown here:
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=725&IID=731

Some insurance agents already know the truth, but they like to sell the bad products to earn the high commission. They behave like crooks; I detest them - as much as they hate me.

Letter from the Grave

Lasantha Wickramatunga, the 52-year-old editor of the Sri Lankan newspaper Sunday Leader, who was assassinated on 8 January 2009 while on his way to work by two gunmen riding motorcycles, knew he was a target of assassins and wrote this letter with instructions that it be published after his death.
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=726&IID=732

Find the right insurance package

Here is a tip on how you can find and trust an insurance agent to get the best insurance package for you. http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=725&IID=731

How to evaluate a life annuity

I have often been asked if a life annuity is a good investment. The answer is - depends on what you get for the sum that you have to put in.

This example shows how you can evaluate the life annuity, including a deferred annuity where you have to save now for several years and draw the annuity payout from a certain age.

You have to make an assumption on your life expectancy. It will be suitable to take age 85 for males and 88 for females. This allows for improvement in life expectancy in the future.

The next question that you have to consider if the expected yield, if you invest on your own, instead of a life annuity. It is appropriate to take an interest rate of 5% for long term investment in an indexed fund, such as the STI ETF.

To get a better idea, you can use 3%, 4% and 5% in your projection. See the example in this paper. http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=717&IID=723

It showed that the deferred annuity gives a yield slightly below 4%. This is an acceptable yield, but the drawback is the penalty that have to be suffered, if the investor needs to terminate the annuity earlier. To offset this penalty, the yield has to be better than 4%.

You can use the same approach to evaluate any other type of life annuity, including the more common type, where you have to pay a single premium to buy the annuity.

Pay on instalment, with no interest

Here is a tip on how you can pay on installment, with no interest, and still enjoy the discounted cash price (offered on a sale).
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=724&IID=730

Some credit cards also allow payment on instalment with no interest, but the price that you pay is usually not the discounted cash price (offered on a sale).

Medical fees for seniors in Hong Kong

http://www.tremeritus.com/2012/12/29/medical-fees-for-the-seniors-in-hongkong/

Happy New Year

Pastor Niemoller

Installment purchase

A large retail store charges interest rate of 46% to 52% on installment purchase. The calculation of interest rate is shown here. http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=723&IID=729

Danger of stopping premium payments

Ms Koh (not her real name) bought three life insurance policies in 2001. The agent told her that she can stop paying premium after 10 years and the policy will still carry on. After 10 years, she stopped paying the premiums.

When she enquired about the status of the policies two years later, she was shocked to learn that the premiums were actually being advanced as a loan charged to the policy and is accumulating interest at a high rate. The customer service staff told her that the policies will reach zero value after a few years, due to the mounting loans.

She was shocked that her premiums of more than two hundred thousand dollars could become zero. She cancelled all of her policies.

Ms. Koh might have been mis-informed by the customer service staff, but the service quality was bad, slow and unreliable.

When the agent sell the concept of stopping premium payment after the policy has acquired an adequate cash value, the agent did not explain clearly how it worked or that the "critical year" depends on many factors. They just wanted to close the sale with some vague promise, and let the customer and the office staff face the problem many years later.

The spirit of being helpful and positive

A man was cheated by a forex trainer of $5,000. He signed on his credit card to pay the fee for the training but decided not to attend the course. The trainer refused to refund the fee and mocked him. He was pressed by the bank for the monthly payment. Feeling distressed, he threatened to commit suicide.

After I posted his story in my blog and Facebook, there were several unhelpful comments from people who wants to judge others; why commit suicide for $5,000, why so stupid, you deserve it, and the like.

They reflect the character of many people; those who are negative, and have the courage to hit someone who is down. Few people came forward to speak on behalf of the distressed person.

One lady sent an e-mail to me. She asked, "How can I send $1,000 to help him tide over this problem? The $1,000 is money that I donate yearly to a charity anyway; it would be useful to help him." This kind person is aware that the money could be wasted for a lost cause; it does not matter to her; she does not want to judge; she only wanted to help.

I want to share this story about what is being helpful; what is being positive. I hope that it will encourage more people to be helpful and positive. Avoid being negative and judgmental.

For the people who are suspicious, I like to share this additional piece of information. I spoke to the young man. He had many personal problems; he had to take care of sick and disabled parent in a nursing home; he was cheated before; and the $5,000 is just the last straw.

One can be positive and kind, even if one does not have the full information. You have the choice to be like the majority of negative and judgmental people; or to be like the kind person.

Happy New Year.

Splitting of the votes

A few readers drew a parallel between the Punggol East bye-election and the Presidential Election. I want to take this opportunity to give some background.

In July 2011, a few people urged me to stand for the Presidential Election, so that there would be no more walkover. Tan Cheng Bock had expressed his interest to contest, but he was considered at that time to be a PAP person There was a strong chance that he would be disqualified, as he did not have a strong financial background, as Andrew Kuan was rejected at the previous election.

After some hesitation, I decided to collect the nomination form. Several of the non-PAP parties pledged their support for me at that time.

The situation changed when Tan Jee Say also expressed interest in the election. Based on his background, he should not have qualified, following the rejection of Andrew Kuan.

It was a surprise to my team that all four candidates were approved by the Committee. I had a meeting with Tan Jee Say to decide on one party to withdraw, but there was no agreement. The rest is history.

I want Singaporeans to know, especially those that are not so circumspective, that if I had not entered into the election, there is a high chance that it would be no election like in 2005, i.e. another walkover.

Through my involvement, I have made a contribution in insuring that  there will be a election at future Presidential elections, as the recent decision of the Presidential Election Committee had opened the field to many thousand possible candidates.

I do not have any intention to take part in a future election, but I hope that my small contribution to opening up the election process would be appreciated.