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.