Tan Kin Lian's Blog: High cost of free seminars

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

High cost of free seminars

Singaporeans like to get free service, free advice and free seminars. They even ask if the event comes with a free goodie bag.

They should realise that the event cost a lot of money to organise, including the high cost of advertising, rental of the venue and the cost of the speakers. How does the organiser get the revenue to pay this cost?

The answer is obvious. It comes from the products that are sold at the event. The price of these products are marked up to cover the high cost of marketing. If few sales are made, such as in a seminar on land banking time sharing or "special" financial products, the markup has to be increased accordingly. And the markup can be very high!

It is better for the public to pay to attend a seminar on financial planning that is organised by a consumer education body, such as FISCA. You will get impartial and relevant advice that is good for consumers. You will get advice on how to avoid expensive financial products that take away a large part of the accumulated savings.

Before you attend a financial planning seminar, it is better for you to read a book to get background information. Spend $12 and 12 hours to be educated with my book, Practical Guide on Financial Planning. Be educated and avoid paying the high price of ignorance!

Tan Kin Lian

7 comments:

Anonymous said...: This is off-topic.

Just a quick update of the stockmarket.

About a month ago, I asked you to fasten your seatbelt. This was based upon an early warning system.

My slower acting system is now confirming the early warning system. Remain seated and continue to fasten seatbelts.

The market call is NEUTRAL.
- Don't short-sell (too early)
- Don't bargain hunt (too early)
- Go 100% into cash (my action 1 month ago)
- Liquidate your weaker shares (if you don't know what they are, why are you investing?) if you can't bring yourself to go 100% cash.

Stockmarket prices cannot be predicted.

I'm just telling you what the instruments are saying in my cockpit ... same as an aeroplane pilot when he tells you to fasten seatbelts because his cockpit instruments indicate turbulent weather ahead.

PS:
- US Dollar continues its upward trend.; May 05, 2010 8:49 AM
Anonymous said...: This is the culture in Spore.

Quality is never on top of the list of the local shoppers and many are cheated they have been offered heavy discount on something which is actually very poor design and quality. They believe that they got a good deal without finding out if it is the right product. Many even buy something which looked like a good buy to them from the discount or sweet talk by the sales persons. It's so common that people do not do homework before buying something 'expensive'. This 'cheap and good' attitude has been adopted by many people for a long time.

Many quality brands gave Spore a miss until recent years when more foreigners come here to live and shop due to more affordable travel, work and study opportunities. We should not believe in only branded goods but we must learn how to be a smart consumer. The roots are deep and it is hard to expect change in the near future as this kind of attitude or character need to be started in young.

Loh; May 05, 2010 10:10 AM
Anonymous said...: i do go for free seminars, but i am not really looking for the free goodie or food. I will pay for a seminar only if i know and understand the speaker or the organisation. Otherwise why should I pay for something which I don't even know if it will be useful to me. you can give the outline of the content but in the end it is the real content that really matters.
I attend free seminars with no obligation and I bought book after the free seminar from the speaker or sign up for workshop if i find them suitable.
I don't attend seminar that offer free foods and acttractive goodie bags unless they are for a obvious causes which people want to promote thus spending money on it and which i agreee to.
like if there is a seminar which the cause is genuine to encourages people to donate blood and they provide goodie bags and foods, and if i support this cause, i will go.; May 05, 2010 11:39 AM
Anonymous said...: Most people who go to free seminars that you mentioned are not obligated to purchase the product and services.

The seminars are conducted as a preview or introduction to the services or products. It is good that they are free, because one does not know even if such introductions are suitable.

Just like how Amazon sells books - some parts of the books are available to be read for free.

I do not know if a seminar on financial planning that is organised by a consumer education body such as FISCA is useful or relevant to me. Maybe it is, maybe it is not. But I certainly do not want to pay to find out. The best things in life are free.

So I am in support of all the free seminars around. It gives me freedom to decide to follow-up more in depth with the service/product provider.; May 05, 2010 4:49 PM
Vincent Sear said...: So-called free seminars are actually marketing presentations to get people to buy-in to their paid seminars or courses, which will of course be quite expensive.

The worse modus operandi is the claim to so-called free courses. The course is free, you just pay for venue, admin and stationery expenses, which of course will still be on the expensive to you and profitable side for them.; May 05, 2010 5:07 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: The danger is that most free seminars, if they are runned by commercial organisations, will put pressure on the participants to buy their high priced products.

This is the mode of operation. Some people are not strong enough to resist the sales pressure.

There are seminars that are funded by MAS MoneySense. These do not have the commercial pressure. However, the talks are given by practitioners who will educate you about the positive aspects of their products, but the negative aspects (such as high csot) may not be covered.; May 05, 2010 5:17 PM
Anonymous said...: Kin Lian,

Anything that is free is of no value.

You want value- PAY AND PAY.

See u election soon. REMEMBER PAY AND PAY.; May 07, 2010 3:28 PM