Rubik Cube

The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the "Magic Cube", the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toys in 1980^[3] and won the German Game of the Yearspecial award for Best Puzzle that year. As of January 2009, 350 million cubes have sold worldwide making it the world's top-selling puzzle game. It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy.

Learn how to solve this most popular puzzles. 

www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

Motor insurance premiums

This article explains the factors that determine motor insurance premiums.

The factors include:
Age - drivers younger than 25 and older than 65 pay higher premiums
Gender - males pay more than females
Occupation
Size of car

It recommends consumers to shop around for the cheapest premium rates, as different insurance companies charge differently.

Here are some statistics from the Association of British Insuers:
The ABI said the average cost of a claim by a 60 to 64-year-old driver is £1,170, while the average claim by someone aged over 80 is £1,716 - almost 50 per cent more.

Don’t gripe, take action

Dear Straits Times,

I refer to your 12 Sept 2010 editorial...
Yes, Singaporeans should do something about things that make them unhappy.
Airing their views and making their unhappiness known is one such thing to do.
We don’t call it ‘gripe’, we call it ‘enlightening the unenlightened’.

http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/09/20/dont-gripe-take-action/

No choice but take bank loans

Letter from Leong Sze Hian

The HDB has done a remarkable job in reducing the number of HDB loans in arrears...
However, I would like to know the statistics for HDB bank loans as well,
as I understand that there are more than 100,000 outstanding HDB bank loans.
So, how many HDB bank loans are in arrears over three months
and how many flats have been foreclosed
since banks were allowed to do HDB loans on Jan 1, 2003?

http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC100923-0000066/No-choice-but-take-bank-loans

Business Times: Junket operators slide into the gaming frame

The Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) said yesterday it has received licence applications from junket operators endorsed by Resorts World Sentosa (RWS). But it would not reveal the number of applicants or say when licences will be granted.

'CRA has received junket applications endorsed by RWS and is currently processing them,' a CRA spokesperson said. 'The junkets business is a specialised and lucrative one.

'Because of the nature of this business - where large sums of money are transacted between junket promoters, their clients and the casinos - it is important that junket promoters are well-regulated to ensure junkets do not provide cover for organised crime syndicates to engage in criminal activities.'

Read the full article (after 6 pm) from:
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,406324,00.html?

Announcement on SMRT trains

Drawing a line at vested interests

... So what sounds like a helpful public service announcement is, in fact,
an advertisement by SMRT for its own bus services...
If the Government deems that public transport should be privately provided,
should it not at least mandate that, in activities such as providing information to the commuting public,
operators like SMRT should place public service ahead of their commercial interests?
Richard Seah
http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_584376.html

No claim bonus protector

Get motorists up to speed on no-claim bonus protector

MR KELVIN Pereira questioned the usefulness of a no-claim bonus (NCB) protector

for motor vehicle premiums in case of an accident

('No protection despite a rider '; last Saturday)...

As most motorists are unfamiliar with the NCB protector,

the General Insurance Association of Singapore or the relevant authorities

should comment on its perceived usefulness.

Derrick D'Souza

http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_584785.html

Humor

What a Woman Wants in a Man

http://www.sexcigarsbooze.com/2010/09/what-a-woman-wants-in-a-man/

 

Not All Seniors Are Senile

http://www.sexcigarsbooze.com/2010/09/joke-not-all-seniors-are-senile/

 

The Difference Between Airplanes & Women

http://www.sexcigarsbooze.com/2010/09/the-difference-between-airplanes-women/

 

Vincent Cheng speaks at SDP Pre-Election Rally

Former ISA detainee Vincent Cheng has called for the abolishment of the Internal Security Act during the SDP pre-election rally yesterday at Hong Lim Park. Mr Cheng was detained for three years without trial under the ISA from 1987 to 1990 for being involved in a "Marxist Conspiracy" to overthrow the PAP regime. He claimed that he initially stood firm and denied the charges imposed on him by the PAP regime, but relented in the end after being physically assaulted and tortured by ISD officers.


Singapore General Election Portal: www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx

Amendments to home loan agreement

Hard to spot home loan changes

When a customer receives a monthly statement,
his focus will be on checking the accuracy of the figures.
Now he must check for amendments to the loan agreement as well.
Mohamed Rafiq Hamjah
http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_585661.html

Increase in motor insurance premium for older drivers

Unwarranted rise in premium as one ages

IN DETERMINING car insurance premiums, insurance companies here may be relying
on a flawed actuarial table that unfairly penalises baby boomers like me,
notwithstanding their sound health status and driving record.
Lee Seck Kay
http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/OnlineStory/STIStory_585586.html

Child care leave

Should child care leave be extended to mothers of students up to primary 6? Read the views in the Singapore General Election Portal.

HDB Loan Re-finance

The borrower wishes to re-finance a HDB loan (on non-concessionary rates) with a bank loan to enjoy lower interest rate. Here are the factors to take into consideration.

www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

Singapore's method of teaching maths

In a front-page article Friday, we show how Singapore math is taking hold in schools throughout the country. Here in New York City, home to the nation’s largest school system, a small but growing number of schools have adopted this approach, based on Singapore’s national math system. Many teachers and parents here say Singapore math helps children develop a deeper understanding of numbers and math concepts than they gain through other math programs.

Singapore General Election portal

Economist MBA ranking

The Economist give a higher ranking to business school in NTU compared to NUS.
http://www.pressrun.net/weblog/2010/09/ntu-69th-nus-84th-in-economist-mba-rankings.html

Drop in ranking of Singapore universities

The drop in THE rankings of Singapore’s top two universities, one by a whopping 101 places,

lays bare the contrast between expectations of a parochial public

and the realities on the ground.

Singapore General Election Portal

Need for regulation

The government has the philosophy that consumers are best served by a free market and that there there is less need for regulation. The Competition Competition was set up to disallow associations from setting guidelines for prices. In practice, this approach has worked to the disadvantage of consumers, as they are exposed to malpractices of the providers. There is a need for better regulation and transparency,  while allowing prices to be set by guidelines that are determined by the market.

www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

Ranking of Nanyang Technological University - Letter from President

View the letter sent by the President of NTU to the alumni, regarding the university ranking in www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx.

Opening paragraphs:
In the last week, my colleagues and I have received emails and letters of concern and outrage from students and our alumni about recent media stories saying NTU has dropped 101 places in university rankings. The NTU community is understandably upset, confused and alarmed and is right in asking what the NTU leadership is doing about this. As NTU's President, I can understand your feelings and realise how our hard work and efforts in recent years to build NTU's reputation have been damaged by these media reports. Let me state categorically that NTU did NOT drop 101 places in university ranking.

Ranking of Nanyang Technological University

Here is a comment posted in my survey.

The drop in ranking of NTU is indeed a sad day for Singapore because Singapore have actually spent large sum of money in an effort to raise the standard of NTU and their ranking.

The decline of NTU actually started many years ago when the second president was appointed. The person had no track record in running a university; so he did not know how to run the university. Why did the government appoint such a person?

After a few years, the government noted that no progress was made at NTU. So they appointed a provost - an elderly foreign gentleman completely fresh to NTU. Again, why did the government appoint such a person?

At that time, there was an exercise in raising the retirement age of professors from 55 to 65. In this exercise, those who were perceived to be good would be retained and they would be employed till 65. Those who were perceived to be poor were sacked. This exercise therefore had a huge impact on professors’ lives. Because of this, the whole atmosphere in NTU changed from being cooperative with each other to everyone for himself. By hook or by crook, many professors tried to get their retirement age extended. As reported in the newspapers, there was a consensus that the exercise was done unfairly and lack transparency. Why didn’t the NTU management carry out the exercise fairly with transparency?

This exercise has been going on for the last few years, and many professors were sacked. The biggest group affected was Singaporeans. The top management who were making decisions at the time was dominated by foreigners. Why did the government hire foreigners to sack their own citizens?

So, many Singapore professors lost their jobs. Other professors from overseas who lost their jobs have the option of returning home and get a university position there - but not the Singapore professors. Those who were sacked were also the ones who helped to build up NTU in the past (when NTU enjoyed a much higher ranking). Why didn’t the NTU management recognise their past contributions?

The management then proceeded to hire new professors and foreigners were preferred because it helped in the ranking (see the score on the international mix). So the Singaporeans were discriminated against even in their own country. Why did the government hire foreigners to discriminate against their own citizens?

After the results of the exercise have been made known, those who got the extension did not have to work hard because their employment was “guaranteed”. Those who did not get the extension had to work hard for a career outside NTU. So who was working hard for NTU? A scenario that could have easily foreseen even before the exercise started. Why didn’t the NTU management see it?

So, who are the winners? As Singapore lost plenty of money in hiring foreigners and ended up with a low ranking university - they cannot be the winners. NTU ended up being a low ranking university - they cannot be the winners. Singapore citizens lost their jobs - they cannot be the winners. Foreigners who made NTU worse and pocketed plenty of money from Singapore and will be going home happy – yes, foreigners are the winners. Congratulations to the winners!

Since we are all humans, so we live and learn. Hope the Singapore government will learn something from this episode. Foreigners by definition cannot have their hearts in Singapore. Only citizens can. May NTU and Singapore have a better future!

Tax on "super rich"

There is a report that Taiwan is considering to introduce a tax on the "super rich". This tax is imposed on purchase of luxury home, cars and other items.

I prefer to have a high rate of tax based on extremely high income. There is no need to have bankers, lawyers, doctors and corporate executives earning several million dollars a year. Their earnings are the fees that are paid by their customers, who are not rich people, and may not be aware about the high fees that are being charged or are being sold bad investments at inflated prices.  The high rate of tax will discourage them from earning too much, and will be good for the people in general. A high rate of tax will encourage ethical behavior.

General Election 2006

You can get information on the general election held in 2006 here, www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx. This is useful to compare against the results of the next election to be held soon.

Brief summary:
The 2006 Singapore parliamentary general election was held on 6 May 2006. 1.22 million out of the 2.16 million eligible Singaporeans voted for Members of Parliament and elected their next government. The People's Action Party (PAP), in its first election under Lee Hsien Loong, won 66.6% of the overall votes and gained 82 out of 84 seats. The PAP returned for a twelfth consecutive term in office under thePrime Minister.


The general election was held under the first-past-the-post system. The parliament was dissolved by President S R Nathan on 20 April, three weeks before the election. On Nomination Day, the PAP gained 37 seats in divisions which were uncontested by other parties. The main election issues included employment, cost of living, housing, transport, education, the need for an effective opposition voice in parliament, and the quality of the candidates.

High paying home jobs

http://www.focus.com/fyi/finance/highest-paying-work-home-jobs/

1. web software engineer
2. financial planner
3. public relations professional
4. interpreter or translator
5. inside sales
6. technical writer
7. property manager
8. graphic designer
9. medical claim processor
10. travel agent

My observation
Technology has made it possible for more jobs to be done from home. You are paid for the work done, rather than for the time spent in the workplace.

Gold - a bubble?

Gold as the “ultimate bubble”

George Soros has repeatedly warned that gold is locked in the “ultimate bubble”,

and told investors it was “certainly not safe” in troubled times.

So why does his fund own so much of it?

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2010/09/30/gold-as-the-ultimate-bubble/

Mobile phones

This infographic shows the popularity of various types of mobile phones.

85% of Americans own a mobile phone
25% of these are smart phones (i.e. 21% of Americans)

Within the smart phone market, the share is:

Blackberry - 35%
Apple - 28%
Windows - 15%
Android - 14%

Apple and Android saw increase in market share (over 2009). The other phones saw a drop in market share.

Case study - excessive deduction under investment linked policy

Here is a case study of an investment-linked policy that takes away 65% of the accumulated savings of the young policyholder. This is shocking. It is excessive, and is ripping of the consumer.
www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

Case study: Poor yield on investment linked policy

This is the case of a young person who bought an investment linked policy from a life insurance company that has been very active in promoting this policy. The policy provides a poor yield. www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx.

My observation
Here is my advice to young people, especially those who have just started work. You will be approached by your friends, or your friend's friend, to buy an investment-linked policy, or a whole life policy with premiums payable for 10 or 15 years. You will be told that this is a good policy for financial planning.
Be careful. These policies will take away a large part of your future savings and leave little for you. You will be giving away your future financial security for the benefit of other people.

Read my book on Financial Planning (available at www.tankinlian.com/ishop) or attend the educational talk conducted by FISCA (see www.fisca.sg).

Top 100 billionaires - Forbes Magazine

Type of industry:
26 - finance (hedge funds, investments, leveraged buyouts)
17 - consumer goods (Walmart, Estee lauder, etc)
13 - media and IT

Male 93
Female 7
Average age 64.7

http://www.smh.com.au/money/on-the-money/blogs/savvy-investor/moneys-funny/20100927-15st0.html

What is good customer service?

1. Commit to quality service
2. Know your products
3. Know your customers
4. Treat people with courtesy and respect.
5. Never argue with a customer
6. don't leave customers in limbo
7. Always provide what you promise.
8. Assume that your customers tell the truty.
9. Focus on making customers - not on sale
10. Make it easy to buy

View the infographics in www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx.
See how different industries and companies rank in customer service.

Casino: Promises not kept

A blogger had said that the promises given by the government on the two casinos were not kept. Do you agree with this view? Go to www.easyapps/sg/sgep/latest.aspx.

IPO of GIC Fund

Mr. Tan,
I found the prospectus of the IPO document in MAS Opera.  I will not be commenting on it as I don't have the stamina to go through the 540 page doc.  Looks like it is primarily China and Japan properties.  GIC supposedly said that they are positive properties so I am not sure why they sell the portfolio.  Maybe they have better use of the funds? By the way, it is not a REIT structure.  Dividend payment at managers discretion.  My hunch is that GIC is looking to make management fees from other than the Singapore Government.

Choosing the right mortage

Read these tips.

Advice given in my book on Financial Planning

• Property should be within 5 years of family income (less cost of employing a maid)
• Repay the loan within 25 years
• Monthly repayment (including withdrawal from CPF) to be less than 25% of family income 

My advice is - buy a lower price property that you can service comfortably. It can be smaller or outside of the prime areas. If not, rent a property.

Telemarketing calls

Telemarketing calls can be irritating. It can also incur cost to the consumer who is overseas. Here is the experience of a consumer who ask for the calls to be stopped and for the roaming charges to be reimbursed.
www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx.

Robberies in the early morning

Read this message from the Police. I suspect that there is an increase of crime due to the large number of foreigners in Singapore and the difficult economic situation affecting some groups of people. I wonder if the losses of customers visiting the casinos also contribute to this situation?

www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx

Subscribe to SGE portal and TKL website

You can follow these instructions to subscribe to Singapore General Election Portal using Google Reader.

www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx

Subway on the street

New York City has introduced a new concept of uses buses that can travel fast and have short waiting time to load and unload passengers. They are using the concepts of the subway - prepaid fares and dedicated bus lanes. The cost of this system is less than 1% of the subway system. It can be implemented in a short time (compared to years to build a subway line). The bus service Bx12 in New York has proven to be successful. It is well received by commuters and has fast travelling time. Source; New York magazine.

Read www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

GIC IPO

A consumer asks for my views about whether the IPO from the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, that is expected to be launched soon. Is this a good investment? I am not able to give an opinion. I asked an analyst to make a summary of the investment.

www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

DBS Vitamin Account

The Vitamin account is a structured product. An investor invested $40,000 in October 2005. On the maturity date in October 2011 (5 years), the investor will receive the full principal plus the performance of the underlying references (which amounts to NIL). During the 5 years, the investor obtained a total payout of 4.1099% or about 0.8% per year. This is a poor yield for an investment that is locked up for 5 years. It is a structured equity-linked product.

Many investors had invested in structured products, such as the Vitamin account, for 5 years and received a paltry return. It is advisable for investors to avoid all types of structured products, including the capital guaranteed, capital protected, equity-linked, currency-linked or credit-linked products. The experience of nearly all the products issued by the banks over the past ten years had been disappointing.

Termination of Private Shield

I terminated my Incomeshield as I preferred to be insured under basic Medishield. I received this letter from NTUC Income:

"If the insured is also covered in the integrated plan and the policy is terminating without switching to another insurer or change, of plan .... the insured will continue to be insured under the MediShield scheme with th eCPF Board, as long as he/she is eligble for the scheme. The MediShield cover willbe renewed automatically each year after the premium is deducted from the Medisave account".

In short, the transfer to Medishield is automatic. If the insured wishes to terminate the MediShield cover, a separate termination form has to be submitted to the CPF Board.

By-election in Ang Mo Kio

Will a by-election be held in Ang Mo Kio to find a new MP to take over from Dr. Balaji? Read the view from the Prime Minister in www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx.

Dr. Balaji made a great sacrifice

Goh Chok Tong's letter to the family of Dr. Balaji.

CPF Investment Scheme

A CPF members can invest the savings in the ordinary and special account under the CPF Investment scheme to earn a better yield (hopefully) compared to the interest paid by the CPF. Here are some details of this scheme.
www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

From 1 January 2011, the approved funds must meet the following 4 criteria:

•          Lower expense ratios
•          3 per cent cap on sales charges
•          Three-year track record
•          Top-quartile performance ranking among their global peers.

Poor customer service

Telephone operators have too many customers and too many products and insufficient staff to provide customer service. Here are some complaints: www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx
.

Banking services

Nine things your banker won;t tell you.


1. Your whole deposit isn’t available immediately

2. A post-date on a check means nothing

3. Fees are the big money maker

4. You can get some fees waived – just ask

5. Your refusal to opt in for “overdraft protection” doesn’t apply to checks

6. Your online account information may not be accurate

7. Bankers are salespeople

8. You should shop around for financial products and services

9. The system is likely to decide on your loan application

The most important advice is - shop around for financial products and services, including insurance policies. Make sure that you compare like with like. Do not buy any "special product that is offered to you - they usually over charge the consumer and make a bigger profit for the issuer and the distributor!

Attract attention to your website

Here are a few tips to attract attention to the website:

Search engine
Guest post
Regular updates
Credibility
Simplicity

My blog (www.tankinlian.blogspot.com) and website (www.tankinlian.com) has most of these features.

Retirees duped by structured notes

Read this report.

It explains the situation in America. The banks are held accountable for selling structured notes without explaining the risks to elderly investors. If a similar approach is taken in Singapore, many people would have been compensated for their losses.

Corporate Manual Portal

The Corporate Manual Portal is now launched. It can be accessed at the Easysearch portal, www.easysearch.sg.

The home page gives instructions of how you can access the Demonstration Company, by entering the user ID (DC0, DC1, DC2, DC3). The password is 123456.

The Guide can be found here.

Rebuild the trust in life insurance companies

Dear Mr. Tan,
Are you afraid about offending the insurance companies and their agents by talking about life insurance policies that take away too much of the savings? I know that certain people are monitoring your blog.

REPLY
I intend that the messages in my blog go to the top managers and agents of the life insurance companies. I hope that they will be educated about the fine line between making an honest profit and cheating their policyholders. If they know the difference, perhaps they will introduce new insurance plans that give a better deal to their policyholders, rather than surreptitiously take away too much. It is important that life insurance companies uphold the image that they can be trusted to take care of their policyholders.

Ranking of Nanyang Technological University

Survey: If you have any views about the reason for the drop in ranking, please reply in this survey.


Dear Mr. Tan
Would you like to conduct a survey on NTU’s dramatic drop in university ranking? The following questions may be asked.
1) Who caused the dramatic drop in ranking
a) The management
b) The academic staff
c) The non-academic staff
d) The students


2) What can be done about it?

REPLY
According to the newspaper report, the drop in ranking is due to the change in criteria. Perhaps, there are some internal factors in the university that may account for the ranking. Let me invite views from readers of my blog.

Half truths about Life Insurance [2]

An insurance agent is highly trained to use emotional and other reasons to persuade a consumer to buy a life insurance policy that gives a poor yield for the years of savings. Some of these reasons are half truths. Be aware about these half truths. Search for "half truths" in www.tankinlian.com/ask.aspx.

Whole life policy with multiple benefit coverage

An insurance company may introduce a new policy with special features, but the consumer should not be distracted by these frills that they overlook the high cost of the main policy (as reflected by the high deduction from the accumulated premiums).

Read www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

Dr. Balaji

Letter from the Prime Minister

I send my personal condolence to the family of Dr. S Balaji.

Tan Kin Lian

Activate a credit card

I received a new POSB credit card to replace the previous card. The mailer asked me to "Activate the card immediately". I search for instructions in the mailer on how to activate the card. There was no such instruction. Why does a bank give instructions that are confusing to the customers?

Bus to Speaker's Corner

I had to give a talk on financial planning at SMU and then proceed immediately to Speaker's Corner to give my talk on "Minimum Wage". I did not want to drive there, due to difficulty in finding a parking space. I hesitated to take a taxi, as they might not be available during certain hours of the day. (Yes, our taxi service is not reliable).

I finally decided to take a bus, but was not sure which bus to take. I searched Google Map on my smartphone and learned that Service 33 is available for this stretch. While waiting for this bus, another bus came along. I asked the driver, who told me that the bus will pass Hong Lim Park. It was quite easy to take the bus
.

I am quite sad that the public transport system in Singapore is quite complicated and unreliable. I wish that the Land Transport Authority will take the lead to make it easier for people to move around.

Train announcements

The SMRT has introduced a jingle to announce the arrival of a train. It goes "training is coming ...." in a musical way. This is well done.

I have taken the NEL on a few occasions. There was an announcement at some platform, "The happy, happy platform ..... ". I was puzzled at this announcement. I heard it more than 1 dozen times and still cannot catch the words and message. It is a bad announcement. Does anyone know what is the message?

SDP rally at Speaker's Corner

You can see some photos of the event. It was well attended with 400 participants. Go to www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx.

Property rules- 30 August 2010

A property consultant has summarised the new rules that apply to HDB and private properties that take effect after 30 August 2010. Go to www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx.

Dollar cost averaging and ETF

Mr Tan,
Hi! Thanks for organizing last saturday's invest for the long term talk. I have never invest before. It was informative indeed. However, I have a few questions for you on ETF.
1) I want to invest an initial amount of $20,000 in STI ETF and continue to invest for the long term (20 years). I do not want to constantly monitor and track my investment. Do you think I should adopt dollar cost averaging (DCA) or invest in a lump sum?
2) If I am investing for the long term using DCA, should I care about the buying price (buy low)?



REPLY
If I were to take this decision, I would invest this sum in 1,000 units (about $3,000) every 3 months over the next 2 years to gain some dollar cost averaging. The reason for this decision is that the market is somewhat on the high side and the global economy is still uncertain (in my view), but we do not know if it will continue to go up or may correct downwards over the next two years. So, it is better to do some averaging. However, it is a difficult decision to take.

SIA Bond - no mention of maturity date

Dear Mr. Tan
The two advertisements I saw, one in Sunday ST and one in today's TODAY, did not state the maturity of the bond.  I read somewhere that it is maturing in Sep/Oct 2015.  I tried googling and found a few articles relating to the issuance and the two online reports I read did not mention maturity at all.

REPLY
Perhaps you can ask for the prospectus as a potential investor? It should have been stated in the document. Try to see it from the angle of an investor, i.e. whether the information is put in a format that an investor can understand easily.

FOLLOW UP
I found the prospectus on MAS Opera. Maturity date is 30 Sep 2015. The prospectus is similar to other prospectus, it's 113 pages and full of the usual financial and legal jargon.  I am used to reading these docs but find no joy reading it.  My point is why the full page adverts do not include bond mat date?  

HDB Compounding mistakes

Letter from HCM


So the talk now is that HDB owners are not allow to own Landbanking during the first 5 years. It is suppose to be for land banking that invest in residential property related land parcels.  I can see the arguments leading eventually to Property funds, Reits, and even listed property companies??

By not drawing the regulations properly at the beginning, HDB is now fixing leaks as and when water seeps in.

HDB --- ownership is strictly for Singaporean owner-occupier. No ifs or buts.

For whatever reasons, as long as the owner is not staying in the HDB for more than xx months, the owner has to sell the flat within x months, either in the open market or to the HDB at the posted HDB repurchase price.

HDB can resell the flats or deposit the flats in a HDB rental company (HDBrent).  HDBrent is the only agent allowed to rent HDB flats out to either Singaporeans, PRs or foreigners.

HDB owners can invest in anything they wish.    


HCM

Don't spare the rod

Today, some parents spend a disproportionate amount of time and effort to justify punishing their children.
Teachers often dare not act decisively...
School heads are nervous...
The bell tolls for a future Singaporean generation that demands instant gratification, defies rules with impunity, breaks laws recklessly, is impatient, has a skewed sense of righteousness, and regards civic responsibilities with disdain.

Ho Kong Loon
http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/OnlineStory/STIStory_582306.html

Bus service in Singapore

Letter from Chan Whye Chuen
I READ in your newspaper
about Transport Minister Raymond Lim's ride on a Service 960 bus (Sept 15)...In case, Mr Lim, based on the above visit, concluded that the service has improved, kindly allow me share my experience...
Altogether, I lost 65 minutes that day at the two bus stops.
Although this may not be a daily occurrence, it has happened frequently enough.I would have continued to live with it had I not seen your report.
http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC100924-0000066/Service-960,-another-view

Transport Minister observes bus frequency situation
According to a Channel NewsAsia report, the Ministry of Transport said
the situation in the area has improved since the changes were implemented.
http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2010/09/14/transport-minister-observes-bus-frequency-situation/

Six sense - new technology around the corner

Watch this video.

Fake shares and investments

Downturn sees 'boiler room' share scams make a comeback. They sell fake or worthless shares, and also pretend to sell legitimate shares, which the purchaser never receives certificates for. Many young people are being conned into these bad investments. Read: www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx.

Insurance and peace of mind

Many people buy insurance for peace of mind.They are willing to pay an additional premium to get the protection, such as the case of a rider to protect the NCD in case of a claim. But some insurance companies have questionable practices, such as the case mentioned in this letter. See www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

SDP rally at Speaker's Corner

You can find a report of this event in the Singapore General Election Portal, www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx.

Rebranding and trust

Read this letter written by a father to a son who has just graduated and will be starting work. It reflects the words of wisdom from a father who has learnt the lesson of blind trust and wish to pass it to his son. Please pass this letter to your friends who are starting work soon.

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