Sunday, February 10, 2013

Educating the public on financial literacy


Hi Mr Tan,
I believe that economic and social problems are to be blamed, not on corporate, government, or the rich, but on people's lack of financial awareness. This problem is not limited to Singapore alone but throughout the entire world. The ignorance allows the well-informed minority to become rich.

Even governments seem to accept and create policies with the attitude that the ignorance cannot be changed, and schools have to start teaching financial education.  

I have a vision of a financially matured society, where people become more aware of the financial system and get out of the economic model we are now trapped in. For that vision, I feel compelled to contribute to that heightening of financial consciousness, in the far or near future. 

I recognize that to go out of our way to improve other people's life takes a lot of determination. Therefore, I want to show my appreciation for what you have done for the society in Singapore. Sometimes, we do not get recognized for what we contribute. I hope to see you continue to push on and do what you do best: educating the public about the concept of money and how to manage them. 

REPLY
My own personal view is that there is little that people like me can do to educate the public.
This is rightly the responsibility of the Government. So far, they have done a bad job, and that is why things continue to be very bad. They are pursuing the wrong strategy and neglecting their responsibility. Nevertheless, I will continue to do what I can.

3 comments:

zhummmeng said...

There is no way to be financially educated if you are not in the business or engaged in finance as investors or related financial activities FREQUENTLY.
You don't rush to get a degree because you want to invest or to buy an insurance, right? Likewise you don't go enroll in a mechanical engineering course because you want to buy and know more about the car, right?
In US, so is Singapore 90% of the consumers are clueless, idiots and ignorant about finance and life insurance. They have been victims of these greedy and dishonest and incompetent financial product salesmen that the regulators recognise that they need to be protected regardless of their background.Singapore must do the same to protect them by tighening the ways and processes the consumers' needs are approahed and set a minimum standard or quality of advice. Singapore has taken away a LITTLE bit ONLY THESE SALESMEN RELY ON FOR A LIVING, ie the commission and if this doesn't send a strong message commission should be taken away completely.
We can't allow the financial drug traffickers to make a living at the expense of their victims, can we?
The most dangerous rogues to watch are the agents who qualified for MDRT, COT or TOT. MAS should ask this question: "How did they qualify for these dubious awards?"

zhummmeng said...

The insurance agents are cunning and scheming. They make sure you are not adequately insured so that they can go back to you at year end, knowing you have the bonus, to sell you another whole life plan.Even after this you are still under insured. This is their plan to make sure you are always under insured so that they can continue to make money out of you. YOU ARE THEIR CASH COWS.
Do you see how scheming these agents are. They always know you are under insured and they can call you to tell you if they could conduct a review for you.This is indirectly telling you they want to sell a product or new product.Review is to them selling you a product.
Who created the under insurance? Isn't it the agents themselves with the blessing of their insurance company.LIA shamelessly blames it on the consumers.LIA even boasted that fact find by agents had gone up and that it is good sign that consumers are opening up. But LIA forgot the increase fact find activities are just activities and didn't translate into increase in sum assured or protection but revenue of the companies and agents' commission.
But MAS knows that this fact find are activities done after the sale of the high commission product to please the compliance who is in cahoot together with the agents' supervisors to bring smile to the CEO. The CEO smiles because he or she sees their performance bonus becoming more visible.
So can you see how they cover up for each other now? to fool MAS? to fool the public that the indsutry is doing something about under insurance?. it is BULL. They have no interest to better the consumers' financial life but their own.
Fortunately, MAS isn't fooled. Not gullible to be fooled by dubious statistics by these associations.
MAS's FAIR will put the last nail to the coffin of these charlatans.

Weng Mao Fa said...

'....schools have to start teaching financial education.'

Have u noticed Harvard Uni lost its investmnet after the 2007/8 crisis !

How much Town Council has lost its investment during the crisis !

If the academy and expert can not help themself, how do they help student?



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