一百万 : $1,000,000!

Since I am in the mood, here is another Hokkien song. This one has English subtitles:



"I will buy a car, a house, a shop to collect rent, lead a carefree life, walking the dog!"

Related post:
Be happy!

欢喜就好 - Be happy! (UPDATED.)

This is a song I have always enjoyed.

Apologies to readers who do not understand Hokkien or could not read Chinese.






To those who understand, I hope this brightens up your day. :)

On any issue, there will always be different opinions out there.

On any policy, some will say it is good and some will say it is bad.

It is important to remember that opinions are not facts. 





We would do well to search out the facts and not be swayed by opinions.

AK anyhow talking to himself as usual.

Be happy!





Related posts:
1. A simple concept.
2. Happiness in 2012.

Show Luo and his hair.

I am not a fan of Show Luo, nickname Xiao Zhu (Little Pig), but I was told that he is very particular about his hair. Quite the diva, apparently.

I couldn't stop laughing when I stumbled upon the following photo:

I wonder if EC House can do this for me. I want to be fashionable too.

Had a good laugh?

Whoever is responsible for this, thanks for brightening my day. :)

More blog posts to tickle you:
1. Tea with AK71: Funny!
2. Holey curry puff!
3. A short fairy tale!
4. Male cheerleader brings it on!
5. This kid can dance!

What should I do? A letter from a 64 year old retiree.

I am sharing an exchange I had with a reader a few days ago because I think others could possibly be interested in it:

Hi, AK71,

1.        I have been following your blog for quite some time and find your explanation and reasoning of the stock market very interesting.  Not many people are so frank like you that are willing to give an in-depth advice of the financial market.    So far, I did not pen anything in your blog to ask for your advice, as I could not express myself well in writing. 
 

2.        I would like to seek your kind advice to set up a reasonable and proper stock portfolio to earn passive income.  I am a 64 years old retiree and living on passive income from dividends from my 44 stocks in my portfolio.  Overall, I have made a capital gain of about 15 - 20% from these 44 stocks (with some profits and some losses for each stock).    I know that 44 stocks are very difficult to monitor but I do not know how to diversify them.  Each time the market drop, my heart drop too.  At this age, I cannot effort to loss much of my hard earned money, as I do not have time to wait for the market to recover again.
 

3.        I would appreciate your kind professional advice.  Thank you.

My reply:

Hi J,

I really hate to disappoint you but I am not a professional financial adviser. I would suggest that you find professionals and engage their services.

However, what would I do if I were in your shoes? This is the part where I talk to myself. Please ignore me.

First, understand my motivations! I am in my 60s and retired. I am not able to suffer another market crash for more reasons than one. I am interested in a predictable flow of passive income.

Secondly, go through my portfolio of 44 stocks. Compartmentalise the investments into those that match my motivations and those which do not.

Thirdly, keep the investments which match my motivations and think about possibly increasing exposure to these investments when prices are softer. Sell those investments which do not match my motivations at an opportune time and never look back.

Fourthly, money from divestments should go into a dedicated "war chest" to buy more stocks which match my motivations during times when Mr. Market goes into manic depression.

Throughout, I have to understand that this is the general framework that I must keep in mind but being a framework, it will overlook finer details which could influence my decision to invest or to divest in specific instances.

Best wishes,
AK

Everyone has different circumstances and motivations. There is never a universal solution to all problems. If we understand our motivations, we will know what is most appropriate for us.

Related posts:
1. A letter from a 66 year old retiree.
2. A letter from a reader in his early 20s.
3. A letter from a 24 year old fresh grad.
4. Voices, noises and choices.

City Harvest Church: A personal account.

One story I have been following is City Harvest Church's.

I am just so amazed by how so much money was accumulated and how so much money was misused. $50 million!

Just now, I was directed to a personal account shared by someone who used to be a Ministry Member of the church.

The church used peer pressure very successfully to get people to give to the building fund... from getting people to pledge and using testimonies... I remembered people giving their hearts out for the Jurong West building. Never once, were members informed that monies from the Building Fund were used to fund Sun Ho's career, and certainly not about monies being invested in Xtron or Firna.

CHC and its pastors have lost it. They have twisted and traded the gospel for another, and the astounding thing is that, they still believe they are doing the right thing.

Read the full account in Facebook: Assi AK.

Sex for grades case: Guilty!

On so many occasions, I was simply amazed by how shameless some people are. Take the instance of Tey Tsun Hang, the disgraced NUS law professor. To any reasonable person, what Tey did was quite obviously wrong but instead of showing some shame and admitting his guilt, he insisted that he was innocent which resulted in a trial spanning 5 months.

For someone who knows the law but chose to break it, there can be no leniency. He should be given the maximum sentence of five years in jail and the maximum fine of S$100,000 on each charge, especially when he has shown no remorse.

Read: Sex for grades case.

Inexpensive high class food ready in 5 minutes!

People sometimes have this impression that AK71 only eats oatmeal, barley, bread and cheap hawker fare. Well, AK71 consumes "atas" (high class) food also from time to time. Honest!

Today, AK71 decided to go Western because Western is atas. So, fish and chips? Atas or not? OK, ok. I know fish and chips was a working class food in Britain. Not very atas. How come it acquired an atas status in Asia?

What about sausages and mashed potato? In Britain, those who read "Bash Street Kids" would know, the dish is called "bangers and mash". This is a traditional British offering and also a common working class dish.

See? All these "atas" Western dishes are actually not so in Britain!

Anyway, I had a craving for sausages and mashed potato. So, I feigned ignorance and pretended it was atas.

At the supermarket, I picked a box which looked promising. The words "Vienna sausage" were printed on the box.

Vienna? Wasn't that place home to Mozart and Beethoven? Well, if the sausages are good enough for talented musicians, they are good enough for AK71!

Maybe, they will bring out the musician in me... You don't think so? Neither did I.

Ready to eat in 5 minutes and 30 seconds!

My good and rather old microwave oven. No fancy digital numbers and soft touch buttons.

Bon appetit!

Proudly produced in Singapore by Delifrance Singapore Pte Ltd. I wonder how much such a meal would cost in one of their restaurants?

How much did I pay for this? An "atas" $4.90. Burp...

Caution! The very health conscious type, please avoid.

More good deals? Check these out:

Cafes in Singapore up to 90% cheaper

Tea with Matt: First hand experience with an earthquake.

Chengdu is a big city with about 7 million inhabitants within the municipality and another 7 million in the region surrounding the city. It appears like Singapore with skyscrapers and many shopping malls.

There are two MRT lines and it is still expanding. Cars are choke a block and traffic jams are common. Luxurious cars like Maybach, Rolls-Royce and Bentleys are a common sight. Needless to say, luxurious goods like Rolex and Ferragamo have a presence too. Fast food chains are ever present.

The most popular brands of merchandise are present and the latest fashions are available. Isetan and Parkson have stores there. There were numerous Uniqlo and G2000 stores.

The shopping malls are crowded on weekends. So too are the tourist attractions but more with locals rather than foreigners. The city is vibrant.

I was preparing to go for breakfast on Saturday morning and while chatting with my business partner, we felt a slight tremor. Nothing major and we knew immediately that it was an earthquake. Less than 30 seconds later, there was a violent tremor, shaking the whole hotel. There is not mistaking it for a major earthquake. It felt as if the hotel will collapse anytime. Both of us ran out of the hotel and we were lucky to be staying on level three of the hotel. We ran past a lady, who appeared to be in the middle of a shower moments ago, wrapping herself only in a towel, running down the stairs with us. Many others were in their pyjamas. None of us knew where the epicentre was and hope that it was not Chengdu itself.

When we were outside the hotel carpark with the other guests, I realised that I was barefoot and my business partner was wearing those thin slippers provided by the hotel. After a few minutes when there were no more tremors, I decided to run back to my room to get my shoes and at the same time grabbed my business partner’s shoes as well. But after another ten minutes of waiting, most of us returned to our rooms and switched on the television for more news.

The foreign news agencies were the first to report the quake, quoting the US Geological Service. It would be hours before the first live report came from the city of Ya’an, the epicentre of the earthquake.

Tea with Elsie: A few photos from Japan.

A reader, Elsie, just came back from a holiday in Japan! Envious...

My last visit to Japan was slightly more than a year ago. The JPY was very expensive then.

With the JPY so cheap now, I hope to visit again very soon.

Here are some photos which Elsie sent to me by email to tempt me:

Cherry blossoms, ladies in Kimonos and rickshaws in Kyoto! Lovely!

Too beautiful to eat! The Japanese are really creative people.

When I visited Kyoto with my family a few years ago, my mother went quite mad buying handkerchiefs and purses. Beautifully made, I can understand why she almost bought the whole shop.

I think Elsie must have read my mind! Totoro was the first Japanese animated fantasy film I watched probably some 20+ years ago. It has a special place in my heart.

Yokoso Japan!

Related posts:
1. Cute snack from Japan.
2. My photos in Japan.

9 steps to destroy back-stabbers!

Heard of  打小人? This is an old Taoist ritual to get rid of villains or back-stabbers in our lives!

I have only seen this done in movies produced locally like "881". I have not seen anyone doing this in real life nor have I done it myself.

Anyway, I Googled for more information and discovered "Singapore Taoism Forum"! I didn't know the Taoist community in Singapore had an online forum. Amazing and rather delightful too.

The steps to ridding ourselves of back-stabbers in our lives are listed in the forum as:

1. prepare a set of josspapers with a paper human figure, a tiger, a scholar, a horse and a red paper with many printed figures.

2. make all necessary requests infront of the Lord of Tiger (Hu Ye)

3. engage ritual masters/leaders to perform the beating of Xiao Ren (paper human figure), if a person knows the name or DOB, can always write them down on the human figure before the ritual starts

4. allow the master/leader to start the ritual by asking you certain questions (some don't ask)

5. ritual start, you will see the master/leader using a clog or slipper to beat hard onto the human figure and do certain chanting or sentences reciting (some can be very misleading and harsh, some can even used crude remarks like dying, handicapped, etc)

6. after the ritual, the master/leader will advise you to burn off the human figure (if still in good shape) with the pile of josspapers (including the tiger figure)

7. the scholar, horse and red paper must be retain and needed to be paste on the wall beside the Lord of Tiger altar, allowing the Lord of Tiger to give you the necessary blessing

8. after pasting the papers onto the wall, the ritual considers complete

9. come back to the temple next year for thanks-giving

Spooky!

So, what inspired me to find out about this ancient ritual? This:

Hey, stick the back-stabber's name and DOB on the head of the figurine and you are done. No need to have 9 steps lah.

On top of that, you would be stabbing him in the front and not the back. More honourable, don't you think so?

Wicked, isn't it? ;p

Singapore National Reserves.

A reader, Boon Sun, kindly contributed a piece of academic writing after reading my blog post on CPF and SGS recently.

He said 

"I have written an article on Singapore Reserves to raise awareness of the economic importance of this asset of Singapore's. This topic was also raised in one of the MOE/MOF budget seminar. If you think this is useful and easy to understand, you can share with your readers."




Here is his essay in full:

Singapore National Reserves are a critical resource for Singapore’s future. Our financial reserves are managed by the administrative branch of Government such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Temasek Holdings and Government Investment Corporation (GIC) and they serve as a strategic asset for these two key purposes:

1) They provide a key defence for Singapore in times of crisis. Our reserves are a strategic asset should a major crisis occur, allowing us to mount a decisive and effective response. In 2009, faced with the threat of our worst recession, Singapore government tapped into our reserves for a withdrawal of S$4.9 billion as part of the Resilient Package in our 2009 budget. This cushioned the economy from a severe economic downturn as the Government increased their expenditure to reduce job losses and keep viable companies afloat.

2) The investment of our reserves also provides a valuable stream of income for the Government Budget, which can be spent or invested for the benefit of the current, as well as future, generations. The Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC) from our financial investments by MAS, GIC and Temasek Holdings has allowed Singapore to maintain our investment in social and economic developments. NIRC almost quadrupled from S$2.1 billion in 2006 to S$7.9 billion in 2011. The Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC) comprises up to 50% of the Net Investment Returns on the net assets managed by GIC and MAS, and up to 50% of the investment income from the remaining assets (which includes Temasek). The NIRC has allowed Singapore to remain economically competitive by allowing Singapore to maintain low personal and corporate taxes while maintaining our government expenditure.

When the Government achieves an overall budget surplus over a term, the surplus will be kept in our National Reserves as Past Reserves. A term of government usually lasts 4-5 years. To prevent reckless fiscal policies by the current Government, which would result in a depletion of our reserves and hurt Singapore’s economic and social stability, our Constitution protects the Past Reserves of the Government and Fifth Schedule entities. Hence, the Government had to ask the President for permission to draw from the reserves in 2009.

Assets and Liabilities

Singapore’s National Reserves refer to the total assets minus liabilities of the Government and other entities specified in the Fifth Schedule under the Constitution.

Our assets include physical assets, such as land and buildings, and financial assets, such as cash, securities and bonds. As it is difficult to get market valuation for our physical assets, we usually refer to our financial reserves which are made up of our financial assets as our Nation’s Reserves. MAS manages Singapore’s official foreign reserves and government deposits, Temasek Holdings acts primarily as a commercial investment company, and GIC is the Singapore Government’s fund manager. As of 2012 March, MAS holds S$304 billion of foreign reserves and S$150 billion of government deposits, Temasek Holdings has a portfolio worth S$198 billion and GIC manages well over US$100 billion. Temasek and GIC are often termed as Sovereign Wealth Funds, which means they are stated-owned investment funds.

Our liabilities mainly comprise of Singapore Government Securities (SGS) and Special Singapore Government Securities (SSGS). The 10-year yield for SGS is decided by market conditions and ranged from 1.3-1.4% per annum between 15^th and 18^th Jan 2013. The SSGS issued to CPF pays a coupon rate of 2.5% to 4% per annum. To put these figures into perspective, the United States 10-year treasury yield is about 1.84%, Germany about 1.56%, Hong Kong at 1.04%, the Netherlands at 1.70%. Hence, we can see that Singapore enjoys a low cost of borrowing due to its credit-worthiness. Our bonds are ranked as one of the safest by major credit rating agencies. Singapore may have one of the world’s largest public debts (public debt can be measured as a ratio of Debt to GDP) but most of our debts are in local currencies and held by government agencies. Thus, our debt is relatively much more stable and safe as compared to the national debt of other economies.

The System

The diagram below can be used to briefly explain the system in which our Government gets the funds to invest for higher returns and increase our national reserves. Before we can get started, we need to be aware of the differences between different divisions of a government.

In the diagram, we separate the Government into two different sections. One of them is the Government (Executive) which refers to the ruling party of Singapore. Government (Executive) is formed by political party/parties which is/are elected into the Government by the people. Our current Government (Executive) is formed by the People Actions Party, led by our PM Lee Hsien Loong. The other section is the administrative section which is our Public Service division. It is made up of different ministries such as Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Manpower and they are independent of any political parties, and not affected by any political changes in Singapore. Monetary Authority of Singapore is part of Ministry of Finance and both GIC and Temasek Holdings are investment firms owned by Singapore government. Hence, we would group these three entities in one group which manages our financial reserves. These three entities are independent of political influence or the Government (Executive).

Over a term of 5 years, the Government runs either a balanced overall term budget where the deficits and surpluses cancelled out each other, an overall term budget surplus where the net surplus will be added to the Singapore reserves. Due to Singapore Constitution, it is almost impossible for a government to have a term deficit unless the President allows the Government to withdraw from our National Reserves. The borrowed sum of money from our reserves needs to be repaid back to the reserves once the Government runs a budget surplus. As mentioned earlier, up to 50% of the net investment return of our investments is used for our annual budget.

When the economy grows, the employment market also improves. The improvement in employment market increases the CPF contribution from employees, and as long as the increase in CPF contributions outweighs the withdrawal of CPF funds by retirees, the employment situation will lead to a higher net CPF contribution, ceteris paribus. Hence, it is important that for the Singapore labour market to keep growing, so that we have a positive net CPF contribution for Singapore to grow its reserves. However, this inflow of money is threatened by the aging population, as there will be more withdrawal by the retirees and less contributions from economically active residents. CPF liability refers to the total amount of money owed to the workers of Singapore when they retire.

The Government will issue the SSGS bonds to CPF to borrow the cash for various purposes, such as investment by the different organisations. This completes the basic cycle in which how the Government gets the money to invest for higher returns and grow our national reserves.




Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)

According to the IMF, Singapore has the 12^th largest foreign reserves of US$250 billion in 2012. Our GDP was US$240 billion in 2011, and Singapore had the world’s highest foreign reserves per capita in the world, at US$50,128.

            Singapore is able to accumulate large amount of reserves due to our high national savings rate, healthy BOP, and fiscal surpluses accumulated over the past decades. These foreign reserves allow the Singapore government to intervene in the foreign exchange market, usually to stabilise the exchange rate fluctuation during economic crisis. In 2011, MAS recorded a net profit of S$2.77 billion.

            Having large foreign reserves is very important for Singapore, which has a small and open economy reliant on exports. A highly volatile exchange rate deters long term foreign investment such as FDIs and would hurt Singapore’s economic growth. It would also disrupt the long term business plans of local companies. Therefore, it is important that MAS intervenes to reduce our short term currency fluctuations.

            As financial markets have been experiencing high volatility over the past few years due to numerous macroeconomic shocks such as the world financial crisis, the EU debt crisis and now the US debt crisis, it is imperative that MAS has a steady flow of foreign reserves for us to tide over the tough economic conditions.

Temasek Holdings

            Temasek’s aim is to maximise shareholder value over the long term. A significant portion of Temasek’s portfolio is invested in Singapore. However since 2002, Temasek has taken active steps to diversify its portfolio into Asia and other markets. Currently, as of 31 March 2012, 72% of the portfolio is invested in Asian markets, with Singapore accounting for 30% of the overall portfolio, 25% of the portfolio is in Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe while 3% of the portfolio is invested in Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Central Asia.

            Some of the major investments of Temasek Holdings include Standard Chartered PLC, DBS Group Holdings, Singapore Telecommunications Limited, Keppel Corporation Limited, Singapore Airlines Limited, Singapore Power Limited, SMRT Corporation Limited, Capitaland Limited and Olam International Limited. In 2012, the net accounting profit was S$11billion.

Government Investment Corporation (GIC)

            GIC’s mandate is to achieve good long-term returns, to preserve and enhance the international purchasing power of Government reserves. As a rule, GIC’s investments are outside Singapore and not in Singapore companies or instruments. Due to national security issues, the Government does not disclose the size of our financial assets in GIC to prevent speculative attacks on our financial system which would threaten our economic stability.

            We can see that due to the rule set by the Singapore Government, the geographical locations of GIC investments differ from Temasek Holdings, and this complements the different portfolios between these two entities.

Performance of Our Financial Investment

            Due to the long term investment view taken by Temasek Holdings and GIC, we have achieved a real positive return on our investment. GIC has achieved a real investment return of 3.9% after taking into account of the global inflation. Temasek Holdings has achieved a nominal annual return of 16% over the past 20 years. These figures compare favourably against other mixes of portfolio investment in the financial world of investment.

            During the financial crisis in 2008, GIC and Temasek Holdings made the headlines together with other SWFs as they invested heavily into banks by purchasing equities. Due to the timing of the investment, both GIC and Temasek Holdings incurred huge losses through their purchase of equities in distressed banks such as UBS, Barclays, Bank of America and UBS. Since then, the value of GIC and Temasek portfolio has recovered and surpassed the pre-crisis level.

            According to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, as of Jan 2013, both Temasek Holdings and GIC are listed among the Top 10 SWFs in terms of the value of their assets. The top 3 SWFs are the Government Pension Fund (Norway), with assets of US$660 billion, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (UAE) with assets of US$627 billion, and SAFE Investment Corporation (China) with assets of US$560 billion. In 2012, Temasek Holdings recorded a net profit of S$11 billion whereas China Investment Corporation, another SWF of China, recorded a loss of 4.3% on its overseas holding. Thus, our SWFs have performed admirably over the past decades to grow our reserves.

Conclusion

            Our National Reserves form a critical part of our national security in ensuring economic stability. In times of crisis, they act as a powerful tool for government to resolve economic problems. Over the past decades, the three agencies, MAS, GIC and Temasek Holdings, have managed to grow our national reserves despite a resource-scarce economy.

            As the issue of aging population become more acute, the net CPF contribution may fall, reducing the inflows of funds into GIC and Temasek Holdings. Political demands by Singaporeans to establish a wider social safety net would result in an increase in Government’s expenditure. As a result, The Government may require a higher contribution from Net Investment Returns Contribution to fund the increase in government’s expenditure. These two issues pose challenges to the growth of our national reserves.

The 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, the Argentina debt crisis in 2000, the EU debt crisis and the on-going US debt issue show us the need to be prudent in our use of national reserves and to avoid populist policies which many hamper our economic growth in the long run.

A depletion of national reserves could create an economic crisis in Singapore. Thus, we should not be complacent in our management of National Reserves. As the world economy has become more volatile the past few years and in times of economic distress, our National Reserves would serve as a key national asset for us to fall back on.

My blog as a business?

I am quite the idiot when it comes to IT stuff.

Friends have given up asking me to use Excel and Powerpoint. At one point, I thought Excel meant to do well at work and Powerpoint was some special power which magic users had in Dungeons and Dragons.

Talk to me about Cloud and I will tell you it is all about dew point and ADLR which stands for adiabatic lapse rate. Hey, I could sound Greek too, you know, but just from a different corner of the island.

Actually, I have been reprimanded by a fellow blogger before for not becoming IT savvy. I am sure he means well and I do see why he thought I was not doing enough. 

Hey, I even gave up Facebooking after a few months but I only started a Facebook account because a friend told me my blog should have one. I didn't do it voluntarily.

To me, isn't having a blog good enough to reach out to people? Apparently, it isn't! 

Oh my goodness, it is just too much for my Jurassic Age brain to process. Woe is me.

A meeting over the weekend with someone whom I later found out to be an internet marketing guru set me thinking about my blog. 

I was impressed when I found out how he harnessed the power of the internet and made very good money. 

Passive income, I thought. No, he said, not passive. It is still a business that has to be maintained.

Oh dear. That sounds like work to indolent me.

I did some reading on internet marketing over the weekend and I am still quite lost. I mean I have ads in my blog and I also recommend some value for money deals in my blog. So, I guess these are considered internet marketing too, right? 

Then, why don't I make big money from blogging?

Of course, anyone who has followed my blog for a while would know that, for me, blogging was something that happened not by design. 

I started this blog out of boredom and curiosity. 

Any internet marketer would look at my blog's URL and shake his head. Too long. Too hard to remember.

Over the years, I just kept blogging and sharing my ideas. If I made some pocket money from blogging, I was happy but it was, obviously, not a major consideration despite what some people might think and say.

Now that I have been offered a peek into what I might be able to do with my blog, one question is, of course, how do I go about doing it? 

Another question is whether I want to do it?

Truthfully, I am more interested in learning about how to do it than to be actually doing it. After all, it could be something I might be able to do in future. 

A retirement pursuit? Maybe.

In a way, being really passionate about blogging without any overarching need for monetary rewards could have been a good thing because over the last few years, just doing what I enjoy doing, without any plan for branding, I found that I have established a brand. 

What do I mean?

If we were to Google "ASSI" or "AK" or "ASSI AK", my blog would appear at the top of the search results! 

It is true! Go ahead and try it.

I have known this for some time but the significance of it did not hit home until very recently. It is both exciting and scary. 

I am an anonymous public figure! 

I am an oxymoron! 

How is that for wow factor?

Anonymous public figure.

Any marketing person would tell us that a strong brand is an incredible asset. So, could I be sitting on an asset? 

If I could think of how to make this asset work for me, I could quit my day job and become a full time blogger like XiaXue and Mr. Brown, couldn't I?

Ahhhh... (picture Homer Simpson in a daze).

Ooooh... (nope, this is not a paid advertorial for Pizza Hut). 

Sigh... (allow me to look phased out for a while).

OK, back to reality. Hard landing. Ouch.

Anyway, I am just thinking out loud here, as always. I hope I have not offended anyone.

Blogging power!

I think I should be a fashion blogger!

I could start a trend. No?

Want to make big money? Must drink this!

I have used the example of how we can save on super atas coffee and to drink less expensive coffee for the masses. Of course, I am assuming that all of us are of the masses.

I went one step further by suggesting not drinking coffee at kopitiams but to bring our own 3in1 coffee mix to work. Wah! Save even more!

Of course, if our workplace has a well-stocked pantry, we get free coffee! Win already lor!

However, with cost of doing business in Singapore rising, we could be seeing office pantries becoming less well stocked or having cheaper alternatives.

Today, I was rather amused that the familiar Nescafe coffee in our pantry has been replaced by:

A must drink for all investors and traders every morning!

Gong Hei Fatt Choi!

Huat ah!

Related post:
A common piece of advice on saving.

Letter from a Brigadier General.

Slightly more than a year ago, I received a letter that had the words "ON GOVERNMENT SERVICE" and our national crest on the envelope. I had palpitations.

Today, it happened again!

This time, I received a letter from BG Tung Yui Fai of the Singapore Armed Forces.

Enclosed with the letter are 8 pieces of $10.00 vouchers which can be used at more than 5,000 outlets in Singapore! They include petrol stations, supermarkets and F&B outlets!

Accepted at Old Chang Kee as well, I guess I will be having free curry puffs for a while. Yummy!

Related posts:
1. AK71 gets recognition from the government.
2. Old Chang Kee: Have my curry puff and eat it too.

No free lunch but what about breakfast?

Today is National Breakfast Day and I went to McDonald's to receive a free Egg McMuffin!

There were ushers at the door who directed me to join a queue which was rather fast moving. Within 5 minutes, I received my free breakfast!

Yummy!

Learn more about the event: here.

Health screening in a polyclinic.

I have been hearing about people in my age group suddenly dying from strokes and heart attacks. Also, in recent weeks, I heard of people younger than me who were diagnosed with heart problems. 

The last straw that broke the camel's back was learning that a friend who is several years younger than me and physically fitter being diagnosed with some worrying health issues very recently.







I will be 42 this year and, perhaps, it is time that I exercise my privilege as a Singaporean to receive subsidised healthcare! I searched for Singapore polyclinics online and found this:

Our patients are offered the Opportunistic Health Screening (OHS) Service if they are aged 40 years and above, have no known personal history of diabetes, hypertension or dyslipidemia (high blood cholesterol), and have not been screened for these conditions in the past 12 months.

OHS screens for conditions such as obesity and major coronary disease risk factors. Supported by a computer-based health screening system, patients obtain their health screening reports and are counselled in the same session. 

More information: here.







Yesterday, I called the hotline and was impressed with how easy it was to make an appointment.

Today, I went to the polyclinic at the appointed time and I was impressed!

The interior was bright, well ventilated and clean. It didn't feel like a clinic or a hospital at all. I thought it felt like a resort in Bintan.

I scanned my IC and was given a number which was called within 5 minutes at the registration counter. Then, I was asked to go one level up where I was attended to within 5 minutes too.

The whole experience was very pleasant and the price tag did not cause me a heart attack. How much did it cost? Only S$12.00.






I encourage all Singaporean readers who are eligible to take advantage of this value for money service offered by the polyclinics. I am glad I did.

Related post:
Enhanced Incomeshield (H&S) for my mom.

Tea with Matt: Customer service quality of two insurance companies.

This is the second article contributed by a reader, Matt, who used to be the owner of an SME.

As many of us probably have whole life insurance policies, Matt's recent experience is of interest to us. Well, it is definitely of interest to me since I have one policy from AIA and one from Prudential. The former was bought some 16 years ago while the latter was bought some 25 years ago. There will come a day when I will have to surrender them.

As Matt did not reveal the names of the two companies, we can only wonder at their true identities. Go ahead and read about his experience and, perhaps, try guessing which two companies he visited.

Recently, I terminated two Whole Life Insurance policies after having paid the premiums for 20 years. As is the same for most of us, the original agent who serviced me then was no longer in the business and it was practically left to me to speak and deal directly with the companies. That was when the level of customer service I received was a revelation. Let’s just name the companies A and B.

Company A

I called up the agent who was listed as the agent servicing me to enquire how I should go about terminating the policy. The disinterest was felt from the way the answers were given. Of course she probably did not receive any commission from my policy after 20 years but to her credit, she sent the form to me a week later. I asked whether I should send the forms back to her and she encouraged me to go to the office directly so as to get the money faster.

Fine, I did that and submitted the form with the original policy at the concierge counter. A lady at the counter took the form and original policy from me after looking through. I enquired how long it would take to process the documents. "Oh, we will call you" was all that she answered. I thought, "They are an MNC. Surely, they will call me."

Ten days later, there was still no phone call from the company and I thought it was strange to take so long to process the documents. So I went back to the company and asked for an update. I was given a queue number and directed to see a CSO. She checked my IC and told me that I had missed out submitting a form. She printed the letter and showed it to me.

 

The letter was dated one day after I submitted the document. I told her I did not receive the letter. The initial response was, maybe, it was the postal service’s mistake. She promptly printed another set of forms and got me to sign them.

 

My signature was compared to the one I had used in the original policy. She told me that there was a slight difference in my signatures. Of course there was, signatures could have changed in 20 years, whaaat (Singlish)!

 

She asked me to try and sign as similarly to the original as possible or else the auditors might question them on the discrepancy. Huh? Anyway, not wanting to give her a hard time, I tried my best to reproduce my signature used 20 years ago.

Then, I was told that the cheque should be ready the next day. Not wanting to take a second chance of not receiving the cheque, I told her that I will personally collect the cheque two days later. The very next day, lo and behold, the letter which was supposedly sent to me was in my mailbox, a full 2 weeks from the date it was supposed to have been sent.

Not wanting to jump to conclusion, when I went to collect the cheque, I took the letter and asked the CSO who served me earlier and asked her whether she initiated the sending of the letter after I told her I had not received the letter. She said that she did not. So it was not the postal service’s fault after all!

This episode set me thinking on the deficiencies of the customer service in this company :

• When forms are handed in, no acknowledgement or reference number was given to confirm that documents were received. I did not think of this earlier but after going back home after submitting the documents, my wife asked me whether I had asked them for an acknowledgement. I told her that they are a MNC and should have a system. She looked at me incredulously and told me that I should always ask for an acknowledgement, MNC or SME, especially when handing over original documents.

 

• Why did the letter that I was supposed to received the next day after handing over the documents reach me 2 weeks later? Compounding the effect was the fact that the agent did not send me the form and the concierge did not spot it as well when she checked my documents at the point of submission. Come to think of it, their premium due notices also reached me after the due date. I told the CSO that there must be something wrong with the way and timing of the company’s letters being sent out.

 

• Only the cheque was given without any other documentation such as a copy of the termination submission form.

 

Company B

On the day I went to seek an update on the status of the termination at company A, I also went to company B to submit a termination notice. I was all prepared to demand that they handle my submission properly and promptly as well. What a surprise and a refreshing reception I received when I was at the front desk.

Within 2 minutes, I was sitting in front of a CSO who went through the details with me and explained what the process entails. She filled up my forms and got me to sign the documents. I asked her whether my signature is different from the original policy. Her answer was that it did not matter. She had prepared a form for me to sign that declares that my signature is as the current one.

 

Next, she offered to deposit the cheque for me into my bank account so that it would be banked in as soon as the cheque was issued that afternoon. All I had to do was just to sign a form confirming my bank and account number.

 

She also offered to send me a copy of the documents once the cheque was out. That afternoon, the cheque was deposited into my bank account and the very next day, I received a mailed copy of the documents as well as a copy of the cheque and deposit slip!

Two days later when I went to collect the cheque from company A, my wife came along and we went over to company B to enquire on her policy. The front staff checked her IC and told her on the spot what the surrender value was without having to even see a CSO and it took less than 1 minute. My wife was impressed, especially after the service I had received at company A.

Was it a coincidence that company B’s policy performed a lot better than company A, monetarily wise, at least as far as my policies were concerned? I am comparing apple to apple here since both policies had the same insurance coverage face value and were bought within one month of each other twenty years ago.

Needless to say, I filled up a customer service form and gave the CSO an excellent rating. I normally would decline to fill up such forms.

 

Related post:

Inflation adjusted retirement income plan.