20 million pieces of $50 notes and 75 million pieces of $10 notes. (Could the long queues for SG50 notes have been avoided?)

Unless you don't read or watch the news, you would know that there are special SG50 notes available for purchase from today onwards. They are available at branches of nine major retails banks:

DBS Bank and POSB

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation

United Overseas Bank

Citibank

Standard Chartered Bank

Bank of China

HSBC

Malayan Banking Berhad

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

I didn't know that ICBC was a major retail bank in Singapore. Well, now, I know.

Wait! Before you rush to purchase these special SG50 notes, look at this:

I was on my way to buy lunch at a food centre when I walked past this UOB branch. 

OMG! Are they giving away special SG50 Hello Kitty toys as well?

Apparently, this is happening island wide and some of the queues started forming at 6am in the morning! 

Despite advice from the government not to rush for the notes, the kiasu mentality of Singaporeans' cannot be suppressed. Hey, I am not being derisive here hor. I am Singaporean too.

I would like to say that this kiasu mentality is part of being Singaporean and the government should have taken this into consideration when deciding on how to get this done without long queues forming. 

Not only are the queues a waste of time, they also show the not so nice side of us Singaporeans. This is the truth lah. Hurts a bit is normal lah. Laugh! Laugh now! Laugh at ourselves now! See, OK liao! So simple!




This is where AK says something to make a bid at being elected a Member of Parliament at the next General Election. This is what AK would say during his campaign rally:

"A way to avoid such a situation is to send out letters to each Singaporean household and to let them know that Singaporeans have priority and with that letter, they are assured of at least 5 sets per household. They could make an appointment to exchange for the new notes at a local retail bank of their choice before the end of the year. After which, the notes will be available to other interested parties. Is this so difficult to do? Seriously."

There, any reasonable person would be able to tell that AK is MP material after this.

Anyway, according to the MAS, they have produced some 20 million sets of the SG50 notes. So, really, if you are thinking of rushing down to join a queue because the notes might run out, I don't think you have to worry.

"A total of 20 million pieces of $50 notes and 75 million pieces of $10 notes - 15 million pieces of each design - will be printed." Source: The Straits Times.

More importantly, what did I have for lunch?

The queue was rather short. Thank goodness.

UPDATE - 29 Sep 15:

I tried my luck at balloting for some uncut sheets of limited edition SG50 notes and I got a sheet of $50 and a sheet of $10 notes!

Special serial numbers for the limited edition notes.
The note on the left is a regular SG50 $50 note.

There are only 50 sheets per design for the uncut $10.
So, I feel really very lucky to get a sheet through balloting!

Related post:
McDonald's Black Kitty.
What? You don't think this is related? OK lor.

Does AK have anything uplifting to say as stocks bleed?

Feeling the pain from the market downturn?

Hi AK,

Its Painful for many over last week.
Myself included.

I m 50% in reits/trust & the rest in others. The others are all doing quite badly.

Following your blog since 2009...

I understand you did very well positioning your strategy buys during the period between 2009 thru mid 2014...

What's your take on current situation & appreciate your view on the best way to ride thru this period?

Possible to share your personal strategy & focus stocks?

Appreciate some emotional uplift for the fallen :)

Sent from my iPhone
T

There is no need to be afraid of the dark. Switch on the light.

Hi T,

I am actually selectively buying on weakness. If you follow my blog and the comments section, you will see me talking about these. Or if you follow me on FB, you will see this too. :)

If we have invested prudently, we shouldn't worry about volatility in prices too much. In fact, if we have an idea of what constitute fair values, we should be prepared to buy on further weakness. ;)

This downturn in the stock market is no different from any other downturns in the past. You will see some of my older blog posts in the past which talked about downturns and how I reacted, for examples, at the tail end of the Global Financial Crisis when I first started my blog, during the Fiscal Cliff worry or the Taper Tantrum. You will find these in the right side bar of my blog.

At all times, have a plan and as long as it is a sound plan, stick to it. :)

For immediate relief, you might want to read this blog post:

"How to have peace of mind as an investor."

Gambatte! ;)

Best wishes,
AK

Related posts:
1. How do I view the plunge? (from Jan 2014)
"What we have control over is to ensure that our investments are fundamentally sound and that they will continue to do what we expect them to do. Since I am primarily invested for income, with a shopping list in hand now, I am quite happy to be paid while I wait."
2. Rules for investing in difficult times.
3. Feeling depressed about paper losses?