Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Articles in Online Citizen

I write an article each week for the Online Citizen.

It can be accessed at www.theonlinecitizen.com

Here are some of my articles, and the comments from the readers:

Beware of scams
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/09/beware-of-scams/#comments

One country, two systems
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/08/one-country-two-systems/

Poor return on life insurance policies
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/08/poor-return-on-life-insurance-policies/

We, the citizens
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/08/we-the-citizens/

Important to build a gracious society
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/07/important-to-build-a-gracious-society/

Give equal access to social benefits
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/06/giving-equal-access-to-social-benefits/

Unclaimed money

Banks and life insurance companies make a lot of profit from customers who were not able to claim what wa due to them.

Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_BWTYv7ey4

Investing in Volatile Markets

What are the three most important factors in investing in property? They are location, location and location.

What are the three most important factors in investing in equity? They are timing, timing and timing.

If you invest at the right time, you can earn 5% to 10% more, compared to investing at the wrong time. What is the right time? It depends on major events and how they affect the market prices.

You can learn about the impact of events on market prices through this simulation game:

www.tankinlian.com/trader

Tips:

1. If interest rate goes up, the currency goes up
2. If USD goes up, JPY and EUR is likely to come down.
3. If stock goes up, bond is likely to come down (as people sell bond to buy stocks)
4. If oil price goes up, USD is likely to come down, and gold will go up.
5. If the US economy does well, the US stock and USD is likely to go up.
6. If company profits goes up, the equity is likely to move up.

With these tips, see if you can learn the right timing decisions!

Whole life Limited Payment

Hi Mr. Tan,

My friend, an insurance agent advised me that there is a new life policy where I only need to pay premium for 15 years. My present policy (which I bought from another agent before) needs the premium to be paid until I am 85 years old. She said that it is better to pay more and have the premium stop after 15 years. Should I stop the old policy and take the new one? I find the premium for the new policy to be quite expensive.

REPLY
Your agent is trying to "twist" your policy. Read this blog for an explanation about twisting:
http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/2008/09/twisting-is-bad-for-customer.html

You should lodge a complaint against the agent for this unethical product. Did the agent tell you that she is earning commission by selling the new policy to you? Did she tell you how much is the commission?