Tuesday, January 18, 2011

What's so free about Singapore?

SGEP had an interesting editorial, entitled "What's so free about Singapore anyway?" The editor talked about several restrictions faced by people in Singapore in their daily lives. I want to give a different meaning to the word "free". In fact, there are so few free things in Singapore that we have to pay for many things .... Remember the phrase, "nothing is for free!".

Gold bar at an inflated value

My friend asked me about investing in gold bars 3 months ago. I advised him to avoid it, as I do not understand how it worked. He had already invested, but did not tell me at that time. He told me today that the company that promoted the label "TGL" did not honor their promise to buy back the gold bar at the invested value and had since ceased operation.

He is now stuck with the gold bar which has depreciated by about 15% in value, compared to his original investment. He had since learned that he had paid for for the gold bar at a price that was higher that its market value. The person who had sold the gold bar to him, being a friend, was also not aware about the inflated price and had also invested a lot of her own money.

I recall another case about a lady who was quite keen to invest in 2 kg of gold bar at $140,000. She sought my advice, I asked her to calculate the value of the gold bar by converting from kg to ounces, apply the world price expressed in USD in ounce and convert to SGD. She found that she would have lost nearly 20% of the invested sum, as the gold bar was priced at an inflated price. She decided not to invest in the gold bar. I must have saved her at least $20,000, by avoiding this bad investment.

I had asked her to make a donation to FISCA in return for my advice, if she found it to be valuable. Perhaps, she felt that my advice was not worth while so she did not make any donation. I am not able to recall who she was.

Tan Kin Lian

Here are my past blogs on investing in gold bars:
http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/search?q=gold+bar
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=186

Let the State subsidise first 2 kids

Published in Straits Times Online Forum


THE total fertility rate in Singapore dropped to 1.16 last year, way below the replacement level of 2.1 ("Fertility figures hit all-time low"; Tuesday).

The decline in fertility rate has been observed for more than two decades. The Government had implemented many measures in past years aimed at increasing the fertility rate, but these have failed.


The Government has now opened its doors to immigration to increase the population and compensate for the low birth rate. While this is necessary in the short term, we need to find a better solution to produce more babies and raise them here.


The key reasons behind the low birth rate, based on public feedback, are the cost and stress of raising children, the long working hours and financial insecurity felt by many families due to the uncertainty of jobs, and the cost of living.


I suggest the following measures to address the concerns:


  • Each family, comprising both parents who are Singapore citizens, should be allowed to raise two children with the cost largely borne by the State.
  • The cost should include delivery of babies, nursing care, childcare and schooling fees, and medical expenses of the child.
  • The mother should be given an adequate allowance if she has to stop working to look after the child, until the child goes to school.

The system can replace the generous parenthood tax rebates that are now given out. As the previous approach has failed to produce the intended results, we should now try a new approach, in the long-term interest of our country.

Tan Kin Lian

Florida DUI Laws | Drink Driving Penalties

Under the Florida DUI laws, if your privileges are suspended, you’ll have the opportunity to seek a hardship license if and when certain requirements are met. First, you must serve the required time of your suspension.

You can then request to have a Hardship Review Hearing, where again, a hearing officer will determine the merits of the request. Simply put, for the best results, it is strongly suggested you seek a qualified and experienced attorney to assist you throughout the entire process.

  • California dui laws
  • Dwi Texas
  • Virginia dui laws
  • Marketing of personal loans by banks

    I received two calls on my mobile phone for marketing people of the banks selling their personal loans. I told them that they are not allowed to call my mobile phone for their marketing of their products. It is terrible that the marketing people can disturb the public in this manner. Don't we have some ethics and respect for people's privacy? I don't know why our banks now behave in this despicable manner, and why the authority stand by and allow these type of practices to continue without restraint.

    Tan Kin Lian

    NOTE
    I receive marketing information by e-mail regularly I do not object to this mode of marketing. I can delete off the materials. But, marketing by mobile phone is objectionable and is an invasion of privacy. I hope that our MPs  know the difference between what is acceptable and what is not and they have time, within the busy schedule and multiple duties, to do their duty as MPs.

    Lower fees for ETF

     
     
     
    A price war is cutting expenses to the bone on index-tracking exchange-traded funds and mutual funds. And that suits Harold Evensky fine.
    "It's great," said the Coral Gables, Fla., financial adviser, who makes those funds a mainstay in his portfolios. "My clients get the benefit."
    For a long time, traditional index funds were the vehicle of choice for cost-conscious investors, but now the ETF marketplace holds the lowest fees and most intense cost competition. Industry giants including Vanguard Group, BlackRock Inc., Charles Schwab Corp. and State Street Corp. are racing to see who can cut expenses the fastest, vying for ...

    Trust and integrity

    Hi Mr. Tan
    Heard about this, but don't know how true is the report. There is a brokerage remiser whose clients defaulted on $1m stock losses, remiser could not pay, so his firm sued him for $2m. The incident happened during the recent financial crisis 2008.

    This means the poor remiser has to pay $1m in interests within a span of two years. Owing to lack of consumer protection here in Singapore, this means we have to scrutinize all contracts with a fine comb, at the bottom in small wordings, there may be predatory terms that would bound us unfairly. A warning to all property mortgagees on mortgage loans, with its complicated 
    tructured loans, now we may have to engage lawyers to assess them, better pay to have peace of mind, we don't want to be ridiculed for not going in with eyes open, should something untoward happens. We are living in a world where trust and integrity have gone to the dogs.


    My views
    I think that interest may take up 10% to 20% but the rest of the money is for paying legal fees. Lawyers can be very, very expensive. The court should impose some cap on the legal fees in such matters. It cannot be "charge as they like".