Sunday, April 3, 2011

Financial Planning Test

Do this test on your understanding of Financial Planning. Go to Ask Mr. Tan or click here.

Do you find this test useful? Give your comment here.

Register for a job

Hi 
I am unfortunate to be retrenched due to a failed business. I am at a loss on where to seek help, apart from applying to be a taxi driver. Can you tell me where I can go to to register and put my name in for some employment opportunities.


REPLY
Try here: www.easyapps.sg/ads
It is a website created by me. At this stage, there is no much traffic, but it cost you nothing to be listed here. A prospective employer may search for you based on proximity to the workplace.


New iShop - orders received

The new iShop received 5 orders yesterday - which was quite good. Most of the orders are for the financial planning book (which is quite popular) and the life insurance book. This is a 25% discount on these books, i.e. $9 instead of $12.
 I am waiting for payment to come in - before the books can be delivered. To order, go to www.tankinlian.com/ishop.
http://easyapps.sg/iShop2/Quantity.aspx?id=4

Extremely high earnings

We have to find a way to deal with the extremely high earnings of talented people, who cause hardship to many ordinary families. Read SGEP or click here. Give your views about this article in this survey.

Financial Savvy Test #14

Take a test of your financial knowledge by answering the questions below. You can find the answer from www.tankinlian.com/information.aspx - type in the keyword to search for the relevant FAQ

1. How can I use Excel to calculate the yield? Keyword: Excel formulas
2. What are some examples of blatant cheating by insurance agents? Keyword: blatant cheating

Create agency to help retirees find jobs

Tan Teck Kim wrote to the St Times Forum to ask the government to create an agency to help retirees find jobs. I suggest that retirees should register with Easy Ads and post their resume. The prospective employer is likely to search for an available candidate who lives near the workplace (to reduce the time and cost of travel).This feature is available in Easy Ads. There is a special category called "Looking for Jobs".
http://easyapps.sg/ads/

Why I can't be a good MP

Note: My friend (called DareToSay) sent this e-mail to me, explaining why he can't be a good MP and expressing doubt about new candidates who are confident that they can be a good MP and to hold a full time job at the same time.

Why I can't be a good MP:
1. My social circle is too homogenous - middle high income only
2. While I grew up in humble home (both dad and mom had little education and were blue collar laborers), I cannot remember the last time I have problem putting food on table
3. I have to admit I do not have what some living (and dead) Saints have, which is the ability to emphathise without themselves experience something
4. My focus is on my wife and kids (emotion part) and making sure we have enough to see kids thru University (the financial part). Being not good at multi-tasking (or I call it anyhow do everything), I don't think I can manage the important job as an MP and still do my day job properly.

To conclude, I do not think I know enough how our poorer people is suffering to be useful to assist them and that I do not think I have enough capacity to do a good job as an MP and at the same time take care of my family's emotional and financial needs. 
I wonder how our MPs do it. I wonder further why the new candidates are so confident they can do it.

DareToSay




Limit of $800 on Shield insurance

Hi Mr Tan
Recently my father (who is now 78 year old) received a letter from income to pay a sum of $400 plus in cash due to medisave can deduct up to maximum of $800 only. That meant the premium of this policy is $1200 plus per year for Medishield Plan B.

Usually I will help to pay for my father, but from the past years only need to pay $200 plus but this time might be due to age group different need to pay higher( $400 plus ).


Why does Medisave set a limit of $800, as senior citizens sure have problem paying in cash. How Do you think about this kind of policy?


REPLY
Your father can move to Medishield and pay a lower premium (compared to private Shield) up to age 80.
Beyond age 80, there is no point in going for expensive health care, as it is not likely to do much for an elderly patient - as it can be very costly, whether as insurance or paid out of Medisave.

Elderly patients (and their family members) should decide on what can or cannot be done, rather than spend the money unnecessarily in medical fees. Insurance may encourage people to spend unnecessarily. There is no point in treating certain illness at an advanced age.

Staedtler Pens | Legal Office Supplies

There are many times and places where you are going to need to have a quality pen, and you can always rely on a pen made by Staedtler.

staedtler-pens

Staedtler pen

A Staedtler pen is a quality-writing instrument. A good pen is one, which enables the user to write smoothly and can maintain an even flow of ink. You can always tell a poor quality pen by the inconsistency of the ink on the page. A defective pen will leave ink blobs and then fail to write and often turn a project into a total mess. Even if you are not an artist or perfectionist, it is important that if you do have to do any kind of work using a pen, you have one that can do a proper job.

Loss of identity for Sg

Dear Mr Tan,
A friend from Sg just visited my wife in HK and below is a brief summary of her experience in Sg for the past few years:
1. Felt like a minority in a university where she is teaching. Majority of her students are foreigners.
2. A junior colleage are recruiting up to 33% students outside of Sg, mainly from vietnam in an aim to boost the college results.
It saddens me that schools funded by public are no longer meant for citizens but to create opportunities for others. I have nothing against foreigner (I myself came from HK) but my existence do not create an opportunity cost for the citizens of HK, however Sgreans who could have gotten a proper education in Sg may now be deprived of a place.
Sg is a country with such a short history and i have concerns that true blue Sgreans may soon be history. I felt like I have served my NS in vain and I know of others who feel the same and unfortunately they do not have options elsewhere.

Worker's Party

hi mr tan please join workers party in the coming general election 2011. This will be the last chance for all native singaporeans to vote before we all singaporeans become minority. Presently only 57% of our population are true singaporeans by then in the next generation 2016 the margin would be below 50%. For the sake of the development of singapore opposition politics progress please consider to join opposition. i hope you will consider. thankyou so much 
 You true supporter



MY REPLY
You can vote for the opposition, even if I do not stand for election. But it is quite sad that many people now consider the PAP to be bad for local Singaporeans.

HDB Flat - Price and quality

Here are three views about the price of HDB flats. Which view do you support? Give your views in this survey.

Poor service from DBS Bank

I have been a customer of DBS Bank for 30 over years. They even classified me as a Treasures customer and assigned a Relationship Manager to look after me. The RM seemed to be more interested to sell their financial products to me, such as the famous High Notes - which I avoided. After that, I never heard from the RM - who do not reply to my e-mail.

I have all along arranged for my GIRO transactions to be deducted through my POSB account. When the money runs down, I top up the account from my main account. Recently, due to an oversight, I forgot to top up my POSB account - and the money run out. Nobody from DBS called me - not the RM nor anybody else. They also did not send an e-mail to me.

When I realised the problem, several of my GIRO transactions had been rejected. Even IRAS cancelled my GIRO and asked me to pay property tax in advance, threatening to levy a fine for late  payment of tax.

But I do receive phone calls  from all types of people wanting to market their products to me. This is the practice in Singapore - businesses are interested only to market their products, but failed to provide customer service.

When will Singapore leaders wake up to this sad state of affairs - a country where most people are greedy to chase profits, higher salaries and commission!. They forget their responsibility to their customers or to the citizens! Sigh!

New ishop is easier to order books

Hi Mr.Tan
I visited you new ishop and find it easy to use, much better than the old ishop (which was quite confusing and buggy - pardon my saying so). I like the attractive discount that you are giving on your books, including the new books that are now selling at the book stores.
However, I like to make an observation. The handling charge has now been increased to $3 (compared to $1 in the past - if I remember correctly). So, the discount of $3 on your new book is offset by the high handling charge).

REPLY
You pay one handling charge for each order, regardless of the number of books that you buy. So, you will enjoy a bigger discount when you buy a few books in one order. You should consider buying books on behalf of your friends - to enjoy the discount.
The handling charge is inclusive of postage. If you have bought books from Amazon or other online book stores in America, you will find the handling charge to be $20 or more - so the handling charge of $3 is still quite small. Even if you drive to the bookstores, the parking fee will be more than $3.
It is better to buy online. It is more convenient and cheaper.
www.tankinlian.com/ishop
http://easyapps.sg/ishop2/Quantity.aspx?id=4