Internet shop - selling TKL books

There is a new interface for the Internet Shop, selling TKL books. It explains how to order the books. Try it here.

PROMOTION. I wish to give a promotion discount of 15% on purchase of my books until National Day, 9 August 2009. To qualify for this discount, you have to enter the promotion code BLOG.

The available items are (prices are before discount):

TKL Intelligence Quiz vol 1 and 2 $7.90

TKL Sudoku Vol 1 (challenging puzzles) : $7.90

TKL Shape Quiz: $7.90

Dementia: keep it at bay

Exercise your mind could hold off demeina, as explained in this Article.

Try my quizzes and puzzles, which are designed to exercise your mind. Check out here.

GreatLink Choice insurance products valued between 19.2 and 29.8 cents

By S.Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Posted: 03 August 2009 2151 hrs

SINGAPORE: Great Eastern Life's customers who have bought its GreatLink Choice investment-linked insurance products have started receiving letters to exercise the redemption offer made by the insurer.

Last Friday, Great Eastern announced that it would buy back S$594 million worth of GreatLink Choice products from 18,000 policyholders.

In the letter, the insurance company's managing director Mr Tan Hak Leh said the financial crisis has had an especially adverse impact on the market value of GreatLink Choice 3, 4 and 5 products.

The prices of these tranches as at June 30 this year were between S$0.192 and S$0.298 and they have a credit rating of CCC- (minus) from Standards and Poor's. Each unit was sold at S$1.

Great Eastern added that in view of the challenging market conditions, it has decided to make a one-time redemption offer to all GreatLink Choice customers who had bought tranches 3, 4 and 5 of the structured product.

Customers have until August 28 to decide if they want to redeem the policy. Great Eastern said customers will receive their money within two weeks after the close of the offer.

The company added that the redemption price is 90.2 cents per unit, compared to the latest GreatLink Choice 3 price of 29.8 cents per unit.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/446602/1/.html

Great Eastern's managing director, Tan Hak Leh, hopes the one time redemption offer will give customers peace of mind during these challenging times. - CNA/vm

Cheaper taxis

Do you like to take a taxi at half of the current price? This may be possible within the next few years. Find out how.

Survey: Favourite Singaporean expressions

Many Singaporeans use the following expression often, "be careful". It reflect a character trait - caution. This character trait make many Singaporeans scared to decide. They prefer to let other people decide for them. Do you agree?

Take part in this survey.

SCMP:Buy-back package must be extended, investors demand

3 August 2009

The buy-back package for Lehman Brothers minibonds should be extended to cover equity-linked notes (ELNs), 300 investors demanded yesterday when they met lawmakers.

The investors, mostly middle-aged, argued that as with minibonds, banks had used misleading promotional methods to sell ELNs and they were lured into buying the high-risk financial instruments, thinking there were no risks.

ELNs are investment products linked to the performance of some stocks. For most banks, the minimum investment was HK$500,000.

Investors were promised 10 to 30 per cent interest in the first month, and 4 to 20 per cent thereafter, depending on the performance of stocks. They should have been able to redeem the principal by the end of the investment period, which was usually a year.

Lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said the government and banks did not plan to buy back ELNs as most were bought by experienced investors who should have known the risk.

But the investors said they were just regular customers who had bought the products over the counter.

Retiree Ms Wong lost HK$500,000 after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.

"They said the product was tailor-made for me. I trusted the bank, so I did not check the contract in detail," she said.

She had received about eight interest installments in the past two years, at an average of 12 per cent. But she said the product was now worthless. "If the bank staff had mentioned to me any one of the items in fine print, or that the product was risky, I would not have bought it."

In an earlier announcement, 16 banks promised to pay back at least HK$6.3 billion to 29,000 people who bought Lehman Brothers minibonds.

A government spokesman said the Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission should now focus on handling complaints about non-minibond structural products, such as ELNs. "The regulators will not tolerate any mis-selling conduct."

Fewer than 40 per cent of local investors are interested in buying Hong Kong government bonds or other bonds, an opinion poll by the Hong Kong Institute of Investors and the Investor Interest Concern Group found.

The findings came from a survey of 866 investors, conducted between June 6 and July 25. Of these, 38 per cent said they were interested in buying Hong Kong government bonds, with 62 per cent saying they were not.