Impact of National Service on male citizens

During the past 25 years, I have written many letters to the mainstream newspapers about the disadvantage faced by male citizens in competing for jobs while having to carry out their national service obligations. I spoke about this matter in a meeting yesterday. Someone sent this message to me:

Dear Mr. Tan
I have friends who are working for companies that will try not to take in male Singaporeans because of Reservists. I think this is something we need to emphasize to try to gain support for the younger generation of Singaporeans male. Also for those who uses their parents CPF to pay their school fees during poly days, due to the 2 years of having to serve NS, they are unable to pay off the compound interest to the CPF board that are requested and it is a disadvantage to the guys who have to serve the 2 years of army as the compounded interest will keep increasing and it might become a financial burden to some. As you can see, it creates a chain reaction and a part of the factors of people not getting married due to all the additional burdens coming into their life. Also Singaporeans male are always being look down upon due to the financial disadvantages that they have.

SIA website

I wanted to book an air ticket to Kuala Lumpur. I went to SIA website. The website hang during the booking. I tried a few times but could not get it to work. I searched the website for a hotline number. I could not find it. I spent half an hour trying to make a booking. Finally, I gave up and move to another airline.

Statements for Election

Here is a list of statements issued by me for the Presidential election http://www.easyapps.sg/tklep/Information.aspx
Some of the statements have been translated into Chinese and Malay.

Facebook Page - Tan Kin Lian

I have set up a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/kinlian). I like my blog visitors to link (i.e. "like) my facebook to their own facebook account. This will help me to reach out to the people that are also connected to their facebook. 

Safeguard the CPF money

I have received several e-mails from the people about their CPF savings - how safe are they? They like the President to play an active role here. They feel that Dr. Tan Cheng Bock may not have the financial knowledge and Dr. Tony Tan might have a conflict of interest - as he was involved in managing the funds in GIC.

What to look for in an investment-linked policy

There is an article in the Today paper on what to look for in an investment linked policy. It is written by the training manager of an international insurance company.

The article advised consumers to consider the financial objectives, to look for the suitable funds and consider the charges. There are motherhood statements, but avoid the essential facts.

Over 100,000 consumers (my guess) buy an investment linked policy each year and do not realize that they are making a bad investment. Many of these regular premium policies give a reduction of yield of up to 4%.  If the underlying funds earn an average yield of 6%, the consumer gets a net yield of only 2% per annum. This is hardly enough to cover inflation.

If the consumer buys  a term insurance policy and invest the rest of the savings in a low cost fund, the reduction in yield is likely to be only 1%.This will allow the consumer to enjoy a net yield of 5% p.a. The difference in yield between 2% and 5%, over a period of 35 years is a lot of money. It can amount to several hundred thousand dollars!

This is explained in my book, Practical Guide on Financial Planning.  You can also attend the educational talk organised by FISCA (http://easyapps.sg/assn/Org/Event.aspx?id=5)

President S R Nathan

President S R Nathan has served Singapore with distinction for the past 12 years. He is  highly respected, friendly, approachable and portrays a fatherly figure. I wish him a happy retirement.

A favor returned

Hi Kinlian, 

I hope you do remember me? You helped me immensely in my appeal to SMRT for grossly overcharging me for their taxi repair.

Thank you for running in this presidential election. I pledge to send this message to at least 300 friends through email and at least 100 or more by word of mouth.

I wish you the very best.