What are the hottest issues in Singapore to be faced in the coming general election? Based on the first 100 people who replied to my survey (with each respondent choosing up to 3 issues), the ranking of the issues is:
Rising cost of living and stagnant income - 74%
Too many foreigners in Singapore - 68%
High cost of HDB Flats - 60%
High salaries of ministers - 54%
Rising unemployment of PMETs and no retrenchment benefits - 36%
Unemployment of older workers 25%
Low wages (no minimum wage) - 25%
High GST and levies - 24%
Unemployment (of PMET, older workers) and low wages have now become "hotter" than GST and levies.
Tan Kin Lian
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Effect of deduction and distribution cost
Dear Mr Tan,
My mother just bought a Whole Life insurance that is payable for 24 years. She also tag on a Critical Illness rider.
After reading your numerous posts on how expensive life policies are, I would like to seek your comments on the benefit illustration given to my mother. She is currently still in the 14-days free-look period.
REPLY
The benefit illustration shows that the distribution cost is almost two years of premium and the effect of deduction is more than 40% of the value of accumulated premium. They are both too high, giving poor value to the policyholder.
Please read my book, Practical Guide on Financial Planning to understand these two important measures.
The book provides the benchmark on what is an acceptable level for the effect of deduction for various durations of the policy. You can buy the book at www.easysearch.sg/ishop
.
My mother just bought a Whole Life insurance that is payable for 24 years. She also tag on a Critical Illness rider.
After reading your numerous posts on how expensive life policies are, I would like to seek your comments on the benefit illustration given to my mother. She is currently still in the 14-days free-look period.
REPLY
The benefit illustration shows that the distribution cost is almost two years of premium and the effect of deduction is more than 40% of the value of accumulated premium. They are both too high, giving poor value to the policyholder.
Please read my book, Practical Guide on Financial Planning to understand these two important measures.
The book provides the benchmark on what is an acceptable level for the effect of deduction for various durations of the policy. You can buy the book at www.easysearch.sg/ishop
.
Learning Chinese
Hi Tan,
I know this email is out of the blue, but I just posted an article on my blog entitled “100 Useful Tools to Teach Your Child Chinese” http://www.universityreviewsonline.com/2005/10/100-useful-tools-to-teach-your-child-chinese.html. Anyway I figured I’d bring it to your attention in case you thought it interesting enough to drop a quick mention on your site about it as I’m trying to increase readership of my blog.
Samantha Miller
I know this email is out of the blue, but I just posted an article on my blog entitled “100 Useful Tools to Teach Your Child Chinese” http://www.universityreviewsonline.com/2005/10/100-useful-tools-to-teach-your-child-chinese.html. Anyway I figured I’d bring it to your attention in case you thought it interesting enough to drop a quick mention on your site about it as I’m trying to increase readership of my blog.
Samantha Miller
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Legal fees for aborted loan
Hi Kin Lian
I have signed an OTP to buy a flat and proceed to get a bank loan for it. I have subsequently ask for a AIP(approval in principle) loan approval from a bank. It was stated that the loan is void if HDB disapprove the sale.
The sale was disapproved by HDB and I immediately informed the bank. I was assured that it will be void with no further actions needed from my side. However 2 months later, I was told that I have to pay the law firm, which the bank engage to lodge a caveat 1 month after I faxed in the HDB letter. Can you advise if this is a common practice? Who should be paying for the law firm fee?
I have checked with the bank, however they claim that I should pay for it. I'm still contesting it and I'm asking them to state the clause though it was not mentioned to me beforehand. You might want to highlight to the readers when they are taking up loans from a bank.
REPLY
I think that the bank should bear it unless there can show you a clause in the agreement that states clearly that you are required to pay the fee. If they incur the expenses after the loan has been rejected, then they should bear the cost as it was their mistake.
I have signed an OTP to buy a flat and proceed to get a bank loan for it. I have subsequently ask for a AIP(approval in principle) loan approval from a bank. It was stated that the loan is void if HDB disapprove the sale.
The sale was disapproved by HDB and I immediately informed the bank. I was assured that it will be void with no further actions needed from my side. However 2 months later, I was told that I have to pay the law firm, which the bank engage to lodge a caveat 1 month after I faxed in the HDB letter. Can you advise if this is a common practice? Who should be paying for the law firm fee?
I have checked with the bank, however they claim that I should pay for it. I'm still contesting it and I'm asking them to state the clause though it was not mentioned to me beforehand. You might want to highlight to the readers when they are taking up loans from a bank.
REPLY
I think that the bank should bear it unless there can show you a clause in the agreement that states clearly that you are required to pay the fee. If they incur the expenses after the loan has been rejected, then they should bear the cost as it was their mistake.
Root cause of the global financial crisis
The problems occuring in many countries are inter-related. Starting with the meltdown of the housing bubble in the US and Europe, we now see the problems with the government deficits in Greece and other countries. The crisis has been temporarily managed with the huge injection of public funds, but this increases the public debt and many observers expect that things will get worse in the months ahead.
What causes all of these problems? Was it deregulation? Was it deficit spending by governments? What is a possible solution? Please share your views?
What causes all of these problems? Was it deregulation? Was it deficit spending by governments? What is a possible solution? Please share your views?
Hot issues in coming general election
What are the hot issues in the coming general election? Share your views in this survey.
General Election 2010
The general election is widely expected to be held in the second half of 2010. Which party will you vote? Take part in this survey (now closed).
Here are the updated results of the survey, based on 100 replies. The results are quite close to the earlier report based on 58 replies. I have now added the general comments of 19 respondents.
Disclaimer: My blog attracts a higher proportion of people who are unhappy with the government. The results of this survey reflects this group, and may not reflect the general population.
Here are the updated results of the survey, based on 100 replies. The results are quite close to the earlier report based on 58 replies. I have now added the general comments of 19 respondents.
Disclaimer: My blog attracts a higher proportion of people who are unhappy with the government. The results of this survey reflects this group, and may not reflect the general population.
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