Friday, July 9, 2010

Young people in Singapore

Are young people happy with the situation in Singapore?

Here are the positive sides:
  • they are well educated
  • they are able to get jobs quite easily
  • they get special attention from the leaders - who make the effort to engage the young, e.g. Youth Olympic Games
The key negative factor is the high cost of housing, i.e. HDB flats, by most young people probably accept it as a fact of life in Singapore and are not aware about the alternative choices.

Do you agree with this assessment?

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Business simulation game

Practice your skill in running a business. Develop the skill through practice, practice and practice. Read here.

FAQ - Personal Accident Insurance

In this article, I explain the coverage under a personal accident policy and why it is better than buying an accident rider to a life policy.

If you find it difficult to buy a term insruance policy, you can start with a personal accident policy (for $300,000 or $500,000) and switch to a term insurance policy at a convenient time in the future.

Apathy

Read this article.

Look before you leap

Hi Mr.Tan,

When doing any investments, look before you leap!
Good example to try this Frog Leap Test....Educational too!
http://funstufftosee.com/frogleaptest.html
LN


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Lend money to a friend

Dear Mr Tan,

One of my very close friend has seek to me on lending him $5000. I have agreed to help him on this. but i have not pass him the money yet. even though he is a very close friend of mine, i still do have a concern on if i can get back my money as i have experience lending someone money and unable to collect it back.

Is IOU a proper documentation to ensure if i can get back my money if anything goes wrong ? If IOU can be used, what kind of format would I have to draft out ? Is there any other proper documentation that I can use to ensure i can take back my money ?

REPLY
Here are my views:
1. If possible, avoid lending money to a friend.
2. If you have to lend money, be prepared that it will not be returned
3. Have a document (e.g. IOU) to acknowledge that the money has been passed. Write down details of the repayment.
4. Ask for monthly payment of interets or interest plus principal. This ensures the discipline of repaying back the money.
5. Here is another alternative. Ask your friend to borrow the money from a cooperative society, with you acting as guarantor. If the borrower does not pay, you will have to pay as guarantor. But the lender will try to collect from the borrower first. This is still risky to you, but you do not have the hassle of chasing for repayment.
 

SingTel Website

I was given a mobile number in Malaysia with the number 60 107 xxx xxxx. I could not get through. I checked the Singtel website to find a number that I could call for assistance.

The "Contact Us" page in the website was not helpful. I searched the home page and clicked on a few other pages but got lost. Finally, I decided to call 100. The staff told me that I had to called 104 for assistance on International Call.

I had to pay $0.60 to get help. Singtel seemed to be keen to charge customers and earn revenue, rather than to help their customer. The staff told me how to call the number by dialing 02 and dropping the 0. Wow!!

I told her that I spent 15 minutes browsing the website, but could not get this type of information. She said that I had to go the website (http://www.singtel.com.sg/) and clicked on "large enterprise", "business", "voice and telephony", and so on. It seemed to require at least 6 page access. I gave up.

It would have been easier if the Singtel website provides their help pages that can be accessed by searching for the title, such as "Telephone call to Malaysia" or "International Telephone Call". This search is similar to the Google search, except that it is restricted to inforamtion from the corporate website. All the relevant information can be placed in one or a few pages in PDF.

The complicated website (or what someone called the "spiderweb") is not unique to Singtel. It is common with most large organisations, including government agencies. They must be designed by consultants, who make it their business to give complicated, rather than simple solutoins. This makes life stressful and a hassle for the public.

Please share your experience on using the website of large corporations here.

Tan Kin Lian