Manage your own life annuity

Instead of buying a life annuity, it may be more advantageous for a retiree to manage his own savings to provide a better payout. Read this article.

Adequate savings for retirement

Here are some tips for all Singaporeans on how to get adequate savings for retirement. It is especially suitable for young people - as they should start their financial planning of a proper footing. Parents should tell their children about these tips. It is also suitable for older people, although many of them may already be stuck with their existing investments that offer a low yield. Read this article.

Public transport - public corporation or competitive model?

Should public transport be operated through a nationalized public corporation, as proposed by the Workers Party, or through a competitive model? The current model, involving two large publicly listed corporations operating the trains and the buses, does not seem to fit into either model.

What are your views? Discuss them with your friends and come with ideas that are endorsed by them. Send them to kinlian@gmail.com.

Affordable HDB flats

The Minister for National Development faced the challenge of bringing down the price of new HDB flats to an affordable level, without causing a crash of the property market that can bring dire consequence to the economy. Here are some issues to be considered:

• How to determine the affordability and size of the flat?
• How to allocate the new flats and avoid a mad rush?
• Does the BTO scheme meet these objectives?
• How to prevent a crash of the property market?

I hope to get the views of knowledgeable people who have studied this matter in the past. Please send your suggestions to kinlian@gmail.com.

Ferries to Dublin | Ferry To Ireland

P&O Irish Sea is one of the best ferry liners operating out of the UK. This British owned and operated company is actually an offshoot of the parent company P&O Ferry. This ferry line has a number of different routes and has some of the best ferries that operate out of England.

One of the things that this company takes great pride in is its service between the port of Larne in Northern Ireland and Troon or Cairnyan in Scotland. The ferry that makes the crossing here is one of the fastest on the Irish Sea. The P&O Express fast craft can make the crossing in about an hour. This fast port service can take a lot of the hassle out of traveling.See also ferry to Ireland.

via ferrytoireland.net

Walk along Railway Track

• My supporters will be meeting me at Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre (near the intersection of Upper Bukit Timah Road and Jalan Jurong Kechil) at about 8 AM on Sunday to have breakfast together.
  
• After breakfast, we will then proceed to walk along the railway line (parts near Hindhede Walk, and Upper Bukit Timah Road). 

• Our final destination will be at the Rail Mall, estimated to reach at about 10 AM. The route is estimated to be about 2.4km long.
• Look forward to have more people to join us.

Reminder: please wear comfortable walking shoes and clothing; bring a cap/hat/umbrella along too!

Increase in property tax

Dear Mr. Tan
Many of you have received a notice from IRAS regarding the change in the Annual Value (AV) of your property and it's safe to say that majority of you would be paying more for your property tax.

 

In my case, my AV has increased by 17% in less than 1 year  and I am puzzled as to how IRAS derived the number.  I did a check at the rental data for my condominium at the URA website (http://www.ura.gov.sg/realEstateWeb/realEstate/pageflow/rental/RentalController.jpf) and the data showed a drop of 0.7% from 3Q10 to 1Q11.

 

I have written to IRAS to seek an explanation as to why there was a huge difference between their assessment and that of URA.

 

I urge all of you to do a quick check at the abovementioned website to verify if the increase stipulated by  IRAS is in line with the actual transactions published by URA.  If URA data cannot be trusted, perhaps IRAS may want to explain to us how they derive their numbers and also their source of data.

 

Thian TC