Desmond Ng

Remember when we were young, we used to be given names like “Ah Boy”, “Ah Girl” etc… after which we were given nicknames in our school days or army days?

Do you still remember what you were called?

Just a week ago, I attended a talk where the speaker, an insurance agent, said he was called “Professional Begger” by a relative of hers. It may mean nothing to you or may even sound funny, but it hurts. But she was really quick-witted and gave one of the best response that I ever heard, “That is a very interesting term to call us, but that is kind of true. We have to beg people like you so your lovely wife and son over there can have a better future and not suffer should anything happen to you. I am begging on behalf of your wife and son. That is what my job is… isn’t it noble? I beg for other people and not myself. Let me check if I got your number, because I am going to come beg you soon, for the sake of your family.”

How good can that answer be?!

Singapore is not an easy place to be doing insurance & investments because of the relatively higher skeptism ratio.  Do you know that in other countries, financial advisors are looked upon very professionally? In Singapore, it is either “Read my Palm” or “Slam my door at your face”. Funniest thing is people know they have to get it someday, but ignores the importance until something happens.

So be nicer to the professional beggers next time! Unless they are really just doing product pushing, then do what you like~

Ever since the declaration of the Critical Year Option from AIA in 2003, many singaporeans lost confidence in both guaranteed products and AIA company itself.

Among all the insurers, you may consider it unlucky for AIA.

However, here comes more bad news: *source from Bloomberg.com

American International Group Inc., the largest insurer by assets, said Joseph Cassano will step down from running the financial products unit after $11.1 billion in losses on guarantees sold to fixed-income investors.

American International Group Inc., the world’s largest insurer, fell in New York trading after reporting the biggest quarterly loss in its 89-year history. AIG dropped $3.29, or 6.6 percent, to $46.86 at 4:03 p.m. in composite trading. The New York-based insurer late yesterday posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $5.29 billion, or $2.08 a share, after an $11.1 billion writedown of derivatives linked in part to subprime mortgages.

Note: AIG is the parent company of AIA

You have heard about this thing called “Singapore Budget 2008″ everywhere, on the news, on tvmobile, on the internet… it’s basically spreading very rapidly in Singapore.

But as we know how busy and hardworking Singaporeans are, most people don’t have the time to look at it in detail. DESPITE www.cpf.gov.sg being just a click away, reading the whole chunk may still take up quite a portion of your time. So let me have the honour of summarizing for you:

#1 Life Bonus

For people that has at least $40,000 in their CPF Minimum Sum. Those with lesser has to opt in.

L-Bonus for those aged 55 and older in 2013

#2 CPF-Top up Tax Relief

Top up your own CPF, Spouse, Sibling, Parents CPF account allows you to claim Tax Relief too.

#3 CPF-Top up Medisave Tax Relief

Top up your Medisave to claim Income Tax Relief ever year.

#4 SRS

Start Up a SRS account to reduce your tax every year.

#5 Removal of Estate Duty

Estate Duty Tax is now officially removed.

#6 Income Tax Rebate

Income tax rebate of 20% for all resident taxpayers for Year of Assessment 2008. The rebate will be capped at $2,000. Having this cap allows the government to target the rebate at those below the top income brackets.

#7 Growth Dividends

The government is giving money to everyone! Depending on your Age, Income and Type of House you live in, you will be rewarded from a range of $100 to $600! This will be paid out separately in two installments of April & October.

Before I say anything, would like to apologise for the lack of posts for the past 3 days.  Been really busy with the Sicex Convention and many things on my part. HOWEVER, its no real excuse as there is always a time for everything.

For all those that never went to Sicex or don’t know what is it about. It’s actually a convention that aims to educate the silver industry (retiring personnels) on things from health, enjoyment to financial planning.

AXA was the diamond sponsor(aka main sponsor) for the event and hence received lots of publicity on it. Generously,  their booth also gave away many insane gifts from New Moon Abalone, Samsonite Bags, Books, Ba Kwa to Twin Ticket to Sydney for no obligations/purchases at all. I was honoured to be part of the elite advisers to take part in the event.

Of course, you can see flocks of older age people solely rushing in for the free gifts and games etc. However, I must say that my time there definitely wasn’t wasted. I met a lot of nice people that chatted with me open-mindedly about their current financial situation etc. Chatting with nice people always brightens my day up and makes all the effort I put in worth it. If you were one of them and reading this, I thank you once again!

MM Lee all the way!!!

As you know Petrol prices went sky high… and I received an interesting e-mail on how to pump petrol efficiently!

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Save Money And Pump Petrol The Right Way!
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Pumping gas…. good things to know.

I’ve been in the petroleum pipeline business for about 31 years, currently working for the Kinder-Morgan Pipeline here in San Jose, CA. We deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period from the pipe line; one day it’s diesel, the next day it’s jet fuel and gasoline. We have 34 storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons. Here are some tricks to help you get your money’s worth:

1. Fill up your car or truck in the morning when the temperature is still cool. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground; and the colder the ground, the denser the gasoline. When it gets warmer gasoline expands, so if you’re filling up in the afternoon or in the evening, what should be a gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and temperature of the fuel (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products) are significant. Every truckload that we load is temperature-compensated so that the indicated gallon gauge is actually the amount pumped. A one-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for businesses, but service stations don’t have temperature compensation at their pumps.

2. If a tanker truck is filling the station’s tank at the time you want to buy gas, do not fill up; most likely dirt and sludge in the tank is being stirred up when gas is being delivered, and you might be transferring that dirt from the bottom of their tank into your car’s tank.

3. Fill up when your gas tank is half-full (or half-empty), because the more gas you have in your tank the less air there is and gasoline evaporates rapidly, especially when it’s warm (gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating ‘roof’ membrane to act as a barrier between the gas and the atmosphere, thereby minimizing evaporation).

4. If you look at the trigger you’ll see that it has three delivery settings: slow, medium and high. When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to the high setting. You should be pumping at the slow setting, thereby minimizing vapors created while you are pumping. Hoses at the pump are corrugated; the corrugations act as a return path for vapor recovery from gas that already has been metered. If you are pumping at the high setting, the agitated gasoline contains more vapor, which is being sucked back into the underground tank, so you’re getting less gas for your money. Hope this will help ease your ‘pain at the pump’

Interesting isn’t it? For people that doesn’t have a vehicle, its twice the pain since taxi prices just hiked too.

But well… that’s life!

Three Changes by the Government!

Three Cheers to the Government?

I must say that before we give any stand or give any opinions. Let’s admit the fact that government changes and decisions usually benefits us in one way or another. Even when taxes are raise or rise in COEs, there are still benefits to us!

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”

No. I’m serious… Looking at the big picture from the top isn’t easy and some decisions are hard to make. Decisions that may impact us temporarily for the long term growth of Singapore Economy has to be made sometimes. It is precisely the reason that the government is taking the “Be GOOD and not be NICE” (something my boss always teaches me to do) mentality that we are moving faster then a lot of economies in ASIA.

If you are not sure about what exactly are the CPF changes, read on.

#1 Additional 1% CPF interest rate for you but give me $60k to invest.

Extra 1% is not too bad. This results in 3.5% from CPF-OA and 5% for CPF-SA. This is good news for people that don’t usually invest and those that already have quite a number of equity funds. The interest rate is much better then most fixed deposits or money market funds and can act as the safer portion of your whole investment portfolio.

The ones that are hit harder are the younger ones and the investment savvy public. If it’s going to be 8 years before I ever use my CPF money to buy a house, stopping me from investing into potentially better investment vehicles is a liability. On top of that, people who are investment savvy gets a loss of control.

#2 CPF Investment Initial Sales Charge capped at 3%

Yipee! This is definitely a good news to the public without said. 2% Lesser Sales Charge means more unit and better accumulation in the long run.

Only victims are sales-oriented agents. Less 2% can be quite a bite to their ricebowl.

Me?

I’m quite happy with it since it means 1: More people are willing to invest. 2: Lesser Sales Charge means faster results which means happier clients. “Always look on the bright side of life~”

#3 Capping of Total Expense Ratio (TER)

Yipee! No more big headaches on whether to invest in Fund A of 2.5 expense ratio or Fund B of 2.4 expense ratio. Because CPFIS funds will be more or less the same as it is all lowered to quite a low Total Expense Ratio of 1.95%.

TER: It is the expense that is incurred by funds that has an impact on the price movement of the fund prices.

This means that funds will now be more fair to the public as all will be running approximately at the same speed (+/- 10% imo), and on top of that with such a low cap imposed, you will start to see an increment in speed of your funds.

Overall, Thumbs Up to the CPF Board and Government changes. Embrace changes, there is never a point to dwell on the negative side of life except learning lessons and move on.