Happy New Year

It is nearing the end of the year. December has always been my most favorite month of the year. It is the month people seem to be a lot happier, kinder, more generous and overall nicer. Even the taxi fare hikes, MRT train breakdowns and recurrence of flooding, are finding it hard to dampen the mood.

Reflecting back on 2011, I was wondering what I have done right and what I could have done better. I think this will serve as an important feedback on how to make 2012 an even better year.

In particular, in reference to this blog:

Most read articles for 2011
to pay or not to pay
why your salary is not enough
being penny wise pound foolish

Least read articles for 2011
interest rates
learning through reflecting
pre-paid packages

In conclusion, it seems articles related to property finance attract more attention than random updates like this one. :)

In that case, moving forward for 2012, I will focus on injecting more interesting articles along those lines.

Thank you for your continuous support and wishing everyone a healthy & prosperous new year!

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Retirement Woes

According to a recent survey by Aviva, the Consumer Attitudes to Savings (CAS) study, it showed an increasing concern over prospects for retirement.

About half felt that they will not have enough money when they retire to provide for an adequate standard of living and will have to work beyond the normal retirement age to fund their retirement.

I believe this is mainly due to an awareness of the importance of planning for retirement.

Previously, many would think that retirement is taken care of by having children and their CPF. However, now, the cost of living has been increasing exponentially with inflation stubbornly high. They are starting to fear that in addition to trying to provide for themselves, they may even need to provide for their children to give them some head start in life. This has been termed, the sandwich generation. They are worried and rightly so. To make matters worse, the expectations for the standard of living has also gradually went up over the years. Retirement brings vision of traveling, having your own transport, a maid perhaps and many more things that used to be considered “luxurious”.

The next question is really to ask, what action has the individual taken to address those worries? Call up an insurance agent to plan for them?

Well, there are very little avenues to learn how to address the retirement concern and that adds on to the stress.

A lot of uncertainty is in the investment markets and "safe" investments are giving near zero yields (nothing near inflation levels). It seems like the people taking advantage of the situation now are the gurus promising passive income, low risk high returns and retire rich.

It is nearing the New Year. It is time to set resolutions to plan for retirement so as not to worry about it.

Wishing all a happy festive year end and an even better year 2012!

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This Is Home, Singapore

Back to Singapore after a 2 week break and it seems that a lot has changed in such a short time!

Increase in Comfort taxi fares
Comment: Not that I am blaming the fare increase, inflation is so high, I think it is only fair. However, the way it is implemented those not make sense. Extending the peak period to throughout (6pm to midnight) gives no incentive to space out the peak situation. Instead of usually delaying the trip to avoid the surcharge, there is no point now and it will cause frustration for the true peak period. As everyone now rushes for the same timing.

Singapore ranking as most costly city jumped up
Comment: Guess our kiasu culture as influenced even trying to be the number one most expensive place to live! If it is due to the strong SGD dollar, it is not exactly working. Although the effect is supposed to reduce inflation increase domestically, inflation continues to remain stubbornly high.

New buyer stamp duty tax
Comment: 10% is quite a significant amount that will deter foreigners and companies from speculating in the property market. However, that will also mean those with the holding power will reconsider selling the property, as their next purchase will be "punished" with the tax, further decreasing the resale market supply and keeping prices constant. As there is no immediate decline in economic fundamentals, there is no push factor for mad selling. No doubt demand side will slide down, but supply will decrease as well, allowing price to be remain constant (at the current high prices) in the immediate future, instead of the predicted drop, which will most likely only arrive late 2012/early 2013 when supply floods the market and potentially increase in interest rates in US.

DBS/Aviva to launch renminbi insurance plan
Comment: Dragon Renminbi Plan, offering a 115% return after 5 years. That is 2.85% per annum, "capital guaranteed". Main risk is that it will be denominated in RMB, if SGD strengthens significantly more than the yuan currency, the profits would be eroded if converted back. However, vice versa, if RMB strengthens, that is potentially more profits.

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