Kitty

In Singapore there are only a few entities that can gives guaranteed returns due to their financial backing (with due d done by Mas). These are usually either banks or insurance companies. Other than that, it’s usually not "secured" unless they mean by past returns. Most alt investments don’t have policy wordings one, so there’s no clause to give securement. There may be disclaimer, so do read it. Check that the company is approved by Mas to deal it’s financial products first.

MS has to keep increasing anyway, especially to fight inflation. Whether people appreciate this scheme or not, the fact is most of your CPF is used on housing, and thus many people are stuck with MS due to their income level. There are cases of people downgrading their houses in order to fend for their retirement. I have also seen people who knows how to invest their money & prudent in their accounting. They would always uses cash to pay for housing instalments. They can easily hit MS x 2 at retirement age.


Whether you are for or against MS, just please make sure you have provisions for your retirement.

You have to define what it means by "safe". Do you mean securement of your funds in this platform, or returns or what? You will need to understand the nature of fx to understand its risk. If you talk about securement of funds, there is always a chance of illiquid, depending on the volume transacting. If you are talking about the returns, forex itself is high risk, although there are people out there teaching you how to get better steady returns and etc.


Well, the fact is there are always people who wins and losses. thats this game. The website that you put down is a broker based platform. For brokers, they will always gain whether you sell or buy. What they are transacting though (whether is it real or fake), I do not have the reviews.

Hello, for those who also needs quotation for commercial vehicle, you can pm me. I have a few insurer companies with me to quote for you

My advice for a saving plans is that there has to have a guaranteed portion, and when it matures, you should at least get back your principle (if not it would an investment plan. this is only applicable for savings type. My definition is that saving comes under low risk profile. But anyway both investments and savings strategies have to come tgt anyway in order to fight inflation).


A good guide for a savings plan:
1) Don't lockup all your money, leave a certain portion (a good gauge will be 6 months) for emergency purposes (assuming other aspects of your life has been handled, such as hospitalization, liabilities).

2) Sort out your monthly expenses (including bills, loans, educational fees for your children). You wouldnt want to surrender a premature policy realising that you cannot sustain the monthly payments

3) Sort out the various life stages that you will be undergoing (both best case and worst case scenario) and how you intend to save/ invest towards that goal (including every forms, like CPF OA, SA, Medisave). This also helps you to understand how much do you need to save up and by when (time horizon of your savings)

That gives you a clarity how much you need to save, cut cost, invest, to earn, to compromise, etc.

4) Depending on your portfolio and assets, I would advise a certain diversification that allows risk over different mediums, returns and time horizon. Cross between short term, long term and towards perpetual income. If you are a low risk guy, go for institutions that are approved/ regulated by MAS, gov, and some form of insurance on the company, such that they can't default 100% of your hard earn money at this kind of low returns. (banks are insured under SDIC, just so you know) Don't follow those hearsay, its a growing trend that there's alot of alternative investments over there. Do your homework and be responsible for your savings ba.

If you notice that there are spare money hanging somewhere earning 0% or 0.05% interest, use it on some instruments. Let's admit that there are always better and better plans because companies and institutions have to make themselves more competitive than the other. Thus you will see new policies and plans revision year after year. If you take months or years to decide on a plan that gives you 0.1% more, I will suggest that you use the time to get some credit card that allows you to have grocery rebates instead. The power of compounding through time is one of the key to building wealth. Wealth accumulation is a process of time, discipline, consistency and wise application.

Most people whine when they about this and that are usually the cases of
1) they don't start early
2) they don't read carefully on what's guaranteed and what's not, setting their own expectations. Don't leave it to the agents/ bankers to tell you. Sales people talk to sell.
3) they don't diversify
4) they don't have discipline in the way they spend their money and handling their needs vs wants, incurring debts unnecessary.
5) for those who are spendthrift, you should set aside some money to enjoy because you deserve it (this can affect the way your children grow)
6) they don't teach their children the importance of money using real life examples and experiences for themselves
7) they aren't capable of earning what they need to support for their family
they don't diversify and may end up losing their pot of promised \"gold\"
9) instant gratification


All of us falls to some of the cases above, including me :boogie:

Yes sibor is climbing as well. Floating rates that has Sibor packages are now above 2%. All of the banks that had 2 years fixed locked package (below 2%) have withdrawn as well. All of the first 2 years fixed rates are above 2% now.


You take a look http://www.abs.org.sg/pdfs/absco/Benchmark-Trends.pdf for the sibor rates' history. For respective banks rates for private property & HDB loan side, pm me if you need the info.

This is a very interesting thread. When I was secondary 2, I asked my science teacher what was the purpose of living. She couldn't answer my question, besides telling me that we are here to continue our species. But I always know that there is something more than that. I even went to study religion, depths of science and psychology. They as individual talks about separate different things, but as time goes by, I start to see a common point that allows me to explain most things in life.


If you ask me again what the purpose of life is, I would say there are several parts to the answer. At different stages the answer can be among these: Integration & totality, self-actualisation, achievement, love, discipline, giving back to the world and etc. Its true as some of you said, everyone has a lesson to learn, and a role to play. Whether you are an ass, jerk, hearbreaker, a humanitarian, teacher, scientist, there is a lesson that you need to learn. :boogie:

If I were you, I would tell her what I see factually and let her decide. I would not make judgements because sometimes being a \"good\" guy, you might not be appreciated. But if you don't say, its painful to see that your friend is hidden in the dark.


From my own experience I realised the person has to make the choice for herself, if you keep helping him or her to make the choice, she will bound to face the same issue again, and again, because its a loop. When she has decided to make the choice, then I would come to back her up. :rahrah:

With regards to big fat ugly husband vs a pretty slim wife, I would say love sometimes is really blind. Things that are logical are not logically :hugs:

I’m not trying to suggest anything negative towards joelynlee80, but for all the parents here, if you are ever going for their "preview", you have to be responsible for your own investments. Funds, investments that are official and certified by MAS, SGX, don’t usually go through "previews" but official news release, reports and press. There may be no insurance when the company chooses to default payment as well, unlike banks and other certified financial institutions. If it really is true (5 to 6% per month other than commodity and forex), GIC should have bought over the child company here.


peace

Just a quick sharing pertaining to some questions:


1) "Private insurers" are the term that we usually used to provide us with integrated shield coverage. In layman terms, to cover higher SUM, higher PROPORTION, restructured/private hospital and with the correct rider, 100% of the bills, under the terms and conditions for the situation for the claim.

2) Medishield life has pros and cons. cons is that you need additional payment from medisave (but you cant take this money out anyway). pros is that they cover pre-existing illness (with certain % extra premium for a certain number of years) and some other stuff. Currently no private insurers cover pre-existing illness.

3) One person can only have one intergrated shield with one private company. Signing with another company will cause the other to auto cancel. If you have developed illness during that time, DO NOT CANCEL, if not your illness will cause you to be rejected or excluded. Also, there is no such thing as double claim in H&S. (meaning claim from 2 companies for the same reason, same bills)

4) Medishield Life is compulsory by gov. =X I guess its a good thing. My dad had a stroke 3 years ago and he opt out of his shield back then, thinking it uses his "money". So he ended up getting nothing paid.

5) There are certain measures to reduce initial costs for initial years. you can check out the medishield life website.

6) Leveraging on the entire Singaporean population, the premium vs the pooling leverage is decent for the amount to be covered (especially pre-existing illness)