Horse meat

Why is there a taboo against eating horse meat?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100496993

Holiday camp - Puzzles

A holiday camp for your children (age 8 to 16) to develop their thinking and problem solving skills and have great fun. 
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=765&IID=772

Book here
https://tklcloud.com/book/Public/Slots.aspx?key=5bfd33831373401ca21a95a46b59f446

Workfare and its impact on business

Hi Mr Tan,

I would like to share with the impact on workfare in my company. Being a public listed company, the company was expecting 30% year on year growth from their subsidiaries, and KPI and variable pay structure was set based on these expectations.

Of course, the staff complained that the global and local economies are having difficulties and the growth targets were not in line with what is happening outside.

With workfare, it was hoped that the targets can be lowered and staff have a better chance to achieve their variable pay components by hitting a lower target. 

However the company while accepted workfare as a reduction of overall cost of doing business, did not translate this back to a lowering of performance targets for the staff. Targets remained as per 30% year on year. So, with or without workfare, it meant little to the individuals working in the company.

Credit card debts

Someone asked:
Are many Singaporeans living off credit cards?

REPLY
I do not have the exact figures, but I have been approached by many people who are not able to manage their credit card debts.

It is easy to get into debt from:
a) medical bills
b) unemployment
c) gambling
d) over-spending on luxury goods or entertainment

It is also easy to charge to the card. Then the interest rolls up. And the problem becomes more difficult each month.

Some people borrow from a new card to repay off the old card. The problem gets bigger. Besides the high rate of interest, they have to pay late payment charges ($50 each time) and legal fees (when the lawyer writes a letter of demand for the bank).

For people who get into trouble, they can consult Credit Counselling Singapore, http://www.ccs.org.sg/

This is set up by the Government. Their people are specially trained and well connected with the banks. They can help you.

Be sensible in covering your personal risks

Some insurance agents show statistics of the number of people dying through critical illness to scare you into spending a lot of money on critical illness insurance.

Consider the following points:

1. Everybody will eventually die from a illness in their old age (if they do not die earlier by accident).

2. Even after spending more than $100,000 on treatment, the chance of success is slim for an elderly person. Insurance is not intended to cover this type of costly futile treatment.

3. Insurance is to protect families when the dependents are young. After 25 years, the children have grown up and the breadwinner has accumulated sufficient savings.

4. If they do not spend $500 a month on a bad insurance product, they would have accumulated $500,000 at the end of 35 years by investing in the right product. They do not need insurance to pay their medical bills - they can use their savings.

5. Insurance agents are taught to tell lies and misleading statements to take away too much from consumers. The critical illness scare is just one more gimmick.

6. If you are afraid of critical illness when you are young, pay $120 a year to get $100,000 of critical illness cover. The chance of it happening is less than the chance of an accident. (The real cost is much less, but the insurance company wants to make a profit).

7. Here is how you can buy a good insurance package, covering death, accident an critical illness to cover a more adequate amount
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=752&IID=759

Vegetarian stalls

Hi Sir,

 

I’m a vegetarian. Most of the time, I find it difficult to find vegetarian stalls whenever I need a meal. Be it at coffee shops, food courts, etc..

 

Sometimes when I pass by a place, and I know of a vegetarian stall nearby, I will walk over.

To my disappointment, there are many vegetarian stalls being closed down at various places and I got to find non-vegetarian food stalls with vegetarian food.

It is more disappointing when you see a big food court with so many stalls and can’t find a single vegetarian choice.

 

When there is no choice, I got to go elsewhere and search which is inconvenient especially with non-vegetarian accompanies (since they already have choices and not nice for them to keep following me for the search) or when I’m quite tired and just want a meal or it’s raining heavily etc..

 

Usually if there is no vegetarian food stall in a particular food place, the highly possible chance to have a vegetarian meal is from the mixed vegetable rice (饭菜) stall which has meat, vegetables with rice. But commonly, the choices are very little. If they have no potatoes, bean curd, non leafy type etc., the person probably can/will only buy 2 green vegetables with rice. If the person somewhat can only eat at the same place everyday due to time wise, and meet such situation, it will be quite depressing due to very little choice of food and bringing own food may not be convenient.

 

I hope maybe something can be done to help improve such situations especially for those vegetarians who need to travel different places for work often. When they have a short lunch break, and the nearest vegetarian place is very far, it will be a problem.

 

 

I have some humble suggestions:

 

1. Not all food places have vegetarian food stalls. Those which have closed down may find it difficult to maintain the rental fees especially vegetarians are the minority. Maybe the vegetarian stall owners could have lower rate rental fees or subsidiaries to help them. Maintaining current vegetarian stalls in Singapore may not be enough to cater to most vegetarians, such idea may also attract people to do such business if they already have in mind but afraid of low number of customers. If budget wise, maybe only those owners who can’t hit a certain income, will be able to get such subsidiaries.

 

2. There are some places where there are quite a number of vegetarian stalls beside each other.Maybe some allocation can be done to allow only a certain number of such stalls to operate within a certain zone.Thus, hopefully, vegetarian stalls can be spread evenly in Singapore in the future which is more accessible.

 

3. Most of the stalls like the beef noodles, fried kway tiao, western food stalls are commonly seen in the food places and hardly have any vegetarian choice. If they could come out with some vegetarian food, example vegetarian noodles with mushroom, fried beehoon with vegetarian popiah, vegetarian spaghetti respectively, will be good. If each stall could have at least one vegetarian food, even without a pure vegetarian stall there, at least the vegetarians who visit there would have some choices. Such stall owners may be entitled a small encouraging subsidiaries or so.

 

 

By “promoting” vegetarian eating may not only for the vegetarians. There are some people who will eat vegetarian meals during the 1st and 15th day of the lunar month. It will also be convenient for them. Even omnivores could be having meal at those stalls. Hopefully the government could think of ideas and help promoting of vegetarian food stalls opening. After all, it is about solving the basic necessity of some human needs with ease. (“Go Green Campaign”).

Advantages of renting a home

1. Singaporeans have the mindset that they must own their home. I wish to give some views on the need to change this mindset.

2. Owning a home make sense when property prices are low. When the prices are too high (and currently the prices are too high), it is not the obvious choice. We should be open minded and consider other options. 

3. There are advantages in renting a place to live in. When you rent, you have the freedom to move at the end of the lease period. You can move to a place that is closer to your work place or to your parents or the children's school.

4. If the rental rates are high, you bear the cost one year at a time. You can also opt to rent for 2 years or longer, if you wish to fix the rates.

5. When you buy a property at a high price, you have to pay a high mortgage for the next 20 or 30 years. You are stuck with this high cost.

6. It is possible for the property prices to go into a slump. Just see what has happened in Japan, USA and Europe. This will come to Singapore. When that happens, the property prices will stay low for a long period. Japan has the slump for more than 20 years and has not recovered yet.

7. If you are renting a place, you will be able to buy a property at a lower price, maybe up to 50% cheaper, in a slump. If you have bought before, you will not be able to take advantage of this opportunity.

8. In Singapore, you are allowed to use your CPF savings to pay for your home, but not for rental. This force most people to buy a property. If you do not join the herd, you have the option to invest your CPF savings in blue chip shares or an index fund, and earn a long term yield of 6% (my guess). This yield is better than the yield on properties bought at an inflated price.

9. If you rent a property, you can pay up to 25% of your annual income for the rent. This may be painful, but it is for one year at a time. When there is an over supply, you can expect the rental to drop by up to 50%. At that time, you will pay a much lower rental or you can buy a property at a lower price.

10. For young couples who are newly married, you can stay with your parents, if they have a room for you to use. Alternatively, you can rent a room from another family. If you do not have any children or just one baby, a room is sufficient.

11. It is all right to buy a new flat from the HDB, i.e. a BTO flat, as the price is much lower than the market price. Be patient and wait for the BTO flat. In the meantime, consider renting as an option.