High cost of living and low wages

In this article, Leong Sze Hian pointed out that Singapore ranked as the 10th most expensive city in the world and the wage level of the people ranked at 42nd. This is why many Singaporeans had to work hard and for long hours just to earn enough to pay for the cost of living.

Pursuit of justice

Lucky Tan wrote this article about the pursuit of justice in Singapore.

Challenges facing Singapore

Here is an excellent article by Lucky Tan who writes about the problems that will be faced by Singapore in the near future, as we have many of the characteristics of America that has caused huge challenges to their government. I agree with his views as stated in this article.

New rules on evidence

The Ministry of Law is seeking public views on several changes to update the rules on evidence to be submitted in court. I welcome this move to move with the times. It is an encouraging step.

There are many other areas on updating our laws and enforcing our laws. I hope that the Ministry will be more active in these areas, as the administration of justice in Singapore leaves much to be desired.

Mobile website for FISCA

FISCA is now trying a new website that is suitable for access by mobile phones, and also through the browser. You can access it at http://fisca.mviso.com. Try it with your mobile phone.

New scam on motor insurance claim

A consumer approached me on this problem. He had a minor accident 8 months ago. He decided not to make any insurance claim and carried out his own repairs. He has now received a large claim from the other vehicle with a witness report that placed him in the wrong. The claim was inflated and the witness was probably ,making a false statement.

He submitted the third party claim to his insurance company - but the claim officer rejected the claim as he did not make a report at the time of the accident. He is now in a dilemma and does not know how to handle the third party claim.

His only recourse was to engage his own lawyer to fight the claim, but it would be costly. It was likely that the claim was fraudulent but it was quite sad that his insurance company was not assisting him on this matter.

New scam on time sharing

A consumer shared this story with me. He bought a time sharing unit several years ago. The marketing company disappeared after collecting $7,000 from him. He wrote off the loss.

Recently, he was contacted by a service company who claimed to act for the developer. The told him that he had outstanding service payments on his time sharing unit and that the unit had some residual value. He was convinced to pay the fee to this service company to terminate the contract and claim back what was due to him.

After paying the service fee, he did some research and found that the service company was not connected with the developer. He had been scammed again.

Consumers should be careful and not attend presentations or meet people that they do not know. There are too many scams happening around. Some Singaporeans are easy targets due to their naivety.

Labour churning has social and economic cost

Here is an excellent article in Yawning Bread.

Most Singaporeans will not have much idea of the economics of the foreign worker recruiting system, since our daily lives are far removed from this issue. What I can’t figure out is whether civil servants at the Ministry of Manpower know much about it. If they don’t, the question would be: But isn’t it part of your job to know? If they do, then: How have you managed to ignore the injustices, and social and economic consequences of such a dysfunctional system for so long?


Read more.

Fallacies about Singapore Welfare System

At risk of simplification, this static thinking about our social welfare can be roughly summed up in a few statements: Singapore is not a welfare state and should never be, because the Western welfare state is doomed to fail and social welfare is fundamentally un-Asian. As a small country with no natural resources, we have no choice but to define our own style of social welfare, which by and large has worked over the years. So why fix it if it ain’t broke?  
Underlying these statements are four powerful ideas about social welfare and Singapore society. In the spirit of critical reflection, let us now examine the truth in each of them. [Ng Kok Hoe].


Read his article here.

Financial system gets less stable

When you go out to buy your next television set, it is likely that you end up with something better than your existing TV sold for the same price. Like many things around us, man made systems tend to improve over time - if you take Boeing's newest aircraft, The Dreamliner, you will expect that to be build with more safety features than the old Boeing 747.


There is however one exception, our financial system - it seems to get less stable with each passing year and generates crisis, turmoil and recessions much more often that in the past yet we seem to accept this all encompassing system because most of us are born into or do not really understand what goes on in the banking system. Here is an interesting video that explains quite clear how money is created, how it drives the economy and why we are seeing so many crisis and so much in stability in the current system [Lucky Tan].


Read this article.

Look back at the Pinnacle Notes

Here is an interesting article written nearly two years ago, about the Pinnacle Notes Series 3. Here is another explanation.

Retirees should keep the mortgage

In a low interest rate environment, it is better to keep the mortgage and cash in the bank, or keep invested.
See this article.

How to solve the messy CPF Life scheme

Many people find it difficult to choose among the four options given by CPF Life. Many of them do not like the CPF Life scheme for reasons that are peculiar to their personal situation. Here are my suggestions on how to get out of this messy situation.

Financially sound retirement

Read this article about how to prepare for a financially sound retirement. Several tips refer to the tax situation in America which does not apply to Singapore. Some of the other tips, e.g. do not have debts, how to spend within  your means - are relevant. 

Class action on Pinnacle Notes

An important decision on the class action for the Pinnacle Notes in the USA will be decided soon - the hearing will start on 28 September.


By GRACE LEONG (Business Times)
A lawsuit involving allegations that Morgan Stanley & Co Inc sold rigged Pinnacle Notes as 'safe, conservative' products to a group of Singaporean investors including Singapore's oldest credit cooperative, costing them US$154.7 million in investment losses, is making its way through federal court in Manhattan.


A hearing is scheduled for Sept 28 in which the US District Court for the Southern District of New York will decide whether the case can proceed in the US or whether it should be dismissed and heard in Singapore, The Business Times has learned.


If approved, the Singapore investors will seek class-action status.


NOTE:
Under a class action (in the USA), any compensation received will be shared by all investors in the class, including the investors who were not involved in lodging the original complaint. There is no provision for a class action suit in Singapore.

Volatile gold and silver prices

Gold an silver prices can be quite volatile. Gold dropped 8% in 3 days and is expected to rally. However, there is the risk that it may drop much further. The drop in silver is more severe. This is an example of a speculative and volatile market. Be careful.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-27/gold-rallies-after-biggest-three-day-drop-since-lehman-collapse.html

Here is a bearish view:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44667027

How to use private bankers

In some countries, financial advisers or private bankers can advise their wealthy clients on tax and estate planning, so that they can minimize the tax payable on their income or on the estate that is transferred to the dependants.

It is difficult for these advisers to help their clients in market timing or stock selection - as this is speculation and a zero-sum game. In fact, after allowing for the cost of transactions and fees, it is a negative sum game for the clients.

The best way to get a good yield on the investments is to invest in an index fund and to invest for the long term - to average out the good and bad years. There is little that the advisers can help the client to achieve a better yield.

I have seen many cases where the investor who had relied on the financial adviser to pick the manage the investments on their behalf - only to be disappointed with the bad results. The financial adviser probably did their best, but when the market is volatile, some investors will be at the wrong end, and the results can be disastrous. For each winner, there will be a loser - and after deducting fees and expenses, most investors (actually speculators) will be worse off.

To avoid speculation, you should learn how to invest for the long term. Read my book on financial planning (www.tankinlian.com/ishop) or attend the financial planning talk organized by FISCA (www.easysearch.sg/fisca).

Best practice of site takeovers

Check these out first 

• http://www.youtube.com/experiencewii
• http://vimeo.com/4281939

Cadbury Rollpack
After the success of the Gorilla of Zingolo, and kids eyebrow dance ,they have now, with help of Saatchi Australia, managed to customize a youtube page.

Click on the image to visit the dedicated page. You will find also a parrot who plays basketball, and a man in a dog that is shit in a giant wheel.

YouTube Falling Apart

Ads are destroying YouTube, or so it seems with this current ad from Acciona. A Spanish sustainable energy advertisement makes YouTube break into pieces.

Once you go to the YouTube channel the page starts falling apart. 
http://www.youtube.com/experiencere
Agency : McCann Erickson
Brand: http://www.re.acciona.es/

24-hour Human Clock-Sprint, mobile phone operator

As part of its 'Now Network' campaign, Sprint has staged a homepage takeover on YouTube using user-generated videos to create a unique human clock


Designed to highlight the relevance of Sprint's network to people's lives the campaign is part of an integrated effory to build buzz around the launch of its new Palm Pre smartphone. Selected participants used their web cam to capture a 3 second clip of themselves displaying their assigned number. The videos were then edited together throughout the day into a digital clock that showed the exact time (for example 12:37), and changed with each passing second.

The ideal fit for YouTube, the ad doesn't just demonstrate the central idea of 'now', but does so in a way that chimes perfectly with the platform's look-at-me community of contributors. Better still, the groundbreaking format is the first time user-generated content has been incorporated into masthead advertising on the site. It's just part of the wider picture, however; tailored homepage takeover ads are also set to appear on Yahoo, AOL,ESPN.com, WSJ.com, People.com and CNET in what is billed as Sprint’s most extensive web campaign to date.

More than 11 million unique users visit YouTube’s US homepage in one day, and the new masthead ad formats are encouraging experimentation and seeing good returns - 14%interaction rates, according to YouTube, compared to the industry average of just under 5% for similar-sized units.

The ad lives on after Takeover day too; it's now available as a widget at sprint.com/nownetwork, along with a host of other content intended to reflect the idea of 'now'. Goodby Silverstein & Partners are responsible for the creative.

now.sprint.com/nownetwork/
Via MediaPost

=============

 Wario Land: Shake It!

Nintendo and YouTube collaborated to promote Nintendo’s latest Wii release Wario Land: Shake It!. The very unique site got about 1.3 million visits in one week time and blogs likeWired, Kotaku, Joystiq, GameSetMatch and over 800 others wrote about the ad. The idea of trashing a site is not new though, check Hema, Club Internet: Le Duel & Le Défi,Nationale Vacaturebank, The Good Fight, Jumper, Carhartt and Netdisaster

Honda Let it shine on Vimeo

BRAND OWNER:Honda
CATEGORY:Automotive
REGION:EMEA
DATE:Apr 2009 - Dec 2008AGENCY:Wieden & Kennedy
MEDIA CHANNEL

With the launch of Honda’s Insight hybrid car, the automotive brand wanted to make a big impact without a huge environmental impact.
It created Let It Shine – a 60 second TV spot which at first looks like a huge LED screen, but you soon realise the animation is being created by hundreds of car headlights. A matrix of hundreds of car headlights was created and animated with each set of headlights acting as a pixel. The ad was a huge viral hit and Honda wanted to leverage this in an online environment. It teamed up with high definition video hosting site Vimeo to create an experience which went beyond the borders of the usual flash player box, taking the traditional page takeover to a new level.People who went to Vimeo to view the Honda ad can press play to see the video and the whole page around the video also transforms.Just as the ad shows action taking place over a whole night until sunrise, so the background of the page goes completely black, blocking out all of the usual page inventory and comments.The animations created in the desert with the cars leak out into this expanded space. As dawn breaks in the ad, the background of the page also goes through the sunrise colours. Visithttp://vimeo.com/4281939 to see the experience.
The work echoes that of Nintendo’s Wario YouTube ad, where the violence of the game knocks all of the comments and buttons off the web page.


PSA ad on cyber-bullying by National Crime Prevention Council.

http://www.youtube.com/oceanking97


EA Sports Push with Joy

E




















A Sports Push with Joy

Samsung 3D takes over YouTube with game

Samsung is taking over You Tube with a game. The game-take-over starts with a film of the 3D projection on the Beurs van Berlage. Then it slowly takes over YouTube. The game is nothing special (click on as many butterflies as possible  and win a 3D LED TV), but the take-over makes quite good eye candy.

http://www.youtube.com/Samsung3devent




======
Shahrukh Khan gets candid while discussing Ra.One! Watch him share the behind-scenes experience live, at:
http://www.youtube.com/raonemovie




========



   

[CLIENT]

Virgin Radio

[AGENCY]

Buzzman

[PRODUCTION]

Film : Iconoclast Web : Lumini

[CREATIVE DIRECTOR]

Georges Mohammed-Chérif

[ART DIRECTOR]

We Are From L.A.

[PLANNER]

-

[PRODUCER]

Laurent Marcus, Julie Bourges

Advisers acted honestly but gave bad advice

Many people had bought a bad financial product from an agent or adviser whom they know and trusted. They learned later that this was a bad decision.

The adviser might have acted honestly but gave the wrong advice, due to being naive. The advisers desperately needed a job, e.g. they have just graduated. They were taught about the positive aspects of the financial product (e.g. life insurance policy or structured product) but did not know about the negative aspects (i.e. the high charges and high risk). They honestly sold the financial product to their friends and family members thinking that they are giving good advice.

When they learned later about the negative aspects, they felt quite bad about letting down the people who trusted them and left the business quietly.

Their agency managers knew the full picture, but exploited the ignorance of the newcomers. Some advisers or agents, who later learned the tricks, decided to continue the game and make a lot of money for themselves.

I do not wish to imply that all agency managers or experienced advisers are dishonest. I know of a few who are honest and acted in the best interest of their customers. But there are dishonest or naive advisers as well, so consumers should be wary.

Life insurance book

The life insurance book is now available at a reduced price from i-shop
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=375

Order here: www.tankinlian.com/ishop

Unscramble the words

Here are some familiar words that have been scrambled. Can you rearrange the letters to get the correct words?

tseiyco
crposse
nalruta
neetpsr
uspelim
crupoed
sgutisd
teliwsh
atnesgr
rlatehe


Additional scramble words and the answers can be found here. 

Word Power - test your vocabulary

This book contains scrambled words. You can test your vocabulary by rearranging the letters to form the correct words. Suitable for children and adults.

The answers are found here.

Consumer Protection and Fair Practices Act

This Act is administered by the Consumer Association of Singapore. Some bad business practices may be disallowed under the Act, e.g. forfeiture of life membership of gym. Read the legislation here:
http://www.case.org.sg/cpfta.htm

Read the details of the unfair practices here.

Here is a specific practice that may be relevant to the gym membership:

11  Taking advantage of a consumer by including in a consumer agreement terms or conditions that are harsh, oppressive or excessively one-sided so as to be unconscionable       Bullying a consumer by using oppressive terms in the sales contract       Example:       Consumer signed agreement for some renovation works. Consumer changed his mind the next day and was willing to compensate contractor on any cost incurred. Renovation company insisted that consumer must pay a termination charge equivalent to 80% of the total renovation sum as stipulated in the agreement

Distribution cost

A consumer came to see me about her investment. She wanted to invest her salary for retirement. A financial adviser sold her an investment plan. Later, she learned that it was a life insurance policy. She did not realise that the benefit illustration contained a number called "distribution cost". This was defined to be the expenses of the insurance company.

As the monthly savings is large, the distribution cost amounted to $40,000. The financial adviser did not explain that this amount is taken from her savings to pay commission and expenses of the company. The consumer realised it after contributing for 18 months (as the charge is only shown after 18 months). By that time, it was too late for her to stop the policy. Even if she terminated the policy, there is a surrender charge that takes away the balance of the distribution cost. It was a big shock to her - to lose so much of her savings - representing her hard earned saving for 18 months!

Many people bought a life insurance policy without knowing what the distribution cost really is. To learn about it, they should attend the FISCA talk on life insurance. Be aware, so that you do not lose so much money.

Dealing with the global crisis

I expect the global economies to go through a difficult time over the next two years. Many analysts and economists are worried about the debt crisis in USA and Europe and the slowdown of the economies in the advanced countries.

We should be prepared for a difficult time for the Singapore economy. We can expect more people to become unemployed.

If I were the Finance Minister, I would implement the following measures:

• Allow unemployed people to make monthly withdrawals from the CPF account. The amount should be sufficient to meet their monthly expenses. This can be for a period of 12 months and may be extended.
• If there is insufficient balance in the CPF ordinary account, allow negative balance to be accumulated (with interest at 2.5% per annum). The negative balance will be recouped from future contributions, when they find a job. If it remains negative at the time of retirement, it can be a charge on the property that has been purchased with CPF funds
• The monthly repayment of the mortgage loan can be deferred during the period of unemployment.

If the unemployed people are not required to sell their property during this distressed time, the property market need not collapse - which was what has led to the problem in the USA and Europe. 

Tan Kin Lian

Live streaming of talk on life insurance

This talk will be streamed live at 9 pm tonight (Friday 23 September).
http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/2011/09/life-streaming-of-talk-get-value-for.html 

Teaching character and values in schools

 I welcome the decision by the Minister of Education to teach values and character in the school syllabus. This is an important lesson to be taught to your young people. It gives them the confidence and guidance on their future decisions.

I advocate teaching of the values of honesty, fairness, positive attitude, courage and public service. These are the values that have guided the important decisions in my life. With these values, I am confident of spending my mind on many issues. They guide me on differentiating what is right from wrong, good from bad. These values form my personal character.

Different people may wish to give different emphasis to other values, such as respect, compassion, care for others and innovation. It is all right for them to choose these other values. I believe that these values are already embedded in  my five core values.

I chose my five core values because I found them to be rather lacking in our society and will make an important contribution to improving life in Singapore.

Tan Kin Lian

Forfeiture of Lifetime membership of Gym

Hi Mr. Tan,
Did you notice the series of letters to ST Forum on the lifetime membership of a fitness club. Some people paid thousands to get the lifetime membership, to have it revoked later (presumably without refunds) because they forgot to pay the annual admin fees of a few dollars. The fitness club makes it not so easy to pay the fees (eg. no giro payment).


I wonder if this can be classified as a scam. But it definitely highlight another issue of prepaying for a product/service.


REPLY
I think that this is an unfair contract term. There is a law against such unfair contracts. I believe that this law is being handled, in some ways, by the Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE).

Active discussion in Facebook

If you wish to discuss some of the issues posted here in my Facebook page, you can create a profile by following the instructions here,

Successful claim for refund

Here is a case 2 years ago, where the people who attended a trading course and paid large fees were able to get a refund, due to misrepresentation. http://www.asiaone.com/Business/News/My%2BMoney/Story/A1Story20090319-129590.html

Be educated and savvy on financial matters

Why do people refuse to pay $20 to attend a 6 hour financial planning workshop organised by FISCA and yet pay $5,000 to attend a 3 day training course on forex trading or get a free talk by a financial adviser who sells them a financial product that takes away more than $5,000 in commission?

When the investor gets conned of their savings and they come to FISCA for assistance, it is too late. There is little that FISCA can do at that time.

Be wary of high pressure selling

It usually starts with an invitation to a free seminar held in a posh hotel. The invitees are treated with an impressive presentation and free food. After that, the hard pressure selling comes in - and those who are not strong willed ends up signing for an expensive purchase - for a $5,000 training course on forex or property investment, or a $20,000 time sharing unit, or a $50,000 land banking plot, a $20,000 wine investment or whatever is being sold.

All that is needed is for the promoter to get 5 people to sign up and they will earn enough income to pay for the expenses of the event, the advertisement and the commission payable to the many well dressed marketeers who are trained to identify and work on the gullible investors.

Like some other people, I have been the victim of this type of marketing a few times during my life. Fortunately for me, the amounts of the purchase are quite small. My biggest purchase was a massage chair costing $6,000. Quite likely, the real cost would have been only one third of the price that I paid. In this case, it was not an impressive talk at a hotel, but a glib talking sales person at a sales booth.





  

Request for assistance - insurance claims

This FAQ shows the information that is needed by Tan Kin Lian in providing assistance on insurance claims.

Charges for property courses

Dear Mr Tan,

Just read your blog on some of the forex exchange training courses.

Will you be able to touch on the property investment as well? Almost everyday I see advertisements in the Straits Times promoting about property investment courses (where they claim that you can invest with little or no money and own 3 properties with 1 property). These courses are also not cheap at all. People who are unable to buy properties of their own can get together in a group and pool their resources and invest together. 

I have never attended any of these courses before. I'm not sure if this is the legal thing to do in S'pore. Please advise if you can also look into this area besides financial investment.

JL


REPLY
 I did not realize that people pay money to attend property courses as well. It seems to be another way to give away money!

Request for assistance on a bad investment

Here is a guide on the type of information that needs to be provided by the consumer who wishes to seek the assistance of Tan Kin Lian to seek compensation due to the failure of an agent or adviser to give the relevant information on a financial product.

$5,000 for a forex training course

An investor shared this experience of attending a foreign exchange training course. He paid $5,000 for a 3 day training course. The course could have been completed in half the time, but was stretched for 3 days to justify the high fee. He found the training techniques taught at the course to be not successful.

He later obtained a training DVD from another source, for free. It teaches him how to trade using candlesticks. He found this to be more useful. 

Foreign exchange training courses - misleading statements

If you have attended a foreign exchange training course and have paid several thousand dollars, and found later that you were misled, please write to kinlian@gmail.com. I am helping a friend to lodge a complaint about these courses and more evidence is needed.

Save on interest payment

It is important to have an emergency fund that can be used for your unexpected payments. This can save you a lot of interest payment.

Suppose you need $5,000 in an emergency - for medical expenses or disruption in your income. If you borrow $5,000 on your credit card, you have to pay interest of $100 a month (2%) on the roll over. If it takes you 2 years to make the repayment, you would have spend an additional $2,400 in interest payment, on top of the $5,000 that you borrowed (and have to repay).

If you have emergency fund that you can draw down, you can save on the hefty interest payment. But you should have the discipline to repay the borrowing back into your emergency fund - just like you have to repay an external lender.

You should  build an emergency fund of 6 months of your earnings. If you earn $5,000 a month, your emergency fund should be $30,000. You should keep the emergency fund in liquid investment, such as fixed deposit or short term bond. You should avoid investing it into a life insurance policy or structured product where there is a high upfront cost (which becomes a penalty on early withdrawal).

Remember - building up the emergency fund is your top priority - above buying a car or other discretionary expenses.

Foreign exchange training courses

Dear Mr. Tan,
I am a Singaporean PR with a background in the financial services sector. I am quite appalled at much of what goes on here in terms of mis-selling of products and services by the finance-related sectors. I am glad that you have managed to take on some of these issues and wish that the various authorities here in Singapore would be more active.

For the last couple of years I have had various dealings with such groups as MAS, ABS and CASE in my efforts to have some of these bad practises stopped and have had periodic successes.

However there is one issue that I just can't seem to make any headway on that I feel is something that somebody really needs to tackle and that is the selling of "get-rich-quick" type foreign exchage trading courses. This activity has been going on for years here and is essentially an on-going fraud that takes place in full public view, most notably via advertisements in the Straits Times.

The groups behind these schemes have made millions and millions of dollars here carrying out an activity which would be banned in most countries. It saddens me every time I open the newspaper when I see these advertisements because I know that it means yet more people will today be conned out of their hard-earned savings, or taken into debt, in order to attend one of these courses.

I would like to urge you to try to tackle this issue. I think that if you could do so you would be doing the Singaporean people a great service. Many millions have been swindled, but lets not let this practise go on for yet more years. I have realised that my efforts with the MAS, CASE, ABS etc are coming to nothing in this area so I realise it needs somebody of your status to be involved in this if anything is to change.

Please let me know if you would be interested to look into this issue and I would be very happy to help in any way I can starting by briefing you on what I believe are the illegal practises carried out by these groups in full public eye,

Concerned

Social inequality in Singapore

Yee Jenn Jong is a non-constituency Member of Parliament from the Workers' Party. He writes regularly on social and economic issues. Read this article on social inequality in Singapore.

Social insurance - to pay for large medical bills

My friend asked me to help publicise an appeal for a little girl called Chloe who has a rare disorder called Pompe Disease and needs $200,000 to $300,000 a year to be treated. This is a lot of money and is likely to be beyond the means of compassionate, ordinary people.

This issue raises the following questions:

• Should something be done to help people like Chloe who are borne with a rare disorder? 
• Should the state take this burden from the parents?
• Can a solution be found using private insurance?

I must first rule out private insurance as most people are not likely to take up insurance against the unexpected and undefined risks of life - until it happened. There are other problems associated with the profit motive of insurance companies, leading to dispute on claim settlement or unfair rejection of legitimate claims.

The best approach is through social insurance, i.e. insurance provided by the state. It should cover all  eligible people and be funded by taxation or compulsory contribution (that can be adjusted based on actual experience) or a mix of both sources of funding.

Some issues to be considered by the state are:

• Should the social insurance pay for expensive treatment that boost the profit of pharmaceutical companies?
• Should there be a cap on the amount that are to be funded by the state?

Some possible approaches that are helpful are:

• The compensation should be for the actual cost of treatment and can be subject to a cap of say $100,000 and should be used under proper guidance.
• The cap may not be sufficient to meet the needs of serious cases, but it does help to provide some relief to the parents. It may be possible for the pharmaceutical company to reduce the cost of the drugs. 
• More importantly, there could be many cases where this type of compensation would be helpful to the parents.

It may be difficult to design a social insurance scheme, but this should not stop us from giving attention to this matter. If nothing is done, then the burden has to be met by the parents or family members (who may not have the financial means) or the patient will not be treated due to lack of funds. 

It is not a good approach to leave these problems to charity. Apart from the high cost of collecting and accounting for the donations, there is the risk that some of these cases may be exploited by unscrupulous people who wish to make a personal profit from the effort. (However, in Chloe's case, I find that the donations will be administered by the hospital).

Tan Kin Lian

Mobile optimized website

Dear Mr Tan,
My company is launching an exciting mobile marketing platform to local companies and entrepreneurs to help them reach out to large and increasing mobile market in Singapore.

Qrion Entreprise specializes in designing mobile-optimised websites that can be saved as mobile apps by customers.

We would like to seek for a business opportunity with your esteemed organisation to market your events, mobile applications and book publications on a mobile platform that people can access while they are on the move. One of the key benefits of this mobile platform is that interested parties can call/ SMS/email the organizer directly from their mobile phones.

We strongly believe that harnessing mobile platform to publish events will gain popularity as more people are getting themselves connected to the internet wirelessly through portable devices such as smart phones and tablets.

Qrion provides the enabling platform for event organisers to design their mobile websites with our easy-to-use Mobile Site Creator and Content Management System. We can also design mobile websites upon customer request.

You can view our sample mobile website indicated below (Note: please view by smart phone or tablet):

- Event Publicity (http://eventhub.mviso.com)
- Products/Services Showcase (http://raffles.mviso.com and http://meiosis.mviso.com)

If it is convenient, we will also appreciate very much if you can mention our mobile marketing services in your public blog.

William Ng
Director
Qrion Enterprise

Outsourcing and drop in standard

I went to Paris for a board meeting. The company arranged for me to be picked up at the airport. I was to look for a person holding a sign with my name.

When I arrived, I could not find the pick up person. I searched for him. He arrived 15 minutes later and was clearly not a local person. After driving for some time, he appeared to be driving me to the wrong destination. I checked with him and gave him the correct address.

I reported the matter to the hotel for investigation. Apparently, they have arranged the pick-up to a contractor who must have outsourced it to a third party (who used an immigrant to do the work).

This was probably done in the interest of brining down the cost or making a bigger profit margin. This has led to a drop in standard and quality. There is a need to have better control on outsourcing!

Buying a property on dual income

Many people depend on dual income to calculate the affordability of their property purchase. This is highly risky as any one party may lose the income, causing financial difficulty. Read this article.

Tip: when you use dual income to calculate affordability, you should apply a discounting factor for the dual income. I suggest a discount of 30%. You should take only 70% of the dual income to calculate the amount of the property that you can afford to buy. 

Buying gold bar at inflated price

Mr. Tee had a friend who introduced an attractive investment scheme to him. The friend, whom he trusted, told him to invest in a gold bar. It promised to pay 2% interest every 3 months. After 12 months, the company promised to buy back the gold bar at its full value. This allowed him to earn a return of 8% for 12 months. There is also a certificate for him to take out the gold bar from a trusted third party if the company did not honour the buy back promise.

At the end of the period, the company did not buy back the investment. Mr. Tee took out the gold bar and found that he had paid for the gold bar at a price that is 50% higher than the real value of the gold. He was not aware that the price, quoted in $ per gram, was much higher than the price in USD per ounce that was quoted in the world market.

Fortunately for Mr. Tee, the value of the gold had appreciated, so he did was somewhat compensated. But, he could have made a larger gain by investing in gold directly, rather than investing in this scam. The friend who sold the investment to him was honest and did not realise the scam. She had also invested her own money and found out later about the scam.

There are many investment scams of this kind. They distract the investor with some gimmick, such as an attractive yield and a buy-back scheme. There is usually a catch that the investor was not aware of.