It’s been almost 2 months since my last posts and i am deeply sorry about it. Many of my friends have asked me what happened and my reply was ‘No time’

But today i receieved an email which motivated me to want to blog more. I got an email from CPF board to invite me to write articles for their upcoming ‘Are you ready’ Campaign and i really feel very honoured to be on their invited list. They are going to launch this initiative in 9 Oct 2011 and the purpose aims to educate singaporeans on how to make key financial decisions in their lives.

So therefore the next few weeks, i am going to write a couple of articles so that they can use for the campaign and hopefully through this event, more people can be educated financially.

If you guys have any other topics or areas that you are interested to know more, you can email me or drop me a msg at the chatbox. i will listen to you and share with you my knowledge to my best ability =)

Stay tuned!

Anyway i realised that many of my clients and friends are not aware that CPF website actually has a new financial section known as: IM$avvy financial portal. Hence i thought of using this opportunity to create more awareness for them.

Have you heard of MoneySENSE? It is a national financial education programme launched by Mr Lee Hsien Loong, then Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the MAS on 16 Oct 2003.  MoneySENSE brings together industry and public sector initiatives to enhance the basic financial literacy of consumers.

The MoneySENSE programme covers 3 tiers of financial literacy:

• Tier I - Basic Money Management - which covers skills in budgeting and saving, and provides tips on the responsible use of credit;
• Tier II - Financial Planning - to equip Singaporeans with the skills and knowledge to plan for their long-term financial needs; and
• Tier III - Investment Know-How - which imparts knowledge about the different investment products and skills for investing

The IM$avvy financial portal is managed by Central Provident Fund Board supported by MoneySense.  This website aims to promote and educate members of public in financial literary. IM$avvy contains many interactive things such as forum, videos etc. One of the latest update is the addition of $avvy Blog Corner.

As a financial consultant, I have been asked to contribute my articles on the CPF Board’s IM$avvy website. Ever since i met up with CPF Board committee, i have started to contribute on their website: www.imsavvy.sg

So if you have not visited their website, do it now! It only takes you one minute to click and you realise there are so many things that you can gain from there =)

Happy reading!

Cheers =)

Yesterday i just read on newspaper that there are about 100 thousands Singaporeans that are not yet covered under the basic Medi-Shield provided by the government. Out of these group of people, housewives made up the most due to the fact that they are not working and they don’t see the need or don’t have the ability to protect themselves.

Based on 2008 records, there are 85% of Singaporean covered under the basic Medi-save.  For people aged between 21-65 years old, there are 85%  of women that are covered and 91% of men have also opt in for the shield plan.

Such figures are very worrying because this shows how vulnerable are the housewives in Singapore. Basically the reason for them not getting any shield plans is because of the fact that they are not working and most of them think they should not spend such money using their CPF money. However such money is the last thing that they should be saving on. Moreover women live longer than men and face more years of being ill towards the end of their lives. On average, women live up to 82 years and suffer 11 years of disability. Men on average live up to 77 years and suffer eight years of disability.

Most women are not working because they have decided to stay at home to take care of the children and it is the act of mother love. Hence shouldn’t the husband ensure that their lovely wife has the basic hospitalisation protection? In case some of you don’t know that as a family, we can use our CPF to purchase a hospitalisaton plan for our loved ones especially those who are not working.  It can be either children buying for parents, husband buying for spouse or parents buying for kids.

It is time that husbands out there should start to shower more concern for their wives by getting a shield plan for her. For those children who have been working, you may also considered getting one for your parents because if they ever incurred huge amount of medical bills, ALL the burden will fall on you. So it’s either you pay abit now to solve future problem or you can wait and pay one lump sum the next time. It’s something for you to ponder.

There are so many things that we can save and in my opinion, insurance and hospitalisation plans are the last thing that peopel should save on. I mean can you imagine incurred huge amount of medical bills when you are not working and have no abiility to pay for it? Isn’t it worse than you paying abit of your money out of the monthly budget that you have for yourself? I know most people will not think it is necessary and have the mindset that such unlucky event will not happen to them. But they don’t know the fact that accident & hospitalisation can happen to anyone at anytime.

As a matter of fact, Medi-shield provides very basic coverage and it is never enough in today’s context because of the rising medical costs. It is designed to help with large hospitalisation bills for the treatment of serious illnesses or prolonged hospitalisation at Class B2/C wards in restructured hospitals.  Therefore I have always strongly encouraged my clients to upgrade their Medi-shield to a private insurance company to enjoy the ‘As-charged’ basis coverage. For people who like to know more about it, feel free to drop me an email or give me a call  @ 96157116 for a FREE consultation =)

Many at times, people are troubled about how they should plan for their child education in the future. This is especially true for those parents who are looking at sending their children for a oversea education. With inflation going as high as 6.6%, the risk for not planning is way too high for people to handle.

With that in mind, parent should really start to plan how they are going to solve this problem. It’s better to do it now than keep holding back because the longer they wait, the more they need to set aside every month for the same amount.

Here are some ways to fund your child’s education:

1. Endowment plans. These are regular saving insurance policies with a fixed maturity date. The returns are higher than bank savings account, and therefore can provide a good chance to finance the child’s entire education. That is, however, if you do not terminate earlier than the maturity date. Some plans also allow you to withdraw some emergency fund if necessary.

2. Unit trusts. A diversified good portfolio can ensure returns higher than endowment plans, but they are much more risky. Also, it does not come with insurance, unlike an endowment plan. Regular investment takes advantage of the dollar cost averaging strategy and it can generate returns between 5%-12% over long period of time.

3. Central Provident Fund (CPF) Education scheme. The maximum amount that can be loaned is 40% of the Ordinary Account. Repayment starts after graduation or leaving from course of study, at an interest of 2.5%, over a maximum of 12 years. For the Ordinary Account fund, most would be used for housing purposes and therefore not many people may have enough to set aside for education.

4. Bank loans. Education loan is one of them. It is a way to loan whatever you need after calculating your available funds. Take note this is an expensive loan with interest rates as high as 6% and a processing fee of 3%. You may only borrow 6 to 8 times your monthly salary, up to a cap of $150,000.

Tuition fee loan (Bank) allows the student to borrow up to 90% of the course of study. This is after the subsidy for local students by the Ministry of Education. This loan is interest-free during the course of study. The only requirement is that you need to have a guarantor above the age of 21.

Overseas Student Program is another type of bank loan, reserved for students of local universities who are taking an overseas student program as part of their course. Application for this program requires the approval of the student’s university. It is also interest free in the course of study and has a rate capped ay 4.75% per annum, just lie the Tuition Fee Loan.

5. Scholarships may cover 80% to 100% of tuition fees. However this scheme is only available to very few students, and may depend on their course of study. There are some scholarships that also provide for hostel stay and other living expenses.

6. Bursaries are grants for needy students. In Singapore, the amount ranges from $750 to $6,000 and application are considered on a case-by-case basis.

This list is not exhaustive. In fact, how you want to fund education can only be limited by your own creativity.