Tweaking the CPF scheme

It’s been quite awhile since I last read the news. In fact, it’s been like one and a half months. So I wasn’t even following one of the things that would impact my life when I get old: the tweaking of the CPF scheme. And if ignorance is bliss, not knowing even the surface of these tweaks definitely is one of those things that makes this statement false.

One of these tweaks is that an additional 1% of interest will be paid for the first $60000 in CPF members’ combined accounts. The 1% will be placed in the Special Account and not the Ordinary Account. Above which, my understanding is that the combined $60000 in your ordinary (OA), Special (SA) and Medisave Accounts can’t be used for anything.

So what does this really imply? This means – if I understands it correctly – a whole group of young Singaporeans will not be able to use any of their CPF to pay for their own health insurance or that of their parents or to do their own investments, be it in stock and shares or even managed products like unit trusts! (And am I glad that this ‘extra’ 1% didn’t also affect the loan interest rate of my existing HDB loans!)

So, if you earn about $3000 a month, you get approximately a total of $1000 of CPF a month from the deduction from your own pay and the contribution from your employer. That will take you 60 months (5 years) to get it up to $60000. And that is only true when you are not paying out of your CPF OA for a new flat. If you are, it probably takes away at least half of that (i.e. $500) from your OA, depending on the size of the flat you bought. That simply means it will take you even longer, roughly 10 years to get that up to $60000. And the extra 1% is only good for 2 years because after that it will be a free floating rate which doesn’t guarantee you that extra 1%.

If what I understand about the $60,000 is true, that means for the first 10 years you can do nuts about your CPF for just that extra 1%, whereby friends I know are earning more money by investing their CPF monies in stocks and shares or unit trusts. (That is of course not considering some of the unfortunate ones who has lost money investing their CPF monies on their own.)

I wonder what impact will there be – in terms of the liquidity in the stock markets – in the future with a dearth in investors using their CPF monies to invest. Also, what impact will there be to the turnover and profits of companies offering managed investment products. Will it also mean all those financial consultants out there are going to find it harder to find new and ready investors?

Baby Lee and his goons may paint a rosy picture and try to sell this as something that is necessary for the future of Singapore and the good of you and I. But from the looks at it, it is more like keeping some of that ‘cheap money’ off the investment market. While it maybe true that the gover-min doesn’t need this ‘cheap money’ for its own investments – or if your believe the taxi drivers, to cover the losses suffered by Temasek because of Shin and some other crap – it certainly look to me there will be a group of people who won’t be thanking the Tali-PAP for a long time.

路霸?

今天有朋友告诉我,有个无聊的 “查母” [闽南语:女人的意思] 写信到报上投诉某周末用车 [weekend car] 的驾驶在公路上的 “路霸” 行为 [road bullying]。

据我所了解,这婆娘之所以投诉,其实是因为她不满该辆周末用车在高速公路的第一条车道上跟得太紧。她认为既然她已经开到 90km/h,再快的话就是超速和违法了。还说她还违法曾尝试加速到 100km/h 来拉开距离,但是后面的车还紧跟着。这还不止,她还申诉周末用车最后从左边超车,然后还故意到她前面慢下来和故意煞车。她认为这实在是太过分了。因为周末用车的驾驶的行为其实是在恐吓 [intimidate] 她。所以她就把那车子的号码记录下来写到报社投诉,希望这 “路霸” 得到应有的惩罚。

哇塞!为民除害喔!这是多么的伟大的胸怀啊!

不过我呸!在新加坡,为些芝麻绿豆的小事来投诉,或者恶人先告状是非常的普遍的。我非常不明白报社为什么刊登这么无聊又小气的投诉。只要她能 “闪到一边凉快去”,后面的车 “刷” 一声就过去了,整个过程最多半分钟后这 “小风波” 就会结束。

再说,第一条车道 (最右边车道) 不是用来超车的吗?这婆娘开在那之上干啥?难道后面的快车要从左边来超车吗?看来那周末用车的驾驶从左边超车已经是迫不得已了。还有,没人看到当时路面上的情况,也没人知道周末用车为何煞车。难道交警和陆管局就为了这婆娘的片面之词而对着司机进行制裁吗?

新加坡的报社能把这呀刊登出来不止有失水准,简直是荒谬和无聊透顶!我在想,婆娘开的那车是否是大型的车如 BMW 和 Mercedes 之类的,然后因为被一辆中国制造的便宜 Cherry QQ 超车才会心理不平衡呢?又或者,碰巧又是每个月她 “大姨妈” 来访的那个星期吧?

 

Chelsea lost…

It must have been a sad night for Chelsea fans (I ain’t one of them).

It is as if the sacking of Mourinho isn’t bad enough, Mikel John-Obi got sent off on the 31st minute in this match. Playing with 10-men is always difficult. But to playing with 10-men against Ferguson’s men and hope to get away unscathed, would be about the same as a man attempting flight by flapping his arms. Without Mourinho’s brilliance, to even try to equalise or win, was the equivalent of attempting flight by thought alone.

The fact that they conceded only 2 goals is the credit of one man, Chelsea goalkeeper, Petr Cech. After all, ManUre had 9 shots on goal, and Cech managed to save 6 goals and conceded only one in play. (The other one he conceded was a penalty, and that has always been difficult.)

Either way, it was a marvelous display of goal keeping. Roman Abramovich should give Cech a pay raise after this… and my personal advice to him is to stop meddling as long as the club makes money before it goes the way of Crystal Palace.

It is my considered opinion that what Abramovich did is akin to cutting apart the goose to try and take the golden egg from within. But should Chelsea end up like Crystal Palace, I hope Abramovich won’t be alive to regret the decision of sacking Mourinho.

Another blogger’s point of view on ‘gays’…

I chanced upon his post while loading the ping.sg main page. And I find this part the most amusing: ‘I feel that lesbians are totally fine (except for the fact that they are taking away girls that we could be dating)“.

I found myself laughing at it as I know many of my friends enjoyed looking at lesbian women, because they would choose to believe that she might be a bi-sexual who would enjoy pseudo-sex with her lesbian partner as much as she would enjoy the real thing with a real male. That’s not including the one who plays the part of the male, of course. Not to mention I know some guy who once said, “I like lesbians. Buy 1 get 1 free.” But that was way before he tried to be funny at a lesbian pub and end up with a cup of Bloody Mary that has a tampon sticking out of it – courtesy of the ‘male’ partner of a gorgeous lesbian girl he was trying to pick up.

It also reminds me that, about a dozen years ago, at one of my previous workplace, a colleague stormed into my office and bellowed at all of us, YOU ALL didn’t tell me she is a woman. I was talking to her earlier on about the Thai prostitute I screwed last night and the service of which girls are good! Some more, she has been using the Gents!!’ (He was referring to one of our lesbian colleagues who dressed like a guy most of the time and goes by a guy’s name.)

I did find it a little amusing so I asked him two things: ‘What difference does it make if she used the Gents, since she isn’t going to stand at the urinal and pee but would use the cubicles?’ and ‘If you have no problems telling any other guy about your exploits at Geylang, what’s the problem with telling her?’

The reply was stunning, “You mean you would tell a woman you go to the prostitutes?! And hey, I don’t want any woman peeking at my pecker when I pee, especially without me knowing it!”

That was quite a laugh because a few moments ago he was treating her like brother-brother… And that reminds of another incident whereby I asked one of my female friends if she would find it alright for transvestites to use the ladies. Her replied surprised me because it was a resounding NO, because to her, the transvestite is still a man. And, before I popped that question she was raving about we men discriminates against homosexuals and such. I had to point out that technically, transvestites are homosexuals too.

So what is the point I am trying to make? It is simply this, the homosexual / lesbian lobby has so well politicized the issue, and has done a great ‘marketing job’ in making the people feel it is acceptable. But that is as long as the people doesn’t find their own personal interests threatened by them. Regardless if the threat is real or perceived, it is quite interesting to see just how fast some of them change sides once they feel their own self interest is threatened.

Anyway, I used to joke with an old friend that when it is said, “有人的地方就有江湖”, it simply means that where there’s people, there’s politics. And politics to me is merely a matter of people coming together to protect their own self interest – while presenting it as the interest of the majority of the people – by finding strength in the numbers or getting those who has no stake in it to agree with it.

And that’s why the debate on Section 377A has never gotten much attention from me. After all, while it is my stand that discrimination should not be allowed, are we seeing discrimination in the form of the police storming into the homes of homosexual couples or into hotel rooms to arrest them in their act? Or is Section 377A used to deny them jobs, health care, or every other thing that heterosexual citizens are entitled to in Singapore – other than marriage, of course? If not, then let this dumb law be, though I would agree that it leaves room for a possibly fascist regime to abuse it in the future.

Perhaps, someone just looked into the crystal ball and find out that some major discrimination against homosexual people is going to be happening some time soon…

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8

Got myself a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 recently. I took the opportunity to snap some photos with the camera at home to test the features, to see if it was as good as the FZ5 which I originally wanted. I must say I am not disappointed.

Today, I took it to the office to show my colleague, and since I was in the office early, I took the opportunity to snap some picture from where I am sitting. I like this camera, and I guess I need to read the manual and do more tests with it so in the future I can take better photos than these.

After work, I was about to take it home when another friend called me for dinner. So I decided to walk down to Marina Square – where I will be meeting my friend – and took some photos along the way.

The following is a slide show of the photos I have taken. And yes, if they are bad, it’s not the camera, it’s the camera man. (I guess I will be spending a little more money to keep this little baby safe and in proper working condition for the next few years. :))

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