Saturday, June 03, 2006

Advertisement: Ideal plan can earn $20,000 more for you

Most investment linked plans takes away 17 to 19 months of your savings, to pay commission to the agent and other expenses (see www.askdrmoney.com).

The Ideal plan from NTUC Income takes away only 7 months of savings. This means that we can invest an additional 12 months of your savings to earn more for you.

If you save $300 a month, the additional investment of 12 months, can amount to $20,000 at the end of 30 years (assuming a return of 6% per annum).

That is a lot of money. You can get up to $20,000 MORE, by investing through the Ideal plan from NTUC Income.

Call 6877 1111.

Financial Planning Advice

It's FREE, but the value of the advice is priceless!

Spend 30 minutes.

Learn how to have the right financial plan.
Save and invest wisely.

You can earn $146,000 more (for a monthly saving of
$300 over 30 years)

And enjoy a cup of coffee, tea or milo. It's on us!

For appointment: call 6877 3366.

Business Center:
- NTUC Income Center, 75 Bras Basah Road
- Tampines Point, 2 Tampines Central 6

Tips for the Young: talk on Wed 7 June, 7 pm

I am giving a talk "Tips for the Young" on Wed 7 June 7-9 pm at NTUC Income center. I will give tips that help the young to make the right choice and get $146,000 more in return for their savings.

Call 6877 3366 to register for this talk. The talk is FREE but my tips are priceless!

Be gracious and accept an apology

A policyholder sent two cheques to us. One is for a payment of home insurance. Another is for a payment to NTUC (another organisation) for some membership service.

We cleared the cheque for Income. But our staff must have sent the second cheque to NTUC. It must have been lost in transit.

The policyholder complained about the missing cheque. Our staff tried to find it, but could not locate it.

The policyholder brought the complaint to me.

Here is my reply:

Dear

I am sorry that the cheque was displaced. As this payment is for another organisation (ie NTUC), our staff could not bank it in. It must have been sent to NTUC.

It will be impossible for us to trace the cheque. I hope that you understand our dilemma. I suggest that you treat it as cancelled and send another cheque directly to NTUC.

LESSON: Our internal process for handling this type of situation will be strengthened.

Be a considerate driver; give way

While driving this morning, I wanted to move from the middle to the right lane. I turned on my right hand signal. I looked at the rear view mirror to see the cars in the right lane.

Instead of slowing down for me to move to the right lane, I saw the first car actualy speed up. The driver just wanted to get in front. This happened with the second and the third cars.

All three drivers behaved in the same way.

We have to learn to be considerate, and to give way.

Invest $100,000 in Global Equity

After watching the market for the past month, I have now decided to invest $100,000 in Global Equity Fund. This will be transacted on the coming Monday.

Here are my reasons:

- I am investing for 20 years
- the Global Equity fund has corrected by 5% during the past month
- the fund still give a positive return for this year and beat the market benchmark
- the global economy is still robust, especially Japan and Europe

Friday, June 02, 2006

Customer ask: Is it time to buy?

QUESTION

Dear Mr Tan:

I am very late in investing in NTUC's investment funds. I used to play local
equities directly and lost quite substantially.

Last year, I bought combined
fund (growth) at S$50,000 on Sep 05 and S$27,000 (Ideal Plan) on Nov 05. Although there is a major correction last two weeks, my investments are still positive.

I have set aside another S$50,000 to invest. Is this the right time? Has the
correction stabilized? If yes, when and how should I invest? Top up the current investment on combined fund or buy a new investment on global equity?

-------------------

REPLY

Read my blog www.tankinlian.blogspot.com. I am also asking the same question on my personal investment. Most probably, I will invest $100,000 next week, and another $100,000 in 1 or 2 month's time.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Return on investment funds

In spite of the sharp correction in May, the global equity, Singapore equity and the combined (growth and balanced funds) operated by NTUC Income still give a positive return for the five months of this year.

The funds also performed better than benchmark.



Fund Jan-Apr May Jan-May
Global Equity 6.1% -4.2% 1.6%
Singapore Equity 12.0% -5.6% 5.7%
Global Bond -1.8% 0.1% -1.7%
Singapore Bond -0.4% 0.6% 0.2%

Combined (Growth) 4.7% -3.2% 1.4%
Combined (Balanced) 3.0% -2.3% 0.6%
Combined (Conservative) 1.2% -1.3% -0.2%

Benchmark
MSCI World 4.5% -3.6% 0.8%
STI 12.1% -7.9% 3.3%

Is it time to invest?

It is a good time to take up a regular premium investment-linked plan. By saving on the regular premium, you will enjoy the benefit of lower dollar cost averaging.

At the current low cost of the units, you will get more units for your investment. If the price drops further, you can get even more units.

The market will turn around. Your investment will benefit from the upturn.

I suggest that you choose the Global Equity fund or the Combined Growth fund.

--------------------------------------------

If you are making a large, lump sum investment, the position is still not clear. The market correction has been more severe than I had expected. The correction allows you to make your investment at 5% to 10% lower than it was one month ago.

I wish to make an additonal investment of $200,000. I will probably invest $100,000 next week, and another $100,000 a few weeks later.

My choice is the Global Equity Fund.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Was this stent necessary?

My insurance adviser received an e-mail from a patient.

She went to a private surgeon, who did a stent for her. He wanted to do a second stent, but she said she has could not afford it. She had just switched to a private insurer, which does not cover an early claim.

When she went to a restructured hospital, she was told that the stent was not necessary, as the extent of her blockage was not severe, and was quite common.

There are patients who have received different advice from the the medical profession. It is useful to have a second opinion before embarking on a major or expensive surgery.

Banks earn bumper profits

The local banks report bumper profits this year. Two banks earns more than $1 billion each, and much higher than in previous years. Even a foreign bank report that they earn more than $500 million in Singapore.

They make higher profits from the following sources:

- fees from sale of insurance and structured products
- high margin on their lending vs cost of funds

This is good news for their shareholders. But it is not good news for their bank customers.

The customers probably get a low rate of interest on their savings, and pay high rates of interest on their loans and credit card rollovers.

Make the banks compete - by looking for better choices to earn higher returns on your money. You can also make better investments to earn several tens of thousands of dollars more!

Come and attend our educational seminar to learn how. Call 6877 3366.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Ideal plan can give you $20,000 more

Most insurance companies take away 17 to 19 months of your savings as upfront charge under their investment linked plan (ILP). The ILP plan from NTUC Income (ie Ideal plan) takes away only 7 months. (See www.askdrmoney.com).

The difference is 12 months. We give 12 months of savings extra.

If the monthly saving is $300, we invest an additional $3,600, compared to other plans. Assuming an average return of 6% p.a, the additional investment will amount to $20,000 at the end of 30 years.

They can get $20,000 more, by investing with NTUC Income.

Why do the other ILP plans take away 19 months? Because, they pay higher commission to their agents and aim to make more profit for their shareholders.

Why does NTUC Income take away only 7 months? Because, we pay lower commission and reduce our expenses.

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