A Peak At My Credit Card Bills

Isn't it nice to look at someone else's credit card bills.

Well, here is a sneak peek at my credit card bills for the month of 14 Nov 09 to 13 Dec 09

Amex
14 Nov - Hallmark $20.90
15 Nov - Hock Cheong Car Care $62.76
16 Nov - Accounting & Corporate $300.00
20 Nov - SPC $17.80
25 Nov - SPC $60.00
27 Nov - Crystal Jade Seafood $22.15
01 Dec - Starhub Cable Vision $25.68
06 Dec - Shell $57.02
07 Dec - Sushi Tei $14.02
11 Dec - Annual Fee $150.00
11 Dec - GST $10.50
11 Dec - Cold Storage $16.07

Visa
14 Nov - Crystal Jade $20.70
29 Nov - Hong Kong Cafe $109.80
30 Nov - Season Parking $90.00

Do note that i have already gotten my annual fee waived. I also make it a point to pay my credit card bills on time so that I do not incur any finance charges that cost a whopping 24% per annum.

What My Dad Taught Me About Inflation

Today, I was buying lunch at the hawker centre and paid $3.00 for my meal.

After handing in my money to the stall owner, I had a flashback where I recalled my dad's frequent lament about how a bowl of wanton mee used to cost only $0.20 to $0.30.

I also remembered how I used to respond. "Aiyah! Last time things very cheap la..I know.."

I remember seeing the pain in his eyes as he always made that lament. And now I guess I know the reason why.

He was not recalling the days when things used to be cheap or cheaper. Rather, he was feeling the pain at how the cost of living has gone UP and UP over the years.

It was not too many years ago that my dad could get a meal at $0.30 and a drink perhaps at a few cents. But those days are over and now the price of things have gone up. Economists call this inflation. My dad calls it : " Last time this only used to cost XXX cents, now it is a few dollars."

Things were not cheaper back then. Things are just more expensive now.

I can only imagine myself lamenting to my son in the future 20 years down the road....

Imagine the year 2030....

I am walking down the food court with my son who wants to order a plate of chicken rice. Then, I lament and say:

"Last time chicken rice used to cost me $3, now one plate costs me $30!!!"

I can imagine my son staring blankly back at me and giving me the same reply that I gave my father...

"AIYAH, last time things are cheap.. but last time is last time LAH!"

Have you factored in inflation into your retirement plans? If you have not, be prepared for a rude shock when you retire.

3/4 Petrol Tank Rule

All cars leaving Singapore must have the petrol tanks filled to 3/4 tank full.

Lately, Malaysia has also come up with a ruling that does not allow foreign registered vehicles to pump more than 20 litres of petrol at any petrol stations within 50 km of any exit points.

What is the rationale for this decision?

For Singapore, it seems that the Government wants to prevent people from crossing over to Malaysia to buy cheap petrol. This 3/4 tank ruling was put in place so as to prevent that. The government earns revenue from taxes placed on petrol and this measure would help to prevent any loss in revenue.

For Malaysia, it seems that they have a problem with fuel smuggling especially at the border with Thailand. As the Malaysian government heavily subsidises the petrol, they do not want these subsidies to be passed on to foreigners.

What about the consumer?

A lot of people are clearly unhappy with these rulings but it seems that this will not go away anytime soon.

The amount of money I could save if I pumped my petrol at malaysia would be tremendous. I could easily spend half the money that I usually would on petrol. Never mind the inconvenience.

The best I can deal with this now is to make sure that I pump just up to 3/4 tank when I leave Singapore for any trip to Malaysia. I then make sure that I pump a full tank before arriving back in Singapore.

For those worried about the 20 litre rule, just make sure that you pump once before entering the 50 km radius of the Johor CIQ or Tuas Checkpoint.

I have also heard that some petrol stations are not as strict and simply let you pump 20 litres, reset the pumps and then pump 20 litres again. It will be extremely hard for anyone to police this as the petrol stations also do not want to lose money just because of a ruling. There are many grey areas as nothing is stopping motorists from pumping at multiple stations within the 50km radius.

Why Hawker Food Tastes better than Food Court Food

I ate a beef don at Thomson Plaza yesterday and I was amazed (or should I say disgusted?) at the food quality. There were like just 6 pieces of beef and the rice was soaked in a gravy that did not really taste japanese or anything. The miso soup was also terrible and tasted nothing like miso soup at all. All this cost me $5.50 and I would most probably never eat that again.

All the years in my life, I have always wondered why hawker food tastes so much better than food in the food courts.

Now, I think I know the answer why.

I used to think that it was the air-con in the food court that somehow affected the quality of the food. I then realised that it was not necessarily the air-con but the people that made all the difference.

I believe that most food court stalls are not actually owned by the people running it. There might be a small exception but I believe most stalls are actually owned and managed by the food court themselves. Many of them are actually hired by the food court themselves to operate the various stalls. These people (usually PRCs) are hired and are not the business owners.

They simply do not care about the quality of the food or the service that they provide. They are just there to make a living without having to bother about profits and customer service. I have seen these PRCs trying to speak Mandarin to Malays and Indians before... totally oblivious to the fact that these people do not understand them!

Compare this to the hawker centre where the stalls are runned by the owners themselves. The owners put in the effort to make sure that they smile at you (okay, some of them do smile) and at least maintain a reasonable standard of the food quality.

Hawker food for me always tastes way better than food court food. I don't know if it is true for you but it certainly is for me.

Not only is hawker food much nicer, it is often much cheaper too!

How to Get Your Credit Card Annual Fee Waived

Today, I managed to get my credit card annual fee of $150 waived.

How did I do it?

It is simple. All it takes is a simple phone call to customer service.

I have a DBS credit card and all I did was to call the customer service hotline. I waited for roughly 5 minutes to be put through to an operator.

All I asked was that the annual fee be waived. The customer service officer was extremely polite and did not even ask for the reason why. She just said "Okay" and it was done.

She then went on to inform me that I had some points that were expiring and advised me on what to redeem which she proceeded to help me with too.

Just a few simple steps and I saved $150!

Most banks are more than happy to waive the annual fee as long as you ask. If they refuse to budge, you can threaten to cancel your credit card and place your business with other banks. That should make them budge.

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Travelling and Reading Broadens My Horizons

If there are two things that adds to my learning, I would safely say that it is travelling and reading.

Travelling brings me to new places, allows me to see new sights, experience different cultures, face unique situations, taste new food, feel differently about home and lots more. It engages my five senses and makes me more aware of my surroundings.

During travel, there are also lots of stories to tell. One's experiences during travel are perhaps richer when compared to the mundane day to day living in Singapore.

Of course, one could learn as much in Singapore but sometimes this makes it difficult as we are just not as receptive to learning as when we are overseas.

Reading is another good platform for learning.

Through reading, we can learn from the experiences and knowledge of other people. People have poured in effort in the writing of their books, articles and blogs.

This allows us to learn from their experiences, shorten our own learning curve and avoid the common mistakes that are made in lives.

Together, they allow us to see the world differently. We become more aware of our limitations and who we really are.

The process of discovering how little we know about this world is indeed a refreshing idea.

A book in one hand while travelling the world is one of my dreams.

Centralised Planning Versus Disciplined Pluralism

I was reading John Kay's The Truth About Markets as I was touring recently.

In it, he mentioned that there were many instances when centralised planning fails and how a market economy could actually achieve better coordination compared to an economy which had some form of central planning.

Take for example the queues in a supermarket. Shoppers are out to protect their own interest and based on their own judgements, join the queue that they perceive to be the shortest. This sort of decision making without any form of centralised control (i.e. a supervisor of the shop directing shoppers to join the shortest queue) is efficient by itself.

That is why you seldom see supermarkets employing people to help people get to the shortest queue. People who are looking after their own interests will automatically search for the shortest queue to join. This is how a successful market economy ought to function with disciplined pluralism.

In another example, no one discovered the personal computer. Instead, the industry emerged from a process of unplanned trial and error within a framework of disciplined pluralism. We are all well aware of how the founder of Microsoft himself was not even certain of the need for such powerful machines for an individual when he said: "640K ought to be enough for anybody."

A look at the failures of Mao in his attempt at the Great Leap Forward also shows the failures of a centrally planned economy. We idolised Jack Welch because it is hard to believe that a large corporation like General Electric remained successful because of decentralised decision making amongst thousands of individuals in the organisation.

So what does all this have to do with my tour?

During my tour, I could not help but noticed lots of unfinished buildings that lay scattered amongst the landscape. I was told that it was perhaps due to the economic crisis that led to this projects being abandoned.

This unfinished hotels were indeed a sore sight to any tourist. The buildings looked like they could easily become 5 star hotels but were now left abandoned without any windows or paintwork.

It made me wonder how disciplined pluralism really works. Sure.. we can let all the businesses flourish and let businessmen make their own decisions. The market will decide everything and that is why there were so many unfinished hotels.

But wouldn't it have been better if there was some kind of central planning agency to estimate the actual supply and demand of tourists that were expected in the area? Of course, for all we know, the central planning agency might have failed even more spectacularly with over optimistic figures and for all I know, the landscape might have been littered with even MORE unfinished hotels.

And yet when we look at Singapore, we seldom see any so called unfinished hotels or buildings. The tight control and central planning by URA has been efficient and effective in that sense.

So which works better? Centralised planning or Disciplined Pluralism? I don't know.