Heavy Rain and Flash Floods in Singapore

The sky gave way early this morning and it started to pour like crazy over at my place. Good thing we sort of predicted that there would be heavy rain and decided to bring along an umbrella while we were eating at the nearby market.

While driving, I could hardly see the road ahead of me even with my wiper turned to full speed. And I was almost pretty certain that there would be flash floods around Singapore after it was still raining like closet to 2 hours later. Sure enough, on my way back, parts of the expressway was flooded. Just read the news too that Tanglin Mall's basement also got flooded.

Perhaps the weather is really getting more freaky in recent years. But surely there has been a case of one too many flash floods in the past few years. It wasn't too long ago that I wrote about flooding in Singapore. While we definitely cannot become flood free throughout the whole of Singapore, I think it is important that certain parts of Singapore should be flood free. And Orchard Road definitely deserves to be flood free.

I am a noob/amateur regarding real estate but I would like to think that if flooding becomes common occurrence in Orchard Road, the developers would have to charge a lower rent. Insurers will also probably charge a higher premium to insure the shops located at the lower levels in case of these freak floods that occur. All these translates to "losses" to Singapore in one way or another.

For the rest of Singapore, I am sure we can accept flash floods now and then. But still, this should not be occurring near residential areas and stuff.

Opinions Stinks and Other Facts of Life

Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one, and it stinks. This saying is extremely true not only at work or even just in normal family life. I have come to realise that everyone can have a slightly different opinion about something even when presented with exactly the same facts. This happens very often in my workplace. Same information, but sometimes, very differing views.

And I am pleasantly surprised to note that opinions also vary even at home. Just today my wife was recounting an encounter with a woman who wanted to have a 2nd child and intended to put her 1st child in full day childcare once the 2nd child came along. My wife thought that this was not right as that defeated the whole point of having a 2nd one. And she sort of wanted me to agree with her on this matter.

Instead, I told her that different people have different viewpoints about the same matter. What seems SO WRONG to her might actually seem like the logical and correct thing to do. And the problem with it is that both parties will never be able to accept the viewpoints of the other party wholeheartedly. And that is where all differences arise from. - the lack of an absolute truth, or compass, to guide us on what is the correct behaviour or what should be relegated and stated as merely a lifestyle preference.

My wife berated me when she heard me say this. She said: "But don't you think it is wrong??"

When I replied the same answer about different people having different viewpoints about the same matter and both thinking that they are absolutely right, she got even angrier and said that it was not right to have no opinions about a matter and to simply be like a blank sheet of paper that accepts both sides of the argument without making a stand.

I would like to think that I am able to hold two opposing thoughts in my head and still function like a normal human being.

Other Facts of Life

Life isn't fair. The sooner you realise it, the better. I have always grown up thinking that life was fair and got angry whenever I saw certain unfairness in life. Now I have come to accept it and realise that life isn't fair. It isn't no matter how much you want it to be.

CPF Minimum Sum Revised from $123,000 to $131,000

I read with interest the news about the revision to the CPF Minimum Sum. From 1 July 2011, the CPF Minimum Sum will be revised upwards from $123,000t to $131,000. This was announced by the CPF Board recently. The new Minimum Sum applies to CPF members who turn age 55 from 1 July 2011 to 30 Jun 2012. In fact, the Minimum Sum scheme was set at $80,000 in 2003 and has been revised upwards yearly, taking into account adjustments for inflation.

The Minimum Sum scheme is meant to help CPF members prepare for retirement where they can potentially have lifelong income for the rest of their lives.

Surprisingly, I noticed that many young people seemed to be unaware about the minimum sum scheme and how it applies to them. These people often have the misconception that retirement is something that they should worry about later on in their working lives and thus cannot be bothered about such schemes that will only affect them later on in life.

Please refer to the following link for more details on the CPF Minimum Sum

http://ask-us.cpf.gov.sg/Home/Hybrid/themes/CPF/Uploads/RSD_WDL/CPF_Minimum_Sum_Scheme.pdf

Balding Help

Help, I am balding! Over the years, I have noticed that my hairline has been slowly receding. At first, I thought that my eyes were most probably deceiving me and that I was just being over sensitive. But slowly but surely, I started to notice a bit of baldness on my head. In fact, it is so bad that I am no longer able to comb my hair the way that I used to.

Well, if you see me, you will probably think that I am joking when I say that I am balding. Because I still have quite a bit of hair on my head. But that is probably because of the way that I style my hair nowadays. It sorts of cover the parts that are balding. But the truth is that my hair is thinning at the top and it has made it extremely difficult to comb my hair. I am not sure what style to use anymore. In fact, I have sort of resigned to the fact that I no longer look as good as before.

Balding used to be a problem that was so far away from my mind. After all, I have always been blessed with lots of hair. And I used to laugh at hair commercials. Now I know why there are so many such hair commercials around! Because men are seriously affected when it comes to balding. Not a day goes by without me looking at the mirror and wondering whether there is something that I can do to stop the balding.

If anybody knows any cure for balding, I need help! Don't want to eat any of those pills though.

Insurance as asset protection- Things you need to know

Insurance covers a range of given dollar values. That’s the first thing you need to know about insurance. You can get specified coverage for practically anything, when you need it. Home insurance is a good working model to see what insurance can do to protect your assets.

Home insurance basics

Home insurance provides cover for events and provides upfront payout values. These values are your best guide to self defence for your assets and will show your costs upfront as well. The top new insurers are offering a range of flexible policies that can be managed online, including premiums.

Home insurance is a truly efficient way of covering a range of issues, including legal liabilities, which can be horrendously expensive. If a person has an accident on your property, they may have to sue to recover their costs of medical treatment, lost income, etc.

This isn’t the sort of thing you want to approach lightly. Your cover is your defence against potentially heavy costs. You need to do your homework, compare deals and do some serious thinking about how you want to manage liabilities. This really is “risk management”, in the most literal sense, so please understand now that good cover can save you a lot of grief.

Fire insurance is a particular element of home insurance that needs a special mention at this point. Make absolutely sure to get this cover and make sure it’s a good dollar value range of cover. Even minor fire damage can cause horrific costs in repairs, and serious damage is much worse.

It’s good practice to get some professional advice if you’re not sure about what you need to cover, particularly if you’re not sure about how much cover you need. The insurers don’t just sell insurance, they also have a vested interest in making sure their policyholders get good information about their products. You’ll get useful advice, so if you’re not sure, ask.

Contents insurance basics

Contents insurance isn’t as simple as it looks, either, but it’s equally important, and sometimes critical when you need to replace lost or stolen goods. You can get contents insurance which can be tailored to a large degree and altered to suit your needs when required, too.

There are some considerations here:

A lot of your contents may appreciate in value as you acquire new systems and other contents. If you upgrade your home electronics, you’re likely to need to fine tune your contents policy, particularly if it’s a replacement policy, to cover values. Make certain on a regular basis, particularly if you’re looking at upgrading in the future, that your insurance represents appropriate cover values.

Things like antiques and fine art are usually not covered by contents policies. They’re not designed to do that. You may be able to get a dollar value cover, but not necessarily at the market value, just a general sort of cover for loss. You’ll probably need special insurance for these things, and probably valuations to establish a cost bandwidth. Your insurer will be able to tell you how to approach these issues.

Shop around online, check out the options, and you’ll find you can get excellent cover. Just make sure your cover can do what you want it to do.

[The above article is a Guest Post]

Dividends for May 2011 from Innotek, China Aviation Oil and Capitaland

May seems to be a good month in terms of dividends. I have not been investing much over the years but my stock portfolio does give me good dividends from time to time.

Received some dividends from my shareholdings in Innotek, China Aviation Oil and Capitaland. The total amount received was to the tune of $1070. Perhaps it is time to reward myself with some good food over the weekend.

Getting Lost in Books and Work

Apologies for the super long "blackout" in terms of blogging. I have been too consumed with reading that I did not get a chance to sit down and write anything for sometime.

I have been reading Homer's Iliad - a book that I never thought I would or could read. But surprisingly, the translation that I am reading seems fairly simple and apart from Googling here and there for the various terms/names that I wasn't familiar with, I managed to finish the book in roughly 1.5 weeks. I don't declare to understand everything that Homer is saying but I do appreciate the story and its account of events about the Trojan War. It makes me realise the number of deviations that the movie Troy has from the actual book!

Work has also been busy and it does not help that I have had little free time to read. So all my free time that I had was spent reading. Somehow, reading seems to be a great way to relax after a stressful day at work.

I have been contemplating lately about what it means to have an education and be educated. This thoughts and reflection led me to read a book titled "How to Read a Book". Though not entirely convinced by the list of Great Books that was suggested by the author, I still decided that life is too short to leave my reading list by chance/whim/fancy. I thus decided to at least read some of the more well known classics and books that have been recognised as Great Books. Homer's Iliad is one of these great books. Now that I have read it finish, I hope to read through the next book on my list soon.