Saturday, May 31, 2014

Singapore average monthly wage was $4,998 in Q4 of 2013

Reference: Most Singaporeans not satisfied with salary: Survey

$4,998 is the average monthly salary in Singapore? Seriously?

Either Singaporeans are really rich, relatively speaking, or there are some really rich people in Singapore pulling up the average.

What's the 50th percentile, the mean?

Can you invest better than CPF?

You can get the answer very easily.

Personally, you contribute 20%. Employer contributes 16%. By right, you should be left with 80% as take-home pay.

Alright, so it's 80% in your bank vs 36% in the CPF account.

Do you twice the amount in cash as compared to CPF?

Alright, I forgot to deduct your monthly expenditure, let's say you spend 50%, so you're left with 40% of the salary that you actually save.

Now, does your bank savings match your CPF? Are you investing better than CPF?

Monday, May 26, 2014

MDA wasting time with the new Arts Term Licensing Scheme

Interesting story of local artists talking about boycotting MDA's new Arts Term Licensing Scheme.

From the story, it says that there would be "penalties they would incur for misclassifying a performance." If that's so, it seem to suggest that MDA will still have to look through the performances. If that's so, they are just wasting the time of creative individuals and companies involved.

Reference:

Artists call for boycott of MDA's Arts Term Licensing Scheme

Roy Ngerng vs PM Lee

Reference:
1. Blogger agrees to remove blog posts and video

2. Allegations against govt must be backed up with facts: Shanmugam

It's just another case of a blogger writing without being able to substantiate what he claims.

I wonder if Roy Ngerng would learn anything from this incident judging by the apology that's "was not and never meant to be genuine" as quoted by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh of Drew & Napier representing PM Lee.

Legal threat is basically the polite way of giving the blogger a chance. Otherwise, there would be a legal proceeding already.

Why CPF system is better than other systems: Tan Chuan-Jin

CPF

Reference: Why CPF system is better than other systems: Tan Chuan-Jin

The government is too kind putting out all those arguments.

It should just say that Singapore citizens are too short sighted, irresponsible and not smart enough to manage their own money.

I just read this story from TRS: MY CPF – WHO DECIDE? YOU OR ME?.

This guy Dr DOS earns $2000 monthly, belongs to a family of 5. His total CPF contributions has dropped from 32.5% to 23.5%. That drop has resulted in him not having enough money to pay for his mortgage. So he wants to use the remaining CPF savings make up the difference and pay. CPF says no.

Let's be clear about one point first. Dr DOS has no savings besides his CPF savings. What's going on?

Dr DOS has already shown that he can't save money on his own due to whatever circumstances.

With the CPF system, his savings is locked up so that he can only withdraw at a much later date. Without CPF system, he would have absolutely no savings at all very soon. He's just going to spend more than he saves until he has no more savings - remember he is unable to save.

By allowing money to be withdrawn now to tide over financial difficulties is just a recipe for more trouble in the future.