Big loss on ILP

Dear Mr Tan,
Here is my two cents worth for investment linked products. My wife, being a naive person, bought an insurance/investment plan from a bank after she asked about how to earn a decent return on her hard earned money but was sweet-talked by a financial planner to sign up for the plan. Once the plan was signed, the financial planner did not call her for the next five years and she faithfully contributed $500 a month. 

After investing over $38,000 over 6 years, she was told that the current value was only $26,000, giving a loss of 31% (no counting inflation). After selling the policy, agents have a hands off approach. 


I do believe that most people are better off investing in an STI ETF or some blue chip share which gets dividends. I do hope that other investors do learn from our mistakes and not be CONNED into buying investment linked products from agents who think of nothing but earning a quick buck from naive people like my wife. My pain is your gain!

*Kindly take note that most insurance agents do not have a basic salary or a very low basic salary thus they would sell products which would give them the most commission as just to meet the client, they would have to pay for dinner, transport, parking etc thus selling low commission products such as term insurance would not make sense to them. PUT YOURSELF IN THEIR SHOES, WOULD YOU BE SELLING TERM INSURANCE TO EARN A MEASLY COMMISSION? (Food for thought)


My comment
It is best for consumers to avoid all financial advisers and insurance agents. They have to earn commission by selling this type of bad product to you.

North South Expressway

I wrote this letter to the Straits Times to suggest how the $7-8 billion for the North South Expressway could be better spent. The ST did not publish my letter. http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=382

Logic Challenge (2)

Here is a more challenging (complex) level of puzzles:
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=380

Give them to your visitors to try during the Lunar New Year. But make sure you try first!

Logic Challenge

Try this logic challenge during the lunar new year. Get your visitors to compete in the challenge - but make sure that you try it first!

http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=379

Singapore's national debt is high

Dear Mr. Tan
Please refer to http://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock Looking at the above site, USA, Canada, Western Europe, Japan and SINGAPORE seems to be having serious national debt problem. Is Singapore is worst than USA since debt per person for Sgp is $41.7k while USA is $25.8k. Do educate, thanks.


REPLY
I am not familiar with this topic. I will post your question and ask other people to comment.

Family Life 1.1 is now in beta mode

The game can now be played at:
http://projects.easyapps.sg/fl/

It can be quite fun. Try it. Here is the description of the game:
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=335

A video will be prepared soon.

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