OCBC BANK’S SURVEY SHOWS THAT SINGAPOREANS ARE TAKING A STEP BACK FROM PERSONAL LUXURIES TO RECONNECT WITH THE BASICS OF HOME AND FAMILY
While most respondents do not think that the economic recession will derail progression in achieving their financial goals, nearly half of them believe it will take a longer time to realistically achieve their goals
Singapore, 9 January 2009 – Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (“OCBC Bank”) today unveiled the findings of its second survey on “Top 10 Singaporean Dreams” which indicate that in a climate of global uncertainty, priorities have shifted from being focused on personal luxuries and ambitions to more intrinsic issues such as home, relationship and family.
This year, the top three Singaporean dreams include:
1. Starting a family;
2. Settling down (getting married or finding a life partner); and
3. House and home.
Travel, which was the top priority for Singaporeans in 2008, has dropped to sixth position and four out of ten respondents indicated that they will cut down on spending. There are clear indications that luxuries and non-appreciating assets have now taken a back seat. For more details on the OCBC survey, please go to this link:
http://www.ocbc.com.sg/download/media_releases/2009/Jan/090109_(website)Media%20Release%20-%20Revamped%20Ask%20OCBC%20(final%20draft).pdf
Showing posts with label current affairs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label current affairs. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Means Testing Starts On Jan 1 2009
PATIENTS warded in B2 and C class wards in public hospitals from today will be means-tested to determine the level of subsidy they will get. They will be asked upon admission to give their signed consent to grant hospitals permission to check their income.
Details of how much they earn, however, will not be disclosed to counter staff, who will know only the subsidy band into which patients fall.
A Health Ministry spokesman said hospital admission systems will be linked to the Central Provident Fund Board and to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore so the subsidy level can be calculated and bill estimates presented to patients.
Patients may refuse to have their incomes checked. But this will mean they will automatically get the smallest subsidy - 50 per cent for treatment in a B2 ward and 65 per cent in a C-class ward.
Up till yesterday, B2 and C-class patients got their respective flat subsidy rates. From today, patients in these two ward classes will fall into one of 16 subsidy levels.
Those earning $38,400 or less a year will continue getting the full 80 per cent subsidy in C class and 65 per cent in B2 class. People with annual incomes of $62,412 or more will get the minimum subsidy of 65 per cent in C class and 50 per cent in B2 class.
People with no income, such as retirees or housewives, will have their subsidy rate pegged to the value of their homes. If their homes are valued at $11,000 or more, they will get the minimum subsidy. About a fifth of all homes fall into this category.
All unemployed residents of HDB flats - excluding those in executive condominiums - will be entitled to full subsidy.
Following a policy started two years ago to put citizens above non-citizens in health benefits, permanent residents will receive 10 percentage points less subsidy than citizens with the same income.
A permanent resident in a C-class ward, for example, will get a subsidy ranging from 55 per cent to 70 per cent.
Although today is the start date for means testing, patients who will be admitted for treatment later this month but who have already done their pre-admission registration will continue to be subsidised at the old rate regardless of their incomes or house type.
The same applies to patients already in hospital by yesterday.
Member of Parliament Josephine Teo, who is on the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, said that when the introduction of means testing was debated, 'no one could have foreseen the dramatic change in economic conditions'.
She suggested that 'the assessment of means must look to the future even though we use past income as a gauge'.
Fellow GPC member Lam Pin Min, however, argued that the means testing system is 'dynamic' - it will accommodate a patient who has taken a pay cut by bumping up his subsidy accordingly.
But he urged the Government to show compassion, especially when assessing older patients' eligibility for subsidies.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday promised to do so. He told The Straits Times: 'We have and will always be sympathetic to those in financial difficulties. That is why we have significantly ramped up Medifund disbursements this year and the next.
'If the patient's employment condition has changed from the historical record in CPF, we will certainly take that into account.'
But some retirees are not taking chances. A former teacher who lives in a terrace house said he plans to start declaring an income of a few hundred dollars a month for giving tuition.
This way, he can continue getting the full subsidy if he is hospitalised, even though he lives in a relatively expensive house.
Details of how much they earn, however, will not be disclosed to counter staff, who will know only the subsidy band into which patients fall.
A Health Ministry spokesman said hospital admission systems will be linked to the Central Provident Fund Board and to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore so the subsidy level can be calculated and bill estimates presented to patients.
Patients may refuse to have their incomes checked. But this will mean they will automatically get the smallest subsidy - 50 per cent for treatment in a B2 ward and 65 per cent in a C-class ward.
Up till yesterday, B2 and C-class patients got their respective flat subsidy rates. From today, patients in these two ward classes will fall into one of 16 subsidy levels.
Those earning $38,400 or less a year will continue getting the full 80 per cent subsidy in C class and 65 per cent in B2 class. People with annual incomes of $62,412 or more will get the minimum subsidy of 65 per cent in C class and 50 per cent in B2 class.
People with no income, such as retirees or housewives, will have their subsidy rate pegged to the value of their homes. If their homes are valued at $11,000 or more, they will get the minimum subsidy. About a fifth of all homes fall into this category.
All unemployed residents of HDB flats - excluding those in executive condominiums - will be entitled to full subsidy.
Following a policy started two years ago to put citizens above non-citizens in health benefits, permanent residents will receive 10 percentage points less subsidy than citizens with the same income.
A permanent resident in a C-class ward, for example, will get a subsidy ranging from 55 per cent to 70 per cent.
Although today is the start date for means testing, patients who will be admitted for treatment later this month but who have already done their pre-admission registration will continue to be subsidised at the old rate regardless of their incomes or house type.
The same applies to patients already in hospital by yesterday.
Member of Parliament Josephine Teo, who is on the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, said that when the introduction of means testing was debated, 'no one could have foreseen the dramatic change in economic conditions'.
She suggested that 'the assessment of means must look to the future even though we use past income as a gauge'.
Fellow GPC member Lam Pin Min, however, argued that the means testing system is 'dynamic' - it will accommodate a patient who has taken a pay cut by bumping up his subsidy accordingly.
But he urged the Government to show compassion, especially when assessing older patients' eligibility for subsidies.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday promised to do so. He told The Straits Times: 'We have and will always be sympathetic to those in financial difficulties. That is why we have significantly ramped up Medifund disbursements this year and the next.
'If the patient's employment condition has changed from the historical record in CPF, we will certainly take that into account.'
But some retirees are not taking chances. A former teacher who lives in a terrace house said he plans to start declaring an income of a few hundred dollars a month for giving tuition.
This way, he can continue getting the full subsidy if he is hospitalised, even though he lives in a relatively expensive house.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Savings in CPF Funds Hit
Investments of retirement savings in stocks and units trusts made under the Central Provident Fund Investment Scheme (CPFIS) have taken quite a hammering in the global market meltdown.
Nearly half of all CPFIS investors who sold their Ordinary Account investments in the year ended Sept 30 - 440,000 CPF members, or 49 per cent - have lost money, up from 43 per cent a year earlier.
One such investor, school teacher Ms Catherine Lee, 40, got cold feet after her CPFIS investment lost 30 per cent. She could not stomach any more losses. 'I made a loss of $10,000 after selling off my unit trust investment in September. The market was very volatile. I preferred to bite the bullet and realise the loss rather than to wait and see.'
Another 279,000 or 31 per cent of OA investors made modest profits but would have been better off, or done just as well, leaving the cash to earn the Ordinary Account 2.5 per cent interest rate. This was up from 29 per cent a year earlier.
Only about 174,000 members, or 20 per cent - down from 28 per cent - made profits from their CPF savings over and above the 2.5 per cent they could have earned anyway.
For everyone else, who left their investments in place rather than sell, the picture was also quite bleak.
Overall, CPFIS investments in stocks, units trusts and property funds were well in the red, on paper. Only bonds, as well as gold, were in the black.
The CPF board attributed the poor performance to the financial meltdown which has hurt investment returns.
'The market has turned sharply from the bull market in 2007 to a bear market this year. Well-known financial institutions taking massive write-down coupled with a series of collapses such as Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mae, Lehman Brothers and AIG injected much panic and volatility in the market,' it said.
Straits Times 22 Dec 2008
Nearly half of all CPFIS investors who sold their Ordinary Account investments in the year ended Sept 30 - 440,000 CPF members, or 49 per cent - have lost money, up from 43 per cent a year earlier.
One such investor, school teacher Ms Catherine Lee, 40, got cold feet after her CPFIS investment lost 30 per cent. She could not stomach any more losses. 'I made a loss of $10,000 after selling off my unit trust investment in September. The market was very volatile. I preferred to bite the bullet and realise the loss rather than to wait and see.'
Another 279,000 or 31 per cent of OA investors made modest profits but would have been better off, or done just as well, leaving the cash to earn the Ordinary Account 2.5 per cent interest rate. This was up from 29 per cent a year earlier.
Only about 174,000 members, or 20 per cent - down from 28 per cent - made profits from their CPF savings over and above the 2.5 per cent they could have earned anyway.
For everyone else, who left their investments in place rather than sell, the picture was also quite bleak.
Overall, CPFIS investments in stocks, units trusts and property funds were well in the red, on paper. Only bonds, as well as gold, were in the black.
The CPF board attributed the poor performance to the financial meltdown which has hurt investment returns.
'The market has turned sharply from the bull market in 2007 to a bear market this year. Well-known financial institutions taking massive write-down coupled with a series of collapses such as Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mae, Lehman Brothers and AIG injected much panic and volatility in the market,' it said.
Straits Times 22 Dec 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Business Week Poll: What Investors Are Thinking
The views of U.S. investors in the aftermath of the financial crisis:
If you have to choose the one investment that you think would be the best to make right now, what would it be?
1. Common stock
2. Government bonds
3. Real estate
4. Mutual funds
5. Bank or savings or loan deposits
6. Moneny market funds
7. Gold or other precious metals
In the long run, what sort of total returns (capital gains plus dividends) do you expect the stock market to produce for you?
49%: 5% to below 10% a year
24%: 10% to below 12% a year
10%: below 5% a year
8%: 12% to below 15% a year
5%: 15% or higher a year
4%: don't invest in stocks
How helpful or harmful has your adviser's advice been throughout the past year?
Very helpful: 23%
Somewhat helpful: 35%
Neither helpful nor harmful: 29%
Somewhat harmful: 10%
Very harmful: 3%
Extracted from: Special Issue: Investment Outlook, Business Week Dec 29, 2008
If you have to choose the one investment that you think would be the best to make right now, what would it be?
1. Common stock
2. Government bonds
3. Real estate
4. Mutual funds
5. Bank or savings or loan deposits
6. Moneny market funds
7. Gold or other precious metals
In the long run, what sort of total returns (capital gains plus dividends) do you expect the stock market to produce for you?
49%: 5% to below 10% a year
24%: 10% to below 12% a year
10%: below 5% a year
8%: 12% to below 15% a year
5%: 15% or higher a year
4%: don't invest in stocks
How helpful or harmful has your adviser's advice been throughout the past year?
Very helpful: 23%
Somewhat helpful: 35%
Neither helpful nor harmful: 29%
Somewhat harmful: 10%
Very harmful: 3%
Extracted from: Special Issue: Investment Outlook, Business Week Dec 29, 2008
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