Retire in Style in Thailand for Singaporeans- Bangkok n etc

Contributed By: The Big Fat Whale

After our previous article on retiring in Johor Bahru for Singaporeans, we bring to you the idea of retiring in Thailand for Singaporeans in style.

It has been a choice weekend getaway to Bangkok for some retail, massage and food therapy. Or we could laze around on the pristine beaches of Phuket or Krabi. Not forgetting the charm and rustle of Chiang Mai and Hua Hin.

I guess the usual mirage of chilling by the cafe and having a laid-back retirement in a paradise setting is just such a nice picture of how we want to retire.

If we are still on to some online gigs or even trading and investing in the markets, it would be a good source of additional income while retiring.

Not forgetting the cost of living would be much lower than Singapore, which this article will be looking to unravel through the subsequent sections of this article.

Thailand is just a short air flight but in terms of distance, it would not beat JB which is a short MRT ride. Therefore, to have a full-time job in Singapore while staying in Thailand would likely not be a viable choice for those under employment.

 

Retirement Visas for Thailand

Before we can apply for a retirement visa, you have to be 50 years of age. So for those who have FIRE in their 30s, you might have to explore other options to have a long stay in Thailand (30 days for a normal trip based on Singapore’s visa exemption).

The applicant has to meet one of the following financial requirements:

• Hold a deposit of no less than THB 800,000 in a Thai bank account for at least 3 months.
• Receive a monthly income (including pension) of at least THB 65,000. As proof of monthly income, an affidavit must be obtained from the applicant’s embassy or consulate in Thailand.
• A combination of bank deposit and a yearly income of no less than THB 800,000. As supporting evidence, an updated bank book or letter from both the applicant’s bank and embassy must be submitted

Other documents that may be required to be presented:

• • Police Clearance
  • Medical Certificate
  • Health Insurance

The visa is valid for 1 year and is renewable after that. There is also a report to be made to the immigration office every 90 days to update them on your residence in Thailand. To apply for the retirement visa, you must first apply for a 90-day visa and stay in Thailand for 60 days before you can submit your application.

Not too sure about yourself, but I certainly feel this process could be smoothen out as there seem lots of administrative matters. Moreover, it is just a 1-year visa unlike Malaysia which is granting a 10-year visa.

Click Here for the Full Article:

https://thebigfatwhale.com/retire-in-style-in-thailand-for-singaporeans-bangkok/

Retire in Style for Singaporeans in Malaysia- Johor Bahru

Contributed By: The Big Fat Whale

We believe that the escalating costs in recent times have really made us wonder if retirement is even possible. Do we have to work till much older than the legal retirement age of 63 years old? Are we able to retire in style?

Therefore, quoting from Bruce Lee, we should: "Be like Water", adapt to the conditions and be open-minded about the options available. We can create a greater lifestyle, lower our cost of living and embark on an incredible adventure.

With a lifestyle arbitrage, using the same amount of retirement funds, we could stretch our scarce funds or have an upgrade in living standards.

We decided to start a retirement series with Malaysia as our first coverage.

Our focus will be retiring on Johor Bahru as it might be one of the more viable options for Singaporeans. Other popular spots in Malaysia are Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Malacca.

 Malaysia Long Term Visa

So for a start, we will look at the requirements for a visa to have this sort of living arrangement.

For Singaporeans, there is no need for a visa if you do not intend to stay for a period exceeding 30 days. So in theory, you just have to clear the customs every month in order to renew your 30 days.

We are not sure if there will be issues if you keep crossing the border especially if you are still working. There could be a need for you to pop by your office a couple of days a week.

From the interviewees from this article by Channel News Asia, Work from home in JB: Some Singaporeans are relocating amid border reopening, hybrid arrangements, it seems there should not be too much of a problem with regards to not obtaining visas for Singaporeans intending to embark on this lifestyle.

Nonetheless, for those who want everything sorted out and be by the book, there are two visas that you could find applicable:

 

Malaysia My Second Home Program

To qualify for this program, the applicant must have liquid assets of at least MYR500,000, a monthly regular income of at least MYR10,000 and make a fixed deposit in a Malaysian bank of MYR300,000, half of which can be withdrawn to buy a house, purchase health insurance or pay for their children’s education.

After two years, part of the deposit may be withdrawn to use the car purchase concession, as long as a minimum balance of MYR150,000 is maintained during the entire stay in Malaysia under the program.

Click Here for the Full Article:

https://thebigfatwhale.com/retire-in-style-for-singaporeans-in-malaysia-johor-bahru/

Dollar and Cents- Reliable Handyman Services

Here is another post for the Dollar and Cents series, where we have touched on cost-effective and good recommendations for things like Scrapping a Car, Buying a Piano, Repairing a Car in JB, Renovating a House, and Kid's Golf Lessons previously.

Given the numerous providers of handyman services, I thought it would be great to share a good provider who is able to not only provide quality work, at a reasonable price and gives a professional diagnosis.

The usual route when we have some handyman issues is to google for service providers and get quotes from at least 2 to 3 companies. For those who are not too savvy, you could be fleeced and it is not a good feeling after you discovered it.

I have engaged this company for a number of works and their price is reasonable (could be 30% lesser than those who are trying to carrot me) and quality of work have been satisfactory:

1) Replacing Water Tank (There was a 30% price difference from another vendor but waited 2 weeks for the appointment)

2) Rectifying Leakage from the water pipe (Needed drilling as pipes are hidden while another vendor suggested putting up exposed pipe that will uglify my bathroom lol)

3) Light Switches- Use the Honeywell Brand where the previous vendor use the MK brand that is not durable ( Got a quote of $129 for 2 switches as compared to another vendor that quote $130 for just 1 switch)

The downside is that their appointment slots would at times not be immediate and so for those situations that cannot wait, they might not be suitable.

I am not getting any benefits from doing this recommendation but just want to recommend a good provider and give credit when it is due.

Here is the link to their website:

https://www.everyworks.com/

Anyone who has other good and credible vendors can share in the comments section as sharing is caring. :)

Would you wait for a deceased for 9 years?- Story of Hachi

In the midst of the current gloom and doom of the war coupled with the fear of economic armageddon- tech and innovation stocks have already felt the ripples, it is good to take a step back and reflect on what really matters.

Over the weekend, I have caught this 2009 movie, Hachi: A Dog's Tale, featuring Richard Gere. It is based on a true story in Tokyo during the 1920s of a Japanese college professor and his dog. The professor passed away in 1925 due to a brain haemorrhage. The dog continues his daily ritual of waiting for his owner at the train station for 9 years before passing away.

There is a statue erected in memory of Hachi at the Sibuya Station where he has waited for his owner.

It certainly brings many thoughts such as life could be really simple with a simple goal such as for Hachi; which is to see his owner once again. The devotion, dedication and determination are what every one of us could learn from.

So if we desire a simple lifestyle, we could gain financial freedom earlier and do what we love and desire instead of it being another job. With the ever-increasing expectations- a bigger home, a better car and an ideal lifestyle- that society is piling on us and with simple goals- owning a home- fleeting away due to it being out of reach, it has even inspired the "Lying Flat" movement in China.

The advent of technology and social media, it has led to their own set of problems such as cyberbullying, wastage of productive time, scams and misdemeanours. Nonetheless, from the productivity angle, it has really helped to boost up the economy and address workers shortage issues.

I would strongly recommend this show as it would evoke not only emotions but hopefully self-reflections in these challenging times. It will make us more appreciative given that there are many that are worse off than us- imagine those in the war zone now.

Hope everyone would enjoy the show as much as I do. 

Life could indeed be very simple and meaningful.

Here is the link to the actual Hachi story:

https://www.cesarsway.com/hachiko-story-hachi/

Off Grid Living on $10 per year in Northern Thailand- Retirement Plan

In life, there are a few things that people would love to talk about. One of those is their ideal retirement plan and how they go about travelling and enjoying life in the latter part of their life. 

During my army days, I was doing guard duty during the weekend (Yeah got extra), we have a warrant officer who is known to be cranky and hard to handle. However, when I started diverting the conversation to his retirement, he really open up and tell me his grand plans. Life in the army was smooth sailing after that day for me, as I have established a great rapport with the warrant officer.

There is FIRE- Financial Independence Retire Early- movement going around especially in the US and Europe region. The goal is to accumulate a substantial amount of money- 500k to 1 million- by living frugally and investing well (In Index ETFs). Some are able to FIRE in their 30s.

Using the 4% rule, which entails withdrawing 40k annually on a portfolio of 1 million dollars, statistical studies have shown that you would never run out of money if you invest it in either a 60-40 (Equities and bonds mix) or all into equities. That is provided there won't be a great depression like 1929 which shed the index by 80%.

So it brings us to our title, Off-Grid Living on just $10 per year. Are you kidding me?

There was a recent video by the Retired Working for You channel, where he interviewed a Finnish guy who have settled down in an isolated mountaintop area in the north of Thailand- it is near Chiang Mai. I am not sure why but the video is now private and hence I am unable to share the link.

He spends around US$40k to build a house and acquired land to have its own greens for food. He also has his own solar panel and spare batteries for electricity use. There are half a dozen of huge water tanks that are used to collect rainwater for their water needs.

In a nutshell, he is able to self sustain no matter what happens to the world. The $10 per year is actually the cost for his cooking gas. That's all he needs from the outside world.

Life could be kind of extreme to live this way for city folk like myself- you have to do everything yourself and I believe there will be lots of manual and DIY work.

From my perspective,  I would rather just rent a condo unit for say US$350 per month and find meaningful things to work on (volunteering) or earn some income. 

Source: DD Property Website- This studio would cost US$350 per month and comes with a great pool and gym

Why earn some income?

In case the 4% rule fails, at least you have a backup plan to sustain your retirement lifestyle. You could be blogging or YouTubing and earning Adsense, and affiliate income. You could even set up a small e-commerce venture where Thailand is a good place to source products. Possibilities are aplenty.

If we add up the numbers, we could possibly live on an US$800 per month budget. If you owned a property in your hometown, you could rent it out and finance your lifestyle in a less expensive yet nice country with good food and nature.

Looking at the 4% rule, we will cater for contingency and round our monthly expenses at US$1500, which will be US$18k a year. You would need a nest egg of US$450k to retire stylishly in Northern Thailand. 

However, for those with kids, I guess it won't be so easy to uproot and hence this calculation is more for singles and couples.

So I hope you are as delighted as my warrant officer with this post that could set you thinking about your retirement.

Till the next blog post, stay safe and happy.

Food Economics: Char Kway Teow better than Zion Road Version

With costs escalating through the years and into the future, hawker food culture will be an essential part of our food economics to balance out our finances. I guess many will agree with me that it is more economical to buy out in a food stall than cook in if it is just for yourself or a couple. 

There will be a compromise in terms of a healthy diet as take-away from food stalls are usually more greasy and laden with msg. Nonetheless, we could choose healthier options and make it part of our overall budget to make FIRE viable.

So it leads to this post that will come under my food economics series, where I try to highlight good foods at a reasonable cost which is similar to growth at a reasonable price in stocks analysis.

During New Year day, I went to try the Zion Road Char Kway Teow based on the Instagram post by Lady Iron Chef and many have also deemed it as one of the best. 

I just find it too greasy and overhyped- it was not the first time I have tried it but taken in by the marketing hype and long queues yet again.

I am not sure if many would know it, at just a stone throw from the Zion Road food centre, there is a Havelock Food Centre that has lots of hidden gems tucked away in an old estate with nice greenery en route to it.

So this Char Kway Teow stall, Meng Kee Fried Char Kway Teow, I find it personally much better than the Zion Road version. It is less greasy and overall scores higher in my humble opinion. I leave the in-depth review to the expert which is Daniel from Daniel Food Diary. Here is his review. If you want the healthiest version of Char Kway Teow, head out to golden mile food centre where it comes in with lots of greens.

There are also some notable stalls which I will recommend as I have tried them personally. We have the white bee hoon stall, the turtle and frog-leg soup stall- highly recommended, Nasi Lemak stall- the drumstick is to die for,  Kway Chap stall and Tan's Tutu. 

I find the laksa stall to be overhyped. The chicken rice stall is previously from Margaret Drive.  Lastly, the fish soup stall at the tail end always have a good queue but I have not tried it before.

Hope everyone will enjoy your food hunt at Havelock Food Centre. Most stalls are open till 2 pm so try to check it out during your lunch hour.

Dollar and Cents- Kids Golf Lessons

Just thought of sharing since i am at the range whereby my kid is taking his golf lesson,

Happy Weekend Ahead!

Dollar and Cents- Scrapping A Car

Recently, I just bid farewell to my Toyota Altis after 10 good years of service. There have been many memories but decided not to renew the COE and get a new ride.

Would just like to share the process of scrapping my car and hope it will be useful for those whom might be going the same path in the future.

As a general rule, you will usually get back around 50% of your car PARF value and a token sum for your car body upon scrapping your car.

For my Altis, I got all in around 9500 with car body raking in 800 dollars as i have changed the original colour. If not it would have fetched around 1000 dollars.

So the usual path is to drive to a scrap yard and you can actually drive in at the last day of the month of your de-registration if you want to max out your car usage. They will process the paperwork and you can get your car body value from the scrap yard while the PARF rebate will come in 2-3 weeks later from Land Transport Authority.

Do take note you have to get a transaction pin which you can do it online at the onemotoring website and will take around 2-3 working days to reach you.

I have google and checked with different scrap yards and found Absolute Motors to be more approachable (This is just my personal experience).

However, I decided to go with EC Scrap eventually as they provide me with the convenience. They will come to your place and take over the car. Moreover, they will pay you upfront in cash the PARF rebate and car body value. The customer service experience is also very pleasant. The car body value they have quoted is also quite competitive as I have done some comparisons. My scrapping deal was coordinated with Eugene and his mum Elaine.

For those, who want to keep the number plate for memory sake, guess driving to the scrap yard will still be a better option.

Happy Scrapping for those who are near the 10 years cycle.

Dollar and Cents- Buying a Piano

Just a couple of months back, we got an upright piano for my daughter who is enjoying her piano lessons. Therefore, we would like to share our experience in shopping around for the best value that we could find in the Singapore Piano Market.

For a start, there are many brands available such as Yamaha, Kawai, Hailun, Steinberg & Song and etc. Our main criteria are that it must have good resale value and would be able to last till Grade 8. We do not want to have the hassle of changing to a new piano and at the same time not able to sell it should my daughter lost interest in playing the piano.

We finally decided to get a Yamaha U1 which will cost around 10k Sgd if we get it brand new. With such a hefty price tag, we opted to get it from the resale market. We search all the classified websites (Locanto, Craiglist and Carousell) and Google on second hand piano shops. To cut the story short, these two second hand piano shops were shortlisted by us, Asia Piano and Piano Gallery.

At the end of the day, we got a Yamaha U3 which cost around $4900 Sgd as it is of a higher calibre and it would have cost 11k-12k for a brand new one. The Yamaha U1 was going for around $4500-$4600 and the Yamaha U1 tends to have a higher pitch sound while the Yamaha U3 has a more mellow sound. Each U3 tends to have a sound of their own but the U1 have a more universal sound. The age of our piano is around 26 years old and it is imported from Japan (domestic use). To know the age of the Yamaha piano, you can just look at the serial number and you can go to this link to have a gauge of how old your piano is:

http://www.markgoodwinpianos.co.uk/info/yamaha-piano-serial-numbers

As part of the package, we have two free tunings and several freebies thrown in. We got our piano from Asia Piano.

Dollar and Cents- Renovating a House (Choosing of House Furnishing and Accessories)

It had been a hectic time as I have just moved to my new residence. I have moved four times so far in my life and moving is really tiring and stressful while managing all the logistics. Hopefully this will be my final home where I can retire in, provided it does not get en-bloc.

As promised in my previous blog post, I will be sharing my experience of the renovation process and the purchasing of the different accessories and home furnishing. Sad to say, the renovation id that we got did not perform as expected. We have moved in for about 2 weeks but the carpentry works are still in progress. So we are basically still living on boxes as our consoles and wardrobes are still not up.

Lately, we have been busy sourcing out for the different home accessories. I would say we have more or less got what we wanted. Here are the list of vendors we purchased from and perhaps it could prove helpful to those who are in the midst or intending to do a renovation.

Aircon
Twin City Engineering Pte Ltd

We choose this company from the recommendation of our id and we did some price comparison with Gain City and Coolserve. Their prices are reasonable from the different quotes. We pay around $5000 for a system 4 Mitsubishi Electric whereby we change all the pipes and all pipes are concealed. We were deciding between Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries but choose Mitsubishi Electric after doing some on-line research.

Curtains
MGL Curtains

We were deciding between D Zander which is the sponsor for Xiaxue home curtains and MGL. MGL won us over as they have the fabrics that we want. Jimmy Textile in Katong seems to offer reasonably priced curtains too but we were to lazy to go over to do some comparison. We get MGL to do a wall paper, one set of master bedroom day and night curtains and three window blinds for the bedrooms and living room, we spend around 1700 dollars.

Kids Beds and Table
Piccolo House

We search quite a while for the furniture of our children's rooms. Piccolo House was our final choice as we feel their finishing and pricing are better.

Kitchen and Toilet Accessories
Adamas and GR Link

We kind of regret hacking away the toilet bowls as it seems to be of the Toto brand. Ironically, we got back the same brand and Adamas in Jalan Besar offered around 30% discount off the list price whereby the main Toto distributor, W.Atelier, offered around 20% discount. It set us back around 1200 dollars for two wc plus a Toto rain-shower set at 700 plus. A more high end Baron or Aquino wc would cost around 300 to 350 each while a less branded rain-shower set could cost between 200-450 region.

GR Link generally offered reasonable price for toilet and kitchen accessories whereby we got some of our stuff there too. The shop beside GR Link is also worth a look at.

Kitchen Stove, Oven and Hob
Mayer and Lion City Trading

We got a package which comes to around 1000 dollars for stove, hob and oven from Ariston which had got good reviews as compared to similar priced brands such as EF.

We got our build in microwave oven from Lion City Trading which offers pretty good deals.

Lighting
BL Lighting

We settled on BL Lighting (Jalan Besar) 5 inch LED downlight at 39 dollars each with 2 years warranty. The lights quality are pretty good. The normal non LED downlight would have cost around 26 dollars.

Store Room Racks 
Yee Sin

We got our bomb shelter storage racks form Yee Sin and they do have it in all white racks. I guess it looks more pleasing to the eyes.

Hope this list will be helpful for your renovation process.

Lee

Dollar and Cents- Renovating a House (Choosing Interior Designers and Contractors)

It has been a long while since my last post as I was away to France for a free and easy tour with my family which I will try to do a posting on it. Also, I am currently doing my renovation for my new apartment.

I hope to share my experience for the renovation process so others could perhaps benefit from it and be able do a better budgeting with cost savings in mind.

Before the renovation and short-listing of interior designers and contractors for our home, I have been religiously buying the Home and Decor magazines and also browse the other interior design magazines in the petrol kiosk rack since the start of the year to get ideas for our home. We also google and research on the web whereby renotalk and hardwarezone forums were very useful. There are also individual blogs such as those of Xiaxue and there is one which is really good whereby he actually went to around 10 interior designing firms to get a quote (I can't recall off hand his blog address but will upload it if I managed to find it). Along the way, my wife and I started to short-list those designers that we kind of have a good feel  from their portfolio showcase in the magazines and reviews from the web.

We ended up with a final list of 3 Interior Designing firms (1 is from the magazine approach, 1 is introduced by a client and another is my wife's contact) and 1 contractor (Recommendation by a friend).

This is the short-list of things we wanted to do:

1) Hack 3 walls and erect 3 new walls
2) Overlay Kitchen floor tiles and walls tiles
3) New wardrobe for master bedroom and two other rooms.
4) 2.2m full height console
5) 2m full height console for master bedroom
6) Hack master bedroom toilet and total overhaul
7)Overlay floor tiles for common bathroom
8)False Ceiling for Master Bedroom and Son's Bedroom
9)Polish marble floor, parquet and common toilet marble walls.
10)Custom made shelving and study table for son's room.
11) Custom made study table with shelving in master bedroom.
12) Kitchen Cabinets and a standalone cabinet for built in microwave and built in oven.
13) Electrical Works
14)Painting
15)Vanity top and mirror cabinet for common bathroom with a new shower screen

There were some good ideas suggested by the Interior Designers that we have met especially the one that was introduced by my client whom is very experienced in the business. We got quotes from all of them whereby the contractor came in with the lowest quote and we were tempted to pass the project to him as my friend have rave reviews of his work. However, my friend just did his kitchen and not the whole house.

We decided to go with my wife's contact at the end cause we feel an interior designer might be able to execute our theme better. Moreover, his rates are reasonable and not way off the contractor quote. As for the other Interior Designers, their quotes could be around 30-50 percent more than the quote I got from the interior designer that we went with.

Partly, they are from a more reputable interior designing  firm which means they do charge 7% GST which my current interior designer and the contractor does not charge as he just started his own company for around 3 years. This could be quite a lot of cost savings which you can utilise to make another wardrobe or for your furniture budget.

That's all for now and I will carry on with further posts on my renovation process. We are in the midst of buying the appliances, furniture, curtains and etc.

Lee

Parenthood Rebate for Self Employed

This has been a scheme that have been around for a few years but I did not really knew about it till I was browsing through the CPF website a few years back.

This basically allows you to claim up to 3 days of parenthood child care leave from the government. We are granted 6 parenthood child care leave per annum but the government is only going to pay for 3 days. The awareness of this scheme is basically more applicable for those self employed. For those employed, your HR department will handle the claim.

The limit you can claim per day is $500. You can go to the CPF website and under the self employed section, you should be able to find the on-line claim for parenthood child care leave.

For self employed, other things to take note is to try to contribute to your SRS and CPF to reduce your tax liabilities which have been widely covered. For your CPF, you can use it finance your house mortgage payments so I don't see any huge disadvantage in contributing.

As for SRS, you can use it to buy blue chips stocks or unit trust and would be a good supplement to your retirement fund.

The current cap for CPF contribution for self employed is around $30,000 and for SRS will be around $11,500.

Lee

Beware of Leveraged and Representative Exchange Traded Funds

With the evolution of the ETFs  market, they now covered numerous products and varieties. You are able to go long or short and you are able to take a leverage position of up to 3X. There is even a Bitcoin ETF in the making.

Most of the interesting ETFs are listed in the US markets whereby some are seriously just not suitable for the normal retail investors due to their structure.

The advantages of the ETFs have been widely preached with empirical studies showing most fund managers are not able to out-beat the market. So a passive approach with lower management fees and expense fees would be considered a more effective way of getting exposure to the markets. However, with the sales charges of most unit trust being cut to close to 0.5%-0.75% and if you chance upon a promotion, it could be even zero percent.

So this brings unit trust to be on a more level playing field. The spread of ETFs plus the brokerage commission could be equivalent to the 0.5%-0.75%. This brings it in line with the sales charge of unit trust. So the only thing that ETFs stand out will be the management fee which usually gives it an edge of around 0.5%-1% per annum.

However, some of us would not mind paying the extra in the quest to find the next Warren Buffet or Peter Lynch whom are able to give us market beating returns.

ETFs are mainly divided into replication and representative types. Replication types usually will buy the physical underlying to replicate the performance of the markets. On the other hand, Representative types are usually structured using derivatives products.

For those who are dealing with Representative ETFs and with added leverage feature, you have to be "Ready to Trade" rather than have a "Buy and Hold mentality". Most Representative ETFs make use of futures products to create a proxy for the underlying. Most futures exhibit Contango characteristics which means longer term futures contract are trading at a higher price than shorter term futures contracts which are usually traded as they are the most liquid.

So whenever the shorter term contracts expired, the ETFs managers would have to roll over to the next contract which they have to get at a higher price so it will lead to an erosion of the Net Asset Value since he can only buy fewer contracts. If you add leverage to the picture, it is definitely not an exciting proposition for buy and hold investors.

Citing an example, Ultra Short Vix ETF (UVXY) which has a leverage of 2X and was trading at around $11-$12 when Vix was near their range low of around 12 in Febuary 2013. Recently, VIX is back to around the 12 level and the same ETF is trading at around $3.5 (Not taking into consideration the 10 for 1 consolidation). Enough Said I Guess.

To conclude, for buy and hold investors, just stick to the normal replication ETFs with no leverage. For those into leverage and representative ETFs, do take it as a trading instrument which I personally will not hold for more than a month, unless it is moving in sync with your intended direction.

Lee

Dollar and Cents- Repairing a Car in JB (Is it Worth it?)

My current ride is coming to the 6 years mark and is starting to show problems due to wear and tear. I will just like to share my experience of repairing and replacing the different parts due to wear and tear through these past two months. For a start, I am driving a Toyota Altis 07 model.

I have re-sprayed the car earlier this year and have changed the colour. Due to the sky high COE price, I am likely going to drive it all the way till this car's COE expiry. Therefore, I guess this is a worthwhile investment to make me feel that I am driving a new car :). The cost of this vanity is around 1300 dollars.

The car started showing problems 2 months back with the battery first to go. I was unable to start the engine at all, I managed to find someone to come over to my place and replaced my car with an Amaron battery for around 150 dollars.

Next, my side mirror started to give a hissing sound and the root cause was a problem with the motor mechanism which means you have to change the whole side mirror. My fan belt is also starting to show cracks. The cost of replacing for the side mirror was 200 dollars and the fanbelt was 100 dollars.

After which I went to JB to do my servicing, it cost around 80 sgd whereas it cost from 140-160 sgd in Singapore. Thus, you can save about 50 percent. Also, I changed my air-con and engine filter plus a spark plug. On top of that, I change my car's auto transmission oil. All in, it comes up to around 200 sgd.

The mechanic advised me to change my front absorber but even though I did find the ride a bit bumpy but thought I can drag it for a while more. An important point to note, if your front absorber is starting to leak oil, do try not to jack it up as it will lead to the front absorbers getting spoiled at an accelerated pace. After the servicing, the car's front absorbers totally give way but as I have an engagement in Singapore so I was not able to do the change in JB. I was quoted around 220 to 250 sgd.

The ride was totally bumpy and feel like a boat ride after the front absorbers give way. I checked with a few Singapore workshop and decided to go with one that charges around 300 dollars for the original parts as it is not far off from the rate quoted by the JB workshop. There was one which quoted 588 dollars as they say they have to change the mounting rubber and etc while another quoted 445 dollars. All are before GST.

After I reached the workshop, I found out that the quote was without labour and so plus the labour and GST, the cost was around 385 dollars. Since I am already there, I guess I have to just go ahead and the car was in urgent need of a pair of brand new front absorbers.

I did some research while at the workshop and found that the cheapest cost is to get the parts from the stockist and get the workshop to fix it for you. I check with the stockist and found that a pair of original front absorbers was just 150 dollars. The workshop quoted me 300 dollars for it.  Based on a simple calculation, with the labour cost at around 80 to 100 dollars, the total cost using this approach will be similar to the JB workshop quote and I can save around 100 dollars.

This is a sum up of the recent repair costs for my Altis:

1) Battery                150 
2) Side Mirror          200
3) Fanbelt                100
4) Servicing in JB    200
5) Front Absorbers   385

Total costs              $ 1035

To conclude, it is advisable to do your servicing in JB if you know any good workshops provided your car is a normal and not a luxury car as you can easily save 50 percent. For repairs and replacing parts, if you get from the stockist, the pricing will be quite similar to what is quoted by the JB workshops. I feel it  is more prudent to change parts in Singapore. If you let the Singapore workshop get the parts for you, the total cost is likely to be 50 percent more than getting them from the stockist. If you happen to go to a workshop that is trying to make you a carrot head, it could be 80-100 percent more.


Lee

My Take on Buy Term Insurance and Invest the Rest

The "Buy Term and Invest the Rest" concept has been around for many years and it is not something new. The main model behind this concept is to split the protection/insurance needs from your investment for retirement goals needs.

Insurance companies have try to bundle these two needs into investment linked plans whereby you will get protection and at the same time you are invested in unit trusts based on your risk profile. However, the charges such as sales charges and administrative fees could be quite huge relatively to if you do it on your own (Buying term insurance and investing in unit trust on your own). Therefore, it is not surprising that some insurance agents were pushing aggressively for Investment Linked Plans (ILP) to their less savvy clients as commissions are the greatest.

Insurance companies also offered other savings plans such as Endowment and Whole Life Plans whereby the insurance company will be in charge of investing the funds and generating decent returns for the policy holders. Majority of the funds will be usually invested in long term bonds. We will like to look at the track record and payout history of the separate insurance companies to have a gauge which company plans to choose (Thou historical record is not illustrative of future payout but at least it provide some sort of comparison and guidance).

Personally, we do not believe in an extreme buy term and invest the rest concept as we feel endowment and whole life plans adds a good dimension to your overall financial plans. It is a good way to force yourself to save and there is no temptation to dip into your investments for lifestyle needs.

For my own investment and protection needs, this is what we have planned. For protection needs, we have brought the SAF Aviva Group Insurance for both Death and Critical Illness as their premiums are really competitive. Also, we took up some SAF NTUC Group Insurance Plans. We have also taken up a mortgage declining insurance for our home loan with the bank. Not forgetting the usual health care insurance which we used our Medisave to pay for and using cash to pay for the excess waiver.These are basically term insurance.

For my kid's education needs, we have brought endowment plans that are due when they are about to go for their university education. So far Tokio Marine(Previously Asia Life) seems to have the best track record based on our comparison. However, we did diversify our plans and so we are holding policies with Tokio Marine, Manulife and NTUC Income for their education needs.

For my retirement funds goals, I am trying to segregate them into 3 sections.

1) My SRS is used mainly to build up a unit trust portfolio with some SGX listed Exchange Traded Funds as we are not able to invest in US based Exchange Traded Funds using SRS.

2) For my cash holdings, I am using it to build a portfolio of stocks. Also, if an opportunity presents itself, I will use it to pay for another property's down payment.

3) As for my CPF, I am using it mainly to pay off my mortgage and if there are excess, I will do some investments either through unit trust or exchange traded funds.

So hope my plans will work out fine and I will have a great retirement(Still a Long Way) with no worries about my finances.

Lee

Exposure to Gold and Silver

With Gold prices plummeting in the recent weeks whereby it breached the 1200 dollars level, it certainly doesn’t seem like a good idea to be holding gold at the moment. It has corrected close to 40 % from their peak of 1900 level. For those whom believe “To buy when everyone is fearful” theory, it is perhaps time to consider accumulating a position on gold especially if you have more of a medium to long term time frame. 

Some reasons advocated by gold bulls had been that it could be looked as an alternative currency. It seems like a good angle to look at especially with the current limitless money printing and quantitative easing by the major nations such as US and Japan. Also, it tends to serve as a good inflation hedge. Currently, it has not been favourable for gold as inflation seems to be under control.

There are several methods to gain exposure to gold or silver (Have a more volatile nature). These are some of the avenues you can look into.

1)     Exchange  Traded Funds (There is a Gold ETF listed in SGX)

2)     Gold and Silver Exploration Companies Equities (eg: Barrick Gold)

3)     Futures and Leverage Spot Products (Not for those faint hearted)

4)     Physical Gold and Silver

Personally I have a small allocation to gold for my portfolio. I have exposure using two avenues.  Firstly I have invested in the exchange traded fund utilising my CPF gold limit. I am also vested in Barrick Gold which is listed in NYSE.

I will be looking into buying physical gold soon through UOB bank which I will touch on in another entry.  I am looking at a long term time frame for the physical gold (Hopefully I can resist the temptation to cash in when gold prices start shooting up) as I am intending to pass it on to my two kids.

If you have the notion that I am extremely bullish on gold, then let me just clarify, I am not. Gold is likely to remain range bound in the near to medium term time frame after looking at their price action. Any upside should be cap at the 1500 levels.

Lee