Tag: t_fuxi

Singlife SSP #tips

Posted on by tiger40490

Every insurer/bank’s system has its idiosyncrasies, and can present a burdensom/recreational complexity. I find myself relying on the Singlife self-service portal more and more.

— FLI250 policy is owned by CIMB. Due to privacy, Singlife (hotline or SSP) will NOT disclose any details to non-owners like me.

— log in to MySinglife, not CustomerPortal

— Somehow, when I receive the sms instruction to check mydoc on SSP, I sometimes don’t see the doc

to see your police full listing, go to Insurance -> Policies.

The Insurance -> coverage (the default page) is less useful 🙁

— payment due dates .. each policy shows NextDueDate, but not the Giro date.

Giro date is in SMS (no log-in required) but you will need to save it somewhere.

AIA FFS$1476 policy: #30k ECI

Posted on by tiger40490

Name of policy: “AiaFamilyFirstSecure” aka AIA FFS

It’s possible to stop paying premium, keep the policy at a reduced SumAssured. AIA will deduct $28/M charges by redeeming from the investment portion.

SRS to pay for AIA premium? No

Anna sent me a 6-page benfit summary attached to her email

  • Early-CI 30k; 60k death benefit
  • am paying $1476/Y since we bought it in May 2014
  • “AIA US Eq fund”
  • https://sg.morningstar.com/ap/quicktake/returns.aspx?PerformanceId=0P00008T6U&activetab=TotalReturn has longest price chart
  • https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/AIAUEQU:SP

Buffett’s IBM “mistake” #hold to BrE

Posted on by tiger40490

99% of online discussions describe IBM as  Buffett’s misstep, but https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-ibm-very-profitable-171245620.html estimates that “As I noted in a previous article, this investment wasn’t a complete disaster. I put the estimated holding period return at 5% overall, including dividends.”

If you don’t read the fine prints, you would walk away with the wrong impression… Common System 1 weakness in news-based learning.

I think Buffett has in his career made many questionable buys, where he has to hold decades to breakeven, provided the asset is fundamentally productive asset, without erosive annual fees. I feel he can hold forever until breakeven of the asset becomes worthless like bankrupt. If he can, then I think he would.

[21]long trough: Nsdq(17Y), SP500(7Y),gold,,

Posted on by tiger40490

 

Xp: equity mutual funds — about 3 out of 10 funds get stuck for 5Y+
Xp: Majestic Village

Q: how long was the longest trough in the Nasdaq100?
A: 17Y according to https://www.investopedia.com/timeline-of-stock-market-crashes-5217820 and https://www.macrotrends.net/1320/nasdaq-historical-chart. Corresponding trough was 7Y in SP500.

On the basis laid out in big-ticket items pre55, here’s a follow-up question:

Q: if the amount of money is not-neded (i.e. I don’t have a need for the amount sunk in), then Why did I hate long trough in a liquid asset like stocks and gold?

This quesiton underlies my deep-rooted subconscious resistance to long-term commitments such as endowments.

A: I need the sunk-in fund to provide more current disposable income (for better commute, enrichment programs etc), higher brbr buffer, exclub(?), windfall profit(?). I hate to have my fund locked up while giving up these optial but “nice” things

Reality check — most of the time the “not-needed” condition is not 100% satisfied i.e. I do have something of a “need” for the amount. This reminder is very relevant for gold, and also (not for long-trough) HDB home upgrade.

[22]paypal: safety, US^Sg

Posted on by tiger40490

 

See also paypal.. forced closure

As of Sep 2024, my U.S. paypal account has $0.03 balance. Not worth the trouble.

An email address (rather than phone num) is the primary login for a paypal account. If an email address is linked to a paypal US account, then you aren’t allowed to link it to a Sgp account. You must use another email address.

Usefulness of paypal is in online payment (or transfer). There are really two ways. Not sure which is better.

  1. make use of the paypal infrastructure (not the paypal balance) as a gateway
  2. use paypal balance i.e. stored value in paypal. I call it the prepaid mode.

To increase the reliability of the prepaid mode, I would want to periodically transfer $1 from bank accounts into paypal.

— safety and liquidity of paypal balance .. balance in paypal (i.e. stored value) can move out relatively easily.  Therefore I don’t mind keeping a balance up to $100. Basically, I don’t worry about losing the value, becuase

  • Paypal has earned my trust. The audit trail is reliable so far.
  • the balance is kept small

It’s considered unsafe to keep paypal accounts inactive (breeding ground for financial crime). Therefore, Paypal would email periodic reminders to inactive account owners. If you don’t like those reminders, then better close the account. It’s easy to reopen paypal accounts.

##low-cost pain relieves #counsel`@chen2mi2

Posted on by tiger40490

How about mesh router? Sounds like creep.

How about Bata sandals as a pain relief? Depends on durability.

see also

“low-cost” is subjective (No debate please.) but Indisputable value-for-money.

  1. — half-ranked by impact and value of the pain-relief
  2. eg: dhost.. relieving those countless pains on the free wordpress.com site
  3. eg: small laptop with git-blogg .. without it I couldn’t work on my active ideas. A kind of pain.
  4. eg: 2-printer lifestyle, with plenty of paper + spare cartridge
  5. eg: standing desk .. often feels very comfortable. Therefore I call it a pain relief.
  6. eg: powerline networking .. relieving pain of wifi dead zone
  7. eg: $10 LED lamp .. relieving pain of power sockets + heat from a table lamp

Items below are medium-cost pain relieves.. not really belonging to this blogpost.

  1. eg: counselling on chen2mi2?
  2. ElderShield

The rest of this blogpost are extensions of the theme.

— Sophia Cui said cars are real pain relieves even in SG. I don’t understand it, but she  has freedom to spend her own money. Not low-cost enough to be a lifestyle creep.
— I asked Umesh why his stay-home wife needs a maid, when his 67-year-old mom can help with childcare. I liked his detailed answers.  I think old habits are the biggest obstacle, if someone in his shoes really wants change (i.e. remove helper). Many families similar to his could make do without maids.

One old habit is home-cooking-as-default. His mom is possibly rather old for a change in this habit, though some grandmas do change.

I guess the #1 decision maker is likely the wife (rather than husband or mother-in-law). Without the maid, the wife would take on most of the workload. Attitude and perception is possibly the key (difference from my wife). She actually worked for a while before having first baby, and after the baby girl grew bigger. She was possibly less used to stay-home-mom lifestyle than other Indian housewives.

— creep? Lifestyle_creep is a vague concept. This blogpost provides valuable clarification using sharp examples.
Jolt: dhost is a great example. I couldn’t afford it in my younger years.
Jolt: 2-printer does sound like unnecessary luxury, but so did powerline when first deployed
(jolt: two-car family sounds like creep, but so do my multiple laptops, but this jolt doesn’t belong to this blogpost.)

Q: What specific criteria disqualify dhost as lifestyle creep?

  • criterion: total hours saved (less measurable than $cost)
  • .. total annual cost is not really a criteria per se but a crucial factor
  • criterion: In hindsight, do you see it as wasted spend or overpriced product?

CPF-IS: FSM,agent bank #2merge with other post

Posted on by tiger40490

Selected FSM-stocks and FSM-funds can use OA under the CPF-IS, but biggest problem is agent bank fees.

For FSM-funds, there’s no upfront no trailer. Essentially free service by FSM.

For FSM-stocks, there’s no trailer but there’s a $10 minimum upfront (transaction fee).

For both, there’s an upfront and a trailer fee by charged by agent bank 🙁

investments: small recurring costs do Add Up

Posted on by tiger40490

past title: “investments: small costs AddUp to become significant”

— eg: commodities futures 1997 — My 11k loss was roughly equal to the $200+ commission for each $100k trade.
— eg: annual fee of mutual funds vs stock picking
— eg: FSM trailer fee — 35 bps/Y vs 0 bps if buying the same fund from a bank.
— eg: BGC monthly fees. HDB too.
— eg: pTax

long-term PFF plann: doubter QnA #一劳永逸 #w1r2

Posted on by tiger40490

A 2021 revisit — I told my friend Zeng that any financial planning (ffree++) is a piece of cake for some, if they ignore the black swans and missteps, which are often non-financial. Zeng felt many disasters can be managed with insurance. However, many black swans are not financial in nature and can’t be compensated by insurance. (Amputation compensation?)

According to the originator, black swans by nature tend to dominate the course of history , esp. over the long horizon.  [19]random derailers@ffree lists many swans+missteps, but today’s blogpost is absolutely not exclusive to ffree, so most of the contents do not belong to that ffree blogpost.

My conclusion after the discussion with Zeng — the longer your horizon, the more you will see your planning dominated by swans (+missteps), which are not mathematical and hard to estimate.

Below are some common questions from friends and advisers, on my long-term financial planning, including retirement planning. I like the questions to be phrased as sharp and specific as possible, rather than vague and broad.

This blogpost is not in-depth, but offers an across-the-board comparison.

— non-stop marathon, no 一劳永逸, limited profit Lock-in

Fundamentally, There’s nothing permanent when it comes to long-horizon financial planning. The harder you think and the harder you try, the more clear this becomes.

  • Prime example — Singapore’s stability, prosperity, hub status.. is never guaranteed by anyone and constantly under threat. Similarly,
  • Your wellness will not last. You can’t “invest” or “buy” 10 years of wellness like 一劳永逸. You must keep working on it. Daily battle. My dad and LKY are good role models. You can lock-in BMI, cardio, muscle improvements for a few months (flexibility? a few weeks) but there’s no “capture this gigantic profit opportunity and enjoy temporary retirement for 4Y“.
  • You career longevity is even more similar to the Singapore case. Body building (Continuous coding drill, QQ study..) is a lifelong hobby and training, similiar to fitness.

The worry about the uncertainty and impermanence is legit and can be life-enhancing #bbc.

— Q: can I maintain my low burn rate through retirement till my final year?
A: As show in G5 Shields@family_livelihood, this shield is in my hand. There are surely some derailers — random ffree-derailers #resilience is the best “derailer list” I have.

— Q: can I achieve career longevity like dev-till-70 and beyond ?
A: As show in G5 Shields@family_livelihood, this shield is probably even more in my control. I actively reject the pessimism expressed by Jason Fu and the like.

Some concern, some sense of uncertainty are completely legit and would motivate my diligence, self-improvement, close watch, detachment.

— Q: are the SG medical cost cushions sustainable and reliable?
A: I choose not to worry, and leave it to the PAP leadership and the healthcare industry.

— Q: is CPF-life reliable over my lifetime?
A: easy question. I think this is like questioning the insurance industry, insurance model. Annuity has been around for a long time, in many countries, not invented by SG government.

CpfLife (and other annuities) basically adress the CRBR, not the black swans.

— Q: how reliable are the other nonwork incomes?
A: less reliable than CPF-life. Therefore, I plan to liquidate some of them and convert to CPF-life, despite the inferior return and liquidity.
A: I don’t want to be too pessimistic. In fact, I want to be cautiously optimistic. Many retirees seem to receive fairly reliable rental and dividend incomes.

This question is most relevant to the 一劳永逸 concept. In theory, you can buy and hold a hero stock for life to receive high dividends, but in reality it’s like winning the lottery. See buy-n-hold a hero stock4div #ValueInvest. If it’s easy to get so lucky then why is it enviable in the first place?

— Q: how long is my good health going to last?
A: among these common questions, this question has the weakest answer from me. In fact I have no answer.

Some fear, some sense of powerlessness are completely legit and would motivate my diligence, self-discipline, close watch, detachment, kindness, generosity.