insurance cheap: Oct 4, 2010

Monday, October 4, 2010

Banks offer innovative term deposit products

Standard Chartered Bank yesterday unveiled a step-up 12-month time deposit which allows for early withdrawal but rewards savers if they leave the funds for the full period.

The step-up time deposit pays up to one per cent if the funds are left for the entire 12 months, said Stanchart.

For the first three months, the deposit earns 0.3 per cent, with the interest rate increasing to 0.4 per cent for the next three months; 0.6 per cent for the third three-month period and one per cent for the last three months.

The average interest rate works out to 0.58 per cent for 12 months.

Another bank with an innovative time deposit product is Maybank which is throwing in a lucky draw of $1,000 Best Denki vouchers.

Its online isavvy time deposit pays an upfront interest of 0.25 per cent and the rest of the interest upon maturity of the deposit. isavvy offers time deposits with maturities ranging from three months to 36 months.

The highest interest rate of 1.85 per cent is for the 36-month time deposit for amounts between $250,000 and $1 million.
Maybank's promotion ends on Nov 30 this year

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,406928,00.html?

Asia Europe Foundation

There are two interesting discussion in the conference in Brussels (where PM Lee Hsien Loong was supposed to speak but had to return due to the demise of his mother).

The topics are:

Who should pay for the cost of higher education?
Giving citizens access to information is a way to combat corruption.

www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx

Happy Planet Index

The speaker talks about how we have been focusing on the negative side of life - fear and greed. He suggests that we have to focus on the positive side. View it.

www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx

Yield on investment

This article explains how you can use Excel to calculate the accumulated amount of your savings and the net yield after allowing for the effect of deduction of a life insurance policy.

www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

How to read the benefit illustration (ILP)

Some consumers find it difficult to locate the relevant figures from the benefit illustration to compute the effect of deduction as a percentage of the accumulated premium (to compare against the benchmark of 20%) for 25 years.

This article shows how you can get the relevant figures from a Benefit Illustration to see if you are getting a fair yield on your life insurance policy. It applies to an investment-linked policy. (Note: A different format is used for a participating policy).

www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

Invest your savings

Here are some tips on how you can invest your savings in a low cost investment fund to earn a target yield of 5% per annum, and manage your risk over the long term.
www.tankinlian.com/latest.aspx

How nations are trapped by globalisation

The problems faced by Singapore are predicted in the book entitled "The Trap" by James Goldsmith.
www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx

America's deepening moral crisis

The language of collective compassion has been abandoned in the U.S.,

and no politician dare even mention helping the poor.
www.easyapps.sg/sgep/latest.aspx

My view
Many countries, including Singapore, have a wide disparity in income distribution. Some people are super rich but many others are poor. I have said, "to support every rich billionaire, we need many hundred thousand people to be poor". Some disparity of income is necessary to get people to work a little harder, but extreme disparity is exploitation - as it forces the lower income to work so much more hours, just to earn enough to pay for the cost of living.