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Singles and Singaporeans with Foreign Spouse May Now Buy Direct from HDB (BTO)

Source But limited to 2-room units in non-mature estate, that's okay, but what I read next was puzzling. If you are buying a 2-room flat in non-mature estates under the Built-To-Order System (BTO) exercise under the Single Singapore Citizen Scheme, Non-Citizen Spouse Scheme and Joint Singles Scheme, you must be at least 35 years old at the time of application . This kind of regulation baffles me, why 35? Who came up with this magic number? Don't anyone realize that we have to wait for a few years before we can actually move in? Well unless they have ready-built units then fine, buy at 35 move in at 35, but even so, why 35? If you think about how married couples can buy at the age of 21, or even buy before marriage (Fiance/Fiancee Scheme), then this 35 thing is absolutely rubbish. Aren't we all Singaporeans? What do I lack as compared to them? I did what I'm supposed to do, I am married, I want to have children, the only "problem" is my wife is a foreig...
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Bought Ticket for My Wife to Go Back to Thailand

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She will be leaving on 01 Aug, I know it's kind of rush but no choice because she is supposed to see the Haematologist at SGH on 02 Aug for her INR test as she is now back to Warfarin. The doctor in Thailand who operated on her will only be around on Tuesdays, so I'm trying to make sure she can get back home as soon as possible so she will have enough time to settle down and go see that doctor, and I'm also looking forward to this doctor's opinion. When my wife did her valve replacement surgery in 2010, the total cost including hospitalization in a 6-bedded room (like our B2 ward) for 12 days is more than 600,000 Thai Baht before any form of subsidy, let's just put it at 700,000 since we are going to compare with today's money. Yesterday the Cardiologist told me that a valve replacement procedure may cost between 30,000 to 50,000 Singapore Dollars, let's just take 30,000, and as for hospitalization charges, let's just say we stay in a B2 ward, accord...
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Good News and Bad News at SGH High-Risk Clinic

The good news is, the baby is doing fine. The bad news is, we have to choose between abortion or keeping the pregnancy but both carries an amount of risk. Another problem is the massive cost because my wife is a foreigner, it's beyond my financial capability. The following letter that I have prepared for her doctor in Thailand sums it all up. Dear Srinagarind Hospital Doctor, Me and my wife have seen the cardiologist (Mdm Tan Ju Le) and gynaecologist (Mr Tan Lay Kok) in Singapore General Hospital (SGH) on 29th July 2013. We have a medical report from the cardiologist specifying her prosthetic valve condition. This memo contains additional information provided by the doctors during our meeting, and also things that we need to bring to your attention. According to the cardiologist, my wife is likely to have moderately severe to severe prosthetic valve stenosis. The main concern is whether my wife can survive her pregnancy because there will be increased strain on her he...
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Get Stock Quotes with Yahoo! Query Language (YQL)

Code <b>Result</b> <div id="yqlResult"></div> <script> // prepare the request var yqlUrl = "http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql"; // this query will retrieve the Name, Symbol and LastTradePriceOnly for Semb Corp, CDL HTrust and Sheng Siong var yqlQuery = encodeURIComponent("select Name, Symbol, LastTradePriceOnly from yahoo.finance.quote where symbol in ('U96.SI','J85.SI','OV8.SI')"); var format = "json"; var env = encodeURIComponent("store://datatables.org/alltableswithkeys"); var request = yqlUrl + "?q=" + yqlQuery + "&format=" + format + "&env=" + env; // initialize the XMLHttpRequest object var xmlhttp; if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // for new browsers xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequ...
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Regarding First-time Consultation at SGH

Today I learned something that was quite surprising, on my way to SGH with my wife, a lady from the High-Risk Clinic called and reminded us that we have an appointment on Monday and we will be seeing two doctors, a senior Gynaecologist and a senior Cardiologist. She emphasized that the total amount would be S$180+ for first-time consultation, then I was puzzled as we have seen the doctors for quite a few times so I told her that and she said to hold on while she check. After a while, she told me that for the Cardiologist, it's our first time, so repeat for Gynae and first-time for Cardio, which is 79 + 109 = 188, but that's before GST, with GST would be S$201.16. Then it all made sense when I made payment for the Haematologist today, I was charged first-time consultation as well, so I'm sure that for every new type of doctor that we see, we will need to pay the first-time fee. But one good news from the Haematologist is, my wife can go off Heparin after we see him aga...
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S$1.7 Million Donated to Marina Bay Sands Casino Instead of Helping the Needy

Source An assistant director and a head of department in our anti-corruption agency, he is a man tasked with fighting corruption in Singapore and yet he himself is corrupted. 1.7 Million Singapore dollars can help a lot of needy people, all these are taxpayers' money, how can he allow himself to do it, what a scum. I always complain when I pay for inflation and income tax but I know ultimately the money will come back to us in different ways so I'm okay with it, but the government should really be more careful with our money, how can one man so easily siphon money out of the agency since 2008 and was only discovered in Sep 2012, I just find it impossible to believe for 3-4 years no one noticed, what happened to their audit? Either he is versed in magic or everyone in CPIB is sleeping, one man show? We are not talking about stealing money from the petty cash box, we are talking about large figure sums, should be at least 5-figure amount for each transaction, how can he so ...
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Be Careful with Starhub *138# Connecting Tone Service

Today I noticed an additional S$2.00 charged to my wife's mobile line and we have no idea what it is for, but I remember several months back they charged the same thing, I called them up and they waived and cancelled the charge for me. I also told them not to sign me up for it again. G Premium Services        Connecting Tones Basic      1Dwlds      $2.0000 I called Starhub customer service again and they told me it's a service whereby all callers to the number will get to listen to some music, I asked the staff why my wife's number was signed up again when she didn't do anything, the staff said maybe we re-contracted but I told him that was quite a while back (about 8 months back), but anyway he waived and cancelled the charge for me. Then I wondered why I don't get auto-subscribed since I'm also using a Starhub mobile line, so I checked up on the service and found some information here , there are a...
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Urging Singapore Government to Review Medisave Coverage

I posted this in REACH , hope it will get their attention... My wife is currently 11 weeks pregnant, she is a foreigner and she has a high-risk pregnancy. We have so far spent slightly over $2000 as pregnancy costs; consultation, ultrascan, cardiography, heparin, anti-xa assay and etc. Currently, we are only allowed to claim up to $450 for pre-delivery expenses, but as you can see, I have already spent far more than that, and this $450 can only be claimed provided the baby is delivered, quoting from MOH FAQ: Can  I claim Medisave for my pre-delivery medical expenses before i deliver? You may claim Medisave for your pre-delivery medical expenses only when claimed together with your delivery. You should retain the bills incurred for  pre-delivery medical care and present them to the hospital where the delivery takes place. The hospital will submit these bills, together with the delivery expenses, for Medisave claims under the Medisave Maternity Package. I just checked...
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Youths Insist Minimum S$10 Donation but Flees when Cops Arrive

STOMP - Singapore Seen - Youths insist on minimum $10 donation -- then flee when cops arrive Now that's really curious, why would they flee if they are doing it for charity? What are they afraid of? This reminds me of this tattooed guy soliciting donations at Tampines MRT station, not that I have a problem with tattooed persons but this guy is not even displaying his collection pass, he only shows a laminated card with pictures of children in need and asked people to donate. Something is really fishy about him, usually he will take a puff before going around to ask for donations, it just doesn't leave a good impression, a smoker asking people to donate to kids? Not that a smoker cannot do good, but smoking and charity don't go together, period. Anyway, I never donate to these collectors on the streets, if I really want to help, I would volunteer my time to any charity organization, blindly giving money is not helping, I really don't know where the money will end up,...
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GST Voucher - Cash Should be Based on Per Capita Household Income

This would extend more help to those with children because Singaporeans under the age of 21 are not eligible for the cash component, and most Singaporeans that age are usually studying or serving national service, or even if they work part-time, there's also a limit to how much they can contribute to the family. It will benefit families with kids, like my co-worker, he has 3 kids under the age of 21, I'm not sure whether his wife is working or whether she is eligible for the cash component but he for sure is not eligible because his assessable income is over the limit of S$24000. If I make a wild guess, let's say his total monthly household income is S$5000 and divided by 5 would be S$1000 per capita. As for me, my total monthly household income is S$3480 and divided by me and my wife would be S$1740, so actually I'm having an easier time than him. It's ok for me to not get the cash component since we obviously still can manage but as for him, he has a tougher t...
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Long-Term Visit Pass - Plus (LTVP-PLUS)

http://www.ica.gov.sg/news_details.aspx?nid=12665 Good news for those of us who cannot get PR for our beloved spouse, because the Singapore government has come up with a enhanced long-term visit pass called LTVP-PLUS or LTVP+. I'll sum up the key points in the FAQ provided by ICA so you don't have to go through one big page. Do let me know if I missed out anything or correction is required by dropping a comment. GENERAL LTVP+ will be in effect from 01 Apr 2012. LTVP+ holders will enjoy extended duration of residency, public healthcare subsidies and easier access to employment. No separate application required for LTVP+; an application for LTVP will automatically include your spouse for LTVP+, if eligible. LTVP applications submitted from 01 Feb 2012 will automatically be considered for LTVP+. The first approved LTVP+ will grant 3 years residency and subsequent renewal will be 5 years. Current holders of LTVP will be considered for LTVP+ on next renewal. If holde...
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How to Marry a Thai in Singapore

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You should refer to here -  https://www.rom.gov.sg/reg_info/rom_marriage.asp Please spend some time to go through and understand the information on that section (legal provision, other information, filing of notice, solemnization and etc), if your still not sure, feel free to drop a comment here or you can use their FAQ . The ROM website did a really good job of putting together the information that you need in a well-organized manner. I've done it once and I think the guide is very easy to follow. The only hiccup I've had with my marriage is during the  Appointment for verification & Statutory Declaration where both of us were required to read out a wall of text and my wife had difficulty getting past the first few lines and the counter guy got fed up and told my wife to stop. Definitely my oversight as I didn't arrange for an interpreter beforehand but luckily, there was a licensed interpreter at the scene and we managed to get her to do the interpretation ...
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Commission Calculator for DBS Vickers SG Stocks

Made this little tool to help me calculate the costs of buying or selling a stock, just enter number of shares and price and it will show both buy and sell costs at the same time. Can even choose by cash upfront, online or phone and it will calculate using respective rates. Cash Upfront ONLINE By Phone Shares: Price: Value: Commission: Clearing Fee: ...
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