MTGS

Several SG government websites down since 1pm; IDA says it's planned maintenance Government agencies on alert after hackers threaten attacks Yesterday several government websites were down, not sure if it's related to the "hacker" group Anonymous, it's very likely for government sites to run their maintenance during weekends, also very likely during weekdays, but the crux is the timing, at 1.00pm? Nope, usually should be while users are sleeping, it just doesn't make sense to run maintenance when you know people are going to use it. Someone called it an attack, see following link. Singapore Government Under Attack I wonder if it's really an attack, from my experience, other than "hacking", systems do go down sometimes, faulty hardware, network slowness, application server cannot start up due to code error (happens when someone accidentally deployed problem code), there's a variety of possible causes, so it's hard to say. Just last

Source So something is going to happen on our tiny island? I wonder what will happen... Full transcript from the video: We are Anonymous and we believe that we have your undivided attention. We also believe that you have had the pleasure of meeting our comrade The Messiah, who demonstrated what a single Anon could do to your so call technologically advanced island. Now allow us to explain the objective of our recent invasions. The secondary objective was to welcome you to the new rule where ignoring the issues of your citizens will not go ignored by Anonymous. We advise you to stop feigning ignorance and serve the people. Any form of arrogant and ignorant statement from a person of position towards the people will not go ignored by Anonymous. Have you forgotten who you work for? Traditionally the workers respect the boss. Let us stick to tradition. But the primary objective of our invasion was to protest the implementation of the internet licensing framework by giv

5 Health Benefits of Smoking Years of Smoking Associated With Lower Parkinson's Risk, Not Number of Cigarettes Per Day I feel enlightened, for my whole life, smoking has always been linked to numerous health problems like heart disease, lung cancer and etc, now the articles say that smokers have a lower chance of getting Parkinson's Disease, knee replacement, obesity and etc, so actually smoking isn't all bad, but I'm not saying everyone should start smoking, it's more of a hobby to me. I'm a long time smoker, I have been smoking since I was 13, I used to smoke a pack of 20 sticks a day, nowadays I'm smoking a small packet of Storm King a day, it's a hand-roll type of tobacco, much cheaper than those boxed packs, costs me S$2.60 per packet, saves me a lot of money, of course not smoking saves me even more but it's really a negligible amount, some heavy smokers I have encountered smoked 2 packs of 20 sticks a day, Marlboro brand, I think it easil

Let's look at the recent Punggol BTO exercise. Punggol Sep 2013 Sales Exercise We use the maximum Square Meters (SQM) and the maximum price, as you can see, the bigger your HDB flat in terms of rooms, the more expensive it gets per square meters, does that make any sense to you? Shouldn't they charge the same price for each square meters? I don't know what's the logic behind that but it seems like you buy big you pay more, if I were to apply for BTO, I think I would probably buy a 2-room, cheaper to renovate, don't need to take a massive loan, probably only have to take about S$10,000 housing loan and that's it. And I like the 2-room type 1, it's just nice for me and my wife, and if I have a child in the future, I think it's ok, we can sleep together, maybe when he/she gets older we can plan for a bigger flat, but that's a long way to go, or maybe my wife wants the child to live in Thailand, who knows, so really no point getting such a big

Source DPU Up 3.9% Actually not just DPU, everything went up compared to the same quarter last year, which looks good, that means the 10 lots that I bought the other day at S$0.68 was a good buy, and today they closed at S$0.70, last few days was hovering at the S$0.68 to S$0.685 range, yesterday suddenly shot up to S$0.705, I guess people like this stock, me too, mainly because they have many properties, 48 as of now, and everything else looks decent to me, no complain.

Source 63 cases this year and over S$40,000 cheated from 26 victims, that means on average each victim was cheated of more than S$1500, wow, how can they just transfer so much money to strangers just like that, that's some easy money, too easy. Just think, if I were to get a fine from ICA, they won't call me up and tell me to transfer money to a bank account, ICA is a government agency, they are not a private entity, they will never ask you to transfer money to their bank account. And this is Singapore, every fine comes with a ticket or letter, in black and white, no paper no fine, it's that simple, and also, after you pay the fine, you will get a receipt, that's for sure.

Documentary about meth addicts, dealers, suppliers, shows a part of their lives, I find it very interesting, and shocking, especially the addicts, their lives revolve around drugs, only drugs, and their only friends are fellow drug addicts.

I was thinking as long as I'm in Singapore, I will never buy a car, the reason is obvious, I can't afford it, but when can I afford it? Let's see. I'm currently earning S$3480, after CPF and CDAC deductions, my take-home pay is S$2783, now let's look at my expenses. Expenses Give mom 500 Give wife 600 Myself 500 Mobile phone 46.65 Internet/Cable TV  66 Total 1712.65 Left 1070.35 I invest most of the rest, probably about S$800 a month, so I am left with S$200+, don't think it's enough to pay for one month's installment, unless I have another S$1000, I think that will help, that means if my take-home pay is S$3783, I think I might be able to afford a car, but that's provided I don't have children. So when will my salary hit S$5000? Maybe when I'm 40? By then S$5000 is probably not much due to inflation, and COE will probably be a 6 digit sum, when I think about this, it's quite scary, better try not to see too far, can get de

Super funny!

Source 94% will give up their seat to those in need There were at least 2 occasions since I saw these signs, in fact the signs were right behind these sleeping commuters and on each occasion there was an elderly standing right in front of them, suddenly all of them fell asleep! 96% will move in for others to board the train. No, I don't believe, just look at the center of the cabin, there is always some space, some idiots just refuse to move in, they rather use that space to read newspaper, play their phone or tablet, some even stick out their feet, hold the handle and lean on the pole, one person take up 3 person space. And those who get to sit, especially women, they like to sit with their legs crossed and their feet sticking out, come on, it's a crowded train, spare a thought for those squeezing at the train door area. 98% will queue up and give way to those alighting. Maybe, nowadays the queue thing became a trend, seems like most people are doing it, but giving

Last Friday I was doing up a user guide for a new system and I needed to provide a diagram to show an overview of the system but I didn't have Microsoft Visio, luckily I found this free web application and managed to quickly draw up the diagram that I needed, it was so simple, all I needed to do was drag and drop the shapes that I want to form the diagram, create an account and export the diagram into a picture e.g. jpg. I explored a bit more and found that there are so many types of diagrams that I can create, network, flowchart, UML, even ERD and floor plan! A Simple System Overview Created with Gliffy If your interested, here's the link .

This morning I overheard my colleagues talking about IPPT 2.4KM has been changed to 3.2KM but I was too busy to check it out. Then after I went home, I saw this news with an update from the army on Yahoo!. The army has clarified that there will be no change, well too bad, I was hoping they would come up with something new, the 5 stations are boring as hell, I've been doing it for so many years! But looking at the changes, other than the run, standing broad jump replaced with push-ups sound good, push-up is way easier than jumping, this can save a lot of people. Just read about this article saying 13 year old girls are running 3.6KM at cross-country , was quite pissed off when I read it, obviously the writer has absolutely no idea what he/she is writing, it's not all about the distance, we have different category, we have different timing, we have different consequences, so what if the girls lose the cross-country, nothing will happen to them, if we fail our IPPT we need to

From what I understand, Medisave is part of CPF, this whole CPF thing is meant to help Singaporeans save up for rainy days. CPF is made up of 3 main components, Ordinary Account for education, housing and some other stuff, Special Account is for retirement and Medisave is for healthcare, but today an incident made me lose confidence in Medisave. My mom went to the polyclinic because her forehead is swollen due to a fall, they directed her to CGH for x-ray, no referral letter, they simply told her to go there, so my mom went to the A&E and paid S$100 in cash, after that she did the x-ray, she paid another S$157.50, so today she paid a total of S$257.50 in cash, she has money in her Medisave, but they won't allow her to use it, and I overheard her telling my dad she's only left with S$10+ in cash. She's born in 1957, which makes her 56 this year, she's unemployed, financially she's mainly depending on my father, I do give her S$500 a month but that's for u

I think I saw this news a few months back but I didn't thought much of it, and today, I happened to see this news article on Yahoo, I read about it and found that CPE was trying to sue Ms. Han for defamation. This really kept me thinking, I don't really know much about CPE except that it regulates private schools like Informatics, MDIS and etc, it's like the private school watchdog to ensure they do things correctly, same like how IDA regulates telcos, see the recent record-breaking fine handed to M1 for service outage. CPE was only setup in recent years, I don't really remember which year but when I was studying for my private diploma and advanced diploma at Informatics, they didn't exist, and that was from 2004 to 2007. During that time, many private schools can suddenly close down, leaving many local and foreign students in the lurch, most lost their money and had no way to recover since the school owners went missing. Lucky for me, Informatics was one of t

Quite a while back, I saw a job offer at a restaurant, forgot which restaurant but they pasted this note on the wall beside their entrance which says something like this, "Seeking Service Staff, Filipinos Only", I thought it was very discriminatory, how come a restaurant running their business here in Singapore can post a job offer like that, right in public eyes, I wonder how many Singaporeans saw that. Please note that I have nothing against Filipinos, it could be Thais, Burmese, Indians or any other nationality, what annoyed me was they only choose a specific group of candidates instead of opening the position to anyone capable of doing it. Today I saw this, this one really ultimate, it was a job offer from this recruitment firm called Randstad . Source This position is open to candidates who are not Singaporean Citizens or PR. They actually posted " This position is open to candidates who are not Singaporean Citizens or PR. ", wow, I sure hope MOM is

Source As expected, they managed to come up with an agreement before the 17 Oct deadline when the US would hit the debt ceiling limit. And also as expected, they did not completely solve the problem, this deal merely funds the government until 15 Jan 2014, this is when they will face another government shutdown if they cannot resolve their differences. Another date was also set for the debt ceiling limit, it's on 07 Feb 2014, basically what this means is we will see another drama if they cannot resolve their differences before 15 Jan 2014. 01 Oct 2013 - Government Shutdown In between - Fight between Democrats and Republicans over Obamacare 17 Oct 2013 - Debt Ceiling Limit 15 Jan 2014 - Government Shutdown In between - Fight between Democrats and Republicans over Obamacare 07 Feb 2014 - Debt Ceiling Limit I know where the Republicans are coming from, they wanted to save money for Americans, they see Obamacare as general waste of money, I also know where the Democrats a

Seems like investors here and the US are not very affected by the debt ceiling issue, me too, I have confidence that the Democrats and Republicans can come to an agreement, just like what Warren Buffet said, "We will go right up to the point of extreme idiocy, but we won't cross it", he predicted a last minute deal that will solve the debt ceiling crisis. I just find the whole thing too dramatic, they are like arguing over something that needs to be done no matter what, why not just do the necessary and negotiate later? If the Republicans have problem with Obamacare, attack it bit by bit instead of putting their economy at risk, and Democrats should be nicer to them, I know standing firm is good, but not in the face of a potential recession. I think the shutdown is more of a problem now, federal workers don't get paid, their families suffer un-necessarily, even affecting US war veterans, these are people who have put their lives on the line for their country, how ca

Just noticed they actually give interest for money parked inside the CPF Investment Account, seems like it's given on the last day of the month, mine was credited on 30 Sep 2013. I had S$20,476.70 inside, now there is S$20,476.87, S$0.17 difference, how many percent is that? 0.17 / 20,476.70 * 100 = 0.0008% Very pathetic, but better than nothing since the money has to go through there anyway.

Initially wanted to buy 19 lots, but unfortunately there was a hiccup, my buy limit is only S$15,000, DBS Vickers suggested that I use up my buy limit first, then request a temporary increase to purchase the rest, but that will mean extra charges. The commission, clearing and trading fees are negligible, the problem was with the CPF buy charge, for every 1000 shares, there will be a S$2.50 charge, up to a maximum of S$25. You can get the full CPF Investment Charges here . Let's see the total cost of buying 19 lots at one go versus buying 12 and then 7. 19 Lots: S$22,239.85 19 Lots 12 then 7 Lots: 14,056.27 + 8,205.15 = S$22261.42 12 then 7 Lots Difference: 22261.42 - 22,239.85 = S$21.57 Hmmm... not a huge difference, actually this amount is negligible, assuming I have 19 lots and if there is a S$0.005 change in the share price, I'm looking at almost S$100 difference, but well, market is closed now, too bad. But today I was aiming for Cambridge, the s

Source The result is for 01 Sep 2012 to 31 Aug 2013. Profit after taxation (S$000) 2013 434,302 2012 586,648 Dividend 2013 Final S$0.08 Special S$0.07 Total S$0.15 Dividend 2012 Final S$0.09 Special S$0.08 Total S$0.17 Total Debt 2013 (S$000) 2,721 + 872,495 + 865,727 = 1,740,943 Total Debt 2012 (S$000) 3,293 + 301,582 + 978,740 = 1,283,615 Long-Term Debt 2013 (S$000) 872,495 + 865,727 = 1,738,222 Long-Term Debt 2012 (S$000) 301,582 + 978,740 = 1,280,322 Total Asset (S$000) 2013 6,373,354 2012 5,485,359 Total Liability (S$000) 2013 2,157,648 2012 1,732,183 Total Equity (S$000) 2013 4,215,706 2012 3,753,176 Gearing Ratio 2013 Total Debt / Total Asset = 0.27 Total Debt / Total Equity = 0.41 Long-Term Debt / Total Equity =  0.41 Gearing Ratio 2012 Total Debt / Total Asset = 0.23 Total Debt / Total Equity = 0.34 Long-Term Debt / Total Equity =  0.34 Their foundation is still very strong, but their newspaper and magazine revenue is declini

If you surf the internet while researching on your favourite stocks, no doubt you will eventually come across this term "Gearing Ratio", so what is it? Basically this tells people how much the company is borrowing to fund its business, too high means the company is at risk because it is over-leveraging, one good example is Lehman Brothers, before their collapse, they were owing way more than they were owning, so when they went bankrupt, there was nothing left to give back to shareholders, a lot of people lost their life savings. In the first place if they didn't over-leverage so much, they probably wouldn't have collapsed. If you do a Google search on "lehman brother over-leverage", sources say they leverage from 30-35 to 1, that means for every $1 they own, they owe $30 to $35. There are also a few ways to calculate a company's gearing ratio, but let's look at the Debt-to-Equity Ratio, where Equity means Shareholder's Equity. We will use the

Bought 10 lots today, wanted to buy with CPF too but DBS Vickers didn't raise my buy limit, I think maybe it's due to the SingTel fire, something wrong with their email, should have called them but was stuck in a meeting, or wait Monday see how, who knows it will drop, then even better to enter with CPF. I like this trust because it has many properties in Singapore and the dividend yield is high at 7%+ and has an increasing trend so far, was thinking of buying Sabana or Lippo Malls, but their prices increased beyond my target, I thought maybe as we get closer to the US debt limit deadline on 17 Oct STI might go down, but well, it kept going up since 07 Oct, I guess people are very sure the US won't default on their debts. But imagine the US went on to default on their debts, I think all stock markets will crash, so what will I do if STI crash? I'll wait, I won't cut loss, no point, instead I will buy more if I have spare cash, actually it doesn't really matt

Wow, there really is a fire, yesterday I overheard my colleagues talking about SingTel on fire, I thought it's some kind of new F1 promotion they are running, seems like many people were affected, from consumers to corporates, even DBS and Starhub were affected, but how come I didn't feel the damage, I was still happily using my fibre connection yesterday, my dad was watching cable TV, or maybe my line wasn't damaged or they rectified very quickly. I wonder if SingTel will be fined for this, I'm more curious as to how the fire started, how can it just start burning like this, maybe a sabotage? Anyway, it didn't seem to affect SingTel's share price, closed flat at S$3.75 today.

No hiccup, everything was smooth and we didn't wait too long until our turn, the officer said to wait between 4 to 5 months, I really hope my wife can get PR this time, if reject again, I will definitely appeal, I will want to know why, I will not allow them to happily reject me without giving any reason again. While at ICA, saw quite a few Singaporean guys with their foreign spouse also applying for PR, have Chinese, Vietnam, Indonesian, Thai, and also saw many foreign families applying for PR, Indians, Filipinos, Chinese, I wonder who will be the lucky ones, almost felt like entering a lucky draw. Looking back, this is the second time my wife is trying for PR, last time we tried was in May 2011, that time I was earning S$2850, now S$3480, my salary has increased about 18.1% over the course of 2 years and 5 months, I really hope this helps because this shows that financially I have no problem taking care of my wife, what else would I need to prove? If talking about years of re

Last Friday they suffered massive losses in their share price, today they took another hit. I hope nobody was doing contra during this time, the kind of losses we are looking at here is massive, more than 90% of your capital would be wiped out. These stocks are very risky, I have no idea how their prices even managed to get so high in the first place and the plunge last Friday was jaw-dropping. Heavy Losses I feel sorry for those who didn't get to sell before the plunge, or those who averaged down, even though I'm not invested but I feel heartache for their shareholders who probably are ordinary people like me, so much hard-earned money gone in just two days of trading. I hope SGX and MAS would thoroughly investigate this, there's just too much that has not been explained, a company's share price won't just drop from the sky for nothing, very fishy. By the way, STI closed at 3136 today, seems like getting lower and lower thanks to the US government shutd

If you look at their 1-year charts, their share price surged so fast so furious, and then last Friday their prices dropped from the sky, I wonder what's going on, those who bought at the peak price must have had a heart attack, that's why never ride on a bull, last week I was still looking up on LionGold's business because I was thinking of investing in some gold products, lucky I never took action, but then again, even if I really want to invest in gold, I would probably open a Gold Savings Account at UOB and buy using my CPF. Down Double Digit % Anyway, I promised myself not to dabble in such high-risk stocks again, my first and last such gamble was with Olam, lucky I only bought 1 lot so the impact was very minimal. Also note that this kind of stock does not give out much dividend, some don't even give, which makes it even more risky because when the price goes down, you have no choice but to hold on, or sell at a loss, but if they give decent and reg

The first time I tried, our PR appointment was on 23 May 2011, it was right after the 2011 Singapore General Election (held on 07 May 2011). At that time, anti-foreigner sentiments was strong so our government had to do something about it because the election results was shocking, they lost Aljunied GRC to Worker's Party, overall votes for the ruling party was lower when comparing to previous elections, obviously more people were unhappy with the government. After the GE, they implemented several changes so as to pacify the people, one of it was to reduce the number of foreigners in Singapore, reject immigration and work passes, I'm sure you felt the impact regardless of whether you are a Singaporean or foreigner, I think my wife's application was rejected due to that, otherwise I can't think of any good reason why it would be rejected. At that time, my salary was S$2850 thanks to a full-time employment in a good company i.e. I had a stable job, my wife doesn't

Just noticed that they changed the quick links, all the buttons are now located as a quick-dial button so that means I have to click at least twice to go to for example YouTube, I still prefer the old rows of buttons at the top left, and I only need to click once, should at least ask me if I wish to change. Quick Links Now On The Right

Yesterday I complained the website super slow, today it totally down, power la, now everybody cannot book IPPT, RT or IPT, I think have to call their hotline, must be super congested. I wonder how come they don't have a failover server i.e. when server A is down, server B can continue to provide service. NS.SG Down

Aiyoh, just want to check my IPPT award payment date, this ns.sg really cannot make it, been really slow recently, other times also slow, I think they are doing maintenance or something, shouldn't they at least let me know what's going on, let me know what to expect, or simply tell me to try again later, first thing that greeted me is always the slowness, I'm sure they also know it's damn slow. I know it's a free service but free doesn't mean it's ok for it to suck, see, from typing this post until now, it's still loading, what the heck, if the server can't deliver the content within an acceptable time frame, just show a maintenance message, don't make people wait for nothing, that is like so basic. Or not enough bandwidth, seems like the website is shared by Mindef, Police and Civil Defense personnel, I think it could be overloaded, there are so many national service personnel in Singapore, must be overloaded.

Damn lucky person, I bet this person must have fainted when he/she saw the result, sigh, why not me, I don't mind sharing with a few other people, even getting a S$600,000 is not bad you know. First thing I would do if I win such a big amount of money is to invest at least 90% into high yield stocks, the other 10% I would pay finish my wife's sinsod, probably also give her some money so she can buy a car in Thailand for her mom, then give some ang bao to my parents, go for a short holiday, and I'll definitely keep my job, well, I think that's enough dreaming for now. S$3.4 Million Single Winner

SHARK SAVERS Singapore I have tried shark's fin soup before, it was tasty, but I know actually it's the broth that's tasty, the fin itself is tasteless, smells fishy, it's like jelly without sugar, I think a chicken soup would taste much better. I'm okay with people fishing and cooking but the way they waste a shark is terrible, they cut off their fins and then toss them back into the ocean, leaving them to die in the wild. I think we should put a stop to this, people should stop fishing sharks just for their fins, it's like killing rhinos just for their horns, elephants just for their tusks, so if they are not going to make full use of the animal, they should leave them alone. The last time I ate shark's fin was at my best friend's wedding dinner a few months back, I think I will never purchase shark's fin, actually I never purchase shark's fin, I only ate it during wedding dinner, which is a once in a blue moon thing, and only during Chines

Her flight is confirmed and will approximately land at 7.51PM, really looking forward to seeing her, even though I don't actually say I want to see her but I really do, I don't know about other guys but I'm the don't-talk-much type, I don't go saying I love you, I miss you, I want to see you soon, it's too mushy, that's for the dating phase, after marriage, it feels kind of redundant, most important thing is I treat her well, action speaks louder than words you know. I wonder what she looks like now, probably looks darker because north Thailand is a very hot place, maybe she will look slimmer, she told me she is 61KG, used to be 64 or 65 when she was pregnant. I'll bring her to our favourite chicken rice place tomorrow, I know she must be craving for it, and also to Sheng Siong, she loves that place.

My IPPT started at around 4.15PM today, I only ate 2 sticks of Kit Kat since I woke up so as to prevent myself from feeling lethargic; I always feel sleepy after eating a full meal. I also drank plenty of water to ensure my urine was white, which is a sign of proper hydration, I also drank one small bottle of 100PLUS, and luckily the weather was cooling, there was a drizzle when the run started, so it seems like everything was set for my pass. Here's my score, by the way I'm CAT Y1: Sit Up: 37 reps = 5 pts Broad Jump: 216CM = 3 pts Chin Up: 8 reps = 4 pts Shuttle Run: 10.1 seconds = 5 pts 2.4KM Run: 12:33 minutes = 2 pts Total: 19 pts Result: PASS Award: INCENTIVE I in-pro at 3.51PM, out-pro at 4.53PM, the whole session took about an hour, so S$100 for one hour of my time, damn good money , and if I can run 12:20 and below for my 2.4KM, I would be eligible for Silver award which is S$200, maybe I should go try again since I was actually quite close, I actually hav

Source Today they gave free burgers for the first 1000 NSmen, the rest get to buy at half price, not bad, even a fast food restaurant knows to appreciate what we've done, the burger is not a big deal but it touches my heart, I really hope more people would give a damn about National Service. During my time, being in the Army means nothing, our salary makes our sacrifice look really stupid, I know we should have no complain serving our country but the salary is really pathetic, how can a soldier be paid less than a domestic helper? And then we get some CPF top-up, slightly more GST rebate, all of it doesn't really make up for our 2 or 2.5 years, it never will. Anyway, no point mulling excessively over it, if you got to serve, you got to serve, but it means a lot when people show that they appreciate our contribution.

Source First of all, either the father or mother must be a Singaporean. Next you need to know the type of Singaporean the father or mother is. Singapore citizen by Birth - born and raised in Singapore. Singapore citizen by Registration - converted from PR to citizenship. Singapore citizen by Descent - born outside of Singapore and acquired Singapore citizenship. If the Singaporean is father, he must have a lawful marriage before the child is born no matter what type of Singaporean he is. If the Singaporean is father and he was a PR converted to Singaporean, the child must not acquire citizenship of the country he/she was born in. If the Singaporean is mother and she was born in Singapore, the child must be born on or after 15 May 2004. If the Singaporean is mother and she was a PR converted to Singaporean, the child must be born on or after 15 May 2004 AND the child must not acquire citizenship of the country he/she was born in. If the Singaporean is father OR mother

Recently I learned that I can do that so today I tried doing it to my stocks page , looks more tidy now, if you want to know how to do it, it's very easy, just follow the instructions here . The best thing about this is you can set it to auto-publish, so whenever you update the spreadsheet, it will automatically publish to wherever you put the embed code, so you only need to update one place and that's your Google document. Now that opens up more possibilities, I was thinking of how to put tables into Blogger, now with Google docs, I can do that easily, and I think it's very easy to manage since I can name each file.

Last Friday I sold my 5 lots at S$5.14 and thought I got away with a decent deal and was happy with a small profit, today it went up to S$5.28, what the fish, how come everytime I sell something the price will go up, last time when I sold Singtel, it shoot up, then when I sold Olam, it shoot up too, then SingPost, it also shoot up, all right after I sell, if any of you want to know what stock will shoot up, come find me, ask me what I'm going to sell next, you may just get lucky. I also searched around for news on why the heck would Semb Corp rally but I can't find anything relevant, nobody seems to be talking about it but the price just goes up anyway, crap. Now I'm thinking of dumping my Sheng Siong and CDL Htrust, and pool all my money into buying Sabana, the yield looks very attractive, or maybe I'll buy Venture Corp, or maybe I'll just sell everything and wait for the next downtrend, which could be near, I don't know.

Source Quite an extreme move, it's a Singaporean-first policy though, I think our government must have almost run out of moves to actually allow this ruling, seems like they would rather piss off companies than to piss off Singaporeans, this would surely get them more votes. In practice, I don't think this would work, reason is simple, based on this new ruling, companies would need to post on WDA job bank for 14 days showing that they tried to hire Singaporeans, so when Singaporeans apply, they probably won't get the interview, even if they managed to get it, they won't pass the interview, our government can only do that much and ultimately whether to hire or not is still up to the company. You can't force them to hire Singaporeans, they can come up with all sorts of excuse if they really don't want to. Actually for companies, foreigners are easier to manage, they come here on a work pass, they can't just quit and find another job like a Singaporean can,

IMDB V/H/S I was running out of horror movies to watch and then I found this, don't be fooled by the simple poster and title, it's made up of a few horror masterpieces taken from a point-of-view camera perspective, starting of each story is a bit slow but they all turned out to be more than what I expected. I have very high requirements for a horror movie, not many can impress me, few can make me watch the whole thing without turning it off. I especially like the first story, that big-eyed cute looking girl, what a terror she turned out to be... You got to watch this if you haven't. Oh, there's a part two, I'm going to get it. And erm, it's not suitable for kids as there are sex scenes, nudity, extreme violence and plenty of gore, adults only.

That day I was talking about missing out a spouse and parent relief , so after a nice lady at IRAS helped me to make the claim for only spouse relief as I have requested, I received a cheque for the refund on last Friday, I cashed in on Saturday and it will be cleared tomorrow and I can now see the amount added to my ledger balance. The whole process was very fast, from my first email on 11 Sep to receiving the cheque on 20 Sep, and actually I only confirmed to claim for spouse relief on 13 Sep because initially the lady was asking if anybody else was claiming the parent relief, I said I'm not sure and had to confirm with my mom, after that I found out that my brother-in-law was already claiming it. Anyway, from 13 Sep to 20 Sep, it only took them about a week to send me the cheque, they are very efficient, service-wise, they are on a totally different level than any government agencies that I have come across, thumbs up!

I sold 1 lot via cash and 4 lots via cpf, let's look at my profit and loss. 1 lot via Cash On 27 Mar 2013, I bought 1 lot at S$5.15, including charges the final cost price is S$5171.88. On 14 May 2013, I collected a S$150 dividend. On 20 Sep 2013, I sold at S$5.14, final proceeds after charges is S$5110.63. Profit/Loss = 5110.63 + 150 - 5171.88 = S$88.75 Return % =  88.75 / 5171.88 * 100 = 1.716% Duration = 177 days 4 lots via CPF On 24 Apr 2013, I bought 4 lots at S$4.97, the cost price is 19949.68 + 10.70 + 0.54 = S$19960.92. On 14 May 2013, I collected a S$600 dividend. On 05 Jul 2013, I received a quarterly charge of S$5.35, so total cost price is 19960.92 + 5.35 = S$19966.27. On 20 Sep 2013, I sold at S$5.14, final proceeds after charges is 20487.96 - 10.70 - 0.54 = .S$20476.72 Profit/Loss = 20476.72 + 600 - 19966.27 = S$1110.45 Return % = 1110.45 / 19966.27 * 100 = 5.561% Duration = 149 days Total returns for cash and cpf Total cost = 5171.88

Last month I was charged S$4.50 before GST for this KaraOK! Day Pass, I called Starhub and it ended up as if me or my family member accidentally subscribed for it, ok, I followed their advise and put on a Purchase Lock to prevent such accident in future, and the guy waived the charge for me saying they can only do it one time. I don't watch the cable TV, only my parents watch it, I checked with them and they said they are sure they didn't press anything funny, they are well aware that for things that need payment, there will be a price tag on the screen so they won't go and press it. Today I received my bill and they did waive the charge for me, but to my surprise, they charged me for the same thing again, what the heck, so I called them, I told them I have the Purchase Lock enabled so how can anyone purchase anything, the guy put me on hold and came back after a while, this time he told me I also need to put a Parental Lock to block the KaraOK! channel 888, and he said h

4th gain in a row since Monday, what a ride, my SembCorp Industries closed at S$5.13, I thought it would never go above S$5.10 so that was a big surprise, and I just read the news and found that the US Federal Reserve decided to continue their bond-buying program, stock markets over the world gained due to the news, I was still thinking of what might happen tomorrow, now I'm quite sure tomorrow STI will continue to rise, I think we don't need to wait till October for it to cross 3300, it might just happen tomorrow, no wonder STI is suddenly so bullish, it's double good news, confirmed no attack on Syria plus maintain bond-buying means investors have more confidence. Now the question is how long will the rally last, but there's no point to take profit now since it's obviously an uptrend now, people will be battling to get their money inside the markets before prices get too high, I think I can wait until SembCorp reaches S$5.20 before I sell.

Thanks to the US-Russian deal on Syrian chemical weapons control, there's no way Syria will say no when it was suggested by the Russian president. So I guess that's it to the whole chemical attack thing, but those innocent people who died from it, how should their families be compensated, they can't just say surrender the weapons and end of story, but if that's how it's going to be, then it is really shitty, the Russians and Iran should punish Syria for it in some way, just to make everybody happy. So if the allied forces are not going to attack Syria, I wonder what the rebels are going to do next, I think they will be very pissed off since the fight will just continue as per normal, which nobody knows when it will end, after all they've been fighting since 2011, doesn't look like any side is going to win anytime soon, more lives will be lost, more deals will be made, war is a good time for weapons supplier to make money, in the end, it's all about pro

I started to have fever and diarrhea since the early hours of 15 Sep. On 14 Sep morning, I ate one piece of Tau Sar Piah and drank a cup of coffee and some water before my IPPT at 4PM. After the IPPT, I ate one packet of Hor Fun, I think that's the culprit, I bought at that shop many times and it was okay, very unlucky, I wonder what extra ingredients they dropped inside, and I must have went to the toilet at least 30 times since 15 Sep, my legs feel wobbly, head giddy, and when I went to see the doctor again just now, he told me to show my tongue, he looked a bit shocked and told me to drink plenty of water, and when I went home, I looked in the mirror and saw my tongue looking horribly white, obviously I am very dehydrated. At least the fever is gone now, but the diarrhea keeps coming back, the doctor gave me a stronger combination of medication, I hope this works because I don't want to be missing from work for the 3rd day. And just to be fair, I kept recapping the thing

I got 14:03 for my 2.4KM run, at the 4th round I gave up, the sun too glaring, body too heavy, sigh, if only I pushed on I might just get 12:20 so I can get silver, or 13:00 isn't too bad for an incentive pass. The worse thing is after my IPPT, I don't know what I ate and I have diarrhea and fever, didn't go to work today, feel so drained, and didn't have a complete meal since yesterday. And one weird thing, this morning at around 5.50am, I heard someone fiddling with our door lock, I thought maybe I was sick and hearing things, then I went to take a look, I can see an old lady outside, she was playing with the lock, after observing her for a while through the door eye, I decided to go back to sleep, I was too tired to confront her. At around 7am+, I heard my dad asking the old lady why she was fiddling with our lock, after that she left. Sigh, what a lousy weekend...

For a long time, paying income tax doesn't apply to me because I was earning too little for them to tax, it was only in 2011 that I started to earn enough to be required to pay in cash. On Wednesday, while looking through my tax forms, I saw the NSman Self Relief and Earned Income Relief which reduced my taxable amount by a total of S$4000. So I looked them up on IRAS website and found that I was actually eligible for two other claims. You can check out the full list of reliefs here . Spouse Relief I am eligible for this one because my wife is not working, so I can claim S$2000 for this. I have never made the claim, but luckily when I checked with IRAS via email, seems like it is possible to claim retrospectively, I was married in 2010 so I can start claiming from there. Parent Relief I can claim S$7000 for this on my mother because she is not working, but my brother-in-law has made the claim and there can only be one claimant, when I checked with him, he told me he can w

So which one is cheaper? Most people say SCB is cheaper, this makes me curious, now let's see... DBS Vickers The cheapest method of buying or selling is by using their Cash Upfront account, but note that if you wish to sell using this account, you need to sell within T+3, or else you will need to pay the normal rates . Commission: 0.18%, minimum $18 CDP Clearing Fee: 0.04% SGX Trading Fee: 0.0075% GST: 7% Standard Chartered Bank We are looking at their Personal Banking Brokerage Fees , but if you can get their Priority Banking account, it will be slightly cheaper, but I think the requirements is a bit steep, so let's just look at the one which is available to almost everyone. Commission: 0.20%, no minimum CDP Clearing Fee: 0.04% SGX Trading Fee: they don't have this charge GST: 7% Scenario 1 - S$5000 So let's say you are buying 5 lots of Stock A, and each share costs S$1.00, so the cost value before charges is S$5000. If you buy using DBS Vicker

I've been telling my friends it's good and easy money and it's worth it to keep fit and go try and clear it, get a silver and bam, S$200, even an incentive isn't too bad at S$100. The whole session probably takes less than 3 hours, if I include the travel time, probably no more than 4 hours, it's easy money, of course provided I can pass. Let's say the whole thing takes 4 hours, and if I get a silver, that's like S$50 per hour, I don't even earn that kind of rate with my current job, even for an incentive pass, that's S$25 per hour, still higher than my job. But the problem is, I can only get the money once a year, well, better than nothing, can't run away from it anyway. And let's not just talk about the money, keeping fit is for our own good, you feel lighter, you breathe easier, you feel faster, you probably might just live longer and be able to spend more time with your loved ones, so why not. Training for IPPT is also not very diff