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Mission Schools & Religious Beliefs

Commenting on my most recent post, many readers have tried to guess where my new house is, and what schools my children are or will be attending.

So kaypoh. :)

One question that arose was whether I should send my children to mission schools, when I personally am not a member of the relevant religion.

I don't see why not.

After all, my parents had sent me to Christian mission schools (primary and secondary) even though they were not Christians (and even though I was not, and am not, a Christian).

When picking primary schools for my kids, my top three criteria are that (1) the school has good academic standards, (2) the school is near my home and therefore it's convenient, and (3) the school offers a good range of CCA activities and programmes.

Whether the school is affiliated with any particular religion is not that important to me. If the school does have a religious affiliation, I see this as a minor plus point. I believe that such schools are more likely to place emphasis on values and morals, which is a good thing.

I am generally fine with the idea that one day, when my children are old enough, they may want to convert to some particular religion which is not my own. It's their own lives.

Personally I am more interested in spirituality than religion. I see spirituality, as religion minus the distractions.

I think that in general, organised religions do come with plenty of distractions. This is unfortunate, but true. Throughout the history of mankind, religions have always come with distractions. Sometimes in the form of cultural trappings. Sometimes in the form of political power-grabs. Sometimes in the form of over-enthusiastic marketing gone wrong.

But at their respective hearts, all religions are merely different paths to the same divine. Some paths are longer, and more winding than others. You could get lost along the way.

Especially if you fail to recognise the distractions, for what they are.
Gadis Bispak Imut

The Roof Over My Head

I bought a cluster house. It won't be ready until 2011. By that time, my daughter will already be in Primary One. However, under the MOE rules, next year I will still be able to use the address of my uncompleted new house to register my daughter for Primary One.

My new home is within a 1-km radius of the school that I plan to send my daughter to. So I enjoy a healthy priority, in the admission system. That takes care of that.

I am quite happy with the price at which I bought the house. The price is already $258,000 lower than what the developer had been asking for it, five months ago.

Also, I had gotten wind of the developer's latest strategy. I realised that waiting and holding out for an even bigger discount might be a fruitless exercise. I would only run the risk that someone else might buy the unit I wanted.

The developer's goal was to quickly sell enough units (about 50%) to cover its entire construction costs. Prior to hitting the 50% mark, the developer would be feeling somewhat desperate. However, after hitting 50%, the developer would have enough funds to proceed with the construction.

The developer would no longer be in any hurry to sell the remaining units. It could leave them unsold for several years. It could sell them at a better price much later, when the property market finally revives.

With my purchase, the developer crossed the 50% mark. My purchase might have been the last big bargain that the developer would give, for houses in this particular project.

My cluster house is 4600+ square feet if you count the roof area, and 3700+ square feet if you don't. (For some reason, it is standard practice to count the roof as part of the built-in area, for cluster houses). One reason why I bought such a big place is that I'm thinking ahead.

I expect to live here for many years. And my parents are getting old. One day, they might no longer able to look after themselves and live on their own (which they currently do). When that time comes, I'm happy to welcome them to come live with me. There'll be plenty of space.

Yes, I've heard about Minister Khaw Boon Wan's suggestion that Singaporeans send their aged parents away, to live in nursing homes in Johor Baru. No, I do not think that it is a good idea. I think that it is rather despicable, actually.
Gadis Bispak Imut

Economic Dark Clouds and Their Silver Linings

A reader emailed and asked me why I seem to be posting less frequently than usual.

In the past week, I haven't posted because I've been busy. With work, kids and .... house-hunting.

Yes, I've been searching and waiting patiently for more than half a year now. But in the past few weeks, I've been hunting especially hard, and I think I might (I say might, not will) finally put in the cheque and sign on the dotted line pretty soon.

So let it not be said that all is doom and gloom for everyone, during an economic crisis. Think positive. There's a silver lining in every cloud. For me, the silver lining is that the property market is now sinking to deliciously low levels.

(Oh, and if/when I make that purchase, I'll be back here again to tell you more about it).

Here's another example of a silver lining. For the past few years, a friend of mine had been trying to find a part-time job for the past few years. She wants to spend more time with her young children. However, she did not succeed in finding any such part-time job.

Now, however, her employer (Mediacorp) has asked its employees to go on a 4-day week. That's exactly what she wanted all along. Sure, there is a corresponding pay cut. But she's more than happy to accept the pay cut, in exchange for the extra time she wants to have with her children.

And there must be more people benefiting in different ways from the economic crisis. Maybe after years of being chronically overworked, your workload is finally easing to more acceptable levels. Maybe for years you've wanted to take time off to take a course, but the opportunity cost of quitting your job was too high ... until now. And so on.

Keep your chins up, folks. The rule about dark clouds is that they all have a silver lining. If you haven't found yours yet, keep looking.
Gadis Bispak Imut

Standby Money - Get It While You Can

In my earlier post, I wrote about the need to have emergency cash reserves. If you don't already have them, here's a quick way to build them up. From the TODAY newspaper:

Income checks: Onus on banks or borrowers?
Issue arises as more lose jobs, fall below salary threshold
Tuesday • March 10, 2009
Neo Chai Chin

A “WEIRD” conversation public relations consultant Lim Wee Ling had with a bank telemarketer a month ago went like this: “Ma’am, do you need a credit line?”

“No.”

“But you could always do with another credit line. It’s possible that you could lose your job really quickly.”

Ms Lim, 31, was puzzled. “If I’m going to lose my job, all the more they shouldn’t be asking me to take credit,” she told Today.
In general, it is of course a bad idea to live on credit. In fact, I always think that anyone who actually pays interest on his credit cards must be either stupid or desperate.

Personal credit lines are a little different. Consider the fact that we are all now facing a prolonged economic crisis. You might have a job, but who knows whether you'll have one in six months' time, or a year's time. If you have plenty of emergency cash reserves, then you might not be that worried. But if you don't ....

While you still do have a job, you can get a personal credit line. When you don't have job, you won't be able to do so. So while you still have a job, perhaps it could be a good idea to apply for personal credit lines.

You then keep them on standby. As long as you don't use them, you won't have to pay any interest. But you keep them on standby, just in case someday in the future, touch wood, you do need to use them. (And I mean use them for essentials, not items like a new flat-screen TV).

In the not-so-distant past, a bank would normally grant to an individual a personal credit line equivalent to about twice the person's monthly salary. Under the new MAS regulations, a bank will be allowed to extend the person up to 4 times his monthly salary (if his annual income is at least $30,000).

So now, if you go apply for personal credit lines from three or four banks (eg DBS, OCBC, UOB and Standard Chartered), you could have an aggregate amount of credit lines easily exceeding your entire annual income.

Another consumer, Mr Lai Siew Kuan, got a call last week from a telemarketer, who told the 35-year-old property agent he could apply for a credit card even with a yearly income of $24,000 — that’s $6,000 below the qualifying income stipulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), for those aged 55 or younger.

Even as more Singaporeans fall victim to pay cuts or job losses, banks were recently reminded to periodically check the incomes of their credit cardholders. But how strict will banks actually get?

Last month, the MAS implemented revised guidelines on unsecured credit. One industry query it addressed was: What should happen with a credit cardholder whose annual income has fallen below the $30,000 threshold?

While such a customer may keep his existing cards, the MAS said, the bank must adjust the overall credit limit to twice his latest monthly income — and not grant any more credit until the customer’s outstanding sum falls below this new cap.
That's what the MAS said, in response to an industry query.

However, the actual regulations don't place any significant duty on banks to monitor on an ongoing basis the individual's employment status or monthly salary. In other words, at the time you apply for a credit line, the bank will ask you for your income statements.

Thereafter, the bank generally leaves you alone. Even if you lose your job the following month or your salary is cut, the bank generally wouldn't know and therefore your personal line of credit therefore still remains intact.

As a practical matter, it is not feasible for a bank to monitor its retail customers that closely. There are just too many retail customers.


But, judging from banks’ responses to Today’s queries, credit cardholders need not expect a sudden slew of letters or phone calls from their banks asking for proof of their latest income.

OCBC Bank said the typical practice is to conduct checks “at selected points in time, such as at the point of application as part of the process in providing a new card”, said Ms Lynn Gaspar, its head of lifestyle credit.

Association of Banks in Singapore director, Mrs Ong Ai Boon, said periodic income reviews on customers are done to “better assess their credit needs”. Income documents are required when applying for a new credit card, an additional card, or an increase in credit limit.


Standard Chartered and OCBC both told Today they had “robust” risk assessment and credit processes in place to lend responsibly. OCBC and United Overseas Bank also encouraged customers who experience difficulty with repayments to approach them, so as to explore options on a “case by case basis”.

I have two personal lines of credit. One is from DBS and the other is from RBS (formerly ABN AMRO). I never actually applied for them. They came automatically with my credit cards from these two banks. That was years ago.

And I've never used these personal credit lines. In the past, I made some attempts to cancel them, but DBS and RBS both waived the annual fees and said: "Please, please keep the lines. They're free, after all."

Oh well. Thanks then.

Gadis Bispak Imut

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Rules of Thumb .... And How To Have Better Thumbs

Here's some conventional wisdom from the world of personal financial planning. One of your early goals should be to build emergency reserves worth about six times your average monthly expenses. For example, if you usually spend about $3,000 per month, then you aim to build emergency reserves of about $18,000. This amount should be held in cash, not stocks or bonds or something else.

The idea is that if a person suddenly loses his job, he will usually succeed in finding a new one within six months. Thus if his emergency reserves are all nice and ready, then it can adequately sustain and support his usual lifestyle until he finds another job. The reserves should be in cash, because that's the safest, most liquid asset.

Two assumptions here. Firstly, that six months is enough time to find the new job. In more-normal times, this may sound reasonable. But current times are proving to be somewhat extraordinary. So quite arguably, the "six times" figure should be revised upwards, say, to "nine times".

The second assumption is that if you lose your job, you will largely continue to live the way you lived before, and therefore incur roughly the same amount of monthly expenses. In practice, this assumption could turn out to be true in many cases. Why?

Because when a person suddenly loses his job, he may not adapt quickly to the changed circumstances. He may promptly cut back on some smaller, more easily cuttable expenses (for example, eating out less often). However, there will inevitably be psychological resistance to the bigger lifestyle changes (eg giving up the car, or the maid).

Some of this psychological resistance will arise from the person's hope that perhaps he'll find a new job really quickly (eg maybe tomorrow, or next week), and therefore he doesn't really need to make any major lifestyle changes. The hope isn't necessarily unjustifiable or irrational. But it's important to have a Plan B ready, just so you're not unexpectedly caught with your pants down.

The way I see it, the trick to dealing with the psychological resistance is that even when you still have a job, you should start becoming very clear on what you've been spending it on. Then you'll know exactly what you need to cut, if it later turns out that you really do need to cut. Gather the information now, when you still have a calm, clear head. Don't wait till you actually lose your job, by which time you may be too upset and your emotions start getting in the way of rational decision-making.

Right now, do you know how exactly you've been spending your money every month? If you don't, there's a good chance that you're wasting some of it. And let's say, for the sake of discussion, that starting from tomorrow, you have to spend 30% less every month. What decisions would you make, which parts of your lifestyle would you adjust, to immediately bring your expenses down to that level?
Gadis Bispak Imut

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Why Your House Might Not Save You

We don't know how long the current economic crisis will last. Maybe six months, maybe a year. Maybe two years, or three, or seven.

Some people might regard their residential property as their back-up plan. For example, they might be living in a 5-room HDB flat. In a worst-case scenario, if they really need cash, they could sell their flat and downgrade to a 4-room.

Will the property downgrade plan actually work? That depends on several different factors. One factor is whether you can find a buyer at all. In a prolonged economic crisis, the property market could become quite dead.

If you do find a buyer, the next consideration is the price your property will be able to fetch at that time. And then there's the outstanding amount of the mortgage that you'll still need to pay off.

In a very poor market, the sale price might not even be able to pay off the remaining amount of your mortgage. Let alone enable you to buy another smaller property to live in.

Here's an interesting case study from TODAY. In this case, the property downgrade plan proved to be a dud.
My Middle Class Prison
Friday • March 6, 2009
Tabitha Wang

MY FRIEND from Singapore just emailed me with the dreaded news: She has been retrenched. She could see it coming but even so, it still came as a shock, she said.

Her situation is not so bad, she admitted, with a rich boyfriend and parents to support her. Even so, she said, it felt weird to have no cash in hand. “What I wouldn’t do to be you now,” she continued. “You never had to worry about money.”

How wrong she was. I know poor because I’ve been there. Being poor doesn’t just mean living in a rented one-room flat with barely enough money to buy one meal a day. It can also mean owning a private condo and a car and still not being able to afford a meal a day.

Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary John Tsang recently came under fire from white-collar workers because the government’s latest budget didn’t make many provisions for them. He defended the decision by saying they could just re-mortgage their homes or live on savings. But what he failed to realise was that you can come from the middle class and still be poorer than a blue-collar worker.

Poor is not being able to sell your assets because their values have fallen so much that selling them would mean getting into bigger debt. And you can’t remortgage your home because no bank would give a loan to the jobless. So you end up living in a condo where you can’t afford to pay even the management fee and owning a car you can’t drive because you cannot afford the petrol.

Poor is when every bill strikes you like a body blow and you cross the road to avoid being seen by your usual bubble-tea seller because that $2 can buy you a meal.

I faced poverty during the Sars period, when my husband’s firm went bust and we were left with no savings and debt of over $200,000. Thankfully, I was still working, but my pay was just enough to service the monthly debt repayments.

It was a miserable time. With no jobs to be found, my husband plunged into despair.

No one wanted to rent my studio apartment. I wanted to sell it but the price had plunged so much that I would be owing the bank another $50,000 at least if I had done that. Keeping it and servicing the mortgage was, ironically, the cheaper option. We couldn’t afford to move back to it for a few months because we couldn’t raise enough money to hire a van.

The worst was praying my husband wouldn’t fall ill because we had no medical insurance. We couldn’t fork out the thousands needed to pay for his premiums.

When I tell people my story, they think I am exaggerating the difficulties. “Why didn’t you borrow from your family and friends?” they ask. Well, we would have were it not for pride (having been brought up by our parents never to beg) and the fact that we knew they didn’t have that much to spare anyway.

........ As the middle-income noveau poor, we were in limbo — we earned too much to qualify for any assistance but not enough to pay off our debts. But declaring bankruptcy was not an option, not if my husband wanted to start another business again.
I think that the above article is one that many property owners may want to bear in mind. One must recognise that there's a risk that the market value of your property could do a nosedive, just when you most desperately need to sell it.

Because the decision to sell your home is a big one (and may be attached to all sorts of emotional considerations), it's likely that you might delay it as long as possible. In other words, you treat it as a last-resort strategy.

The problem is that by then, you'll be at your most financially vulnerable. As Tabitha discovered.

Gadis Bispak Imut

The Singaporean's Guide to Survival in Bad Times

So I've decided to adopt a new theme for my blog. It will become a crisis management guide. I'll be blogging about different strategies and ideas that we can use to cope better with the bad times.

As usual, I look forward to you readers adding your suggestions and feedback in the comment section of each post. You can also email your thoughts and views to me at memek-bugilin@gmail.com.

Obviously I will cover topics such as money management and job security. However, that's not all. A prolonged financial crisis can affect many different areas of a person's life, such as his family life; his emotional wellbeing and his social activities. It will also affect decisions like whether to go back to school; whether to get married; whether to have a child, and so on. I plan to write about all of that.

The times are tough, and will get tougher. But a little ingenuity, and a little perseverance can go a very long way. For the year ahead, I wish everyone all the best!
Gadis Bispak Imut

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