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Have you got yourself protected?

Wanted to post this sometime ago but was too busy. This post is base on my personal view, from a pure consumer point of view and is just for sharing!

Since I have started working, responsible comes and the next logical thing is to buy insurance to protect my families and of course myself.

First lets talk about the basic type of insurance:

1. Hospitalisation plan
2. Accident
3. Life coverage / Income protection

Always get a hospitalisation plan above anything else. This is basic and similar across many companies so I won’t say much about this. A doctor’s pill can heal your illness but the bill can take your life!

Next, accident, this for I won’t talk much about it as I feel is not 100% necessary if you have 1 and 3, for me is a good to have. (provided you have savings to tide through, so regular saving is important)

Focus of the post is on life coverage / income protection. There are 3 main kind of life plan:

1. Term plan
2. Traditional whole life plan (WL plan)
3. Investment Link Plan (ILP)

There are many saying nowadays…some says buy term and invest the rest. Some say buy ILP…some say wholelife plan. Basically all plans have its own pros and cons and suits different needs. However, one should be very clear why he/she wants to buy insurance.

Firstly, most of us always like the idea that we can get back our $$. So many felt that term plan is throwing $$ into nowhere. But the truth is, whatever you buy, you have to pay for it! A WL plan or ILP cost alot more than a term plan, so the additional $$ is used for investment and insurance company will use that earning to give you the $$ upon termination.

So then why people still buy WL or ILP? Because not everyone of us is an investor! If you only put your money in bank with interest rate lower than 1% per annual, then you might not want a term plan if you can afford a WL or ILP.

Another thing is insurance don’t make you rich, so just buy enough. Enough can be 5 years of your income or 10 years depending on your need. For me I judge differently, I base on my dependents…which is very different.

Term plan
Cheap and affordable but no cash value. So you get nothing when you terminate. Term life plan usually covers till only 65 or 70 years old. (WL or ILP usually covers whole life).

So why buy a term plan? I think is good in the following situation:

- need temporary additional coverage
- you do your own investment or have better investment plan than mixing the investment with insurance.
- you don’t invest much but a WL / ILP is too expensive for your and yet you need the coverage.
- don’t need the coverage beyond age of 65/70. (Wondering why? is simply because your medical bills will be covered by your hospitalisation plan and by then you should have less/no burden of children / parents). So technically you don’t need to leave $$ for anyone.

WL Plan
This usually comes in limited years of payment, e.g. 15/20/25 years. I won’t advise getting unlimited years WL plan as I compared the premium before, I don’t think the differences worth it.

Why I think limited WL plan is good:

- have guaranteed cash value (but the ROI is very low for guaranteed portion)
- covers whole life yet I only need to pay for 25 years or less (strictly speaking you are just paying for future, but then I don’t like the idea that I have worry about so much premium after I retired).

Feel is a stable low risk plan (i won’t say risk free…as the guaranteed amount is only as stable as the company! if the company is gone….your $$ most probably gone too!)

ILP
It have higher expected ROI (but non-guaranteed) than WL Plan and the premium is cheaper when you are young. But many people may not have notice this, the mortality charges ( something like insurance charges) actually increases tremendously after you reach a certain age, e.g. 50).

when you will consider a ILP:

- when you intend to terminate the plan on or before age 65.
- you can take the risk that upon age 65, you might not have that much $$ in return. (If you buy it early, risk is spread across 40 years, so I wouldn’t say you might lose everything. But I prefer to be more prudent in things that are not guaranteed).

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Overall, in general I don’t really like ILP, because personally it feels like a term plan + buying mutual funds. So if I can do this myself, why do I get a ILP and pay lots of commission to the company/finanial planner? If you intend to keep the plan for WL, you can’t withdraw much of the $$ earned because the mortaility charges after age 65 is so high….that if you don’t keep all the money inside to continue the investment, your returns might not be enough to cover it. (for 100k coverage, per month can be 700 plus when you are old (@ abt 70-80 yrs old I think) so your monthly premium of 100-200 is not enough to pay for the charges required!)

So in comparison, I prefer WL Plan / Term plan over ILP. So next how to chose between term plan and WL plan? If you think you do not need coverage after age 65/70, I would think term plan might be better. As for myself, why I think is necessary to cover beyond age 65/70? Because a 100k now is only worth abt 1/3 of its value or even less by the time I reach that age. So I would take the basic 100k coverage beyond age 65/70 as $$ that is good to have for my important person / for my own funeral.

Also, Term plan wise..the claim rate is as low (i think 1%? ) thus meaning that your chances of claiming is low thus very likely your $$ will become nothing. Thats why I like a WL plan cos is almost guaranteed return.

But that doesn’t mean that a Term plan is not good. One would need more coverage before age of 65 in general? Why? For people who are dependent on you, e.g. your parents / kids. In my view, insurance is not so much for yourself, is to take care of those loved ones who are dependent on your and also not to trouble people when you become ill. So during this period when you are still taking care of someone, you might want more coverage but you know you won’t need it beyond age 65, this is when I think term plan is good.

I must emphasize, my view of insurance may not be suitable for everyone, so in my own cases…where I am part of a bread winner at home, I felt to be responsible for my parents, I should get myself covered. Thus I got myself a limited WL plan + term plan. Though I am covered for 200k, I still feel that it is not enough, but thats what my current financial capabilities allows only.

How do I deem enough? Is not by how many years of income I need. Is by how many years I think my parents can live and how much they need. I would think my parents can live for about another 30years, which I hope to give them 1k / month at least, thus i sum that to 12 k x 30 years = 360 k. And all these excluding any loan which we need to pay, which is about 100k. Thus I actually think I should get myself covered for  460k!

But I can guaranteed you, no financial planner will plan like that, just that I am not convinced enough with their way of calculating so I decided to do my own maths

But even till now, I still have some consideration abt Term plans ( well cos I grew up in a traditional family, so though logically i know WL plan is not free…I still find it expensive to spent few hundred/thousands away every year….without any returns/cash value on Term plan with chances of claiming is low….not that I wanna claim anyway!)

Bull charge + a memorable night

Today was the first time I run the Bull Charge! A bit messy and still cannot understand why the bus was arranged to be so early? The run starts at 6.30pm, warm up starts at 6pm, yet the bus pick us up at 4.30pm! Gosh…even with some delay i reached the floating platform at 5pm! Almost wanna go to marina sq for a walk!

Chopstick sister fly my aeroplane thus went there alone >< Was roaming around alone but luckily met up with people here n there abit. But i think the food are well arranged, have swensen ice cream, ice milo and after the run there are buffet! haha..taste quite nice or maybe I too hungry?

Was wondering if i start off infront, will i be top 10 gals??? lolol….maybe  i think too much.

Wanted to shop for clothes for D&D tml…but was a bit lazy so instead, I walked back to LPS to meet chopstick and LDLD for dinner. Had a fruitful night chat as well. Have some take away but wonder who she is refering to…mmm. Recently then I came to know abt my new nick name koala…why? Cos i always “hang on” my LD…mmm…frankly speaking, didn’t really like this naming that was given, cos it makes me feel like I sticky/dependent on others.

This puts me to wonder…have I changed…or have I not been myself? Mmm…where is the independent me? Maybe I should do some self searching…what is happening to me!

This week was abit overwhelming both in terms of work n people. Felt the dress thingy for gala dinner was not well handled. On wednesday…was abit overwhelm with work yet have to think about the trying of dresses issues.

Logically….nothing big deal about this, but emotionally, I just can’t get over it. When I finally overcome myself to try on Thursday…it was base on obligation,Trust and tot i shd just let LD see. But in the end…when I open the door 4 people  came in. At the end of the session…..I was feeling a bit traumatized and uncomfortable over the whole event.

Today went to work with a black face…but then once I interact with people the black face is kept away as it is not really anybody’s fault, is just I can’t get over my own 堅持/thinking. Been thinking…was it because I was always smiling so I give people a wrong impression that I am okie….with certain things? Have I been trying too hard? Sometimes I can’t help but felt I am stepping on myself / stepped on….eventhough it was jokingly.

But then again, maybe in the first place I shouldn’t have such expectation on others…like LDLD always reminded, people may not know or have a diff expectation!

Back to the dinner at LPS, after that LDLD gave me a lift but the lack of petrol crisis became a lack of battery crisis. So we waited at the petrol kiosk for about 30-45mins. To me, the wait is not time wasting, infact, it was an interesting experience. Hahha..20 Nov 2009, commonwealth petrol station, LDLD I will always remember this Only with  ME then all these weird weird things will happen! LOLOL in the end LDLD also started owning me stories….LOL…alertness…

lastly….think been quite sometime since i met my theGanG, shall we watch 2012???^^||

フォトーエッセイ (Photo Essay)

卒業前にフォトーエッセイをかった。 日本語のクラスが大好きから、このフォトーエッセイかきたい。 最近、優秀賞をもらった。

昨日フォトーエッセイ授賞へいった。 大学の先生たちは授賞へ行かななった。 残念ね。 でも青葉の先生たち授賞へいった、とても楽しかったよ。そこで先生がたくさんいるけど、学生が四人だけいる。 そこで晩ご飯を食べたり、フォトーエッセイ授賞をもらったり、琴をきいったり、先生たちと話したりしました。 そして、もつおか先生と一緒にうちへ帰るとき、アイスクリムをたべた。そして、一緒にバステへいった。

My Japanese is limited, so I shall blog in English here as well, I wrote the photo essay back then partly was because I was feeling sad that the class ended. Never expect to win anything, was very happy to won the 優秀賞. I decided to go for the prize presentation as I was thinking that my sensei will go, so hopping to catch up with them. However, on Friday night I just got to know both ライせんせい and 藤井せんせい are not going, so am having second thoughts about going but a bit too late to not go now, so I still decided to go.

Saturday, I went for my basic 3’s test at Aoba, and it so happened that one of the oral test question was what are you going to do afterwards, I replied I am going to JAS (japanese association Singapore), then もつおか先生 replied that she is also going! I was shocked, though in the middle of the oral test, I asked sensei to go together, but her reply was she is going with other sensei and unsure of the time and how they are going. I assumed by this, meaning she is not keen to go together so I said is okie, I will go alone and meet there later on. Am happy at least someone I knew is going but abit sianz that sensei dun wanna go together (I assume so lah…might be wrong though).

Was late, because of traffic jam + almost got into car accident, the bus somehow “kissed” the back of a taxi, lucky it was a light peck so think both are find so the bus continued. I reached there at 8pm! when i am supposed to reach at 7pm and event starts at 7.30pm!

Saw my sensei there (too excited and got stuck at the door…cos of my bagg ^^|), then very luckily got assigned to seat beside my sensei ^__^ just as the host was introducing that the whole table are sensei, we were telling her that the sensei right beside me is my current sensei! hahah….after that everyone is like saying おめてとうございます (meaning congratulation) and all seems to know that I am from NUS. So with my very limited Japanese I tried to explain that I graduated so am now with Aoba.

Then while I queued to take food, Pauline sensei started talking to me, she used basic japanese (to accomodate) me but I mistook her as a very experienced japanese student and even asked “pauline san は学生ですか” (asking if she is student)…then she shocked for a moment and replied that she is sensei!!! omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahha…I am so ^^|||

After that they seperated us into different tables so I got seperated with all my sensei, and I sat beside a Nanyang Polytechnic sensei (sumimasen, I forgot the name^^|). We chatted along quite well….guess chatting with sensei is very good…they know how to lower their level of japanese to accomodate us, so we talked quite a bit. Enjoyed myself. Even gave both her and Pauline sensei my name card (actually is my email n contact that I wrote behind) to keep in touch. (ops…just as I was giving they are also exchanging contacts LOLOL)

One thing that surprise me is that towards the end of the event, Matsuoka sensei came over and talked to me, then invited me over to her table to sit. I was abit shocked…as mention infront that I felt she is not keen to go there with me, so i naturally thought that she would like to keep the teacher – student distance. Then after that she even offered to go home together, even more shocked.

Then on the way back, she suddenly ask if I like to eat ice-cream, I said yes, then she pointed to one ice cream outlet and says it is very nice. Being me…I asked sensei if wanna eat ice cream and even says women always have space for ice cream ^_^. Then sensei treated me to ice cream and we sat down for a while…but no space so we sit outside, abit too noisy so we proceeded back. She accompany me to the bus stop then I got her email and got on bus 171 back. Before that she was pointing that her house was across the road..then I shocked…n ask why we cross over here then ^^| (meaning we actually passed her house….hahahah).

In any case, am very happy that an event that I thought would be lonely turned out quite interesting. Though I am not continuing my intermediate 1 immediately, after this I am really keen to pay for my full intermediate classes…to lock myself in. wahahhaha….not just becos i like the sensei, but also i like the classes and wanted to continue leanring japanese language. Am afraid if i dun lock myself in by $$…i might just stop. I cannot continue now as am too busy with work for this 2 weeks..dun wanna further stress myself, intend to continue Jan next year……but might have to do it on weekday…according to Matsuoka sensei.

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Side track abit, I recently started playing the UFO catcher again ^^ haha..yesterday was very lucky, got a stitch!!! It is pretty cute, I gave it a few tries but failed. then i went for other machines…not much luck except for a small doll doll, then just as I was abt to leave, I saw the positioning seems pretty good and give it a try! I miss-ed my aiming…but it turns out the perfect strategies! I lifted the stitch head abit and becos it was too heavy it dropped back, but becos of the physics thingy, the falling head pulled the whole doll doll into the hole! hahah…wow-ed everyone as I got it in one try! hahaha…(but they most probably didn’t know that I spented abt $10-12 on it previously already!).

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Thoughout the post, I mentioned that I “assumed” …. recently LDLD pointed out and emphasized that I tend to “assume” things. Which is quite true. This week I worked quite late…been dining with them quite a few times. So on Thursday, we went for dinner at about 7pm then go back to work. then at about 9.30pm I went down to 2nd floor to work with them…21st floor is too quiet. Then LDLD gave us (chopstick sisters) a question…what is the 4th action that comes after her frequently preached “Plan, Do, Check”. The instant answer that came to my mind was “Re-arrange”. But I decided not to shoot off my butt so I gave it more thought…and I “assume” that check should include this…so I answered “Target/Goal” …. as i felt that should be the big picture of these series of action though not necessary the 4th step.
Answer? it is Act…which is status quo, reprioritize and etc….which is sorta re-arrange! Think becos of what I assumed, I insisted that check and 4th step abit repetative….and got a very strong wake up call from LDLD. I assume too much >.< ….

The way it was put across came across very strongly to me…that sets me in abit of daze and thoughts after that….now whenever I assume things, I will tend to ask myself..should I assume ? I should not asssume too much, so should verify…but then again certain things if u ask too many times..I am worried am too intruding/become a nuisance. how to get a balance from this? I am still pondering and trying to get the right balance!

Apart from this….been very busy @ work …and with all my late emails to my boss…they started showing concern if I am overload. Is a bit overwhelming but it is really exciting also. Am learning alot and felt that my bosses are quite understanding that I am in my learning phase. Felt the development they are trying to give me, so am very happy too. Despite working late, with the nice colleagues and superiors, though I felt the pressure, i am happy and enjoying myself @ work everyday ^_^.

Later must do some reading and work…need to dig out my CS3254 textbook! hahaha…and gotta do some jogging also to be prepared for the bull charge on coming friday
A very long post….no time to post so cram everything in one post^^| ops….

Some other overall things that I wanna note down over the week:

- Was abit saddened that my trustworthyness was being doubted…though i reacted with a joking tone.

- One happy thing is in another instance…my LD really understands me well…hahah when everyone was wondering if my answer is true, she said that given my character if I will even say this…it must be true. Yes…u are so correct, hahaha it always amaze me at your level of understanding of me.

- today have a weird dream again…mmm…is the 2nd time…mmm….would we think abt the same thing sometimes I wonder…mmmmm