For people who are on property loans (HDB or not), prepare for your friendly bank to invoke a margin call on your property loan. If your property is worth less than what you still owe the bank, you will be asked to “top up” the difference.

Good luck! Remember you voted PAP during the last GE, so you are responsible for your own dire straits.

Wow! I like the list you’ve proposed in increasing spending.

Those are really great ideas so that our top brains can continue with six figures pay. Since we have always been talking about high cost of living, spending this little extra in such trying times is certainly no big feat. The very most we just give our social welfare some work in taking care of us so that they too can keep their jobs and get the economy going.

1) By increasing our electricity consumption, helping SP to earn more profits, in order to justify the 21% increase.
2) By driving into cities during peak hour, helping our government to earn more revenue from ERP. It will be “given back” to you in form of subsidies, payout, etc.
3) To motorcyclist, cyclist and other public transport haters- By traveling and squeezing(if there is still any space left) on our SMRT trains during peak hours. This is to help SMRT in applying for fares increase again due to well…overwhelming demands.
4) Work like shit as much as you can to supplement your household income during these uncertain times (you never know when you will get retrenched) so that the tendency to fall sick increases. Our hospitals are glad to admit you in to take care of you. Please refer to their website for a price comparison (to be amended due to high admission rate) prior to admission.
5) Buy more, so everyone earns….maybe our government can increase their wages next time citing the reason “Singapore economy remains bright in times of global crisis, thanks to us”.

Market wants people to spend more, they will have to drop their prices.

Once prices are dropped, more people will naturally spend more.

There is no need to talk down and tell citizens what to do with their personal life. Let the market forces decide.

But I forgot, one of the govt’s favorite activity is to talk down to citizens and tell them what to do…

the next time when you want to buy something, would you think of the question “how can i spend my money better, which can also help our people, instead of adding more profit to the big companies?””

that is a very good idea !

Investors will invest more in Singapore as they are more confident that Singaporeans are going to spend and consume more.

This creates jobs and thus keeps the economy going.

Even we may say that most rental rates are market driven and many such properties are privately own, Singapore is a very unique country where our government can literally influence anything they want if they choose to. Rental is always a major component in contributing to final cost of product sold. For example a hawker stall in Suntec Food Court has rental rate of S$10,000 per month. If such rental can be reduced, that bowl of noodle will have a lower cost.

Other retail outlets have rental as high as S$25,000 per month. And I am not talking about big departmental store but just your regular retail space of about 500 sq ft or so.

I do believe that our top brains with six figures salary income can come out with a solution to reduce rental if they really want to.

Of course such a move will not be popular with properties owners. But our government need to choose between pleasing the properties tycoons and saving the economy.

with uncertainties ahead, people are definitely worried about the job security. it might be good if govt is able to decrease rental, but as most of our commercial developers are publicly listed, and with rental of hawker centers subcontracted to the private, i’m not sure if the govt is able to give rental aid.

the govt has a uphill task to bring us out of this recession. we, the people, can play our part too. even if we need to tighten our belts, there are still small things we can do to help our local businesses, as i mention in my above posts.

instead of buying newpapers from convenience stores, we can buy papers from the roadside uncles and aunties, who will depend on that for a living. instead of buying for large supermarkets, we can buy from small neighbourhood stores, especially if the price is the same. indirectly, we have pass the money from those big companies who earn huge profit back to our small businesses to help them to survive.

the next time when you want to buy something, would you think of the question “how can i spend my money better, which can also help our people, instead of adding more profit to the big companies?”

thanks for your clarification on your call to draw on the cpf. though i’m skeptical about the the plan, but as you have said, we all do not know about the effectiveness of the plan as we do not have the statistics and the characteristics of holders of cpf, eg. the amount they have in the various accounts, the monthly contributions, the liabilities like housing loan, etc..

some suggestions that might help in your call for the govt to look into the policy:

1) do some research the estimate the essential statistics
2) do a survey to see to check people’s views about the plan and if they think it would benefit them
3) send a more comprehensive initial study on the plan to the authority, with the support of more like-minded people

Most mechanize price went up substantially within the year. If MM is asking more to spend to keep the economy moving then try first to bring inflation down. Once mechanize prices fall back to 2006 and 2007 level then more people will be more willing to spend that extra saving on home appliances, tour packages and fine dining…..

Else, keep the money in the bank since uncertain period is cash is KING!!

Please stop labelling all the 10,000 investors as greedy people who are unable to think twice or thrice about their own money. DBS was never transparent to the retail investors about the product nature, especially in the cases of mis-representation. DBS deserves the 38% loss in their Q3 earnings no doubt.

Since DBS is facing a lot of challenge in the financial markets, are Singaporeans’ savings still safe at DBS? Moreover, DBS not only was thought by many to have cheated ordinary people of their life savings, and now DBS Q3 earnings drop by 38% while they just fired 900 people. Is DBS really a safe place to continue to put your money there?

Please stop suggesting that all the 10,000 investors as greedy people who are unable to think twice or thrice about their own money. DBS was never transparent to the retail investors about the product nature, especially in the cases of mis-representation. DBS deserves the 38% loss in their Q3 earnings no doubt.

Moreover, DBS deserves the 38% loss in their Q3 earnings no doubt. Since DBS is making loss, are Singaporeans’ savings still safe at DBS? DBS not only was thought by many to have cheated ordinary people of their life savings, and now DBS Q3 earnings drop by 38% while they just fired 900 people. Is DBS really a safe place to continue to put your money there?

Since DBS is making so much loss, are Singaporeans’ savings still safe at DBS? DBS not only was thought by many to have cheated ordinary people of their life savings, and now DBS Q3 earnings drop by 38% while they just fired 900 people. Is DBS really a safe place to continue to put your money there?

I am okay with all that you said in the abovementioned post, except labelling all the 10,000 investors as greedy people who are unable to think twice or thrice about their own money. Many of these investors were unaware their investments were used to buy debt securities from a basket of companies, and they weren’t told the identities of these companies until the affected investors collectively demanded transparency from DBS. DBS deserves the 38% loss in their Q3 earnings no doubt.

Gilbert: Don’t insult the Old Guards. I wish Ong Teng Cheong is still around.

SM Goh should learn from President-elect Obama that at this point in time, especially during a global financial crisis and economic recession, people need to be inspired and not told what to do with our savings. Without hope (aka consumer confidence), would people even spend?

Gilbert: Don’t insult the Old Guards. I wish Ong Teng Cheong is still around.

SM Goh should learn from President-elect Obama that at this point in time, especially during a global financial crisis and economic recession, people need to be inspired and not told what to do with our savings. Without hope (aka consumer confidence), would people even spend?

Singapore is not a welfare state and as her citizens, we must be very careful with our money and always think twice at least or thrice before we part them unlike those 10,000 investors of Lehman bonds,majority who are Uncles & Aunties who let GREED controlled them. – Andrew Chuah (#119)

Andrew: I am okay with all that you said in post #119, except labelling all the 10,000 investors as greedy people who are unable to think twice or thrice about their own money. Many of these investors had claimed they weren’t aware their investments were used to buy debt securities from a basket of companies, and they weren’t told the identities of these companies until the affected investors collectively demanded transparency from DBS.

Moreover, DBS deserves the 38% loss in their Q3 earnings no doubt. Since DBS is making loss, are Singaporeans’ savings still safe at DBS? DBS not only was thought by many to have cheated ordinary people of their life savings, and now DBS Q3 earnings drop by 38% while they just fired 900 people. Is DBS really a safe place to continue to put your money there?

contradicting signals now?