________ x. [I]nitiaL-[D] .x _______

________ x. [I]nitiaL-[D] .x ________

___x. [D]isclamer .x___
___x. [T]ag.[B]ef0re.[E]uu.[L]eave .x___
___x. [n]0.[I]nsulting.[P]pl.[H]ere .x___
___x. [s]oon [h]ui .x___
___x. [t]here are some special effects if u just click anyhow on the [p]age .x___

Sunday, January 28, 2007

ss blog assignment (1)
Policy: CPF

ok, let me start by making a short introduction about the Central Provident Fund.The Central Provident Fund is a compulsory comprehensive social security savings plan which aims to provide working Singaporeans with a sense of security and confidence in their old age. The CPF was started on 1 July 1955.

A reduction in CPF rates in recent years first occured about 10 years ago during the Asian financial crisis. Employer CPF contribution rates plummeted from 20% to 10%. Employer CPF contribution then increased to 12% and then 16% in 2000 but cut down to 13% in 2003. Since then, the government heed and hawed about restoring CPF rates to the original 20%, but this still did not happen.Now the CPF is at 33% (13% employer and 20% employee). The old days of 40% CPF (employer and employee rates at 20% each) are over.
The CPF scheme was set up as a retirement plan for Singaporeans, However, two policies in recent years have made it more and more difficult to save money with the CPF - a decrease in the CPF contribution rates and CPF contribution ceilings a year.
The government reduced the CPF contribution of the employers back then was due to competiveness reasons and labour costs, however, now that the economy is nearing its peak again, most would definitely hope that the government would restore the original contibution rate of 20% or at least increase the contribution rate by the proposed 1.5%.
Moreover, the situation gets worse when one get older,as CPF contribution rates are drastically lowered e.g. the total CPF for those 50-55 is 27%, for 55-60 is 18.5% and those 60-65 is 11% . When retirement looms, those who have not planned for it early suddently realise that their CPF contributions are much lower than before, and it is harder and harder to save money in the CPF.
My opinion is that if the CPF is intended to be a retirement plan, the government should at least increase the rate of contribution by the employer. However, if it's a short term solution to ensure jobs are not lost, then i think that the cut by the government is justifiable, however, some fund should be set up for the ageing population to ensure that retirement would not be a burden to them.

____x. [I]nitiaL-[D] .x____9:45 PM

Sunday, July 16, 2006

long time no see...
long time no see...i have not been blogging for like 1 month....i've been busy trying to rush out the history project about the stamps....a chore...realli...we hav to do 48 pages but we dun even hav enuff stamps...and we hav been like quite slack in trying to finish this project....we dun hav enuff exhibiton sheets, dun hav enuff foto corners...etc...and we dun hav the time to go and buy all those...i jus manage to buy a few first-day cover in city plaza....we hav lots of stamps but dun hav other philathelic materials...which is not gd as we r supposed to hav a varied range of philtahelic materials for the exhibition....ok....tmr i hav no test but got the darn o- level chinese listening compre....waste my time...aiya...shall stop grumbling...ciao ppl

____x. [I]nitiaL-[D] .x____10:38 PM

Saturday, June 24, 2006

photos
Photos during my holiday trip to taiwan

____x. [I]nitiaL-[D] .x____9:49 PM

Thursday, June 22, 2006

yesterdae...

yesterdae, went out wif velverie, ysabel, camilla, yiqian, zhongda and tse deng....went all the way to orchard to watch movie....actualli was not allowed to go at ferst but a last minute change of mind by my mum enabled mi to go for the movie...we went to cathay cineplex(not cineleisure) to watch the movie... we went to eat mac at takashimaya first b4 going to cineplex...ya...we watch cars...quite nice (cos the cars in it all look nice) the show got one small touching part and then cos i hav a running nose...so i sniffed...then velverie ask mi want tissue anot...then ysabel passed a packet of tissue to mi...then vel began to laugh...i wasnt even crying lor...i'm not tat emotional....then later towards the ending...it was a happi scene..so i ask vel not to cry....then she laughed again...a laughing stock...i should sae...then later i go liao...then the others continued watching another movie....ok...see

____x. [I]nitiaL-[D] .x____12:37 PM

Thursday, June 15, 2006

i'm baq
After like dunno how mani years of not blogging, i finalli decided to update again....okae...shall tok bout wad i did during the holidaes...tis is gonna b one long post...

firstly, during the first week of holidaes, i went to taipei..ok..it was quite fun except tat it was alwaes raining...dampen my spirit for fun....jus went there to shop,eat,shop then eat again...but the place was not bad...quite cooling...and the tings there r relatively cheap...then i came baq went to get my braces on then decided to gif the camp a miss bcos the braces r killing mi...could not eat properly 4 like 5 daes....
then it was the chalet, ysabel,christabel,velverie,jolyn,minmin and zhongda came....yupps...onli 2 boys...so xianzzzzz....then we went to cycle, go arcade to play...then we wnt baq to bbq....we tokk like 3 hours to set up the fire...stomach was grumbling like the sound of the motorbike's engine...then we decided to call the housekeeping office...then the duty manager came to help us set the fire...soon it was ready for bbq....then our neighbour gave us the remaining fire of his bbq...realli thankful to him for tat..then we finished bbq-ing and then christabel, jolyn and minmin went off...onli ysabel, velverie and zhongda and me stayed....then we played bluff and x-box till 6 am in the morning...then slept for like 6 hours till 12pm....then we went cycling again, the 4 of us with yi qian and melissa....ya...then this time bbq was much faster than the dae b4...cos we learnt the technique properly...then we ate alot tat dae cos we were trying to finish the food...yupps tats all 4 the first three weeks of my holidaes....sorry..decided to cut short this cos i'm getting tired...ok...ciao ppl

____x. [I]nitiaL-[D] .x____12:59 PM

Monday, May 22, 2006

post exam activities...

yep...baq here to blog again...quite long nvr blog and ppl sae my blog dead, so jus blog lor...ok...shant tok bout results here,tok bout 'post exam activities'...shall lament bout boon's policy in this post...
'post exam activities'..grrrr.....i read the timetable for the activities,guess wad, it read "sec1-4 lessons as per normal"... so tats our so called post exam activities timetable tat we were given...mi & edi were like "huh?" so this is the post exam activities...reminiscing baq when i was in sec 1 &2...we had inter class sports competition, captain's ball, soccer, basketball and had talent time and a screening of a movie during curriculum hours...even though its not tat frolicky, i presume tat it is much better than in the present state...one more ting...heard tat boon scolded the teachers for showing us movies tat r unrelated to the syllabus...on this, it mae b wrong if teachers show it to us b4 exams, but after exams, can't we jus hav some respite after the exams, it will oso increase the bonding btween the teachers and students and btween the students themselves, wads so illicit bout tat?!
by permitting us to do all these,we will not b so cropped up wif the lessons and studying...ugh!!!
ok...shall end here...cya ppl....byes...

____x. [I]nitiaL-[D] .x____7:21 PM

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

2 more daes to exams....

ok...i'm here to blog again....its jus 2 more daes to exam....and here i am blogging...tats the rationale of things going in my life...doin tings tat r quite different frm others....i noe i should b studying now but i cannot control myself the urge of using the computer....not tat i dun noe wad i should or should not do...its jus the mindset...realli...mus realli learn the good etiquettes of 'self-control'....if i could learn tat...i wouldn't b in such a slump now...and i would b able to curb my tendency of making redundant mistakes...ok...enuff of all my flaws.... if anybody is reading these...which i doubt so as most ppl r studying...pls bear wif it....

____x. [I]nitiaL-[D] .x____6:45 PM