HK Food review - Chung Kee Dessert

I tried the fixed fruit shaved ice and the coffee pudding at Chung Kee Dessert near Jordon Station exit C2. The dessert is okay, not as fascinating as some bloggers have recommended. The shaved ice is not as fine as the one I tried at dessert stall in Chinatown Singapore. However I like the generous serving of mango sauce they put onto the shaved ice..nice..

Food review - Sufood

I went to Sufood at Raffles City #02-19 today to try out the food. It was a Taiwanese vegetarian restaurant. They had express lunch at 18SGD. It consisted of appetizer, soup or salad, main course, drinks, dessert.

I had pasta, cabbage soup, chrysanthemum jelly and yuzu chamomile drink. The food was good and the service was excellent. The waiter and waitress came over to recommend dishes and to ask us whether the food was good to our liking.

I enjoyed my lunch very much. 

Primary One registration comes again

SINGAPORE — The registration of children for admission to Primary One (P1) classes next year will open from July 3 to Aug 28, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced today (June 19).

All primary schools will open for registration from 8am to 11am and from 2.30pm to 4.30pm from Mondays to Fridays during the registration period, the MOE said.

All children born between Jan 2, 2008 and Jan 1, 2009 are required to attend primary school according to the Compulsory Education Act. The cohort size for next year is similar to that of this year. There will be sufficient school places for all eligible P1 students on a regional and nationwide basis, the ministry said.

Dividends received for July 2014

Summary of dividends received for July 2014:

1. UMS - 100 (11July)

2. Sabana - 55.80 (22July)

In June, I bought 5lots of ums at 0.725 and 5lots at 0.54. There was massive selling of shares by UMS CEO and by SSH AMAT that led to plunge in share price. I seemed to have caught a falling knife. I should have waited for few weeks after XB before deciding to purchase UMS again.

I sold 2 lots of Sembcorp Marine in June at 4.12, making a small profit of 181.53. The share price did not fly as I expected although the company was awarded contracts.

I subscribed 3 lots of frasier hospitality trust at 0.88 but was awarded only 1 lot. I sold it at 0.905 on trading day 14July.

In July, I bought 5 lots of cambridge industrial trust at 0.755.

CPF minimum sum increased to SGD155,000

CPF minimum sum SGD155,000

Medisave minimum sum SGD43,500

Medisave contribution ceiling SGD48,500

A question to ponder, how many middle-class and lower-class uncles and aunties have this amount in their CPF account when they turn 55.

The estimated lifelong payout is 1200SGD per month. Based on first payout at age 65, 10 years of payout till age 75 will be 144,000SGD. If the person can live till 80, it will be 216,000SGD which is more than minimum sum 155,000SGD. A safer margin will be to live till age 76, where 11 years of payout will be 158,400SGD>155,000SGD.

However to keep in mind minimum sum is gradually increasing in July every year, the sums will need to be reworked every year.

Dividends received for April and May 2014

Summary of dividends received for April 2014:

1. First state dividend advantage (unit trust) - 97.48 (16Apr)

2. Sembcorp Marine - 80 (14 May)

3. Sabana - 56.40 (30 May)

In March, I bought 4lots of ums at 0.795 and sold them in April at 0.845. I made a small profit of 143.16.

In April, I sold 3lots of Far East h trust at 0.85. I made a small profit of 63.96.

Both ums and Far East h trust share price continue to be uptrend after I sold the shares. 

I sold all my first state dividend advantage units for 9800SGD in April because I was not happy with the service provided by Maybank financial services officer.  

This means I need to find a stock to park 9800SGD equivalent amount to earn about 98SGD or more in dividends/cash payout per quarter. I have decided to invest in 1 lot of Sembcorp Marine at 4.00SGD.

I have also sold all my hph trust shares in May at 0.72USD per share. I am still looking at which stock to invest in.

In May, I bought 1 lot of TIH at 1.405. I made a mistake of not waiting for a few weeks before deciding to purchase TIH again.

Changing Jobs is good for you

“As a rule you need to be moving jobs at least every five years,” says Michael Moran at careers consulting service 10Eighty. “Generally, you will learn a lot but contribute nothing for the first 18 months and you will pay back that learning time in the next 18 months. After that, if you’re not learning anything new you must move on.

“If you’ve worked for one company for 15 years, there are two things I can guarantee you of,” adds Moran ominously. “Firstly, you will be paid 10-15% less than the market rate. Secondly, you will be less employable than if you’ve worked for a selection of firms. People will have more respect for you if you’ve worked for the competition. And if you’ve worked for three companies your network will be far bigger than if you’ve only worked for one.”

Heather McGregor, an ex-banker and director of search firm Taylor Bennett, says changing jobs too often is a bad thing, as is changing jobs too infrequently. “If you move between several jobs after less than two years in each one, you will lose credibility,” she says. “However, if you’ve been in a job for more than seven years you should be regularly challenging yourself. – Are you still learning? Are you still making progress?”

Women have a particular tendency to cling to the same job for years and years, says McGregor: “The longer you work somewhere, the easier it is to do your job – you know where things are and women tend to have more extraneous demands upon their time.”

Fundamentally, you should never get too comfortable. The real tragedy is that people in banking spend 20 years working for the same firm and then get ejected in their mid-40s, says Moran. At that point, it can be very hard to find anything new. “If a company’s getting rid of you because you don’t have the skills it wants, the chances are that the rest of the market won’t want you either,” Moran adds. “If you’ve worked for two to three companies, you’re far more likely to be up to date.”