Did you know that tiny Singapore is the 8th most richest country in the world in terms of foreign exchange reserves at USD$144 billion!
We’re up their with the big boys like Eurozone, Russia and Japan.
Of course it’s good to ‘save up for a rainy day’ as they say and our gahmen is really doing a good job on that. Wow $144 billion!
Of course comes to question is now why are we putting up with the GST increase and exorbitant medical cost. Can’t we use those reserves to offset these rising cost of living? Maybe the gahmen thinks that such situations does not warrant the use of our reserves. Why the need to hold so many reserves. Why can’t we use them to good use. I’ve plenty of ideas to use them!
The need to hold so many reserves can be costly also lar. Banks get a good return from the reserves they hold. Why hold cash in the bank and pay high interest on outstanding liabilities? It’s common knowledge that yield on reserves is much lower than the potential return they could earn by using those reserves to make real investments in the economy, such as building roads, bridges, and schools.
Of course the gahmen will retort that the need for such reserves so as to prevent a sharp depreciation in the value of the currency. By having a large reserve to defend its currency in a crisis, it can buy up its currency in the foreign capital markets, which helps to uphold its value.
It may seem like a prudent policy but that’s the only valid reason I can think of versus the many plenty alternative we can use for our reserves. Oh do exclude minister payrise please however, keke.
Anyone else got a reason why our reserve so many many hor and neber use one … I’m no finance major, just your normal lame engineer, so this is just my point of view. I might be out of my depth, but this is my current ramblings for now. Correct me if I made a mistake in the post
I remember once when I was young I bought this BM2000 shoe. You know how popular it was back then. I kept on bugging my dad to buy it and I even saved up on my part to help in paying it. When I finally got my shoe, I didn’t wear it but I kept in locked in the store as I thought I don’t want to use it then. I want the right moment to show off to my friends in school
Well one day, after months of storage, I finally brought it out and wanna bring it to school. To my horror I found out my feet didn’t fit the shoe anymore. I have outgrown it.
Now kids, do you get the moral of the story?
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Well?
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Think again
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Ok la I tell ya lah
If you keep on saving up and never actually use that savings on times that you should be using it, then what’s the point. The opportunity and situation will pass, you might just miss out on making a difference in yours and other people’s life
eeeeks! BM2000!?! During my time converse was the in thing. lolololol.
you’re making me feel old!
maybe they keep that much money for the same reason everybody else keeps money, for EMERGENCY.. mana tau.. natural disaster ke, world wide disaster ke, tolong neighbouring countries ke.. and somehow, i dont think Singapore need worry abt investing elsewhere, it is known to be the world’s biggest international port for trading/finance/technologies/etc, everybody is investing into them instead.
What they need to worry about is to keep innovating/creating ways on how to keep people investing there, because with countries so close like china and malaysia fast growing, the market is becoming more attractive.. because they can get the same thing for a lot less cheaper..
but, bleagh.. but what wud i know.. ;)
maybe in 40 years time when oil runs out in the middle east, we can depend on the reserves then, for now we can just admire and gawk at the $ pilling up
Well, the govt just give excuse to hord more money lor. Common la. Looking at the history development of singapore. Just look at your CPF will do. Large reserves are indeed good for the country but the inability to release part of reserves during critical time and raising GST while lowering income taxes = the gahmen will get from you somewhere when it gives you somewhere but our glorious national newspapers will definitely report on the good stuff la. Well, could it be like building reserves like what had been happening in Indonesia years ago and that guy still got hords of money after being deposed in Indonesia. Think man. Think hard. Look at the top. There is nothing free in singapore. Look at the gini coefficient index and you will know where Singapore fare.
so basically what you’re saying gahmen is the root of all evil
well i disagree on its policies but some do make sense and reasoning behind it, but some in plain sight is just absurb.
i want to complain, but we all fear ISA! haha
I think the trick is to strike while the iron is hot.. or something to that effect. Perhaps they just keep and hold out for something to happen before they open the tap.
But I like what “new” fella mention above.
ALL YOUR MONEY BELONGS TO ME :-)
i wun be seeing that $ in my lifetime, thats for sure
Well I guess throwing too much money into investments is neither good cos it may not turn out profitable either.
From my past experience in societies, I find that in certain batches or years, the committee were not able to bring in money from their activities or from their fund raising events, thus causing the future batches problems. When they do bring in money, the money is spent like nobodys business and yet forgetting that the societies need money for future events.
So same applies to the government. If the current ones are not thrifty and save up, the future may seem bleak for the country and it will force us to work much harder than we already have.
It’ll end up worse when disaster strikes…
Just my ten cents worth of experience
I’m waiting for the demise of a certain someone to see the start of the bleakly future.
i wonder who … haha
from your POV, i think the issue is mismanagement of funds but my issue is the available & alternative options to use the reserves to good use and when does it warrant such use, i’m not saying to use it all but aptly use it when the need arise
surely investing in equipping our workers with further niche skills, more employment opportunities for the older workers (not too old to work but deemed retired) or meeting the increasing demand for cheaper housing is not ‘good’ investment? Even at a loss, it will enhance the quality of life for these people. for some people extra dollar or two makes a difference
its all a matter of profitability in singapore. i don’t know how they balance out these issues but we still have reports and stories about such lack of support. i think we can do better
It’s the typical Asian ‘father knows best’ kind of attitude that our gahmen practices lah. Keep that money forever under the PAP mattress and seldom use. Even if they let us have some, they will explain for days and days why they’re doing it, why we need to save EVEN MORE money and why we cannot ‘rest on our laurels’ and all that crap.
In other words, the gahmen is stingy!
I think the puppies bark louder than their own master at times :-)
Woof!! Damned bitches!
gahmen is cunning … they’re earning plenty, we’re earning peanuts
I am too depressed to add.. but great read though..
I am just too upset and angry that with the measly pay that I bring back monthly and after deducting for my utilities, home loans and meagre meals I still have to pay income tax!!
Halloo I really struggle already and with that meagre salary you still need me to pay some more…
Ya ya we all go round agreeing that probably the money is for some rainy day… like as if we all know when that day will come.. please wake up ideas la people..Wait for some natural disaster? For all you know when a natural disaster strike us it might possibly wipe out the whole island.. so need money to give out to who? Dead Sporeans?
One needs to address just when exactly will the reserves come in to help the country and its people.. and for what specific emergency…? Maybe when the poverty covers 66% of the people maybe they might give us a new ‘anti-poverty’ package…
So package are the in-thing these days but how many thought about the aftermath of the package ?
Like taking in more than what is being given out.
Sometimes, I’m a bit surprised at the amount of praises being thrown towards them but these same people refuse to look at the larger picture.
A sad truth
I think hor, the gahmen saving all this money for the reserves to keep for the next GST increase. Who knows? GST increase to 10% or something? Then they give out GST package, when in fact it’s our own money from the stupid GST we pay them. Clever hor?
haha true enough … getting package $ from our own GST $ and paying GST $ to foothold our next package $
i think we both need a career change
lets apply for MP … i wanna the good life!
no more MRT for me!
lemme see $144 billion for our 4million population minus the expats = $41,000 per family. thats outr estimated poverty package but i reckon we’ll see half of that when that actually happened
I dunno whether I’ll live till tomorrow to “enjoy” the money that they reserve..
If their intention is purely good and honest, then i’m fine with it..just hope they are not using the money for their pleasure or something else..though, i’ll always doubt them..
I don’t think any of us will live long enough to enjoy that kind of amount, be it from our own pockets or from the gahmen :-)
Unless if you can pioneer some product and become the next Sim Wong Hoo ? :-)
singapore gahmen lack transparency … we’ll never know
wow. at 143 billion in reserves, i thought PODAH NEWS NETWORK was quite unbeatable. Now i find out i lost to gahmen by 1 billion. Dang. This sure spoils my weekend.
haha wah can give me $1 million? … small change to you kan
hahah so poor thing, nak show off but feet grew big… hahah!!! very funny…
shah, you got rec’d my emails on the blog thingy? please reply. cos i need to revert back to someone abt what im ordering from him. sorry for the troubles or inconvenience…
i’ll reply soon ok … been preparing for sch & you know who wanna me ‘report strength’
Can we suggest the gahmen to buy a EPL club with that money?
next thing you know, you’ll see alex ferguson running for PAP
seriously ah…sometimes i think singapore is like the next Israel. kedekut nak mampus. u save 144 billion for what? disaster? war? seriously we could not have enuf things to spend all that money…i think.
why not make it like UAE. tax free. free education. free meds. nak kahwin, gahmen kasi duit, nak blaja, gahmen bayarkan.
this whole disaster talk…it’s like….dude…one bomb…singapore’s gone. wow i sounded really pessimistic there…tak sengaja
haiya i could go on a tangent abt this…i dun wanna start. pple mite get offended here. just see how i made the “eww” comment and i got hit with “what more ‘eww’ is pple who are into it”….whatever lah
if i recall our military spending is second only to israel. correct me if i’m wrong. i read this somewhere
free tax in singapore! keke … you joker sia
hahaahah we spent so much on military for what, u tell me??? prolly it all goes to NS. NS is sooooooo unneccessary. it’s waste of 2 yrs of every guy’s life. seriously, guys are held back in sch…finish sch when they’re like old and kerepot.
tax free…WHY NOT. since we have sooo much fucking reserves….*pui* ah, gahmen.
we pride ourselves on being a 1st/2nd world country surrounded by 3rd world countries…make use of that damn money lah…building new malls does not count and not always neccessary….
i say muneera for PAP .. as for NS, no comment la, haiz, glad i’m over that phase
to sidetrack … hows ur infatuation goin? hehe
my infatuation with kaer is pretty much over. hahah temporary ajer
time to find new one…maybe one that’s actually older than me, this time. hahahah
thats good to know
try our minister mentor?
or mahadi syor perhaps?
:p
hahah i SHOULD run for PAP…take away NS, pull the stick out of alot of gov’t officials asses…what else. oh yeah….tax free textbooks. i think anything needed for sch (im sure u know how much PAPER u use in NTU) should be tax/GST free. aiyah…make my life easier…tax free everything…especially shoes and handbags…hahahahahah
my infatuation….still going on. hahahah i like his songs lah. technically, i’m related to him now by marriage. aiseyman…hahahahahahah whatever lah…nak bangga2 kan oso no use. he’s nice. ok dah stops there.
time to find new infatuation hahahaha
if you run for PAP, i shall vote for you. please bring back chewing gum!
wah your family got superstar & artist, also got future PAP … hebat!
i wrote a whole paragraph and hilang….KNN
maybe i should run for PAP…i’m sooo not a repcublican. i’m not ca onservative when it comes to politics. if i run, the first thing i do is pull the stick out of govt officials asses. everything to do with sch should be tax free…tax free textbooks. text free paper. aiyah tax free everything lah!!! hahaha esp. shoes and handbags. maybe even slash the prices 50%. heheheheheh
my infatuation with kaer…aiyah. i like his songs ajer. technically, i’m related to him by marriage now…aiseyman…ahahah alah bangga2 kan oso no use…he’s nice. ok dah stops there.
time to find new infatuation.
well shite happens … anyway it was in my spam inbox. i think my wordpress donch like you very much. keke
mentor minister Lee was born sept 16th. my bday is on the 17th
great pple must be virgos :)
can i say, “I beg to differ” … wahaha :p
we all know Capricorns are the best!