Supposed to be checking in with another entry so here I am again, and got a couple of topics to rant about.

First off, the US elections! Exciting stuff, and I'm all Obama-fan just because he looks good. But anyway, I was viewing a few of Chris Rock's clips on Youtube that night. I tell ya, Chris Rock is the funniest person alive to me; he always cracks me up big time. He's so opinionated yet he sells it to you so well that you lap it up like its chocolate.

Anyhow, he's deeply rooting for Obama, which isn't surprising. What's funny is the nuggets of humour that he throws up. He especially hammers home these two points: McCain is old ("why vote for a president with a bucket list?", and McCain is damn rich. Why is being rich an issue? Very simple; when experiencing an economic crisis, would you rather trust in the guy who has 12 houses, or the guy who has one? Because the guy with 12 can lose half of them and still sleep well at night, but the guy with one has more at stake. That's right, McCain is the 12 houses guy, Obama is the 1 house guy. The one who is more involved in the economy is Obama.

Oh, and not to mention "black people know all about being broke."

Also, the guy who is not going to be around 30 years later probably isn't gonna be making plans that far ahead. McCain probably wouldn't mind further plunging Social Security further into debt more than Obama. And if McCain somehow is unable to continue his term, who takes over? Yes, Sarah Palin.

Anyway, that's the first thing. The second thing was about the DBS bonds issue. Many people are complaining about it, but I feel that alot of them only have themselves to blame.

There are mainly two camps. The first camp are the elderly. I remember seeing on TV this aunty saying "banks where will cheat people" in Cantonese. These people require protection, because they are far from savvy and probably don't know enough to be able to make a sound decision. After all, you can't expect them to pour over a prospectus if they can't even read English.

Next up, its the other group, the working adults. This I have little sympathy for. I read a couple of articles and interviews with some of these people, and I just feel like they are whining and don't can't really blame others. After all, there is caveat emptor; there are no guarantees in place, and they can't possibly believe that their investments are risk-free, when at every point a disclaimer is displayed.

Now, some of the complaints. First one: "we were told that it was low risk." This is the dumbest of them all. Low risk != no risk. There is a risk. And when a financial institution 10 times bigger than Enron goes bankrupt, there is alot at risk. Sure, the chances of it happening were remote. No one saw it coming, and when it did, people were hit hard. No one could really foresee it, and if you took risk, even a little bit, you get hit, its as simple as that.

Second one: "we did not have a choice in what to invest in." Of course you don't have a choice: you paid some fund manager you never saw big bucks to make those choices. If you wanted to have a choice in what to invest in you should have managed it yourself instead of handing your savings over to someone blindly, take the dividends, then complain when you lose money.

Third one: "how could we lose everything?" There was a clause inside which requires all institutions to be creditworthy or something like that. But of course, people didn't bother to read it. When I buy a car or a house, I damn well read the contract thoroughly to make sure I know what's going on.

I mean, at the end of it, the attitudes that people have towards their money really irks me. Its like they don't really bother about it that much or go get some financial literacy to make sure that they know what they are doing. That's why I always scoff at people who tell me to just save my money in a life insurance. That's not a plan to make myself rich, that's a plan to make the insurance companies rich. If people broke down the numbers and saw how much of it disappeared, I think they would be shocked.

Most of the term coverage portions of life insurance policies are very small compared to actual term policies. I think, on the average, for a $100 premium per month of a life, you could get the term coverage part for only between $15 to $20 bucks. I know this because I have a term, and it's covering me for twice as much as an equivalent life policy for only like $30 per month (roughly).

Essentially, you are saving up like $70 to $80 every month, but you have to wait until what, 7 years? 8 years? Before you break even. Man, that really sucks. I wonder why do people even think it's a good deal. I needa get my hands on one of those expected payout plans and really break down the figures. If you would just crunch some numbers, you'll realize that it isn't that great a deal when everyone takes their cut here and there.

So back to the original topic. Yeah, people just don't manage their money well enough. They are great at obtaining it, but they don't do that well at keeping it. If someone came along and told me to invest, say, $50,000 for 3 years, I'll be thinking really hard and getting as much info as possible. Imagine if you wanted to go to university and take a course for 3 years and pay 50k, aren't you gonna want to know what the degree is, what jobs you can get after that and how it'll help your career? And take the time to consider and find out?

Money lost can be made back. But money that is lost already is lost forever.

Anyhow, the third thing would be my baobei's birthday celebration. I promised her I'll post some pics, so I better do so.

We took the Friday off, 12th of October, 3 days before the actual day, to just have a day out. I tried to surprise her with a makeover, but with such obvious things she always secondguesses me. We went there unprepared and I was promptly sat down and have gross makeup all over me, for the first time since kindergarten I think. Really gross. Anyhow, we took a few pics, and they were decent looking. Not celebrity standard but definitely looks better than how we usually look. And it's a prelude for the wedding photos in the not-too-distant future, I hope. You gotta look to her blog for the nicer pics that we had.

After that we had to have dinner at The Line, but had a couple of hours to burn. The fish-phobic birthday girl turned down a trip to the fish spa, and instead we embarked on our first foot reflexology session. Didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would, but there are still a few sore spots.

Then, we headed down to Shangri-La where we really hit the delectable delicacies on offer. My highlight was the mango pudding. It was a cross between a pudding and a mousse, and it really melted in my mouth with that mango tango flavour. Aside from that, the cooked salmon was also prepared to perfection, straddling the fine line between rawness and well-doneness.

The Line

Took a few pictures, and was alittle stumped about what to do next. Decided on KTV and well, you know me and KTVs are only fated for a fling, not a long term relationship. We had to endure horrid red wine as well. Once we were done, we went home tired, but happy to just have a day out and do whatever we like and not worry about anything.

The Cakecutting

On the actual day itself, we had a simple cake cutting with the family. Once you reach a certain age, every birthday starts to remind you that you are not getting any younger anymore. Good thing or bad?

The loot: