i read the abovementioned article with great interest by mr toh yong chuan, senior correspondent, published in today's edition of the straits times.
he started off by illustrating that the word, dragon denotes firstly prosperity or something that is grand.
he cites the local stock market using the example of the sti which ended the year 2000 (the last dragon year) at 1,927 points and market capitalisation then was $417.8 billion. at the end of 2011, the sti had gone up to 2,646 points and market capitalisation at a much higher $716.3 billion.
other statistics:
singapore's gdp was $165.2 billion in 2000 to $284.6 in 2010
trade nearly doubled from $470 billion to $902 billion
singapore got bigger from 683 sq km to 712 sq km
population grew from 4 million to 5 million
literacy from 92.5% to 95.9%
life expectancy from 78 years to 81.8 years
more doctors, from 14 per 10,000 people to 17 per 10,000 people
more nurses, from 40 per 10,000 people to 57 per 10,000 people
more government spending on health from #301 to $808 per person
mobile phone subscriptions from 606 to 1,436 per 1,000 people
more driving cars from 92 to 111 cars per 1,000 people
more watching pay tv from 255,000 to 802,000 subscriptions
newspaper circulation from 1.38 to 1.53 million
more borrowing books (and other materials) from public libraries from 24.5 to 33.2 million
and also on a positive note, crime fell from 720 to 650 per 100,000 people.
on the negative side, he said that there is a difficulty faced by those in the bottom 20% of the income ladder because the incomes of the bottom fifth stood still, from $12,00 to $1,400 growing only 0.3% after taking inflation into account. this group would have fared worse if not for government programmes like workfare.
he also pointed out the worrying trend of families under strain in terms of marriages falling apart. while there have been more marriages from 22,561 in 2000 to 24,363 in 2010, more are ending in divorce which rose from 5,160 to 7,405.
and there are more elderly staying at old folk's homes from 6,022 to 9,755 in 2010 when they should be spending their golden years with their families.
the author ended by reminding us not to take for granted we will always be prosperous, not to be deaf but listen to those around us and give a lift to those who feel caged.
my comments:
after one chinese zodiac cycle, it is noteworthy to know that the majority of the statistics are positive for our tiny red dot nation and the vast majority of our population.
but many of the negatives are also real, with the income of the bottom 20% standing still, more marriages but more ending in divorce, and more elderly living in old folk's homes compounded by the fact that life expectancy is constantly growing.
and these are all real life issues and they have everything to do with financial planning and the 4Ws of wealth management.
the good news is, it is never too late to plan, but rather it is usually failure to plan which is almost like planning to fail. and so long as u are alive and well, the years ahead can be better than u think or imagine but only if u do something about it and the key is, the earlier the better.
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