*Official* BBCWatcher club

[BBCWatcher]

CNA has been running a series of articles on the expansion of central kitchen food service in public schools. Parents and kids are reporting numerous problems with the expansion.

Here's an idea: change the model. Just make school snacks and lunches free at the point of service for all students. Take a look at what France does for inspiration. Kids that are fed are kids that can focus better on learning, and kids have more time to eat when they can just get their food without hassle. (But don't cut recesses and lunch durations, please. They're already way too short — and doing a great job teaching kids how to wolf down food as fast as possible.) For that matter, make books, supplies, and uniforms free at the point of service as well. Even if the government insists on hiking (means-tested) school fees to cover food, books, and uniforms, it'd be better than the current model, I think. (But how about NOT doing that?) There are plenty of school-based services that are already free at the point of service. As examples, there are free dental checkups and vaccinations, and there's no school toilet admission fee.

I remain mystified — given Singapore's low and still declining Total Fertility Rate — why there doesn't seem to be a comprehensive, holistic, and aggressive move to get rid of all sorts of hassles and perils involving childbearing and raising children. Including all the school-related hassles that don't have to exist.

One of the issues the new New York City mayor (Zohran Mamdani) campaigned on is to make New York City's buses free at the point of service. You hop on the bus and ride. Sure, running public buses costs money, and he's proposed ways to replace fare box revenue. Because trying to collect fares at boarding makes the service worse for everyone who rides the bus. Everybody has to queue up, fiddle with their cards, tap their cards, maybe tap them again, get into arguments with the driver, etc., etc. And that slows the bus down a lot, especially in New York City. Which then slows other vehicles. I suppose we could quibble about the details, but at least on this point his logic is solid. (There are also important second order benefits in making buses free to board and alight. And note there'd still be fares to ride trains because fare collection in train stations impacts the quality of service less.) Of course Singapore could make public buses free at the point of service. I think it should.

Some of the successful businesses in the world employ "freemium" pricing models: a basic offering that's free at the point of service with options to pay for something extra. I think there's ample room for government to be more thoughtful and clever along the same lines, especially since government can raise revenues through general taxation.

 

[EagleToThesSky]

Hi BBC, thank you for highlighting MBH too. I was considering A35 as a security ballast, and hopefully one that still provides better returns that the current FD. Perhaps I should consider splitting and investing in both A35 and MBH?


Thank you for pointing that out. Okays, will cut down to just two max. Will use my cash savings (non CPF/SRS route) investment route for world indexes i.e. VWRA.


Thank you. I've went through their sites, materials online and with the help of GPT to dig in deeper on the comparisons, fees and forecasting some of those fees across a 10 year investment. I could see that they both have their own and different approaches in fees. Both seems like great platforms. Am leaning towards FSMOne, even though the total in fees (across a 10 year period) is just a slight tad more.

For FSM1, just be aware that their auto-sweeping account comes with a fee. So you might not want to keep any balance there.

 

[highsulphur]

For FSM1, just be aware that their auto-sweeping account comes with a fee. So you might not want to keep any balance there.

net still higher interest than most savings account?

 

[CrashWire]

One of the issues the new New York City mayor (Zohran Mamdani) campaigned on is to make New York City's buses free at the point of service. You hop on the bus and ride. Sure, running public buses costs money, and he's proposed ways to replace fare box revenue. Because trying to collect fares at boarding makes the service worse for everyone who rides the bus. Everybody has to queue up, fiddle with their cards, tap their cards, maybe tap them again, get into arguments with the driver, etc., etc. And that slows the bus down a lot, especially in New York City. Which then slows other vehicles. I suppose we could quibble about the details, but at least on this point his logic is solid. (There are also important second order benefits in making buses free to board and alight. And note there'd still be fares to ride trains because fare collection in train stations impacts the quality of service less.) Of course Singapore could make public buses free at the point of service. I think it should.

I think there is some logic to charging for public transport to prevent people from taking it "for fun".

What I don't agree with is Ministry of Transport and LTA treating this like a proper business and trying as much as possible to not subsidise it, when Singapore's ridiculous car (and private hire) prices means public transport is practically an essential for the middle class.

 

[EagleToThesSky]

net still higher interest than most savings account?

Yes. But why paying a fee? Chocolate Finance offers higher interests with no fees. And withdrawal now is quite fast.

 

[BBCWatcher]

I think there is some logic to charging for public transport to prevent people from taking it "for fun".

What's wrong with taking a bus ride "for fun"? And even if you think it's somehow "bad" if a small minority of riders take joy rides, why penalize everyone (including other motorists) by slowing all the bus services down just to collect fares? At both doors, by the way: in Singapore it's not good enough to tap in. You also have to tap out.

Note that you can have fare free buses but still maintain fare collections for trains. That Mayor Mamdani's proposal.

There's another way you could collect bus fares without slowing down buses: switch to a honor-based fare system. With offboard fare collection most people riding a public bus in Singapore would need a ticket, but they'd acquire their tickets before they even get to the bus stop — mostly online, alternatively from a convenience store. Bus tickets would probably be available in 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month increments. (The 1 month ticket would be optionally automatically renewable.) They'd be tied to NRICs/FINs for residents. Tourists and non-working temporary visitors would probably be exempt if they've recently arrived in Singapore. Just as today, fare inspectors would conduct occasional spot checks aboard buses.

Either way, the fare collection equipment in public buses would be removed. No cash fares, no tapping on, no tapping off. Just get on and go, and get the buses moving.

With fare free (or offboard fare collection) buses I think I'd be OK with carefully reducing the number of bus routes, shifting buses even more toward a "last mile" orientation that feeds in and out of train stations. But let's reintroduce a reasonable night bus network.

 

[Th@nhBB]

Hi BBCWatcher,

I read your advice on CPF and wanted to do some voluntary contribution for myself.
I login mycpf, voluntary contribution and saw that the available amount is 0. I interpret it as the limit is hit and there is no way for me to top up. Do I have a happy problem, or is there another way to do voluntary contribution, i.e. I did it the wrong way?

Thank you!

 

[BBCWatcher]

I read your advice on CPF and wanted to do some voluntary contribution for myself.
I login mycpf, voluntary contribution and saw that the available amount is 0. I interpret it as the limit is hit and there is no way for me to top up. Do I have a happy problem, or is there another way to do voluntary contribution, i.e. I did it the wrong way?

I'm not sure what you're encountering, but here are a couple guesses:

1. If you're referring to a Voluntary Contribution to MediSave, if you're age 65+ your Basic Healthcare Sum was fixed for life when you celebrated your 65th birthday. You won't be able to make a Voluntary Contribution to MediSave until there's a deduction from MediSave.

2. If you're referring to an "all 3 account" Voluntary Contribution, is it possible you exceed the CPF Annual Limit in 2025? In that case you might be blocked from another VC in 2026 until the CPF Board refunds the overage.

What account(s) are you trying to add funds to?