Mommilicious:

Hi,


I just throw away my HP inkjet printer recently. It only lasted me for 3 years. When I sent the printer for repair, I was shocked that the technician told me that the repair part is no longer available Alamak!...just 3 years old leh... Now I need to source for another printer. Plan to buy a brother printer but after reading all your comments....I am lost liao...

Nowadays electronics are like that one. Never expect to repair. Even they have the parts, the repair cost is higher than buying a new one.

Just bought an HP M1132 during the IT show. 259, give 50 voucher. So net 209. Not that bad. Expect to use 2-3 years only.

Saw once in a factory outlet. Seems a bit cheaper. But warranty can be an issue. Nowadays I consider lucky if electronics still work after warranty.

DDS, I think the answer is no for your question, i.e. you have to deal one by one. Even you put them to the same school where balloting is needed, you can choose to bind them or split them. When you bind them, they will either all in or all out. When you split, you may have half luck but you have to deal with the other half. It is in MOE website.

A few things:


1. Will you sell your house in near future? Subsidy is subject to 3 year claw back. You may have more penalty because of the new lock in period.

2. You can not expect the floating rate stays so low for next few years.

3. Double check with your old bank to see which date you can pay back. You may attract unnecessary penalty. Some banks are quite strict on that.

The ink problem only applies to ink jet.


If you go laser, the problem is you probably has to go for BW. It is expensive to maintain color laser. They rob you on the toner as well.

To be frank, you may be stuck. Main reason is that your loan quantum is small. Banks are more interested in loans at least 300K. Banks give better deal for even larger loan. You can not refinance more (leverage up) because of HDB regulation.


If you refinance to fixed rate package, it will be about 2%. Your saving may just cover legal fee.

If you refinance to floating rate package, it will be about 1-1.5% now. But everyone says interest rate will go up, although they have been saying for long time.

The good thing is that you should be quite happy because you have only a little bit outstanding loan.

Interbank rate = SIBOR, it is floating

SOR is another type of floating rate
Quite difficult to explain in detail. Roughly speaking, SOR is more volatile. Historically, it is higher than SIBOR but currently it is much lower.

You have 2 options:
1. Ask your current bank to re-price
2. Refinance to another bank

Typically, there is repricing fee - a few hundred dollars. To refinance, there is another round of legal fee about 2K+. Most refinance bank will subsidize legal fee but will subject to a limit (0.4-0.5%) and there will be 3 year lock in.

So, you can ask around and see what is your best option.

Some ETF & Reits. Reason being - it is not that convenient for you to see the holdings & available cash in the account. So I buy something and let it rot there.

I guess there is no residential property in SG can give you 8% raw yield, maybe except 1-2 very old one in Geylang.


And it did not talk about leverage. This is the most damaging tool to kill property investors in bad time.

Exactly. I did not say the bank will make your money to work for you the best. It works for the economy the best, at least theoretically. Facilitating is also a type of work. It provides services. Whether the cut they take is reasonable or not is another story. You are free to find a way / an agent to make your money work for you better. Just like property agent, you are free to sell on your own if you feel their service does not worth the money.