CJH Financial Planning

  We are seeing rises in inflation across many major economies. Inflation in the United States hit 5.4% in May, the highest in 13 years. (Source: WSJ) Back home in Singapore, CPI inflation rose 2.1% in April, higher than expected. (Source: ING) Inflation has usually been seen as a bad thing; something that steals money from under our noses, like an invisible thief. However, do you know that inflation can be a good thing too? Just like a gun; inherently, it is neither good nor bad. It all depends on the intention of the user. Law enforcement officers use guns to maintain order. On the other hand, criminals use guns for undesirable activities. Inflation is defined as a general increase in prices. This affects the goods and services that we buy and use on a day-to-day basis. The Consumer Price Index (or 'CPI') tracks a basket of goods and services and compares the changes in price with the previous month/year. If you keep money in the bank, you're probably getting about 0.05% ...

  "It never rains but it pours" This idiom perfectly describes the COVID-19 situation which hit the world badly at the beginning of the year. Fast forward the months, and we are now in December, a year from the initial outbreak of the novel coronavirus. In March 2020, the World Health Organisation announced COVID-19 as a pandemic, leading to many countries locking down their economies, barring their citizens from leaving their homes other than for essential services, and grinding international travel to a halt. Singapore, the tiny city-state, was not spared. With a tiny domestic market and an economy that is highly dependent on import and export, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) projects that the economy will be shrinking between 6% to 6.5% this year. Drawing from Past Reserves It is reasonable to say that the economic impact would probably have been much worse, if not for the 4 sets of stimulus packages (“Budgets”) to help businesses and individuals w...

Singaporeans are experiencing a 'double whammy' recently. Firstly, Yahoo! News reported that Singapore’s inflation have risen by 5.5 per cent over one-year period. Read the whole article here:  http://bit.ly/oZyZus Secondly, a major local bank has decreased the interest rates for savings and fixed deposit accounts. Savings Deposit Rates Fixed Deposit Rates If majority of one's long-term money (money which is not needed in the short term and used for purposes such as retirement or children's education) are in such accounts, they are subject to rapidly losing their real value .  A double whammy of lower interest earnings (therefore higher opportunity costs should one be able to invest elsewhere) and higher inflation (the 'purchasing power' of money shrinking). Compounded over years, one's savings will shed half, or even more of its value. If one day you wake up and find that your bank balance has halved, would you be concerned? Definitely! So...

From Yahoo! Finance, By Elena Torrijos ,  On Monday 23 May 2011, 14:17 SGT Singapore's consumer prices in April rose by 4.5 percent from a year ago, the first time this year that inflation has fallen under 5 percent, as a strengthening currency cut the costs of imported goods.

Hi all, How's it going? Here are some latest updates on inflation. Let's start with Singapore. According to the Singapore Department of Statistics, inflation ( as measured by the Consumer Price Index , or CPI in short) in 2009 was 0.6%. That's lower than what most expected, given that it was about 6.6% in 2008 (Reference:  http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/economy/hist/cpi.html ) With the latest data, the following average inflation rates for the various periods can be calculated. I've done some work for you and here are the results: Period Average Annual Inflation (%) 40 yr 2.95 30 yr 2.13 20 yr 1.74 15 yr 1.43 10 yr 1.35 5 yr 2.16 As you can see, Singapore's average inflation rates are pretty low, hovering around 2 - 3%. The last 5 years had been relatively higher, at 2.16% A look at the longer term trend (the 40-year period) shows that inflation is close to 3%...