Guranteed 10% p.a. Dividend?

I was told by a friend that he just invested in a Malaysia investment plan which I think it's pretty suspicious....

From his rough explaination, it's kind of endownment (investment?) policy that required applicant to pay for regular amount of min $5-$10k per year for 6 years continuously and applicant can enjoy a guaranteed 10% dividend annually, principle is guaranteed too.

As far as I know on the investment or endownment plan in the market, none of it can guaranteed the principle with 10% interest annually. I still believe there isn't any free lunch in this world.

Is New Distance Fare Cheaper ??

For a only mrt as public transport user, is the new distance fare remain at same level or lower?

Take example of a mrt passenger board on Jurong East mrt station, the fare charges will be as per table below and the increase can be as high as 11.46%

Transportation Cost (New Distance Fare)

New distance fare will be implemented from 03/July, and the online fare calculator are now available at PublicTransport@SG.

After comparing my new transport fee, I'm not sure whether I should be happy or dissapointed...

Current Fare | Distance Fare |Changes | %
MRT Journey: $1.72 | $1.82 | + $0.10 | 5.81% |
Shuttle Bus btw Home & MRT: $0.19* | $0.02 | - $0.17 | - |
Total: $1.91 | $1.84 | - $0.07 | -3.66% |
* after $0.50 transfer rebate

By looking at the final figure, I should be happy and satisfied with the new fare system because I save $0.07 per journey to/from office. Assuming 2 trips a day and 20 working days a month, my monthly savings would be $2.80 which is equal a plate of mixed rice with 1 meat and 2 vege.

But the dark side of this fare to my case is, purely the fare for the mrt journey has been increase significant by 5.81%. if I opt for healthier way by walking to mrt station instead of taking shuttle bus, theoretically I will suffer an addition $4/month ($0.10 x 2 trips x 20 wd) on my transportation cost.

While transport company is suffering a loss in fare reduction in shuttle service, it has to make a higher profit in other ways to cover this small losses as fare for shuttle service become so low that i think it's hard to cover its cost. Alternatively, shuttle service frequencies may be reduced or worse been cancelled.

Spending Cut

I deactivated my auto roaming mobile phone service which subscription cost me $5.35/mth and use Pay-As-You-Roam with $0 subscription, even the roaming call charges is 20% higher than the previous choice.

I can use my existing JB mobile line to while I am in Malaysia.

Still thinking whether to deactivated my Caller ID to save another $5.35/mth... =)

Unjustified Price - Brown Rice

Brown rice is produced when only the outermost layer of a grain of rice (husk) is removed. While to produce white rice, the next layers underneath the husk are removed.

Since the less processing steps are required to produce brown rice, why the price of brown rice at the markets are almost double than the white rice?

Ways toward healthy diet could be in lower cost without the unjustified price hike.

Brown rice is a greener choice too, it's basically down to processing - the less processing of a food, the less energy required. I can't imagine how many processing steps (maybe chemical process?)are carried out before our bags of "shinning white" white rice are placed on sheves.