Investment-linked policies

Life is a journey and we learn many lessons while traveling down this road. I will title today's lesson as "never buy Investment-Linked policies (ILPs)".

I contacted my insurance agent regarding one of my ILPs that I contribute monthly. It had appreciated by 4%. I gave a few scenarios, wanting to know the consequence of my action and here is what I was told:

1) Terminate it now and I will lose 40% of my initial investment. Why? That's the penalty for early termination of the policy.
2) Keep the policy and in 4 years' time (I call this the break even point), there won't be any penalty when I terminate the policy.
3) Change the monthly contribution amount, and/or the contribution interval i.e. three monthly or half-yearly, and prolong the 4 years to another 6 or 10 years.

If I had invested in stocks, ETFs or mutual funds via a brokerage firm, I would only have to consider:

a) whether I make a profit or loss. In this case, I have made a profit.
b) the commission I would have to pay the broker, which definitely would not cost me 40% of my initial investment.

If I had invested via a brokerage firm, I would have the freedom to sell whenever I want and not be tied down by terms and conditions that insurance companies use.

Therefore, if you want protection, buy a purely protection policy i.e. term. If you want to invest, invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and ETFs via a brokerage firm. Never again will I buy an ILP.

PS: I mentioned 'term' and not 'life' insurance for protection because there are many issues discussed about life/living policies on the net. It is not a topic I want to delve into in this post.

Here is one link regarding the 'not-so-good' side of life insurance:
http://www.daveramsey.com/article/the-truth-about-life-insurance/

There's plenty of info on the net. Take your time to research and have fun!

Chocolate zucchini muffin

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

What do you do with a glut of zuchinni? After salads, stir fries, pastas, one of the best and yummiest ways is to add them to muffins. Hey, chocolate makes anything taste good, the added bonus of veggies in a muffin is that it keeps the muffin moist, and adds great fiber - and.. almost totally hidden, if you have kids that do not like veggies, this is a great way to add it to their diet.

Dry ingredients:

2 cups self raising flour*
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon powder

Wet ingredients:

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups grated zucchini

*if you do not have self raising flour; 1 cup flour + 2 tsp baking powder = 1 cup self raising flour

Method:

Preheat the over to 175C

• Grease muffin tray, or line with paper muffin cases
• (this recipe can also be made into a pretty delish cake)
• Beat eggs and add oil
• Fold in dry and wet ingredients
• Bake 20min (muffins) or 30 minutes (cake) or till skewer comes out clean

Fried Hokkien Mee

Invited to another foodie's house for Boxing Day dinner... what should I cook? (especially when this person wants to learn about Chinese stir fry??) Hmmm..

After a few days of Christmas food, we were hankering for some good old Singapore flavours. Garlicky, savoury.. full of umami...

Rummaging in our pantry we found a packet of thick yellow (Hokkien) noodles and dried rice vermicelli. Fried "Hokkien Mee" then! ("Mee" is Hokkien for noodles). This dish, consisting of thick fresh noodles and rice vermicelli, cooked with prawns, squid, pork in a rich prawn stock, is a firm favourite, appearing in every hawker centre.

stir-frying mee in a wok

Braved the pre-Christmas crush at the supermarket on the 24th and found a packet of frozen prawns, raw, with shell on. Wanted fresh actually, but then that would be nigh impossible. Do you know how difficult it is to find fresh prawns here? Blood from stone! We had to scour the freezer chests of 2 supermarkets just to find the type of prawn we wanted. Most supermarkets here sell frozen prawn cutlets, either cooked or raw without the shell or head. Just what are prawn cutlets? Why not just call them prawns? Anyway, I digress. Another key ingredient, belly pork was not too hard to find, still plenty left on the shelves, not really a Christmas food. Frozen squid tubes substitute quite nicely for fresh calamari.

mung bean sprouts or "tau geh"

Don't be daunted by the long list of ingredients. It's really quite an easy dish to make, the preparation is not too tedious and one is well rewarded by the results.

blanched squid, prawn and pork

Ingredients:

• 200g fresh thick yellow (Hokkien) noodles
• 100g dried rice vermicelli
• 150g raw prawns, peeled and deveined, head and shells reserved
• 150g squid tubes
• 200g belly pork (2 strips about 2-3cm thick)
• 4-6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 cups bean sprouts, cleaned
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• spring onions / scallions finely sliced
• red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced
• salt
• white pepper
• dark soy sauce 1 tablespoon
• light soy sauce 1 tablespoon
• 4 small limes (limaukasturi)

Method:

1. Prepare the prawn stock - a good stock makes the difference between an absolutely delicious plate of noodles and a "just so-so" one.
2. Heat a table spoon of cooking oil in a large pot and stir fry 2 cloves of garlic over medium heat for a few minutes until just starting to soften. Add the prawn heads and shells and fry till they turn pink and smell fragrant. Add the 2 soy sauces, allow for caramelisation and the add 1 litre of boiling water. Simmer for 10-15minutes.
3. Strain into another clean sauce pan. Use a potato masher to extract as much from the shells as possible. Season with salt and pepper. (The stock has to be salty enough to flavour the noodles, as no more salt will be added during the frying of the noodles)

Preparing the meat/seafood:

1. Cook the prawns and squid separately in the stock, remove and cool.
2. Slice the prawns into 2 (or keep them whole if you feel generous or have plenty of prawns)
3. Slice the squid tubes into rings about 5mm wide.
4. Poach the pork in the stock, remove, cool and slice into 2-3mm thick pieces.

Preparing the noodles:

1. Put the fresh yellow noodles in a bowl and pour boiling water water. Stand for a minute and drain.
2. Soak the dried rice vermicelli in hot water until softened (about 5-10min), drain and set aside.

Putting in all together:

1. Heat 2-3 tablespoons of peanut oil in a wok, stir fry the remaining garlic until golden brown.
2. Add the noodles and rice vermicelli and 1 cup of stock and stir fry over high heat for 1 -2 minutes.
3. Add the bean sprouts, 3/4 of the pork, prawn and squid and another 1/2 cup of stock and stir fry for another minute until heated through.
4. Make a small well in the middle of the noodles, pour the beaten egg in and let it cook briefly, until it starts to coagulate and then stir through the rest of the noodles.
5. Add more stock if at any time if the the noodles look dry or threaten to stick to the wok.
6. Transfer to large serving dish
7. Garnish with reserved pork, prawns and squid and sprinkle sliced chilli and spring onions for added colour.

Enjoy!