Insurance
Aspirational and Keeping up with the Joneses Insurance
By Singapore Man of Leisure  •  November 4, 2015
Insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Listening to some people, they talk as if they are treating insurance like a lottery ticket? Let's take travel insurance.  A friend of my sibling was caught in the Bali bomb blast several years ago. His medical flight evacuation from Bali to Singapore alone cost about $150,000 plus. Now that's the type of travel insurance one should look into if one is afraid of getting seriously sick or injured in a foreign country! "Celebrating" you made a claim for a flight delay, lost luggage, or a medical claim for a minor ailment during or after the trip is not exactly the main purpose of travel insurance, is it? I mean even if you had not bought travel insurance for these "good to have" claims, your lifestyle is not going to be meaningfully changed. A few hundreds or thousands out of pocket expenses are at most an annoyance, right? Just like getting the flu while travelling - a bummer - but it won't kill us. Have you checked your travel insurance covers medical repatriations? Too expensive? You wanted to "save" on the premium? You should listen to yourself... Aspirational and keeping up with the Joneses Insurance I guess this one of the main reasons why there's quite a large percentage of people who bought Integrated Shield Plans for stays at Private hospitals or higher class wards in Public hospitals - don't lose face to others - decide to downgrade themselves when the time comes for them to be hospitalised. Aspirations are good; not when you extend beyond your means. So what happens to the wasted higher premiums you have paid? Thank you very much! So say those who made the medical claims with glee! They go in and out of hospital every other year, and its all free! So lucky of them they tell you!? A perverse kind of lottery mentality? Did they say they were lucky again? Notice what they focus on before buying Private hospital plans and after their hospital stay differs? Before hospitalisation say in earnest its for less waiting time, can choose own doctor, good better best medical treatments, etc. After? Can only say the room very posh like 5 star hotel, food excellent, etc. You want to bet anyone took selfie and post in Facebook to show off? You would think a staycation at a 5 star hotel or resort can easily be arranged. And the whole family can get to enjoy the facilities too! So you buy medical insurance to cover the medical treatments or for sleeping in style? Sell the printer cheap; make money on the ink cartridges Just the other day, there's one interesting advertorial (nice fancy word to mean I'll only say nice things for my sponsor) on child insurance. It started well. Medical insurance for child? Makes sense if you fear the rising medical costs in Singapore. Education fund for child? Again makes a lot of sense especially if you do not have a good track record of DIY investment... Its basically a kind of forced savings to prevent you from blowing this money on money losing investments which some have already experienced! And then it has to happen. Life insurance for the child!? The comparison between term or whole life insurance is just what we call smoke and mirrors in the trade. It's just sleight of hand to prevent you from asking who is the dependent of your child? And if there are none, then duh! See: Dumbest Insurance - Life Insurance for Child Now make a guess. Medical insurance, Education fund, and Life insurance for child, which 2 are the printers, which one is the ink cartridge? Same goes for eating out at the restaurants. The main courses are competitively priced. But the literary icing on the cake for the restaurant owners are on the desserts menu. If you are thrifty you'll skip desserts right? Strange? Yet when it comes to insurance, you just pile on the desserts! Yummy!
Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google it!
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By Singapore Man of Leisure
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2 responses to “Aspirational and Keeping up with the Joneses Insurance”

  1. Serendib says:

    i agree with you for all the above except medical insurance – regardless of what they say in public, doctors will tell you in private that the quality of care is better in A-class/private hospitals. And having experienced both subsidised care and private care, I can tell you there is!

  2. Jared - SMOL says:

    Serendib,

    I hear you.

    For me, whether flying first class, business class, or cattle class, the pilot and co-pilot are the same ;)

    Having said that, I avoid budget airlines whenever possible :)

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