Monday, January 6, 2025

想长寿多运动是没用的？！为什么养生专家都活不长？尹烨当场拆穿专家的养生谎言！#圆桌派 #许子东 #马家辉 #梁文道 #周轶君 #窦文涛

数码银行如何弥补普通银行服务空白

https://www.zaobao.com.sg/forum/views/story20250106-5690576

2025-01-06

王家丽

随着疫情后客户期望出现变化、技术快速进步和经济波动，东南亚的银行业格局正在经历转型。

新加坡人寿的财务自由度指数显示，在新加坡，只有三分之一的消费者对管理自己的财务有信心，二分之一的人不确定如何实现财务自由。尽管人们普遍认为新加坡“银行服务良好”，但市场上仍存在较大空白，越来越多消费者希望有更多金融解决方案来满足不断变化的需求。

长期以来，银行一直是新加坡金融生态系统的支柱，但传统框架可能会限制快速创新的能力。这使得学生、零工和企业家等群体得不到充分服务，传统的银行解决方案难以满足他们的财务需求。

与之相比，数码银行不受传统技术的阻碍，能够运用资源弥合这一差距。那么，新加坡人在财务方面的真实感受如何？

我们在去年7月开展一项调查，以了解新加坡人对他们的财务前景的看法。我们发现，32%的新加坡人在做出财务决策时感到压力，这导致他们的财务进展感知只得5.2分（满分10分）。

零工经济工作者、企业家和早期的求职者在这方面压力更大，其中43%的人难以做出财务决策。他们往往缺乏金融教育，而且难以获得相关金融产品，很容易因收入波动遇到困难。

Z世代和处于职业生涯早期阶段的人，对自己的财务状况也不乐观。超过五分之一的人认为，他们的财务发展没有达到预期。对任何年龄段的人来说，获得相应的银行产品，对财务增长都十分重要。因此，在财务规划方面，银行应有效缓解各类人群的压力和焦虑，这有助于建立更具财务韧性的社会。

这正是数码银行的用武之地。数码银行有机会产生有意义的影响，对于零工经济工作者、自由职业者、首次求职者或企业家等难以获得足够金融服务的群体来说，更是如此。这类银行可以提供一系列易于获得、容易承担且方便灵活的金融产品，以满足他们的需求。

如今，没有足够信用记录的客户，会发现贷款被拒绝的可能性更大。数码银行通过颠覆性调整或重新设计银行产品，可以将服务范围扩大到所有人群，让这个问题迎刃而解。

更重要的是，数码银行完全在线运营，因此可以快速扩展，覆盖更广泛的受众，并保持低成本。这种灵活性使它们能够适应市场需求，并提供容易负担且以客户为中心的解决方案。此外，我们还运用人工智能（AI）简化导入过程，让用户体验个性化流程，轻松开设数码银行账户或使用金融服务。大多数的数码银行还会嵌入到常用的应用（例如Grab应用）中，实现无缝访问。

通过帮助客户管理现金流、获得信贷和应对金融挑战，数码银行正在打破传统的银行壁垒，使更多人能够充分参与到金融体系中来。

在银行如何帮助弥合金融缺口方面，发挥教育作用帮助各类客户实现财务韧性，是银行开始弥补的另一项重要空白。剑桥大学出版社和新加坡国立大学的一项研究显示，只有大约40%的受访者具备财务知识，这表明缺乏相应知识的情况十分普遍。银行可以组织涵盖预算、投资和储蓄等基本技能的金融知识培训，为培养更具财务韧性的社会提供支持。

随着新加坡不断发展，银行也须要适应这种趋势。银行可以通过普及金融知识资源，引导消费者做出自信明智的金融决策，帮助实现他们的长期目标。新加坡银行业的未来，取决于传统和数码机构满足每个人多样化需求的能力，确保金融进步成为真正惠及所有人的福利。

作者是GXS银行零售主管

Sunday, January 5, 2025

More will work from the office but hybrid is here to stay - say experts

Eat, play, live in 2025: More will work from the office, but hybrid is here to stay, say experts

https://www.straitstimes.com/life/look-forward-2025-more-will-work-from-the-office-but-hybrid-is-here-to-stay-say-experts

2025-01-05

Stephanie Yeo

Senior Correspondent

The Straits Times

SINGAPORE – 2025 marks five years since Covid-19 shattered entrenched beliefs about the nature of work.

When the pandemic swept in, it forced companies around the world to accelerate digitalisation at an unprecedented pace so their employees could work remotely some or all of the time.

Workers quickly learnt to treasure the benefits of remote and hybrid work, which allowed them to better balance corporate and personal commitments.

Headlines hailed hybrid as the default work mode in 2023, but by the end of 2024, the tables were turned as multinationals from e-commerce giant Amazon to tech company Dell recalled their white-collar staff back to the office five days a week.

Coffee chain Starbucks threatened to fire staff who did not work three days in the office, and some companies started tracking their employees’ location in various ways, such as when they scanned their passes.

In Singapore, employers are calling the shots even in a tight labour market.

About 61 per cent of the workforce is now working from the office, up 7 per cent year on year, according to Blackbox Research’s platform SensingSG. It polls 1,500 Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 18 and up every three months.

Yet, survey after survey indicates that Singapore workers want flexibility in their jobs, which covers not just telecommuting but also arrangements such as flexi-hours, compressed work weeks and part-time work.

Workplace experts say that despite the wave of return-to-work mandates, hybrid arrangements are here to stay.

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“We are seeing a natural fluctuation as both employers and employees try to work out a middle ground between work arrangements between pre-pandemic times and during or immediately after the pandemic,” says Assistant Professor Ong Wei Jee from the Department of Management and Organisation at NUS Business School.

“The decline in hybrid work the past year is not unique to Singapore and reflects a broader trend where individuals and organisations are slowly coming to a more stable new normal.”

Associate Professor Trevor Yu from NTU’s Nanyang Business School believes that most companies here are not out to do away with work-from-home (WFH) or remote work arrangements.

“It will still be about trying to find the right balance between in-person and WFH days for which types of jobs and what types of teams,” he says.

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Organisational sociologist Issac Lim points to the fact that the public service – the nation’s largest employer with about 153,000 officers – advocates for and practises flexible work arrangements (FWA).

“This has a significant impact on workplace practices locally,” says Dr Lim, founder of Anthro Insights, a social enterprise focused on driving development innovations.

It remains to be seen what impact the month-old Tripartite Guidelines On Flexible Work Arrangement Requests will have on employee satisfaction and turnover rates, but Prof Yu thinks they will help workers who may not have dared to ask for flexible options previously.

“Knowing that there is a formal guideline policy in place should give some reassurance that asking for and receiving FWAs is within each individual’s rights,” he says.

The guidelines aim to make it easier for workers to request such arrangements and help employers retain and attract talent, although bosses can veto such requests based on business considerations.

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Prof Yu also sees more companies engaging their employees to understand their needs and designing customised flexible arrangements in terms of schedule, location and workload in 2025.

Market competition will result in better flexible options for workers over time, says Prof Ong.

“If workers increasingly choose companies because of FWA-related reasons, those companies with poor policies will have to improve to compete,” he says.

That is certainly the case with Gen Zers, born between 1997 and 2012, who will make up 27 per cent of the Asia-Pacific workforce in 2025.

As their number grows, so will their voice in the boardroom.

Seven out of 10 Gen Z workers say having hybrid options influences their decision to stay in their current jobs, according to an International Workplace Group (IWG) survey of 1,003 office workers aged 18 to 29 in July 2024. IWG owns serviced office brands such as Regus and Spaces.

Whatever their age, it is clear that the widespread success of hybrid work arrangements has “permanently altered” workers’ expectations, Dr Lim notes.

“While job seekers in Singapore are generally practical and understand when on-site presence is necessary, they’re also perceptive. When companies mandate full-time office attendance for roles that could be performed remotely, it reveals much about their organisational culture and management philosophy,” he says.

“Companies that resist this evolution risk two significant disadvantages. They’ll restrict themselves to a smaller talent pool and potentially sacrifice productivity gains. Moreover, those maintaining rigid workplace policies may find themselves losing their most capable employees to competitors who embrace more flexible arrangements.”

王美珠：我制伏身上的“蛇”

https://www.zaobao.com.sg/lifestyle/columns/story20241231-5656223

2024-12-31

朋友向我诉苦，她刚刚发现小腿不知何故长了大概有两毛钱面积的红疹，不解的是，她的背部也同时隐隐作痛。看到朋友的红疹令我想起七年前，我患了带状疱疹这场病，俗称“生蛇”。我劝她不可掉以轻心，建议她赶快看医生诊断。

回忆当年，我在冲凉时发现左胸有红疹，起初以为是皮肤敏感，涂了药膏便草草了事。隔天，两粒带有刺痛的水泡冒了出来，那时侯，我依稀记得在媒体上听过带状疱疹的症状，略知一二，开始怀疑是否患了此病。不料到了第三天，红疹蔓延到左臂胳肢窝，越来越痛，我赶紧到诊所求医，果然被诊断患了带状疱疹！

医生解释，我正处于更年期阶段，生活压力大，维他命C摄取不足，免疫力下降，引发之前患过水痘潜伏在体内的的疱疹病毒。医生接着说，所幸的是，我没有超过第三天找他，带状疱疹潜伏在感觉神经神经节里时间越长，面积扩散越大，可能降低痊愈率。

医生开了六十粒抗病毒药丸，我定时每隔三小时服食两粒一日五次。数天后，症状扩散减轻，可是那惹人厌并伴有神经灼痛的疱疹依然存在，尤其是在夜晚睡觉转身时，那股剧痛令我痛不欲生，只能靠止痛药减轻疼痛。家人看我这么颓丧，建议带我看一名“捉蛇”专家。

治疗前，“捉蛇”专家要我有心理准备，治疗过程会很痛，于是我闭上眼睛不敢看。不知道他用什么来点火，一点到疱疹，就听到啪声响，痛到我冒冷汗，我忍住紧握拳头，心想正和身上的“蛇” 大战，尽快把它烧死！最后，“捉蛇”专家说看到“蛇头”了。啪！这一声更响亮，相信是把这条“蛇”烧死了，我总算熬了过去。

我庆幸及时看了西医诊断并对症下药，还看了“捉蛇”专家治疗。一个多月后，我制伏身体上的这条“蛇”，终于可以任由转身睡好觉了。朋友也及时看医生诊断患了带状疱疹，及时服药，一个礼拜后就痊愈了。

Why it pays to plan for retirement income of up to $3,300 from your CPF

CPF: *Why it pays to plan for retirement income of up to $3,300 from your CPF

*Why it pays to plan for retirement income of up to $3,300 from your CPF*

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/invest/why-it-pays-to-plan-for-retirement-income-of-up-to-3300-from-your-cpf

2025-01-05

Tan Ooi Boon Invest Editor The Straits Times

If you are looking for a useful New Year resolution, make retirement planning a priority so you can take advantage of a new and important change to CPF that kicked in on Jan 1, 2025.

Those turning 55 now have the option of doubling their retirement savings, from the mandatory full retirement sum of $213,000 to the new enhanced retirement sum (ERS) of $426,000 for CPF Life.

If you make such voluntary top-ups, you will receive higher monthly payouts of about $3,300 from age 65, almost double the $1,700 payout for those who choose not to do so.

The chance to have a higher fixed monthly income in retirement is also open to folk over 55 if they make top-ups to their CPF Retirement Accounts to hit the new ERS with either cash or funds already in their CPF account.

People in this group can log into myCPF portal to check the estimated payout they could get with their top-ups as they will hit 65 earlier and so receive payouts sooner.

The new ERS is a major boost to our retirement planning effort because the higher payout of over $3,000 a month means many of us can now rely on our CPF alone to have a fairly comfortable retirement.

Estimates by banks such as OCBC show that people who can get more than $3,000 in retirement income a month may even be able to keep a mid-range car and enjoy short overseas holidays every year.

This aspiration is certainly achievable for couples who plan for the new ERS together because it means that they can receive two sets of payouts from the national annuity scheme, or over $6,000 a month.

Such an amount is not something to scoff at because it means that in just 10 years, or by age 75, a couple would have received over $720,000, and $1.44 million by age 85.

These sums are just payments from CPF Life alone, and do not include other income sources you may have, such as interest earned from the remaining CPF balances as well as your bank savings and other investments.

Younger Singaporeans should not baulk at the $426,000 needed for the ERS because this sum is achievable if they are diligent in contributing to their CPF accounts as they continue working over the next decade or two.

Even those hitting 55 who are short of this amount should not lose heart because retirement planning is not a competition and does not have a cut-off date.

So long as you are keen to tap the scheme to boost your retirement income, you can continue to make gradual top-ups to your Retirement Account even as you work.

If you aim to save more, you will still get higher payouts. For instance, those who can set aside $300,000 instead of $426,000 can receive about $2,400 a month, which is still a decent retirement income.

Here are three other important points that you should know about CPF Life.

Cash Protection for Future

Your savings in the CPF account are protected from even lawsuits and can act as your personal reserve that can provide stable income even if the global economy is in a tailspin.

The non-profit CPF Life scheme is backed by the Government, so its monthly payout will remain stable, unlike payouts from private schemes which can be affected by fund performance, management costs and interest rates.

So you should always aim to hit the maximum sum for CPF Life to reap its guaranteed returns first, before you invest in other private retirement products.

In the past three years alone, close to 1,000 people have sought help at the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre after they bought unsuitable financial products that resulted in losses.

It is fair to say that most of them were not aware of the benefits of CPF Life and so ended up buying private investment products which failed to deliver.