Private Hospital Scam
My wife gave birth to a baby boy recently at a private hospital in Shah Alam. She gave birth through C-sect procedure although we were expecting her to give birth normally. This experience has taught me a thing or two on how to avoid being over charged by private hospitals especially when giving birth.
I think most of us must have heard of the scams in private hospital where they take us for a ride conducting unnecessary procedures just to overcharge the patient. This prompted the Health Ministry secretary-general to issue a statement warning errant hospitals. The Health Ministry will also come out with new guidelines on hospital fees by March. So guys, make sure what you are being charged for yeah.
I've heard from a friend where he was asked to do a heart screening although he was admitted to the hospital on suspicion of dengue. My wife during her pregnancy once complained of backache. We went to a private hospital (in Johor Bharu) only to be taken for a ride doing unnecessary procedures. Ask any medical doctors, and they will say if a pregnant lady complains of backache, the first thing that they will do is to conduct urine test to determine whether there are signs of urine infection since this is common among pregnant ladies. At that private hospital, urine test was conducted as the last procedure. The bill came up to more than RM800 for an outpatient treatment and some panadols which I can buy cheaper from pharmacy!
Showing posts with label Lessons Learnt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lessons Learnt. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Lessons Learnt #3
Too Good to be True
A few years back, a friend of mine asked me to invest in one of his friend's company. I can't really recall what the business is about. But generally the intention of us investing is to provide capital for the business expansion and on the other hand, we will receive monthly return on our investment at a rate of 7% per month. Wow! That is really a good investment. No investment in the market that could give you anything near that.
After listening to the presentation and giving some thoughts to the proposal, I decided to invest a small amount into the company. The reason I invested only a small amount of money was that I was still skeptical about the business model. Nonetheless, I didn't want to miss the boat in case it turns out to be good as claimed.
The investment scheme is pretty simple. I was required to pay what ever amount that I wish to invest. Sign an investment contract for a year. Then they gave me 3 months post dated cheques of 7% from my total investment each. On the date of each cheque, I just need to bank in the cheque into my account. After 3 months, I was required to meet them again to get another 3 month's cheque. After a year, I will get back my initial capital invested.
This is just a perfect investment scheme. My capital is protected. On top of that, I get 7% return per month or 84% per year. Not even ASB can beat this.
Things went on good for a few months. I think at about the 7th or 8th month, things began to turn sour. Somehow they claimed that there were some problems with the business. They could not afford to pay the investors. All sorts of reasons given. In the end, I didn't even manage to complete the whole year. I lost a few hundred ringgit and learnt my lesson well.
With the growing number of investment scams around, I just wish you are not dubbed into any of them. In case you come across any thing similar to this, just ask these simple questions to clear your doubts:
Always bare in mind that there are hardly any too good to be true investments around. Stick to the conventional ways of stocks trading, unit trust, property investment etc. to grow your money. Besides growing your money, it will help you become money wise.
A few years back, a friend of mine asked me to invest in one of his friend's company. I can't really recall what the business is about. But generally the intention of us investing is to provide capital for the business expansion and on the other hand, we will receive monthly return on our investment at a rate of 7% per month. Wow! That is really a good investment. No investment in the market that could give you anything near that.
After listening to the presentation and giving some thoughts to the proposal, I decided to invest a small amount into the company. The reason I invested only a small amount of money was that I was still skeptical about the business model. Nonetheless, I didn't want to miss the boat in case it turns out to be good as claimed.
The investment scheme is pretty simple. I was required to pay what ever amount that I wish to invest. Sign an investment contract for a year. Then they gave me 3 months post dated cheques of 7% from my total investment each. On the date of each cheque, I just need to bank in the cheque into my account. After 3 months, I was required to meet them again to get another 3 month's cheque. After a year, I will get back my initial capital invested.
This is just a perfect investment scheme. My capital is protected. On top of that, I get 7% return per month or 84% per year. Not even ASB can beat this.
Things went on good for a few months. I think at about the 7th or 8th month, things began to turn sour. Somehow they claimed that there were some problems with the business. They could not afford to pay the investors. All sorts of reasons given. In the end, I didn't even manage to complete the whole year. I lost a few hundred ringgit and learnt my lesson well.
With the growing number of investment scams around, I just wish you are not dubbed into any of them. In case you come across any thing similar to this, just ask these simple questions to clear your doubts:
- Instead of asking people to invest in your company, why not go to banks and get loans? The interest rates are lower compared to the return you promised to the investors.
- Why do you want to share the profits with so many investors when it can be used as rolling capital to expand your business?
- Why are you so confident of giving such a high rate of return when you don't even know whether your business will succeed or not? Nothing is guaranteed in business.
Always bare in mind that there are hardly any too good to be true investments around. Stick to the conventional ways of stocks trading, unit trust, property investment etc. to grow your money. Besides growing your money, it will help you become money wise.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Lessons Learnt #2
Be Prepared for Road Accidents/Breakdown
I've described about the road accident I encountered last year in my previous posting here and here. I would like to go back further into my memory lane on why I started taking towing services.
When I was still using a Kelisa back in 2006, some mishap happened to my car. The rear tire rod broke causing the car to sway excessively even at 30km/h. I had to sent the car to the workshop for repairs since I can't even go more than 30km/h. At that time, I was staying in Bandar Seri Permaisuri, Cheras. I wanted to tow my car to Perodua Service Centre in Keramat where I use to send my car for periodic service. It is about 20km away.
I thought I was lucky since I took up a motor insurance coverage which stated that they offered FREE towing service to the customers. So I called the insurance company to request for the towing service. To my surprise and disappointment, the operator told me that they don't actually offer that service. They can only guide and recommend on which tower to use. I have to pay for the towing service. The operator then called their panel tower and sent him to me.
Guess how much did it cost for the 20km towing service? RM120! RM110 after discount! Like it or not, I have to pay since I had no options. Later I found out that whatever towing services offered together with your motor insurance are just gimmick! They merely don't offer the service like in my case, or they only cover for a short distance. More than that, you have to fork out your own money.
Since then, I've never failed to take up towing services independently. I only pay RM70 per year for that service which includes personal accident coverage. And when I need it the most during that accident, the service came to my rescue. I always remind people around me to take up that kind of service but somehow many of them are reluctant. Perhaps when they need it the most, then only will they realize the importance of it. Be it Road Warrior or AAM, just take one and be prepared in case something wrong happens.
I've described about the road accident I encountered last year in my previous posting here and here. I would like to go back further into my memory lane on why I started taking towing services.
When I was still using a Kelisa back in 2006, some mishap happened to my car. The rear tire rod broke causing the car to sway excessively even at 30km/h. I had to sent the car to the workshop for repairs since I can't even go more than 30km/h. At that time, I was staying in Bandar Seri Permaisuri, Cheras. I wanted to tow my car to Perodua Service Centre in Keramat where I use to send my car for periodic service. It is about 20km away.
I thought I was lucky since I took up a motor insurance coverage which stated that they offered FREE towing service to the customers. So I called the insurance company to request for the towing service. To my surprise and disappointment, the operator told me that they don't actually offer that service. They can only guide and recommend on which tower to use. I have to pay for the towing service. The operator then called their panel tower and sent him to me.
Guess how much did it cost for the 20km towing service? RM120! RM110 after discount! Like it or not, I have to pay since I had no options. Later I found out that whatever towing services offered together with your motor insurance are just gimmick! They merely don't offer the service like in my case, or they only cover for a short distance. More than that, you have to fork out your own money.
Since then, I've never failed to take up towing services independently. I only pay RM70 per year for that service which includes personal accident coverage. And when I need it the most during that accident, the service came to my rescue. I always remind people around me to take up that kind of service but somehow many of them are reluctant. Perhaps when they need it the most, then only will they realize the importance of it. Be it Road Warrior or AAM, just take one and be prepared in case something wrong happens.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Lessons Learnt #1
I wish to add another label for my posts that is 'Lessons Learnt'. As life goes on, there are lots of decisions I had to made. Posts under this label is aimed to share my experience and the lessons learnt from those experience where money matters. I do hope the posts will benefit somebody along the way and I do hope people will not repeat the same mistakes that I did. To the first lesson.
Buying my first car
I started working back in 2004 with a mere salary of RM1,800 in KL. Back then, I only owned a scooter. After 6 months, I received a salary adjustment of RM400. Guess what, the first thing I thought of buying was a car. I guess a car goes side by side with a man's ego. Reflecting back, I didn't really need a car at that point of time since I had a bike. If I need to travel back to my hometown, I can always car pool with my brother. I go to the office with my bike, even after I bought the car.
Some might think that owning RM2000++ is a license to own a car. But please do your math carefully before deciding to buy a car. Please read my post on "Who can afford a Myvi" to get a better idea of what are the costs involved after you own a car.
My first car was a second hand Perodua Kelisa. I bought it for approximately RM28,000. I paid the down payment from my ASB savings. What a waste! If there's any positive to be taken from this experience is that I insisted the loan repayment tenure to be 5 years instead of 7 years (which a normal person would do). The installment comes up to about RM555 per month which is approximately 25% of my gross salary.
The most important element that I missed out when I decided to buy that car was I didn't pay myself first. The first thing on my mind when I received the salary adjustment was to spend it instead of investing it. When I finally owned the car, I was struggling to maintain it since I also own a bike at the same time. At the end of the day, I didn't have much left to pay myself. Just imagine instead of paying RM555 per month as installment for that car, I could invest it further to grow the money. It could have become approximately RM31,000 in 4 years time with rate of return of 8% per year compounded monthly.
After 2 years, I decided to change to a Perodua MyVi. Lucky enough, since I took a loan repayment period of 5 years, when I traded in my old car, I managed to get some money as a down payment for my new car. If I were to take a loan repayment of 7 years instead, I certainly would have to fork out extra cash just to settle the outstanding amount owed to the bank. Reason for change was I wanted a bigger car since my old car is beginning to tire me when I drive especially long distances (the car size is not proportionate with my body size).
If I were to plan properly, I should have bought only one car and use it until now. That would have saved me lots of money and time. A big chunk of the loan repayment would also have been paid by now. When the car is fully paid, perhaps the extra cash could go to more investments until I really need a new or bigger car.
Owning a car will certainly eat up a big chunk of your expenses. Besides installments, you would have to pay for petrol, tolls, maintenance and parking fees to name a few. Before deciding to buy a car, please.. please.. please plan carefully and analyze your financial situation properly. Only buy when you think you can afford all the associated expenses that come with owning a car. If you are buying for convenience, please ask yourself: Can I live without a car? As long as the answer is yes, it's better not to own a car.
Buying my first car
I started working back in 2004 with a mere salary of RM1,800 in KL. Back then, I only owned a scooter. After 6 months, I received a salary adjustment of RM400. Guess what, the first thing I thought of buying was a car. I guess a car goes side by side with a man's ego. Reflecting back, I didn't really need a car at that point of time since I had a bike. If I need to travel back to my hometown, I can always car pool with my brother. I go to the office with my bike, even after I bought the car.
Some might think that owning RM2000++ is a license to own a car. But please do your math carefully before deciding to buy a car. Please read my post on "Who can afford a Myvi" to get a better idea of what are the costs involved after you own a car.
My first car was a second hand Perodua Kelisa. I bought it for approximately RM28,000. I paid the down payment from my ASB savings. What a waste! If there's any positive to be taken from this experience is that I insisted the loan repayment tenure to be 5 years instead of 7 years (which a normal person would do). The installment comes up to about RM555 per month which is approximately 25% of my gross salary.
The most important element that I missed out when I decided to buy that car was I didn't pay myself first. The first thing on my mind when I received the salary adjustment was to spend it instead of investing it. When I finally owned the car, I was struggling to maintain it since I also own a bike at the same time. At the end of the day, I didn't have much left to pay myself. Just imagine instead of paying RM555 per month as installment for that car, I could invest it further to grow the money. It could have become approximately RM31,000 in 4 years time with rate of return of 8% per year compounded monthly.
After 2 years, I decided to change to a Perodua MyVi. Lucky enough, since I took a loan repayment period of 5 years, when I traded in my old car, I managed to get some money as a down payment for my new car. If I were to take a loan repayment of 7 years instead, I certainly would have to fork out extra cash just to settle the outstanding amount owed to the bank. Reason for change was I wanted a bigger car since my old car is beginning to tire me when I drive especially long distances (the car size is not proportionate with my body size).
If I were to plan properly, I should have bought only one car and use it until now. That would have saved me lots of money and time. A big chunk of the loan repayment would also have been paid by now. When the car is fully paid, perhaps the extra cash could go to more investments until I really need a new or bigger car.
Owning a car will certainly eat up a big chunk of your expenses. Besides installments, you would have to pay for petrol, tolls, maintenance and parking fees to name a few. Before deciding to buy a car, please.. please.. please plan carefully and analyze your financial situation properly. Only buy when you think you can afford all the associated expenses that come with owning a car. If you are buying for convenience, please ask yourself: Can I live without a car? As long as the answer is yes, it's better not to own a car.
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