Been looking at health screening packages. Currently using the list offered by NTUC Income as benchmark.
For my first assessment I'm planning to have a really comprehensive one that men my age do not opt for. Just thought it was a good idea to set my mind at ease.
This means I'm looking for packages similar to their Deluxe Plan which covers:
for S$350.
A lot of websites don't list the prices of individual tests and also don't include all these in any single package, so the comparison is taking some time.
I think I'll make a table to list everything to do a good comparison.
...
Too much work. I only made one for comparing that Deluxe plan with a $195 package offered by Asia Health Partners for DBS card members. They're mostly the same except the one from NTUC has electrocardiogram and treadmill ECG while Asia Health Partners offers Hep A screening, resting ECG, spirometry and tonometry.
The funny thing is that the latter also includes a 60-min body massage or facial.
Right now I'm leaning towards the benchmark package but it's not urgent. I'm going to wait for promotions till the end of the year.
All these right now is only to give me a mental price range and a short self-taught course on the various tests. I can't decide right now because I need some time to consider what tests I really want, what tests I think I should get and how much money I'm willing to fork out.
Currently I think I need all those tests common in most "basic" packages glucose and cholestrol exams, and ECG. I also think it's a good idea to get tested for stomach and colon cancer, and have full kidney, liver and lung tests.
Chest X-ray for TB and all those VD tests are pretty redundant IMO.
Too bad Singapore citizens below the age of 40 don't get subsidised health screening from the government. I'm perfectly willing to go as far as to spend an entire day queuing at a polyclinic if any of them offered health screening services.
..
Looked at the ones offered by NUH, in particular the Evidence Based Plus Screening.
I only need to find out the prices for their optional cardiovascular assessment and the complete liver and kidney check.
Thought about colonoscopy but there's already a stool analysis in the package.
Also checked out Raffles Medical since it's offering 10% off for DBS cards on its enhanced packages but the one I'm favouring, the Raffles Deluxe package, costs about S$400. 10% off makes it S$360. Kinda similar to the one from NTUC.
This package is just like most of the other better ones except it also allows me to take two of the seven available cancer tests - liver, colon, pancreas, prostate, ovary and breast. The last is pap smear.
I'd choose colon and prostate. Liver if it's affordable enough. Those are the cancers affecting the most men in Singapore. If they had a test for lung cancer I'd take that with the colon option, but they don't.
Though it's affordable, the numbers get pretty shocking as I go down the list to the packages meant for older people. The Raffles Platinum, the most comprehensive package they have that is probably meant for people in their 70s, is over S$8400. And that's just for the men; for the ladies, their package cost almost S$9500.
Sucks to be an elderly woman.
This really changed my impression of what I'm going to need to save for my long-term future medical costs. If I'm planning to live till 80, that's going to cost S$84k just for these assessments between 70 to 80, and that's not taking inflation into account.
Of course, we can also just stick with the government-subsidised stuff.
I may be searching for cheap stuff but I'm fully aware that this is another area that I shouldn't be pinching pennies on.
In fact right now I'm starting to like the Raffles Deluxe package. It's more than what a lot of people I know get, like one of my staff who only spends about S$200 at a private clinic and she's older than my mum. The problem is that most people don't have both parents dying at a rather young age from cancer.
I'll have to be insane to not be slightly paranoid about this.
Booked a dental appointment on Sunday for today. Been thinking about it a lot and finally did it at the dental clinic near my home.
The dentist spent quite a bit of time on scaling since I've not visited a dentist in about 3-4 years. Rinsed twice for scaling, once after polishing.
Halfway through the third part, the polishing, he went back to scaling again.
There was that much tartar.
It was also different from the dentist visits I had when I was younger in that the dentist had an assistant who held two tubes in my mouth when he was working on my teeth. One was a water spray and the other sucked fluids out of my mouth. Only had that since the last visit at the same dental clinic back when I needed a wisdom tooth removed.
Teeth feel different now. For some reason after an hour I still feel like there's a tiny bit of sand in my mouth once in a while even though I've rinsed a lot. I've even used the mouthwash the clinic gave me to be used twice a day.
The most pleasant surprise was when the dentist announced I had no dental problem to speak of other than the 3-4 years' worth of tartar. The gum had clearly receded because of this and I'm going to have to get used to the large gaps between my teeth but apparently it is likely to grow back.
NO CAVITY! WOOHOO!
Asked him about the teeth-whitening options available and he gave me two:
1) for about S$400, a two-week take-home package which strictly forbids the consumption of caffeine and citrus fruits for the entire duration.
2) for about S$1500, a one-off treatment involving laser.
According to the dentist, they're both just as effective.
Anyway the simple checkup with scaling, polishing and the mouthwash (230-240ml) cost me S$75 and the clinic will send a SMS reminder in half a year.
This visit was worth the S$75 but I'm not sure about the future ones when my teeth are better maintained.
I've looked at T-bills and bonds issued by SGS before but I've never seriously considered it mainly because there's almost absolutely no hype about it.
Now that I've been buying fixed deposits, I realize that those two might have been better options.
The main difference between FDs and T-bills and bonds is that the the first is guaranteed by the bank and the latter two are guaranteed by the government.
Unlike in some other countries, these are practically equally safe here in Singapore.
So I might as well get some some T-bills and some long term bonds when my FDs mature.
T-bills are like bonds. You lend the government some cash and it pays you back when it matures.
However, a T-bill is bought at a discount on its value and you get back that value at the end.
Bonds, in contrast, are bought at the value it's given and you get interests called "coupons" regularly, and you get back the original sum at the end.
Another major difference is that T-bills mature within 1 year at most while bonds are available at different lengths of time up to 30 years.
Sounds pretty cool, getting interests every 6 months for 30 years.
Both of them are sold in denominations of S$1000, so you buy them in multiples of S$1000.
I don't even have a CDP Securities account yet so I'll be applying for this and a DBS Vickers account and maybe apply for a few T-bills with the little bit of cash I have left.
Applying for these is so simple with DBS internet banking. I just need to apply for a Vickers account and download the forms (instead of applying it online) and the form for a CDP account can be found in the list.
Strange that DBS doesn't make this available for online applications.
The only inconvenient part is that it is compulsory to sign that form in the presence of a Vickers staff, so I'll probably have to visit a DBS branch... or if I'm lucky enough, get one of them to come over to my place like my bro did when he applied for a Citibank account.
As for the lack of hype, it's because banks like DBS do not earn any money from handling such transactions, ie they have no reason to promote them.
TUE
Been a long day.
Technically it was pretty short but it was more tiring than usual.
Got out of bed at 10.30am, got out of the house at 11am, got out of the office at 2pm, took a bus home at 4.30pm, got home after 5pm.
Yea, so technically it's a relatively short day.
But it was tiring.
Spent 3 hours in the office mulling on a rather annoying problem while discussing parts of it with my staff and a supplier of mine.
Got stuck at a dead end and decided to forget about it and go out for some market survey work at Marina Square. Forgot there was ERP being charged at Nicoll Highway and had to pay S$2 on top of the cab fare.
Chose Marine Square because it's one major mall I haven't visited in a long while and there was a Bata store there which sells shoe-cleaning supplies and a waterproofing spray for leather.
Killing two birds with one stone.
Turned out that there was only one store there that specialised in winter apparel while a few others only had a tiny section for it.
Walked randomly and at the same time covered the whole mall. As a result I covered a few parts twice or thrice.
I reached there hungry and ended up only thirsty.
I thought I'd also visit the mall at Suntec but when I reached the part where the conventions and fairs are held, I realized I didn't know how to get to the mall part.
Also went up to take a look at the people setting up the next PC Show (or whatever it's call this time). Saw booths being set up and Acer boxes in a stack.
Then I checked my phone and saw it was already 4.15pm, so I just went to the bus stop and coincidentally there was a direct bus to my home. Nice. I think taxis charge an extra fee for trips starting at Suntec, so I was hoping there was a direct bus I could take instead. Anyway a quick online check showed that it was Singapore Expo, not Suntec.
Got home and thought I should buy dinner instead of cooking something. Called my bro and we came to the conclusion that whatever I bought would get cold by the time his girlfriend gets here after work, so they might as well go downstairs to eat then. She doesn't like cold food.
Just pointing that out because in contrast, my bro and I are fine with that. I'm even fine with unthawed dinner leftovers. Just heat the vegetables and meat and pour them on the semi-frozen rice and that's lunch, except if the rice has been left there for two nights because at that point the rice gets really frozen/dry and it feels like chewing sand.
Before I got to buying dinner I saw that there was a fruit-and-vegetable stall open in the market, so I went there instead.
Found some fruits on offer and took them. The really ripe jackfruits were being sold at $2 per packet and $5 for 3, so I took 3. Each packet had like 6-7 pieces.
Coconuts! Each was $2 and it was $4 for 3, so I took 3.
They look like the one on the right of the red square, and then like the one inside the square after I was done cutting. For some reason they also packed them in ice. Maybe coconuts turn bad easily. I don't know. Doesn't make sense though. No, I think it's the husk. The ice is so that the husk won't spoil or turn brown or something.
But they were heavy!
Also took a lot of effort to open one because I didn't know how.
At first I just slammed my cleaver into it to make a triangle shape that I could perhaps pull out.
Nope, didn't work.
Went back to my room to google and eventually figured out that I should cut it sideways to remove the softer white husk at the top to reveal the harder shell inside. Managed to cut off a small chunk of the conical top.
With the white husk gone, it was so much easier to cut the shell open.
In conclusion, coconuts are easy if you know how and have a cleaver.
By the time the coconut was ready, I looked like I had been walking through rain and had to take a second shower.
Coconut and sesame paste tangyuan for dessert. Feels good, man.
Been buying tangyuan a lot these days after I learnt that the stall offers three kinds of soups instead of the peanut one my mum always bought, and one of them was almond soup. It was just simple almond-flavoured water to be consumed together with the dumplings but the overall experience was much better than if it was peanut-flavoured. Don't know why, maybe it's because I just like almond flavour.
Halfway through the walk from the market home, my left shoe suddenly felt like it's got something very sticky on the heel.
Lifted my foot up and saw nothing.
Then it hit me - oh fuck my sole is coming off!
The outsole had detached from my shoe on the back half and was only holding on between my toes and a little bit behind the ball of my foot.
After that I thought about the short distance home and decided to just ignore it and hope it doesn't come off completely before I get home.
Walked the rest of the way feeling as if I was wearing flip-flops because the outsole kept slapping my heel after every step.
But it held on!
And when I got my, my new shoes were waiting for me on my desk. My bro had signed it for me.
:D
And all is well again.
But I have to say, the timing of the both of them was impeccable.
EDIT: No idea why I remembered the price of the coconuts as $11 for 3. I saw the receipt just now which stated it was $4 for 3 and I've corrected this since.
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