How much do we need to retire in Singapore?

When planning for retirement how long should we assume our life expectancy? Till 80, 90 or 100 yrs old?

How much medical fees should we budget for if we are covered by shield plan that require payment of $4K + 10% deductible?

Should we still budget for car expenditure or do we have to switch to MRT? I still like to have the car till I can't drive.

How about yearly vacations?

How about domestic helper?

Pressure Rice Cooker and Brown Rice

This is my new Pressure Rice Cooker from Philips model HD4763. It's a fabulous helper in the kitchen. The brown rice cooks in 47 minutes + about 10 minutes wait time for pressure to be released before the rice is ready to be served. The brown rice is soft and fragrant. You can smell the sweet brown rice aroma while the rice is being cooked. I saw a lot of such rice cooker in Korea but this is the only one available in my Singapore. The non-stick inner pot make it a breeze to clean after each use. However, I would very much prefer to have a stainless steel inner pot as well due to the potential health hazard from using non-stick pots and pans. I think the coating on the philip inner pot is not tough as the Japanese brand rice cooker. The demo rice cooker's inner pot was badly scratched- probably done by people to test the toughest of the coating. Rice can be washed in Tiger and Zojirushi inner pot but not this Philip rice cooker's inner pot. I wish Philip will overcome this shortcoming on the inner pot.

Temple at Seoul

I like this temple. It's just opposite the Coex mall. There were lots of chinese writings around the premise as well as trees. I like the persimmon tree near the buddha. There were lots of big persimmon on the trees but they were too high up. Those on the lower branches had been "harvested". The Buddha statue is tall and majestic. I stood there for quite some time to make all my wishes.

Safe in Seoul

The whole family is so relieved that Seoul is safe. We were there from Dec 1 to Dec 5 2010. Initially we thought that with the North Korea bombing, we would have to stay close to the hotel vicinity in case war broke up. We were surprised that life is as usual in Seoul. Lots of people can be found at Coex mall, Lotte world, Dondaemon, Nandaemon, Insodong , subway stations and Tech mall. The hotel was busy with lots of foreigners. We explored Seoul by subway. The Koreans are helpful in giving us directions. I like the BBQ meat. We tried one at Dondaemon and one at Insodong. The Japanese meals at Coex mall (both stalls) are delicious and reasonably price (39K to 42k Won for family of 5). The ginseng chicken and the big dish of spicy chicken were average though. I bought the honey ginseng slices for Won 24k each box from a shop at Nandaemon. The promoter spoke perfect mandarin. The Hyundai mall had a promotion and selling at about Won 26K. I would have preferred to buy from Hyundai if I knew there was promotion. Though it's a little more expensive, at least you get what you paid. One of the box of 6 yrs old honey ginseng slices I bought was swopped for a 4 yrs old honey ginseng slices. Overall it's a pleasant trip.