Wily Bob the active ager, life's car-ma, and letters that are a must-read...

There's still funny stuff out there about active ageing. CC sent this one:

Bob,  a 70-year-old, extremely wealthy widower, shows  up at the Country Club with a breathtakingly  beautiful and very sexy 25-year-old blonde-haired woman who knocks everyone's socks  off with her youthful sex appeal and charm and  who hangs over Bob's arm and listens intently to  his every word.  His buddies at the club  are all aghast.

At the very first  chance, they corner him and ask, 'Bob, how'd you  get the trophy girlfriend?'

Bob  replies, 'Girlfriend?  She's my  wife!'

They are knocked over, but  continue to ask.  'So, how'd you persuade  her to marry you?'

'I lied about  my age', Bob replies.

'What, did you  tell her you were only 50?'

Bob  smiles and says, 'No, I told her I was  90.'

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But the newspapers had more sombre news, today being Budget Day! Actually, I am glad that measures are being taken to redress the topsy-turvy situation in the new car market in which the best selling makes are expensive continentals like Mercedes and BMW while quality Japanese makes like Suzuki, Honda and Mazda struggle with abysmal sales:

The revamped tiered ARF scheme means buyers of more expensive cars at their landed costs -- their so-called Open Market Value (OMV) -- will fork up much more. I think this is important if we Singaporean car buyers want to have a range of choices, from budget to high-end.

The new financing curbs may seem unfair to many and even paternalistic. But in the real world, if you can't afford it, you should not buy it. Easy loans for almost the entire cost spread over 10 years disguise the real interest amount payable. And, as I have said before, only the banks were laughing all the way to the bank. Still, there were plenty of kiasu Singaporeans last night, after the measures were announced:

I think car buyers will be better off getting together to "beat" the COE bidding system (as set up by the Government, the system actually facilitates such tweaking) and reduce the COE sum to just $2. Again, as I have blogged previously, it can be done!

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To round off, here are three self-explanatory letters -- on two issues -- which reflect my own thinking: