Inflationary Woes

LMM Milk Fund
Principal Protected if held to maturity
(fine print: 2100 assuming the LMM lives til 97 years old)
Guard against Inflation
High Future Returns
(fine print again:may not be monetary returns) Lagi more fine print: Sales Charge: 5 tins of Enfalac A+ , Management Fee: 10 tins of Enfapro or Enfakid
terms and conditions apply

2008 - the year where the price of everything goes up..Up...UP! Oil prices at US$139, essential items such as rice and flour shooting sky high and yes...MILK.. the very thing the LMM needs...that too, has several price revisions since Oct 2007.

Enfalac A+ went from $32.80 to $33.80 to $35.80 and now.. the latest price...$39.80, all within 8 months. That's nearly a 30% increase in price. I found a little shop still retailing the milk powder at the old prices $35..so I bought as much as I could carry (yes, I was also carrying a 8.42kg LMM with me in my babypouch) and that was... only 4 tins. I feel like hunting around for other small shops like this but...I know that I will hardly have the time. ;( And all i know is, when Travis' sista or bro comes along, their milk will definitely cost over $40 a tin..And that's scary. Unfortunately, we can't really stock up excessively as there's an expiry date as well.

Also, nowadays, on my marketing trips during the weekend mornings, I would frequently hear phrases like "Wah! So expensive", "price went up again ah?", "yah, new price".

On TV, I would see protests all over the world against the high prices of fuel, grains, rice etc...
Inflation is currently about 5-8%.

It really makes me wonder, how much will we really really need in order to provide for a decent education for our kids + retire comfortably???

Going for a retirement planning talk tomorrow - a lunch time talk organised by Citi. Let's see what this insurance sales guy has to say.. probably sell us plenty of investment-cum-insurance products... we'll see.

mami bel