Done my comprehensive health screening @ Golden Horses Health Sanctuary

Today I've done my comprehensive health screening together with my wife at Golden Horses Health Sanctuary(GHHS) inside the Palace of the Golden Horses.

Seems like both of us need to reduce some of our body fat to make it fall back to the "normal range" from the current slightly high side.

Few years back, we joint the membership of this health screening programme at the price of RM5,000 and entitiled to use some of the Country Heights' facilities (such as swimming pool, gym, etc.) and 20 years of annual health screening service at the cost of RM3xx per year.

This is a really comprehensive health examination. The result of the following 99 items are included in my report:

• General inspection (10 items)
• Ophthalmic inspection (8 items)
• Physical examination (11 items)
• Electrocardiogram (ECG) (1 item)
• Hearing inspection (2 items)
• Pulmonary function inspection (3 items)
• Hematology profile (15 items)
• Blood group (2 items)
• Diabetic screening (1 item)
• Lipids profile (6 items)
• Liver function (9 items)
• Renal function profile (5 items)
• Calcium, phosphorus and iron (3 items)
• Gout screening (1 item)
• Hepatitis B screening and other serology test (3 items)
• Arthritis screening (1 item)
• Thyroid profile (2 items)
• Cancer screening (2 items)
• Urinalysis (12 items)
• Chest X-Ray (1 item)
• Ultrasound abdomen and pelvis (1 item)

My wife's report contains even more items, including ultrasound on breast and pap smear test.

We are given free voucher (transferable) to conduct bone test, recommended for people above 45 years old. As we are still at our young age, we plan to transfer the entitlement for the bone test to our parents.

It is a good practice to conduct comprehensive health screening to our body, so that if there is any health distortion, can be detected and rectified at early stage. We can also enjoy an income tax relief of up to RM500 per year for complete medical examination like this.


So, have you done yours?
 

EPF declared 5.65% dividend for 2009

Few hours ago, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF, a.k.a. KWSP) has just declared the dividend  rate for financial year 2009 to be of 5.65%, which is considered higher than the expectation of most financial analysts and general public.

This is not too bad, compared to the low rate of 4.5% in FY 2008.

With this dividend rate, it seems that those who have withdrawn their EPF Account II savings to reduce their housing loan during 2009 might be regreted to do so, as the effective mortgage rate is generally lower than 5.65% in 2009, due to a lower BLR rate along the year.

Anyhow, this rate is still lower than my personal investment return rate in 2009, therefore I need not regrete to opt for 8% EPF contribution instead of 11% for year 2009-2010. You might have a clue of which shares I invested in by reading my Investment related articles here, particularly those written in 2009.

Also, this rate is lower than the return I got from the unit trusts I bought with MAAKL Mutual by using part of my EPF Account I savings. Begining from the month of June, I had made 3 such EPF withdrawals during 2009 to invest in unit trust funds in MAAKL Mutual.

Although the commission rate of buying unit trusts with EPF Account I withdrawal is set at 3%, I still find it pretty expensive, compared to the fees of buying share directly in KLSE through the stockbroker. Luckily it still provides a better return than the 5.65% of EPF, so seems like I have made a good try.

How about you? Are you happy with the 5.65% rate you got from EPF in 2009? Or not satisfied and demand for more?

Click here to read the official announcement from EPF, and the investment structure of EPF in 2009, etc.

Russia to produce UFO alike flying saucers able to carry 11,000 people?

There is an interesting news from Russia that a company called LocomoSky in their Ulianovsk of Volga is carrying out a government funded project to produce a bizarre hybrid of helicopter and aerostat, UFO alike "flying saucers".

The prototype, named "aerostatic thermoballasted vehicle" or simply "Locomoskayner" after its manufacturer, was presented in the MAKS-2009 International Aviation and Space Salon air show in Russia recently.

This prototype flying saucer was 23 feet in diameter, and was claimed to be able to transport 20 kg of cargo.

The company, however, plans to produce aircraft with a cargo-carrying capacity of up to 600 metric tons or a passenger capacity of up to 11,000 people.

Having low fuel consumption as compared to ordinary aircraft due to its aerodynamic form, the flying saucer will be able to hover, perform a vertical landing, move in a straight line with speeds close to 100 km/h, turn around, and most importantly, need no special ground-based facilities to land.

With its special flying characteristics and superb loading capacity, it will be able to transport out-sized cargoes to remote and inaccessible areas.

Let's see whether this dream will come into reality in the very near future.