This was the headlines of the day when I was born. President of the US is Jimmy Carter. There's still USSR back in those days. The local police are hunting a con person who swindled an ex-teacher.
2 years later, in 1980, this was the advertisements found in the papers.
Citibank had an ad for fixed deposits. They are offering about 10% pa for various holding periods. Interestingly, the longer you put your money with them, the lesser the yield. The shorter it is, the higher the rates. I doubt I've seen such an inverted relationship with fixed deposit, but things are such in the past.
This was another one offering by Asia Commercial bank. I doubt they are still around after the merging of many different banks in Singapore to form the big local 3.
In the past, numbers are in 6 digits, as you can see from the ad for the department's number (2228233). You might have thought that 10% pa is such a lucrative offer, but nope, it's not. I think the stock market is rising even higher than 10% pa.
How times have changed. Will we ever go back to those times? It's hard to say, but I'll be the last one to say 'never'!
4 comments :
Wouldn't want to go back to those days. Inflation was a killer. 8)
Starting salary was also probably half what it is today, if not even lesser.
Hi Lizardo,
Well, I would like to go back, not for the 10% pa thingy or even the cheaper HDB flats, but to experience a new kind of life from now. And out of curiosity, just to see how my parents lived the kind of life they had.
I feel it'll give me a different kind of perspective :)
LP,
That was the era when I will happily accompany mom to the OUB branch at Commonwealth Avenue to collect the "bountiful" fixed deposit interest.
Mom would buy toys for us at the Tai Chung Emporium upstairs...
Now? A few months back I accompanied mom to collect abysmal fixed deposit interest from Bank of China at Chinatown.
After minus the meals, taxi ride, and some small purchases, its all gone :(
We are so lucky to be born in Singapore. Can't imagine if we were born in Cambodia...
Hi SMOL,
Haha, you reminisce the past with a dash of regret and a sprinkling of hope, just the way I like it :)
I can't agree with you more. Sometimes, you just have to wonder if you are situated in a country that is so impoverished, it's really hard to rise up above your current circumstances.
We all have to be grateful.
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