NCF 2015 , the fun , laughter , anger and that tinge of sadness .

Hi Peeps!


This post ah , is gonna be damn long man (Kidding lah , i try to finish as fast as i can without expressing my anger too much eh! ) Oh yah , at this part better state , the organisers gave ah boy a one time waiver of registration fee cause i tried to jio more people to attend this event through my blog, ken (ah boy) thank y'all for that gesture.
You will understand later on why i need to put this disclaimer here liao!

OK ! So it was that time of the year again when ah boy will sneak into NCF (National Cashflow Competition ) and play for fun , but this year got twist wor! Read on for more :)

The event started off without a hitch , registration was a breeze , facilitators were well-mannered , game started off on a good note :)

Here are some picx taken by ah boy as shown below :
(Sorry for the image quality ah , if it's not clear)

Before the Tertiary Category Prelims Begin

Some nice prizes eh? Hehe, ah boy didn't get to go for the macbook though , read on to find out why!

Before ah boy's table began playing , managed to get a picx. Let the fun begin! 6 players at my table.

So ! After the 1hr and 5mins (5mins for checks) time period was up , ah boy got one PHB (HDB la) and total net assets added up to tally at $116,000 . The objective was to hit $200,000 in net assets , cash on hand excluded within the timeframe and have a completed balance sheet. (Balance Sheet supposed to TALLY one ah )

Sample "Financial Statement" for NCF2015

The facilitator took the completed sheets (simplified financial statement) and ranked the players based on hitting objective 1 : owning a PHB and objective 2 : hitting $200,000 in net assets excluding cash. So player A , B and C were 1st, 2nd and 3rd, player D was 4th , ah boy was 5th (bway gao $$ ma kekeke)

Then we had a mass entrepreneurship run through by Ranford Neo , also about his book. After that , was the usual filling up of feedback forms etc , lucky draw for cap. mall vouchers.

THEN , came the surprise , when the facilitator for my table requested for the 4th(Player D) and 5th (mine) players' sheets as well. I was surprised there and then , as i knew that A, B and C's sheets didn't make it le . 

After about 5mins , the auditors came back with the finalists' list, Player D got the spot.

So , player A was looking a bit confused, so i asked him whether he is darn sure that his sheet is ZHUN , he said ya , so i suggested that he could look for the auditors and ask them to take a quick look at the sheet that was audited ?    

So , player A managed to hit $200,000 in net assets and completed the balance sheet , incorrectly unfortunately due to him overstating some CPF tokens , so he was disqualified , because he overstated his net assets on the balance sheet , think the CPF section didn't match up with the paychecks received , one paycheck entitles one player to $18,000 after mandatory expenses of $14,000 and 3 CPF tokens like basic pay package ba . (i found out that the auditors checked the cpf tokens with the paychecks received as they told the participants in the final round that.)  Oh yah , Player A was in front of me to appeal to the auditors to run through his balance sheet / simplified financial statement again , that's how i know he overstated his assets by a bit . Alamak

Player B and C's sheets i didn't get a chance to look through though haha , so here's the HEADLINER.

Ah boy actually intended to leave the venue after i know that my 5th spot isn't good enough to get me into the finals la , until i almost left the venue , when a friend who was participating wanted to do a quick appeal as he murmured something about another player having wrong cashflow or something (i wasn't listening very intently as my mind suddenly kicked in wor! )

Call it instinct or gut feel or my anyhow hantam pattern la , somewhere somehow , i felt something a bit amiss about player D's sheet wor! Based on that gut feel i went to the auditors' table and requested for a quick look at the sheets for my table , they obliged by providing me with a short window , 5mins MAX to look at the sheets , IDK what took over me , but i instinctively went to look at D's sheet. Within less than a min , i spotted something amiss , the auditors even wrote on the sheet in black ink with a circle on the CPF tokens that D wrote , apparently D had shortchanged himself by writing 3 less tokens , thus , BY RIGHT , his sheet cannot TALLY one leh , got ERROR de!

So i took out my sheet and realised WAH , ah boy didn't do that badly leh , at least at doing up my sheet la , everything was in order! Just that my Net Assets didn't hit $200,000 . Ah boy sway la , keep on rolling two , four , five , these kind of small numbers , maybe if i go MBS , got chance win $ leh! Hahahhaha , kidding la , not legal yet. I was like LMAO , got so heng one ah , let ah boy go into finals? I only got 3 paychecks, while the rest got 4 or 5? 

My mood then kekekeke

I started my questions as mine tallied and yet the auditors elected to let D go thru to the finals..... Their answer was : " He understated his financial statement , (he) had no intent of fraud" , thus after discussion they elected to have him proceed onwards to the finals. 

Halfway thru my qns , A chap with the black T-shirt with the word "Organiser" printed on the back came by and started in a not so cordial tone : "You shouldn't qn the Chief Auditors , they are here to ensure FAIRNESS!" Because i said that the auditors are there to ensure fairness wor! Wah , ai zai ! Pls remind me to hire these auditors to audit a few reits or counters ah, assets undervalued , i like! Hehe , then i WHOOT into the counter liao! (Sell my precious metals also i follow !) 

PS. I wanna know what Kopi they drank in the morning wor , so i can go and buy a bit to drink leh kekeke 

Yo , dude in abovementioned situation , bet you didn't see this coming LOL , but well , be nice la , the next time K? It does not mean when ah boy keeps mum , he isn't boiling ah , i just don't wanna embarrass your fellow team members and the guests present.

So on with my story , after abovementioned dude left , i asked the auditors once more whether they were gonna stick to their guns and say that Player D is going through. Well , at least i was next in line if D doesn't show up for the finals la , and i've got one friend in the finals to root for la.

I walked frm GE building on Pickering St till the singapore river to let off some steam lol ,  walking isn't my type of thing , i'm a sloth la . Still got that feeling of , IDK how to describe it , but just that i can't swallow la hahahahaha . So while having lunch and high tea , another friend of mine got the call that he was into the finals :) So i have 2 friends to root for now! Well , ah boy didn't get to play in the finals lor , so that tinge of sadness. 

ANOTHER VERY INTERESTING THING HAPPENED! The auditors said for the finals , a financial statement that  doesn't tally would be disqualified and no appeals allowed wor! The auditors decision is final! (I think they might have wanted ah boy to hear this LOL)

Well with that being said , let me show some picx of the finals.

The finals 

Game in progress.

The board game used in NCF 2015.

Another table picx

Think all were quite stressed as the table was awfully silent for about 10 mins LOL.

Out of curiosity(before the finals began) , as i only know how to interpret financial statements , i don't know how auditing works , so i whatsapped two friends who have gotten their master in finance and the other in Biz Admin (Mgmt) , i asked them this .

His reply? EPIC LOL

The other friend tried to cheer me up with pictures of really nice cars LOL , thanks ah , you know who you are la ;) 

You see ah , the basics of financial literacy includes being able to construct a simple financial statement and being able to understand the financial position of a company , if it doesn't tally , something must be a bit off somewhere ma , tio bo? hehe , just my two cents la.

Ok la , finish ranting liao , now to wrap NCF 2015 up , i would say the organisers did a good job achieving their macro objectives of outreach and spreading awareness on financial literacy and i applaud them for this , as the youths of today , are the leaders of tomorrow . (Ah boy's england not that bad one ba)

So now , three micro-points to improve upon for the organisers (hopefully they are reading this) :) 

1)Possibly have your auditors set a base line , such as incorrect financial statements to be disqualified? 

(Both over and understated as the participants need to provide an accurate financial statement in order to make the game even more rigorous and more realistic.)

2)You might need 2 rounds of compulsory mass trainings , if conditions permit such that participants are able to familiarise themselves with the game rules etc etc. 

3) Venue is good , but probably the arrangement of the tables need to be thought through more in detail as even the skinny friend of mine can't navigate through the tables , much less fat ah boy eh? Hehe

That's it from me, IKR , a whole load of ranting hahahaha and for me to post so early in the morning , the dude has some substance wor! I'm looking forward to an even better NCF 2016, and i'm sure the organisers can step up to the plate.

Signing off till the next time.

Ken 

Meme images from google , NCF 2015 picx taken by me.