There was a letter written to the Sunday Times on 19th February 2017 about a high networth (or at least behaving like one) who was so cash scrapped that she asked whether the government can help her. Here is the letter: A few facts that can be directly derived from the letter: The writer is a retiree. The writer has two housing loans. The writer refinanced the two loans to get a … [Read more...]
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Is property still a good retirement investment?
Private home prices fell for the third straight year, declining by 3% in 2016, this is according to Straits Times. Everyone thinks that investing in property is not a great idea currently. Many property agents have also quit in masses because they are unable to close. Existing property agents are also demoralised. I referred a few cases to property agents as my clients want to buy properties … [Read more...]
Strange way of how CPF Interest is calculated & retirement planning
CPF has a rather strange way of calculating interest. In this article, I will explain how CPF interest is calculated and how you can make use of this knowledge to reduce the disadvantage of such a system. First, CPF interest is calculated on a monthly basis but it is only credited at the end of the year. The interest that is credited at the end of the year forms the new balance for the … [Read more...]
Life Expectancy and the Importance of Retirement Planning
We have heard in the news that life expectancy is rising. But how much is it rising and what is the impact to retirement planning? I downloaded the statistic from Singapore Department of Statistics for life expectancy at age 65 and plotted the data on a XY graph as shown below and did a linear regression. Don’t be shocked by what you see. It seems life expectancy has been rising in a … [Read more...]
Rental income may not be enough to service property loans, warns MAS
"In particular, before investing in property, investors should be aware that rising vacancy rates, declining rentals and impending interest rate increases mean that they may not always be able to rely on rental income to service their investment property loans.", noted MAS in its latest Financial Stability Review. Source: … [Read more...]
CPF Withdrawal method to create a 2nd stream of passive income
Those who met the CPF Full Retirement Sum (FRS) are allowed to withdraw their CPF monies above the FRS. But what many did not know is that it is not necessary to withdraw in one lump sum. Instead, the CPF withdrawal can be made over a period of time. Using this method, it is possible to create a second stream of passive income. The first stream of passive income is the CPF Life. Thus, I have … [Read more...]
3 ways to make your SRS work harder
It is coming to end of the year. Those who wish to save on taxes are now thinking of tax saving measures such as Supplementary Retirement Scheme or better known as SRS. By default, SRS contributions remain as cash. In fact, the majority of SRS monies are sitting idling as cash. If you wish to make the money work harder, it is necessary to invest the money. This article explains three ways on how … [Read more...]
3 common excuses to delay retirement planning
In the HSBC’s latest global report, Generations and journeys, a whopping 59% of retirees is using cash savings/ deposits to help them fund their retirement. There were other worrisome findings highlighting the serious retirement gap such as: Pre-retirees expect to save for additional 9 years as compared to current retirees. Many retirees wish they had started saving earlier. 21% of … [Read more...]
(Another) 4 reasons why Singaporeans and you cannot retire
There was a report that an aircraft technician was worried that he may be force to retire when he turns 65 years old this Saturday. This is because the re-employment age ceiling will increase from 65 to 67 only on 1 July next year. The technician wants to continue to work as his two sons have yet to finish their tertiary education. Apparently, there are others in similar shoes as him. (Source: … [Read more...]
Widespread financial illiteracy on retirement planning, says CPF Advisory Panel
It was reported that Singaporeans are suffering from the lack of financial literacy. The problem is actually widespread despite Singapore scoring tops in mathematics. “There is a difference between being educated and being financially literate”, says Professor Benedict Koh of Singapore Management University. Source: … [Read more...]
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