Scheme good or not huh?

oh wow, so many degrees.

Based on my understanding, if you have 120K at the age of 55. At 65, your 120K grows to 177.6K.

At 4% interest rate, you get at least S$7105 a year after 65 years old.

At the age of 65, if you start drawing from this fund at S$590 a month,your principal will always be there. But there again, is S$590 enough to survive with the ever government champion artificially increasing cost of living in Singapore.

You have to ask, how much CPF Life is offering you per month from age 65 onwards.

This is confusing ! There is a similar event on Level 13 Park Mall
same day & time. The speakers are Leong SH and Dr. David Kee.
Please clarify. Thanks.

Mr Leong,

Please also publish an extract of your talks so that we all can share in the valuable information.

#3) HaiGong
“At the age of 65, if you start drawing from this fund at S$590 a month,your principal will always be there.”
…………………………………………………………………

I think you are too optimistic. Your 120K may not grow to 177K as the interest rate of 4% may not be sustainable. It is misleading to mention that ‘your principal will always be there’ as the bequest is the amount less the monthly payouts already received.

The govt should organize this or pay these professionals so that they can educate members of public. To tell the truth, I know nuts about how CPF works even though I have been contributing all my working life in Singapore.

and what about that “WOA” clause?

Whatever happened to the Yellow Pages rule mentioned last time by our elites? Shouldn’t they let us choose whether we want to purchase an annuity from the insurance companies or join the CPF Life scheme instead? After all its our own CPF money right?

Thought they said last time they won’t compete with the private sector but how come for this we got no say in deciding how to use our own CPF money?

I wonder if its because they are scared to reveal what’s left in the kitty…..

To: No. 9) Fortune-teller,

They meant what they said!
They are NOT competing with the private sector.
It is a monopoly!

So what! 哼 !!

The CPF Life Scheme is premised on the assumption a male will live to 85. If you choose the option with highest payout, the draw down will terminate at or about 75 years. For the option with minimum payout, you are betting you will live till 90 and beyond. The catch is that, unlike ordinary annuities, the payouts are not guaranteed. It would be a good deal if, at the time of signing up, the CPF Life commits on the quantum of payout, based on the interest rate factored in, be it 3.5% or 4%. In commerical annuities, they factor in a guaranteed %, plus a non-guaranteed “bonus” %, depending on the returns they achieve. The current Minimal Sum scheme will pay out for 20 years from year of drawdown, currently age 62. In other words, good for until age 82. Unless you plan to beat the odds and live till 95 or longer, go for CPF Life. Oh, they require you to provide proof you are still alive in order to receive the payments – not sure how they intend to implement that. Maybe they will need a next of kin to ring up and confirm, “Yup, the old bugger is still kicking.”

#11 “…Unless you plan to beat the odds and live till 95 or longer, go for CPF Life.”

That doesn’t sound right, does it?

@3) HaiGong on October 19th, 2009 3.29 pm

At $590 (USD420) per month, it sounds sucks, considering we are so called first-world country!

Assuming ZERO inflation, HDB fully paid by then, no dependents, perfect health, etc…:
* 2 plates of chicken rice everyday = $3 x 2 x 30 = $$180
* 2 pieces of toasts daily (breakfast) = $1.50 x 30 = $45
* daily cup of kopi = $0.8 x 30 = $24
* EPL subscription = $20-30(?)
* Electricity, water, conservancy fee, blah, blah, = $100-150(?)
* Property tax + TV license = $200-400 /yr = $25 per month
* Telephone line = $10 (no handphone, pager, etc)
* Meet MP (weekly by public transport) = $8-12
* Basic household necessities (toothpaste, toilet paper, soap, etc.) = $30-50
* Pray, pray no sickness, increase in GST, etc. = $0
* etc, etc….

In short, what is there to listen to? Our retirees will be at starvation level after contributing 40++ years to nation building. So, don’t waste your $10.

Ask instead why the common Singaporean can’t have a nice bird nest like our highly paid ministers when THEY retire.

The government should stop all these wayang shows and start providing proper social care for our elderly. After all, these people worked their whole life contributing to the success of the country.

Stop pushing the buck to our children!

+3 -1 divide by 2 x 4 = 4 then divide by 2 minus 1 again = ????????
what the hell, so complicated and confusing this cpf thingy. why not just give us back our $ and we decide what to do with it? Mmmmmm . . . . but then again, wonder if they still have our cpf $$$ in their golden vault or already just an empty vault liao, the question’s yet no one can really know.

15) tiredsingaporean on October 21st, 2009 1.19 pm

but then again, wonder if they still have our cpf $$$ in their golden vault or already just an empty vault liao, the question’s yet no one can really know.

Our real money is gone already, now is just money on paper.

if CPF is of any good why does it needs so much tweaks and changes?

why does the CPF only introduce such changes now, especially after massive losses of Temasek Holdings and GIC?

can anyone honestly touch their heart and say CPF can give him a real retirement?

what is retirement?
“How much do you want? Do you want three meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?” PAP Vivian Balakrishnan

since the new generation is going to spend their entire life time servicing an over-priced HDB flat mortgage loan of at least 35 years and most wont reach minimum sum, should CPF be renamed HDBF instead?

I think there are always the pros and cons in every policy, and we will not be able to see the big picture if we only focus on the negative.

Mr Tan Kin Lian thinks CPF Life is good for the people. You may want to read the original posting titled “Positive views about CPF Life” on his blog.
http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/.

Since the CPF Life is compulsory from 2013 for all who reaches 55, the best thing we can do is to understand both sides of the story to help us make informed decisions.

I believe this talk will be good as we can hear from professionals and ask questions.

The best pension available in the Western world is the “Final salary pension” which provide an inflation proof pension. Typically it is based on one final salary prior to retirement and number of year with the company. It is an expensive system and many company had closed down this pension scheme to new employees. For those who is lucky enough to enjoy such pension, old age is a welcoming stage of life. CPF had failed to in its main aim of providing a nest egg for retired Sinkaporean except those earning million dollar salary. The saving instead was used to buy expensive house built by the ruling regime. Although income tax is low in Sinkapore but majority Sinkaporean earning and saving was used by no other then the ruling regime. It seemed all our life we worked for one famiLee and the entire island is owned by the same famiLee including our soul. The control is so total that our next generation will have to repeat the same cycle. It is time to put a stop to it.

“and we will not be able to see the big picture if we only focus on the negative.”

if it is your own money, you do not need other people to tell you how you should focus. negative ?

why not you give me all your salary, and i distribute you back sgd900/- per month and tell you (from some statistics) that sgd30/- per day is more than enough for any average person covering 3 meals, utilities and ‘affordable basic housing’ – and being not so talented, i will tell you that I will only do it for those with earning power of more than sgd900/- per month.

It is mentioned that a certain Tan Kin Lian thinks the scheme is good. Isn’t he the guy that was advocating min. wage laws some time back? What has happened since? Regardless of his intents/views, does the garhem really cares what we think?

There is a lot of comparison with insurance companies — which is better, etc. But do we really know if the insurance coys are really giving a shit deal in the first place, and any deal better than shit would appear great?

The best to convince everyone is to have a breakdown of what, say $500 payout will buy for the person, i.e. how well it will sustain an individual on a typical daily basis. That will show if the calculated amount conforms with our cost of living. Off hand, it doesn’t seems to enable a retiree to great life — except, eat, sleep, watch EPL and die.

I think the minimum sum will increase over time as stated in the CPF website. Time to play catch up game as well.

21) theforgottongeneration on October 22nd, 2009 12.01 am,

I would have gone along with your thought process in this and the earlier thread. In the first place. Though I think different parties will differ in terms of what cost elements to include, the end point is the same : list down what $x can buy. then with every increase/ decrease in any of the elements, e.g. electricity, food, republish the entire calculation. Then be sure to include scenarios on whether there is additional costs with kids and elders, instead of only assuming individual variable expenditures or capital expenditures.

@23) kf on October 22nd, 2009 3.02 pm

Sure, the “items” listed are just to highlight the point that whatever payout must be realistic to the standard of our living. Chicken rice can be substituted with whatever mui kum.

On kids and elderly, I think such schemes assume for 1 person only. With dependant(s) latched on, a retiree will soon be driving to his/her grave….

lets just attend the talk and shoot quesions at the speakers

24) theforgottongeneration on October 22nd, 2009 10.36 pm,

Yes, this is the point I am trying to make when we have other dependants, and yet you have policy makers calling us to continue providing for elders, and have more kids out of empty/ fast depleting pockets. We are in agreement.

It is simply amazing that people will vote in a government to prevent themselves from having their savings upon reaching retirement.

With all the new tweaks, no one, rich or poor will have a chance to withdraw anything at 55 anymore, or for that matter, even at 65.

For the rich, it is just a tax, for the poor, I cannot imagine. Anyway, it is only a matter of time before everything unfolds, and by then , it really doesn’t matter.