How much savings do you have?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

IMHO, I take a view of property in sgp as an expense rather an asset, regardless how many you own. Merely looking at the annual reports of banks, you will see most people buy sgp properties using loans, which indirectly means they don't own an asset but rather a liability.

It is incorrect to say that properties are liabilities rather than assets just because there is an outstanding loan on the property. If you own a piece of property currently worth $3 million but the outstanding loan for it is $1 million, your net asset is $2 million.

Originally Posted by believable

It is hard to say who is bulls***ting and who is not. However, I would not be too quick to rubbish what people write here claiming their wealth.

I agree with you that one should not be too quick to rubbish what people write as ********, unless one is also saying that the person who posted this below is also ********ting.

"Households in the highest decile – the 91st to 100th percentiles – earn an average of $23,684 per month.

To compare your household with the rest, enter your monthly household income:"

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It is incorrect to say that properties are liabilities rather than assets just because there is an outstanding loan on the property. If you own a piece of property currently worth $3 million but the outstanding loan for it is $1 million, your net asset is $2 million.



I agree with you that one should not be too quick to rubbish what people write as ********, unless one is also saying that the person who posted this below is also ********ting.

"Households in the highest decile – the 91st to 100th percentiles – earn an average of $23,684 per month.

To compare your household with the rest, enter your monthly household income:"

whoever wrote that is indeed ********ting. ministers, pastors and charity CEOs all make millions a year - that's at least $100k a month. that's enough to skew the average in top decile by a lot. 23k is too peanuts. the stats must be wrong.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You're joking right? CPF money is not your money! I never consider my CPF balance as part of my wealth. I can't spend it!

So what if you have millions in CPF and SRS? It's the cash that matters. Now, if you tell me you have an equal amount in cash, then it's something to be proud of.

It's you who are the joker. Of course CPF money is our money. Do you spend everything you earn? CPF is just another form of savings and at 2.5% to 4% interest its a good form of savings.

Having millions in CPF and SRS does matter. I'd rather have my millions in CPF rather than the pittance you have in cash. By maxing out my special account, we get about $40,000 in interest every year. In fact, when I turn 55, unless I can find a higher yielding investment, I will probably leave most of it with CPF. I can take it out anytime after 55 if I need it. Better than the 0.2% I get with DBS.

You are just one of those people who aren't successful and are resentful that the Government keeps some of your money to make sure you are not a burden when you are old. Let me tell you that CPF was designed for people like you, who are mediocre and spend everything they earn. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It's you who are the joker. Of course CPF money is our money. Do you spend everything you earn? CPF is just another form of savings and at 2.5% to 4% interest its a good form of savings.

Having millions in CPF and SRS does matter. I'd rather have my millions in CPF rather than the pittance you have in cash. By maxing out my special account, we get about $40,000 in interest every year. In fact, when I turn 55, unless I can find a higher yielding investment, I will probably leave most of it with CPF. I can take it out anytime after 55 if I need it. Better than the 0.2% I get with DBS.

You are just one of those people who aren't successful and are resentful that the Government keeps some of your money to make sure you are not a burden when you are old. Let me tell you that CPF was designed for people like you, who are mediocre and spend everything they earn. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Uncle you win ok? No need to put other people down. You are already rich with all your millions in CPF. That chap probably has much less than you (he didn't say), but even so, there's no need to belittle him. Moreover you are likely to be older than he is. Be more gracious, old man. Go count your millions in your CPF or fly a kite or something.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

whoever wrote that is indeed ********ting. ministers, pastors and charity CEOs all make millions a year - that's at least $100k a month. that's enough to skew the average in top decile by a lot. 23k is too peanuts. the stats must be wrong.

The data in "KEY HOUSEHOLD INCOME TRENDS, 2010" have been grouped into 10 deciles hence the skewing only distorts the top decile.

Benchmark Your Household Income 2011 | Salary.sg - Your Salary in Singapore

Some key numbers:
Your household income of $9,230 is higher than 70.0% of all households.
Your household income of $11,450 is higher than 80.0% of all households.
Your household income of $18,300 is higher than 90.0% of all households.
Your household income of $23,500 is higher than 94.8% of all households.
Your household income of $23,683 is higher than 95.0% of all households.
Your household income of $23,684 is higher than 95.0%++ of all households.

Although a monthly household income of $23,684 is presumably the mean rather than median of the top decile, the two figures shouldn't be too far off.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

whoever wrote that is indeed ********ting. ministers, pastors and charity CEOs all make millions a year - that's at least $100k a month. that's enough to skew the average in top decile by a lot. 23k is too peanuts. the stats must be wrong.

There are ~1,145,900 Resident Households in Singapore. 10% is 114,590 households.

Go ahead and count the number of ministers, pastors and charity CEOs... how many is that? add the idiots on this form who artificially inflate their salaries to be in the excess of millions... now add realistically the number of CXOs of GLCs,GCCs,MNCs. I doubt that the total number of people on this list exceeds 11,459 (1% of resident households) who may earn >100k a month.

The stats my friends are very believable... the idiots who post inflated salaries, are not.

what if CPF is just an empty shell? on paper has money but in fact most of it is gone! scary...

Originally Posted by Unregistered

what if CPF is just an empty shell? on paper has money but in fact most of it is gone! scary...

It's not yours until you can actually spend it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
By the time you hit 62, the rules might change again, so my advice is dont rely on your cpf as retirement fund only, you should have some other cash savings, though for you case, you may not be able to save much if you havent started. Good luck.

Upon reaching 55 (depending on before or after July as minimum sum for the year is applicable from month of July), take your total of your special account + ordinary account and less off the minimum sum = amount withdrawable. Please note that there is a minimum sum applicable to your medisave account as well. If there is a shortfall, less the amount (although significantly smaller) as this amount will be transferred to MA to make up shortfall as well.

If you wish to increase your withdrawable amount, you may wish to pledge your property for maximum of half of the applicable minimum sum. e.g. minimum sum 120K, max amount that can be pledge with property is total 60k.

However upon disposal of property, this "property pledge" will automatically be returned to your retirement account from the sales proceed, thus not advisable as your RA earns 4-5% interest per annum.

Withdrawal is once per year (bday to bday). One sincere advise is if you do not need the full amount, withdraw what you need and leave the rest in the OA earning 2.5% interest per annum. You can withdraw again next year. One common misperception is that if you leave it in there its stuck for life. Dont be afraid, rules change but will not affect you once you reach 55. Only those turning 55 thereafter are affected.

Hope this helps. \

Unquote

To be honest, CPF monies are good. The only factor is the time you have to invest in it as well as to a certain extent the uncertainty due to policy changes in the meantime of investment.

I have seen a couple of people with more than 1 mil in Ordinary account and the interest it generates is minimum 30k per annum. Withdraw this every year leaving the 1m in OA allows you to retire very comfortably. And this is just CPF, not counting people that age probably have passive income from rental and other sources.

3 cents worth.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It's you who are the joker. Of course CPF money is our money. Do you spend everything you earn? CPF is just another form of savings and at 2.5% to 4% interest its a good form of savings.

Having millions in CPF and SRS does matter. I'd rather have my millions in CPF rather than the pittance you have in cash. By maxing out my special account, we get about $40,000 in interest every year. In fact, when I turn 55, unless I can find a higher yielding investment, I will probably leave most of it with CPF. I can take it out anytime after 55 if I need it. Better than the 0.2% I get with DBS.

You are just one of those people who aren't successful and are resentful that the Government keeps some of your money to make sure you are not a burden when you are old. Let me tell you that CPF was designed for people like you, who are mediocre and spend everything they earn. Sorry, but that's the truth.

I'm sure you're also someone that looks at his or her CPF statement every month and feel rich like our Zorro Lim.

Obviously if you are as rich as you imply, you wouldn't care if you have millions in your CPF as you must be cash rich enough to support your family and yourself. However, having our own money locked in this ponzi scheme coupled with the pathetic yield provided by the CPF board (that is not even enough to combat inflation) is affecting most Singaporean when they could do much better ultilising the money themselves.

The Government should stop tweaking the rules to this whole scam (whenever they make a mistake in our sovereign funds, the losses made by GIC and Temasak during 08/09 is almost 1/2 of what the world bank estimates as the damages caused during the recent Japan quake. The amount lost can cover the entire Singapore population's HDB conservancy fees for the next century and somemore. I suspect, the sum may even be able to provide universal free education until university for one entire generation) and let us withdraw the entire amount (including the minimum sum) once we hit 55 when it was first promised to us.