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Congratulations. How did you top up your CPF? Did you go to the CPF office and give them a cheque of $1m?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This is my what CPF statement shows:

OA : $885k
BHS : $49.8k
SA : $60k
RA : $241k

I turned 55 recently, and for those unaware, BHS stands for Basic Healthcare Sum. It replaces the Medisave minimum sum. It started just this year.

My RA was $161k when I turned 55, but I topped it up with $80k cash to the full ERS.

I remembered someone asking whether it was possible to have a $1m in CPF. Well, I just did, if you add up all the money in the various accounts.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I hope COE will crash to $2 by end 2016. If this really happens, then the price of a new car will be less than the paper value of my current car by end 2016. Since I have paid my current car in cash with no loan, I can just SCRAP my car, collect the paper value and buy a brand new car which should cost less than the paper value of my car. So I get a brand new car for "free" and I also get some profit.

Huat ah!!!!!!!! Please crash some more!!!!!!!!!!!!

With demand for new cars falling fast due to global economic uncertainty, stock market and property market crash and supply of COE rising fast, supply of COEs will exceed demand. So COE price should crash!

Huat ah!!!!!!!

On the contrary I am waiting for housing market to crash.

Waiting to pick up another 1 or 2 private properties

Originally Posted by Unregistered

On the contrary I am waiting for housing market to crash.

Waiting to pick up another 1 or 2 private properties

Will you be paying in full cash? How much cash do you have now?

Thanks. My CPF funds were built up over 30+ years of continuous contribution AND the powerful effect of compounding interest did the rest. Some called it the 8th wonder of the world!

If I had $1m now in cash, would I want to put it into CPF? I don't think so. At most I would top up the RA to the ERS of $241k. And invest the rest of the cash. Now that the stock and property markets are seeing continuous decline, there are opportunities for good investment. Just be patient.

What goes down will come up, and vice versa, what goes up must come down. The only thing that has been going up is inflation. So, need to ensure your savings must minimally keep pace with inflation.

Another thing is to continue working as long as you can.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Congratulations. How did you top up your CPF? Did you go to the CPF office and give them a cheque of $1m?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks. My CPF funds were built up over 30+ years of continuous contribution AND the powerful effect of compounding interest did the rest. Some called it the 8th wonder of the world!

If I had $1m now in cash, would I want to put it into CPF? I don't think so. At most I would top up the RA to the ERS of $241k. And invest the rest of the cash. Now that the stock and property markets are seeing continuous decline, there are opportunities for good investment. Just be patient.

What goes down will come up, and vice versa, what goes up must come down. The only thing that has been going up is inflation. So, need to ensure your savings must minimally keep pace with inflation.

Another thing is to continue working as long as you can.

Your generation is lucky. No need to commit much CPF funds into basic housing.

Thanks for the inspiration. I'm still young and would like to start early in preparing for retirement. What's your advice on the ideal retirement age? When do you plan to retire? You have a lot of money in your CPF which you can withdraw now. When do you start withdrawing your CPF?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks. My CPF funds were built up over 30+ years of continuous contribution AND the powerful effect of compounding interest did the rest. Some called it the 8th wonder of the world!

If I had $1m now in cash, would I want to put it into CPF? I don't think so. At most I would top up the RA to the ERS of $241k. And invest the rest of the cash. Now that the stock and property markets are seeing continuous decline, there are opportunities for good investment. Just be patient.

What goes down will come up, and vice versa, what goes up must come down. The only thing that has been going up is inflation. So, need to ensure your savings must minimally keep pace with inflation.

Another thing is to continue working as long as you can.

Every generation has its challenges. I had to give tuition to help pay for my uni studies, my children don't need to. Not even when they go for exchange programme at overseas unis.

I funded them.

As to housing, I didn't 'eat the cherry' or subsidy from the gahmen at all. We went straight into private housing upon getting married bypassing the HDB route. Ok granted that then the private property prices were lower than what new HDB flats are selling for now. We bypassed the HDB route after getting fed up with 2 unsuccessful balloting and were told that we had to wait for 2.5 to 3 years for our flat!

We have since changed our home 4 times, each time upgrading to a slightly bigger and newer condo. From a 2 bedroom condo, we are now living in a 4 bedroom unit.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Your generation is lucky. No need to commit much CPF funds into basic housing.

I can't answer what's the ideal retirement age. For someone like me, we derive 2 main things from working: income and giving purpose to our lives. So once we find that we don't need to depend on income from work, and find that we no longer find purpose at work, it is time for us to step aside (retire).

Financially, I can already live on my passive income. So I am working because I still derive purpose, satisfaction and meaning in my work.

CPF allows a person to withdraw the rest of the money after he has set aside the BHS ($49.8k) and the RA ($161k or $241k if you choose to top up). Or a person can choose to leave everything in CPF and continue to earn interest and let it compound.

The good thing is that once you reached 55, you can draw out the excess money or any amount at any time (with 1 month's notice). As I am still working, I am keeping my money in the CPF, with the assurance that I can always fall back on the CPF funds in an emergency.

It is good to start saving early and "exploit" the power of compounding interest. I have friends who already start contributing to their children's CPF accounts even though they are still studying! That's real forward thinking and very long term planning!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks for the inspiration. I'm still young and would like to start early in preparing for retirement. What's your advice on the ideal retirement age? When do you plan to retire? You have a lot of money in your CPF which you can withdraw now. When do you start withdrawing your CPF?

Your friend who invested early for their children CPF is doing the right things. It is excellent to leverage on the power of compounding effect. There are some instruments which have similar effect by just investing in the first 5 years and do nothing and has about 7-8 times 40-50 years later. Have also bought that for my children but I can also take out earlier if I need the money.

I have also followed the similar path as you as I have gone straight to Private condo without owning a hdb flat. I use some of my cpf to purchase a condo which was was rented out and tenants help me pay for the house and its value now is 2.5 of it purchase price and since has proceeded buying several private properties which have most of them paid up. However, that was in the past. This strategy will not work now. It is more difficult generate wealth given the volatility.

When is the earliest our children can have their CPF account? Do they have once they are born or in primary school? I'm thinking if I can top the max of $161k for them once they are born, then by compounding effect, they should have $626k by the time they are 55.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Your friend who invested early for their children CPF is doing the right things. It is excellent to leverage on the power of compounding effect. There are some instruments which have similar effect by just investing in the first 5 years and do nothing and has about 7-8 times 40-50 years later. Have also bought that for my children but I can also take out earlier if I need the money.

I have also followed the similar path as you as I have gone straight to Private condo without owning a hdb flat. I use some of my cpf to purchase a condo which was was rented out and tenants help me pay for the house and its value now is 2.5 of it purchase price and since has proceeded buying several private properties which have most of them paid up. However, that was in the past. This strategy will not work now. It is more difficult generate wealth given the volatility.