I will all in cash, will use wife's savings to pay the transaction costs and duties, still have $200k as emergency fund.

Ok that's great, good luck man. Any way if you have $2.4M cash, why don't buy 2 condo unit by mortgage in Sg and another 2 in KL for example. All pay by mortgage, let's say you pay up 50%DP. And then make up higher emergency fund, in case no tenant available for a certain period of time.

Retirement Planning
 

Need some advice on the various retirement planning products like AXA retire happy, Aviva my retirement, AIA retirement saver and NTUC classic annuity. Which offer the best returns?

I intent to put in $300k in this product when i turn 55yrs old so as to receive a steady income from 65 onwards. Should be able to get abt $1.5k per mth. Plus the $1k from the CPF LIFE scheme. I should be getting abt $2.5k which is just right as I lead a simple life with no debt.

Just need to choose the appropriate product. Can anyone help?

Thanks. I rather buy 3 condos in Singapore, paying all cash and no loan. Gives me peace of mind. Singapore condos, btw, is undervalued because of all the cooling measures. Other cities are overvalued and are bubbles because they don't have many cooling measures. Singapore property will definitely appreciate in the long run, even though prices may correct by 10 - 15% before rising further. There are many opportunities in Singapore depending on the locations. I avoid CCR properties as prices will not rise for a long time, better to focus the OCR growth regions and those condos near new MRT stations.

IMO, should not have more than 1 annuity plan. Since most of us have no choice but to buy the CPF Life, we should not buy any more annuities. The main reason is that the payout is fixed and does not adjust to inflation. Some more the payout is more than 10-15 yrs away? By then the $1.5K today's value will only be $700 only or less. And the value keeps dropping every year. Another thing is the "unused" money don't go back to your family if you should die early.

You should look into inflation adjusted investment products. For me it is blue chip companies. I am currently enjoying dividends ($30K pa) from stocks I accumulated over many years. The dividends go up and down based on their profits and loss, but have gone up over the years.

Your family can continue to receive the dividends and take over the shares when you pass on.
Also you can attend their AGM for the free lunches in your retirement.

Companies can go bankrupt for sure, that includes the annuity company.

But other places do not have CPF scheme that do not allow much utilisation except for buying houses. That policy alone would have guaranteed that a large proportion of income has been channeled into property. Any angle of looking at it is that Singapore already has a larger percentage of people owning their own home. The best days of Singapore is already over. Looking forward, we will be contented if there is 1-3% growth rate. Moreover, population is greying. All these are not positive factors for property price appreciation. We are not in the era of high growth rate and young, increasing demographic.

Places that have more harsh cooling measures than Singapore are China and Hong Kong.

To continue...

Global condition is not optimistic. As I have said, despite money printing from USA and Japan, total money in circulation worldwide is actually decreasing because of the decreasing measures of the Europe's ECB and China. You can check the European central bank and China central bank for data. Their balance sheet has decreased in aggregate more than the increase injected by USA and China. Beside that, what the politicians are doing are mostly deflationary and destructive and do not bode well for the next few years.

Treasury bonds has crashed last month and cause the yield to rise sharply. This are advance indicator for the global interest rate. Property in many emerging markets have already reacted and have moved down indicating a reversing trend.

Global sovereign debt crisis in 2015 is in the card.

The window of opportunity is coming again both for stocks and property. Get ready to pounce.

Don't be saying later you should have bought this and that. You hear this all the time. It seems that people are fearful to act when economy tanking and good bargains abound. And then when economy rebounded, they can only whine and envy others who made killings.

For those interested in property, I suggest do homework on area / locality of interest now. Get the prices now so that you can see if the prices go down attractively enough to enter. I guess stocks easier to track.

Start by getting your war chest ready. FDs maturing soon? Single premium insurance maturing?

Remember that govt all over will try their best to prevent major meltdown, so the window of opportunity is likely to be narrow.

Great advice. How much % correction would be enough for you to enter? 20%?

Obviously as someone waiting to pounce, I am wishing for upwards of 30% discount of current prices. But that may be wishful thinking. I have been eyeing a 2,200 sq ft condo currently asking $3.3m. If at $1k psf, I would go in already.

One of my buddies bought a 99 yr lease 1500 sq ft condo at less $600k few yrs ago and sold it off recently for above $1.5m to upgrade to landed property. Where to get chances like this anymore?