Whats your net worth

Originally Posted by Mr Middle

I may have inadvertantly offended some forumers here who said I was being insensitive in my postings here. I apologise. It was never my intention to offend anyone. I was in a way expressing some fear and frustration that as a thrifty middle income earner who scrimped for years aspiring to one day sit back and relax and enjoy the fruits until my last day will not see my dream turn out the way my wife and I have hoped for.

Many people who are still working may not have thought through their retirement planning. For me and wife, we are doing it now because we are reaching a critical milestone (55 yrs) and calculating if we could retire without down grading our already frugal lifestyle. In this climate it is getting difficult to have positive return of 3% (net of inflation of 5% or more), not to mention consistent return.

The other worry is the medical expenses. It was reported that in the US, many families were one medical emergency away from bankruptcy. Meaning they were not financially prepared for heavy medical expenses.

I have the exact same worries, on top of that, my parents have no retirement plans and their health are deteriorating, and healthcare arent cheap in SG. I probably have to work till I drop as some guy had mentioned.

I think we need more foreigners to create more jobs for Singaporeans, especially the older ones. Wash toilet, sell tissue, wash dishes, greet gamblers... I'm willing to do anything. So much for Swiss standard of living and more good years.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I think we need more foreigners to create more jobs for Singaporeans, especially the older ones. Wash toilet, sell tissue, wash dishes, greet gamblers... I'm willing to do anything. So much for Swiss standard of living and more good years.

Good for you if you are willing to do anything, you should try clearing rubbish too, bust the myth that Singaporeans avoid unglamorous jobs.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

just buy some blue chip stocks when the next financial crisis strikes.

your trick doesn't always work.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

your trick doesn't always work.

it's better than attending $3k a pop forex trading courses. btw, it worked very well for me.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Stop scaring yourself and others. If it's true, why do I not see more beggars in the streets?

The fact is even retirees can have some income. You can start a small business, rent out a room or a condo, collect dividends from stocks, etc. Insurance will pay for the bulk of your medical expenses.

And if you are smart about it, you won't be spending 5k/mth if you have only 1.2m in the bank. Don't forget that your children would've grown up and won't need money from you. Your parents would've moved on.

Of course, if you wanna plan for worst case scenario, you can always work till you die. Cheers.

If I could start a successful small business with consistent profits, have so much stocks that the I can survive on the dividend, have enough money to put downpayment for 2nd property and get it rented out at net positive, I would most certainly possess the millionaire mindset, am well on my way to becoming millionaire or am already a millionaire. I wouldn't be worried about retirement if I was so good at making money now.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If I could start a successful small business with consistent profits, have so much stocks that the I can survive on the dividend, have enough money to put downpayment for 2nd property and get it rented out at net positive, I would most certainly possess the millionaire mindset, am well on my way to becoming millionaire or am already a millionaire. I wouldn't be worried about retirement if I was so good at making money now.

Have you served NS? When **** happens during NS, a consoling factor is that you're not alone.

Similarly, you're not the only one with insufficient reirement funds. Treat it like another round of NS. (:

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Have you served NS? When **** happens during NS, a consoling factor is that you're not alone.

Similarly, you're not the only one with insufficient reirement funds. Treat it like another round of NS. (:

Serving NS and retirement funds are very different.

NS is compulsory, unless .... (won't go into the PR vs citizen thing here)

But we can work, invest and plan towards a good retirement. It won't be cheap here. Those who are more mobile and fed up of high cost of living here, can choose to migrate young, or retire somewhere cheaper.

Maybe we should go back to the core of this thread which is

What is Your Net Worth.

What about CPF? My wife and I (who are pretty ordinary graduate stat board employees our whole lives) have worked 30 years+ and each of us will have $1m in CPF balances (including investments and housing contributions) when we reach 55, which is pretty soon. We generally invested in blue chip stocks (never sold any unless they were acquired by other companies) and used for housing at various points in time.

We have always transferred our Ordinary account savings to the Special account to the minimum sum max to get the full 4% ever since they allowed it. In fact, the yearly interest alone tops up our special accounts whenever the minimum sum moves up. Both my wife and I have about $150K in our special accounts and $39.5K in our Medisave (we never use Medisave for medical expenses and always pay cash because its very hard to get 4% interest rate). Hence both of us have about $380K in our special and medisave accounts, which earns more than $15K per year! at 4%.

Of, the remaining $1.7M or so we have in our Ordinary accounts, only $200K is used for housing (we fully paid up more than 10 years ago). The remaining $1.5M of Ordinary account savings most is in a variety of high cash yielding unit trusts, blue chip stocks, REITs with a balance of $200K actually still with CPF. I calculated the yield on the $1.3M we have in our investment accounts at around 5% on current prices and about 10% on prices we paid for them (We bought many [like AREIT at $1] a long time ago), so I get about $65,000 pa on my CPF investment portfolio. The remaining $200K in my ordinary account earns $6K at 2.5% (+1% for the first $60K of both our accounts).

So if you add it up. I get $15K from Medisave interest, $6K from Ordinary Account interest and $65K from my investment portfolio. That is $86K in a steady stream from our CPF or $7.2K per month.

We also have been contributing to SRS at the maximum and have been buying high yield blue chip stocks. Have never sold. There was a point during 2009 when our SRS portfolio dropped in value by 40%, but its recovered nicely. Both my wife and I have a total of $300K in both our SRS. That generates about 5% dividends also, which gives us another $6K.

In total our retirement funds are $2.3M (CPF + SRS) and they increase at $92K per year. When we reach 55 soon, we intend to leave everything at the CPF and take out only when we need it. I think our case proves that if you are a graduate, and have a steady, non-spectacular job for a long time and don't do anything stupid with your CPF or SRS, you can retire quite easily and be comfortable at 55 just on your CPF and SRS alone. The thing to remember when you buy stocks or unit trusts with your retirement money, is to buy high yield blue chips and never sell. The stock market goes up and down, but as long as you hold blue chips for 10 years or more, they are up and have paid you a fortune in dividends. Take AREIT. I bought most of my holdings when they IPOed at under $1. I've participated fully in every fund raising. They pay 13c dividend a year now, so I'm getting 13% yield on my original investment. In fact, when I calculate back, the dividends have covered my entire initial cost, so the shares are free now!

Thanks for sharing these priceless tips.

Do you mind letting us know your income level over the years, and cash and non-CPF-held stocks value? Do you also own multiple properties?

Many thanks.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What about CPF? My wife and I (who are pretty ordinary graduate stat board employees our whole lives) have worked 30 years+ and each of us will have $1m in CPF balances (including investments and housing contributions) when we reach 55, which is pretty soon. We generally invested in blue chip stocks (never sold any unless they were acquired by other companies) and used for housing at various points in time.

We have always transferred our Ordinary account savings to the Special account to the minimum sum max to get the full 4% ever since they allowed it. In fact, the yearly interest alone tops up our special accounts whenever the minimum sum moves up. Both my wife and I have about $150K in our special accounts and $39.5K in our Medisave (we never use Medisave for medical expenses and always pay cash because its very hard to get 4% interest rate). Hence both of us have about $380K in our special and medisave accounts, which earns more than $15K per year! at 4%.

Of, the remaining $1.7M or so we have in our Ordinary accounts, only $200K is used for housing (we fully paid up more than 10 years ago). The remaining $1.5M of Ordinary account savings most is in a variety of high cash yielding unit trusts, blue chip stocks, REITs with a balance of $200K actually still with CPF. I calculated the yield on the $1.3M we have in our investment accounts at around 5% on current prices and about 10% on prices we paid for them (We bought many [like AREIT at $1] a long time ago), so I get about $65,000 pa on my CPF investment portfolio. The remaining $200K in my ordinary account earns $6K at 2.5% (+1% for the first $60K of both our accounts).

So if you add it up. I get $15K from Medisave interest, $6K from Ordinary Account interest and $65K from my investment portfolio. That is $86K in a steady stream from our CPF or $7.2K per month.

We also have been contributing to SRS at the maximum and have been buying high yield blue chip stocks. Have never sold. There was a point during 2009 when our SRS portfolio dropped in value by 40%, but its recovered nicely. Both my wife and I have a total of $300K in both our SRS. That generates about 5% dividends also, which gives us another $6K.

In total our retirement funds are $2.3M (CPF + SRS) and they increase at $92K per year. When we reach 55 soon, we intend to leave everything at the CPF and take out only when we need it. I think our case proves that if you are a graduate, and have a steady, non-spectacular job for a long time and don't do anything stupid with your CPF or SRS, you can retire quite easily and be comfortable at 55 just on your CPF and SRS alone. The thing to remember when you buy stocks or unit trusts with your retirement money, is to buy high yield blue chips and never sell. The stock market goes up and down, but as long as you hold blue chips for 10 years or more, they are up and have paid you a fortune in dividends. Take AREIT. I bought most of my holdings when they IPOed at under $1. I've participated fully in every fund raising. They pay 13c dividend a year now, so I'm getting 13% yield on my original investment. In fact, when I calculate back, the dividends have covered my entire initial cost, so the shares are free now!