Skip to content

Retirement

Why Will The CPF Minimum Sum Keep Increasing – Financial Planning Point Of View

There was quite a bit of hu-has on my Facebook’s news feed with lots of unhappiness that the CPF’s Minimum Sum has increased from $123,000 to $131,000 and that many more people will not be able to take their hard-earned money out from their CPF accounts and these money will eventually be “taken away” from them

Be assured that the “taken away” part will not be the case as I have seen many of my clients who have reached their draw-down age, did not reach the Minimum Sum and are still able to take out their money.

I will not be dedicating this post to how you will be drawing your CPF money when you reach the draw-down age or explain what you need to do if you are unable to reach the Minimum Sum. But rather, I will explain the rationale behind the annual increment of the Minimum Sum from the Financial Planning Point of View.

Proper Planning For Retirement – The Concept Behind The Minimum Sum

If you are truly concerned about planning for your Retirement, a Financial Advisor would usually sit down with you and work out the numbers. For instance, to plan for your Retirement, you would need to know a few numbers like

  • How much you would like to have and to spend each month and in today’s dollar
  • How long you would like to have these sum of money
  • What is your feel for the average rate of inflation

An Example To Illustrate The Above

Read More »Why Will The CPF Minimum Sum Keep Increasing – Financial Planning Point Of View

How To Self-Manage Your Own Money With A Six Accounts Strategy

Would you like to have better self-management of your money so that you have enough to save for retirement, invest, play & pamper, and at the same time doing your part to contribute to the charity on a regular basis?

If you do, you can actually make sure of this Six Account Strategy that I have learned from T. Harv Eker’s brilliant book called, The Secrets Of A Millionaire Mind.

Why Should You And I Make Use Of This Strategy?

My personal experience from what I learned from most people, who have just received their bring-home income and including my own, is that the money will be used to pay off most of outstanding bills and loans, settle and pay for any necessities and the rest is kept in the bank account (if any is left, of course).

All these are usually done on a irregular amount and inconsistent basis, do you agree as well?

– For Investment And Education Opportunities

For example, if there’s a good (as in really, really positive and good potential) investment or education opportunity that may just come up to you, you may keep asking yourself whether you should go for it and leave a slight cut on your bank account or use it for other personal uses… For most people after this much of pondering and thinking that using the money for other personal uses is better, this one chance may just slip away and never appear!

Such case did appear to me, in one particular case of stock investment where there’s a strong potential growth of at least 20 – 30% capital gain. I do have the money to invest but… I wanted to use that money to spend on some latest Tech Gadgets. So at the end of the day, I did not invest or spend on any Gadgets (because the better ones are coming up, again!). The stock grew and it was too late for me to go into it!

– For Retirement Planning And Charity Giving

Likewise for Retirement Planning, most people do not concentrate much on this particular section of planning and rather spend most of their money on other areas. They only plan and invest towards the last few years of their working life and hope that miracles will happen at the end of it! Usually, such things will never happen to the mass majority!

I am a believer of Charity Giving and I would try to donate to my charity choice once I have the spare cash. I would like to do it on a regular basis but I am, like any other normal person, that these donations should be spent on other uses. And to side-track, do you know that by giving away a bit of what you have to help others, you will get “rewarded” (not just in monetary sense) many times back? That’s why many millionaires are requesting people to step out and do their part in charity giving.

So if you did face such situations before (which I did) and you would like to have a way out, you should try on T. Harv Eker’s Six Jars System today!

How Does T. Harv Eker’s Six Jars System Work?

In general, you need to have so-called six accounts (i.e. actual bank savings accounts or some form of Excel Sheet tracking) to separate your bring-home income.

And under the Six Jars System, you should have these accounts and the percentage of your bring-home income in it:

1. Financial Freedom Account (10%) – This account is meant for your Investment Purposes. Making sure your money works hard for you! Please do not try to use this money to try on the lottery. The money in this account is meant to go into good investments like Stocks, Unit Trusts, Properties or any assets that will give you a significant rate of return as compared to the usual bank savings account rate. Any dividends can be re-invested or to go into your Long-Term Savings Account.

Read More »How To Self-Manage Your Own Money With A Six Accounts Strategy

The Factors To A Comfortable Retirement

Are you prepared for your Retirement?

Most people will say no, that’s no surprise, because to these people, Retirement Planning starts only at the last 5-10 years of their working life. Whatever they have by then will determine the kind of lifestyle they will live during their Retirement. And also a risk factor to consider is that a sudden high expenditure during Retirement will deplete this amount drastically, leaving the future really uncertain…

So should you be noticing this kind of situation, and you do not wish to be in it, then it’s time to take into considerations to a comfortable retirement.

The Factors To A Comfortable Retirement:

1. Time

2. The Interest Rate

3. The Lump Sum Amount

4. Budgeting

The First Factor – Time

Read More »The Factors To A Comfortable Retirement

Mortgage Insurance Or Term Insurance For Your Mortgage Loan – Part 3 Of 3

In Part 1 of 3 of my Mortgage Insurance series, I have shared with you why you need to consider having a Mortgage Insurance to protect your Mortgage Loan and not wait till you are able to sell off the property…

And in Part 2 of 3, I have also shared why and when so to start applying for the mortgage insurance and most importantly the underwriting requirements needed for your application. If you have concern about taking a HIV test, I have also shared some pointers to go around it and lastly some basic health tips to ace your medical checks.

In this last part, I will be sharing with you, some of the common suggestions that most of my clients have when it come to their Mortgage Insurance Planning, they know they need it, but they are thinking whether to choose either a Level Term or Mortgage Reducing Term Insurance…

How To Choose Between Mortgage Reducing Term Insurance And A Level Term Insurance?

Basically there’s no right or wrong should you decide to choose either of the plan. It’s only wrong when you decide not to plan for it. But should you need some advice (from me), here’s a few pointers to consider from the two choices…

Choose Mortgage Reducing Term Insurance as first priority because:

Read More »Mortgage Insurance Or Term Insurance For Your Mortgage Loan – Part 3 Of 3

What Does It Mean When You Say No To Insurance

Have you ever wondered what does it mean to you when you decide to say No to a Financial Planner, who is doing up a financial needs analysis and at the same time recommending some insurance plans to you?

The Role Of A Financial Planner

Basically the role of a Financial Planner is to make you realize or indirectly disturb you emotionally with a Problem (concern about Medical Bills, not enough for Retirement or the means to save enough for your Child’s University Education) through a Financial Needs Analysis Process.

And after doing so, he will recommend a set of solutions to the above problems by means of  committing to a certain range of Insurance ProductEndowment, Investment-Linked Plans, Medical Insurance and/or Critical Illness Insurance.

The objective of this post is not to tell you much about what a Financial Planner does for a living and here I will assume that the Financial Planner who may be attending to you is capable of doing what he/she is required to do in Financial Planning.

But rather, I will focus on, if the Financial Planner has actually done well (to make you realize that you have a problem) but in the end you decide to say one of the Few Common Nos’ (known as Objections to us) like:

  • I Do Not Need Insurance
  • I Have No Extra Money For Insurance
  • I Would Like To Wait

So let’s get down to the first No…

No to Life Insurance!

What Does It Mean To You When You Say That You Do Not Need The Insurance…

Read More »What Does It Mean When You Say No To Insurance

Have You Started Your Retirement Planning?

Part of a Good Financial Planning is planning well and early for your retirement and a good rule of thumb of starting your retirement planning can be well around your mid 20s as you may have started working by then and have the means to start saving.

What To Note For Your Retirement Planning

And the things to note for your retirement planning would be basically

  • The retirement monthly income you would need for your daily expenses (without really working) and lifestyle
  • How long you plan for this retirement income to last

A general guideline to know how much you would need is to note down how much are your current expenses and once you have gotten this figure, do a rough estimation whether you would like to maintain this kind of lifestyle (you can choose to have an even better or just a simpler one – it’s your life, so your choice!)

Then the portion for the how long you plan for it to last would be a gut feel. An average person would wish to have a retirement income to last for 20 years starting from the average retirement age of 65.

Once you have your figures ready, head over to the CPF Board’s Retirement Savings Interactive Calculator to get a rough feel how much you need to start saving now to hit your desired retirement income.

A sample of my Retirement Planning would be like below:

My Retirement Planning

Hmmm… and seems like I do have to start saving like $600 per month for the next 37 years in order to achieve my desired monthly retirement income of $2000.

Read More »Have You Started Your Retirement Planning?