Lady, You Can Be Free

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• Women live longer than 82. Lagi shiok for you. LOL

• Hi Createwealth888,
  Hahaha, you are so cute :)

• What are your thoughts on the recent out cry on cpf? Seems like a lot of pple feel it is a caff idea but wondering what a financial prudent person like you would think? I am all for cpf actually but a lot of friends my age about early 30s are not.

• Hi gagmewithaspoon,
  My thoughts about the recent outcry on CPF? I guess more education and communication is needed on the benefits of CPF.

• Nice article and I am all for the CPF scheme and its CPF Life product.

  Even though some smart investors might be able to generate more returns than CPF Life but it is not without risks, so, I am happy for CPF Board to take over the burden of the risk and give us the risk-free returns (which is better than the interest rates in the banks).

• Hi Richard,
  I hope we are not the minority. I guess it's a wakeup call for us to start pondering whether it's time we start introducing financial education in schools so that fresh graduates understand why CPF, CPF life and even MediShield life is going to improve their families well-being and let them understand why it's not that easy to generate a 6.5% returns without risk.

• There are financial education in schools nowadays provided by 3rd party service providers.
  It is called Life skills and includes financial literacy, entrepreneurship, social enterprises etc.

  It is very much the attitude of the students and also the emphasis of the parents that determines if the students are to really benefit from these courses.

  Most are still living in the dinosaur age (parents and students) where too much emphasis is on academic excellence, which only gives a headstart, but not permanent income or salary.

  It is lifelong skills such as financial literacy, entrepreneurship and business acumen, which can give these students fishes for life as these can provide a means to generate income for life.

• Hi Numbers,
  So true !!!! Academic excellence for a better career is so passé.

• Hi LUCBF

  I think the issue here would be the whether the minimum sum would be raised again ? While i think it is a good "retirement " scheme to have , more transparency is needed too .

• Hi Small-Time Investor,
  Thanks for sharing the insight. If it's all about minimum sum and transparency, I wonder why the campaign is about returning the cpf. It is extremely misleading to the general public. Minimum sum would definitely need to be raised again as time moves forward to keep pace with standards of living. What we need to do is to learn how to leverage on this CPF tool to ensure we grow and keep pace with the minimum sum. Also, I am not sure about transparency. If people cannot even understand why 6.5% is not a reasonable demand in terms of returns without risk and the benefits of CPF Life, then I think they would probably faint when they see the transparent statements presented to them.

• Hi LUCBF

  There would be a sway of topics when emotions sway .

  That's where people have to calm themselves down and think rationally.

• Hi Small-Time Investor,
  True. I pray that many more people will be calm & rational.

• hi there, i think thanks for mentioning my article i hope its been helpful. just want to bring your attention to a perhaps misconception. i wrote in a later post

  that the way you look at it is for 155k at age 55 to grow to around 240k at age 65. the 240k provides the 13k per year. its not about withdrawing 155k at 55 years old comparison but could you do better with 240k.

• Hi Kyith,
  Thanks for highlighting. For me, I don't really care whether I could do better with the 155K SGD from 55 to 65 years old. What I liked about the model is the peace of mind I get by putting 155K away knowing that at the bare minimum, I would have at least a guaranteed 1K SGD per month from 65 until I die. During this period, I may have gone senile or have dementia, incapable of making sound investment decisions on my money.

  However, this is good info for others who may think other wise. Check out Kyith's article from here...
  http://www.investmentmoats.com/budgeting/retirement-planning/i-thought-cpf-life-annuity-gave-a-high-8-5-return-perhaps-i-am-wrong/

• Hi Lady I have some questions for you:
  1. Did you invest using your CPF money?
  2. Do you have fellow girlfriends who invest also? and are they supportive about your investment choices?
  I would like to invest soon but none of my female friends are interested to invest :(

• Hi YoungLadyWhoWillInvestSoon,

  Good to hear from you. Answers to your question
  1) I used to invest my CPF money. But I have sold them recently to pay for the HDB that I recently acquired.

  2) I do have fellow girlfriends who invest but they are not avid investors. Most of my girlfriends are believers of property, FD, unit trust and they get burnt quite often in stocks. Not sure why. I typically don't ask them for advise when it comes to investment choices. They usually will tell me that the market is going to crash and that I would lose alot of money ;-). I find it more useful discussing with guys around this topic.

  BTW...if you are new to investing, don't start with CPF first unless you are confident you can get better returns than what CPF is giving you. Start with your idle money first and start small. You will probably make a couple of mistakes and soon get a hang of it depending on your risk appetite. Have fun :)

• Newbies have not earn their right to invest CPF money.

  2.5% compounding interest is not easy to beat.

• Hi CreateWealth8888,
  Very sound advise ! Thank you !

• Read? Your CPF Investment Account : Uncle8888's foolish advice!!!

• People who cry over the need to manage the CPF money themselves do not deserve it.
  Why. If they are so good, why do they need to tap on CPF fund ?

  People who cannot beat CPF protection and returns, clearly is best left with CPF to support their retirements. I am not going to pay more taxes to help them !

• Well Said, Cory :)