2016 changes to the CPF and SRS for a better retirement.

I was reading the papers on changes to the CPF and SRS which took effect on 1 Jan 2016 and thought to myself that working Singaporeans are a lucky bunch.

If you are a middle income worker, rejoice because mandatory CPF contributions by both employer and employee per month are now based on a higher salary ceiling of $6,000 a month instead of $5,000 a month. Your CPF savings will grow at a faster clip.

If you are a worker between 50 to 65 in age, your employer will now contribute an additional 0.5% to 1% based on your monthly wage into your Special Account (SA). 

If you are 55 years old or older, you will also receive an additional 1% interest on your first $30,000 in CPF savings which means you get 6% interest per annum, risk free!

It would be a good idea for younger readers to communicate this change to their parents. If at all possible, consider topping up your parents' CPF SA or MA if they do not have that first $30,000 in their accounts. 

We really should not pass on a 6% annual return from a AAA rated sovereign bond!

A comfortable retirement need not be a dream.

As for the SRS, the ceiling is raised to $15,300 for Singaporeans and PRs. It is $35,700 for foreigners. So, if you pay plenty of taxes each year, this is another tool to help pay less in income tax.

I think it is important to count our blessings and not keep complaining. Probably, there is more than a handful of people who think that the changes are not good enough. Fion Lau, 41, said that the changes do not go far to provide retirement adequacy.

Well, I would like to remind Fion that the CPF is, like I always say, a cornerstone in our retirement adequacy strategy. It is not the entire foundation.

Related posts:
1. SRS: A brief analysis.
2. Retiring before 60 is not a dream.
3. Retirement: Buy a AAA rated bond.

Is it too late to plan for retirement at age 57?

This is in reply to a reader's comment: here.

Hi hosea,

Welcome to my blog. :)

I am not allowed to give advice to individuals and I don't. ;)

However, if I were 57, I must recognise that I cannot be too adventurous with my money. I need to be more conservative.

Being more conservative, the returns might be lower but there is less chance of a massive or total loss of capital which a senior can ill afford. 




I want to consider investment grade bonds which includes Singapore Savings Bonds and also possibly maxing out my CPF-RA to benefit from a risk free 4% to 6% per annum return. This will provide a guaranteed monthly income in future.

Of course, I would have to make sure that my lifestyle is adjusted according to how much I expect to have coming in at retirement. 

It is not just how much we have coming in that is important. It is also how much is the outflow.

Now, at 57, if I think there is going to be a mismatch in what I need and what I would have coming in, then, postponing retirement to a later age beyond 62, which is only 5 years away from now, might have to be considered. This will also allow my CPF savings to continue growing.




What about investments? 

Well, I could consider blue chips which are less volatile and which have a good dividend paying history. 

I might want to consider ST Engineering, SATS and VICOM, for examples. 

I might have a few REITs which are more conservatively geared in my portfolio but I wouldn't want them to be a major part of my portfolio because I might not have the resources to take part in rights issues if they should happen.




If I have a HDB flat, there are many ways to monetise my flat. I could sell some of the remaining lease to HDB or I could rent out a spare room or two. I could choose to downsize too.

Finally, I remember that I have some savings in my SRS account which I can start drawing from at age 62 over a 10 years period. As long as I must pay income tax, I want to consider continuing to make contributions to my SRS account to pay less in tax.

I don't think it is too late to plan for retirement at age 57 but we have to be realistic with the options which are available. 

Related posts:
1. NDR 2014: Retirement adequacy.
2. Tea with Matthew Seah: Lifelong income with SRS.
3. CPF Life Payout estimator.

How to have enough for retirement and to do charity?

In many ways, this is a heartwarming email from a reader:

Hey AK,

I am going to retire at Age 27!!!!! 

Just kidding. I am 27 and if I retire now, I'm gonna hafta eat grass for half my life. :D:D

Nevertheless, I emailed to say how your recent blog posts on retirement and financial freedoms came at a time when I was just putting some of my "how to retire at 55" strategies to paper! 

Gave me quite a few ideas I could work on.

But first, I had some thoughts after reading your "Wake them up before they get financial nightmares" post. 

You shared how a reader saw how his friends were wasting money and tried to get his friends interested in investing. 

But they basically bo hiew him. And he felt very dejected about it. 

Actually, I want to say to him: 

There's no need to feel affected about how others are spending their money or feel dejected that you feel your friends are not exercising enough financial prudence. 

Everyone came from a different starting point and everyone is on their own journeys in life. 






For instance, my mum came from a poor family of 10, worked hard to see her siblings through school, sacrificed her own material comforts when young. 

Now that I have grown up and have earning power, I don't begrudge her anything, e.g. so she travels comfortably, I got her a car; supp cards etc. 

If someone had nothing growing up and when he wanted to blow his money on things he never had, during those young careful years, who are we to stop them or judge them you see? 

If someone wanted to zhng his house or car cos he derives great pleasure from it, who are we to say they are "wasting" money? 

I think the best way is to simply share rather than scare people into financial prudence. But that's just me thinking lah.

Okay, onwards to retirement strategies. 

I have a more realistic plan of easing off (semi-retiring) at age 55, so hopefully when 55 hits I will have multiple streams of monthly income. 

My target income streams are 

1. Sharebuilding, 
2. Dividend stocks, 
3. corporate bonds, 
4. Annuities.

I wanted to seek your advice (or thoughts if you are scared of the word advice, haha) on 2 matters:

Annuities - Is it too early to start at Age 27? I only want to start drawing at age 55. At my age now, would it be better to use the cash going to pay premiums to instead accumulate shares or buy corporate bonds? 

Or do you think it is more feasible to accumulate a basket of shares now and use their dividends at age 40 to pay off the premium for the annuity? 

Would you recommend annuities even?

Another way I thought of was using SRS money to buy annuities and draw down from 62...

Cash flow - each mth combined my husband and i will have 16.5k of cash savings (nett of everything) I don't do anything with it, just put into CIMB star saver. 

In your opinion, do you think given our age profile, we should be a tad more adventurous?

I know what you will say, haha. Hard to analyse cos nothing is said of my debt situation right? You are right, I am still paying off a HDB home loan. 

But suffice to say that after accounting for home loan, we will be 50k positive. 

Given this, would you have any advice for me on my above 2 queries?

Lastly, I have been inspired by your frequent calls to give back to society. 

I always read in the papers how the poor and elderly Singaporeans cannot benefit from Singapore's growth (inequalities widen in Singapore etc etc). 

Even though now they have lowered the lot size so that lesser well off can participate in the stock market, 

1) The commission fee is still geared to benefiting those who buy more than 1000 and 

2) I don't think the elderly destitute have any notion of the stock market. 

So I have decided I am going to do it for them. 

I will use 5k seed money of my own, perhaps with yearly top ups. 

And I will distribute the dividend money each time I see the truly poor e.g. buy them a hot meal when I see them foraging for scraps. 

If this "fund" grows, I will realise the profits as well and distribute them as and when needed. 

I know this is probably a drop in the ocean and very geographically limited, but this is as best as I thought of on how I can help the elderly poor participate in the growth of Singapore. Any better ways you reckon? 

Do you have any recommendations on what stock to buy for this "fund"?

Thanks and regards,

T

See: To be a happy peasant!

My reply:

Hi T,

First, a general impression. You are young and your income is definitely way above average. You have time on your side and the resources to plan for a very comfortable retirement by age 55. It is definitely good to have advantages. :)

OK, this is where I talk to myself.

Annuities. In Singapore, I believe that the best annuity money can buy is actually the CPF Life. 

4% risk free returns and a monthly pay-out for life? Sign me up! 

Max out our CPF-SA early if we have the resources to do so and we are set for a nice lump sum withdrawal at age 55 and a lifetime monthly pay-out from age 65. 

I like low hanging fruits.





Having time on my side in my 20s also means that I am able to ride the ups and downs in the stock market. 

So, after making sure that I have a sensible emergency fund and necessary insurance in place, I will put aside money to invest in equities for greater returns instead of having all my money in fixed deposits or bonds. 

After all, in the long run, equities outperform bonds.

Of course, if we have spare money to invest in the stock market, we are considered very fortunate. 

We should not forget the less fortunate amongst us. 





Is our effort just a drop in the ocean? I think every drop helps. :)

In the past, I would give a portion of my income to a list of charities that I support but starting this year I am putting such money away in a charity fund which I will not be taking much risk with. 

This is consistent with my idea that we should not risk money that has been earmarked for purposes other than for investment.

As I make money from my investments, crossing fingers, and as I make more public appearances, I will put more money into this fund. 

It will hopefully grow to a size that is big enough for me to do what I want to do with it in a few years from now. 

In the meantime, I will probably park money in the charity fund in fixed deposits or the Singapore Savings Bonds.





This email exchange took place quite some time back. Should have been published earlier. 

I only discovered that I overlooked this when I was clearing my mailbox. Terrible.

Bad AK! Bad AK!

Related posts:
1. Wake them up before they get financial nightmares.
2. Retiring before 60 is not a dream.

Funding XX% of our retirement with our CPF savings.

A question I get asked pretty often is how much of our retirement could be funded by our CPF savings and I always say that it depends on the kind of lifestyle that we want.

If we would like to have a car, travel and indulge in fine dining, for sure, we are going to need much more than our CPF savings in our golden years. If we are happy with the basic necessities of life, then, our CPF savings could go a long way to providing for our old age.

Whatever our retirement expectations might be, it pays to have an idea as to what our CPF savings might be able to achieve as a percentage of total funding required for our retirement. Then, we can make appropriate plans as to how we might be able to fund the shortfall.

I am going to share an email from a reader detailing his plan on how he is using the CPF to help achieve retirement adequacy and much more.

Now in his 20s, knowing what he wants at retirement, he came up with a target monthly retirement income of $10,000 from age 65. Based on the plan which he is sharing with us here, his CPF savings should account for 20% of retirement funding:


Hi AK,

My 2c: first 60k of combined balances of which up to 20k is from OA. I interpret it as if all 60k comes from SMRA (OA having $0), then first 60k enjoys 4+1% interest.

Anyways glad to see blogs like urs around. Been working for 2+ yrs and had transferred (a month back)/plan to transfer all my OA to SA and do the 7k min sum topup till i hit the future cap (est before i turn 35). My OA has nothing and I'm ok with that as my mthly expenditure is ard $700 :) agree that one shld aim to have annual cpf interest matching/more than covering the increase(s) in MS.

Rgd the medisave int. paying for premiums; was the exact same rationale i told my dad. His interest more than covers premiums and interest from the rest covers the rider (i.e. Pay nothing out of pocket for hospitalisation). He can feel free to pick a better policy (IP) without worrying (until such time when the interest fails to cover, then downgrade). For myself, plan to max out VC MA top ups to annual contribution ceiling ($36720 from 2016) which will also be subjected to the BHS ($49500 at 2016).

Lastly, to enjoy the maximum benefits of interest for top ups, either a) top up 7k at start of year (if u've 7k lying ard) b) top up incrementally near end of mth (interest is given based on lowest balance/mth so topping up at the end mth means lower op cost for lost interest that shld have been accrued on sum).

On a separate note, retirement/financial planning personally is abt attaining a level of passive income pegged to last drawn annual package (not expenditure) as it provides a Very long term goal (if one ever reaches it) and cpf is one component/source of passive income. I wld propose the following weighted sources of passive income based on 10k mthly at 65years: cpf (20%), blue chip stock dividends (50%), srs funds (15%), bonds (10%), unit trusts/funds (15%). Noted that payouts for these sources may not be monthly (DDA for cpf likely will not be 65 for my cohort either haha) as it's used more as a guide. Dont think i'll ever enter full retirement though; nothing to do to pass time!
*cld go on about industry allocation for blue chip stocks but that's another topic altogether :D

Regards,
Longtermplanning
*Wld like to stay anonymous so pls use the above pseudonym thx!

The original intention of the CPF is to help fund our retirement. The reader has shown how he is going to take full advantage of the CPF to do what it is supposed to do.

AK did CPF-OA to CPF-SA transfers for the first 4 years of his working life, providing the magic of compounding a bigger amount to start with. Compounding is magical given more time but it is even more impressive when given a larger amount to start with.

Having said this, all of us have different circumstances. Some might not be able to do OA to SA transfers because they need the OA money to pay their home loans. Some might not have spare cash to do Minimum Sum Top Ups to their SA or Voluntary Contributions to their MA.

Although I am not dogmatic about the CPF, it is reasonable to say that it is about finding what each of us can do to take advantage of the system. If we want it bad enough, we will find a way and usually it starts by being financially prudent.

Related posts:
1. A lot of money in my CPF-SA is...
2. Make CPF a part of your child's savings plan.
3. A lifetime income of more than $2K a month.
4. An annuity: Would you rather have it or not?
5. The best insurance to have in life.

SRS account, CPF account and rights issues.

I always avoid using money in my SRS or CPF accounts to buy stocks of companies which I think might need to do equity fund raising in future. 

So, no REITs or business trusts, for examples.




Here are a couple of conversations I had recently:

Reader #1...

this is the first time i'm writing, and I'm hoping you can spare a few minutes to share your knowledge and experience with me. 

i bought a counter through my CPF-IS long ago, and I have maxed out my CPF-IS. 

this counter has an on-going rights issue (190 for every 100 owned). 




i would like to sell the rights (as i don't have the "capacity" in my CPF-IS to buy the rights. 

assuming i owned 2000 shares, do i sell 2000 rights, or 3800 rights?

i tried asking my broker, but my broker doesnt seem to know the answer.

I know you have blogged about rights a number of occasions, so i figured you probably know better than most people. 

AK says...
I am not a licensed financial adviser or broker, so, take what I say with a pinch of salt. 

Disclaimer applies. ;)

First, find out if the rights are renounceable. 

If they are renounceable, then, you are allowed to sell the nil-paid rights given to you when they start trading.




If you are given 190 rights for 100 shares owned, if you owned 2,000 shares, you should be given 3,800 rights units (nil-paid) and that is what you can sell.

Oh, you might want to consider firing your broker. ;p

Reader #2...

Hope all is well.

Have been Following your blog silently for the past 5 years & invested quite a bit on reits. 

Thanks for the education.

Recently OUE Com Reit issued rights.
I bought some using SRS.

How do I subscribe to my entitled rights using my SRS?

If my SRS has no excess funds, what can I do?




AK says...
I only use my SRS money to buy stocks which I am pretty sure will not have rights issue precisely to avoid a situation like the one you have described.

If you do not have extra funds in your SRS account, then, you are caught in a difficult situation. 

You might want to call the bank your SRS account is maintained with and ask them for advice.




As an aside, in case there are people who are wondering why AK is not blogging as much as before, this is another recent conversation:

I need to learn how to break and blog. :)

Related post:
High yielding business trusts: A discussion.

Should a young person contribute to his CPF or SRS?

A conversation with a reader:

Hi AK,

As i browse through your blog, I realized that I do have another question. 

I am wondering if you would recommend individuals to open a SRS account to have tax relief first or to top up and ensure our CPF has met the mim sum first? 

Which option would be a long term wiser strategy to go for?

Regards,
C

My reply:

Hi C,

The CPF is always my first preference because it earns relatively attractive risk free returns of 2.5% to 5.0% per annum. 

For MS-Top Ups of up to $7K a year to the CPF-SA, we will enjoy income tax relief too. 

The downside is the minimum lock up period to age 55.





The SRS is called "Supplementary" for a good reason. 

If our income is higher and we would like to enjoy more income tax relief, the SRS is a good idea to help us save towards retirement adequacy.

There is some flexibility for early withdrawal with the SRS (but this comes with a penalty) while there isn't any such option with the CPF. 

The downside is that the interest rate for money in our SRS account is very low and we will have to think of investing for higher returns.

Best wishes,
AK

Reader's reply:

Hi AK,

Thanks for your prompt response. 

I now see the CPF as a better option first due to the interest of 5%. 

I am wondering that if currently I have not met the criteria of 20k for OA and 40K for SA before being able to utilize the funds for investment, should I still go ahead and top up my SA? 

(I am going to be 25 this year, and I have just started working for a year, so I do not have a lot of money in my cpf, but I am planning for the future first). 

If I top up my SA now, it's more for tax relief now. I am about 32k away from the min 40k right now, and if i contribute 7k yearly, it will be 5 more years at least before I can use the funds for investment. 

I am quite confused so to what's the best way for me now. 

Regards,

C

My reply:

Hi C,

I think you know what the CPF and SRS are for now and how they work.

The next thing you need to do is to be very clear about what you want to achieve. 

Then, act accordingly.

Take your time to make a decision you are comfortable with. 

There is no need to rush.  :)

Best wishes,
AK







Related posts:
1. Achieving Level 1 Financial Security.
2. Securing risk free returns early for retirement.
3. Retiring before 60 is not a dream.
"Spend less than you make; always be saving something. Put it into a tax-deferred account. Over time, it will begin to amount to something. This is such a no-brainer." Charlie Munger.

The name is Bond, Singapore Savings Bond (Part 2).

On 26 March, I blogged about the Singapore Savings Bond (SSB) and during last night's "Evening with AK and friends", we talked about it too.

I am of the opinion that the SSB's coupon is unlikely to be as high as the CPF-OA's base 2.5% interest rate although it has been said that the coupon will be linked to long term Singapore Government Securities' (SGS). If we look at the yields of the 10 years to 30 years SGS, they are above 2% to under 3%.

The SSB gives holders the flexibility of early termination without incurring penalties. Holders will not have to worry about price volatility if they were to sell their SSBs before maturity date. Bonds are supposed to be safer if held to maturity. With the SSB, there is no need to hold to maturity and will be equally safe. This is a big plus.

Of course, now, what is on our minds is what will be the yield?

During last evening's session, Azrael, a fellow blogger whom I got to know not too long ago shared that the yield might be between 0.375% to 1.75%. He blogged about it too. You might want to read his blog post: here.

Credit: Yune Ki.

We really have to wait for more details from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) closer to the date of the launch which has been scheduled for sometime in the second half of this year. Who knows? We could be pleasantly surprised with the yield. 2.5%? Dare I hope?

Although I really like this development, I feel that the banks will have reason to be worried. Of course, by extension, their shareholders should worry too. Interest income forms about 60% of their total income. The finance companies will have to worry too. Interest income forms about 80% of their total income.

These financial institutions' interest income will take a hit if their cost of funds should go up. Cost of funds will probably go up if they have to compete with the SSB for deposits. By this, I mean they will have to offer more competitive rates for their fixed deposits. Will they be able to charge borrowers correspondingly higher interest rates to maintain their NIMs? Well, whichever way we slice it, things will get a lot more competitive for them.

However, all is not gloom and doom because the MAS also said that there will be a cap as to how much SSB each person is allowed to buy. They said that they want a broader reach and I think, by that, they mean that the SSB is not to benefit the very rich but the masses. This is similar to the mission of the CPF. If the cap is rather modest, then, the impact on the banks and finance companies is likely to be minimal. A cap of $20,000 to $50,000 per person, perhaps?

A modest allowance of SSB per person will also mean that the institution that is the CPF remains relevant as a long term savings tool. The SSB could be like the SRS which is an additional tool to help us achieve retirement adequacy.

I do feel that the government will tread carefully so as not to make the CPF less relevant nor cause hardship for the local financial institutions (which will have unpleasant ramifications).

Let's wait and see.

Related posts:
1. The name is Bond, Singapore Savings Bond.
2. National Day Rally (2014): CPF and retirement.
3. SRS: A brief analysis.

Should I top up my CPF-SA, CPF-MA or SRS account?

This blog post is inspired by a comment by a reader, Lee Jiahui, who thinks that the "SA is last priority to throw cash at", preferring to top up "self SRS or parents or children's medisave account".

To read the full comment, please go to my FB wall.

Since I always say that we should beef up our CPF-SA and do it early, what is my response to this comment?

Well, in a nutshell, what a person does would depend on his objectives.

The purpose of the CPF-SA is to fund our retirement and cannot be used for other purposes unlike the CPF-OA which although is meant to fund our retirement ultimately can be used for myriad purposes.

Keep going.

Discounting the additional 1% for the first $40K, the CPF-SA pays a 4% per annum base rate which, if given time and a boost very early on, will result in almost magical results. 

The 8th wonder of the world, remember? 

This was what I thought almost 20 years ago when I first entered the workforce as a working adult. I decided to experiment with it and regular readers know the results today.

I also like the idea of having an SRS account and contributing to it to reduce total income tax payable. 

Topping up of the CPF-MA is also a good idea since it pays 4% per annum too and get "free" H&S insurance in the process. (See related post #5 at the end of this blog.)

We can also top up the CPF-MAs of loved ones to help pay for their H&S plans.

These are all financially prudent things to do but what we do ultimately depends on our objectives.



If our objective is to speed up the creation of a retirement nest egg in a risk free manner, then, doing CPF-OA to SA funds transfer very early on in life is something we can consider.

This was what I did.

Doing MS top up to our CPF-SA will also help and this comes with the added advantage of income tax relief (for up to $7K of top up per year).

However, not everyone will have the spare cash to do this, especially early on in our careers. I know because I was in the same shoes before.



There are many things we can do to help ensure that our personal finances are healthy.

However, there are so many areas to cover in personal finance and what we do or don't do now (beyond the basics) will depend on our objectives which would probably be prioritised differently for different people, depending on our own beliefs and circumstances.





Whatever the case may be, in a world like ours, we need to have a sound long term financial plan. 

Some are lucky to have their parents plan early for them. For most of us, we have to take on this responsibility ourselves and the earlier the better.

Source: CPF Board.
Always bear in mind that there are opportunity costs.
Always bear in mind that our home is a consumption item.

Map out a path but be on the lookout constantly for a better way to travel towards our destination. 

It will be hard in the beginning. It might even be demoralising. I know. 

However, if we keep doing the right things, it will get easier with time and we will be rewarded. Believe it.

Related posts:
1. Ten questions from an undergrad.

2. If we are not rich, don't act rich.

3. Save 100% of your take home pay.
4. SRS: A brief analysis.
5. How to get free medical insurance in Singapore?

How to have peace of mind as an investor?

Having peace of mind will help us to think clearly, not panic and make the best of market opportunities. 

Remember 5 words:

"Eat bread with ink slowly."

Yes, this is in keeping with AK blogging more about food these days but bread with ink? 

Yikes! Has AK gone nuts? 





Hey! Squid ink happens to be a delicacy. 

Don't you know?

Well, some of you might already have guessed it. 

AK is using mnemonics. 

It is something I used to do a lot of as a student to help remember long lists and facts. 

I also taught my students in the past to use mnemonics to help them remember things.

Eat bread with ink?!

OK, before I go off tangent again, what does each word stand for?

The letter "e" in "eat" stands for emergency fund. 

All of us should have an emergency fund. 

During good times, build an emergency fund. 

We do not know when we might need it. 

Having an emergency fund gives me peace of mind during good and bad times.




The letter "b" in "bread" stands for borrowed funds. 

Don't borrow money to invest.  

This does not only mean borrowing from institutions like banks and brokerages. 

It also means borrowing from friends and relatives.




In both "e" and "b", we don't want to be caught in a situation where we might have to liquidate our investments at times not of our own choosing. 

If the money is needed elsewhere or asked to be returned, we might end up liquidating at prices we would not have sold at otherwise.






The letter "w" in "with" stands for war chest. 

We must always have money put aside for opportunities. 

Remember that this is not just cash in our bank accounts but also money in our SRS account and CPF-OA. 

I explained how the CPF-OA money should be the last war chest we use because it earns 2.5% per annum in interest, risk free.






The letter "i" in "ink" doesn't stand for squid ink. 

It stands for income, specifically investing for income. 

I explained how all of us have to have earned income unless we are born with a spoon made of some precious metal in our mouth. 

If we invest for income, we would be able to benefit from a growing stream of dividends (i.e. passive income).




Investing for income is important in providing me with peace of mind because it is:

1. The best form of insurance, self insurance.

2. A fountain of wealth that fills my war chest.

3. A contributor to my improving financial resilience.




Finally, the letter "s" in "slowly". 

It stands for sizing. 

More specifically, position sizing. 

I explained before that if we lose sleep over an investment, then, very possibly, we have too much money in it. 

We might want to whittle the position to a size that will allow us to sleep better at night.




So, do you want to have peace of mind as an investor at any one time? You do?

Then, remember to eat bread with ink slowly.

Related posts:
1. Financial security: 5 points.
2. Making recovery from losses easier.
3. Investing for income and position sizing.