Nominated to be CPF's ambassador?

Reader says...
I wanted to let you know how inspirational your blog has been. 

I have been a quiet reader of your articles and have learnt so much from you regarding the benefits of using CPF as a cornerstone of my investment portfolio.





I was recently called by CPF to share my experiences as a regular user of CPF top up and the mobile app. 

The officers were very impressed at how savvy I was in using the top up schemes for myself and loved ones like my spouse and parents. 





I shared my own experience of topping up Medisave and repaying my OA monies used for down payment.

I credited all of this to your blog and recommended that they should contact you for a chat and be their ambassador. 





Don’t be surprised if you get a call from them! 

Oh, and I got a $20 NTUC voucher from them too!

I hope this serves as another motivation for you to keep talking to yourself.

AK says...
Ooh. $20 voucher? I like the sound of that. Haha.

I am very happy for you and for all Singaporeans making full use of their CPF membership to help ensure retirement funding adequacy.

I will wait to see if CPF Board gives me a call.

$20 voucher wor. ;p

Gambatte!




Published yesterday:
Why should AK care about your CPF?
Related post:
Make CPF a cornerstone in retirement funding!

Why should AK care about your CPF savings?

Reader says...
My colleagues have the thinking that they probably won't have chance to take out their CPF money as the govt keep shifting the goalpost.

Hence, since "cannot" take out, might as well use the money to buy another property or upgrade their property.

They don't want to do OA to SA transfer because it means even more no chance take out.

But I say can earn 4% hor.

They don listen. Hmmm...

AK says...
Like with anything in life, what we believe will determine what we do with our CPF savings.

What I have done in my blog is simply sharing my beliefs and the results which acting on my beliefs have achieved.







Some people share my beliefs and some people don't.

This is life and only natural.

We can bring a horse to water but we cannot make the horse drink the water.






If all else fails, I know I would still have the ultimate safety net which is my CPF savings.

Before using our CPF savings, we should ask if the cost and risk (if any) is worth taking.

I am feeling somewhat tired today and that is all I will say. 🙂






Please read related posts below:
1. We do better managing our CPF?
2. What to do if we don't trust the CPF?

Questions from an investor on HDB and CPF.

Reader says...
I have been following your blog for a few years and am grateful for the nuggets of wisdom that you post on your blog.

I bought a resale HDB flat that is of the same age as me and by the time I fulfill the 5 years MOP, the remaining lease would be 59 years.








In other words, I understand that there would be certain restrictions on the use of CPF for potential buyers of my flat.

(See:
Older HDB flats with remaining lease of less than 60 years are problematic.)








However, I am not intending to sell the flat as I think the lease is sufficient and the flat is big enough.

To pay for the flat, I took up a bank loan with 2 years fixed interest of 1.58% and am currently using my CPF OA to pay my monthly mortgage.






I am thinking since I don't intend to sell the flat, I might as well not repay the accrued interest and continue using CPF OA to pay the monthly mortgage. 

I could use the extra cash to do my own investments.






However, I also wonder if I should use cash to pay the monthly mortgage so that my CPF OA can grow and government can pay me 2.5% interest?

I hope you could shed some light on what would be the best way forward. 

Thank you very much 😊

AK says...
I will try to focus on what is important here if I were in your shoes.

Feel free to ignore me.

I wouldn't use my CPF OA money to pay a loan that attracts 1.58% interest.

I have lost 1% interest right away.








I would use cash to pay the loan.

Even if you do not intend to sell the flat and would not need to repay the accrued interest, it still doesn't make sense to lose that risk free interest.

This is especially if you believe that having an investment grade bond in your investment portfolio is important.






AK does well enough as an investor but he is not a very good investor.

AK needs some certainty in retirement funding and risk free, volatility free CPF helps him to sleep better at night.

If you are a very good investor, please ignore this blog. ;p







Related post:
Free money from the government is good.

"My parents are my ATM."

Reader says...
Hahaha, AK, I actually really like how you refer kids as consumption or hobby items.

Really turned on a light bulb for me.

Looking back, my kids have indeed been an expensive (underestimated the costs!) but enjoyable hobby for me.






A lot more fun when they were younger... less fun as they get bigger and sad thing is one day this hobby will have to end for me.

Though expensive, but finite, guess I just have to enjoy it as much as I can now and think of way to optimize my expenses on this hobby! :)






AK says...
I like to think that for most people this "hobby" has a finite life as a money sink.

Unfortunately, for some, this "hobby" is a money pit, a bottomless pit that lasts a lifetime.

The horror!

Choy!

Bad AK! Bad AK!






For sure, we always hope for the best in everything we do.

However, having high expectations (i.e. being overly optimistic) could set us up for disappointment.

"Mr Tan retired with a sizeable nest egg. But soon, his children started borrowing money. Money that was never returned."

Watch the video:





Related posts:
1. Regrets helping son buy condo.
2. Attitude towards having children.