Longevity should be a blessing and not a curse.

"One in two Singaporeans aged 65 today is expected to live beyond 85, and one in three will live beyond 90.

"Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers to look into whether changes are needed on the retirement age of 62 and re-employment age of up to 67, and if so, when they should be made.

"It will also relook the impact of Central Provident Fund contribution rates on retirement adequacy of older workers."

Read full article: HERE.

Reader says...
"I know one person in Singapore who could not care less about this review. LOL."

Who? Who?

What I want to draw fellow Singaporeans to is the first line of this blog.

What? You speed reading and missed it?

Go see the numbers again.

And what is also important to note is the word "today".

People are living longer and 10 years from now, people aged 65 would probably be living even longer.

Making sure that we have enough to fund our retirement and that we won't be a burden to our family and society at large is a serious matter.





There are still many people who are of the Y.O.L.O. mentality.

"I can afford the Y.O.L.O. lifestyle lah.

"What is your problem, AK?"

Ask yourself if you can afford the lifestyle now AND in the future.





If your future is secure too, then, go ahead.

You shouldn't let AK the miser stop you!

What? You didn't think about the future?

Cham liao lah like that.

Don't play play.





As we live longer, we need to have even more certainty when it comes to funding our golden years because there will be many more of those years to fund.

All of us know that there are those who think that CPF Life is just another way the government is stealing our money.

Regular readers know what AK would say.






1. A lot of the money in my CPF is actually from the government.

See:
A lot of money in my CPF-SA.

2. If you should ever be blessed with longevity and chances are more than 50/50 that you would be, you would be more than happy you had an annuity like CPF Life which pays you a monthly income for as long as you live.

See:
CPF Life Payout Estimator,






Unless we are born with a spoon made of some precious metal in our mouth, when legitimate help is offered, we should take it.

Make longevity a blessing, not a curse.

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY!

See: CPF grew $200K in 3 years!





Related post:
1. How much money can you save?
2. Are we worried about retirement adequacy the right way?

Give up Singapore citizenship to unlock CPF savings!

Aiyoh, why so many rumors?

If we have questions about the CPF, who should we ask?

Don't ask me.

I blur.






Reader says...
Hi AK, recently I chatted with one of my colleagues and he feels that the govt just keep raising the minimum sum and CPF life drawdown age. 

Apparently there is rumour that the CPF life drawdown age will be increase from 65 to 67. 

He is even thinking of migrating to Canada so that we can withdraw his CPF money.

AK says...
Rumour is a rumour. Haha

Good luck to him in Canada. 😉

Reader says...
Actually this is just to let you know how people are feeling about CPF. 

Like forever cannot touch

AK says...
These people will likely forever have not much CPF to touch 😜

Tell your colleague that the CPF Life automatically pays out at age 70 if we do not opt for earlier pay out date.

Hope that doesn't freak him out. 😛


Reader says...
Aiyoh u so bad!





Ya lor. I also say.

Bad AK! Bad AK!

I know Singaporeans who are very dissatisfied with Singapore and everything to do with our country.

They are always complaining about things in Singapore like there is nothing good about our country.

Why not try to make the system work for us instead of thinking that the system is against us?

Could it be that we are against the system instead?

We don't know we had something good until we have lost it.

It is too late then.





Related post:
Government confiscates CPF-MA money when we die!

Survivability and opportunity in times of distress. ("E-book")

Be warned.

This blog could be considered heavy reading, especially on a weekend.

From time to time, I still read or hear people say that an emergency fund is really over rated and that there is no need to have one.

Of course, regular readers know that I disagree with this and that I even have an emergency fund that does not only cover 24 months of my own expenses but my parents' as well (and then some).

Bad things do happen in life and that is what insurance is for but if we buy insurance for all the things we could possibly think of that could go wrong in life, we could go broke.

Yes, buying insurance for everything that could go wrong in life is wrong and I have blogged about this before too.

See Chapter 1:
How insurance weakened a family?






Then, there are those investors who have an emergency fund but do not believe in having a war chest, preferring to stay almost 100% invested all the time.

To me, there are times to be 100% invested but, most of the time, it probably isn't a good idea.

There are many reasons why and one is that those who do not have a war chest might be tempted to use their emergency fund, if they have one, to invest with if Mr. Market goes into a depression.

No! No! A thousand times, no!

I have said before that we should not invest with money we have earmarked for other purposes.

We do not want to be caught in a situation where we have to sell at whatever price Mr. Market offers because we have no choice.

See Chapter 2:
This way to $50K passive income?





Yes, it can happen.

Remember, if Mr. Market goes into a depression, possibly, it is because the real economy is in a bad shape and we might lose the job we depend on to bring home the bacon.

Of course, if you are born with a spoon made of some precious metal in your mouth, please ignore this blog.

See Chapter 3:
My family almost went bankrupt.






The no emergency fund and no war chest camp sometimes say that the option to borrow money is always available.

Of course, regular readers know that I think it is a bad idea to think like this.

The Global Financial Crisis happened 10 years ago but human beings have a short memory.

Still, some of us might remember how difficult it was to borrow money then.

Don't put ourselves in a situation where we have to borrow money.

It is not a good place to be.

See Chapter 4:
Compared to anger, shame is a thousand times worse!

So, is debt a bad thing?

No, that is not what I am saying.

I am saying that depending too much on debt is a bad thing.

Debt is really just a tool.

If we think about it, it is just a tool that magnifies our financial decisions.

If we make good decisions, they will look better with debt.

If we make bad decisions, they will look worse with debt.

See Chapter 5:
Gear up and receive more income?






Debt cuts both ways but it is just a tool.

The danger always lies in human behavior and their feeling of invincibility.

If we keep using debt, we might get drunk on debt and history has shown this to be the case.

Overly dependent on debt, people over extended themselves.

Overly leveraged, when things did not go as planned, they could not repay their debt sufficiently and went bankrupt.

See Chapter 6:
When are we over leveraged?







So, I did not mention the Global Financial Crisis just for fun.

It should be remembered and be used to stress test our finances as the worst possible financial storm that could hit us.

Without an emergency fund and a war chest but, instead, have quite a bit of debt, could we survive or do better in another Global Financial Crisis?

It doesn't matter if we have good or bad debt, debt is debt and this question should be in our base plan.

Do you believe that good debt can go bad quite quickly during hard times?

See Chapter 7:
Don't think and grow rich!







Yes, it is true that there is an opportunity cost in holding an emergency fund and a war chest.

However, having these will improve our survivability and let us capitalise on opportunities in times of distress.

They are self insurance policies.

Opportunity cost?

It really is a small price to pay.

Of course, I have blogged about how having a steady stream of passive income is self insurance too but that is another topic.

See Chapter 8:
Best insurance in life.







No emergency fund and no war chest?

You could be doing yourself a big disservice.

See Epilogue:
How much should you have in an emergency fund?

What is worse than growing old and destitute?

I have blogged about my fear of growing old and destitute many times before.

Indeed, it is this fear that helps shape the person that is AK and not just in terms of money matters.

However, what is worse than growing old and destitute?

Today, I had a chat with a fellow blogger:

FB:
Oh .. I wanted to ask a qn

Suddenly figure out the answwr

Hahahahaha sorry

AK:
LOL





FB:
Was wondering when I buy using CPF, SRS and cash

When I sell, how they know which to sell?

AK:
:o

FB:
Then I realised I put the option

Ya I know I getting stupid hahahahaha

AK:
no lah... growing older is liddat

dementia

cham liao





FB:
I still young at heart

Just old at the mind

How are u getting on

AK:
I am growing old and forgetful like u 😛

FB:
hope to catch u and others at your evening. 

I live by the day,hopefully tickets still available

AK:
I think u missed this blog:

https://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.com/2018/08/evening-with-ak-and-friends-2018-update.html






Alamak!

So, what is worse than growing old and destitute?

Possibly, being rich and suffering from dementia!

Hey, it might sound funny to some of you but I am serious hor.

OK, at least half serious.





Remember the real story of the rich old lady who was cheated of her money by some tour guide?

At least in that case, her daughter found out and took action.

Or was it her grand-daughter?

Oh, no! I cannot remember.

Anyway, how many similar cases go unnoticed or unreported?





So, what is worse than growing old and destitute?

Maybe it is not being rich and suffering from dementia.

Maybe it is from being rich and suffering from dementia to being old and destitute!

The horror!






Happy Saturday!

Related post (maybe):
CPF is all we need unless we are very rich.