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.

Saving $384 on solar powered LED lights is $384 earned.

Ever since moving to my new place a few months ago, I have been thinking of buying a couple of solar powered LED lights for the outdoor space which doesn't have any lighting point in the ceiling. 

However, they are so expensive:
Two of these would have cost me at least S$438.00!

I thought of getting the components and assembling them but AK is no engineer. Then, I saw an advertisement by IKEA. 

They sell solar powered LEDs and, so, I made a visit.

I stuffed the LEDs into a transparent lunch box at first. It worked but it looked ugly. So, I bought lanterns from IKEA and stuffed the LEDs into these instead:

Absorbs light energy in the day.

The LEDs turn on automatically at night.

They look like so many fireflies in the lanterns!

They work well and they cost less than $27.00 per unit, lantern and all.

Nice and bright. I am so happy with these.

I saved quite a bit of money with this "bright" idea and that makes me happy too.

-----------
Almost one year later and still going strong.

New photos added on 23 June 2016:

---------------
I added another LED lantern in my planter recently as the pink color lantern was on sale at IKEA! So, I guess I saved a bit more than $192 this time. ;p

Photos added on 27 November 2016:

My planter is getting crowded. -.-"
----------------- 
Some older posts you might want to read:
1. Saving time, money and backside.
2. Why buy an atas mattress and a cheapo TV?
3. How I earned $9,216 with a mug?

For anyone who might be interested, the last two blog posts on my recent trip on the Super Star Gemini have been published. Total of 5 blog posts.
My travel blog: Travel Photos and Videos.

"Both CFL light bulbs (low energy light bulbs) and LED light bulbs offer substantial energy savings. LED bulbs offer the greater saving overall using less energy and lasting longer at 60,000 hours, however a greater initial investment is required. In addition alternative fittings may be required and at present they only provide directional lighting."
Source: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/lightbulbs.html

How did IREIT Global's rights issue turn out for AK?

I wasn't interested in IREIT Global's IPO but I was interested in IREIT Global as it owns freehold commercial properties in Germany and has big name tenants.

So, I have been keeping an eye on it, hoping to get in at a price that I thought would be able to deliver an attractive enough distribution yield that is more sustainable at the same time.




When IREIT Global planned a rights issue, I thought it was an opportunity to have a nibble. 

I came up with a strategy which I shared here in my blog on 3 July 2015.

The plan was to possibly secure a distribution yield greater than the 8% promised at IPO when units were offered at 88c a piece. 

The plan involved the application for excess rights to round up odd lots.

To read more about the strategy, please see related post at the end of this blog post.

A conversation with a reader a year ago.

Anyway, I bought 3,500 units from Mr. Market at a price of 81.5c per unit. The 45 for 100 rights issue meant that I would get 1,575 nil-paid rights. Subscribing for these rights units would give me a total of 3,500 + 1,575 units = 5,075 units.

If I were to apply for excess rights, I should be successful in rounding up odd lots. 

At that time, I thought I would be allotted enough excess rights to have a total of 6,000 units.

I would then get an average price of 67c per unit (i.e. $2,852.50 + $1,170 = $4,022.50/6,000). 

This would be just 1c higher than the 66c per unit I said would probably get us an 8% distribution yield, based on my estimates.

Well, I overlooked an important development. We are no longer in the days when 1 lot was made up of 1,000 units. 

For a while now, 1 lot is made up of only 100 units. What a mess!

So, theoretically, to round up my (now) odd lot of 75 units, I could be allotted only 25 excess rights to make a grand total of 5,100 units for me! 

That would really throw a spanner into the works as that would give me an average price of 70.6c per unit which is some 4.6c higher than 66c! 

It would mean an estimated distribution yield of only 7.48%!

Looking at the unit price of IREIT Global today which is 68c would have only made it worse.





Quite fortunately, this happened:

So, I was allotted 1,225 excess rights and I now have 6,300 units in total. Average price? 66.08c! This gets me much closer to 66c per unit which I estimated last month would probably mean an 8% distribution yield.

The Euro has strengthened against the S$ in the last month or so. It was 1 Euro to S$1.50 in early July and, today, it is 1 Euro to S$1.55. 

That is good news for me as it would help with delivering a higher distribution yield on my investment.




Everything else remaining equal, if IREIT Global's unit price should decline to 66c or lower, I could add to my investment in the REIT.

Related post:
IREIT: My strategy in its 45 for 100 rights issue.

Getting up to speed and a nice surprise!

I was away for a short holiday with my parents and I am now trying to get up to speed.

Lots of emails, comments and messages to reply to. I think most will know how it is like.

In case you are interested in what I did during my vacation, visit my travel blog: here. I will have more updates in the next day or two.

OK, as I was getting up to speed, I received a nice surprise.

See the following email dated 12 August 2015 from a reader. That's just yesterday:

Hey AK,

 

Will like to congratulate you on this first, know how much it means to you. Top 500 sites in Singapore, taken at 510pm.

 

You have done a great job in promoting financial literacy and educating Singaporeans. It is not easy to maintain a site and you have done it for 6 long years.  

 

Congrats AK!

And the attachment:

 

Yeah! And I wasn't even blogging in the last few days.

Thanks, everybody, for being so forgiving and for making me smile.

OK, I just checked. It seems like it was a touch and go. ASSI's rank is now 511 in Singapore.

Haha... ;p

Related post:
Why some might never be rich and why we soldier on?

Why some might never be rich and why we soldier on? (UPDATED)

I had a blog post published in December last year titled "Helping more people discover a path to financial freedom". 

Note that I did not say "the" path.

I want to highlight again that there are many paths we could take and it is never my way or the highway.





When I was chatting with a reader last night on FB, he shared with me the problem he has with convincing his elder brother to do something about his financial health. 

Apparently, his brother is doing very well in sales and enjoys a high income.

Now, when we are doing very well in anything, there is a chance we might feel invincible. 

That is a nice but dangerous feeling to have.





It is worth reminding the reader's elder brother that he might not always make so much money but when a person is doing so well, good advice could sound rather sour. 

They easily fall on deaf ears.

The elder brother doesn't necessarily have to invest his money, he just needs to be prudent and save more of his earned income. 

If he continues to enjoy good health and be very successful in his job, he might have so much money that he does not need to invest to grow his wealth. 

However, he must first listen and appreciate a couple of hard truths.





Here are 2 reasons why he might never be rich:

1. Spends money freely. 

Bought himself a brand new $300K car, for example. 

Having said this, he is not selfish. 

He has been very generous towards his family, showering them with expensive gifts on their birthdays (which makes the problem worse). 

I don't know what kind of housing he has.





2. Doesn't believe in having insurance. 

He says he has about $100K in savings at any one time and that it should be enough. 

There are two issues here really: not having insurance and an inadequate emergency fund. 

If he were to die, how long would that $100K last his parents. 

If he were to not die but were unable to work, how long would that $100K last him and his family. 

I shudder at the thought.





It is very clear to me that the reader's elder brother does not have a sound financial plan and he really doesn't understand why he could be setting himself up for trouble. 

Unfortunately, for many people, they would have to experience failure before they understand what they did wrong.

In "Helping more people discover a path to financial freedom", I said that I was sure readers were spreading the word about my blog. 

Quite a few readers have told me that to convince people to take ownership of their financial well being and to take action to improve on their financial health is harder than they think. 

Tell me about it.





Although I might not be blogging as much as before, I am spending more and more time online. 

It is probably unhealthy. 

So, I am going away on a short holiday with my parents and I wouldn't have any access to the internet for a few days. 

Also, I haven't gone on a holiday with my parents for about two years. 

They are quite excited about the trip.





Before I go, I will leave you with this thought for the long weekend:

Financial freedom is out there. 

Financial freedom is not a race. 

There are no losers at the end of the journey. 

It is not a competitive sport. 

At the end of the journey, everyone is a winner.





So, although it might not be an easy thing to do, look for friends to go on the journey together and keep putting one foot in front of the other. 

Soldier on! 

Now, this is an appropriate metaphor as we celebrate SG50!






Related posts:
1. Journey to financial freedom is not a race.

2. If we are not rich, don't act rich.
3. Survivability and opportunity. (Added in 2018.)

Did you miss some stuff AK shared on Facebook in July?

I don't blog as much as I used to but I am actually still quite active in Facebook.

As I started being active in Facebook pretty late as a blogger, I think many of ASSI's readers don't follow me on Facebook. They probably use other means to follow my blog. After all, I have been blogging for almost 6 years but I have been active in Facebook for only about 2 years.

So, from now, I think I will try to share periodically in my blog what I share on my Facebook wall. However, if you think you might get to read something profound, you would probably be disappointed.

The stuff which I post on my Facebook wall which don't appear in my blog are usually nothing cerebral. They are just stuff for fun and laughter most of the time.

See for yourself:

AK is honest, isn't he? ;p

Oh, a bonus pic, from a few days ago:

In case you didn't get the joke, read this:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/breadtalk-temporarily/2028008.html

BreadTalk on Tuesday (Aug 4) said it has “temporarily stopped selling” bottled soya bean milk touted to be "freshly prepared" after an employee was caught repackaging ready-made soya bean milk into plastic bottles. The move comes after a photograph published by alternative news site Redwire Times sparked a firestorm online. “This ‘freshly prepared’ soya bean milk from BreadTalk always tasted very familiar, but somehow I couldn’t figure out why until now...

Hope you enjoyed this light hearted blog post.

HAPPY SG50. :)

Related posts:
1. Seven money habits of mine. See habit no. 1.
2. How to recession proof your life?
3. Green is not just the colour of money.

NeraTel: 2Q2015 and an interim DPS of 2.5c.

In my last blog post on NeraTel, I cautioned against judging the business based on quarterly results because annualising any one quarter's results would not give an accurate picture of business performance. I made the remark based on what I remember the CEO said in an interview:

"In an interview that NeraTel's CEO, Samuel Ang, gave to The EDGE, some time ago, he said that it is important to remember that revenue recognition could be lumpy because NeraTel is generally a project based business." 

NeraTel has announced an interim dividend per share (DPS) of 2.5c on the back of rather encouraging results for 2Q 2015, quite different from the rather gloomy numbers in the preceding quarter.

Revenue for 1H2015 ($90.5m) improved some 7.2% over 1H2014 ($84.4m).

Although the numbers are encouraging, it is only fair to say that NeraTel is still faced with challenges which are forcing them to accept lower margins.

Note that gross profit margin reduced from 35.1% to 33.1%, although it is still above 30% which is pretty good for any business. At the end of the day, NeraTel is still a profitable business although profit after tax reduced 13.1% for the first 6 months of the year, year on year.

NeraTel has plenty of cash which is one of the reasons why it is attractive to income investors. This is also the reason why it is able to pay out 2.5c in interim DPS although its 1H2015 EPS is 1.93c, Part of the dividend payout is, therefore, a return of capital.

Many moons ago, I said that anyone who thought a yearly DPS of 6c for NeraTel was sustainable must have been on drugs. I said that a yearly DPS of 4c was more realistic.

To be quite prudent, however, for anyone who is interested in investing in NeraTel for income today, a DPS assumption of 3c or 3.5c per annum could be a better idea. In such an instance, based on a closing price of 67c a share, we are looking at a dividend yield of 4.48% to 5.22%.

NeraTel, with plenty of cash, low debt and a good track record, remains, for me, a relatively good investment for income. I am quite happy to be paid while I wait. Yes, my bet is on Mr. Samuel Ang bringing his years of experience to bear and delivering better results eventually.


Related posts:
1. NeraTel: Is 1Q2015 a sign of things to come?
2. NeraTel: What is a sustainable dividend payout?

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.

Is Keppel DC REIT an attractive investment for income?

I have been asked on various occasions what do I think of Keppel DC REIT and my usual reply was it was still something very new to me. 

I didn't know what to make of it but just looking at the prospective distribution yield was surely the wrong way to value the REIT although as income investors it would be the first thing that drew our attention.

In the latest copy of The EDGE, we would find a well written article on page 27 on Keppel DC REIT. The title is attention grabbing as it included the phrase "solid DPU growth". 

Read the article carefully and we would learn why data centre REITs are so different from other industrial property REITs.

I would draw attention to the following:

"For Keppel DC REIT, depreciable infrastructure accounts for approximately 70% of the development cost, with the building shell accounting for the remaining 30%."

This is an important bit of information, an eye opener, and it is just one line in a full page article. It could be quite easily missed or even dismissed.

Citadel 100. Land lease expiring in 2041.

Even for seasoned income investors in S-REITs, we would think industrial property REITs are just landlords. Buy or develop an industrial property and find a tenant or tenants. 

The tenants do their business while the REIT manages and maintains the property (if the building does not have a Master Tenant) and, of course, collects rent.

When we think of asset value, we think of the value of the buildings a REIT holds. We think mostly of brick and mortar. In the case of a data centre REIT, the asset value is not just the building but significantly the high tech infrastructure in the building. 

Of course, what the high tech infrastructure is exactly will remain Greek to me. I only need to know that it has to do with IT and it is very costly.

By now, most of us would have realised why listing the REIT at a premium to NAV was a very good deal for Keppel T&T. IPO price was 93c a unit while NAV was 86.6c a unit.

For those of us who still don't get it, remember why there is a preference for properties which are freehold instead of properties which are leasehold? It has to do with depreciation. 

Freehold properties (and Keppel DC REIT has 3 of them at IPO), theoretically, do not depreciate.

T25. Land lease expiring in 2021. Option to extend for 30 yrs.

However, if a data centre REIT should own a freehold property, it would also depreciate since "depreciable infrastructure accounts for approximately 70% of the development cost". 

To be able to sell a depreciating asset at a premium to valuation is a wonderful thing. It is like selling a used family car at a premium to market price.


Understanding Keppel DC REIT better now, we want to remember that as a REIT pays out most of its income to unit holders as dividends, it won't be wrong for us to question if the current income distribution from the REIT, all else remaining equal, is sustainable. 

After all, the high tech infrastructure has to be maintained regularly or even replaced periodically. Where is the money going to come from?


We could, of course, argue that because Keppel DC REIT's gearing, post latest acquisition, is 29.9% and, so, it has ample debt headroom to borrow more funds to maintain or replace ageing high tech infrastructure. 

However, if its NAV is formed mostly of depreciable assets, would gearing increase without any additional borrowings, given time? I am not IT savvy but I hear that IT infrastructure suffers from rapid obsolescence.


So, I went online and searched for the cost of maintaining and even replacing the high tech infrastructure in data centres. 

It seems that the costs are usually less than 10% of the revenue generated but in certain years the costs could spike. 

For anyone who is investing in Keppel DC REIT, this is something very important to bear in mind.

S25. Land lease expiring in 2025. Option to extend by 30 yrs.

With an estimated DPU of 7c, post latest acquisition, and a closing price of $1.095 a unit, we are looking at a distribution yield of 6.39%. I would argue that, realistically, this is not a sustainable distribution yield, all else remaining equal.


It might sound totally unrelated but it could be useful to bring up the case of HPH Trust which maintained a higher DPU than it should for a while by delaying much needed CAPEX. 

I believe that was a move to support its unit price and to keep investors happy. The Trust could not delay those CAPEX forever.


When we invest in any business or business trust that requires regular and relatively high CAPEX, we must be ready for it. 

If these entities should pay out all their income to investors as dividends, we must be realistic enough to understand that something must give.


I would demand a higher distribution yield, free of any financial engineering, before investing in Keppel DC REIT, if ever. How much higher? I have yet to decide.

Related posts:
1. The instant gratification of yield.
2. Overpaid for our investments in biz trusts?

Retirement funding for our parents: An idea.

My blog, ASSI, is very fortunate to have guest bloggers and some readers who are willing to share their very thoughtful ideas generously. Their thoughts have made the many discussions on diverse topics in ASSI more engaging.

Here, we have another example of what I am talking about:

Hi AK.

My parents are 66 yrs old this yr. Dad is still working. Likely to retire by 70. He prefer to work till 70 than staying at home. My parents belong to the earlier cpf minimum sum scheme. (Last for 20yrs only)


I am considering for them to join the cpf life. My parents saving is about $200k. Instead of keeping the cash in bank for their retirement usage, i am thinking of putting $200k into their RA.


Advantages:
1. They able to earn interest 4% per annual.
2. They able to get payout for life under the cpf life scheme.
3. Money is safe and will not lose to any scam cases.


I have also checked through the annuity plan by ntuc, aviva, tokio marine etc... they cannot match with cpf life. Of course there are other options such as buying stocks, reits, property etc... but not so suitable for retired folks.


Not seeking advise from you but like to hear second options if you have any. smile emoticon

You may like to post this in your blog so as to share it with other friends. smile emoticon

Cheers,AL

AL shared this with me in a chat on FB not too long ago and I very much agree that CPF Life is the best annuity plan there is out there.

However, it would depend on whether he is able to convince his parents to accept his plan. That could be the biggest obstacle to overcome, I suspect.

Related posts:
1. Securing risk free returns for our retirement.
2. Retirement: AK bought a AAA rated bond.
3. An annuity proposal: AK does a case study.
4. EcoHouse: Questions we must ask.
5. A banker's advice on retirement income strategy.