Mr Tan,I bought the annuity in 2002 with my CPF. At that time I have faith in the Company. Today if I wish to surrender, they will pay me $X ( after about 6.5yrs ) And if I were to continue with the annuity policy, I will get about $Y p.m.I have substantial savings and have not make any withdrawal from my CPF. I have been following the development and I do not expect INCOME to pay any attractive yearly bonus.I am not sure is it better off if I had not take up this annuity and leave this sum in my CPF retirement account which many of my colleagues had done. I am prepared to keep the sum in my CPF. I am still working and no financial problem. Pls advise whether I should surrender the policy..REPLYIt is better to terminate the annuity and put the money back into the CPF special account. The surrender value that you get now represents a return of 3.9% p.a. for the last 6.5 years. It is slightly lower than the 4% given by CPF on the special account, but the loss is slight and can be ignored. It is better to look forward and get (hopefully) a better return from the CPF in the future. All the best!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Get a better return from CPF retirement account
Hong Kong: Legislators to lift lid on minibond probe secrets
Legislators plan to defy the Hong Kong Monetary Authority by making public portions of an investigation report into the Lehman Brothers minibonds saga that the de facto central bank wants to keep confidential.
Raymond Ho Chung-tai, chairman of the subcommittee probing the minibonds saga, said legislators will use the confidential portions of the report for discussion at public hearings.
A source says the among details the HKMA wants to keep confidential is the finding that around 50 percent of the 238 complainants are people who traditionally have a lesser appetite for risk – the elderly and those who are not well educated.
The next subcommittee hearing on Tuesday is expected to be a fiery meeting because legislators are expected to make some of the confidential findings public in the presence of HKMA chief executive Joseph Yam Chi-kwong.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id= 13921&icid=1&d_str=20090424
Raymond Ho Chung-tai, chairman of the subcommittee probing the minibonds saga, said legislators will use the confidential portions of the report for discussion at public hearings.
A source says the among details the HKMA wants to keep confidential is the finding that around 50 percent of the 238 complainants are people who traditionally have a lesser appetite for risk – the elderly and those who are not well educated.
The next subcommittee hearing on Tuesday is expected to be a fiery meeting because legislators are expected to make some of the confidential findings public in the presence of HKMA chief executive Joseph Yam Chi-kwong.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/
A young person interested in politics
Hi Mr Tan,
I went tru the survery and read some of the comments in the post... just like to add:
I'm 27, just an average skilled worker, holding a diploma, getting 2k+ a monthly. Like most sg kids then, I have no interest in politics nor policies the white immortals came up with. I always thot: wats it gotta do with me? After all, I'm just another ordinary guy, interested in stuff like computers and have no interest in politics.
Fast forward 20 years and then we will realise: whats it gotta do with me? everything.
I have come to realise in recent years: Every scheme every policy every act, no matter how small affects us. It pains me to see how incompetent the current govt is. Its no joke whenever u seek help or answers, u are pushed into a chain of merry go rounds whereby each recipients declare someone else is responsible.
The media furthers this cause by dropping red herrings or changing the subjects to make govt related bodies look good.
Look at the recent Current affairs. Which agency or leader have ever declared "yes its our mistake. we will do watever we can to learn and not repeat" ?
Every single one starts by declaring "its not my fault. Everyone else is to blame" and then finds a scrapgoat, if not then its "everyone went in with their eyes open".
Whatever happened to govt is meant to serve the people, instead of the other way around now?
Its a sad state that singapore has fallen to, what has happen to inspirational leaders like the current Obama, hell, even the past LKY? Now they "fix oppositions and buy votes" if cannot? then declare "public order act" and use the army in case they lose. What is this? This is not the sg i knew when i was younger, or maybe i was so ignorant then.
The younger generations... they dont see these things. I never did then either, after all you cant blame them. What do pple care about in the teens? sports, bgrs, entertainment, games etc... Politics is 'boring stuff' for 'adults'. At least I used to think so.
If i were given a chance to get into politics now, i would snap at it, not becos of fame or fortune. I dislike fame, and I think i am already fortunate. The only reason to why I would want to get in, is only to be a voice of the oppressed and the repressed, to keep ministers in check or at the least, make them stay honest. I'm no noble man, being just a normal ordinary citizen, but I dislike injustice, and to think that I used to think such things dun usually happen in our sparkling clean Singapore.
Yet we STARE at it every single day, and still they want to whitewash every event and highlight their "achievements" and gloat about their paycheck. 6 times the POTUS paycheck? Where's 6 times the responsibility? All i see is 6 times the taichi, perhaps there is a correlation between higher pay and less responsibility after all. If not, how do people hold multiple directorships and run every inc at the same time? Somebody has got to keep them honest, and make them work for their paycheck.
I hope Singapore never experiences what Thailand is going tru... but I feel that like many people after they climb all the way to the top of the ivory tower, sometimes they need a good fall to be more down to earth. Bend a branch too much, eventually it will snap. Its a precarious balancing act those people are doing, how long before the "mortals" get sick and tired of being treated like idiots and being taken for a ride? For me, its probably too late to get my say into politics. If I knew then wat i knew now, i would have chose a much different path. The day President Ong stepped down was the day the govt 'won'. What we have left, is just a mascot doing the biddings of the mastermind.
A certain character from a action movie once told a "hero" in his fight against corruption: "you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villian".
For me, I waitng for a new dawn in singapore government. Failing which, I'm setting my sights on New Zealand. I heard the grass there is not only greener, but a lot less hectic.
(name deleted)
I went tru the survery and read some of the comments in the post... just like to add:
I'm 27, just an average skilled worker, holding a diploma, getting 2k+ a monthly. Like most sg kids then, I have no interest in politics nor policies the white immortals came up with. I always thot: wats it gotta do with me? After all, I'm just another ordinary guy, interested in stuff like computers and have no interest in politics.
Fast forward 20 years and then we will realise: whats it gotta do with me? everything.
I have come to realise in recent years: Every scheme every policy every act, no matter how small affects us. It pains me to see how incompetent the current govt is. Its no joke whenever u seek help or answers, u are pushed into a chain of merry go rounds whereby each recipients declare someone else is responsible.
The media furthers this cause by dropping red herrings or changing the subjects to make govt related bodies look good.
Look at the recent Current affairs. Which agency or leader have ever declared "yes its our mistake. we will do watever we can to learn and not repeat" ?
Every single one starts by declaring "its not my fault. Everyone else is to blame" and then finds a scrapgoat, if not then its "everyone went in with their eyes open".
Whatever happened to govt is meant to serve the people, instead of the other way around now?
Its a sad state that singapore has fallen to, what has happen to inspirational leaders like the current Obama, hell, even the past LKY? Now they "fix oppositions and buy votes" if cannot? then declare "public order act" and use the army in case they lose. What is this? This is not the sg i knew when i was younger, or maybe i was so ignorant then.
The younger generations... they dont see these things. I never did then either, after all you cant blame them. What do pple care about in the teens? sports, bgrs, entertainment, games etc... Politics is 'boring stuff' for 'adults'. At least I used to think so.
If i were given a chance to get into politics now, i would snap at it, not becos of fame or fortune. I dislike fame, and I think i am already fortunate. The only reason to why I would want to get in, is only to be a voice of the oppressed and the repressed, to keep ministers in check or at the least, make them stay honest. I'm no noble man, being just a normal ordinary citizen, but I dislike injustice, and to think that I used to think such things dun usually happen in our sparkling clean Singapore.
Yet we STARE at it every single day, and still they want to whitewash every event and highlight their "achievements" and gloat about their paycheck. 6 times the POTUS paycheck? Where's 6 times the responsibility? All i see is 6 times the taichi, perhaps there is a correlation between higher pay and less responsibility after all. If not, how do people hold multiple directorships and run every inc at the same time? Somebody has got to keep them honest, and make them work for their paycheck.
I hope Singapore never experiences what Thailand is going tru... but I feel that like many people after they climb all the way to the top of the ivory tower, sometimes they need a good fall to be more down to earth. Bend a branch too much, eventually it will snap. Its a precarious balancing act those people are doing, how long before the "mortals" get sick and tired of being treated like idiots and being taken for a ride? For me, its probably too late to get my say into politics. If I knew then wat i knew now, i would have chose a much different path. The day President Ong stepped down was the day the govt 'won'. What we have left, is just a mascot doing the biddings of the mastermind.
A certain character from a action movie once told a "hero" in his fight against corruption: "you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villian".
For me, I waitng for a new dawn in singapore government. Failing which, I'm setting my sights on New Zealand. I heard the grass there is not only greener, but a lot less hectic.
(name deleted)
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