Retirement Planning

[mummy1234]

Congrats Mummy1234! After the funds from the sale of the MM unit is used to redeem the 3BR condo loan, there’s a lawyer fee of $400-$500 to get the documentation back from the bank, trust me, that will be the happiest cheque writing experience you’ll ever have! So happy for you

For many of us, property & cars are the biggest-ticket items in our lives. YOLO-ing in either one will set our retirement back by many years.

The other 2 things that would de-rail retirement plans are:
1) Children’s education, not all are smart enough to get into local U, need to save early in case (U also mentioned).
2) Medical bills if inadequately insured.

Hi TS,
Please also note these 2 points should you choose to still get the property:
1) Have an emergency fund of 3-6 months stashed away. (57.5K if 3 months) in case Mr Murphy look for us.
2) Adequate insurance for the portion of the housing loan for yourself as well as your wife as both will be contributing to the repayments.

True, cars are really expensive luxury items to own but it makes us feel good and happy to own one. Anyway, hubby needs it for his job.
Hopefully, things will go smoothly for us in our work and children will study hard.
Still an uphill task getting them to study. Real headache for me.
The S$4-500 cheque u mentioned is for what? To get our title deeds back? According to lawyer, I think title deed is safe kept by SLA on our behalf in case we lose it as many have lost it.

 

[ELKYme]

Let me go back and check my file as to what this $400-$500 is exactly for. I didn’t really read it. When I did my redemption, the bank gave me a list of afew lawyers to contact to have this done.

Will revert.

True, cars are really expensive luxury items to own but it makes us feel good and happy to own one. Anyway, hubby needs it for his job.
Hopefully, things will go smoothly for us in our work and children will study hard.
Still an uphill task getting them to study. Real headache for me.
The S$4-500 cheque u mentioned is for what? To get our title deeds back? According to lawyer, I think title deed is safe kept by SLA on our behalf in case we lose it as many have lost it.

 

[ELKYme]

Hi Mummy1234,

The fee is to “discharge the bank’s interest in my property”.
If I had NOT made this payment within within 2 months, they wanted to charge me extra for the safekeeping of the title deed.

No wonder all the banks have tall buildings and rich CEOs....and we’re here discussing the best way to plan for retirement because of limited funds.

Really makes me relate to proverbs 22:7:
“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender”.

 

[mummy1234]

Hi Mummy1234,

The fee is to “discharge the bank’s interest in my property”.
If I had NOT made this payment within within 2 months, they wanted to charge me extra for the safekeeping of the title deed.

No wonder all the banks have tall buildings and rich CEOs....and we’re here discussing the best way to plan for retirement because of limited funds.

Really makes me relate to proverbs 22:7:
“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender”.

Hmm, will leave it to my hubby to negotiate with the bank. He is best at that.

 

[JuniorLion]

One wonders why mummy1234 goes to every thread and turns it into her own. This thread is never about her.

 

[BuiBuiZai]

Short-term wise, not really. But if your investment horizon is ~20 years, it has a very good chance of beating the 2%.

IWDA/EIMI/VWRD long term yield just slightly higher than 2%???

 

[BuiBuiZai]

Currently property is quite peakish, there is a higher chance of the market just plateauing or going downwards as oppose to upwards given rising interest rate environment and various other sentiments.

En Bloc parties as you say for those who really huat would opt for landed (i.e sold 5 - 6M types), those who sold for 2 - 3M would be abit more conservative and prob look to buy two properties.

Not saying its a bad investment but buying property can also look something more value for money i.e older developments that are 999 leasehold/freehold
this way even market takes a hit you won't be too badly hit and you don't have to be overtly concern of the depreciation in 20 years on a 99 year prop.

Statistics provided by property agents shows that leasehold has higher upside than freehold for the last 10~20 years. This is the reason why i don't mind going for a 99 years leasehold.

 

[BuiBuiZai]

I fully agree with ELKYme view, although property to majority people will be see it as appreciate investment item, but it is not if you are long stay in the house. And you will be very stressful if you need to fork out that large sum of money through hard earn and saving. You will have long sleepless night if market crash in short term and property might under water and there is a chance you need to top up(bear in mind). If I am you, I would rather design alternative retirement plan, which you have sufficient large capital to starts with.

Yes, you do have a point. For someone like me who has no shares/bonds portfolio, i was originally thinking that a property investment is better than no investment since it should at least keep in pace with inflation and so peace of mind in term of capital preservation.

 

[BuiBuiZai]

TS, if u wanna buy, buy a freehold or 999 private. It stores value and will capital appreciate better than a 99 year old condo.

But don't sell yr HDB. Rent it out and use its rental to help pay for yr private house.

Cause once u sell yr HDB you cannot buy back unless you sell yr private. So don't sell yr HDB. That is what I feel you should do but of course, discuss with yr family members better.

Sad to say this is not really a viable option for me.

1. The ABSB alone is about 200k+/- which will take my rental HDB 10 years to breakeven and this amount is cash up front prior to be able to considered as offsetting the condo monthly mortages

2. This has even more implication if i were to go for decoupling and so another property down the road

3. Based on what agents shown me, 99 years leasehold might not really lose out in terms of capital appreciate (if any) as compared to a freehold in 10 to 20 years time horizon

 

[BuiBuiZai]

Saw your question over at BBC’s thread, good for you, diversified ETFs is the way to go...got to be patient, didn’t see BBC around here the whole day.

The reason why I personally don’t think the condo is a good idea at this point is because:
1) It is not financially possible to make it as a 2nd property investment (about 600K cash upfront needed to make it as a 2nd home).

2) Selling your current home in order to buy this 1.5 million condo and make it home is the only option.
Though you may be able to fulfil both the upfront costs as well as the monthly instalments, I do not like this idea because:

1) Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t count my home as a “financial investment” like shares or bonds. Would rather plan my retirement where I can continue to stay put and still have adequate finances to retire with.
2) As this condo would make up a sizeable part of your retirement plan, it doesn’t give you the flexibility to retire if the housing market at the point you desire to retire isn’t favourable for you to sell and downgrade.
3) Likely you & your wife will not be transferring funds in OA to SA anytime soon if you were to proceed.

Understood, will take into consideration what you mentioned.

 

[mummy1234]

Sad to say this is not really a viable option for me.

1. The ABSB alone is about 200k+/- which will take my rental HDB 10 years to breakeven and this amount is cash up front prior to be able to considered as offsetting the condo monthly mortages

2. This has even more implication if i were to go for decoupling and so another property down the road

3. Based on what agents shown me, 99 years leasehold might not really lose out in terms of capital appreciate (if any) as compared to a freehold in 10 to 20 years time horizon

Why don't u decouple now? Put HDB under wife's name and u buy the condo under yr name? Then no absd right?

 

[BuiBuiZai]

Why don't u decouple now? Put HDB under wife's name and u buy the condo under yr name? Then no absd right?

Govt no longer allow decoupling for HDB since Apr 2016, you may google more on this

 

[Knight_Rider]

IWDA/EIMI/VWRD long term yield just slightly higher than 2%???

Dun think you are ready for EIMI. You dun know what you are getting into. Stick with the more common VUSD. The fx risk is enough for you to handle. Unless you are more experienced EM is not for you.

 

[ELKYme]

Because “decoupling” is not allowed for HDB.
Decoupling (or as HDB terms it, resale part-share) is not allowed for married couple.

https://propertynet.sg/decoupling-reduce-avoid-absd/

I’m not a fan of this “hack” at all. Me & the missus we luv each other explicitly, but...

What IF in the future one of the kids convince her or me to will 100% of the property to him/her?
You may say it’ll never happen, what IF me or her is afflicted with dimentia at that point and not able to make logical decisions??
Is it worth doing “decoupling”???

Why don't u decouple now? Put HDB under wife's name and u buy the condo under yr name? Then no absd right?

 

[limster]

Dun think you are ready for EIMI. You dun know what you are getting into. Stick with the more common VUSD. The fx risk is enough for you to handle. Unless you are more experienced EM is not for you.

Just buy VWRD. Then don't need to worry about when China or other EM country will move from EIMI to IWDA.

 

[mummy1234]

Because “decoupling” is not allowed for HDB.
Decoupling (or as HDB terms it, resale part-share) is not allowed for married couple.

https://propertynet.sg/decoupling-reduce-avoid-absd/

I’m not a fan of this “hack” at all. Me & the missus we luv each other explicitly, but...

What IF in the future one of the kids convince her or me to will 100% of the property to him/her?
You may say it’ll never happen, what IF me or her is afflicted with dimentia at that point and not able to make logical decisions??
Is it worth doing “decoupling”???

Actually, I also don't like. So all our properties r 50-50. But I know many people do it.

 

[ELKYme]

Sista,

Age has a way of messing up our brains.
As a practising Doctor, I’m sure you can see THAT in some of your aged patients....how dependent some old folks are to their caregivers.
Can you imagine that patient having done “decoupling” and what would happen if that caregiver was actually 1 of the 3 kids he has and that offspring is actually a scheming rascal?

Another example where someone tried to take advantage of a old lady with dementia:
https://www.google.com.sg/amp/s/sg....s/rich-widow-bungalow-yang-yin-163748362.html

Actually, I also don't like. So all our properties r 50-50. But I know many people do it.

 

[ELKYme]

TS,
First off, my apologies to go off-topic.

As we are discussing about old age and what MAY happen if we are afflicted with diseases associated with old age, maybe it’s a good idea to do a LPA first.

Our gov. is in the process of making it possible to have this done online soon:
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...y-plan-for-online-application-system-welcomed

 

[K|muRa^84]

i'm surprised ervino isn't here yet

 

[BuiBuiZai]

TS,
First off, my apologies to go off-topic.

As we are discussing about old age and what MAY happen if we are afflicted with diseases associated with old age, maybe it’s a good idea to do a LPA first.

Our gov. is in the process of making it possible to have this done online soon:
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...y-plan-for-online-application-system-welcomed

Gd suggestion!!!