Archive for March, 2010
The choice is yours: CPF
Posted by: admin in General, Insurance, Unit Trust on March 29th, 2010
SINGAPORE : Should the CPF Investment Scheme be stopped so that members will not risk losing their retirement nest egg?
Yes, thinks a resident who claimed that he had lost some $350,000 in his CPF account after investing in shares under CPFIS.
The Lengkong Tiga resident, who identified himself as Mr Goh, said during the ministerial dialogue on Sunday that he only got back $35,000 eventually but did not say if these were the gains from the investments or the amount he could withdraw from his Ordinary Account (OA) on top of the Minimum Sum.
He also did not say how he lost the sum and whether the investments spanned a few years.
MediaCorp understands that members can only invest up to 35 per cent of their money in their OA in shares.
Mr Goh said he had suggested to the CPF Board to stop allowing members to invest in shares but staff had replied that it was his personal choice to make the investments.
Second Minister for Finance Lim Hwee Hua said she agreed with the CPF Board’s stance, adding that there had been “a lot of demand” for the Government to allow members to invest their CPF money before the CPFIS was introduced.
She quipped: “I’ll convey your feedback to the CPF Board but I’m not quite sure the rest will agree that we should stop the scheme.”
The latest performance numbers of funds under the CPFIS released earlier this month pointed to a solid year.
According to Lipper, the funds tracking company under the CPF Board’s guidelines, the average return of CPFIS—included funds, unit trusts and investment—linked insurance products (ILPs) rose 38.62 per cent last year compared with the same period a year ago. — TODAY
HDB new set of rules in short..
Posted by: admin in General, Real Estate on March 8th, 2010
These 2 months we will see a lot of new rules implementing to reduce excessive speculation and exuberance in the property scene.
In a nutshell the changes are:
- HDB allow buyers to take a 2nd concessionary loan from HDB even if they downsize to a smaller flat or move to a flat of the same size. Previously, only upgraders qualified for a second concessionary loan. However the sales proceeds from the sale of a flat, seller can only keep the greater of $25,000 or half of the cash proceeds. The remaining cash and CPF balance has to be used to finance the purchase of the next flat if they take up a HDB concessionary loan.
- MOP increased to three years for all flats bought in the resale market. Currently, the MOP is 2.5 years for buyers who choose to take up an HDB concessionary loan and just 1 year for buyers who either take a commercial bank loan or do not take any loan.
- 3,800 more elderly lessees will now benefit from its lease buyback scheme which has been revised. The scheme allows the elderly to monetise their flats by selling the tail end of the flat’s lease back to HDB.
- HDB will withhold $10,000 of the subsidies for a household made up of 1 Singapore Citizen + 1 PR when they buy a HDB flat. Once the PR converts to citizenship, or when the couple has a Singapore citizen child, the Board will return the withheld subsidy.
- A quota cap for PR households of 8 per cent in each block and 5 per cent within each neighbourhood.
- It will be applied on top of the ethnic integration policy (EIP) but will not apply to Malaysian PRs.
- EIP for Indian/Others limit was raised from 10 per cent and 13 per cent at the neighbourhood and block levels to 12 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.