My HDB, my CPF, our agony.

In the early years, I had my HDB flat, I was so proud of our HDB, housing so many people, and give much privacy compared to living in the kampong. Prior to my HDB, I was so happy with my CPF accumulation. Without which, I may not have my HDB. Well, much credit must be given to the initial golden rules of CPF and HDB, to save for the retirement and to house us.

Today, I still lived in the same HDB flat which I owned, I have CPF asset of my own. But I cannot sell my HDB flat, which our grand old man told us it is an asset. If I sold it, then I do not even have a roof over my head. Neither can I take out my CPF locked in the CPF safe. I do not know where the money went to that cannot be returned to me. Theoretically I am god dammed rich. Practically I am man dammed bloody poor.

How can a person be rich, yet poor? Funny hor? Well this is the Singapore way of life in my personal opinion. For most of us in our age group we felt cheated. When we started work in the mid 70’s, we were very hard working, we have nothing to dream of except to work hard and enjoy an aged pension, from our own CPF. All CPF saving was promised to be withdrawn when we hit 55, except the special account (coffin cost). Soon, the authourities found that many of us will be millionaire, which may turn lazy, so they proposed a delay in CPF withdrawal. As times goes, this still does not work out, so In order not to make the same mistake, the HDB flat cost kept raising, at the rate of at least 12% per year for many years. So, now your CPF goes into buying flats.

Talking about HDB, if we did not work hard, will we have one? So it was not just HDB who can only get the credit, we too. It was claimed to be an asset for us by the highest official of my country. If such is the case, I will be extremely well off. My shoes, watch, pants, underwear are all assets too. So one day if I am broke, I can easily sell away my pants then underwear too. I think my HDB value is a sunken cost for as long as me and my wife is alive, after that it can be an asset to my children.

Talking about HDB, I wonder how much rental it collected per month. I was thinking if Sands and MBS pay rental of $4-$6 billion per year. Or did DBS, POSB pay a few hundred million, maybe $800 million rental per years. For the matter like Macdonald or Starbucks. Why I said that. If we look at a hawker at each coffee shop pays $5K-$7K per month for the 10 by 6 feet cubicle and make $2-$3K per month profit, then theoritically other businesses can or should pay such rental, income tax excluded. So, please wonder, why our food are so expensive. Remember, HDB does not do much thing but each bowl or food, at least 50 cents will go to HDB. You can continue to up the productivity, just to feed the HDB rental regimes. Is our governmental structure too over weight to cost that much? Please start to worry for our future cost.

Now, about our CPF. For the past two years, the minimum sum for withdrawal had been raised to $139K. this means $8000 per year. I could not care less, first I am old and second, I gave up. If there is reversal needed, it will take another election, so I cannot wait. How about our children? Take our children for example. Assuming he or she is now 28 years old, graduated ( a lucky one) for a decent polytechnic, with a dip that can find a decent job. He came into the job market at $2000 per month 3 years ago. Assume that the overall CPF is 40%, then his CPF by now will be $31200. This means his CPF grew by $10400 per year. Lets say he is above average than normal, with wage increase and a little promotion ( I dare not think of the normal person), plus interest from CPF, which sums to average constant 7% increases. By the year 2050, when he becomes 65 years old to be able to withdraw his CPF ( unless laws are changed again) , he will have collected another $1.271K, which will equal to $1.58 million.

Oh, he will have to buy a four room flat from our beloved HDB at may be $400K, with a 20 years loan as of next year. By the end of the loan term, he needs to pay HDB $0.962 million at 5% interest. Taking his total accumulated CPF of $1.58mil, minus HDB of the above figure, he will have a balance of $0.62 mil. Now if the minimum sum is $139K now and raising at the rate of $8000, then by that year, the minimum sum will be 434K, thus he will have about $190K to withdraw. Assuming he drew edusave  $100K for his kid, he has 90K left. This is just nice for today COE. Please be reminded he is supposed to be a little above average. How about the rest of our citizen?

Now, is the HDB price too high, or our wage too low, or our CPF is out of tune?  What he can hope for is for the world to end before 2050, or for me and my wife to die fast before 2020 so he can get some of my ‘asset’. As I mention, the initial goals of HDB and CPF is really good for our people. I have to give credit to.as time past these twenty yeary, we were messed up, starting with HDB cost, Now, things are really bad, so HDB and CPF, please claim your dis-credit. Living here is going to be  hard to come by. All the while I though we were human, where we work, we struggle, and happily retire. But now I see our future generation are just a digit of the mechanical authourities.,  Sigh!