Originally posted by TheGoodEarth:
You know, I read thru all the posts, yet I can't get answers to my
own questions. Perhaps, you can do better then me.
You have a lot of contradictions - you don't object but you want it
to be optional. If that is the case, then why build annuity into
CPF. It is like saying I object to putting my money in CPF but I
want my employer to contribute! Wouldn't you say: it is optional
for the employer to contribute - then you tell me how many
employers will.
To pay 1% to you
only is really really peanut. But to pay the millions of CPF
members - pls do some arithmetic for me. Many forumers here think
money grows on trees in our Botannical Garden. Monkeys there can
think better!
The refrains I read in all the posts are: I can manage my own money
and get better returns. I tell you this: go attend AGMs of
companies you invest your monies in and tell the Boards to increase
dividends by 1%. When you managed to get them to do that, tell me
which company and I will move my money there.
The fact that the annuity scheme is aired and debated in public and
moved without haste is a testimony that when it comes to MONEY,
people are very sentimental, very emotional, very irritable. Human
nature is this: my MONEY, don't you touch! Even the [b]best of intention to help is interpreted
wrongly. I am sorry you are exactly like the old
relatives I was trying to help. They think I was after their money
when I proposed certain ways to manage their limited financial
means to see to their grand old age. I had already explored annuity
schemes long before this gahmen make it public!!!![/b]
best of intention to help is
interpreted wrongly ?
Can help be interpreted wrongly if
the language is clear and the words are not ambiguously used
?
Why should the hard earned monies of individuals - that have been
deducted for the best parts of one's working life - end up in an
Annuity Scheme, and to be thrown into a COMMON POOL for the benefit
of other surviving members to the Annuity Scheme, all of whom are
strangers to me and my money ?
Why should the remaining amounts of my money money not be left for
the benefit of the surviving members of my family for their
immediate use ?
If the MIW and the Cabinet Ministers think nothing of their sudden
surge in their wages - that will form the pension
for the rest of
their lives, that will COST SINGAPOREANS
TAXPAYERS TO FUND THEIR PENSIONS, why will this Government
and the MIW bitch about the niggardly 1% into the smallest part of
our CPF account ?
The CPF is a PROVIDENT FUND intended as a SAVING SCHEME - and WAS
NEVER a PENSION SCHEME - it was supposed to be paid out as a Lump
Sum at the Retirement Age as originally promised to
Singaporeans.
A Pension Scheme offer a Life Long Payout based on Part of the Last
Drawn Wage prior to Retirement - and is paid out either as a Lump
Sum, or some parts being paid out for the rest of the natural life
of the Retiree.
An Annuity Scheme is similar to a Pension Scheme in its financial
payout form, with the scheme being part of an Insurance Plan that
one invests in either during one's working life, or as a retirement
package committed by the Retiree with available Tax Free
funds.
Some Annuity Scheme will pay a bonus of 5% to provide a self-funded
escalating Annuity payout and this is possible from the large pool
of money that is available for the Annuity Fund Managers to invest
and generate profits.
The Annuity Scheme that Singaporeans are forced to take up do not
pay out any profits even as the amount that is created based on a
NATIONAL FORCED ACCEPTANCE has created a huge pool of money
overnight.
To top the cake, the MIW and Government is expecting us to swallow
changes to the CPF NATIONAL SAVING SCHEME that affects OUR MONIES -
without our agreement or approval.
Switzerland a true First World Model will have consultation with
the Citizens that allow every Swiss to participate in a Referendum
on ALL ISSUES that DIRECTLY AFFECT THE LIVES OF THE SWISS
CITIZENS.
This self-acclaimed First World Singapore Government and
self-proclaimed Singapore Elites have the audacity to claim higher
intelligence and refused to face the collective wisdom of all
Singaporeans in how best our own monies should be handled.
The Third World Mentality in a ''Talk-down'' approach of ''I Know What is Best for You''
persist in the Singaporean MIW Elite.
The Government and especially the MIW owe to ALL Singaporeans a
better deal than what they have been dishing out up till now.
Singaporeans have been squeezed at every turn of events, and it is
the monies that Singaporeans have contributed into the CPF since
the MIW stepped into Political Power in 1957 that has created
Singapore - as in 1957, the MIW claimed that the Lim Yew Hock
Government had left them an empty State Treasury of $1 only.
The CPF monies from Singaporeans have built up the infra-structure,
which Singaporeans also have to pay for its use, even as it is the
CPF money that was used to built it.
The CPF monies from Singaporeans have been used to build the HDB
Estates in supposed low-cost housing, yet the price that HDB sells
the built units will empty our individual CPF accounts, and end up
bloating the HDB account that is transferred to the Finance
Ministry. It becomes even more ridiculous when the Minister MBT
will even offer to help Singaporeans to re-mortgage the fully paid
HDB units so as to free up the money that is locked in the
over-priced HDB units; and with more money to be made by HDB in
this re-mortgage.
The CPF monies from Singaporeans were used to start-up Government
Linked Companies - from SIA to Sembawang Engineering, to National
Orient Lines, ST Engineering, Chartered Industries, and a whole
stable of GLCs with assorted names.
If the MIW and the Government has the interest of Aged Singaporeans
at heart, it would have been less controversial for the MIW and the
Government to take 1% from the Gross or Net Profit of the combined
TOP TEN Government Linked Companies - or simply from the Gross or
Net Profit of GIC and Temasek Holdings - and pay for the annual
premiums of a National Annuity Scheme.
Why will the Government be so generous in planning to give away the
private monies of Singaporeans, but will not be as generous with
the monies from their own Government Owned Companies that righfully
belonged to All Singaporeans ?
Surely, in attempting to help Singaporeans, the Government is
actually helping themselves in covering up their own inability to
pay out all the monies from the CPF that are due to be paid to
every Singaporean Citizen who is retiring ?
Did we mis-interprete the Government efforts to help us, when their
actions and words are as clear as daylight that our monies in the
CPF will finally not be returned to us - even as we pass on from
this Life ?
