euphratis, consider this:
When you retire, say at about 60, you'll get no more money coming
in as salary, yet you'll have living costs of maybe $1500 a month,
assuming that the house is paid up by then and you haven't set your
bank loan terms at 65 years.
OK, so your annual expenditure (for just one person, not counting
dependants) is $18,000 a year. Okay, let's say $300 comes from CPF
every month - that's still $14,400 you need. Where's the money
going to come from?
For argument's sake, say you've got investments and you're
depending on the dividends to live on. We'll be generous and call
it 8%, which ought to be a good balance between performance and
security. At that rate, you'll need $180,000 in capital. That's
assuming that you've got the house paid up, say one that's worth
$350,000. On top of that, you've got your living expenses while
you're working, say at the set $18,000 a year for 30 years - that's
$540,000.
In sum, by the time you're 60, you'll need to have earned a total
of $1,070,000. And that's if you're frugal and earning something
like $36,000 a year - no overseas holidays, no big parties, no real
fun.
So have a think about it - do you really want to wait until you're
45 to start thinking about these things? Better get a lot of
sedatives, because you're going to have a lot of sleepless
nights.
I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying about the government -
I'm just saying that you need to make sure that your resentment
doesn't keep you from facing the reality described above.
