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8/11/2007
Myth 156 - Saving not enough
Singaporeans, at least 80% of them, are having a nightmare that they have insufficient savings for old age and retirement. Why is there so much hype and obsession about savings? Insufficient savings have been an issue as old as prostitution. The people of the world have insufficient savings to retire like kings and queens. But many will still live and survive even with little or no savings.
The present assumption is that everyone must retire with a huge nest egg, scrimping from their daily needs, so that when they retired, they will be richer and have more money to spend than when they were healthy, young and working. And there is also this assumption that the cost of inflation will outrun all their savings and they will never have enough.
Another part of the equation is to take away all family support and the asset esp the HDB flat that will also become quite a bundle with inflation. And of course when all these oldies are old and feeble, they need to spend more to live like healthy young things with a growing appetite to spend and party.
And now people are encouraged to work for as long as they are alive. Actually as long as one is able to find a job that one can work till one drops dead, there is no need for savings. The longer one works, the shorter one has to live on one's savings. So the lesser savings is needed. If only more jobs can be created for the oldies. Who needs all the pretty young salesgirls or salesboys when these jobs can be done by granddads and grandmas, and at lower cost?
Singaporeans are over saving, and for what? Oh to feed the ever increasing hospital bills and other cost of living.
I tend to think that it is not healthy to retire at all; and I hope more jobs for the elderly can be created so that they can occupy their time more meaningfully instead of looking at the floor and ceiling.
ReplyDeleteWho needs all the pretty young salesgirls or salesboys when these jobs can be done by granddads and grandmas, and at lower cost?
ReplyDeleteTrue to a certain extent, until you meet some of the cranky ones then you wud wish it is not happening to you.
Some of the illerate disillusioned grannies serving at the hawker centres are assuming, rude and petty.. and they talk to you at their level of diminised understanding and zero courtesy becos they have nothing left to show for.
So no thanks I like pretty boys and girls better.
I suggest to reclaim an island offshore and turn it into a farm for citizens above 70 to be known as FOC Island. It is the country gift's to the pioneers of Singapore, our very own "bumis".
ReplyDeleteThey will live simply and be self suficient with the fruits and vegetables on the farm. They can choose to wear donated clothings, sarongs, leaves or whatever they like.
You can donate canned food and rice to the island whenever you feel guilty and have the urge to do good like bill gates.
There will be sufficient well water to sustain them.
When they feel hot or dirty, they can just walk to the beach to answer nature's call.
Foreign nurses and doctors from 3rd world countries will be stationed there to tend and care for the sick with second hand tools and medical equipments.
Once a while zoe tay and company can come to the island to entertain these folks.
The old folks will be happy and grateful to be reminded of their kampong days.
Nothing else is needed. No need even for Navy protection for who wud want to rob the sick and penniless? It will be a safe, clean and cheap place to live and be close to nature. Isnt that a great idea?
If you think that is a good idea, then you must be the first to send your parents there.
ReplyDeleteWith ideas like that who needs million dollar ministers?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIf you think that is a good idea, then you must be the first to send your parents there.
With ideas like that who needs million dollar ministers?
August 11, 2007 3:39 PM
I thank you for your assuming and parochial opinion. It is expected and I am not disappointed.
If everyone is taking care of their aged parents as ideally should be the case, then why are there so many debates about retiring later and not having enough savings? Even the ministers seemed anxious abt the problem.
Also what happens to those that do not have that good family support?
Rather than they withered away with financial anxieties abt their bleak future in damp and lonely rented flats and grow in numbers as they eventually would, why not think out of the box and allow creative solutions to bare fruits..
instead of being a passive dream killer?
I thought you were not serious. Assuming it becomes a reality, I think the Government will be the first to support you, because our honourable Health Minister floated this idea not too long ago about building retirement villages for Singaporeans on neighbouring islands (eg Batam). He regretted his creative solutions after much crisicism.
ReplyDeleteHe regretted his creative solutions after much crisicism.
ReplyDeletei now understand how he must have felt abt this "sensitive" issue ..
ah, the cranky ah peks and ah mahs. not all are reemployable. but for those that are still able, sane, and willing, let them be employed. and the uncouth, the smelly and vulgar, there are always jobs like cleaning tables at hawker centres.
ReplyDeletethe idea of an island is not necessary a bad one. a bit of packaging is all that is needed to turn it into a fad, a reality. start first with the super rich and their paradise island.
when the ignorant and unthinking masses see the rich are doing it in style, they too would want it and would ask for it.
it is the same thing as taking drugs. when the rich are drugging themselves and the media portrayed it as a fad, all the unthinking masses too will take to drugs.
packaging and advertising will do the trick, with the aid of the media and the celebrities of course.
Savings are alright for short term. In the long term savings is self sabotage.
ReplyDeleteTo live adequately human beings need fresh water, food and air... an ongoing supply of these life-giving elements.
Similarly, to take care of their material world, they need an ongoing supply of money... a flow or stream of the stuff, i.e. "cash flow".
Saving you money will not give you "cash flow" as you will be drawing down on your savings, which will be decreasing in purchasing power.