Showing posts with label CPF Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CPF Life. Show all posts

Friday, August 25, 2017

CPF Life’s Return (/Annuity) Calculator Online

Previously, I have made available a “CPF Life Payout-Return Online Calculator“ here:

where you can calculate the payout you are supposed to receive based on the expected annuity return you desire (which should be 4% according to CPF) if you can live to certain age!

However, for people who are only interested in calculating the expected annuity return only (based on the age they expect to be able to live until and the actual CPF Life payout they receive and the bequest you are entitled when the person die), that calculator is really a hassle and a pain in the neck!

For those who are only interested in calculating the expected annuity return only (based on the age you expect to be able to live until and the actual CPF Life payout they receive and the bequest), good news! I have now created another CPF Life’s Return Online Calculator which is specifically meant for that purpose!
Not only that, this calculator also allows you to enter the “Bequest” amount (in the “Future Value” box). This CPF Life’s Return Online Calculator is basically similar to an annuity online calculator!

You can access my CPF Life’s Return online calculator at this web link:

Ok, using my online calculator, you need to key in the following (for example):

Online Calculator for CPF Life's Return / Annuity
Name                                                             Value
Present Value ($)                                           -258811
Future Value ($)                                            91141
Number of Periods (months)                        120
Payment Amount ($)                                     1196
Interest Rate per period, %                           0.01
Interest Rate per Year, %                             
Payment At:        Beginning                          =End   

Instructions:
(a) To calculate interest rate for default input values: Press "ir" button to calculate interest rate for default values!
(b) To compute for other unknown value: Type in four known values, then press one of the buttons at the right to compute the unknown value. (E.g., to solve an example problem to compute "Future Value", press the "fv" button above)
(c) Always remember that money you paid out (put) into annuity should have negative value, while money you received should have positive value!
(d) Note: If you are not getting any computed result for computing "ir", try varying the value keyed into "Interest Rate per period, %"!
(e) Also enter the interest rate per period (not per year).

Example, to compute/solve for CPF Life annuity’s return (i.e. we are interested in the “Interest Rate per Year, %” figure), press the "ir" button above! This will result in the estimated CPF Life annuity’s return per period (in this case 1 period = 1 month) being shown in the box to the right of the text “Interest Rate per period, %” (and replacing the initial value of “0.01”)!  However, we usually deal with per year return and hence what we are really interest is the figure to the right of the text “Interest Rate per Year, %”!

Note that in the above, I assume:
(a)    The present value “-258811” is the amount you will have at 65 years old if you retain $166,000 at 55 years old in CPF Retirement Account.
(b)    The age by which this person will live till passing away to be 75 years old (for example), so the “Number of Periods” (which you would be able receive CPF Life payout) = (75-65)x12 = 120.
(c)    The “Payment Amount” is the actual CPF Life payout amount you receive, which is currently about $1196 pm for CPF Life Standard plan for women.
(d)    “Interest Rate per period, %” is what we want to calculate, and we can do so by clicking on the “ir” button (by clicking on “ir” using left-mouse-button).  If you are not getting any computed result or incorrect result for computing the interest rate after clicking “ir”, try entering a different value into the "Interest Rate per period, %" (e.g. 0.01, -0.01, etc)!
(e)    The “Bequest” figure is $91141 (based on CPF Board’s CPF Life payout estimator http://www.cpf.gov.sg/eSvc/Web/Schemes/LifePayoutEstimator/LifePayoutEstimator). If you want to estimate the CPF Life annuity return for the case where a person passes away earlier than the average life-span (and hence the “Bequest” is more than $0), you can enter the “Bequest” figure in the box to the right of the text “Future Value”!

Remember to use negative values for money you paid into the annuity, and positive values for money you received (for both monthly payout and bequest). Also enter the interest rate per period, not per year (don’t enter anything into the “Interest Rate per Year, %” box!). If you are receiving monthly payments and have an annual interest rate, divide the annual rate by 12. Thus, interest rate for one period of an 8% annual rate is 8%/12 and is entered as 0.666666.

My "CPF Life’s Return Calculator Online" can be regarded as a complementary tool to CPF Life’s "CPF LIFE Payout Estimator".
You can access "CPF LIFE Payout Estimator" from the link in this URL...
               http://make-money-secrets.blogspot.com/p/useful-links.html

When you join CPF LIFE, you can choose between:
•  the LIFE Standard Plan; or
•  the LIFE Basic Plan; or
•  the LIFE Escalating Plan.
Each CPF LIFE plan provides a different combination of trade-offs between the amount of monthly payouts that you would receive and the bequest that you would leave for your beneficiaries. 

No details have been released as to how CPF Board derives the monthly payout and bequest figures, and also the interest you will earn for your money (that remains not disbursed yet), the insurance charges and also administrative fees levied on you, and hence your best bet will be just to calculate the over-all return of your CPF Retirement Account balance at 65 years old!
              

My "CPF Life’s Return Calculator Online" can give you an idea how much return has been assumed into the CPF Life payout based on the original CPF Life principle number (your Retirement Account balance at 65 years old) and the payout you are getting (to see whether you are getting better return from CPF Life than Insurance Annuity scheme) and the bequest amount (even touch wood you die before 82.5 years old when your RA fund has been totally drawn down).  You can also get a glimpse of which scheme is a better deal for you...  

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Retirement Savings + CPF Life (+ Inflation + Bequest) Calculator Online


In my previous post, I had made demonstrated how to use my online calculator, which you can find it here:
    http://make-money-secrets.blogspot.sg/p/retirement-savings-online-calculator.html
to calculate how much you need to have saved by the time you retire.

I had illustrated for this example using my online calculator, where you need to key in the following:

Amount you would like to withdraw each month in retirement ($):  6000
Annual Interest Rate you expect to earn on savings (in dec., eg 0.03 for 3%):  0.01
Number of years you would like to make monthly withdrawals:  35 

Then, you can click on “Calculate” and the online calculator will give you the output as:
This is how much you need to have saved by the time you retire ($):   $2,125,506.18

I had concluded that: “So in conclusion, if a couple is able to accumulate $2.12 Millions dollars, they would be able to retire at 50 years old with pretty comfortable life-style!
Note that I have not taken CPF Life payout (starting at 65 years old) into account, so in practise a couple need less than $2.12M to retire comfortably if you take into consideration that they will be receiving $1300 pm for man and $1200 pm for women starting from the age of 65 years old!

Ok, so the issue here is now regarding CPF Life payout.
I have friends enquiring about whether I can also factor CPF Life payout into account in my retirement savings calculator, since CPF Life (which is a form of life-time annuity scheme) is now part and parcel of every retirees in Singapore!

I am glad to say that I had managed to include not only CPF Life payout but also effect of inflation and also considering bequest (i.e. the amount you want to leave to your heirs) into my Retirement Savings online calculator!  You can access my Retirement Savings + CPF Life (+ Inflation + Bequest) Online Calculator here:
    https://make-money-secrets.blogspot.sg/p/retirement-savingscpf-life-calculator.html

Let’s just try my Retirement Savings + CPF Life (+ Inflation + Bequest) Online Calculator by keying in the following parameters:


Amount you would like to withdraw each month in retirement ($): 6,000.00
Annual Interest Rate you expect to earn on your savings (eg key in "3" for 3%): 1.0
Age you would like to retire (Years Old): 50
Amount you want to leave to your heirs (bequest) ($): 0.00
Annual living Inflation Rate you expect (eg key in "2" for 2%): 1.0
CPF Life Payout Amount per mth ($): 2,500.00
CPF Life Payout starting Age (Years Old): 65
Age you expect to live until (Years Old): 85

Then, you can click on “Calculate” and the online calculator will give you the output as:

This is how much you need to have saved by the time you retire (before inflation) ($): Calc.  
$1,525,506.18
This is how much you need to have saved by the time you retire (inflation-adjusted) ($): Calc.  
$2,064,000.00

So, we can see that in order for a couple to retire at 50 years old and to have $6000 per month for retirement (for both’s expenses), you need to save $1.525M (before inflation) and if you factor in inflation (assuming just 1%), you would need to save $1.920M!

Note that I had made following assumptions:
Assume that both the couple retiring at 50 years old will live only till 85 years old.
Assume that CPF Life payout for the couple is $2500 per month (being $1300 pm for men and $1200 pm for women if both have the Full Retirement Sum of $161,000 at 55 years old) and that these figures (hopefully) will not be lowered in future.
Assume that inflation is only 1% (which is on the low side, a more realistic figure should be 2% as used in CPF Escalating Payout plan).
Assume that the interest/return you would get for your pot of savings to have an average of 1% (which is also on the low side, and I think a more realistic figure can be 2% and above if you have >$1M to invest).

You can play around and change the parameters to those values that suit your situation and you can then plan your own retirement!

With my Retirement Savings + CPF Life (+ Inflation + Bequest) Online Calculator, now you can plan your own finances independently without needing the help of financial planners! (Beware of financial planners! – because some are all out to sell their products rather than to help you plan your finances and advise you appropriately for your retirement!)

Again, you can access all the online calculators that I have developed from this web link URL:
    https://make-money-secrets.blogspot.sg/p/my-online-calculators.html



Saturday, September 24, 2016

CPF Life Payout-Return Calculator Online

I have made available here a “CPF Life Payout-Return Online Calculator“ where you can calculate the payout you are supposed to receive based on the expected annuity return you desire (which should be 4% according to CPF) if you can live to certain age!

You can access the calculator online at this URL:
    http://make-money-secrets.blogspot.sg/p/cpf-life-payreturn.html

(You can also access from the link here:
https://make-money-secrets.blogspot.sg/p/my-online-calculators.html )

Note that there are 2 ways to use this CPF Life payout-return online calculator:

(a) You can compare the CPF Life payout you ACTUALLY receive to the CPF Life payout at desired return (calculated using this online calculator) to see whether you are being over-paid or under-paid for your participated annuity (based on the average life-span for men (80) and women (85)) if you key into "Age you expected to live until in (Years)" as 80 (for men) or 85 (for women).

(b) You can keep varying the input number of "CPF Life desired return you would like (%)" such that you get a % figure which gives a CPF Life payout (given by "CPF Life payout at desired return") which is same as the ACTUAL CPF Life payout amount. In this way, the % figure basically gives you the implied annuity return of your CPF Life (for a given "Age you expected to live until in (Years)", which we usually use 80 for men and 85 for women (this is the actual statistical life-span of Singapore's men and women).

This is for fun but the truth will shock you!

For example, if you have participate in the CPF Life Standard Plan’s Full Retirement Scheme (previous called the “Minimum Sum”) with an amount of $161,000 at 55 years old, then accordingly, you should get about $251,371 at 65 years old (after interest compounding).
Then from 65 years old,  CPF Life payout given by CPF which is about $1300 per month (for men), and if you project that you can only live till average age of 80 years old (80 for men (85 for women), because statistically only <=50% of Singaporean men can live pass 80 years old and similarly for women is 85 years old) and assuming bequest = $0 if you live till/pass average age (which is typical of such annuity programme), then the actual CPF Life annuity return you are getting is actually -0.88% (a NEGATIVE return)!

In other words, if a man wanted to get an annualized return of 4% from his CPF Life (with a capital of about $251,371 at 65 years old), he would need to live till 91 years old!  Think about it, how many Singaporean men out there can live till 91 years old?  I would postulate that chances are that only something like 1% of men would ever live pass 91 years old, while the statistics currently available, which you can read here:
    http://www.singstat.gov.sg/statistics/visualising-data/charts/life-expectancy-at-birth

It is clear that about 50% of men would die before they even hit 80 years old, and hence 50% of men would only have a CPF Life annuity return of -0.8%!

It would be interesting to know how many men actually could live pass 80 years old, 85 years old and 91 years old!

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

CPF Life – Actual CPF Life’s annuity return you are getting…


What is the actual annuity return you are getting if you can live till the average age of 80 for men (or 85 for women)? Is it 4%, 2.5%, or even negative?

Holy cow! Seems like nobody can give you a reply or the relevant personnel in the know refused to acknowledge this question and/or refused to answer this question for all to hear?

Fret Not!  You can easily find out the truth now by using the calculator I have here where you can calculate the payout you are supposed to receive based on the expected annuity return you desire (which should be 4% according to CPF) if you can live to certain age!





Note that there are 2 ways to use this CPF Life payout-return online calculator:
(a) You can compare the CPF Life payout you ACTUALLY receive to the CPF Life payout at desired return (calculated using this online calculator) to see whether you are being over-paid or under-paid for your participated annuity (based on the average life-span for men (80) and women (85)) if you key into "Age you expected to live until in (Years)" as 80 (for men) or 85 (for women).

(b) You can keep varying the input number of "CPF Life desired return you would like (%)" such that you get a % figure which gives a CPF Life payout (given by "CPF Life payout at desired return") which is same as the ACTUAL CPF Life payout amount. In this way, the % figure basically gives you the implied annuity return of your CPF Life (for a given "Age you expected to live until in (Years)", which we usually use 80 for men and 85 for women (this is the actual statistical life-span of Singapore's men and women).

This is for fun but the truth will shock you!


For example, if you have participate in the CPF Life Standard Plan’s Full Retirement Scheme (previous called the “Minimum Sum”) with an amount of $161,000 at 55 years old, then according to the CPF Life payout given by CPF which is about $1300 per month, and if you project that you can only live till average age of 80 years old (for men; 85 for women – statistically only <50% of men can live pass 80 years old and similarly for women is 85 years old) and assuming bequest = $0 if you live till/pass average age (which is typical of such annuity programme), then the actual CPF Life annuity return you are getting is actually -0.88% (a NEGATIVE return)!

I think the above truth should call for more transparency from CPF regarding the actual annuity return of CPF Life and the amount of unpaid accumulated reserves (aka profits made by CPF) instead of treating CPF Life’s financial account as a secret!


Friday, March 13, 2015

The CPF problems that never get fixed!



CPF Life had been revamped with new recommendations from CPF Advisory Panel recently.  However, the myriad of problems with CPF Life still never seem to get fixed!  They are:

1)      The solvency of CPF Life has still NOT BEEN GUARANTEED by the Singapore government!  Reasons (or rather excuses?) have been given, but there is no shrieking of responsibility here when the Government had passed law to make it compulsory and enforced on its citizens in the first place!  It seems totally at odd that on one hand, they passed laws to make CPF Life compulsory, and on the other hand, they cannot stand behind and be responsible for the proper management of the system called “CPF Life” that they set up and guarantee its solvency?  By continually refusing to guarantee the solvency of CPF Life, are their actions telling us that they have totally no confidence behind the people they appoint to manage “CPF Life” and hence they don't dare to guarantee the solvency of CPF Life?

2)      Transparency of CPF Life has still not existed! 
Transparency, yes, transparency! CPF Life is about mandatory locking up of their citizens’ money by Government, and hence transparency of the book of “CPF Life” is of utmost importance!  Nobody likes their own money to be forced into management by somebody else who cannot open their books and show how their money are managed and the performance! 
To improve transparency, firstly, “CPF Life” needs to be separated as an independent entity with its annual financial statements and audits!  This is the single most important criterion!  Next, there needs to be transparency of how the CPF Life payout are being calculated, how the bequest amount are being calculated etc.  Only when “CPF Life” is a separate entity with its financial statements will we know whether accumulated over the years, are managers of CPF Life recommending CPF Life payout that is below optimal amount and a lots of profits have been accumulated, thus allowing CPF Life payout to be increased! 
Without a separate book (i.e. financial statements), CPF Life in its current form which is not detached from CPF Board means that when there are profits accumulated, it belongs to CPF Board (and hence the Government)? And when CPF Life payout is adjusted lower in future (possible), it is because of trying to accumulate more profits or really the existing payout is not sustainable?  Empty words are just useless!  Actions speak louder than words!  By continually refusing to separate CPF Life into a separate entity with its financial statements and cashflows and publish them annually etc, people obviously will start to believe that they are trying to make profits out of the CPF Life scheme isn’t it? 

Transparency, transparency, transparency!  We really need transparency and separate book (i.e. financial statements) for CPF Life individually (and separate from the book of CPF Board)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Thursday, February 5, 2015

CPF Advisory Panel still didn’t get it! 10 points’ recommendation can summarize to only 5 points!


The first set of the recommendations by CPF Advisory Panel just came out!

I found the newspapers’ reports to be utterly confusing and although there are up to 10 points’ recommendations, some are rehash of old policies, rewording, introduction of a new term (e.g. “Basic Retirement Sum”), and hence the 10 points can be further summarized to just 5 points as follow:

1) CPF Advisory Panel recommended that from 2017 to 2020, each cohort of members turning 55 in a calendar year should have its Basic Retirement Sum increased by 3 per cent from the cohort in the previous year. 

Note: Note the term “Basic Retirement Sum” used.  This “Basic Retirement Sum” is basically half that of “CPF Minimum Sum” and is only applicable for people who pledge their properties.  Those people who do not pledge their properties will need to maintain the “CPF Minimum Sum”, which is currently $161,000. 
Given that the CPF Minimum Sum will be increased again from 2017 to 2020 by 3% per year, as such, by 2020, CPF Minimum Sum will be about $181,207 !!!!!

2)      CPF rules could be relaxed to allow members to transfer their CPF savings above the required Basic Retirement Sum to their spouses’ Special or Retirement Accounts. Currently, members can only top up their family members’ accounts using funds in excess of the Minimum Sum.

3)      Give members the option to defer their payout start age, up to 70, for permanently higher monthly payouts.

4)      Give the option to members with higher CPF balances to commit more of their savings into the CPF LIFE scheme, so they receive higher monthly payouts.


Note: The maximum that any member can contribute is called the “Enhanced Retirement Sum”, which is capped at 3 times the Basic Retirement Sum.
For example, those turning 55 in 2016 will have the option of topping it up to the maximum of S$241,500, or three times that of S$80,500.


5)      Give members the option to withdraw up to 20 per cent of their Retirement Account at the Payout Eligibility Age.

Note: Payout Eligibility Age is currently 65 years old.  Why they can’t just say 65 years old to avoid introducing more jargon? (unless there is plan to increase this age?)


Why I say the CPF Advisory Panel didn’t get it pertains to point 5 above.  Their recommendation is to only allow CPF members to draw 20% of their Retirement Account at the age of 65 years old.  The problem I see is that most members want to be able to withdraw at 55 years old or between 55-64 years old because CPF Retirement Account is locked at 55-65 years old!  Before 65 years old, CPF members will not get any CPF Life payout and given that from 55 years old onwards they can’t touch their CPF money, they may want to withdraw some money for some purposes, e.g. pay mortgage loans, pay for children’s education etc!