The Rise of the Pseudo-Intellectual
http://temasektoday.blogspot.sg/2014/04/the-rise-of-pseudo-intellectual.html?m=1
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CPF-HDB Scam by Pseudo-Intellectual Roy Ngerng
- Thread starter Isogallardo
- Start date
The Rise of the Pseudo-Intellectual
http://temasektoday.blogspot.sg/2014/04/the-rise-of-pseudo-intellectual.html?m=1
Roy Ngerng is right, this guy making the criticism is a fucktard and that's why he does not identify himself.
Roy made 2 mistakes and this guy pounced on it and smeared the entire article. Everyone knows that the CPF is broken since the 1990s. Its an easy case to make but Roy ended up making it too complicated and messed it up.
LOL PAP IB Isogallardo is getting quite desperate! 
I recognize an astroturfing blog when I see one.
temasektoday.blogspot.sg
Look who else links to content from the Temasek Today blog.
limesther
hxxp://forums.fuckwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/idiots-guide-2-5m-ahpetc-saga-4247038.html
Look at her passionate defense of pappies' multiple appointments.
hxxp://forums.fuckwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/accusation-some-mps-hold-too-many-appointments-4447721.html
I recognize an astroturfing blog when I see one.
temasektoday.blogspot.sg
Look who else links to content from the Temasek Today blog.
limesther
hxxp://forums.fuckwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/idiots-guide-2-5m-ahpetc-saga-4247038.html
Look at her passionate defense of pappies' multiple appointments.
hxxp://forums.fuckwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/accusation-some-mps-hold-too-many-appointments-4447721.html
hahaha....truly an idiot???
so u must be also spouting nonsense each time because u also do not identify yourself!!!!
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Roy made no mistakes. All his analysis is right, the writer can't understand what he is trying to say.
This is the critical article in whole, in which he claims that Roy is wrong. My comments in blue.
Friday, April 4, 2014
The Rise of the Pseudo-Intellectual
One of the most heartening developments in Singapore civil society is the willingness and ability of people to give details, professional and sometimes expert analysis into issues of the day. This is especially true in difficult and specialized topics such as health and personal finance.
I have no financial training and I am not good with numbers, so my rule for money is: trust the expert.
So when I was sent an email by a friend, written by a financial expert with the name Roy Ngerng, I thought, hey, this guy is making a strong point! Maybe there is something wrong with our CPF!
But then, reading the article closely, I realized this guy is only shamming. Instead of someone who analyzes and shares ideas, he has a fixed idea and is massaging facts and figures around this
I don't know much the facts that he points to – I don't know whether it is true that Singapore’s pensions returns are lower than Pakistan and Philippines. Or how we rank in terms of contribution. But I do know simple logic – and I have my own experience.
So, leaving alone whether the facts he uses are accurate, let’s look at his arguments on their logical merits.
1. Red Herrings
Many of us who take out loans know that we have to pay interest. I live in a private property (condo) and I know two things – my home will cost me a lot more than the listed price because I took out a loan on it, and it will be worth nothing in 99 years.
But the way Rog Ngerng writes it’s like something the government invented to cheat us out of money, and that it is some big surprise that HDB flat is worth nothing at the end of 99 years.
“Can someone please explain to me why we have to pay $600,000 (after 30 years) on a $300,000 for a flat that has absolutely no value at the end of its lease? Then what the hell are we even paying for? So, your flat is supposed to increase in value but after the end of the lease, this value suddenly disappears?”
Hello! This is what “99 years lease” means! In China it is 70 years only! In London, most of its flats are leasehold, sometimes to 125 years. This is the fact of property life, all over the world.
In Singapore, even Sentosa Cove is worth nothing after 99 years. Are the private developers also cheating us?
He did the same thing with the interests on mortgage – people know that they will have to pay far more than the price of their property if they count in the interest. This is unpleasant but not surely hidden.
Why is this guy making it out to be some dark conspiracy here? This made me suspicious about his real motives. Then I did the maths he did – and came up with very different conclusions.
The reason that Roy says the govt. is cheating the people who buy HDB flat is because all govt. officials right up to the PM tells all singaporeans and the whole that SIngaporeans OWN THEIR OWN HOMES. This is obviously a lie as they are tenants and not property owners. When people bought HDB flats, especially the first couple of less educated generation, the fact that they were actually prepaying their rent 99 years in advance was not explained to them. People who buy Sentosa Cove are multi millionaires and in some cases billionaires. They are sophisticated enough to understand what a lease is, and its actually a leasehold property. They actually own the physcial building on the lot. At anytime they can bulldoze their own house down and build a new one. They own the house but lease the land for 99 years. This is different from HDB flat dwellers who own just the least agreement and not one piece of the 4 walls of their flats.
Furthermore, residents of Sentosa Cove are rich enough to simply move away and buy another property when their 99 years land lease expires. Just we here will HDB Flat dwellers go at the end of 99 years? They have money to buy another HDB flat which might be worth $2 million by than? Not likely. What he has done is compare Sentosa Cove, a true leasehold property with HDB which is simply a long term rental lease.
2. Semantic Sleight of Hand: 2.5 per cent interest for the highest social pension contributions.
He says that at 37%, our contribution to social pensions is the highest in the world. Of course it is, if it were true.
But I know that I only pay 20% and my employer pays 16%. So on his chart, we are much lower than other countries such as Italy, China, Malaysia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland and so on.
So he is telling us a lot of numbers, but mixing them up – and using them wrongly.
The same for the 2.5%.
The interest that CPF gives us is 2.5% - he says this is low compared to what Temasek earns. (I don’t know the exact link between Temasek and CPF.)
But with 2.5%, our money will double in 29 years. This is the normal rule of thumb with compound interest! I think double in 29 years is good returns.
True, this is not as high as in other countries – in New Zealand – at 14 % the money will double in 5 years! How do people there do it? Well, in a high-interest regime, interest is generally higher. If you take out a mortgage at 14% your payment will double in 5 years!
But 2.5% is the interest we pay on our mortage too. RN goes on quite a bit about how at 2.5%, you have to pay so much more on your flat. Well, you either have a low interest rate regime or a high one, you cannot talk out of both side of your mouth!
I know that the mortage rates and the interest paid to us are not the same thing. But interests are returns on the use of money – it makes sense to think of them as being in the same regime. So, the 2.5% number has to be seen from both sides.
In the end, his numbers lead us to the wrong place. This is the same thing I saw when he talks about us paying interest twice - on the money that belongs to us.
3. Apples, Pears and Durians altogther.
The problem he wrote about was the CPF accrued interest.
This is the policy as he wrote it: “If you sell your HDB flat, you need to refund the principal amount you had earlier withdrawn for the purchase of the flat, including the accrued interest, to your CPF account. This interest is the amount you would have earned, had the savings not been taken out.”
His explanation: You are paying interest for money that is no there anymore. And the PAP is asking you to do this. If they want the money, they should pay for it!
He says it like this “So, see if you get this – if you had left your money inside the CPF, the government will pay the interest. But when you take the money out, the government wants you to pay the interest back. In the first place, since you have taken the money out, the interest can no longer be earned and even if the government wants you to earn the interest, they should be the one paying the interest, right?”
My initial reaction was “Right!” Once I take the money out, the interest can no longer be earned.
But the money is earning something else – it is “feeding” my flat. I stay in the flat – if I didn’t use the money, I would have to rent a house. So the money was used to provide me with shelter.
The alternative was to leave the money in – and get the 2.5% interest. I would then have to use the 2.5% to pay my rent. But I would prefer to buy a house – because there is a chance that the housing prices would go up!
So after I sell my house, I would have to make good the opportunity cost – that is I would have to pay into my CPF (which still remains my money) the interest it would have earned because I used the money for something else – shelter. The value I got is the “rental” I would have otherwise paid. Also the capital appreciation of the flat.
To say that “you are paying an interest of 2.5% on money that is no longer in the CPF. You are paying an interest into the CPF on nothing”, is, as he would say, “nothing but trickery.”
He is mixing up CPF downpayments, with mortgages with interest foregone, and wild allegations about CPF accounts with “nothing” that we are still paying interests on.
Getting scared? You should be. There are lots of psuedo intellectuals like RN around. You don’t have to be an expert or a maths genius, just simple logic and common sense.
Friday, April 4, 2014
The Rise of the Pseudo-Intellectual
One of the most heartening developments in Singapore civil society is the willingness and ability of people to give details, professional and sometimes expert analysis into issues of the day. This is especially true in difficult and specialized topics such as health and personal finance.
I have no financial training and I am not good with numbers, so my rule for money is: trust the expert.
So when I was sent an email by a friend, written by a financial expert with the name Roy Ngerng, I thought, hey, this guy is making a strong point! Maybe there is something wrong with our CPF!
But then, reading the article closely, I realized this guy is only shamming. Instead of someone who analyzes and shares ideas, he has a fixed idea and is massaging facts and figures around this
I don't know much the facts that he points to – I don't know whether it is true that Singapore’s pensions returns are lower than Pakistan and Philippines. Or how we rank in terms of contribution. But I do know simple logic – and I have my own experience.
So, leaving alone whether the facts he uses are accurate, let’s look at his arguments on their logical merits.
1. Red Herrings
Many of us who take out loans know that we have to pay interest. I live in a private property (condo) and I know two things – my home will cost me a lot more than the listed price because I took out a loan on it, and it will be worth nothing in 99 years.
But the way Rog Ngerng writes it’s like something the government invented to cheat us out of money, and that it is some big surprise that HDB flat is worth nothing at the end of 99 years.
“Can someone please explain to me why we have to pay $600,000 (after 30 years) on a $300,000 for a flat that has absolutely no value at the end of its lease? Then what the hell are we even paying for? So, your flat is supposed to increase in value but after the end of the lease, this value suddenly disappears?”
Hello! This is what “99 years lease” means! In China it is 70 years only! In London, most of its flats are leasehold, sometimes to 125 years. This is the fact of property life, all over the world.
In Singapore, even Sentosa Cove is worth nothing after 99 years. Are the private developers also cheating us?
He did the same thing with the interests on mortgage – people know that they will have to pay far more than the price of their property if they count in the interest. This is unpleasant but not surely hidden.
Why is this guy making it out to be some dark conspiracy here? This made me suspicious about his real motives. Then I did the maths he did – and came up with very different conclusions.
The reason that Roy says the govt. is cheating the people who buy HDB flat is because all govt. officials right up to the PM tells all singaporeans and the whole that SIngaporeans OWN THEIR OWN HOMES. This is obviously a lie as they are tenants and not property owners. When people bought HDB flats, especially the first couple of less educated generation, the fact that they were actually prepaying their rent 99 years in advance was not explained to them. People who buy Sentosa Cove are multi millionaires and in some cases billionaires. They are sophisticated enough to understand what a lease is, and its actually a leasehold property. They actually own the physcial building on the lot. At anytime they can bulldoze their own house down and build a new one. They own the house but lease the land for 99 years. This is different from HDB flat dwellers who own just the least agreement and not one piece of the 4 walls of their flats.
Furthermore, residents of Sentosa Cove are rich enough to simply move away and buy another property when their 99 years land lease expires. Just we here will HDB Flat dwellers go at the end of 99 years? They have money to buy another HDB flat which might be worth $2 million by than? Not likely. What he has done is compare Sentosa Cove, a true leasehold property with HDB which is simply a long term rental lease.
2. Semantic Sleight of Hand: 2.5 per cent interest for the highest social pension contributions.
He says that at 37%, our contribution to social pensions is the highest in the world. Of course it is, if it were true.
But I know that I only pay 20% and my employer pays 16%. So on his chart, we are much lower than other countries such as Italy, China, Malaysia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland and so on.
So he is telling us a lot of numbers, but mixing them up – and using them wrongly.
The same for the 2.5%.
The interest that CPF gives us is 2.5% - he says this is low compared to what Temasek earns. (I don’t know the exact link between Temasek and CPF.)
But with 2.5%, our money will double in 29 years. This is the normal rule of thumb with compound interest! I think double in 29 years is good returns.
True, this is not as high as in other countries – in New Zealand – at 14 % the money will double in 5 years! How do people there do it? Well, in a high-interest regime, interest is generally higher. If you take out a mortgage at 14% your payment will double in 5 years!
But 2.5% is the interest we pay on our mortage too. RN goes on quite a bit about how at 2.5%, you have to pay so much more on your flat. Well, you either have a low interest rate regime or a high one, you cannot talk out of both side of your mouth!
I know that the mortage rates and the interest paid to us are not the same thing. But interests are returns on the use of money – it makes sense to think of them as being in the same regime. So, the 2.5% number has to be seen from both sides.
In the end, his numbers lead us to the wrong place. This is the same thing I saw when he talks about us paying interest twice - on the money that belongs to us.
3. Apples, Pears and Durians altogther.
The problem he wrote about was the CPF accrued interest.
This is the policy as he wrote it: “If you sell your HDB flat, you need to refund the principal amount you had earlier withdrawn for the purchase of the flat, including the accrued interest, to your CPF account. This interest is the amount you would have earned, had the savings not been taken out.”
His explanation: You are paying interest for money that is no there anymore. And the PAP is asking you to do this. If they want the money, they should pay for it!
He says it like this “So, see if you get this – if you had left your money inside the CPF, the government will pay the interest. But when you take the money out, the government wants you to pay the interest back. In the first place, since you have taken the money out, the interest can no longer be earned and even if the government wants you to earn the interest, they should be the one paying the interest, right?”
My initial reaction was “Right!” Once I take the money out, the interest can no longer be earned.
But the money is earning something else – it is “feeding” my flat. I stay in the flat – if I didn’t use the money, I would have to rent a house. So the money was used to provide me with shelter.
The alternative was to leave the money in – and get the 2.5% interest. I would then have to use the 2.5% to pay my rent. But I would prefer to buy a house – because there is a chance that the housing prices would go up!
So after I sell my house, I would have to make good the opportunity cost – that is I would have to pay into my CPF (which still remains my money) the interest it would have earned because I used the money for something else – shelter. The value I got is the “rental” I would have otherwise paid. Also the capital appreciation of the flat.
To say that “you are paying an interest of 2.5% on money that is no longer in the CPF. You are paying an interest into the CPF on nothing”, is, as he would say, “nothing but trickery.”
He is mixing up CPF downpayments, with mortgages with interest foregone, and wild allegations about CPF accounts with “nothing” that we are still paying interests on.
Getting scared? You should be. There are lots of psuedo intellectuals like RN around. You don’t have to be an expert or a maths genius, just simple logic and common sense.
2 things - the comment about leasehold which is a practice nearly everywhere and especially in urban areas to allow rejuvenation. He should have emphasised on the absurd amounts for the property and not allowed the argument to have any form of misinterpretation. The other is the interest that was forgone that has to be added when a CPF funded property or assets are sold. It's a provident fund. That interest belongs to you anyway.
This opportunist bounced on these 2 and made a mountain out of a molehill. The article is highly critical and there has been answers, just these 2.
This opportunist bounced on these 2 and made a mountain out of a molehill. The article is highly critical and there has been answers, just these 2.
Calvin Cheng says:
"Just overheard a group of young men discussing The Heart Truths article on CPF and HDB and getting upset, thinking it is true.
Before I could talk to them, they left. Very disturbed and very sad so I feel compelled to summarise the 3 main clarifications again.
1) Why does one have to pay back accrued interest to CPF if one sells his HDB flat?
This is because CPF is a personal retirement fund that can only be used before retirement for very few things, one of which is to
Because of this, once you sell your home, you have to put the money back into CPF including the interest of 2.5% that you would have earned if it wasn't taken out to buy a home.
If the sale price is not enough to cover this, CPF will NOT force you to top-up.
The point is to ensure that you have enough funds for retirement.
Also, there is no double interest charged!
The Government pays you 2.5% if you leave the money in CPF but charges you only 2.6% if you borrow from HDB. Thus the effective interest rate is only 0.1%. Try saving and borrowing from a bank and see what the difference is.
2) CPF is not a 'tax'.
Critics are saying that because GIC and Temasek invests and makes much higher returns than 2.5%, it's a implicit tax on Singaporeans.
This is false.
Firstly, CPF is invested in Singapore Government Securities which like US Treasury Bonds are as safe an instrument as it gets.
It is true that the money goes into general reserves that are than invested by GIC, but GIC and Temasek investments are far riskier than Singapore Government Bonds.
To those who think that CPF returns should follow GIC returns, are they happy to bear the losses that GIC makes in bad financial years like during the Global Financial Crisis?
Of course not.
CPF returns are guaranteed.
To those who say that CPF underpays, I challenge you to find me another similar investment opportunity that pays a guaranteed 2.5/4%.
Guaranteed please.
3) Why does the minimum sum and retirement age keep rising ?
The Government is not trying to cheat us nor is it a scam to get more money for investments.
The minimum sum and retirement age keep rising because we keep living longer!
When the minimum sum was lower and retirement age was 55, Singaporeans were living till about 68 for men and 72 for women. Now both sexes are living well into the 80s.
If the minimum sum and withdrawal age don't increase, people will run out of money before they die.
It's that simple.
Please share and clear up the lies being spread on the internet!"
https://www.facebook.com/calvinzheng/posts/10151996035266167
Says he who drives a BMW convertible....
"Just overheard a group of young men discussing The Heart Truths article on CPF and HDB and getting upset, thinking it is true.
Before I could talk to them, they left. Very disturbed and very sad so I feel compelled to summarise the 3 main clarifications again.
1) Why does one have to pay back accrued interest to CPF if one sells his HDB flat?
This is because CPF is a personal retirement fund that can only be used before retirement for very few things, one of which is to
Because of this, once you sell your home, you have to put the money back into CPF including the interest of 2.5% that you would have earned if it wasn't taken out to buy a home.
If the sale price is not enough to cover this, CPF will NOT force you to top-up.
The point is to ensure that you have enough funds for retirement.
Also, there is no double interest charged!
The Government pays you 2.5% if you leave the money in CPF but charges you only 2.6% if you borrow from HDB. Thus the effective interest rate is only 0.1%. Try saving and borrowing from a bank and see what the difference is.
2) CPF is not a 'tax'.
Critics are saying that because GIC and Temasek invests and makes much higher returns than 2.5%, it's a implicit tax on Singaporeans.
This is false.
Firstly, CPF is invested in Singapore Government Securities which like US Treasury Bonds are as safe an instrument as it gets.
It is true that the money goes into general reserves that are than invested by GIC, but GIC and Temasek investments are far riskier than Singapore Government Bonds.
To those who think that CPF returns should follow GIC returns, are they happy to bear the losses that GIC makes in bad financial years like during the Global Financial Crisis?
Of course not.
CPF returns are guaranteed.
To those who say that CPF underpays, I challenge you to find me another similar investment opportunity that pays a guaranteed 2.5/4%.
Guaranteed please.
3) Why does the minimum sum and retirement age keep rising ?
The Government is not trying to cheat us nor is it a scam to get more money for investments.
The minimum sum and retirement age keep rising because we keep living longer!
When the minimum sum was lower and retirement age was 55, Singaporeans were living till about 68 for men and 72 for women. Now both sexes are living well into the 80s.
If the minimum sum and withdrawal age don't increase, people will run out of money before they die.
It's that simple.
Please share and clear up the lies being spread on the internet!"
https://www.facebook.com/calvinzheng/posts/10151996035266167
Says he who drives a BMW convertible....
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Calvin Cheng is a pro-PAP, pro-establishment son of a bitch. Pay him no heed.
http://www.sammyboy.com/archive/index.php/t-145172.html
http://www.sammyboy.com/archive/index.php/t-145172.html
The more I think about it, the more angry I am. I challenge you to find me another investment opportunity where being a foreigner entitles you to withdraw the amount accrued when they leave the island.
On the other hand, Singaporeans and west malaysians on the other hand have their money locked up until retirement age.
There are clearly two classes of investors here and they are paid the same returns. Should Singaporeans and west malaysians be incensed by such institutionalized discrimination?
Both Roy Ngerng and Temasek Today (another Temasek?) are wrong.
The issue is not about the amount of interest rates. Any interest charged by CPF for HDB loan will ultimately be written off as long as you retire, since you can draw out all your CPF monies anyway.
The CPF interest rate imposed for using CPF to pay for property does not deduct your CPF savings, but is accumulated on paper. This will only have an impact when you sell your flat. However, you end up with more CPF savings by paying more interest into your CPF account, not less.
The issue is not about the amount of interest rates. Any interest charged by CPF for HDB loan will ultimately be written off as long as you retire, since you can draw out all your CPF monies anyway.
The CPF interest rate imposed for using CPF to pay for property does not deduct your CPF savings, but is accumulated on paper. This will only have an impact when you sell your flat. However, you end up with more CPF savings by paying more interest into your CPF account, not less.
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Ok, let me explain..............yet again, because many people like you STILL DON'T FUCKING GET IT!!. Lets agree on one thing first. The CPF money you have is yours. You own it, right? Why? because it says so in your account, the CPF is your name, you see your deductions every month from your paycheck going to your CPF account, and finally, down the road, you get to take it all out. So, its your money.
Lets now say that you found a flat you want to "buy". You decide to put $200,000 as down payment (which you have available in your CPF account). But lets say that you also have $200,000 in a savings account sitting in a bank, also earning 2.5% per annum. In other words, you have also available $200,000 cash in addition to the $200,000 in your CPF. Where you got the cash from its not important. Maybe you strike lottery, maybe it was an inheritance, maybe you sold a business, whatever. But this $200,000 cash you have, you were also saving it for a planned retirement.
Now, you decide to take the $200,000 down payment from your cash savings instead of from your CPF. Are you legally obligated to pay yourself interest on it? Of course not, its your own damn money. But what about the 2.5% interest that you could have earned, but have foregone now? You have lost the opportunity to earn this interest. This is the argument that CPF uses for making you repay the interest. However, when you monetize or "sell" your flat years from now, you could have made $300,000 in capital gains due to the appreciation in the price of the flat. Therefore, even though you have lost the opportunity to earn 2.5% per annum, you have recovered the lost interest and more through a one time capital gains of $300,000. If you have used your CPF's $200,000 instead, you would still have the gain of $300,000 (of which the original amount you borrowed plus interest) would be put back into your CPF account. Therefore, you should not have to repay the interest to CPF, that would be double counting your gains. Once from the capital gains, and a second time from the interest repayment.
The reason why HDB makes you pay back the interest that you would have received is because they want to match their pension obligations as closely as possible. Its an actuarial nightmare if you don't include the interest back, because CPF has to anticipate their pension disbursements down the road, and at the same time take into account amounts that have been withdraw for flat "purchases", with out having to replace the lost interest. Its just an admin thing for them.
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CPF is a loan from you to them, whereby the terms of repayment (which includes when and whether you get paid) and the interest rate are unilaterally determined by them.
If the opposition parties become the government, this may not change.
But it is 100% certain that things will not change and you continue chugging along, if you continue going with pap.
Slagging off opposition candidates before polling day for sure, will not help.
LOL ................... LOL
If the opposition parties become the government, this may not change.
But it is 100% certain that things will not change and you continue chugging along, if you continue going with pap.
Slagging off opposition candidates before polling day for sure, will not help.
LOL ................... LOL
A standard leasehold is one where you own the land (and the home on it) for a specified lease, i.e. 99 years here (which is very long by 1st World standards, usu. 30 to 70 years). Even for strata-titled property, you own a share of the land pro rata with the other residents. You can sell the apartment you own, or collectively sell your land (subject to rules).
HDB's 'leasehold' is actually a long-term rental tenancy in disguise, where you pay the entire 99-year rental in advance. Because you own neither your flat nor the land on which your flat sits. You're just a tenant duped into paying rent in advance.
Roy is right. All this talk of the 'interest' repaid being your own money is beside the point; it's about the principle and the ludicrousness of paying interest on your own money.
When money is withdrawn from your CPF to buy a property, you're foregoing interest income (2.5% p.a.) for capital gain. That is, while your money is invested in your flat, there is no interest earned. You figured that your capital gains would exceed the interest earned had you not bought the flat, so it was a worthwhile investment.
Therefore, after selling your flat, you should return the capital you 'borrowed' to your CPF. From whence the interest? CPF didn't pay you any interest while your money was tied up in your flat; and how does it make sense to pay interest on your own money?
An analogy: you withdraw $100,00 from your POSB account to buy a property. You sell the property 3 years later for $150,000. For 3 years you didn't earn any interest, but you made $50,000 in capital appreciation. Now I redeposit my $100,000 in my POSB account. Do I have to pay 3 years' interest on my $100,000??? Did I 'deprive' the bank of interest income that I have to make good?
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No I get it, but that is another issue for another day.
First thing first. Capital gains is only for an appreciation of the flat price. If you buy a flat for $350,000 and sell it for $200,000, where is the gain? Also don't forget that by the end of 99 years, your flat value is zero.
I re-read the article by Roy again and I realize that he is still wrong, but also half right.
Actually, Roy is talking about both; hence he is contradicting himself.
By saying that one should not be forced to put money back into CPF unless one wants to save, he acknowledges that the money ultimately belongs to the CPF accountholder. That I agree with him.
Yet in the same breath, he asked why one is made to pay 2.6% interest to HDB and 2.5% to CPF. The interest paid to HDB is a different matter. The interest of 2.6% to HDB becomes part of the flat price, meaning that when you sell your flat, the interest eats into what would have been your proceeds.
CPF interest is a forced savings as Roy correctly puts it, so Roy shouldn't be lumping the two together. Ironically, he was questioning why the government tied the CPF interest rates to the HDB mortgage interest rates.
The words he used were also strong, such as "dirty" and "trick", as if CPF holders were taxed for using CPF in the same manner as the HDB interest.
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