Amy Khor confirms CPF is NOT our money!

[Leongsam]

https://www.bnz.co.nz/personal-banking/home-loans/home-loan-changes

What the LVR changes mean for you.

From 1 October 2013, fewer home loans will be available for customers with smaller deposits.

If you are looking to buy a home and have a deposit that is less than 20% of the home's value, you may find it harder to get a home loan. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has put restrictions on lending to customers who have a Loan to Value ratio (LVR) of over 80% (i.e. a customer has a deposit of less than 20% of the home's value).
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The Reserve Bank is concerned that the housing market poses a growing risk to New Zealand's financial stability. The Reserve Bank believes that these new restrictions will support the stability of the housing market.

If you want to buy your first home and have a deposit of 20% or more there will be no impact on your home loan application.

Home buyers with a deposit of less than 20%

If your deposit is less than 20% of the home's value, your loan application will be affected by the new restrictions. The restrictions mean that only 10% of the bank's new lending for residential housing (new home loans) can have an LVR of more than 80% (a 20% deposit or less). Therefore, your application will have to undergo a number of assessments to see if the bank is able to give you the loan or not, to ensure that the bank complies with the new restrictions.

A low equity interest rate premium will apply to all BNZ home loan lending with an LVR of over 80% (less than 20% deposit).

You can view details on our home loan interest rates and fees page.

 

[Leongsam]

Look at the sort of interest rates that Kiwis have to pay.

	Classic**	Standard/Fly Buys	GlobalPlus
Term	Current Interest Rate % p.a.
6 months	n/a​	5.75%​	5.75%​
1 year	n/a​	5.85%​	5.85%​
18 months	n/a​	n/a​	5.99%​
2 years	5.89%†​	6.29%​	6.29%​
3 years	n/a​	6.25%​	6.25%​
4 years	n/a​	6.59%​	6.59%​
5 years	n/a​	6.99%​	6.99%​
7 years	n/a​	7.45%​	7.45%​

<tbody>
</tbody>

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Compare this rate with what lucky Singaporeans have to pay...

http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10328p.nsf/w/UpgradeHDBInterestRates?OpenDocument

HDB Concessionary Interest Rate:

• Apr 2014 - Jun 2014 : 2.60% p.a.
• Jul 2014 - Sep 2014 : 2.60% p.a.

---

As you can see, there are many facets when it comes to finances. There is no place in the world where all the stars align for you and everything is in your favour. For each gain that you make in one area, there are negatives that you'll have to contend with. It is up to each individual to take stock of the situation and make decisions for maximum gain.

As you can see from the above figures, Singapore is a great place for having a mortgage but not so good when it comes to securing a good return on risk free deposits. The solution is therefore to borrow money in SGD and invest in higher yielding currencies like the NZD. That's exactly what I have been doing.

However, there is the obvious risk of exchange rate fluctuations wiping out your yield gains. How do I counter this?.. by betting a bob each way and having a base in both countries. At the moment the exchange rate favours the NZD so I buy SGD with NZD. A few years down the road, the SGD may be higher so I'll do the opposite. It's not rocket science. It's actually simple and straightforward.

As I have said many times, life is what you make of it.

 

[chootchiew]

The restriction on termination applies only to the minimum sum. It does not apply to any funds beyond that amount so if you use YOUR CPF money to buy a house and you make $500,000 profit when you sell the house, you can withdraw this money minus the small amount of interest accrued.

In CPF, Singaporeans have a huge advantage over citizens of many other countries in that the government has created a savings/investment fund for you which is extremely flexible and relieves many of the cash flow problems that people around the world face when it comes to securing loans and paying mortgages.

The only downside, if you do consider it to be one (I don't) is that there are withdrawal restrictions on a small portion of this fund when you reach retirement. In my opinion, it is a price well worth paying considering all the benefits that can be derived from CPF over the years.

Singaporeans should consider themselves to be extremely lucky. In NZ, the reserve bank has restrictions on lending and borrowers need to front up with at least 20% of cash in order to buy their first homes. Many are stuck in sub standard rental property in despair wondering how they are ever going to get a foothold in the property ladder.

Imagine that you have started out in your career and you want to purchase a home in Auckland. The CHEAPEST decent home is at least $380,000 in the current market. There is no CPF to help. You have to find the money yourself.

You'll need to take a mortgage of course and you'll need 20% of $380,000 which is a whopping $76,000 of cold hard cash.

If you do succeed in getting a loan, you're then stuck with a 20 year mortgage which historically has been in the 6% to 12% zone and all this has to be funded from your take home pay. Again no CPF to the rescue. There is no such scheme in NZ (yet).

Singaporeans please count your blessings. You don't know just how lucky you are.

Understand what you trying to deliver, i do agree certain attributes of cpf are good, there are some people who even self pledge and top up cash to their cpf account. But...but..the small amt you mentioned , to some people are real big money that they never get to see in their whole life. a friend of mine at 50 yo he never ever have 100k, not even 50k at 50 yo, becos he don't earn a lot of money and most of his salary goes to household and child expenses leaving with no savings his entire working life, despite being prudent. His monthly % of salary being contributed to cpf is very little, so this is where the difference lies. Release the money to them at 55 please.

 

[frenchbriefs]

thats kinda stupid,u do know that kiwi banks pay out 3% in interest,and their term deposits up to 4.3% interest.obviously any housing loans have to be higher than that.otherwise people could simply put their housing loan in a term deposit account and use the annual interest to pay off the housing loan.

same thing for singapore,our housing loan is 2.6% but the interest of banks and fixed deposit are shit.

Look at the sort of interest rates that Kiwis have to pay.

	Classic**	Standard/Fly Buys	GlobalPlus
Term	Current Interest Rate % p.a.
6 months	n/a​	5.75%​	5.75%​
1 year	n/a​	5.85%​	5.85%​
18 months	n/a​	n/a​	5.99%​
2 years	5.89%†​	6.29%​	6.29%​
3 years	n/a​	6.25%​	6.25%​
4 years	n/a​	6.59%​	6.59%​
5 years	n/a​	6.99%​	6.99%​
7 years	n/a​	7.45%​	7.45%​

<tbody>
</tbody>

---

Compare this rate with what lucky Singaporeans have to pay...

http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10328p.nsf/w/UpgradeHDBInterestRates?OpenDocument

HDB Concessionary Interest Rate:

• Apr 2014 - Jun 2014 : 2.60% p.a.
• Jul 2014 - Sep 2014 : 2.60% p.a.

---

As you can see, there are many facets when it comes to finances. There is no place in the world where all the stars align for you and everything is in your favour. For each gain that you make in one area, there are negatives that you'll have to contend with. It is up to each individual to take stock of the situation and make decisions for maximum gain.

As you can see from the above figures, Singapore is a great place for having a mortgage but not so good when it comes to securing a good return on risk free deposits. The solution is therefore to borrow money in SGD and invest in higher yielding currencies like the NZD. That's exactly what I have been doing.

However, there is the obvious risk of exchange rate fluctuations wiping out your yield gains. How do I counter this?.. by betting a bob each way and having a base in both countries. At the moment the exchange rate favours the NZD so I buy SGD with NZD. A few years down the road, the SGD may be higher so I'll do the opposite. It's not rocket science. It's actually simple and straightforward.

As I have said many times, life is what you make of it.

 

[Leongsam]

thats kinda stupid,u do know that kiwi banks pay out 3% in interest,and their term deposits up to 4.3% interest.obviously any housing loans have to be higher than that.otherwise people could simply put their housing loan in a term deposit account and use the annual interest to pay off the housing loan.

same thing for singapore,our housing loan is 2.6% but the interest of banks and fixed deposit are shit.

You obviously have not grasped a word of what I am saying.

It goes without saying that any bank will charge more interest on its loans that it pays out on its deposits or it would have gone belly up a long time ago.

That is why I say borrow in SGD but deposit in NZD.

The Japanese are heavy buyers of the Kiwi dollar for this very reason.

Kiwi banks in NZ are now charging around 7% fixed for a home loan and paying about 5% for a 2 year term deposit.

 

[Leongsam]

Understand what you trying to deliver, i do agree certain attributes of cpf are good, there are some people who even self pledge and top up cash to their cpf account. But...but..the small amt you mentioned , to some people are real big money that they never get to see in their whole life. a friend of mine at 50 yo he never ever have 100k, not even 50k at 50 yo, becos he don't earn a lot of money and most of his salary goes to household and child expenses leaving with no savings his entire working life, despite being prudent. His monthly % of salary being contributed to cpf is very little, so this is where the difference lies. Release the money to them at 55 please.

This is exactly the sort of character who needs the minimum sum scheme!

If $50,000 is released to him at 55, based upon your description of his financial abilities, it will be gone in a very short time.

He'll then have no savings, no CPF and at some point, he'll end up with no job. So what is going to do?

 

[frenchbriefs]

i wasnt talking about ur 2nd part of ur post,did i say anything about that?i dont care what u do to exploit the loophole.but u are obviously like PAP scum,only using half the story to prove ur point,and draw attention only to the points u want to prove and obsfucate the other.

and frankly i dont think what ur doing with nzd and sgd even matters because thats forex trading,or currency speculation,u think u can predict what the market is doing but trust me the excessive portfolio turnover of ur sgd and nzd accounts and the timing errors and the bid ask spread and trade commisions will wipe out any tiny profit u think ur making.

according to the modern portfolio theory,if u have $50,000 invested in sg and nzd equally,25,000 each,if sgd goes down and nzd goes up,u are supposed to sell the excess nzd and buy sgd to rebalance the portfolio back to 50/50 which is ur originally allocation,because u have to assume that sgd will recover in future and push the value of ur sgd holdings up.BUT U SAID TO BUY MORE NZD WHEN MARKET FAVOURS NZD,THATS GOING AGAINST MODERN PORTFOLIO THEORY AND JUST BEING A SHEEP BLINDLY FOLLOWING THE MARKET.

however whats more complicated is currency do not behave like stocks and bonds,we all know that stock index and economies will always recover and bounce back after a hard fall or recession,like cycles of boom and bust but thats not true for currencies,currencies do not have this inherent property......if a currency goes down,thats nothing to say that it will not keep going down forever....until it becomes worthless....like failipines pesos.

You obviously have not grasped a word of what I am saying.

It goes without saying that any bank will charge more interest on its loans that it pays out on its deposits or it would have gone belly up a long time ago.

That is why I say borrow in SGD but deposit in NZD.

The Japanese are heavy buyers of the Kiwi dollar for this very reason.

Kiwi banks in NZ are now charging around 7% fixed for a home loan and paying about 5% for a 2 year term deposit.

 

[Leongsam]

however whats more complicated is currency do not behave like stocks and bonds,we all know that stock index and economies will always recover and bounce back after a hard fall or recession,like cycles of boom and bust but thats not true for currencies,currencies do not have this inherent property......if a currency goes down,thats nothing to say that it will not keep going down forever....until it becomes worthless....

I'm not a currency speculator. I don't trade currencies in order to make money.

What I have done is make NZ my base and the NZD one of my reference currencies which I use to budget for my retirement.

When I sold most of my SGD assets many years ago, I needed a safe haven and guaranteed returns on my assets so that I could formulate my next course of action.

I worked out how much the cash portion of my assets would yield in SGD and it came up to something like SGD70,000 per year at the time which was pittance and would not have funded my lifestyle.

I therefore looked abroad and found that OZ/NZ would yield at least $250,000 or more per year if I locked in to 3 year term. I therefore decided to make the move.

Along the way, exchange rates have fluctuated and fortunately I have been able to take advantage of the situation. However,if one of the currencies was to plunge and never recover, I would have to swallow the losses but because I don't have all my eggs in one basket, I'd still be OK.

If you don't hedge your bets, you're at the mercy of the market. If you diversify, you're in a much better position.

At the moment, my view is that the NZD could take a dive anytime without warning as it is far more internationalised than the SGD will ever be as long as the PAP is in charge.

 

[frenchbriefs]

what a load of bullcrap,if u got $250,000 yield or more than u could easily get a centurion black american express card,wheres ur centurion black card?show it to me.

more likely ur one of those losers than ran to australia to hide from ur ns liabilities,became a illegal immigrant for 20 years and begged australia for political asylum.

I'm not a currency speculator. I don't trade currencies in order to make money.

What I have done is make NZ my base and the NZD one of my reference currencies which I use to budget for my retirement.

When I sold most of my SGD assets many years ago, I needed a safe haven and guaranteed returns on my assets so that I could formulate my next course of action.

I worked out how much the cash portion of my assets would yield in SGD and it came up to something like SGD70,000 per year at the time which was pittance and would not have funded my lifestyle.

I therefore looked abroad and found that OZ/NZ would yield at least $250,000 or more per year if I locked in to 3 year term. I therefore decided to make the move.

Along the way, exchange rates have fluctuated and fortunately I have been able to take advantage of the situation. However,if one of the currencies was to plunge and never recover, I would have to swallow the losses but because I don't have all my eggs in one basket, I'd still be OK.

If you don't hedge your bets, you're at the mercy of the market. If you diversify, you're in a much better position.

At the moment, my view is that the NZD could take a dive anytime without warning as it is far more internationalised than the SGD will ever be as long as the PAP is in charge.

 

[halsey02]

All these charts, graphs, write ups, compare with this & that, compare "chalk with cheese"..compare NZ with..?? It is plain as day, AT 55, we want our CPF money, all of it...we want, we leave them behind & you invest them & give me a satisfactory returns, no bull shit on how I spend my money, minimum sum, pledge my property & forever, changing the rules to 'entrap' my hard earn, BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS money...& it boils down to one simple sentence...WE DO NOT TRUST YOU ANYMORE!

 

[Leongsam]

more likely ur one of those losers than ran to australia to hide from ur ns liabilities,became a illegal immigrant for 20 years and begged australia for political asylum.

It's actually worse than that. I live in a rented room in Bedok South. I haven't left the country for the last 30 years. I don't have the money.

 

[eatshitndie]

It's actually worse than that. I live in a rented room in Bedok South. I haven't left the country for the last 30 years. I don't have the money.

we are likely neighbors. many of us live in bedok, have no life, bet on soccer, surf sbf all day, walk around bedok reservoir, and contemplate jumping in.

 

[frenchbriefs]

we are likely neighbors. many of us live in bedok, have no life, bet on soccer, surf sbf all day, walk around bedok reservoir, and contemplate jumping in.

no wonder this site so successful,with all the football betting advertisements.....leong sam is a entrepreneur extraordinaire like microsoft bill gates,facebook mark zuckerburg,he recognise theres a need for other people like him and created a new industrial revolution

 

[Dragonhead]

CPF is very much the HDB flat,it is your flat but then again it is not your flat

It depends on how it is viewed by different people. To sinkies, CPF money is your money but is it readily available when you need it? No. Papo takes care for you, decide when you can have it and how to use it.

To the foreigners (PR), CPF money is really their money, readily available when needed, they can withdraw it as and when they fancy, they can tell papo to hand it over and papo cannot say such and such rules apply to deny withdrawal.

Better be a foreigner in sinkapoo and enjoy CPF privileges which sinkies do not have.

 

[Equalisation]

It depends on how it is viewed by different people. To sinkies, CPF money is your money but is it readily available when you need it? No. Papo takes care for you, decide when you can have it and how to use it.

To the foreigners (PR), CPF money is really their money, readily available when needed, they can withdraw it as and when they fancy, they can tell papo to hand it over and papo cannot say such and such rules apply to deny withdrawal.

Better be a foreigner in sinkapoo and enjoy CPF privileges which sinkies do not have.

Gosh !!! Then do NS for what ?

 

[Dragonhead]

It's actually worse than that. I live in a rented room in Bedok South. I haven't left the country for the last 30 years. I don't have the money.

Really funny. People in this forum say you keep and f...sheep in NZ but you now say you no leave sinkapoo for last 30 years.

 

[Leongsam]

It depends on how it is viewed by different people. To sinkies, CPF money is your money but is it readily available when you need it? No. Papo takes care for you, decide when you can have it and how to use it.

To the foreigners (PR), CPF money is really their money, readily available when needed, they can withdraw it as and when they fancy, they can tell papo to hand it over and papo cannot say such and such rules apply to deny withdrawal.

Better be a foreigner in sinkapoo and enjoy CPF privileges which sinkies do not have.

The government does not care about foreigners. They can take all their CPF and spend it all on whores or gamble it away in a weekend. The government couldn't give a shit.

However, they have deep concern for the welfare of sinkies hence the restrictions. It's called Tough Love. There's even a wiki entry for the term.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tough_love

 

[halsey02]

Really funny. People in this forum say you keep and f...sheep in NZ but you now say you no leave sinkapoo for last 30 years.

He is just as honest as the politician's who says that CPF is yOUR money....believe at your own peril. I am from outer space & resides on Mars...there is a WP basher originates from somewhere in the universe....so go figure! don't forget the vegetarian too...

 

[Leongsam]

Really funny. People in this forum say you keep and f...sheep in NZ but you now say you no leave sinkapoo for last 30 years.

Hey I just act out the part. I don't write the script.

 

[johnny333]

You obviously have not grasped a word of what I am saying.

It goes without saying that any bank will charge more interest on its loans that it pays out on its deposits or it would have gone belly up a long time ago.

That is why I say borrow in SGD but deposit in NZD.

The Japanese are heavy buyers of the Kiwi dollar for this very reason.

Kiwi banks in NZ are now charging around 7% fixed for a home loan and paying about 5% for a 2 year term deposit.

Don't really care what others do with their CPF. It is their money & different people have different priorities.

I only know what I would do if I had my CPF. I would follow the Japanese & shop for the best returns. For donkey years the interest rates in Spore have been much lower that what you would find internationally.
If I had only invested in the local market I wouldn't have made as much $$$.

The CPF is turning out to be the biggest con game in Spore. I for one believe that the only way that Sporeans will ever see their CPF is if enough people vote for the opposition.
Then we will see just how much is left in there.