Tan Chuan Jin is silly. Allowing full CPF withdrawals at some retirement age (whether it is 55 or 60) is not irresponsible. In saying that... Allowing a full withdrawal from CPF at age 55 will put us at real risk of outliving our savings in old age. To blindly keep to the earlier model of full withdrawal at age 55 would be wrong and irresponsible. ... he is suggesting that it is inevitable that a large minority would overspend and, after theyve had fun, become a burden on those that were sensible. That is to say, Tan Chuan Jin is actually saying that it is irresponsible to let people be irresponsibly and become a burden on others. Isnt this a given? But his logic is very problematic and... insolent. But who said that we should let the few who are irresponsible become a burden on others? Various heartlanders are rather ideologically conservative on this matter. But their position is not that CPF money should not be released at retirement. Rather, it is that the irresponsible should not be allowed to feed off society. Here are some things that were said: 1) It is not as if people are not aware of cheats (girls conning old men, magic stone salesmen, ...) Those that want to play can enjoy, but others should not end up funding them. 2) Those that run out of money can work. They wont starve. I think these are very sensible and fiscally responsible positions. On a separate note, I think education and instrumentation is the key to helping people manage their retirements. Education, clearly. What does instrumentation mean? I mean tools that help senior citizens gain visibility on their finances into the future. I imagine kiosks in the heartland (e.g. at 2 to 3 blocks per HDB block cluster, or the AXS/SAM machines might be used) where seniors can check how much of their CPF balances have not yet been withdrawn and how long it would last. Alternatively, for seniors that want to withdraw everything, those kiosks can be tools that when used to log expenditures, and do something similar. Visibility makes the future real. This knowledge supports better financial planning.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 07:00:46 +0000
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