thefinancelayman

  As a middle-class citizen, recognizing the broad range within this classification, doing estate planning is not only a necessity, it’s an obligation. Estate Planning an intricate subject. I've observed notable uptick in the number of financial planners distinguishing themselves as estate planning specialist recently. I’ve also seen the emergence of dedicated Financial Advisory firms and groups focused on estate planning. However, many of these offerings can be costly, particularly for much of the middle class in Singapore, including expats, permanent residents, and locals alike. While the goal of estate planning is to minimize the financial burden on beneficiaries, the price of the process itself has become exorbitant. This creates a paradox where one may end up spending substantial amounts of money to structure their estates, potentially nullifying the intended cost-saving benefits for their beneficiaries. I attribute the main reason to the unnecessary over-leveraging to

CPF SA/RA, A Bond Investment Product for the Middle Class As a Singaporean/PR, we should know that the CPF SA/RA is a compulsory savings and retirement scheme administered by the Singaporean government. It's also seen as a safe and reliable investment instrument because it's backed by the government. With a minimum return of 4.0% p.a. (4.08% p.a. as of 1st January to 31st March), the CPF SA/RA provides a bond like rate of return in the medium to long term, this is also why if an individual is looking to invest into bonds for their retirement, Singaporean and PR alike should look no further than to top up their CPF SA or RA to meet the minimum sum for their retirement needs if liquidity is not a concern. CPF Conservative Investment Approach CPF Funds are invested into Special Singapore Government Securities (SSGS) that are issued and guaranteed by the Singapore Government. The government takes the investment risk in managing the SSGS proceeds and ensure the CPF board will be ab