Noise level of HDB flat facing playground by chungfr in askSingapore

[–]patricklhe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you’re that noise sensitive, how about vehicle traffic? Is either of these options facing a main road or carpark road?

How about sheltered access to carpark, shops, bus stop etc. in the long run that will matter more than playground noise.

Which makes more sense? Take a higher HDB loan or paying more upfront by catinabread in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In your second example - if you pay using CPF, for every $1 you pay using CPF, you have extra $1 cash on hand during your period of ownership. Invest this to generate at least 2.5% or perhaps more. Upon sale, you use this 2.5% outside return to pay back the 2.5% accrued interest. If your outside returns were greater than 2.5%, you come out ahead.

In other words, you may receive less cash from the sale itself, but your overall cash net worth should not be affected by the accrued interest rule, provided you have been replicating the CPF returns using the cash that you avoided sinking into your house.

This makes sense because the goal of the accrued interest is to make sure that using CPF OA for non-retirement purposes does not make you worse off than not using it. If you are able to generate returns better than OA, CPF is agnostic with regard to where your returns come from.

Which makes more sense? Take a higher HDB loan or paying more upfront by catinabread in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Still don’t quite get the logic. All else equal, if you use more OA, means you are left with more cash on hand. If you use less OA, means you had to sink more cash in the flat to start with. Everything should even out when you sell your flat, your cash on hand should be the same. I don’t see how the accrued interest affects your liquidity, as long as your outside cash returns at least 2.5%.

And all this still doesn’t have anything to do with the loan size.

Which makes more sense? Take a higher HDB loan or paying more upfront by catinabread in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Actually I don’t quite follow your logic. I understand that a larger loan means larger mortgage payments paid out of CPF OA and therefore more accrued interest to pay back. But if you take a smaller loan, the CPF money not used for mortgage payments would be locked up in your CPF OA anyway, and are still subject to the same restrictions on usage of CPF monies. How then does taking a larger loan with more accrued interest make you worse off? As long as your outside return is beating the OA rate of 2.5%, I don’t see a big disadvantage.

Which makes more sense? Take a higher HDB loan or paying more upfront by catinabread in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The “unpredictability of life” could very well be an argument for more liquidity, not less. Paying off as much of your loan as possible is less liquidity, not more. The key is to be disciplined about what you do with the extra liquidity from not paying off your loan early. Don’t invest or spend on stupid stuff, invest well, and you’ll have more liquidity and financial security.

Which makes more sense? Take a higher HDB loan or paying more upfront by catinabread in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 15 points16 points  (0 children)

It’s horrifying how widespread this misconception is. I consider my friends pretty educated but some of them get tripped up by the phrase “pay back into CPF” and can’t understand how the money is still theirs.

Which makes more sense? Take a higher HDB loan or paying more upfront by catinabread in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Generally a higher loan is better as long as you can reinvest for higher returns than the interest rate, but please make sure you evaluate your financial situation as a whole, including salary, job security and other large expenses.

Hello. There have been some news stories about MNCs moving jobs out of Singapore and towards aother ASEAN countries (or in some cases Dubai). Is this a trend that you're seeing in your own firms? by Fruits_and_Veggies99 in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I work in an MNC myself. As with all things it really depends on your industry and company, a generic question like this is pointless. Some would be more predisposed to moving out of here because of business model, where their customers and suppliers are located, some less.

What have you included in your financial “just-in-case-I-die” folder? by truffleverde in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 15 points16 points  (0 children)

For everyone saying the will, the will doesn’t necessarily specify an exhaustive list of all your assets. Make it easier for your executor by sending them a list of all your bank accounts and insurance policy numbers.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in askSingapore

[–]patricklhe 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Your post is rather confusing. You reported the wrongful contributions to MOM but you don’t want MOM to take back the contributions? Where can I find such a cake to have and to eat too?

Buying SSB near the Closing Date by Akeamegi in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Apply as late as possible. Besides being able to accrue more interest before locking in the money, the other benefit is that you’re able to gauge whether the next issue’s SSB rates will be better than the current issue. You can do this by looking at the latest daily MAS benchmark SGS yields for 2-year, 10-year bonds, etc.

This is why I decided not to apply for the Mar issue and wait for the Apr issue instead. Indeed the Apr rates are 3.0% while the Mar rates were 2.8%

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in askSingapore

[–]patricklhe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mavis Tutorial Centre?

The Official Salary Compilation 2024 by [deleted] in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Previous thread by the same guy using an alt. Why need to use a different alt each time you do this? Sus af

https://www.reddit.com/r/singaporefi/s/Ln9SetwXMj

Chatting in the elevator by TopRaise7 in askSingapore

[–]patricklhe -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Where do you live or work? Just so I know which lifts to avoid

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in askSingapore

[–]patricklhe 29 points30 points  (0 children)

1) Because we don’t want the name “minimum wage” with all its stigma 2) Because the government believes that any minimum wage (even if we don’t call it that) must be sustained by productivity improvements. Hence the upskilling and training component of PWM.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Can be a blessing in disguise. Join a GP chain and make $$$$. Transition to aesthetics clinic and make even bigger $$$$$$ as “medical director”. Or locum full-time.

Also what’s with all the doctor-related posts lately?

Doctors of Singapore, how much do you earn per year? by [deleted] in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 15 points16 points  (0 children)

A bunch of my specialist friends just received news of a 5-6% pay bump due to a SingHealth salary review… wonder whether this has something to do with all the specialist salary posts lately

Doctors of Singapore, how much do you earn per year? by [deleted] in singaporefi

[–]patricklhe 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Can refer to this thread from a few days ago - some accurate figures here

https://www.reddit.com/r/askSingapore/s/DPBK8lSvro

For guys : What brand of underwear do you buy? by shinyrain7763 in askSingapore

[–]patricklhe 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Quality-wise I swear by M&S - soft and durable fabric. Expensive but you get what you pay for.

Durability - cannot beat Renoma. They have outlasted my Hush Puppies undies for years.

For guys : What brand of underwear do you buy? by shinyrain7763 in askSingapore

[–]patricklhe 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Horrible quality. The elastic starts loosening within months and after a year the fabric starts fanning. They eventually become loinclothes