What Uncle8888 has learnt from past crisis 1997/1998 AFC, Sep 11 WTC, SARS, GFC and COVID-19?
As full-time Employee; he feared the most i.e. losing his job especially when he was a single household income with five mouths to feed and three school going children.
How much expenses could he really cut during crisis?
To prepare and to survive over future crisis; he NOT only prepared emergency fund; but in fact he dare NOT injected any more cash into his investment portfolio as he always like to think that he has injected enough cash capital into his bank account dedicated for investing and his CPFIS as additional chest war.
Now, as retiree from full-time job without monthly salary and medical benefits; he knew the impact of cut in dividends in his investment portfolio facing Sequence risk during crisis time.
COVID-19 came in time to teach him good real life investing lesson learnt on the ground and to validate his investing strategies to move forward in that direction.
Sequence Risk
Sequence Risk is the danger that the timing of withdrawals from a retirement account will have a negative impact on the overall rate of return available to the investor. ... Sequence risk is also called sequence-of-returns risk.
For retirees, when Cash is King during crisis; then Cash Reservoir will be the Queen who is always there supporting the King.
War Chest as calibrating tool to sustain cash flow across market and economics cycles for retirees
Read? Cut In Dividends In 2020 - Painful Experience for retirees
It is time when Cash is King came to ease the pain of a retiree and no more kpkb Cash is rotting!
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Thanks CW,
ReplyDeleteI am really thankful for your sharing. Such information is very rare except for a few retired bloggers in the US, local retirees are usually reticent about their finances.
I can relate to many of your postings on personal finances, having gone through the various crises myself. My very first crisis was in 1986 where I graduated into a very bad job market. Grabbed the first job offer at $1,600 a month and stayed with the company till today!
I can only imagine the stress of a single income household as I am lucky that my wife also work - as long as I did. The thought that we have someone to fall back on, always has a calming effect on us when things get stressful at work.
And thanks for the reminder that when we are no longer working, there is no more salary income to "recover" from the losses (whether realised or paper losses). It was with this realisation that we have been "beefing" up our CPF in the last few years.
I was really relieved and thankful that our dividend income have crossed $52,000 (YTD) with the recently announced dividends in the ongoing reporting season. We are cautiously hopeful that the dividend will hit $60,000 for the year. But next year, according to Piyush Gupta, the real pain will come, with government financial support tapering off and businesses cutting back or even closing down.
I see that you have prepared very well. It is a good lesson and reference for all.
Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
Take care.
Hi CW8888,
ReplyDeleteWould you know whether we can continue to have the CPFIS-OA account after 55 and after setting aside the Full Retirement Sum (FRS) in the Retirement Account (RA)? Means still keeping those shares in the CPFIS-OA and getting the dividends after 55? Is is mandatory to liquidate all shares turning 55? Are you keeping shares in the CPFIS-OA after 55? Real life examples will be good. Thank you!
Read? CPFIS after 55. To close or NOT to close? (2)
DeleteYou can continue to have your CPF OA and contribute to it after 55, and invest with it, and receive dividends into it (but through the bank CPFIS account first). Better yet, if you managed to set aside the FRS, you can even withdraw any partial / full amount from it, while earning the 2.5% interest if you don't withdraw. This is the reason why most people don't withdraw their CPF money.
DeleteThis CPF thing may be a great Singapore's Wealth Divide between Have plenty or Not having enough?
DeleteThank you CW8888, Monster. Very helpful.
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