Some Thought on Retirement Planning

Planning / Preparation for Retirement

When the word “retirement planning” is said, the first thing that comes to many of our minds may be financial planning. I do agree that financial planning is an important part of retirement planning, but it is by no means the only aspect of it. In my humble opinion, there are more other things in a proper retirement planning besides financial planning. In this blog I try to list down things that I feel are important when one prepares him/herself for the retirement.

Activities Planning
When you retire, you suddenly have all the time with you. Believe me, without activities to keep you occupied, you will be bored to death. The last thing you want to do is waiting for sunset in the morning and sunrise in the evening. Many retirees don’t survive very long, meanly due to this. I recall the principal from my son’s primary school, an elderly scholar whom many respected. He passed away in less than a year after retirement. So ask yourself what you want to do after retirement. Touring round the globe is a costly affair is tiring and cannot be taken as a long term activity. Some daily activities such as exercises, hobbies, social work, voluntary work etc. will help to keep your mind and body occupied. Intellectual activities such as reading, board games help to keep your mind alert and prevent dementia. Or you may want to pick up some new skills or knowledge. In Western Countries, many retirees go back to universities to fulfill their dreams. So ask yourself: What do you plan to do when you retire?

Community/Relationship Planning
Have you ever heard some people say: “When I retire, I will sell away everything here and go retire in …..”? That for me is not an option. To me, one must stay connected with the community or at least a group of good friends after retirement. So if you are seriously planning to retire in a foreign country, it is best to migrate well before you retire. In that case you can build your link to the community and be prepared.

During the retirement years, it is important to have friends who can carry out certain activities with you. This can range from going tours together, playing games together, to having afternoon tea together, etc. Friends are important in retirement, and true friendship can only be built over long times. So start building your relationship now.

Psychology/Attitude Planning
Retirement is a big change. When you are working, you may be the CEO, manager, HOD ….etc. The moment you retire, all these titles cease. You become “just” a retiree. All the social status that comes with the job disappears. There are many who cannot come to term with this change and become depressed or disappointed. Many people derive their worth from what they do, their job or job status. So when they retire they feel that they become worthless. One has to prepare himself for this change from working adult to retiree.

Remember, to retire is NOT to become worthless or useless. You just have more time in your hand and can do your own planning, do the thing according to your own priority. You no longer work according to others schedule but your own.

Financial Planning
A lot has been said on this and I cannot add much to it. I do believe that in today’s Singapore, “金钱虽不是万能，但没钱是万万不能”. Retiring from your job or business means that your regular income ceases. Therefore it is important to be financially prepared. Unless you are being forced by circumstances to retire, it is worth doing the financial planning. I always advise my younger colleagues to start planning as early as they can for two reasons: 1, The effect of compounding interest; 2. No one knows with certainty how long he or she can still work.

28 September 2012

September was another "quiet" month for global equity market. The good news QE3 was quickly neutralised by the renewed worries in Eurozone, slowing Chinese growth and the tension in East China Sea.

Locally, market attention was drawn to the F&N saga. Otherwise market has also been relatively calm. STI rose 34.88 (1.15%) in the month, in relatively small ups and downs.

My portfolio did better than the market, rose 3.68% in the month, thanks to F&N, property stocks and Reits. I received some shares from AimsampIReit and Cambridge through script dividend scheme. I also bought some Sing Inv shares. I have received the offer letter for my F&N shares, but I will not accept the offer this time, since market talk says that the offer is under valued.

I received about $5,000 in dividend, including those from fix-income funds. The dividend has been re-invested.

Below are the top 30 holdings in my portfolio. F&N advanced 2 positions for known reason, SingTel dropped off the list due to price drop caused by Temasek annoucement to sell shares.

1.   SPH
2.   Semb Corp
3.   F & N
4.   OCBC Bk
5.   ComfortDelGro
6.   DBS
7.   SP AusNet
8.   ST Engineering
9.   Starhub
10. SGX
11. FraserComm
12. MetroHldg
13. CapitaComm
14. CitySpring
15. Nikko AM STI ETF 100
16. Kep Corp
17. SembMar
18. Ascendasreit
19. SIA
20. MapletreeLog
21. CapitaLand
22. SATS
23. FrasersCT
24. AIMSAMPIReit
25. Sabana Reit
26. MacqIntInfra
27. Sing Inv
28. AscottReit
29. Yangzijiang
30. GlobalInv

31 August 2012

August has been a 'quiet' month for the market. Local stocks are trading within a tight range. STI swung between positive and negative during the month, but as said, range bound. As at today, STI closed at 3.025.46, dropped 10.94 points, or 0.36% against last month. My portfolio did slightly better. Its value rose 0.57% in this month, net of new investment.

I sold off my Fraser Comm CPPU 500, as the period of no redeeming is going to expire at the end of this month, and the convesion rate of 1.1845 is not favorable to investor. So I rather sell the stocks with a small profit, than wait for the manager to redeem them at cost.

I bought into Saizen Reit and Global Inv Limited this month. I received some bonus shares from KSH.

This month has been another "dividend" month for me. I received S$13,000 of dividend in total. Below are the top 30 holdings as at today. There are not much changes in the list. GIL made the list after I bought more of the shares.

1.   SPH
2.   Semb Corp
3.   OCBC Bk
4.   ComfortDelGro
5.   F & N
6.   DBS
7.   SP AusNet
8.   ST Engineering
9.   Starhub
10. SGX
11. FraserComm
12. MetroHldg
13. CapitaComm
14. CitySpring
15. SembMar
16. Nikko AM STI ETF 100
17. Kep Corp
18. Ascendasreit
19. SIA
20. MapletreeLog
21. SATS
22. CapitaLand
23. FrasersCT
24. AIMSAMPIReit
25. MacqIntInfra
26. Sabana Reit
27. AscottReit
28. Yangzijiang
29. GlobalInv
30. SingTel