440,000 CPF lose money,some cannot pay mortgage

[downgrader]

Another 440,000 reasons why property plunging



Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Dec 22, 2008
Savings in CPF funds hit
By Lorna Tan, Finance Correspondent


INVESTMENTS of retirement savings in stocks and units trusts made under the Central Provident Fund Investment Scheme (CPFIS) have taken quite a hammering in the global market meltdown.

Nearly half of all CPFIS investors who sold their Ordinary Account investments in the year ended Sept 30 - 440,000 CPF members, or 49 per cent - have lost money, up from 43 per cent a year earlier.

One such investor, school teacher Ms Catherine Lee, 40, got cold feet after her CPFIS investment lost 30 per cent. She could not stomach any more losses.

'I made a loss of $10,000 after selling off my unit trust investment in September. The market was very volatile. I preferred to bite the bullet and realise the loss rather than to wait and see.'

Another 279,000 or 31 per cent of OA investors made modest profits but would have been better off, or done just as well, leaving the cash to earn the Ordinary Account 2.5 per cent interest rate. This was up from 29 per cent a year earlier.

Only about 174,000 members, or 20 per cent - down from 28 per cent - made profits from their CPF savings over and above the 2.5 per cent they could have earned anyway.

For everyone else, who left their investments in place rather than sell, the picture was also quite bleak.

Overall, CPFIS investments in stocks, units trusts and property funds were well in the red, on paper. Only bonds, as well as gold, were in the black.

The CPF board attributed the poor performance to the financial meltdown which has hurt investment returns.

'The market has turned sharply from the bull market in 2007 to a bear market this year. Well-known financial institutions taking massive write-down coupled with a series of collapses such as Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mae, Lehman Brothers and AIG injected much panic and volatility in the market,' it said.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[lifeafter41]

Another 440,000 reasons why property plunging

To punt on the market until the extend of not beig able to make the monthly mortgage is simply plain irresponsible.

There should have been at the very least, a 6 months of buffer in the cpf oa to cater for the housing mortgage payment.

Investing to make some money and increase the returns above the normal cpf rate is one thing, punting to put one's roof and family in jeopardy is plain stupidity.

 

[captainxerox]

cannot pay mortgage means they buy beyond means. simple as that.

 

[Leongsam]

One such investor, school teacher Ms Catherine Lee, 40, got cold feet after her CPFIS investment lost 30 per cent. She could not stomach any more losses.

'I made a loss of $10,000 after selling off my unit trust investment in September. The market was very volatile. I preferred to bite the bullet and realise the loss rather than to wait and see.'

Only complete idiots sell when the market is in the doldrums! These twits should be putting MORE money into unit trusts while quality stocks are going at a huge discount.

 

[cheekenpie]

Underlying message: Park your spare cash with CPF!

 

[makapaaa]

>>>Overall, CPFIS investments in stocks, units trusts and property funds were well in the red, on paper. <<<

A loss is a loss. Are u in any better position to hold on to it? Is it not wiser to get back your cash and look for better opportunities? Yet this "it's only a paper loss" mentality is the same farking mentality the BEST PAID govt in the world is holding to justify why they should still be paid BILLIONS despite their MASSIVE punting losses. And lagi worse, they will use good money to chase after the bad and double down! Like what the Old Fart did just a couple of days ago by dumping another $14B into UBAss. Classical case of greed. Of course, he's emboldened by the fact that if the $ is lost, it'll be on the Peasants' account, but any profit would be accrued to his Familee's account!