Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Loss of retirement savings

Monday, October 06, 2008

Loss of retirement savings

Posted in my blog.

The irony of it all! In US, borrowers who have defaulted in their loans resulted in the collapse of the lenders. Lenders are blamed for the collapse but all the same the government bailed out the lenders.

In Singapore, savers (like me), who have obediently answered the call by the government to save to provide for our retirement stand to lose all or substantial part of that retirement fund are being told that it is our own fault for
(1) not understanding the thick prospectus littered with technical jargon; and
(2) not disbelieving the bank's representatives and agents when they told us they are safe investments.After all, we must be morons to proceed with these risky investments even after being told by the banks that they are risky. (Well, the banks must have been truthful and told us they are risky, right?)

Moral of the story? Borrow, don't save.

Tiang

6 comments:

Everlearning said...: Tiang, I can feel your frustrations when the authorities that have the power do not act promptly or pretend that such matters would simmer if they keep silent.
We cannot justify wrongdoings or condone these dealings from the financial institutions.
The Petition is the first step, if ignored, the second step, maybe someone in the midst might think of setting up a bank for us. A bank that has a BIG heart to serve the welfare of the people.; October 06, 2008 8:53 AM
symmetrix said...: There is suppposed to be such a bank already, ie POSB - the peoples bank (part of DBS). And look what DBS did with its High Notes 5.

-Lingam; October 06, 2008 10:30 AM
Anonymous said...: The moral of your story is do not listen and believe everything you see or hear just because it is listed in the mainstream mass communication. In other words, engage your brain before you engage your hand to sign anything.; October 06, 2008 1:50 PM
Anonymous said...: These RM r very well-trained and think of ways to sell the products to suit the customers to meet their targets. Hard to beat them. Unless the customers have bad experience before.; October 07, 2008 11:43 AM
Anonymous said...: Lehman Brother's credit rating was A+, better than Malaysia's A-. I dun think the bankers/govt/central banks would have thought that Lehman will collaspe, back in 2006/7; October 08, 2008 3:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Nice moral. Why is the saving goal not on target? If it is because the budgeted amount is not being saved on a regular basis, is that as a result of the amounts being redirected toward unnecessary expenses? If so, an easy fix would be to stick to the budget and eliminate these unnecessary expenses. If the amount is being redirected toward things that the family needs, perhaps the retirement savings goal and the budget are not realistic and need to be revised.

RetireDebtFreeHappy - retirement plans, retirement planning calculator, retirement planning, early retirement planning, retirement savings; October 29, 2008 11:22 AM