This article on ST is very urgent: Singaporeans ranked lowest.
While i am nowhere near retirement, i realise the importance of planning for retirement. Among other things, i realise it will be especially hard for me as i will have no other support network. No kids, no partner, no family. All i will have to rely on will be my savings. Hence, have been reading up quite a bit on improving my financial situation. With this crisis, more opportunities (rather than threats) arise for me, since i can invest at a low base (thou i still haven started).
Of cos, the big issue is how we can be among the world’s highest savers and yet have too little for retirement. Culprits include liberalising use of CPF for housing, absence of state sponsored medical care, high cost of living, absence of a minimum wage, longer life expectancy, low rate of return from retirement savings in CPF, low interest rates for saving accounts and the list goes on. The thing is, with Sg’s defined contribution plan (vs defined benefit plans in the US in the past), the state will not be bankrupted, but you can be.
I agree with Dr Kanwaljit Soin, who in another article on caring for the elderly, had said that the govt did not prepare the current older generation for this retirement-planning and that there is too much emphasis on individual responsibility. Seriously, if all of us were capable of being responsible for ourselves for such a thing, dun need govt right?