SINGAPORE: After meeting with a financial advisor who told her she’d need S$4 million to retire by 55, a 24-year-old Singaporean woman took to an online forum to ask if that number could really be true.
Posting on the r/singaporefi subreddit, she explained that her current financial responsibilities are fairly minimal. She only pays for her insurance and day-to-day living expenses, so the figure came as a shock. According to the advisor’s calculations, assuming an annual inflation rate of 3.5 per cent, she would be spending around S$10,000 to S$11,000 a month by the time she turned 55.
She admitted her “jaw dropped” when she heard the estimate, especially since she hadn’t imagined her future expenses could be that high. While the advisor wasn’t trying to sell her any products and even said she was already well covered, he insisted that having S$3 million to S$4 million set aside for retirement was “normal.”
“HELLO??? My boyfriend thinks it’s absurd and doesn’t make sense to count inflation like this. If S$4M is really the norm, then I guess… I will curb some of my non-essential spending,” she wrote, adding, “I just want to know how people see such calculations and if people older have chanced upon this post, please let me know the reality of it. Thanks.”
“That FA is exaggerating to entice you to buy his or her plans.”
In the discussion thread, one Singaporean Redditor responded, “Everyone has their own number for retirement because they have different expenses at retirement. Some of us can retire with less, and some with more. So don’t focus on the number, but on the process of how your FA got there.”
Another said, “S$3–4 million in 30 years’ time would only be today’s S$1–2 million. It will generate for you S$10–11K per month, which would be today’s S$3–4K. I’ve come to a similar conclusion for my own kids, who are in their early 20s, and they’ve also started investing accordingly.”
However, others were more sceptical and advised against trusting the financial advisor. One wrote, “Stop talking to bloody FAs. Their sole purpose is to fearmonger and earn commissions off you.”
Another commented, “Definitely not normal lol. That FA is exaggerating to entice you to buy his or her plans.”
In other news, a woman has raised concerns about whether some workplaces in Singapore are indirectly pressuring employees to give only positive feedback, even during so-called “anonymous” surveys.
On Wednesday (May 21), she shared her experience on the r/askSingapore forum.
According to her post, staff were asked to participate in an organisation-wide feedback survey, which was promoted as being anonymous. Initially, she thought it was a genuine effort by management to hear employees’ voices.
However, several weeks after the survey was completed, the head of her unit told the team that their department’s director had been singled out for receiving the most negative feedback across the organisation. Following that, staff were instructed to redo the survey.
Read more: Woman claims company pressured staff into faking feedback for anonymous survey
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