It is part of many Singaporean's life event where you sign on the dotted line and commit to a life long loan repayment.
In Sept 2009 I got news that I'm eligible to choose a flat unit and given an appointment date. My wife was just about to start her CPF contribution and mine was a pathetic 17k on my OA. Nonethless we chose our unit and pay up $2000 for deposit.
We continued going about our daily life and soon enough it was mid 2012. Our house is ready for key collection and our combined OA is only $70k. Our house is priced at a whopping $260k. Instead of letting HDB wept out all the money, I parked $10k in a safe investment. I called my friend working in the bank and ask to invest my $10k on a safest stock.
As it is required, HDB clean out both our OA in our CPF and we borrowed $200k from HDB. Monthly payment deduction of $915.00 was payout from my OA alone. I let the $10k sat in the stock for a while before I took it back into my OA in 2015. I made nearly $2000 from the investment. All these while I let my wife's OA to build up some money.
I do understand that HDB have a 2.6% interest on the $200k loan and letting the money sitting inside our OA is a waste of interest rate. I also understand that there's a accrued interest ongoing in my CPF account but that is unavoidable as long if I make payment through my OA.
I believed in sustainability. Just like my first daughter was born 8 years ago, I only draw $2000 wages a month and worried about the comfort level of my small family. I adjusted my social lifestyle and spending habits to accommodate for our new born. As for our HDB flats, I purposely parked $10k outside for a brief moment so that I have some spare cash in OA just in case I became jobless.
Now my wife had approximately $20k in her OA as we didn't utilize her OA for HDB loan payments. I also had build up another $30k in my OA too. So technically speaking we have 5 years of house loan saving in our OA. I wrote this post because today I realized what I planned few years ago to have 5 years of loan repayment excess in our OA target is met. Even if we do not have any CPF contribution for the next 5 years, our house loan payments are still on track.
I did once mentioned this to my co-worker while having an afternoon coffee some time back and he told me that HDB will not repossess my house even if I do not pay my loan. He has a friend living in Yishun and had not been paying for the pass 9 years. I agreed that HDB will not just take our house if we were to miss a couple of payments but I do believe that you can't escape any money owe to the government. They are not going to write it off that easily without taking an arm or leg from me.
I know that this might not be the brightest idea, but this is what I can come up from my lazy brain. Now I will keep this extra 5 years safe buoyant and clear any excess to HDB loan on a yearly basis. It's just like buying an extra insurance for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment