"A lost hope..."
it has been a tough week from the start and our 3 years of anticipating to acquire a bit of wealth from my dad's cpf (provident fund) proved to bear no fruit at all. after one..then two..then three days of not receiving any cheque through the mailbox, my mum thought that it'd be best to call them personally and ask them what happened. it was onlie then, that i found out the whole hard truth in the morning..right after they opened the lines for phone enquiries. that my dad had actuallie signed up the other half of his provident fund right into the retirement fund and that this retirement fund account cannot be touched until he reaches the age of 62..that is equivalent to waiting for yet another 4 years! and don't know if my father can be in a very healthy state by then coz even though he is still working to support the family, he's not exactly strong like before after more than 25 years of working physically. so just as we had this dream of making so many plans...(thank goodness we didnt pre-order anything which adds up to large amounts) after we acquire the wealth, it was shattered just like that. and the person on the other line whom I spoke to..(the second time i called around) sounded quite agitated like I didn't understand that no..my father didn't have that much money in his ordinary account (less than 100 dollars to be precise) and so even if i wanted to withdraw...there's not much. and i told her that three years ago, he signed a contract stating that when he's 58, he can withdraw his money again. she said that he can withdraw provided he's working for the past three years since his last withdrawal..so at least there's money to be withdrawn. but he's not working at all..so what is there to withdraw? then i said cant be wat..i mean like..okay he's not working..but he signed a contract saying he can withdraw the previous remaining balance..Then she was like..oh the rules have changed...like as though she was trying to get rid of me. Much later, when I reached home ( i was on half day from work)..my mum was still in disbelief and i went through the website..some forms to double confirm that hey..the rules may have changed..but a contract is a contract. in the end, we decided to give the cpf another call after their lunch break and this time my mum tried to speak personally.
so the first officer that i called can speak malay so she did the explaining to my mum and my mum explained the whole problem. she said that my father had been promised tat his remaining cpf balance can be withdrawn but my mum was like he was 'tricked' into signing all of tat amount into the retirement fund account. and that he's alreadi quite sickly to begin with and the wait to his age of 62 where he will get monthly pensions may be very difficult. but the officer was kind enough to tell us another scheme..one that we had no idea about and said that it could help us. Onlie thing was it would be subjected to approval and that the wait may take up to one month. if it is approved, we can actuallie withdraw up to half of the amount in his retirement fund account. that can total up to a few thousands. Also, within these few years right up to his retirement age of 62, we cannot sell our flat. We are supposed to pledge our flat to them so that his retirement fund will still be sufficient despite withdrawing almost half of the amount as the flat is also a form of 'cash'.
Okay..sounds good to us but we wanted to know more..So there I was, the next day, surfing the net for the official form and then reading its terms and regulations as well as read their policies until my eyes can hardly open. my mum too had some difficulty understanding it and after while, then she got the idea. so i had the form printed out immediately and yet again, the next morning told my father to sign. he also got the gist of the policy but he was, as usual sceptical after being made believe that his fund can be withdrawn again 3 years after the first withdrawal. then again, we all had that glimmer of hope....i reallie hope it would turn out to be fruitful for us as it won't be fair to us. we waited up to this far onlie to have all our dreams shattered just like that. we are not a rich family nor one that is so poor. but we have our own financial difficulties that are onlie confined within our family. the amount of money that we thought we'd acquire may not be that much but to us, it's a lot.
for me, i am rather thankful that in little ways, i can help my family. like the most recent one, when my mum don't have enough money to go to KKH, a children's hospital, for my brother's asthma programme. thank goodness I am not one who goes on a wild shopping spree till the savings is zilch (zero). it wasn't much but enough to pay for his registeration, taxi fares, dinner and the medicine. no doubt my mum will pay me back, but at times like this, i am thankful for being able to save, though not much, for the past 6 months, faithfully.
like i said, we hope that we can get the approval just to improve a bit our financial standing. it will help us in tremendous ways like my brother's current education, the town council utilities bills..and etc. right now, we don't have any accrued balance coz in small ways tat i can, i help to top up my father's account so that we don't owe the town council any money. while other colleagues of mine are drawing up shopping lists, the first thing i do is to pay off all the bills...and even though the amount that is left for my ownself is not that much, i am thankful to have that amount. if i need to use my savings, i will top it up within the next pay.
i know other families have their own unique problems and some of these problems are tougher than us. now we don't owe any companies money and i hope that we don't owe anyone in the future too. i don't want to think so much about this problem but wat to do..it's all part and parcel of life. u gain some u lose some. it's how u manage to get out of the problem and not get in the problem in the first place that matters. oh, and how during these tough times, we have each other to depend on. sometimes i wish i am back to during my brother's age where i don't have to think so much about such problems. the onlie problem that i have is study problems but sooner or later, everyone will have to go through growing pains. u can't turn back time so have to make the best of what we have.
anyway, never underestimate the power of saving up. dont think it's not much u can save but u'll never know how far that little amount can go in times of need. good lucK!
so the first officer that i called can speak malay so she did the explaining to my mum and my mum explained the whole problem. she said that my father had been promised tat his remaining cpf balance can be withdrawn but my mum was like he was 'tricked' into signing all of tat amount into the retirement fund account. and that he's alreadi quite sickly to begin with and the wait to his age of 62 where he will get monthly pensions may be very difficult. but the officer was kind enough to tell us another scheme..one that we had no idea about and said that it could help us. Onlie thing was it would be subjected to approval and that the wait may take up to one month. if it is approved, we can actuallie withdraw up to half of the amount in his retirement fund account. that can total up to a few thousands. Also, within these few years right up to his retirement age of 62, we cannot sell our flat. We are supposed to pledge our flat to them so that his retirement fund will still be sufficient despite withdrawing almost half of the amount as the flat is also a form of 'cash'.
Okay..sounds good to us but we wanted to know more..So there I was, the next day, surfing the net for the official form and then reading its terms and regulations as well as read their policies until my eyes can hardly open. my mum too had some difficulty understanding it and after while, then she got the idea. so i had the form printed out immediately and yet again, the next morning told my father to sign. he also got the gist of the policy but he was, as usual sceptical after being made believe that his fund can be withdrawn again 3 years after the first withdrawal. then again, we all had that glimmer of hope....i reallie hope it would turn out to be fruitful for us as it won't be fair to us. we waited up to this far onlie to have all our dreams shattered just like that. we are not a rich family nor one that is so poor. but we have our own financial difficulties that are onlie confined within our family. the amount of money that we thought we'd acquire may not be that much but to us, it's a lot.
for me, i am rather thankful that in little ways, i can help my family. like the most recent one, when my mum don't have enough money to go to KKH, a children's hospital, for my brother's asthma programme. thank goodness I am not one who goes on a wild shopping spree till the savings is zilch (zero). it wasn't much but enough to pay for his registeration, taxi fares, dinner and the medicine. no doubt my mum will pay me back, but at times like this, i am thankful for being able to save, though not much, for the past 6 months, faithfully.
like i said, we hope that we can get the approval just to improve a bit our financial standing. it will help us in tremendous ways like my brother's current education, the town council utilities bills..and etc. right now, we don't have any accrued balance coz in small ways tat i can, i help to top up my father's account so that we don't owe the town council any money. while other colleagues of mine are drawing up shopping lists, the first thing i do is to pay off all the bills...and even though the amount that is left for my ownself is not that much, i am thankful to have that amount. if i need to use my savings, i will top it up within the next pay.
i know other families have their own unique problems and some of these problems are tougher than us. now we don't owe any companies money and i hope that we don't owe anyone in the future too. i don't want to think so much about this problem but wat to do..it's all part and parcel of life. u gain some u lose some. it's how u manage to get out of the problem and not get in the problem in the first place that matters. oh, and how during these tough times, we have each other to depend on. sometimes i wish i am back to during my brother's age where i don't have to think so much about such problems. the onlie problem that i have is study problems but sooner or later, everyone will have to go through growing pains. u can't turn back time so have to make the best of what we have.
anyway, never underestimate the power of saving up. dont think it's not much u can save but u'll never know how far that little amount can go in times of need. good lucK!
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