Daily Lessons from Life 21 August 2014 - Tales of Two Retirees?

"2 headlines that provide interesting contrasts!

'4 in 5 questioned CPF's ability to fund retirement - Advertorial 21 August 2014' vs. 'Elderly woman asking for money at Holland Village can get thousands of dollars on weekends'  Stomp 21 August 2014

Lessons for me are:

1. maybe something is amiss in high stress high cost Singapore? The advertorial was put up there to encourage folks to 'buy properties' to assure of some form of retirement funding! Precisely what the government has been saying all these last 2-3 decades: that your property prices can appreciate and you can live off the 'appreciated value' of your flat or home during your long retirement!

Question is: what if you enter the market at its peak or near its peak? Your property prices actually go down! Rare in the last 3 decades but had happened before!;

2. if the 'tale' about the elderly 'beggar' making thousands of dollars on weekends just by sticking out her hands, maybe it is NOT that bad an idea for MORE cash-poor elderly to do that. After all, if we have 10k elderly in this position, it is still not an issue if everyone just give them S$10 each month! That would be, assuming only 2m people with S$10 to spare each month, each of the 10k elderly will get S$2m/10k = S$2k/mth! Not a bad deal right? The givers feel good and the 'beggars' get some help from fellow human kind! LOL!!;

3. anyway, this is no laughing matter really. Hopefully none of our elderly need to 'beg' for a living. Hopefully for those that have nothing in their CPF, not due to their being lazy but just the lemons life threw them, will get the social assistance they need. Of course, if we can 'teach them to fish' instead of 'giving them fishes to eat', we will. The money will then be like the S$10/mth per 2m people split between 10k elderly. Not alone to the giving individual. Not a lot to take from the nation's revenue too. Yes?

Yes. I am a dreamer and I am inspired by these 2 contrasting stories! Possible to make it a reality? Think about it and act on it!