A Concerned Senior and an SSS Pensioner

i was listening to an SSS pensioner talking to an SSS employee.  i knew his status as pensioner because of the nature of his questions and i recognized the uniform of an SSS employee.

one of his questions was regarding the pension  of a government employee vs the pension of a private sector employee.  this was easy to answer, even i knew why.  do you want to know why?

well, tis easy. gsis charges MORE and does not have a monthly salary credit ceiling. in return, the gsis member gets more retirement funds.

he was also concerned about SSS investments.  he wanted a list of the SSS investments -
well, RA 8282 or the SSS law has limits on the kind of investments it can do.  as far as i know, sss has only broken one limit - and that is, loans to members.

he also wanted to know what will happen to his son's contributions.  that was easy too.
obviously his son will be entitled to the sss benefits like a pension. all he needs to do is apply

are you interested too?  you can find the investment limits on the RA 8282, and if, like him, you want to know which and what investments ... you can write to SSS  to ask for such a list.  Remember though, SSS goes through many, many letters. really. i've seen the pile

Reaction to HTT's post last Friday

A long time ago, perhaps not in this blog, i had mentioned that unless individuals were investment-inclined,  they dont bother to really provide for their future, except perhaps to purchase an insurance policy - the just-in-case-scenario of the event of death.   However, it is not always just death that may bring disaster to a family.  Loss of income due to contingencies of many flavors have a higher probability of occurring.  Accidents may disable a person, thereby causing him to lose a major source of his  income.

Hence, i have been antsy about PERA, but no more... i think i may just fall under the not-eligible due to the long wait.  *hay*  the wheels of justice grind very slow indeed!

anyway, ofws have been romanced into paying their contributions as well as paying into a flexi-account.  How nice, and yet, as HTT points out, very few OFWs actually do that note and i dont understand why.

click below to read how advantaged and fully privileged these OFWs are .....
HTT's post on The Manila Standard Today /2013/02/22/ the-plight-of-migrant-workers/

A little thought about the PERA

i mentioned this in the short post about the SSS announcement of a supplementary savings option.
i urge everyone who is qualified to participate.  however, in the interest of fairness, this is something about PERA and here is the link for a lawyer's take on it. 

Click here for the jlp-law.com "a primer-on-the-personal-equity-and-retirement-account-pera-act"


remember one of the salient differences is the tax break on the PERA account.  Still, if the SSS optional savings account is declared a PERA vehicle - and i dont know about the chances of that happening, it will have all the PERA features.  as it is now, it has most of the features already.

SSS will establish a provident fund this year

SSS will establish a Provident Fund this 2013 for all members aged below 55, with a maximum SSS contribution of 1,560 under the present situation (15,000 is the current maximum MSC, with a rate of 104 pesos/1000 MSC.  If the SSS proposal gets approved, this will change to Maximum MSC 20,000, with 110/1000).  

Maximum contribution to the Provident Fund is 100,000 per year, with a minimum contribution of 1,000 per year, and payments can increase/decrease in multiples of 100.  Payments to the Provident Fund, like the OFW Flexifund must be over and above the maximum contribution to the SSS. 

The funds will be earmarked as 65% for retirement, 25% for medical, and 10% personal.  Withdrawals within the 5-year retention period will be subject to charges and penalties.  why, you ask? because it defeats the purpose.

Interest will be computed on this basis:

retirement and disability portion (65%) - guaranteed earnings based on the 5-year Treasury bond rate

the remaining 35% will be guaranteed earnings based on the 364-day Treasury bill rate

Retirees may opt to withdraw the savings in full or as a monthly pension.

This will work similarly to the PERA (Personal Equity and Retirement Account), only SSS Style. As you can see limitations are similar, although SSS cannot make the promise of tax benefits - only the Government can do that.

well, i recommend that non-financial savvy persons got for this.  Actually, even if you are financially savvy, it would be nice to have something like this that does not require constant monitoring - makes for a less stressful life.

remember, climate change is real and you need real savings for the future.  why climate change? you may need upgrades to your home because of environmental changes by the time you are retired so this might be a little (emphasis on the little) nest egg you can use.

Solar Power - think SSS should invest?

too bad i dont have any influence over the SSS investment policy.  or in SSS management - what say their fund invest in lending to members or better yet employees, the money to have solar power - what a way to beat escalating power fees and power requirements.  no? no ambitious takers? ah well. guess we just have to read about places like Denmark and Japan (Japan also has a city like that in Denmark)

or maybe i should try and ask my el richo classmates if they want to invest in renewable energy......

it's a way of having your name is the annals of Green things.  what do you think, guys and dolls?

*laughs*

o ano klasmayts,  dami nyong engineer at bangkero (hindi yun row-row-row-your-boat, ha?) at entrepreneurs.  dapat siguro mag-post din ako sa FB.  may-try din ako.