I am 54, divorced, no CPF OA balance, 100K in cash savings, owned a HDB E-flat. I am not financially savvy on investments and such. What can i do to help myself in this situation?

Please advise. 54, divorced, no CPF OA balance because used up to pay mortgage. Had stopped work for 20 yrs for family.

Have about 100K cash savings, no mortgage n flat maybe worth close to 680-700K in good times but need to offset 200K to return as loan from the past to a relative for keeping this flat.

With balance, hope can get a small 4-room HDB. Is my situation very bad. Worried as I hv no insurance other than Medishield IP.

How to go about making what little money I have grow to make retirement easier?

To begin with, the most important todo item will be to establish how much you need for retirement (every month). Thereafter, we will work backwards to determine and establish your goals.

Next, one of the biggest issue that we need to solve is your house. If you intend to downgrade your current flat, then we need more accurate financial information about the repayment, as well as how much money you can get in your CPF Ordinary Account and cash.

Given that we have probably less than a year before your Retirement Account is formed, we will need to do in-depth calculation to check and confirm whether you will be able to achieve your Full Retirement Sum. For this purpose, it will also give us a better idea on the withdrawable amount from CPF. At the same time, CPF LIFE will form part of your retirement income for life.

Meanwhile, I will suggest for you to look into your own healthcare insurance coverage. This is because MediShield Life provides a basic level of coverage only. As a result, you may wish to consider an integrated shield plan to hedge agaisnt potential medical bills in the future.

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After we have settled the imperative issues, i.e. house, CPF, healthcare, then we will have a more concrete number to work with, e.g. is it more than $100k that we have in savings that we can use to plan for retirement?

For this purpose, you may look into various financial instruments to help you achieve your goals, e.g. endowment savings plan, investment-linked policies with emphasis on bonds as a safer asset, annuities, and so on.

Overall, I will suggest for you to have clear defined goals and to create a checklist on what you wish to achieve for retirement. Thereafter, we will work item by item and to create a more secure retirement for your future.

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