Woke up this morning with a thought that has been lingering on my mind since last night.... (or maybe the last few nights but I haven't gotten the chance to pen it down).
Both of us have been rather tight with our finances these days but Alhamdulillah, we tried to manage it in a way possible for us to live through the days.
There are days we find ourselves not being able to eat outside and then we remembered my mum gave us some paste she bought so that cooking is made relatively easier for me. And then I also had my lovely friends who gifted us with AMGD passes, which helped us too.
It's tough, I have to admit. especially when money is a critical tool in this time of age.
At times, my clients delayyyy their payment, but we still have to deliver it to them (because majlis orang.......), and trust that they will pay.......someday. It's difficult to have that trust, because some may "forget" about paying..... and we are here left waiting. (How can one forget paying something that is owed to others eh? Sigh). Have to learn how to manage this one. It's not easy having to send messages to someone for something that THEY owe you. It's very naggy, but someone gotta do it. Orang kata "dah macam kerja tailong".
But having said that, our rezeki (or sustenance) didn't come to us as a form of money, for now, but at least it comes in other forms:
- Family
- Rezeki anak
- Rezeki ada rumah untuk tinggal
- Rezeki makanan (no matter how financially tight we are, Allah cukupkan with food on the table for us. This, I find amazing. Alhamdulillah Syukur).
- Rezeki kawan, walaupun I don't have many of them, but the count of them are really amazing friends
I guess I have also come to realise that it is hikmah too that I wasn't given a job because the initial plan was to have our MIL to take care of our son, while I go to work. But Allah is The Best of Planners. Indeed there was a reason that He doesn't allow me to go to work; MIL was diagnosed with cancer and of course, who else would be the better person to look after my son other than myself?
It is not at all that bad. Yes, being an SAHM is tough. There are days you get mad, slightly depressed and all, hahahha... but at least you get to witness the every milestone of your child.
It's amazing, Masya'Allah.
Indeed, rezeki itu milikNya Allah. We just gotta have faith and husnudzonbillah (sangka baik dengan Allah) and everything will eventually make sense and fall into place. ♥
We jotted down the items to be bought required solely for the renovation and what can be bought much later after renovation is completed. We needed to segregate our spending by stages, because kita taklah kaya mana kan.
Items that can be bought/installed after renovation:
- Airconditioner
- Boltless Rack
- Grille + Window for the Service Yard
Approximate spending: $4k
So, you see. It totals up to about $8.1k. Where to get that sum of money eh? Dengan renovation cost lagi.
But not all hopes are lost. Haha. We made a trip down to the stretch of shop houses at Jalan Besar Road to take a look. Our agenda for that particular day was more to surveying the prices for lighting. Shops after shops we went in. Until 1 particular shop where we realise that it has almost everything we needed. Lol.
We ended up buying everything we stated above in that shop except for the ceiling fan with light because we already bought those from a different shop at Sembawang last year before we even receive the keys to our home (nasib baik dapat rumah. kalau tak, terpaksa forego deposit kipas tu lol).
From a $4.1k budget we had, we spent about $2.5k in total. Just nice of what we have actually. Hahahha. The shop owner was very nice to give us some discounts on the items as we bought quite a bulk from them. Anyway, we didn't even have $4.1k to start with. Kesian eh. Lol.
Although there are much more beautiful design/function I wish we could have bought - because gatal nak "rumah idaman" - but I'll make do with what we have, even if the designs are not what I have in mind lol. Asalkan function sudah.
Maybe next time lah eh when we have more rezeki or when the current items have eventually passed their "old age" due to wear and tear. Haha.
To get the renovation process started, hehe, I'll let you in with a peek of our computerized drawings by Steven.
KITCHEN AREA:
ENTRANCE OF KITCHEN/DINING AREA:
AN OVERALL VIEW:
Taklah selawa ID punya with rendering of the visuals and the likes haha, but jadilah eh. And yes, we decided to hack the kitchen entrance and make the kitchen entrance bigger instead of having it a closed kitchen because we liked it to look more spacious. The kitchen by itself is really small - I feel a tad claustrophobic when I walk in it! #ngadengade Sure, the smell of food cooking will travel, but I'll usually balas with nice scented boiled lemon and cinnamon after cooking is done. So I hope that will help with that problem? Heh.
Received a letter from HDB yesterday (after an appeal made to our MP last month) that they only allow us up to 20th Dec next month for the next key collection date. Failing which, will cost us $2,112 every month after that as a penalty cost.
Seriously?
I'm already having trouble trying to direct latch Adriaan recently. Somehow, I feel my supply has dipped. Not sure what is causing it - stress or not eating proper or both.
Tired beyond words.
Sometimes, I just feel like switching to FM and deny him all the goodness of "liquid gold" that everyone talks about. It's more costly, but so much easier. I don't have to deal with latching him every hour, I don't have to deal with cracked & sore nipples. I don't have to deal with pumping anymore. But that's just selfish. And with the stress with regards to our home mortgage, really, it's not helping at all.
We were told that we couldn't get the keys to our unit....... -.-zzzz Surprise, surprise.
After alllll the hard work & effort eh!
Bear with me as this is not the "usual" key collection procedure that you normally get to read. I'll be sharing the problems we faced and hopefully you can gain some knowledge or two with regards to this.
Here's what happened:
- Reached HDB Hub at 12.07pm (Appt was at 12.15pm)
- Got the Queue number
- Went in and met the Sales Officer (not our OIC), and the kakak sales did some keying of figures into the system and raised this question subsequently to Mr. J, "Your wife is not working right now?" *swings the red flag everybodaye*
She kindly told us that following our current monthly household income, we would need to top up a shortfall of $384 every month. Which, we were fully aware of and okay since we have done our financial calculations and have sufficient savings every month for this shortfall. Plus, this shortfall doesn't quite matter to us, since I would be going back to the workforce insya'Allah after I have delivered. Kira few months kita bayar this shortfall with GIRO, and once I have started working, my cpf contribution can be used to cover this shortfall of $384. No biggy right......? Or so we thought.
Here comes the twist:
Kakak sales said that this amount of shortfall has to be paid via CPF only, through our total monthly CPF OA Contribution. The GIRO option mentioned in this entry here is available only if both of us are currently working, yet the total CPF tak cukup to pay the monthly HLE repayment amount.
i.e. Husband is employed with CPF Contribution while the wife is a self-employed with no CPF Contribution, but able to prove with an income tax. eg. Property agent and the likes
Well, unless Mr. J's income alone could make up the same total household income as we had back then.
Eg.
Description
AMOUNT
Applicant 1 income
2,000.00
Applicant 2 income
2,000.00
Total Household income in 2014
4,000.00
Description
AMOUNT
Applicant 1 income
4,000.00
Applicant 2 income
-
Total Household income at the point of key collection
4,000.00
...which ermmm, doesn't make sense. Nobody gets a salary increment of 200% within a span of 2 years. Unless dia kerja coolie then tiba-tiba join politics and become a Minister ah. But that is besides the point. The point is, our HLE amount needs to be reassessed since there is a decrease in our monthly total household income at the point of key collection.
Just like what we thought about previously.
If that's the case, why did HDB conveniently approve the loan and mislead us kan?
Kakak sales said HDB would assume that there's no change in our income status & give us the same loan amount. Unless we would like to request for a higher loan, then they would reassess - subject to our monthly total household income. In her words, no less "Dorang selalu shortcut. Tapi waktu collect kunci, we will look into your income status. And if there's a decrease, we would need to reassess the loan accordingly. Kalau tak cukup, kena appeal for higher loan".
Kakak sales also told us that HDB would use the CPF contribution of the last 3 months (at least) to assess the loan credibility. Meaning, I need to be working for at least 3 months for them to assess and provide the new loan amount. So many numbers, so much headache.
Kakak sales also told us that she would also prefer to grant us the key collection, but only if our OIC approves this & "willing to take this responsibility". But neh, the OIC doesn't wanna put her name on the line. Ok lor.
Given our "challenging" situation, she directed us to meet up with the COS (Loan) department to appeal - which we went after lunch.
At this point, Mr. J was already pissed with how things were. I tried to be "the water" and reminded him to husnudzonbillah and prayed for the best. To be honest, I was already really really upset. Disappointed. And all other mixed emotions. But I didn't want all these negative emotions to get to our head else we couldn't think rationally and might end up being angsty later on when we meet up with the COS officer :/ So let's avoid that.
During lunch hour, Mr. J and I had a discussion over this shortfall. We thought of two "options/scenarios" that might solve/salvage this financial shortfall that we are currently in.
Option A: Appeal to HDB & prove that we are able to come up with the $384 in cash every month to pay via GIRO, until I have found myself a job very soon (insya'Allah) and able to contribute to the shortfall with my cpf. Option B: Request/Appeal for a deferment for 6 months & find a job while at it. 3 months of "self-maternity" leave (or less - whichever works best) & 3 months of work to kickstart the CPF monthly contribution all over again. Just enough time, insya'Allah.
Sounds like a plan.
Lunch hour ended, and we met with the COS Loan department's Duty Manager to explain our situation. Didn't catch his name but we sincerely liked how he attentively listened to us explaining our situation & tried to provide us with solutions (even though he went "by the book").
- He assisted us with an appeal for a deferment
- He assisted us with an appeal for a higher loan following our current monthly total household income based on only Mr. J's income (which is impossible ah, since we already buat homework kan. But ok, we proceeded to try anywayssss)
- He also took note that I will be due soon & informed us that we can notify HDB asap once I have found myself a job. (He kindly included this in the appeal).
We checked with him whether it was possible to prove that we can come up with this shortfall financially and pay via GIRO - you know, just trying our luck. He mentioned that we are talking about 25 years of loan, which is not a short period of time. So even if we can prove to HDB that we are financially able to right now, it can't be certain that we are able to do so for the next 25 years - along with the baby in tow. Okay...
We also checked with him if the HLE amount would increase if our total household income increases (comparing against our combined household income back in 2014), he replied nope. HDB will provide us with the loan amount just enough of what we need. Well, you can never know the funny grey fineprints HDB might have. #justbeingkiasu
The whole process of appeal & approval (if possible aamiin) would roughly take about 2 weeks or so. Noted. So now we wait......for another 2 weeks......hais.
In conclusion, here's a summary of the knowledge to share, learn and & take away from our unfortunate key collection event that happened yesterday:
- For key collection to go smoothly like every other Singaporean couple, both husband and wife MUST be working, unless either one of the spouse's income (read: CPF Contribution) alone is enough to pay back the monthly HLE repayment amount
- Connecting to the above point mentioned, do also ensure that there's no decrease in the total household income between the time the HLE was first approved, to the point of key collection
- The GIRO cash top up option is ONLY applicable if both husband and wife is working, yet the total CPF isn't enough to pay for the monthly HLE repayment amount. No such thing as one person working, and the other is at home goyang kaki, lutut dan anggota-anggota badan sewaktu dengannya, and top up the shortfall amount by cash (GIRO).
- HDB assess the loan credibility using the CPF contribution of the recent 3 months
The only consolation while we were out yesterday was registering our admission paperwork in KKH after the appointment. Glad that we at least got that settled after procrastinating it for days.
Speaking of which, since dah nak kena carik kerja dalam masa terdekat ni, it may seem ridiculous to look for a job while serving confinement. But I was thinking of cutting my self-maternity leave period short and start working hopefully by Dec/Jan. Hopefully by then the job market has picked up. Aamiin aamiin aamiin.
We also need to consider on the care & well-being of our newborn once I have started working. :( Couldn't hold back my tears & broke down at night partially cz of this. Baru satu bulan je dah "kena tinggal". But no choice; Mummy has to find a job, dear. My mum is definitely out of this equation of babysitting as she has openly declared that she wouldn't want to babysit any of her grandchildren even way before any of her children got married. Well noted, mum. My MIL on the other hand, is okay to help out but I wouldn't want to trouble her in any way possible. I am sure our newborn would be in great hands under her care, but caring for a newborn isn't that easy especially since my MIL is no longer young too. Their cries, their constant feeds, their spit ups.
When push comes to shove and we have to resort to sending our newborn to infant care, then no choice :( That would mean an additional financial liability, but like I said, no choice.
To be researched: Does infant care accepts baby enrolment as early as 1 month old?
In all seriousness, hidup ni ada naik ada turun. Kadang-kadang dengan adanya masalah, kita boleh matang. Kadang-kadang dengan adanya masalah, kita boleh dekat dengan Allah. Yang penting, kita mesti usaha & do'a. Minta yang terbaik. We can't expect family to help us, cz they wont. Masing-masing ada keperluan/masalah sendiri. I know at this juncture, I am mostly to blame since I was the one who stopped working, and yes, fingers were pointed towards me for my actions. But little did they know that even if I have stayed, it wouldn't be long - the very small company that I was working for was already looking for employees to let go. What better way than to let go a mother-to-be that would only incur extra expenditure for the 4 months of maternity leave right? Sigh. Biting the bullet right now.
In a nutshell, as husband & wife, we have to help & support each other cz nobody else will. On top of that, we have to husnudzonbillah always. And always, always, have each other's back during tough times.
Tough times don't last. Tough people do.
To better times ahead. Aamiin.
---
Now we move on to executing the solution:
Without wasting anymore time (since time wasn't on our side - what's with the counting down to my EDD & the key collection happening roughly around the same time), we went down to A-X-A Customer Service counter on the 15th of Sept to terminate/surrender our policy. To our pleasure, we found out that we have earned quite a fair bit with our investment (Alhamdulillah) during the investment period of May-Sept this year. Jadilah eh..... even though investment kita tak berpanjangan lol. Yelah, sebenarnya hasrat kita untuk masukkan CPF dalam our CPFIS is so that HDB doesn't wipe out everything from our CPF-OA to zero, and stash it somewhere else. Tapi ternyata, we still needed that sum to finance our HDB. :p Issokeh, we learn...we learn.
Actually, if you ask me, it is possible to do an investment with CPFIS, but that is if memang kita nya gaji maha besar/I am still working, and the balance in our CPF-OA is enough to finance the balance payment. Because in order to invest into CPFIS with our CPF-OA, the balance in our CPF-OA must at least be 20K. We cannot suka-suka invest everything and leave the CPF-OA empty. That's the limitation that we learned when we did ours.
Taking up loans from banks/relatives were also suggested to us, but Mr. J and I memang bertekad that we wouldn't want to take up additional loans. Say no-no to berhutang if we have other safer avenues to tap into. Like what R.udy M.arican advised in one of his R.udyR.illa episode, "Biar makan nasi, telur & kicap, asal tak berhutang". Yep.
Okay, let's go back to surrendering our policy:
We were told that the process would take around 7-10 working days for the funds to be credited back to our CPFIS account, that was parked in OCBC bank. We will then receive a notification letter by A-X-A to inform us that surrender is successful and thereafter, we will need to follow up with OCBC personally to credit it back to our CPF-OA account. A bit leceh ah but no choice since this is our only resource so far kan.
So anyways, we later received the letter from A-X-A on the 22nd of Sep, after surrendering on 15th Sep. Not too long a wait huh :) Alhamdulillah.
To cut the long story short, we then headed down to OCBC the next day to request for a transfer back to our CPF-OA account by signing a manual transfer form & was told that it would also take around 7-10 working days.
Fast forward to the 27th of Sept, we received a text message from CPF Board that the amount was successfully credited (or refunded) back to our CPF-OA. Alhamdulillah syukurrrrr!
So in summary, the whole process of surrendering our policy and crediting the funds back to our CPF-OA did take up about 2 weeks. Good to plan ahead and give another week extra as a buffer time.
For now... we shall wait for the mid of Oct - which is EXACTLY next week! :) P.s: Let's just pray I don't give birth before that lah eh... Be a very very obedient baby and make your appearance only after we have received the keys from HDB k little one. Thank you!
After you have done recapping/To continue from where we left off...
We dropped another email to our OIC to raise our concern & enquired with her on how to finance the balance amount for key collection. I received a call the next day and she told us that the balance, if our CPF-OA is insufficient, is to be paid ONLY by NETS (subjected to daily withdrawal limits imposed by bank) or Cashier's Order on the day of key collection. I reconfirmed if it's possible to pay the balance required via GIRO instalments - she said No.
Note: The GIRO instalment is only valid for approved HLE loan should our monthly CPF contribution to finance the monthly HLE isn't enough.
Meaning:
DESCRIPTION
AMOUNT
Amount to be paid monthly for HLE
1,000.00
Total CPF-OA contribution
(700.00)
Balance to be topped up/paid by cash (GIRO)
300.00
Ohhhhh gitu rupanyaaaa....
So...
Backtracking to my ending note in Part 2, we actually have invested both our CPF-OA (leaving only 20K balance each in our CPF-OA) to our CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS) account with A-X-A in May this year (through a random consultant that approached us at Singpost pfft). But Alhamdulillah, ada jugak lah hikmahnya. After recalculating our CPF-OA & the amount in our CPFIS account, insya'Allah it was enough to finance the balance payment. The only thing we needed was time (around 2-3 weeks) to credit the funds back from our CPFIS account to our CPF-OA.
So, during the phone conversation with our OIC, we asked for a deferment of the key collection date and managed to push it back to mid Oct! Hopefully the funds are credited back into our CPF-OA by then.
Bearing in mind that I am currently unemployed, we decided to recalculate our HDB Loan Eligibility (HLE) amount, using the maximum loan calculator available in the HDB website, together with the current balance of our CPF-Ordinary Account (OA) and boy, we found out that we were short of about more than 100K. Gulp!
Mana nak carik duit tu? Ada hati kan nak rumah siang-siang. Sampai email OIC to bring forward our key collection date. lol.
I was feeling down for a few days, trying to find a solution for this. A part of me really find the *need* to have our own home, while another part of me was concerned with the balance amount required.
I made lots of do'a in hopes that Allah will help us in this situation. After all, He is The One who has The Best of Plans. (I certainly do not want to go through another repeat of history of having my deposit forfeited).
We asked around and checked with our friends/acquaintance who faced a similar situation (read: one applicant in the household working, while another is unemployed) and how they managed to solve this big headache - if possible. Money is really evil, you guys. It can really make/break you.
After various findings, we found out a few scenarios from these group of people:
- One of them couldn't pay by key collection and had to meet up with Member of Parliament (MP) of their estate to appeal.
- Another one who worked in HDB said that any balance amount that couldn't be financed during key collection, can be paid via installments.
What do I mean by the second situation mentioned above?
Using fictitious amount as an example:
DESCRIPTION
AMOUNT
Amount payable during key collection
300,000.00
HLE amount provided/approved by HDB
(150,000.00)
Total balance in CPF-OA
(40,000.00)
Balance to be paid during key collection
110,000.00
Now, somebody told us that it was possible to pay the balance of $110K, via GIRO instalments.
Kita pun happy ah. Kira macam dah settled kan?
(We later found out that "Nope, that's not how it works." It was a misunderstanding on the concept of GIRO instalments. :/)
So, it was back to square one......
It was during one fateful night that Mr. J and I opened up this can of worms again and we decided to really sit down and browse through the HDB portal for anything that we may have missed out. Anything at all.
We noticed that the initial HLE amount that was approved back during our signing of our Agreement of Lease (AOL) in 2014 which has previously expired, was recently approved by HDB again. Meaning, the HLE amount remained the same and did not adjust/decrease in amount - despite the change in our household income in the recent months.
Still puzzled by this, since both of us "budak baru naik with regards to beli rumah", and don't know much about HDB related home-finances scheme. So, we left it at that.
Until one fine morning where Mr. J was having his off-day...
He was lying down, playing with his mobile phone (not sure Pokemon Go or soccer game lol - info ni penting ye), where he suddenly exclaimed "Kita boleh collect on 29 Sep!"
I was like "Huh? Collect apa?", trying to recall all the 101 baby-related purchases that we have ordered recently which requires any self-collection, but none came to my mind.
It was only after he mentioned keywords like "HDB" and "Key collection", baru member paham apa maksud dia. Haha. We then logged in into our HDB portal and studied the PDF version of the appointment letter, realllly carefully.
Apparently, HDB is using the initial approved HLE amount (when both of us were still working in 2014) instead of our "self-calculated" HLE amount that we followed according to our current household income status. Sounds confusing?
Another example using fictitious amount:
DESCRIPTION
AMOUNT
Amount payable during key collection
300,000.00
HLE amount provided/approved by HDB
(250,000.00)
Total balance in CPF-OA
(40,000.00)
Balance to be paid during key collection
10,000.00
They even made a note that the balance of $10,000 (again, fictitious amount), is to be paid ONLY by NETS (subjected to daily withdrawal limit imposed by bank)/Cashier's Order.
Kita pun cuak lagi. Mana nak dapat duit tu? Walaupun "10K" is a much smaller fraction as compared to 110K, but still... 10K is not 10 bucks where we can just flick out from our own pockets in an instant. And to tell you the truth, the actual balance that we needed to fork out wasn't even 10K - it was way more than 20K. :/
