Thursday, September 29, 2005

Making a nomination

This afternoon, I was able to claim time-off from work. So I decided to take time to do something that I had thought of doing about a year ago, i.e. to make a CPF nomination.

In Singapore, most of the working Singaporeans and their employers make monthly contributions to the Central Provident Fund. In short, the Central Provident Fund (CPF) is known to be a comprehensive social security savings plan for many working Singaporeans. You may read more about it from: http://www.cpf.gov.sg

According to the sources (under "Nomination"), one should make a CPF nomination when:
- One starts working and contributing to the CPF.
- One marries, as marriage makes any previous nomination invalid.
- One re-marries or if there is a change in one's marital status.

If a person does not make any nomination, one's CPF savings will be transferred to the Public Trustee for distribution in accordance with the written law.

Since I had not made my nomination, I decided to do so. For one thing, I don't know the written law (for non-Muslims, Cap 146) to know how those savings will be distributed in event of my demise, so I would rather claim my right to have the final say on the issue.

Actually one reason I had delayed the nomination was because I had thought that it would be a time-consuming and tedious process. But it proved much easier than I had thought.

I reached the Central Provident Board's main office at about 4 p.m. and there was hardly any queue. In about less than 10 minutes wait, I was attended to. It took about 5 - 10 minutes to have the nomination completed and checked through by the CPF Board officers. Then I realised that the CPF Board officers could act as the witnesses, so that saved me the hassle of looking for my witnesses. It was also not compulsory for oneself to bring the identification documents of the nominee/s, so that helped made it more hassle-free. All I need was to bring my own identification documents and go personally to any of the Board's offices.

***
After I have made my nomination, I went on my walk for the day. I treated it as a sight-seeing walk, and took a few photos along the way. But good observations of the surroundings, in my opinion, should always come first before any photo-taking. Good observations help one make judgements on what makes a good composition and good photo-effects.

I could not believe that I was walking for about close to one hour and a half before I really sat down for dinner. Some time after dinner, I still took some time to do an evening walk, though that was much shorter in terms of distance covered. I did not realise how tiring it could be until I settled myself down at home. Tiring, but it was good to take some time out from the daily routine.

5 comments:

Beer Brat said...

What a coincidence. Just the day before I was filling up the nomination form after finding out what you found out.

Haven't send it out yet because the damn SAM machine at my place is not working. Haha. No postage to do the mailing.

The CPF HQ is still in Tanjung Pagar rite?

oceanskies79 said...

Beer Brat: Thanks for visiting this blog. Yes, the main office is still in Tanjong Pagar.

Simple American: Hope you will finally find time to have the walk that you have been looking forward to.

mistipurple said...

accompanying you in your walks!
*wink!*

pinkie said...

it would be nice walking with you ;)

oceanskies79 said...

Mistipurple: Thank you for accompanying me in the walks by reading my blog.

Pinkie: I think it will be nice to walk with you too. I only fear I walk too much at times, for any accompanying person to bear with.