Philip Tengistinut, a retired teacher from New Ireland Province, is now enjoying his life after retirement having achieved his Super Saving goals.
Once a teacher, always a teacher, Mr Tengistinut now wishes to pass on some saving tips to other teachers and Papua New Guineans to help them save for a better retirement.
Philip’s key tip for teachers is to plan ahead before they are thinking to retire.
“Your Savings are like your food garden, so when you retire and return home, you can harvest from this garden that you have been growing during your working life,” Phillip said.
“Remember, our hands are used to holding chalk for 20 to 30, some 40 years, like me.”
“When we retire and return home we must turn to subsistence farming to sustain ourselves, this requires holding a bush knife and we can hurt our hands because we are not used to that.”
“So it is better to plan and save for retirement so we can live comfortably and relax whilst harvesting from the garden that we have planted, saved, and grown with Nambawan Super.”
During his working life, Philip set himself a goal to have K500,000 saved with Nambawan Super Limited (NSL) when he retired.
“By setting this goal, I knew what I needed to retire, and I was pleased with what I had achieved when I received my compulsory retirement letter,” Philip happily announced.
Philip achieved his savings goal by utilising the NSL Voluntary Contributions (VC) product through which members can contribute after tax payments, on top of their compulsory 6 percent employee contributions. These contributions are not taxed on exit.
Utilising VC will allow members to have more funds in their account to earn interest, which then leads to more compound interest gained. Member’s that take advantage of VC are also in a much better financial position when taking out a Housing Advance to purchase or make improvements to their homes even before they retire.
Philip added, “When I found out about the VC product, I did not hesitate and quickly began my voluntary deductions making my personal contributions a total of 15% of my salary!”
“After 40 years of service with the Education Department, and as a Retirement Savings Account (RSA) member with Nambawan Super, I would like to encourage all my other colleagues to take advantage of the VC product”.
“A big encouragement to teachers out there, due for retirement, you must also consider leaving some savings in a RSA because these savings can go a long way, especially with your daily needs and family needs, once you have used up all your lump sum savings.”
“I learned from the mistakes of my colleagues who used up all their savings in a very short while long ol samting bilong hamamas lo graun (on luxurious and unnecessary expenses).”
“It is very sad and I did not want to end up like that and make my family suffer. I do not want to see any of my other teaching colleagues go through the same experience or situation”, Philip concluded.
NSL members who are 5-10 years from retirement are encouraged to get ahead of their retirement savings by registering for the new Get Ready for Retirement Financial Literacy Training.
The 3-hour training program helps members think about what steps they need to take while still working, to ensure they can have a comfortable retirement.
NSL is proud to have been serving members like Philip for the last 60 years and aims to continue building better futures for many more years to come. With more than K8.8 billion in Funds Under Management, NSL is the biggest and longest serving Super Fund that continues to contribute to the growth of PNG and its people.
