CPF Account Value Thread 2026

[BBCWatcher]

CPF LIFE is relatively non-replenishable and with 4% guaranteed return(Basic, minus the longevity insurance, which I believe everyone should participate fully for tail risk). If you make more than 4% balanced long term return outside CPF, you should draw down CPF LIFE earlier. Then it also comes down to how much RA you would have at 65.

I disagree.

You should be evaluating this decision in SWR terms. An investment portfolio that you expect to yield 4.5% nominal (let’s suppose) cannot support a Safe Withdrawal Rate that would even match a CPF LIFE Escalating Plan payout stream. Consequently the smarter retirement income support strategy is to accept the default CPF LIFE payout age (age 70). Pooling longevity risk is powerful when it comes to lifetime income assurance.

Also, with the default payout start, you’ll have 5 more years of information about your health to help inform a payout plan decision, and you’ll keep more assets/income protected longer from creditors and adverse court rulings.

 

[Calthron]

Hi gurus, I was discussing with a colleague on MA top up, but he told me that his MA already exceeding BHS ... even in year 2025. I did some research and read up ... I don't have good answer ... only thing he did was refunded CPF for housing ... is this a reason?

 

[highsulphur]

Hi gurus, I was discussing with a colleague on MA top up, but he told me that his MA already exceeding BHS ... even in year 2025. I did some research and read up ... I don't have good answer ... only thing he did was refunded CPF for housing ... is this a reason?

his MA cannot exceed BHS. Maybe temporary when he gets a refund from his insurer for claims but any excess will be transfer out soon (dunno how soon though - could be weeks or months).

 

[Calthron]

his MA cannot exceed BHS. Maybe temporary when he gets a refund from his insurer for claims but any excess will be transfer out soon (dunno how soon though - could be weeks or months).

That's what I thought, but he said it's not. He didnt has any refund, and he said his MA already exceeded BHS in 2025 ... and was not shifted out to OA ....

 

[BBCWatcher]

That's what I thought, but he said it's not. He didnt has any refund, and he said his MA already exceeded BHS in 2025 ... and was not shifted out to OA ....

Does he get MediSave contributions from his employer under the Portable Medical Benefits Scheme (PMBS)? Even PMBS contributions in excess of the BHS should eventually spill over, but it might not happen instantly.

I suspect he's just mistaken, or at least that he hasn't waited long enough to see the adjustment.

 

[kickass22]

For eg. let say u totally don’t need the payout between 65-70yo and u have few hundred Ks spare cash sitting in the bank…..you still want to start at 65yo?

All depends but yeah most people will start at 65yo since money not enough or can use the extra payout for holiday and other discretionary spending.

My thinking is to use CPF has the base for essential items (ERS , Basic) . If I have excess, I can always invest it. But I think it will be support my essential spending from 65. I don't see a need for keeping it till 70.

 

[Nanonited]

Yes. You're right.

Seen as a whole, I've a fully paid HDB 4room flat, and 69/31 stock/bond portfolio if bond is taken as emergency fund+CPF OA/SA/MA balance.

Your port is like those guys who all in basically since house is not liquid. Also though your cpf is reaching the age to withdraw.. i believe you have been building your port for awhile which means that all along you only keep 6 months emergency cash.

i would gather you are quite frugal and likely not to have kids or maybe your wife covers a significant portion of their expenses.

 

[laokorkor]

Your port is like those guys who all in basically since house is not liquid. Also though your cpf is reaching the age to withdraw.. i believe you have been building your port for awhile which means that all along you only keep 6 months emergency cash.

i would gather you are quite frugal and likely not to have kids or maybe your wife covers a significant portion of their expenses.

Yes, you are right if seen from your perspective. Excluding CPF, I'm "all in".

I've been indoctrinated by American personal finance books that advocate having a holistic view of my financial life and that includes my CPF (401k in US case). The big exception is that I can't withdraw CPF at will. I understand that American 401k retirement funds can be withdrawn with draconian penalties.

I've this asset allocation for the past 29.5 years since graduation and it works out for me - personal finance is personal, everyone's circumstances are different.

My household income is very close to SG average. My personal savings is only around 500 a month. I've a 10 yo kid and my wife has low wages, we live a simple lifestyle - no condo, Europe holiday or car. Simplicity is the essence of joy. This back-to-basic mindset let me never once have a crisis in my finance. 平凡也是一种幸福。

Lol!

 

[fr33d0m]

I disagree.

You should be evaluating this decision in SWR terms. An investment portfolio that you expect to yield 4.5% nominal (let’s suppose) cannot support a Safe Withdrawal Rate that would even match a CPF LIFE Escalating Plan payout stream. Consequently the smarter retirement income support strategy is to accept the default CPF LIFE payout age (age 70). Pooling longevity risk is powerful when it comes to lifetime income assurance.

Also, with the default payout start, you’ll have 5 more years of information about your health to help inform a payout plan decision, and you’ll keep more assets/income protected longer from creditors and adverse court rulings.

I believe that I mentioned Basic. For standard and Escalating, it is not as simple as Basic. They are a longevity insurance but with a bequest feature. The difficult part is the bequest.

 

[limster]

I still have a few more years to think about CPF Life, so my plan is to look at my long term investment returns, as well as recent 3 and 5 year returns, to see whether I can outperform CPF Life. I have done some rough calculations - my maths could be wrong, but I share and hope to learn from others.

Assuming BRS/FRS/ERS for me is $150k/300k/600k, the difference between BRS and ERS is $450k.

• At age 55 - 70 (16 years inclusive), if I can achieve 9% return of the $450k (choosing $150k BRS instead of $600k ERS I have $450k 'extra' to invest), I will grow $450k into $1.89m.
• At age 70, ERS payouts could start at $3xxx a month, lets say $40k a year.
• At age 70, if I convert my $1.89m portfolio into some low risk investment yielding 4% a year, I get $75.6k a year beating ERS and furthermore the principal is not touched and can be used to benefit a charity/relatives after I pass on.

Currently, since 2017, I seem to have an annualised 10.68% CAGR. Will see if I can keep it up to age 55 before deciding. Though frankly, I don't need 9% CAGR between age 55-70 to beat CPF Life payouts. A lower 6% is apparently enough and that doesn't seem particularly difficult to achieve.

 

[Nanonited]

Yes, you are right if seen from your perspective. Excluding CPF, I'm "all in".

I've been indoctrinated by American personal finance books that advocate having a holistic view of my financial life and that includes my CPF (401k in US case). The big exception is that I can't withdraw CPF at will. I understand that American 401k retirement funds can be withdrawn with draconian penalties.

I've this asset allocation for the past 29.5 years since graduation and it works out for me - personal finance is personal, everyone's circumstances are different.

My household income is very close to SG average. My personal savings is only around 500 a month. I've a 10 yo kid and my wife has low wages, we live a simple lifestyle - no condo, Europe holiday or car. Simplicity is the essence of joy. This back-to-basic mindset let me never once have a crisis in my finance. 平凡也是一种幸福。

Lol!

Oh wow kudos to you. Very hard to be all in with kids and wife not earning similar amount.
I guess living a more frugal lifestyle helps with that as you do not need so much cash on hand to spend/travel.

i also hope to be like you except i am not so invested and really should be. I have too much cash on hand which is really bad

 

[BBCWatcher]

I've been indoctrinated by American personal finance books that advocate having a holistic view of my financial life and that includes my CPF (401k in US case). The big exception is that I can't withdraw CPF at will. I understand that American 401k retirement funds can be withdrawn with draconian penalties.

You can withdraw 401(k) funds from age 59½ in any amount without penalty. You can withdraw earlier than that without penalty for several reasons. Here are some notable examples:

• total and permanent disability
• high medical expenses (>7.5% of adjusted gross income; medical insurance premiums count)
• from age 55 if you quit or lose your job (including early retirement scenarios)

The early withdrawal penalty, if it applies, is 10%. I wouldn't use the word "draconian" to describe that figure.

I believe that I mentioned Basic.

Still disagree as a generality.

If you're in poor health before age 70 and don't have any CPF nominees you care about, OK, start payouts earlier. If you really need income from CPF LIFE before age 70 (because you're tapped out otherwise), OK, start payouts earlier. If you've got some weird foreign tax impact that skews the decision, OK, start payouts earlier.(*) Otherwise, the smart play is to accept the default (age 70) regardless of chosen payout plan. That's for the reasons I explained.

(*) Exotic example: You're a Singaporean citizen retired in the United States, you're eligible for U.S. Medicare, and starting CPF LIFE payouts earlier than age 70 would help keep you from hitting the next IRMAA bracket which would increase your monthly Medicare premiums.

 

[yslvlys]

Oh wow kudos to you. Very hard to be all in with kids and wife not earning similar amount.
I guess living a more frugal lifestyle helps with that as you do not need so much cash on hand to spend/travel.

i also hope to be like you except i am not so invested and really should be. I have too much cash on hand which is really bad

I also have high cash on hand. Reason being my risk tolerance is max 1/3 of portfolio in equities. Don't think I can sleep well with higher amount in stocks.
Why do you have high cash position and what max proportion of your portfolio are u comfortable to invest before u lose sleep?

 

[fr33d0m]

You can withdraw 401(k) funds from age 59½ in any amount without penalty. You can withdraw earlier than that without penalty for several reasons. Here are some notable examples:

• total and permanent disability
• high medical expenses (>7.5% of adjusted gross income; medical insurance premiums count)
• from age 55 if you quit or lose your job (including early retirement scenarios)

The early withdrawal penalty, if it applies, is 10%. I wouldn't use the word "draconian" to describe that figure.

Still disagree as a generality.

If you're in poor health before age 70 and don't have any CPF nominees you care about, OK, start payouts earlier. If you really need income from CPF LIFE before age 70 (because you're tapped out otherwise), OK, start payouts earlier. If you've got some weird foreign tax impact that skews the decision, OK, start payouts earlier.(*) Otherwise, the smart play is to accept the default (age 70) regardless of chosen payout plan. That's for the reasons I explained.

(*) Exotic example: You're a Singaporean citizen retired in the United States, you're eligible for U.S. Medicare, and starting CPF LIFE payouts earlier than age 70 would help keep you from hitting the next IRMAA bracket which would increase your monthly Medicare premiums.

LOL.

Tell that to millions of Singaporean.....

you are arguing for the sake of arguing.....

 

[Nanonited]

I also have high cash on hand. Reason being my risk tolerance is max 1/3 of portfolio in equities. Don't think I can sleep well with higher amount in stocks.
Why do you have high cash position and what max proportion of your portfolio are u comfortable to invest before u lose sleep?

Hello to my brother from another mother my man. All the gurus and experts are going to laugh at me for sure because stupid to lose value to inflation.

i have high cash position because i have the typical issues aka very affected when lose capital but less affected when miss out on making profits which also affects my mood/sleep. Though end up sian also since bull mkt seems everyone is up tons but i still stick to what works for me. Trying to pivot to more invested via etf slowly.

I am probably 25% invested roughly. Lower than you, most of my outsized gains relative to port size is from crypto..

 

[BBCWatcher]

Tell that to millions of Singaporean.....

Uh, tell that to the CPF Board? The default CPF LIFE payout starting age is 70.

 

[laokorkor]

I also have high cash on hand. Reason being my risk tolerance is max 1/3 of portfolio in equities. Don't think I can sleep well with higher amount in stocks.

I am probably 25% invested roughly. Lower than you, most of my outsized gains relative to port size is from crypto..

Hi yslvlys and Nanonited,

Benjamin Graham, the father of security analysis and sifu of Warren Buffett, recommends a 50/50 split between stock/bond. He further recommended max stock 75%, min stock 25% if you don't like 50/50. So you guys are still within the sage's advised limits. LOL!

It's better to have an asset allocation that's comfortable to your psyche and hold the ratio for the long term rather than sell out in a bear market and lock in the loss permanently. A high stock/bond ratio is a personal preference and should never be a display of manliness.

The sleep behavior that you guys articulate is well known in the behavioral finance academia, it's known as loss aversion. Professors measured that loss is roughly twice as painful as the pleasure of gain.

The book A Random Walk Down Wall Street suggests to lower down your stock exposure to your "sleeping point" - which is what you guys successful did regardless of the current buoyant markets, so congrats! LOL!

 

[kickass22]

Let’s look from the drawdown perspective. I assume that you have outside assets which you can draw down, too.

CPF LIFE is relatively non-replenishable and with 4% guaranteed return(Basic, minus the longevity insurance, which I believe everyone should participate fully for tail risk). If you make more than 4% balanced long term return outside CPF, you should draw down CPF LIFE earlier. Then it also comes down to how much RA you would have at 65.

You can withdraw 401(k) funds from age 59½ in any amount without penalty. You can withdraw earlier than that without penalty for several reasons. Here are some notable examples:

• total and permanent disability
• high medical expenses (>7.5% of adjusted gross income; medical insurance premiums count)
• from age 55 if you quit or lose your job (including early retirement scenarios)

The early withdrawal penalty, if it applies, is 10%. I wouldn't use the word "draconian" to describe that figure.

Still disagree as a generality.

If you're in poor health before age 70 and don't have any CPF nominees you care about, OK, start payouts earlier. If you really need income from CPF LIFE before age 70 (because you're tapped out otherwise), OK, start payouts earlier. If you've got some weird foreign tax impact that skews the decision, OK, start payouts earlier.(*) Otherwise, the smart play is to accept the default (age 70) regardless of chosen payout plan. That's for the reasons I explained.

(*) Exotic example: You're a Singaporean citizen retired in the United States, you're eligible for U.S. Medicare, and starting CPF LIFE payouts earlier than age 70 would help keep you from hitting the next IRMAA bracket which would increase your monthly Medicare premiums.

Why is it the smart play? and all other reasons are not. ( besides what you highlighted.)

 

[lzydata]

That's what I thought, but he said it's not. He didnt has any refund, and he said his MA already exceeded BHS in 2025 ... and was not shifted out to OA ....

Could it be that the MA's interest for the year was initially credited to the MA and then later adjusted to transfer it to the OA? Can check again for this 1 Jan adjustment.

 

[fr33d0m]

Uh, tell that to the CPF Board? The default CPF LIFE payout starting age is 70.

Is that default? I thought it is last entry.