Singapore-based financial blog that aims to educate people on personal finance, investments, retirement and their Central Provident Fund (CPF) matters.

Friday 15 May 2015

Earning more Interest with my CPF Ordinary Account

For an updated version, refer to the article HERE.

Today's TIP will be on: Earning more Interest with my CPF Ordinary Account (OA).
This tip is proposed by one of our readers, who asked the question: is it wise to transfer my money in OA into SA?
We would like to thank all our readers who posed us questions and sent to us tips.
We would love to see more of that coming in, so do feel free to keep sending us these love messages!
You can contact us via email (investmentstab@gmail.com) or comment on our blog.

There is a scheme in the CPF that allows you to transfer your money in your OA account to your Special Account (SA).

Benefit:
1) Higher Interest - SA gets 4% while OA gets 2.5%.

Considerations:
1) Money transferred from OA to SA cannot be transferred back - its a one-way traffic.
You will only be able to get the money back at age 55, when you have met your minimum sum

2) The range of investment products that you can invest in becomes smaller.
SA is unable to invest in ETFs and other investment products, however, money in OA is allowed to invest in ETFs, and other investment products.

3) You can only transfer money from your OA to your SA until your SA hits its minimum sum (currently at $155,000). No more money can be transferred from your OA to your SA unless the minimum sum is raised (again) or if you managed to spend the money in your SA.
*Monthly contribution can still be contributed into your SA even if your SA has reached the minimum sum.

4) Should you have insufficient money in your OA to pay for your insurance premiums or your mortgage, you would be required to pay these in cash. You are unable to use the money in your SA to pay for almost anything.
So only transfer the excess money you will not be using if you wish to transfer from OA to SA.

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2 comments:

  1. Hi, keep these bite sized information coming! I am learning as you guys post

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    Replies
    1. Hi,

      Thank you for your support!
      We will do our best and keep these posts coming! :)
      Do continue to support us!

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