MoneyOwl OwlRetirement Planner FAQs

In this article, we explore commonly asked questions about MoneyOwl's OwlRetirement Planner. 

1. What does the OwlRetirement Planner do?

OwlRetirement Planner is a retirement income planning tool that brings together CPF LIFE, cash savings, and investments to help Singaporeans better assess their retirement readiness and plan for greater retirement security.

The planner enables you to:

• Project your retirement income and assets.
• Assess your retirement income based on MoneyOwl’s Sufficiency, Safety and Flexibility (SSF) framework.
• Simulate actions you can take before and during retirement to strengthen your retirement income and help your money last longer.

2. Who can use OwlRetirement Planner?

OwlRetirement Planner supports Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents aged 19 to 64.

OwlRetirement Planner can be used by both employed persons (excluding self-employed), and non-employed individuals.

Employed persons are assumed to contribute to CPF.

The earliest desired retirement age the user can select is one year above the user’s current age, and the maximum desired retirement age is 65.

3. Is there any fee for using OwlRetirement Planner, or pressure to buy a financial product thereafter?

Neither. We created the Planner to be open to all to use, as part of our social mission to empower everyone to build financial security. While MoneyOwl is a professional and licensed adviser, we do not do any financial product selling. OwlRetirement Planner is advice-led, not product-led.

OwlRetirement Planning Philosophy and Methodology

4. What is the Sufficiency, Safety and Flexibility (SSF) Framework, and how do you measure each dimension?

SSF is a proprietary MoneyOwl framework that redefines retirement adequacy through a holistic lens: beyond a dollar target, we ask whether income is sufficient throughout life, keeps pace with rising costs, and provides the safety and flexibility people need.

• Sufficiency is not only about whether the amount of income is enough; it is also whether its duration is lifelong, and if it covers inflation over this time.
• Safety is whether the income stream is safe enough from credit risks and market volatility.
• Flexibility is whether you can have access to a lump sum in case of unexpected expenses.

The way we “score” your retirement outlook using SSF is described in the “How we score your retirement income” section of our Product Notes.

Please note that these ratings should be used as general guidance for planning and reference purposes only. Achieving a high rating does not guarantee retirement readiness or future outcomes.

5. Does OwlRetirement Planner tell Singaporeans to maximise CPF LIFE by topping up to Enhanced Retirement Sum (ERS)?

No. MoneyOwl’s approach starts with your needs and gives each resource a role in meeting them, guided by SSF.

CPF LIFE provides dependable lifelong income for essential, non-negotiable expenses, and has a high payout per dollar of savings used to join CPF LIFE.

Full Retirement Sum (FRS), which provides a modest payout, is a good baseline for non-negotiable expenses, for which sufficiency and safety take priority.

However, because CPF LIFE is low on flexibility, it does not cater for larger, unexpected lump-sum expenses. Therefore, while CPF LIFE is foundational for every Singaporean’s retirement plan, whether this means ERS is right for you depends on the holistic assessment of your retirement outlook and the trade-offs among the dimensions of SSF.

6. Why might OwlRetirement Planner’s CPF LIFE estimates differ from CPF Board’s?

OwlRetirement Planner uses an in-house model tested against official CPF tools. These are independent estimates and may differ from CPF Board’s calculations.

Compared to PLAN with CPF, our model includes CPF OA together with SA for the formation of RA at age 55, whereas the current PLAN with CPF only includes SA.

Note that our projections are based on currently known figures and existing policies, which are subject to change. Ultimately, your actual payouts will be determined by CPF Board when you start receiving them.

7. Can I compare the income and bequest of different CPF LIFE plans, and model starting CPF LIFE payouts at 70 instead of 65?

You can compare the projected income and estimated bequest of Standard, Basic and Escalating Plans.

The Planner models CPF LIFE payouts from age 65, and does not model starting payouts at age 70 yet. You can estimate a higher payout that increases by 7% per year of delay from age 65.

8. What is the 4% withdrawal rule, and why does OwlRetirement Planner use it rather than dividend stocks, bonds or insurance instruments to generate retirement income?

The 4% withdrawal rule is a “rule of thumb” based on empirical research. It assumes that retirees will be invested into a balanced market portfolio at the start of retirement, comprising 60% equities and 40% bonds. This strategy involves drawing down 4% of the initial invested amount in the first year of retirement, and thereafter 4% plus the previous year’s inflation rate.

The 4% rule is not the only way of “de-cumulation” (drawing down an income from assets). But we have selected this strategy because it has several important advantages:

• It provides diversification, avoiding the concentration and credit risk of buying individual dividend stocks and bonds, especially for mass market retirees who have limited funds to spread around different securities.
• It provides enough growth potential to mitigate inflation, while not being too volatile.
• It can be low cost.
• It is relatively liquid and provides flexibility.

It is also backed by empirical research.

9. Is the 4% withdrawal rule proven?

The 4% withdrawal rule is a “rule of thumb” rather than an established scientific fact. It has been stress-tested empirically against various historical sequence of returns, meaning the specific order in which good and bad years occurred. In this empirical testing, the balanced portfolio combined with the withdrawal method has been shown to survive for at least 30 years.

The order of returns matters because poor returns early in retirement hurt more than the same returns later. You end up selling investments at low prices to fund expenses, leaving less to recover when markets rebound. This is known as sequence of returns risk.

As an additional supplement, OwlRetirement Planner uses Monte Carlo simulation to test possible random combinations of returns. It returns the lower of 30 years and the result of this simulation in the retirement income graph.

However, as the 4% withdrawal rule is not a scientific fact, there is no guarantee that your portfolio will definitely survive your retirement period. All investments come with risk and their returns and path cannot be forecasted. To further mitigate the risk of depleting your assets, it is wise to reduce withdrawals when markets are down.

10. What are the actions I can simulate?

OwlRetirement Planner lets you test how different actions can change your retirement outlook and SSF score. You can try actions at two points in time: today and at retirement. As you adjust each one, the retirement income chart and your scores for Safety, Flexibility and Sufficiency update, so you can see which actions make the biggest difference to your plan.

Today

• Top up CPF SA: top up your Special Account with cash to earn 4% interest and build a bigger CPF OA excess at age 55
• Spend less today: reduce your monthly expenses
• Adjust investment: increase the amount you invest each month
• Adjust return: change the assumed return on your investments

At Retirement

• Cash to CPF RA: top up your Retirement Account with cash (up to the Enhanced Retirement Sum) to boost your CPF LIFE payout
• CPF OA to CPF RA: transfer your Ordinary Account savings to your Retirement Account (up to the Enhanced Retirement Sum) to boost your CPF LIFE payout
• Cash vs investments: choose how your savings are split between cash and investments
• Home monetisation: explore how your home could support your retirement income

11. Will the OwlRetirement Planner be enhanced in future to incorporate property assets and income, or other retirement income strategies?

We will consider incorporating a module to simulate the impact of home monetisation actions, such as the HDB Enhanced Lease Buyback scheme.

We will consider other enhancements based on user feedback.

12. Where can I find the assumptions behind the calculations, assessment and projections?

These can be found in the “Our Methodology: How do we perform your retirement projection”.

Technology, A.I. and Data

13. What is the role of A.I. in OwlRetirement Planner?

OwlRetirement Planner uses A.I. to translate the Planner’s separately calculated results from a rule-based projection model into a plain-language summary. The A.I. feature does not perform calculations, and is subject to guardrails, testing, ongoing monitoring and human oversight. This notwithstanding, because of the natural limitations of A.I., users are reminded that the commentary may sometimes be inaccurate or incomplete and should not be the sole basis for a financial decision.

14. Why do I need to subscribe to MoneyOwl’s mailing list to unlock the “Actions” section? Is my financial data stored against my personal data?

Financial planning is multi-faceted, and actions often involve trade-offs. Our subscribers can receive a Retirement eBook to supplement the tool, through which they can benefit from more in-depth thinking about retirement. They can also receive educational content and updates on our events that provide broader context to financial planning.

15. Does MoneyOwl retain my financial data or send them to the A.I. provider?

The personal finance information entered by the users is used to generate the retirement income plan. The individual entries are deleted on a regular cycle.

The A.I. provider receives only the calculated results and limited financial context needed to generate the summary. Direct identifiers such as the user’s name and email address (if they subscribe to our mailing list) are not sent to the A.I. provider.

To keep the tool accurate and fair over time, in line with regulatory expectations on responsible A.I. use, we may retain aggregated and/or anonymised data for monitoring purposes.

Learn More

16. Where can I learn more about retirement planning or other financial planning topics?

You can follow our our social media channels for educational content and information about our events.

You may also wish to subscribe to our mailing list at our sign-up page.

We will incorporate OwlRetirement Planner into our retirement workshops. Individuals and companies who are interested may wish to visit our page.