Investing your CPF is not for everyone and should be a carefully considered decision because your CPF OA savings earn a risk-free interest of 2.5% p.a. even if you do not do anything.

We recommend that you consider invest your CPF OA savings only if

• you have a long investment time horizon of at least 10 years
• you have the ability and willingness to stay invested through mid-level fluctuations (in a balanced portfolio with 60% equities and 40% bonds)
• you have set aside CPF OA monies that you may potentially use for housing purchases or children’s education or as an emergency mortgage-payment buffer should you not have income for about 6 months.

These are important considerations because you do not want to have to liquidate your CPF OA investments prematurely amidst short-term market volatility. We also ask you to consider if you would prefer to transfer your CPF OA savings to you or your family’s Special Account to build up retirement savings, provided you have not hit the necessary limits and are comfortable with this being an irreversible transfer.

In short, invest your CPF with the long term in mind and only with savings that you are quite confident you do not need to use within a short time frame. This will help you to achieve a positive investment experience to grow your retirement nest egg. A larger CPF balance will help you secure a higher CPF LIFE payout from the age of 65.