Transferring from OA to SA in CPF

I remember there was an article in the newspaper some years ago, this guy in his 20's transfer money from OA to SA he said the 4% interest is only paid for upto 250k. I can't find anywhere in cpf faq which still says this or whether this has changed or not.

but consider transfer to SA is irreversible you cannot take it out until retirement at 55yo and after that only excess of the minimum sum combined of oa+sa.

It's a good idea to max out SA as early as possible after setting aside what you need in OA for property payments. I didn't have to bother about the increasing minimum sum because my annual SA interest earned exceeds the annual increment in MS.

One thing to note - once you hit the MA ceiling, whatever excess will be transferred first to your SA; and if you SA is also more than the MS, then it will be transferred to your OA. For SA, even if you exceed the MS, it does not get transferred out to OA - which is good as more of your funds can earn 4%.

I'm not aware of the $250k though.

Do take note that the extra u earn is 1.5%. For this do u want to get your OA money stucked for life? I think u should wait till 2016 to decide. Who knows gov may increase the OA interest in order to please the group sitting on the fence.

(10-07-2014, 02:06 PM)egghead Wrote: It's a good idea to max out SA as early as possible after setting aside what you need in OA for property payments. I didn't have to bother about the increasing minimum sum because my annual SA interest earned exceeds the annual increment in MS.

One thing to note - once you hit the MA ceiling, whatever excess will be transferred first to your SA; and if you SA is also more than the MS, then it will be transferred to your OA. For SA, even if you exceed the MS, it does not get transferred out to OA - which is good as more of your funds can earn 4%.

I'm not aware of the $250k though.

Qn: Once u hit the MS limit, the only ways to increase SA are interest earned and CPF Contribution (SA component)??



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(10-07-2014, 03:14 PM)opmi Wrote: Qn: Once u hit the MS limit, the only ways to increase SA are interest earned and CPF Contribution (SA component)??

Yes

4%??!!!

where got enough to beat inflation??? come on, take the money and invest invest invest!

For this pool of my total portfolio, 4% risk free over long term is good enough for me

Hi all

Thank you very much for all the advice.
I learnt much about CPF strategies from this thread.

For me, the 4% in SA is good enough.
I bought quite abit of equities using cash, so the money in CPF is the risk free part of my portfolio.
But if there is a stock market crash, I will consider using SA to buy something like the STI ETF. (Thanks to angtc11 for the info, didn't know SA can be used for investments)

I am now leaning towards making the transfer, but will think abit longer, since the transfer is irreversible.

(11-07-2014, 08:02 AM)gzbkel Wrote: But if there is a stock market crash, I will consider using SA to buy something like the STI ETF. (Thanks to angtc11 for the info, didn't know SA can be used for investments)

I suggest that you double check this. I think you can only use CPF OA to buy STI ETF (but unlike shares, there is no 30% limit so you can make use of everything in your CPF OA above $20K). For CPF SA, about the best you can do is First State Bridge which gives you about 5 to 6% long term.

Hi nsengkia

Thanks for the heads up.
Indeed it seems that you can only use OA for STI ETF, according to footnote 4 in this document.
http://mycpf.cpf.gov.sg/NR/rdonlyres/171.../0/etf.pdf