https://www.straitstimes.com/business/invest/how-a-retiree-topped-up-her-cpf-yearly-to-receive-a-4600-monthly-payout
Tan Ooi Boon
Feb 22, 2026, 5:00 AM
SINGAPORE - A 71-year-old Singapore woman probably holds the current record for receiving the highest CPF monthly payout of about $4,600 every month, thanks to the high balance in her Retirement Account (RA).
Her payout is unusual by today’s standards because even if a 55-year-old member tops up to the highest tier of CPF LIFE at $440,800 in 2026, the expected monthly payout at age 65 would be only about $3,400.
The reason why Janet, as we shall call her, can achieve such a high payout is that she had been diligently topping up her RA annually for the last 16 years after she joined the scheme at 55.
The payout sum was further boosted because she opted not to start the payout at 65 but had delayed it until she hit 70. Her dogged effort in planning her retirement income has resulted in a payout that is about five times more than the payouts of other members in her cohort who did not make any top-ups to their accounts.
At this rate, she will receive a tax-free income of about $55,000 annually just from her CPF monthly payouts.
As Janet had also been making her own annual contributions to CPF even after she stopped working at 63, she had accumulated over $1 million in her Ordinary and MediSave accounts, which would enable her to enjoy an annual interest income of at least $30,000. This means that, together with her monthly income, her annual retirement income from CPF alone is about $85,000, or about $7,000 a month.
Based on the OCBC Financial Wellness study, a retiree who can plan for a monthly income of about $6,000 can enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, such as living in a private home and affording a car and domestic help, and paying for two long overseas holidays annually.
In her e-mail to Invest, she wrote: “CPF is the best retirement scheme in the world and everyone should try and top up their RA to the maximum to enjoy the 4 per cent interest rate. It is impossible to get this rate either from the banks or other institutions.”
Her story underscores the reason why the CPF Board is introducing an age-based and specially curated investment scheme in 2028 so that members who are willing to take some risk can aim to attain better returns than the prevailing CPF rates for their invested sums.
====
Tan Ooi Boon writes for and oversees the Invest section of The Straits Times.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment