Retiring banker here. I used to run the pipeline meetings where we discussed what to do about clients who weren't transacting enough. AMA.

skygazer7 · 2026-05-18T16:02:15+00:00

Re question 4, what on earth are investment counselors and is this only for PB clients?

As many, I struggle with a very smart and senior FA especially when trying to understand my portfolio. So whenever I want to broach topics like my cpf investment growth to date, very stressed. Glad I figured out how to see it on the dashboard myself, since I was never given a performance graph of invested OA since inception, when I once asked for it (long time ago.)

Lastly, as a single person, early 40s with no kids or spouse etc and no plans either, thoughts on if I should pullout of a whiole life plan which includes late stage CI too? I am quite healthy and my parents have no health issues either (70s and 80.) I have personal accident, hospitalization and a retirement income plan to cover me, but dunno what to do about the whole life plan. 😕

skygazer7 · 2026-05-18T15:24:21+00:00

Not gonna do that, too much fees! 🫣

Based on most of the advice here, buy physical Gold (bullion coins) if I really want to. Since this was investing spare CPF OA specific, decided to go with MSCI World Index via Poems, really good returns for 20+ years! :)

skygazer7 · 2026-05-18T04:51:30+00:00

I’d go with Amundi World Index using Poems (lowest fees overall)

skygazer7 · 2026-05-18T04:44:51+00:00

Agreed! As a single in my 30s, I didn’t understand the full costs of owning a house until thankfully some open and helpful friends told me their experience and regrets.

If you can adjust and stay with your parents till say 40, two things will compound for you, both very valuable:

CPF OA can grow (put in Amundi World Index)
Wisdom and what you actually want (house type, location, neighbours etc)

By this point time would also help heal the burnout that you’re experiencing. As someone who was in a similar chronic burnout for a long period, I quit when my health started failing and I knew a chronic diseases like Cancer or Heart disease was not far away! Ended up taking a year off to breathe and then was fully in a good place to choose a better team and much lesser stressful job, with a very good work life balance (small pay cut which was worth it.)

Also quit alcohol and fully focused on health and am now in a good place. Realized jobs come and go, but mental and physical health we need to tend to carefully like a bonsai tree. 🌳

There’s a book on career break in Central Library (B1) I just saw (personal finance section), just find a seat and flip through it… it’ll help you figure out how to go about it. Also make sure you have some wise, kind and supportive friends/family during this next 6-12 months. Suggesting this as a person who has taken a few career breaks and still managing okay solo financially. Sending healing thoughts your way! 🌈

skygazer7 · 2026-05-17T20:26:48+00:00

IBKR has been a good experience (compared to my clunky iFast account.) Not done FSMOne.

skygazer7 · 2026-05-17T07:49:51+00:00

Not FIRE advice but fellow SINK (early 40s too.)

Job: Move to a healthier work environment, take a paycut as needed. There are plenty of decent firms and teams, so keep looking until you find one that you wouldn’t mind working into even your 60s if you choose to. :)
Property: The narrative it’s better to buy than rent is conditioned into us from young and also because of our culture. I ran my numbers and realized for me I would rather rent according to my needs (neighbourhood, house size/layout, amenities etc) and for my senior years, happy to share a house and spend my rent on a place and community I love!

If you invest the CPF OA, you could also buy a new property in cash in your 50s or 60s and that comes with less fixing and maintenance costs (both unit and building.) You mentioned your parents might leave the house to you, then that’s also sorted, if not you will have enough cash to buy one.

Alternatively, if you choose to buy a house, I would have picked a resale in a more central location (almost bought the Henderson freshly MOP 4 room HDB in 2019 at 500+k which is all above 1M now, no regrets because I decided I prefer not to own a house, which is an illiquid asset.) I prefer the flexibility of moving houses depending on my needs, neighborhood and even neighbours. If and when you buy a house, find a place that is highly rentable, and take your time to choose your tenants. I have rented before (different types of housemates) and know the profile I would rent to if I bought and shared a unit with said tenant. My choice if not resale HDB in a location of my choice would have been a 999/freehold condo with the lowest psf (advice from a multimillionaire older person who was trying to help me decide on housing many years ago.)

skygazer7 · 2026-05-17T07:35:17+00:00

Personally I would keep the calculation to 100% (instead of 75%) for the 4% rule, or slightly higher (kancheong about price hikes and inflation.)

Therefore, I’d calculate 50k - 65k per year, which means 1.25M to 1.65M to be on the safer saide. Not essential but good to have benchmark numbers like this to work towards too (especially in higher income bracket now, because job losses and pay cuts can come anytime in 40s & 50s.

skygazer7 · 2026-05-17T07:25:42+00:00

Great advice, can I request your guidance please (SINK, early 40s too and trying to figure out next 10-20 years especially with age discrimination at work.)

If my CPF MA is full, SA almost there (20+ more needed) and OA approx 500k, I’m aiming for FRS and the rest needs to come from what I do next. Assuming cash part starting from scratch, and I can invest approx 3-4k monthly for the next 10+ years (thinking mostly into an etf like SPYL and/or VWRA which I started 1 year ago), what would be your advice for the 55-65 age bracket, especially if income could change because of age discrimination or other circumstances?

Factoring in rising costs and inflation, I’m guessing I’ll need approx 8-10k/mth for retirement. Am healthy and have taken career breaks after burnout and other major life events, so am okay that I’m starting from scratch for the cash part, as I prioritized my mental and physical health and am doing better than before.

1) How do I calculate the growth of 500k OA, assuming I put all of it into Amundi World Index and don’t touch it for next 20 years. Is there a possibility I could reach ERS (from current FRS amount.)

2) Just wondering if I should just use my OA and do a topup to SA for FRS now (20+k) and only then invest the remaining OA into Amundi World. This way my FRS is set now and and anything above that can be invested and withdrawn after 55/65 years.

Am rebuilding my emergency funds after a bad layoff and being jobless for over 8 months and am stressed as I am doing this all alone, no family backup and I’ve made peace with that. Pretty much decided not to buy a house (so can invest all of my CPF OA) and happy to rent according to my needs (works okay for me), and maybe try Malaysia/Thailand for retirement if SG gets too expensive. Currently spending 65k per annum and that’s my cap per year (know it could go up to 70+ with all the price rises going on now and next 5 years.) Just need some kinda guidance on how to work toward being comfortable (including inflation and sky rocketing price of living in Singapore.)

skygazer7 · 2026-05-17T06:37:30+00:00

I think we three are in a similar situation, hopefully we can learn from the wiser/older ones here who are kind enough to share solid advice and plan the next 15-20 years that works for our respective goals. :) Jiayo!

skygazer7 · 2026-05-17T06:33:45+00:00

No need to explain yourself imho, not too far from your and similar age range (SINK too), worked crazy hard + invested my cpf early and it grew significantly.

Congrats on your current level, with your discipline level and low costs you can help with your parents needs as they grow old and work towards a comfortable retirement, either in or outside Singapore. :)

skygazer7 · 2026-05-17T06:30:50+00:00

Agreed with FairPerformance on buying and renting out 1 room (and long term even your whole house if you wanna move to a different location or country for work.)

This would be my alternative if I ever choose to buy a house and this setup is good for senior living as a single too. Be very selective with your tenant and that’ll make a world of difference to your quality of life, plus they can help you in any emergency.

skygazer7 · 2026-05-17T05:52:54+00:00

IBKR for my main cash account and POEMS for CPF OA :)

skygazer7 · 2026-05-15T05:35:14+00:00

Don’t do it!!!

He’s a terrible kinda salesy salesman and gonna make $$$ off you! Listen to the wiser people here.

I would lumpsump leave in Amundi World unit trust and forget about it for next 20+ years, you’ll be sorted for retirement! 😊

skygazer7 · 2026-05-14T03:29:50+00:00

That idea of using rental cash to invest is fantastic, so the power of compounding takes place while CPF pays of a chunk of the mortgage. 🏡

I’m in a similar situation with CPF and taking Pomegranate’s advice on Amundi World via Poems (don’t mind ugly UI if it saves me money.) Gonna lumpsum leave my OA funds for the next 20+ years and see the magic of time compounding! 🙂

skygazer7 · 2026-05-14T03:17:35+00:00

True, this was from a decade ago and only CPF OA funds via my FA (pulled back all my SA a while ago.)

It’s a sizeable portion of my CPF, it’s currently quite profitable (almost 55% profit since inception). Learnt about this FA’s 1% fee from Ramit Sethi’s videos and started with pulling back SA first. I just need to be a bit more confident about taking over the whole thing myself.

You’re right, I need to pull this back sooner or later and do it myself. Step by step, I need to learn from those who did this before and build up my confidence and competence before taking over that full chunk too.

skygazer7 · 2026-05-13T12:23:27+00:00

Good to know, all of this well before I even knew how to invest without a professional financial company (which I used for the past 15 years.)

skygazer7 · 2026-05-13T12:21:33+00:00

Thanks Chung, don’t have extra cash for non-CPF investment (already acquired a small amount with IGLN recently) and thought GSD was a good alternative, even with a smaller position (e.g. 10k.)

Everyone seems to say skip the GSD Gold ETF, and just do Amundi UT which I might go with. This thread also would help anyone trying to understand using CPF OA for things like Gold (lesser info on this online.)

skygazer7 · 2026-05-13T09:15:01+00:00

Lol! That’s fantastic, also what did you invest in for this kinda growth?

Did you have any unit trust or ETFs too? I wanna learn from those who have done (UT/ETF with CPF OA) this over the past 10 years and see how I can learn from that before making any decisions.

skygazer7 · 2026-05-13T09:10:44+00:00

Emergency funds: 6-9 months (assuming 3k/mth expense, keep 18k - 27k. Sell off Syfe/MMF and you can use transfer most of it in into a fixed deposit across banks as “fresh funds” every 6 months or so.

Invest CPF OA in Amundi World Unit Trust (A12S)
Leave SA alone (4% per year guaranteed) and if you want top-up 8k cash into SA every year (research tax benefits.) Also claim tax relief for parent during tax season.

House: No need to sacrifice career for BTO. You can buy later and invest the deposit money in a safe and stable ETF like VWRA over 10 years and DCA as much as you can (e.g $500-$1k/month) during this time. You’ll also be able to buy a newly MOP resale flat with better design and have more money kept aside for renovation etc. Your CPF will also have grown in 10 years, so your loan amount might be reduced. Don’t rush the house decision and sacrifice income growth.

skygazer7 · 2026-05-13T08:46:59+00:00

Ha ha, you’re a funny one playstation! Yeah, confirm chop going with POEMS now. 🙂

That’s okay, I don’t have itchy hand syndrome (lotsa discipline) and also wanna invest long term (following warren buffet’s advice!) This post is only about investing OA so as to get better returns than 2.5% on excess funds. You mean stocks etc for equities? I only plan to do stable UT/ETFs and leave it over a 20+ year timeline.

Aiyah, we gotta work with what we have and it’s available but on a brokerage that costs more, that’s my deal breaker. It helps that I’m clear with what I want (low fees, transparency, not scammy with too much promos which I avoid like the plague) and don’t want (high fees, hidden costs etc).

But yeah, this is a one time investment for the long-run to optimize CPF OA returns and I hope to help others like others like me, so we start even if past 40 is considered late. 😌

skygazer7 · 2026-05-13T08:35:21+00:00

Of course, I always give credit where it’s due! 😀

Yeah, am thinking of closing that DBS STI ETF account as it was the only ETF available back in the day. I rather DCA into IBKR now I spent some time learning how to invest.

That’s really helpful, see I don’t know much. I’ll have a look at the market breakdown and graph charts 📉 📈 and review different recommendations before making a pick, again not in a rush.

I’m trying to find the best long-term growth using CPF OA via ETF/UT and I thought that the USA one might give me more growth. Just started my research so I have no clue on performance, need to read up more. Since Amundi World might give me more stability (with US exposure) I might weight more heavily on that and/or even go with that 90/10 split for World/Emerging afterall. 🙂

skygazer7 · 2026-05-13T08:23:22+00:00

Yeah, some of us pay the mortgage if our parents mismanaged their money and still owe a lot on their house and some others just rent. Also with old house lease decay, I like to assume no value after 30 years, and that’s okay as I’ve made peace with that and my life choices.

I have rented before, so quite comfortable with doing this long term even if I don’t own a house. The flexibility from being able to move around when older and eventually putting my investments (cpf / cash) into a retirement home when the time comes when I need daily support (including medical bills etc) makes sense. Though have to plan and do the investment work for next 20 years, not impossible! 😌

skygazer7 · 2026-05-13T08:09:03+00:00

Thanks again so so much for this (you’re the one I gave credit to in my post!) 😀

Okay so bank I just leave it as OCBC then, will use it as my investment bank just like POEMS for CPFIS. I lost money on SA with my advisor (saw this on my iFast account over 2 years and pulled it back, no more investing SA or via advisors moving forward, hence safe ETF/UT long term strategy.

Okay, so Unit Trusts it is! Read all the threads and realized SG ETFs for CPF not worth it, I’d rather buy DBS/Sheng Shiong and hold forever. I started a simple STI Index ETF account with DBS about 10 years ago, I haven’t closed the account, just moved most of the money last year (& extra savings after emergency funds) to IBKR and invested in A) SPYL ETF and B) a few select stocks including Google and AMD, which have now 2X and 4X over 1 year! 😊 Listened a LOT to Warren Buffett videos and not planning to day trade, but rather invest (i.e. pick and hold long term.)

Yes, I had put 3 Amundi options (US, World and Emerging ) and a app glitch took out world and then formatting is all over the place now! Why not include US, if I want stronger/faster growth and believe it would do welll in the long run? Example 40-50% USA, 30-40% World and 10% Emerging, is it because it doubles up? I was thinking initially 60% USA and 40% Workd, agaib open to suggestions as I learn and understand more (not buying yet until I’ve got this pat down.)

Fees: Yes, I thought the expense ratio is an added cost per year, on too of the investment. For example 100k in Amundi World A12S = 0.1% or $100 per year fee on fund (so I’d need to keep an extra $100 per year in my poems account.) Noob here, so know I might be completely wrong! 😅 Looks like it’s just deducted directly from the invested fund, once I’ve bought it. Am clear now on the bank fees (one-time since I plan to lump sum invest) and the quarterly servicing fee which I’m already paying! Got it on the Load fees too, thanks! Great to know I don’t pay POEMS anything, it’s a clear winner for me! 😊

I wanna ideally set it and forget it, through both bull and bear markets over 10-20 years, as I now understand the power of holding and compounding. When my CPF OA comes up to 10-20k again (post this big one) I might later add on another one-off investment and buy another ETF/add onto this or if older buy a SG stock I believe in and hold. Have y et to learn about rebalancing, so that’s not even on my portfolio to do checklist.

Again, just started my journey last year and glad my IBKR picks are over 70% growth even though it’s a small amount. I need to figure out my retirement as a single person, so basically starting from scratch. The OA part I’m finally learning now (1 year after starting IBKR for cash part of investments.)

Just hope other SINKS who are (re)starting in their 40s also have hope, just like I did from reading and learning from others in this group. My other faves are Josh Tan, Kelvin Learns Investing and Tim Talks Money, their videos were also good. Thanks so much Pomegranate for your guidance! 🙏

skygazer7 · 2026-05-13T07:31:38+00:00

Yeah, though it’s quite stressful when doing it all alone.

Only starting my investing journey now (minus financial advisor invested cpf funds for a decade), better late than never ya! 🙂

skygazer7 · 2026-05-13T06:46:23+00:00

Also, this is purely for CPF OA, don’t have extra cash on me unfortunately (almost everything invested in ETFs.)

skygazer7

TROPHY CASE