He met the CPF minimum sum but has one regret.

Regular readers know that AK transferred all his CPF-OA money into his CPF-SA in the first few years of his working life. That provided a bigger base and a longer time for compounding to work its magic. Of course, I have shared the numbers here in my blog too.

Now, this was part of a chat this evening with a reader who is buying a HDB flat:

Reader:
do you mean that letting HDB wipe out the OA money first? My flat will be ready in 2019. So in this 3 years, do you have any views on what should be done using the CPF OA money?eg. Transfer abit to SA account? I will take your comments as opinions. Do not WORRY!"

AK:
That was what I told a friend. He transferred a large portion of his OA money into his SA about 10 years ago before he bought his flat and now his SA has already hit the minimum sum. But this will work for someone with an emergency fund on hand that would also cover the mortgage payment initially as his OA builds up again after the flat purchase.


The chat gave my memory a jog. I cannot remember exactly how many years ago but it was probably more than 10 years ago when a friend discussed with me what to do with his CPF-OA money. He was still single then and not buying a flat yet.

During a meet up a few months ago, he told me that he already hit the CPF minimum sum and to a large extent, it was thanks to the hefty interest payments received for his CPF-SA savings. He basically transferred all his CPF-OA money into his CPF-SA after the discussion we had and did nothing to his CPF-SA since. 

So, apart from the mandatory contributions from employment, the money in my friend's CPF-SA really grew through compound interest!

Did my friend regret anything?

Well, it was something like this:

"I should have transferred more money from OA to SA in the following years. Then, I would have received even more interest and hit the MS even earlier."

Alamak. If AK had done that, he would have even more money in his CPF now too. Aiyah.

Of course, all our circumstances and motivations are different. We have to question if this route is something that is good for us too.

This would work for someone who is not thinking of buying a property soon or is able to buy a property without using money in his CPF-OA. 

In the latter case, to be safer, he should have emergency cash on hand which also allows for 12 to 24 months of mortgage repayments as his CPF-OA savings is rebuilding.

For a more complete picture, please read the related posts below.

Related posts:
1. CPF-OA to CPF-SA transfer before buying flat?

2. If I had done this, I would have hit MS too.

3. A lot of my CPF-SA money...
...the interest I received in my CPF-SA has been higher than my mandatory contributions to it for many years by now...