The Fifth C

CPFIS — Should You Invest Your CPF OA?

Your CPF Ordinary Account earns a guaranteed 2.5% a year. CPFIS lets you trade that guarantee for a shot at higher returns. Here's how it actually works.

The Trade-Off

CPF OA pays a guaranteed 2.5% per year, risk-free, backed by the Singapore government — plus an extra 1% on the first $20,000 of your combined OA and SA balances. That's a genuinely strong baseline; very few risk-free instruments match it.

CPFIS opens the door to potentially higher returns through unit trusts, ETFs, robo-advisor portfolios, and selected stocks and bonds — but none of that return is guaranteed, and platform/fund fees reduce your net return regardless of market performance.

The honest framing: CPFIS investing only makes sense if you have a long investment horizon (ideally 10+ years before you need the funds), can tolerate seeing your balance drop in bad years, and choose low-fee instruments. If any of those don't apply to you, leaving your OA where it is may be the better — and far simpler — choice.

What You Can Invest In

  • • Unit trusts and ETFs (via CPFIS-approved platforms)
  • • Robo-advisor managed portfolios (Endowus, Syfe support CPF OA)
  • • Singapore Government Securities and selected bonds
  • • Selected stocks listed on approved exchanges (up to 35% of investible savings)
  • • Gold (up to 10% of investible savings)
  • • Endowment and investment-linked insurance products

Structural limits per data/constants.json. Source: CPF Board.

Related CPF Tools

CPF Retirement Planner Project your balance with default interest CPF Withdrawal at 55 How much you can take out OA/SA/MA Breakdown Where your contributions go FIRE Calculator Plan early retirement

CPFIS — Frequently Asked Questions

What is CPFIS?
The CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS) lets you invest your CPF Ordinary Account (and a separate scheme for Special Account, though SA investing has been progressively restricted) in approved instruments — unit trusts, ETFs, robo-advisor portfolios, insurance products, fixed deposits, bonds, and selected stocks — instead of leaving the funds to earn the default OA interest rate.
Is it worth investing my CPF OA instead of leaving it at 2.5%?
Your OA earns a guaranteed 2.5% per year risk-free, plus an extra 1% on the first $20,000 combined OA/SA balance. To make CPFIS investing worthwhile after fees, your investments need to consistently outperform that guaranteed rate over the long run — which historically equity-heavy portfolios have done over 10+ year horizons, but with real risk of underperforming in any given year or even decade.
How much of my CPF OA can I invest?
You must keep the first $20,000 in your OA (this amount cannot be invested). Above that, you can invest up to 35% of your investible savings in stocks and 10% in gold, with no cap on unit trusts and other approved instruments within your available OA balance.
What are the risks of CPFIS investing?
Unlike leaving funds in OA, CPFIS investments can lose value. Platform and fund management fees also eat into returns — a fund charging 1-2% annually needs to outperform OA interest by that much just to break even with leaving the money untouched. CPFIS also restricts you to an approved list of products, which is narrower than a regular brokerage account.
How do I start investing my CPF OA?
You need a CPF Investment Account with one of three agent banks (DBS, OCBC, or UOB), then you can invest through CPFIS-approved platforms including robo-advisors like Endowus and Syfe, which specifically support CPF OA investing alongside cash and SRS.