JUST days ago, a healthcare professional from whom I sought treatment chided me for not “shielding” my Central Provident Fund (CPF) Special Account (SA) some years earlier. What a waste, he exclaimed.
I was aware of the practice of SA shielding, in which members invest their SA savings just prior to turning 55. This is the age when funds in the SA and Ordinary Account (OA) are channelled into the Retirement Account (RA).
There is a particular order to this transfer. The SA funds are taken first. If that’s insufficient to make up the required retirement sum for your age cohort, then the OA savings will also flow into the RA.
By temporarily investing SA savings, a member can maximise the interest...