Next transfer is $5k OA -> SA, but no housing refund please.

For 10k (up to 150k) of my OA money parked outside cpf (parked in some bank acct or FSM ..), every year it may generate a return of, say, 1.1%.

However, for each year until you sell your flat, this 10k “should” accrue a nominal 2.5 ppa either in or outside CPF.

• if growing inside CPF, then the government pays me 2.5 ppa. Even 4 ppa is available if you are allowed to transfer that 10k to SA.
• if parked outside CPF, then I had better find someone to pay me that nominal 2.5 ppa, paying from investment return (if invested) or liquid cash (if parked in banks)
• so 30 years later when I sell the HDB flat, after the dust settles exactly the same compounded amount (10k * 1.025^30) would end up in OA. OA end balance after flat sale is an invariant. It would be unfortunate if you paid yourself 2.5%/Y from unproductive cash.

Note either government or you pay the 2.5 ppa to your cpf account. You never pay someone else 2.5 ppa

Q: by parking the 10k outside cpf accounts, you get to USE the money (liquidity) for investment, vacation etc but can you generate enough profit to beat the guaranteed compound rate of  4 ppa or 2.5 ppa ?
%%A: Beating 2.5% possible, but 4% is tough.

Now I feel the OA parking space is inferior to SA and MM-mufu, therefore to be avoided unless you have a mortgage.

Sharp Q (from Felicia): For your spare cash beside the contingency fund (100k, as I told her), what use do you have ?

Q: perhaps I should transfer 10k (up to 150k) from bank acct to OA then OA -> SA since I have no use for my spare cash?

Note you can’t really “park” the 10k in the HDB flat, which is not an account you can top up incrementally. The flat appreciates by itself, regardless of your 10k.

— What if (10% probability) we want to upgrade HDB home before 55? As discussed with Felicia,

• wife said price difference will be up to 100k only i.e. PriceTag – SP = 100k
• SP (sales proceeds, mostly cash) + wife’s CPF-OA can be deployed to reduce the mtg to under 50k, but my target mtg size is $100k,
• By the time we take up the mortgage, I would have some CPF-OA balance in addition to the SP fraction refunded to OA. I have the option to deploy it. We may be able to buy with cash + CPF

— cap on SA top-up .. Max amount you can “add” into SA or RA is computed and presented in MyMessages. Before you turn 55, the SA limit is up to FRS watermark. After 55, the RA limit is up to the ERS watermark.

As of Feb 2025, I have reached SA top-up limit. I have ended up with too much OA balance. OA is a kinda bad parking lot for my spare cash. See SA^OA^FSM_parking

Any housing refund will only go into OA.