Context is long-term parking, such as (but I don’t want to focus on) retirement and 6M contingency reserve (typically 100k).

Q: how tough is it to beat inflation, without losing liquidity? Conventional wisdom seems to say “tough”.

Actually depends on country. In the U.S. (am slightly less familiar), CPI inflation is higher than SG, but CD interest (around 2% now) and mortgage rate are also higher than Singapore. HY/PE return is also higher than Singapore. Stocks generate higher return but beware of taxes. Non-rental properties show slower appreciation than in Singapore ! [1]

Today I want to focus on Singapore. I have first-hand experience since 1991. I also discussed with friends. Below 2% is my estimate. For simplicity, I will use 1.9%. Clearly savings and CD accounts can’t beat inflation. There are many safe-n-liquid investments such money-market funds.

— money-market mufu is my favorite and default choice
I have reason to believe MM mufu offers 2%+ compound return.
Even better, there are many competing mufu funds at different liquidity levels (they call it “risk ratings”)
— stocks and rEstate: I have discussed these elsewhere as inflation hedges. Drawback is liquidity.
— CPF : super-safe illiquidity, as defined in my post on liquidity.
Does CPF qualify as inflation-proof? Yes iFF you use my 1.9%. However, if you use the 3% as quoted by DBS seminar, then you need to consider CPF-SA with 4% interest.

Endowment plan: super-safe illiquidity. I won’ t consider them.
— gold? inflation-hedge for the long-term. Poor liquidity as defined in my blogpost.
— [1] Most things show higher price increment in U.S. than in Singapore, but a notable exception is the appreciation of non-rental property outside a few speculative regions attracting hot money.

Rental yield is much higher in the U.S.

Therefore, I plan to buy only rental properties in the U.S.