This may be shocking news to you, you may only be able to withdraw $5,000 from your CPF when you are at age 55!
Yes, you hear me right. Your CPF withdrawal limit at age 55 is likely to be only $5,000.
Why you cannot fully withdraw your CPF when you retire
You can see from the flow chart below, when you turn 55 years old, your CPF ordinary account and special account will be combined as a new account called retirement account. You can only withdraw your CPF savings after setting aside two minimum sums
- CPF Minimum Sum, which was set up to provide members with a monthly income to support a modest standard of living during retirement. Currently it is $155,000
- Medisave Minimum Sum, the amount a member needs to retain in his Medisave Account whenever he withdraws his CPF savings. Currently this is $43,500
If you are unable to set aside the CPF Minimum Sum and the Medisave Minimum Sum, you can only withdraw the first $5,000.
How much CPF can you withdraw at age 55
The table below shows the amount you can withdraw based on your retirement account.
| Cash balances in Ordinary and Special Accounts, and any balance above Medisave Minimum Sum (currently $43,500) in Medisave Account at 55 | Amount which you can withdraw* |
| $5,000 or less | All your cash balances |
| More than $5,000 but less than or equal to $160,000 | $5,000. The remainder will be set aside in your Retirement Account. |
| More than $160,000 | $5,000 and any further cash balances after setting aside the CPF Minimum Sum of $155,000 (from July 2014 to June 2015) and the latest Medisave Minimum Sum of $43,500. |
You can also use this CPF withdrawal calculator to project the exact amount you can withdraw.
The withdrawal rule has been tightening
Just a bit of history, you used to be able to withdrawal more CPF upon retirement.
If you turned 55 before 2009, you could have withdrawn 50% of your combined OA and Special Account (SA) funds! That means if you had today’s minimum sum of $155K, you could withdraw $77,500.
However today,things are very different. Most Singaporeans have put nearly all their Ordinary account savings in properties. It has already been reported that more than 50% of Singaporeans cannot meet their CPF minimum sum requirement.
If so, how many of you can withdraw more than $5,000 when you are age 55? Can you retire with $5,000 at age 55?
If this is the first time you realize this, share it and let more people know about it.