Alternative to Holding Cash

[dtane]

Hi CY09,

I am actually trying to use CPF SA to help meet my CPF minimum sum in future when i hit age 55. I am looking at CPF SA as a form of "bond" investment although this 4% is not guaranteed and could possibly change in future. Not planning to invest this in shares or unit trust.

Guess our government is trying to help us not put all our eggs in one basket So they restrict us from using a portion of our forced savings from buying shares.

We could use our SA to buy other things if we feel that we can earn more than 4% though.

Saw this on CPF website that we can invest our CPFIS-SA (Amount in excess of S$40K) in :

1) Fixed Deposits
2) Singapore Government Bonds
3) Singapore Government Treasury Bills
4) Statutory Board Bonds (Secondary Market Only)
5) Bonds Guaranteed by Singapore Government
6) Annuities
7) Endowment Insurance Policies
8) Selected Investment-Linked Insurance Products*
9) Selected Unit Trusts*
10) Selected ETFs*
*There is a classifcation table on CPF website that tells you which Unit Trust / ETFs you can invest in.

If memory serves me right, excess money of SA above 40k cant be used for investment in shares which I feel is not a very wise move and something CPF should reconsider

And for OA, we can use 35% in excess of the 20k amount in it