Let me continue my story where I left off this morning and perhaps it will somewhat answer your queries.

5. Top up your RA (with cash). This obviously applies to people who are 55 and above as the RA is only created upon your reaching 55. Both my wife and I turned 55 early last year. The minimum sum (RA limit) was then $155k. CPF took the $155k out of our SA leaving whatever that is left there in the SA. In other words, at 55, you will have 4 accounts in your CPF : OA, MA, SA and RA.

In July last year, the RA limit was raised to $161k. We promptly topped our RA to that amount. The $6k cash we put into the RA attract tax relief. Then in Jan (2016) this year, the ERS (Enhanced Retirement Sum) was implemented and the sum was set at $241k. Again my wife and I topped our RA up to the ERS amounts, and again with cash. Unfortunately topping your RA to ERS with cash does not come with tax relief.

6. Don't pay your housing loan with CPF money, if the housing loan interest rate is lower than 2.5%. When we were 50, we saw that our CPF OA combined was quite a tidy sum. It was sufficient for us to buy a condo for investment and pay for it outright. With itchy hands we went and book a new condo under development. We paid the compulsory down payment with cash, intending to pay the rest at TOP using our OA funds. But the loan interest rate was 1.03% and stayed below 1.8% till this day (6 years straight). Thus up till today, we are paying the housing loan with the rental collection, and have not used our OA funds.

As we are now 56, CPF is now like a "bank" to us. With 2 months' notice, we could make a withdrawal albeit once a year if you're still working or every month if you are retired. In this scenario, it thus makes sense to us to put money into our CPF, when and where we can, with the knowledge that we could draw out the money when needed. In the meantime, the money is earning reasonable interest (compounding).

If FD rates ever increase beyond 2.5%, we might decide to withdraw our CPF money and put them into FDs. If you are referring to SSB, their 10 year rate is still below the CPF 10 year compounded rate, which is 2.8%. SSB rates technically cannot be more than CPF OA rates as they are both government "bonds". It will hard for the government to explain to people why they are not paying better rates for people CPF which are forced on them with no way to withdraw the money till they are 55.

7. Don't use your CPF to buy shares as shares are volatile. You could lose it all or see your CPF funds diminish just when you are about to retire. Having said that, we hold a substantial amount of shares accumulated over our working career, all bought with cash and giving dividends of $50k pa. The shares value have declined $250k in the recent 2.5 months. We do feel the pain, but not as much as if we were not to have the strong CPF pillar to fall back on.