CPF for Retirement: RA, Retirement Sums & CPF LIFE Payouts

Every month, part of your salary quietly disappears into CPF. But how do those deductions actually turn into an income when you stop working?

Two birthdays do most of the work. At 55, your Retirement Account is created. At 65, the money in it starts paying you every month, for life.

This guide walks through what happens at each step, how much you can expect, and the honest answer to whether it’s enough.

Key Takeaways

• At 55, a Retirement Account (RA) is created for you, and your CPF savings flow into it up to your Full Retirement Sum
• The retirement sums for those turning 55 in 2026 are $110,200 (Basic), $220,400 (Full), and $440,800 (Enhanced)
• From 65, CPF LIFE pays an estimated $950 to $3,440 a month for life, depending on which sum you set aside at 55
• You can withdraw at least $5,000 from 55, plus anything above your cohort’s Full Retirement Sum
• CPF LIFE is not compulsory in name, but most members are automatically included if they have at least $60,000 in retirement savings
• The average CPF LIFE payout actually received in 2025 was about $676 a month, which is why CPF is best treated as your income floor, not your whole retirement plan

How CPF Builds Your Retirement Savings

Through your working years, CPF contributions land in three accounts. Each has its own job:

Account	What it’s for	Interest rate (p.a.)
Ordinary Account (OA)	Housing, education, investing, and retirement	2.5%
Special Account (SA)	Retirement savings, for members below 55	4%
MediSave Account (MA)	Medical expenses and premiums for MediShield Life, Integrated Shield Plans, and CareShield Life	4%

On top of these base rates, extra interest on your first $60,000 of combined balances means you can earn up to 5% per annum before 55, and up to 6% from 55. How the rates are set, and how to earn the extra interest, is covered in our guide to CPF interest rates.

How much goes in each month? For employees aged 55 and below, 37% of wages (20% from you, 17% from your employer), payable on the first $8,000 of monthly salary. Rates are lower during a PR’s first two years. The full breakdown by age, including the senior worker increases running until 2027, is in our CPF contribution and allocation rates guide.

Your MediSave Account also has a ceiling, called the Basic Healthcare Sum, which is $79,000 in 2026. Once you hit it, the excess overflows to your Special Account if you’re below 55, or to your Retirement Account (then Ordinary Account) from 55.

The Special Account closes at 55

The SA no longer exists for members aged 55 and above. In January 2025, the CPF Board closed the Special Accounts of around 1.4 million members in that age group, and every member’s SA now closes automatically at 55.

If you last read up on CPF before 2025, this is the single biggest change to catch up on. Plenty of older guides (and forum threads) still describe “SA shielding” and other strategies that no longer exist.

What Happens to Your CPF at 55?

On your 55th birthday, the Retirement Account (RA) is created. Your savings are transferred into it, first from your Special Account, then from your Ordinary Account, up to your cohort’s Full Retirement Sum (FRS).

Your SA then closes. Anything above the FRS stays in your OA, where it remains withdrawable at any time.

The RA is the pot that will eventually pay your retirement income. It earns 4% per annum plus extra interest, and it keeps growing until your payouts begin.

Two details worth knowing:

• Your BRS and FRS lock in at 55. Whatever they are in the year you turn 55, those are yours for life. The ERS works differently: it follows the current year’s figure, which rises every January, so you can keep topping up to a higher ceiling each year.
• You’ll likely still be working. Singapore’s statutory retirement age is now 64, so contributions usually continue past 55. They flow into your RA up to the FRS, and to your OA once the RA is full.

Don’t confuse the retirement age (how long your employer must keep you on) with the payout age. CPF payouts can start from 65 regardless of when you stop working.

The 3 CPF Retirement Sums (BRS, FRS & ERS)

There are three retirement sums, and for members turning 55 in 2026 they are $110,200, $220,400, and $440,800:

1. Basic Retirement Sum (BRS): the baseline, for those who own a property and pledge it
2. Full Retirement Sum (FRS): two times the BRS, the default amount set aside at 55
3. Enhanced Retirement Sum (ERS): four times the BRS, for those who want the highest payouts

Here’s the official series for recent and upcoming cohorts:

55th birthday in	Basic Retirement Sum	Full Retirement Sum	Enhanced Retirement Sum
2024	$102,900	$205,800	$308,700
2025	$106,500	$213,000	$426,000
2026	$110,200	$220,400	$440,800
2027	$114,100	$228,200	$456,400

Note the jump in the last column: the ERS was raised from three times to four times the BRS in 2025, so members who top up can now aim for a much higher payout.

Two reassurances, because this is where most people start to worry.

First, if you don’t have the FRS at 55, nothing bad happens. You are not required to top up the shortfall in cash, and you cannot “owe” CPF money. You’ll simply receive lower monthly payouts later.

Second, 73.4% of active members turning 55 in 2025 met their required retirement sum, and that share has risen every year since 2020. You can see how balances stack up by age group in that same statistics page.

The sums rise each year (roughly 3% to 3.5% annually in recent cohorts) to keep pace with inflation and longer lifespans. If you’re a decade or more away from 55, expect your own sums to be higher than the table above. Our reference page on the CPF retirement sums lists every cohort’s locked-in figures since 2003, and illustrates what the FRS might be by the time you reach 55.

CPF LIFE Payout Table: How Much Will You Get at 65?

For members turning 55 in 2026, the estimated CPF LIFE payouts from age 65 on the Standard Plan are around $950 a month if you set aside the Basic Retirement Sum, $1,780 for the Full Retirement Sum, and $3,440 for the Enhanced Retirement Sum.

Set aside at 55 (2026 cohort)	Estimated monthly payout from 65
Basic Retirement Sum ($110,200)	around $950
Full Retirement Sum ($220,400)	around $1,780
Enhanced Retirement Sum ($440,800)	around $3,440

Source: CPF Board estimates for members turning 55 in 2026, Standard Plan. For your own numbers, use the official monthly payout estimator, which takes your actual balances and birth year into account.

These are estimates for future retirees, and it’s worth knowing how different they are from what current retirees receive. Based on SmartWealth’s analysis of official payout data, the average CPF LIFE payout worked out to about $676 a month in 2025, just over a third of the FRS estimate above. That’s not a flaw in the scheme. Today’s recipients locked in far smaller sums when they turned 55 years ago. But it’s a useful reminder that the payout you’ll get depends entirely on what you set aside, in your cohort’s terms, by 55.

You can also delay your payouts to as late as 70. Each year of deferral increases your payouts by up to 7%, so starting at 70 instead of 65 means up to 35% more every month.

How much payout does every $100,000 give you?

As a rough rule of thumb derived from the 2026 estimates, every $100,000 set aside in your RA at 55 translates to roughly $800 a month for life from 65, on the Standard Plan.

It’s an approximation, and it works better for sizing a whole retirement sum than an extra top-up. At the margin, each further $100,000 buys closer to $750 a month, so a $50,000 RA top-up at 55 adds roughly $375 a month for the rest of your life.

How Much Can You Withdraw From 55?

You can withdraw at least $5,000 from age 55, and anything above your cohort’s Full Retirement Sum. If you own a property with a sufficiently long lease, you can pledge it and withdraw down to the Basic Retirement Sum.

How much you can actually take out depends on which of three situations you’re in:

1. $5,000 or less in your OA and SA savings at 55: you can withdraw all of it, and nothing goes into the RA
2. Between $5,000 and the FRS: you can withdraw up to $5,000, and the rest is set aside in your RA
3. More than the FRS: you can withdraw everything above the FRS (or $5,000, whichever is higher)

In situations 2 and 3, pledging an eligible property lets you withdraw RA savings above the BRS as well. The property’s remaining lease must be able to last you to at least 95, and top-up monies, government grants, and earned interest can’t be withdrawn this way.

Here’s what that looks like with the 2026 sums (FRS $220,400, BRS $110,200):

Mr Tokio, more than the FRS

• Savings at 55: $280,000
• $220,400 goes into his RA, and he can withdraw the remaining $59,600
• If he pledges his property, he can also withdraw his RA savings above the BRS, taking his maximum withdrawal to $169,800

Mr London, between $5,000 and the FRS

• Savings at 55: $140,000
• He can withdraw $5,000, and $135,000 goes into his RA
• If he pledges his property, he can also withdraw the $24,800 above the BRS, for a total of $29,800

Mr Germany, a smaller balance

• Savings at 55: $40,000
• He can withdraw $5,000, and $35,000 goes into his RA

Should you withdraw just because you can? There’s no urgency. Savings left inside continue earning up to 6% per annum risk-free, and you can withdraw any time later, in full or in part, as many times as you like. The stronger case for withdrawing is if you have a specific need, or you’re confident of earning more elsewhere and accept the risks.

Withdrawing at 65

If you were born in 1958 or later, you can withdraw up to 20% of your Retirement Account savings from age 65, inclusive of the $5,000 you could have taken from 55, according to the CPF Board.

This lump sum is optional, and the trade-off is permanent: whatever you take out no longer counts towards CPF LIFE, so your monthly payouts shrink accordingly.

Can PRs withdraw their CPF?

While you hold Permanent Resident status, the same rules apply to you as to citizens, including the $5,000 rule and the retirement sums.

Full withdrawal of your CPF savings is only possible if you renounce your PR status and leave Singapore and West Malaysia permanently, with no intention of returning to work or live here.

What Is CPF LIFE? (And Is It Compulsory?)

CPF LIFE (Lifelong Income For the Elderly) is a national annuity scheme that converts your Retirement Account savings into monthly payouts that continue no matter how long you live.

Is it compulsory? For most people, effectively yes. You’re automatically included if you’re a Singapore Citizen or PR, born in 1958 or later, and have at least $60,000 in retirement savings when your payouts are due to start. There’s an exemption only if you already have a pension or private annuity paying the same or more.

If you’re not automatically included, your RA savings still pay you monthly under the older Retirement Sum Scheme, but those payouts stop when the money runs out, typically around age 90. You can opt in to CPF LIFE any time from 65 up to a month before turning 80, and given that one in two Singaporeans aged 65 today may live past 85, payouts that never run out are worth a great deal.

The lifelong guarantee is the whole point. An annuity pools longevity risk across millions of members. No savings account can do that, and the Government stands behind it.

The 3 CPF LIFE plans

You choose a plan just before payouts begin, not at 55. There are three:

• Standard Plan (the default): level monthly payouts for life. Simple to budget with, though inflation slowly erodes what each payout buys.
• Escalating Plan: payouts start lower but grow by 2% every year for life, so your income roughly keeps pace with rising prices.
• Basic Plan: the original plan from CPF LIFE’s early years, still available to choose. Payouts start lower and decrease further once your combined balances fall below $60,000.

Which is better depends on how you weigh early spending power against inflation protection. In my opinion, the honest answer is that both the Standard and Escalating Plans are reasonable, and the deciding factor is usually whether you have other income sources that grow over time.

Is CPF Enough for Retirement?

For most people, CPF LIFE alone is unlikely to fund the retirement they actually want. It’s best treated as your income floor, the guaranteed layer that covers essentials, with everything above that funded from other savings and investments.

Three numbers, side by side, tell the story:

What	How much (per month)
Average CPF LIFE payout actually received (2025)	about $676
Average spending, retiree households, per person (HES 2023)	$1,384
Estimated FRS payout, 2026 cohort	around $1,780

Sources: SmartWealth’s analysis of the official CPF LIFE payout data on data.gov.sg, and the Household Expenditure Survey 2023 figure for households comprising solely non-working persons aged 65 and over.

Read the table from the bottom up. If you set aside the Full Retirement Sum at 55, your estimated payout of around $1,780 comfortably clears the $1,384 an average retiree spends each month. On paper, CPF is enough for an average retirement.

The two catches sit in the first row and in the word “average”.

First, today’s actual payouts average about $676, because many current retirees set aside far less than the FRS. Around a quarter of active members still reach 55 without their required sum, often because a large share of their CPF went into their home. Whether you’ll clear the bar depends on your balances, not the estimates.

Second, averages describe other people. The $1,384 figure covers today’s retirees, who spend more modestly than most of us plan to. If your retirement includes travel, helping your children, or simply keeping your current lifestyle, your number will be higher. Healthcare costs also rise faster than general inflation, and they concentrate in exactly the years CPF LIFE payouts stay flat (on the Standard Plan).

So run your own numbers rather than borrowing someone else’s. Estimate your expected payout with the CPF estimator, work out your desired monthly income with our retirement calculator, and look at the gap between them.

If there’s a shortfall, you have more levers than you might think: working a few years longer, RA top-ups (every $100,000 buys roughly $800 a month, as covered above), or building income outside CPF, such as investments or a retirement annuity plan that pays alongside CPF LIFE. The right mix depends on your age, housing, and goals, which is exactly what a comprehensive financial planning session is designed to work through.

CPF gives almost every Singaporean a floor that most countries’ systems don’t. What you build on top decides whether retirement is merely covered, or actually comfortable.

What Happens to Your CPF When You Die?

Your CPF savings, including any remaining CPF LIFE premium balance, don’t disappear.

If you’ve made a CPF nomination, the money goes directly to your nominees. If you haven’t, it’s distributed under the intestate succession rules (or Muslim inheritance law), which takes longer and may not match your wishes. Nominations can be made online in minutes, and it’s one of the easiest estate planning wins available.

One misconception to clear up: with CPF LIFE, there’s no fixed “guaranteed period”. Your beneficiaries receive your unused premium balance (if any) plus your other CPF savings. The longer you live and receive payouts, the smaller that balance becomes, which is the nature of an annuity. The CPF Board’s view, which I share, is that since none of us knows how long we’ll live, the bequest shouldn’t drive your plan choice.

What’s Next?

If you take three things from this guide, make them these. Know your cohort’s retirement sums. Estimate your own payout rather than relying on averages. And treat CPF LIFE as the floor of your overall retirement plan, not the whole building.

If you want to see how your CPF savings compare with others your age before deciding anything, our CPF statistics page breaks down balances by age group and percentile.

The system does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. The remaining decisions (how much to top up, when to stop working, what to build alongside CPF) are yours, and they’re far easier to make at 40 than at 60.