CPF came into effect in July 1955 as a compulsory savings scheme for retirement. Today, almost 70 years later, it remains a crucial aspect of Singapore’s social security system.
The Mission of the CPF Board, formed to manage the Fund, is “to enable Singaporeans to have a secure retirement, through lifelong income, healthcare financing and home financing”. Over the years, the CPF Board continues to innovate ways that focus on these three priorities.
On 26 March 2025, CPF and the Ministry of Health launched the Health Insurance Planner (HIP), a user-friendly four-step tool that provides personalised long-term projections of MediSave savings and health insurance premiums.
The HIP is part of CPF’s one-stop portal for financial planning resources, joining the Retirement Payout Planner and the Home Purchase Planner.
#1 Health Insurance Planner
The Health Insurance Planner helps you determine whether your current health insurance matches your coverage needs and your ability to pay the premiums.
Before you begin using the Health Insurance Planner, you will need
- the name of your Integrated Shield Plan and rider, if any,
- the number of years left for you to pay your Careshield Life (or Eldershield) supplements
- your monthly income and any additional income before CPF deduction
The Health Insurance Planner uses this information to create three sets of projections over the next 30 years of your life, or till age 90, whichever is earlier. The first two sets of projections compares cumulative MediSave savings and expenses.
The illustration compares your projected MediSave savings with your projected cumulative MediShield Life premiums and Integrated Shield Plan premiums. Due to the MediSave additional withdrawal limit (AWL) for Integrated Shield Plans, the HIP informs me that I might need to account for about $155,000 in cash on top of my MediSave use (Currently the AWL is $300 for those between 1 and 40 years old, $600 for those between 41 and 70 years old, and $900 for those above 70).
Read Also: Complete Guide To Buying A Private Integrated Shield Plan
A third projection shows how I can expect my annual medical insurance premiums to increase with age. Even though I was aware that my Integrated Shield Plan premiums would increase significantly as I grew older, it was still sobering to see it illustrated in such a manner, and a good reminder to review my coverage levels.
How The Health Insurance Planner Helps You
The HIP is a simple tool that relies on two essential pieces of information to project the next three decades – your current Integrated Shield Plan and riders, if any, and your income.
It is a good opportunity to see if your current policies match your own long-term expectations, especially your ability to pay out-of-pocket in cash as you get older.
As with all long-term projections, the usual caveats apply, of course – these results are for illustrative purposes, and should not be regarded as financial advice. Actual amounts may also vary due to changes in insurance premiums and MediSave usage.
Who The Health Insurance Planner Is For
Anyone who is buying an integrated shield plan can benefit by immediately seeing their long-term costs – and consider its affordability with premiums potentially increasing significantly in their later years.
Personally, it was a good exercise for me because it highlighted how integrated shield plan premiums increase significantly after you turn 60, and the three-decade scope of the HIP will cover that period.
#2 Retirement Payout Planner
The Retirement Payout Planner is another simple tool that helps you to visualise your retirement goals by asking two basic questions – how much you need monthly when you retire and how do you plan to adjust your retirement lifestyle over time.
Using the information you’ve selected, the Retirement Payout Planner calculates your retirement savings goal.
To personalise these results further, you have the option of providing your current income to see if your projected CPF savings are sufficient to meet your retirement goal.
This is the result I received.
Based on my current and projected CPF savings, I am only halfway to my retirement goal. I will either need to adjust my future lifestyle expectations or start taking additional steps today to achieve my retirement goals, such as topping up my CPF account, or transferring more money from my CPF Ordinary Account to my CPF Special Account to enjoy the higher interest rates.
How The Retirement Payout Planner Helps You
Despite relying on a fixed 2% inflation over time, the Retirement Payout Planner is still a good tool to help you set your retirement lifestyle expectations and to demonstrate the need to take extra steps to match those expectations.
It also introduces the three types of CPF Life plans – Standard, Basic and Escalating – currently available, in case you weren’t aware of the options.
Who The Retirement Payout Planner Is For
All Singaporeans should use the Retirement Payout Planner at regular intervals of life, especially during important life milestones, such as a new job, marriage, or the birth of a child.
At each of these life stages, your concept of retirement income is likely to change, thus it will be a good opportunity to review your retirement goals and see if there is a projected savings shortfall.
#3 Home Purchase Planner
The Home Purchase Planner helps you estimate your property budget by calculating the housing loan you can afford based on your current financial situation.
Before you begin, you will need
- the income, savings, expenses and CPF balances of yourself and your property co-owner, if any (you have the option of obtaining some of this data from SGFinDex)
Read Also: Step-By-Step Guide To Check Your Full Insurance Coverage Using SGFinDex
If you are an existing homeowner, it assumes you only own 1 property that you are planning to sell and that you only have one co-owner. This is necessary to streamline the calculation process.
The Home Purchase Planner begins by requesting your income, savings, expenses and CPF balances of you and your property co-owner, if any.
Should you have an existing property that you intend to sell, you will also need to provide some information, including intended selling price, outstanding housing loan and the principal amount withdrawn and accrued interest from your CPF account.
Subsequently, you will have the option of visualising how your housing purchase may affect your retirement goals. Should you choose to see the impact, it will load a version of the Retirement Payout Planner.
After this step, you will receive the results of the calculations, which will look something like this.
How The Home Purchase Planner Helps You
The Home Purchase Planner is a good tool to use before you begin your search for a new property. By providing an estimated budget based on the data you have provided, it ensures you are not searching for properties beyond your current means.
The planner understandably makes several assumptions when providing these calculations, including using a 4% interest rate when getting the result for property financed with bank loans and a 3% interest rate when getting the result for properties financed with HDB loans. These arbitrary values are naturally on the conservative side – it’s better for the planner to project a lower budget after all.
Who The Home Purchase Planner Is For
Naturally the best use of the Home Purchase Planner is at the initial stages of your decision-making process when moving to a new property. Knowing how much you can comfortably afford sets the right expectations during your property search and also helps you to recognise any potential shortfalls in affordability early.
Top image from CPF.
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