Looking to get more out of your CPF savings than just the yearly interest payments? To use the savings in your Ordinary Account as part of the CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS), all you have to do is open a CPF Investment Account.

What investments are there to choose from?
Ordinary Account savings can be invested in fixed-income instruments like fixed deposits and Singapore government bonds, and you can also invest in endowment insurance policies, investment-linked insurance products (ILPs) and annuities.

Instruments that involve potentially greater levels of risk include unit trusts, exchange-traded funds, and fund management accounts. You can also use 35% of your investible CPF savings to invest in shares, property funds and corporate bonds, while 10% of those savings can be used to buy gold. The money in your Special Account, however, cannot be used to purchase shares, corporate bonds, property funds or gold.

Buying and selling
When you buy a product using money from your Ordinary Account, your agent bank applies to the CPF Board to withdraw funds to carry out the purchase, usually charging between $2 and $2.50 per transaction, plus a service fee of between $2 and $5 a quarter for each policy or product. If you are using your Special Account to invest, then the CPF Board will settle purchases and sales with the product providers directly.

When you sell an investment, its value will be credited back into your Investment Account, and only returned to your CPF Ordinary Account once you tell your agent bank to make such a switch. If, however, your Investment Account registers no activity for two months in a row, then any money in it will automatically be transferred back into your Ordinary Account.