Your CPF OA earns 2.5% returns and I was looking to invest into something with higher returns. I got really interested in when Endowus was marketing the ability to invest with CPF OA and here is my experience so far.
Who is Endowus?
Basically, a Roboadvisor wealth management platform that allows you to perform passive investments.
On Boarding
Onboarding is completely online. I used the “myInfo” available in SingPass and the process was quite seamless.
Pre-requisites
STEP 1: Complete the CPF SAQ
A CPF-IA is necessary to invest your CPF Ordinary Account. Before opening your CPF-IA, you must complete the CPF Investment Scheme Self-Awareness Questionnaire (CPFIS SAQ). The SAQ contains 20 multiple-choice questions with no pass score.
STEP 2: Open your CPF-IA
I already had a CPF-IA account with UOB so I only need to link it together. For those without an account, you will need to open a CPF-IA but this is also quite simple and done online. You can use DBS or OCBC but the process is a little more troublesome as you will need to submit forms to the respective banks.
STEP 3: Look up your CPF-IA number and link it to Endowus
You may use your existing CPF-IA with any of the 3 agent banks (UOB, DBS or OCBC), and link it to your Endowus account.
STEP 4: Start investing your CPF
After you receive an email confirming that your CPF-IA is linked to your Endowus account, you can start investing right away. There is no need to top and transfer money, UOB Kay Hian can draw the investment amount directly from your CPF agent bank and process your CPF investments. This really simplified the process quite a bit.
Underlying Funds
Portfolio
I decided on a 60/40 portfolio and cost averaging 2000 a month.
Performance
The performance has so far been a positive 0.08%. Not fantastic I know, however investment Is a journey, and given the downtrend of the market, I believe that the overall portfolio should see positive returns in a longer time frame when the market starts to recover.
In Summary
I think it is important to start planning for retirement no matter how small the effort. My experience with Endowus has been positive thus far with the prompt email support, content engagement and education provided by the platform. I would also encourage you to perform due diligence(research) before you embark on any sort of investments. There are also risk associated and it is important to be able to stomach the risk^.
Click here today to start investing with Endowus you will each get $20 in Access Fee credit (equivalent to $10,000 advised free, assuming Access Fee of 0.40%).
^any investment comes with associated risk and this article does not constitute professional investment advice
