01 Housing
Can I afford this flat?
Enter a price, your income and any other debts, then choose the loan and tenure. See the repayment, whether it clears both the 30% MSR and 55% TDSR caps, the cash and CPF you'd need upfront, the total interest, the CPF interest you'd owe yourself — and the most you could realistically support.
For your money: comfortable but committed: the repayment takes 23% of income and $162,454 in lifetime interest, leaving $6,958 a month for everything else — workable, if saving stays automated rather than "whatever's left".
For your life: run the one-income test before you sign: if one salary paused for a year, this repayment would take about 45% of the remaining income. Under 40% and you'd bend without breaking; much above it, and life's bigger moments start needing the bank's permission.
Illustrative: 75% loan-to-value, MSR capped at 30% and TDSR at 55% of gross income, and 2.5% accrued interest on the CPF used. Stamp duty uses standard residential rates. Bank rates float after any fixed period. Your actual figures depend on your loan, tenure and CPF balances — check the official HDB and CPF calculators before deciding.
02 Freedom
When could work become optional?
Put in your age and what you've already invested, then slide your savings rate. Watch both the years and the age you'd reach freedom move — far more with the savings rate than the return.
For your money: you're on course for optional work around 62. The lever worth knowing: five more points of savings rate would bring that roughly 4 years closer — a bigger move than any realistic improvement in returns.
For your life: the cleanest way to find those five points is to bank half of every future raise before your lifestyle meets it. Nothing you currently enjoy gets cut; your future self just stops donating to lifestyle creep.
Illustrative, and deliberately simple: your starting pot and monthly savings grow at the real return shown, until they reach a pot you could live on by drawing the withdrawal rate each year. It ignores CPF, tax, windfalls and pay rises — so treat it as the shape of the trade-off, not a forecast. Notice how much more the savings rate moves the answer than the return does.
03 Protection
How much life cover do I actually need?
Size cover to the real gap — the income your family would lose (as an invested lump sum), the mortgage they'd carry, and your children's future — minus what you already have. It usually lands lower than a sales pitch suggests.
Because a payout is invested, replacing $80,000/yr for 15 years needs about $955,035 today — not the full $1,200,000. That's the honest number, and it's usually lower than a sales pitch assumes.
For your money: your real gap ($1,335,035) runs well above the 9× guideline — usually the mortgage or several children doing that. At roughly $56/month in term cover, it's still one of the cheapest large problems you'll ever solve.
For your life: what that number buys is specific: the family stays in the home, the children finish school, and a grieving partner never has to job-hunt in the worst month of their life. That's the whole job — anything sold on top of it is a different product wearing insurance's clothes.
Illustrative. The income portion is discounted at the return shown, since a lump sum keeps earning while it's drawn down. The 9× rule is the LIA/MoneySense quick guideline. Term premium is a rough estimate for a healthy 30-something (~$50/yr per $100k) — real quotes vary by age, health and insurer. This isn't a product recommendation.
04 Tax
What would SRS actually save me?
Enter your chargeable income and slide a contribution up to the cap. See the tax you'd save this year at your real marginal rate — an instant tax saving, before the money has earned a cent.
Put in $15,300 and your tax bill falls by $1,759 — before the money has earned a cent. Repeat it each year you're paying tax, and invest what's inside so it isn't idle.
For your money: a solid deal: $1,759 back this year on $15,300, and repeating it through your peak-earning years quietly adds up to five figures of tax never paid. The saving is real only if the money gets invested inside SRS — idle cash at 0.05% gives the discount back.
For your life: make it a December ritual, sized honestly: contribute what your near-term life (flat, kids, buffer) can spare, not the full cap for its own sake. Early withdrawals are taxed in full plus 5% — SRS punishes money that wasn't truly long-term.
Illustrative, using current Singapore resident income-tax rates on your chargeable income (income after all your other reliefs). All reliefs together are capped at $80,000 a year. SRS is long-term money — only 50% of withdrawals are taxed at retirement age, but early withdrawals are taxed in full plus a 5% penalty. Not tax advice; confirm with IRAS.
05 Retirement
Will my retirement income stretch?
Lay the income you'd want beside what CPF LIFE and any other income will provide. See the monthly gap your own savings need to fill — and the pot it'd take to fill it.
For your money: most of this target rests on your own savings — the $359,407 pot is the real goal, and the years before retirement are when it's still buildable. Two levers work at once: every $100/month off the target saves ~$20,896 of pot, and topping up CPF toward the Full sum raises the floor that never runs out.
For your life: don't let the size of the pot trigger either paralysis or a product pitch — big gaps attract confident salesmen. The honest path is unglamorous: a target trimmed to what actually matters, a floor raised while there's time, and the difference invested steadily. That's a plan, not a miracle — which is what makes it work.
Illustrative and in today's money: the pot is the lump sum that, earning the return shown, would pay out your monthly gap for the years chosen. It assumes CPF LIFE and other income cover the rest for life. It ignores tax and lumpy costs like healthcare. For your exact CPF LIFE estimate, use the CPF Board calculator — this is orientation, not a forecast.
06 Education
Am I on track for their education?
Shrink a far-off, scary number into a monthly one. See what it'll really cost after inflation, what your current plan would grow to, and the monthly figure that closes any gap.
For your money: the gap is $15,281, but the runway is still long — closing it costs about $44/month more starting now, far less than it will cost starting at year 13. Time is still doing most of the lifting for you.
For your life: automate the difference this week and the goal disappears into the background where it belongs. And keep the rule from the education guide in view: this fund comes after your own retirement floor, never instead of it — they can borrow for a degree; nobody lends you a retirement.
Illustrative: today's cost is grown by education inflation to a future figure, and your lump sum plus monthly savings grow at the expected return. Real markets don't rise in a straight line, and fees and tax aren't modelled — treat this as the shape of the plan, not a promise. Start early: the longer the runway, the smaller the monthly number.
A note on these
These calculators are deliberately simple, and the assumptions are stated under each one. They're for orientation — to help you see the shape of a decision — not personalised financial advice, and they don't account for your full circumstances. For exact figures, use the official HDB, CPF and MAS calculators, and speak to someone who can see your whole picture.
Jonathan Wong is a licensed financial adviser representative in Singapore, currently between firms — during that period he is not able to provide financial advice. You can check his registration yourself on the MAS Financial Institution Representatives Register at eservices.mas.gov.sg/rr.