You will be able to explain how a contribution is split across your accounts and why the split changes with age.
Every month, part of your pay goes into CPF before you see it, and your employer adds a share on top. Most people check the total once a year, if that. But the total hides the decision that matters. The money doesn't land in one pot. It is split across three accounts the moment it arrives, and the split decides what that money can ever be used for.
The three accounts during your working years are the Ordinary Account (OA), the Special Account (SA) and the MediSave Account (MA). The OA can pay for a home, approved education and some investments. The SA is for retirement, and it earns a higher interest rate because the money is locked away for longer. The MA is for healthcare: hospital bills, MediShield Life and other approved insurance premiums, and some outpatient treatment.
How much of each contribution goes to each account depends on your age. When you're young, the OA takes the largest share, because that is when most people buy a home. As you get older, the OA share shrinks and more goes to the SA and MediSave. The system is steering money away from housing and towards retirement and healthcare as you approach them. The CPF Board publishes the allocation rates for each age band, and they are revised from time to time, so always work from the current table rather than a number you read somewhere.
The total contribution is also a percentage of your wages, split between you and your employer, and those rates change with age too. But the percentage only applies up to a limit. The Ordinary Wage ceiling caps the monthly salary that CPF is calculated on. Earn above it, and your contribution stays the same however much more you earn. Bonuses are counted separately against an annual limit called the Additional Wage ceiling. The government has raised the Ordinary Wage ceiling in steps in recent years, so look up this year's figure on the CPF Board website before you calculate anything.
The accounts are not interchangeable. Money in the SA can't be moved back to the OA to pay for a flat. MediSave money can't pay your rent. Once a dollar has been allocated, its uses are mostly fixed. The main exception runs one way: you can move OA money to the SA to earn more interest, but you can't move it back. Module 3 covers when that trade makes sense.
The structure changes again at 55. A Retirement Account is created, and savings from your SA and OA move into it, up to an amount set for your cohort. Since 2025, the Special Account closes at that point, and its remaining savings go to the Retirement Account, with anything above the retirement sum moving to the OA. Module 6 follows that step in detail. Until then, three accounts are what you are building.
Here is why this matters for everything else in the course. If you plan to buy a flat in five years, the OA share of each contribution decides how much CPF you will have for the downpayment and instalments. If you are thinking about retirement, the SA share decides how fast that pot grows. If you are wondering whether to top up, you need to know which account the money will enter and what it can do from there. Every projection you build later starts with this split.
You don't need to memorise the table. You need to know where to find it and how to read it. Log in to the CPF website with Singpass, open your statement, and look at last month's contribution. Note how much went to each account. Then find the allocation table for your age band on the CPF Board website and check that the split on your statement matches it.
Find last month's contribution on your CPF statement, note how much went to each account, and check it against the CPF Board allocation table for your age.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).