Plan how the non-earning partner can keep building savings in their own name.
When one partner stops working, they should still get a regular sum of money of their own each month. Savings, CPF and insurance should also keep building in their name. The two of you can arrange both, and most of it runs automatically once it is set up.
Picture Siew Ling, who stopped work after her second child. The hardest moment of her first year at home was not about nappies. It was asking her husband for money to buy his own birthday present. He never said no, and he never asked what the money was for. She still hated asking, because she had paid her own way for eleven years and now even a gift for him came out of his account.
Her story shows two separate problems. The first is dignity and day-to-day freedom, meaning being able to spend without asking. The second is that money should be building up in the non-earning partner's own name, and usually it is not.
In Lesson 2.3, each of you kept a personal amount, a regular sum you can spend without explaining. When one partner stops earning, theirs should not disappear. Agree on a regular sum that moves from the earner's account to the non-earning partner's own account every month, on the same day, by standing instruction. Once the instruction is set up, nobody has to ask for the money and nobody has to remember to send it.
How you describe the arrangement matters as much as the money. The sum is the non-earning partner's share of the household income. It is not an allowance they have to earn or justify. They should not have to explain what it is for, and the earner should not check. If you used a proportional split in Module 3, this arrangement carries on the same principle. Lesson 3.3 described how one partner's paid work and the other's unpaid work both support the household, so both of you get money of your own.
You decide the amount together. One option is to set it equal to the earner's own personal amount. The other is to pick a figure that covers the non-earning partner's own phone, transport, clothes and gifts, plus an amount to save.
As Lesson 4.1 explained, when a partner stops earning, contributions to their CPF stop too, and their retirement savings stall. Under the CPF Retirement Sum Topping-Up scheme, you can make cash top-ups to your spouse's CPF retirement savings. The same scheme also allows top-ups to your own CPF and to the CPF of certain other family members. Lesson 5.2 of this course covers top-ups to parents, which work under the same scheme with some differences.
Top-up money goes into the account that builds retirement income. It earns CPF interest and later adds to monthly payouts. It also stays in CPF for retirement, so only top up money you will not need before then.
The person making the top-up may be able to claim tax relief, within limits set by IRAS. Relief on top-ups to a spouse has conditions, and these can include limits on the spouse's own income in the previous year. Amounts, caps and conditions are reviewed from time to time, so check the current rules on the CPF Board and IRAS websites before you count on the relief.
A top-up does not have to be large to matter. Interest compounds on the existing balance, and regular top-ups keep that balance growing while your partner's salary is paused.
In many single-income households, all the savings, investments and insurance are in the earner's name. While the couple is together this seems harmless. It stops being harmless in two cases: if the earner dies before a will or nominations are in place (Module 7), or if the marriage ends (Module 8). In either case, a partner with nothing in their own name may be unable to get at money for weeks or months, exactly when they need it.
Three things cover most of this:
Savings in the non-earning partner's own account, at least enough to cover a few months of their own costs. Any investments they would rely on held in their name too, not only in the earner's name. Their own insurance cover, as suggested in Lesson 4.2: a hospital plan in their own name, and possibly some life or critical illness cover.
Hui Min (an invented example) stops work for two years after their child is born. On the 2nd of each month, S$700 (an example figure) goes from Daniel's salary account to Hui Min's personal account. S$400 of it is hers to spend. The other S$300 goes by standing instruction to her own savings account. S$400 + S$300 = S$700.
Every December, Daniel makes a cash top-up to her CPF under the Retirement Sum Topping-Up scheme. Before he does, he checks the current conditions for tax relief. Hui Min's hospital plan stays in her own name and is paid by GIRO from her personal account.
Over a year, that comes to S$400 x 12 = S$4,800 of personal spending and S$300 x 12 = S$3,600 of her own savings, plus whatever Daniel tops up to her CPF.
When you plan your own version, decide three things together: the monthly amount, the account it lands in, and how much of it goes to the non-earning partner's own savings.
Agree on a monthly amount for the non-earning partner's own savings and decide where it will go.
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