On combined monthly income of 9k, don't suppose you pay much in income tax. If any, its probably on the guy side.
Few suggestions based on reaching out for the lowest hanging fruit
1) do some cpf top-up. At your age, you should have maxed out the SA / MA already. If not, this would usually be on the wife side who didn't work for few years. Because you probably don't pay much in income tax, I would suggest the guy paying taxes do cpf top up that qualify for tax relief - don't have to aim max, maybe like 3k per year? Think of the relief as rebate, while securing 4% interest... Assuming your incremental tax rate is 7%, on 3k top-up, the relief / rebate savings is 210, not a lot but it is free money.
2) srs not recommended because of low tax liability as stated in (1). Your mileage here would be low.
3) get some help to check if you have enough for ers. I estimate the ers amount to be 315k in 2025, so probably that's the amount you want to aim for to accumulate in your OA and SA to set aside. Aim to set aside for ers first (should give you monthly per pax 1.8k to 2+k with 2% increase per year from 65 onwards) before aiming for additional annuity >> there's not much of a runway for you to build on annuity now, so even if you get one, the annual premiums will be way way high. With ers, you don't need to pay insurance agent commission or insurance costs, or fear if the annuity will actually achieve that 3 to 4% non guaranteed return.
4) really depends whether you more comfortable with investing. If you are not sure, you can try to learn. But for low risk low reward, you can do voluntary housing refund - you already said you are about 50...at worst, the housing refund is a 5 year fixed deposit of 2.5%. After that you can transfer the money out of OA easily, or keep it in for 2.5%. The OA will be your favourite bank account when u turn 55 coz you won't be able to find a better high yield bank account.
5) if you are willing to learn investing, go learn abt etfs, reits etc. There is variety of ways to build, so it really depends on risk preferences. No simple answer to give you here.
not a recommendation to buy or sell now - but for beginners, there is s27 on sgx for S&P etf, and CFA for a reits etf - if you learn to optimize the commission / fees of 25+++ on a cash account, that fee is one time for each buy / sell and there is no other recurring fees or inactivity fees - coz if u buy and hold via robo advisor or other brokerage firm custodian account, its that silent $2 per month or other management fees that erodes your returns.
once you get more advanced and exposed to different types of etfs out there, you will have to go beyond sgx to invest - but you will need to manage your own temperament
I would suggest trying a bit of each.
On combined monthly income of 9k, don't suppose you pay much in income tax. If any, its probably on the guy side.
Few suggestions based on reaching out for the lowest hanging fruit
1) do some cpf top-up. At your age, you should have maxed out the SA / MA already. If not, this would usually be on the wife side who didn't work for few years. Because you probably don't pay much in income tax, I would suggest the guy paying taxes do cpf top up that qualify for tax relief - don't have to aim max, maybe like 3k per year? Think of the relief as rebate, while securing 4% interest... Assuming your incremental tax rate is 7%, on 3k top-up, the relief / rebate savings is 210, not a lot but it is free money.
2) srs not recommended because of low tax liability as stated in (1). Your mileage here would be low.
3) get some help to check if you have enough for ers. I estimate the ers amount to be 315k in 2025, so probably that's the amount you want to aim for to accumulate in your OA and SA to set aside. Aim to set aside for ers first (should give you monthly per pax 1.8k to 2+k with 2% increase per year from 65 onwards) before aiming for additional annuity >> there's not much of a runway for you to build on annuity now, so even if you get one, the annual premiums will be way way high. With ers, you don't need to pay insurance agent commission or insurance costs, or fear if the annuity will actually achieve that 3 to 4% non guaranteed return.
4) really depends whether you more comfortable with investing. If you are not sure, you can try to learn. But for low risk low reward, you can do voluntary housing refund - you already said you are about 50...at worst, the housing refund is a 5 year fixed deposit of 2.5%. After that you can transfer the money out of OA easily, or keep it in for 2.5%. The OA will be your favourite bank account when u turn 55 coz you won't be able to find a better high yield bank account.
5) if you are willing to learn investing, go learn abt etfs, reits etc. There is variety of ways to build, so it really depends on risk preferences. No simple answer to give you here.
not a recommendation to buy or sell now - but for beginners, there is s27 on sgx for S&P etf, and CFA for a reits etf - if you learn to optimize the commission / fees of 25+++ on a cash account, that fee is one time for each buy / sell and there is no other recurring fees or inactivity fees - coz if u buy and hold via robo advisor or other brokerage firm custodian account, its that silent $2 per month or other management fees that erodes your returns.
once you get more advanced and exposed to different types of etfs out there, you will have to go beyond sgx to invest - but you will need to manage your own temperament
I would suggest trying a bit of each.