I'm 28. After setting aside 12 months emergency fund, do I still need to allocate money to savings? Or should I use my spare cash to invest or top up CPF?

Yes. Because there are emergency savings (for the dire situations) and rainy day funds (for minor annoyances like your hp gets spoilt). And then you may want to treat yourself to certain luxuries leh

If u r young, you don't need 12 months emergency fund, just 6 month will do. grow ur fund is more impt

HiHi,

It's all about the allocation of your income and the level of risks you are comfortable with (so you sleep soundly at night).

It's good to see you have accumulated 1yr's fund. But should it be more?

What's your objective in topping up your CPF? While it's always good for some to argue that it's safe/good etc, the other side is, it's pretty much locked up until 55yrs.

I believe it's clearer if you have an objective in mind (setting up goals for retirement/housing etc), then working towards it with a plan. There is no reason why you cannot simultaneously accumulate some more savings, do investments and also some top-ups of CPFs also. It all depends on your situation and the spare amount you have.

You are young, so the "runway" for planning is so much longer and you are definitely right to start thinking about this now.

I am an Independent Financial Adviser, if you like a chat over call, zoom or in person. https://woocard.me/alvinmok

I assume that your annual salary range is from 100-120k, base on your tax bracket provided. With this salary, i will suggest that you do both investment and topup to CPF.

You will only be able to topup to SA for tax relief (you wont be able to topup much to MA since you most likely hit the contribution cap when you have bonus). Another option is to contribute 15k to SRS for deferment of taxable income after retirement age, and use SRS to invest in local market if you deem fit.​​​