Should a trainee without CPF contribution top up your CPF or invest elsewhere?

Hi anon,

I can relate to your situation as i myself is also on traineeship. But i not sure about your background. I got retrench last year. The traineeship allowance is like less than half of what i usually earned. Blessing in disguise i graduated from my part time degree with suss. Yes it sucks to grad and retrench. More like getting the worse of both world.

Answering your topic YES i do top up my cpf. Not much more of between 100 - 500 per month. I do have a side hustle here and there. But 2.5% is way better tha saving in the bank and i see Cpf life as my BASELINE for retirement. I top up medisave as i plan to max out to basic healthcare sum than my special account.

Reason because,
1) i have already set aside emergency funds up of 6 months. Plan to increase to 1 year instead.
2) i do have invest in robos such as autowealth for already 3 years plus. Thanks to the tech run. Its giving me good returns.
3) i do invest in individual high growth, debt free, high cash flow tech stocks. Also doing well.
4) i be choosing a flat soon. So long term i do need to beef up my cpf
Overall from this reason i do top up my cpf.

Whatever your background, end goal cash is king. I do need to forsee an event when my traineeship ends what "if" i am not offered a full time job? Or my job hunt take longer than expected? All this we do not know. Hence, you sound pretty young to me. So do top up and max up your desired emergency funds please.

And lets hope both you and i and also everyone else will see better days in the future ahead.

Hi anon,

You sound young, so I will just say this: Keep more liquid cash with you during these uncertain times. I am not sure what you are getting paid, but cash is king during these times. Anything above what you need in terms of an emergency fund can be invested of course (this also presumes that you have settled your basic insurance needs)

When the economy improves, you will be able to find a job that pays CPF. So don't worry about growing your CPF, it will happen within the next few years.