Just sold property. What should I do with the excess cash of 500k?

Just sharing, I help my son who just start work to down payment for his first private condo.

Hi anon,

A few points to consider here:

• Does he want to increase his CPF life payout? ERS is an option that he can consider as there is nothing better than guaranteed income for life. He has to be aware of the fact that the monies once put in RA, can't be withdrawn.

• Does he want to withdraw in cash? If he wishes to withdraw in cash, the shielding strategy will still work if he has sufficient funds (anything in excess of $40K in SA), as I have done this for a client who was age 63

• If he withdraws in cash; what will he do with the money? Other than immediate liquidity (if he needs it), he should aim to achieve 2.5% returns with the funds that are not used. This can be achieved in various ways, for example, dividend paying stocks, dividend paying UTs, a private annuity to provide more guaranteed income, etc. The allocation should be skewed more towards safer instruments as it is important for him to have predictable and reliable income sources.

• In the context of his entire financial portfolio, what other income producing assets does he have? If he has sufficient assets (even with inflation factored in), then there might not be a need for him to fully withdraw all $500K from OA as some money can always be left there to earn 2.5% risk free

The permutations are plenty and it is really not possible to detail all of them here, but I have outlined some important things that he might want to think about. I highly recommend him to view this $500K in tandem with his overall strategy for retirement, including all his assets. A discussion with an independent financial advisor would provide him clarity on his options so that he can have an idea of what he can do.