Ex-Teacher Mr Goh Master

I did both and here's the framework that made it click for me. CPF SA top-ups give you a guaranteed ~4% (risk-free) plus tax relief (up to $8k for yourself under the Retirement Sum Topping-Up scheme, reducing your income tax). The catch: it's locked till 55, totally illiquid. At 26 with a 30+ year horizon, the stock market historically returns more than 4%, so on pure expected returns, investing wins IF you stay invested through crashes and don't panic sell. My approach: I first built a 6-month emergency fund in cash (never skip this), then split, invested the bulk in a low-cost global index fund/ETF for the long horizon growth, and did modest CPF SA top-ups mainly for the tax relief since I'm in a taxable bracket. The 4% floor is genuinely great for the safe portion of your portfolio, think of CPF as your bond allocation. Don't lock everything in CPF at 26, you want liquidity and growth. But if you're the type who panics in a market crash, the guaranteed CPF 4% you'll actually leave alone beats a market return you'll sabotage. Know thyself.