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Guides / Budgeting and planning

How to work out how much you need to retire in Singapore

Updated 1 October 2026

"How much do I need?" is the question behind most retirement worries. The internet will give you one big round number. It won't be yours.

Your number comes from four things you can actually find: what you spend, what CPF LIFE is likely to pay you, how long the money has to last, and what's left to cover. Here's how to put them together.

Step 1: Start with what you spend now

Take your last three months of bank and card statements and add up what goes out each month. Then adjust for retirement:

  • Take out costs that will stop, such as a mortgage that'll be paid off, work transport and meals bought during the workday.
  • Add costs that are likely to grow, such as medical bills, insurance premiums paid in cash, and the hobbies and travel that will fill the hours you used to spend at work.

CPF Board suggests the same method, and gives three rough bands to compare against. Around $1,000 a month covers basics like home-cooked meals, hawker food and public transport. Around $2,000 to $3,000 allows the occasional restaurant meal and a short regional trip or two each year. Above $3,000 covers regular dining out and longer holidays.

Step 2: Move that figure to the year you retire

The same lifestyle will cost more by the time you retire. For 2026, MAS projects that both core and headline inflation will average between 1.5% and 2.5%, and nobody can tell you the rate for the next 30 years. So choose a rate you're comfortable with and use it every time you redo the sums. At 2%, a basket of things costing $1,000 today would cost about $1,219 ten years from now.

Step 3: Find your likely CPF LIFE payout

CPF publishes estimated payouts for each retirement sum, based on a man who turns 55 in 2026, joins the Standard Plan and starts payouts at 65.

Savings in your Retirement Account at 55Estimated monthly payout from 65
$110,200 (Basic Retirement Sum)$950
$220,400 (Full Retirement Sum)$1,780
$440,800 (Enhanced Retirement Sum)$3,440

Your own estimate is in your CPF account through the Retirement Payout Planner. If you're married, each of you has your own Retirement Account and your own payout, so add both.

Step 4: Work out the gap, and how long it has to last

The gap is your spending at 65 minus your CPF LIFE payout. Two things make it bigger than it first looks. A Standard Plan payout stays the same every month while your costs keep rising, so the gap widens each year. And it may have to last a long time: CPF Board says more than one in two Singaporeans aged 65 today can expect to live beyond 85.

A worked illustration

The figures below are an illustration only, and they rest on these assumptions:

  • You're single, 55 in 2026, and want the lifestyle that costs $3,000 a month today.
  • Prices rise 2% a year, before and after retirement.
  • You set aside the Full Retirement Sum and start CPF LIFE on the Standard Plan at 65, for an estimated $1,780 a month.
  • Your other savings earn 3% a year, and you draw each year's shortfall at the start of that year.

With 2% inflation, the $3,000 lifestyle costs about $3,660 a month by 65, which leaves a gap of about $1,880 a month in your first year of retirement against the $1,780 from CPF LIFE. That gap grows every year after, since the payout stays level.

The savings you'd need at 65 to fill that gap depend on how long you plan for:

Plan to cover the gap untilSavings needed at 65
85about $474,000
90about $595,000
95about $716,000

Change any assumption and the answer moves a lot. A lower spending target, a later CPF LIFE start, the Escalating Plan, a few years of part-time work, or a higher Retirement Account balance would each shrink the gap. Higher inflation or lower returns would widen it.

What to do with your number

Once you have a gap figure, you can test real choices against it, such as deferring CPF LIFE to 70, working two more years, or topping up your Retirement Account. If you have a Supplementary Retirement Scheme account, see how much of the early years it could cover. Penalty-free SRS withdrawals start from the statutory retirement age in force when you first contributed, which is 64 for new contributors from 1 July 2026.

The point isn't to hit the number exactly. It's to know whether you're $200 a month short or $2,000 a month short, because the fix for each is very different.

We can work out your gap with you, using your own CPF figures. Book a free retirement review when you're ready.

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