How much CPF you can withdraw at 55 depends on one comparison: your savings against your Full Retirement Sum (FRS). Everyone can take out up to S$5,000. If you have more than your FRS, you can withdraw everything above it. At 65, members born in 1958 or later can also withdraw up to 20% of their Retirement Account savings.
The FRS is $220,400 if you turn 55 in 2026 and $228,200 if you turn 55 in 2027. Here are the rules, then worked examples at three balance levels.
How Much CPF Can You Withdraw at 55: The Rules
| Your position at 55 | What you can withdraw |
|---|---|
| Savings below the FRS | Up to $5,000 from your Ordinary Account |
| FRS set aside in your Retirement Account | All remaining Ordinary Account savings, any time |
| You own a property with a lease to at least age 95 | Retirement Account savings above your Basic Retirement Sum, on conditions |
Source: CPF Board.
Three points apply to all of them.
- It is optional. You do not have to withdraw anything. Savings left in CPF keep earning interest.
- It is not one-off. CPF Board says you can make as many withdrawals as you like from your withdrawable savings.
- Your MediSave is separate. None of these rules lets you withdraw MediSave savings as cash.
For how the Retirement Account (RA) is filled in the first place, see what happens to your CPF at 55.
Example 1: Savings Well Below the FRS
An illustrative member turns 55 in 2026 with $40,000 in his Special Account and $20,000 in his Ordinary Account (OA).
His $60,000 is below the FRS, so $5,000 stays in his OA for withdrawal and $55,000 moves to his RA.
Withdrawable at 55: $5,000.
If he keeps working, new contributions keep arriving in his OA. CPF Board gives a similar case: a member whose OA grows by $2,000 after 55 still has a $5,000 limit, and the extra $2,000 is later transferred to his RA to help build towards his FRS.
Example 2: Close to the FRS, With a Home
An illustrative member turns 55 in 2026 with $150,000 in her Special Account and $50,000 in her OA. She owns a fully paid HDB flat with more than 50 years left on the lease.
Her $200,000 is below the FRS. $5,000 stays in her OA and $195,000 moves to her RA.
Withdrawable at 55 without using her property: $5,000.
Because her lease lasts well past age 95, she has a second option. CPF Board allows property to stand in for up to half the FRS, so she may withdraw RA savings down to her Basic Retirement Sum (BRS) of $110,200.
Withdrawable using her property: roughly $84,800 more ($195,000 less $110,200). The actual figure will be lower if her RA includes top-ups, government grants or interest earned in the RA, which are generally excluded.
The cost is real. Her RA would hold a little over half as much, so her monthly payouts from 65 would be much lower. And if she sells the flat later, the amount she withdrew must be refunded from the sale proceeds, together with any CPF used for the flat plus accrued interest, to restore her RA up to the FRS.
Example 3: Above the FRS
An illustrative member turns 55 in 2026 with $200,000 in his Special Account and $150,000 in his OA.
His RA takes $200,000 from the Special Account and $20,400 from the OA to reach the FRS of $220,400.
Withdrawable at 55: $129,600, the balance left in his OA. He can take it all, take some, or leave it to earn 2.5% a year and withdraw later.
The short version: At 55 you can withdraw $5,000, or everything in your Ordinary Account once your Full Retirement Sum is set aside. Home owners can go down to the Basic Retirement Sum. At 65, those born in 1958 or later can take up to 20% of their Retirement Account, at the cost of lower payouts.
How Much You Can Withdraw at 65
Two further things open up at 65, the age at which monthly payouts can start.
Up to 20% of your RA savings. CPF Board’s policy explanation is that members born in 1958 or later can withdraw up to 20% of their RA savings as at 65. That 20% includes the first $5,000 that can be withdrawn from 55. It generally excludes cash top-ups, CPF transfers and government grants.
Your OA. If your FRS is set aside, any OA savings remain withdrawable. If not, the limit from your OA is up to $5,000.
Those born in 1957 can withdraw a smaller additional amount, which depends on birth year. Your exact figure is shown on your Retirement dashboard and in the withdrawal form.
The examples at 65
The RA balances below are illustrations only, not guarantees. They assume no top-ups or grants and that savings at 55 earn interest for ten years.
- Member 1. Suppose his RA has grown to $85,000 at 65. Twenty per cent is $17,000. As that figure includes the first $5,000, expect about $12,000 more if he already took $5,000 at 55.
- Member 3. Suppose his RA has grown to $330,000 at 65. Twenty per cent is $66,000.
Whatever is withdrawn does not go into CPF LIFE. Taking $66,000 out of a $330,000 RA leaves $264,000 to fund payouts, so the monthly income is roughly a fifth lower for life.
CPF Board adds one mechanical detail. If you neither withdraw this amount nor use it to raise your payouts, it moves from your RA to your OA when your payouts start, where it stays withdrawable.
Before You Withdraw
Where will the money earn more? OA savings earn 2.5% a year, guaranteed. Money in a bank account may earn less, and investments carry risk. See what CPF interest rates mean.
Can it go back? Moving withdrawable savings into your RA is irreversible, but so, in practice, is spending them. Our list of questions to ask before moving CPF money covers both directions.
How will you receive it? Withdrawals are made online with Singpass and paid to your bank account. The default Daily Withdrawal Limit is $2,000. It can be raised to at most $50,000 a day, after a 12-hour cooling period.
What does it do to your income? Our retirement timeline calculator shows how long a lump sum lasts at different rates of spending, and the CPF retirement sum planner estimates payouts for different RA balances.
What To Do Next
- Log in to your CPF Retirement dashboard. It shows your exact withdrawable amount, which no example can.
- Decide what the money is for before you move it. If there is no plan, leaving it in the OA keeps every option open.
- If you are thinking of using your property to withdraw more, compare the lump sum with the drop in monthly payouts first.
- If you are close to 65, read about deferring CPF LIFE payouts to 70 alongside the 20% decision.
- See CPF strategies by age for the other choices from 55.
