I have been transferring the money in the Ordinary Account (OA) to Special Account (SA) every month and actively topping-up money in SA. The $7,000 tax relief and the 5% interest rate is really attractive. In fact, my CPF interest last year was already more than the bread I bring home in my first month of work.

Another popular way to look at it is by treating it as a long-term AAA-rated bond that you can redeem in your retirement.

The money in the Ordinary Account is commonly used for education and housing, which for education, I intend to use cash savings, and for housing, I plan to use as much cash as possible for a downpayment so that I don't have to touch the money in my CPF, and if I really need to take up a mortgage loan, I won't have to borrow too much money beyond my means. This...