The original version of this article first appeared in The Business Times It seems obvious. Top-up your Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) and get 2020 tax relief of up to $3,366 for Singaporeans and PRs, and $7,854 for foreigners. But if you don’t top-up before December 31, the opportunity is lost forever. With the help of technology, you can now make such a top-up without leaving your couch, and in just a few taps on the UOB, DBS, and OCBC mobile banking apps. In 2019 alone $1.5 billion poured into SRS, which now has over 185,000 account holders. Contributions have been growing a compound annual growth rate of over 17% since 2011, reaching SGD 10.6 billion at the end of 2019. We expect record contributions in 2020.

Delayed gratification

Money is all about trade offs and opportunity cost. To get the benefits of SRS without penalty, you need to lock up your money until age 62....