Transferred my PSEA Funds into CPF SA

I belong to the group where I cannot use my PSEA (Post Secondary Education Account) funds to pay for my studies as I studied at a private university.

PSEA funds can't be used for anything except education. And doing a Master's degree or PhD doesn't seem to be useful for my career (for personal development, reading books are enough).

So it always irks me that the funds are stuck inside the account earning 2.5% per annum like the CPF OA. Makes it worse, considering that for the SAF 1st Milestone award, $3000 goes inside.

Per policy, the PSEA funds are released to you after age 30 and before age 31. Even after Skillsfuture was previously said to end the PSEA scheme and unlock funds to us early. Perhaps because the government realised that the utilisation of the Skillsfuture is poor compared to the PSEA.

Before, the funds are released in batches twice a year; Now they have revised it to release it around June and July yearly.

I contacted before MOE to release the funds to my CPF OA account but acceptance is a case-by-case basis. Apparently earning more interest in your CPF is not one of them.

For those who have applied for their BTO Flats and don't intend to do further studies can contact MOE. MOE will then release the funds to help you pay down more of the housing loan.

So I finally got the money into my OA account. At current valuations and macro-economic climate, there's attractive in the Singapore Exchange to use my CPFIS funds for.

So, I chucked all into my SA instead.

It is only about $5000 though. Compounding at 4% per annum, it only decreases the age I hit the Full Retirement Sum by only 1 year (sad isn't it). So, as of current projections, it should hit at age 48 and earlier, based on my conservative estimates.

Here is a visualisation of how the $5000 will grow until I reach 65.

That's a whooping of almost $8000 difference! And it is just leaving it to grow through a 1.5% increase in compounding interest, hands-free.