Safety Net Calculator
How long your cushion lasts if you lose your job — and how much cash you build over four years if you don’t.
Your sale
What the existing home returns to you.
Your purchase
The new home, its loan and upfront costs.
Bank-loan cash floor: 5% ($0), based on outstanding housing loans. Property count is used separately for ABSD.
On a private resale the stamp duty is fronted in cash (within 14 days of exercising), then reimbursed from your CPF OA after completion — so it nets back to CPF, which is how the buffer below treats it. Keep that cash on hand for the bridge.
Loan, monthly costs & buyers
Your reserves
If you keep your job · 4-year view
What’s left after the move
Enter your monthly living costs
Runway and four-year results stay hidden until this is filled in. Leaving food, transport and household bills at $0 would overstate your safety net.
This is a resilience tool, not a loan-qualification check — TDSR/MSR live in the Affordability Assessment. Gross income here only sets your loan tenure. Selling first? The Sale Proceeds tool breaks down the sale side in detail.
How this calculator works
The safety net is what stands between you and trouble after the keys are handed over. This calculator assumes the purchase and loan are already done, and answers two questions a banker would not — because they are about life after the deal, not approval before it.
One — the no-job runway. If your income stopped the day you moved in, your CPF contributions would stop too, so the buffer is static. The headline figure is deliberately cash-only: surplus cash proceeds (in a Sell & Buy) plus cash savings, divided by the full monthly outlay — instalment plus maintenance plus property tax. CPF Ordinary Account can legally service the mortgage, so a second figure shows the longer runway if you draw OA down for the loan; but OA cannot pay maintenance or tax and is not spendable cash, so it is kept out of the headline.
Two — the four-year position if you keep working. Cash and CPF stay separate. Available CPF OA is applied only to the mortgage; net take-home cash pays maintenance, property tax, other housing bills and any mortgage remainder. The result shows both balances after 48 months and the average monthly change in cash. It excludes CPF interest and is subject to CPF housing eligibility and usage limits. Net take-home income is required for this view — it differs from the gross income used to set loan tenure.
Tenure. The loan tenure is the income-weighted average age of the borrowers subtracted from 65, capped at 30 years — the same max-LTV basis the banks use. A younger co-borrower with real income lengthens the tenure and lowers the instalment.
Cash floor. Property count is used for ABSD. The bank-loan cash floor is a separate rule based on housing loans still outstanding when the new loan is granted: generally 5% cash with no outstanding housing loan and 25% with one or more, on the standard tenure route modelled here. A fully paid property can therefore count for ABSD without moving the new loan into the 25% cash tier.
For whether you can borrow in the first place — TDSR, MSR and LTV — use the Affordability Assessment.
A worked example
A Singapore Citizen aged 44 sells a $730,000 home (no loan left, 2% agent fee, $489,000 of CPF to refund), netting $223,006 in cash with $489,000 back in CPF — $712,006 in all. They buy a $2,000,000 home on a 75% loan with no other housing loan outstanding, needing $572,100 upfront (downpayment plus $69,600 stamp duty and fees). Settling 5% in cash and the rest from CPF, the genuine cash leftover is about $122,500, with roughly $87,400 still in CPF OA. At a 1.8% rate the monthly outlay is $7,852, so the cash-only runway is about 15.6 months; letting CPF OA also service the mortgage stretches it to about 27 months. If they keep working on $10,520 net take-home and use available CPF OA for the mortgage, cash rises by about $6,008 a month on average — roughly $411,000 cash after four years, with the projected OA used for the mortgage. The same purchase as a pure buy simply drops the sale side and uses the cash and CPF they keep on hand.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a property safety net?
- It is the cushion you hold after buying a home: the cash and reserves that keep the mortgage and housing bills paid if your income stops. This calculator measures it two ways — how many months your cash lasts with no job, and how much cash you accumulate over four years if you keep working.
- How many months of reserves should I have after buying?
- There is no official rule, but many financial planners suggest 6–12 months of total housing outlay (instalment plus maintenance and property tax) in accessible reserves. This tool shows your actual runway so you can judge it against your own risk tolerance and job security.
- Does CPF OA count towards my safety net?
- Partly. CPF Ordinary Account can service the mortgage instalment, but it cannot pay maintenance or property tax and is not spendable cash. So the headline runway here is cash-only — surplus cash proceeds plus cash savings — and CPF OA is shown separately as a figure that extends the runway if you draw it down for the loan.
- Why does this tool not check TDSR?
- Because it assumes the purchase and loan are already in place. TDSR, MSR and LTV decide whether you can borrow in the first place — those belong in the Affordability Assessment. The Safety Net Calculator is about resilience after the deal closes. Gross income here is used only to set the loan tenure via the income-weighted average age.
- Do properties owned and outstanding housing loans mean the same thing?
- No. Residential properties already owned determine ABSD. Housing loans still outstanding determine the bank-loan LTV tier and minimum cash downpayment. A fully paid property can count for ABSD without counting as an outstanding housing loan, so the calculator asks for both separately.
- What is the difference between Sell & Buy and Pure Buy?
- In a Sell & Buy, you fund the purchase partly from the surplus cash proceeds of selling your existing home, so that surplus adds to your buffer. In a Pure Buy there is no sale, so the buffer is just your cash savings (CPF OA shown separately). Pick the mode that matches your situation.
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Estimates for planning only — not financial, tax, accounting or legal advice, and not an offer or approval for any loan. Results depend on your inputs and simplifying assumptions; policies and rates change. Verify all figures with your banker, lawyer and the relevant agencies (IRAS, HDB, CPF Board). TRIBE accepts no liability for any loss arising from use of this tool.
Disclaimer
The tools on this page provide estimates for general reference only and do not constitute financial, legal, tax, or investment advice. Calculations are based on prevailing MAS, IRAS, HDB, and CPF rules and rates at the time of publication, which may change without notice. Actual figures — including loan eligibility, interest rates, stamp duties, and CPF usage — depend on your specific circumstances and the final assessment of banks, IRAS, and other relevant authorities. TRIBE makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any output and accepts no liability for decisions made in reliance on these tools. Please verify all figures with the relevant institutions or a qualified professional before committing to any transaction.