Creating my own retirement fund

I will have some retirement funds saved up in the Central Provident Fund (CPF). However, like any typical Singaporeans, I know my money is somewhat locked up, it will be used for purposes like payment of house/education loan for my child and there are certain qualifying criterias before I can withdraw my money flexibly. I am not complaining about CPF policy here. Actually, I am glad there's some mechanisms to force Singaporeans to save for their retirement. The intent of the policy is well and good. Often enough, intent gets misconstrue when plan gets operationalise. If you are keen to find out more about how to withdraw your CPF, you can check out the following link: https://www.cpf.gov.sg/Members/Schemes/schemes/retirement/withdrawals-of-cpf-savings-from-55

I have not been savvy with my finances. Just to quantify that I am not in debt or anything like that. I must say 2017 is the year when God is giving me the capacity to be exposed to some of the key financial concepts. As a result, I am examining my financial health more intently. Having established the discipline of saving, I realise I need to work on having ready cash for retirement. This is a set of money set apart from the contingency fund ( about 6 months of salary) which we should have. As such, I would need these cash to be locked away intentionally till I can tap on it flexibly.

I simply derived my cash retirement fund through working out the 'X' amount of cash which I would like to have by the time I am 60. I am 36 years now. This means I will have 24 years and less to accumulate this amount of cash. The 'X' amount of cash that I can tap on by the time I am 60 would also include the savings endowment which will mature along the way. Of course, the principle of compounding interest and quick and hard savings would apply. The quicker I squirrel away this set of cash, the less burden/pressure on my need to keep a job of my current pay.

photo credit to international professional services