SND

SND Save & Safe AI Powered

Calculator Manual & Training Guide

Everything the tool does, in plain language — what to enter, how each number is worked out, and how to read what comes out. Use it to train, or just read it through start to finish.

SAVE = the monthly mortgage SAFE = years your reserve lasts Two modes: Proposal & Comparison
Section 1

What this tool is

It turns a client's property sale into a clear plan for their next move. From what they're selling, it works out how much money they free up, how much they can borrow, and what they can comfortably buy — then packages it into a clean PDF for the client and an internal brief for you.

The whole idea sits on two words:

  • SAVE — the monthly mortgage instalment. Lower = easier to carry.
  • SAFE — the safety net: how many years of instalments their leftover cash (the reserve) can cover with zero income. Higher = safer.

Every figure is an indicative estimate to guide a conversation — not a bank approval and not financial advice.

Section 2

The two modes

At the top you pick one of two modes. The whole page changes colour so you always know which you're in — gold = Proposal, green = Comparison.

Gold · Proposal

No purchase yet — 4 plans

For prospecting. Enter what they're selling and the tool auto-generates four ready-made plans — from a big safety cushion to maximum wealth-building. Best when the client hasn't picked a property yet and you want to show what's possible.

Green · Comparison

Comparing options — deck

For a client weighing specific choices. Each "option" can hold one OR several properties (e.g. buy A vs buy A + B). The tool lays them side by side and recommends the one with the best 4-year outcome.

Tip: a saved client remembers which mode it was built in and reopens in that mode — the dropdown shows "· Proposal" or "· Comparison" so you know before loading.
Section 3

What you enter

All money figures are monthly, in SGD, unless the label says otherwise.

Buyers

Residency
SC / PR / Foreigner — decides the ABSD rate.
Age
Drives the loan tenure (older = shorter loan = smaller borrowing).
Income unit (/mo vs /yr NOA — per field)
Fixed income and Variable each have their own /mo pill — click to switch that field to /yr NOA (it turns green); annual figures are divided by 12 automatically. Mix freely: salary /mo + annual bonus or NOA /yr on the same buyer, and mixed households (husband on NOA, wife on payslip) work naturally. Debt is always monthly. Self-employed / full-commission clients: set the Variable field to /yr and put the NOA amount there — banks assess NOA income with the 30% haircut, and that's exactly what the tool applies.
Fixed income /mo
Basic monthly salary. Counted at 100%.
Variable /mo (×70%)
Average monthly commission / bonus / overtime (annual bonus ÷ 12). MAS only recognises 70% of this for the loan — the 30% "haircut". Full-commission earners put everything here.
Debt /mo
Existing monthly commitments (car, other loans). Reduces borrowing.
CPF OA
CPF Ordinary Account they already hold — adds to firepower.
Owns before sale
How many residential properties they own now. Anything you mark as sold below is auto-deducted, so the ABSD/loan count at purchase is correct.
Married couple
A toggle. Tick only if buying together as a married couple — it's needed before ABSD remission can apply. Never assumed.
Boost loan (pledge / show funds)
A lever for when the loan genuinely falls short — off by default, and nothing changes unless you toggle it. On: enter per-buyer Pledged funds (locked with the bank ~4 years, recognised at 100% of amount ÷ 48) and/or Show funds (recognised at 30%, stays liquid; timing-sensitive — some banks want funds seasoned/held, check with the banker). Each field has a source pill: "from sale" means the money is carved out of the sale proceeds — firepower and SAFE shrink, and it only exists after the sale completes; "own cash" means savings the client already holds outside the plan — firepower untouched, but verify they actually hold it (the tool can't see it). A pledge is locked either way, so it can never pay the upfront cash at exercise; own-cash show funds can. In Proposal mode a Target price field appears: the Agent Brief will say if the target is reachable naturally (no boost needed), exactly how much show funds or pledge closes the gap, or that it's honestly out of reach. On screen you only see a discreet status chip. Works together with IPA mode too — the uplift is then an estimate on top of the bank's figure, and the banker must re-assess with those assets.
Income not shared (bank IPA)
If the client won't share income, toggle this on and use the banker's IPA instead: enter each buyer's IPA amount and its basis — TDSR (private), MSR (HDB) or EC (the lower of MSR & TDSR for that buyer). Using a TDSR figure for HDB/EC overstates the loan (red warning); an MSR figure on an EC gets a softer note (an EC-specific IPA is safest). Plus the IPA tenure (always required, it's on the letter). Only a combined household figure? Switch to combined IPA — but note a combined IPA can't properly plan 2+ property options; advise getting split IPAs. In IPA mode, rental income tax shows "not estimated" (income required), and every PDF states the loan basis so everyone knows it's the bank's number, not ours.

Property to sell

Sale value
Expected selling price.
Outstanding loan
What's still owed to the bank — repaid from the sale.
CPF used
CPF previously used on this property (incl. accrued interest) — refunded to their CPF OA on sale, so it's still theirs to redeploy.
Owned by
Which buyer owns it — so its count is deducted from the right person at the next purchase.
Agent fee
Your commission %. A red warning appears below 2% (PropNex guideline). GST is added on top automatically.

Settings

Loan interest rate
The rate used for the actual instalment. Required.
TDSR stress rate
The higher "test" rate banks use to check you can still afford it (default 4%).
Default renovation
A renovation budget added to the buy-in.
Set aside (other plans)
Cash to carve out of the sale for other use — repaying debts, a car, etc. — before the property plan. Taken from cash only (not CPF), so it lowers firepower. Leave blank if not needed.
Misc. costs
Lump the other selling costs here: seller's legal & conveyancing (~$2.5–3.5k), mortgage discharge/stamping fees, and any early redemption penalty (typically 1.5% of the outstanding loan if still in lock-in). Deducted from cash proceeds and shown as its own line in the firepower breakdown.
Property type (Proposal)
Private = TDSR only · EC = lower of TDSR & MSR · HDB = MSR (30%) only, shorter tenure.
Target purchase (Proposal)
Resale = full instalments from day one. New launch (BUC) = progressive payments — the plans show tiny instalments while building, the full SAVE from TOP (~3 years), then the refinanced rate.
Loan structure
Standard (default): tenure to age 65, max 30 yrs, 75% financing — then refinance later to stretch (the stretch does NOT claw back the LTV). Extended: tenure to ~age 75, max 35 yrs from day one — bigger loan from the same income and a lower monthly, but financing drops to 55% so more cash goes in upfront; no later stretch; higher lifetime interest. Made for cash-rich, income-light clients. Compare both (Proposal mode): adds a clean "Two ways to structure the loan" page to the client PDF and per-path boost numbers to the Agent Brief. HDB has no extended path; in IPA mode the structure is auto-detected from the IPA tenure. Banks vary (age 70–75) — always confirm.
Reserve years
How many years of instalments the Conservative / Prudent plans keep aside.

Comparison options

Each option holds one or more properties. Per property you set: price, type (new launch/BUC, new EC, private resale, HDB resale), who's buying it, and whether it's own-stay or investment. Investment unlocks rent, maintenance and how many months it's rented; an own-stay new launch lets you set "rent while waiting" for the build. New EC behaves as the hybrid it is: eligibility takes the lower of MSR and TDSR, it's owner-occupied (MOP), and payments are progressive like any BUC — a resale EC past MOP should be modelled as "Pte resale".

BUC stage (progressive payments). For a new launch, pick how far construction has progressed (just booked → foundation → … → TOP). The bank disburses the loan stage by stage, so instalments start small and climb. The deck shows the full path: SAVE now (current stage) → est. time to TOP (indicative construction pace — e.g. foundation ≈ 2.5 years to TOP) → full instalment from TOPrefinanced rate ~12 months after TOP. Always confirm the developer's expected TOP date.

Live estimate bar: as you fill in buyers and sales, the sticky bar at the top shows the firepower and borrowing estimate in real time — before you even hit Generate. Your work also auto-saves as a draft on your device every 30 seconds; if the page closes, you'll be offered a Restore when you return. Drafts expire after 7 days — on shared computers, use Discard when you're done so client figures don't linger.
Fields marked with a red * are required (client name, each buyer's age and income — or IPA in IPA mode — each sale value, the loan rate, and every comparison price). If you hit Generate with one missing, the page jumps to it, highlights it red, and tells you what's needed. Rental months are automatically trimmed to the 4-year horizon and, for BUC/EC, to after TOP. If you edit anything after generating, the results grey out and the downloads lock until you regenerate — so a PDF can never disagree with the form. Big money fields show a live "= $3.28M" check under them; in Comparison mode the copy icon duplicates a whole option for quick what-ifs.
Section 4

Key terms — explained simply

Firepower — the total cash + CPF the client can deploy. Worked out as:

Sale price agent fee (incl. GST) outstanding loan CPF used = cash proceeds. Then + the CPF refunded back to OA + any CPF they already hold = Firepower. If you entered a Set aside amount, it's subtracted from the cash first — so firepower is what's left for the property.

Eligibility (how much they can borrow) — capped by the rules:

  • TDSR 55% — total monthly loan repayments can't exceed 55% of gross monthly income (minus existing debts), tested at the stress rate.
  • MSR 30% — for HDB/EC only, an extra cap: home loan ≤ 30% of income. The lower of the two wins.
  • Tenure — set by the buyers' income-weighted average age. Older shortens it and lowers the loan.

LTV (loan-to-value) — the max % of price a bank will lend:

1st housing loan
up to 75%
2nd housing loan
about 45%
3rd+ housing loan
about 35%
Important: the loan used is always the lower of the LTV cap and TDSR/MSR eligibility. If the bank won't lend the full LTV, the client makes up the gap in cash — see Section 5.

Buy-in — the upfront money to complete the purchase: Down payment (price − actual loan) + BSD + ABSD + renovation + legal. Whatever firepower is left after the buy-in becomes the SAFE reserve.

SAVE — the monthly mortgage. Year 1 uses the original tenure; from ~12 months you can refinance to a longer tenure, easing it to the lower Year 2+ figure.

SAFE / runway — how long the leftover cash reserve can cover the mortgage with zero income (12 × Year-1 instalment, then 12 × Year-2 each further year).

Cash vs CPF — who pays what:

Cash only
At least 5% of the price, renovation, and rent-while-waiting. These can never come from CPF.
CPF OA can fund
The rest of the down payment, stamp duties (BSD/ABSD) and legal fees, plus monthly instalments later.
Resale quirk
For a resale purchase, stamp duty must be paid in cash first — CPF reimburses it at completion (if funds suffice and the buyer opts to). Make sure the client can bridge that cash.
Upfront cash check
The tool now totals the upfront cash at exercise — 5% of price + BSD + ABSD, all cash within ~14 days for private resale/BUC/EC — and compares it against the client's cash on hand. If the cash isn't there yet (e.g. their sale hasn't completed), a red upfront cash gap warning appears on screen, on the plan cards and in the brief. Fix the sequence (sale completes first) or arrange bridging — but be careful: not all banks bridge the stamp duty even when the sale proceeds would cover it. Confirm the bridging scope with the banker before the client commits. HDB resale is exempt (stamp duty can be paid via CPF directly).
In the tool
The firepower box shows the cash / CPF split; every buy-in and SAFE reserve shows an estimated "X cash · Y CPF" split (CPF deployed first on eligible items to preserve cash). A red cash shortfall warning appears if cash-only items exceed the cash on hand.
How the "reserve split" is decided — 3 steps. ① Cash pays what only cash can pay: the 5% minimum, renovation, rent-while-waiting. ② CPF is deployed first on everything CPF-eligible — the rest of the down payment, stamp duties, legal — so the client's cash is preserved. ③ Whatever is left of each pool becomes the reserve: "$X cash · $Y CPF". Example: cash $240k / CPF $280k, CPF-eligible costs $180k, cash-only costs $120k → CPF pays its $180k, cash pays its $120k → reserve ≈ $120k cash · $100k CPF. Why it matters when advising: the cash half is the true emergency money (anything, anytime); the CPF half can service future instalments but never renovation, rent or personal expenses. A client with a big reserve that's mostly CPF is less liquid than the headline number suggests — say so.

Stamp duties:

  • BSD — Buyer's Stamp Duty, paid on every purchase (tiered, ~1–6%).
  • ABSD — Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty, charged per buyer based on how many properties they own and their residency. A married couple with ≥1 Singapore Citizen buying their first home jointly can get full ABSD remission ($0) — only when the Married toggle is on.

Investment net rent — rent isn't pure profit. The tool nets it down: rent collected − maintenance − vacancy/agent/repairs − property tax (IRAS estimate) − income tax (estimate)= net rent.

Section 5

How loan & firepower work together

Think of two taps filling a bucket — the loan and the firepower. A plan picks the biggest property where both together are enough, and stops at whichever runs dry first. Here's how that plays out:

A · Small shortfall, plenty of cash
Bank lends a touch less than 75%. Client just pays a little more cash down. Plan proceeds; the SAFE reserve shrinks slightly. No issue.
B · Big shortfall, but large firepower
Bank lends much less than hoped. Firepower covers the whole gap. Still works — more cash goes in, so less is left as reserve.
C · Shortfall AND not enough cash
Neither the loan nor the cash can reach that price. The plan automatically lowers the property price until loan + firepower can truly afford it. The client sees the realistic, affordable home.
D · Why the loan fell short in the first place
Same result, different cause: income too low or too much existing debt (TDSR), an older buyer (shorter tenure), or mostly commission income (only 70% counts). Any of these shrinks the loan, pushing more onto the down payment.
In one line: the loan does what it can, firepower fills the rest, and if together they still fall short, the price drops to what's genuinely affordable.
Section 6

The four proposal plans

In Proposal mode the same firepower is redeployed four ways — same household, the client's call on risk:

Conservative
Keeps the biggest reserve (most SAFE). Smaller purchase, maximum cushion. For the cautious.
Prudent
A confident upgrade that still holds ~2 years of instalments in reserve. The usual lead.
Build Capital
Puts most firepower into the property; little/no reserve — the mortgage becomes their forced savings.
Build Wealth
Most aggressive — a cash top-up on top to buy bigger and build the asset fastest.

Each plan shows its price, the SAVE monthly figure, and the SAFE years — so the client picks the balance they're comfortable with.

Section 7

Reading the on-screen result

After you hit Generate, the summary panel shows:

  • Firepower and (Proposal) Qualifies to borrow, or (Comparison) the Best 4-yr net gain in dollars.
  • The green recommendation banner (Comparison) — says why an option wins: highest projected 4-year gain, how much more than the next option, and how much stays as reserve.
  • Cards for each plan/option, with the recommended one badged and its net gain as the headline number.
The recommended option = the highest projected 4-year net gain (capital growth + net rent − ABSD − rent-while-waiting − est. loan interest), while still keeping a sensible reserve. Only interest counts as a cost — principal repayments build equity. BUC options pay interest only on the disbursed loan during construction, and their SAFE runway credits the cheaper construction months.
Section 8

The PDFs & the agent brief

Two downloads, two audiences:

  • Client PDF (green button) — premium, branded. Both PDFs open with a cover page (client's name, date, your photo and name) and carry page numbers throughout. Proposal = firepower breakdown + the four plans with a Sell → Buy → Refinance → Year 4 timeline. Comparison = firepower → allocation → side-by-side table → a page per option → the written case. BUC options show their construction stage (e.g. "60% built") and a green SAVE now row.
  • Agent Brief (dark button, internal) — never give this to a client. It has talking points, objection-handling, a full worked example showing every number's derivation (firepower, buy-in, 4-year return, SAVE, reserve), and a page of donut charts showing where each of the four plans sends the money (down payment, stamp duties, reno + legal, SAFE reserve).
Watermark: every PDF carries your name faintly across it, and so does this manual — so anything that leaks is traceable to the agent who generated it.
Section 9

Saving clients

  • Save client stores the whole form to your account (it follows you across devices). Saving the same name again overwrites it. A client name is required before you can generate.
  • You no longer need to remember to save. Every time you hit Generate, the profile is saved automatically under the client's name and appears in the dropdown — a green "Saved to your clients" line confirms it. Generating for the same client again updates that entry instead of creating duplicates. Use Save client only when you want a different label (e.g. "Tan family — Option B").
  • The dropdown loads any saved client back — the label shows whether it was a Proposal or Comparison.
  • Rename / Duplicate / Delete — pick a client in the dropdown, then use these to tidy up your list. Duplicate saves a copy under a new name — handy for what-if variants.
  • Reset clears everything for a fresh start.
  • Profiles are private to you — agents never see each other's saved clients.
Section 10

Rules & good practice

Every figure is indicative. Always verify against the bank's actual approval and current IRAS / MAS rules before presenting. This is a planning aid, not financial advice and not a loan approval.
  • Verify before you present — especially the loan amount, ABSD, and any tax estimate.
  • CPF nuances aren't modelled — accrued interest owed on the new purchase and CPF usage limits (Valuation Limit). Check the client's CPF statement.
  • The 4-year horizon is deliberate — it clears the Seller's Stamp Duty window and avoids encouraging property "flipping". Don't present shorter-hold projections.
  • The agent brief is internal only — never hand it to a client.
  • Don't promise outcomes — frame plans as illustrations of what's possible.
  • Comply with CEA & PropNex guidelines, including the 2% commission guideline.
  • Check the engine stamp. Every PDF footer shows the engine version and "rules as at" date. If MAS/IRAS rules have moved since that date (cooling measures, BSD/ABSD, LTV), stop and tell Sophia before presenting.
  • Every report you generate is archived. The client-facing PDF is stored exactly as produced (kept 24 months) so it can be retrieved later — useful if a client comes back asking for the same document, and it's the record of what was actually presented. Sophia can retrieve it by reference. Treat that as a reason to be accurate, not a reason to be shy: generate freely, just verify before you send.
SND Save & Safe · AI-Powered Portfolio Planning · internal training material. Questions or corrections → Sophia.