How to ensure you become the last ‘Sandwich Generation’

In Singapore, many adults in their 30s to 50s belong to what is often called the sandwich generation: squeezed between caring for ageing parents and raising young children.

They shoulder multiple financial responsibilities at once: paying off housing loans, supporting parents’ medical costs, funding their children’s education, and still trying to save for their own retirement.

It is a heavy load, and one that can last decades. But it does not have to continue into the next generation. With careful planning, you can make sure you are the last generation that has to juggle both directions financially, thus breaking the cycle so your children can focus on building their own lives without the same strain.

Action 1: Lock down your retirement first (and early)

If your retirement is underfunded, your children become your safety net by default. Practical steps:

• Treat retirement contributions like a non-negotiable bill: Use the CPF as your baseline. Aim to hit CPF targets for your age cohort (CPF publishes balances by age group and these are useful benchmarks). Consider voluntary Special Account top-ups and SRS contributions if you have room.
• Build diversified income streams. Do not rely only on CPF LIFE. Consider a mix of conservative investments, annuities or payout-focused retirement products, and rental or dividend income. Design these to replace a percentage of pre-retirement income rather than chasing an arbitrary figure.
• Model worst-case scenarios. Run cashflow stress tests: what if you need long-term care at 75? What if you lose 40% of your investable assets during a market downturn? Make contingency plans (insurance, liquid emergency fund, part-time income options).
• Employer benefits and pensions. If your employer offers enhanced CPF contributions, deferred compensation, or retirement medical benefits, factor them into the plan and negotiate where possible.

The mindset shift: Treat retirement planning as a form of love, a way to ensure your children’s future financial freedom.

Why this works: when your retirement is secure, your children are less likely to be financially pressed to support you later. This is the single most powerful lever to stop the sandwich from re-appearing.

Action 2: Insure the big, unpredictable risks

Insurance is not about avoiding risk entirely; it is about shifting the catastrophic, ruinous events off family shoulders.

• Health insurance: MediShield Life provides universal basic coverage, but many Singaporeans top up with Integrated Shield Plans (IPs) and riders to cover higher ward classes and private hospital bills. Ongoing policy reviews have recommended benefit adjustments in light of rising claim costs, so keep cover appropriate to your likely care pathway.

• Long-term care: CareShield Life offers lifetime cash payouts for severe disability but is conservative relative to full care costs. Supplementary private long-term care insurance or a dedicated “long-term care” fund reduces the chance that children must pay household-scale bills.

• Income protection and critical illness: If you are a primary earner, income-protection policies, disability cover and comprehensive critical-illness plans protect your family’s cashflow and prevent forced asset liquidation.

A practical rule: insure to protect basic living standards and catastrophic events; self-insure for smaller, expected expenses.

Action 3: Make parents’ finances sustainable (dignity over dependence)

Supporting your parents does not always have to mean endless financial transfers. Helping your parents is often more effective if it is empowerment, not perpetual subsidy.

• Go through their income and benefits. Are they receiving all targeted government schemes? Silver Support and MediFund, for example, have been expanded and can materially reduce low-income seniors’ cash needs. Recent enhancements to Silver Support aim to benefit nearly 290,000 seniors.

• Optimise housing and assets. Encourage them to downsize or rent out a room if it makes sense — not as abandonment, but as empowerment. Many older Singaporeans prefer maintaining autonomy rather than feeling like a burden.

• Create a simple care contingency plan. Map likely medical or care needs, local home-care providers, and the cost/quality trade-off. Early planning often prevents crisis-driven, expensive solutions.

• Encourage social and practical supports. Community care, elder activity centres, and primary care networks can reduce institutionalisation and cost.

By helping your parents build sustainability in their own finances, you are not only easing your load, you are modelling responsible intergenerational planning for your children.

Action 4: Estate planning – clarity prevents crisis

A surprisingly large share of stress comes from ambiguity at the moment of need. Estate planning is not morbid; it is pragmatic.

• Write a will and update it regularly. CPF nominations, insurance beneficiary designations, and wills should align. Ambiguity breeds family disputes and legal fees – both costly emotionally and financially.

• Consider trusts or staged distributions if you worry about liquidity mismatch (e.g., illiquid property vs cash needs for care).

• Power of attorney and healthcare directives. Ensure someone can legally act for an ageing parent or for you if you are incapacitated.

Clarity here reduces the need for emergency transfers from children and allows assets to work as intended.

Action 5: Teach and practice financial literacy with your children

A major reason the sandwich cycle repeats is not always about lack of money, but lack of habits and preparedness. Make financial learning a family project.

• Start early and be specific. Save goals, explain compounding, and show how CPF and housing work in the Singapore context.

• Give responsibility with boundaries. A part-time job or allowance that is tied to budgeting builds habits. Show how to comparison-shop for insurance, utilities, and grocery budgets.

• Normalise planning conversations. Make financial talks routine, not taboo. When adult children understand the costs and trade-offs, supports can be structured as deliberate choices rather than automatic rescues.

Action 6: Reduce household leverage and increase optionality

Debt constrains choices. If your family’s mortgage, car loans, and consumer debt consume disposable income, it is much harder to fund retirement or parent care.

• Prioritise high-cost debt repayments. Mortgage re-amortisation or refinancing may free monthly cashflow. For consumer debt, aggressive repayment is generally best.

• Build liquid emergency reserves. Three to six months of expenses is the basic buffer; for sandwich households, target a larger reserve to smooth care cost surprises.

• Avoid co-grouping liabilities unless you mean to. Joint property or loan guarantees can trap the next generation if they become obligated unexpectedly.

A practical checklist you can act on this quarter

1. Calculate retirement shortfall: project CPF + expected income vs. target replacement rate. (Use CPF balances by age as benchmarks.)
2. Review health and long-term care coverage for you and your parents; close key gaps.
3. Draft or update a will, CPF nominations, and a healthcare proxy.
4. Run a one-page cashflow: income, debt service, essential expenses, care-reserve, retirement contributions.
5. Reduce high-interest debt; build a 6–12 month emergency fund.
6. Have one “money conversation” with your parents and one with your adult children about roles and expectations.
7. Revisit this plan annually or after major life events (job change, house sale, serious illness).

The payoff: dignity, independence, and intergenerational fairness

Becoming the last sandwich generation is not about shirking responsibility. It is an act of intergenerational kindness: ensuring your parents live with dignity, your children have room to build, and your own later years are not defined by dependency.

When each generation takes care of their own future — through planning, protection, and education — no one needs to be “sandwiched” anymore.

That is how you build not just wealth, but financial freedom that lasts beyond you.