CHEFANG MOTORS · LIFE IN DRIVE
Game Logic Used:
The choices should tell the story. This page explains the rules running behind it, so the questions themselves can stay short and natural.
LIFE IN DRIVE is a fictional financial and car-ownership simulation using simplified 2026 Singapore reference values and game assumptions. It is not financial, property, CPF or motoring advice, and it cannot predict your real outcomes.
Life, relationships and timing
- The journey ends at age 75. The starting age is usually 23, or 25 after the male NS chapter; a private financial profile can begin at a chosen age.
- Players choose whether they begin single, in a relationship, or married. Single players will still have relationship encounters later.
- A relationship can progress towards marriage after time together. Players can continue dating without marrying.
- Marriage, children, car ownership and housing choices can affect later events. Some events vary between runs.
Salary, savings and CPF
- Salary brackets use a monthly gross midpoint. Employee CPF is deducted before take-home pay; the ordinary monthly wage ceiling used is S$8,000.
- Baseline living expenses are 60% of take-home pay, before separate housing, car and dependant commitments.
- Salary progression follows a simplified work-experience schedule.
- "Manage Money", a button at the top left of the player profile, lets you allocate money between Savings (WITHDRAW), Flexible investments (INVEST), Fixed deposits (10-YEAR FD) and voluntary CPF (CPF VC). Opening-profile investments are assigned to Flexible investments by default.
- Flexible investments receive seeded annual return percentages. For first deposits before age 70, the arithmetic mean through age 75 is 5%–10%, including zero-balance years. First deposits at age 70 or later retain the seeded distribution without a lifetime-average guarantee.
- The percentage beside Flexible investments is the most recent annual return, not cumulative performance since deposit.
Each fixed deposit (FD) earns 4% annually compounded with its own 10-year lock and continues earning 4% after maturity. FD can be funded from Savings or Flexible investments. Only matured FD may be transferred directly into Flexible investments.
Withdrawal timing Accrued interest Administrative fee Before 10 years 100% of accrued interest is forfeited 0.8% of accrued interest, deducted from the original principal At or after 10 years Full accrued interest is retained No premature-withdrawal fee Early withdrawals go to Savings only.
- Voluntary CPF transfers are modelled with age-based allocation and an annual limit of S$37,740 less mandatory contributions and prior voluntary transfers. This is a simulation assumption, not verified CPF advice.
Negative Savings incurs 3.2% annually on the genuine outstanding year-end debt. If you see that Savings are negative or may soon become negative, you can use "Manage Money" to withdraw Flexible investments into Savings before answering the next game question. If Savings remain negative, the next decision offers the applicable debt-recovery choices. Available investments and matured FDs are not withdrawn automatically; withdrawing a locked FD requires a separate penalty confirmation.
Monthly Savings capacity Required vehicle-sale choice Zero or negative Immediately when general debt reaches S$10,000 Positive Allow one year; require a sale only if debt has not decreased - When debt recovery requires a car sale and the player owns two cars, the player chooses Car 1 or Car 2 to sell. The selected car then follows the normal sale-method and loan-settlement route; any genuine residual shortfall remains debt.
- At age 75, the final results value all genuine holdings without early-withdrawal penalties. Unmatured fixed deposits receive accrued interest through age 75 for scoring only; the retirement home is counted as an owned asset, not a cash sale.
- CPF LIFE: at age 65, the player chooses a payout start age from 65 to 70. The audit fallback of age 70 is for automated lifelines without a human decision, not an automatic gameplay choice.
For all simulation calendar years, the game applies the simplified 2027 CPF employee/employer contribution percentages:
Player age Employee CPF Employer CPF 55 and below 20% 17% 56–60 19% 16.5% 61–65 13% 13% CPF OA, SA, RA and retirement payouts follow simplified age-based assumptions. Actual effective-dated Singapore CPF rates may differ.
Car catalogue, prices and loans
- Brands are listed from the cheapest available model upwards. Models and trims within a brand are also ordered by their estimated new-car purchase price.
- New-car purchase prices prioritise latest validated monthly LTA model/variant prices, followed by verified retail sources, historical LTA snapshots and labelled estimates. An unmatched vehicle retains its last valid historical price.
- Used-car prices prefer available market comparables. Otherwise, the simulation estimates the used price as (new-car price − 50% of ARF), prorated by remaining COE years. This is a game estimate, not a dealer quotation.
- The normal car-loan maximum is seven years. For a used car, the remaining COE years cap the loan term; a used car with one COE year remaining is paid in full.
Estimated OMV Maximum financing S$20,000 or below 70% Above S$20,000 60% Flat annual car-loan interest is 2.5%; normal instalments are rounded to the nearest S$10.
Early payoff item Game rule Interest calculation Completed whole contractual months under the Rule of 78 Rebate of unearned interest 80% Early-settlement fee 1% of original financed principal If sale proceeds fall short of the secured loan, you will see a breakdown of the remaining loan, interest rebates, settlement fees and any shortfall before confirming the sale. Your available Savings will be used first, followed by Flexible investments. Any remaining shortfall will become general debt. You can cancel a voluntary sale. If the game requires you to sell a car to recover debt, you may cancel the current sale quote and choose another approved selling method, but you must still sell a car.
- Estimated monthly running costs include insurance, road tax, fuel or charging, parking and a servicing reserve. Actual costs vary by car and usage.
COE, maintenance and car values
COE option Cost (S$) Ten-year renewal 130,000 Five-year renewal 65,000 One-time Classic conversion 13,000 No minimum downpayment or OMV LTV limit applies to renewal financing.
Before age 65, players choose Savings-first, Flexible-first or full financing; negative Savings must be cleared first.
Players below age 65 may also enter their own Savings deposit, including S$0, and finance the outstanding amount.
From age 65, the game automatically uses Savings, then Flexible investments, and finances the remaining amount.
Renewal Loan tenure Five-year renewal 3 years Ten-year renewal 7 years Loans use flat 2.5% annual interest and nearest-S$10 instalments, with tenure no more than seven years or renewed COE life. Prices are fixed simulation assumptions.
- Vehicle lifecycle: original COE 0–10; a 5-year renewal will have no further renewals. A special event will exist when the car reaches age 30.
- Maintenance, repairs and mileage events use representative schedules and costs, not a diagnostic forecast for a particular vehicle.
- Car sale and scrap outcomes use simplified values. EVs and COE-renewed cars have zero fallback scrap value under these rules.
Homes, rent and family
HDB, Condo and Landed homes use a fixed in-game price catalogue.
Mortgage HDB Private Loan tenure 25 years 30 years Annual interest rate 2.6% 2.1% Monthly repayment Using available CPF OA first Paid from Savings Private prepayment within the first five years incurs the greater of 0.75% of the prepaid principal or one month’s interest on the outstanding mortgage balance before repayment; thereafter free. HDB prepayment is penalty-free and may use eligible CPF OA. Private prepayments use Savings or Flexible investments; private CPF OA is limited to the eligible downpayment, with at least 5% of the property price paid from Savings or investments. The player may reduce instalments or shorten tenure.
- For this simulation, an unmarried player aged 35 or above may explore HDB homes directly. Under-35 players with a partner can explore HDB only after choosing to marry first. Declining marriage returns them to private-property options. Real HDB eligibility, including fiancé/fiancée arrangements, differs and must be checked with HDB.
- Rent is based on simplified 2026 benchmarks and stays flat in the simulation. For a married household, the spouse covers half of eligible rental or future shared mortgage commitments.
- Post-sale recovery: after a qualifying forced sale, the player may return to Parents or buy a cheaper replacement home using a standard mortgage and eligible deposit; the replacement must have positive post-purchase monthly Savings capacity.
- Forced housing disposal: first use eligible Savings, Flexible investments and matured FDs; unmatured FD redemption remains optional. Mandatory sale requires general debt at least 50% of the current penalty-adjusted value of the selected property and negative monthly cashflow. If there is a second property, the player chooses which home would be sold first. The other property is not automatically sold.
- CPF and mortgage sale order: on HDB and private sales, the entire outstanding secured mortgage is a real obligation and may never be forgiven. Lawful net equity is divided according to actual player/spouse capital shares; refund each owner’s CPF principal first, then accrued interest. For a forced HDB sale after available liquid recovery funds are exhausted, uncovered CPF principal and accrued-interest refund amounts are fully absorbed (not additional debt or fictional cash). For ordinary HDB sales only the accrued-interest waiver applies; private sales have no such waiver.
- Same-month settlement: quote each asset independently, settle secured mortgages and car loans and each owner’s CPF claims, then reconcile aggregate player Savings/Flexible once. Spouse assets are not treated as player assets.
- Accounting: preserve premarital downpayments and mortgage principal as player-owned capital; share postmarital mortgage principal by actual payer (usually half each). Spouse cash, CPF, and mortgage liability are separate. Round monetary journal entries to cents, preserve conservation of total proceeds and post-sale credits once in the same month.
Property mortgages and CPF OA use simplified game eligibility checks. HDB sales before ten years (where an eligible exception permits sale) lose 5% of original price.
Private-property sales use 1.24 times original purchase price, less the applicable early-sale penalty:
Holding year Early-sale penalty Year 1 16% Year 2 12% Year 3 8% Year 4 4% After Year 4 No early-sale penalty Stamp duties and agent/legal fees are not modelled.
Fill In Your Own Life existing property: the live market estimate is the effective original purchase price × 1.24; a manually entered market value replaces that estimate. This selected market value is used for eligible normal HDB sales, private sales before the applicable holding-year penalty, and penalty-free age-75 valuation. Eligible HDB sales before ten years still use original purchase price × 0.95. Ordinary gameplay purchases retain their standard valuation rules.
Mortgage estimate Game assumption Original mortgage 75% of original purchase price Elapsed ownership Mortgage amortises over elapsed ownership years Estimated outstanding balance Rounded to S$10 Manual balances and repayment choices override estimates; future interest uses the declining balance. Historical mortgage months remain recorded for the private five-year lock-in.
- A special retirement home costs S$150,000 and must be paid for in full upfront using eligible CPF OA, Savings and/or liquidated Flexible investments. No mortgage, instalment financing or other borrowing is permitted. It is not voluntarily saleable and counts at 100% of original value at age 75. The age-75 results valuation does not impose early-withdrawal or disposal penalties.
- Children add a conservative baseline of S$700 per month each until age 20. Actual child-rearing costs may be higher; some family events create additional expenses.
Travel and time skips
- Before age 31, the selected holiday frequency automatically deducts the estimated trip costs from Savings each year.
At the start of the game, players are shown individual travel costs based on their monthly income:
Individual travel costs (per trip)
Monthly salary (S$) Adult (S$) Child (S$) Below 4,000 1,500 — 4,000–7,999 2,000 — 8,000 and above 5,000 — If a player has a child before age 31, their existing travel plan is interrupted and the game shows the updated family travel costs:
Family travel costs (per trip)
Monthly salary (S$) Adult (S$) Child (S$) Below 4,000 1,500 500 4,000–7,999 2,000 1,000 8,000 and above 5,000 2,500 After seeing the revised costs, players must choose a new travel frequency through age 31 or stop travelling. Players starting with existing children are shown the family travel costs immediately.
- Age skips: players can start at their actual or custom profile age. A skip of more than seven years asks for the planned ages of marriage, housing and children. Those events pause for the actual game decisions and affordability checks. Salary raises, CPF and money changes are applied year by year. A COE expiry or mandatory retirement/CPF choice pauses and then offers continuation to the remaining target age. No COE renewal is silently assumed. A negative Savings balance also interrupts the skip. Lifestyle leakage retains 70% of positive annual non-holiday surplus.