Job-hopping? Don’t let your MPF personal accounts pile up — it could shrink your retirement

Job-hopping is picking up, and every new job means a new MPF account. Two questions every switcher should ask: how many MPF accounts do you have, and how much is in them? With total MPF net assets at HK$378.2 billion — over HK$150,000 per account on average — do you actually know where your money sits?

How many accounts should you keep?

Two is plenty: your current employer’s account plus one MPF personal account. Financial planner Lee Lap-kei says most workers are clueless about their account count — four in six can’t say how many they hold. His advice before the Employee Choice Arrangement arrives: keep the current employer’s account and one personal account for easy fee reviews and strategy tweaks. Each time you switch jobs, roll the old employer’s money into the personal account and open a fresh one at the new firm.

What can real cases teach us?

Careless Mr A: born in the 80s, opened several accounts from part-time university jobs, then more with each job change — eight accounts by age 26. At one switch every three years, that’s 20 accounts by 60, each needing to be tracked down at retirement. A paperwork nightmare.

Disciplined Mr B: a logistics worker in his 40s running a 50/50 equity-and-bond split. When rallies push equities to 70%, he shifts 20% into bonds to lock in gains; in downturns he rotates back to buy cheap. A decade of this re-balancing averages over 10% a year. Lesson: locking in profits beats chasing the highest return.

Impulsive Ms C: an HR worker in her 30s who panicked in the financial crisis, flipping from ultra-aggressive to ultra-conservative after a 30–40% paper loss — and is still down over 10% two years later. Lesson: treat accrued savings and new monthly contributions separately. Keep new money in equity funds for dollar-cost averaging; split the old pot between mixed-asset and regional funds. Never sell at the bottom.

Fidgety Mr D: an accountant checking fund prices daily like a social-media feed, chopping and changing. Advice: MPF is long-term investing — one annual review is enough. Short-term trading just means buying dearer.

What else should switchers watch?

Guarantee funds don’t guarantee what you think. Most require a minimum investment period during which money can’t move; transferring assets to a new employer’s account mid-term can void the guarantee. When filling in the new account form, remember accrued and new contributions can follow different strategies — don’t just scribble a ratio. Forgot how many accounts you have? The MPFA runs a central preserved-accounts database you can check in person with your HKID.

To consolidate accounts and save admin fees, visit MPF fund comparison.