Generate Monthly Income Via Market Returns (Without Worrying About Market Downturns)
Updated: 27 Jan 2026
Written bySingSaver Team
Team
With the cost of living continuing to rise in Singapore, coping with expenses is getting harder and harder. Inflation is making everything – from housing and healthcare to everyday essentials – more costly, but for the majority of us salary growth just isn’t keeping up.
And while starting up a side hustle to increase your income is an obvious solution, not everyone has the time or skills to do so. Yet, the difference of having a reliable supplemental income stream cannot be denied. With extra cash coming in every month, you’ll have more freedom to focus on matters to you, whether it be pursuing your passions, or making progress on long-term financial goals.
Fortunately, innovative plans like PRUIndex Income Boost and PRUIndex Lifetime Income offer fuss-free ways to generate a new income stream while protecting your savings from market downsides. In this post, we’ll take a deep-dive into how these two plans work and what they can do for you.
What is PRUIndex Income Boost and PRUIndex Lifetime Income?
PRUIndex Income Boost and PRUIndex Lifetime Income are two new-to-market, participating plans that lets you capture market returns while keeping your money safe from market downturns.
They provide you with monthly cash benefits linked to the uncapped growth of your selected market index1, helping you to steadily build wealth. These plans also offer basic life insurance cover for death and accidental death.
PRUIndex Income Boost
PRUIndex Income Boost is a regular-premium participating endowment plan that provides guaranteed monthly cash benefits during the first 12 months, giving you certainty from the start. From the 13th month onwards, you will receive monthly cash benefits linked to the performance of a chosen market index1, giving your savings the potential to deliver higher income.
This means you can tap into growth opportunities without being exposed to market downturns; the plan comes with a 0.0% floor rate that ensures your savings are protected even when markets fall.
This plan has a policy term of 15 years, upon which your capital is guaranteed, provided no withdrawals or alterations were made. Flexibility is also built in: you can choose a 5- or 10-year premium term, switch your chosen index from the 4th policy year, or accumulate your monthly benefits to earn non-guaranteed interest.
To give you additional peace of mind, optional riders like Crisis Waiver III and Payer Security Plus are available, ensuring that premiums continue to be covered if unexpected health or financial setbacks occur.
PRUIndex Lifetime Income
Meanwhile, PRUIndex Lifetime Income, is a first-of-its-kind whole-life participating plan that provides a lifetime stream of passive income while offering potential index-linked upside and protection from market downturns.
With this plan, you start receiving guaranteed monthly cash benefits from the very first month, at a rate equivalent to 0.50%2 per year. From the 13th month, you can enjoy potentially higher payouts – in line with the performance of your chosen market index1. However, there’s no need to fret about market downturns, as your savings are protected by a 0.0% floor rate, ensuring no losses due to volatility.
PRUIndex Lifetime Income plan offers monthly income throughout your lifetime, but you can also tap on built-in legacy features to continue supporting your family across generations – up to 380 years in fact! Furthermore, the plan includes protection benefits such as death and accidental death coverage, with optional riders to further strengthen protection for your family.
This plan offers flexible premium terms, ranging from 5 to 15 years, and like Income Boost, you can accumulate monthly payouts to earn interest. Furthermore, with both SGD and USD available, you can choose a currency that suits your needs.
At a glance: PRUIndex Income Boost vs PRUIndex Lifetime Income
|
Feature |
PRUIndex Income Boost |
PRUIndex Lifetime Income |
|
Plan Type |
Regular-premium participating endowment plan (15-yr) |
Whole-life participating plan |
|
Guaranteed Monthly Cash Benefit |
Yes – 2.30% p.a.2 for the first year |
Yes – 0.50% p.a.2 for lifetime |
|
Potential Additional Income |
From month 13, based on performance of chosen market index1 |
From month 13, based on performance of chosen market index1 |
|
Floor Rate (Downside Protection) |
0.0% |
0.0% |
|
Capital Guaranteed |
Yes – after 15-year term |
If breakeven year is reached |
|
Premium Terms |
5 or 10 years |
5, 7, 10, or 15 years |
|
Indexes available |
S&P 500 FC Index (SGD)3 UBS MASTR Index (SGD)4 Barclays Shiller Allocator Index (SGD)5 |
S&P 500 FC Index3 UBS MASTR Index4 Barclays Shiller Allocator Index5 |
|
Index Switching |
From 4th policy year |
From 4th policy year |
|
Income Accumulation Option |
Yes – at non-guaranteed interest rate |
Yes – at non-guaranteed interest rate |
|
Legacy Support |
n/a |
Up to 380 years; Wealth Share; Secondary Life Assured6; Change of Life Assured7 |
|
Insurance cover |
Death, Accidental Death |
Death, Accidental Death |
|
Riders |
Crisis Waiver III; Payer Security Plus |
SGD plan: SimpleTerm; Crisis Waiver III; Payer Security Plus USD plan: Payer Security (USD), Crisis Waiver (USD) |
What can these plans do for you?
To break it down simply, here are the main benefits you can expect with PRUIndex Income Boost and PRUIndex Lifetime Income.
-
Receive monthly income based on market performance
Essentially, PRUIndex Income Boost and PRUIndex Lifetime Income offer a new stream of income via monthly payouts that grow with each year of premiums paid. Both plans provide payouts from the first month, with the potential to capture market growth from the 13th month onwards. There’s also non-guaranteed bonuses at maturity to further boost your savings (applicable to PRUIndex Income Boost only).
It’s important to note that your monthly returns comprise of a guaranteed (only for Year 1 for PRUIndex Income Boost) and non-guaranteed portion; the latter depends on the performance of the chosen market index, and varies according to the participation rate.
-
Protect your savings against market downturns with 0.0% floor rate
One attractive feature included in both plans is the 0.0% floor rate, which protects your savings against losses when market returns turn negative – a common occurrence, especially over the short term. This means your policy values will not dip due to market volatility, allowing you to participate in the market without having to deal with market downsides.
How do PRUIndex Income Boost or PRUIndex Lifetime Income fit into your portfolio?
Both PRUIndex Income Boost and PRUIndex Lifetime Income are designed with one central purpose: to supplement your income. In an environment where day-to-day expenses continue to rise and salary growth may not keep up, these plans can serve as an additional income stream that helps bridge the gap.
Unlike conventional endowment plans that only reward you at maturity, PRUIndex Income Boost and PRUIndex Lifetime Income give you a steady monthly payout that starts from the very first month of your plan. By linking your returns to market performance while safeguarding against downturns with a 0.0% floor rate, these plans provide potential upside without fear of market volatility.
Whether you are still in your peak earning years and want to create a buffer against unexpected costs, or you are approaching retirement and looking for a dependable stream of income, PRUIndex Income Boost or PRUIndex Lifetime Income can play an important role in your portfolio.
Bottomline: Is PRUIndex Income Boost or PRUIndex Lifetime Income right for you?
Ultimately, choosing between PRUIndex Income Boost and PRUIndex Lifetime Income comes down to your financial goals and stage of life.
With capital guaranteed after 15 years, flexible premium terms and potential for higher payouts, PRUIndex Income Boost is designed to supplement your income for a fixed period, particularly for those in their 30s to 50s planning for sabbatical or career switch, taking a career break to be a caregiver, or seeking to support lifestyle goals and children’s education needs.
On the other hand, PRUIndex Lifetime Income is designed for individuals in their 40s to 60s who prefer the stability of lifelong payouts, combined with legacy features that can benefit future generations. Its whole-life structure makes it ideal if you want to enrich your lifestyle, go for early retirement, set up income planning for the family, or leave a legacy to your loved ones.
In either case, both plans can strengthen your financial resilience by providing an income stream that complements your savings and investments – supporting you in pursuing your desired lifestyle with greater confidence.
Footnotes:
1. Subject to participation rate. The participation rate is not guaranteed, varies across different Indices, and is subject to the performance of the Par Fund.
2. Applied to the face value and the applicable factor to derive the actual guaranteed Monthly Cash Benefit payable.
3. Refers to S&P 500 FC TCA 0.50% Decrement Index (SGD) ER for the SGD plan and S&P 500 FC TCA 0.50% Decrement Index (USD) ER for the USD plan
4. Refers to UBS Multi Asset Strategy Tactical Rotation (SGD) Index for the SGD plan and UBS Multi Asset Strategy Tactical Rotation Index for the USD plan.
5. Refers to Shiller Barclays CAPE® Allocator 6 Dynamic Risk Control (SGD) Index for the SGD plan and Shiller Barclays CAPE® Allocator 6 Dynamic Risk Control Index for the USD plan.
6. Appointment of secondary life assured is subject to insurable interest with original policy owner(s) and acceptance by Prudential.
7. Change of life assured is subject to insurable interest with current policy owner. You can choose to change the life assured to another life assured only after the premium payment term of the policy.
About the author
SingSaver Team
At SingSaver, we make personal finance accessible with easy to understand personal finance reads, tools and money hacks that simplify all of life’s financial decisions for you.