My tips on how I accumulated $100k before 28

In my previous post, I talked about how I've hit my goal of saving $100k cash before 28. Here are some of my personal saving tips:

Park your money in a high interest savings account 

• I started off with POSB Kids Savings then switched to FRANK account in Uni and then to OCBC 360 after I started work. The interests offered by OCBC 360 is so far one of the best. 1.2% on salary crediting and 0.5% on paying 3 bills. Clocked my expenses on other credit cards instead of OCBC, so I only have 1.7% p.a on my 360. It does help me in achieving my goal faster. But, if a better savings account comes along, I'll just jump the ship.
• Update as at 3 Aug - I've jumped the ship to BOC SmartSaver!

Park your remaining money in a fixed deposit

• Since only the first $60k enjoys attractive interest, why park the remaining amount for the low base rate? I'm always on the look out for fixed deposits, which unfortunately has been disappointing this year, and would place a $10k to $25k in them for a year. 
• Fixed deposits that I've registered for were the POSB 1.88% CNY Promotion, CIMB deposits and recently, a Maybank FD jointly opened with my partner. I've recently opened a SBI FD at $10,000 for 1.6% interest. Why not earn that extra 1.6%?

Sign up for rebates credit and debit cards

• I shop mostly online so I'm always on the lookout for CCs that offer high rebates on online spendings. I used to swipe my FRANK CC often but after they changed their T&Cs, it just sucks. I now use the StanChart Singpost CC for my spendings. Good that it offered me $138 cashback when I signed up for the Manhattan card as well. However, do bear in mind that you'll need to hit a minimum spending of $600. I don't spend that much every month la, but when I'm nearing the min spending, I'll just purchase some vouchers so I can hit the minimum spending to get my rebates lor. Ok, actually, this is not a very good tip cause I sometimes spend more just to get the rebates LOL
• Contemplating on signing the ANZ Platinum card which offers 5% rebates on your choice of category. Any comments?
• [Updated] Signed up for the DBS Visa Debit which offers 5% cashback on Visa paywave purchases. Yay!

Buy via cashback sites

• Ever since I got to know of shopback, I've been milking it for my online purchases. So far, I've clocked $70+ which I've cashed out a few times!
• There's another site called ebates but I think it sucks. I registered hoping to get US$5 with my Groupon purchase but they said I'm not eligible because I've signed up before. I'm like, what? How do I register an account if I've signed up before? Anyway, I've never used that since then. But, just FYI.

Buy only when there's a discount and always compare price

• I sign up for lots of newsletters from blogshops, to online merchants like Zalora, Lazada, to department stores like Metro and Robinsons. 
• I try my best to buy things that I need (and sometimes want) when there's a sale or when I have discount codes to utilise. Also, I'll compare prices on a few sites before making my purchases just so I want to pay the least bucks :P
• Recently, I bought a leather wallet which I've been contemplating for a long time. I've always purchased wallets that are les than $50 but this time, I bought one that is in a 3 digits figure. I went around to various department stores scouring for deals, but...they are all priced the same after discount. In the end, I settled for Tangs because I get to clock a 6% rebate with my card. How's that?

Sell your unwanted items

• I occasionally sell my brand new items on carousell. Responses are not high, but I've managed to sell a few cosmetics, rather than leaving them around. Do this to earn some bucks!

Track your monthly expenses and tally it against your CC bills

• You can budget like most people do, but I don't. I think I've a pretty good self-control and I don't spend money frivolously, so I dont really set budget on myself and limit what I buy. My daily expenses tracking is just so I know what I spent on, especially to tally with my CC bills.
• Btw, if you realise, I have not been updating my monthly expenses on this blog because 1) I'm lazy 2) I don't think it's interesting enough for people to know :X

Invest in shares, if you know how

• Disclaimer: No tips on this cause I'm still learning or may never learn since I don't really bother much on shares. The bulk of my savings come from the above. 
• I started with my first ever share - Sabana REITS. I was attracted by the high dividend yield and purchased 5 lots at $1.08+ in 2013. It has been giving me really good dividends, but if you know the current stock price of this, you'll probably laugh at my mistake. 
• I bought another share, Kimheng Offshore, during their IPO. HAHA, now I'm laughing because of how this stock price dropped like grapes. 
• If the amount I spent on these 2 stocks were still in my bank, I'd have achieved my $100k goal much earlier!
• That said, if you invest well, the dividends and payouts might be a substantial amount!

Lastly, I do not take taxis

• I'm sorry to the taxi drivers out there. I'm not spoiling your business but I'm trying to say that the reason I could save more was because I control my spendings. I can count the number of times I took the taxis in the last 5 years using 2 hands. Most of the times, I just take the MRT, buses or get ferried around by my partner when we paktor. If I really have to take taxis, these are times when I am going to an ulu place, coming or going to the airport at ungodly timings OR for work trips.