Simple Budget, Simple Life

Some people see putting money into CPF as a foolish thing to do. They do not believe in the CPF system for it locks their money up unless conditions are satisfied. They may be right, and they may be wrong, for there are no perfect systems. I am putting my faith in CPF as a way for me to generate higher returns for my retirement. A 4% p.a interest in risk-free environment. Other than CPF, which other systems provide such benefits? I am only in my twenties, and have close to 30 years till 55 before I could start withdrawing my money (assuming this policy does not change). I was apprehensive about this initially - what if I need the money in the future? Once I put my money in, the action is irreversible. It does not have the liquidity like my 1 year FDs, SSBs or my savings account. Maybe I should park my extra cash into more FDs? But the interest rates are not attractive at all. As I tabulated my finances, I figured that I have at least 1 year worth of my salary for immediate expenses...

I blogged about my achievement of having $100k savings before age 28 some time back. One way I could achieve this was to make sure my money grows through FDs. However, in recent months, the interest rates have been dropping. I used to see CIMB offering 1.8% p.a for a $10,000 fresh funds deposit, now it's 1.2% p.a for a 6 months tenure with a minimum $20k deposit. One year ago, I chanced upon the State Bank of India  offering a 1.6% interest p.a on minimum $10k deposit. It was the best deal I've seen then. I was contemplating about putting my money into a foreign bank but went ahead thinking that the Deposit Insurance Scheme would insure me. Prior to making my deposit, I popped into the bank to enquire on the FD rate, just to be sure it was 1.6%. The bank teller looked at me and asked, "Do you have $10k?", "Are you a Singaporean?". When I told her I'd be withdrawing my money nearby and am a Singaporean, she gave this insouciant expression and cont...

When it comes to skincare products or toiletries, I've a few rules that I follow: - as best as possible, items should be free from SLS and parabens - application should be hassle-free - and most importantly, product must be value for money With that, I'm going to share with you my budget 4-steps skincare routine which cost you less than  $55 , bearing in mind some of the products could last over a year! 1. Makeup/Sunblock Remover >Nutive Organic Virgin Coconut Oil : $18 for 444ml In recent years, there's been a hype surrounding the many uses of coconut oil. One of which is the use of coconut oil as a makeup remover. What attracted me to this method were 2 reasons. One, a tub of coconut oil is cheap (I found it on qoo10 which sells a tub of 444ml oil at $18), much cheaper than some commercial makeup remover. Second, it is a natural product compared to the chemicals loaded drugstore remover. I have been using this for close to a year now, and there is ...

Hi there. We're now halfway to the end of 2017. Time flies isn't it? I remembered (actually I didn't, only realised when I looked through my blog posts), blogging about my "achievements" in 2016 at the start of the year . For the past half year, things was rather smooth-sailing. Work was ok, I had a 10% increase in my salary, bonus was decent considering the market outlook now , and I've also added in a few stocks to my portfolio....of which only Keppel Reits earned me some money. The rest were disappointing but thank god I won't lose my sleep or sanity over the losses. Truth be told, I haven't been monitoring my finances. I've been lazy keying in my daily expenses. Previously, I was diligently clocking what I spent and monitoring my budget because of my eagerness to hit $100k. Now that that's fulfilled, my next goal is to hit $200k in cash savings by 28. I seem to have lesser motivation to keep track of my monies now. But here's a brea...