Simple Budget, Simple Life

My goal by age 30 was to hit $1,000 passive income per month. Back when I set the goal, I was aiming targeting passive income from stocks alone. But alas, given my inactive stocks monitoring and purchase, it's really tough to hit that passive income. It is impossible at this stage for me to hit that goal, but I'll still work towards it. In any case, I'm 50% there....by counting in interest gained, rebates/cashback and dividends. Since Jan 2020 to Apr 2020, I've been generating good returns. The breakdown is below. Jan $1,485.51 Feb $658.06 Mar $916.53 Apr $789.94 Total $3,850.04 What constitutes those returns you may ask? Taking March 2020 as an example, here's my frank sharing of the various sources of income: 1. Stock Dividends Showing the list of stocks I've in Mar 2020- yup, I'm heavy on REITS. Company Name Symbol Shares Amt CapitaR China Tr SGX:AU8U 5,000 180.5 EC World Reit SGX:BWCU 3,000 45.3 First Reit SGX:AW9U

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! This month is a surprising month of gains from 3 things: 1. Carousell 2. Angbaos 3. Shopback For Carousell, it was a surprising stroke of luck. In a short span of 20 odd days, we managed to earn $1018 from new and used goods 😛 For Angbao, it was surprising because I thought we'd be giving and not receiving. But, we still got $ from our parents and elder sibling 😛Granted we gave out more than we got back, but it does feel good to receive some hehe For Shopback, hubby managed to get around $150 cashback  😲mainly from our 11.11 purchases, of which we received $75 for our Amazon purchase OMG. On my end, I just cashed out $20 odd dollars from Lazada 11.11 purchases and policypal travel insurances! Do you know you can earn cashback from purchasing insurances via policypal ? Use "SAVEMONEY" in the promo code to receive 5% off your purchase! Hope we continue such good luck in earning side money!

I've heard about the $5 screening offer from HPB last year but didn't bother. Until I came across articles on pap smear and cervical cancer and it got me thinking that I should perhaps do a test.....for $5. I initially thought that all I had to do was to show the clinic my IC and I'd be eligible for the $5 screening. Turns out, we need to present a letter for verification before we can enjoy the rate. I then checked out the HPB website  and contacted their hotline to request for the screening letter. I vaguely recalled receiving it sometime back, but probably lost the letter 🤭 The officer on the hotline told me that the letter generation will take 2 weeks. Oh gosh, another example of the slow service from government agencies. I told them to expedite as I want to have the scan soon. No promises, they said. And I wondered, how many procedures backend would it take for them to "approve" my letter?  🤔 Shouldn't such letters be built inside the h

As usual, good things don't last. First was BOC Family card , now it seems like the temporary-attractive CIMB cards are going the same way too... Before Both CIMB Visa and Platinum requires min $600 spend and gives 10% rebate ($50 cashback per category, up to $100 cashback) on: Visa Signature Dining Online spend Grocery Platinum Travel Health, Beauty & Wellness Transport & Petrol W.e.f 5 Jun 2019 Both CIMB Visa and Platinum requires min $800 spend and gives 10% rebate ( $20 cashback per category, up to $100 cashback) on: Visa Signature Dining (now reflected under Platinum) Online spend   shopping ("This excludes all other online websites, not limited to movies, food & beverage, travel, airline, government, brokerages/securities, insurance, tuition and online gambling websites")... wth ? Grocery Beauty & Wellness (new) Pets Shops and Veterinary Services (not applicable to me) Cruise Platinum Travel (only in for

1.5 years ago, I signed up for the FWD 2.02% "savings" plan  and parked $15k. I've always been in search for low risk decent yield alternatives on top of my savings account which I've shared in my tips on how I save >$150k before 28 . While browsing the net, I came across Etiqa's latest whole life insurance savings plan which offers guaranteed 2.02% p.a for the first 3 years. The minimum savings premium is at $5k. So, I thought why not? Since this $5k is something that I do not need atm, it's better for me to park the money here vs keeping it in my CIMB fastsaver earning just 1%. Furthermore, you are able to withdraw money after 90 days - just take note that a service fee is charged if your average daily balance falls below $5k.  I've just applied for the plan and parked $5k. I may be withdrawing this 3 years later and am expected to cash out $325 more interest. The whole process took me less than 10 minutes. Take note that pa

What luck. My ibanking tokens went dead one after another. OCBC Token First was my OCBC token. It said "low battery", but I ignored it. And when I finally need to use it, it was dead. Granted that I could use SMS OTP, I had to make a big transfer to other banks and it was over the withdrawal limits. And to do that, I needed the ibanking token. And serve me right for not activating the onetoken. In the end, I had to call in to OCBC call centre for a replacement. 7 working days, they said. What a long wait. In the midst of it, I needed to make my interbank transfers. I even went down to OCBC bank and explored a stupid manual way i.e to withdraw cash and deposit into the other bank. But the moment they told me they ran out of big notes, I got scared. While waiting for the token to arrive, I figured I could actually do transfers in smaller amounts, but had to bear with a daily cap. Sigh. And, one week later, my OCBC token arrived. How efficient. DBS token

For people my age, wedding bells have been ringing. A few years ago, we started out in the workforce, fresh from school, trying to earn our keeps and manoeuvre ourselves in the dogs eat dogs world. As we earned our keeps, we also knew we had to save for impending cost bombs - for house, for wedding, for kids, and for retirement. Back then, I set my goal to save $100k and I managed to hit it at age 25 . I knew time was on my side and I had keep my expenses low in order to save. I wasn't earning big bucks - I was just a normal salaried working, earning less than what my peers were earning. Likewise, when I planned for my wedding, I knew I had to keep my expenses low as well because my partner and I were paying everything out from our pockets. I was the Chief Finance Officer budgeting and making sure we clock rebates, and getting the best deals out of everything. I was also the CEO of my wedding, because I dictate most of the "to-do" and "not to do" list.

2 years ago , I shared my achievement of hitting $100k cash before 28. Today, I'd like to share how I accumulated >$50k within 2 years time. Honestly, saving around $25k a year is nothing to brag about. But I hope that with my revised tips - which doesn't differ much from what I had two years ago - would inspire or motivate you, especially the younger ones, to do the same for yourself.  To save money, start with discipline. Set a goal - When I achieved $100k at 25, I set myself a new goal to hit $200k by 28. I still have some time to go and may or may not hit $200k given that I've huge expenses coming up (wedding and housing/reno). But, having this goals helps me to work towards it. - The thing is, I don't force myself to save a fix amount each month because I think I am disciplined enough. I still continue my indulgence of eating good food, going for holidays, and buying stuff I like because I know I have a healthy amount of savings to afford it.

I'm back! I finally had time for a short breather after days of overtime at night and weekends for work. I've been complaining to my partner that I badly need a break. An overseas break. I needed to get away from the constant beeping on my phone and away from my work laptop. So, in between my daily commute and lunch breaks, I've been checking out deals for a short getaway. My budget...below $500 for two for a 4d3n trip. With some luck, I managed to book my Bali trip at <$400 for air tickets and accommodation. Next up was booking my travel insurance. I was comparing the premiums across the usual insurers when I came across Poli cypal which offers attractive discounts for travel insurances. On top of that, the incentives for booking through them was a $5 discount on the insurance premiums and 15% cashback! At the time of blogging, MSIG Traveleasy and Sompo are running up to 60% and 45% discounts for their plans. In the end, I shortlisted Sompo where the initial pr

If you have wisdom tooth that has yet to be removed, please get a referral from the polyclinic and arrange an appointment at the govt restructured hospitals. For me, I headed to KTPH for my surgery after reading all the good reviews despite staying very far away from KTPH. One dentist that stood out was Dr Sylvia Tay - google her and you can read all the positive reviews about her. Trusting the online reviews, I knew I had to get her to do my surgeries. I have 3 wisdom teeth to be extracted. One at the top just required normal extraction. The other two on the bottom were the ass - both were impacted, with one protruding slightly out and the other totally covered by my gums. My journey started when I experienced pain on my left gums and reckoned it was wisdom tooth pain. I did a check with my neighbourhood dentist who told me he could recommend me to his counterparts for the removal - estimated cost, $1k+ per tooth. I've blogged about this previously during my 1st surgery so

Owning a personal finance blog doesn't mean I scrimp and live a sad life. It also doesn't mean I'm stingy and deprive myself from material stuffs! There are things that I'll never regret spending on....and that is GOOD FOOD With no interest in makeup, expensive clothings and bags, these have saved me money... but I do spend quite a lot on food, more so with a gluttony partner. Also, being a boring person, I naturally have nothing interesting to do with my partner except to hunt for good food lah. I love my hawker food, but sometimes, we gotta spice things up a little when we paktor right? And we all know dining in Singapore is a costly affair. While I've spent quite a bomb dining out, I've been making use of a few tips for the past few years which helped me save money without killing the joy! So here are some tips you could use to save money when dining out. You may thank me later :P 1.  I came across the eatigo app two years ago and have been

I went for my 7 days holiday to Taiwan in Sept and was thankful that the typhoon didn't disrupt my trip but it was super hot there! I always thought Sept would be a pretty good time to travel - think autumn leaves and cooling weather. I was so wrong. It felt hotter than Singapore, and the sun was just so unforgiving. I turned from a pale girl to a roasted one there. So, if you're travelling these these few weeks, please put on your sunblock, sunglasses and a cap! My 7 days trip brought me to places like Hualien, Yilan and Taipei. I would say this was a pretty relaxing trip since my partner and I went back to the hotel at around 7-8pm each night. Our motto for our holiday was "No rush, no madness". Honestly, it was made possible because it was pretty boring in Hualien and Yilan. Here are some of the places you can go in Hualien, Yilan and Taipei: Hualien 1. Wang's Tea House  - this was my breakfast and lunch to-go place. Love their red tea with bubble and t