Simple Budget, Simple Life

It's 1 Nov tomorrow. After a decent break from work, it's back to the grind. During my break, I had various thoughts: A) Quit this job - because I don't know what I'm learning - there's always so much shit to clear up and my bosses cannot lead - too much things on my plate and the bosses will always say they are giving me exposure - don't wish to stay till promotion because it could be at least 2 more years (that's a long time) - bosses don't communicate and don't give proper directions, leading to wastage of efforts and resources B) Stay because - my bosses like/trust me and my performance bonuses show - I should wait for my promotion -the economy is bad and I should stay till I get my increment which would at least be $300+ - everywhere else sucks, as said by everyone. Worst still, if I go into a company full of petty, competitive b* who play politics, I'll probably cry my way home. At the end of it, I chose to stay put. At...

The thought of depositing cash into CPF struck me when I read some blogs on reducing tax reliefs and also earning the decent interest rates given by our government in the current low interest rates climate. Since then, I've been researching on the pros and cons of this move and concluded to transfer $7,000 cash into my mom's Retirement Account. Here's why: 1. To reduce my tax payable My estimated tax is around $2,400, assuming there are zero reliefs. By topping up my mom's CPF, I'll get a relief of $7,000. Now that will reduce my tax to around $1,900. 2. Growing spare cash  I mentioned that I'm always on the look out for safe places to park my cash, mostly FDs. But the FDs these days are disappointing. I've on standby, at least $60k cash in my BOC account  . So, emergency funds are settled. I've also 2 FDs accounts which have yet to mature. The remaining cash could be put to other uses, like giving it to my mom by parking the money into a sa...

I recently signed up for the HSBC credit card so that I could get the Samsonite luggage with my >$1k spend. Let me just say that their application forms/page are not user friendly and their processing time was really long. I called the HSBC customer service to enquire when I'd receive the card, and they said mine was still in processing stage despite me making a few calls previously to ensure that I've submitted all my docs and that I need the card by end of the month. They said they'd expedite. Which, they did. Because on the day of making the phone call to the customer service, I received my card. Now, didn't the customer service officer told me that my application is still in processing stage? I reckon the guy just didn't know what was going on and would tell all applicants that their cards are in process. Not a good impression on their banking services. Anyway, I was relieved to get my card on 30 Sept because I needed to pay a payment of >$1k. I imme...

I am a self-proclaimed low maintenance lady and I attribute this lifestyle and my personality of wanting to make my money worth (most of the times), to why I manage to save $100k at 25 . I love browsing through famous instagramers' feed - from their immaculate makeup, fashionable outfits, to their pretty manicures. But, I've never bear to splash cash to be like them. I'd rather have spend my money on food than makeup, and nice clothes that doesn't cost a bomb. Here's how I keep a low maintenance lifestyle: 1) I don't do makeup Must self-praise that I've genetically nice skin. I seldom have acne breakouts, and have no freckles. My only concern are those pores and blackheads on my nose, but well, nobody will look at me with a magnifying glass. I guess genetics play a part, but I've also refrain from using makeup loaded with harmful chemicals. Do you know that I know nothing about makeup? Test me with the names of makeup brands and new makeup produc...

It's rather funny that I'm talking about this at this age, when most of my peers receive their licenses after "A" levels at 18. But, I've never been bothered to learn driving. Here are the reasons why: 1) My family has no car and the only one with a license is my dad Many of my peers have family car. They were used to being driven around by their parents, and learn about driving through their trips. But our family never had a car. I had no sense of cars, driving or traffic rules and laws. Driving was unfamiliar to me and the closest experience I had was Go-Kart. Most of my peers who learn driving has a car at home, and it stems from a need to learn driving because their parents asked them to. Some were even sponsored a car after learning driving. Also, because my mom doesn't have a license, and we get on well without a car since we live is such a convenient location, it just doesn't strike me that I MUST learn to drive. 2) I'm clumsy, careless ...

Good lobang must share. A few years ago, when I had no income, I live by my debits. Straight after being employed, I signed up for a few credit cards to milk some rebates. I've never paid much attention to debits offering rebates cause their rebates were so little, until now. DBS Visa Debit offers 5% cashback through Visa paywave, Apply Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay. The cashback is subject to a $50 cap per month. You should also keep to 3 times or less cash withdrawals at DBS/POSB ATMs. Good for me, since I don't withdraw cash from POSB. Note that the debit comes with a $2,000 debit limit. I'll probably spend $1000 max to milk the 5% cashback via Visa Paywave. One more thing to add to my tips on how I accumulate $100k before 28 :)

A little too late, or it's never too late? BOC Smartsaver has been around for some time now. I've heard of it when their promo came out, but kept to my OCBC 360 account. I did my sums previously and concluded that it was best for me to keep my money at OCBC. But I redid my sums recently after my brother reminded me about this account, and, DANG, the minimum interest rate I could get was at least a 2% VS OCBC's 1.7% with salary crediting and bills payment. What's making it more attractive is that, since I'm now able to spend $500/mth for my bro's expenses, the interest rate I could receive every month has now reached to the eye-popping 3.55% interest p.a! Why didn't I think of opening this account soon ah?  The following day after I did my sums, I headed down to the BOC branch and opened my account. I was lucky to be the first to enter at the off-peak hours. Btw, thumbs up to the friendly staff at the Westgate outlet. My account was set up on th...