Simple Budget, Simple Life

Fancy a free staycation at M Social Hotel and a $50 credit?  If you signed up for the FRANK credit card, you'll get the $50 rebate and receive a free staycation with $400 minimum spend. The last I had a FRANK card was years ago. Back then (think 2012), FRANK account was suitable for undergraduates with their attractive interest rates and customised credit card designs. Their FRANK card was awesome as I recalled a 5% online rebates with low minimum spend. As usual, good things don't last. When FRANK account offered pathetic interests compared to other salary crediting accounts and their FRANK credit card became unattractive due to it's minimum $400 offline spend to start clocking rebates, I cancelled it immediately. Until recently when I spotted this: The credit card still sucks but by spending $400 for a free staycation? Count me in! Furthermore, I received a $50 credit by signing via myinfo which is effectively a 12.5% rebate! Take note that the fr...

I've a happy problem now. I'm expected to get my keys by end this year. I was deliberating on the options to settle the loans  - whether to pay off as much cash as we have, to minimise the loan we have. By some stroke of luck, our parents are extending their money to us...with interest of course, but slightly lesser than HDB loan of 2.6%. Works for us since the interest we pay them is better than what the banks give. With this loan, plus wiping out our CPF (leaving $20k behind), we can actually pay the remaining  with our savings at point of key collection. This is our scenario, amounts adjusted for simplicity: Remaining to pay after downpayment $550,000 Parents loan $200,000 CPF OA $100,000 Remaining balance (to pay using cash?) $250,000 And, I'd have paid off my HDB at point of key collection (though effectively, we still owe our parents money with interest). Use Cash, Grow CPF Our idea is to use as much cash where possible. First, the interest g...

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...

Half a year gone. I still have not gotten my keys to my new home and am still childless. Ok, TMI. On financial front, I've been seeing a steady increase in my net worth. As at my last update in end 2018, my net worth was at $372k. Half a year later, I've successfully crossed $200k cash savings (previously it dropped as I topped up my MA) and exceeded $400k in networth. I may be able to hit $450k by end year but will just need to carve out some money for renovation and home stuff. Most gains came from employment. While I lament how sick I am of work, it is my main source of $. I've not added any stocks and can never not live off my portfolio for passive income. It is with salary crediting that I've received 1.85-2% interest on my DBS multiplier anyway. I've been thinking if I'm making my money work hard enough. I occasionally browse the SGX hoping to see some stocks to purchase, but am not comfortable enough to make the move. Since Jan till date, my...

Each day passing is one step towards old age. Unknowingly, we are in mid 2019. Top-up to CPF SA Anyway, with my bonuses in, I decided to park $7k into my CPF SA for tax relief purposes. I've always been saying that I should do the $7k voluntary top-up at start of the year to gain extra interest, but have never done so hahaha Got my hubby to do the same as well...not without some nagging and me taking control of the transfer  🤦‍♀️ Hubby wasn't super keen as he preferred to keep the cash to pay off our housing loan ASAP. His thoughts on our housing loan For context, our balance to pay is at $500k+ 🙃We are paying equal amounts for the home. Wipe out our CPF, leaving $20k in OA Pay $100k cash upfront (or even more if we can afford) - he feels our investments does not beat 2.6% interest charged by HDB for loan. This is true given majority of our money in savings accounts, SSBs, FDs which gives at best 2% interest? For the remaining amount, to get a 25 years loan ...

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...

I've previously shared my purchase of the ELASTIQ plan here  where I purchased the minimum amount at $5,000. Happy to provide some updates on the plan and the ease of tracking my interest online! Via the tiqconnect web, I was able to see a clean, user-friendly and straightforward webpage showing the interest credited to me on the first month, just like an ibanking page :P I'm considering topping up more money for them to grow at 2.02% interest. Furthermore, it is stated that "Top-up or withdraw from your account without penalty or interest claw back 90 calendar days after policy issue date" This can probably act as another savings account for me to grow my cash. Will definitely keep this plan for the first 3 years! As mentioned previously, I only took 10 mins to sign up for the plan. If you are interested, key in R104346 under referral code and you'll get Etiqa eWallet credits worth 0.5% of policy’s premium value ($25 credits for a $5,000 plan...