Simple Budget, Simple Life

I had a few goals set (see left panel of my blog).  Some were unattainable, some came to fruition by time, effort and perhaps, luck. My newest goal was to hit $200k stocks portfolio value this year.  It took me 7 years to start investing proper. I used to be a mega saver. The pic below was my cash savings milestone. I think I did a great job in saving those amount! I mean, $300k cash at 30 ....is pretty crazy. I even set a goal to save $600k by 35 . But I got woke.  I needed my money to work better. I saved through employment but I don't wish to be tied down by my job. I aim to stop working at 40. How I wished I started my investing journey earlier so I can quit now.  It was through  Tiger Brokers  that made investing easier to access foreign markets PLUS it is cheaper. I no longer have $300k cash. In fact, I'm trying to reduce it to $100k cash - and pile the rest into the market. As of today, I'm hitting close to $200k portfolio across Tiger Brokers and m...

I've been with my current company for close to 3 years. I wasn't happy because it felt toxic. Colleagues are not kind, but I also reckon I'm not here to make friends. I've been telling myself - my main aim is just to bring home the dough. Since late last year, I've been applying for roles as and when I see suitable ones. I won't say I'm actively looking since I'm not dying to leave my current workplace.  Anyway, I decided to refresh my memories on my job hunts previously. It was nice to read back my thoughts over the years: - Back in  2016,  I was fretting over a job interview. I still remembered I was peeved with the hiring manager who could not conduct the interview properly. Maybe I should have flag them to TAFEP. -  2018  was the year I actively search for a new job. Interestingly, I got  a role pretty quickly  and accepted the role in the end.  Bade adieu  to my old workplace and joined the new organisation.  Didn't have a smooth st...

I shared about my foray into crypto earlier  using Gemini . In my post, under Point A2, I mentioned that I've tied my POSB savings account to Gemini. Unfortunately, due to my carelessness, I had accidentally transferred money from my DBS account to Gemini. Given that my DBS account was not verified/registered with Gemini, my $ was stuck. No wonder it felt weird that I did not see the top-up in my Gemini account despite a few hours wait. This post is for the fellow kukus who made the same mistake as me - pls raise a ticket/help through the app. How it was resolved Feeling anxious, I dropped an email via the app support informing of the error.  I received an email from Gemini 6 working days later (yes, it's a long wait) informing me of the following: All SGD transfers are handled by Xfers, our SGD transfer partner. It appears that the bank account you’ve used for the SGD FAST payment transfer was not linked to Gemini. To facilitate the fund transfer from Xfers to Gemini,  ...

I'm late to the game. And yes, I've FOMO. The platform I am using is Gemini. I was searching for an easy to use, yet secure platform that can allow SGD transaction, instead of converting to USD.  Gemini was touted as the most secure platform that has never been hacked (hope I don't jinx it). It was founded by the Winklevoss twins (go google 😊) Also,  Gemini supports SGD where we can purchase crypto using SGD through FAST transfers. It helps that people I trust were using this platform too Anyhoo, here's my quick guide on how to set up (download the app or register via web browser. Both works). 1. If you are keen to kickstart your crypto journey, through a simple and user-friendly app, you can click on my referral link here . Upon your purchase/sales of USD$100 cryptocurrency, both of us will get USD$10 worth of bitcoin.  2. Upon clicking register now, you will be brought to this page. Key your details. 3. Later, sync your details via Singpass as verification step 4...

Blogging about my financial moves is good. I had the impression I started topping up my SA and my mum's since 2015, but it was actually since 2016 (see here and here ). This is my 6th year topping up, which meant a good $84,000 into my mum and my CPF 😱. Not forgetting a blunder I made in 2019 where I top-up ~$6k cash for MA only to be refunded. I've forgotten the story because I didn't blog about it (it was drafted halfway).  Anyway, here's locking down in my little virtual journey that I've just done the cash top-ups via paynow  today.  I will egg my husband to do the same as my SA has outdone his. Afternote - settled his top-up.

This post is to remind me that I've made my CPF nomination at the start of 2021...all within 10 minutes It was an impromptu event. I mean, I had wanted to do this since a long time, but never got around it. For one, I had difficulties finding 2 witnesses lol. But I realised I should just be thick skinned to ask. Nice enough, the 2 witnesses replied instantly with their details   ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ You can refer to the picture here on what details your witnesses need to provide: - their IC number - name as per IC - email address - mobile number Anyway, the CPF nomination was sparked by CPF's video when I was browsing facebook - so CPF Social Media peeps, your post/intent is working. Here's the said video or you can click the link here : I decided to do it because as what the video shared, if I pass away without a nomination, my CPF money will be distributed by intestacy law, takes 6 months to process, and requires fees for my family to receive my money.  Whereas through a 10 minutes n...

When people talked about STI being the Super Terrible Index, I laughed. It was such an apt description cause the people around me who invested into STI via DCA years back are still seeing red.  Despite that, I decided to take it up when it was hovering around $2.50+ in Sept 2020 through  Tiger Brokers . I reckoned that Singapore economy would one day rebound. When would that "one day" happen? I'm not sure. But I figured if it continues that way for the next 1-2 years, I'll just accept the dividends that comes along, since interest rates from saving accounts SUCKS. I didn't expect STI to cross $3.00 4 months later.  I had also planned to sell it off once it hits $3.00.  Not sure if it was a sign - I came across this, and I quote "A gain is not a real again unless its a realized gain". So I decided to sell off my shares in STI ETF, for a ~18% profit.  All through Tiger Brokers.   You can check out the fee comparison on stocks purchases between Tiger and D...