Simple Budget, Simple Life

Thanks to those who left comments in my earlier post. Appreciate all your kind words. Anyway, time flies and it's another year of insurance payment. I have been on NTUC Enhanced Income Shield Preferred hospitalisation insurance plan with plus rider for many years. Not cheap, but it's a must have for peace of mind. As part of yearly insurance renewal, my CPF MA was recently charged $656. Since I was previously at the MA ceiling of $66,000, I wanted to maintain this for both 4% CPF interest and to maximise my tax relief. You would have known by now that, each of us are able to top up a maximum of $8,000 per year for your self account to either MA or SA for tax relief. Mistake I made a mistake of topping up my Grab with UOB Absolute Amex (which gives 1.7% cashback), thinking I can use my grab to top-up to CPF. Turns out this loop has been cut. I already knew of this, but not sure why my pea brain still went ahead without double checking. Instead... I top up my CPF MA via Paynow t

I've drafted, deleted, drafted, deleted my thoughts for the past years.  Thoughts on my fertility journey.  I was filled with angst each time I write and was worry of being judged. I feel nobody understands how I feel unless you're going through it. Tears were shed. Silent screams were made. After a few years, I decided to pen my disorganised thoughts down. Background I wanted to marry early and have kids before 30 but my plans were delayed by the lack of luck in securing a home. We bided and managed to secure a spot after 4 years. Since it was a balance flat, it was ready within 1.5 years. I may have used up my luck for this.  Long story short, we got married and stayed apart while we wait for our home to be completed and renovated. During this period, we tried on and off to no avail. I decided to go for fertility checks and thankfully, everything was positive. Pushed my husband to do his as well and it was fine. I was reaching 30. Making a child became a scientific experiment

  Back in Jan, I  blogged about my SRS Game plan via Endowus here. Updated my Feb transaction in the blogpost here. Now that it's Mar, I'm glad to report a few more transactions into Endowus SRS This is my 3rd transaction for 2022. Entered because of the fall in tech stock prices and omninous signs of recession coming + stagflation. The amount is split between Dimensional Global Core and Emerging Markets Large Cap. Jan: $3,060 Feb: $3,060  Mar: $3,060 I'm only left with 2 more tranches of $3,060 this year to complete my $15,300 SRS contribution for tax relief. Seems a bit too hasty since I dont think we have seen the worse yet. This taught me to consider splitting my SRS entry into 12 transactions for 2023 - buying once every month! Amount pumped: $19,181 Results:  -0.53% CPF OA investment I also made two $2k separate transactions from my CPF OA via Endowus to buy into Lion Global Infinity US 500 Stock Index Fund. I was hoping to enter at the lowest price, but due to lag t

It has been a good 3 years. Back in 2019, I signed up for Etiqa's ELASTIQ plan which offers guaranteed 2.02% for the first 3 years . I started with $5k initial deposit first, and top up another $10k after since the interest rate environment then was bad. Interest dropped Now that 3 years is up, Etiqa has sent me an email informing of the revised interest down to 1.2% Dear Valued Customer, We hope you are keeping well and safe. As COVID-19 continues to disrupt financial markets and economies, the prolonged uncertainty has made it challenging to maintain the existing crediting rate and loyalty bonus of your policy. We wish to inform you that the existing crediting rate and loyalty bonus for your ELASTIQ policy will be revised as follows: Policy Number Revised Crediting Rate* after 3rd year Revised Loyalty Bonus Effective date : xxxxx : 1.20% per annum : 0.00% of the average monthly account value for the past 36 policy months : xxxxx *applicable to initial premium and top-up(s) At th

One month ago, I blogged about my SRS Game plan via Endowus here. Just an update (for my records) on the transactions I made on 24 Feb: SRS I talked about making my first 2022 transaction of $3,060 in Jan. Just yesterday, I did my 2nd $3,060 transaction in view of the dip in market. The amount is split between Dimensional Global Core and Emerging Markets Large Cap. 3 more $3,060 to deploy. I wonder how many more dips can I buy since it is just the start of the year and I've already deployed the second lol CPF OA investment I also made another $2k transaction from my CPF OA via Endowus to buy into Lion Global Infinity US 500 Stock Index Fund. I will continue to make small entry investments along the way. Endowus Referral If you are keen to embark on Endowus using your  SRS, CPF OA or even cash , you may wish to use my link to  enjoy $20 in Access Fee credit  (equivalent to $10,000 advised free, assuming Access Fee of 0.40%). https://endowus.com/invite?code=FUKYD

Alas, after 2 years plus of avoiding Covid, my family has gotten it. I guess it's inevitable given that these few days, the stats has been 10k+. It could be even more since there are people who do self-testing and isolate at home without informing MOH. How it went 7 Feb, Monday - Close contact gotten ART positive. We tested ART negative.  8 Feb, Tuesday - We tested ART negative.  9 Feb, Wednesday - Mum tested ART positive. We tested ART negative. Husband started having sore throat. At night, he had fever. I feel ok. Husband and I started to isolate. 10 Feb, Thursday - Husband had high fever, 38deg+ on and off despite getting panadol. ART still negative. Then came itchy throat that developed into cough. No flu symptoms for me, except shoulder and neck aches. 11 Feb, Friday - Husband has been coughing all night. Decided to see doc under PHPC  where he only need to pay $10 for consultation and medicines (though meds have no use). A lot of patients and hence had to call in. Be prepared

PSA - I've just received my $100 cash reward from DBS today. Earlier, in Oct, I blogged about setting up my SRS account with DBS and topped up $10,001 to enjoy their cash rewards  and used the SRS amount to invest via Endowus. The cash reward is only applicable to the first 4,000 customers. Glad that I am eligible! If you've done the same when I blogged about it, do check if your cash rewards are in! Till then 🥳

I had insomnia on and off since forever. Yesterday's sleepless night sparked me to write my thoughts down - yeah, my brain was drafting out what I should write today. I dislike how my overactive brain works. While this is not a financial post, it is my personal reflection post and outlet. These have been recurrent issues I face. I hope by writing all these down, I can get rid of my negative and worrisome thoughts. After all, the new year is coming, and I want a good start to it. Work I attribute yesterday's insomnia to insecurity at my workplace. Although I am rather senior in the team, I feel like an imposter. And I feel that staff are judging me.  I feel extremely inferior when I compare myself with my team. My team is made up of elites - academic elites from overseas top universities and top JCs and a handful are social elites with rich family background - whereas I come from local university and mid-tier schools. Despite having stronger  experiences, I feel that my staff do

Back in 2021, I opened my SRS account to lock-in my withdrawal age at 62 and as another avenue to reduce my income tax. Blogged about it below: I finally set-up my SRS account and then DBS screws up Maximising my $10,001 SRS top-up with Endowus Best time to lock in your 62 yo withdrawal age is now - Endowus $40 referral bonus (usual - $20) till 31 Dec 2021With the  2022 SRS Game Plan via Endowus Now that it's 2022, I needed to start my SRS purchase again. This time, I will be pumping in the max of $15,300 cash to squeeze the max income tax relief. I had initially thought to delay this pump till later this year, as I wanted my cash to generate higher returns first, and then channel it to SRS. However, I decided to be more robotic about my SRS investment and DCA in. This means that I will Buy SRS at 5 different tranches, at $3060 each For the past weeks, the stock and crypto market has been dipping while awaiting the actual plan from the US Fed. Just last night, US Fed has released t

I never thought I would face this issue. After accumulating $300k cash, and feeling that I've kept too much dirty fiat with me, I've been investing aggressively. Aggressive may not mean smart. In fact, I am feeling stupid because my investments have been doing badly 🙃 As a quick summary, this is what I've been doing over the past year: Buying more REITS, just to name a few - Keppel dc, Ascendas, Capland China Buying more US stocks, just to name a few - Tesla, Roblox, Sea Converting SGD to USD for crypto Just on crypto alone, in midst of the recent drop, I've pumped in $15k SGD to buy BTC and ETH 🙃embodying BTFD in my blood very literally, within a week.  Am I worried? Of course! Each time I open my Tiger Broker + crypto apps, I see a blood of red. My limit orders on Gemini just keep setting off hahah. I've been doing what people call DCA, but man, the amount of transactions I made is quite crazy. I've also just started Anchor Protocol for it's lucrative

Back in 2020, I blogged about my 8 sources of passive income generating $600-$1,500 per month . It's not a consistent amount since a few of the sources were on-off like selling on Carousell. So, here's a refreshed version of my 2021 sources of passive income, the $ that comes with it and.... crypto joining the ranks. Here goes: 1. Stock Dividends - $4,962.3 Same as 2020, this remain one of the key sources of passive income given my REITS portfolio. I was heavy on REITS a year ago. But boy, how much things changed in a year. Currently, I am still very heavy on dividend generating stocks ~70%. CDP SG stocks: $2,510 for 2021 (portfolio value: ~$78k. Sitting on 12% paper loss) Tiger SG stocks: $995.10 for 2021 (portfolio value: ~$63k. Sitting on 2% paper gain) HK stocks: $1,445.2 for 2021 (portfolio value: ~$70k. Sitting on 8% paper loss) US stocks: $12 for 2021 (portfolio value: ~$34k. Sitting on 31% paper gains) Total Dividend: $4,962.30 on $245k portfolio. That's rather path

Detailing my yearly CPF top-up here.  This is my 7th year of top-up. However, there will be changes to my CPF top-up strategy d ue to the changes in CPF tax relief . 1. Top-up $3k to Medisave via Paynow As I have hit MA ceiling of $63k in 2021, I will be topping up $3k cash to my MA today to reach the MA ceiling of $66k in 2022. I am doing this today before my Jan 2022 salary comes in, as it will reduce the amount of MA cash-top up and therefore, reduce my tax relief. I've completed my Paynow transaction, which is instantaneous. Look at my CPF MA changes within seconds: Done the same for my husband as well. 2. Top up $5k to SA For the past 6 years, I've been topping up $7k to my and my mum's SA to max the tax relief. That's $84k cash lock-up in my and her CPF. This time round, due to the tax relief capped at $8k for both MA and SA top-up, I will only be topping up $5k to my SA.  However, contrary to the past where I top-up at the start of the year, I have decided to hol

Standard start of year post. My best way of welcoming the new year is to count the new inflow of $ and here's my CPF interest for 2021: Unfortunately, the extra $8,728.48 interest still hasn't allowed me to cross the $700k net worth mark. Will work towards $850k net worth by end of the year :) Have you check your CPF interest yet?