Life is a journey with dream

F ew years back, during a conversation over lunch, I have a friend who briefly shared with me his strategy to retire. His strategy is simple. First of all, buy a HDB flat from government and stay in that HDB flat during his 30 years of working life. Before he retires, he will buy a residential property in JB which he is going to spend the rest of his life. He plan to fully pay his HDB flat and JB property before he retires. Meanwhile, the whole HDB flat can be rented out. With the collected rent converted to Ringgit, he is able to live a comfortable life in JB. Historical trend depicts that SGD is getting stronger and stronger as time goes by. Thus, it is not surprised to get RM3 with SGD1 in 30 years time. Of course he can come back to Singapore anytime he wants since it is pretty near. It is convenient to travel even if the person is not driving. Nowadays, there are buses that transport passengers between these two countries. ~~ Cheers! ~~  

S everal years ago, when I bought my first HDB flat, I am shocked to find out that I have paid more than S$20K of interest in 4 years time. As a result, I cleared out my CPF Ordinary Account for the second time to reduce the monthly repayment amount. Probably most of you can guess when is the first time, bingo, when you purchase HDB, HDB will clear off all the amount in Ordinary Account and loan you the balance. In another word, if one has about 30% of money in Ordinary Account for example, he/she can only get 70% loan. The reason why I don't reduce the mortgage tenor is because who knows, I might face financial difficulty in the future and keeping the 30 years loan period with lower monthly installment will be a better choice. I feel relief thereafter. Nevertheless, I start to regret now! I shouldn't have done this! As of current rate (history shows that this is quite a stable rate), CPF is paying interest of 3.5% per annum for the first S$20K in Ordinary Account and 2.5% ...

R ecently, I signed-up for " The American Express ® True Cashback Card " whereby I can enjoy 5% cash back for the first 3 months. Initially, I signed-up with the thought that " Ok lah, just give it a try and I can always cancel it if I don't like ". To my surprise, it actually turns out to be a pleasant surprise when my first bill came! I see the cash back in the same bill. This means that whatever amount that I spent using the card is discounted 5% immediately. Some people might think that there are not many merchants accept American Express. Well, to a certain extends, this is one of the drawback. I checked a few merchants which I often spend on and I would like to share it here for your reference. Please don't get it wrong that I am trying to promote anything here. Well, I am not an insurance agent nor property agent nor credit cards promoter not any sales person. I am just sharing as consumer point of view. Who knows, few of you might be sharing even...

E nd of 2014, I was considering to make voluntary contribution to Medisave account. Apart from the reason that this is tax deductible which I can save a bit in my following year income tax payment, the 5% interest per annum is another factor contributing to my thought.  Well, mentioning about CPF is one of the sensitive topic for Singaporean to talk about since this often draws a lot of comments from the reader. I often see there are so many comments below the yahoo news of CPF, HDB etc topic related.  When I check on my CPF Statement every year, I found that the interest earned for my Medisave account is quite a significant amount which I think it can be considered as a safe deposit even though hard to withdraw out from the account is the drawback and the keep changing CPF rules making it even harder to plan for the strategy.  Personally, I feel that buying a health insurance is important to prepare for unforeseen circumstances. I was very happy to pay for MediSh...

I n Singapore, we have CDA savings account for new born with dollar for dollar matching from the government. In addition, for those with household income <S$4500, you just need to save S$50 and OCBC will contribute one time S$100 and subsequently Singapore government will match another S$150 into the CDA account. As a result, you have S$300 in the account with only S$50 out of pocket and this S$50 can be a portion of baby bonus (let's say $6K). Hmm..., these sound not bad after all! Nonetheless, the drawback is, the interest earned for this account is pretty low which is about 0.8% a year. Therefore, I don't think it's wise to deposit the full lump sum of baby bonus into CDA account at one go, just the sufficient amount to be spent on doctor visit, immunization, etc. Lately, I found out that BankWest (one of the bank in Australia) is paying 5.75% variable interest for Kids Saving Account. This is a monthly savings account whereby you can choose to deposit A$25 to A$250...

I n 2014, I signed up for OCBC 360 Account as well as OCBC Cashflo Credit Card. I guess most of the people in Singapore will know that this OCBC 360 Account is the best interest paying account that pays up to 3.05% per annum if you meet all the criteria stated in the OCBC banking website whereas OCBC Cashflo Credit Card is an auto-installment credit card with 0% interest. I have quite a number of insurance policies which I opted for annual payment since this will save me a bit as compared to monthly installment for the same policy. What I did was I pay the policy via OCBC Internet Banking and choose to pay from OCBC Cashflo Credit Card. Since my policy is more than S$1000, it auto split the bill into 6 months installment. My money can park in OCBC 360 Account for a bit longer to earn the 3.05% interest and at the same time my monthly installment of OCBC Cashflo Credit Card which is >S$1000 earns me 1% cash rebate.  I am quite happy with this approach until December 2014 when...