Month: September 2020

Leisure of Life

On By RistrettzIn Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

It has been almost 6 months since I have started working from home. The wife, not so much, roughly about four months or so. We have gone past the two months of Circuit Breaker and food delivery. At Phase 2, we are glad not to eat our lunch and/or dinner in a container box. Cooking at home regularly has also come off, though that was way better than ordering delivery. By working from home, we actually spend more time whacking away at our computer. That includes lunch time and after dinner. Depending on how you look at it, it can mean more productivity or we just can’t really draw a line to when is work time and home time.

Exploring Singapore – National Gallery Singapore

This is brought some delight to us. First, the mood in the National Gallery is soft and quiet. There was literally no rush walking in the Gallery. By taking some time off our work, we brought our little one to visit and rediscover Singapore little by little. While looking through the artifacts and history of Singapore, I did felt a sense of pride to call Singapore Home. Second, I really like it when it is quiet and the National Gallery provides that serene form of art. No noise was coming out from anywhere and we could just walk where ever we wanted.

In my previous post which you can access here. (https://lifejourney840443474.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/ndp-2020-promotion-1-year-free-membership-for-gallery-insider/) The Gallery Insider is still available to all Singaporeans for one year so do visit them before end of October 2020. It is a worthwhile visit and stop by the Courtyard Cafe (Level 1) for some drinks and snacks. They make pretty good food and snacks. Blueberry cheese muffin, pandan kaya coconut cake and the fried wantons are my top choice. Local and Western delights are available – It is much better than most places.

The Corner Grill

To end the day, we must always do what a true blue Singaporean does. Find a good and decent hideout for a nice hot dinner for a good meal. It is rare that we have such “me” time and we found some hidden gems in the alley of 1 Ann Siang Hill. Hidden within the red and black shop houses and sloped roads, right at the intersection of Club Street lies The Corner Grill. The restaurant brings the impression that they serve quality food over quantity and I truly respect that. Link here: https://www.facebook.com/thecornergrill.sg

Still, we ordered too much for dinner and will definitely come back in the near future.

Fried Onions

For Starters, the Onion Stickles make a perfect appetiser. The complement is the mild but savory curry sauce which went really well with the thinly sliced onions.

20200904_201535

Lobster Roll

The classic lobster burger which you once ate at the market grill or Pince and Pints somehow just tastes awful. Biting into the Lobster Roll at The Corner Grill, it is a sequence of experiential taste which starts with the freshness of the seawater, followed by the buttery creaminess of the sauce and tender warm lobster meat with the toasted bun. Simplicity at its best.

20200904_202715

Pork Chop!

One of the classic highlights would be their Pork Chop which they really should rename it as a Tomahawk Chop or Pork Steak bone taste perfectly pinkish. This is cooked/grilled slightly Pinkish and well charred. The whole Pork Chop weighs around 300g and is easily the best thing I had during the last 6 months. The condiments compliment so well with the Pork Chop that I have nothing to say but to go try it. I also never knew olives, fig, onions and cauliflower tastes so good when preserved and mixed

20200904_202800

Lemon Tarts

Desserts turn out as a surprise with Lemon tarts. They were not too sweet and perfect to end the palate. I’ll let the picture tell the story.

20200904_211757

It is one of those rare times that we took time to explore and find good food but it has indeed been a great Friday today.

By chance, during a chat with the owners, The Corner Grill license was approved two days before the Circuit Breaker rules were announced. With the current Phase 2 ongoing, their business has been affected. I do hope they can manage to tide through this phase. The quality of ingredients is definitely a high standard but I am guessing that they have too much on their plate at the moment.

Support Local. Support our Food Culture. You can’t miss quality once you try it.

Disclaimer

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at https://atomic-temporary-178675883.wpcomstaging.com/contact/

The pictures were taken from The Corner Grill website for this article.

GIGA with OCBC Frank Credit Card (Part 3)

On By RistrettzIn DealsLeave a comment

There is even more stuff of GIGA customers now. Now this is rather interesting on how they are developing as a company. First come first serve.

GIGA – A Subsidiary of Starhub

This is pretty cool now although i’m not quite sure if I am within the first few who applied for the OCBC Frank Credit Card. I’m not really a fan of OCBC cards as they are generally very traditional and they do not go out that much to get the deals or promotions as much as the other cards do.

Capture

Benefits of the FRANK Credit Card

They have this collaboration about giga’s perfect match with the following:

a. Unlock 6% cashback with the all-new FRANK credit card on online spends, grocery shopping and retail therapy (Using Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Fitbit Pay, Garmin Pay or Google Pay)

b. S$50 giga bucks as credit to deduct off your monthly giga telephone bills within 2 months upon card approval.

c. Minimum monthly eligible spend of S$600 (online or offline and get S$75 back a month)

The GIGA offer is limited to the first 1,000 sign-ups and valid until 31 October 2020 so do find out more before application.

(link here: https://www.frankbyocbc.com/campaign/meet-giga?AgentSourceCode=GIGEDM

**You have to be a new to FRANK Credit Card member to apply though.

More Perks

On the side, You can also leave a Facebook Review on GIGA’s office Facebook page (Here: https://www.facebook.com/gigaexperience/) and stand to win a S$10 Grabfood Voucher.

Nothing is for free. There will be a small registration fee for the SIM card. You also need to choose the date of delivery of your SIM card. However, you can use a referral code to supplement the discount. You will get a discount if you use my referral code – “LhS9Ng”. The referral credit is only valid for any plans except the basic $10 GIGA plans.

You can visit their website to find out more: https://www.giga.com.sg/

Disclaimer

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at https://atomic-temporary-178675883.wpcomstaging.com/contact/

The pictures were taken from GIGA website for this article.

Where to Stash (Dash) your cash and Grow Money (EasyEarn)

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Income, Interest Rates, New Ideas, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

Stashing Your Cash

In my earlier posts, I talked about the need for an emergency fund and other than Singlife, which caps the 2.5% p.a. for the first S$10k. No other financial institutions have been able to match this super high interest yield for a pretty risk free approach .(Given that Singlife is under SDIC so the first S$75k is covered and safe) In recent months, we have seen some insurtech or alternative ways to put your money and entice people with relatively decent interest rates for your cash/emergency funds.

Emergency Funds

To recap, your emergency funds should have some level of liquidity so that you can utilise when necessary and not be penalised for doing so. This is by far my personal first rule. It is extremely interesting and exciting to see what might happen to the digital banking sector where there is a mixed bag of consortium lining up to be licensed to offer financial services. It looks like it is going to be something similar to what these insurtech is offering or even more innovation. (e.g. bundled products, higher interest rates or even offering curated financial products, robo-advisors and payment channels) It does seems exciting to see what new innovation these services can offer and retail customers will benefit from this digital drive.

Dash EasyEarn

Dash Easy Earn is a collaborative work between Dash (Singtel payment service) and Easy Earn (Tiq – An Insurance arm of Etiqa and a subsidiary of Maybank)

Let’s go for the Pros first:

a. Flexible no lock-in period hence no penalties for cancelling the plan.

b. First year interest rates stands at 2% p.a. (So this part is locked in and low interest rate environment is set to stay)

c. Relatively low barrier to entry. With S$2k minimally as maintenance amount that you keep, you get the interest accrued on a daily basis.

d. Capital Guaranteed.

e. Interest earned can be transfer to Dash Payment Service with no extra charge and they have a suite of deals and payments which you can use to pay your bills with. There is a $2 cashback for your first Singtel Dash transaction! Sign up with the referral code DASH-RYJKN or tap on this link https://appserver.dash.com.sg:443/mgm?DASH-RYJKN now

f. You can top up anytime to this account.

g. 105% of the account value is the sum assured should something happen to you.

Now for the Cons:

a. You need to download and register for yet another app. This is the Singtel Dash App. I mean, I really hate Singtel but I will not say no to free money.

b. You have to remember to maintain at lease S$2k in the EasyEarn Account.

c. 2% p.a. only applies for the first year and I believe that it will drop to 1.5 % p.a. thereafter. (From the terms and conditions: *Guaranteed 1.5% p.a. + 0.5% p.a. bonus for first policy year, available on a first come, first served basis) – Seems like there is sort of a cap to this.

d. There is a maximum amount to this. Once you have Topped Up to S$20k, that is the cap for every individual account. So there is this element of troublesome to remember and track for a 2% p.a. but if it suits you, then by all means go ahead.

e. Here is the key part to this which you will not hear it from Dash themselves. For any transaction that you transfer out via PayNow back to your own transact or savings account, there is a payment fee of S$0.70 per transaction. This is free if you transfer to Dash payment as described above for Pros point (e).

Seriously

To some, the S$0.01 is money which they refuse to let go of but to others, not so much of a great deal. Don’t be penny wise pound foolish or you will never see the bigger picture. You will not gain anything by spending time and energy on pinching 1 cent. I personally know 8 out of 10 people does it and it annoys the hell out of me. If you have time to pinch 1 cent, I would rather you take that time to find ways to make $10 instead of ruining your own mood, wasting your time and fussing over the small things. I don’t get it and I still don’t today.

The User Interface

Here is how the screen looks like on the Dash EasyEarn App. You can see the Grow Money (New) in the Dash App which you can access and see your funds and interest. Do note that the interest are not accumulative though so it means that whatever you have in excess of S$20k earns no interest.

1

When you log in to EasyEarn, that is how the app looks like below.

2

Conclusion

Before I end off, I saw an interesting product which is on similar terms as Dash EasyEarn. They are from Tiq Insurance – meaning GIGANTIA but this works in their own Tiq App. (First year 1% + 1% p.a.) I’m not too sure why they have something similar to Dash EasyEarn. There can be a variety of reason. It could be that they have extra tranche of funds to offer customers or it could be that this is a longevity version of their product as compared to having inflexible Dash systems. I would explore Tiq option as well but let’s see what kind of proposition it makes to consumers.

If you like what I am sharing, do use my referral codes here at https://atomic-temporary-178675883.wpcomstaging.com/contact/

Disclaimer

This is not a sponsored post. This is just a tool and exploration to find out cash solutions, interest rates as well as a market survey. It is never too much to learn and know more about.

This picture image was taken off Singtel Dash and EasyEarn for illustration purpose only.

 

Endowus – August 2020 performance

On By RistrettzIn Performance, Personal Finance Series, Robo AdvisorsLeave a comment

Endowus

Roughly about three months ago, I made the call to go with Endowus to try out the Robo-advisor. I must say that I did and still having a good experience with them. I guess it is time to let people know that they are a dependable and competent group of people whom you can trust your money with. They also have a bunch of good content, the only thing is that their video content always over run but it just means that they have too much to talk about.

They are also one of the first robo-advisors to allow CPF investments into the funds and that tells a lot about this company. Of course, the investment funds that they use to build the portfolio is different for the Cash or SRS options which uses the competent Dimension Funds which used to be only available to institution clients (Meaning big corporate and deep pockets could only access to these funds)

Fund Fees

Now, Dimension Funds are available to retailer clients like anyone else on the street. The problem is that most places actually charge you a trailer fee, platform fee, recurring fee on top of the management fee and upfront fund fees. Yes, it is the financial industry. Endowus actually rebate those fees so that they only charge what they should be charging – the Fund level fees.

Something that  really like – Endowus will only charge you fees at the end of the quarter. Comparing an upfront fee or taking a fee after your portfolio actually returns something. I would choose the latter. Don’t get me wrong, i am agreeable to paying fees and it is necessary to keep good companies running. In general, fees are the ones which keep your investment returns compounded at a lower rate.

When to Invest?

In my previous articles, i discussed about the best time to invest and frankly there isn’t any. To get a head start, the best time is really to plonk in some money to a diversified asset class when the markets have come off. Simplifying things, if you only invest 10% of your Networth each time there is a correction. Doubling the portfolio just means roughly about 9% of your portfolio. (assuming it doubles)  So, it is something worthwhile to think about the risk and rewards. It also doesn’t mean that higher risk will eventually give you a higher return. In all conditions, the nature of things is that by taking a higher risk, you should get a higher return.

Portfolio

I had split up my portfolio into two parts. The first – A S$5000 SRS portfolio invested since May 2020. The second – A S$5500 CPF OA portfolio invested since May 2020 and YTD the returns have been pretty decent.

Figure one below is the SRS portfolio:

1

Figure two below is the CPF OA portfolio:

2

If you use my referral code to sign up and invest minimum S$10k, we both get $20 each which can be used to offset the management fees to keep their lights running: https://endowus.com/invite?code=EDZ8M

Disclaimer

This is not a sponsored post. I will still add on more of my CPF OA money regularly. I will definitely pick up more when markets come off to add on to my portfolio.

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at https://atomic-temporary-178675883.wpcomstaging.com/contact/

These pictures were taken off Endowus website for reference.