Before we start on anything for 2024. I would first apologize for disappearing for a full year. I was fully focused on getting my career on track to only lead to a single result. The end result is actually disappointment, anger, and fear. I ask for peace and hence over it. I am keen on moving forward and this is actually good for me.
Everyone is different
My situation can be similar or different from many others. One can choose to focus on the negative aspects or the positives. This year, I will try my best to constantly blog more, and provide more deals, promotions, and thoughts about stuff. Provide more referral sources to find out about life hacks and travel more.
Doesn’t this picture make you happy?
We keep looking into blogs, about deals, life, investments, about promotions. It all begins with one thing, you need to have the basic necessities of life. Food, drinks, bills that you pay. If a certain segment does not fit where you are heading or takes some time to reach, just ignore it and focus on your current situation.
Work on it until you have built your emergency funds up. Inflation today has dropped but it is not a joke, prices will not drop even if there is a deflation (Unlikely so) However, I do personally think that interest rates might just drop drastically – This has already been priced in in the most recent treasury bills and SSB. Personal Finance consists of many parts, some choose to focus on P&L while others focus on finding great deals.
What is Personal Finance to you?
For me, personal finance is a game of psychology. It is how one deals with another person’s boasts or proof of what works for them. I do not see red over others and I actually would celebrate their achievement. My only gripe is that everyone is different and one does know another’s situation. So, my ask here of you if you are humbly reading my posts is that. If you have excess cash, good for you, you can seek better and more deals. If you are of a humble background, a fresh graduate, or someone in a situation.
Don’t fret. Many people are in the same situation – You just need to be aware of the situation you are in. Drop the “I’m unlucky, I’m old, I’ve to restart” stigma. Age is just a number and your situation is only temporary. However, if you continue your rut and continue to be unhappy then I can only say that you’ll take a longer period to get out. You will eventually.
Take care of my readers (My LJs). Time will heal and recover. Meanwhile, it is back to my store store and referral time!
Disclaimer
If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at Referral and Recommendations
These pictures were taken off the website. I thank you in advance for keeping my lights on on my humble blog.
It’s been a while since anything kind of got me excited and Webull along with the money bull is coming along pretty nicely. During the Christmas period, there are some nice promotions to be taken away for a new Webull customer. That’s pretty sweet.
There are two items here to take note of:
There’s a time factor now for anyone who is not a WeBull customer. The promotion campaign is ongoing and running until 29 Dec 2023. Click here to sign up Webull sign-up link
There is something that is running similar to a Cash Fund promotion which doles out extra money.
Benefits of signing up
You just need to open an account with Webull, and fund any amount (no minimum) – get 10 free shares when you open a Webull account and fund any amount. There is also a Moneybull promo you can get up to US$3,000 by participating in it.
Next you have to sign up with Webull and click on the promotion link to open a Moneybull account.
The T&Cs are pretty clear from here. you can only get one of the two promotions. One point to take note of is the SGD-USD exchange rate, you have to ensure that the SGD deposited is equivalent to the USD when exchanged. Then the bonuses are tiered according to either:
Accumulating deposit with Moneybull before 29th December 2023 (3.59PM) and hold the funds until 31st March 2024 (11.59PM)
US$2,000: US$80 cash vouchers
US$100,000: US$3,000 cash vouchers
Additionally, you can put the funds into money market funds and earn the projected yields.
It is really a no-brainer to get free cash. You can also explore another app to see if it does fit with you. Never say never because if you do not try it. You will not know.
It’s been almost nine months since my last post. I am distracted a little in my new job..I’ll say that it is a job, not a career, running almost one year into this new role. I must say that I have not gotten any positives out of this but it is probably a good transition. That brings me back to my goals once more. That is to invest and build more passive income. The basics of passive income seem like that is the way to do things and remember that it is never too late to start anything.
There are two items here to take note of:
There’s a time factor now for anyone who is not a WeBull customer. The promotion campaign is ongoing and running until the end of October 2023. Click here to sign up Webull sign-up link
There is something that is running similar to a Cash Fund promotion which doles out extra money.
Benefits of signing up
You just need to open an account with Webull, and fund any amount (no minimum) – The mechanics is that you get 3 free shares.
Next, maintain the amount for another 30 days and you get another 3 free shares. That makes it a minimal USD60 for this effort. The risk Reward on this is a 5-star so it is a must-do.
It is really a no-brainer to get free cash. You can also explore another app to see if it does fit with you. Never say never because if you do not try it. You will not know.
Fave has two sections of their business one is Fave Deals and one is Fave Pay. I presume many people of age would know what Fave deals does. It used to be a big deal with “Groupons”. It actually means Coupons bought in bulk and hence Group Buy and bring down the prices of certain services and products. These trends are now long gone and the current trend is known as e-wallets and online payments. This is where Fave Pay comes in.
Fave deals isn’t gone in entirety but it still involved buying deals from different categories with F&B deals coming at some thing like $30 worth of vouchers at $27 (Something like that which gives you a 5% or 10% discount)
There’s nothing much to talk about but generally signing up with the referral code gives you $1 discount by using my referral code FAVEPAUL62 or by clicking on this link here https://m.myfave.com/singapore/invite/FAVEPAUL62
Most people would have known that you can double stack your rewards by adding Grab Pay for your payment methods. However, since Grab Pay have nerfed all payment rewards, it’s better for you to add a credit card to double stack your payment rewards. DO check your MCC code for eligible rewards. It is getting tougher to double and triple stack rewards so to a certain extent, it isn’t quite worthwhile to use certain e-wallets.
Fave Pay also help in getting goodies from Google Pay and completing your Huat Pats.
I know this can be rather complicated. It took me a while to find out what is this Simply Go ezl concept. It has come to us that we can already use Mastercard and Visa card to tap in and use it for our public transport these days. Here, I think Ezlink is plugging a gap for those without credit cards. (Though I don’t quite see how that is possible to plug the gap when you also aim to use the credit card to top up the ezlink card.)
Nonetheless, with CNY round the corner. EZ Link launched their conversation from a normal EZ Link Card via their Station Machines also known as the Ticketing Machines. It takes about one minute to convert the ezlink card to a “Simply Go” one so that one can top up online instead of queuing up physically. With this upgrade, there is a free $2 added to the card and with ever transport use, you get a scratch card which gives you a cashback amount into your converted Simply Go EZ Link Card. Easy to understand now?
If you have some time to spend and use the public transport a little here and there then please do use my referral code “4005114” when you register for the game. Good Luck and thank you in advance.
So I tried it out and it came with two standard scratch cards which gave me a total of $0.44 cents instantly which isn’t too bad for doing nothing except for the initial conversion. It will take about a minute at the ticketing machine so beware for the crowd behind you.
Conclusion
If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at Referral and Recommendations
The pictures were taken off EZ Link website for reference.
This year, 2023, GPay has updated and made minor tweaks to their Huat Pals. Gone with BB Loh and Panda and incomes CNY goodies. I don’t know why but it intrigues me every year that I spend some time every year doing a little bit more research.
With the social aspect of CNY back after the Covid years previously, there are some additional items that give you more opportunities to get more goodies. That said, it also means you have to make more effort to get more.
Step number one: You need to set up and download Google Pay for a start.
You can sign up for a new account here: g.co/payinvite/t74cf8ffrom your mobile app or use this link here at Download Google Pay you’ll earn $3 when you opt-in to Google Pay offers and rewards and make your first payment (min. $10)! Download the app and use my referral code t74cf8f to get started.
Next Step number two: You will need to understand how the mechanics work.
Now, different things tick with different folks so do what comforts you. Do take this article with a pinch of salt and a guide. If $8- $88 is not worth your effort then do proceed to do what comforts you and gets you more for your time. It should not make you anxious and keep your mind calm.
In order to get a scratch card or an opportunity to win prizes:
Once you have collected all 5 goodies, you will win one of the following (It is random so please don’t over-react if you don’t get any):
Scratch card worth up to S$88.88; or
Pixel 7 Pro worth S$1,299; or
Pixel Buds Pro worth S$299
The rare item that I am putting my money on is the gold/ingot. Just saying since it has an auspicious gold shine to it and google being google is pretty local in Singapore.
Once again, this game aims to have as much activity as possible. It isn’t a game of fastest fingers first so you kind of need to strategize and spend money in general.
Step number 3: Available and activity required to get goodies (This year there are more options) but also slightly more difficult to get it.
These are the same as what is in your app in the same order so GPay has nicely done it in a way that you can work on the tasks as if it is a list of times to fulfil daily.
A. PAYNOW to merchants (You can do it 1 time daily)
You need to spend a minimum of $5 to make this eligible. Small tip, YouTrip DOES NOT work Now. I’m sure there are other apps that work as well. I will make it subtle and quiet on each option.
You can get $5 when you top up your YouTrip card. (25 Jan 2023 Update: YouTrip, Shoppee Pay and CPF QR code works. The reset timing is 10 am daily. Please note. Sorry for the mis-information)
B. Make a FavePay transaction (You can do it 1 time daily)
In all honesty, this is pretty tough and you need to spend a minimum of $5 as well. However, if you have a merchant that uses FavePay, then it kills two birds with one transaction. My bad. Fave Pay transactions through GPay is from a bank payment or from PayLah. You can’t kill two birds with one transaction.
C. Use your Fave Pay cashback in a transaction (You can do it 1 time daily)
Well, again it is probably to reward those who go out of the way. You need to have Fave Pay cashback equivalent partners and this would offset options A, B & C, killing three birds with one transaction (I will have to test this out first before I update my article) meanwhile, today (19 Jan 2023) is the first day of Huat Pals launch from Gpay so there will be some exploration steps I need to take.
My bad again. cashback earned from the Fave Pay App doesn’t appear on GPay. So it has to be a repeat transaction. Again, good to know but difficult to execute once more. Also GPay has this few seconds lag which kind of stresses me a little with the queue behind me.
D. Tap to Pay (You can do it 1 time daily)
Yup. As simple as it gets. Contactless payment with a minimum of $5 charged.
E. Buy movie tickets on Google Pay (You can do it 1 time daily)
This is pretty clear-cut to me but I’m not the kind who purchases a movie ticket at GV or Shaw these days. The comfort of home and the price of movie tickets deter me. But again, it may work for others.
F. Split an expense with two other friends (You can do it 1 time daily)
Anyone knows that in an essay, the number 2 should be spelt as Two? Anyways I sidetracked. Instead of one friend to split expenses, you need two others. That means you are splitting your bills three-way including yourself with the minimum charge of $3.
G. Gift a goody to your friend (You can do it 5 times daily)
Finally, the last daily activity is to give your extra goodies to another friend (Aka trade) Those who know where to trade will know. It takes a bit of effort but yeah just enjoy the process.
Step number 4: Additional quiz or mission-style requests
So random quizzes or daily requests such as taking photos of items will get you additional goodies and these come in random. These are known as Huat Scanner and Huat Quizzes. (It is a QR scanner and answering quizzes) My thoughts are similar to how google search functions. The more you engage in the activity, the more these requests will pop up. Though random, there is some AI to it (i.e. robots related) We will not know but like any other games you played before, the more active you are, the more likely you are going to level up and do better. Whether it gets difficult, I’m not sure but let’s just have fun.
Side note, thank you google for the media announcement but perhaps you can send it to me earlier than the next event because my day starts, I have a day job and creating all these takes time and effort. You are always welcome to reach out to me to have a chat via my email. I’m happy to explore. Cheers anyway for providing media items so that I do not have to source for those on my own.
Conclusion
I can’t tell anyone this is worth your time to do all these because we have different values in terms of time and what it gives back to you. However, during the promotion period, there will be changes as Google work on bugs and several things to make sure that they can be as fair as possible to everyone. May luck be with you. Remember two things: The more you want something, the less it will come to you. (Because of the state of the mind) & This should not shun you away from doing the proper and real things in life that matters to you. (Be real, be yourself)
If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at Referral and Recommendations
These pictures were taken off the Google Media Kit for reference.
When discussing the portfolio of Financial Planning, it is common to waive it off if you have no interest in it or talk about investments only. Like any broken recorder, the basis of Finance Literacy is fundamental however you dislike it.
Let me put it on a storyboard – As a child or if you have a child, you would want them to learn skills from a young age. (NO! I am not talking about enrichment). Here I am talking about pure survival skills like swimming, psychomotor skills, being literate, learning to drive when you are older, learning simple skills like dealing with disappointment, etc.
Similarly, financial planning is no exception to life skills. Imagining a pyramid, the top layer is not investments but insurance. Meaning risk transfer. Now, skip the boring part of insurance planning. There are a few alternatives to cheaper insurance coverage.
One of them is actually SNACK by Income. Yes, Income Insurance.
Don’t miss out now because there’s a good deal going on at the moment.
The Promotion
Here’s $50 for you to start your investment journey!
All you need to do is: 1. Download the SNACK by Income app (https://income.sg/dl-snack) 2. Enter my referral code “PAU4055” and tap on SIGN UP 3. Complete your SNACK account creation with MyInfo 4. Start SNACK Investment and ensure that you have boosted Investment! (Refer to steps 1-4 here: https://income.sg/si-start)
Get your complimentary $50 investment credits in your portfolio the following week!
Technically, it can be termed as an ILP (Investment Linked Plan) and honestly I am not a big fan of it. But you can exclude the investment option if you don’t wish to. However, for a start, you probably should do the investment portion until you get the signup rewards.
The Limit
I use the personal accident, critical illness and life insurance portion to supplement my current insurance. In any case, there is a maximum that one can be insured and it starts from $0
Life – $200,000 coverage
Accident – $ 100,000 coverage
Critical Illness – $200,000
How it Works
How this micro insurance work is that:
You need to set your lifestyle activities for different classes of insurance coverage and investment (if any). For each activity that is fulfilled, a new policy will be created and added to your total coverage. In this step, you can also set a daily cap so that you don’t spend more than $0.30 (for example) per day.
Food & Drinks
Transport
Retail
Groceries
Entertainment
Utilities
Petrol
Steps
Then you set your activity source. These are the ones that measure your activities such as step or visa credit card if you spend on certain categories.
Apple Health
Burpple
EZ-link
Fitbit
Garmin
Visa
Then set your weekly cap – This is for the investment cap. Up to one to decide
You will need to have your investment objective assessed such as CKA – Customer Knowledge Assessment
Risk Profile.
There you go and your SNACK account will be set up for you. That said, you can redeem the fund units anytime and can stop using the insurance app anytime you want.
I get that it takes a while to get used to it but you need some time to get used to it as it is pretty automated.
If there are some brands which interest you, you can also spend and get additional coverage from them as well. Once in a while, they will run some promotional campaigns and you can get additional investment credits. So far, luck has been on my side, I have collected more than a couple of hundred in investment funds terms. Like any insurance, this is pretty efficient for an ILP since I investment directly into a fund I am comfortable with.
Disclaimer
If you decide to sign up with SNACK, do remember to use my referral code: https://income.sg/dl-snack and my referral code PAU4055.
If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at Referral and Recommendations
These pictures were taken off the Endowus website for reference.
In my previous post about Ez-link Trival here Ez-link deal , they have upped one more level by allowing Mastercard in their Ez-link payment option.
The Deal
You can now earn an easy S$10 just by logging into their app, there will be an option to use Mastercard to pay for items via Google Pay.
EZ-Link and Mastercard have partnered to launch a new feature called Pay by Wallet.
This would add virtual Mastercard functionality to your EZ-Link Wallet (Google Pay). You can then spend these at more than 80 million Mastercard online and in-store merchants worldwide. Unfortunately, it is only available for Android users for now.
Free S$10
As like any new players in the market, the launch of Pay by Wallet, EZ-Link is offering an instant S$5 credit to users who activate Pay by Wallet on the EZ-Link App.
Do note that you will get an additional S$5 cashback will be credited to you when you make a minimum spend of S$10 within 30 days of signing up. The promotion is not unlimited, please take note.
Should you be interested to sign up for this, do download the Ez Link App and key in my Referral code: 3197B5C
Some Pointers to note
a. This campaign is limited to the first S$100,000 of cashback or the first 10,000 new EZ-Link Pay by Wallet user sign-ups, whichever comes first
b. Next, note that certain transactions are not valid here at T&Cs such as donations, education, government services, hospitals, utilities and AXS. (Standard Stuff)
c. Additional perks:
For every successful Pay by Wallet transaction of at least S$80 made by 31 July 2022, earns you one entry into a lucky draw with the following prizes. (All prize winners will be contacted latest by 30 September 2022):
1N staycation at Equarius Hotel or Hotel Michael with breakfast for two (3x winners)
A pair of Universal Studios Singapore tickets (80x winners)
Conclusion
Again, nothing much to shout about. To make more value for your buck, something to play around with if you have some time.
Disclaimer
This is not a sponsored post. This is purely my own opinion after using their service and/or products. If you like what you are seeing, do remember to check out my referral links.
Now, if what I am sharing does resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral and Recommendations
The pictures were taken from EZ-link website for this article.
The opening up of Singapore seemed to be a cheer so far with the most recent news seemingly as a positive sign as all business would eventually open up to the rest of the world. Nonetheless, everyone have to still stay vigilant and not fall into the trap of Covid lockdown once more. It has been an experience with Covid and no one would wish that something like that will happen once again.
KrisShopper – Loyalty Programme
With these Krisflyer seemed to have extensively opened up and aggressively fronting their marketing dollars in Krisflyer shopping (KrisPlus or Kris+). Krisflyer launched their own loyalty programme called KrisShopper. The first 30,000 members who link their KrisFlyer accounts to KrisShopper will receive 1,000 miles, and the first 5,000 will receive additional SGD$20 to spend on KrisShop.
What do you need to do:
Link KrisFlyer to KrisShopper
500 miles
Subscribe to news & promotions while linking accounts
500 miles
Link before 30th June 2022
Status match
If you are eligible and done the correct steps, both miles and voucher will be credited within 10 business days after 30th June 2020.
Kris+ Couponmania (Co-brand/Partnership with Sqkii)
If you do not know what is Sqkii by now, you can check them out on their facebook or webpage. They first started out by letting people do the typical hide and seek treasure hunt for prize money by giving clues on a daily basis. How Kris+ is partnering with them is that they have created a game that allows anyone with a Kris+ account to merge coupon boxes. It is definitely not going to be easy as this is similar to the 2048 game that you play on your mobile. Each merging gets you a bigger coupon or prize which seems to be random. There’s also no guarantee that you will get the top prize which a a Nintendo switch or a Oven set.
You would also get a mini coupon prize to start off once you have signed up. Additionally, if you sync your Kris+ account, you get a speed up ticket that gives you a faster distribution per token. Once that is used up, you need to start referring more friends.
Remember not to skip the referral portion and also syncing your Kris+ account.
Everyone probably need referral to open up to more spaces to collect the coupons to merge the coupons. It takes 7 mins to be loaded with the level 1 coupon so 10 spaces means it will be full in 70 mins. Mindblown? haha.
If you do not have a Kris+ Account or App
If you don’t have a Kris+ account, you can download it via IOS or Google Play.
Sign up now with my link below, and my referral code L329518, and we’ll each be rewarded with SGD 5 worth of KrisPay miles upon your first transaction. https://sqkrisplus.page.link/2cf87APVrFXFHT5e7
There’s also a daily challenge per week to login once every 24 hours and you get to claim 150 miles which you can use to offset your shopping. This will end this week so while it lasts.
Disclaimer
This is not a sponsored post. This is purely my own opinion after using their service and/or products. If you like what you are seeing, do remember to check out my referral links.
Now, if what I am sharing does resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral and Recommendations
The pictures were taken from KrisPlus website for this article.
After Tiger Brokers and Moomoo (by Futu), here comes another player in the market named uSMART SG. Who are they? Founded in December 2018, uSMART Group, has headquarters in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and New Zealand. They have a global workforce of 400, with more than half in the product and development teams.
Who They Are
uSMART SG is mainly backed by Hong Kong company – Chow Tai Fook Group. Their main business would be in the jewellery line. This is probably a diversification from their original business. The other investors are also well known: BNP Paribas, UBS, Ping An, Yahoo, Tencent and Alibaba. (which is strange for Tencent since they are also backers of another brokerage firm)
Their mission is to
provide leading smart investment services to global investors, and to maximize investors’ value through monetary, knowledge and positive emotions. (as per on their website)
Fees
I shall not talk alot about fees. There are many different types of structures and market that you can find if you trade.
Promotions & Rewards
Okay, enough of all the blabbering. Once it is on the public domain, the key questions is what are the perks available now? I think that they are still new entrants to this and not many people know about them so the initial perk have been relatively decent.
Once you sign up, the first freebie is a SGD 15 cash voucher will be deposited in the Rewards Center upon account opening (Standard account). To redeem this cash voucher, complete at least three stocks BUY or SELL trades above S$100 within 90 days
The next promotion is either three shares of BITO, which is the ticker for ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF. If cryptocurrency gains traction with the rest of the community and becomes even more mainstream. This ETF would then have the potential for significant capital returns. (NOTE: For this welcome reward voucher, is unlocked by making a first deposit in a SINGLE transfer amounting to at least S$2,000 or its equivalent value. If user picks the BITO share voucher, you will need to maintain SGD2,000 AUM for 30 consecutive days in order to redeem the 3 BITO shares. You can choose the Investment Master Course which is ranked by uSMART as the higher value.
Last point to note: You will need to head to Rewards Center to redeem these rewards or they will expire and you will get nothing from it.
The return on the SGD 2k investment will be around 5%, almost risk free. Take note of the daily average which has to be SGD 2000 and above for the next 30 days. (If you are using them to trade often)
Thank you in advance for funding the activity of this blog and deals. It is just a little affiliate marketing/referral fees that I take. This pays for all the marketing activity, IT related fees and any other miscellaneous payments. Thanks again for keeping the lights running here.
Disclaimer
If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at Referral and Recommendations
The pictures were taken from the uSMART SG website for this article.
Lifejourney 