Category: New Ideas

Exploring new concepts and ideas

Retirement Series (Part 2)

On By RistrettzIn New Ideas, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

My part 2 version came a year and a half late. My apologies really.

In the previous discussion, I discussed about retirement. In the past, it was a buzzword only for people in their 40s or 50s. That is quite normal I would say. Given the financial literacy and knowledge of Generation X. Not many people make an effort to think about the future. I would say that partly it is due to the conditions of the past and education. Fast forward 30 years, the trend is gradually changing. The young are concerned about their futures and the future of their younger ones. An additional factor is that personal finance and financial literacy are increasing among the young.

Including myself, I love my kids and I want the world to be in a better place than it was when I am no longer around. It depends on which stage everyone is in. Some people have more resources while others have lesser. However, that does not make you any less by starting out early. Even if you are late to the game, making the start of this means that you are already on your way to some form of freedom.

There are so many investment tools out there in the market to put your money in and it’s a matter of understanding the risks and taking the right risks to grow your money. Of course, the basic step is to spruce up an emergency fund first. You cannot confuse your pot to be of multiple use. Different funds that you raise have to be for a different purpose. If you have fewer resources, then focus on the things that will give you the confidence such as building a pot of emergency funds. For example, 9 months’ worth of extras. Do not undermine the power of achieving milestones because the small effort often counts for bigger things to come.

Once your basics are covered. We have to think about the next step of risk – This is the part where I term it as risk transfer. This is short is coined as Buy an insurance. The basics are buying your personal health insurance and protection against illness, treatment, sudden medical conditions as well as other unforeseen circumstances. Life itself is uncertain and as time goes by, it will be more prevalent. Getting insurance is never enough but there are many ways to kick-start that. It also involves a bit of planning.

I’m no financial expert. All I know is you probably should find out more to convince yourself that you need to risk transferring your future.

a. Health Insurance

b. Whole Life Plans with TPD or Term Life Plans or Hybrid Plans

c. Critical Illness

d. Early Payout Critical Illness

e. Disability Income or Elder Shield Enhance

I’ll say start working with the Health portion followed by Death or permanent disability coverage. Because if you are gone, your potential future earnings are gone and your dependants depend on them. Once you have covered yourself, then start thinking about the rest. Baby steps. This works well if you are still young.

Things like Mindef or MHA term insurance coverage or SNACK Income microinsurance work well to supplement this insurance at a low cost. That’s something most advisors probably would not share with you.

That’s probably enough information for Part 2. We should talk more about insurance in Part 3.

Disclaimer

If you like what you are seeing, do remember to check them out and do your diligence. There is no one-size-fits-all investment strategy and no one solution to life. Join my telegram group to find out more about deals and join in the community to connect for ideas: Life Journey Telegram

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral Services

SNACK by Income – Microinsurance for the public

On By RistrettzIn Deals, New Ideas, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

Revisiting a tech online portal that Income has developed over the years. It is not a great app since it wasn’t developed fully in my opinion but it does dole out a nice reward over time. It also helps to supplement whatever insurance that I currently have as a risk transfer.

Why Insurance?

Let’s face it. Everyone needs to transfer their risk and that is a fact. Whether it is a term or a whole life plan, is up for debate but no best answer. You need health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, travel insurance, car insurance, and the list goes on. The challenge to DIY stuff is that although it comes cheap you have to figure out how to do that on your own. Nothing wrong with that but it comes in as a pain when you don’t have time to manage those stuff.

Try Microinsurance

Personally, I feel that it is fine to try out a cheaper alternative to insurance just to get yourself covered at the lowest cost possible. SNACK is by Income and they did not have this concept of microinsurance. I find it appealing personally coming from someone who understands how these things work. It kind of supplements what I have existing.

At least they try to speak the millennial language. Next, I find that with such low-cost products – There will be fewer barriers to entry. The difficulty in this solution is to educate people. It is much easier to say that it is complicated than trying to find out what this is all about.

Once you sign up online and register the amount you can commit daily, every document will be sent to you via email or digitally. Quite simple.

 

There are 4 ways you can choose to buy insurance (Choose 1 or whatever you need but the auto-invest is the one that gives out e-CapitaVouchers):

a. Critical Illness

b. Personal Accident

c. Life Insurance.

d. Investments – There is a new weekly limit for the RSP style on the Asian Income Fund. There’s only one fund and I also believe the NAV versus the Sell (Also known as bid price) will be different from the Buy (Ask price) That’s something I don’t quite like about insurance firms. They need to do away with this (With the fact that they tell customers there’s no front-end or back-end loading). This itself is the spread.

Recently, there’s been a monthly mission and a single top-up mission that one has to invest and hold for a month before the team releases e-CapitaVouchers via email on fulfillment. It’s not too bad and ranges from a cashback of approximately 5-8% depending on the investment amount.

The cons is that the system is not great. You can’t do partial withdrawal, there is only one Asian Income Fund, and it comes with a buy-sell spread (Fees and management fees from the fund). Also, the max investment is $1000 weekly so there’s a bit of micro-management and exploring how bad the app is to figure out how to not tweak the limits any period as the change actually reset the period.

Missions also are limited to 28-29 days – so if you miss a day, you miss out on the big prize. The challenge prizes have also been reduced over time but that is expected.

Be careful since it is still an investment but no harm in trying after exploring and figuring it out.

You can also trigger these daily costs from a few parts:

a.  Redeeming deals or paying for meals using a VISA card.

b. Commuting by bus, train, or cab and paying for it using a VISA card.

c. Through retailing and purchases using a linked VISA card.

d. Shopping for groceries using a linked VISA card.

e. Through entertainment and paying using a linked VISA card.

f. Topping up petrol and paying using a linked VISA card.

g. Pay your utilities and pay using a linked VISA card.

h. Activate your Fitbit app and fulfill your daily steps.

You may be thinking what happens if you hit every objective. There is a limit to the premiums charged to your credit or debit card depending on the weekly cap you’ve set up. Once you’ve hit this weekly cap, SNACK will no longer charge you premiums when you complete lifestyle triggers and you will not be issued any more policies for that week.

The minimum amount daily you can set is $0.30 and you can add on as many triggers as you wish.

There is also a cap on each insurance segment:

a. For Personal Accidents, the cap is at $100,000

b. For Life Insurance, the cap is at $200,000

c. For Critical Illness, the cap is at $200,000

These insurance are known as non-participating policies so the moment you stop paying for these, the coverage will stop. To me, it is a stop-gap kind of coverage and at an extremely low cost. If you are looking at the full suite, take time to understand and learn. You will definitely benefit from the knowledge and to suss out your new insurance agent. Whether they are in it for the long term or to hit and run. We will never know unless we experience and have the basic knowledge.

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 them out and do your diligence. There is no one-size-fits-all investment strategy or general rule for your every life. Join my telegram group to find out more about deals and join in the community to connect for ideas: Life Journey Telegram

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral Services

The pictures were taken from the SNACK website for this article. If you need a referral code, please use my referral code “PAU4055” to sign up at https://www.snackbyincome.sg/ to find out more.

Making more than 5% interest in Money bull

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Income, Deals, Finance, Interest, Interest Rate Series, New Ideas, Promotion, RandomLeave a comment

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:

  1. 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
  2. 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.
  • Click here to sign up Webull sign-up link
  • 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.

That’s how easy that is. Good Luck!

Remember to read the T&Cs Webull sign-up link

Conclusion

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.

Click here to sign up Webull sign-up link

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

All about Fave Pay

On By RistrettzIn Deals, New Ideas, PromotionLeave a comment

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.

Thank you in advance for using my referral code.

Disclaimer

If you decide to sign up with SNACK, do remember to use my referral code: https://m.myfave.com/singapore/invite/FAVEPAUL62 and my referral code FAVEPAUL62.

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 Fave Pay website for reference.

Scratch Cards for EZ Link Simply Go

On By RistrettzIn Deals, New Ideas, PromotionLeave a comment

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.)

Scratch and Win Ang Pow for Simply Go EZ link card, sample screen shot of the game and how it looks like

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?

The look and feel of the e-wallet that shows the ezlink screen.

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.

Krisflyer and KrisPlus Making headways

On By RistrettzIn Deals, Miles, New Ideas, Personal Finance Series, Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

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 can only access this game with a mobile browser. Click on this link to go on to the browser: https://krisplus.couponmania.sqkii.com/auth?ref=GWWVAQT13P

Or you can key in the referral code: GWWVAQT13P

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.

 

MoneyOwl Performance review – Mar 2022

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Income, New Ideas, Robo AdvisorsLeave a comment

Money Owl has been the regular investing strategy monthly for about close to 2 years. While the amount is nothing to be shout about. It is just regularly fixing something so that I can save and invest at the same time.

This is really a small part of my portfolio at $100 monthly RSP for around two years for now. I Probably will stick with MO for now just to compare them versus Endowus. I like the management team, honest and no conflict of interest. Maybe I add on other investment strategies on their platform if the timing is right.

Who is Money Owl?

MoneyOwl is an initative from NTUC Social Enterprise. They are a Robo-advisor coupled with a suite of wealth planning tools such as will writing and insurance solutions. What really attracted me is their rather simple way of investing and using Dimension Funds as part of their portfolio construction

As a retail investor, you will most likely not be able to access such funds (Dimension Funds). When the market tanked sometime in Feb 2020, I picked a few Robo-advisor to invest into and look into performance a few months later. 

One of the reasons I went into MoneyOwl and Endowus initially was because of the Dimensional Fund. These are not readily available to retail investors but the investing landscape has changed. Retail is kind of king now.

Context

My MoneyOwl Portfolio is one that does not hold a lot. It isn’t my main Robo Portfolio but they kind of become slightly more trusted over the last few months. At the same time, for folk who have just started the investment journey, S$100 is definitely doable for a long long term portfolio. The whole idea of this blog is to also show that it does not take a lot to start building your own retirement pot. I still envy folks who are in the twenties and build their portfolio early. 

However, when you are young – Money is a limited resource. As usual, personal finance also have to revolve around each individual situation and understand the situation will determine what is required.

On top of the asset that we acquire, there is a need to tweak the insurance coverage due to a new child and an increased mortgage. Should there be any issues that happen to any one of us, at least the full liabilities are covered.

Mar 2022 performance (Day One Deposit)

In portfolio terms, it is up +8.56% and compared to my last review in Aug 2021 which was at +18.30% on 2 Sep 2021, it has dipped quite a bit in terms of percentage points. The portfolio size isn’t something great. Just a net deposit of $3,200. I kept the regular investing of $100 per month and it’s looking rather slow. I might increase this monthly amount to build the base up a little more. 2022 has not been kind to the markets and will continue to do so. So far, the defensive nature is what I have seen as a plus point.

If we look at Time Weighted Returns, it is the more accurate to account of deposit and withdrawals at +24.63%. Again, this return is just for reference. At the end of the day, what you originally invest in and the final amount will be the absolute profit.

 

In terms of the portfolio allocation, there is no change and it is at 60% equities and 40% fixed income. The portfolio consists of 4 different funds. Everything will be on Dimensional Funds. I kind of wished that I had a small cap fund in there. But I guess, as long as my main robo has that exposure that would be good as well on an overall basis.

Personally, I like the allocation % because it is just widely diversified for equities and widely disperse in terms of investment grade.

In the details on the profit and loss sheet:

a. The Global Core Equity Fund will be the largest allocation and makes up most of the returns to date and continues to do well.

b. The Emerging Market Large Cap Fund will be the lowest allocation and makes the least of the returns to date. I don’t mind some EM exposure at this point in time.

c. The Global Core Fixed Income Fund will be my main steady income Fund and finally.

d. The Global Short Term Fixed Income Fund will be the last stabiliser in my portfolio.

e. The government bonds remains to be on the downside which is expected though it recovered a little as compared to the previous month. The impact is negligible.

f. Recently, the russia exposure was mentioned to investors that it was removed and likely due to the sanctions.

MoneyOwl fees

A few months ago, MoneyOwl announced that they have lowered their investment advisory fees as well as absorbing the platform fees due to the pandemic.

a. For asset under management S$100,000 and below, there will be a 0.6% p.a. management fee and 0.5% p.a. for amounts above S$100,000. This amount will be rebated back in the portfolio. So take note that only Cash investments (Wise Income will also incur management fees), the cash management accounts do not have these in place and your total portfolio value has to be above S$50.

b. There is an introduction fee of S$99 which is worth about S$535 for a comprehensive Financial Planning. Money Owl’s advisors will sit down with you to review your portfolio. The review is expected to contain detailed report and recommendations (It is estimated to be around 2 hours). 

c. Additionally, they are introducing free financial resilience workshops to focus on cash flow management and debt management. Likely through Webinars and anyone can join in.

It is nice to see that as a partner to our national social enterprise, they are making moves to help Singaporeans. The reduced fees on investments which is one of the key points in long term investments. The more fees you pay, the more it affects your long term goals.

If you would like to give MoneyOwl a try do remember to use my referral code: 1JIC-91CM

Both of us with get S$20 worth of GrabFood Vouchers for every product or service that you sign up so that means that both of us will get up to S$60 worth of GrabFood Vouchers. (Total of 3 services/products)

Personally, I think that they are decent. A very conservative bunch.

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 they out and do your diligence. There is no one size fits all investment strategy.

If you would like to give MoneyOwl a try do remember to use my referral code: 1JIC-91CM

Now, if what I am sharing does resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral and Recommendations

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 Money Owl’s website for this article.