Category: Wealth & Health

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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

Wellnex & My-Insurer Platform

On By RistrettzIn Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

Something interesting came in my way last week. I managed to speak with the General Manager of Wellnex (Link here if you are interested to find out – https://www.wellnex-singapore.com/) and My-insurer. (Link here – https://www.my-insurer.net/) They are in the field of Insurtech field – Insurance Technology. (Something that works differently as compared to the traditional agents who sells you an insurance) I’ll say that they are more of a 99.co or property guru in Insurance style but with a tad more zest as all interactions and details are done digitally so it is as good as meeting the customer face to face. Given current Covid situation, I’m not sure if I want to meet anyone face to face for a 2-3 hour chat about personal finance.

It isn’t a sponsored post. I’m very strict with the way things are being done regarding a sponsored post. As the way it is, I’m happy to write and type whatever my views are and trash whatever I find is trashy. In any case, my-insurer has a separate wellnex platform – which is more of a deals, news, more information kind of portal where businesses and writers can create and post articles.

The Wellnex Interface

In terms of user-interface, it is simple – no frills but also nothing fancy. The whole idea is to create content, display them out and get people to read them. Hopefully, some people actually think that my content is worth reading. I am a firm believer of things taking time to grow organically. Spending marketing dollars on stuff is what companies who have cash to burn does. Usually it comes with a price, there is always a catch or ROI to it – Then the marketing dollars will eventually be reduced or some others suckered into buying into it and spending even more marketing dollars.

Data Trustmark

Sometime last week, i received an email from them stating that they have achieved the Trust-mark for Data Protection so you can be sure that there is a standard or ISO for dealing and protection the data that you store with them. I’ll say that is a good job considering that they hold key to agents and customer data.

What I really do like about them is that, they have no requirement for me to have at least one post per week or anything of that sort. There isn’t a fee that they pay to me or I need to pay them for using their application to post articles as they wish to stay neutral and free from conflict of interest. That is respectable for a business who work on that ethics. Not many companies are true to what they preach.

Help one another / Refer a good deal

If you own a company or wish to share some deals, do reach out to these folks out there. Perhaps, they can add more marketing value for space or reach or impressions as the marketing guys call it. After all, the idea is to get what you have out there so people know and talks about it.

The whole idea that I wish to do is to create a space where people enjoy reading articles about finance. Perhaps, get them excited about finding out what is out there. What is the current trend? Sometimes, even finding a good deal or good idea will come back. Though I did not start out as early as so many other bloggers did, it is never too late.

Eventually, finding out and working together as online bloggers is something I wish to build in the community. I started out reading financial blogs for many years. In the process, I procrastinated about building one as it takes up too much time. However, the circuit breaker forced me to take on something that I have put off for many years. I hope I will grow my project to a sizable one in the near future.

Disclaimer

These are just solely opinions of mine. Different people have different needs, requirement, financial situation and views. For me, this is what I would do if I would like to build my blog. The main aim to to get more viewership and subscribers to keep the lights running.

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

The pictures were taken from Wellnex website for this article.

Term or Participating Life Plans?

On By RistrettzIn Personal Finance Series, Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

Term Insurance or Participating Whole Life Insurance? This is the question that I often ask and discuss with my other half. Typically, people seek value when they buy or invest in something. For insurance, value seekers would prefer a cash value. Cash value is what you have contributed over the insurance tenor. These sum of money, deducting the cost of insurance, the fees, commissions, salary and what nots will be invested by the insurance company Fund Managers (Whether they choose in-house or external fund houses) – In short they are known as participating life insurance.

Term and Whole Life Insurance

Term Insurance are policies that do not have a cash value. They are typically cheaper than Whole Life Plans (Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to get term insurance). For example, they cost $200 per annum for a coverage of $200K and it depends on your age at point of inception. They may or may not be renewable yearly, meaning that the premiums will increase with age and each individual health condition.

In my personal opinion, I think that a Whole Life Plan is really expensive. You pay premiums and the first three years, there is literally no value to your assets. Then your participating underlying investments are handled by someone else who tries their best to beat benchmark and regardless, they get paid in fees and costs.

Buy Term, Invest the Rest?

There is a famous saying, buy term and invest the rest. Well, I don’t have a view on that. It really depends if you want to leave some legacy behind for your family/kids/relatives or it may even be transitory. For e.g. used to cover debts such as a new house, a new car or assets. In order not to complicate matters, I’ll leave illness out of the equation and discuss solely on the death benefit. Generally, you need to cover your liabilities so that in the event of death, your family members not only are rid of their stress and pressure from the loss of a loved one as well as the financial aspect of it. To a certain extent, I believe in covering at least 2x of your liabilities so that there is comfort in dealing with more financial freedom.

The other stuffs to take note of

For a typical household, i believe that health insurance is the first thing you need to seek coverage on, followed by life plans but everyone’s scenario is different. In finance, there is a phase that all of us has to go through which is also the toughest and it is called wealth building. I’ll leave it for discussion on a separate day but my point is, you buy insurance based on what you can afford and not because it is cheap or time is not on your side.

For me, I take the approach of covering term as well as whole life plans. The hybrid style works for me as I am pretty savvy with financial contracts and insurance. In my own time, I am qualified advisor for insurance and more qualified than many out there but I never once worked for any insurance company. Though finance is my forte but there are too many products and innovation in this field that you cant keep up. So, you need to have someone in there to guide you along. It is annoying to talk to agents so you need to have someone you trust.

Let me just plant some ideas – If it make sense. It isn’t all encompassing but just to point things out.

Term Life:

A. A Substitute for liabilities (Housing loan, car loan, personal loan, student loan)

B. A transition phase which you do not mind protecting until that period is over. As term has no value, it is similar to a no-contract telco plan and you can get rid of it anytime (if the time period is short)

C. Supplement for a shortage of coverage that you have for your whole life.

Whole Life Plan:

A. It’s just for lazy people. Buy/Save and pay the premium for a period of time. Leave it there.

B. Buy at a young age and the premiums stay really really low which is smart. Consider your finances too as you need it to be as affordable until you have served the payment term.

C. If you have a young kid or elderly who are not working. You, are the income holder needs to be insured. When you are gone, the young kid and elderly will not be able to work to give you an income.

Above all, health is of the utmost importance. You will never know when or what hits you. Even then, your state of mind will be in a mess. So, no matter how prepared you are, no one will ever be prepared. All these little steps and conversations must eventually turn into real action. When shit comes, it comes and there is no point saying “I should have”. Don’t just listen to your agent out there. Seek alternative, ask and learn. No will will care more about your money more than you will – These life skills will bring value to your own life and frankly I can’t see a life with no planning and no one should.

Disclaimer

These are just solely opinions of mine. Different people have different needs, requirement, financial situation and views. For me, this is what I would do if I need to deal with buying insurance for myself and my family. There is no one size fits all – different strokes for different folks.

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

The pictures were taken from the website for this article.

The difference between all Chas cards & all Singaporean gets it

On By RistrettzIn New Ideas, Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

The Chas (Community Health Assist Scheme) card is for all Singaporeans! Yes, that’s freebies for all Citizens but wait, what is the catch? Well, there are different cards for different segments. There are a total of 5 different segments with two other more pronounced as a benefit for the Merdeka and Pioneer Generation. Then comes the Green card which has the lowest subsidy, followed by the Orange card for lower income households and the Blue card to help out the low income households. The criteria also looks at the Annual Value (AV) of the home that you own.

Chas Cards

CHAS cards can be used to see the doctor or dentist at participating GPs and dental clinics. For referrals to specialist outpatient clinics at public hospitals or the National Dental Centre. You will get a subsidy depending on your type of card you are eligible for.

With the new CHAS Green tier, all Singaporeans with certain chronic conditions can now receive subsidies for their treatment costs, regardless of income. Definitely a plus for all Singaporean Citizen.

From the Chas website, you can check your eligibility on their online calculator. Given the current situation, “You can apply online – It is recommended to so do in light of the current situation.”

Application

Apply for CHAS via the online application. Singapore Citizens aged 21 and above can apply for CHAS online on behalf of their household members.

Alternatively, you may download a hardcopy application form here. Once completed, please mail the form (and supporting documents, if any) to

P.O. Box 680, Bukit Merah Central Post Office, Singapore 911536.

Your application will be be processed within 15 working days from the date of receipt of the completed application.

If you have not received the outcome after 15 working days, you can visit the CHAS online application and login using your SingPass or call the CHAS hotline at 1800-275-2427 (1800-ASK-CHAS) to check on your application status.

FAQs

More of Chas FAQs can be found here: https://www.chas.sg/faq_list.aspx?id=626

Disclaimer: These are just solely opinions of mine. Taking care of your own health is also part of being financially free. Taking steps/transferring these risks to avoid those hefty medical bills is also part of financial planning. Being prepared for such events whether it happens to you or someone you know is also a harsh reality which we should be prepared for.

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes here for other services at https://lifejourney840443474.wordpress.com/contact/

The pictures were taken from the website for this article.