Tag: earn

Earning Rewards and Miles on your Credit Cards

On By RistrettzIn Deals, Interest, Miles, Personal Finance Series, Promotion, Random, Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

Travel season is back and I have been reading up quite a bit about the miles and cashback camp. The last two years, void of travelling were purely a cashback play from many folks except some whom believed that it would all go away. It really depends on how one views rewards because some of those payments are excluded from earning any form of miles or cashback.

With the introduction of a fee-based payment, these rewards come at a price. CardUp used to be a game changer in that sense because rents could be paid and rewards could be earned at the same time. Similar to many companies, they throw out marketing dollars so that people get to know their brand and use their proprietary systems. With the data they have, they can then find out more about people’s behaviour, and make marketing trends that keep the stickiness in clients to continue to use their platform.

Earning Rewards
Earn to Business or Economy

Credit Card Rewards & Earning Rewards

I’m no exception. I used to be the kind where I would not spend more to earn more rewards. As time went by, I realised that buying miles or arbitrage on cashback difference does make sense for me. My insurance, MCST payments, tax, property tax and other exclusions can now be added to my miles game or cashback. This is pretty awesome if you ask me. Paying and earning the rewards seems to make sense to me today.

I still wasn’t sure what kind of changed me and I constantly paid a small fee to gain that reward which all amounts to nothing previously.

Who and what is card?

CardUp is on a mission to provide individuals and businesses with a better way to pay and get paid. CardUp operates regionally across Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia as a major payment institution

If I recall rightly, some time last year they were acquired by funding societies

With CardUp, you can now make and collect payments digitally, including with a credit card, even in places where cards are traditionally not accepted. Some of the items that you can make payments to will be:

  • Insurance
  • MCST Fees
  • Rent and Rental Deposit
  • Education
  • Car Loans
  • Miscellaneous Payments
  • Domestic Workers salary
  • Taxes and Stamp Duty
  • Season Parking
  • Electricity Bills

I personally forgot about them until they sent me a reminder about the property tax season. It was a pretty decent deal at a 1.75% fee that has no cap. It is not a sponsored post but if you have not had a CardUp account do check it out. If you need any help to understand more, just drop me an email.

Use my code when you sign up at this CardUp Link or use my referral code PAULL34.

Earning Rewards
Earning Rewards and Miles is a long game and can be rewarding

Meanwhile, thank you for reading here. I am working on something and I might have something interesting out by tomorrow to get a direct 23% off your petrol bills at ESSO without any minimum spending in the form of a fleet card. I probably will avail it to 5 readers for a start before I request more of such deals. Those who drive and want to save all the hassle of saving petrol. It is a simple sign-up process so keep a lookout for it.

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 the community to connect for ideas: Life Journey Telegram

Use my code when you sign up at this CardUp Link or use my referral code PAULL34.

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

Series 3: Starting your journey on Crypto on Defi with Cake DFI tokens

On By RistrettzIn Cryptocurrency, Deals, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

I was lured by the high yields of CakeDefi which is roughly around 80% or at point of writing. This is accounted for in APY (Annual Percentage Yield) by staking. I signed up about 3 months ago but failed to take any action on this. Given how cash interest rates is just no longer interesting, I’ve been looking to invest my cash.

You can find out more here: CakeDeli Link

The crypto space is really intriguing. I’ve been reading trying my best to keep up with the crypto world but it is extremely dynamic but I do see use and real world cases which we can tap on and try to make a deal out of these new coins/system.

I decided to put in SGD$100 into Cakedefi as an experiment to see what rewards I’ll get in the next three months or so as a regular monthly updates similar to what I have been doing for my own robo advisors accounts.

If you are keen to join Cakedefi, here’s how to do it online:

Registration

  • Head to my referral link below (QR code or referral code) to set up your Cakedefi account. 
    • Rewards: Get a total of US$30 worth of DFI ($20 worth of DFI when you sign up and make a deposit of $50 or more + $10 referral reward)
  • KYC applies – you’d need to standby a pic of you with your IC (and writing date and the stuff that you are applying for – their website will guide you), and upload proof of your addresses through your banking statement or utilities bill.
  • KYC approval time is fast so you can do this rather quickly.
I’m only trying out the staking on DFI and not farming for other stuff. I have yet to be convinced by CakeDefi so I will only play small money here.
 
 
How do we begin? To make the CAKE, you’d need the main ingredient: DeFi coin.
  1. First, transfer BTC from Gemini to your Cake wallet at here 
    • I chose Gemini because of their 10 free withdrawal per month
    • I chose BTC because there’s no deposit fee 
    • There are also many ways to do it. However take note that buying BTC with cash on Gemini is a $4 charge per transaction.
  2. Transfer from Gemini to Cake is pretty fast as well:
    • Email from Gemini: Your Bitcoin withdrawal has been confirmed
    • Email from Cake: Your deposit is being processed. You will receive another email when your deposit is successful.
  3. Once you have BTC in your Cake wallet, click on “Swap” at DeFi column
  4. OR, head to staking page  where you can swap + stake in one page.
I received 11.4 ish DeFi coins which works out to be around USD$2.63 per coin.

Referral Reward

Upon deposit of US$50 coins and above, I received notification of the bonus DFI:

The bonus DFI that is worth USD 30 is frozen for the next 180 days and is already working for you. Currently you get paid the base APY plus a little bonus %.

 
Free money to take but take note that the bonus will be locked for 180 days.
 
As most would caution, maybe these will turn into ZERO so only do it if you are comfortable.
 
If you already intend to stake with CakeDefi, pls use my referral link here where you’d get a total of US$30 worth of DFI ($20 worth of DFI when you sign up and make a deposit of $50 or more + $10 referral reward)
 

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. Please use my referral code if you would like to try CakeDefi:  786793

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 CakeDefi website for this article.

Autowealth Robo Advisors – Performance Dec 2020

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

In my previous post, I introduced Autowealth to supplement my portfolio. This is newly setup for my child’s account. Hopefully, over the long term this will turn out great as well. To repeat on why I chose Autowealth:

Why Autowealth?

My two reasons for doing so is really just (a) try out one more robo advisor and (b) segregate this fund for any other purpose other than the kid’s investment journey.

My take about the investing journey has been the same since day one. Don’t sweat the small things, the costs of robo are so low. We are talking about a 15-20 year horizon here so heck those low costs. You need to pay them to keep their lights running.

Perhaps Auto Wealth is in a different segment all together but they are the ones I see positively after the other two. After signing up in June I finally got to funding the account in September and October when markets were on the downside. The idea of doing this over the long term is to really to buy in when markets drop.

Markets will go up and each time it drops, just pick some up and let the robots do the work on balancing and re-balancing. As long as fees remains low, the portfolio will grow over time and over a longer period. It should remain in the black based on some back testing.

I would say I wouldn’t rate them as aggressive on the marketing front but at 100 million AUM and in the black since 3 years of inception does bode well for them. Looks like they are one of those companies who keep things lean, mean and transparent for others. Many times, I do not mind paying slightly more for better service or better app/products. I speak for myself though as I do know many who penny pinch and I shall not comment more on this. My philosophy is to never sweat the small stuff – To have bigger dreams, you will have to let go of the small things.

Performance – Dec 2020

Looking at the portfolio, it looks pretty nice again in December. The investment horizon would be estimated to be 15-20 years. This is a portfolio which is set at roughly 40% equities and 60% bonds. The investment vehicles will be through ETFs. It does look like it can withstand long term peaks and troughs. What i really like is that i can switch between the SGD and USD currency performance portfolio as well as the impact on USD SGD forex on performance. Again, as time goes by, I would like to deploy funds out into the market in tranches over time.

+7.65% absolute return (SGD currency) is pretty good in my view and this is as at 18 Jan 2021. The impact of USD on SGD is about -3.43% and by referencing the portfolio in USD, absolute return would be at +10.87%. Wow, okay that’s pretty nice for not doing anything after investing.

 

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

The pictures were taken from Auto Wealth website for this article. If you need a referral code, drop me a message and you can indicate my full name during registration. From there, both of us will  get $20 each to supplement the fees.

New Referral Scheme from Singlife

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

This is really a great piece of marketing work from Singlife. Though late into the referral game, this is some good way to get and garner new acquisitions. It is well known that Singaporeans are pretty starved for yields. This insurtech firm is one that I have wrote about recently and it is a good product.

(Updates 1 Nov 2020): I received an email from Singlife communications – As a heads up, Singlife Paid Referral Programme will come to a close on 1 November 2020.

All referees (i.e. people who have been referred) who have successfully in-forced their Singlife Account by 1 Nov 2020 will have up to fifteen business days (i.e. 20 Nov 2020) to order and activate their Singlife Visa Debit Card for both you and your referee to still qualify for the S$10 referral bonus. 

You also probably received an email from them on 30 Oct 2020 notifying of the upcoming termination. 

As from their excerpt:

“Singlife’s Paid Referral Programme has enjoyed a successful run and will come to a close as of 1 November 2020. Thank you for all your support! Upon the Effective Date of Termination (1 Nov 2020), all referees who have successfully in-forced their Singlife Account(s), by the Effective Date of Termination, will have up to fifteen business days (i.e. by 20 Nov 2020) to order and activate their Singlife Visa Debit Card to qualify for the S$10 bonus.”

Still, the good and bad and them. It is still a decent alternative cash source.

The Good about Singlife

I’ll have one more strong and valid point to date with this referral scheme.

  • A referral fee of S$10 is deposited in your Singlife account for each friend you invite to Singlife and there are no cap for this. Each friend gets S$10 too so if you find this useful, do use my link to sign up here: https://app.singlife.com/S49MSfXlF8
  • SDIC covered
  • Relatively high interest rate for the first $10k
  • Simple and fuss-free – registration and login all done online
  • You can also spend normally like what a debit card does, having a functioning physical card.
  • Transfers are all ifast which is really impressive and same day receipt
  • Customer service is pretty responsive and quick to reply (Live chat and email)
  • Some form of insurance is complimentary including retrenchment insurance (It’s not a lot but it is a nice gesture)
  • No-contract, no terms no fees when you withdraw.

You can read my previous post about Singlife: https://atomic-temporary-178675883.wpcomstaging.com/2020/06/26/low-or-no-interest-where-to-park-your-funds/

Find out more here: https://singlife.com/

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 Singlife website for this article.