Interest Rate Series (DBS Multiplier) [2.5 out of 5 Burger Patties]

As on 4 November 2022

On 4 November 2022, 3 working days after OCBC rolled out their new interest rate on their flagship 360 accounts, DBS followed up with an email that the DBS Multiplier has increased from 3.5% to 4.1%. The balance cap amount is also increased to S$100,000

The Multiplier account has always been proportioned by the transaction amount.

below S$2,000

S$2,000 to below S$2,500

S$2,500 to below S$5,000

S$5,000 to below S$15,000

S$15,000 to below S$30,000

Above S$30,000

The next layer of categories to fulfil will be the number of categories. They are known to be:

1. Salary/Dividends/SGFinDex

The Salary portion has to be a GIRO transaction with code “SAL” or “PAY”, which seems pretty strict given that there are increasing numbers of the next generation in the ‘gig economy’

For dividend crediting, these eligible dividend has to be from CDP, DBS Vickers Securities, DBS Online Equity Trading, DBS Unit Trusts, DBS Online Funds Investing and Invest-Saver (Promotion their own eco-system)

Connecting and sharing financial information from SGFinDex to NAV Planner (I would think one needs to do this on a monthly basis

2. Credit Card Spend

For the monthly card spend, it has to be on any DBS credit card and has to be eligible spending. Eligible will be the usual suspects and it will be very much dependent on the MCC codes.

3. Home Loan Installment

Home Loan financing has to be from DBS or POSB (New or Refinancing). The eligible amount will be from the monthly home loan instalment amount.

4. Insurance

Similar to my previous post on insurance and investment in these high-yield accounts. These are usually valid for a limited period and interest rates are always subject to changes. Further, only selected insurance are eligible.

5. Investment

Nothing much to comment on here. This section will be pretty hard for most people to fulfil.

Additional option: The PayLah! Retail Spend. Honestly, don’t seem like a good deal to me.

The ideal interest rate will be between 0.9% to 2,5%. Frankly, nothing much has changed though and I don’t think it is even worth announcing via their communication channels. I feel like there wasn’t even much thought placed into it. I just felt like it isn’t any effort to compete with these changes. With the most recent 0.75 bps increase by the US Feds, this is not anything competitive and not quite worth looking into for now.

For more information, check the link here: DBS Multiplier Calculator

Conclusion

Nothing worth looking at for now. Till next time.

Interest Rate Series (OCBC 360) [4 out of 5 Burger Patties]

As on 3 November 2022

The week has been intercepted by headline interest rate hike news and OCBC 360 certainly did take out their competition with a banging headline. As of the 1st of November 2022, the entire suite of the OCBC 260 flagship account will revise its interest rate across the board.

As of their online quote, “The OCBC 360 Account has six bonus interest categories – Salary, Save, Spend, Wealth (Insure), Wealth (Invest) and Grow. By tapping on just three of these categories – Salary, Save and Spend – customers will be able to earn interest of 4.65% p.a. on the first S$100,000 in their bank account.”

Prior to this due to the interest rate environment, the first S$100,000 could get you 1.85% p.a. The biggest update is that for their spending options, you can use the OCBC 365 credit card, OCBC Titanium Rewards credit card, OCBC 90°N Visa card and OCBC 90°N Mastercard.

There are a total of 6 categories:

Salary, Save, Spend, Insure, Invest and Grow.

The basic of the high-yield account is to fulfil the following – Salary, Saving (Keeping the average daily balance by $500 increment monthly) and spending S4500 to the above-mentioned OCBC credit card each month. Quite simply put, by fulfilling these three options, your interest yield is 4.65% p.a. for up to $100,000. (technically 4.64962903% p.a.)

Over 365 days, the interest earned is S$4,649.63

Salary

You need to credit at least S$1,800 of your salary to fulfil the Salary Category. That is if your HR allows that or if you are not employed in another rival or financial institution.

Save

You need to have an incremental S$500 in your monthly balance. However, if this is your transaction account then it might be an issue. But as long as it is an incremental (Average daily balance)

Spend

You need to spend S$500 on selected OCBC credit cards. You can use the OCBC 365 credit card, OCBC Titanium Rewards credit card, OCBC 90°N Visa card and OCBC 90°N Mastercard.

Insure & Invest

Forget about the insurance and Investment portion, there’s probably no way around those.

Grow

For the Grow category, if you have an additional S$100,000 to keep the average daily balance of S$200,000, the first S$100,000 will get an additional 2.40% p.a. while your remaining S$100,000 remain at the 0.05% p.a.

To illustrate, the interest over this S$200,000 will be S$7,099.60 hence the yield for this amount will be 3.55% p.a. (technically 3.54980161% p.a.

To calculate your interest amount, use the link to calculate the expected interest on your saving amount here: Calculate your Interest Amount

Conclusion

This is very interesting indeed. Because competitors will drastically make these changes as well. The interest rate hike might be a good and bad thing. However, take note that these rates are never confirmed or fixed. They follow the current market conditions. By taking on investments or insurance, these interest rates might change fast and furious. Overall, valiant effort and quite good timing as well. In the next few weeks, we might see revisions to compete with this increase in interest rate.

Sweet Sweet Singapore Saving Bonds (November 2022)

By now, many of you would have known that the SSB for November hit an all-time high from all the blog posts. However, only those of you who know know. Those who don’t, have no idea at all. In this period of the internet world, word of mouth can actually be less efficient.

Year 1 (3.26%) vs 10 Year Avg (3.47%) for the tranche of SBNOV22 GX22110A 

Indeed, that is pretty sweet but someone else’s gain is someone else’s loss. The mortgage rate for floating homeowners might be a shitty time to come. I’m not sure but perhaps there may be some level of concerns in the Singapore private markets soon? Especially for those who rode a tight line to take to upgrade and stretch out their finances. That’s a discussion for another article.

Meanwhile, what is probably better than the SSB, is the Singapore Treasury bonds. The ones that come in every two weeks will be the 6 monthly Treasury bond if you do not wish to lock in the rates for 10 years. (It doesn’t mean SSB will be illiquid. It just means the rate will stay constant for 10 years)

Treasury bills – 6 months for the previous tranch was offered for SGD 4.6 billion,

Non-Competitive Applications: SGD 1.8 billion

Total Amount Applied: SGD 10.9 billion

Subscription: 2.38x

Cut-off Yield: 4.19% p.a.

Managing Yourself

Life is very different for everyone. Every nook and cranny is different for each one of us. Eventually, that moulded all of us very differently. (i.e. How do we react to certain situations? How we seemingly lose common sense at certain things. With those things in mind, we can then empathise with others in their situation. While we may focus on how others are lacking, in the same sense we also need to be patient with others.

It is very easy to fall into the trap of looking at others and as always the grass is greener on the other side. (Until you reach the other side) Let me just sum it up. Only a small proportion of people get it lucky, they get the best of both worlds – What is rosy is also what is the true portrayal of their lives. The rest of them is living the beautiful lie (It doesn’t always come easy)

I can only speak from my own experience and while things were rosy. I had the opportunity to enjoy work and make good money while doing so. So, many times I try to look toward others with more empathy. Managing your own expectations is the hardest and because we all have our own aspirations, it often leads to less than expected results. However, we should always hold our heads high. Bite the bullet and move on. Sometimes pacing, slowing down before searing forward again. Easier said than done.

All of us are different and I do implore that no one look at other portfolios at 1 million, 500k or 250k at an envious level. Rather, look at things from a goal perspective and practicality. After all, everyone’s starting point is different. Look toward the end goal. Never give up and remember it is never too late to start.

One have to manage yourself as well as manage your own expectation. Every situation is different. Sometimes just purely managing time and break is not sufficient. We are built this way, some stronger than the other but lacking in other atrributes. Similar to thr concept of there are no perfect systems, there are no perfect human being. Behind the scenes, do you not think that those who seem fine has it easy too?

It is very similar to investing where everyone’s starting point is different. Today, I am lucky to have additional funds to explore and invest. Some may have just start while others may be struggling with debts or even many other issues.

I am glad I had basic financial knowledge and I understand some thing better than others.

Don’t see it as a hind or head start. It always start with an idea or a dollar. Be confident, no one else should tell you how you should be.

Remember you are not alone. Find support and community that are of like-mindedness

A New Singlife Grow & Referral Scheme

Singlife is offering up to $35 when you sign up for Singlife Account and their Singlife Grow. I’ve been following them for a while now and I realised that they have been promoting their GROW ILP account. I’m not sure if it took off well but given how there is marketing dollars to promote seems like it is encouraging a higher take up rate.  To get the $30 from grow, it takes very little effort. If you are an existing Singlife Account, you will still qualify for the Singlife Grow reward as long as you have never applied for Grow portfolio before. Just take note to use the code to get your credits – “ki02dAhi

The new scheme and promotion

There isn’t a lock-in period for your funds, and you can withdraw without penalty but it seems like there is a cap at S$20,000 per account per day so do take note.

The interest mechanic

On top of the sign-up gift, you also get 0.5% p.a. additional returns for your Singlife Account when you set up your Grow portfolio which is a nice cherry on top of the sign-up bonus. This gives you 1.5% p.a. on your Singlife Account for the first $10,000.

Not to mention that if you complete the $500 spending per month, you get an additional 0.5% p.a. and that makes it 2.0% p.a. on your Singlife Account for the first $10,000.

The Additional Perks

As all promotion goes, do some form of diligence and check out the Terms and Conditions to understand what you are putting your money into. Read it here: Terms and Conditions

The Cash Mechanic goes like this.

a. If you are not an account holder, sign up using this code ki02dAhi + order and activate the Singlife debit card to get a S$5 sign up bonus

b. If you are an existing customer then check GROW out.

  • Sign and apply for your first GROW policy using this code ki02dAhi + Fund your first GROW policy with a minimum of S$1000 to get a $30 sign up bonus.

In short, if you are a new customer, your max benefits will be S$35 and if you are an existing customer, your max benefits will be S$30.

The Real Deal, GROW ILP (Investment Linked Plan-ILP)

Without doubt, I scrutinise at the term ILP. Personally, I have terminated 2 ILPs that I bought some time back without knowing what I was going into.

Singlife Grow is primarily an investment ILP with very minimal insurance. You don’t have to pay high upfront commissions nor high assurance charges, and no lock-in period for your funds. However, I’m not quite sure if there is a fund switch function and what the bid-offer spreads are like.

Singlife Grow is more of a hybrid robo-insurtech /advisor perhaps and I can’t really classify them under any sorts but for sure they are in the Insurance industry so hence the term ILPs. They are not the typical ILP which loads the consumer even before the investing starts so that’s a plus.

However, do take note of the investment risks so it can go both ways and there’s no guaranteed returns.

  • I understand that the fund managers who will be managing your funds will be from Aberdeen Standard investments
  • There will be three different class of investing, namely (Conservative, Balanced and Dynamic). Allocations can be found here: Grow Factsheet and the investment breakdown
  • They are also under ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) which is a big thing these days as people approach sustainable investing.
  • Coverage will be 101% of Net premium or Account value (In the event it has gone up much higher)
  • Fees will be 0.25% per quarter of the account value. (Management Charge)
  • No Cost of Insurance (Excellent)

Some important information to note:

Singlife Launches Member Get Member Programme, Rewarding New and Existing Customers S$35 for Every Referral

Benefit

  • All referrers and referees receive S$30 when the referee signs up for Grow, and S$5 when the referee creates a Singlife Account and activates their Singlife Visa Debit Card. With no limits to the number of referrals, customers can continue to refer and receive more rewards.

The Grow ILP – Investment Linked Plan

  • Singlife’s Grow is an Investment-Linked Policy (ILP) with portfolios managed by Aberdeen Standard Investments. Accessed through the Singlife App, customers can manage, save and invest simply through a single interconnected platform with absolutely no lock-ins. For more information on Grow, visit https://singlife.com/grow/.

The Flexibility

  • The Singlife Account continues offering the same flexibility customers desire with no lock-ins or withdrawal fees, and better peace of mind. For more information about the Singlife Account, visit https://singlife.com/manage/.  However last I tried, there is a cap of S$20,000 limit of transfer out per account per day so do take note.

The physical card

  • The Singlife Account is Singlife’s flagship everyday insurance savings plan that comes with a free Visa Debit Card, carrying no FX fees for foreign currency transactions.

The protection by SDIC

  • The Singlife Account and Grow are protected up to specified limits by Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation (SDIC).

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. Just take note to use this code to get your credits – “ki02dAhi

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 Singlife website for this article.

Series 1: Starting your Cryptocurrency journey with Crypto.com

Crypto.com (CRO mainnet & https://crypto.com) has been around for some time now. I have not seen any utility crypto company who has delivered what they want to deliver to consumers over the last few years. They are as similar if not the same as any other company with a physical product that works. While I have my concerns, I do feel that they offer a little bit of everything which new users can learn about and existing users can complement with their existing knowledge.

Cryptocurrency

To a certain extent, sometimes just jumping on the bandwagon allows one to commit and understand how the crypto world works. Once you have committed some money, one will take the effort to find out more and discover the traits of the crypto world and what it entails. Crypto is a highly aggressive alternative investment and everyone should be careful. This article just talks more about what I feel so do your own diligence before jumping onto something.

Meanwhile, given that Binance International is going through some regulatory and compliance issues in Singapore. Crypto.com is a good way to explore your options. To explain further about the perks on opening a crypto.com account:

Sign-up promo (SGD100 + NFT) & USD25 Referral promo

 
By signing up, you will get SGD 100 and an exclusive NFT. Of course, you would need to be the first 100,o00 users to do so. To find out more read here: Mid-Autumn Crypto.com Promotion
 
Plus, I’d get my very first NFT “Lion Mooncake”. Curious to know how it looks like!
 
To maximise your rewards, you can choose to stake SGD $500 CRO so that I can unlock the referral bonus of US$25 (Referral Bonus)
 
To redeem NFT, you will need to sign up the NFT account that Crypto.com has at Crypto.com NFT Account
How to connect your Crypto.com/NFT and Crypto.com App accounts (Taken from their website):
    1. Sign in or create an account on Crypto.com/NFT.
    2. Go to Account Activity and select Connect to App.
    3. Enter the email address that’s associated with your Crypto.com App account and send a connection request to your inbox.
    4. Open the authorisation email, click Connect, enter your Crypto.com App passcode, and click Authorise & launch NFT.
If you would like to give Crypto.com a try do remember to use my referral code: 1JIC-91CM

Crypto.com Eco-system

 

I understand that by now, most would be a little confused with so many accounts. What Crypto.com can do is a lot of stuff. Listing it down and in summary:
 
a. https://crypto.com – This is their main app which allows you to swap cryptocurrency and also to setup your Metal VISA card. The Visa Card gives you the perks of cashback and using CRO to pay for specific vouchers (Special cashback discounts as well) – [APP only]
 
b. https://crypto.com/exchange – This is the trading account which allow you to set limits and trade with other pairs that they allow on the exchange (You can treat this as a brokerage account. The perks of opening the exchange account can be found here: Exchange Perks [Website & APP]
 
c. https://crypto.com/NFT – This is the marketplace for NFTs and also known as non-fungible Token. This is also what many know as digital art. [Website & APP]
 
d. https://crypto.com/defi-wallet – With the Crypto.com DeFi Wallet (a non-custodial wallet), you can send crypto to anyone around the world at your preferred confirmation speed and the network fee. With this you can also store and earn interest Crypto.com DeFi Wallet is a decentralized wallet, which means you own your private keys. During wallet creation, you will have to write down your recovery phrase which when needed, you will be able to restore your funds. (This is very important)
 
From here you can have the option to choose among the whitelisted validators for staking and redelegation (change delegation from existing validator to another validator). This will give you additional interest. Read more about it here: Defi-Wallet Earn

Some simple benefits for sign up

1. Supercharger

Other than putting approved coins to earn interest on the APP. You can also join in the syndication on the Exchange or the Supercharger event on the Crypto.com APP itself. You can stake your CRO and treat it as a way to farm for other coins that crypto.com has a promotion or link with. More information can be found here: Supercharger Event.

2. Metal Card Cashback

 
The Metal Card Cashback works like a credit card cashback account. The only thing that functions differently is that it is a debit card. You will need to pre-load it with cash before transacting with spends. Like any other card, they have to abide by MAS PSA. The card also credits cashback based on the MCC spends. More details can be found here: Cashback eligibility under their CRO cashback rewards program
 
Not to mention that if you take on the higher tier cards, you can get rebates for Spotify, Netflix and ever prime plus other perks which can be found here at https://crypto.com/sg/cards

3. Additional Promotion and Discounts

More perks and discount will be added over time and the updated ones until 30 Sep 2021 can be found here at User Exclusives and Promotions. If you have any queries, drop me a note and I will try my best to answer your questions. It can be daunting at first but eventually, you will get a hang of it.

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 Crypto.com 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 Crypto.com website for this article.

 

Singlife Reopens with new Marketing Strategy

I like how Singlife uses the community to spread information. It is definitely a cheap way to spend money. It gives me content to publish while it provides Singlife with multiple arms to disseminate information. However, there isn’t any referral scheme with this re-open. Instead, I guess that to stay sustainable, they have to reduce the interest rates for the first S$10k.

I received the email from their Marketing Communications team and it reads:

The Central Banks continue to keep interest rates low, Singlife has introduced a new way to be rewarded for spending and investing, earning up to 2.0% p.a. return on the first S$10,000 through the following campaigns:

  • The Save, Spend, Earn Campaign and,

  • The Grow 0.5% p.a. Bonus Return Campaign.

The catch here is up to 2.0% p.a. return. Beginning 1 July 2021, the Singlife Account will offer up to 2.0% p.a. return on the first S$10,000. The base crediting rates will be revised to 1.0% p.a. on the first S$10,000 and 0.5% p.a. return on the next S$90,000, customers will still have the opportunity to enjoy up to 1.0% p.a. bonus return.

So, sustainability of the business is a way forward. I’ll say that the interest rate has been semi-nerfed for valid reasons. On top of that, you can still gain 0.5% more by spending and another 0.5% if you invest with GROW. Personally, I wouldn’t put money with GROW but I will spend to make the interest up to 1.5% for the first S$10k.

Disclaimer

This is not a sponsored post. This is purely my own opinion. 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

In this article, the pictures were taken from websites for illustration only. Stay Safe!

SHIB or Shit Coins (Cryptocurrency)

There has been a number of crazy movements in the crypto world. No one can really explain the reason fundamentally but it created a bunch of young millionaires especially from Elon Musk little tweet about Dogecoin.

With only 11 days in the market, Shiba coins seems to be the next trend of meme coins. Woof Paper perhaps of white paper: https://www.shibatoken.com/

Pretty funny comments I would say reading the whitepaper. I hope VB burns or keep SHIB.

Buy or Risk? It really depends on your risk taking level. No pain no gain, no risk no returns.

Currently, it seems like you can use 2 ways to purchase SHIB:

a. Buy via Crypto.com App

b. Buy via metamask [Through the Ethereum (ETH) network]

c. You can buy it through Binance now. That’s pretty huge.

Crypto trading and currency is not for everyone so do your own diligence. Don’t FOMO, invest wisely. Good luck! Now, to the moon.

Disclaimer

If you decide to sign up with Crypto.com to trade any other coins, Use this Crypto.com App to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD. Referral Code: im3py887ty

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 SHIB website for reference.

Endowus – Performance Update & YTD (February 2021)

So I have been busy recently so I missed January 2021 performance update. There are just so many things to keep up with and with the pandemic still ongoing. There are just simply too many changes. At the same time working from home seems rather mundane these days. Humans as social creatures and so eventually, we cannot stay and work individually over a prolonged period of time. Plus, there are just that many telecommunications that you can make.

December through January 2021 has been interesting filled with US elections and more printing of money. In the market news, no matter the situation, a systematic approach about investing is quite important. Month on month, diversification has been really important. Slowly but surely, I’m actually feeling that Endowus and my investment goals do align pretty nicely on the investment portion.

The newly launched Cash Smart looks pretty decent. I might take a crack at that to put in some money consistently. Plus wow, if you use my referral code, you will get an addition $100 that will be added to your portion when you invest S$10k worth. So, it means referral bonus $20 for you and me (Check out my referral link at Endowus Referral Link + additional $100 for you. Only applicable for new customers of Endowus. The $100 is also available for you in the promotional LionGlobal All Seasons Fund (Growth) units after a 90 days holding period. Great news though for new investors.

SRS Portfolio

Overall, portfolio is up 15.25% since May 2020 in SGD. As usual, in USD terms, due to no FX impact as the portfolio is USD ETFs, the performance will definitely be better especially when USD is already up 3-4% versus the SGD since start of the year in 2021. Of course, the reference will be SGD since I use SGD. This is the SRS/Cash portfolio which consists of my favourite Dimension Funds in a 40% bonds/60% equity. Overall from May 2020 to 9 Mar 2021, it is a 15% increase in absolute terms – Fantastic. From Jan 2021 to 9 Mar 2021, the fund was stable with just roughly 2%+ increase in portfolio. Not too bad, knowing markets were rather choppy and moving more negative on most days so far.

In Terms of YTD returns in 2021, I’m looking at 2.34%. I’m really like what I am seeing here. Definitely topping up if there are any corrections (By definition a correction is more than 10% drop in a single day)

CPF Portfolio

For the CPF portfolio, it is also doing pretty well though not as well as my Dimension Fund portfolio. I’m still looking at 10.59% returns from May 2020 through to 9 Mar 2021.

In Terms of YTD returns in 2021, I’m looking at 0.29%. This is quite expected so not much of a surprise. I have no requirement to login daily to view my portfolio performance. Just a monthly review will be sufficient.

On a side note, the cash management accounts have started to report a decline. This is also expected since interest rate environment is here to stay for the long term.

Also, I would be looking at the new Smart Fund DIY portfolio which looks really interesting. I would definitely be looking this up as interest rates are still pretty low and I got some cash lying around.

Like every month, the pros once more:

  • Endowus is the first and only robo-advisor to be approved by the CPF board.
  • 100% trailer fees back to the consumer, not the fund management fee. This is really one of a kind I’ve seen so far.
  • They do have a decent team who makes sense when introducing their platform.
  • I believe all retail investor should try them out because of how they are trying to disrupt investing and make investing work for everyone.

Again, I will shamelessly thank all of you in advance for using my referral code.

Disclaimer

If you decide to sign up with Endowus, do remember to use my referral code: https://endowus.com/invite?code=EDZ8M

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 Endowus website for reference.