Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

Even before the talks of Smart Nation or a cashless society, I was already operating on less than $50 in cash per week for all my expenditure. Given my love for credit card rewards especially cash rebates and convenience, going cashless was a no brainer. I'm an early adopter of most new payment methods in Singapore. This is how I survive without cash most of the time. Going to work: Set up the VCashCard arrangement so as to avoid having insufficient credit when crossing the ERP.  Breakfast: use credit card pay wave to pay for breakfast ; this was superseded by Apple Pay after that was launched  Lunch: Pay my colleague via Paylah as she helps me tabao / pack lunch or we split the bill when eating out:  Return home: Book cab using Uber/ Grab , where payments are all made using credit card. If I take MRT / bus, I have my handy Citibank SMRT card with auto top up function so I will never run out of credits.  For all other payments to friends or family, there's FAST payme...

Since the advent of Grab and Uber, i didn't have to complain anymore about the appalling services of taxis where they will pick and choose passengers during peak hours. In fact, apart from having a good supply of cars and convenience of booking from an app, cost has been lowered since Grabcars costs about 10-30% less than taxis, depending on distance, since they don't have all kinds of surcharges (peak hour, CBD etc). Furthermore, fare is predefined and fixed upfront so you need not fear cost escalations due to traffic jams. Lastly, all these fares you charge to credit card means no more digging for change and accumulating a lot more card reward points or rebates. Yesterday, I tried my first ever Grabshare, which I highly recommend as fare has gone down further! A ride that would have cost $15 is now $10.50 during peak hours if I'm prepared to share with another passenger. And good thing is that if there's no one going my way, the driver who accepted the job will j...

I have spent around 46 hours last week in a very intense state .. of training. I signed up for the training because I wanted to have a structured plan of wealth creation and management .. I wanted to understand it myself and potentially do it myself instead of relying on others I.e by buying endowment plans or unit trusts. And to be able to have better winning outcomes, I decided to upgrade my skills through a structured course. What I didn't expect to also get is an important refresher course on NLP (neuro  linguistic programming) that also helps one find success for things in life in general . Unsurprising , the concept is not complex . In fact , you will see that it's all so familiar and seemingly no brainer. However, what differentiates the one who made it versus the one who don't is really who can execute the entire routine without giving up no matter what.  So what's the ultimate success formula in a nutshell that I have gathered ..  1) Mindset...

I've spent quite a few years in housing loans. Thought it's high time I shared how to save money on housing loans and in some case, make your housing loan work for you ! Taking up a mortgage from a bank can generally be for three purposes: 1) purchase of a house 2) refinancing your current mortgage for interest saving  3) cashing out on a fully paid up property or property with low loan outstanding (this is only applicable for private properties, not HDB) Given that we are in times of increasing interest rates, I will focus on refinancing in this post.  Some mortgage loans in the market has a lock in period. Typically it ranges from  0 to 3 years of lock in where you cannot fully pay off the loan (if you took up a fixed rate loan, you cannot partially prepay the loan either). If you do, you will attract a hefty penalty. And typically within 3 years, if the bank has absorbed your valuation fee or legal fees, this can be clawed back from you as well....

I have a dozen of cards in my wallet and while I need to do lots of bill payment to different banks every month, the savings or rewards I get make it all worth it. My rationale is that since the money has to be spent, make it work harder for you.  Here's my algorithm for using my cards to maximise my rewards. This runs inside my head prior to every card transaction I make. The order matters.  If it's all too confusing or too much hassle for you , fret not. Just focus on 3 questions, what is your total expenditure per month on things that are chargeable to cards? Is there a few spend categories that make up most of your spend? What's your preferred reward type? Then, you can identify what's the best way to make your money work harder for you.  1. Immediate discount at Point of Sale If a certain card gives an upfront discount just by using a certain card , just use it. So you can typically save 10-20% off the price just like that.  Examples: look ...