Comparison of Regular Saving Plan to use for Investment

Hi Everyone,

If you are a small investor and wish to invest like a couple hundreds of dollars, do look at this blog as it compares 3 different type of plans, POSB invest saver, OCBC blue chip investment plan and POEMS share builders plan.

Do read up on the type of plan if you want to invest small amount in Blue chips or ETF

The link of the article:
http://blog.moneysmart.sg/invest/posb-invest-saver-ocbc-blue-chip-investment-plan-poems-share-builders-plan-which-regular-savings-plan-to-use/

Dividend Warrior! The growth of his portfolio

Hi Everyone!

Since I have not started in investing in stocks yet, I am pretty sure as a new investor you would want to know how to build up your own portfolio in terms of collecting dividends,

I have come across a blog call http://dividendsrichwarrior.blogspot.sg/ which shows his monthly portfolio and the dividend that he collected on every month. 

Do check out this blog to understand how it works (at least get to see what kind of portfolio he has) and do some research on it to see which stocks suits you better.

There are quite a few types of stocks (not sure whether it is types or category), they are blue chips (low risk, quite stable with avg to good dividend), REITS (for property), Bonds and normal stocks. These are a few that I know and is just based on my understanding. 

From what I notice, it is best to buy those stock that you personally feel is the best after doing research instead of relying on others. Personally for me, I am looking for low risk and low dividends for now, so blue chips will be best for me to start off with. 

Of course, with the implementation of 100 shares per lots, I will go invest in one of the REITS that I feel that it will do well.

I will update my very first portfolio in late Jan since the new scheme will start on 19th Jan 2015.

For those who have blogs about investment or saving tips, do kindly write to me and I will published it on this blog :)

Thank You!

100 Shares per Lot will be rolled out on 19th Jan 2015 - SGX Trading

Hi Everyone!

Do check out the new system rolled out by SGX Trading - 1 Lot = 100 shares as I have mention in my previous post (if I remember correctly)

Here is the link to this piece of news - http://www.straitstimes.com/news/business/more-business-stories/story/new-sgx-trading-rules-what-you-need-know-20140831

It will rolled out on 19th Jan 2015, so new investors, young investors and investors with limited funds, do take note of it!

Lose Weight and Earn Vouchers!

Hi Everyone!

There are two activities or event rolled out by Singapore Health Promotion Board to encourage people in Singapore to lose weight! Not just that, when you reach certain criteria, you are able to get rewards! 

That's truly amazing. 

The two activities are 1 million KG challenge Season 2 and Healthy Living Trial! If you happen to have the chance to join these activities, join it and win vouchers (just wondering what vouchers that we will be getting)

Do check out the links of these two activities to understand how the game works!

After all, the purpose of this is to able to earn extra cash and vouchers by doing something extra :) So why not try these event out to earn something out of it (your health and vouchers! + mystery gift!)

I will post the gifts that I have gotten from these two activities once I got it. Do stay tune!

Turtle Investment - Passive Income in Investing Shopping Mall

Hi Everyone,

I have come across this website call Turtle Investor, where one of the article it mention about investing only $800+ for the shopping malls with the estimated returns of $29 (More than 3%!). Well, it is a rough estimation for new investors to take not of it. 

Of course, new investors like us can choose other companies with better dividends like Starhub, SPH or other stocks which you will have to do research by yourself in order to know more about it.

This article is based on the new scheme of 1 lots = 100 units/shares. So you will required to wait till 19th Jan 2015 for the new scheme to roll out. 

For my POV: I will invest in SPH, Starhub and Keppel. (Tentatively - Blue Chips) 

Credit Card - Saving tips

Hi Everyone!

In today's topic, I will discuss the pros and cons about having credit card because recently I have applied Frank credit card in order to obtain one more percent of interest for OCBC 360 account (probably start spending next month). I took quite sometime to decide whether to sign up for a credit card (this is my first credit card) because I have seen lots of people overspend what they have and landed in huge debt because of credit card. (One of the cons) 

As for me, I am not a big spender as I live quite simple, just accompany my girlfriend and friends to have lunch and dinner or even spend a day to sing karaoke. My previous spending method is using cash as I believe cash is king. However, after I read through the benefit of signing credit card from OCBC, indeed it is a better choice for me because it comes with a rebate of 0.5% for all purchases. 

Take an example, if I am going to get the 1% interest from OCBC 360, I would need to spend at least $400 per month. If I didn't sign up for credit card, I will spend these amount of money via cash (let's say we spend $600 for meals and entertainment - quoted in Small tips on saving plan). 

But if I sign up for credit card, and spend $600 via my credit card, I will receive 0.5% rebate, which will means that I will save $3. Although the sum is small, but after all, is a saving option. Of course there are tons of offers by the credit card company which comes with attractive promotion. Do check it out for more rebates!

So having credit card can really save money, but must remember not to overspend on what you have, thus, set the limitation of the amount you can spend with the credit card company so that you can limit the money spend via credit card. 

Passion Card

Hi Everyone!

Because I am mentioning that I am using passion card to collect points, so you must be wondering what is a passion card (if you never see it before) which is something like this

. 

You can collect points from various supermarket like Giant, Cold storage and Guardian. With the points that you have collected, you can exchange for something, something that I never knew because this is my first time using this card as well. 

So, if you are a frequent shopper to these supermarket, do apply for this card, get points when you shop and it is a EZ link card as well. So... try it!

SG Young Investment

Hi Everyone!

Today I have come across an interesting website, maybe I am just WOLS (Slow), but this website really provide interesting insights of the the author's experience in investment. This is the link for the content for passive income that I am aiming  for  Passive Income Link - SG Young Investment.

For those who are more experience in investment, do check out this website! I will continue to provide more info about my progress and other insights by other investors in this blog.

Do Stay Tune!

3 more days to 2015!

Blue Chips or Normal stocks?

Hi Everyone!

I have been questioned by people about buying blue chips or normal stock? It is really a tough question for me to comprehend because of the pros and cons for each option.

Because looking at the big picture, there isn't really any much different in terms of blue chips or normal stocks because both can fall and rise so it does not really matter. 

That is true, because stocks are unpredictable, however, I always have my own stand on looking at a long term goal, long term investment which is to collect dividend instead of earning from trading stocks. So it would be obvious for me to choose blue chips because of it's stability and the constant dividend.

Certainly, this is not an easy choice because after all, you will be earning lesser than those professional traders. But as a newbie in investor, I should inform all the readers who are not a risk taker that you should study up more and aim for passive income and invest in the company that you feel is stable. 

So for me, I believe blue chips is currently the best way to go for me :)

So what's your thinking? Do share with me by commenting in this post :)

Cheers!

Saving and Investment Plan

Hi Everyone!

As a motivation to myself and the readers, I have put up my saving and investment plan at the side of the blog. Do follow my blog to see my progression and you might be able to pick up some lesson from what I have done (be it success or failure).

Do not strictly follow my investment or saving plan as it might not be a optimal way to increase your capital because I am a low risk low return type of person.

However, if you are a low risk and low return type of person, you can follow my steps a bit and read up some of my saving guides which will help you to save up some capital for your future investment :)

Fixed Deposit

Hi Everyone!

In this post, I will talk about fixed deposit. So what is so good about fixed deposit is that you can earn a decent amount of interest for the extra cash that you have. So what's the catch? The main thing is that you will not be able to touch your money for a certain period of time. This plan of execution is only good for people who have extra cash in their bank account and won't be touch a certain sum of money in these period of time (1 or 2 years).

 

The interest rate for it is around 1.3% p.a. for both CIMB and OCBC where the duration of the fixed deposit is 1 year. So lets say you decide to put in $10,000 in the fixed deposit, then interest you will get after a year is $130!

Well, that might seems to be quite little, but it is low risk thus low return (similar to saving account). So if you have the extra cash and have no where else to invest, why not try fixed deposit. Well, the faster you decide to faster you can see the result!

Saving tips number 2

Hi Everyone!

Previously I have talked about some saving tips that you can adopt by saving $700 per month with the standard interest rate of 0.05% which is quite little to be honest. So if you are able to regulate yourself to save a certain amount of money in the bank monthly, you can apply for saving account which will bring in more interest as company to day to day bank account.

So you must be thinking what is the difference between a normal bank account and a saving account? The difference is that for saving account, you must deposit a sum of money per month in order for it to work. For example, $50 per month must be deposit in OCBC bank account in order for it to work. Whereas for normal bank account, there is no such requirement.

There are a few banks which offer this kind of saving account plan

- CIMB StarSaver: 0.8% pa and more flexible in that you can withdraw anytime. 
- OCBC Monthly Savings Account: 0.4% pa for monthly amount at least $50
- DBS/POSB MySavings Account or eMySavings: 0.2% pa+ for monthly amount at least $300


         

It really depend on which bank you want basically, go for the bank with highest interest rate and also the one which is more convenient for you. 

So lets say if we take the previous example that I have in my previous post - Small tips on saving plan, we save $700 per month and we take OCBC bank (Since I am using OCBC bank for now)

700 * 12 = $8400 Per year * 1.004 = 8433.60
(8433.60 + 8400) *1.0005 =  16900.9344
(16900.9344 + 8400) * 1.0005 = 25402.1381376
(25402.1381376 + 8400) * 1.0005 = 33937.3466901504
(33937.3466901504 + 8400) * 1.0005 = 42506.70

For 5 years, you can save over $42000 and with an extra of $506.70 earn through interest rate. This may be small, but the calculation is based on per year instead of per month, which means it can be even more than $506.70. 

Just did a simple calculation for CIMB Star Saver, for the same amount of savings, I can earn a interest of $1018.82! (more than 2 times the interest rate as compared to OCBC)

So is your choice to see which bank provides you a better interest rate to earn money

Certainly, this is just one of the ways to make sure that you save in order to earn the additional interest. 

Travel Smart Reward

Hi Everyone!

Today saving tips is on Travel Smart Reward, which allow Singapore public transport commuters to earn free points when you travel using your EZ-Link card.

When you earn these free points, you can earn money for your EZ-Link card! I have won more than $20 using these web application. So do try now, since there is no harm trying since the points are just an additional add on for you when you travel using your EZ-Link card. So join now to earn more rewards!

Should I go for an upgrade?

So you must have asked yourself this question:

Should I upgrade myself (upgrade skills)? 

The reason you have asked yourself this question is because you must have felt that you have a strong education background or experience in the particular field that you are in. Certainly, having rich industry experience plays an important role to obtain higher position in the company. However, it is also important to understand the fact that there is no such thing as iron rice bowl, retrenchment can happen anytime and anywhere (but not really in the government sector, unless you did something really wrong). 

Thus, I strongly believe that it is important for us to go for an upgrade by learning new skills or improve existing skills which will eventually improve our own value when it comes to negotiating for salary. 

So now the concern is time and money, most people concern about the fact that there is no time (due to work) and not enough spare cash (due to bills and etc.) to upgrade themselves. Of course, it will be quite hard to get a win-win situation because there is a price to pay for everything. There are a few ways where you can do it, which include time management, cost management and opportunity.

For time management, as a full time worker there are a few ways to manage your time:

1) Apply for leave - if the duration of the course is 5 days or less, applying leave for this purpose is viable but the problem is that you have to sacrifice your leave for learning not for holiday.

2) Take night classes - Many adults are taking night classes these days to improve themselves, do select the class which is suitable for you. Of course, you will have to sacrifice your resting time. It will be hard, but your hard work will pay off :)

3) Take classes on weekends - Well that might be rare and expensive, but its worth it! But the downside is that you have sacrifice your weekend

4) Online learning - now is the trend of online learning, so you can sign up for online learning websites like Coursera, Khan Academy and many more! You can spend your lunch time, before your sleep or during your free time to learn new skills!

For Cost management, taking up a course or a part time degree is not a cheap deal as it will cost up to thousands of dollars per course. Thus, there are a few ways to fund your courses.

1) Personal Savings - Well this is the basic option that most people go with, which is use your own saving to sign up for your course. Saving is not a simple task as I mention in my other post - Small tips on saving plan, which will teach you how to plan your own saving plan. So the most important thing is to plan early and save the money for your courses.

2) Government Aid - For Singapore, you can approach WDA for subsidy for individual training, do check out this website - WDA Subsidy for more information. It will help you reduce the cost for your courses. (Good Deal!)

For Opportunity, there are times where opportunity for you to get free upgrades mainly from your company, but the downside is that you will have to serve bond after taking up the course which is sponsored by your company. The bond duration varies, but if it helps you to get promotion, why not give it a go?

So in conclusion, upgrade personal skill is essential in order to get yourself employed, thus, do take up every opportunity that you have to upgrade yourself in order to make your portfolio better than others :) Good luck!

Small Tips on Saving Plan

Hi Everyone!

Many people around me told me that saving is hard because of various stuff they have to pay like bills, groceries, entertainment, gadgets and etc. which makes them difficult to even save a decent sum of money. Indeed, nowadays it is definitely hard for people to save a decent sum of money. However, savings is still important because it will help you to cover some fees that you might not expecting like hospital bills and etc.

So in today tips, I believe is quite a common tips given by most people out in the internet but still, the tips that I am giving is based on my experience. 

Personally, I am receiving an average pay of $2,600 per month after deducting the Central Provision Fund (CPF) from my salary. This sum of money is like an average salary from people around my age (26 years old). However, if you happen to earn more then save more if not save less after all, is the compound interest that matters.

So let me start with a simple plan of saving (by per month)

1) Bill - $250 (That's quite a lot!)

2) Food + Entertainment  - $600 (Try to spend less if possible)

3) Transport -  $200 (Well, take more trains and MRT if possible)

4) Parents - $500 (That's a good amount)

5) School Loans - $100 (That's my payment)

6) Others - $150

Total amount - $1900

So, you are able to save $700 per month! So you see based on the percentage calculation, you should be able to save at least 25% of your salary or even more. So when you receive your salary, save at least 25% of it and spend the rest, that would help you on your saving's plan in the future. 

So with this savings, you can do a simple compound interest calculation, lets say you earn 0.05% per year, (For now we do a yearly computation)

700 * 12 = $8400 Per year * 1.0005 = 8404.20

(8404.20 + 8400) *1.0005 =  16812.60

(16812.60 + 8400) * 1.0005 = 25225.2084

(25225.2084 + 8400) * 1.0005 = 33642.021

(33642.021 + 8400) * 1.0005 = 42063.04

Just over 5 years, with a simple saving of $700 per month, you can have more than $42,000 of saving in your bank! Certainly, this is just a rough calculation, you will need to take into consideration of a few criteria, calculate by monthly interest, year end bonus, extra savings per month, performance bonus and etc.

This will provide you a rough guide on how to save money! IT IS a simple guide by really effective when you get to see the end result :)

Cheers to all on your money saving journey!

OCBC 360 - Credit Card Saving Tips

Hi everyone!

I have come across some question about spending $400 in order to achieve the 1% interest via OCBC 360 promotion. 

Definitely, some people might have concern about spending $400 because some people might have problem with spending this amount on credit cards. However, there is a way to minimize the cost for this criteria, which can be as low as $100 or even earn some money out of it!

The secret way is to pay for your friends! Lets say, when you go out for dinner with a bunch of friends, you can pay the bill with your credit cards and depending on the promotion, you may get discount from the restaurants and you can get your friends to pay the original price or the discounted price (depending on what you want, certainly I would let them pay the promotion price instead without including the 0.5% rebate). With this, you will be able to collect cash from them and reach the $400 in no time! Looking at the bigger picture, you can get 0.5% rebate from the amount you spend on your credit card on that month!

Of course, I am using that scenarios with Frank Card, if you use OCBC 365 card, you will be able to get more rebates when you hit the criteria. OCBC 365 Credit Card

So the main tips is to pay the bill first then collect the money from your friends! That's the main tips for cutting down the cost of having credit cards.

Saving - Saving Tips for Newbies

Hi everyone!

Once again I am back on the second post in a single day!

Today's topic will be on Savings! Understanding that people tend to save their money in their banks which is a commodity for everyone from anywhere around the world. It is a basic platform for every person to have (well not all people).

In Singapore there is a promotion, an ongoing promotion, which has rolled out by OCBC, with their OCBC 360 which comes with an attractive interest rate of 3.05% (Max interest rate) per year! This is definitely an attractive "promotion" for OCBC 360.

Here how OCBC 360 works, you will be given the basic interest rate of 0.05%, which is the standard rate given by other banks. So how do we get the other 3%?

The answer is: you have to earn it! So how do we earn it?

1) you have to credit your salary into your OCBC 360 account, via GIRO to earn 1%
2) Pay 3 bills through OCBC internet banking or GIRO to earn another 1%
3) Lastly, you will need to spend at least $400 on OCBC credit card to earn the final 1%

These are the criteria to earn the interest and one more thing to note is that the maximum cap for the 3.05% interest is $50,000. However, you must take note of the word "promotion", which means that OCBC can end this promotion anytime! So before they take away the promotion

Many people have question about what type of credit card to apply in order to achieve the third criteria, in my personal opinion, you have to read the type of promotion, rebate and affordability for each card before making the decision. 

For me, I have chosen Frank Card as my credit card, because of the rebate on online shopping/payment and also 0.5% rebate on other purchase in physical outlets.

So, this promotion is the best for everyone and also is the best for people who are currently not investing as this serves as a good promotion for putting your money in banks!

First Formal Blog Post

Hello everyone! My name is James, from Singapore. If you are wondering what does "JYKL" stands for, it is basically my name, James Yeo Ken Long. 

Personally, I have created multiple blogs and most of them have their own "Character" or should I sat theme in each of them. So do visit my other blogs if you have time. :)

So this blog, it will be my personal blogs from the life ever since I am graduate and working. I just graduated (officially) from National University of Singapore (NUS) 5 months ago and I have worked in a IT solution company (Steria Aisa PTE LTD) for 7 months. Personally, I felt that the transition from a student to a full time worker is definitely astounding, however, I still have the passion of learning from projects to projects when working in my company. I currently holds the position as a cyber security engineer where I help to manage the security infrastructure, providing security services (compliance, log analysis and risk management), pre-sales and mainly on Research & Development project.

There are various topics that I am going through right now in my personal life and experience so I shall share all these experience or tips that would be helpful to the people who are reading this blogs. The topics varies from investment, jobs, courses, entertainment and much much more. So do stay tune to this blog.

Thank You.

James Yeo Ken Long!