Hi everyone!
Once again, the period of getting interest from cpf is here. Not everyone is excited but I am cause I am looking to every single ways to make my money working for me and getting interest/dividends are one of the ways!
So you might ask, do I even top up my cpf and if yes, how much do I top up every year? Personally I don't do any top up cause I don't have much savings to put in cpf especially I need more cash flow in the future (for my family). However, once I have extra savings, I might put some in cpf and the rest in other instruments.
Some people might asked, cpf money, you will not be able to withdraw until 55 years old. It's like can see but cannot touch, is it that worth it? Some people might see cpf as a liability as part of their salary are credited to cpf and they are unable to touch it. For me, I treat cpf as a long term saving program (especially for SA account) as it helps me to save and also earn quite a good amount of interest.
How about transferring OA to SA? Is it a good choice? Firstly, there isn't a fixed answer for this as there are pros and cons in transferring OA to SA. Let's say you are still young and want to build your family in the near future like buy a house and etc, I would suggest not to transfer your OA to SA yet until you have sufficient funds for it. The reason is because transferring from OA to SA is an irreversible move, once you transfer to SA, you won't be able to transfer it back to OA. So settle your big item first that requires your OA funds. After which, you can slowly consider how much to transfer in order to earn the attractive interest of 4% (extra 1% for the first 60k)
Will JYKL be doing the transfer? Yes, I will be doing it soon as I want to earn more interest in my cpf account by putting it more in SA cause the earlier you do, the more interest you will be able to get (compound interest effect). However do think carefully as you might need to use your OA for other stuff.
Thanks for reading!
Friday, January 5, 2018
Saturday, December 16, 2017
My Journey Of Purchasing My First Property [Part 1]
Hi Everyone!
Starting from this post, I will share with you on my experience on purchasing my first property which is a 2 bedroom condo at the north area.
For this part, I will share with you on the preparation work before eyeing on the first property and also the must know stuff before you purchase a property.
1) Are you purchasing for your own stay or for investing. Many may asked why is this question so important, afterall it's still the same. Well yea, after all the property that you purchase, you can either stay or rent it out. But, when it comes to financial terms, you might be doing it wrong.
Why do I say that? Because we need to know that the property that you stay in might not be an asset (which I think it's true). The reason is because the property that you stay in, is most likely a liability because you will need to pay for the possible expenses as well as you will need a place to stay so you can't really sell that property unless you downgrade. In other words, do think of it as paying for your rent to stay.
So, why is there a difference in deciding whether to stay or rent? Not sure if you thought of it this way but personally i will have different criteria for purchasing property for own stay and investing. For me buying for own stay, I will look out for bigger space, psf not so expensive and then considering location and amenities. If I am looking for investing, I will go for location first before the size of the property.
The reason why I think this way is because having a bigger space is crucial for me and my Wife is because we will be expecting to have children in few years time thus we would need bigger space so that it won't be so cramp. So bigger space is very important to me if I am living in it. On the other hand, for investing, location, location and location. Without that you might/will not be able to get a good rental yield.
To sum up for Point one, my criteria for purchasing my property is size, mid to Low price and monthly installment is affordable.
2) New property or resale?
Of course new property will definitely be better as everything is brand new and not much renovation is required, new is good for me:) so we start our property hunting 2 years back( from 2015 till 2017). Initially we wanted to check the property market and what are the layout of the condos (including the various design amenities and etc) to understand the condo facilities and the cost as well.
Due to the lack of fundings we were not able to purchase any property back then even when highpark residence was launch at the very affordable price (so no choice have to skip that)
Up till this year where I have hit my target of 160k and more, which enable me to start looking for property with the intent to purchase. Back in 2016, my Wife and I already looking out for condo at Bukit Batok (le quest) which initially we thought that it will be affordable after all not much amenities around that area and it's not near mrt. Which makes us thought that the psf will be lower like around 1k psf. But we turn out to be wrong because the indicative price for 2 bedroom is around $1158 and when the actual sales it went up to $1200++. So which means a 2 bedroom with the size of 598sf would cost around $800k++.
The size is small and psf is high which isn't what we looking for. Of course we still went through the balloting process and we didn't purchase it. We were devastated during that moment but we didn't give up, instead of looking at the new property, we change our direction to look for resale property, those that Just completed 2, 3 years ago.
We spotted quite a number of units in the north east area like Punggol, Sengkang and etc. But the location is too far from our workplace. So although the price is attractive but the Travelling time really not worth it unless we change job. So our search continues until we found the one with 850 sf with the psf below 1k and is quite near to our workplace. The price is around the same as le quest 2 bedroom but the size is bigger, bigger by 252sf. To me it's totally worth it.
So this is my part one of my sharing, do look out for part two as I will share with you regarding the finances of purchasing a property.
Thank you :)
Starting from this post, I will share with you on my experience on purchasing my first property which is a 2 bedroom condo at the north area.
For this part, I will share with you on the preparation work before eyeing on the first property and also the must know stuff before you purchase a property.
1) Are you purchasing for your own stay or for investing. Many may asked why is this question so important, afterall it's still the same. Well yea, after all the property that you purchase, you can either stay or rent it out. But, when it comes to financial terms, you might be doing it wrong.
Why do I say that? Because we need to know that the property that you stay in might not be an asset (which I think it's true). The reason is because the property that you stay in, is most likely a liability because you will need to pay for the possible expenses as well as you will need a place to stay so you can't really sell that property unless you downgrade. In other words, do think of it as paying for your rent to stay.
So, why is there a difference in deciding whether to stay or rent? Not sure if you thought of it this way but personally i will have different criteria for purchasing property for own stay and investing. For me buying for own stay, I will look out for bigger space, psf not so expensive and then considering location and amenities. If I am looking for investing, I will go for location first before the size of the property.
The reason why I think this way is because having a bigger space is crucial for me and my Wife is because we will be expecting to have children in few years time thus we would need bigger space so that it won't be so cramp. So bigger space is very important to me if I am living in it. On the other hand, for investing, location, location and location. Without that you might/will not be able to get a good rental yield.
To sum up for Point one, my criteria for purchasing my property is size, mid to Low price and monthly installment is affordable.
2) New property or resale?
Of course new property will definitely be better as everything is brand new and not much renovation is required, new is good for me:) so we start our property hunting 2 years back( from 2015 till 2017). Initially we wanted to check the property market and what are the layout of the condos (including the various design amenities and etc) to understand the condo facilities and the cost as well.
Due to the lack of fundings we were not able to purchase any property back then even when highpark residence was launch at the very affordable price (so no choice have to skip that)
Up till this year where I have hit my target of 160k and more, which enable me to start looking for property with the intent to purchase. Back in 2016, my Wife and I already looking out for condo at Bukit Batok (le quest) which initially we thought that it will be affordable after all not much amenities around that area and it's not near mrt. Which makes us thought that the psf will be lower like around 1k psf. But we turn out to be wrong because the indicative price for 2 bedroom is around $1158 and when the actual sales it went up to $1200++. So which means a 2 bedroom with the size of 598sf would cost around $800k++.
The size is small and psf is high which isn't what we looking for. Of course we still went through the balloting process and we didn't purchase it. We were devastated during that moment but we didn't give up, instead of looking at the new property, we change our direction to look for resale property, those that Just completed 2, 3 years ago.
We spotted quite a number of units in the north east area like Punggol, Sengkang and etc. But the location is too far from our workplace. So although the price is attractive but the Travelling time really not worth it unless we change job. So our search continues until we found the one with 850 sf with the psf below 1k and is quite near to our workplace. The price is around the same as le quest 2 bedroom but the size is bigger, bigger by 252sf. To me it's totally worth it.
So this is my part one of my sharing, do look out for part two as I will share with you regarding the finances of purchasing a property.
Thank you :)
Friday, September 8, 2017
Short interview with seedly regarding managing financial experience
Hi all,
Recently I have received an email from seedly and conducted an interview with them asking about my experience in managing my own finances. I always believe that sharing experience with others is a good way of learning as the more I share, the more I am aware on my own experiences impacting other people. This, learning what are the improvement that I can made.
Not just be alone, there are other financial bloggers that were invited for this interview by asking them to share their experience, portfolio and advice to those who start out their financial journey.
Below is the link to the write-up and do visit seedly for more financial related articles!
https://blog.seedly.sg/investment-blogger-shares-best-financial-advice-investment-portfolio-jykl-saving-investment-blog/
Thank you and see you next time
Recently I have received an email from seedly and conducted an interview with them asking about my experience in managing my own finances. I always believe that sharing experience with others is a good way of learning as the more I share, the more I am aware on my own experiences impacting other people. This, learning what are the improvement that I can made.
Not just be alone, there are other financial bloggers that were invited for this interview by asking them to share their experience, portfolio and advice to those who start out their financial journey.
Below is the link to the write-up and do visit seedly for more financial related articles!
https://blog.seedly.sg/investment-blogger-shares-best-financial-advice-investment-portfolio-jykl-saving-investment-blog/
Thank you and see you next time
Monday, September 4, 2017
Finally Got My New Home
Hi All,
As mentioned on my blog title, I finally bought my new home! Although it nearly clear all my funds but to me it is a big step for me! Like mentioned before, I am unable to purchase HDB, so before anyone asked, I have bought a resale condo (850 square feet).
This is a happy moment for me but also a mountain of debts coming for me as well since I am taking 30 years loan. With this, I have finally settle one of my goal which I kept mentioned in my blog since last year and the goal I had for myself (the green bar on the right), has been clear and will be updating the target bar soon for my portfolio.
So when will I be continuing my financial portfolio? should be early next year and will start my ball rolling again. Finally for a few months later, I can resume my portfolio and go forward to my passive income.
So this post will end here, and I will explain more on my purchase of property process in the next post so that you will have a better idea on what to expect when purchasing a private property.
So see you next time!
As mentioned on my blog title, I finally bought my new home! Although it nearly clear all my funds but to me it is a big step for me! Like mentioned before, I am unable to purchase HDB, so before anyone asked, I have bought a resale condo (850 square feet).
This is a happy moment for me but also a mountain of debts coming for me as well since I am taking 30 years loan. With this, I have finally settle one of my goal which I kept mentioned in my blog since last year and the goal I had for myself (the green bar on the right), has been clear and will be updating the target bar soon for my portfolio.
So when will I be continuing my financial portfolio? should be early next year and will start my ball rolling again. Finally for a few months later, I can resume my portfolio and go forward to my passive income.
So this post will end here, and I will explain more on my purchase of property process in the next post so that you will have a better idea on what to expect when purchasing a private property.
So see you next time!
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