Matthiaspeaks

Happy new year to all the readers!

If you had been using OCBC 360 for the past one year, here's an excel table which you can use to calculate the interest earns. Do note that the bank pay interest daily (according to the website on this date), therefore there will be a slight difference in the amount. But the good thing is that you are actually earning slightly more than what is calculated from this excel.

If you are currently employed and still thinking that you do not have much money to put in the bank to earn interest, it's time to rethink and start helping your parents (especially if they are self-employed or retired) to earn some interest with the help of this table.

Start saving today and have a fruitful year ahead!

Link to download table:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eotv44chfns3lmw/OCBC%20360%202016%20interest%20calculator.xlsx?dl=0

Yes it's time to get an air con soon and I believe everyone are concern with electrical bills when it comes to getting air con (as many ticks as possible).

Although savings on electrical bills are important, do also try to make sure that you are getting the right piping etc to minimise the problems that may come after using it for the next few years.

Those whom had experienced it will probably had regretted since the frustration, time and money (worse if it is chargeable) spent on getting them fixed is really a painful period for most of the complains I read online.

Here's a snap shot of the upgrades from a local chain retailer:


Basically, this picture tells me one thing, the upgrade options are available for a reason. What was recommended by a repair specialist whom I got the chance to speak to is that one needs to get a minimum 1/2 inch Class 1 Armaflex Insulation and that your drainage pipe must be 16mm instead of 13mm (less likely to face blockage by the "jellies"). A 22G copper pipe is also more preferred than 23G since it is "hardier" and thus longer life span. But a 23G is still okay. They are better than those 24 or 25 G ones.

And for the drainage pipe, it is recommended to have it insulated especially when the drain pipe is orientated horizontally.

If you are engaging a conscientious air con specialist, they should know what to do for you.

But if you are getting a "best price" air con, you will probably need to look into these stuffs before purchasing!

Just done our papers and collected our keys for our BTO flat this week. Here's our findings:

1. CPF will be wiped out 2 weeks later after key collection

2. Loan period starts on your key collection date

3. But your first CPF deduction will only commence 2 months later (means more interest to pay since principle amount remains undeducted for 2 months). I think CPF is trying to build create some buffer such that the CPF OA account has some money 2 months later after the wipe out.

4. If one wants to do a partial captial repayment (means to pay off some of your HDB debt in addition to your regular loan repayments to cut down on the total interest incurred), the minimum amount is $5000 and I had just learnt from the HDB website that the date will be one month later upon your application.

Hope this helps and wish all of you who are taking part in the year 2016's last launch of 10 000 BTO flats and Sales of Balance flat the best of luck!

If you are still thinking that banks are giving very low interest (less than 0.05 to 0.1% pa). it's really time to relook into a new saving account to make the best out of your savings.

There are already a few "savings account" out there that gives much higher interest as long as you hit some of their criteria such as depositing your salary into their account.

I guess banks are feeling the pain of losing their regular savers over to the "more savvy saving accounts" and this time round, Maybank had launched something similar known as SaveUp Account.

Since they are a little late than the other banks, in order to make it more attractive, they are offering more criteria for you to meet such as car loan, housing loan and education loan.

But of course, please do your Math properly in order to get the best deal for your money. Do not blindly get those loans just to get those interest!









Picture taken from http://info.maybank2u.com.sg/saveup/index.aspx

Chance upon this FJELLSE bed frame that is below $100 from Ikea Singapore.

The price is really attractive (comes with Slant Base somemore) and it looks quite nice and probably will appeal to minimalists or landlords who are getting double bed frame for their tenants!

However, I had heard from a local mattress manufacturer that Slatted Base may not be ideal for pocketed spring mattress since the individual pocket springs may sink into the gaps more easily and thus a flat base was advised when getting a bed frame.

Here's some photos of the Slatted base that comes with this FJELLSE bed frame. And it does seem that the slatted base are quite far apart.

 

But I am still trying to convinced myself what the local mattress manufacturer said is really true. 

Maybe some of the readers who are using slatted base and pocketed spring mattress can share your experience after years of sleep.







 

Guess what, after receiving my repaired LG G4 yesterday, one of the very first thing to do was to start setting up the whatsapp back up (since one can't be sure if a boot loop will start again since the handphone still get really hot when I start downloading and installing all the rest of the lost apps into the phone from Google Play).

After losing everything in the whatsapp (which was a nightmare), I had now set a daily back up rather than doing it manually (which was my original setting that I had forgotten to back up ever since the last back up a year ago).

For readers whom had not done a back up before, you may go to the settings-->Chat-->Chat backup.

And you may choose to set it this way below. Using wifi instead of data may help to cut down on data usage (especially most people are sharing long video files now in whatsapp groups).

Take note to set the options as boxed in Red. However, if you prefer a monthly backup instead of daily, you may switch from daily to monthly too.

And remember to check the box for "Include Video".


Hope this helps and have a great weekend!

Do share this with your friends and loved ones!

Just as I was about to touch on this (since our BTO flat is coming to completion really soon and we are getting the HDB loan), Bank of China (BOC) had dropped a bomb as one of the best options to justify the CPF wipeout has became harder to achieve.

But before we continue, let's refresh our memory on the current CPF interest rate below. Based on the interest, one will need to decide whether if they put their CPF into better use or just use it to pay for new flat. And the easiest choice is simply to justify the wipe out is to ensure that you keep a certain amount of your savings in a place that generates more returns (or interest) than CPF.



And now let's look into BOC's Smart Saver savings account. Basically, this is one of the savings program which is gaining popularity in Singapore (which I believe that had led to the bad news which you will be reading later).

It is a good trend since savers can enjoy higher interest rate by trying to fulfil certain monthly criteria set by the bank such as crediting one's salary, spending a specific minimum amount using the bank's credit cards and paying bills. And for BOC's Smart Saver, you can actually beat CPF's interest rate if you hit their criteria.



However, from this December onward, one will not be able to hit the maximum 3.55% p.a. interest (which is more than the 3.5% p.a. interest which CPF is offering for the first $20 000 in your OA account) that easily anymore unless you are able to bank in a salary of at least $6000 cash and spent $1500 on your BOC credit card bills every month.

This is actually three times of the existing requirement below.



You may find out more about the BOCs Smart Saver revised interest rates in this link.


Since the revised BOC's Smart Saver's interest rates is no longer competitive against CPF and the flat is going to be completed soon, it seems that we will need to decide quickly on whether to use up all the CPF or to keep some in the OA to earn better interest for retirement.


As the banks are getting more and more competitive and are launching similar savings accounts, let's hope that we will be able to find one that is able to match up to CPF's interest with no lock down periods!

But for those couples that still have some time before the BTO's completion date, hope this post helps and good luck!



PS: If anyone has any alternative options to share, feel free to comment!





1st picture taken from: https://www.cpf.gov.sg/members/aboutus/about-us-info/cpf-interest-rates on the date of post

2nd & 3rd pictures taken from: http://www.bankofchina.com/sg/pbservice/pb1/201510/t20151023_5857863.html on the date of post