Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced on in Parliament what to expect for the Jubilee Budget.
As PM Lee reiterates: “This year’s Jubilee Budget focuses on the future, building Singapore and helping Singaporeans prepare for changes to come.”
It is evident Budget 2015 aims to tackle the future by investing in equipping Singaporeans with important skillsets, notably with the SkillsFuture initiative.
Here’s a roundup of Budget 2015 (does not include measures for businesses):
It is amazing to start the Lunar New Year with a clean financial slate and increased savings. So, begin the year with a 2015 spending cleanse: short yet impactful exercise to help you clear your mind, focus on your goals, and improve your buying habits. There are no excuses because a short-term intervention (7 days) is a good place to start.
In just a week, your financial awareness can help you stop spending on unnecessary items and eventually help you break the bad habits. Try these 3 Spending Cleanse Ideas and come out more motivated, focused, and richer.
You must first figure out a budget plan that helps reach your financial goals before starting the cleanse. Seek guidance from family, friends, or YouNeedABudget.com.
1. ELIMINATE THE UNNECESSARY
Plan: Identify a category where you are overspending then, slash that problem area.
Purpose: To allocate more money for shopping, emergency fund, and savings.
If you a person who does not pack for lunch and only go for local restaurants, gourmet counters, and coffee shops everyday then your expenses can take about S$450 of your income. With this cleanse, you will have to go on cold turkey and avoid buying for outside food for 7 days. You will find yourself save more afterwards.
Just by reducing expenses in one category such as switching back to basic cell phone plan; you can save up for your dreams in just a few years. It is so simple! There is no sense if you go back to your unpleasant ways.
2. HAVE AN “AUTO-SAVE” SYSTEM
Plan: Program regular account transfers to help you reach your goals while having a busy schedule.
Purpose: To save money for retirement, emergency fund, and vacations before you spend it all.
Contemplate upon your budget and begin writing a list of the things you want to save for from your needs (e.g., emergency fund) to your wants (e.g., Christmas vacation in Paris). Divide your income to the needs first then, divide what is left to your wants. You need at least two bank accounts: one for your needs and one for your wants. The next step is to set up automatic transfers or direct deposits that will move your money into each account on payday.
3. NO MORE PLASTIC CARDS
Plan: Withdraw the week’s spending from the bank in cash. When it is gone…it is gone.
Purpose: Saying no to credit cards will cut down the impulse purchases.
Most people talk about how important their long-term financial goals are but their regular buying decisions do not support their goals. This cleanse will have you keep your credit and debit cards at home so you can easily notice when you are losing money for every purchase. Before the week begins you must spare 25% of your income and divide it to your spending categories and put all in different envelopes.
Image Credits: wikihow.com/Do-Envelope-Budgeting
This will be your only allowance for the whole 7 days and all for purchases shall only come from it. Research showed that the act of relying to cash for spending makes you savor the paying process, think more, and spend less. Trust me, it works.
After days of Chinese New Year, many of us feel “richer” after collecting red packets from your parents and relatives. (For those that gave out red packets, i hope your rubbed shoulder with God of Fortune and got your windfall) Now as you hold and sniff your stacks of new notes, you may be thinking of the best place to put away this sum of money other than your tin can or under your pillow. Should you just deposit these money to your standard POSB/DBS account?
We take a look at the banks you should be putting away your money with, which includes fixed deposits and your daily saving accounts.
1. POSB
If you are not aware, POSB launched a cash gift promotion of 1.88% for 12 months on 23 January 2015. What this means is that any single sum deposit between SGD 1,000 to SGD 1,000,000 to your saving account will earn you an interest of 1.88% for 12 months. The catch is you cannot withdraw these top-up amount during this 12-month period.
Note: You must sign up before 28 February 2015 to be eligible for the promotion.
DBS launched the same promotion earlier this month for customers who deposit SGD 1,000 to SGD 3,000,000 can earn an additional 1.88% p.a for 3 months on top of the 2.08% of their DBS Multiplier Account. Likewise, you need to register with them by 28 February 2015 and make a one-time top-up to be eligible for the promotion. You will need to hold on to the fund for 3 months.
For those who makes a larger deposit of fresh funds of SGD 10,000 and more can consider OCBC Bonus+ Savings Account with up to 2.35% p.a. All funds will earn a base interest rate of 0.05% p.a if no withdrawals are made. If no withdrawals are made in a month, you get an additional 0.55% p.a. Get an additional 0.55% p.a if you do not withdraw in that calendar quarter and a whopping 1.20% p.a top-up bonus if you deposit $10,000 of fresh funds. (0.05% + 0.55% + 0.55% + 1.20% = 2.35%)
For Premier customers, you get an additional 0.05% p.a on each tiers which means you could earn up to 2.50% p.a.
For a 12 month Time Deposit, earn up to 1.40% when you deposit a minimum of $20,000 in fresh funds.
Enjoy bonus rates of 0.8% p.a when you deposit fresh funds of at least $15,000. If you deposit fresh funds of $50,000, you will get 1.0% p.a bonus rates and 1.2% p.a if you deposit $100,000 and more. Get an additional 0.1% if your account balance is above S$350,000.
Receive a limited edition 24K Gold-Plated RISIS Magnificent Goat Figurine (valued at S$238) with S$108,000 fresh funds deposit*.
This UOB Lunar New Year Savings Promotion ends on 28 February 2015.
* For those who want a higher rate can opt for their SGD Fixed Deposit, where you can get up to 1.30% p.a with a 13 month tenor and a minimum of SGD 20,000. Promotion ends 28 Feb 2015.
Maybank offers more choices for their Time Deposit plans and the interest rate varies depending on the amount and tenure of your deposit. From S$25,000, you can get 1.10% p.a if you can lock away for 12 months and can go up to 1.28% p.a if you can stretch longer to 24 months. If you have double the amount (S$50,000 and above), you fall into the higher tier and can receive up to 1.55% p.a for a 24-month Time Deposit.
If you deposit S$150,000 for 24 months, you stand to receive a Corningware 6-piece Meal Maker Set “Dancing Floral” worth S$145.
Deposit a minimum of $25,000 to get an interest rate of 1.25% p.a for their 12-Month SGD Fixed Deposit Account. For larger amount deposit of $250,000 and more, you will receive 1.30% p.a. That’s not all, depending on the amount of fresh funds you deposit, you stand to receive a New Moon Abalone Set.
Register no later than 5 March 2015 to be eligible for the promotion.
Deposit a minimum of S$25,000 and get up to 1.40% p.a for 6-months and 1.35% p.a for 12 months. For larger amount of S$128,000 and more, you stand to receive a choice of two 24K Gold-Plated Goat Medallion coins OR a Coin Set. Promotion ends 28 February 2015.
* For those who want to deposit a smaller amount (with no min deposit) and no tenure can opt for their e$aver Account where you stand to earn an interest rate of 1.35% p.a until 31 March 2015. More info: http://goo.gl/18oKdx
8. Citibank
Want time deposit with a shorter tenor? Then go for Citibank’s 9-month Time Deposit and receive an interest rate of 1.18% p.a. You will need to deposit a minimum of S$50,000 and up to a maximum of S$5,000,000 of fresh funds. Promotion ends on 28 February 2015.
Before anything else, reevaluate your saving objectives. Ask yourself why you want to save and what are your priorities. This is to ensure that you know which path to take to reach your financial goals.
Then, review your income and expenses and create an allocation plan. Move the excess funds you uncover to your bank account (preferably with the highest interest rate) to help facilitate discipline against impulsive spending.
2. SAVE ON YOUR VACATION
Follow the airline’s social media page to get updates of promos, free upgrades, and discounted fares. This will help you save money by getting the best airfare deal. You may also use your frequent flyer miles to save for your next vacation.
Another neat trick is to offer to purchase for others using your frequent flyer miles credit card and reimburse the money right away. For instance, if you are going to Bali with your friends, offer to book their flights too. This way you’ll earn more rewards or rebates than you could on your own, without spending extra money.
Use our hotel search engine that searches thousands of travel sites and aggregators to book the best price guaranteed hotels.
3. SAVE ON GROCERY SHOPPING
Use savvy shopping strategies in the supermarket such as using a coupon.
Image Credits: Chris Potter via Flickr
Also, you must beware of the marketing tricks they use such as “the numbers game” wherein they will put an irrational price of “$3.99 or $3.96”(instead of $4) to make you think that you saved more money by scoring a better deal. Read more in a Money Digest article entitled “Watch Out for these 6 Grocery Store Tricks!”.
4. SAVE CASH AROUND THE HOUSE
Reduce your electric and water bills by conserving water and switching off the lights when not in use. Use money-saving household cleaning hacks that enable you to make your own cleaning products.
Lastly, use the multi-purpose household items instead of specialty products since you can use it in many ways than one. For instance, you may use vinegar to cook and to remove blood stains on your sheets or use a toothpaste to clean your teeth and treat your acne.
Often enough, we find ourselves getting caught up with unpaid bills and empty wallets in the blink of an eye. We ask ourselves, “Where did all the money go?” We scramble to track back the cash outflow from our bank statements, collating the many receipts we could find stuffed in our wallets, and rack our brains to think back on where the majority of our money was splurged to.
The next moment, we spot something we desire and spend the money on impulse even with the knowledge of being short on cash at the back of your minds. And before we know it, we become cash-strapped.
So the question boils down to how do you think you can keep track of your personal finances and manage your spending well without feeling guilty or broke? We share some tips with you on ways to monitor your finances well.
(Source: moneypincher)
1. Start by Tracking Your Expenses
By means of a plain piece of paper or a computer spreadsheet, get the ball rolling by creating a Personal Projected Budget for each month of the year. Try searching online for free printable Budget Templates to obtain user-friendly and fuss-free spreadsheets.
We recommend that before you even begin jotting down a budget from scratch through filling in the areas with a guessed estimation, track down your current expenses beforehand to get a better overview of your spending. Record your every purchase down for a period of a month through as many forms of spending you can gather, such as your receipts and bank statements.
For example, you might have jotted down a reasonable sum of $150 for a budget hotel staycation. However, after doing a bit of online analysis, you might have realized that you require at least $250 for your preferred staycation. Do your research!
(Source: psoda)
2. Create a Budget
Now, you can get started with creating a budget you know you can stick to. You can further break down your list of expenses into sub-categories such as Transportation, Daily Necessities, Phone Bills, Insurance, et cetera and have a better overview of different areas your spending goes to. Start off aiming for short-term goals, before saving for your long-term goals such as retirement.
Begin to monitor and track your spending closely once you’ve decided to stick to your newly implemented Personal Projected Budget. Spend a reasonable amount of effort working on your target while resisting splurging on impulse. If you want something really badly, jot it down on your finances tracking list and work towards saving for the item.
For a more sophisticated approach, you can always track your expenses through the means of a software. Here are a few platforms that our team recommend. Of course, you can always choose a software you prefer and feel more comfortable with.
a) Mint
Mint is a free, web-based personal finance tool that allows users to plug in to their banks, investments and other financial accounts for an overview of your current financial position. We love their graphics that are not just easy to organize but also pleasing to the users’ eyes. Money saving just became a whole lot easier and more visually attractive to everyone!
b) You Need A Budget
Get off the financial roller coaster with an award-winning budget interface proudly presented by You Need A Budget. Although you need to pay for the usage of this software, it comes free for a month for anyone interested to try to see its suitability and whether it helps apply in your daily life.
c) BillMinder
Don’t worry about fumbling through your inbox for monthly statements now, because BillMinder helps organize statements into simple calendars to keep track of all due dates. It comes with charts and reports, notifications and more features that comes handy to users. Currently, the software doesn’t offer a free version, but you might wish to invest in a good software to save up better in the long run.
To perfect your Personal Projected Budget, make adjustments whenever necessary. For example, if a particular spending goal is easy to meet, try cutting it down further and saving a bigger sum or shifting that amount over to another category which requires setting a reasonably higher budget. To sum it all up, it’s all about setting your budget right and making effort to stick to your goals. We also recommend downloading the finance apps on your electronic devices to track your expenditure on-the-go!
