Rainbow on FI

I know this sounds like an odd topic as most homes in Singapore are already subscribed to broadband service. The cheapest broadband service around that I can find comes at 200mpbs speed  with a 24-month contract and $27.99/mth and $53.50 service installation fee . Not sure why they throw in free home phone line for "value-added service" when almost everybody have our own mobile phones. The next cheapest I can find is 500Mbps at $29.90/mth. Why would I need to find the cheapest short-term internet access for home appliances? Of course it's because my current place is not subscribed to any broadband service. Also because I want to surf the internet comfortably on my laptop (instead of handphone) and I need the WiFi to run my Xiaomi home cam when I am out. As I am not sure if I would be moving out in the next 1-2 years, I don't want to commit myself to a 2-year broadband plan that nobody but myself would utilize. So... I brainstormed a while and came up with the...

"Think and Grow Rich" is a book with many valuable insights on life principles. Yes it is not a technical kind of book that talks about investments of any sort, its focus is more on the soft literary aspects. If you have read one of my old posts  Desire, Effort, Faith & Grit , you would have guessed that its content serves to guide us towards harnessing the power of our thoughts, through which would enable us to grow money. (I know this post is way overdue as I didn't finish this book in one breath from when I started. Glad that I finally published from the draft which has been sitting there for more than 1 year!🤦‍♀️) Here's an online version which you can read at your own pace. But if you want a flash 12-min overview of the book, you can watch this video by The Swedish Investor, although it doesn't quite justify what you can get from reading the book cover-to-cover. I find that these are the 6 most important concepts to me. (It ma...

In my previous posts Calculations on a HDB purchase versus rental Part I and Part II , I have covered what would be the absolute cost of renting versus buying with a hypothetical example, and also the unrecoverable costs consideration when buying a resale HDB flat instead of renting for singles. In this post, I will talk about pros and cons of BTO for singles. BTO for singles Upon reaching the definitive age of 35, eligible SINGLE Singaporeans can apply for BTO  at last! Albeit only two-room flexi flats in non-mature estates. The average cost is assumed to be $100k for 45sqm space (prior to eligible grants).  Available grants under Single Singapore Citizen Scheme are as illustrated on the HDB website here . Do note that Proximity Housing Grant in this case does not apply.

Before I start, let me make clear that this is NOT a sponsored post. It is a complain post. DBS fixed deposit updates I have been looking around for bank Fixed Deposit promotions to help my mom put some of her rotting cash to work. As my mom is totally risk averse, this would be the "next best" capital-guaranteed alternative besides the SSB.  No more SSB for now since the  rate for SSB  went rolling downhill. I was elated to see that DBS is still offering a  1.15% interest rate for its one year FD tenor  and 1.3% for 18 months tenor when other banks are offering at 1% or less. This elation ended shortly after my failed attempt to make an FD placement via DBS ibanking. Strangely, I could only select up to 11 months tenor. I thought the webpage has a bug in the drop-down or something, so I tried on the Digibank app but it was the same. Now, if you are as perplexed as me you could save yourself some time by reading on. I rang up the DBS phon...

Part I  Calculations on a HDB purchase versus rental (for singles) Unrecoverable costs of Rent vs Buy After coming across Uncle Temperament's recommendation of a Youtube video, a new concept on renting versus buying struck me - comparison of their unrecoverable costs. Which means if the unrecoverable costs of renting is less than buying, it would make sense to rent and vice versa. Unrecoverable cost of renting for N years is simple as follows. Monthly rental cost  ×  12  ×  N years.  On the other hand, the unrecoverable cost of buying a house would require a bit more complex calculations as it comprises of renovation costs, property taxes, income taxes (if renting out rooms), maintenance costs and cost of capital (mortgage interest and cost of equity capital). Cost of equity could refer to down-payment, option fees or any other money paid upfront for the property which could otherwise be invested for returns. All these vary according to t...

After reading Uncle8888's post , I thought I would just do a quick post on how one would fare buying a HDB 4-room resale flat that costs $360,000 as a single (assuming single at 35yo and flat is with 70 years lease left i.e TOP 1991). The table below is a super simple illustration of the rental yield plus saving cumulative over a period of 70 years, assuming the rental of a room is $600 per month. Disclaimer: I did not factor in inflation of rental over the years nor utilities / income tax or possibility of years when there's no tenant renting. Year Renting cost Collection of rental (2 rm rented out) Rental yield + saving 1 7200 14400 21600 2 14400 28800 43200 3 21600 43200 64800 4 28800 57600 86400 5 36000 72000 108000 6 43200 86400 129600 7 50400 100800 151200 8 57600 115200 172800 9 64800 129600 194400 ...