The other night, I came across a YouTube video of John Mayer interviewing Ed Sheeran about his watch collection. The video was over an hour long and I told myself I’d just watch the first 5–10 minutes. Before I knew it, half an hour had passed—I was hooked. At around the 16:40 mark, Mayer brings our attention to Sheeran’s Audemars Piguet White Ceramic QP Piece Unique. In non-horological plain English, that’s a very valuable watch from a very reputable watchmaker (it’s one of the Holy Trinity) that AP customised for Sheeran, making his bespoke piece the only one of its kind in the world. Imag ..read more

Would you put your trust in Trust? The local digital bank is backed by a partnership between Standard Chartered Bank and FairPrice Group, so it’s safe to say that it’s not going to disappear with our money. Which means taking a loan from it should be ok… right? Well, with loans, it all depends on what you need a loan for, any fees to pay, and how much you can pay back, with interest. Let’s see how Trust Bank’s Instant Loan fares. Trust Bank Instant Loan application criteria Before we go into what’s different, here’s the eligibility criteria: Be a Singaporean citizen or permanent resident Be ..read more

I grew up with unlimited pocket money. I know. That sounds kinda crazy to me too—at least now as an adult. But back then, when I was a kid in school, I didn’t think anything of it. In the blissful throes of childhood without bills to pay and salaries to earn, the most important things in my life were probably my cat (still true now), High School Musical, and getting MP3s of my favourite songs into my phone from my classmates via Bluetooth. Money was never on my mind. It’s not that I didn’t care about money or understand its value. If I were that ignorant, I would have splurged my way into hav ..read more

Let’s face it, Singapore isn’t exactly known for being cheap. With GST sitting at 9% and the cost of groceries, transport, and housing constantly rising, we need to be more strategic with our money. To make things more challenging, our salaries just can’t seem to catch up. Inflation is at a multi-year high, effectively shrinking the value of our hard-earned dollars. In 2023 alone, salaries in Singapore suffered a 1.5% drop—although there’s some hope that they’ll increase by 0.5% in 2024.  Most of us want to cut back on our expenses and build up our savings accounts. A survey by YouGov on ..read more

The coolest festival with the hottest music acts is washing up on our shores. Waterbomb Singapore 2024 is South Korea’s biggest water music festival, and it’s coming to Singapore for the first time this Aug 2024! If you’ve always wanted to dance in the rain over the soundtrack of your favourite Korean music, this is probably the closest you’re going to get. The 2-day festival will be held at Siloso Beach on 24 and 25 Aug 2024, and is expected to draw a crowd of 20,000 festival-goers from Singapore and the region. Whew, that’s a lot of people. Are ticket sales for this beach party going to be ..read more

Interest rates were at an all-time high in 2023, which raised the rates for fixed deposits and T-bills. If you were quick to capitalise on the generous rates, you probably locked in some fantastic returns for the next year or two and may be happy to let your money grow there.  But many of us will have our fixed deposits and T-bills maturing soon. What do we do then? Lock our money in for 6 months or another two years?  With rising costs, some of us may want to keep our savings liquid. If that’s what we do, where can we stash our cash? Consider growing your savings with Trust Trust B ..read more

In this compact city-state, getting from point A to point B is always an adventure. On Singapore roads, you’ll often encounter a diverse mix of drivers—from the professionals navigating the city’s traffic during peak hours to the laid-back souls leisurely exploring its windy roads at the coasts. Not to mention, motorcyclists weaving through our streets and cyclists pedalling along add to the colourful driving landscape.  Your driving habits can reveal a lot about your personality. Say you’re stuck in a stationary traffic jam for 30 minutes now, do you crank up the radio and practic ..read more

The next Bitcoin halving is projected to take place this week, around 19 April 2024. This major event can drastically affect the price of Bitcoin.  Whether you’re considering investing in Bitcoin or already hold some in your portfolio, pull up a chair. Here’s everything you need to know about Bitcoin halving.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by MoneySmart.SG (@moneysmartsg)   What is Bitcoin Halving? Before we discuss Bitcoin halving, we need to understand how Bitcoins are mined (the process by which new Bitcoins are generated). Miners tackle complex mathe ..read more

When it comes to personal loans, we usually think of high interest rates and high fees by the big bad banks, right? But there’s one out there that’s different. Digital bank GXS is offering a loan that is quite unlike traditional bank loans. The GXS FlexiLoan is a relatively new product as it launched in April 2023. Within a year, GXS already disbursed 100,000 loans. Let’s see whether the hype is worth it. GXS FlexiLoan application criteria Before we go into what’s different, here’s the eligibility criteria: Be a Singaporean citizen or permanent resident Be age 21 to 65 years old Have a minim ..read more

Children are expensive little critters. Once they acquire the ability to speak, they start demanding that you buy them Nintendo Switches and iPhones. As a parent, you need all the financial help you can get The Baby Bonus scheme helps defray the cost of raising a child in Singapore in the hopes of encouraging married people to procreate more. The more kids you have, the more money you receive. Despite the Baby Bonus and other initiatives aimed at parents, Singapore’s birth rate continues to decline. That said, it pays to figure out how much you can receive in exchange for creating your own of ..read more