Credit Bureau and Credit Counselling

Credit Bureau of Singapore recently announced that many Singaporeans are falling back on their credit card debts. The most 'dangerous' group are those in the age of 30-45.

This age group is not surprising as this is the age group where most people are taking on a lot of debt like mortgage loans. Thus it is important that one manage debt carefully or they may overstretch themselves. Do note that you need to manage your loans carefully because it may affect your credit history. It is well understood that banks will disburse loans to you based on your credit history. If you have a bad credit history, banks will be quite unwilling to disburse loan to you unless a higher interest can be charged or your financial situation will be greatly scrutinized which can be troublesome and uncomfortable.

If you feel that you are falling behind on your payments, you should start controlling your 'outflow'. Do note take on more debt but instead pay down your loans as soon as you have the cash. The interest rate charged on credit cards is 24% per annum and 18% for credit line. These are very high interest rates, as such these loans should be cleared first before you take on more.

If you feel very stretched, approach the bank or the Credit Counselling Center in Singapore (CCS) for help. Banks are generally more willing to help you with your loans than you thought.

Below are the contact details for CCS:

Tel: 1800 CALL CCS (1800 2255 227)
Please ensure to dial 1800 before
2255 227.

Address: #12-01 Maxwell House
20 Maxwell Road
Singapore 069113

Email: enquiry@ccs.org.sg

Opening Hours: Mondays–Fridays, 9am–6pm

Website: http://www.ccs.org.sg

Want to know more about good credit management? Please click here.
Want to know how to better use your credit cards? Please click here.

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CPF Life - Buying Annuities

CPF Life was recently introduced to Singaporeans and will be launched in September this year. Basically, it is an annuity with a component for you to bequest certain amounts to your beneficiaries. From a myriad of 12 types of annuities offered by CPF board down to 4 annuities. It is to make the choice of soon to be retired Singaporeans easier.

CPF members turning age 55 from 2013, with at least $40,000 savings in their Retirement Account, will be automatically enrolled into the scheme. Members who have less than $40,000 can opt-in from 55, if they wish to do so.

As this is a new scheme being introduced not the full four plans would be offered. It will greatly depend on your age when you join the scheme.

When buying annuities, one have to take note that because it is a fixed amount per month, your purchasing power would greatly depend on the inflation rate. If inflation rate is high, your purchasing power would be greatly reduced. This is exacerbated by the fact that Singapore inflation is usually imported inflation as Singapore is a price taker in the world. As such, you need to calculate how much you need per month for a comfortable lifestyle and add an additional buffer for inflation. There is no general guideline on how much the buffer should be, from what I know. It would greatly depend on your comfort level.

For more information on CPF Life, please click here.

For more information on buying annuities, please click here.

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Managing Finances as Married Couple

Managing Finance as Married Couple might be an issue that most married couple overlooked. Why I said that is because most married couple does not sit down and really work out the finances together. Yes, most of them do work out in the sense of contributing how much to the household expenses and so on but seldom do they sit down and discuss how to build that nest egg together, making investment and purchasing insurance to get a wider coverage.

Couples should really sit down to discuss about investments and insurance. Getting the widest coverage with their pooled money, making investments at the lowest expense through again pooling of investment monies.

Do constantly review your insurance and investment portfolio to see if there is a need to do adjustments especially after major events like having a child or taking on another degree program. Couples can also take advantage of the planning time to bond with each other and understand each other better.

For more information on managing finance as a couple, please click here.

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How to Deal with Recession

How to Deal with Recession is something we should all know. Why I said that is because throughout our lifetime, we would definitely experience at least a few recession. I myself have experienced 3 or at least can feel their impact, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2000 Internet Bubble and also the recent Sub-prime Crisis.

Here are a few tips on how to save some money.

1) Cash is King

It would be better to go back to your budget planning and see if you have allow yourself to spend on unnecessary things. Why I said that is because as we all know, recessions follows booms. And during booms, because we feel rich, we would tend to pamper ourselves (nothing wrong with that of course, since we work hard). But because of recession, we would need more cash in the hand and how to get that is to revisit our budget.

2) Go for the second best

It is a matter of needs and wants, usually if the second best can give us similar satisfaction and at a lower costs than the very best, it would make sense to purchase the second best since again, cash is king.

3) Go for housebrands

Provisions is a place where we can save quite a bit since it forms a great part of our expenses. At times like this, maybe we do not need to pay so much for the brand thus I would recommend going for housebrands since they are usually cheaper.

Here are some tips at the moment, will post more tips on dealing with recession as and when I come across. We are survivor, we outplay, outwit and outlast the Recession Demon.

For more information on budget planning, please click here.

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