Tuesday 28 March 2017

Taiwan Trip March 2017

Haven't been blogging much for this month as I have not been active in the market and something major happened at work as well.

I just came back from a trip to Taiwan with my family. It is a nice relaxing trip to refresh myself as most of my recent trips were for work.

We arrived at Taipei and went to Taichung, Cing Jing, Alishan and Sun Moon Lake.

Spotted this bear at the nice Minsu we stayed at Cing Jing.


And also managed to wake up to see the legendary sun rise over the mountains.


After that we went to climb a mountain ourselves.


Along the way we also see sheeps,



and cherry blossoms.




After all the walking and climbing, my beloved Onitsuka Tiger finally decided it's time to retire.


Coincidentally I bought it in Taiwan several years back. So I decided to return it to where it came from.

Overall I spent about S$1,700 for this trip including air tix, accomodation, food, attractions, buys and driver service.

I consider it money well spent and besides, the amount is within my monthly budget for holiday https://justasingaporeanson.blogspot.sg/2017/01/growing-my-savings.html

Looking forward to the next trip.

Friday 3 March 2017

Bib n Tucker - Our Side Income & A Semi Passive Business


This is just a post on the update of our (my wife and I) side business. Something to do with side income, passive income but nothing to do with equities. 😀


Bib n Tucker is started as an online store for baby and kids wear in 2014 and is coming into its 3rd year soon.

Sales have been coming in though volume can be improved, as is always the case.

We have to align our expectation since we have not been putting as much time as we would like to, into the marketing of our online store.

This is because we have our full time jobs and secondly this is meant to be a side and semi-passive income afterall.

Nevertheless we have done the necessary marketing in the early days such as the traditional flyers in the letter box and word of mouth to friends and family.

On top of that we also paid for Facebook advertising and other social media and platform marketings.

We did a revamp of our website last year. Moving forward we will continue to invest our time into this venture as well as seek improvement to the running of this business.

Big News! Big News!

Ok not really big news but:

"Bib n Tucker is offering free delivery from now on.

Regardless of the no. of items purchased, just select 'Free Rate' during checkout to enjoy the complimentary shipping to your door step.

Registered mail is at an additional $1.50 regardless of the no. of items purchased as well.

Enjoy, and continue shopping for the items that you and your child likes!"


If you intend to purchase from Bib n Tucker, thanks for the support 😁

Please drop me a note through email, our facebook page BibnTucker or Carousell BibnTucker and let me know which piece(s) you wish to get. This is so I can know you are coming from my blog.

I will work out a free registered delivery for you. On top of that I will also give a 10% discount to you.

Treat it as a gratitude to my readers 👍

p.s. running a business on top of a full time job is not easy. then again nothing in life is easy. we will continue to strive to do our best. huat ah!!

Thursday 2 March 2017

OCBC 360 vs UOB One - Latest Comparison


So you guys probably already know that OCBC has changed the terms and conditions of its 360 savings account again.

If memory serves me well, this is the 2nd time they have changed those conditions.

Initially it was 1% interest P.A. for each of its original 3 categories. After that it was changed to 0.5% for couple of the categories. Now it's down to 0.3%.

While it is not totally unexpected, it is still disappointing nonetheless.

With the new conditions (interest rates) in place from 1st April 2017 onwards, it would serves us well if we can do an apple to apple comparison with the next closest saving account to see which benefits us most.

With that in mind I did a comparison between the OCBC 360 account and UOB One account.

First off, the difference between the existing OCBC 360 conditions and the new conditions from April onwards.


As you can see, interest rate has dropped in two of the categories while new condition has been set.

Personally I am able to get 2.25% + 1% on incremental saving amount on current conditions. Once the new scheme kicks in, realistically I should be able to get 1.85%.

Now, the interest rates offered by UOB One account.


Interest offered by One account is slightly different in the sense that the rates are on step up basis.

So which is the better account in terms of interest rate for the man in the street?

For this question we do a case study based on two scenarios as follows.

Case Study 1:

For the average Joe who maintains $20,000 in his account every month and is able to get 1.85% from his OCBC 360 account from April 17 onwards or 2.05% from his UOB One account.

On top of that he also spends at least $600 on his credit card every month. Since the cash rebate for OCBC 365 card is mostly between 3 - 6%, we use a mid figure of 4% for our average Joe.


Case Study 2:

For the richer average Joe who maintains $50,000 in his account every month and is able to get 1.85% from his OCBC 360 account from April 17 onwards or 3.38% from his UOB One account.

On top of that he also spends at least $600 on his credit card every month. Since the cash rebate for OCBC 365 card is mostly between 3 - 6%, we use a mid figure of 4% for our average Joe.


Case Study 3:

For the even richer average Joe who maintains $70,000 in his account every month and is able to get 1.85% from his OCBC 360 account from April 17 onwards or 3.38% from his UOB One account.

On top of that he also spends at least $600 on his credit card every month. Since the cash rebate for OCBC 365 card is mostly between 3 - 6%, we use a mid figure of 4% for our average Joe.


In conclusion, you can see that with a larger savings amount up to $50,000, the UOB One account offers a better deal than OCBC 360 account.

However if your savings amount starts to exceeds $50,000 you might want to take a closer look at the OCBC 360 account since the interest rates are valid up to $70,000 whereas UOB One account only offers 0.05% base interest for savings above $50,000.

(Thanks to reader Vince Chew who pointed this out)

If you are like the average Joe in our case study who maintains a lower amount in his savings, OCBC 360 is probably better for you.

For myself, I will still stick with my OCBC 360 account FOR NOW as most of my funds are currently in investments.

It's not worth the hassle for me to switch my Giro billings.

Furthermore UOB, like other banks, can change the conditions for their UOB One account anytime. So I will adopt a wait and see attitude first.