Our Second Child Has Arrived! And the Cost of Natural Delivery in Singapore.

Our son has safely arrived on 6th August 2020! And I only found time to write about it now. Haha.

Initially we were thinking that he might be a National Day baby. But I guess he couldn't wait to meet his papa, mama and jie jie.

Wifey had a comparatively easier time this round. Not that she didn't suffer though.

 

The water bag leaked at 5 am. We reached hospital at 7+ am and baby came out at 10 am. Relatively fast compared to previous experience where it took 20 over hours.

It was a natural delivery this time and I was with wifey throughout the delivery and witnessed my son's arrival.

Most importantly of course is that both baby and mum are fine.

 

And coincidentally, our son's lunar birthday is the same as his sister's birthday.

 
Same as the previous pregnancy, we went to SGH as a private patient seeing Dr Tan Hak Koon.

 

Being a private patient means that we do not enjoy any subsidy during consultations but we get to see our chosen doctor every time.

 

Many of our contemporaries went to private hospitals for their pregnancy checks and deliveries.

 

However we selected SGH as we wanted to be seen by Dr Tan who has many good reviews.

 

He is highly experienced (if you google his name you will know) and we really have no doubts over his advices.

 

He is someone who will only say the necessary and do the necessary. He does not prescribe medications or tests if he doesn't deem them useful.

 

However this is not to say he is not good. In fact we appreciate his style which help us save quite a bit of money.

 

For those interested, the total bill for our birth journey is as follows.

Pre-delivery consultation visits and tests including Harmony test: $2,345.98 (nett after Medisave claim)

Medications and vitamins: $62.60

Labour (assisted delivery) and hospitalisation charges (B1 ward): $1,850.40 (nett after Medisave claim)

Baby hospitalisation charges: $1,332.01* (nett after Medisave claim)

 
Net Payment in Cash: $5,590.99

 

Not sure how does the above actual cost compares to those from the private hospitals but there are plenty of articles out there for further information.

 

For now we are just glad to welcome the latest member to our family!

 

And for me, the daily cooking of longan red date tea, washing of bottles, changing of diapers, feeding and bathing of baby goes on.

 

* Updated amount 

Addition to My Safe Stream of Passive Income

All along, my POSB savings account has been a low interest bearing account. Just maintaining it for the sake of nostalgia and some Giro arrangements like monthly insurance and charity contributions.

 

However recently I discovered the POSB Cashback Bonus which turned out to be a great addition to my passive income from interest / cash back from my bank accounts.

 

I know I have been slow to this but it's better late than never.

 

And I don't even need to sign up for a separate account for this. All I need to do is to log in to my iBanking and enroll my existing POSB account into this Cashback Bonus scheme.

 

Less than 5 min job.

 

Why do I say this is a great addition to my passive income from bank accounts?

 

That's because:

 

Yes, a whooping 3% cashback on my monthly home loan instalment with the bank.

 

This rate by itself already beats most, if not all the other cashback / high interest savings accounts out there.

 

Do note that you have to meet at least 3 of the criteria in order to qualify for the cashback.

 

Obviously the caveat here is that this scheme will benefit more for those who has home loan, insurance and / or investments with the bank.

 

Also, if you are maintaining a high average balance in your POSB or DBS account, the DBS Multiplier might be a better choice for you.

 

The difference between the POSB Cashback and DBS Multiplier account is that the former doesn't care how much is in your savings account as the cashback depends solely on you meeting the minimum 3 criteria while the latter gives interest based on the amount in your account balance.

 

I've done a quick calculation. With this addition of cashback, I am looking at a monthly inflow of $70+ conservatively speaking, just by doing what I have been doing all this while without the need to change my lifestyle.

 

$70+ per month or $800+ yearly. While this might not be a lot of money to some, it's good enough for a short trip to Bangkok (almost a yearly trip for us previously) or cover some milk powder expense. Haha..

 

In short,

 

The POSB Cashback Bonus scheme will benefit those who has a home loan, insurance and / or investments with the bank yet at the same time does not maintain a high account balance. 

 

So this is the latest tweak to my safe stream of monthly passive income, at least until the banks change their interest / cashback criteria again.

 

By the way this is not a sponsored post. Just a sharing of another great way to earn more passive income for people who can benefit from it.