Get $20 Cashback and Guaranteed Returns on your Investments

What are Guaranteed Returns on Investments

Have some idle money sitting around and hoping to invest and secure a rate of return that is higher than your usual bank interest rates? Well don’t we all? Every investment comes with different levels of risk. A guaranteed return on your investments simply means that you are promised, with some levels of certainty, that you will receive a return on your investment in any circumstances.

To learn more about guaranteed returns investments, let’s take a look at 2 effectively guaranteed returns products offered by Funding Societies, Southeast Asia’s largest Peer to Peer lending platform. Peer to Peer Lending or P2P lending is an investment concept where individuals & institutions invest in loans to SMEs and earn returns in the form of interests. Investments on the Funding Societies platform starts from S$20 with a maximum tenor of 12 months and monthly/periodic repayments to investors.

For more information on investing with Funding Societies, join their upcoming webinar on 29th Sept 2020 at 7PM. Register for free here.

How does it work

An effectively guaranteed returns product offered by Funding Societies means that you as an investor are effectively guaranteed to receive both your principal & interests on the investments regardless of the SME’s repayment status. There are currently 2 products available under this line, namely Guaranteed Returns Investments (GRI) and Guaranteed Property-backed Investments (GPI).

Guaranteed Property-backed Investments

Guaranteed Property-backed Investment (GPI) is an investment into a collateral-backed note with an additional guarantee of repayments to investors. Should the SME fail to fulfil their obligations, Funding Societies has the right to liquidate the property to recover the funds.

Key Investment Information

  • Minimum Investment Amount – $20 per investment
  • Interest rates: usually 3% – 8% per annum
  • Tenor: 6 to 12 months
  • Repayments: Monthly repayment of interest and principal at the end of tenor
  • Guarantee: Principal & interest repayments are both effectively guaranteed regardless of the SME’s status
  • Collateralised property information: Only local Singapore properties owned by the SME or it’s directors are accepted

Sign up and start investing with Funding Societies here

Guaranteed Returns Investments

Guaranteed Returns Investment is an investment into a loan given to a small business in the form of a note with a layer of security whereby the repayments are effectively guaranteed even if the SME does not pay.

These small businesses come from all walks of life and Kaca Coffee House is one of them. See their story here:

Start investing with Funding Societies now and join them on their journey to help thousands of local businesses like KACA achieve their business goals.

Key Investment Information

  • Minimum Investment Amount – $20 per investment
  • Interest rates: usually 4% – 8% per annum
  • Tenor: 1 to 12 months
  • Repayments: Usually Monthly repayment of Principal & interest
  • Guarantee – Principal and Interest are both effectively guaranteed regardless of SME status

Please invest with the knowledge that while returns are effectively guaranteed by FS Capital Pte. Ltd., there may be a chance where they might not be able to fulfil the obligations under this arrangement. To mitigate this risk, a cash reserve buffer is maintained to allow for repayments to be made on time.

Importance of investment diversification

As the saying goes, do not put all your eggs into one basket. Just as how it is important to diversify across asset classes and business types, the same goes for varying risk return investments. Diversifying your investments with guaranteed returns products can be an option to consider to balance out your portfolio.

If you have done your own due diligence and decided to invest with Funding Societies, they currently have a promotion for new investors. Sign up with promo code MONEY20 and make a total investment of S$200 by 31st Oct 2020 to get a S$20 cashback.

Terms and Conditions apply

Investors must sign up with the aforementioned promo code and make a total investment of at least S$200 by 31st Oct 2020 to be eligible for the $20 cashback. Cashback will be credited into the eligible investors’ accounts by the end of November 2020. Funding Societies’ investor T&Cs apply.

Funding Societies is the largest SME digital financing platform in Southeast Asia. It is licensed in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, and backed by Sequoia India and Softbank Ventures Asia Corp amongst many others. It provides business financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which is crowdfunded by individual and institutional investors. Investors can invest from as low as S$20 with a tenor of no more than 12 months. Depending on the investment product, interest rates can range between 2% to 18% per annum.

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Visiting Sentosa’s beaches during peak periods from Oct 17? You will have to book a slot online

siloso beach

COVID-19 has had an impact on the lives of many people around the world. From making adjustments to working from home to adapting business models to survive, Singapore is now seeing a by-reservation-only visit to Sentosa’s beaches during the peak periods.

Visitors required to book their slots online

The new rule will kick in from Oct 17. It is applicable to visits on peak periods such as the weekends and public holidays. Beachgoers to Sentosa’s Tanjong, Palawan, and Siloso beaches can get a spot by heading to sentosa.com.sg/beachreservations to place a booking.

Booking officially starts from Oct 10 and you may place a reservation up to 7 days before your intended day of the visit.

Choose from these timeslots:

  • Morning: 8am – 1pm
  • Afternoon: 2pm – 7pm
Beaches divided into seven zones

Tanjong, Palawan, and Siloso beaches have been divided into seven zones. Each zone will have a capacity ranging between 100 to 350 people. Here’s a look at the different beach zones at a glance.

Tanjong Beach Zones

sentosa-tanjong-beach-zones

Palawan Beach Zones

sentosa-palawan-beach-zones

Siloso Beach Zones

sentosa-siloso-beach-zones

Those who are keen on playing at one of the 15 beach courts across Tanjong, Palawan, and Siloso beaches must place a reservation. If you’ve booked a beach court, you do not need to make another reservation for entry to the beach.

Follow these steps to make your booking
  • Choose your preferred Beach Zone or Beach Court.
  • Select your date and time slot.
  • Fill in your details and submit. You will need a valid email address, mobile number, and name (as per your NRIC or FIN).
  • Check your email for a confirmation mail.
  • Go to the designated Beach Entry Kiosk listed below and present your email to the staff:
    1. Palawan Beach: Outside Beach Station Carpark (facing Palawan Green) | Rest stop along Palawan Beach service road
    2. Siloso Beach: Emerald Pavilion
    3. Tanjong Beach: Family Pavilion along service road (after Tanjong Beach Club)
  • Collect your wristband and head to the Beach Zone entry point.
Part of COVID-19 safety and crowd management measures

Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) shared that the new move came after crowds and queues were observed during peak periods.

As such, this new system will give the public peace of mind by reducing queues at the beaches. At the same time, allowing everyone to keep up with safe distancing.

“The launch of a reservation-only beach entry during peak periods will help us ensure that Sentosa remains safe for all guests and staff,” said SDC CEO Thien Kwee Eng.

“We also seek the cooperation of our guests to continue being socially responsible so that Sentosa continues to be a place where all visitors will have an enjoyable experience.”

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How to Cut Back on Your Online Shopping Habits

4 Sites for Great Online Shopping Deals

With the current pandemic making stay-at-home orders commonplace, everyone has turned to online shopping for purchases. This has also led to more people shopping on sites like Lazada, Shopee, and Amazon to give themselves a sense of comfort in these difficult times.

However, what happens when a coping mechanism goes too far and you go way out of budget when shopping online? You end up in more discomfort than comfort, of course!

I’m no stranger to exorbitant spending habits online. I only learned my lesson after an actual emergency popped up where I found myself penniless due to online purchases. Like my ceiling fan finally kicking the bucket.

But that really scared me. What if something else happened, like a health emergency? So that started my journey on how to resist temptation or at the very least, curb my spending habits online.

That’s why I put this list together on how to curb online shopping habits little by little. I’ll share it with you so that you can do the same if you’re also shopping a little more than you should be online!

 

  • Learn your triggers

 

Shopping is often a coping mechanism, as noted earlier. So, you need to identify the specific trigger that makes you open the app in the first place.

Emotional control is often the first step to curbing issues like these. Little by little, you can overcome your bad habits. 

There are small steps to identifying it, and one of the steps, according to the National Jewish Health is to observe patterns then track them down. This can help you find the triggers of your shopping binges.

 

  • Leave it in your cart for a week

 

This is a good way of knowing whether you’re suffering from impulse buying or you genuinely need or want the product you’re buying. Essentially, this is a litmus test on whether you really want the product.

If you see a product that you want to purchase, add it to your cart, and let it sit there for a week. After it sits there for a week, look at it again, and see if you still want it.

If you feel less excited about it after a week, then it means it was just a passing mood. Some people are more lenient, giving items a 24-hour holding time.

However, I say, give it 3 days to a week to be safe! 

 

  • Put your purchase in perspective

 

Try putting in perspective whatever you’re going to buy. Calculate the cost based on how many times you’re going to use the product. This way, you alter your purchasing mindset by reframing it in a way that’s rational.

What’s more effective is to calculate how much you earn per hour, and compare it to the price of a product. Think how much time you spent working, and if that product is worth the time you spent earning the money it takes to buy it.

 

  • Unsubscribe from emails and updates

 

Advertising can have a big pull on people, so it’s best to remove temptation. Unsuscribe to their email updates and turn off notifications, just to mention a few ways to do it.

If a big sale comes, go offline immediately or temporarily uninstall the app. Sales can tempt you into spending a lot, especially with the temptation of massive markdowns.

 

  • Sleuth around for stuff that you haven’t used

 

This may sound quite odd, but I advise digging through stuff you haven’t used before. It usually helps, seeing how many of your purchases collect dust around your home.

Being aware of unused things helps you realize that you shouldn’t be wasteful.

Anyway, those are the steps to cutting back your online habits. Have they worked for me? Of course, but I did these step by step, so I didn’t overwhelm myself. 

I’ve also begun to be mindful of finances. In turn, it drove me to learning some skills such as appliance tinkering so I can save cash further in the long run. It came in handy with ceiling fan maintenance (and yes, my busted fan was eventually fixed, courtesy of Ceiling Fan Repair).

Anyhow, if I were you, I’d get started on curbing bad spending habits now. The sooner you get started, the better!

 

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Jobs: Nike, Shopee, and the State Courts are hiring

jobs available

Yesterday (Sep 21), we wrote about how AIA Singapore will be providing up to 500 job vacancies for fresh graduates and mid-career job seekers amid the pandemic. If you’re interested, click here to read. Alternatively, you may head straight to AIA’s website to find out more on the AIA Financial Career Scheme 2020.

Meanwhile, we will share with you some openings at Nike, Shopee, and the State Courts.

#1: Nike – Business Continuity Manager – Asia Pacific
Nike products

Image Credits: Pinterest

The Global Business Continuity Team protects Nike’s competitive advantage by proactively planning for natural hazards and man-made threats, and subsequent impacts on day-to-day business.

Spanning the world, Business Continuity is focused on developing and implementing strategies and procedures to increase Nike’s readiness, response, and recovery capabilities for Nike’s corporate, supply chain, and manufacturing operations.

The brand is looking for a Business Continuity Manager who will manage and support all elements of the Business Continuity program within Nike’s Asia-Pacific region. This role reports to the Asia-Pacific Business Continuity Director.

Job Qualifications
  • B.S. or B.A. degree or equivalent required.
  • 5+ years’ experience managing, developing, and executing Business Continuity strategies (or similar risk-based speciality), including conducting Business Impact Analyses and documenting effective recovery strategies.
  • 5+ years managing cross-functional programs and/or complex, enterprise projects.
  • Experience with Business technology applications; Fusion Framework (Salesforce), Tableau, preferred.
  • Proficient in core technology applications; Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint/Keynote. SharePoint and Airtable would be an advantage.
  • Effective with both written and oral presentation skills with the ability to influence at all levels of leadership.

In addition to the above, you should be able to bring to Nike these:

  • Proficiency or mastery of Business Continuity program management, to include readiness, response, and recovery in a matrixed environment or similar experience/environment such as Risk Management, Crisis Management
  • Deep understanding of commercial business acumen/strategy, business functions, and priorities.
  • Develop cross-functional engagement to drive results within the Business Continuity Program, internally and externally.
  • High tolerance for ambiguity and a capability for self-directed work.
  • Perform at high levels in stressful situations.
  • Gain commitment from business functions to ensure resources are available for all required Business Continuity activities.
  • Ability to simplify Business Continuity concepts and requirements.
  • Ability to effectively communicate and advocate program goals, values, obstacles, and priorities across the business to gain the right level of participation and input from key areas.
Key Responsibilities
  • Drive commitment, support, ownership, accountability, and results for Business Continuity in the Asia-Pacific region.
  • Foster a culture of resilience through education and training of regional management.
  • Proactively engage in identification, prioritization, and documentation of critical business functions through the ongoing Business Impact Analysis.
  • Identify and partner with the business to design and implement Business Recovery strategies that mitigate or reduce disruption impact on Nike’s Asia-Pacific region.
  • Validate and test Business Recovery Plans and communicate results to leadership.
  • Facilitate Incident Management training and testing with regional Incident Management Teams.
  • Lead the response to, and management of, disruptive incidents in-line with existing Incident Management program.
  • Capacity to provide off-hour, on-call Incident Management support.
How to apply?

Apply and view the job post in full here.

#2: Shopee – Cross Border Ecommerce – Indonesia (Inventory Management)
Shopee employees

Image Credits: Shopee Careers

Shopee is the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Launched in 2015, it is a platform tailored for the region, providing customers with an easy, secure, and fast online shopping experience through strong payment and fulfilment support.

The company believes that online shopping should be accessible, easy, and enjoyable. This is the vision Shopee aspires to deliver on the platform every single day.

The team comprises over 8,000 employees from across the region and they are constantly on the lookout for potential young talents who have the passion and drive to become part of a fast-moving and dynamic group.

Job Qualifications
  • Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, or related field 
  • At least 5 years’ experience in supply chain, inventory management, or related field
  • Strong analytical skills, hypothesis-driven, structured, and methodical problem solver
  • Keen interest in e-commerce, attention to detail, and interests in numbers
  • Strong stakeholder management skills and communication skills with a keen eye for detail
  • Excellent organizational and time management skills
  • Strong oral and written communication skills in both English and Mandarin to liaise with Chinese counterparts
Key Responsibilities
  • Drive business growth of Cross Border eCommerce warehouse shops
  • Collaborate with local teams to align strategic business objectives & initiatives to drive inventory strategies 
  • Develop inventory flow strategies to understand merchandise strategies & priorities 
  • Balance inventory strategies with key metrics to determine financial trade-offs between in-stock rates & inventory turns
  • Monitor inventory health, manage aging stock and oversee the execution of item-level replenishment
  • Come up with markdown strategies and prioritize category items by attributes
  • Apply suggestions for improving efficiency and cost-effectiveness
  • Prepare weekly and monthly reports through collecting, analyzing, and summarizing information and trends for business review with local teams
How to apply?

Apply and view the job post in full here.

#3: State Courts – Assistant Executive (Community Justice and Tribunals Division) (1-Year Temporary Contract)
State Courts Singapore

Image Credits: CNA

The State Courts comprises the Criminal Justice Division, Civil Justice Division, Community Justice and Tribunals Division, and the State Courts Centre for Dispute Resolution.

It also includes the Presiding Judge’s Office which is made up of the Corporate Services Division, Strategic Planning and Technology Division, Legal Directorate and Centre for Learning. Each is helmed by senior judicial officers and supported by court administrators.

Job Qualifications
  • Some experience in administration and operations is preferred
  • Working experience in the Courts, law firm, or legal department would be an advantage
  • Good knowledge on the use of MS Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
  • Good communication, writing, and interpersonal skills
  • Meticulous and well-organized
  • Ability to work independently, take initiative, multi-task, and demonstrate good teamwork
  • Able to adapt to changes, respond to challenges, and opportunities and solutions-oriented
Key Responsibilities
  • Support the registry operations of the Division to ensure efficiency and timeliness.
  • Work closely with the Judicial Officers and Senior Court Administrators in the delivery of high-quality court services.
  • Render support to the Judicial Officers and be responsible for the daily administration of cases in the Division to ensure that they are processed and managed efficiently.
  • Develop and institutionalize best practices to achieve the targets set for the Division.
  • Uphold professional Interaction with members of the public, litigants, lawyers, District Judges, Magistrates, Deputy Registrars, and other officers of the Courts.
  • Handle challenging assignments and job rotations in a dynamic and fast-paced operating environment.

You may look forward to learning the different court processes and alternative dispute resolution modalities, and work closely with State Courts’ stakeholders.

How to apply?

Apply and view the job post in full here.

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Here’s what you need to know about stomach cancer

stomach cancer

Do you know that stomach cancer is one of the top five most common causes of cancer deaths in Singapore? This is according to a 2019 report from the Singapore Cancer Registry. Over a span of a few years between 2013 and 2017, stomach cancer has claimed over 1,500 lives.

Here’s what you need to know about the disease.

#1: Stomach cancer is not limited to just the stomach

“Stomach cancer most commonly spreads into the abdominal cavity,” said Clinical Assistant Professor Matthew Ng, a senior consultant with National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS)’s Division of Medical Oncology.

Even for patients who have had their stomachs removed, the disease commonly bounces back in the peritoneum. For your information, the peritoneum is a membrane lining the abdominal cavity.

#2: Commonly mistaken for indigestion
Stomach cancer is not limited to just the stomach

Image Credits: Freepik

The symptoms that come as a result of stomach cancer tumours are often mistaken as regular digestive issues. It may come in the form of persistent pain in the upper abdomen, acid reflux, or even heartburn. It can also present itself as general symptoms like fatigue due to anaemia or weight loss.

Serious cases may see signs of vomiting blood, passing black stools of digested blood, or persistent vomiting after eating.

Professor Ng shared that a lump can be felt in the upper abdomen if the tumour is large. If cancer has spread to the abdominal cavity, swelling of the abdomen due to fluid accumulation may occur.

#3: Not necessarily hereditary

Assistant Professor Joanne Ngeow, the head of Cancer Genetics Service and a senior consultant with NCCS’s Division of Medical Oncology, points out that only up to 10 per cent of stomach cancer cases are hereditary.

Familial cases of stomach cancer could be due to environmental factors, or a combination of genetic and environmental factors. She also adds that not all people with a genetic tendency to develop stomach cancer or a known hereditary cancer syndrome will develop stomach cancer.

#4: A complete removal of the stomach may not be necessary
stomach-cancer-procedure

Image Credits: glsurgical.com.sg

Patients who are suffering from stomach cancer may not require complete removal of their stomachs.

“The size and location of the tumour (are) important and it will dictate how much of the stomach needs to be removed to get complete clearance of the tumour,” said Professor Ng.

In fact, the removal of one’s stomach is not a death sentence. According to Professor Ng, patients who have undergone stomach removal can still consume foods like curry in moderation. But it’s advisable to avoid raw, high-sugar/fibre foods, and anything that has the potential to cause indigestion.

Dietitian Lee Miaw Sim from Singapore General Hospital’s Department of Dietetics also recommends patients to have up to six small meals throughout the day. Eating slowly and chewing properly will aid in better digestion.

#5: Eating food preserved by salt increases the risk of stomach cancer

Many believe that preservatives in food are causing people to develop stomach cancer. But instead, it’s the salt in preserved food that seems to be the culprit.

“There is strong evidence that consuming food preserved by salting increases the risk for stomach cancer,” said Lee.

To put it simply, salt affects our stomach’s mucosal lining which causes inflammation and cellular damage. As such, the ulcer-inducing bacteria gets its chance to attack our stomachs.

It’s about time we relook into our daily meals and reduce salt intake to less than the recommended daily amount of intake, which is about one teaspoon.

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