MoneyDigest - Personal Finance, Lifestyle, Money Saving Tips

Surefire Ways To Survive A New Job

New year, new job! Congratulations on acquiring a new position. You have your budding career ahead of you!

Are you feeling excited or nervous? It may be exciting to begin a new phase of your career, but it can also be nerve-wracking to start from scratch! Review the following tips to ensure your smooth transition.

DO A PHYSICAL TOUR OF THE WORKPLACE

From drafting your resignation to completing your unfinished projects, you need to carefully plan out your departure. The same amount of careful consideration must be poured out to your arrival.

Upon arriving to your new workplace, notice the key locations and the overall environment. Where are the pantries, toilets, conference rooms, and so on. Find a place of solitude where you can retreat every once in a while. Remember to schedule small breaks in between your tasks to walk around the office. More importantly, ask for some lunch recommendations.

DO NOT IGNORE THEIR CULTURE

Aside from being qualified for the position, the hiring manager chose you because he or she deems you to be a great fit for the company. I remember when my supervisor told me that she strategically put my desk beside a co-worker due to my background in Psychology. She believes that I can help resolve some of my co-worker’s inner conflicts. I learned about her strategy after a year of interacting with my co-worker. It worked out for the best.

Catch onto the workplace culture and bring something to the table. If your department goes out to lunch every Friday, join them. Is your office looking for volunteers to help organize an upcoming event? Do sign up! Send the message that you are a good team player by respecting the unspoken rules and engaging in their social activities.

DO ENGAGE IN CONVERSATIONS STRATEGICALLY

It is understandable that you will have a lot to catch up on as a new employee. So, use your time wisely. Rather than sitting silently on a corner after a meeting, ask your peers about the tricks of the trade.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Keeping quiet will not establish a good impression! However, listening actively and asking smart questions will.

DO NOT FORGET TO ASK SOME QUESTIONS

In spite of having years of experience and significant educational background, you can never know the answer to everything. Many marketing and advertising executives agree that new employees make a mistake of not asking questions. No one expects you to know it all in one or two days! Do not be afraid to ask your supervisor or co-workers on the processes as well as their expectations of you.

Requesting clarification entails that you are eager to get things right! While you do not want to bother others with endless requests for assistance, most people will be happy to help.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

The bottom-line is: “do not stress yourself too much”. No one expects you to get it right in the first few weeks! Ask questions, if necessary.

Sources: 1 & 2

Top 5 Places to Get the Best Pineapple Tarts and Cookies in Singapore

Top 5 Places to Get the Best Pineapple Tarts and Cookies in Singapore:

Pineapple tarts are a standout amongst the most famous Chinese New Year delectable delights for pretty much every family staying in Singapore considers must-have festive delicacies amid this happy season. Be it as balls, rolls or open-faced tarts, everybody likes to appreciate this rich, creamy and sweet treats.

With the joyful festive merry season around the corner, we all might gear up tight for a significant shopping and sourcing delightful treats for Chinese New Year. Moreover, when it comes to sweet treats it’s for sure you can’t miss Pineapple tarts and Cookies!

Here’s a rundown with the Top 05 Places to Get the Best Pineapple Tarts and Cookies in Singapore, with taste as the main consideration. Indeed, some may cost somewhat more than others. Regardless of whether it is tied in with getting pineapple tarts for your family, for your visitors over for the merry season, or just for your own eating delight, you can discover pineapple tarts which take into account your preferences.

CNY Goodies & Yummy Pineapple Tarts in Singapore

When you are in search for best pineapple tarts in Singapore, the best recipe by Bing Liang’s high-quality handmade pineapple tarts and cookies will bowl you over with their ultimate heart-melting buttery texture and flakiness layer all over them. Their pineapple jam filling is purely handmade unlike most of the bakers who use to make pineapple tarts with readymade jam. Bing Liang Bakery in Singapore offering the mouth-watering delights and providing ultimate baked cookies to an immense number of Singaporeans, who are a huge fan of Bing Liang’s one of a kind recipes.

So, with huge varieties of pineapple tarts and cookies by Bing Liang, how can you resist to relish these mind-blowing creations? If you still didn’t buy your pineapple tarts this Chinese New Year, Look no further head over to cnygoodies.sg by Bing Liang and enjoy the delicious tarts this New Year season.

Glory

The traditional love for bona fide Peranakan authentic food is the thing that propelled the Chin family to share their most loved recipes at Glory since the year 1979. Glory offers five sorts of pineapple tarts – traditional delight, large tarts, golden glow, apple shape and pineapple shape. A 650g of apple shape pineapple tarts has a cost of around $20. Other than pineapple tarts, Glory offer clients merry treats and snacks, for example, green pea cookies, almond treats, bean stew custard crackers and agar in states of goldfish and rabbit. So, check out today the perfect blend of sour and sweet flavors by Glory, Singapore.

Amethyst Pastry & Cakes

Throughout the years, Amethyst Pastry and Cakes has made two signature festive delights, their popular cheese pineapple tarts available for you every Lunar New Year and their Hainanese mooncakes which you can get by the mid of each Mid-Autumn Festival, that has charmed Singaporeans. Since the year 2000, they have consistently enhanced their pineapple tart unique recipes and presented new things over their regular top picks. Their conventional pineapple balls go at $24 for around 36 balls while their pineapple cheese balls go at $26. Amethyst offers other Lunar New Year cakes, such as Love Letters, Prawn Roll, Sugee Cookies and so on.

Joyus Pastries

Since many years, Joyus has maintained their belief that, each tart and each cookie is crafted using conventional recipes that passed down from age to age. Its modest beginnings began as an unattractive setup and Joyus is pleased to have developed to become one of our top picks when it comes to finding the top CNY pineapple tarts in Singapore. They confidently believe that regular, high-quality freshness is all important, they select just the best ingredients and meticulously carefully created pineapple fillings. They take each step just to satisfy their clientele desires with their utmost delicious tarts & cookies along with dedicated customer service. So, they can be your favorite place this new year to buy pineapple tart and cookies.

Le Café Confectionery & Pastry

Le Café is one of Singapore’s most established and best cake shops since its foundation in 1949. Thus, it’s nothing unexpected that they are all around perceived for their quality and novel taste of their items. Their determinations are 100% created by handmade and contain no pork or grease. Le Café is additionally the first to present round pineapple tarts otherwise known as Gold Ball tarts! The soggy pineapple filling is encased in their rich, buttery cake. So, A bite to that yummy tart gives 100% delight. So, try the all-new form of Pineapple tarts this CNY and fill your festive season with sweet delights.

Hope you have enjoyed reading about Top 05 Places to Get the Best Pineapple Tarts and Cookies in Singapore! If you know some other places to get the best pineapple tarts in Singapore, then, let us know in the comment box below!

5 Best Sites To Order Flower Online For Any Occasion

We all have plenty of reasons to send flowers to someone we love, we appreciate or to commemorate an important occasion, to congratulate someone for their achievement and many more reasons that create an urgent need for a place or any online flower stores where we can place the order to get flowers for any occasion anytime.

The flowers have a gesture, a tender touch that is not less than a language to express someone your feelings. And you may not know that the language of the flowers was first invented in Victorian times and after that which is known as the science of floriography. Particularly, the science of floriography was used in early times to express and to pass secret messages to someone. It was then a mode of communication and still, this tradition continues as an important part of our lives.

So, here come the Flower retailers who provide varieties of flowers with dedicated arrangements for every moment, event, or occasion.

To make your search for best flowers simpler, we have done some groundwork for the “Top 5 Sites to Order Flower Online for Any Occasion.”

LVLY

LVLY is a collaboration between Co-Founders Hannah Spilva and Verity Tuck. The idea for LVLY started with a purpose rather than a product. They wanted to build a business that would help keep loved ones connected and spread a bit of joy in the world. Han and Vez were living away from home, missing friends and family and saw a gap in the market to send affordable flowers and gifts that were authentic, fun and thoughtful.

Flower Chimp

Flower Chimp is the largest and most trusted online flower delivery company in Southeast Asia with branches in The Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Indonesia.
Based in Singapore, Flower Chimp receives orders from all over the world to have flowers and gifts delivered to their loved ones across Singapore – going the extra mile to put a smile on the face of their loved ones.
Their motto is backed by the “Flower Chimp Guarantee” which promises unique freshness, superior flower quality, and competitive value for every single order. The brand delivers happiness – one blossom at a time!

Farm Florist Singapore

With more than 100 successful years of ruling over the Singapore market, Farm Florist has made itself a renowned florist brand just because of their satisfied and happy clientele. If you live in Singapore and you want to send the ultimate flower bouquet to someone special, farm florist is the ideal destination site for you.

They make the flower delivery process easy and convenient and same day flower delivery Singapore is exactly what they believe to follow in their vision. They provide luxurious and attractive flower bouquet anytime in Singapore. The best part in Farm Florist Singapore is that they put innovative thoughts while presenting flowers that can melt anyone heart away! They never fail to provide valuable services to their clientele. So, go ahead and place your order online at farm florist – a trusted florist brand in Singapore to send flowers anytime for any occasion.

A Better Florist

A Better Florist most likely one of the fastest quickest flower delivery services in Singapore. Apart from their quick delivery, this online flower retailer truly sparkles with their fresh and reasonable handmade flower bouquets with stylish decoration. The moderate and easy to use the online site of better florist shop features an all-around curated array of flowers.

Their stylish and aesthetic presentations prove them a top of the line youthful expert. Their standard same-day delivery is offered for free, yet in case you’re in a rush, their 90 minutes flower delivery benefit is the best thing they provide to their customers.

Valen Fleur

If you are not bothered on your expensive purchases when it comes to luxurious flower bouquet range then Valen Fleur is the perfect flower specialist for you. They have been known as one of the best flower vendors in Singapore for their rich and extravagant flower arrangements.

You get vast and ultimate packaging from their ultimate flower collection, but the best specialty of Valen Fleur is their bespoke online service allow you to customize the bouquet as per your desire by choosing the color, theme, flower type and as per your budget as well

Floral Magic

The best Weddings arrangements in Singapore are Floral Magic’s area of expertise. They have up to nine assortments in their flower bouquet arrangements, each truly amazing and correlative to any wedding subject or theme.

They have banded together with various brides and grooms to mount special & memorable occasions with their exquisite services along with their setting of rich and plush blossoms. In the meantime, their handmade bouquets can grab all the attention of an event which features blooms like roses, freesias lilies and many more.

Fleurapy

Fluerapy incorporates the restorative impact of blossoms and creates into imaginative bouquets. Their flower vendor takes motivation from the absolute most delightful places on earth, catching their vitality and environment into a wonderfully organized heap of fresh flowers from frantic Tokyo to opulent London and clamoring Hong Kong.

Not exclusively they will set your mood, but you may even be enlivened to give your craving for something new.

With this list of Top 5 Sites to Order Flower Online for Any Occasion, you can get beautiful flowers anytime. Let us know if you have some other options for online florist delivery services in Singapore!

Five Credit Card Safety Tips

Whether you are doing business online or you have a physical store, payment security is a must for you. Credit card payment is one of the popular ways for customers to pay for the goods or services that they are availing.

It is essential to your business to make sure that the credit card payment you are taking is free of fraud. Consumers who are victims of fraud purchases can file chargebacks through their credit card companies, leaving you on the losing end, especially if you have already shipped the goods.

On the other hand, you have to secure your payment system as well, so the cardholder’s information will not fall on the hands of cyber thieves.

Here are some credit card safety tips for you to minimize business’ losses:

1. Verify the issuing card company

If you are taking payments over the phone and you are unsure of the issuing card company, try a BIN lookup. Just enter the first 6-8 digits of the card number, and it will tell you the issuing card company.

Knowing the issuing card company will help you if there is a need for you to report a suspected fraud. Do not even think twice in calling the issuing bank. Fraudulent transactions will do you no good. It may look like money, but it will be reversed anyway.

2. Take advantage of an Address Verification System (AVS)

Credit card companies and issuing banks cooperate with merchants to check whether the submitted billing address by the customer matches with the address on their end. Major card companies such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Card support AVS.

If you are using a payment processor, talk to them on how to integrate and implement AVS on your payment processing.

Briefly, though, this is how AVS works:

When you make the AV request, the first 4 to 5 digits on the street address and the zip code will be checked against the address on file at the bank. For instance: 1238 Main Street, Main USA 98763. What will be checked are “1238” and “98763.”
There will be six return codes for the check namely: full match, partial match address, partial match zip code, no match, international, and unavailable. You will receive one of these codes.

A full match is ideal as it comes with less risk. If the shipping address matches with the address on file at their issuing bank, then it is harder for the customer to dispute the transaction.

Maintain a secure network

Invest in high-grade encryption especially that you are processing payments. In doing this, you are not only protecting your business but also your customers’ information.
Apart from encryption, there are other ways to secure your network:

Install anti-malware software especially those that can run in the background.
Update your tools regularly so weak spots will be fixed.
Utilize layered security measures like using strong passwords and two-factor authentication.

Always be watchful of the different fraudulent schemes of these con artists.

Be PCI Security Compliant

The Payment Card Industry has set some guidelines on how to secure cardholders’ information. You can read the details of these guidelines on the PCI Security Standard Council’s website.

Take some time to read the guidelines so you can implement the security measures recommended. These measures suggested will keep the acceptance and transmission of cardholders’ information safe. Being compliant to these is one of the best ways to combat credit card fraud.

5. Be critical of customers’ purchasing behavior

As it is essential to secure your payment system technically, it is equally important for you to be vigilant on customers’ behavior.

These are few things to be watchful of on your customers:

Multiple items in an order especially if it doesn’t make sense.
Multiple orders on the same day.
Orders coming from countries you unusually get orders from.
Big items such as tv’s or laptops.

You can require additional identity verification for unusual purchases. Customers will appreciate your effort as you explain to them the purpose of what you’re doing. After all, it is for their own safety, too.

Maintaining the safety of credit card payments and making sure that you are taking payments from the legitimate cardholders will not only ensure that your business is profit-wise, it will also safeguard your reputation.

As an entrepreneur, you cannot afford to lose some profit to con artists and tarnish the reputation you are working hard to build. Carefully examine your current payment system and make the necessary changes if needed.

Avoid These Sneaky Starbucks Marketing Strategies

What can be more tempting than the smell of freshly brewed coffee? Many Singaporeans cannot go without a hot cup of joe in the morning. The growing demand for coffee and its varieties increases the popularity of Starbucks. This glistening green mermaid houses products that end up costing more than expected.

Why is that so? Well, you end up spending more money with these marketing tricks.

ALL ABOUT THE AESTHETICS

While I was writing this post, I overheard a group of adolescents complaining how they dislike the potent taste of Starbucks coffee. In spite of this, they liked the look of the coffee cup and the establishment.

You see, Starbucks stores are all about offering aesthetically pleasing designs to catch customers’ attention. It begins with perfect lighting! The food is kept on the best lit area of the store. Drawing more attention is the small items right by the register. Candies, cookies, and nuts may seem affordable at the moment. However, these little things add up! You have to be wary.

Image Credits:pixabay.com

Furthermore, stores may rearrange their products to make you notice things that you have not tried before. Do not get me started with the Starbucks Reserve chains with fancier interiors!

SEE WHAT IS TRENDING

One thing is for sure! Starbucks has figured out how to keep their loyal fans happy. As they are constantly creating new twists of old standards, they keep grabbing our attentions. Let me introduce you to the Merlion Frap!

Do you remember the time when the pastel Unicorn Frappuccino stole the hearts of many Netizens? Unfortunately, this limited drink was not available in Singapore. Nonetheless, it was a genius move on a business perspective.

YouTuber thejetsets was intrigued by the pastel drink and decided to ask for a Singaporean rendition. Although the Starbucks baristas were taken aback at first, they eventually warmed up to the idea. They made a pink and orange frappuccino in creamy mango flavor. They called it the Merlion frap! Apparently, it tasted good.

THE ORDERING GAME

Starbucks has a loyalty program, which turns your orders into a game. What are the mechanics of the game? Each card holder needs to get to next level by earning stars (or reward points). Earn a certain amount of stars, and you get any one item (i.e., food or drink) on the menu for free!

Through the Starbucks app, you can find special offers, reload your card, and redeem your points. It is no wonder that many of your co-workers requested a Starbucks top-up on the Yuletide wishlist!

BEAMING CLOSE CALLS

I, for one, enjoy a good slurp of Bubble Milk Tea. I often ask if the size I want is available. In cases when it is not, I choose the closest size with no hesitation. This scenario happens to many people. When it comes to drinks, people usually do not pay attention to the prices than they do with food.

According to Consumer Psychology professor Kit Yarrow, people will choose larger sizes than necessary as they see the costs are too close. For instance, some may order a Venti instead of a Grande.

Image Credits:pixabay.com

Starbucks has employed many marketing strategies to make you spend more money. Awareness of these tricks is the first step to mindful spending!

Sources: 1, 2, & 3

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