MoneyDigest - Personal Finance, Lifestyle, Money Saving Tips

6 Things You Can Learn About Money From Professor X-Perience

“Who is Professor X-Perience?”, you may ask. It is a persona that I created to embody our experiences.

Our experiences consist of the overall process of sensing and doing things. As far as I know, not everything can be learned from the pages of the book! Exploring the world with your own eyes gives you the most valuable lessons about money.

On that note, here are some of the financial realizations that came from my experiences:

1. GIVE AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE

Whether you want to admit it or not, it is rare that we receive something without doing anything. This statement does not only pertain to finances as it can be applied to other areas in life like opportunities and friendships. If you want to increase the perceived value of what you receive, you must give it out first.

Why is this so? I realized that you reap what you sow. Almost everything that happened to me was a result of my actions. I was able to enjoy an overseas trip because I worked for extra hours and saved up for it.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

2. EARN YOUR MONEY HARD

Since you worked hard for your money, you must spend it wisely.

I never saw the true value of money until I had my first full-time job. When I was younger, I spent my part-time pay on shoes, clothes, tickets, and other materialistic things. The feeling of satisfaction was short-lived as these things are superficial. Nowadays, I spend my money on long-term investments.

Being independent with my finances made me realize how important it is to practice budgeting and tracking your expenses.

3. DO PRIOR RESEARCH

Days before a job interview, I make it a point to do prior research regarding the company and the position that I am applying for. Make your way into the basics such as the company’s mission and vision as well as the position’s duties and objectives. Then, dig deep into the issue that is rarely spoken in our Asian culture – the salary. Be prepared to provide a salary range.

Spend a substantial amount of time in finding out the average salaries for similar jobs in your particular field. Websites such as salary.sg, hudson.sg, and payscale.com are helpful for this task.

4. EXPLORE DIFFERENT JOBS

Some people are so creative that they cannot be confined in a cubicle. If you are one of them, do not limit yourself to the 9-5 PM office jobs. Learn to explore other opportunities such as working online.

Saying that Internet changed our generation is an understatement. Personally, it influences my bread and butter. I am freelance writer that is able to choose from a variety of markets. And, you can too.

You can write for online or print media that go beyond magazines and newspapers. Setting up your own website or blog is also doable. Furthermore, book publishers are always searching for the next big thing. They are in need of people to write their marketing letters, announcements, e-books, and more. An ambitious scribe may dive in to freelancing and get its profits. Note that training, skill, and experience affects your rates.

5. REWARD YOURSELF RESPONSIBLY

According to studies by Behavioral Psychologists, positive reinforcements motivate people to work more. I support these studies as I savor rewards after a long month of work.

Rewarding yourself with a responsible amount of 5-8% of your monthly salary is recommended. Find interests outside of your job such as painting, dancing, yoga, or cooking to ease your daily stress. Also, rewarding yourself with a hobby is a good way to keep you motivated.

6. KEEP YOUR COOL

When faced with embarrassing money-related situations, it is best to keep your cool.

I was working as an administrative officer at a fitness studio a few years back. A rising Hollywood celebrity came to pay but her credit cards got declined. She was furious at me and gave her debit card instead. Thankfully, the transaction was successful.

You can handle this situation better by being calm. Talk to the personnel privately and arrange an alternative form of payment. Consider going to the nearest ATM to withdraw some cash.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Comment down below to share your own experiences with money.

5 Steps To Write An Irresistible Business Proposal

A business proposal (BP) is a written document that is sent to a potential client in order to obtain a specific goal. It is a crucial tool that can help you navigate and manage your business.

The challenge is for you to write a proposal that will keep your prospects hooked!

UNDERSTAND YOUR PURPOSE

It makes perfect sense to begin your journey by identifying and understanding your purpose. Answer this simple question: “What product or service are you selling?

A business proposal is created to earn sales and not just to inform people about what you are offering. Understanding the purpose of your business proposal will help you define the problems it needs to address as well as its solutions that provide value.

CREATE AN OUTLINE

After knowing the direction that you intend to take, it is time to organize your business plan by building an outline. The six fundamental parts of the BP are the executive summary, business overview, offer description, marketing analysis, detailed implementation, and financial projection.

The executive summary is synonymous to the abstract of a research paper. It includes the essential elements of the business plan that your client can easily read in a glimpse. Be sure to include the background of your business, its mission and vision, the market opportunity, its financial requirements, the competitors, and its financial projections.

Business overview gives a background of your business. It includes when and why your business was formed, its mission and vision, its business model, and any existing strategic relationships with other brands or institutions.

Image Credits: wikihow.com/Write-a-Business-Proposal

As the name suggests, the offer description highlights the nature of the products and services that you are selling. It seeks to describe these in detail by including information such as the manufacturing process and the availability of materials.

Inside the marketing analysis is the layout of your marketing strategy that addresses customer service, sales, public relations, and advertising.

The second to the last section is where the investors focus on – the detailed implementation. This part includes the dates and the deadlines of your business plan.

Lastly, the financial projections specifies the “quantitative interpretation of everything you stated in your organizational and marketing sections”. Include your projected profits and losses in the next three years or so.

DO SOME RESEARCH

Tailor your business proposal to the personality and the “vibe” of your potential client as much as possible. If you prospect’s target market is the youth, highlight the benefits of your products to the hippie millennials. Do further research on the needs and wants of your prospects.

This will ensure that your BP is comprehensive.

WRITE THE CONTENTS

Curtains are all set. It is time to perform! Let your thoughts flow in harmony with the outline you set.

Add additional information such as the people involved in the business, your successful track record, and the evidence of the business’ financial stability. This will strengthen your claims as well as your perceived competence.

EDIT THE PROPOSAL

The last step entails that you transform into your own critique. The face value or the appearance is as important as its content. Make sure that there are no grammatical and typographical errors. If you are not good with words, you can always high a professional to do the task.

Image Credits: wikihow.com/Write-a-Business-Proposal

Remember that the BP must manifest how you and your business can benefit potential clients.

Sources: 1, 2, & 3

Delicious And Affordable Places For Churros In Singapore

Just when I thought that the CHURROS CRAZE was long gone, it came back with new and improved versions. Churros come in every color, shape, and sizes. You read that right! Retailers stepped up their games with unique flavors such as Ondeh Ondeh and Sea Salt Charcoal.

Know where to look for these amazing flavors (and more) by reading this list of affordable places that serve Spanish-style Churros…

MORE OF THE GOODNESS

Alt-Yard is the wonderful off-spring of Fluff Bakery and Penny University. It serves chunky churros, specialty coffee, and other delectable desserts. By desserts, I am talking about finger-licking flavors such as Nutella Red Velvet Cupcakes and Chocolate Chewy Marshmallow Cookies!

Going back to Alt-Yard’s take on the Spanish street food, their churros are lightly drizzled in cinnamon sugar. Accompanying this made-to-order churros are the affordable dips such as Salted Caramel ($1) and Chocolate Ganache ($1).

If you are looking for a unique spin on the local favorite, try the Ondeh Ondeh Churros ($3.80 for 7). It comes with a Gula Melaka dip and is coated with shredded coconut shavings. This batch of churros is so good that it will leave a lasting impression.

Image Credits: Muhammad Safiudin

Location: 5 Tampines Avenue 3, Tampines West Community Club, Singapore 529705

STAR OF THE CROWD

Say you decided to invite your friends at Clarke Quay to party the night away after an exhausting week at work. With several establishments in that area, try chilling at a place that is beloved by the night crowd – the Alegro Churros Bar. It serves authentic Spanish street food paired with a range of beer and other liquors. Its authenticity is due to the special pulling equipment that was imported from Spain. This said equipment is used to make tasty churros. What makes their churros special is its texture that is crispy on the outside but chewy and soft on the inside.

The average price per person is S$13, according to hungrygowhere.com.

Image Credits: hungrygowhere.com/singapore/alegro_spanish_street_food/photo/80bd0000

Location: 3D River Valley Road #01-13, Singapore 179023

OUT OF THE ORDINARY

Tired of the plain looking churros that you normally see? Take a chane on the Churros Factory instead. Savor the divergent flavors such as Sea Salt Charcoal, Red Velvet, Raspberry, and Ondeh Ondeh Churros.

Churros Factory’s Ondeh Ondeh Churros with Gula Melaka has a crunchy brown exterior that is filled with pandan delight (S$7 for 6 pieces or S$5 for 3 pieces)! While the Raspberry Churros are sinfully scrumptious when dipped into the chocolate sauce. Worry not about their sugar to pasty ratio as the sweetness is just right.

Image Credits: facebook.com/churrosfactorysingapore

Locations: Several outlets in Singapore as seen on churrosfactorysg.com

Have fun snacking! 🙂

Sources: 1 & 2

Best Cash Rebate Credit Card in Singapore for Frequent Travellers

This is a contribution by Alison, who blogs at www.heartlandboy.com

Heartland Boy recently took a leap of faith to accept a job assignment in the chaotic streets that is Jakarta.

As a recently married and henpecked husband, he agreed voluntarily to fly back to Singapore on weekends so as to spend time with his lovely wife, Ms Heartland Girl. Heartland Boy does not have the luxury of having his company fund his weekly trips home; so minimizing his airfares were a huge priority for him. Therefore, Heartland Boy set out to look for the best cash rebate credit card for frequent travellers, instead of the typical credit cards that issue air flyer miles.

After comparing across various credit cards in the market, the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card is the best cash rebate credit card for frequent travellers due to its headline grabbing 5% cash rebate. In this programme, the cash rebates are awarded in the form of Optimum dollars but essentially, they are effectively as good as cash. Therefore, for simplicity, Heartland Boy shall address Optimum dollars as cash rebates in this article.

Source: https://sg.anz.com/apps/optimum/

HOW ANZ OPTIMUM WORLD MASTERCARD CREDIT CARD WORKS

Select 1 out of these 4 categories. [Dining&Leisure, Travel, Shopping, Groceries]

Table 1: Definitions of the categories under the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card

The selected category, otherwise known as a core category, will earn 5% cash rebate, while the remaining 3 categories (non-core categories) will earn 1% rebate.
The cash rebate is calculated based on every multiple of S$10 where the transaction amount will first be rounded down to the nearest S$10. The table below illustrates the different type of transactions and the cash rebates applicable.

Table 2: Cash rebates applicable on the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card

The cash rebates will accumulate daily and eventually be rounded down to the nearest dollar on your monthly statement. Therefore, assuming that those were the only 2 transactions for the entire month, the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card holder will earn a total of S$11 cash rebate for that particular month.
Once you have accumulated a minimum of $50 in cash rebates, you can choose to “redeem” the cash rebate to offset the cost of your future transactions. Redemption of cash rebates are in multiples of S$50.

What Heartland Boy likes about ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card

With a cash rebate of 5%, it is easily the best cash rebate credit card for frequent travellers.
No minimum spend is required on the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card to earn the cash rebate. Therefore, even if you charge S$20 for your core category on the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card, you already earn S$1 cash rebate for the month.
There is no limit to the amount of cash rebate you can earn in a single month.
Cash rebate earned have a long validity period of 3 years.

Tips on optimizing the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card (pun intended)

As card holders are allowed to change their core categories every quarter, you may want to switch category in anticipation of some big ticket expenditure. For instance, if you are booking year-end holidays for the family, it will be good to switch to “Travel” category to earn the maximum 5% cash rebate. After completing this big ticket expenditure, card holders can still switch back to their original core category in the next quarter.
Note that the maximum amount of cash rebate awarded per transaction is S$30. This translates to S$600 and S$3000 per transaction for your core and non-core categories respectively. If your transaction exceed the quantum, you may want to break up your transaction into separate receipts and payments to qualify for more cash rebates.
ANZ is having a credit card promotion now whereby new-to-bank customers who apply for the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card and have their credit cards approved by 15 March 2016 and spend at least S$488 on their Credit Card will earn a cash rebate of S$100! Readers who are eligible should take advantage of this credit card promotion!

In reality, the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card is a fantastic credit card as long as one is a “heavy” user of any of the four categories. For instance, a parent with a large family may find the 5% cash rebate on groceries very useful. Heartland Boy also thinks that readers can be creative and utilise a suite of credit cards to leverage on their respective strengths. For instance, Heartland Boy uses the ANZ Optimum World MasterCard Credit Card to book air tickets and the OCBC 365 Credit Card to pay for bills at restaurants.

Don’t Lose Your Fortune On These 4 Techniques That Fraud Artists Use

FRAUDS
SCAMMERS
PHONIES
CON ARTISTS
IMPERSONATORS

All these people share one mission: to use different techniques in order to acquire your hard-earned money. Here are some of the methods that you must watch out for:

1. FAKE CHECKS

Fraud artists employ diverse types of scams in order to get substantial amount of money or to get what they want. One of the most common type of scams is the “fake cheque or check”. Fake check occurs when the artist curates counterfeit checks that seem legitimate. From watermarks to routing numbers, these comprehensive checks can fool the novice eye easily!

Artists use these checks to deposit money to their temporary bank accounts or to pay for a company’s products or services. This is why you must be vigilant when accepting checks. The first step to ensure that the bank or the institution that issued the checks really exists.

Prevention: You do not want to fall prey to checks that are not genuinely from DBS. Is that watermark really pertain to the Development Bank of Singapore or is it from the institution called Doing Bountiful Scams?

2. FAKE BANK EMAILS

Transacting or sending funds online can be convenient but, it can make you vulnerable. I am not completely discouraging online funds transfer or remittance services. Singapore is the most secure Asian country for data privacy after all. According to a recent survey by Artmotion, our nation received a relatively low risk score of 1.9%. It was even ahead of other powerful nations such as USA and UK.

What I am telling you is that providing information for your online activities can put your identity and your wealth at risk.

Prevention: Avoid this by being cautious at all times. For instance, no financial institution will ask for your sensitive information directly thru email. Providing information for your online activities can put your identity and your wealth at risk. To avoid this, you must be informed and cautious at all times.

3. FAKE CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBERS

Whenever I am in urgent need of professional help at home (e.g., plumber, technician, or locksmith), I immediately search for the service numbers online. You cannot blame me! This is the most convenient and quickest method that most people utilize. Scammers noticed this trend and created a scam called the “fake customer service numbers”.

Believe it or not, some people can receive messages online without a handphone or fake the contact numbers itself. Fraud artists purchase contact numbers that are similar or close to the authentic customer service numbers used by several financial institutions.

They buy the advertisement slots on the top of the search engines in order for the fake number to appear first. It is a such a clever tactic, to say the least. Clients who are in a rush can get trapped by these familiar looking numbers. Imagine the impact if these clients divulge sensitive information such as their credit card details!

Prevention: Proceed to the official website and use the customer service hotlines that are displayed there. Or, you may use the numbers written at the back of your credit card.

4. FAKE APP UPDATES

What do Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Snapchat have in common? They are quite addicting and most Singaporeans are hooked the moment that they were released. So when a new update such as Instagram stories comes along, people are quick to tap the necessary buttons.

Fraud artists can send blast emails that target the said app’s users. Enclosed in this email is a link or a button that directs the users to the pseudo update. Everything looks legitimate in its face value. However, the redirection includes a malware attack to your system. The malware that you downloaded may copy your all your passwords and personal details including your bank accounts. The attack is vicious and fast-acting!

Prevention: Developers seldom send you updates thru email. Updates are usually prompted in the application store or in the app itself. When you receive spams like the ones mentioned above, please confirm with the official customer service hotline first.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Next time you encounter tricky circumstances, it is up to you to outsmart the fraud artists!

Sources: 1, 2, & 3

HOW ANZ OPTIMUM WORLD MASTERCARD CREDIT CARD WORKS

Search the site