Being in a relationship founded by mutual trust may find it natural to create a joint bank account together.
Since you can trust your partner with everything else, why not trust him/her with your own finances?
But, managing this may be difficult especially when there are two people with different buying habits and priorities.
So, here are 5 Tips to Help Couples with Joint Bank Accounts…
1. HAVE SHARED GOALS
Maintain a joint bank account for big financial goals such as vacations, household bills, or insurance. Whatever the purpose and goals may be, be sure to make it unanimous as both of you will contribute each month.
Image Credits: Asher Isbrucker via Flickr
2. CREATE RULES BEFORE OPENING AN ACCOUNT
Have a plan of how each of you will contribute (e.g. 50-50 or 60-40). As said a while ago, discuss the goals and priorities you want to pursue in order to know where the money will go.
3. MAINTAIN YOUR OWN BANK ACCOUNT
Aside from the joint account, each person is entitled to have an individual account. This is because you must treat yourself or your partner personally without affecting the “household money”.
You might say that this burns the bridges of sharing, but not really. The key to having individual accounts is that both would have access to each other’s account in case of emergency so there are no secrets.
4. RECORD AND MANAGE YOUR EXPENSES TOGETHER
Communicate openly about your joint bank account and organize your expenses. Make it a habit to log on to your online banking account to reconcile all your purchases together (i.e., every week or every two weeks). Through this, you will understand how you are spending the money. Make cut backs if possible so you can save more.
5. REMAIN EQUALS
Embody your marriage vows or treat it like a merger between to companies. Everyone has an equal say and contribution to the shared account. This is why setting up rules and agreement before the processing is very important. Through this, you can keep an open eye if one overspends on something you did not agree on.
Image Credits: BK via Flickr
Ultimately, you must respect each other’s decision and communicate openly about your finances. Having a joint bank account may not be easy, but it is possible! Sharing is not only showing Care but it also Saves money.
When calculating our monthly expenses, usually the first few things that would come to mind are your utility bills, your phone bills and perhaps the few big purchases you made during the month. What may not be so immediately obvious, are the transport costs you incur on a daily basis!
I used to be one of those people who didn’t really think much about my transport costs, and just topped-up my EZ-link card whenever I needed to. However, after a few months, I realised that there was something that was really burning a deep hole in my pocket. After some calculations, I realised how much transport was costing me each month! Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Here are a few tips to help you save on your daily transport costs
Take Early Morning Trains
If you take the MRT to work every day, why not wake up a bit earlier to enjoy free rides? If you tap out at certain selected stations (Bayfront, Bras Basah, Bugis, Chinatown, City Hall, Clarke Quay, Dhoby Ghaut, Esplanade, Lavender, Marina Bay, Orchard, Outram Park, Promenade, Raffles Place, Somerset and Tanjong Pagar) before 7.45am, your train ride is completely free! But what if you missed the cut-off time by a few minutes? It’s alright, you’ll still get 50 cents off your train fare if you tap out between 7.45 and 8.00am. For you to eligible for this fare rebate, the tap-in station cannot be any of the 16 stations that were listed.
Besides getting a free ride, you’ll also be able to enjoy less crowded trains, and be able to grab breakfast at a nearby bakery or coffee shop before stepping into the office! With this scheme, you could potentially shave off almost half of your entire transportation costs each month. Imagine all the things you could do with the money you saved on MRT rides alone.
Get A Concession Card
“Wait, aren’t those just for students?” you might ask. Well, now there’s also a concession card for working adults. While this concession card is certainly more pricey that that of a student concession card ($120 for the adult card), you will definitely save in the long run if you use public transport on a heavy basis. This concession card applies to both trains and buses, so you’re able to take as much public transportation you want without worrying about topping up.
Carpool
If you have colleagues who live in the area, and all of you drive, why not carpool? Each of you can take turns to be the driver, and pick everyone up to go to work together. Not only is this more fun than staring into space on the MRT or bus every morning, you also get to save on your fuel, as you won’t be using your car every day.
If you don’t have any colleagues who live in the area, why not using carpooling apps and sites, such as Tripda and Ryde. With these carpooling apps, you can find people who are going in the same direction and are willing to carpool with you. If you’re a driver, you can also find people who need to go to areas near where you’re going, then they can contribute a token sum to help you offset your transportation costs!
Evolution suggests that men are designed to hunt while women gather. Gender stereotypes also encourage females to stay at home and to take care of the off springs. But…times have changed.
More Women Work
Based on a study by Prudential Company in 2012, approximately 53% of the sample were women breadwinners while only 22% were married or living with a partner who made more than them. Furthermore, other research showed that about 70% of mothers with children aged 17 and under are in the workforce. And, those numbers are just in the United States. Global rise in dual-career bearer household have increased annually.
Image Credits: Kelly Garbato via Flickr
This fact that women are working more nowadays is something both men and women are accepting. The younger generations were raised to empower equality in the household. Moreover, the quality of life is getting harder as economies fail. And so, there is a great need for both men and women to work regardless of gender stereotypes.
Impact on Marriage When She Makes More
On of the largest impact of this contemporary shift is that it may affect the dynamics of the marriage. Psychology argues that men’s view of the self is formed by his work and his drive to achieve. If that is the case then if the wife makes more, it will make him feel far more inferior and insecure.
To avoid that, Farnoosh Torabi, the author of “When She Makes More”, suggests that most couples assume that if one makes more then that person has more responsibilities in the house, which she firmly stands against. According to Torabi, a couple must constantly make a conscious effort to ask the partner about financial decisions and share it openly with each other. Furthermore she gave these two tips: give everyone’s money a meaning, and treat each other once in a while.
Ultimate Financial Goal
The most important financial goal for women is to have enough money to raise their family, and to maintain the same lifestyle in their retirement. This is why young women need to take steps toward understanding investing. When women avoid investing young, they are losing out on the one thing that knowledge cannot buy– time.
Who makes more than whom should not be a huge matter as the couple’s combined earnings will only benefit not only the both of them but also their children. Couples shall work together and communicated openly on financial decisions in order to share the emotional responsibilities and keep the balance in order.
Despite the fact that online shopping in Singapore used to be viewed with distrust and misguided contempt – largely owing to the numerous scams that plagued the industry in its early days, Singapore’s online shopping scene has certainly picked up significant pace in recent years. This is mostly due to the introduction of improved protection laws as well as the advent of quality web stores that aim to build up a good reputation for themselves. In fact, the online shopping industry in Singapore is thriving so remarkably well that established local web stores are earning up to several tens of thousands each month! After all, given that shopping has often been dubbed the “national hobby” of Singapore, it is pretty evident that Singaporeans can’t quite stay away from shopping – both physical and online.
Online shopping in Singapore has certainly evolved through the years. Most of us are well-acquainted with the dingy small-scale blogshops hosted on Blogspot or Livejournal that used to saturate the online shopping scene in Singapore a few years ago – more often than not, owned by pre-teens and teenagers seeking to make a quick buck – that pedalled run-of-the-mill slogan tees from the same few local suppliers.
Today, these amateurish blogshops are a rarer sight, having phased out gradually with time.
Instead, they have been replaced by an increasing number of quality web stores boasting of impressive photography and editing, user-friendly dot com domains, together with a heavy emphasis on customer service that makes for a more impressive online shopping experience. Successful blogshops of the past have also been pressured into ditching their blog hosts, and switching to proper well-designed websites, to provide a competitive set of functionality and convenience to customers.
That’s not all. Apart from these Singaporean web stores, given the reach of globalisation and ever-low transport costs, it is now possible for us to purchase even from foreign international web stores from countries such as the USA, the UK, or Japan and China.
Truly, it can be said that online shopping in Singapore has changed so remarkably, that it bears little semblance to how it used to be eight years ago. Today, online shoppers are entirely spoiled for choice. With both domestic and international online stores to consider, as well as stores pumping out fresh collections weekly without fail, and with new products being launched every other day – surely it is easy for shoppers to be overwhelmed, and get lulled into the pace of the online shopping industry.
This is further compounded by rising prices of items sold online. The blogshops of old were favoured for their low prices in comparison to that of physical stores. However, this was made possible as such blogshops tended to be very small in scale, and there was little need to hire the extra hand. Also, the shops were hosted on free blogging platforms, and only basic photography and editing was necessary. Now, given the rapid expansion of online stores, as well as the demand for quality and sophistication, costs are undeniably rising – and together with it, prices as well.
As such, it presents a new truth –it is terrifyingly easy to overspend while shopping online today! Shoppers would find that while they might have been able to purchase say, five items from blogshops each month in the past, this ability has been drastically reduced in the present, since prices are so much higher than what they used to be.
Having said this, on days where you have an unbearable urge to splurge (because yes, the desire for instant gratification has been building up, and it’s finally caught up with you), it would be absolutely wise to hunt down the best deals in town first before you begin to surrender your credit card numbers to online stores.
As such, you might find this guide to be of use! In this guide, I’ll show you 4 amazing web stores or online platforms – both local, and international, where you can find great online shopping deals on such days where your clicker hand is just itching to spend, spend, spend.
Yes, you can still have both quantity AND quality – who ever said the two were mutually exclusive? All you need to know is where to hunt!
Megafash
Megafash, or formerly known as Chic Kiss Love, is an online curation that houses more than 180 brands and labels. Housing famous domestic brands such as The Closet Lover, or The Scarlet Room, Megafash terms itself “Asia’s leading online marketplace”, and it certainly lives up to its name, as it is pretty much a one-stop shop for terrific bargains on female apparel, as well as gifts and novelty delights.
Keep a look out for Megafash’s weekend flash sales, in which prices of female apparel may be slashed to an affordable $15, or even below! Clothing from prominent web stores for $15 or less? Where else can you find such remarkable deals? I say, Megafash is definitely worth checking out!
(Image credit: megafash.com)
If you have an eye for sleek new arrivals instead of sale items, Megafash’s weekly Launchbox section is certainly worth a browse as well. Every Wednesday, new collections from brands such as the likes of The Closet Lover and The Stage Walk – all significantly well-known local web stores, are listed up on their weekly Launchbox sale, where 10% discounts are given for these fresh collections. With such discounts, new items can be bought for a lower price than that you would otherwise pay if bought directly from the brands’ web stores themselves!
Carousell
Despite being a fresh start-up that was launched a mere two years ago, Carousell has achieved astounding success on the Singapore app stores. While it is commonly viewed as a platform for locals to peddle preloved items, it also doubly serves as a remarkable site on which to find amazing deals that cannot be found anywhere else.
Carousell has brought online shopping to an entirely different level, by bringing in the virtual to the physical, as transactions can be done in the form of physical meet ups at public locations, in which buyers are able to check their products for defects and flaws, while sellers are able to receive instant payment in the form of cold, hard cash.
Prices on Carousell are more often than not, lower than actual retail prices. In fact, prices can be slashed down to as low as 80% off the original retail price of certain items. This is primarily because sellers typically list up items that they have grown out of, or find ill fitting, and are consequently more willing to part with them at a lower price, never mind that they might be making a huge loss.
Similar to an online flea market, it is easy for buyers to locate their desired items on Carousell with just a quick search. Buyers can then negotiate or haggle with sellers to come to a price settlement, often at a more affordable price. However, it would be incorrect to think of Carousell as any simple flea market. In fact, it offers a greater range of goods and products than mere flea markets can ever hope to host. On Carousell, it is possible to purchase anything ranging from apparel, to household appliances, vintage décor, and even swishy new cars!
While Carousell may prove a little overwhelming for newcomers – the sheer volume of great deals does make it a little difficult to sieve through listings, it is undeniably a worthy browse. With some effort, you’ll definitely be able to hunt down a mind-blowing deal, without having to break the bank!
Taobao
Certainly, this Chinese online mega market is no stranger to most. Often lauded for its sheer variety, and dirt cheap prices, Taobao has attained significant popularity in Singapore, where most turn to it for affordable apparel, DIY supplies, household appliances, and even cosplay attire!
As Taobao is a Chinese online marketplace, it is a given that most of the site is worded in Mandarin, and it can be difficult for shoppers who cannot read the language to navigate around the site. However, this is little cause for worry as a little Google Translate can certainly go a long way! Also, there are numerous third party agent service providers in Singapore who are more than eager to help potential shoppers place their orders (in exchange for an agent fee of course).
Alibaba Group, the company which owns Taobao, has since launched a Southeast Asian branch, which allows customers to purchase directly from independent sellers on Taobao, instead of the need to go through a third party agent in order to send in orders. This has certainly made it easier for shoppers to purchase their items more efficiently, and saved the need to incur additional agent fee costs.
Even though prices on Taobao are already exceedingly affordable, keep a look out for its 11.11 Singles’ Day sales held on the 11th of November each year, where prices are slashed lower than they already are.
Qoo10
(Image credit: sheronism.blogspot.sg)
Qoo10 is yet another amazing site at which great deals can be acquired. Formerly known as Gmarket, it has achieved notable success in other Asian markets such as Korea and Japan. It has since expanded into Singapore, and has become much of a household hit.
Qoo10 retails a wide variety of goods, ranging from household devices, to phone accessories, as well as male and female apparel.
Since Qoo10 operates solely on the web, and it does not need to pay out rental as do other brick and mortar shops, items are priced very cheaply on sale. On top of sale prices, flash discounts are doled out regularly by independent sellers on Qoo10, so keep a look out for them!
Additionally, apart from essentials, Qoo10 also carries prominent international brands. In fact, you can purchase ever popular Kanken bags from discounted prices of $49, as well as Abercrombie and Fitch shirts from only $44! However, as a word of caution, it is always beneficial to read up on testimonials and reviews of individual sellers, as there have been complaints circulating online about customers receiving non-authentic goods. That being said, there are still genuinely affordable luxury items that Qoo10 carries which would otherwise retail for significantly more if purchased from physical fronts.
With its extensive catalogue of items, coupled with their intensely low prices, Qoo10 certainly makes for quite an enjoyable online shopping experience if you’re on the prowl for well-priced deals.
Can’t live without your smartphone? You’re not alone. Singapore is one of the most wired countries on the planet, with 88% of Singaporeans owning at least one smart phone. With smartphone usage being such an important part of your daily life, phone bills at the end of the month can sometimes get rather monstrous. We want to help you out. Here’s 4 tips on how to reduce that phone bill.
Sign Up For A Corporate Or Student Plan
Companies often tie-up with phone service providers to offer special corporate plans for their employees. These special plans can entail reduced rates, additional data and more! While it can be certain that most large companies have such mobile plans for their employees, some smaller businesses also provide such benefits as well. Sometimes these special corporate plans aren’t very well communicated by the company management, so remember to take the initiative to ask.
If you’re a student, there are plenty of student plans abound from each of the phone service providers, so feel free to take your pick. Some of them offer free campus calls, or unlimited text messages, so choose your plan wisely
Use Free Apps
Why text, when you can use Whatsapp, Line or Telegram? Why call someone using the conventional calling function when you can use Vibre or Skype? There are plenty of free apps abound on the Apple App Store and Google Marketplace that allow you to make full use of the internet connectivity of your smartphone. Most, if not all, of the functions which make use of your normal mobile plan features such as texts and calls can be replaced by these apps. Doing so would definitely minimise your phone bill, as you would be using less of what can be charged to you.
Do take note of your 3G/4G usage, as all these apps would make use of the wireless connection. But hey, you’re in Singapore, one of the most wired countries on the planet! This means you should…
Use Wifi Whenever Possible
Remember to make sure you log in to your home wifi whenever you reach home. Imagine the rude shock you would receive if you were watching videos all night, only to realise you had forgotten to connect to your house wifi! Most malls now have wifi as well, so visitors just need to create and account and log in to use it. The government is also in the midst of installing wifi accessibility in 36 MRT stations, so you can eventually even use wifi when while waiting for the train!
Use Prepaid
Sure this might not be the coolest thing around, but if you’re someone who can survive without being on Youtube and Facebook 24/7, this is a very viable option. You only need to pay a small minimum amount to get started with using a prepaid, after which you can top-up if you need to! Using a prepaid card also means you can better regulate your phone usage, because once you run out of prepaid credit, you literally can’t use your phone anymore to call, text or surf the net. If you use a mobile plan, you run the risk of going overboard each month if you don’t make the effort to track your usage regularly
