MoneyDigest - Personal Finance, Lifestyle, Money Saving Tips

Do Not Let Your Financial Problems Keep You Up At Night!

Is there anything worse than reaching home after a stressful day only to be kept up late because your brain keeps ruminating over your financial burdens?

If this happens to you constantly, it is a sign that you are either feeling helpless about your current situation or trying to exert too much control over your future. Stop right there! Thinking about all your financial problems before you fall asleep will not solve anything. It may even cause health issues such as headache, chest pain, and muscle tension on the next day.

The obvious move that you must take first is to solve the underlying problem. Set aside a portion of your day to contemplate about the solutions to your situation. Afterwards, work on your sleep hygiene. It involves healthy sleeping habits and maintaining a conducive sleeping environment.

If these two strategies are not enough, try my other suggestions:

a. ACCEPT EVERY CHALLENGE

You must accept the fact that you cannot accurately predict the future. No one can! Hence, it is always a good idea to be prepared for any money woes that life will throw at you. Make calculated strategies to shield yourself against unforeseen events such as unemployment and critical illness. For instance, you may save at least six months’ worth of your salary to cushion unemployment or apply for health insurance to fund your critical illness.

Let go of all the worries once you have planned for the situation. Unfortunate events may test you but, you will be alright.

b. BE ASSERTIVE

If you keep on lending your hard-earned cash to friends and family, financial issues can rise. Your money belongs to you and you are accountable for it. If you do not feel comfortable in lending money to a friend or a family member then, be assertive. Genuinely say that you cannot loan the money at the moment due to your financial responsibilities. Discuss the matter in a mature manner. People who care about you will understand.

c. CREATE A RELATIONSHIP

For your relationship with money to flourish, you must understand that it involves the two of you. Do not let the power of spending govern you! When things go badly, it is partly because of what you brought to the situation and partly because of what the money brought.

d. BE ACTIVE

Redirect your cognitive energy to productive matters such as catching up with your friends or updating your C.V. or resume. If you have more time in your hands because you were recently unemployed, improve your relatively low mood by exercising. You do not have to exhaust your savings to stay health. Be active by following the free online tutorials or by registering at the “Places To Find The Cheapest Gym Memberships In Singapore“.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

No matter how much you dream about achieving an indestructible body like Incredible Hulk’s, it is still impossible. This is why you need quality sleep to combat the daily challenges. Constantly worrying about your finances is not only draining your body but also straining your relationships. Remember to value your well-being as much as you value your bank account.

Sources: 1 & 2

6 Strategies To Control Your Urges To Spend

Self-control is one of the virtues that a savvy Singaporean can cultivate. Having a sense of self-control helps you to manage the seemingly irresistible urge to spend money. While, people who lack it have a tendency to instantly gratify their “itch” to splurge.

Combat this dilemma against your willpower by employing these strategies:

TRACK YOUR SPENDING

I know how cliché this sounds but, awareness is the key. You must note down how much money comes in and goes out. Previous literature displayed that this act of tracking your spending is an efficient tool to control one’s urges to spend. Start by keeping a daily list of your expenses.

IMPOSE LIMITS

To prevent accidents and to maintain order in the streets, authorities impose speed limits. Apply the same idea to your finances by imposing monetary limits.

It easy to create tangible boundaries to some services such as postpaid and bundle plans. However, this is not always the case. This is why Professor and TED Speaker Dan Ariely highlighted that it is important to dictate your own boundaries. Doing so was proven to help increase self-control. Furthermore, sharing your self-determined limitations to other people urges you to stick to it more.

MAKE ONE DECISION AT A TIME

The shiny distractions all over the shopping mall are designed to confuse your mind and to open your wallets. You see, findings showed that strain in cognition (thinking) depletes self-control. This is why shops are graced with flashy signs, vibrant colors, loud songs, and bright wall decor.

Conquer the distractions by making one financial decision at a time. This strategy is not only limited to shopping. Divide your financial decisions instead of overwhelming your mind.

SAVE AUTOMATICALLY

Avoid committing much of your willpower toward deciding whether to save or to spend by automatic your finances. Some institutions allow the employer to automate your salary in a bank account that is solely for your savings. Patronizing this method will lessen the temptation of immediate spending.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

TAKE TIME TO DECIDE

With my background in Psychology, I can attest to the idea that the emotional states affect the way you spend. Anxiety was shown to decrease the likelihood of taking risks and sadness was shown to increase spending. Emotions influence your self-control in complex ways.

This is why I encourage you to take sufficient time for contemplation before buying something. Wait for a few hours or a few days, especially for huge and expensive purchases. Many people have submitted to this efficient strategy. Be one of them!

PREVENT TEMPTATION

A surefire way to stay on top of finances is to avoid temptation at all costs. Reduce your time spent on shopping malls and invest it in more productive matters. Alternatively, you may leave your plastic cards (i.e., credit and debit) at home. Simply carry the amount of cash that you can confidently afford.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

These six strategies share one goal and that is to take control of your finances again. May these aforementioned help you to reclaim what was rightfully yours.

Sources: 1 & 2

You Snooze, You Lose: How Missing Opportunities Can Cost You

If you are not knowledgeable about the existence of English idioms, I bet you are wondering about the meaning behind the title.

What is it with me and my adoration for idiomatic expressions? For starters, most writers dance with the words to choreograph deeper stories. My fondness for the underlying meanings attracted me to this type of phrases. Let us go back to the matter at hand.

“You snooze, you lose” pertains to the rationale that waiting too long for an opportunity can result to not gaining what you want or to the success of someone else. Someone else can beat you at opening the doors of great possibilities if you let things slide. I cannot blame you! It is usually difficult to pinpoint if a certain opportunity can bring future rewards.

Image Credits: www.pixabay.com

If you had a fortune-telling ability or a magic crystal ball then, you could envision whether your decision is a clever move or a huge mistake. That sounds undeniably useful when used with precaution. However, it is far from reality! Just take a moment to reflect upon the missed opportunities at the tech industry. I will start with a story that is close to social media addict’s heart.

Facebook giant Mark Zuckerberg once invited five people to participate in his upcoming business venture. About a decade ago, only two people showed up. These two people namely Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin are billionaires today. I can only imagine the impact of Facebook’s success to these three close-minded people.

The next story highlights a relevant brand in today’s culture – the Apple. Steve Jobs offered his boss, the Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell, a chance to invest US$50,000 (about S$67,000) to Apple. He let the opportunity pass by. If he accepted the offer, he would have owned a third of the company. Its market value now is about US$535 billion (about S$724 billion).

Turning down an innovative idea may cost you. But, what is worse than taking a conscious effort to say “NO”? Doing nothing!

Indifference toward an opportunity has its consequences and sometimes these consequences exceed that of a bad decision. For instance, Amy hired a financial consultant to help manage her trendy restaurant. The financial consultant exhausted all his resources to search the most profitable location for a new branch. Despite the priceless efforts that the financial consultant gave, Amy opted to do nothing about it. Among her reasons for indecision was lack of time to discuss about the matter. This can potentially cost affect the entire brand.

Aside from close-mindedness and indecisiveness, there are other ways to dodge a shining opportunity. Do yourself a favor and beware of these instances:

a. by beginning with a negative mindset or a wrong goal in mind,
b. by not being persuasive enough to make a recommendation,
c. by not doing sufficient research on the company you are applying for, and
d. by ignoring your online reputation.

Image Credits: www.pixabay.com

Analyze the situation and make a calculated decision when a blossoming chance comes along. The expense of missed opportunity can be exorbitant to your job performance, work relationships, credibility, and wealth. Do not risk these things due to indecisiveness and close-mindedness.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

4 Benefits of a Monthly Investment Plan

Based on a Worldwide Cost of Living survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Singapore has been ranked as the world’s most expensive city to live in for the third consecutive year. Indeed, many living in Singapore have to contend with the high property and car prices. Healthcare and education costs are also not far from people’s minds.

Investment is seen as a way to potentially amplify one’s wealth to better fulfil these life goals. But what if you do not have a substantial amount of capital or time set aside for investing? A Monthly Investment Plan or what’s also known as a Regular Savings Plan, could be something for you to consider.

Affordable

There’s a common misconception that you need to have sizeable capital in order to start building a nest egg through investing. However, with a Monthly Investment Plan, you can decide how much to invest based on your personal financial situation. You can even set aside just $100 a month, and put that money into blue chip stocks, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) listed on global markets to build your portfolio.

Takes Advantage of Dollar Cost Averaging

Monthly Investment Plans follow the principle of dollar cost averaging. By investing regularly every month instead of trying to time the market and find the best time to buy and sell shares, the risk of investing a large amount in a single investment at the wrong time is reduced.

To gain a better understanding of dollar cost averaging, consider this example where two siblings are given $10,000 each, but choose to invest it in different ways.

Luke used the money to buy 1000 shares at $10. Drew, on the other hand, invested a predetermined amount each month, and he ended up buying more shares when the price was low and fewer shares when the price was high.

Drew’s average price per share ($8.90) is therefore lower compared to Luke’s ($10) – this is how dollar cost averaging works and by extension, how Monthly Investment Plans can help you achieve your investment goals.

Automated and Hassle-Free

No one can exactly foresee and predict the behaviour of the stock market. Instead of trying to time the market and finding the right time to enter and exit, Monthly Investment Plans focus instead on long-term gains, and build your portfolio by automatically buying your shares for you every month. Your work is done at the outset. All you need to do is choose your desired shares and set your monthly investment amount. From that point on, you can sit back and watch as your portfolio grows and your shares accumulate.

Diversification

Monthly Investment Plans enable you to diversify your investment portfolio in a couple of ways.

Most of these plans allow you to invest in ETFs like SPDR STI ETF or Nikko AM STI ETF which are funds that invest in the 30 largest companies listed on Singapore Stock Exchange. More conservative investors can go for these ETFs. In addition to these ETFs, your Monthly Investment Plan may allow for investments into REITs. If you are interested in investing in property, then this is something to look out for; REITs don’t just give you exposure to one property – they give you exposure to a whole portfolio of properties. Some Monthly Investment Plans will also allow you to access stocks listed in markets like the US, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. Expanding your horizons and looking at offerings listed on these global markets is another way to diversify your portfolio.

If any of these four benefits sound appealing to you, then you should find out more about how Monthly Investment Plans can help you along your investment journey.

5 Singapore Online Stores To Bookmark Now

My sister is sweeping the Web for the perfect birthday present that her friend will deeply appreciate. Helping her through this task made me realize that you can find just about anything online. From bacon lip balm to a Nicholas Cage pillowcase, you type it to get it!

On that note, here are the 5 Singapore online stores that are worth your time:

SMOOCH THE LABEL

If you are on a hunt for elegant dresses that can be worn for any occasion, search no further than Smooth the Label. It is Sarah Lim’s first leap of faith. Ever since she started the e-commerce business in 2010, she had been carefully choosing the pieces to be manufactured for the brand. Each of the designs are embellished with her own unique touch.

The shop’s widespread prices range from S$9.80 to S$80. Best of all? The shipping in Singapore is always free.

HIPVAN

Since its emergence in the past three years, HipVan has been making waves regionally due to its lifestyle design inspirations and great sales. It is founded by Danny Tan, Kevin Vo, Deborah Wee, and Shobhit Datta with a whopping fund of S$500,000. This awesome online store delights you with up to 70% off the retail prices of furniture, accessories, kitchen-wares, and so much more. Check their collections at www.hipvan.com.

Image Credits: www.facebook.com/thehipvan

ECO CITY HYDROPONICS

As the name suggests, Eco City Hydroponics focuses on the lesser-known subset of hydro-culture called the hydroponics. It is a method of cultivating plants using mineral nutrient solutions instead of soil. This online store provides home delivery of products such as Bunching Onion and Vegetable Soy Bean seeds. If you are critical about this type of urban farming, try out their Hydroponic Hobby Kit first.

KOHE PETS

Where else can you spot an online pet store that is affordable, convenient, accessible, and offers free samples? Well, nowhere but Kohe Pets!

Kohe Pets regularly dishes out free samples of their products so that the clients can easily find out the most suitable treat to their pet’s taste. It has a huge selection of more than 2,500 reasonably priced products ranging from the popular brands to the special brands that are difficult to find in the country. According to testimonials, their deliver service is swift as customers typically receive their orders on the next day.

BOOKSACTUALLY

One of my favorite hobbies to let the time pass is reading. Searching endlessly through a myriad of brands, I found an indie gem called BooksActually. It is my go-to place for enigmatic titles and creative stationary. It houses beautifully written pieces of literature by local and international authors.

The website is crisp, simple, and neat. Go and see for yourself!

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Have fun while shopping!

Source: Vulcan Post

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