Why It Is Essential To Surround Yourself With Financially Savvy Friends

As the Mexican Proverb once said: “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.”

It is no secret that your friends influence your life in one-way or the other. This influence can either be small such as picking an outfit to work or huge such as choosing which bank to invest on. Either way, being surround by financially responsible friends is always a good idea.

Here are the reasons why:

1. THEY CAN TELL YOU WHEN TO STOP

When you are trying to eliminate an unhealthy habit such as overspending, you must first recognize that the problem exists. Financially savvy friends who care deeply about you can tell you when your spending goes overboard. Because sometimes, all it takes is a little nudging from your friends. Having a friend who will make you realize that you have a problem can make you think harder about your spending weaknesses.

2. THEY CAN STEER YOU TO BETTER FINANCIAL DECISIONS

The time spent with peers increases as the child ages. As the time increases, the power of peer pressure tends to increase as well. Using peer pressure to your advantage, you can make friends with people who are thrifty as they lead you to better financial decisions. For instance, instead of going to a fancy restaurant, they will opt for having a fun dinner at your place while splitting the expenses for pizzas and beverages.

3. THEY CAN HELP YOU DEAL WITH A FINANCIAL CRISIS

The reality manifests that layoffs, bankruptcies, and closings happen around us. Having friends who understand how important money is can help you deal with these unforeseen financial crises. They can help by listening to your dilemma, by connecting you to the resources of the community, and by the power of small deeds (e.g., cooking food or calling to catch up).

4. THEY CAN HELP YOU GROW

Your friend does not have to be as monetarily wise as Warren Buffet to guide you to better finances. You can be both starting from the bottom as long as you are responsible for each other’s financial growth. Do this by reminding yourselves about the monetary goals you set. And, if you have no financially responsible friends, you can always introduce them to the idea. Start by introducing the basics of budgeting such as knowing the envelope budgeting technique.

Image Credits: Riza Nugraha via Flickr With Creative Commons License

Image Credits: Riza Nugraha via Flickr With Creative Commons License

Truly, money matters get easier when you have financially savvy friends to support you along the way! 🙂

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4 Ways To Strengthen Your Cybersecurity Without Spending A Cent

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Cybersecurity is defined as the measures taken to protect a computer or a computer system against unauthorized access or attack. Those who gain unauthorized access to the data in the computer or the system are often called as hackers. What is alarming about the breaching is that it may involve taking of personal data or credit card information.

To prevent these from happening, precautions must be set. Start by limiting the amount of personal data you post online then, strengthen your home and business Cybersecurity in 4 ways…

1. TAKE CONTROL OF THE AUTHENTICATION AND PRIVACY SETTINGS

Maximize the use of your privacy settings by using two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication, often used in online banking, involves “what you know” (e.g., 6-digit password) and “something you have” (e.g., verification code sent thru SMS). You can also change your security questions and your passwords frequently, especially for your emails that contain sensitive data.

2. FILTER YOUR EMAIL

Filter your email contents by not opening the spam mail. To avoid downloading virus or other malware, only open attachments that were given by your friends, family, partners, and clients.

Image Credits: zodman via Flickr with Creative Commons License

Image Credits: zodman via Flickr with Creative Commons License

Delete the previous emails that are no longer needed so that no one can use them.

3. ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA

I am a klutz! It is unavoidable to have my laptop on the repair shop every year. The only thing worse than having cyber attacks is losing the important data by myself. This is why; a good habit I developed is to back up my data. With this, I can peacefully rest.

4. REGULARLY UPDATE YOUR SOFTWARE

Aside from backing up your data, it is vital to update your software regularly as latest security patches minimize the threats of bugs, viruses, and other malwares. Increase your shield by using free programs that scan your computer for bugs, viruses, and other malwares that come from external sources.

Image Credits: Perspecsys Photos (www.perspecsys.com) via Flickr with Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike

Image Credits: Perspecsys Photos (www.perspecsys.com) via Flickr with Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike

With the increasing number of successful cyber attacks, Cybersecurity has become everyone’s responsibility. Individuals can take the 4 mentioned ways to prevent breaches. While huge companies shall execute robust security practices.

Sources: 1, 2, & 3

 

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Details of 2015 GST Vouchers Benefits To Be Sent Out in First Week of July

GST Voucher Featured

The Ministry of Finance has announced in a press release that 1.6million Singaporeans will receive a letter in the first week of July with details about the 2015 GST Voucher Benefits (GSTV), as well as information on other Budget benefits such as Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) rebates, U-Save and Medisave Top-ups.

If you are eligible, you will receive the payout in the month of August.

To find out how much you are eligible for, you can log on to https://www.gstvoucher.gov.sg with your SingPass. *Make sure you check your payment mode is correct.

1. Cash Payouts

a. GST Vouchers – Cash payout (Age: 21 and above)

GSTV11

This applies to most Singaporeans if you have an assessable income (YA 2014) of less than or equal to $26,000 with Annual Value of Home less than $21,000.

More info on Assessable Income and Annual Value: http://bit.ly/1LFbylE

b. GST Vouchers – Additional Cash Payouts as Seniors’ Bonus (Age: 55 and above)

GSTV2

In addition, those aged 55 and above can receive payouts of up to $600 to help with their daily expenses. (Note: This means up to $900 in cash per person when you include the previous payout in 1a.)

2. Medisave Payouts

a. GST Vouchers – Medisave Top-up (Age: 65 and above)

Medisave 1

Those aged 65 and above can receive GSTV – Medisave top-up of up to $450.

b. Pioneer Generation Medisave Top-up (Age 66 and above)

Medisave 2

In addition, those that belong to the Pioneer Generation can receive top-up that ranges from $200 to $800 annually. (i.e a 76yo retiree Pioneer that lives in a HDB flat and do not own a second property will receive $600 + $350 (from 2a.))

c. 5-year Medisave Top-up (Age: 56 and above who do not enjoy PG benefits)

5Y Medisave

Singaporeans born on or before 31 Dec 1959 (i.e. aged 56 years and above in 2015), who do not enjoy Pioneer Generation benefits, will receive Medisave top-ups of $100 or $200 annually from 2014 to 2018, as announced in Budget 2014. This will benefit about 528,000 Singaporeans. The vast majority (i.e. those living in HDB flats who do not own more than one property) will get the higher top-up of $200 a year.

3. Other Budget Benefits

a. GSTV – U-Save

usave

The regular GST Voucher – U-Save is given out quarterly to help offset utilities directly, and costs $180 million annually. This July, over 800,000 eligible households will each receive up to $65, depending on their HDB flat type.

b. S&CC Rebates

S&CC rebates

The S&CC rebate is given out in April, July, and October this year, and costs $80 million in 2015. This July, around 800,000 eligible households will receive the S&CC rebate which will offset half a month to one month of charges, depending on their HDB flat type.

Additional Information

Most Singaporeans will automatically receive their GSTV payouts and 5-Year Medisave top-ups. For the small number of citizens who have not signed up for past Government payouts and/or are not CPF members, the letters they receive will inform them of the actions they need to take by 31 December 2015 to receive their benefits.

More details on the GST Voucher can be found at www.gstvoucher.gov.sg, and information on the other Budget benefits can be found at www.singaporebudget.gov.sg. If you require more information, the contact details are as follows:

Contact Info

Source: Ministry of Finance

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Improve Your Business With Employee Engagement

Do you want to increase your employee’s happiness, safety, participation, and good health? Then, you have to be familiar with the term called “Employee Engagement”. Employee Engagement is an approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to the organization’s values and goals. This later leads to organizational success.

The benefits of Employee Engagement are tremendous.

For instance, a study examined 168 engaged and disengaged employees to measure their stress levels and health indicators. Findings showed that engaged employees reported lower stress as well as improved cholesterol and blood pressure readings. Not only that, they engaged employees are proven to perform better by producing better results. Lastly, research showed that engaged employees have a lower chance (i.e., 5 times less) of experiencing accidents at work than their disengaged counterparts.

Having this in mind, you must know that Employee Engagement is one of the most important things to manage and to measure an organization. Measuring employee engagement may seem like a challenge as it focuses on specific areas of the organization’s strengths and gaps. This shall be observed in a personal and a group level through monthly or yearly surveys.

To boost and manage the employee engagement, here are a few steps you may take:

1. ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR STRENGTHS AND CAPABILITIES

Recognizing the employee’s strengths and capabilities does not always have to be monetary. A respectful acknowledgement of the contributions they have made is enough. Never forget to give your employees flexibility to explore how they can contribute best by allowing feedbacks.

2. CREATE TRANSPARENCY

An organization with transparency creates a room for engagement and a sense of significance. Transparency exists when the leader is comfortable enough to share his or her success to the team.

3. EMPOWER THEM

To enable active participation, put your employees in the position of influence. For example, let them lead a project and choose whom they want to collaborate with. This simple deed will make them realize their own potentials.

Image Credits: thetaxhaven via Flickr with Creative Commons License

Image Credits: thetaxhaven via Flickr with Creative Commons License

Sources: 1, 2, & 3

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Do Not Let These Feelings Drain Your Money

“Emotional Spender: Someone who spends money freely to satisfy his or her feelings at the moment.”

Whether the feelings or emotions are positive or not, letting these dictate your purchases may potentially lead to a disaster. Ask yourself, are you one of them? Another interesting characteristic that an emotional spender has is the regret after spending. This is sometimes due to spending more than one can afford. Fortunately, you can change for the better!

The first step you must take is to identify the problem by figuring out what emotions or feelings trigger your snap financial decisions. Then, use budgeting to guide you as you stop this nasty buying habit.

Here are some of the emotions that may affect your free spending:

1. ANGER

Let us start the list off with Anger. Shopping while you are angry makes you more likely to take risks. This is because purchasing while you are angry can make you feel empowered. For example, if you are angry with your spouse, you can just grab your credit card (i.e., from your joint account) and not care about how much you spend on clothes. An expensive revenge indeed!

Solution: Making yourself feel better by filling the void inside you is not a good move. Instead, lock yourself in a room, play your favorite song, and write down what you feel. Do these things to help you simmer down and avoid emotional purchases.

2. BOREDOM

Having too much time in your hands can make you spend more. Shopping, a very pleasant activity can keep you busy and make you feel occupied. So, it may act as a substitute for other fulfilling and productive activities. For example, if you work from home, it is natural to have a few hours to spare. As leisure, you decided to go on shopping trips since shopping is not only a boredom buster but also an activity you can do alone.

Solution: Find a fun hobby or activity to occupy you when you are bored. You may try cooking different pasta recipes or catching up on your favorite TV shows. Toggle.sg lets you watch episodes of your favorite shows at Channel 5, Channel 8, Channel U, Okto, Suria, and Vasantham – at no cost!

3. HAPPINESS

How can a positive feeling make you splurge your paycheck? Well, it is possible if you want to celebrate a milestone (e.g., promotion, raise, or graduation) in a grand fashion. According to research by Harris Interactive, 53% of people are guilty of celebratory shopping. This goes to show that shopping in a good note is normal but it may come with expensive price tags.

Solution: Celebrate a momentous event within your means. Having an intimate gathering of your closest loved ones is better than having a huge graduation party at a 5-star hotel. It is okay to indulge once in a while as long as you have money to spare. You deserve it!

CONCLUSION

Spending the money you either do not have or you can well spend elsewhere to satisfy your emotional needs only create more problems than solutions. If you set up a budget with a room for reasonable indulgence then, it is acceptable to spend. After all, that is how personal finance should work.

Image Credits: Antoine K via Flickr with Creative Commons License

Image Credits: Antoine K via Flickr with Creative Commons License

Sources: 1 & 2

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