Best Credit Cards Available for Students!

 What's up guys, its been a while since I've updated on this platform, and I hope all of you have been doing well! I have been caught up with matriculation/academic matters, hence my inactivity on this platform for the past two weeks. I have been drowning in lectures and readings, and it's just the first week of uni...

But enough of the life updates from me. Since I've finally enrolled into University, I have been scouring around for credit cards available to students, and I have found two that I am planning to apply for.

I think credit cards are a good way for us to spend money, assuming the payment due are repaid on time such that there is no late interest payment. This allows us to gain an extra month of interest with the money in our account. This is especially advantageous if your cash are parked in a high-yield account. Allow me to introduce them to you and why I decided to get them.

Maybank eVibes Card

Eligibility:

Full-time National Servicemen (NSF) or Tertiary students from these institutions: LASALLE, NAFA, NIE, NP, NTU, NUS, NYP, RP, SIT, SMU, SP, SUSS, SUTD & TP

Age: 18 - 30

Annual Income: Must not exceed S$30, 000

Must not be an existing Maybank Principal Credit Cardmember or CreditAble customer

Singapore Citizens or Singapore Permanent Residents

Benefits:

1% cash rebates on all spending

Up to 8% off accommodation bookings worldwide with AGODA(till 31 December 2020)

Review:

I decided to apply for this card as it had the highest cash rebate, at 1%, among all the other student credit cards out there, with seemingly the least restrictions on the type of spending. The 8% off accommodation with AGODA is a sweet bonus as well, but I personally don't see international travel making a comeback before the end of this year , so it may be less applicable. But the 1% cash rebate makes this one of the most attractive student credit card out there, and by itself is more than enough to convince me to get this card.

DBS Live Fresh Student Card

Eligibility:

An Undergraduate student from these institutions: NUS, NTU, SMU, SUTD, SUSS, SIT, Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic or Republic Polytechnic

Age: 18 - 27

Not have an existing DBS/POSB Credit Card and/or other unsecured facilities with DBS/POSB

Be a Singapore Citizen/Permanent Resident

Benefits:

5% cashback for spending at Golden Village, McDonald's, McDelivery, Netflix, Spotify and Starbucks (capped at $15)

0.3% cashback on 'All Spend' (capped at $20)

Review:

DBS's Live Fresh Student Card is also one of my two picks, due to it's attractive 5% cashback. Personally, I am subscribed to Netflix and Spotify monthly, and I frequent McDonalds as well, hence I was really attracted when I saw the rates offered by this card! I honestly think this card has been well-designed to target the youths in Singapore, with the shops well curated to target most spendngs by Singaporean youths. However, since the 0.3% cashback on other spending may seem measly, I believe this card is best used in tandem with other student credit cards!

Personally, I have not yet have the chance to use any of these cards, thus my review up till now is solely based on what I've read from their websites. I might do another review of these cards somewhere down the road, after perhaps a few months of usage. Till then, I encourage you to explore other cards and head down to their respective websites to get a clearer understanding of the benefits they present and their terms & conditions, before applying for any of these cards.

Stay Safe,

T

Budgeting 101 - Tips & Tricks to begin!

Hey Everyone,

It's definitely been a while! I have been caught up with some school-related matters and hence it took me a while to write up this post. Anyways, polling day just passed and as a first-time voter there was a sense of nervousness and excitement as I placed my vote. Nevertheless, I hope all of you managed to use this long weekend to take a good break and recharge!

I want to share a little bit about budgeting in this post. I would say that budgeting is the single most important aspect of personal finance management. A simple example to elaborate the importance of budgeting: Person A earns a salary of $8000 a month, but spends $7000 monthly. Person B earns a monthly salary of $3000, and has a monthly spending of $1500. Even though  B earns less than half of A's salary, he has more left in his bank account at the end of the month, to be either kept as savings or put into different investments. That is the power of budgeting.

The first step to budgeting is for one to understand where their money is going to. I strongly recommend that you take down every single single cent that you spend for at least one month, before budgeting, to get a clearer picture of your spending habits. Without this step, I find it hard to create a budgeting strategy as I would have no benchmark to gauge by, and no way to understand where I'm overspending in. 

In order to track your spending, I would recommend either getting a money-tracking app on your phone, which would make it much tracking much more convenient, or setting up your own tracking list either on Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets (there are plenty of guides for this available on Youtube!). Personally, I use a Google Sheet as my main tracker as I found it difficult to keep up a habit tracking using mobile app, for one reason or another. Ideally though, both works fine, as long as you manage to achieve the objective of tracking your spending.

Once you've got that part down, you can then plan for your 'budget cuts' accordingly. I personally like to break down my budgets into several smaller parts, such as 'food', 'transport', 'essentials' etc. I will then find out if I am overspending in any of these categories, and try to cut down accordingly on unnecessary splurges. This includes taxi rides and food deliveries, which I often found to be the biggest budget killers for me (I really do need to be managing my time better....). One thing I would advise based on my past experiences though, is to be gradual and patient with your budget cuts. If done too abruptly and harshly, you could lose interest as you keep missing your own budget cuts. By cutting your spending gradually, you allow yourself to build confidence in your own finance management along the way, and cultivate healthy spending habits. 

Another advise I have is to be frugal 'healthily', in the sense that one should not completely obliterate any form of enjoyment from your budget. It is important to understand that it is completely healthy for one to let loose every once in a while, and it is important for you to continue pursuing your hobby, but you just need to do so in a financially responsible manner. I never turn down a good night out with my friends if my budget allows for it!

Importantly, budgeting should not be seen as sacrificing your own happiness for financial gains, but seen as a process for you enjoy in a responsible and healthy manner. There are many models out there for budgeting (such as the 50/30/20 rule; look it up!), but ultimately you should tweak each model carefully to suit your own situation and needs. It is definitely not easy to start as I myself still find it an hassle to have to record every transaction that I make, but believe me, that little bit of sacrifice can go a long way and nowadays I am recording them subconsciously... 

Stay safe and healthy,

T

3 Financial Tips in Preparation for University

Hey guys,

Hope everyone is still healthy and socialising with certain measures in place! Though the weather hasn't been the best recently, I was glad to be able to catch glimpses of the outdoor sun and breathe some fresh air! Anyways, as I begin my preparations for my University life, I thought I would share some tips that I received from my seniors as well as information obtained from hours of research on the net. These tips are rather related to a proper management of my finances.

The first tip I would like to share is to scout around for good textbook deals. Throughout your 4 years in University, there will inevitably be some modules that you would need textbooks for, either at your lecturer's request or for ease of studying. Instead of buying the textbooks directly from the bookstore (which often comes at a hefty price), you should consider either purchasing from your seniors, or from online platforms such as Carousell. Another tip would be to double check with your lecturers if you actually need the latest edition of the textbook, as older editions of the textbooks could be available at much lower prices. Furthermore, you can always sell them to your junior after you are done with them. You help to play a part in conserving the environment too! If you are planning to sell it, you should keep the books clean as much as possible. 

Secondly, I was recommended that you should be willing to spend a little bit more, to get a good quality laptop that could last you throughout your university life. Your laptop will be the device that you spend the most hours working with as a student, be it to attend lectures, prepare for presentations or to write your research papers. The laptop will most likely be on for more than half the day. Having a good quality laptop thus saves you from the worry of it breaking down on you right before your submission deadlines, or the need for you to purchase and switch to another new laptop(in the case of a breakdown) in the midst of your academic semester. By being willing to spend a little more on your laptop, you could be giving yourself a peace of mind. Taking a $2000 laptop in consideration, it only costs $500 a year to use it. There are installment plans provided at some retailers at 0% interest. Personally, I would rather spend more on a good laptop than to spend TWICE to get 2 laptops in the event the first one breaks down.

The last tip is one with a rather longer horizon. I challenge all of you who are entering university or in university to set a financial goal that you would want to achieve at the end of your university life. Everyone's goal is relative to our lifestyles and habits, but I believe it is important that we give ourselves a comfortable sum of savings to kickstart our career with. The source of savings can come from many places, such as allowances, internship and part time jobs. In addition, you should then break it down into smaller, annual goals, that you can review at the end of each year. To take it one step further, this amount do not have to be cash sitting in the bank, it can already be put into investments, reaping the power of compounding. I will also be setting such goals for myself, and reviewing them periodically on this blog to keep myself on track on my progress. 

Our time in university is often the last gate that we will step through before reaching the stage of adulthood, hence we should take this opportunity to develop healthy financial habits, especially since we will be managing our own salaries after we graduate. University may be the last chance for us to have fun as students, but it is important for us to also remember to set and achieve some personal goals!

Stay safe,

T