SG Budget Babe

How many times have you sought advice from a "financial advisor" (i.e. mostly a glorified term for an insurance salesperson), only to be left sorely disappointed when they end up selling you insurance products (usually expensive / high commission plans)? You'll hardly find agents who tell you about "no commission" products that are actually great for various needs (eg. CPF-SA, Singapore Saving Bonds, Temasek Bonds, Astrea IV bonds, etc).

And so you try to DIY your own insurance through portals like CompareFirst, but you're also stuck because you cannot figure out if you're identifying your own insurance protection gaps correctly. As a result, you either end up under-insured (from DIY-ing wrongly), over-insured (if you listen to your insurance salesperson), or even worse, not getting insured at all (!!!!).

To try and address this problem, a joint venture was set up between NTUC Enterprise Co-operative and Providend Holding (which owns DIYInsurance). Their aim is to reach out to individuals and families who need to save and invest, but are currently being under-served by banks and financial advisers.

The result is MoneyOwl, which purports to be Singapore's first bionic financial adviser - where human wisdom and technology come together to deliver financial advice that integrates national schemes (like CPF, MediShield, ElderShield, etc).

MoneyOwl recently approached me to try out and review their platform, so here's what I think:

1. Suitable for both the clueless and the savvy insurance consumer.

Click on Find Out What I Need to fill in your profile and get a preliminary analysis from their AI robot technology, which employs an algorithm to identify your protection needs and provides recommendations on what type of insurance products you might want to look at getting (as well as giving you the top 2 cheapest quotes).

If you already know your own insurance gaps and you're just looking to compare quotes, you can click on I Know What I Need to get started. That will bring you to this page:

Previously, consumers could compare on either DIYInsurance or CompareFirst (by MAS), but both portals were lacking in many areas such as having limited insurance products and a cap on coverage. If you wanted or needed anything else or higher, you would still have to go through an insurance agent to get the quote. I've reviewed both platforms previously here as well.

And if you need to speak with a human for a second opinion or to ask more questions about the recommendations provided to you, you can opt to be contacted via phone, email, web chats or even meet up face-to-face with MoneyOwl's team of licensed advisers.

2. Your insurance needs are sorted by your profile and life stage.

This is even better than DIYInsurance's previous Self Check tool, which I reviewed here and provided recommendations on what needed improving on.

As most of you would know by now, I've hit 9 months of pregnancy and my baby is due
to be born anytime now, so I tried out this tool using my new status as a parent.

3. Your protection needs are determined by your life stage and number of dependents.

Regular readers will know that I'm in a tight spot because my husband and I have a pretty high number of dependents to look after - 5, to be exact - and we're alone in this. That number will probably grow to 6 soon because we're hoping to have a second child in the near future as well.

As a result, we cannot afford to just save and invest - we need to turn to insurance to help mitigate the larger (potential) bills in the event of any unfortunate incident as well, otherwise a single large bill for either one of our dependents could very quickly wipe out our entire cash savings and assets.

4. You can fill up your profile, and it is pretty non-intrusive.

Don't you hate it when companies ask for private and intrusive personal information like your name and contact number before they reveal a quote / other information to you? You just know that they're using it as a tool to follow up later and sell you something!

If you're such a consumer like me, then you'll appreciate how MoneyOwl doesn't require you to furnish them with personal identifiable details like your name or contact number. As long as you wish not to be contacted, you have the option to go through the entire process, get the recommendations and quote, and get out without worrying about a pesky salesperson calling you afterward.

But at the same time, if you do wish to be contacted and speak to an advisor for more details beyond what the tool is recommending you, MoneyOwl also allows you to create your profile and leave your email address so they can get in touch with you to either discuss further.

5. It not only identifies your insurance needs, but also allows you to add your existing coverage so that you can get an accurate assessment of what your remaining gaps are.

This was the coverage suggested for me:

And this is what I got after adding my existing insurance coverage:

The recommendations then showed me a few low-cost options which were ranked by the cheapest premiums. You also have the freedom to choose to buy through them, or through other means (eg. direct or through your own agent). If you buy through MoneyOwl, you get back 50% of agent's commission rebate(the remaining 50% goes towards the company's operational expenses and investing in R&D for the other modules).

My thoughts?

This is great and a huge game-changer for the insurance industry. I love the idea, the interface, and the fact that there's the option for consumers to speak with an adviser if they need additional support. After all, I still maintain that technology can never fully replace the empathy and emotional concerns that only a human adviser can relate to.

Of course, I'll be lying if I said their platform is PERFECT - there will always be room for upgrading, and I've since provided my list of recommendations for them in terms of (mostly minor) improvements they can work on. For instance, I spoke with their Chief Advisory Officer to ask if they would still recommend a term policy for someone who wants cash value back for all that premiums paid; the answer was that they will then educate the client on the difference between using term and whole life plans, but recommend whole life only if certain conditions are met. I like that, because whole life isn't necessarily a bad product per se (although it certainly does lose out to the buy-term-invest-the-rest approach most of the time).

Another point of contention I brought up was that ranking hospital plans by cheapest premiums isn't necessarily a good way because the cheapest for this particular type of policy does not always mean the best value-for-money. AIA hospitalisation plans, for instance, may be more expensive than NTUC Income, but that's because the pre and post-hospitalisation coverage that they offer are a lot more as well. MoneyOwl then told me this is where the client assessment with their human advisers will come into play.

Source: The Straits Times

Aside from insurance, you can see from MoneyOwl's website that they will soon roll out a digital will-writing service, an investment portfolio featuring low-cost funds, and a comprehensive financial planning service that will integrate national schemes like CPF and ElderShield. I'm excited to see these new roll-outs in the near future.

As most of you know, the biggest problem in the insurance industry is that there is little incentive for agents to recommend products with zero or low commission rates.

And is that really surprising, when agents rely on these commissions to earn a living? It is a well-known fact that commissions are fiercely guarded by the insurance industry - remember how in 2013 when 10 financial advisory firms pressured iFast Financial to withdraw insurance products from its Fundsupermart website which would have offered a 50% commission rebate to consumers?

As long as commissions continue to be tagged to agent recommendations, unbiased advice is but an idealistic dream that is mostly impractical in reality.

There is a lack of competent and conflict-free advice today that helps Singaporeans integrate CPF and other national schemes into their financial plans, probably because advisers don't earn any money for such advice with commissions or trailer fees. MoneyOwl seeks to fill this gap. Their client advisers are purely salaried employees, who will not receive commissions or incentives based on products / amount of premiums / number of policies sold. This removes the conflict of interest and leaves them free to dish out financial advice that is fitting to the consumer, such as topping up CPF, buying the Singapore Saving Bonds, investing in low-cost index funds, etc.

The cost of the products that will be recommended by MoneyOwl will be low, mainly because the product providers either pay no trailer fees at all to the distributors, or at most a small quantum of commission. Such solutions are not popular in financial advisory plans offered to the mass market (obviously!).

Investments will come with no sales charge, much unlike the investments that your insurance agent tries to sell to you, or the unit trusts recommended by your banker.

Source: The Business Times

I love what I'm seeing on MoneyOwl thus far, and look forward to their other services and improvements in the near future.

In the meantime, go ahead and try out MoneyOwl for AI-powered insurance advice or get quotes for yourself here!

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by MoneyOwl to raise awareness about their latest revamp and offering. The review and all opinions written are that of my own.

With love,

Budget Babe

Needless to say, being pregnant in Singapore isn't a cheap affair. There are many costs to think about, and the bills can easily add up, leading to stress over a lack of finances if you aren't prepared for it.

What should one expect to spend and save up for when you get pregnant? Here are some costs to think about (numbers are estimations based on my own pregnancy journey this year):

Pre-natal / Pregnancy costs

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Gynae visits ($1,000 - $3,000)
Each consultation will easily set you back by $100 - $300+ depending on whether you're seeing a public or private gynae, and how popular they are. Some offer the option to take on a package after your fourth month, which helps to save on consultation and ultrasound scan costs, but you'll still have to pay for your own supplements / medications.

Pre-diagnostic tests ($400 - $1,500+)
Most expecting mothers in Singapore would have to undergo three tests throughout the duration of their pregnancy:

Down syndrome test between 12 - 14 weeks (OSCAR is the cheapest but also has a higher rate of false positives)
Fetal assessment test between 20 - 22 weeks
Gestational diabetes test in your fifth month

Depending on which tests you opt for (especially to test for Down Syndrome), these can cost you anywhere from $395 - $1500+.

Prenatal classes ($300 - $1,000)
If you're going for prenatal classes (whether for exercise or for knowledge), these cost money too! Costs vary depending on the number of sessions and types of classes you go for, but expect anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousands if you're going with a branded or more well-known provider. My husband and I opted for a one-day intensive workshop at Thomson Medical.

Maternity clothes
Let's get real - you'll probably have to spend some money on new clothes to fit your growing bump, unless you're lucky enough to have friends who will give theirs to you secondhand (and provided that they fit!). You can read my consolidated budget tips here for maternity wear, but the key tips I would share is to stick with loose clothing for your first and second trimester, and then surviving your second and (the start of your) third trimester on clothes that are 1 - 2 sizes bigger. When you have no choice but to buy new clothes towards the last 2 months of your pregnancy, go for maternity-convertible-to-nursing outfits so that you can continue wearing them even after you've delivered your baby. I got 3 of such sets for work from Dear Collective, and the rest from ASOS Maternity when there were sales.

Delivery costs

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Hospital package ($2,000 - $15,000)
Whether you're going for a natural birth, scheduled Caesarean or end up with an emergency Caesarean, the costs rise in that very same order. If you're unsure how much you ought to expect, you can check out this really useful guide by MOH on the average bill sizes for delivery. Note that the higher rates doesn't mean that's the highest, because 1 in 4 patients pay more than the highest figure stated. In fact, my friend ended up with a $18,000 bill because while his wife initially opted for a natural birth, circumstances warranted an emergency C-section at the end.

Your duration of stay, type of medical consumables and pain relief (laughing gas, spinal block, epidural, etc) will also bring up the costs (in that same order).

Gynae and other professional fees ($2,500 - $8,000)
Aside from the hospital fees, the other component in your hospital bill that has the most variation (because it depends on the professionals you pick) would be the professional service fees incurred by your doctor, anaesthetist and child's pediatrician. Your gynae will most likely charge you a fee per visit to the hospital, so if you're in labour for a really long time, there might be multiple visits to pay for. In addition, there will be a gynae fee for carrying out the delivery as well. Private gynaes charge different rates for different procedures so there's a huge range of costs to expect - check with your own gynae directly to get a better and more accurate estimate for you to plan towards.

Part of these costs can also be paid out of your Medisave (or your husband's):

Up to $900 for pre-delivery / prenatal expenses (so do remember to pack your receipts in your hospital bag for submission)
Between $750 - $3,950 for surgicial procedures ($750 for normal vaginal delivery, $1,250 for assisted vaginal delivery, and higher for c-section operations)
Up to $450 per day in hospital

Insurance costs

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Maternity insurance ($350 - $550)
To protect against unexpected pregnancy or delivery complications, you can either save up more on your own, or opt for maternity insurance to offset these costs. There are generally two types of maternity insurance plans available in Singapore - the standalone plans and the bundled options. Make sure you pay attention to the conditions covered and the underwriting criteria. For a detailed study across price, coverage and exclusions, you may refer to my 2018 comparison table here for when I was shopping around for my own.

Insurance for yourself and your spouse
With a new dependent, it is crucial that you and your spouse are financially covered so that lest anything happens to either of you, the insurer(s) will provide a payout that can then go towards covering your child's future expenses. Consider hospitalisation, personal accident, term / life with critical illness riders, and income replacement policies for a start. No cost estimates for this section provided because what and how much you choose to be insured for will affect your premiums paid, so it'll be best to seek advice from a financial adviser(s) and get quotes so you can decide what falls within your affordability.

Insurance for your child
What insurance policies do you need to get for your newborn? In my view, hospitalisation and personal accident plans are absolutely essential, term/life plans are debatable, whereas endowment and ILP can be skipped provided that you'll do your own savings and investments. You can read more about each policy and its varying functions here, as well as which ones I recommend as must-haves vs. the good-to-have-if-you-can-afford-it. The premiums will also vary according to the level of coverage that you choose for your child, so there isn't any cost estimates here either.

Confinement costs

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Confinement lady ($2,800 - $3,500)

Who will be helping to look after you and your newborn baby (while also assisting on household chores and cooking) in the first month after you've delivered? For those who are lucky enough to have your parents or in-laws help out, then you might be able to save on the costs of a confinement nanny. If not, you can expect to pay upward of $2,800 if you get from a confinement agency like PEM, or $3,000 and above if you're going with a private nanny.

If your baby comes during the Chinese New Year period, prepare to pay almost double of the price! My friend recently paid over $6,000 for his confinement nanny as his baby was born in February.

Confinement food ($800 - $1,800)

If you're getting a confinement nanny, she will be able to cook confinement meals for you as well, but you'll have to pay for the cost of groceries and ingredients. Otherwise, you can also cater ready-made meals from caterers like Tian Wei Signature or Thomson Medical for convenience because you probably won't have time (or the energy) to handle your own meals and ensure sufficient nutrients for recovery when you're so busy feeding and tending to baby in the first month.

Confinement herbs ($800 - $1,200)

There are herbs for consumption and herbs for bathing, usually obtained from TCM shops like Hock Hua or Thomson Medical.

Post-natal / jamu massage ($700 - $1,500)

After delivery, you'll most likely need post-natal massage to help "reset" your uterus so that your tummy will shrink, as well as potentially get a breast massage to help unclog blocked ducts and reduce engorgement. Depending on the number of sessions you opt for (usually 7 - 15 sessions) and which masseur you use, costs will vary accordingly. If you go directly with private and individual masseurs, please make sure you ask them about transport costs, binder costs and peak periods pricing, as many of them quote upfront without including all these extras. You don't want any surprises, do you?

P.S. I tried a few prenatal massages and eventually booked with Post Natal Singapore for mine as they offered the best value-for-money, especially if you purchase during a baby fair or roadshow where they give out pretty good discounts and freebies.

Newborn-related expenses

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Cord banking ($5,000 - $10,000)

Will you be banking your baby's cord blood, cord lining or the entire cord? Is it even worth banking your baby's cord? I've written extensively about the need for cord blood banking, the pros and cons of donating vs. storing privately, as well as compared against the cost of storing among the different providers in Singapore. For the record, I decided to go with Cordlife for mine and have detailed my reasons in this blog post.

Breastmilk feeding expenses ($500 - $1,500)

Think breastfeeding is cheap? Not when you need to get breast pumps, milk bottles and teats, nipple balm, breast pads, etc. All these can add up to quite a bit! Expect to spend even more if you end up feeding your baby formula milk.

Baby items ($1,500 - $5,000)

Clothes, mittens, socks, swaddles, diapers, a baby cot, a waterproof mattress protector, a changing mat, a diaper bag, carrier, stroller, car seat, etc. I never knew such a tiny human being needed so many things until I conceived my own! Costs here can vary by quite a bit but there are also various ways of saving money, such as shopping through Taobao, getting hand-me-downs or buying secondhand from Carousell. Some mothers are willing to splurge $1,500 on just their baby cot alone (although I know of none personally except those who have been sponsored), so expect anywhere from $500 and up depending on your own preferences!

Vaccination expenses ($1 or up)
Here's a tip - you get the vaccines for free / at a highly subsidised rate if you go to the polyclinics instead of a private paediatrician. This is because all recommended immunisations under the National Childhood Immunisation Programme (NCIP) are free, thanks to MOH and government subsidies!

Paediatrician expenses (varies)
Depending on how healthy your baby is, costs for paediatrician visits can vary quite widely under this aspect as well. If you need repeated visits for fever, colic or other conditions, then you'll have to pay accordingly per visit and treatment.

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So how much should I save?!

That depends on how much you intend to spend, really, but start budgeting across the above categories and work out a rough budget that you'll need to start saving towards so that you'll be well-prepared. To outsource financial risks (hospitalisation, pregnancy complications, etc), look to insurance to cover that gap, unless you prefer to self-insure the entire sum by yourself.

As a rough gauge, my husband and I initially targeted $20,000 before we realised that some of our friends (especially those who ended up with an emergency C-section) spent close to that sum alone on their hospitalisation and delivery fees. Hence, we've since revised our baby budget to $30,000 to last us throughout pregnancy and the first 4 months of our baby's birth.

Where to park my child's savings and government grant?
The POSB Child Development Account!

To help us save further on our son's medical, dental and hospital expenses after he's born, we'll be using our POSB Child Development Account together with our Passion POSB Debit Card which gives us 3% rebate for such expenses. I've reviewed this previously against the other CDA options in Singapore and felt that this was the best account for us to open to get our CDA grant of $3000 and also the government's matching of up to $3,000 (since this is our first child). There's also 2% interest p.a. with no minimum balance, which is relatively higher than many bank accounts that offer basic interest of 0.05% onwards.

You can also see my comparison here.

We decided to go with POSB Child Development Account as it has:

3% cash rebate on hospital, medical and dental expenses (the only one to offer this)
the best variety of merchant offers including baby essentials, Lazada, RedMart and more
we can also get a free infant flight on Singapore Airlines to travel with baby Nate next year!

Disclaimer: This post was written in collaboration with POSB, whom I approached after independently reviewing their CDA offering (here) and concluding that they were indeed the best in the market for my family and my baby.

Public vs. Private?

We took a total of 8 months before deciding on which hospital to deliver in, because being Budget Babe, I wanted to really review and evaluate my options before deciding! After all, childbirth is going to be one of the most major experiences in my life, and I really wanted to think through where would be best for me as I go through this milestone that will change my life forever.

One of the major considerations of whether to deliver in a public or private hospital would be that of costs. To get an estimate of the bill sizes across different hospitals in Singapore, you can refer to MOH's website here. There are pros and cons of each, so ultimately it boils down to your personal preference and affordability.

Source: Ministry of Health

Husbands, do let your wives choose if you can, because they're the ones giving birth and going through the entire painful process, so the least you can do is to give them the maximum level of comfort that both of you can afford.

I was initially leaning towards KKH as it'll be more affordable, but after learning about how in exchange (as a public and subsidized patient), you don't get to choose your doctor / anaesthetist / paediatrician during the whole labour process, I felt I wouldn't be able to handle the uncertainty! Moreover, I got admitted in my 30th week of pregnancy for a premature delivery scare (when I fell down the overhead bridge) and the KKH bill estimate given to me was $5,949 (after government subsidy, for A1 ward via normal delivery), which wasn't really as low as I had expected it to be.

(You can also read my reasons as to why we opted for a private gynae over a public hospital for our first pregnancy journey here.)

As a result, we decided that delivering in a private hospital would be the best and most reassuring option for us. It might be slightly pricier (but not by much, either), but my husband said it'll be more worth it to pay for my comfort and peace of mind :')

Choosing between Thomson Medical Centre & Mount Alvernia Hospital

If you're with a private gynae, you should first ask which hospital(s) they deliver in before deciding which one you prefer to go with. Our gynae only delivers at 3 hospitals, so we were limited to TMC and MAH as both hospitals were the nearest to where we live (a 20-minute drive away).

In choosing our hospital of choice for delivery, my husband and I considered the following factors, in the following order of importance:

Cost
Labour facilities and room amenities
Service and friendliness of their nurses
Expertise of their lactation consultant(s)
In-hospital food
Post-hospitalisation support and freebies (heh)
Discounts and incentives
Insurance privileges

I took a photo of their rates comparison during my hospital tour as well. This was in one of the lifts!

Costs
Many mummies who have previously stayed in shared wards (2 or 4-bedders) have openly talked about how it was difficult for them to rest properly as they were kept awake by their ward neighbours / crying babies / visitors. Also, only single rooms allow for your husband to stay over, and I wanted mine around for emotional support and strength after the birthing ordeal.

Single room	Thomson Medical Centre	Mount Alvernia Hospital
Daily room rate (w. GST)	$567.10	$569.24
Companion fee / day	$100 (nicer food + more meals)	$85
Baby nursery charges / day	$100	$100
Mother's treatment fees / day	$150	$150

According to the Ministry of Health's overall delivery bill estimates, TMC was one of the most affordable. For my fellow friend who delivered a month before me in a public hospital i.e. KKH under Ward A (let's use that as the best equivalent to a single room in a private hospital), the room rate was from $533 a day, so that's really not much of a difference vs. if you head over to a private hospital instead as you can see from the above.

Labour facilities and room amenities
I went for the hospital tour by both TMC and MAH, and although both were equally well-equipped for labour and delivery, I felt more at ease in TMC's atmosphere as it felt more homely, in contrast to MAH where there are both maternity and sick patients. This might be due to the fact that one is a birthing centre whereas the other is ultimately still a hospital.

After my friend's experience with hydrotherapy for pain relief, I was also keen to look for a hospital that could offer this, and that's when I found out TMC is the only private hospital in Singapore with such facilities for water birth. MAH didn't have this option, which was a little disappointing for us.

In terms of rooms, MAH's rooms were slightly bigger in size, especially if you go for their St Michael or Super Deluxe rooms (which are also more expensive). I didn't feel the need to go for such a big room though, and felt TMC's rooms were just nice without being cramped, and of course more cozy with sleek leather sofas for the husbands.

Thomson Medical Centre's maternity ward

Mount Alvernia Hospital's maternity ward

Some might also feel more awkward at MAH due to their religious affiliation (it is a Catholic hospital), so I would highly encourage that you sign up for a hospital tour with the ones that you're considering so that you can get a better feel of the vibes in person for yourself.

The nurses
I've heard good things from other mothers about the nurses at both hospitals, but when we were there for the hospital tour, TMC's nurses seemed more friendly and helpful. A friend of mine who recently delivered at TMC also had nothing but high praises for their nurses in terms of experience, patience and professionalism.

Expertise of their lactation consultant(s)
Both hospitals are pro-breastfeeding, which was an important consideration for me because I wanted support and guidance on how to latch baby right and breastfeed him.

I attended a few pregnancy conferences even before I decided on which hospital to deliver at, and was particularly impressed by Dr. Wong Boh Boi, so when I found out that she's with TMC, that was an additional plus point for me!

Do also note that Mount Alvernia does NOT allow patients to bring their own breast pump, and instead charges for the rental each time. On the other hand, TMC allows you to use your own breast pump, and the lactation consultant was even kind enough to teach my friend how to operate hers during the visit!

In-hospital food
At the most recent pregnancy conference I attended (in my 8th month), I also got to try out TMC's confinement food and longan red dates tea which was super delicious! You can read my live update of the event here. My friend who recently delivered at TMC also raved about their signature fish and papaya soup, which is served to all mothers who deliver there and is specially designed to boost breast milk supply. I've not tried it yet, but am looking forward to!

Was unable to compare with Mount Alvernia's food since I didn't get to try it at all, but reviews online don't seem to speak well of their food for those who have delivered there. My friend also recently delivered at Mount Alvernia and had a bad experience, to the extent that she said she'll rather go for TMC or pay more for Mount E if she has a third child.

An additional point to note is that at TMC, all mothers get free-flow of longan and red date tea after delivery for the duration of your stay, but at Mount Alvernia, you're only given a cup at each meal. My friend had to pay $8 to top-up for a flask just so she could have more fluids, as a single cup just wasn't enough for her.

Post-hospitalisation support and freebies
While you shouldn't choose a hospital JUST because it offers better freebies, it is always a good plus point if they do :P

I was particularly drawn to TMC's Breastfeeding Essentials Luggage, which is thoughtfully curated with items like:

A multi-function diaper bag
A cooler bag (for storing breastmilk when you're out)
A Hegen breast pump
Breastmilk storage bags
A box of Pigeon breast pads (for milk leakages)
A nursing scarf
A pack of nursing tea
A memo board (to note baby's feeding times)
Calcium supplements
A pack of maternity pads (for lochia)
Feminine wash
A breastfeeding guidebook

and more. This was pretty impressive because it contains many essentials that I've been told to get in preparation for my breastfeeding journey. Of course, TMC allows you to bring home your baby's bathtub and their swaddle blanket (with TMC's logo) too!

Whereas at Mount Alvernia, the maternity package includes:

A pack of maternity pads
1 pack of baby diapers
1 pack of baby wipes
Baby's bathtub
Maternity discharge bag
Toiletry pouch with basic toiletries

Mount Alvernia bag.
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You can easily tell which was the more appealing one for me :P

Discounts and incentives

Both fare well in this area, but TMC is slightly superior due to the wide variety of their merchant tie-ups.

The Mount Alvernia's Ladies Card gives savings on single and 2-bedded rooms, as well as services at the hospital, but their partner privileges are lacking and the most compelling for me was probably just the complimentary baby shoot with Baby U Photo Studio (2 x 5" by 5" images and selected soft copies only).

On the other hand, TMC offers their First Born Incentive (FBI) and Subsequent Born Incentive (SBI) 2-year membership program, which helps to offset your room costs, doctor's delivery fees, paediatrician's consultation fees, diagnostic tests (unfortunately I didn't get to utilize this even though I took my Oscar and FA scan tests with Thomson because I didn't sign up early enough since I wasn't yet sure of where I would be delivering in), as well as 10% off their family clinic and other services.

In addition, complimentary membership of their Celebrating Life is provided, where there's more merchant discounts with STRIP, Tim Ho Wan, Clarins, and more.

Insurance privileges
Both TMC and MAH offers complimentary insurance by Aviva, but I feel TMC's one is more worthwhile as you get free medical insurance for your baby for 12 months, a free 6-month life insurance coverage of $25k for the mother (Aviva's MyJoyfulBundle) and a free 6-month $10k personal accident plan. On the other hand, Mount Alvernia's patients enjoy 6 months free of personal accident insurance for both parents and baby.

Other qualitative factors that we considered are listed out in the table below:

	Thomson Medical Centre	Mount Alvernia Hospital
Membership	$98	$68
No. of merchants	30	8
Bill discount	$100 off single-rooms	$100 off single-rooms
PD fees	5% (max. $100)	None
Carpark services	Valet	Ownself (but more lots)
Insurance	12 months medical insurance (baby) + $10k personal accident plan (mother) + $25k life insurance (mother)	6-month personal accident plan for mother, spouse and baby.
Breastfeeding support	Dr. Wong Boh Boi (aka "the baby whisperer"	Sister Kang
Goodie bag	Breastfeeding Essentials Luggage + baby bathtub	Discharge bag + baby bathtub

Hospital Tour
I didn't manage to document my experience during MAH's hospital tour as my husband couldn't make it at the last minute so I went alone and had no extra hands to take photos or record videos, but you can view my TMC hospital tour experience here! (includes a video of the delivery suite).

Why I eventually chose to deliver in Thomson Medical Centre

In case you didn't manage to read through the entire breakdown above, the TLDR summary of reasons why I decided on TMC over MAH eventually are:

Affordable among the various private hospitals
Homely and comfortable atmosphere (no "sick patient" vibes)
Experienced and helpful nurses
The only private hospital with the option for hydrotherapy and water birth
Strong breastfeeding and lactation support via their ParentCraft Centre and support helpline
Comfortable rooms (feels more like a staycation than a hospital!)
Really good food during the stay
Better insurance offering by Aviva
Super attractive (and practical / useful) goodie bag upon discharge
Benefits of being a TMC member (lots of merchant tie-ups for discounts)
Discounts on my selected baby's PD

That's it for my review! I hope this helps, and I'll update shortly as I've only just delivered my little baby a few days ago. Will write more once I find some time to share about my birthing experience in Thomson Medical Centre, and will share more photos then :)

In the meantime, motherhood duties calls!

With love,
Budget Babe

There's a wide range of benefits available to parents if you're having your baby in Singapore. I came to learn of all these cash grants and freebies when I was pregnant with my first child, but realised that many of my peers aren't fully aware of what they're entitled to, so here's a full list of what you can get and how:

I detail them below on what they cover, and how you can apply to claim your benefits:

The Baby Bonus cash gift
The First-Step CDA grant and dollar-for-dollar matching
MediSave Maternity Package
MediSave Grant for Newborns
MediShield Life Coverage
Parental Leave Entitlement (paid by the government, too!)
Income Tax rebates
NTUC Good Start Bundle (with free hospitalisation insurance)
NLB Baby Gift Pack

1. Baby Bonus Cash Gift

As part of their efforts to boost the population fertility rate, the Singapore government gives you at least S$8,000 in cash if you're having a baby and doing your part for "national service" :p

Expect to get:

$8,000 for your first and second child
$10,000 for the third child onwards

The cash will be paid out over the first 18 months of your child's birth. You can expect to receive the first portion of the cash gift within 7 to 10 working days of your child’s birth registration (I got mine the week after applying), and after completing the online form found here. The cash can be used to offset your newborn's expenses, although they may not necessarily pay for everything you need to spend on.

2. Child Development Account (CDA)

There are two parts to the CDA:

A first-step cash grant of $3,000
Dollar-for-dollar matching of $3k - $15k (depending on your child's birth order)

You can expect your child's CDA to be opened within 3 - 5 working days of their birth registration among either of the local banks - DBS, OCBC or UOB. Save a trip down to the bank by doing it online here.

For the dollar-to-dollar matching, you have till your child turns 12 years of age to contribute and get the equivalent from the government. The sum will be credited in the subsequent month of your top-up.

Source: Baby Bonus

I've also reviewed what you can use your CDA funds for here, as well as which is the best CDA to open for your child.

In our case, we chose to open the CDA with POSB (for reasons detailed in the above linked blog post). Within a few days, the new account was opened for us, and we received the NETS card by mail shortly after. I then got an SMS saying that the $3000 CDA First-Step Grant would be credited into my account soon. Everything took about 2 weeks so it was pretty efficient!

3. Your MediSave Maternity Package

As long as you're delivering in a Singapore hospital, you can claim the following from your MediSave (also known as the MediSave Maternity Package):

Up to $900 for pre-delivery care (bring receipts of your prenatal consultation visits, screening tests, etc and submit to the hospital at time of bill payment after your delivery)
$750 to $2,150 for delivery procedures
$450 to offset each day of your stay in the hospital (usually 2 days for vaginal deliveries, and 3 days for Caesarean)

In our case, Thomson Medical filed the claims for us. I had a natural delivery where $2550 was deducted in total from my MediSave for the delivery procedure, prenatal claims and hospitalisation stay.

For my baby's bill, $900 was deducted from my MediSave.

4. MediSave Grant for Newborns

All Singaporean babies will receive a $4,000 CPF MediSave grant, and the account will be automatically opened for them upon birth. The grant can be used to help pay for your child's healthcare expenses - MediShield Life premiums, integrated shield plan a.k.a. hospitalisation insurance (please get one, I highly recommend it as per this post), recommended childhood vaccinations (defray the costs by getting it done at polyclinics for free or at a subsidized rate) and approved outpatient treatments.

You do not have to do anything to receive this grant, as all eligible newborns will receive it automatically after birth registration and the grant will be credited two months later. You'll receive a notification letter once the grant has been deposited, but just in case your newborn is eligible but did not receive the grant, you can email the CPF Board at medgrant_newborn@cpf.gov.sg to enquire on the status.

5. MediShield Life Coverage

At this moment (Nov 2018). your MediShield Life still does not cover serious pregnancy and delivery-related complications - if you want financial protection for these, only a maternity insurance plan offers it.

All Singaporean babies are automatically covered by MediShield Life from birth, inclusive of coverage for congenital and neonatal conditions, for life (these will usually be rejected by insurers or come with exclusion clauses, which is why I recommend getting a bundled maternity plan during your pregnancy with a transferable all-inclusive life plan with no underwriting if you can afford it).

6. Parental Leave

The full list of parental leave benefits you're entitled to are:

16 weeks of paid maternity leave for mothers (as long as you've served in your job for at least 3 months), or 12 weeks of paid adoption leave

If you're self-employed, your benefits differ and you generally get 8 to 16 weeks of paid income - read here to calculate how much you can get(hint: it depends on how much income you declared, so if you have been under-declaring your income to avoid taxes...good luck on that!)

2 weeks of paid paternity leave for fathers
4 weeks of shared parental leave(if your wife is willing to transfer hers to you)
Up to 6 days of paid childcare leave for each spouse, if your child is younger than 2 years of age (the Government-Paid Child Care Leave Scheme) - however, do note that this is subject to agreement with your employer as well, so if your workplace is not entirely pro-family then this could be quite tricky.

You'll get 2 days if your child is between the age of 7 - 12 years

6 days per year of unpaid childcare leave per spouse(thus combining with the above paid childcare leave, you're entitled up to 12 days if your child is younger than 2 years old)

6. Income Tax Rebates
Take advantage of the different tax rebates available for Singaporean parents :

Qualifying Child Relief,

Claim up to $4,000 per child if your offspring is younger than 16 years of age or studying full-time.
(Tip: the spouse with the higher income should be the one claiming for this, as it could probably reduce his/her taxes by a larger margin!)

Working Mother's Child Relief,

For mothers who are working and handling dual roles, you can claim 15% of your earned income in tax reliefs for your first child, 20% for your second, and 25% for each child if you have 3 kids or more!

Do note though, that the total cap for QCR and WMCR is $50,000 per child.

Parenthood Tax Rebate,

On your first child, you can claim $5,000 of Parenthood Tax Rebate. If you have 2 kids, add on another $10,000 for your second child. Or, if you're like my cousin with 3 children (or more), you can add on $20,000 more for each subsequent child. This works out to a significant total of $35,000 of tax rebates if you have 3 children and make the maximum claims for them!

Foreign Maid Levy Relief,

If you're hiring a domestic helper to assist you

Grandparent Caregiver Relief

If your parents are unemployed and helping to look after your child

For full details on claiming these income tax rebates and other methods to reduce your income tax, see this post I had previously written here, which was also shared by Ho Ching herself!

7. Subsidized Infant Care Scheme

You might need to place your newborn in an infant care centre once you go back to work, especially if you don't have a domestic helper or a parent to help you look after your child. Fees aren't cheap; on average, expect to pay at least $1,300 every month (for each baby). PCF Sparkletots and My First Skool have the most number of branches island-wide, and are generally affordable options for you to look into for a start.

If you enrol your child in a centre licensed by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), then you're automatically eligible for a subsidy. Working mothers can get a basic subsidy of up to $600 to offset your monthly infant care expenses, or up to $300 at childcare centres. Families with non-working mothers get up to $150 per month.

The last 2 I'll be sharing below aren't exactly given by the government, but I'm including them in this article as they're from a national co-operative and a government statutory board.

8. The NTUC Good Start Bundle

An initiative put together by NTUC and its 8 social enterprises, parents of newborns can claim up this bundle containing up to $300 worth of newborn / household essentials and benefits.

My NTUC Good Start Bundle, which I received for my firstborn

It also comes with a free one-year health insurance coverage, courtesy of NTUC Income. Don't forget to register for your free bundle here once your baby is born!

9. The National Library Board (NLB) Baby Gift Pack

The baby gift pack contains:

3 board books
Reading is Fun! Publication
Rhymes and Fingerplays for Little Ones
Baby Height Chart
A Guide for Reading with Little Ones DVD

All you need to do is to bring along your child's birth certificate and your own NRIC to any library (except NLB Esplanade, Orchard and Chinatown) to register, borrow 6 books, and collect your baby gift pack!

Parenthood isn't easy, especially for first-time parents, so don't forget to register and claim all your benefits and entitlements as listed above to help make your journey a little easier!

With love,
Budget Babe

As a follow-up to my previous post where I estimated the bill sizes for delivery in various hospitals in Singapore, before deciding to go with Thomson Medical Centre given their affordability and other reasons detailed here.

I managed to gather the actual hospital bills for a few hospitals from my fellow mamas who had delivered close to my dates (2 - 3 weeks before / after), and here's how they compare:

Actual Hospital Bills (October - November 2018)

Mummy's Bill:

Gynae and anaesthetist fees have been excluded from the comparison as these service fees vary according to the professionals who are charging them. Between the few of us, our gynae fees ranged from $2000 - $3500, whereas the anaesthetist fees were from $700 - $775.

Do note that your choice of gynae and anaesthetist will also determine whether your final bill paid to the hospital is on the higher or lower end, as the hospital collects the fees on the doctors' behalf.

Baby's bill:

Similarly, I've excluded paediatrician fees as the charges varied from $300 - $900+ for the bills I studied. Note that PD fees will depend on the PD you choose, and expect to pay more for the more popular ones.

In my previous post using estimates, I actually predicted that the order from most affordable to most expensive would be Parkway East --> KKH --> TMC -- MAH, but as it turned out, the results were surprising.

	Parkway East	TMC	MAH	KKH
Quoted Estimate (Mother's bill)	$3,734	$4,272.51	$3,581.29	-
Actual Mother's bill	$3,905.28	$4,495.32	$4,765.90	-
Discrepancy with actual Mother's Bill	$171	$222.81	$1,184.61	-
TOTAL HOSPITAL + BABY BILL	$4,598.29	$5,738.71	$5,820.67	$6,040.65

*as of bills collected and studied in Oct - Nov 2018 from my friends
**only normal delivery is considered. I do not have the figures for caesarean procedures as I did not experience it personally
*** TMC has $100 less from the total combined bill due to their FBI discount, which was not included in my first table (due to them being the only hospital transparently showing that line item). My friend's MAH bill already included the $100 discount off charges after her Ladies Card discount, so I was not able to see what was the original before when comparing.

The key observation I realised was that while MAH may seem to have a cheaper quote for their single room package, the actual bill differed by a large margin. I'm not too sure why, but based on the two MAH bills I've studied, it seems like their consumables are charged at a much higher rate? At the end of the day, do also note that the amount and type of consumables you utilise during your hospital stay may differ as every patient is different.

Anyway, if you were wondering whether going with KKH as a private patient will definitely be cheaper, I hope this article dispels that notion that it isn't necessarily so. Much of it also depends on your gynae / anaesthetist / PD fees and how smoothly / complicated your delivery ends up being.

My friends who have delivered at KKH recently had their total bills range from $10k to $12k for a normal delivery. In fact, one of my friends who had previously delivered at KKH slightly over a year ago, has now decided to go with TMC for the delivery of their second kid, given that the prices don't really differ by much!

I've also included my actual bill with TMC here for reference, lest any of you are keen on potentially delivering there as well and want to know how much mine cost:

There's also a second part to the bill, which is your baby's bill. Here's mine from TMC:

Our out-of-pocket cash expenses ended up being about $6000, which was much lesser than I had budgeted for initially (we had saved for the worst-case scenario: an emergency C-section, and I highly encourage that everyone do so because you really cannot predict what will happen during delivery). On this aspect, we got lucky as I had a really smooth and short labour (9 hours in total).

I also received TMC's Breastfeeding Essentials discharge bag (which I raved about in my previous article), and it is a gorgeous sleek diaper bag that I can foresee myself using for sure!

TMC's Breastfeeding Essentials discharge bag

For those who are interested to see MAH's discharge bag, here's photos from my friend who delivered at Mount Alvernia a few days before me :

Call me superficial, but I'm mighty pleased with my TMC discharge bag by far. Not only are the items super useful (I mean, a branded Hegen breastfeeding pump?! And calcium supplements? And breast pads? And milk boosting tea? And a nursing cover? I could go on and on, you get my gist), I'm a suckler for the gorgeous black design of TMC's diaper bag as well.

But the one I received has since been discontinued (Nov 2018 was its last month), and for mothers who are delivering in TMC from December 2018 onwards, TMC has just revealed this on their page as the revamped discharge bag:

*squeals*

This goodie bag makes me somewhat wish my baby was born in December or 2019 instead, LOL! TMC has truly outdone themselves this time. I mean, a nursing bra?! And milk-boosting cookies by Singapore Lactation Bakes, which I'm also currently taking to boost my breastmilk supply?! And chicken essence!? And diapers?! And mittens?! And a baby bib?!

I'm betting this new bag of goodies cost at least $300+.What a steal!

When it is time for my second kid, I'll most probably go back to TMC again for my delivery. They've given me nothing but a great experience for my firstborn.

P.S. Carpark issues? We visited TMC on various days and at various timings (1pm, 4pm, 10am and 12 midnight) and had no problems on all our visits, so there weren't any concerns for us at all.

Disclaimer: During my stay, I was upgraded from a single room to a Premier Single by Thomson Medical Centre for my delivery due to availability.

Bill sizes frequently differ due to mostly gynae operation fees. Hospital packages form about half of the equation (sometimes lesser, depending on your gynae fees). The bill comparison between the four hospitals here are based on the bills I received from my friends who delivered during a similar period as me but may not be indicative of all bills, so I highly recommend that you book a hospital tour and get a bill estimate directly if you're unsure. You can view my TMC hospital tour here.

A huge thank you to Allison aka Heartland Boy, Elaine, Estee and Karen for sharing your actual bills and parenthood journey with me as we all become first-time parents!

With love,
Budget Babe

Wanna know how to get FREE flights?

You heard me right.

No, this isn't a gimmick, and it is no scam. The method is simple: redeem free flights using the right miles credit cards for expenses you're already paying for.

Now, it is no secret that I prefer cashback over miles when it comes to my credit cards, but I did mention before that you probably want to have both because there may be some cases where it actually pays to have a miles card (especially in cases where it doesn't fit into your qualifying cashback card categories).

I own both types. When it comes to big bills, I usually pay using my miles cards since many cashback cards come with a maximum cap (the ones that don't, give lower cashback rates as well, obviously).

Some of the best cards for miles hacking which I've shared previously includes :
(in order of attractiveness right now)

Citi PremierMiles Visa : 1.2 miles per dollar (mpd) + 30,000 welcome miles
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature : 3.2 mpd for dining, petrol and taxi fares
UOB PRVI MILES Visa : 1.4 mpd for general spend

As you can see, the miles per dollar reward ratio for general spending tends to be quite low across most cards though (since you aren't limited to any expense category), but there's a trick to overcome this:

Stack your miles credit card + Mileslife to get even more miles!

I've also featured Mileslife as an essential companion tool that you MUST make full use of in my previous post to getting the most cashback from your spending, but it works the same way whether you pair it with a miles or cashback card.

Link your preferred miles card(s) so you can get free miles from Mileslife on top of the miles you're already getting from your credit card.

For instance, if you link your Maybank Horizon Visa Signature card and spend $50 at one of their many merchants offering 2mpd, you'll get a total of 260 (instead of your regular 160 miles). The breakdown is as such:

$50 x 3.2 mpd = 160 miles (credit card)
$50 x 2 miles = 100 miles (Mileslife)

If you're applying for any new credit card, remember that my hack is to always go through SingSaver instead of through the bank / roadshow / card website online, as the SingSaver route allows me to get cash vouchers on top of any existing gifts. The latter methods, on the other hand, don't share any of their commission with YOU from signing you up!

In collaboration with Mileslife, SingSaver is now running a promo where three winners stand a chance to win additional 30,000 miles (on top of the 30k welcome miles by Citi, so that's 60k miles in total) as well!

1. Simply apply for any miles credit card here. (You can pick from any, although I really only like the 3 cards I've mentioned best)

2. Complete the rewards redemption form on the page.

3. Answer the question on what is your secret method to accumulate miles faster.

4. Download the Mileslife app and start hacking the miles game!

P.S. After you've signed up, don't forget to fill up SingSaver's gift redemption form here! Otherwise they won't know where to send your vouchers / gift to you, lol.

Disclaimer: This post is written in collaboration with SingSaver. Affiliate links have been included. All opinions in this post are of my own, and consists of credit card recommendations that I've talked about since the start. I've been using Mileslife since their launch to stack miles, and apply for new credit cards only via SingSaver since I get additional gifts (usually cash or vouchers) instead of having the roadshow salesperson earn the commission and not share any with me.

Ever had a job where you had absolutely no experience, no training, other people's lives were at stake, and you weren't allowed to quit?

That's parenting, when you have your firstborn.

Naturally, as first-time parents, we were generally anxious and pretty much clueless on what we should do. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I read up a lot, went for multiple pregnancy conferences (those were super useful, I highly recommend all expecting parents to go for them) and even attended a hands-on class with Thomson Parentcraft, but yet felt ill-prepared when our baby was born.

The first few weeks are always the hardest. For a first-time mother, it is also common to suffer from post-natal depression - I was mostly optimistic throughout my pregnancy, but my sunny disposition completely took a 360 turn when I was discharged from the hospital after birth. Suddenly, I was hit with an unexplainable urge to cry all the time (I cried up to 10 times a day), sometimes for no reason at all.

It can get extremely overwhelming for a first-time mom.

So when I heard from my cousins (whose kids are much older now) and quite a few of my friends that they hired confinement nannies in order to cope in their first few months, I was intrigued by the idea and went to research further.

Image credits

What are the benefits of hiring a confinement nanny?

Roles and duties of a confinement nanny:

Take care of your newborn, including bathing and changing them
Taking care of the mother during her confinement
Preparing herbal baths and red dates tea
Cook nourishing meals for the mother
Do simple household chores such as laundry and cleaning
Ensure that the mother gets ample rest during her confinement
Help guide the mother and the family through confinement (especially for clueless couples like us!)
Guide you on breastfeeding and latching techniques
Help to teach the parents on how to handle the baby

Cost: $2,800 - $3,200 for 28 days
(or more if you're hiring a private nanny directly.)

Additional fees:

Groceries and herbs (anywhere from $800 - $2,000 depending on your confinement menu)
Festive periods (especially during Chinese New Year) may come with hefty surcharges. My friend had to shell out close to $6k for his in February 2018!
If you hire through an agency, you may be charged extra for certain preferences (eg. if you have pets at home and need a nanny who isn't afraid of animals, or if you stay in a two-storey house. Just make sure you declare all of these upfront so they can give you an accurate quote for you to consider. PEM didn't quote extra for my friend who has dogs at home, but some other agencies do)
Cooking and doing laundry for any additional person at home other than the mother, father and the newborn
A customary welcome and thank-you angpao

We had originally assumed my mother-in-law would be able to help us during my confinement, but in the end after speaking to her, she wasn't keen as she worried about having difficulties finding another job if she quits her current one. No one else is as knowledgable or experienced enough to help us either, so we had no choice but to look at hiring a confinement nanny.

Another perspective I would emphasize is that if your mom or mother-in-law is helping to do your confinement for you, be prepared for potential conflicts and disagreements. On the other hand, a confinement nanny is after all a hired help, so you get to "break" the confinement rules you don't believe in (such as not showering or washing your hair, wearing long sleeves and pants, etc). But if you disobey your mother-in-law...good luck with later on!

Image Credits

If you choose not to hire a confinement nanny, you should also probably think about how to get your confinement meals settled so that your body is fed with the right nutrients to recover and replenish itself. For instance, Tian Wei Signature offers confinement food catering right to your doorstep for $1,540 (28 days of lunch and dinner) if you book a month before your estimated delivery date. Prices across the various vendors are competitive, with most at $1,600+ for NannySOS, Richfood and The Natal Kitchen. If you want something from a hospital, Thomson Medical offers confinement food catering as well.

If you're not sure which vendor to order with, I've personally found baby fairs and seminars useful as there are usually samples for tasting if the vendor is one of the conference sponsors. Alternatively, you can also order trial meals prior to your delivery so you can figure out which is to your liking.

In terms of herbal soups and nourishment, PEM also offers pre-packed herbal boxes that are labelled by the 28 days of your confinement i.e. Week 1 Day 1, Week 2 Day 4, etc. That way, it is easier for either you, your mother / in-laws, or your domestic helper to prepare them accordingly. I found these quite fuss-free and recommended it to my friends who were doing their own confinement!

Should you hire direct or via an agency?

This really depends.

In terms of costs, the prices for a private nanny and one hired through an agency does not differ too much, although if you go for the more popular or reputable private nannies, they could cost more. I got recommendations from my readers and friends, and so we approached over 12 private nannies to enquire, all of whom quoted us $3,000 to $3,500. PEM, on the other hand, quoted me a more affordable $2,800 - $3,000. It was also difficult to get a private one, as most of the ones we spoke to were already fully booked for our confinement period, despite us enquiring as early as in my third month of pregnancy!

(Tip: another way to get a lower rate is to also book earlier in advance, or via baby fairs when there are promotions at times.)

While an agency has more nannies for you to choose from, the quality of their nannies depend largely on their training methodologies, so do read up on reviews to discern for yourself. In contrast, private nannies rely purely on word-of-mouth referrals, but if anything goes wrong, there is no agency you can go to in the event of any dispute or misconduct.

It pays to ask questions to ensure you get a good fit! If you're hiring a private nanny, see if you can meet them prior to confirming. If getting through an agency, let the agency know of your preference so they can arrange and match a suitable nanny to you, and also spend some time getting to know your nanny well on the first day.

Some agencies also allow you to switch nannies (this was something our PEM consultant told us) lest you do not "click" with her, at no extra cost.

The other thing to look out for is that if you go with a private nanny, then in the event that they're unable to make it at the last minute, they may get their friend or kin to stand in for them instead and you may not have a say in that, since your non-refundable deposit would have already been paid anyway.

While some may think private nannies will be better as they tend to come with word-of-mouth recommendations, this might not necessarily be the case all the time. My friend, for instance, "fired" her (private) nanny after just two weeks as her nanny did not treat her baby well and did so many things that was causing my friend to lose her sanity.

Your baby's life and well-being is at stake, so please make sure you find someone who will care and love your baby so that you can focus on recuperating and getting your breastmilk supply up.

Final thoughts

So...are confinement nannies necessary? Are they worth spending one month of salary on?

We've decided that hiring a confinement lady is a MUST-HAVE for us, especially as first-time parents, and that it is worth every single cent so that I'll be able to focus on recuperating, while we learn how to care for our newborn from a more experienced hand as well. After all, the last time our parents took care of a newborn was over 25+ years ago, so we certainly wanted someone who has more experience and would be able to guide us as we become new parents. For folks who cannot afford the time (not to mention extra $$) to go for prenatal classes and learn how to care for a baby properly (including us), hiring a confinement nanny can help to take that stress off us since we can learn everything we need from her.

If you don't have the time to individually call up numerous private nannies like we do, or if you're too busy or tired to deal with all the paperwork and any issues, then an agency might be a better option, and two of my friends who are giving birth in the same month as me has opted to get their nanny through PEM as well largely due to the price and convenience.

I'll share about my own confinement journey and tips on how to DIY your own shortly, and will also do a review on my PEM nanny soon!

With love,

Budget Babe

This post is long overdue, as many (fellow expecting) readers have asked me what I packed in my hospital bag for delivery. However, I wanted to wait till I was discharged so I could look back and see what I ended up using, and the ones I didn't, as well as if there was anything I didn't bring which I wished I had.

I would also recommend wearing a loose-fitting dress with slippers to the hospital and simply re-wearing back that same outfit when you're discharged. The slippers will come in handy when you're walking around the ward / entertaining visitors / going to the toilet.

Here's the comprehensive list of what you need to pack in your hospital bag:

Important Documents

Admission letter from your gynae
Prenatal receipts (totalling at least $900, for your MediSave claims)
NRIC
Credit card (look out for my upcoming post on the best credit cards to use for hospital bills!)
Your marriage certificate (if you're registering your baby's birth cert at the hospital)

Clothes and Personal Toiletries

A cardigan (especially if you get cold easily)
A pair of socks
Disposable underwear
Personal toiletries : facial wash, body foam, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc
Basic cosmetics (for when guests visit - I packed only eyebrow pencil and lipstick)
A pack of wet wipes to clean your body
Dry shampoo (get the spray types from A'Kin or Batiste)
A pack of maternity pads (I recommend Sofy Cooling series)
Cooling perineal spray (Earthmama is the most popular, but it didn't work for me)
Mobile charger

Breastfeeding essentials

Breast pump (note that if you're delivering at Mount Alvernia hospital, they do not allow you to use your own breast pump and you'll have to rent from them at $50 per usage)
Breast pads
A stretchy nursing bra (wireless)
2 x sterile, disposable syringes (to collect your colostrum)
Breast shells (for sore and/or bleeding nipples)
Nipple shield (to latch your baby with even while you nurse sore nipples)
Nipple cream

Other optional breastfeeding items to bring would be lactation cookies and/or nursing tea. I had cookies from Singapore Lactation Bakes (SLB) with me to kickstart my milk supply.

For your baby

A romper, or any going-home outfit
Swaddle blanket
Mittens and socks

For your husband

Mobile charger
Some snacks and drinks, or cup noodles
2 - 3 sets of clothes and underwear
Personal toiletries

Luckily for me, I delivered at Thomson Medical Centre (TMC), where they provided a lot of the above necessities and hence on hindsight, I didn't actually end up using a lot of what I had prepared.

Without further ado, here's my minimalist hospital bag packing list (for mummies delivering in TMC):

Important Documents

Admission letter from your gynae
Prenatal receipts (totalling at least $900, for your MediSave claims)
NRIC
Credit card (look out for my upcoming post on the best credit cards to use for hospital bills!)
Your marriage certificate (if you're registering your baby's birth cert at the hospital)

Clothes and Personal Toiletries

A cardigan (especially if you get cold easily)
A pair of socks
~~Disposable underwear~~
~~Personal toiletries : facial wash, body foam, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc~~
Basic cosmetics (for when guests visit - I packed only eyebrow pencil and lipstick)
~~A pack of wet wipes to clean your body~~
Dry shampoo (get the spray types from A'Kin or Batiste)
~~A pack of maternity pads~~
Cooling perineal spray (eg. Earthmama)
Mobile charger

Breastfeeding essentials

Breast pump (optional. If you're a first-time mom and want the lactation consultants at TMC to teach you how to use your breast pump, then bring it along (no extra charge for the teaching!). Otherwise, TMC provides a manual breast pump complimentary for all of their patients)
~~Breast pads~~
~~A stretchy nursing bra (wireless)~~
~~2 x sterile, disposable syringes (to collect your colostrum)~~
Breast shells (for sore and/or bleeding nipples)
Nipple shield (to latch your baby with even while you nurse sore nipples)
Nipple cream

For your baby

~~A romper, or any going-home outfit~~
~~Swaddle blanket~~
~~Mittens and socks~~

For your husband

Mobile charger
Some snacks and drinks, or cup noodles
2 - 3 sets of clothes and underwear
~~Personal toiletries~~

TMC provided me with all the items I've struck out in the list above (in the Breastfeeding Essentials bag they give to all patients), so we really only needed to pack our documents, charger and cosmetics. We were also given various items for our baby to bring home with us:

Baby bag (a stylish grey one that I've been using as a diaper bag)
Baby bathtub
Baby vest
Baby swaddle blanket
A pack of disposable newborn diapers
Wet wipes
Diaper cream
Cord spirit
Bathing toiletries

However, I've since found out that they've discontinued their Breastfeeding Essentials bag for mummies as of November 2018 (so I was one of the last batches to receive it, apparently). They've in fact, UPGRADED from 20 items to 40 items now so it has gotten even better!

P.S. This is NOT a sponsored post and neither did TMC pay me to promote their Mum & Baby Essentials bag mentioned above. I wrote this of my own accord as I've been receiving questions on what I packed in my hospital bag. I was a satisfied customer at Thomson Medical when I delivered my firstborn there in Nov 2018 and am sharing based on my own experience with my hospital bag and their gifts, which I felt was fantastic customer service with a lot of thought put into it.

With love,

Budget Babe

2018 was the year my life changed forever, as I got pregnant and gave birth to my firstborn within this year.

Once you have a life you're now responsible for, and one who's so vulnerable and completely dependent on you for their survival...your whole world undergoes a massive change. Gone were my days of quiet, personal time and being able to work / write without stopping; now, I've to drop everything once my baby cries and go to tend to him.

But of course, a baby comes with huge costs as well, and we knew this would significantly affect our finances from here on. I will no longer be able to skimp and save as much as I did before, now that my income will need to account for another human being as well.

Hello baby Nate!

With the year coming to an end, it is time to look back again on how I fared this year and set some new resolutions to usher in 2019. But before that, here's a quick recap of previous years:

Did I manage to double my net worth again this year? No, as a substantial amount was spent from my pregnancy to delivery to confinement period, but the silver lining was that I did manage to increase my savings because I worked harder than I ever did at my job, and this in turn boosted my income.

These were my goals in previous years:

I didn't really set any goals for 2018 as my aims remained largely the same as the year before - boost income, maximise rewards on expenses, grow my side hustles, improve my investment performance, and grow my investment portfolio. Some were achieved while some weren't.

1. Increase income - Achieved!

Knowing that this would be my last chance to work my ass off before the baby arrives, I spent most of this year focusing on work and boosting my side income through weekend tuition and the blog. Readers would probably have noticed that I've also taken on some affiliate partnerships (3) and done a couple of sponsored posts this year.

I've always been selective about the clients I choose to work with, and you can read my policy here - to qualify for a post on this blog, the product or service needs to be something I'll personally use and be willing to pay for even if I weren't sponsored. An interesting trend to note was that a lot of (unknown to me) cryptocurrency and investment companies started approaching me for a sponsored post, but I rejected them all as I didn't believe enough in their offering to talk about it. Money is good, but trust once broken is harder to win back, and I value my credibility far more than short-term monetary payments.

On weekends, I also took up more tuition assignments for the last few months and that helped to boost my income. However, I don't foresee next year to be the same - in fact, I've made a conscious decision to cut down on my weekend tuition and hence there will be significant income loss in 2019 for this area. While I'll still be teaching a handful of GP students for the A Levels, I don't intend to continue taking in any more English O Level students anymore. Although the drop in income is saddening, I prefer to spend quality time with my baby while I still can. After all, they grow up way too fast. Money can be earned back, but time cannot.

2. Grow savings - Achieved!

There was a slight surprise here as I had expected my savings to go down, but as it turned out, my workaholic days paid off handsomely in the form of increased earned income. Thus, my cash savings this year came in at $50,000 - mostly due to increased income, a decent work bonus, dividend payouts, and a portion from cashback and interest on my high-yield bank saving accounts. But the growth rate in my savings has dropped. This is in line with what I said previously about your 20s being the best time of your life to save before your financial commitments of a housing mortgage and kids arrive, so this is hardly surprising at all.

Nonetheless, I'm hoping to hit a quarter of a million before I turn 30, so let's see if that materializes.

Our biggest expense this year was for the pregnancy and delivery of our baby boy. On the travel front, we spent on 2 holidays this year - Cambodia and London, of which cost us $600 and $2,800 per person respectively, similar to how much we've spent in previous years as we keep to our aim of touring one long-haul and one short-haul travel destination every year. This was only possible through much planning and being savvy about our activities and payments, enabling us to make more memories together as just a couple before our baby arrived.

From here henceforth, I don't think I'll be able to save so much anymore as our expenses will be going up and my income will be going down since I've scaled back on my weekend work. The craziness is over. My baby boy needs me now.

3. Increase net worth - Achieved!

In November 2016, I managed to reach $100k in net worth (cash + investments + CPF), and doubled it to $200k last year. However, this year, due to a downturn in the market, my investments didn't fare as well and it was by a stroke of pure luck that I outperformed the market simply by holding on to cash...because I was too busy with my pregnancy to do anything else.

This year's contribution towards my net worth increase largely came from:
Increased work income
Investing in a government-grade AAA bond (a.k.a. topping up my CPF and smiling as I look at all the compounded interest over the years)
Bank interest on my high-yield savings accounts
Increased cashback from my credit cards and other tools
Dividend payouts from stocks

4. Fill protection gaps - Achieved

This year was the year I revamped our entire insurance portfolio and made sure our protection needs were well taken care of, now that we have an additional dependent. Aside from the policies for my husband and I, we've also gotten insurance for our baby and spent some time making sure our downsides are covered.

The last remaining task for me would be to write our will, which I hope to finish within the next few months.

5. Improve investment performance - Not achieved :(

For one simple reason : I didn't have much time this year. Aside from a few bonds and IPOs that captured my attention, I mostly spent the rest of my investment moves on adding to positions that I already owned / had waitlisted for a long time.

I had completely underestimated the effect pregnancy would take on my body, and the afterbirth recovery. Reading annual reports were now considered a luxury...if I could even find the time to do so. As a result, I mostly held onto cash for this year, which eventually turned out to be the right move (by a stroke of luck and timing) as global stock markets went into a downturn, and SGX wasn't spared either.

Hence, even though my returns "outperformed" the market, I think the truer statement would be to admit that I did not improve my investment performance, as I was not as active as I would have wanted to be, and only made a small number of buy and sells this year. That is nothing to be proud of since it is by a stroke of pure luck and timing, and hence I would consider my investment performance to have remained stagnant..

Cryptocurrencies also took a skydive, but as I had limited myself to only investing a sum that I could afford to lose, I'm still holding on to my cryptocurrency portfolio as I'm still bullish on them in the long run. There has been a lot of speculation on prices within this sphere, and I took a step back from February onwards once I became pregnant. Till date, I have no intention to sell them.

Goals for 2019

Since my income will drop next year, and as expenses go up, my savings rate will probably go downward from here. In addition, we're looking to get a place of our own in 2019, so that will be another big financial expense.

All I can say is that I'm glad I saved crazily while I had the chance in my younger years, as it is getting harder now.

As we move into 2019, I realise that my goals have changed. Instead of focusing on the financial goals, my priority now would be to spend more time with my baby and learn to become a good parent. Of course, that will include teaching him how to be financially savvy and not falling for scams. I have also started a savings account for him and will use the money to implement my child's investment portfolio in 2019, which we intend to hand over to him when he turns 21.

A key lesson I learnt this year? That there's more to life than money. Yes, we still need to manage our finances and make sure we plan for retirement, but someone wise told me this:
Money can always be earned back, but your time with your child cannot. They grow up too quickly.

I'll leave compound interest to work its magic on my cash and investment portfolio, while still keeping an eye out for opportunities in the stock market. More than anyone else, I'm secretly hoping for a market crash because only then do the big opportunities appear. I've been watching on the sidelines these past few weeks, and if the stock market remains down or dips even further, I'll be looking for a chance to enter.

See you in 2019!

Till then,

Budget Babe

I never believed in how essential prenatal and postnatal massages were until I encountered them myself. Here's why, and my Post Natal Massage Singapore review of their services for both prenatal and post-delivery.

My experience with Post Natal Massage Singapore

Are prenatal massages worth it?

If you suffer from aches and water retention during pregnancy, then I would definitely think so.

Benefits of prenatal massage:

To reduce lower hip and back pain
Improve blood circulation
Reduce swelling
Reduce leg cramps

In my case, they really helped me. When I was pregnant, I initially didn't want to spend money on prenatal massages since I was trying to save up for post-delivery expenses. However, I suffered from the following during my pregnancy:

severe water retention (it hurt just to walk because of how swollen my feet and ankles were. It was so bad that some of my friends even asked me to check with my gynae if I had pre-eclampsia, since swollen feet is one of the symptoms)
recurring tailbone aches(these came in the later part of my second trimester, and made it extremely uncomfortable to even sit or lie down. Imagine living through 5 months of tailbone aches that hardly go away! Sometimes getting my husband to massage the spot helped, albeit momentarily. I later found out that the aches were due to my uterus contracting, as my contractions during labour felt the same way)

I thus signed up for three sessions with Post Natal Massage Singapore (PNSG) to get some help. Each massage session helped to reduce the tailbone ache and my stiff muscles, such that I always had uninterrupted sleep during the night after. For the water retention, the massages helped to make my legs look human again after the session and for the rest of the night, but the swelling would return the next morning as my condition was quite persistent.

Here's some photos to show documenting my experience with Prenatal Massage Singapore:

Prenatal Massage Singapore review

For the sessions, PNSG's therapists would come to my house and all I had to prepare was 2 large towels and 2 small ones. They laid a waterproof sheet on my bed, and then the blankets, and I would lie on top of the blankets while they did the massage.

Each session lasted about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes on average.

I really appreciated the house visits, as I did another prenatal massage with Beauty Mums Babies (BMB) with a friend and we had to go down to their outlet in town for it. When you're in your third trimester of pregnancy, it gets harder and more inconvenient to move around while you carry a heavy belly! I definitely preferred the home visits by PNSG instead.

Post natal Jamu massage : DEFINITELY NEEDED!

Benefits of post-natal massage:

Helps restore body back to pre-pregnancy shape
Improves lactation and reduces breast engorgement
Speeds up womb recovery to position the uterus
Reduce post-surgery swelling and water retention

You know how some women seem to slim down so effortlessly without even needing any help? Some say breastfeeding is the secret, but trust me, it doesn't work for everyone. Talk to more mothers and you'll soon come to realise that not every body is made the same; some people can lose their pregnancy weight and flab through breastfeeding, but the rest of us can't.

Unfortunately, I belonged to the latter group.

Me at 38 weeks pregnant. Thank goodness I made it to the Orchard Road Christmas light-up in time,
for baby Nate broke his waterbag the following night and I've been in confinement ever since!

I got pretty big when I was pregnant and by the middle of my third trimester, many aunties thought I was already close to delivering. When I visited a friend of mine at the hospital after she delivered her baby, even her mother exclaimed that I was bigger than her daughter at full term!

Everyone kept telling me that after I give birth, my tummy will deflate and I'll go down to looking as though I'm 5 months pregnant, but that wasn't the case. As you can see from my photo above and the top photo in this article, I looked almost the same a few days before and after delivery. My belly had barely even deflated!

It was obvious I needed help.

PNSG assigned Mdm Salamah to help me, and we started my massage 3 days after I was discharged from the hospital. At the end of each session, herbs were applied on my belly and I had to wear a red binder for 6 - 8 hours (I ended up wearing it for 12 hours on average each day instead).

Expect to fart A LOT, on top of increased lochia discharge, after each massage session.

That shows that the massage has worked, and that the binder is helping to dispel the wind in your tummy so that it'll deflate soon.

One downside of the binder is that you might develop a heat rash like I did, since I was in confinement and was perspiring a lot due to the herbal soups that I was drinking. However, that's a small price to pay for vanity, if you asked me.

Cleared my engorged boobs and blocked ducts so that my breastmilk could flow.

At the beginning of my massage sessions (which coincided with the first week of my breastfeeding journey), I also suffered from engorged boobs due to blocked ducts, and my therapist Mdm Salamah helped to clear them with her lactation massage. I've not had engorged boobs ever since.

Helped to deflate my pregnancy belly.

I initially signed up for 7 sessions, but my tummy still wasn't as flat as I had hoped for, so my husband encouraged me to extend to 10 sessions for more visible results. You can see my weight loss transformation here:

Post Natal Massage Singapore review

The results speak for themselves.

I was assigned three therapists in total throughout my entire journey with PNSG - Mdm Flora, Mdm Salamah and Mdm Rena.

If I only got to try one therapist, you could argue that perhaps I lucked out and got a good one, but the fact is that I tried three different masseurs and they were all equally skilful, professional, and effective. Most importantly, they helped me with my tailbone aches (I no longer suffer from them), severe water retention (my legs look human once more), dispelled the wind in my tummy (that caused it to deflate and go down), and thus my eventual weight loss.

I looked forward to every massage session.

Mdm Salamah and her skilful hands.

At the end of my last session, Mdm Rena also gave baby Nate a massage,
and taught us how to do it on our own on a regular basis as well.

Here are my (now human) legs again, taken two days after my 10 sessions with PNSG ended:

I also took a selfie with each of their therapists who served me, so I could write them a review and recommend them to more people:

With Mdm Flora, who served me when I was pregnant and
did a wonderful job especially with my tailbone aches.

With Mdm Salamah, who helped me with her lactation massage and got my belly to go down.

With Mdm Rena, who cured my water retention issues for good.
They've not plagued me ever since.

Disclosure: I was sponsored by Post Natal Massage Singapore (PNSG) for a portion of my massage sessions, but all opinions are that of my own, and I'll leave the photos / results to speak for themselves on the effectiveness of the sessions. I hope this prenatal and Post Natal Massage Singapore review helps you in deciding which one to choose for your prenatal massage and post natal massage!

SingSaver is giving away up to $50,000+ of FREE CASH for this month as an early incentive for Chinese New Year 2019, and it's up to you and me to claim it. Are you in or are you in?

Wait, what's happening?!

In case you're clueless, the last few months have seen me battle it out with Aaron of The MileLion (an obsessed miles junkie) over whether cashback or air miles credit cards are more superior.

Obviously there's a place and time for both sort of cards, and you've seen me made that distinction very clearly on this blog before, but today, it is time for everyone in Singapore to pick a side and show your loyalty.

How come there's so much cash?!

The game mechanics are simple.

$$ Method 1: Sign up for a card

You just need to join the right side by applying for a cashback card here, and then let SingSaver know here on how to send your sign-up gift to you.

On average, that will get you anything from $150 - $200, depending on which card you apply for.

Every application gives 1 point to either #TeamCashback or #TeamAirMiles.

$$ Method 2: Receive an additional cash angbao

If you're on the winning team, you'll receive a cash angbao of $20 - $50 per application ON TOP OF the regular rewards you've obtained for applying through SingSaver in Method 1.

<600 team points : $20 cash
600 - 799 team points : $30 cash
800 - 999 team points : $40 cash
>999 team points : $50 cash

One way of looking at this is that if you apply for the AMEX True Cashback + Citi Cash Back Card + HSBC Advance, you could get $500 + ($50 x 3) = $650 without doing anything else!

Read the FAQ here, and the T&C here.

$$ Method 3: Comment to win $888 on Facebook

Like and comment on this Facebook post with your answer on why cashback is obviously better than miles, and tag 3 friends. The best 3 answers will walk away with $888 sponsored by SingSaver.

Hint: I've written ESSAYS on why cashback cards are infinitely superior - keep a lookout for my posts in the next few days and feel free to copy & paste my arguments...or come up with your own!

Bonus tip: Go where the money is

(Cashback, of course.)

Regardless of which team wins (obviously cashback, there's a reason why majority of Singaporeans are on cashback cards), there's also another hack that I'll share with you:

Keep checking which team is in the lead on the leaderboard here + make one more last-minute application on the winning team before the game closes on 31 Jan!

Obviously cashback is going to win, but just in case people don't know what's better for them and pick the wrong side, then there's also this way around it.

That way, you're guaranteed of the additional bonus angbao ($20 - $50) so why not? Never say no to free money!

With love,
Budget Babe

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links for if you're applying for your card through SingSaver. All opinions are that of my own.

The war is officially on for cashback vs. miles credit cards, and I'm standing up for Team Cashback.

It’s no secret that The Milelion and SG Budget Babe are fierce online rivals,ever since he called us cashback folks “evil” and “noobs”. I kid you not. What an insult!

Just a few months ago, he was at it again, arguing why air miles cards offer better value over cashback. He even issued an open #nevercashback challenge on Facebook. I couldn't leave such a good debate unanswered, so here's my take on why I prefer cashback cards over miles:

This was originally written for and published on SingSaver.com. I have edited the article further since.

Miles give you access to experiences, but you can go further with cashback

The MileLion brings up a fair point that most people probably wouldn’t be willing to spend S$10,000 to buy a First Class seat, but yet be more than happy to claim that with their miles.

But here’s my take:

That joy is short-lived (and is over in a matter of hours).
Cashback brings you further. Just like how I have no desire for branded bags, I similarly don’t need to experience a First Class or Business Class. When I fly, all I care about is the flight is safe, on time and gets me to where I need to be. Of course, it has to also be reasonably comfortable (economy aisle seats are good enough for me).
My idea of a travel experience doesn’t come from flying in a premium class; I prefer travelling via budget or economy any day, and save cashback money for actual sightseeing and other activities when I land instead.

Alas, not all of us necessarily need to experience flying First Class before we deem to have lived our lives to the fullest. There are far more meaningful things in life than chasing miles.

Cash saved from cashback pays you interest while miles lose value over time

Over the years as more people joined the miles-chasing bandwagon (otherwise known as “travel hacking”), the airline industry has responded by making it harder for one to claim a trip using miles.

Just take a look at the Krisflyer frequent flyer programme (arguably the most popular in Singapore) and how often they’ve changed their awards redemption system in the last few years. Even The MileLion himself has acknowledged this -as seen from his post on the horrible devaluations since 2012.

Let’s assume you started collecting miles in 2014, working towards a goal of 215,000 miles so you and your spouse can redeem a Krisflyer Suites experience to London. Even with an air miles card that gives you a generous 4 miles per dollar, you’ll need to spend over $53,000*, or slightly over $1,000 per month for 4 years. Just as you’re about to happily redeem your tickets in 2018, imagine being told that you’re now 21,000 miles short! CAN YOU DEAL WITH THAT DISAPPOINTMENT AND HEARTBREAK?!

My heart can't take such surprises. Old liao. Next!

*You can reduce the amount spent by paying annual fees for the cards and getting a bonus miles for doing so, but you’ll still need to spend a significant amount.

Miles chasers tend to spend more than cashback chasers

The miles game fuels you to spend more and more so you can reach your intended goal. After all, *cues music* You’ve tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end, it doesn’t even matterrr.

As a cashback girl, I spend much less than most of my friends in the miles camp. To make my cashback go further, I put any cash saved into ahigh-yield bank account that earns interest, therefore giving me even more for every dollar saved. A few months ago, I withdrew from that accountto pay just $890 for a pair of Economy flights to London.

Cash-paying customers get priority over miles redemptions

Airlines have limited inventory set aside for miles redemptions, so it’s no surprise many people end up on the waitlist… or they’ve to take a less-than-ideal flight in order to claim their miles.

Experiences are also best shared with a loved one. If you thought redeeming one ticket via miles is already hard enough, try redeeming for two, side-by-side seats on the same flight. Enough said.

However if you pay cash, you get to choose when and how you want to fly.

In addition, the airlines run rather attractive promotions from time to time, when you can snag tickets at a heavily discounted rate. On the contrary, I’ve hardly ever seen them do promotions for miles redemptions!

Miles cards have too many (confusing) caveats

Merchant exclusions on air miles cards are so complicated (and random, if I might add) thatthere’s even an entire spreadsheet on HardWareZonededicated to verifying miles rewards across merchants, across banks. If that isn’t tiring, I don’t know what is.

Compare this to cashback credit cards, which are clear on what types of payments do not entitle you to cashback. Payments to government institutions, charitable or religious organisations, trading platforms, AXS, EZ-Link top-ups, and Paypal are typically excluded. I’ve not personally encountered any situation where a cashback card advertises “X% cashback for online spend!” only to say “sorry, your payment at Merchant Y is not under our list of participating retail merchants”.

TL;DR version

In conclusion, here’s my lowdown on why earning cashback is better value than chasing miles:

Joy from miles is short-lived; cashback gives you more options
You can’t earn interest on your miles, unlike cashback
Miles are subject to devaluation year after year
Air miles chasing encourages you to spend more and more
You’ll often find yourself waitlisted for flight redemptions
Miles credit cards come with too many caveats and exclusions

That’s why I’d pick cashback cards over miles cards any day. Cashback gives me the freedom to decide when and how I want to spend the extra cash.

However, that’s not to say a miles card is bad. It really depends on your spending habits and categories. If you have a big-ticket item to pay for, such as a $60,000 wedding restaurant bill, you’re probably better off using a miles card than cashback card (even the most generous 1.6% uncapped cashback card only gives you $960 vs. 240,000 miles with a 4 mpd card, enough for a pair of economy class tickets to the U.S.)

But for someone who has no desire to fly premium, then cashback cards truly offer you better value. Still think miles are ALWAYS better? I disagree.

Cash will (almost) always be king. #teamcashback

With love,

Budget Babe

What should you use when sending or receiving money from abroad?

It should be common knowledge by now that whenever you're transferring money abroad, remitting through your bank is seldom the best solution, given the higher fees charged. The exchange rate is usually less favourable (compared to Google), and a service fee is imposed for the transfer, which therefore reduces your capital being sent across.

So how do you know what's the best to use for your money transfers / remittances?

Simple, check how much you receive on the other side.

In recent years, online fintech companies have emerged globally to offer fast and cost-efficient digital cross-border money transfer services to both individuals and businesses. I previously reviewed one popular option - TransferWise - and was recently informed that there's a new challenger on the scene with even more competitive rates:

InstaReM (short for Instant Remittance).

Currently ranked as the most cost-effective money transfer service in a number of corridors originating from Asia in the World Bank's Remittance Price Worldwide database, InstaReM could now be one good option for exchange students, parents sending money to their children studying abroad, foreign workers, and businesses alike who deal with overseas suppliers. Of course, in this gig economy, freelancers working for overseas businesses / websites will benefit greatly from using InstaReM to send and receive payments.

The Singapore-based remittance start-up promising to be the new market challenger has investors so convinced, that they've managed to raise over USD 63 million well ahead of its expected IPO in 2021.

Let's do a quick comparison of how they stack up:

I tried to send SGD 2000 via InstaReM and TransferWise and here's how they stacked up:

Quite comparable, but at this moment (even without the coupon code), InstaReM gives me more bang for my buck to send my money through them.

My Review of InstaReM

In short, its user interface is easy-to-use and straightforward enough, and their partner network with over 8000+ banks is how they're able to offer low fees across borders as quickly as 1 or 2 business days.

But let's first go into the details:

Is InstaReM regulated?

Yes. Currently powering payments for 3 of the top 10 South-east Asian banks, InstaReM already has regulatory licenses and approvals to send money from Singapore, Malaysia, India, Hong Kong, Australia, United States, Canada and Europe. Through InstaReM, you'll be able to send money to India, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, and over 50+ other countries across the globe. They're also currently in the midst of getting approvals for Indonesia and Japan (target completion by March 2019).

How much fees do they charge?

Much lower than the banks. Similar to TransferWise, InstaReM offers mid-market rates sourced directly from Reuters and does not add any margins on forex (FX) rates at all. Instead, a nominal fee (between 0.25% - 1%) is charged to cover the costs of processing the transactions. The larger your amount being sent abroad, the lower the fee, and anything above $10,000 in a single transfer is charged at a flat fee of 0.25% (the lowest).

Any additional benefits?

InstaReM also offers a rewards system where you can earn InstaPoints on every transaction and successful referral. You can then use your accumulated points to earn a bonus on your subsequent transactions.

If you're a first-time user transferring any amount higher than $500, you can also key in BUDGET10 to get a $10 bonus on your first transaction.

How do I get started?

For Singaporeans and PRs, you can simply sign up using your SingPass credentials.

Is it safe?

InstaReM is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), so you can be rest assured that there are regulatory controls in place to safeguard your money against any misdemeanors or transgressions.

How does InstaReM work?

Once you've signed up for an account and have been approved, you can start transferring money abroad easily. Personally, I would recommend that you opt for the SingPass MyInfo registration if you're uncomfortable with uploading the front and back copy of your NRIC for verification.

With this method, you also get instant account approval instead of having to wait for the InstaReM team to manually approve your documents.

First, check the rates on your dashboard and how much your recipient will be getting on the other side:

Next, click on "Initiate Transfer".

Key in the amount you wish to send / receive on the other side, and add any promo codes (BUDGET10) or redeem InstaPoints here. You'll be able to see the conversion amount and a breakdown of all the fees involved before you proceed.

Once you've filled in your recipient's bank details, authorize and confirm the payment request through OTP verification. Finally, click on "Take Me to the Bank's Website" and add InstaReM as a new payee. Transfer the money and mention the transaction number in the description box.

So go ahead and compare the fees for yourself here, and I hope this helps all of you who have ever needed to deal with sending or receiving money from abroad! Click here to try out InstaReM now.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. In line with my advertising policy (which you can review here), I only promote and recommend stuff that I personally benefit from AND which I feel my readers will get great value from. Until the next challenger appears on the scene, InstaReM is one of the options I would recommend right now to anyone looking to send or receive money from abroad.

With love,
Budget Babe

During Pregnancy

What To Do In Your First Trimester
Congratulations! You've just discovered you're pregnant, and you're completely lost on what to do. Most gynaes won't see you until you're at least 6 - 8 weeks along, so in the meantime, here's a helpful guide to get you started and know what to expect.

At this stage, you will also want to figure out whether to go the public or private route for your pregnancy and childbirth. Read this and understand the pros and cons of both to help you decide!

Exercising during Pregnancy
Is it safe to exercise during pregnancy? Generally, most gynaes will advise not to do anything that could "shake your womb" during the first trimester, as the pregnancy has not yet stabilised and some embryos have yet to implant securely at this stage. To avoid a miscarriage, it is best to stay off cardio and vigorous exercise for now - I only started exercising again in the second trimester once my gynae gave the green light, and this is the norm for most pregnant mothers too.

Prenatal yoga, pilates and swimming are popular options to get a good workout during your pregnancy. Speak with your gynae before starting your exercise routine. For me, I opted for this low-cost and low-impact method and did it 2 - 3 times a week! (Bonus: it helped bring down my water retention too!)

Should I be drinking maternity milk?
The jury is out on this one, but you're a busy workaholic like me who can work until you forget to eat your meals, then you might want to know that my nutritionist and gynae actually recommended me to drink maternity milk.

Also, it is a myth that maternity milk makes you fat or causes gestational diabetes. That has not been scientifically proven, and as always, exercise common sense and drink / eat everything in moderation! I drank a cup of maternity milk as a meal replacement on my hectic days where I didn't get time to go out and grab lunch (and I don't have the habit of eating breakfast).

Bonus: Here's how you can get free maternity milk to last you throughout your pregnancy!

Which hospital should I deliver in? (KKH vs. TMC vs. Mount Alvernia)
One of the major considerations of whether to deliver in a public or private hospital would be that of costs. You can get an estimate of the bill sizes across different hospitals before you decide which would be best for your budget, and I also highly recommend signing up for a hospital tour to get the vibes of the place prior to pre-booking your admission.

However, private doesn't necessarily have to be more expensive either. You can always opt for a 4-bedder in a private hospital like Thomson Medical or Mount Alvernia, where the hospital maternity package price for a normal vaginal delivery can cost as low as $2000+. Check out the differences offered by the hospitals here as well.

Pregnant? How much should you set aside?
It is no secret that pregnancy is expensive - all the prenatal visits, screening tests, nutritional supplements, professional service fees and your actual delivery can add up to quite a substantial sum. Moreover, you'll also have to think about getting baby items (unless you're blessed enough to get hand-me-downs) and the cost of care. Lest you think breastfeeding is free - it isn't, because you still need to account for costs incurred with a breastfeeding pump, milk storage bags or bottles, nutritional supplements, and more!

Should I Buy Maternity Insurance When I'm Pregnant?
What is maternity insurance? How much does it cost? What does it cover? Is it worth it? How do the different maternity insurance policies in Singapore stack up against one another?

I provide reasons on why you might want to get maternity insurance, and why you may not have to. In addition, I went under the radar as a mystery shopper to dig up details and quotes for all the maternity insurance plans in Singapore (2018 version) so that you don't have to. Check out my comparison table here!

9 Financial Must-Dos When You're Having A Baby
A checklist for your pregnancy and how to get yourself financially prepared. You don't want any nasty surprises when the bills arrive, so here's what to take note of and all the different aspects that will cost you money!

Is Cord Blood Banking Necessary?
Some people say cord blood banking is a scam. Given that it costs a few hundred dollars to store each year, I started researching and investigating to see if it was really worth the money. Having formerly studied biology and stem cells, I do understand the potential, but the key question is whether we should bank our hopes on it.

It is also a myth that cord blood banking is expensive! The results? If you can afford to go on holiday or spend on expensive tuition for your kids, you most certainly can afford to do cord blood banking. (Financial) insurance can only help you to offset the costs if anything happens in the future, but cord blood banking could serve as biological insurance and potentially treat or even save your kid's life.

Should I store or donate my baby's cord blood?
Some parents choose to donate their child's cord blood to SCBB instead in hopes that if their child will ever need it one day, they'll get priority with SCBB if the sample is still there. I debunk the myths here. Also, as it turned out, many people I know who opted for this had their donations rejected and discarded.

SCBB also offers a family banking option for if your donation is rejected, but how do the costs stack up? Well, as it turns out, it pretty much costs the same as the private banks! So don't fall for the impression that you'll be able to get it stored for a cheaper fee if you go down the public route - this apparently isn't true in the cord blood banking world.

My Review of Cordlife vs. Stemcord vs. Cryoviva
After deciding that we weren't going to donate our baby's cord blood and would opt to store it instead, I reviewed the three private banks in Singapore to see how they stacked up against each other. The result? Cordlife was the clear winner in many ways - has the highest standards of international and local accreditation, invests in the latest technology and R&D, owns their own storage facility, highest track record of successful transplants, and more. We even visited their lab before we signed (that's how kiasu I am) and liked what we saw, so we eventually went with storing with them.

Are Confinement Nannies Necessary?
These nannies aren't cheap! Whether you hire a freelance nanny or from an agency, expect to pay $2,800 and up (there will also be a CNY surcharge if your baby is born then) excluding grocery costs. But are they worth it? I break down the duties of a confinement nanny, why they're useful and what they can help you with, so you can decide for yourself if it is worth the fees you pay. Personally, we felt hiring a confinement nanny really took the stress away from us and allowed me to recuperate properly after childbirth.

How to DIY Your Own Confinement
If you decided you didn't want to (or couldn't afford to) hire a confinement nanny, here are ways to get by on your own!

Should I attend a course on childbirth and on how to care for my newborn?
For first-time parents, I highly recommend that you do, so that you'll know what to expect! My husband and I went for a one-day intensive course at Thomson Parentcraft Centre and we learnt so much to help ease our worries a few weeks before I gave birth. Here's my review of the course!

Should you book a post natal Jamu massage after birth?
It is common for many mothers to go for 7 - 10 sessions of Jamu massage after delivery in order to remove the rest of the lochia, push your uterus back up, get rid of wind and water retention, and as a result, your tummy will go down significantly after. Contrary to popular belief, my tummy did NOT deflate even after birth, and my water retention was still so bad that I had swollen feet like an elephant still. My results with Post Natal Singapore were extremely good and helped me solve those issues once and for all, even losing 10kg in the process! I'll let the photos speak for themselves - click on the article to read more!

My Top Pregnancy Must-Haves
Items which made my pregnancy experience a whole lot easier.

Welcome to Motherhood : A Letter to the First-Time Mother

My Breastfeeding Essentials

My Childbirth Experience!

Preparing for your baby's arrival

Understanding the Baby Bonus and CDA Benefits
Confused between both? Don't be. Think of the Baby Bonus as a pure cash gift from the government to reward you for having a baby. You can expect to get at least $8000 over the next 18 months of your baby's birth.

On the other hand, the Child Development Account (CDA) consists of a $3000 first-step grant (in cash) and dollar-to-dollar matching for another $3000, so that's how you can get a total of $6000 from the government if you're willing to make a voluntary contribution as well.

Parents with 3 or more kids can expect to get more cash gifts and grants from the government under both schemes.

Which is the BEST Child Development Account (CDA) to open?
You can only choose between POSB, OCBC and UOB. I review all of them across saving rates and perks for you to decide which is the best for you and your child.

A Comprehensive Guide to Government Grants for Newborns and Babies

No other guide or financial website on the Internet includes something this comprehensive, because as a first-time mother I researched and consolidated this list myself (you can never beat a kiasu mom!). You're very much welcome to ride on my research and claim these same benefits for you and your baby!

The Minimalistic Baby Essentials Checklist (for a first-time mother)
It is easy to get caught up in the flurry to purchase an overwhelming number of baby stuffs as you prepare for your little one's arrival - after all, as first-time parents we really don't quite know what's essential and what's not! But don't let the brands tell you what you need to get, as many things often end up unused and a waste of money. I sought the guidance of various mummies across social media and consolidate a minimalist checklist for you budget-conscious parents.

Also, if there's anything else your baby needs, there'll always be time later to buy! So keep calm and don't overspend ;)

Save Money by Getting These Baby Must-Haves from Taobao!
Learn how to shop on Taobao and get all these nifty baby items which are great budget substitutes for many of the more expensive brands here in Singapore. Fancy Zoe Raymond's $1,500 (sponsored) baby cot at a fraction of the price? I found it for just $200 here on Taobao!

How to Save Money in Your Newborn Baby's First Year
Tips include claiming free product samples for you and your baby, going to public hospitals for vaccinations, getting the right insurance to protect against big financial bills, breastfeeding on demand, getting dual-function baby items and furniture, secondhand clothes, buy less toys and encourage them to play with their imagination, etc.

What Are The Top 5 Insurance Plans That You Should Get For Your Child?
Don't get pressured into overbuying insurance for your child because of fear (this is a common tactic used by many insurance agents to get you to commit to insurance policies for your child's future). Learn the top 5 most-bought insurance plans for children in Singapore, understand what they do and cover, and see which ones you can afford. I've personally ranked them in order of need and affordability here to make it easier for you to evaluate.

You and Your Baby

Claim your Baby Bonus and maximize your CDA with this hack
Did you know that all parents get at least $8000 + $3000 for each child, but learn the tricks of a financially-savvy parent and you can maximize this even further to get more than $14,000 for your newborn!

Breastfeeding Essentials for a First-Time Mother

What are Lactation Cookies and are they worth the hype?

Exercising Again Post-Pregnancy

I'll give you another important reason why I'm on #TeamCashback and prefer them over miles credit cards:

It is a lot less time and effort.

If you're super free and value miles enough to spend hours and hours analysing them and chalking up miles, then great! Perhaps travel hacking will be something you'll enjoy.

But not for me. Frankly, the sheer amount of time and effort it takes to accumulate miles, then search for suitable tickets to redeem them with, be waitlisted, change your travel plans (dates) again and again because your desired dates aren't available, just to accommodate your free flight redemptions, etc... That kind of effort isn't worth it for me; I'll rather spend my time and energy on my investments - something that generates me money and for years to come.

I've said it time and time again, the amount of work that goes into miles hacking just isn't my cup of tea. It might be Aaron's, but not mine.

You'll need to be of a certain character for the miles game to be worthwhile for you.

This was very well highlighted by an Australian aka The Bulging Wallet here, and I quote him almost verbatim, with my comments in blue:

Aspirational - you aspire to fly in Business Class and First Class. You want to experience it.
- Or - even better - you would actually pay retail price for Business/First Class tickets. If you do, you can actually stop reading here - because this alone is a strong enough reason for points to be worth it for you.
- I'm happy flying budget or economy class.
Lavish spender
- This doesn't mean rich. This refers to one who doesn't think too much about the cost of things before they spend.
- I generally don't spend enough on my credit cards to make the miles game worthwhile for me (hey, I'm Budget Babe after all), and am careful to spend purposefully.
Flexible - time-wise and experience-wise
- Particularly time-wise, but also experience-wise. If you have no time (work multiple jobs, have children), then you actually don't have the opportunity to go on extensive breaks to make the most of your flight redemptions. The lack of flexibility when it comes to availability of flight redemptions also means you don't have the ability to shift your dates a few days either side of your intended dates
- I teach weekend tuition on top of my day job, so my schedule is dictated by both my company's financial year / peak and off-peak periods + my students' exam schedules. As a result, I've to stay committed to their timelines, and not just be irresponsible to take off on a whim anytime.
Spontaneous
- You're the type who is pretty happy to plan trips last minute
Adventurous
- You don't care whether you go to Jamaica, Hong Kong, Cuba, or Egypt - you just like going to places and don't have strong preferences
- I have limited time and cash (to spend at the destination), so I'd rather travel to places I want to visit instead.
Strong preference to fly Full Service Carriers
- If you're the type who is happy to fly from A to B on budget, it can significantly erode your effective/perceived value of points
- Budget Babe loves flying budget.
No access to Airline employee perks
- I say this because those who either work in airlines themselves, or whose direct family work for airlines, often have access to industry benefits which further erode the effective/perceived value of frequent flyer points/miles
Reasonably high tolerance for "admin", or have genuine interest in the "miles" game. To put it another way, you're willing to put in the hard yards, both to learn how to earn the most miles and to use miles.
- As the miles game does indeed have a learning curve, it therefore requires quite ~~some~~ A LOT OF effort to actually understand it. This means someone telling you to earn miles "because they're good" is not good enough - you also want to know how to use them, and this takes effort.
- So much effort, in fact, that The MileLion even runs (paid) classes to teach people how to play the game -.- have you ever heard of anyone charging a fee to teach you cashback hacks? Geez!
Patience
- As Aaron acknowledges, you're playing the "long game". I recently posted a real life example of how "long" this "long game" can be.. or to put it another way, that the "long" game may actually be a bit longer than you think.
Genuinely enjoy flying
- I say this because, sometimes, getting more value out of points requires a transit or two. As someone who actually enjoys flying, I see this as a way to "stretch" the value of my miles. This means the longer the duration (up to a certain point, of course), the more value I am getting out of a redemption. If you, however, prefer direct flights, whether it be because you're time-poor or you just don't enjoy flying, then this could work the other way - it diminishes the value.
- It can, however, be argued the other way. If paying cash, transits almost always make your airfare cheaper. Having points may allow you to redeem a direct flight for cheaper than the equivalent cost to buy a direct flight with cash.

"Focusing" on miles can take away your ability to take advantage of great sale fares/mistake fares. Whilst the relatively fixed prices of redemption flights is one of its greatest benefits, it can also be detrimental when compared to sale fares and/or mistake fares like "Vietnam to USA for $800 USD return in Business Class.

My regular readers know I love points/miles - but cash is king - and there's a reason such clichés exist.

Could you be doing MORE with that time and effort?

The miles game isn't easy, and it certainly isn't for everyone.

Like how he said it,

"What's your opportunity cost (in terms of time), by learning the miles game?"

I definitely have a lot to lose in this regard, because my time could be spent either blogging (which brings me greater joy than a flight), spending time with my newborn son (they grow up so fast!), my husband...or even working more so I can earn more cash.

What's YOUR opportunity cost?

So which side will you stand on?

#TeamCashback

With love,

Budget Babe

For new readers, you ought to know first that I'm huge on cashback credit cards. I love them so much that I've even written a book (The Ultimate Cashback Guidebook) and developed an app with a reader for all these cashback credit cards!

In my last few articles, I've talked about why I prefer cashback credit cards over miles, and the type of person you have to be in order to play and enjoy the miles hacking game.

Since then, I've gotten questions from readers asking which are the cashback credit cards I personally like and would recommend. I'm working with SingSaver on their current campaign and here's a breakdown of these cards:

If you're looking for a cashback card with unlimited earning potential, you NEED to get yourself one of these unlimited cashback cards.

AMEX True Cashback

Anyone wanting a fuss-free cashback card will probably already have this in their wallet. What's more, AMEX is currently running an offer that gives you an upsized 3% cashback on your first $5,000 spent (with 6 months to clock that)!

Minimum monthly spend: None
Max. monthly cashback: Unlimited earning potential
Cashback if you don't hit the minimum spend: N.A.

Another great unlimited cashback card to own is the
Standard Chartered Unlimited

It works pretty much the same way as AMEX True Cashback, with the only difference being their respective merchant discounts (that change from time to time) and the fact that AMEX is not as readily accepted in some places. It'll thus be good to have both cards on hand so you can interchange them when the occasion calls for it, especially since there's no minimum monthly spend to hit so you don't have to worry about that!

Minimum monthly spend: None
Max. monthly cashback: Unlimited earning potential
Cashback if you don't hit the minimum spend: N.A.

Citi Cash Back Card

Who this card is suitable for:
- folks who drive or take Grab rides often
- and eat out / buy groceries

Cashback Features:
- 8% cashback on dining, groceries and petrol daily
- 8% cash back on Grab rides and GrabPay wallet top-ups
- Up to 20.88% petrol discounts at Esso and Shell
- Free insurance coverage if you purchase your travel tickets with this card
- Needs min. monthly spend of $888 for these bonus cashback so perfect for those who drive (>20% for petrol) or Grab + dine out very often

Anyone who drives (or takes Grab) and dines out often will definitely love this card, because your discounted petrol spending will also help to chalk up the minimum monthly spend of $888 easily once you combine with your dining expenses outside of your home.

But if you don't drive / take public transport, then this card may not be the right one for you unless your relevant expenses still can chalk up $888 a month. I know I most certainly can't.

Minimum monthly spend: $888
Max. monthly cashback: $75 ($25 per category for dining, groceries, petrol and Grab)
Cashback if you don't hit the minimum spend: 0.25%

HSBC Advance Card

Who this card is suitable for:
- folks with a HSBC Advance banking savings account
- anyone who loves the 1-for-1 deals on The Entertainer app
- frequent movie goers

Cashback features:
- Get 1.5% to 3.5% cashback (see table below) due to the
- additional 1% interest if you're an HSBC Advance banking customer
- No minimum spend, but you do need to spend $12,500 annually if you wish to qualify for the annual card fee waiver
- Unlocks The Entertainer app for free! (limited merchants)

This is a great card for if you're an existing HSBC banking customer, because it works together by giving you an additional 1% interest! Moreover, there's no minimum spend so you can still enjoy the rewards even if you're just clocking $10 on the card. But the best part? It gives you access to The Entertainer app for a super low fee of $5 (vs. its retail price of $85) which I've reviewed on this blog before as one of my favourite apps for 1-for-1 deals across atas merchants who can't be found anywhere else. I mean, try finding 1-for-1 at Fat Cow on any other app - even Eatigo can't guarantee you of that!

If you love watching movies in the cinemas like me, this card unlocks great deals at the cinemas i.e. $7 - $9.50 Golden Village tickets, $1 off WE Cinemas tickets or Gold Class tickets from $24.50 each!

Eligible Cardholders will receive Cash Back as illustrated in the table below.

Total Eligible Purchases in a calendar month	% of Cash Back awarded to Eligible Cardholders with an HSBC Advance banking Relationship	% of Cash Back awarded to Eligible Cardholders without an HSBC Advance banking Relationship
Above S$2,000	3.5%	2.5%
S$2,000 and below	2.5%	1.5%
Cash Back cap in a calendar month	S$125	S$70

Minimum monthly spend: None
Max. monthly cashback: $70 or $125
Cashback if you don't hit the minimum spend: N.A.

UOB YOLO Card

Who this card is suitable for:
- perfect for those who shop online + take Grab + movies / karaoke / entertainment
- 8% cashback on weekend for online, Grab, dining and entertainment spend
- damn good card if you make lots of online purchases lah (8% leh hello!)

I wasn't the biggest fan of the UOB YOLO card last year because while it advertised high cashback (12%), it was only available for the first three months, and their cashback for online spending was really only limited to fashion and travel transactions (which I thought was pretty sneaky) where I don't spend regularly on these two areas.

However, UOB has upped their game for 2019 and added a new bonus, extending the online criteria to cover almost everything else! So NOW this card is becoming more attractive to me.

Do take note though that this bonus upgraded cashback is only until 31 March 2019, and it remains to be seen if UOB will extend it beyond that. The bonus cashback is also capped at $20 per month, so you probably don't want to be putting all your online spend on here beyond the minimum monthly spending. Full T&Cs here.

Like its name, this is a pretty good card for the youngsters and the young-at-heart. Its requirements are also easy to fulfil for their generous 8% cashback rebate. This is definitely one card that fits easily into most people's lifestyles!

If you frequently spend at the below merchants and categories, then this might just be the right card for you:

Dining: restaurants, fast food, caterers
Entertainment: cinemas, theatre plays / concerts / musicals / SISTIC, bars, nightclubs, karaoke, etc
Online fashion: ASOS, Lazada, Qoo10, Shopee, Forever 21, H&M, Uniqlo, etc
Online travel: Agoda, Expedia, Airbnb, AirAsia, Jetstar, Scoot, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Hotels.com

Of course, to maximize it, you might want to keep your items in your virtual shopping card and only click on "check out" on weekends, otherwise your 8% cashback drops to just 3%.

Cashback Features:
The original UOB YOLO Card comes with the below features:

8% cashback on Weekend Grab Transactions (includes Grab Pay)
8% cashback on Weekend Dining Card Transactions;
8% cashback on Weekend Entertainment Card Transactions;
3% cashback on Weekday Grab Transactions (includes Grab Pay)
3% cashback on Weekday Dining Card Transactions;
3% cashback on Weekday Entertainment Card Transactions;
3% cashback on Online Fashion Card Transactions on all days;
3% cashback on Online Travel Card Transactions on all days;
0.3% cashback on all other spend

Minimum monthly spend: $600
Max. monthly cashback: $60
Cashback if you don't hit the minimum spend: 0.3%

But UOB is offering $100 while SingSaver is only giving $50?
At first glance, it looks like the $100 being offered by UOB Bank if you sign up directly with them (instead of SingSaver) is more attractive, but beware, because this only applies to the first 200 new-to-UOB card members who spend $1,000+ within the first 30 days of your new card approval, valid from 1 Jan - 23 Jan 2019.

In other words, here's why that isn't such a good deal after all:

You need to spend $1000 instead of $600 minimum. That $400 could have been put on another cashback card for higher cashback rates.
Presuming UOB acts super fast and issues your card within 3 working days of application (has never happened to me that quickly before, but let's assume)...that leaves you with slightly over 10 days to spend $1000 before 23 Jan arrives. Are you sure you can meet that requirement?
How do you even know if you're among the first 200 cardmembers?

Which is why if you're looking to get the UOB YOLO Card, it'll probably be better to sign up via this campaign with SingSaver instead, where you're guaranteed of the $50 sign-up bonus no matter what.

OCBC 365 Credit Card
- Helps you to chalk up bonus interest (0.3% / 0.6%) on your OCBC 360 account.
- 6% for dining + food delivery
- 3% for groceries (includes online)
- 3% for transport (Grab/ Go-Jek / Ryde / taxis)
- 3% for recurring telco (Singtel / M1 / Starhub)
- 3% for recurring electricity bills (Sembcorp Power / Keppel Electric / Senoko Energy)
- 3% for online travel (Klook, Airbnb, air tickets, hotels, tour bookings, cruises, etc)

I've been using this card ever since its launch because it gives me bonus interest on my OCBC 360 account, but they've changed the parameters for cashback on this card so it now makes more sense for me to use a card like UOB YOLO where I get higher cashback for dining and even food delivery, for instance.

I'm still holding on to this card at the moment because of the 3% recurring bills, but will monitor to see if I should retire this card soon!

Minimum monthly spend: $800
Max. monthly cashback: $80
Cashback if you don't hit the minimum spend: 0.3%

So there you have it, 6 of the best cashback credit cards we've selected for this SingSaver campaign, and I hope the review helps you in deciding which is worth signing up for (the one that fits into your lifestyle).

But I'm not done yet, because I've yet to mention the additional perks that you get by signing up this month for these cards!

Up to $200 of cash vouchers
Up to $100 of ang baos

So that works out to a good $300 per card application, which means you can easily get $800 (or more) if you're smart about it, and pick to be on the winning team!

P.S. Don't forget to complete your application and tell SingSaver here so they know how to send you your rewards ;) For those of you who are not familiar with SingSaver, you can read my guidebook for more details on why I always apply for new credit cards via them - mainly because I can get both cash vouchers AND the bank's welcome gifts when I do so (vs. just the bank's welcome gift alone when you sign up at a roadshow).

More details on the contest mechanics here.
Click here to check the cards out here now and join the winning team! #TeamCashback

P.S. YOUR TEAM NEEDS YOU!

The race between Team AirMiles and Team Cashback is currently neck and neck. It's going to be a close race to the finish!

If you've already picked a card on this page, make sure you complete the entire application process to be eligible for $1,000 in cash ang pow. Follow the steps here.

Every card application counts!

XOXO

Team Cashback

P.P.S. I would also nominate CIMB and Maybank Family & Friends as another two great cashback credit cards that deserve to be in your wallets this 2019 if you're looking to save more money, but will cover them more in detail in an upcoming post separately!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a commission at no additional cost to you.

With love,

Budget Babe

Tired of manually searching online websites for discount codes each time before you check out?

Well, now you can skip that whole process with just one click of the button, via RateX!

The online Chrome browser extension does all the heavy-lifting for you so you don't need to, and helps you save money in 3 ways:

One click to try all available promotion codes automatically (no more frustrations over promo codes that don't work!)
Pay the lowest exchange rate for supported merchants like Althea, Sephora, ASOS, Zalora, Agoda, Booking.com, Klook, Expedia, Hotels.com, Redmart, Lazada, Groupon, PhotobookSG and iHerb, etc.
Collect cashback in the form of Clovers

How to use RateX

All you need to do is to download the online Chrome browser extension to start using it. You can use it to help you whenever you check out on any website to apply promo codes. And, if the website is among their supported merchants list (see below), you'll enjoy an additional perk of being able to get cashback on your final purchase.

I was recently shopping on ASOS (psst, they've a 50% off sale ongoing right now!) and this was how I used RateX:

- Use RateX to check for promo codes on ASOS

- Use RateX to pay in foreign currency GBP with the lowest exchange rate

- Choose to pay in FX with RateX via my CIMB Visa Signature Card for 10% cashback on my online shopping + double cashback via Clovers!

For the travel hackers, do note that if you've been paying in foreign currency to chalk up more miles on your credit card, the RateX transaction counts as local currency instead.

As ASOS is a supported RateX merchant, you can redeem both coupons and cashback (Clovers)

Upon reaching Amazon, just shop normally. RateX will show you the number of coupons available. If on supported merchants, RateX will “pop-up” to prompt you to “Activate Clovers” (cashbacK). After clicking “Activate Clovers”, it will show you how much of your total purchase you will receive as cashback.

At checkout, RateX will appear again for you to “apply all” coupons.

Wait for RateX will go through all available codes.

If there are no valid coupons and you're on an overseas site, you can proceed to pay through RateX (credit card or wallet top-up) to enjoy the lowest foreign exchange fees. You can also compare all the different banks’ FX rates and Amazon’s native dynamic currency conversion rate too (click the ‘i’ button).

If a valid coupon is available, it immediately applies it and deducts the discount off your total purchase.

View how much you've saved with RateX discounts and proceed to confirm your order.

That's it!

The user interface is really simple as Ralph (aka RateX your online shopping assistant) will pop up on relevant pages to remind you to apply the coupons and/or activate cashback.

How do I redeem my Clovers?
On your Account Dashboard, you can easily choose to redeem your “Clovers” for cash, cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, RTE) or gift cards. Pretty soon, travel hackers will be able to convert Clovers into miles as well!

You don't even need to do anything - just install the RateX browser extension and let "Ralph" do all the work for you. Yes, it is almost automatic!

So whether you've been shopping on Colourpop for cheap makeup, purchasing your flights and hotels online, buying groceries via Redmart or even getting children books from Book Depository...don't forget to use RateX the next time so you can save even more money.

And if you need a promo code to get started, use "SGBUDGETBABE" to redeem $8 of Clovers immediately today!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, and was written in collaboration with RateX, a team I've known since 2015, which was when I first told them I loved their initiative to help shoppers pay less when shopping online. Their cashback (Clovers) initiative is a newer addition to their offering and I am only happy to support them. All opinions in this post are that of my own.

With love,

Budget Babe

Happy Chinese New Year! This year was our first time visiting so many houses with a baby in tow, and wow it was indeed more challenging than it looks! Because of that, I've never been more thankful for how everyone has tried to make our lives a little easier this CNY by helping out.

Other than POSB installing their pop-up ATMs in various neighbourhoods - making it easier for busy parents like us to stop by and get new notes - we also had tons of fun with their new QR ang baos this year! Head over to my Instagram if you wanna see a video of our QR ang bao giving and how convenient it was for us.

Maximising my CNY credit card benefits
If there's one thing lacking in my SGBB Cashback App, it is that I'm unable to consolidate all the time-sensitive offers and promotions that the various credit cards have during special times like these.

So until I figure out a way, I've to still manually research for all the offers across my various credit cards to see which I should be swiping in the period leading up to CNY, and during the festive month.

But again, with limited time on my hands thanks to my darling baby who wants to be carried all the time, I wasn't able to do it this year. So I was incredibly grateful to see that POSB has consolidated all their CNY deals, promotions and perks on one master page for their customers to easily access and reference. It was designed by and for fellow parents in mind.

You can check out the full suite of POSB's consolidated offers here, but here are my personal favourites:

POSB Everyday Card offers

Petrol: We topped up on petrol at the nearest SPC to get ready for all the trips between the multiple houses we have to visit this year. That saved us 20.1% in total - 10% discount on the SPC & U members card, another 5% discount because it is a DBS/POSB card, and a further 6% cash rebate for using our POSB Everyday Card.
Free abalone: Don't forget to redeem your free can of Korea Baby Abalone (worth S$29.80) when you do your groceries and marketing at Sheng Siong and spend over S$168. You have till 22 Feb 2019 to claim this.

DBS Lifestyle App + POSB Everyday Card

If you're hosting guests but have no time (or kitchen skills) to cook like us, then how about getting 15% cashback when you order from online caterers or food delivery? Claim this by downloading the DBS Lifestyle App and be the first 10,000 to register with your POSB Everyday Card. A minimum spend of $800 is needed for the month, but we can hit that quite easily considering the number of people we need to feed this year. Do note that cashback for this category is capped at a maximum of $50, or approximately $333 of expenses.
Get an extra 10% rebate on your ComfortDelGro taxi rides till 28 Feb 2019, for all that shuttling in between houses this CNY.

PAssion POSB Debit Card

We'll definitely be using the 1-for-1 tickets on the 10th of this month, since this is our entitlement with a PAssion POSB Debit Card at Cathay Cineplexes ;)
Always check online for the different merchant promos that POSB has going on as well to see what you can redeem with your card!

Or, if you're more of a visual person, there's another fun way to learn about all these different promotions by POSB this CNY - catch the Po family in action! POSB has introduced the Po family to bring to life the various POSB deals and perks, for 30-seconds of entertainment in each webisode. The characters include:

There's Grandpa Po, who's big on cash and looks for ways to be smarter with his money
Grandma Po, the family matriarch who likes to dabble in everyone's business (lol!)
Tracy Po, the eldest and a single mom who is a high-flyer in the corporate world, but pretty much hopeless when it comes to domestic chores
Anthony Po, who's a noob at managing his money and relies on his wife (sounds like my husband? Heh!)

and more!

The webisodes are not only relatable (I could catch a glimpse of my cheeky nephew in the Ang Pao showdown episode), but also hilarious while sharing about some of the deals POSB has for their customers this year. What is everyone up to on Day 2 of CNY? With more gatherings over the next week or so, you could always get entertained in between with these fun Po family webisodes from POSB!

Watch the Po family drama unfold here on Facebook, Instagram, or Youtube in between your house visitations this CNY!

I'll be writing next about how we intend to grow my son's ang pao money, so stay tuned!

Disclaimer: This post is brought to you in collaboration with POSB.

I previously wrote on why it might be worth getting a confinement nanny, especially if you're a first-time mother, but if you're unable to spare $2,800+ to get such help, there are still ways you can DIY instead.

Other reasons to skip the confinement nanny could include:

If your mother or mother-in-law is helping you through confinement
If you have a domestic helper at home
If you're tight on cash and cannot afford to spare $2700+ for a nanny

The key assistance and duties of a confinement nanny covers the following, so these are what you need to find substitutes for if you intend to DIY your own:

Taking care of your newborn
Taking care of the mother after childbirth by
Cooking confinement food and preparing longan red dates tea
Preparing your confinement herbs and showers
Doing household chores
Provide breastfeeding support
Allow the mother to rest and recuperate so she recovers faster
Teach you how to take care of your baby

Let's go through each of them individually:

1. Confinement Food & Red Dates Tea

Proper nutrition is critical while you recuperate - after all, childbirth is a major strain on your body - and even more so if you intend to breastfeed your baby. So if you're not hiring a nanny to cook confinement meals for you, fret not because you can still choose from a wide range of confinement caterers who will deliver to your house.

I personally picked Tian Wei Signature mainly because they offer a mix of Chinese and fusion dishes, and have garnered a number of rave reviews (both sponsored and organic) online. The main kicker was because my best friend (who delivered a month before me) tried them out first and sent me mouthwatering photos of her dishes.

Cost: from $1,560+ for 28 days

of lunch and dinner if you book at least a month before your expected delivery date (portions are so big that you can share with your spouse!) - that's $13.90 for you and your spouse each per meal and takes away the need to go grocery shopping, plan the menu, and covers gas and utilities.

Image credits: Tian Wei Signature

2. Confinement Herbs

You can get these from any traditional Chinese medical hall (TCM), but be careful to check on the quality as there was a recent case in Singapore about a mother who found maggots in her packed herbs from a family-owned TCM shop!

I was initially going to get mine directly from Hock Hua Tonic since they have an outlet near my place, but found that they do not include the bathing herbs as a set and I would have to add that on myself. My friend TL later shared with me her package from PEM Confinement Agency, which had an option for

longan red dates tea
confinement soups (labelled by the 28 days i.e. Week 1 Day 1, Week 2 Day 3, etc)
confinement herbal baths from Ban Kah Chai

Image credits: PEM's website

It would have been far too much of a hassle for me to get each of them individually, so we decided to book ours with PEM directly as well! When we met with the PEM representative assigned to our booking, she shared that their herbal soups are designed to focus on nourishing the blood lost by the mother during childbirth, enhancing breast milk and supply, increasing vitality for recovery, calming the mother's nerves to prevent post-natal depression, and also aid in weight loss.

The herbs are individually packed and ordered by days so it makes it easy to just rip open what you need for that day and prepare. Since the first month of your baby's arrival can be rather hectic, convenience is key! A friend of ours DIY-ed his wife's confinement all by himself (and he barely cooks) simply by buying these herbs from the company as well and throwing them into the pressure cooker with chicken / fish / pork as instructed in the easy-to-follow recipes. If he can do it, so can you!

I had a nanny but for convenience, we also got our entire set from PEM:

The pre-packed herbal soups for confinement, one for each of the 28 days and labelled accordingly.
I drank them every day, together with my red dates longan tea, which I all got as part of the set.

I showered daily with these boiled herbs (simply boil them in a huge stove and pour them into a tub to bring into the bathroom for showering with), and washed my hair every 2 - 3 days

The entire herbal soup package, together with the recipes

The 28-day menu was:

Week 1 Day 1: Decoction for Postpartum Troubles
Week 1 Day 2: Chinese Herbal Chicken Soup
Week 1 Day 3: Four Treasure Soup
Week 1 Day 4: Chinese Motherwort Soup
Week 1 Day 5: Gastrodia Fish Head Soup
Week 1 Day 6: Fo-ti Root Soup
Week 1 Day 7: Four Herbs Tonic Soup
Week 2 Day 1: Eucommia Bark Soup
Week 2 Day 2: Achyranthes Root Soup
Week 2 Day 3: Four Elements Soup
Week 2 Day 4: Codonopsis and Astragalus Soup
Week 2 Day 5: Notoginseng Soup
Week 2 Day 6: Astragalus Soup
Week 2 Day 7: Gastrodia Tuber Soup
Week 3 Day 1: Cordyceps Militaris Chicken Soup
Week 3 Day 2: Eight Treasures Soup
Week 3 Day 3: Silkie Herbal Soup
Week 3 Day 4: American Ginseng Soup
Week 3 Day 5: Ten Complete Soup
Week 3 Day 6: Lamb Chop Herbal Soup
Week 3 Day 7: King Solomon Seal Chicken Soup
Week 4 Day 1: Cordyceps Militaris Soup
Week 4 Day 2: Korean Ginseng Soup
Week 4 Day 3: Ganoderma Soup
Week 4 Day 4: Fish Maw Soup
Week 4 Day 5: Dendrobium and Ginseng Soup
Week 4 Day 6: Cordyceps Militaris with Fish Maw Soup
Week 4 Day 7: Ginseng and Cordyceps Soup

Cost: Depends on whether you take the full package or partial. Expect $450+ inclusive of delivery to your place, or a discounted rate of $380 if you're also getting your nanny from PEM

3. Taking care of your newborn

If you won't be getting a confinement nanny to help take care of your newborn and teach you on what you need to do, then you'll need to learn these elsewhere.

We went for a one-day intensive parenting workshop at Thomson ParentCraft Centre to learn how to swaddle, feed, burp, shower the baby, change baby's diapers, and more. They also have a 4-week course option if you prefer that. My review can be found here.

Cost: $247+ (depends on weekday / weekend / discounts. We picked a weekday + used the FBI subsidy)

With my husband at TMC's class!

4. Doing household chores

Either get your husband, parents or in-laws, or domestic helper to assist, or hire a part-time help from apps like Helpling. Costs vary.

5. Get breastfeeding support

It is crucial that you join and get some support from fellow breastfeeding mothers to support you on your journey, because breastfeeding is going to get tired, painful and frustrating at times! Find fellow mothers with similar delivery dates like I did on Dayre, or look out for them on other social media channels like Facebook.

6. Rest and recuperate!

Childbirth is a major ordeal - after all, it isn't called labour for nothing! So please do yourself a favour and delegate tasks so that you can rest and recuperate. Your only duties during confinement should be to focus on recovery, eat your nutritious meals and red date tea, and breastfeed your baby. Let your spouse do everything else, or outsource to your parent / in-law / domestic helper if you can.

So there you go, ways to DIY your own confinement even if you can't afford or don't wish to hire an external confinement nanny! However, as you can see, the cost don't necessarily work out to be too substantial in savings, so it really is up to your individual preference on whether you feel the $800+ in savings would be better spent to hire a live-in nanny or for you to plan and DIY your own with some effort. In my opinion, I will always pick the nanny because this is an expense I don't believe in skimping on - after all, my recovery and sanity is worth a lot more!

Whatever method you pick, I wish you all the best in your confinement and may you have a speedy recovery!

With love,

Budget Babe

How can you invest in high dividend stocks without getting burnt?

Let's admit it, who wouldn't want a stock that pays you high dividends every year (or quarter)?

It sounds really sexy but reality is not always that pretty.

I love investments that pay me a dividend and I cannot lie. What's not to love, when I can shake leg at home and still get paid regularly?

But whenever you invest in such, you have to first and foremost make sure that your underlying capital is protected.

And don't just trust analyst reports. You need to do your own due diligence and form your own opinion, for no one is going to take responsibility for your money if you encounter a loss. I cannot stress this enough. I'll talk more about how you can do this towards the end of this post, but first, let's look at an example to understand what I mean:

Buy bonds from Singapore's number 1 water company and get paid 6%!

Sounds attractive, right? Which is why it isn't entirely surprisingly why so many investors flocked to buy. High dividends, a blue-chip stock, attractive dividends...it seemed to tick off all the right boxes. But then retail investors got caught really badly after parking their money in its 6% perpetual securities i.e. bonds with no maturity date.

(In recent years, more purchased the bonds as its price dropped i.e. started trading at an even higher coupon yield. I know some people personally who bought it, so this was truly sad to watch as the whole saga played out).

Today, Hyflux's shares and related securities remain suspended (since May 21). Hyflux eventually defaulted on its coupon payment for its 6% perpetual securities, and has since applied for a debt reorganization to work things out. In the worst case scenario, there's no telling if Hyflux might end up declaring bankrupt. Who knows?

Let me now admit something else. I too, was tempted to buy these bonds back then. My fellow financial bloggers who once sat with me at Starbucks discussing this would know.

Then I went home to do my research, read plenty of analyst reports about these perpetual securities, but still chickened out in the end.

Analyst reports on Hyflux

(credits to The Bear Prowl for the fruitful discussion we had about Hyflux and their analyst reports, and for providing the said reports because I'd cleared them from my emails a long time ago, lol)

2010: BUY call

"This would also give [Hyflux] very good financial backing to tender for bigger projects and in other vibrant water industries in China, Indonesia and Australia."
"In view of its potential global diversification and the still upbeat industry outlook, we maintain our BUY rating and S$2.41 fair value)."Current price then was $2.18 at time of publishing.
The analyst then modelled Hyflux's OCF to go positive in the next few years:

2012: BUY

"Selldown overdone, recent developments are positive"
"Outlook intact and poised for a recovery"
"Contract win is a significant endorsement of Hyflux's superior competence in desalination"
"We believe the risk-to-reward ratio is favorable to investors especially when the outlook of the company has not changed fundamentally and Hyflux still has one of the most coveted franchise in the water industry"
"Hyflux has never bought back shares the way they did in the last two weeks of 2011...We reckon management probably sees value at recent lows"
"Maintain BUY for 15% upside"
So Hyflux's operating cash flows got even deeper in the red, but still analysts modelled it to go positive in the next few years.

2014:

"Divestment boosts bottom-line and unlocks capital to fund potential projects, albeit a temporary uplift"
2012 and 2013's OCFs were significantly worse than expected, but again, the analyst modelled it to become positive in the following year. From $421 million in the red to $143 million in the green within a year?!

2015:

"We do see several positives"
"We believe the recent selldown may have been overdone."

If you followed the analyst reports, you would have observed the same story from 2010 to 2015 (analyst reports stopped covering Hyflux in 2016 onwards) of Hyflux having underperformed but turning around "soon" with (insert catalyst).

This was my own research report:

Year	Operating Cashflow ('000)
2009	$60,600
2010	-$49,500
2011	-$56,100
2012	-$234,000
2013	-$422,400
2014	-$226,100
2015	-$43,600
2016	-$272,000
2017	-$214,100

No data for 2018 available.

Everything I'd learnt in Dividend Machines and from my own investment journey gave me a nagging feeling about these bonds that I couldn't quite shrug off. So I chickened out and gave this 6% investment a miss.

Obviously I was quite sian at the thought of others getting 6% while I had no guts for it, but today, I'm just glad I stuck by my guns and avoided a capital downfall.

This made me laugh.

I feel sad for all the retail investors who had bought Hyflux. They don't deserve it. But then again, it isn't surprising that they got caught up in all the stories around Hyflux.

6% leh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seemed like a low-risk, high-rewards move.

Except that it was eventually not.

So the big question is, how can we learn to avoid making the same (costly) mistake?

By learning how to invest in the right dividend stocks, and doing your own due diligence.

Yes, I get that it can be quite daunting. After all, few people enjoy combing through annual reports. Some get headaches from all the numbers presented and don't know what numbers to evaluate because there's just so much of everything, everywhere.

I was once like that.

But after having attending Dividend Machines back in 2015 (not sponsored; I paid for it), I'm glad that I've not gotten burnt in any of my dividend stock investments thus far. In fact, the tenets of dividend investing taught in the course saved me on many occasions - Hyflux, Starhub, Asian Pay Television Trust, etc.

But not all high-paying dividend stocks are bad. In fact, there's a good one I had bought into previously (head over to Patreon to find out which) which has rewarded me handsomely since.

Becoming a successful income investor is a lot simpler than a becoming a great value or growth investor, which is why it appeals to so many people.

You'll need knowledge and experience in order to be able to tell whether a high-yielding dividend stock is good or bad, which is why I've emphasized time and time again about the importance of getting educated about investments - either through books or courses, or a combination of both. I choose to use both, because some courses give me insights that books alone cannot give me. Dividend Machines is one of them.

If you're one of my readers who have waited for Dividend Machines to reopen, or if you simply want to learn how to invest your money for passive income, you can now sign up HERE and get $50 off the original course fee.

You'll get to learn things like

What financial numbers should you pay attention to in a company's annual report? (and the ones you can ignore)
Metrics that a dividend stock MUST pass before you invest
What are the companies with the best type of business models to invest for dividends?
How to spot "red flag" dividend stocks that look attractive but could crash any moment (using this method, that was how I predicted Starhub and Hyflux's impending cuts)
How can you predict whether a company is about to cut or suspend dividends?
Are REITs still a good dividend investment today?

and more. There are formulas that are not taught in books either, so keep an eye out for that.

You'll also get 24/7 unlimited support via the private members' Q&A forum to ask questions. The best part is that, beyond just a one-time course, I also get all their future updates they make to their course content. It's an investment that pays off throughout my lifetime!

Please also try to go for the (free) face-to-face investment workshop that they give to all members in Singapore, once you've signed up. You won't regret it. And don't wait for too long, because once registration closes, you're gonna have to wait for over a year again before you can enrol. And the course fee goes up every year - for a very good reason, because more and more case studies get added, thus giving even more value for money for students who enrolled earlier vs later.

Should I put screenshots of the conversations I've had with readers who regretted missing the last one? :P

This is one course I highly recommend EVERYONE to go for. If you're a regular reader, you know that I don't make such bold recommendations often.

There's a special promo for Budget Babe readers, so

Sign up here to get $50 off Dividend Machines!

Limited slots available, as usual, on a first-come-first-served basis.

The registration link and discount will close on 10 March 2019.

After you've signed up at the link above, email me the confirmation if you'll like a complimentary stock report of a dividend stock I've bought (which is still pretty decent to buy now, imo). I hope this will help you in your dividend investing journey!

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Also, while we're on the topic of educating yourself to invest better, I thought I'd share about another conference I'll be attending on 23 February 2019.

Because it isn't everyday where you come across an investment conference where you can hear from more than 10 investment analysts - each respected as an expert in their own field - about their views and tips on investing....and all for free.

A friend told me about Asia Wealth Summit 2019 and I've since marked my calendars to attend this event, where respected money managers in Asia will be revealing their top trades, investments and asset classes, as well as where they'll be putting their money in 2019 and beyond.

They'll also be highlighting the risks they've identified in specific countries, and which countries and sectors they're most excited about in terms of investment opportunities. You'll also learn about:

The Net Net strategy (popularised by Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett)
The trend following strategy
Which Asian markets could double in the next 3 - 5 years (even while China continues to slow)?
How to combine value and growth investing in Asia to make maximum profits
Where is investment legend Jim Rogers putting his money in 2019 and beyond?

Take those tips / lobangs, then do your own research, and make your own decision.

It's free anyway, so all you have to do is make time for it.

Reserve your spot for Asia Wealth Summit 2019 here before they run out. I've already reserved mine!

With love,

Budget Babe