Saving Tips: Top 3 Saving / Current Account in Singapore

Do you know that our local banks are only giving us 0.05% p.a. interest on the money we deposit in their saving accounts? 

On the other hand, MAS expects average inflation in Singapore to be between 2.5% - 3.0 % in 2013 and 2.0% - 3.0% in 2014 (reference from FocusEconomics)

In the current market where property and stocks are not performing well, people may park most of their cash in banks. Thus consumers should aim to get the best deals with higher return interest on those hard earn money we saved. 

I personally recommend the following higher interest saving/current/fixed deposit accounts: 

1. CIMB Star Saver (saving) account

Interest: 0.8%
Minimum average balance: $1,000

How to enjoy 0.8% interest? 

To enjoy 0.8% p.a. on the entire account balance, simply top up the month-end balance of your CIMB StarSaver (Savings) by: 

• Maintaining an increasing balance with monthly deposits of a minimum amount $100; OR
• Placing periodic lump sum deposits that will automatically convert by CIMB Bank into equal portions for your account.

Which mean we may place $ 10,000 and enjoy 0.8% p.a. interest for the whole $10,000 for the next few years. 

Even if you are not able to save too much to meet their tabulated increase in account balance, you may still enjoy 0.5% interest which is 10 times more than other normal saving accounts. 

The disadvantage of this account is that there are only 2 CIMB branches (Orchard and Raffles) in Singapore which allow you to withdraw cash. Alternatively, you may perform inter-bank transfer to get the cash out of the bank. 

This disadvantage can be beneficial to those who wants to save and prevent themselves from easy access to the cash. 

When I recommended this account to my friends, most of them asked "Is it safe? What if the bank closed down (which is highly unlikely)?" 
This account is under Deposit Insurance Scheme which insured up to $50,000 in aggregate per Scheme member by Singapore law. Therefore, if you are saving less than $50,000, you are basically well protected. 

To read more about the fall below fee and other terms and condition, you may visit the website: CLICK HERE

2. Standard Chartered Bonus$aver Current Account 

Interest: 1.88%
Minimum Average Balance: $3,000

How to enjoy 1.88% p.a. interest? 

To enjoy 1.88% p.a. on your savings up to a $25,000 balance, simply spend $500 on the bonus$aver credit/debit card each month based on transactions posting date(s).

Do note that there is a annual credit/debit card annual fee which is waived for 2 years only.

The disadvantage is that you will have to make sure that you spend $500 on card each month. However, I believe that in our current society where living expenses are high, it is not too difficult to clock the $500 per month. 
If you are not a big spender, you can choose to offer to pay first on your credit card whenever you dine out with your friends and get them to pay you by cash. This will help you to clock your $500 per month. 

To read more about the fall below fee and other terms and condition, you may visit the website: CLICK HERE

3. OCBC High-Interest Deposit Account (Bonus+)

Effective Interest: 0.69% p.a.
Minimum initial deposit: $10,000

This saving account is a little more complicated than the previous 2 accounts. 
To enjoy 0.45% p.a. interest, there should be no withdrawal in the 1st month and 2nd month. On the 3rd month, if there is no withdrawal, there will be interest of 1.18% p.a. on the quarter month. The resulted effective interest p.a. if there no withdrawal made is 0.69% p.a. 

Complicated? You may take a look at the following illustration taken from their website. 

To read more about the fall below fee and other terms and condition, you may visit the website: CLICK HERE

4. Fixed Deposit (FD)

Fixed Deposit is another safe avenue to park your spare cash with some returns.

If you are able to set aside cash for 12 months, you can place your money in FD that gives good interest return.

On and off, you may also find promotional Fixed Deposit accounts that give interest of more than 1% . 

Currently, there are a few FDs that give quite good interest:

UOB

CIMB
Promotional 1.1% interest FD for 12 months tenor

Save smart for rainy days!

With love,  

Evelyn 

Monday Date @ Mediterranean Thai @ Chuan Park

Yes, it's time for another Monday date review. My hubby and I are trying to maintain our biweekly Monday dates.

Last Monday, I remember it was drizzling.
After work, we went to this restaurant which was recommended my our friends.
The restaurant is located within Chuan Park Condominium and they are opened for non-residents to enter just to patronize the restaurant. The establishment has a variety of cuisines including Thai and Mediterranean.

We only ordered the Thai food that day (got to watch our diet) but their Mediterranean Pizza is another must try!!

The interior of the restaurant is plain and unassuming.

The fact that it's hidden within a condo estate - plus the fact that it was pretty late when we reach there (about 8 plus) - the restaurant is pretty empty.

We tried their clear Tom Yam Soup, stir fried Tom Yam Sotong with Tom Yam Paste and Thai Chendol.

Their Tom Yam is really shiok and spicy! Especially the clear Tom Yam Soup.
So if you are not a someone who can stomach the heat, I don't recommend you to order these.
But if u are a real spicy foodie, then go for it!  Definitely a must try!

Clear Tom Yam Soup

Clear Tom Yam Soup

Stir fried Sotong with Tom Yam Paste

Stir fried Sotong with Tom Yam Paste

Thai Chendol

Thai Chendol

While we totally enjoyed the mains, the dessert was a little disappointing. The Thai Chendol is really sweet and very similar to our normal Chendol, nothing fanciful about it. Moreover, they served it with ice cubes instead of ice shavings so getting rid of the cubes from every mouth can be troublesome.

If you are interested to try. The restaurant is inside Chuan Park Condominium which is walking distance from Lorong Chuan MRT

Very convenient for non-drivers and people who want to avoid the dinner crowds. 

With love,

Evelyn 

What is Do Not Call Registry?

Have you ever received unimportant calls from marketing sales agents which disrupted your meeting/work?

Or

Have you experienced receiving multiple advertisement SMS from unknown numbers?

Annoyed?

Frustrated?

Want to stop this? 

Your Savior is here!!

Do Not Call (DNC) Registry

It is an initiative run by Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) - a government statutory body established to administer and enforce the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA).

So if you will like to stop receiving unsolicited telemarketing messages, you may register your telephone numbers with DNC Registry!

You can customize the types of marketing channel you will not like to received. There are in general 3 types:

1) No Voice Call Register
2) No Text Messages Register
3) No Fax Messager Register

And you may choose to reject all 3 sources of marketing information or only restrict the sales marketing from calling you or only restrict them from SMS-ing you, which ever combination you like.

However, there are some things which are classified as non-marketing messages and is not protected under DNC registry

1) Service call (e.g. reminder for an appointment)
2) Market survey or research 
3) Charitable or religious causes (e.g. donations to a charitable organisation)
4) Business-to-Business (B2B) (e.g. corporate insurance as opposed to personal insurance)
5) Head hunting calls (So you do not need to worry that if you have registered your number under DNC registry, you will not be head hunted!)

So only pure consumer tele-consulting calls/SMS/fax on the number registered under DNC registry will be protected

Till here, you should be wondering.... How Can I register? 
There are 3 ways of registration: online, SMS and phone. 
And it's free to register. 

You may only register from 2nd December 2013 onwards

1) Online @ DNC Registry Website: http://www.dnc.gov.sg/


2) SMS

3) Phone

If you are still not too sure, you can check out the video below:

You may wonder what is the penalty if sales marketing agents still call you after you have registered your number? 

--> You can lodge a complain to PDPC with information of the organization/marketing agents. 
Successful complain will lead to a fine from S$ 1,000 to S$ 10,000 on the organizations which breach the act.

With a such a hefty fine, most organization will probably not take the risk. 

However, organization may still call/ SMS you if you have given them clear consent to do so, and it can be in consent forms or materials which you have agreed.

In the future, we have to read the terms and conditions clearly before we agree on it as it may be conditions that provide them with the consent to market their products to you. 

Important Points for Consumers: 

Consumer may still receive telemarketing calls after registration: 
1) Within 30/60 days* after registration
2) If they have given clear consent to specific organizations (before or after registration) for telemarketing
3) If they receive overseas telemarketing messages for overseas products and services only (the overseas telemarketer cannot have any link to Singapore organizations, else consumer has the rights to charge related company in Singapore)
* 60 days for the period before 2 July 2014 and 30 days for the period on or after 2 July 2014.

Timeline:

1) 2nd Dec 2013: Consumers may register early from this date but the DNC provisions have not taken effect and organizations are not obligated to start checking the DNC Registry yet

2) 2nd Jan 2014: Organizations must check DNC Registry before conducting telemarketing activities and consumers may still receive telemarketing messages for up to 60 days

3) 2nd July 2014: Consumers may still receive telemarketing for up to 30 days 

If you have any enquiries, you may visit their website at: http://www.pdpc.gov.sg/home to know more or

Attend their upcoming consumer Talks

The Personal Data Protection Act and What It Means to You

• Date: 15 January 2014, Wednesday
• Time: 7.00 - 8.30pm
• Venue: Central Public Library
• Fee: Free
• To register visit: http://golibrary.nlb.gov.sg/programmes/business/51530/the personal data protection act and what it means to you.aspx

Knowing Your Choices: Personal Data Protection Act & Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act

• Date: 18 January 2014, Saturday
• Time: 9.30am - 12.00pm
• Venue: NTUC Centre
• Fee: S$5 (exclusive GST)
• To register visit: www.case.org.sg/seminars.html

Hope that this information is useful to you!


Evelyn Cheo

Is it necessary to have a wedding lunch/dinner?

Today, while chatting with my female colleague who is getting married soon, our conversations lead to the debate on this question,

Is it necessary to have a wedding lunch/dinner?

Her opinion is that there is no need to have a wedding as the money can be spent on more meaningful things, such as travelling or house renovation.

She believes that wedding dinner now a days is more for the couple to please their relatives and in the expense of their time and money.

It's true to a certain extend.

I personally agree that wedding is not actually necessary. 

It's more a want than need.

However, I think it's not always the case that couples have wedding to please the elders.

Very often, couples follow tradition and have wedding lunch/dinner so that relatives and friends can be informed of their marriage. More for elder relatives than friends (since, in current era, friends can be informed through facebook's status).

To me, my wedding is not about pleasing elders' wish, instead is to please myself.

MARRIAGE is ideally once in a life time.

And wedding is usually a one time thing too. 

So I'll like it to be memorable

Yes, I agree that wedding is troublesome, costly and time consuming.
But at the same time, it's memorable, great to have friends and relative there to witness the event and also a once in a life time experience to record.

I've never regretted holding a wedding dinner. I can still remember my first march in after they played the video made by my hubby followed by my favourite love song "Thousand Years". It's just too beautiful to be true.

I guess it's the effort made in the wedding that makes a wedding memorable.

For my wedding, we try to plan and do most of the stuffs by ourselves including video montage and actual day performance.

Even the 2nd march in montage is made by my hubby. He spent nights after work to make all the videos. I am really touch.

It has always been my dream to dance with my husband on our special day and I'm happy that we've realized it. 

To some people, they may think that wedding that goes over showy is fake.
However, don't you think, wedding which the couple had put in a lot of time and effort, is more memorable? 

Moreover, memorable wedding is not necessary expensive. 

I guess wedding is all about what a couple wants.

Simple, showy, expensive, or no wedding. Ultimately, it should depend on what the couple wants and there should be no regret after. 

With Love,
Evelyn 

Food Review: TGIF @ Canton Paradise Tea House

Went to try something different on Friday to celebrate TGIF! 

My hubby's work place is near Star Vista so we decided to try something new there. 

Was walking around exploring the place and saw Canton Paradise Tea House which was filled with people.

I've heard from my bestie that Paradise Group's food are all really good so we decided to give it a try. 

It was our first time there, so we randomly ordered the following: 

 1. Baked BBQ Honey Pork Bun

I like this bun because it's not too oily and the skin is thick. I really like bun with thicker skin and lesser filling.

But to my hubby, this bun is not to his liking. 

He said the skin is not crispy enough. 

As compare to Tim Ho Wan's Char Siew bun, we still prefer Tim Ho Wan

2. Signature Shrimp Dumpling Noodle

We ordered this because it's supposed to be their signature noodle but to our disappointment, the noodle is extremely normal and plain. The shrimp dumpling tastes like those frozen instant cook food. 

So we'll suggest that you don't try this. Waste of calories and money. 

3. XO Fried Carrot Cake

If you do not mind gaining some calories, I'll recommend you to try this. 

This carrot cake is really tasty with golden crispy fried skin fused with XO taste.

The downside is that it's pretty oily as you can see. 

4. Fried 桂花糕 

Okay, I have to say, this is the worst!

It's too sweet, the water chestnut is crunchy, and the whole thing is extremely oily. 

Fattening and not tasty. 

I guess Gui Hua Gao is not preferred to be fried. 

The overall experience at the restaurant is average. 

The service is good and the waiting time for the food is short. 

However, the food is to our disappointment. 

I guess maybe we have ordered the wrong dishes and they have better dishes. 

But once bitten twice shy so I guess I won't be planning to patronize this place any sooner. 

But if you'll like to try their other dishes, the location is as follow:

#B1-45/46, The Star Vista, 1 Vista (nearest MRT: Buona Vista)

Ciao, 

Evelyn 

What's ur better choice?

Reading is like feeding supplement to my mind and soul.

I have been reading a few books recently, staying late night reading, and it feels really good. 

There are times in life when we may be lost or not sure of our direction ahead. While reading, allow me to open my perspectives and ponder on questions in life. 

Life is between a start and an end. We are all born to live and one day, we will die. 

So between this, it's our journey in life. 

Our life is full of possibility of different outcomes and these outcomes depend on the decisions/choices we made at each deciding junction. 

While making choices, people often want to make sure that a "better choice" is made.

"better choice"?  

are subjective. 

What consider "better" to one may not be "better" to another. For a person who love wealth and enjoy material satisfaction, a high paying job with no work satisfaction may be "better". But for a person who enjoy living a stable and fulfilling life, a job that provides work satisfaction and work-life-balance may be more important and hence "better". 

As such, it is important for us to know our priorities and wants in life in order to make better decision which will lead us to our desire outcome. 

However, often, people are led by influence, wealth, materials and immediate satisfaction, but not know what's their ultimate goal in life. 

And more often a wrong direction will lead to one working hard to achieve results which is not one wants. And this is when people get unhappy and unbalance.

I personally believe in striking a balance.

Finance, 

Work, 

Health and 

Relationship with love ones. 

All are important and cannot be disregard,

Some people may spend alot of their time in work and focusing in building wealth, in the expense of health and time with family and friends. 

Balancing all four components is not easy and it takes consistent effort to remind ourselves. 

It's important to live happy, healthy & whole.

That's what I believe. What's urs?

With love,

Evelyn 

Monday date @ Saveur, Quality yet affordable

My hubby and I decided to go on a Monday dinner date to chase away our Monday blue.

I'm suggesting to him to make it our weekly affair!! No more Monday blue. 

Our first Monday date after marriage is to try this well know causal French restaurant, Saveur, which is known for their quality yet affordable food. 

They have currently 2 outlets, one at Bugis and one at Far East Plaza. This time, we decide to try the Far East Plaza outlet. 

We reached at about 8 plus and luckily, there's no queue. But the inside was packed. 

The restaurant looks classy and modern and my hubby likes the design and can't resist to take photos of the restaurant, or maybe me. Haha. 

Him trying hard to take a good photo of the restaurant

Photo credit to my hubby

Blur image from iphone front camera

The first thing that come to our table is their menu which I have to comment. It's so cute!!

Like their cartoon duck logo and also their welcome note

The front cover of their menu

Love is patience, love is kind. 

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking. 

it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

It always protects, always trusts, always hope, and always perseveres.

 So When was the last time u were moved to love? 

I'm moved by their food

For the first time there, we tried the chief recommendation.  

Duck Confit @ only $12.90
Mashed potatoes, saute shiitake, orange segments & orange-infused natural jus

Seabass @ $14.90
Pan-seared sea bass, diced saute potatoes with crab meat, french beans & caper vinaigrette 

Saveur's pasta @ $4.90

We'll definitely return to try their other dishes. 

Saveur @ Bugis
5 Purvis Street, Talib Court,
#01-04, S(188584)
Tel: 6333 3121
(No reservation)

Saveur @ Far East Plaza
14 Scott Road
Far East Plaza, #01-07B,
S(228 213)
Tel: 6736 1121
(No reservation)

With Love, 
Evelyn

Singapore says "No" to Ashley Madison

Read this straits time article today that said the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) has banned extra-martial dating website Ashley Madison. 

Ashley Madison is an online dating and social networking website that targets married couple. Their slogan is " Life is short. Have an affair". 

Ashley Madison Advertisement

I am shock that there is such website that exists. 

According to CEO of AshleyMadison.com, the existence of this website is due to popular demand. 

Understand from Wikipedia, AshleyMadison's business model is based on credits rather than monthly subscriptions. For a conversation between two members, one of the members must pay five credits to initiate the conversation. Any follow up messages between the two members are free after the communication has been initiated. AshleyMadison also has a real time chat feature that is metered. Credits are utilised to pay for a certain time allotment of chat. 

Click this Ashley Madison's site review to read more about how this ridiculous website works. 

My opinion: 

I'm really glad that Singapore took the initiative to ban this website. This act though may not help to reduce divorce rates but it shows that Singapore values our morals and family values.

I agree that this website is definitely in demand in this society where people are more open and less conservatives, however, by allowing this website, it can just make it worse.

In these days, it is not uncommon to hear that 'who' and 'who' are having extra martial affair. There are people who are willing to play and it seems that there is an unspoken rules to such games. 

But like what I've mentioned in my previous post "How do you know whether this love will last forever", to the commitment of a marriage, it's a choice. 

I personally believe that marriage is sacred and a promise to long term commitment. When I've said " I do", I have agreed to whole heartedly believe and commit to make this relationship exclusive and forever. 

Everyone has their own opinion and definition to marriage.  But like I say, it's important to find someone with the same understanding and vision of marriage. 

Ashley Madsion, sorry, we do not welcome you. 

With Love, 
Evelyn