A friend of mine earns more than me, and doesn’t own a car. By right, she should have more savings than me. However, when I told her how much I have, all squirreled away to various insurance plans, savings plans, investments and other accounts, she was shocked. She started thinking of reasons, such as she gives more money to her parents. Well, I do have a lot of fixed expenditure, such as my singing lessons that do not come cheap, and my car that takes up quite a big chunk, and I also give money to my parents. 

Too many women in their 20s or 30s are not saving enough, and when their children come, their purse strings would get even tighter. The best way to make more money is to save more.

Many books expound the virtue of paying-yourself-first, such as putting 10% of your income into a separate savings account, which can be used for investing as well. This is very important. You have to make sure you have met your own needs before you pay other bills.

10% out of a $60000 annual income is a whopping $6000. If you can save this amount every year for a decade, at a conservative interest rate of 3%, it is almost $80000 by then, which means you made $20000.

The other regret of women is they wish they know more about financial tools and other investment plans. Too many rely on their partners without taking control of their financial destiny. You really do not have to spend much time to find out more.

You can read the Sunday Times which has some investment pages, or read my blog to find out more. There are many other blogs where you can find out more. A lot of books in the market cater to those who are interested to find out more and some are written in an easy-to-understand manner.

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Too bad my friend bought his a few months early. But I think he would still have got a good deal because the prices of HDB resale flats are still rising. I have people calling up my house to ask whether we want to sell our place or rent it out.

Unfortunately, the government still does not want to lift the income ceiling of $8000 for those who want to buy new HDB flats. I’m so glad to be out of this whole thing. HDB simply sucks the life out of would-be buyers. If not for them, I would have bought an apartment much earlier and save even more money.

My friend just asked me on my opinion on buying a condo right now. We had both met each other at the showflat of this project 2 or 3 years back, but we both did not buy a place at the project. She already had a place from her in-laws, while we thought the project was rather expensive. We dithered too much, and only had some leftovers. The price she could pay to get a 3-bedroom unit there could only get her a 2-bedroom unit. It was even more expensive than the price I paid for my place. The reason why she needs that place is because her current place is too far away from her mother and her maid, who probably helps to look after her baby.

Despite saying all these, there is never a right time for everything. Circumstances do not stay constant forever, so sometimes we are just caught in a bind. 

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According to an extremely rough estimate, because I don’t know why my folks are earning exactly, my family stands to gain a few thousands dollars. You can try that out and see how much you can get. You need to know the birthdates of your family members. Include the type of house you are living in.

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Apart from taking up space in my luggage, it will take up space at home. I buy far too many books and I still keep my Enid Blyton books up to now.

I found a way to solve the space crunch, and it is a cheaper alternative as well. Buy ebooks! Many titles are released electronically and you can lay your hands figuratively on them immediately after purchase. If you buy books from online bookstores, you have to pay shipping charges and wait patiently for them to arrive.

Many new titles are available, and they are cheaper than paperbacks. Romance Books are one example that you can easily purchase, on top of other genres such as self-help titles and the latest novels and they are available for download in a few formats. Synopsises are available and the good thing is the ebooks do not take up much space on your computers. You can also set up a wishlist for people to give you Christmas presents or your birthdays.

This post is brought to you by BooksOnBoard.

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During the weekend, we went to a huge furniture store in Tampines, and it was extremely crowded. I saw some interesting carpets, and thought perhaps it would be a great idea to get some rugs, so I decided to find more designs online. There are many types of carpets available. There are some that are synthetic, wool and silk.

Some of the designs at Superior Rugs are a little traditional, but I still found some great contemporary pieces that would match the theme I have in mind.

The rugs are sorted according to colour as well, so you could choose the design you want. I saw some concentric circle patterns, as well as other geometrical designs that would definitely go well with sofas and coffee table. I can already imagine myself sitting on the rug and watching TV.

Some of the rugs are made from wool from New Zealand, and they also give information about where the rugs are made such as Belgium or Turkey.

Best of all, a number of the rugs are cheaper than US$100, and with the great exchange rate, they are quite cheap.

Sometimes, it is quite hard to find rugs that fit well in the living room, due to the sizes. Various dimensions are available for different rugs. With that, we don’t have to worry about buying a rug that is too big to fit in.

The great thing about this site is you can visualise how the rugs will look under as pictures are available. In addition, there is a guide on how to choose the appropriate size and shape for various rooms.

It’s quite easy to use the shopping cart, and shipping is free.

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How can we save money then? If you have HSBC credit card, you get $1 off per movie ticket. For those who frequent cinemas, you may want to get vouchers. You can get weekday ticket for $7, or weekend movie ticket for $8 at GV. However, I’m not sure whether you can still book online, or you have to go to the cinema to queue up.

Anyway, rent a movie! At the place I frequent, it costs only $13.50 to watch 3 movies for 1 week, instead of $5 per movie for up to 5 days. When two people watch that, it’s extremely cheap. You get to enjoy your movie in the comfort of your own home. Only thing is you aren’t all dressed up to go out.

The best part is getting DVD for free! My gym offers free DVDs for borrowing. Only thing is I have to finish them in 2 days. That’s a problem when I borrow drama serials with many DVDs. I think I have borrowed at least 30 DVDs so far. The money I pay in fines is so much less than going to the movies.

I wonder whether HBO or Starworld or any other movie channel is worth the money. I don’t know how much they cost, but I don’t like waiting for movies to start. I think they repeat themselves often enough, so you can catch any movie you want. I’m not sure whether Amy Winehouse went to a drug rehab in San Diego, California, or somewhere, but she definitely won’t be bored by the reruns of Mr Bean we get at government places.
 

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It turned out that this lady is great at stretching the dollar. First of all, she would take a free shuttle service to this shopping complex. After having her lunch, she will pop by the supermarket. Each watermelon costs $2.74 or something similar, and do you know that Cold Storage will round down the figure to $2.70? That is a savings of 4 cents. When the colleague buys the second watermelon, she saves another 4 cents. That is a total of 8 cents. If she buys the watermelons 10 times, that would be 80 cents, enough to buy a cup of milo at some places.

Now, what if she buys two watermelons at the same time? She will end up with a net loss of 2 cents each time, since Cold Storage will round up the prices. She will have to pay $5.50 instead of $5.40. In total, she loses 10 cents. If she buys the watermelons 10 times, that would be $1.00, which might be enough to buy two cans of soft drink at a supermarket. If you add up these sums, it can be quite mind boggling.

Immediately, I told my aunt that this colleague was wasting her time, which was even more precious than that $0.10 she saved. This was the same question she posed to the colleague, but the colleague said that the shuttle service only came at a certain timing, so even if she did not take that time to pay again, she would not be doing anything else.

It was hilarious. I wouldn’t make two trips especially at a place I frequent. I don’t want people to recognise my face, but yes, I’ve done the same thing too. At Popular, they round off the last cent, and so before I started using my credit cards to earn points, I would do a little bit of mental sums if I was just buying a few small items. However, using credit cards means that I don’t get to have any rounding off advantage, or disadvantage. NTUC fairprice is another place that rounds off the figure.

The Young Businessman offers some tips to save money, such as bringing your own water bottle and borrowing books from the library which I’m doing, but I definitely cannot give up my car. Having my own car affords me the independence and sanity that I need, and seriously, once you have your own transport, all other forms are really crap.

What penny pinching methods do you have?

Sarah Tan – SingaporeProfit.com

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It is only after years of frittering away precious money that we realise too late that we have to tighten our belts and plan for the future. If we realise that only in our forties that we are running out of money for our future, it can be a little late. With credit crunches, drastic action has to be taken.

Therefore, it is imperative that we start planning and saving for a rainy day now, instead of waiting until our youth runs out. I use a five-year plan for my savings and income and I think they have been very useful in keeping me focused and even though sometimes the amount I write down looks ludicrous, I’ve actually met the target.

Sarah Tan – SingaporeProfit.com

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