Clara Lim

99.co • 18th February 2022

Refinancing soon? How to prep for interest rate hikes & check your credit score

Between all this talk of GST hikes and wealth taxes, it seems like many Singaporeans have a lot of growing costs to be concerned about. But the most pertinent cost for property owners might just be interest rate hikes, which will affect anyone with a bank mortgage. If you’re currently servicing a bank home loan, you might need to refinance soon. Let us walk you through how to prepare for it.

99.co • 25th January 2022

Wealth tax Singapore: How it could affect the property market

There has been growing debate in different societal circles, including within the government, about the pros and cons of a wealth tax in Singapore. This isn’t unique to us, of course. In other countries such as the US, the UK, and China, wealth taxes have also become a hot button issue. With Covid-19 incurring unprecedented levels of public spending and exacerbating inequality in many counties, people are looking towards the ultra-wealthy to pay their dues.

MoneySmart • 17th December 2021

Play to Win: Singtel Dash Offers Over 1 Million Prizes in Dash Town - MoneySmart.sg

This post was written in collaboration with Singtel Dash. While we are financially compensated by them, we nonetheless strive to maintain our editorial integrity and review products with the same objective lens. We are committed to providing the best information in order for you to make personal financial decisions with confidence. You can view our Editorial Guidelines here. Clearing annual leave and racking your brains for ways to fill up all that free time? Completely understandable. There’s

MoneySmart • 8th December 2021

How to Achieve FIRE by 50, While Still Giving Your Kids the Best

This post was written in collaboration with Syfe. While we are financially compensated by them, we nonetheless strive to maintain our editorial integrity and review products with the same objective lens. We are committed to providing the best information in order for you to make personal financial decisions with confidence. You can view our Editorial Guidelines here. Most Singaporeans wouldn’t even dream of uttering the words “financial independence” in the same breath as “being a parent”.

MoneySmart • 9th July 2021

Retirement Annuity Plans in Singapore: What Are They & How to Choose One

Ask many Singaporeans about how they plan to fund their retirement, and you’ll probably get a couple of stock answers: “CPF” and/or “my kids”. But that’s not you, right? As a MoneySmart reader, you would know that, while the CPF LIFE scheme has its merits, the highest monthly income it can offer is only about $2,000.

MoneySmart • 17th June 2021

Retirement Planning in Singapore: A Starter Guide for Confused Millennials

When you think “retirement”, do you imagine travelling the world, cruising on your own yacht, and being surrounded by Playboy bunnies/boy toys? Sorry, but retirement in Singapore isn’t quite as cushy as that, unless you happen to be sitting on a fortune. To me, being time-rich and cash-poor, as many Singapore retirees are, is a horrible combination. I’ve visited the polyclinic and library enough to know that I do not want to spend my golden years sitting there, staring into space.

MoneySmart • 19th January 2021

CPF LIFE Guide: Monthly Payouts, Plans & Minimum Sums

If you’re in your 30s like I am, retiring in Singapore is the stuff of nightmares. By the time our retirement rolls around, the old folks selling cheap hawker food and kopi will be long dead and gone. What will life be like then? And how can we hope to afford it? So it’s really important for us to understand CPF LIFE, which is the default retirement plan for Singaporeans. In fact, it’s probably the only retirement plan for some people.

MoneySmart • 16th December 2020

Health Insurance in Singapore — Everything You Need to Know to Survive

Intimidated by all the acronyms, government schemes and ridiculous jargon surrounding health insurance in Singapore? Yeah, us too. That’s why we did the research to give you a crash course on the basics of health insurance in Singapore: how it works, why you might need it, and what options there are.

MoneySmart • 15th December 2020

Integrated Shield Comparison — Best Health Insurance in Singapore

All Singaporeans are covered by MediShield Life for the most basic of medical coverage. But on top of MediShield Life, an estimated two-thirds of Singaporeans are also paying for an integrated shield plan (IP) from one of 7 private insurers: Each insurer offers a few options for their integrated shield plans, which means Singaporeans looking for an IP will have over 25 options to choose from. That sounds daunting, but making your decision is actually easier than it seems.

MoneySmart • 25th October 2019

Merdeka Generation Package Singapore — Who's Eligible & What Top-Ups Do You Get?

Remember the Pioneer Generation package that was rolled out in Budget 2014, to much excitement and debate? 5 years on, there’s finally a sequel: The Merdeka Generation package, announced in 2019. For the uninitiated, the Pioneer Generation package is a suite of healthcare subsidies and benefits for “founding” Singaporeans born before 1950, who are now 70 years old and above.

MoneySmart • 2nd October 2019

Corporate Bankruptcy & Insolvency in SG: What Happens to Employees?

These days, it seems like businesses around the world are dropping like flies. Just recently, retailer Forever 21’s and travel agency Thomas Cook’s bankruptcies have been making headlines around the world. Back home, the financial Grim Reaper has come for troubled organisations big and small, from Hyflux to Ofo to Honestbee. And guess what? When companies go bust, their employees are often collateral damage.

MoneySmart • 27th September 2019

Early Retirement in Singapore — Is the FIRE Movement Possible Here?

Just like how miles chasers live for the day they fly SQ Suites, or how BTS fans can finally die happy if they could see their idols up close, personal finance bloggers are obsessed with FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early). To achieve FIRE is to become so financially self-sufficient that you no longer need to work to earn an income. You are able to live off your own wealth.

MoneySmart • 9th September 2019

Not So Cashless Society — 5 Reasons We Still Use Cash in Singapore

Like a lot of Singaporeans I know, I own several credit cards and my phone is loaded with Apple Pay, FavePay and GrabPay… Yet my wallet is constantly stuffed with an awkward roll of $2 bills and a bunch of coins. Despite the gov’s moderately successful campaign for Singapore to become a “cashless society”, many of us are still fumbling with loose change like it’s 1972.

MoneySmart • 4th September 2019

Hai Di Lao's Founder is Richest in SG — 5 Secrets to Haidilao's Success

By now, you must have heard the news that the richest person in Singapore in 2019 is Zhang Yong, the founder of Hai Di Lao a.k.a. everyone’s favourite hotpot restaurant. What makes this all the more mind-boggling is that Haidilao’s founder was never the scion of some wealthy cosmopolitan family. According to Wikipedia, Zhang Yong was a rural Sichuanese, and worked in construction and manufacturing before opening a tiny little hotpot eatery.

MoneySmart • 26th July 2019

Singapore Inflation Rate - What Exactly Is It & Why Does It Matter?

OK, confession time. Even though I know that Inflation is Very Bad and I should do all I can to stay ahead of it, I must confess I haven’t a clue what the Singapore inflation rate actually is. The thing is, knowing the inflation rate, even if it’s just a ballpark figure, is crucial for all kinds of personal finance planning. Like knowing what counts as a good return on your investments, or projecting how much money you’ll need to retire.

MoneySmart • 17th July 2019

Is Singapore Going Through a Recession? Wait, What’s a Recession?

Recently, there’s been a small slew of news reports about Singapore’s economy with big, scary words like “economy slowdown”, “ worst performance since 2012” and — most alarming of all — “recession”. But with all these articles swirling around, it’s difficult to get a handle on exactly how badly Singapore’s economy is doing. Some reports say we had 0.1% year-on-year growth in Q2, while other economists predict 0.7% or even 0-1% growth — huh?

MoneySmart • 8th July 2019

GrabPay Singapore - 7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About It

Everyone uses GrabPay to pay for Grab rides, GrabFood orders, and maybe Liho bubble tea once in a while — but Grab really, really wants it to be more than an occasional payment platform. In fact, GrabPay has been pretty aggressively expanding its scope of services in the past year, and even seasoned Grab users might not know about all its developments. Here’s a little PSA so you know what you’re getting into the next time you tap on that green icon.

MoneySmart • 4th June 2019

16 Things That are More Expensive in Singapore Than Other First World Countries

Recently, some genius on r/Singapore posted a chilling question: “What are Singaporeans paying way too much for?” and the answers have been absolutely fascinating. The Reddit thread was full of the usual gripes, of course – like cars, houses, minister salaries – but what I found really interesting were the everyday things that are more expensive in Singapore than they are in other (perceived) expensive, first world countries.

MoneySmart • 1st November 2018

5 Things That Will Get More Expensive in Singapore in 2019

“Singapore so expensive!” and “Wah lao, [insert hawker dish here] price went up again!” are common refrains at the HDB void deck and on forums. Judging by the recent spate of mainstream media news reports about rising costs, such sentiments will probably continue well into 2019. While it’s tempting to blame all our woes on the Gov, unfortunately, many of these increases are due to global factors and completely out of our ministers’ control.