r/singaporefi

I have 2 offers to reprice my current mortgage loan:

1.8% pa fixed for 2 years

Or

0.4% + 3M SORA for 2 years

0.5% + 3M SORA for 3rd year

Both lock in for 2 years. Floating option has free conversion after 6 months.

I am planning to quit/fire next month so the floating option is a bit attractive to me in the sense that I can enjoy the lower rates for 3 years instead of only 2 years (provided SORA doesn't go up crazily in 2028 to 2029. But even if it did, refinancing in 2028 would also be high, and i would need to deal with the 3% repayment due to not meeting tdsr requirement.)

However, i am worried about the ME conflict prolonging and causing inflation and pushing rates up in the next 2 years.

Would love to hear your views on which choice to take. Thank you!

If cannot take subway, trains & buses due to injury while overseas, does Travel Insurance covers taxi claims to/fro hotel/clinic, hotel/airport, hotel/home? Not serious enough to need ambulance, but bad enough till cannot take public transport (except taxi).

Welcome comments from all insurance agents & fellow frequent travellers. Thank you.

hi,

im thinking of selling my hdb to move closer to my parents.

for those who have sold their hdbs,

1. is there any difference with having a fixed seller agent vs commission based agent? advantages vs disadvantages?

2. what attributes do you look out for when choosing an agent?

3. do you think an agent with social media presence is effective? possibly more outreach? translate to better prices?

any advice for this newbie? 😅 thanks!

Is there any specific reason why those "analysts" keep saying to invest and keep saying they are safe and defensive?

I talking specifically on comfort delgro, sbs transit, vicom, etc.

I'm looking to get a resale flat since my bto luck has been dismal and am on verge of bursting past the income ceiling. Unfortunately, the flat i chose does not cover me til age 95, resulting in a prorated loan.

Assuming a price of around 400k, I'm faced with this scenario

I do understand the value of a HDB loan but in the case of a prorated HDB loan, it wipes out my OA account and require an additional 20k in cash outlay.

If you were in my shoes, would you still pick a HDB loan or is a bank loan worth considering in this scenario?

Hi I’m currently a uni student with no source of income other than the occasional 1-2 months uni break that I work. I maybe make around 1.2k/mth. I’ve followed this wiki for quite awhile now alongside Bogleheads and others. Read books on inv3sting

As of right now whenever I have a bit of spare money, I would deposit like $50 or so into VTI. Not really sure if that is the right move. Can anyone advice me more on what else I should do or if I am doing the completely wrong thing.

Edit: I blew through basically most of my emergency cash in uni from all the fees and just daily expenses. Is that something I should also worry about?

Just curious how often everyone meets their FA, my FA is quite annoying asking for meetups quite often even tho im not rich…

45yo . Just retrenched about 6 mths ago. 2 kids . wife working and earning decently

Holding about 1.1m in stocks ( about 4-5% dividends)

550k cash

Have a condo rented out about $5800 a month.

Thinking if I should invest more or keep holding the cash

Any advice?

Hi all.

As the title says. I have about 500k spare cash just lying around that I would like to invest (no, not illicitly obtained; just that I'm late to the investment game).

I am comfortably earning a good salary and I'm looking for a long term investment strategy for retirement (let's say another 12 year outlook before retiring). Not going to chase hot stocks/crypto bla bla bla. I'm also not super risk adverse.

What suggestions do you have for this? This is something of a nest egg I just want to keep, and don't plan to use until then. Maybe a progressive strategy instead of dumping all 500k into investments overnight? Or it makes no difference? What instruments would you recommend?

Thank you.

Recently I received a WhatsApp message from MKE (they stated my full name & account no. & the broker’s name) stating they’re doing an account update exercise.

They gave me a link to ask me to put my phone in & enter the OTP.

I’m not sure if this is a scam? It looks legitimate, the text & link. Just the website looks abit old but given it’s from a bank brokerage… just wondering if anyone received this?

Thank you

Walked by an exhibition booth by IG market. Spoke to the promoter. She told me that IG MARKET will pay 3% a year for stock held by them.
I asked her how does a company fund this. She simply said the parent company is very profitable nd finding this.
Also told me that is not a welcome gift but ongoing program. I am not sure how a company make money and the promoter does not seems to understand how money works

I am looking to subscribe to the upcoming SpaceX IPO on NASDAQ. However, I found out that with Interactive Brokers there is a minimum requirement of 200,000 SGD to participate in IPO allocations.

Is there any other broker that allows IPO participation on NASDAQ without such high account requirements?

Reply only if you actually know the answer. No lectures, please.

I have put some cash into ibkr for option trading. I understand ibkr gives a higher int for NAV > 100k but my assets in ibkr is lower than 100k abt 65k usd in cash/stocks.

How can I earn higher int with my cash/stocks as collateral and earn higher int on my idle cash? Some mmf I have seen have 100% margin requirements.

On top of it I have about 100k invested and 30k SRS

And I take part in contests for fun

Does anyone actually have any first hand experience with getting caught for online gambling? Be it account being frozen or idk and what happened after?

Just for some context, I'm deeply addicted to gambling, it was manageable at first, a few hundred every few months but the last 7 months I've deposited and received well over $50k and so far DBS has not given me an email or letter about suspicious transactions or whatever mind you my gross income is $4k and I'm 22 years old. I want to quit gambling, I know I've deposited and received a lot of money but bro I'm in debt. Maybe actually getting caught or getting scared straight might help me out. So if anyone out there has any first hand experience please lmk or drop a message.

Recently visited a MD who lives in a 5 room HDB at central, he drives a BMW i8, but what's astounding is that he said his neighbours own way nicer cars, so we took a walk at his HDB carpark and true enough there's a Bentley and Ferrari with sequential carplate numbers parked beside each other at HDB season parking lots.

Compared to my relative who lives in an OCR condo, their carpark is mostly filled with 10+ years old cars, only a few conti cars, but no sportscars. So it got me wondering, are those prime HDB (Dawson, Tiong Bahru, Duxton, etc) people mostly richer than those living in EC/OCR condo?

Which is why I don't think the govt can ever remove the 15 months ban although MND said it's only a temporarily measure till latest end of 2027.

I currently hold most of my investments in IBKR (mainly US/global equities and ETFs), but I’m wondering if it makes sense to slowly move more funds back into the local market and hold SG shares via CDP instead.

Main reasons are:
- easier for family/executor to handle if I pass on
- less cross-border/admin hassle
- avoid US estate tax issues
- reduce forex exposure since I’ll likely retire/spend in SGD

On the flip side, SGX feels much more limited vs global markets and IBKR is obviously a much better platform overall.

Curious what others in Singapore are doing as they get older / think more about estate planning. Do you keep most things in IBKR, or gradually shift some assets back to SG/CDP?

In other countries especially US, people consider all their assets (minus property) in their FIRE portfolio, including 401k/ROTH etc.

For us with CPF, how do you include it in your FIRE portfolio and calculations? Since we also have CPF Life.

Just OA?

OA + SA?

OA + SA + MA?

Feels especially weird to include MA since it can’t be withdrawn, but it does help take care of healthcare costs whereas those in US have to factor in high healthcare costs in their FIRE expenses.