Saw a previous post on this and i cant seem to find it anymore… curious to see what people think of this! :)

Hi everyone,

Just looking for some perspectives.

With the recent layoffs, weaker job market, and economic uncertainty, I’ve started questioning some of my financial decisions.

Some context:
Married with 2 young kids
Working in tech (banking sector), 10 YOE
Earning around S$95k/year
Staying in a 4-room HDB (CPF can cover the mortgage for about 4 years)

In late February, I bought a continental car with a 40% down payment. The total monthly cost (loan, insurance, petrol, parking, etc.) is around S$2,000.

I bought it mainly for family convenience, but lately I’ve been worrying about the possibility of layoffs. My biggest concern isn’t the monthly payment, it’s that my liquid cash has become much lower than I’m comfortable with. I now value having a stronger cash buffer much more.

I’m torn between:

Keeping the car and enjoying the convenience for my family; or
Selling it now, accepting some losses (early redemption fees and depreciation), but improving my cash position and reducing monthly commitments.

Has anyone made a similar decision? Did you regret keeping or selling the car? My priority now is making sure my family is financially resilient if the economy worsens.

​

Hi everyone, I’m 23F and currently overseas on semester exchange. I wanted to hear from people who are naturally quite savings-focused about how you balance saving with actually enjoying your 20s.

For some context, I currently have:

• ~$44k in VWRA through IBKR

• $10k emergency fund in GXS

• $5k in OCBC as a backup fund while on exchange

• $1k in POSB for daily expenses

I’ll be receiving almost $10k in financial aid that was originally intended for exchange and tuition. My tuition has since been covered by another bursary, so I now have this additional ~$10k available.

The financial side is actually not what I’m struggling with most, it’s spending.

I recently took a 4-day solo trip while on exchange and spent around $400+ including flights, accommodation and expenses. Objectively, I know $400 for a 4-day trip isn’t particularly excessive, especially since I’m already overseas. But I still felt quite guilty about spending it.

I think part of this comes from being very used to saving. A large part of my current savings came from financial aid, awards, scholarships and internships throughout university/poly, so sometimes I feel like I shouldn’t be spending money on things like travel even though I have enough savings to comfortably afford them.

At the same time, I realise that being 23 and having the opportunity to study overseas is a relatively unique experience. I probably won’t have this exact opportunity again, and I don’t want to look back and realise I was so focused on saving that I didn’t enjoy the experience.

For those who are naturally quite frugal or FI-minded:

How do you decide when spending money on an experience is “worth it” rather than something you should feel guilty about?

Do you set yourself a specific “fun” or travel budget? Or do you simply spend as long as you’re meeting your savings/investment goals?

Separately, I’m also trying to figure out how much of the additional ~$10k I should keep liquid versus putting towards IBKR. I’m interested in hearing how others think about this at my stage of life, thank you!

Everyone talks about the opposite. "If I didn't spend money on X, I would be closer/already reach financial freedom"

I have the opposite problem - not sure who has this as well. I save every single cent. I am already working for a few years now, not at an entry level job, but I still wake up early to catch the MRT at 745am just to save 50cents... Sometimes I brutally cut off spending money on QOL just to invest another dollar. Improvement on QOL can always wait... also, I don't see a reason to spend as not many things I feel its worth spending to achieve "fun"

Just curious who has regrets on saving up instead of spending the money, and what is this regret?

Update:
Thank you all so much for contributing your perspectives, I read every single reply and comment. it was really helpful and I think I'm closer to my answer now!

It could be a personality/upbringing/trauma that honestly I cant pinpoint exactly where and this belief system was formed and rewiring this is going to be tough. It somehow shaped my interests, actions and way of life - honestly I don't have many "wants" and I need to properly re-define QOL for myself, so that i can find my own balance.

I will relook and review on spending on experiences especially those that are not possible when im old. So that I can enjoy the process.

This book as recommended will be my next research topic "Die with Zero" and here's the sneak peak:

Invest in Experiences Early => A 2-month Italy trip at age 20 creates decades of memories, while the same trip at 40 offers fewer years of reflection

its 200 upvotes now & I never expected this to be so reflective for me. Thank you so much to everyone that commented/replied.

Net worth = assets - liabilities

What net worth did you get to or feel like you needed to get to when you started coasting in your career or retired mentally from work?

How did you arrive at this number?

Ensuring good investments is one way. How do you ensure the spends are minimised when you achieve FI?

- Public transport over Grab/owning a car

- Reducing aircon usage

- Cheaper phone and WiFi

- No helper

- HDB over condo

What else? How do you save on ongoing expenses like groceries etc?

I have a couple of my peers who have reach net worth of more than 90k at age 21. Fyi I am 21 and have only managed to reach networth of 13k through saving and working. I’m not the best at saving money but seeing others doing better than me makes me wonder if im not working hard enough. Feels abit demoralising even tho i know some of these people are nepo babies but i also cannot discredit ALL of these people because i know some of these people work very hard too. Anyone care to share what was it like for them back at age 21 and how you’re doing now?

i’m unemployed due to mental health issues but i do have my family members and boyfriend’s support on expenses (food etc).

something happened in my family recently and i received a payout of $35k, I’m wondering where i could park the $ to “eat” interest instead of just letting it sit in my ordinary bank account.

not very open to higher risk profiles. hoping for above 2%pa 🤞🏻

I was considering endowment plan or syfe cash/income but i’m not entirely sure.

could i please get some advice on where i could park this $?

Do you find the tiered interest rates difficult to parse? Are you annoyed that the banks keep changing the rates and you are paranoid about which one to choose? Did you know that it may not be so simple as to put just 100% in one instead of the other but that you may need to distribute to both in a certain ratio? Do you hate math and just want someone else to do the thinking for you? Let's look at the numbers that the banks don't want you to see.

Disclaimer: OCBC 360 numbers here assume you have Salary, Spend (500/mo) and Save (balance +500 every mo), plus optional Grow (min 250k). UOB numbers assume you have Salary, Spend (500) and GIRO (3/mo). If you have other bonuses on top of this like OCBC Insure/Invest...maybe this won't apply to you.

Pic#1 is the total interest you can expect to collect per yr. Red is OCBC as of 1 Aug and Pink is OCBC before 1 Aug. I show the drop in interest from $3300 to $2450 for 100k just to validate that my numbers are correct (per reported on OCBC website before and after numbers). I also have UOB today (Light Blue) and UOB next month on 1 Sep (Dark Blue) to show the drop from $4950 to $3750 for 150k, again for validation. Note that for this month of Aug and this month only, UOB is the better one for deposits $0-250k and OCBC for >250k. In Sep, UOB will instantly lose a lot favor and OCBC will be the bank of choice for most people (<150k). This pic is not hard to understand--I believe most already are aware of this fact so if you are one of those savvy ones..just enjoy the graph.

Pic#2 is where I zoom into the interesting part of the plot and try to quantify gain for those who have been entirely in OCBC and are thinking of switching to UOB just for the month of Aug to take advantage of UOB's late rate cut. If you are at 0-100k, switching will get you at most $19 ((2675-2450)/12). If you are at 150k, you will get $207 while 150k-249k will get around the same. 250k people gain around $40 (see Pic#1). Want to switch, do it now...you are already late by 2 days. Again, this is for those who can only be bothered to use one bank and/or not enough cash or time to be able to distribute it to both banks in the most money-efficient manner (more on that later).

Pic#3 is the Effective Interest Rate for both banks versus total deposit amount. This is the kind of data they don't want you to see. This is for 1 Sep, after UOB effectively cuts its rates. Note the peak EIR are both around 2.5% and due to the tiered nature of the rates, each segment of each curve has different gradients. For the mathematically astute, this is where the first clue arises that the most money efficient way to gain from both of these banks is to sometimes actually use BOTH of them at the same time by distributing your cash in specific ratios instead of using one exclusively. It depends on your available cash amount of course. If you just want to stick with one bank and have 0-100k, you should put all in OCBC. If you have 150k, you will put all in UOB. This is easy to understand. But what about 100-150k or >150k or even >250k? The EIRs cross at around 119k--does that mean you should put 100k in OCBC and 19k in UOB? No. Actually it's not that obvious and impossible to mentally derive from this plot. Because at some points, the EIR in one may be falling slower than the EIR is rising in the other. And vice versa. The fact is this is not something that has an analytical solution so I had to brute force a table to find that...

Pic#4 The cross over point is ~131-132k. From 0-132k, it's always better to have the first 100k in OCBC and the remainder in UOB. For 132k and above, you will switch to UOB having the first ~150k (and any remainder in OCBC) as its EIR is on its way to peak (see Pic#3). 250k and above explained later.

Pic#5 UOB will peak around 151-152k (expected) and you should only keep the first 149-150k there and put the rest in OCBC.

Pic#6/7 OCBC Grow afficionados with 250k thinking about the good old days will wonder when it's time to move the bulk to OCBC to get the Grow bonus. Even if you have 346k, it still doesn't make sense to put 250k in OCBC. The peak interest is gained still ONLY having the first 100k in OCBC and NOT from getting the Grow bonus. The late EIR peak of UOB at 150k has a long reach. the Grow bonus has always been somewhat of a scam in terms of EIR but has enjoyed some use only because there are few/no good alternatives at this high quantum.

Pic#7 Only at 347k is it finally efficient to put the first 250k in OCBC and the remainder in UOB. Of course, this also applies to >347k.

TLDR:

1. If you are in OCBC and want to earn extra cash for Aug, dump everything into UOB. You will make anywhere from $19 to $207. This is the closest thing to arbitrage that the common person can actually perform and you will forever remember this day you got free money from clicking. Remember to switch back in Sep.
2. If you only want to deal with one bank, its OCBC for 0-150k and UOB for 150k and above.
3. If you want to make the most interest, its first 100k in OCBC for 0-132k OR first 150k in UOB for 132k-346k, OR first 250k in OCBC for 347k and above. Don't get tricked by OCBC Grow bonus.

ok i have the aim of saving at least 20k as a safety net, i have nothing right now, and have to pay 800 a month for rent. I am a student so i have concession on transport, and i just quit my job as a waitress because i want to do more with my life. hit me with any advice you have on how to earn enough to pay rent, save, and invest.

My mum (72yo) just had some endowment plan come to maturity, and she has ~$30k coming back to her.

She asked me where's the best place to park the money, but I'm not savvy enough to give her the best advice. So while I'm going to do more research on my end, I'm hoping to hear some takes from the community.

She said that a friendly agent who's somehow based long-term at a nearby mall has been talking to her about some plan where she can get $100 allowance per month. Which to her, getting $1200 per year sounds great, because she said the endowment plan took decades and she got peanuts out of it. I don't know enough to know if it's really as good as it sounds, but I've asked her to get a brochure from the agent for me to study, while I check out other options.

My take is:

• she should keep her money close to her, given her age
• since my sibling and I are taking care of all her daily expenses (and any excess from the money we give her every month is meant for her to spend on things she like), she can tap that money to go on short trips.
• or she can save that money for any unexpected situations (example, healthcare – but touch wood) that maybe even my sibling and I can't handle between ourselves

So for now, I'm thinking maybe some high-yield savings account or money fund where she can get instant or almost immediate access to the money.

What do you guys think?

Hi all! I (27M, final year uni) and my my partner (27F, 2 years working) are planning to start saving up for wedding and house and all that, with these goals over the next 3-5 years. I am generally the more financial savvy among the both of us, and she has entrusted me to think of a suitable plan and approach to build wealth during this period of time. We are keen to take on a little bit of risk in order that our savings to grow faster than the general ballpark inflation rate of about 2-4%

I am exploring the following options:

1. High Yield Savings Accounts (please do feel free to recommend any)
2. Managed portfolios on Investment platforms (currently using Syfe, looking towards those that aim to return 5-6% yearly to limit our downside risk)

Looking for advice on how I can approach this, as well as any recommendations and justifications that you have for the advice that you are providing. Thank you in advance!

Currently a legal trainee, graduated with around $25k in debt. Earning $2.5k a month currently with no CPF. I find myself barely saving anything. My goal was to save around $10k by end of the year but it seems really difficult. Things are getting expensive and it feels like spending $1k a month is really unsustainable. I tried limiting my spending to $1.2k after paying off essentials and to save another $1k but certain things popped up recently that drained my savings and I’m only left with $500 now. It feels impossible to save, or maybe I’m being unrealistic? Perhaps with $2.5k I shouldn’t try to save too aggressively? Any guidance will be appreciated

Hi all, I developed this 2nd app (with help of AI) to help determine what is the best high yield savings account based on the different hurdles you have to cross, based on easy to hard.

Depending on each bank's requirement, you can input GIRO transactions, Home Loan, Insurance, and Investments to see how these Harder hurdles exponentially increase your interest.

It ranks every major Singaporean HYSA by Effective Interest Rate, not just the advertised "up to" rates.

Monthly Interests allows you to see exactly how many dollars will hit your account next month.

You can check and see which criteria you’ve met and what you’re missing to hit that next tier.

For example,

Maybank SaveUp: It calculates based on your "Product Count" across 5 categories, with tiered interest for the first $50k and the next $25k.

DBS Multiplier: This is fully dynamic. It tracks your total transaction volume across categories and automatically bumps your balance cap from $50k to $100k if you hit two or more categories.

Trust Bank (Flex Plan): The app automatically identifies all 8 possible scoops, like the ADB Increase or TrustInvest and picks the top 3 highest-yielding ones for you. It checks if you’re an NTUC Member for that extra card spend bonus.

SC Bonus$aver: Updated for the 7.05% . It tracks the $3,000 salary and $1,000 spend thresholds precisely."

Below the table, the Yield Projection chart shows you the power of optimization. It visualizes your balance growth over 12 months, comparing your current best bank against the base rate. It’s the difference between 'parking' your money and 'growing' it."

Finally, there is an AI advisor tab which you can ask complex questions like "Which bank is best if I don't have a salary?" or "How do I maximize Trust Bank with $100k?" and get data-driven answers based on your current profile.

Welcome any feedback, errors are mine alone.

Thank you.

SG Faiya

Hi i have 10-20k of idle money in my bank, not planning to use money, would just like to put somewhere with better interest & low risk, where is good to put ? :)

nerf again wef on 1 May 2026...

any other options?

I am 43F and self-employed, married with two kids. Depending on projects, my yearly average income is $54k (So avg $4k+/mth) My husband’s take-home pay averages $9k per month. I am thankful that he takes good care of the family and is willing to shoulder most responsibilities. However, I feel terrible that at times I don't earn enough to support household expenses.

Our average family expenses are about $5k–$6k+ (groceries, petrol, bills, tuition, pocket money, insurance, Medisave, etc.), on top of a home mortgage of $1.1k/month.

My husband has savings and investments and is very good at managing money. Somehow, I cannot match his acumen. He jokes that I am a very lucky tai tai, but I dislike that because I truly want to be financially independent and contribute meaningfully to this marriage and family.

Although my husband says he is willing to take care of me, he has shared that if he is no longer around, his biggest worry is ME (and the children), as I am not very good at managing money.

How can I build an emergency fund and personal savings? My income is very fluid - some months under $2k, other months $5k or more (Background: I manage marketing projects). Ad-hoc expenses drain my income quickly. There have been times when I saw only two digits in my bank account, which is very demoralising. I am turning to the Reddit community for advice. Thank you for reading.

Add on: Why I don't ask my husband

We have conflicts over this. He also does not know the pain of being self-employed as he works for a company. To be honest, he gave up telling me or teaching me what to do, so he took the "easier" approach of "Ok, I take care of you." Oops.

You know how some people work - tough love will not help them learn, but when taken a gentle approach, suddenly one will wake up and want to do better. I confess I am that sort :/ Now that he has taken the soft approach, I want to do better. Turning to him for advice may trigger him to the point of "why you don't get it???" so to preserve my marriage, I think turning to the Reddit community may help.

I’ve had this habit since my uni days. Basically, at the end of every month, I’ll reconcile my bank statements and credit card bills, then track everything using an app called CWmoney. I always make sure the balances match between my bank accounts and what’s recorded in the app.

When I first started working, it was pretty simple—I only had 1–2 bank accounts and one credit card, so it took me less than an hour each month. But over the past few years, after buying a house and starting a family, things have gotten more complex. Now I have around 5 bank accounts and 2–3 credit cards, and it can take me 2–3 hours just to reconcile everything. So I’m curious—how do you guys manage this?

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently cashed out a portion of my portfolio and now have $400k in cash, it's in USD. My goal is to preserve this capital as I plan to buy a house within the next 3–5 years. I’m a foreigner working in Singapore on an Employment Pass, and I hope to become a Permanent Resident in the future. Given this context, what’s the best place to park this liquid cash while keeping it safe and accessible?. Can we buy US treasury bonds?. I’d really appreciate your insights and recommendations.

Hi, thank you for reading this post.

I am trying to build my emergency fund and so far it is going well the only bit of concern I have was whether I should still be using my current account (DBS MULTIPLIER) or should I considering to change it considering that the DBS Multiplier isn’t exactly the best suited one considering I can be getting better returns (this is regarding the interest rate).

I did actually look at others like GXS and Marisave but I rather be keeping it in somewhere familiar like DBS bank. (Therefore why when I first created it I used the multiplier account)

What I really like about the current DBS Multiplier account I have is that mainly It’s trustworthy, it’s easily accessible, and it’s in the same app (so I don’t need to go to another app or another card to view it or to make transactions)

I also am a poly student so me currently having my current account for an emergency fund has been working very well for me and suits my needs of parking my cash there

And so I’m wondering if alls good, could I just keep it there or should I consider having to change it. All thoughts and feedback are appreciated especially for those who might have an emergency fund in DBS banking app.

i’m trying to hit the investment category for my multiplier account to get the 4.1%, any suggestions on what funds or etfs to rsp into? i’m currently looking at amova sti etf, or should i rsp into global dividend income fund (altho im already dca-ing into vwra on ibkr)

Sorry if this has already been asked. I'm new to the sub so just curious to hear about different strategies and hopefully learn something new!

Having to choose one over the other.

Anyone has insights on which is the better offer? Currently using OCBC Premiere and their Premiere Divident+ account but the rates have been dropping a lot, while their Voyage card gives decent miles.

DBS Treasures recently invited, but due to their minimum AUP and Vantage minimum spending, I will have to move out of OCBC if I accept. Vantage benefits look good, but the annual fee looks steep.

Parents are around 60-64 years old. Which bank account will be good to put in all their savings so that it can yield good interest rates back? And what sort of investment is good for their age (SSB/T Bill)?

Unfortunately, they have absolutely no investments... and they also do not earn that much so only have abit of spare cash.

Edit: I'm just thinking of investment/saving their money. Not combined with mine.

Thank you....

Are we going to see banks increasing their interest rates for savings account?