~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

There are some journeys in life that feel extra special, not just because of the destination, but because of the experience along the way.  This upcoming trip to South Korea with my mum is exactly that.  Not only are we looking forward to the beautiful scenery (praying hard for cherry blossom views), food, and moments together, but this trip also marks our very first time (and quite possibly our last one) flying Singapore Airlines Business Class. What makes it even more meaningful is that this was not something I casually booked.  It took careful planning, miles accumulation , and a bit of strategy.  I got to say I am not a great miles player, as my miles accumulation journey was far from optimized, and thus resulted quite a bit in lifestyle inflation.  Thus I decided to end the accumulation phase earlier, and in the end, I only managed to accumulate and hence redeem enough miles for a one-way Business Class flight from Singapore to Seoul for both of us.  ...

In mid-June, HSBC released another 'bomb' to HSBC Revolution Card users like myself, which includes: 1)     Starting from 15th July 2024, all contactless payments will no longer be eligible for bonus points. 2)     Starting from January 2025, all travel-related payments will no longer be eligible for bonus points. Since getting the HSBC Revolution card in 2022, this has been my primary card to accumulate points for my miles game, with the purpose to exchange for a Singapore Airlines Business Class experience for 2 to bring my mum somewhere for a nice vacation in time to come.  Yes I know, it is always simpler to just buy the tickets to travel, but the cheapskate in me finds that paying for Business Class tickets is quite a "lugi" trade, as I can pay for the same journey at a fraction of the cost travelling via budget as I always had. In my earlier post , I mentioned that my lifestyle have somewhat inflated a little while chasing for miles, and I think ...

For a start, please note that not everyone who play the miles game will inflate their lifestyle.  This is just a personal sharing on how I feel my lifestyle has changed when I started the miles journey. All along, I never cared much about miles or cashback earn rates from the various credit cards.  I just applied for credit cards that I think I have use for, of which mostly are cashback cards, for my necessary spending.  I did not pay attention to how much cashback I can earn, or what rewards am I eligible for.  They are mainly just used for paying for my expenses, and ensuring that I pay in full when its due (so there are many missed opportunities all these years).  However, in September 2022, things took a turn.  I applied for the HSBC Revolution credit card for the sign up bonus, which is a SGD 250 cash rebate, and most importantly it has no annual fees, so I do not have to worry about calling in for waivers annually.  After getting the card, and re...

In the latest CPI report by Singapore Department of Statistics, core inflation rose by 3.6% year-on-year, and 0.5% month-on-month.  For a more visually appealing statistics to see what affect individuals most, we can refer to the diagram below released by Singapore Department of Statistics: For singles like me, I would like to think my expenses are relatively low, because I do not own a car, I do not take grabs or taxis in Singapore, only travel via bus, MRT and walking.  My main expenses lies with dining, utilities, mortgage, household items replacement and healthcare.  However, with the recent increase in GST, it is clearly making everything a tad more pricey.  The price of many food items have risen by approximately 10-20%, and even bus and MRT fares, have risen by 10%.  In a bid to deal with inflation, I checked with ChatGBT to find out how a Malaysian (SPR) like me staying in Singapore can find alternatives and ways to deal with inflation. The following is ...

This is a relatively short post, and just to share a very useful credit card hack I learnt from another blogger/YouTuber Sethisfy .  Some of you may have already known about this hack, but to me, it is something I just got to know, and it is very beneficial to me! For individuals with chronic conditions, regular visits to polyclinics and or government hospitals may be required for consultations and checkups.  Following every visit, there may also be large quantities of medication to collect.  For Singaporeans and Permanent Residence, despite high subsidies by the Singapore government, the medical bills still add up to a considerable amount in the long term.  As I did not do intensive digging and research in this aspect, before April 2023, I have always thought that all bills from government hospitals and polyclinics, like insurance premiums, are excluded from cashback or miles rewards of credit cards. So, it definitely came as a pleasant surprise to me, when I came a...

Before I begin, allow me to highlight that this is a personal perspective.  I know there are many other better credit cards out there like Citi PremierMiles card and the new Standard Chartered SMART card to earn cashback or mile points.  However, based on my personal situation and spending habits, and being a super noob at using credit cards to earn miles, after much deliberation, I decided to go with DBS Altitude card. In my previous post, I had just added HSBC Revolution Card, and mentioned that I will do some consolidation and 'spring cleaning' of my credit cards.  So why did I decide to add another credit card into my list? Prior to getting this card, I was using EZ-Link Concession Pass card for my daily travel via public transport.  As I am a private tutor giving one to one tutoring at student's residence, travelling is a daily affair.  As such, I was using the monthly concession at SGD 128.00 for unlimited bus and MRT trips.  However in July 2022, my ...

The latest card I applied for in August is the HSBC Revolution Card. Initially I just applied for the card as I am a new customer who will be eligible for SGD 200.00 cashback during the promotion period.  However, after applying, I realize this card has many more advantages and perks above and beyond this cash-back! 1)      No Annual Fees Anyone who has own a credit card will know how troublesome it is to deal with annual fee waivers.  For some credit cards, they do not allow annual fee waivers if the annual spending did not exceed certain amount.  Hence, without annual fees for lifetime (provided their policies do not change) is definitely a good perk! 2)    Earn Miles While You Spend All along, I am not one who look at mile points.  This is because for the past 30 odd years, travelling is not a priority in my life.  However, as I aged, my perspective changed and started to think that travelling may be something that I need to d...