Let's talk finance - high interest savings accounts

Let's talk finance! I don't think I ever written anything about the topic of money other than the "No Spending in May" Challenge. I'm very passionate about personal finance. For my first job I worked as a financial planner because I believed that even though money cannot buy happiness, having enough money is important for leading a comfortable life! It can give one a lot of opportunities to do good and lead a meaningful life, and I wanted to help others achieve that.

This could be due to my own background. Coming from a low-income family, I was eligible for bursaries throughout my school life and I have always been very grateful for that. Receiving money has given me a lot of opportunities and doing relatively well in school has its benefits in a meritocratic society like higher-paid jobs. I'd hoped that by helping others to plan their finances, that perhaps they can have more money to give back to others in need too (although I came to realise this was a bit naive as people who want to give would find the means to give even if not monetary).

So what's spurring today's topic on high interest savings accounts (HISAs)?

Is it almost the end of the Circuit Breaker (CB) in Singapore?

It's almost the end of May! Sadly, there's really nothing much to look forward to in June. Even though the government has not announced the extension of CB (which a Milieu survey conducted showed that 80% of ppl think it's the same as a partial lockdown), post-CB will see the country opening up in 3 phases.

According to gov.sg: 

Phase One: Safe Re-opening

From 2 Jun 2020, Singapore will gradually re-open economic activities that do not pose high risk of transmission. Social, economic and entertainment activities with a higher risk will remain closed.

Everyone should continue to leave home only for essential activities, and wear a mask when doing so. Seniors should continue to stay at home. Here’s what you need to know:

• Safe Workplaces: Some businesses to re-open with Safe Management measures
• Safe Home and Community: Households can receive 2 visitors per day, who must be children and/or grandchildren from the same household
• Safe School: Primary and Secondary school graduating cohorts to attend school daily
• Safe Care: Essential care services will continue

More info here.

What does this mean for me and the rest of my demographic?

"No spending in May" Challenge!

Motivation

So in April, I decided I needed to actively reverse my bad financial habits. As I'd gotten really busy, I started to reach more for convenience at the expense of money, which is totally fine, don't get me wrong. However, the problem comes when these convenience habits form and stay! So for example, at the start of this whole work from home (WFH) period, I started ordering in food everyday instead of cooking as I was juggling between work and school.

It was a lot of late nights, and I was trying to maximise the amount of sleep I got everyday. I had a free delivery plan from Grab (though I pay $9.90 for the plan each month so it's not entirely free) though it meant that each time I order, I had to order above $10 for the free delivery. It got really expensive fast as I'd order 2 meals which is on average $15-$20. I tried as much as possible to order for 2 meals at a time. 

So I realised that over time, even on days that I'm supposedly quite free to cook, I would default into a order-on-phone-and-then-do-something-else-while-waiting mode. It was just much easier than cooking (to be fair, veggies prep and cook is super fast. I'm just put off at the thought of washing quinoa cos that takes me a long time but I need more than just veggies for sustenance haha). So anyway I have great respect to people who always find the time to cook everyday despite hectic lives because I know how hard it can be!

Despite not being 100% on my finances, I was still rather aware that I was spending way too much money on ordering food (and I do feel ashamed by the environmental impact that I've caused too). I decided that having a no spending in May challenge can be useful for me to curb my bad habits and give my wallet a break to heal the hole in it 😂 Moreover, this challenge was set up such that I would get to practice delay gratification, a value that my generation might have lost.

So what's the challenge about?

What is veganism and what it's like as a vegan in Singapore?

I don't talk much about being vegan since it's not an everyday topic. I've been vegan for 2.5 years now and it's nothing new for my friends and family. But perhaps my readers are curious folks 😆 I don't want this to be the usual vegan Q&A like on other sites (no offence, it's just that other sites have done a really good job so I think it's pointless for me to do so. It'll just be rephrasing). I have made majority of the Q&A specific to Singapore.

Q: So what is veganism and what does it mean to be vegan?

Because I'm unoriginal, I'll quote from Wiki.
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A follower of the diet or the philosophy is known as a vegan.

Q: How is a vegan diet different from a vegetarian one? What can you eat? 

In my experience, in Singapore we have varying levels of vegetarian diet which we do not distinguish when we generalise the term "vegetarian", which becomes super confusing and I always need to seek clarity whenever someone tells me they are vegetarian or whenever someone tells me the food is vegetarian.

1. There are vegetarians who eat anything as long as it's not meat (and fish. I don't distinguish meat and fish, they are "meat" to me though I've met some people who differentiate between them).
2. Vegetarians who eat what vegetarians in group 1 eat but without egg (mostly Indians due to religion).
3. Vegetarians who eat what vegetarians in group 1 eat but without the 5 pungent spices like onions and garlic (these are usually Buddhists).
4. Vegetarians who eat what vegetarians in group 3 eat but without egg and dairy too.
5. Vegetarians who eat what vegetarians in group 1 eat but without egg and dairy.
6. There is another subset that don't eat mushrooms (it's not very common in the Chinese community, but I've found that it's common in Indian community).
7. And there are Jains as well (I've never met any in my life, so I'm not 100% sure that their diet is also known as vegetarian diet in SG...)

Vegan diet is very similar to number 5, but a little stricter as all animal byproducts are not consumed. This includes honey for example which are avoided on animal suffering grounds. There are certain foods which are surprisingly non-vegan like wine as although the ingredients are plant-based, some of them use fish bladder in the filtering process.

2020 thus far

It's been a while since I checked in here. Many updates!

School

I'm finally finished with grad school (in a year!!!). Still can't believe I survived through that with a full time job. It has absolutely been crazy and stretching my time management skills, although I would say it's not as bad as last semester (Aug-Dec) in terms of commute time thanks to Covid-19.

In fact, I only went to school for the first 2 weeks of the semester before the school decided that students should do home-based learning in late Jan. It is quite funny that I never saw some of my project mates in person.