Singapore Inflation Climbs To 14-Month High

Do you have the slightest idea what inflation is? It is being explained as "rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time" or "in inflation everything gets more valuable except money".

What concerns us here is that Singapore's inflation rate last month has exceeded most analysts' expectations and hit a 14-month high, climbing 3.2 percent from a year ago. Read the article extracted from mypaper for more information

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So You Want To Retire Early?

Planning for lengthy retirement is a daunting task because of the existance of countless unknown.

Read more to find out why.

Article and photo extracted from Sunday Times

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FP Tip #03: Drawing Up Your Financial Plan

How do we draw out our financial plan?

1. Identify and list down your "short-term" and "long term" financial goals.
2. Prioritise your goals
3. Brainstorming on how you are going to achieve these goals, for example saving up, buy insurance, investment and any others
4.Establish a budget will assist you to have a snapshot of your current financial situation.

Follow all these 4 steps and you are making a good start in reaching the destination you desire.

Follow me on the next tip: Setting Your Goals

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FP Tip #02: How Can A Financial Plan Help?

When you have a financial plan, it means that you have a plan for your money and making use of it to achieve what you want in life. Remember this quote "No one plan to fail, but fail to plan", it applies to financial planning too. Just treat this plan as a road map to achieve your financial goals.

Once you have this plan, even if you have meet with any obstructions along the way, you can refer back to this plan and make neccessary adjustments. Using this method will increase the success rate of arriving at the right destination, regardless of short term goal like hoilday or long term goal like secure retirement.

Stay tuned for the next tip: Drawing up a financial plan

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FP Tip #01: Need For Financial Plan

Courtesy of istockphoto

Have you ever wonder why Financial planning is important? For me, the thought of financial planning only stuck me recently and i realised that having a proper planning really makes a difference. Starting early in financial planning will allow you to reach your financial goals earlier.

Let me share with you on an article i have read.

Financial Planning is essential and almost everyone knows about it but not everyone understand the importance of it. Before we go into into details, let us look at the need for a financial plan to kick start with.

Let's assume on the following scenerio: On a daily basis, you seems to be doing a good job with managing your finance, clearing all credit cards and utilities bills on time with delay, meet your monthly expenses and might even have some spare cash for saving.

Given the above scenerio, it might seems like you have a complete and wonderful picture BUT have you thought of the under-mentioned:

1. Have you cater for any future major commitment?
2. Are you planning for your retirement?
3. Do you have any emergencies or unexpected funds that comes into your life? 

All these events will make a change in your life, that is why a financial plan come into the big picture.

Stay tuned for the next tip: How a plan can help?

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Estate Planning - "Joint Tenants" VS "Tenants In Common"

What is Joint Tenants?

It refers to a property bought by 2 or more persons as joint tenants and upon the death of one joint owner, his interest in the property is taken over by the surviving owner(s). A joint owner may not will away his interest in the property to others in his Will.

What is Tenants in common?

Property owned by 2 or more persons as tenants in common means that each owner has a specified share or proportion in the property.

For example, such share allocation could be on an equal basis (50%-50%) or 80% - 20% basis etc. Each owner may be able to dispose his share in the property either by sale or under his Will. Upon one owner's death, the surviving co-owner(s) do(es) not take over the deceased's interest in the property as is in the case of joint tenancy. His share passes under his will or in accordance with the law of intestacy, as the case may be.

Article extracted from The Sunday Times

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GST Offset Package

Courtesy of www.gstoffset.gov.sg

Have you received your GST offset package letter recently? Are you aware that for anyone above 21 will have GST credit to recieve on this July 2010? If not, do take a look at this post to know more.


What is GST Offset Package?

The GST Offset Package is a set of comprehensive measures announced in Budget 2007 to help Singaporeans with the increase in GST, with more for lower-income Singaporeans. The GST Offset Package will cost the government $4 billion over 5 years. It includes among other schemes, the GST Credits, Senior Citizens' Bonus, U-Save rebates and Top-Ups to Post-Secondary Education Accounts schemes.

Singaporeans will be receiving the final payout for GST Credits and Senior Citizens’ Bonus on 1 Jul 2010. Singaporeans will also receive U-Save, Services & Conservancy Charges (S&CC) and rental rebates from the GST Offset Package.

Click here to know more
Click here for household benefits calculator
Click here for a guided tour on GST Offset Package

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