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t labels investment opinions thursday january 2 2020 miles or cash back an opportunity cost perspective i used to be a 100 cash back credit card chaser as it is hassle free and cash is always better than a captive currency like miles recently i have been reading quite a bit on miles blogs apparently there is strong interest in chasing the miles to redeem for premium flights but do they actually make sense the value per miles as advocated by some blogs is 1 9 cents per mile hence even paying 2 admin fees to buy miles make sense for some i would probably value it at no more than 1 57 cents which i will illustrate simply below base on my personal circumstance as i spend 3k per month i usually split up 2k on uob one card 5 cash back and 1k on ocbc 365 cash back card averages 3 5 or so for simplicity the cash back i get back is roughly 135 per month this works out to be 4 5 blended spending cash back if i were to spend it on miles i probably would apportion my spending on 3 cards 1k uob visa pay wave 4 miles maybank horizon 3 2 miles 1k miscellaneous 1k spending on uob privi miles card 1 4 miles dollar earn rate i can earn approximately 8600 miles monthly hence the opportunity cost to earn the miles is to give up cash back of 135 which works out to be 1 57 cents per miles the true opportunity cost should be even higher since cash is paid frequently to offset bills and miles can expire or even devalued the attractive part of miles redemption is that business class tickets actually cost roughly only 30 70 of outright purchase price when redeemed using miles it is almost similar to earning a premium flight ticket discount coupon by using miles card for instance sin hcm sin business class ticket costs 1075 or 43k miles opportunity cost 675 cash back from spending 37 discount on ticket business class ticket sin hk sin route costs 1800 but or 61 000 miles opportunity cost 958 cash back 46 discount on ticket the further the distance the more value is derived from miles sin auk sin cost 5800 or 124 000 miles opportunity cost 1947 cash back 66 4 discount on ticket it is actually uncomfortable for me to abandon cash back card altogether and earn delay gratification on business class travel however given that i am unwilling to pay for business class tickets i would probably give miles cards a try signs up are probably much faster to earn then spending hence i am likely keeping my uob one card for the 5 cash back but earning miles sign up bonuses to kick start the discounted business class travels hence i applied for the scb x card 100k miles for a start that actually costs me 700 annual fee 300 opportunity cost of using 5 cash back card 1k hence my miles cost me 1 cent mile in summary it means that miles should be valued base on the cash back you give up opportunity costs and not on the advertised rates on blogs base on the cost of business class travel you wouldn t spend cash on the tickets anyway redeem miles on business class travel make some sense otherwise just stick to cash back cards to earn the cash and pay for economy class tickets it is possible to stick to 1 card for cash back eg if spending is around 900 mth stick to ocbc citi cash back 2 000 mth stick to uob one card for miles chasers a lot more planning is required on which card to use in order to stretch the miles rate you shouldn t accumulate miles on your own and your partner should preferably share your obsession in chasing miles a hybrid approach will stretch your dollars more using miles card that earn 3 2 4 miles per dollar targeted spend general spending to earn 3 5 cash back is preferred over 1 4 1 5 general spending miles it makes life a bit more fun brains a lot more thinking to use a miles card posted by sgbluechip at 7 09 am no comments labels personal stretch your dollar series saturday december 28 2019 random reflections on my spending been awhile since i blogged in fact more than a year the initial rationale of having a finance blog in 2008 was to detail my decisions on spending and investing to provide a platform for reflection as i progressed in my career the probability of financial independence becomes more certain admittedly i became over confident that my decisions on spending are right up to a point along the way it became ostentatious and losing myself buying branded goods driving luxury cars watches hotel membership on dining 6 travelling trips a year just to maximise the free 24 priority pass lounge visits every trip i can utilise 4 2 in sg 2 overseas became a way of life this is no good this is not me where did the initial child like ambition of early retirement and simple life disappear slowly i started to declutter goods that i bought for the purpose of _____ as i struggled to fill in the blanks phrases like showing i can afford keeping my image keeping up with my peers appeared at first instance quite retarded reasons fortunately i have managed to declutter some 2 years ago i signed up for the aia vitality and discovered that by wearing a fitness watch i am able to earn 10 grocery vouchers weekly discounted movie tickets monthly and yearly 150 cash rebate the perks are more than sufficient for me to wear any other watches that do not pay me weekly cash 3 years ago i was at the cross road to change my vehicle it was extremely tempting back then i was driving a 2 5l luxury car and finances allowed me to continue driving one it didn t help when peers were changing to nicer rides i test drove jaguar mercedes bmw lexus infiniti porsche was very close on my list as well after all a colleague who was earning lesser than me could buy one as well i can stretch my budget to 20k a year depreciation cost right fortunately good sense prevailed i evaluated the decision economically i only wanted a car slightly better in terms of size design performance than a bread and butter point a to b car like toyota altis or honda city with slightly higher depreciation cost i managed to buy a 1 6l humble continental ride that comes with only 6 speed gear box all around sensors memory seats 4 doors keyless entry leather seats apple car play reverse camera 18 inch sport rims and free 1 year insurance cap at 1 5k the dealer also provided 5 years warranty and servicing further reducing my cost of ownership till 2022 the depreciation on straight line basis worked out to be 10k year cheaper than a camry of around 12k year then x so far it has not given me any problems other than being a laughing stock amongst my peers car already so expensive in singapore it is stupid to buy an expensive one and not enjoy it no resale value one kiam kanna these are some of the remarks made by peers living with it saved me at least 5k a year i think i can live with it my main cost of living is housing transport travel and food for housing as my property is in the money in a way i am living for free this is because i am able to cash out upon sale of my property and all payments made for the house from day 1 will be paid back to me i can subsequently invest the money to generate an income to compensate rent or simply buy another hdb and fully pay off with my cpf balance i am actually contemplating to sell my house for a resale hdb in order to live even more simply of course more objections from people around me living in landed and condos what for save the money and not spend it belongs to the bank i have not seen anyone getting rich buying a resale hdb it may not happen eventually as i am comfortable at my place right now although i rarely use the gym pool and have never booked the common facilities the things i like and not available in a new resale hdbs are sheltered underground parking kitchen built in rubbish chute nice lifts with aircon lobby balcony for plants and clothes drying and my low entry purchase price on hindsight moreover the monthly maintenance of 300 is about 150 more than a comparable hdb after accounting for parking i will probably end up spending 150 on gym pool facilities if i live in hdb hence the savings are insignificant for food i am spending approximately 1 5k a month on it this works out to be 50 day i do know that by picking up the skill of cooking i am able to keep food expense to 500 a month it is something i would definitely explore as i move towards early retirement however at the moment i still quite enjoy the daily restaurants dining in fact i do try to dine at odd hours where possible where there are 1 for 1 deals in town and neighborhood areas some credit cards also allow 50 off dining which fits my budget and taste buds comfortably some random rants i think i need to blog more or i will just have endless to say in 1 post posted by sgbluechip at 8 33 pm no comments labels personal friday june 8 2018 rent or buy house in singapore as i reach mop for my house i face 2 choices to cash out and rent or to buy another one conventional wisdom or culture states that we should always buy otherwise we are subsidising the landlord this mindset is especially prevalent in singapore where house ownership is more than 90 public housing is highly subsidised and housing instalments are paid for via cpf due to the cpf restrictions many people feel that they are not paying for housing as it is paid for via cpf contributions this reasoning is flawed as cpf can be cashed out at age 55 and pays a respectable 2 5 risk free rate if we were to ignore mental accounting and view cpf as really our own money the tendency of owning a home may differ substantially let s breakdown the cost of my home ownership and determine if it makes sense to rent or buy owning a home calculations exclude utilities 20 downpayment for a 1 2m private property sgd 240k add 10k for basic renovation to round up to 250k yearly interest payable base on 2 long term rate approximately 960k x 2 sgd 19 200 i am assuming interest rates rising gradually but the principal is reduced hence yearly interest paid works out to be 19 200 it is hard to forecast the total interest paid but let s just simplfy it to sgd 19k yearly maintainence sgd 4000 property tax 400 spending on servicing of aircon repair change appliances 600 hence per annum the cost of maintaining a 1 2m home for own stay is 24 000 i am not factoring monthly instalments of 3500 as the principal paid is your own money and can be recouped upon sale of property they key deciding factor is whether you can generate enough returns on the sgd 250k downpayment such that renting makes more sense to buying assuming a 5 year investment horizon on non leverage basis a 250k investment if lucky enough can generate a 5 return or 12 500 per annum return if we were to be risk adverse and purchase the 4 35 astrea 4 bond assuming a buy price of 102 redemption of 100 at year 5 total return is 49375 or 3 95 assuming interest accumulated reinvests at 0 the base case scenario will be to park the funds idle in cpf at 2 5 and thus earning 6250 interest per year looking at the calculations the cost of owning a 1 2m home works out to be opportunity costs 6 250 to 12 500 interest 19 000 tax servicing maintenance 5 000 30 250 to 36 500 renting the same house works out to be 2 500 3 000 per month assuming it is either a 2br in suburbs or 3br in further flung places how do we make a property purchase decision if we are indifferent to buy or rent i think a key differentiator will be a person s investment ability for a person who can generate 10 p a on 250k it is intuitive selection for him to rent and invest the rest however not many people i know myself included can invest at that rate especially when equities markets are at record highs the selection is much easier no brainer actually when the person is deciding whether to purchase or rent a hdb hdb is highly subsidised and conditional not everyone can buy and cost probably just 2 5k month to rent a 4 room flat in central areas the interest cost is halved and home ownership expenses works out only to be less than 20k including opportunity costs renovation costs more for hdb flat though i am not factoring utilities or other expenses which need to be paid if one were to rent as well furthermore buying a home provide you with an option up to lease expiry to hedge against housing rental inflation as long as you continue servicing your mortgage it comes with a piece of mind that you own the place and not be at the mercy of landlords when markets are rising however it places a unnoticed strain on retirement income due to constant depletion of cpf savings so how rent or buy for people who choose to stay in hdb buying makes perfect financial sense for people who are at the cross roads between renting and buying private property take note that renting is akin to shorting the property market you borrow a house pays interest rental on it while waiting for housing markets to come down if it comes down you can buy for instance at 10 discount from current levels thus profiting 120k savings 10 of 1 2m the rental you have paid eg 5 years x 30k 150k add on the 250k returns of 3 95 49 375 the difference is sgd 19 375 not too bad since the future savings on the original 1 2m property is compounded over the long term on purchase it is not an easy decision to buy or rent long or short if we are in the middle of a financial crisis it is an easy decision to rent a year first buy later since rental is low and home prices will continue to fall however at current juncture where there are no foreseeable crisis on the horizon shorting the housing market may not yield positive return over next 5 years there is always the risk that investment on the initial 250k goes sour or markets run flat or higher for another 10 years then one would have to continue renting for even long period to ride out the market in summary buy hdb is always better than renting if you can rent private housing only if you can invest and earn at least 4 5 p a on your downpayment reno budget buy private housing if market is trending upwards and be prepared to rent at least 5 years if one is timing entry into the property market this is to provide the runway to allow cash investments to reap their intended returns while waiting for housing markets to show signs of bottoming that said refer to my blog post in 2013 on hdbs i think i am fairly accurate here https sgbluechip blogspot com 2013 01 hdb prices will come down because 1 html posted by sgbluechip at 8 30 pm 2 comments labels property monday march 7 2016 knowing my willingness and ability to take risk in finance world willingness and ability to take risk belong to 2 different concepts willingness to take risk refers to one s character education investment experience culture and even religion for instance many colleagues around me are high income earners however they only invest in time deposits as they are either conservative have poor experience in investment or simply cannot invest due to religious constrains they are unwilling to take risk for mainly emotional reasons on the other hand ability to take risk refers to quantifiab...