Your Life, Your Money.
Your Life, Your Money.
Tips, tricks and uncommon wisdom to help you get more out of your money.
If you’ve been paying attention to the news recently, you’d have noticed that POSB’s got a new HDB home loan package that’s creating quite some buzz and getting HDB owners and buyers both excited and wary at the same time. In this article, we examine one of the most serious contenders to HDB loans we’ve ever seen.
So whether you’re thinking of buying an HDB resale or BTO flat, or thinking of refinancing your existing loan from HDB (the HDB Concessionary Loan), you’ll definitely want to know about this:
So you think property agents are all cheats, do you? You think every last one is just out for your money. Well that’s not fair, because I’ll have you know you’re only 97% right! But seriously, I exagerrate. Few property agents outright lie or cheat in squeaky clean Singapore. I mean, their mind games are already so good, they don’t even require outright lies:
Our home loans market has changed dramatically since 2011. We have new cooling measures, and new restrictions on bank practices. As such, applying for a loan may not be as simple as before. But with a bit of information and foresight, you can still save a lot of money. In this article, we look at three important tips for picking the right loan package in 2013:
Financial prudence is a funny thing. Taking steps to save money might mean the opposite of taking steps to make money. That’s why the whole “winning by not losing” approach doesn’t produce too many millionaires. And the whole risk question, for most of us, comes to this: How big a flat should I get, without risk of my next home being the communal dump? Do I get the biggest I can, or opt for something cheaper?
To Singaporeans, property isn’t just an investment. It’s more like that magic lamp in Aladdin. People seem to think it makes you rich, improves your love life, and probably cures cancer. It might explain why Singaporeans rush to invest in it asap. Not a bad idea; but before you make your first house a pure investment (e.g. you rent the whole thing), you’d best make the right preparations. We take a closer look in this article:
I didn’t do National Service so I can live in a one-room flat and subsist on $0.80 Yan Yan snacks. It’s about time I saw some rewards for citizenship. “Dude, you live that way because you’re a cheap-ass, not because you’re poor.” Actually, it’s because I was saving up for private property, which in 2012 cost slightly more than your own aircraft carrier. But thanks to new cooling measures, I may soon be resting my (luckily Singaporean) butt in my private condo:
Why doesn’t everyone just find the cheapest home loan? I’ll tell you: It’s because conversations with seaweed are more interesting than loan comparison. After the 11th interest rate presentation, most people would rather eat their own liver than visit another bank. They just can’t be bothered searching any more. And that’s why we need online loan comparisons:
In a previous article, we’ve covered how homes aren’t too affordable. This caused some readers to be a bit worried, and I apologize for sending the wrong message. You shouldn’t be a bit worried. You should be having an all-out code red panic, unless the thought of being financially molested by a landlord for the next 10 years appeals to you. Each property spike will be worse than the last, so you better plan now:
Today, we’ll take about building resilience to disease. Of course it’s relevant. You’ll need it when you’re living in the street, eating out of the trash bin at the local Wendy’s. Wait, you weren’t planning to do this? Because you imagine you’ll be living in an actual HOUSE? Yeah, and I imagined I’d sing back-up for Eddie Van Halen. I suppose anything’s possible; but here’s three reasons why you should restrain your optimism:
Home loan packages are hard to sell. Apart from the price, they all look the same. It doesn’t help that most bankers are numbers people, and have the imagination of a brick. But every so often, a bank’s product team comes up with an interesting idea. A way to give the package some value beyond “lowest interest rate”. In this article, I look at some special, locally available home loan features:
