How to prepare for an emergency. Emergency Funds

Is it too late? How do I prepare for an emergency?

by with 5 Comments CPF AccumulationGeneral EconomyInsuranceInvestment AccumulationMoney ManagementMoney Mindset
How to prepare for an emergency
How to prepare for an emergency: Oh shit~

Many countries in the world have started with various attempts to separate humans from each other. It could come in the form of social distancing, working from home and quarantined. It seems like a global emergency is just around the corner and we are scrambling to prepare for this emergency. The Singapore government just announced a SGD$55B Resilience Budget package to help Singaporeans tie over this period.

 

Is it too late to prepare for this emergency?

From the Oxford dictionary, Emergencies are serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action. I feel the most defining thing about emergencies are that they are unexpected. Looking back, the reason why COVID-19 went out of control is that not many believe it to be serious and so it becomes unexpected.

While governments out there are trying their best to take care of their citizens, is there anything we can do during this emergency? And is it too late to prepare for this emergency?

 

Keep Calm and Prepare

Wealthdojo is a personal finance blog and so the suggestions will be finance related. We do understand that being mental strong and physically healthy is important in this period, but that’s an article for another day. It doesn’t matter where you start, it only matters that you start now. Here are some financial preparation that you can consider in this emergency.

  • Emergency Fund
How to prepare for an emergency. Emergency Funds
How to prepare for an emergency. Emergency Funds

This is the bedrock of your financial planning. When your income source stops (in normal days, it could be a lost of job), bills will continue to pile up. You will still need to eat, have a roof to stay and also feed your dependents. COVID-19 has pressed the pause button for millions of people in the world. Look at Singapore Airlines, senior management pay cut by 10-15%; staff offered voluntary no-pay leave. This would mean that the employees income source will take a pause for this period of time. If they do not have an emergency fund, how will they be able to continue to feel themselves in the months to come?

Solution: Have an emergency fund of between 6 to 9 months of your expenses.

This will ensure you can continue to live your life while waiting for the situation to be better. (Read more: Life Hedge: How to prevent your life from being a roller-coaster (Part 1))

 

  • Insurance
How to prepare for an emergency. Insurance
How to prepare for an emergency. Insurance

Call me bias but this is the most important time to review your insurance portfolio. Insurance takes care of medical conditions that are often unexpected (who can predict that they will have an heart attack) and serious. COVID-19 just serves as a reminder that health is the most important asset that we will ever have and COVID-19 is just one illness out of the whole repertoire of potential illness. Why are we resisting on planning for the other illness when they will rob us our ability to earn in the years to come?

Solution: Review your insurance portfolio

This will ensure you can continue to live your life while recovering from your illness. (Read more: Life Hedge: How to prevent your life from being a roller-coaster (Part 2))

 

  • Learn new things

There are so much information out there and I can never say that I truly know everything. In the midst of a crisis, the most important thing is to learn or even relearn certain things. It could be range from things like “how to maintain your relationship with your neighbor” to “gardening”. For Wealthdojo, we believe in continuous learning and reading. We have specially prepared 2 things for you to learn and explore new things during this COVID-19 period.

Solution: 3 recommended books to read and CPF Optimization and Opportunity Webinar

We will be having our first ever CPF Webinar on 23April2020. Do join us to learn more on what you can do with your CPF in the next webinar.

CPF Optimization and Opportunity - Launch 1
CPF Optimization and Opportunity – First ever webinar

 

  • Watchlist

The last one is dedicated to all the investors out there. It is bargain season in the stock market now. Many companies are now priced at historically low levels. However, if you don’t have a game plan on what to buy and what price to buy, be prepared to let opportunities slipped away from your hands.

 

Wishing you the best in this period of time. We hope that everyone can remain calm and healthy during this season. It is a season of crisis but it is also a season of opportunity. Invest with what you have and don’t borrow money to invest in this period of time. If you are new to investing and need help, do talk to me using the contact form or any methods listed below.

God Bless.

If you read until here, thank you again for your patience and your support over in 2019. I hope that in 2020, Wealthdojo can continue to value add you. Let us know what you think in the comments below. This is a working article. The above doesn’t represent my stock recommendation in anyway. Please read our disclaimer for more information.

I hope to nurture genuine relationships with all of my readers. Please feel free to contact me on my Instagram (@chengkokoh) or Facebook Page or my Telegram Channel! Or subscribe to our newsletter now!

 



 

Enhanced CPF Housing Grant

How to Benefit from the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant

by with 3 Comments CPF AccumulationGeneral EconomyInsuranceProperty Investment

When the government announced the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant, it was a mixed reaction. Those in the sandwich generation cheered, some were disappointed. The question is, how do you benefit from the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant?

Enhanced CPF Housing Grant
Enhanced CPF Housing Grant

Let’s first start by asking ourselves, what is the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant all about? (Read more: Make The Most Of Your CPF)

HDB Eligibility

The Enhanced CPF Housing Grant that is going to streamline current Additional and Special CPF Housing Grants as an attempt to make public housing affordable and available for everyone.

Firstly, the income ceiling for buying the HDB has increase to $14,000. This means that HDB will be available for more people to buy. Currently, those that are “earning too much” is not eligible to buy a HDB. To put it really simply, if your average gross monthly household income is less than $14,000, you are eligible to buy a HDB.

Enhanced CPF Housing Grant Income Ceiling
Source: HDB Website

Enhanced CPF Housing Grant Eligibility

Now that you know you are eligible to buy a HDB, the question is how much grant are you entitled to for the new Enhanced CPF Housing Grant. The answer is, it depends. It will depend on the followings.

  • Average Monthly Household Income (The higher your Household Income, the lower the grant)
  • Lease Coverage (To get full grant amount, the flat must have enough lease life until you and your spouse is 95)
Enhanced CPF Housing Grant Table
Source: HDB Website

Typically, the average monthly household income in Singapore for First-Timer Families (Assuming a couple who graduated from an University and working now) will be around $5000, this brings the grant amount to $40,000.

There are many permutations as to how this new Enhanced CPF Housing Grant will affect people. There will definitely be people who will compare between the old scheme and the new one. For Wealthdojo, we believe that it is better to well understand your own situation rather than compare your grant to everyone else. You could always consult the HDB Board to better understand your situation.

How will this affect Property Prices?

In Wealthdojo, we are a platform for people to make informed financial decisions. We want to understand how this Enhanced CPF Housing Grant will impact our financial journey as a whole. The below are my personal opinions and strictly my own.

  • There will be an increase in property prices. A grant makes buying the property affordable for a selected group of people. It doesn’t mean the price has dropped. Loosely speaking, we are not taking into account location and various other consideration for buying a property. An isolated trend table for Punggol shows that over the years, there has been an increase in price for BTO flats.
    Enhanced CPF Housing Grant BTO Price Changes
    Enhanced CPF Housing Grant BTO Price Changes
  • Private Property Prices will increase. A simple chart like this show that there a simple positive correlation between private and HDB prices. Logically, if we compare a similar size HDB and a Private Property in the same area, the price of a private property will be higher.
    Correlation HDB Private Properties
    Correlation HDB Private Properties

Insurance for Properties

Buying a property might be the biggest purchase for most people, it is also important to plan for insurance for your properties. (Read more: Insurance for Investors). In a simple nutshell, these are the 3 insurance that you have to get for your property.

  • Fire Insurance

If you are living in a HDB, it is compulsory to get a fire insurance. As the name suggest, it covers for fire BUT the scope of the coverage is very small. HDB fire insurance compensates for damage to the building (ONLY). As a general rule of thumb: If it wasn’t already there when you got your house keys, then it’s not covered by HDB fire insurance. That’s why we need to have content insurance.

  • Home Content Insurance

In a fire, naturally the items in the house will get damaged. This will include items like Air-Con, the fridge, the television, the sofa, the bed, etc. Not only do you need to purchase these items again, you will need to renovate the house again to bring it back to living conditions. Most home content insurance covers for renovation and also home content.

  • Mortgage Interest Insurance

Most people will get a loan from a bank to finance their property. For banks, they will need an assurance that you will be able to pay for the loan. That’s why they assess the loan amount from your salary. The biggest risk a bank (and yourself) will take is if a person is unable to finance the loan. What happens in an event of a critical illness (Read More: Life Insurers to change definition of Critical Illness) such as heart attack and it robs away the ability for a person to earn money? Would this be extra burden on your partner? The bank has the right to claim back the property leaving your family on the streets. Would you want that to happen?

In summary, there will be new changes in the future too. Some things will change while others will remain the same.

In Wealthdojo, we believe in bespoke financial planning. Whether it is money maximization, insurance or investing, we believe that everyone is different and the planning should be suited for you.

All opinions above are my own. Please view our disclaimer page to understand more. 

I hope to nurture genuine relationships with all of my readers. Please feel free to contact me on my Instagram (@chengkokoh) or Facebook Page! 

Now that you’ve read about learnt about how to benefit from the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant , I challenge you to read this article (Careshield Life: Disability Insurance Singapore) to push your understanding further!

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