Exercising Financial Prudence Tip #2 - Take Public Transport

I think having a car is convenient most of the time, especially when there's a need to carry stuff or people, or to certain places where public transport is not easily accessible.

But the biggest problem with owning a car is the total cost of ownership, the monthly expenses is already quite a substantial amount. Just imagine how much you can save by converting to public transport.

Well, I have a colleague who has fully paid up his car loan, but he still spends slightly over 1000 Singapore dollars a month on his car, I think he would spend less than 1/10 of that if he converts to public transport, and the other 9/10, he can use it to increase his investment portfolio.

What I think is, Singapore is not a very big place, nowadays, our public transport is getting better, more connected, to more places, at higher frequency, worse comes to worst, one can always book a taxi, and it's just a call away. To be honest, I only take public transport for long distances, the rest I just walk e.g. the distance from my home to the train station is about 1.2 kilometers, and it's all by walking.

So think about it, why let your money go down the drain when you can grow it?

Exercising Financial Prudence Tip #1 - Use a Cheap Phone

I'm currently using a Nokia 1280, and I bought it for 30 Singapore dollars at a neighbourhood shop. There are shops in People's Park Centre selling for 26.80, so for those interested, you might want to check it out.

It's a basic phone, cheap and useful, and there are two outstanding features:
1. Torchlight - press center pad up twice to switch on, up once to switch off.
2. Speaking alarm - set a time, when alarm goes off, phone tells you the time.

And one other thing I like about this phone, it's durable, doesn't stop my heart when I drop it, I know it won't break ;)

Nokia 1280 - Black

In Singapore, I think most people sign up for a mobile subscription plan, the contract requires one to stay on that plan for 2 years and for your commitment, telcos will offer mobile phones at a much lower rate. So for me, I get a plan that suits me, and I get a phone with a high market value and sell it brand new, or I get a phone at 0 dollars.

If you want to save even more, consider using pre-paid card instead, because if you just want to stay contactable but you don't call much, there's no point paying more for a subscription plan.

Personally, I think smart phones are more of a luxury item than a necessity. So think about it, if your holding a smart phone, why not sell it and get a cheaper phone!

Withdraw Money from PayPal to POSB Account

POSB Info for PayPal

Country: Singapore

Name on account: This must be exactly the same as the name under your POSB account, the name order must also be the same e.g. Tan Ah Kow, not Ah Kow Tan, if order is wrong, click Switch name order.

Bank Name: DBS Bank Ltd

Account Type: Whichever you wish, if not sure, check your booklet, usually is savings account. Current account is usually used for issuing cheques.

Bank Code: 7171

Branch Code: 081

Account Number: POSB account is 9 digit, exclude the dash, put only numbers.

Budget Airline Excess Baggage Charge (Special Rate)

This morning I went to the airport with my wife because it's that day of the year again, when she will return home to visit her family, and eat all her favourite food, papaya salad, fried ants, yeah. According to a neighbour in her home town, those are the top two delicacies of northern Thailand. The first one is arguably okay for me, but I just can't bring myself to try the last dish.

And so we were well aware that her checked luggage was over the 25KG allowance that we purchased during booking, and it's a total of 7KG over the limit, and we just wanted to try our luck and see if we could get through without paying, but before I continue, I just want to emphasize that the point of this post is not to get anyone into trouble.

The lady at the counter told us to put our checked luggage on the weighing machine and the overweight came at no surprise. She told us there would be a charge of 20 Singapore dollars for each extra KG over the allowance and the total charge was 140 Singapore dollars. So I said hold on, let me discuss with my wife. And while we were about to start discussing, that lady moved closer and changed to a whispering tone, she said we could pay 60 Singapore dollars instead, we just have to put it in my wife's passport or the itinerary and hand it to her and don't let anyone see. Wow, okay, sounds like a good deal, so I told my wife and she was both surprised and confused and that lady popped in again and made another offer, this time it's 50.

When my wife finally regained her mind, she told me to try 40, yeah okay I tried and it was refused and I realized we were taking quite a while already, and come on, it's just 10 dollars, so trying to be decisive man, I grabbed the itinerary printout, shoved 50 dollars inside and handed over to the counter lady, she took it, checked in my wife's luggage and that's it.

For this to be happening in Singapore, and at the airport, I was very surprised, but I think such things are happening all the time, it's just that we don't see it very often.

So before you book that ticket, take some time to determine how much luggage you will be carrying, and buy more just in case, like for my wife's case, she told me she needed only 25KG, but she ended up with 32KG, I could have saved some money if I bought 35KG instead.

Enjoy your journey!

How to Pronounce Suvarnabhumi?

When me and my wife were discussing whether she would like to go Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang airport...

Me: So you want SU VAARR NUB HU MI (slowly read out loud) airport?
Wife: (laughs) SU WARR NA POOM.
Me: Why POOM?
Wife: Thais say SU WARR  NA POOM.
Me: Ok...

Now I know why that taxi driver in Bangkok gave me that weird look when I told him to go SU VAARR NUB HU MI, and why my wife chuckled in a corner...

Airline Currency Conversion VS Bank Currency Conversion

Yesterday I bought a Tiger Airways ticket for my wife, flying from Thailand to Singapore and at the payment section, I noticed that there is an option to pay in Singapore dollars; usually when I buy from Thailand to Singapore, I pay in Thai Baht and then my bank will do the conversion and charge me in Singapore dollars.

Tiger Converts 2615 Thai Baht to 108.18 Singapore dollars

So I did a quick search on Google using 2615 thb to sgd and the result is about 103 Singapore dollars. Obviously I should continue to pay in Thai Baht, so I did and here's what my bank statement shows:

Bank Tentatively Charges Me 102.90 Singapore dollars

But do note that 102.90 is not confirm as it's still pending settlement. When the bank finally charges, they will use as of that day's conversion value, so the final amount that they charge could be slightly higher or lower, but I'm sure it will still be much lower than what Tiger Airways is charging.

So make sure you do a quick check, unless you don't mind donating money to Tiger Airways.

UPDATE: I just checked and the charge has been settled at 106.36, not a big difference but well, still cheaper than settling via Singapore dollars at Tiger Airways booking system.

Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang?

As you will know by now, some budget airlines will be relocated to the old Bangkok airport i.e. Don Mueang International Airport.

When buying ticket, bet you will wonder which airline fly to which airport.

No worries, I'm sure you've seen the code BKK, and you probably know BKK means Bangkok, you are quite right.

BKK is also a 3 character airport code, see here,
BKK = Suvarnabhumi Airport (New Bangkok International Airport)

So what about Don Mueang? See here,
DMK = Don Mueang International Airport

So make sure you know where you are going before you buy that ticket!

Anyway, they are not incredibly far apart, check this out.