Im about to enter NS in a few months, are there any financial tips to take note of?

Don't buy the 10 year safra membership.

• You're stuck in NS for 2 years. So that's 8 years of membership left.
• If you're going to university, that's 3-4 years down. So 4-5 years of membership left.
• 99% of people that I know with a safra card don't use any of the features as it is inconvinent to earn and redeem them. (Example: Vouchers require you to go to a physical safra location to collect, rather than downloading from online.)

@Not a financial advisor is spot on in terms of the points, but I will just add some stuffs here.

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Cards - (assuming you mean credit cards here? ignore if not) if you don't need it, don't subscribe. NS allowance is really not alot during those days (though now they have increased it) - why would you want to increase spending to chase unnecessary perks?

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Insurance - SAF AVIVA (now porting to the new brand) should be good enough for you. Yes, don't be stupid and gullible (like my old me) who go and purchase ILP from the insurance agent at interchange with long-term plan lock-up.

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Medical & Dental - One of the best part of NS whereby they give you really good medical coverage (free) to ease burden. And yes, I got my 4 wisdom tooth extracted at one go before ORD. It really saves a lot of money. But don't forcefully go pluck it out if you have no issue.

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If you are in a stay-in vocation like riflemen, you save a lot on food and unnecessary spending like travel expenses. If you save prudently, even if you are a non-SGT/officer, you can still have savings around 10K when you ORD (if you are SGT/officer, definitely can save more). If your family is more well-to-do and your parents can support you for university fees, then you can perhaps invest this figure. Else, this would come in handy for expenses + rainy day usage.

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Others:

Use of gym in camp is free (after BMT posting), subjected to your higher-ups approval of usage. :)

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Train diligently but don't over exert and cause stress to your body. Injuries are forever (though they can heal). Protect yourself well because health is always most important! It could also be a factor that insurance company consider when you apply for insurance plan coverage in future, depending on your body condition (may have higher premiums incurred due to higher risk).

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SAFRA AHM - though physical race event has yet to resume (hopefully to resume over next 2 years if things go well), but if you are a NSF with the army, your battalion might probably 'sponsor' you for the 21Km run if they are participating. Else, you register as a civilian and you need to pay that amount yourself.
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Monetary awards while serving:

1) IPPT - if you can, please give your all to get gold. Really this is free money x 2 years. If a zero-fighter like me in BMT can eventually get gold, I don't see why you cannot without training. Just be prepared to train much harder than everyone else if your fitness level is not as good.

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2) Marksmanship - Getting Marksman also have extra money if I recall...

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3) Providing useful feedbacks - your unit may get people from time to time to garner on-ground feedbacks on improvement of camp well-being and processes. Provide really constructive feedbacks and you get a small 'token award of appreciation' . Was around $5/suggestion if it gets implemented (I think; no money if you suggest but found not useful and not implemented). I remember submitting 5 ideas and got extra $10 in a month credited separately with my pay, so means 2 ideas were used - and further confirmed because many months down the idea I raised I noticed that they got an external contractor to execute it in my camp compund.

This way, MINDEF get low-cost yet effective proposals (yes, better when compare it to paying external consultants exorbitant amounts for useless projects, with money from us taxpayers).

Going to polyclinics when you are unwell is free! Don't need to waste money by going private

You can try the savings accounts that are listed in these article below:

https://thefipharmacist.com/best-savings-accoun...

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Other than that, if you manage to get a silver or gold for your ippt, you will get $200 or $300 respectively. Marksman is an additional $200. So in a year you can at most get $500 in incentives, meaning for example you took your first ippt in that year and achieved a silver. The next ippt in the same year and you get a gold, you will only get the difference of the incentives, so a $100. Take note that only your unit's ippt and ATP (Advance Trainfire Package) will count and anything during your BMT will not count.