What small change in lifestyle can save you the most money on a monthly or yearly basis?

• Not changing phone every 2 years when my contract is up (saved more than $1.2k/2 years)

• Getting a Sim-only plan (saved $65/ year)

• Avoid fast fashion, get good quality basics (amount saved will vary)

• Bring bottle of water out everywhere you go (amount saved from resisting a cup of juice/ bbt: appox. $5)

• Tracking your expenses: Usually when I realised I have spent a certain amount I will reduce my expeneses so that I'll not exceed my budget for the month

In the whole scheme of things

1) consumer debt - pay it off on time and ASAP. Credit card interest is like 26% per annum, and sometimes those credit lines aren't that much better at 19%. Pay them off to get auto 20++% returns.

2) review your insurance policies and look at the terms and fees, especially those that somehow use the words units / investment / savings. They are usually ILP. Maybe an ILP is not automatically bad, you need to understand the fee schedule to find out how much it costs you per year. The killer is in the fees (and sometimes over rather crap coverage).

3) if you are into investments, just be mindful of the transaction fees / costs, and expense fee ratios. If you ever bought those unit trusts, you should look to see what fees apply... The terms you should look for include sales charge, annual management fees, trailing or after sales charge, performance fees, expense ratio, custodian fees, admin charge, platform fees, conversion charges etc. If you aren't sure how much you are paying in fees, add up all the % you see in the terms and conditions. That's probably how much you are paying in fees for those funds. If more than 4%, honestly the fees are too high, and chances are your investment will not turn out well, even if the underlying investment is great. The fees will kill your returns....

Honestly just being mindful to these three points... Could easily save you thousands per year.

Embrance minimalism!

1) Buy only what you need (high quality, long lasting), reduce impulse purchases.

2) Eat at Hawker Centres/Cook at home (cheap, delicious).

3) Use public transport, it is very convenient in Singapore but require some planning beforehand.

4) Maximise credit card/favepay/eatigo/grab benefits.

5) Use reusable containers for your soap/detergent/etc and when you go out to buy food.

6) Bring your own water out.

7) Consider no-name brands (Fairprice Milk and Marigold Milk has little to no nutritional differences and taste the same albeit at different pricepoints).

8) Buy groceries in bulk.

9) Use apps like 'Price Kaki' to compare prices between goods.

10) Reduce lavish expenses like Starbucks coffee when you can make your own for much cheaper (grinding your own beans, making your own espresso), Bubble Tea, etc.

11) Declutter things that you don't use anymore and sell them on Carousell!

12) Compare your subscription fees between providers. (SIM Card, Electricity, Broadband)

13) Reduce unnecessary subscription fees (Netflix, Spotify) and if you deem it necessary, gather some friends and subscribe to a family plan.

14) Manage your taxes, understand how it works and how you can lower your tax bracket or get tax reliefs.

15) Help solve Singapore's food wastage problem by offering to pick up food from SG Food Rescue.

16) Buy items from thrift stores such as Red Shield Industries.​​​

I setup a robo account to dump in all the rewards/interest/dividend money and see how far it can go, the account had been running for half year and it already grow more than what I expect.