DON'T BE DISCOURAGED! Everyone goes through difficullt times. Let's put your financial situation down: Basic salary: $3k Side income (note: this is NOT passive income, as passive income it's what you earn without you doing anything. If you stop giving tuition, you won't have that income: Say $500? Total Monthly In: $3.5k Total Monthly Out: $500 (school loan) + $500 (family) + $100 + $500 monthly expenses estimated = $1.6k Your $28k student loan - with you contributing $500 a month, you would be done in 56 months. You probably are more than one year in - what are the terms of this student loan? It still puts you in a pretty good position! The fact that you are earning a side income, and also look to contribute to your family with $500 a month is already very commendable. At your age, I would look at accelerating your monthly income. There is a max to how much you can save, but the upside you can get through various income streams is limitless. Learn new skills, pay off your debt sooner than later, invest wisely.

Personally, I prefer Youtrip for the competitive rates. I just used Youtrip on my Japan trip, and found rates to be comparable to what I could get from the Raffles Place money changers. Another big plus - when I was out of JPY for a transaction, it converted my SGD to JPY. Which also means, no small change that I need to change back to SGD when I get back! For me, that's a nice plus since I typically don't like to change it back to local currency. I don't mind using it as a one-way wallet, because I use Youtrip as an EZ-Link card as well for my local commute! Get S$15 free money after your first top up on Youtrip with this link! https://youtrip.app.link/HUI%20JUN128899 Update June 2019: GET AN ADDITIONAL $5 with the code JUNUS - which brings you to a total of $15 instead of the usual $10 from other referral codes! so a total of $15!

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The most straighforward way would be to check with DBS to see why it was rejected. Based on the data points you provided, it might be the case that they want to see a full 12 months of income, and you are just shy of a month.

It depends on what your goals are. I do see friends 'happily' bragging about the airmiles they are accumulating, but ultimately it boils down to what you want. Are you interested in getting the chance to travel business/first class? For example, some of my friends who are getting married are planning for their honeymoon, and spending to rack up points for that business class flight is a goal. For myself, I have flown business class before, and am not insanely coveting a first class experience (at least not enough for me to go crazy on accumulating points). Additionally, if you are looking to save money, it does make sense to not get sucked into the whole game of hitting minimum spending to accumulate points. At the end of the day, only buy what you need. Of course, the other hack of sorts is to consolidate family purchases, if you really want to hit any kind of minimum spending on the card!

DEFINITELY YES. I am not a parent, but I can't even count the number of times I have seen or heard children and students out in public being entitled, or talking about consuming expensive things like it was no problem for them, because their parents are funding it.

Yes, that balance of saving money for the future, and enjoying ourselves now is something that I have thought about when I decided to start working towards my financial goals. After years of making financial decisions, here is my personal mental rubric: - With whom am I spending this money with? I am OK with spending more money when it comes to my immediate loved ones eg. family members. I have no qualms about taking my dad to a Kansai trip on a SQ flight. That said, if I was travelling alone, I would not splurge as much. And if it's spending money with fairweather friends or colleagues - no. - Does spending this amount of money ahem SPARK JOY, or I am merely spending it to impress people I don't care about? For eg. if it was spending money to go to Marquee just to show people on my IG that I am at Marquee, no. The Marie Kondo concept of 'sparking joy' is over-used, but it does make sense. There are times where you feel your money is super well-spent, and other times when it just doesn't. - Know that enjoying your life doesn't always need to entail spending (lots of) money. Having a social life does not entail spending lots of money. Some of my best conversations and catch-up with friends take place over a cup of teh tarik at the prata store. Same concept can be applied to using the energy we have now to keep fit. Some people feel that they need to sign up to an expensive gym membership and get some cool gym clothes before they even start, when all you need is to hit the neighbourhood parks to get some weekly cardio and strength training.

Straight from IRAS: All payments and benefits derived from the carrying on of blogging, advertising and any other activity performed on social media platforms as a trade or business constitute gains or profits from a trade or a business under section 10(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act (ITA). Payments in exchange for services performed by bloggers/social media influencers can take the form of money, goods or services. All monetary and non-monetary payments / benefitsin-kind are taxable if they are received in return for services rendered or to be rendered by bloggers/social media influencers. Any benefit whether monetary or in-kind provided to the families and friends of bloggers/social media influencers will be taxable on the bloggers/social media influencers. The following are excluded in terms of declaration: Bloggers/social media influencers will not be required to declare non-monetary benefits if the following two conditions are met: (a) The product/service is given to them on an ad-hoc basis for one-off consumption or testing; and (b) The value of each product/service received does not exceed $100. If the value of the product/service exceeds $100, the full value of the benefit should be declared and be subjected to tax. The $100 threshold does not apply to non-monetary benefits received by bloggers/social media influencers if it is a recurring supply provided over a period of time Source: https://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/uploadedFiles/IRASHome/Businesses/Social%20Media%20Influencer.pdf

Do you expect to be consistently spending more than the max cashback limit? If it's for travelling for work like you said (and I guess business expenses are reimbursed), then no harm looking for another card to accumulate more points!

If a 'friend' shows up out of the blue after months or years of not keeping in touch with the sole intention to sell you an insurance product, I would re-evaluate my relationship with said friend. But jokes aside and if he's a good buddy, then it makes sense to listen to him. Even if you are not looking to switch as he's said, you can look at other ways to support him for eg. helping him refine his sales pitch and recommending him to your friends, provided you feel that he has his clients best interests at heart. I have an insurance agent that sends me the occasional message on, hey what if you get an accident/die/etc etc - do you want to buy this additional coverage. Needless to say, I have bought other insurance policies from more well meaning insurance agents.