Finance Investment Movement 24

It's a proud moment to achieve my savings goal for the year and even slightly exceeded that. Although the distribution is uneven, given the time still available, I should be able to make up for the shortfall in other categories. In any case, I need to ramp up the preparation for Vacation expense as my family had decided to go on a year end cruise. We booked two ocean view rooms on the Royal Caribbean liner. I'm hoping to squeeze in an additional trip to Australia just with the wife for a short unwind.

I didn't expect the SSB average coupon rate to fall to 2.8% but it was slightly mitigated by the high 2.63% offered for the first year. Just when I thought I could build a ladder of six consecutive months of subscription, this has left me with the dilemma on whether to proceed. Perhaps I might still go for it but treat it like a short duration bond and redeem within one to two years.

Received the NS credit of $100 and while I thought for a moment on how to utilize it, I came across several articles that advocated cash withdrawal or CPF payment. I opted for the latter and transferred the amount to my wife's account since hers is still a long way from FRS.

Finally, after almost daily observation of the AUD fixed deposit rate, I saw the opportunity arrive and promptly locked in at 2.41% for 6 month tenor with DBS. I never knew these rates change so quickly as the impression had been that they follow the central bank rate of its home country. I expect overall interest rate environment to be on the uptrend till year end so it should be in time for a renewal at the higher rate.

Tip: Kitaya Junmai Ginjo Summer, dense fruit base, rich mouthfeel