There aren’t that many “complimentary upgrades” available for those flying on Singapore Airlines.

When I used to fly with Cathay Pacific (pre-pandemic) from Hong Kong, I would regularly score free upgrades – and that was without being any sort of premium-tier holder.

Yet for Singapore Airlines, that doesn’t really exist. However, what does exist is only reserved for those that are part of the top-tier of its frequent flyer programme: PPS Solitaire.

If PPS Solitaire members fly with Singapore Airlines within +/- a day of their birthday (or their actual birthday), they can receive a free one-cabin upgrade, based on seat availability at the time of check-in.

This “birthday upgrade” for PPS Solitaire members applies to both paid revenue or redemption tickets. Meaning, if you redeemed a ticket on Business Class – and there’s a First Class section available on your flight – then you can technically get upgraded to First Class.

Of course, it’s interesting to know about this benefit but (for the rest of us PPS, KrisFlyer Elite Gold/KrisFlyer Elite Silver/KrisFlyer members) the birthday benefit is rather more staid.

If you fly on your birthday month – or in the following two months – you can earn 1,000 miles as a KrisFlyer member, 1,500 miles as a KrisFlyer Elite Silver and Gold, and 2,000 miles for PPS members.

Not enough of us are aware of how much management fees can eat into our investment returns. When you invest into a low-cost exchange-traded fund (ETF), you are essentially saving yourself a huge chunk of fees over time.

That’s because many of the alternative products and services out there for investors – from units trusts to specialised wealth advisors charge a hefty annual fee.

Now, this fee is nearly always charged as a “percentage of assets under management (AUM)”. What does that mean? They get to take a percentage of your assets every year, no matter what happens in the markets.

For them (wealth advisors and fund management firms), it’s great – it’s a recurring stream of income coming in. Even if their funds and their performance lags a basic stock market index, no worries because they’ll still be taking their slice of your money right on schedule.

While it might not seem like a big deal at smaller amounts, of say $10,000 to $50,000 invested, when you start accumulating more wealth it does become substantial.

Think about it; most unit trusts charge around 1.50% per annum (p.a.) as a management fee. Wealth advisors? That can be around 1% p.a. – not exactly cheap.

And compared to broad market ETFs that we just oversee ourselves? They cost anywhere from 0.07% to 0.25% p.a., so up to one-twentieth the cost every year.

At $10,000 invested, the annual fee from a unit trust charging 1.5% p.a. will be $150 and a global ETF charging 0.10% will be $10. That might not seem that huge. But, like the wealth building process, fees compound and the law of large numbers starts to take hold.

Extrapolate your wealth out to $1 million and now you’re paying $15,000 per year to be invested in that unit trust. For that ETF? You’re paying $1,000 per year in fees. That’s a huge difference. At $5 million to $10 million? You can do the maths yourself.

Electronics maker Xiaomi Corp (HKEX: 1810) (SGX: HXXD) was making waves this past week as its new YU7 electric SUV car racked up almost 300,000 pre-orders within an hour.

Traditionally known for its basic consumer electronics, Xiaomi’s innovative approach and engineering acumen look to have cracked the highly-competitive electric vehicle (EV) market in China.

Tim’s Take: Xiaomi appears to be one of the only consumer tech companies that has managed to pull off the evolution from handheld gadgets to mass market EVs. Dyson tried, and failed. Apple was looking at releasing an EV and then bailed.

However, Xiaomi’s newest model comes less than 18 months after the launch of its first ever EV – the SU7 that went on sale in March 2024.

While the scale of Xiaomi’s production line pales in comparison to the likes of BYD and Tesla (Xiaomi said it has delivered around 258,000 SU7s as of late May 2025), its actual product has received glowing reviews.

Ford CEO, Jim Farley – known for being an avid car enthusiast, imported an SU7 from Shanghai to Chicago to drive it and test out what his competition is producing. He was quoted as saying he’d “been driving one for six months and doesn’t want to give it up”.

High praise indeed for a first-time EV maker. Of course, it’s up against some formidable competition in BYD (which shifted over 4.2 million fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2024) and Tesla.

Xiaomi shares ended the week on a high, closing around 10% higher than where it started on Monday. Singapore-based investors should remember that they can also buy Xiaomi shares on the SGX via Hong Kong Singapore Depository Receipts (SDRs) of Chinese companies.

While it’s still early days for the YU7 – being only the second vehicle that Xiaomi has released – the enthusiasm surrounding the launch definitely bodes well for the company’s future.