Given we’re near the end of 2025, many of us are probably preparing for a year-end holiday. That means there’s the possibility of earning miles on overseas spend.

Remember, using a credit card overseas to earn miles is basically like “buying miles” given the exchange rate fee (typically 3.25%) that you have to pay.

In that sense, it’s a very personal choice with many people opting to forego miles and just using either a stored multi-currency card, such as Wise/YouTrip, or simply cash.

Of course, if we do decide to use a credit card then we need to ensure we’re getting the most miles per dollar of FX spend to drive down the “cost per mile” that you’re essentially paying.

One of the best cards to do that is the UOB Visa Signature (at 4 miles per dollar for overseas spending) but it has a relatively low cap of $1,200 per statement month.

Instead, one card that tends to get overlooked is the Maybank World Mastercard which actually gives you up to 3.2 miles per dollar (mpd) on foreign currency spending.

It does come with a few caveats. First off, you need to spend a minimum of $800 in FX spend within a calendar month to earn 2.8mpd.

To get the boosted 3.2mpd rate, you need to spend over $4,000 in a calendar month. Your upsized rate will apply to that whole amount and not just the incremental spend above $4,000.

So, for example, if you spend $4,500 on the Maybank World Mastercard then you’ll receive the equivalent of 14,400 KrisFlyer miles (3.2 x 4,500) in Maybank’s TreatsPoints.

And what makes this relatively good as an FX spending card option (at least for big spend) is that the 3.2mpd rate isn’t capped.

What’s it most suitable for? I’d say if you are spending big in December overseas, and you want to accumulate miles with no cap, then it’s certainly one to consider.

I’ve previously talked about “Accredited Investors” in Singapore, otherwise known as AIs in finance-speak. But what is an AI?

To become one, you have to have net personal assets of over S$2 million (with a cap of S$1 million of that eligible to come from your primary residence) or have an annual income of at least S$300,000 in the preceding 12 months.

The problem is, once you cross that required threshold and “opt in” as an AI, private banks and financial institutions can market you all sorts of crap.

And as I’ve said before, your level of wealth is a terrible indicator of your sophistication or level of understanding as an investor. 

What’s the upshot? A lot of AIs lose a lot of money putting their capital into products from private banks or other wealth management firms. The promise of “investment exclusivity” is a lie but it’s a very well-crafted one.

Exclusive access to things like private equity (PE), hedge funds or structured notes are all a way to rinse you for fees instead of actually delivering performance.

Many places now promoting PE to AIs is a perfect example of marketing a sub-par product that has not been proven to beat a basic stock index ETF.

I managed to chat to Michelle Martin on her Money and Me show on MoneyFM 89.3 earlier this week and we touched on exactly what the issue is with PE being sold to individual investors. You can listen to the interview here.

Anyway, to conclude you do not need to do any of the things being marketed to AIs to generate wealth.

Instead, as Morgan Housel (author of the great book The Psychology of Money) has previously stated, a big part of the success in investing comes from “endurance”.

It’s the ability to stay the course in something simple and low cost. In other words, a broadly-diversified portfolio of low-cost ETFs.

Figure out your asset allocation, stick to it and don’t let fees and inane “tactical alpha strategies” destroy your wealth.

Singapore Exchange (SGX) is set to reduce the minimum board lot of shares required from 100 down to 10 for companies that have share prices of $10 and above.

In a move that will widen accessibility, it was part of a raft of new measures proposed by the MAS Equities Market Review Group.

Tim’s Take: This is a great move because it essentially lowers the barriers of access to some of the biggest companies in Singapore, namely the big three banks that are popular.

A case in point is DBS, which currently requires you to pay a minimum of just over $5,300 for a single board lot of 100 shares given its current share price of $53.67.

With the move down to 10 shares, this number will come down to $536 – a much more affordable entry point for anyone wishing to invest in DBS.

Remember, back in 2022, SGX actually implemented a system whereby exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the exchange can be traded in single shares, making it the most accessible way to invest in the local market.

While stocks priced above $10 in Singapore make up 30% of trading volume and 40% of total market cap, there are still only 13 of them – with many that investors might not recognise or be interested in (see table below).

I’d like to see this be opened up to all stocks across the board at some point (regardless of price) or for trading in Singapore-listed stocks to be made possible in single shares. However, that prospect still seems some way off.

The exact timing of when the current proposed change will be implemented is still unclear but further details will be announced in the first quarter of next year.

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