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🎯 Personal Finance Quick Action
As we enter the final few weeks of 2025, it’s a great time to take stock of our finances.
Getting those last-minute top-ups in for either your CPF or Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) are part of your admin but there should also be bigger goals we think about.
Think of it as financially-focused “New Year’s Resolutions”. What do we want to achieve in 2026?
For those of us in a couple, a great place to start would be with the money “mental load”. With money, as with general life admin such as kids’ schedules, typically one partner takes on more of the responsibility.
Whether that’s paying bills or ensuring our recurring investment plan is set correctly, these are things that need to be done.
This so-called “mental load” can be tiring but – beyond that – sharing the burden also means both partners are aware of what’s going on.
That’s particularly important when it comes to our financial lives. Ensuring we’re on the same page and also able to handle admin if someone happens not to be around is crucial.
So, as we enter 2026, we should ask ourselves if we’re sharing the mental load when it comes to money matters with our partners. If not, then this could easily be something we can consciously make an effort with next year.
The Year-End Moves No One’s Watching
Markets don’t wait — and year-end waits even less.
In the final stretch, money rotates, funds window-dress, tax-loss selling meets bottom-fishing, and “Santa Rally” chatter turns into real tape. Most people notice after the move.
Elite Trade Club is your morning shortcut: a curated selection of the setups that still matter this year — the headlines that move stocks, catalysts on deck, and where smart money is positioning before New Year’s. One read. Five minutes. Actionable clarity.
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📷 YouTube Deep Dive
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💳 Card & Miles Hack of the Week
With the recent devaluation of KrisFlyer miles, people who play the “miles game” with credit cards are rightly asking whether KrsiFlyer should remain the only game in town.
In other words, should we be expanding our horizons and consider other Frequent Flyer Programme (FFP) partners offered by certain banks that don’t cost as much in terms of redemptions?
For example, with HSBC and Citi, individuals earning miles on their credit cards can convert their bank points to miles in FFPs of 16 and 11 airlines respectively. Whether that’s EVA Air or British Airways, it means more choice for redemptions.
The additional use of something like Max Miles (from HeyMax) gives individuals even more optionality.
However, there are two big problems with this. First off, the banks that do offer a wide range of FFP partners – such as HSBC and Citi – don’t have the same range of competitive 4-mile-per-dollar (4mpd) cards that can compete with the likes of UOB, DBS or even Maybank.
And those banks have much more limited conversion partners.
Secondly, as the recent devaluation of Avios Points for British Airways highlights, the whole “devaluation” of miles isn’t confined to just SQ and KrisFlyer miles.
To make it economically viable over the long term, all airlines have to devalue their miles on a somewhat regular basis – say every 3 to 4 years.
Finally, with Singapore Airlines operating out of Singapore as its hub, it just makes redeeming a lot easier/more convenient when using KrisFlyer miles.
So, while these other FFP options can certainly make more sense in terms of value, I have a feeling it will still remain a fringe pursuit confined to “die-hard” miles-chasers in Singapore.