With all the recent nerfs to UOB’s air miles-earning credit cards, it’s worth looking at other options in the cards market to get those KrisFlyer miles.

One bank that has recently stepped up its own game has been Maybank. While it’s not exactly a “household name” in the retail banking or credit card space in Singapore, their stable of miles-earning cards hold up pretty well against the competition.

A much-lauded recent launch was that of the Maybank XL Rewards card, which offers 4 miles per dollar (4mpd) on all foreign currency spending and SGD spend in specific categories (including Dining, Shopping, Travel, and Entertainment).

There is a 4mpd cap of $1,000 per calendar month and a minimum spend of $500 per calendar month to be able to earn the 4mpd rate. Of course, it’s easier to either spend it on FX spend or local SGD spend in those specific categories so you’re not having to track both spend categories’ minimum spends.

While the Maybank XL Rewards card can be paired with the Instarem Amaze card (to turn offline spending into online spending), it’s important to remember that this turns it into SGD spend so it needs to fall within those four categories.

Finally, for some random reason, the card is only open to those aged 21 years to 39 years of age. In a modern-day case of “ageism”, those 40 and above can’t apply for the card. So, for all those under 40, you have one more choice for a miles-earning card.

When it comes to bonds, they tend to be an illiquid asset if you buy/sell them individually. Even something like Singapore T-bills, while reliable, have to be held to maturity (unless you sell in the secondary market but you’ll get poor value).

That’s one reason why they’re so well-suited to an exchange-traded fund (ETF) format. For Singapore investors, the choices on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) are becoming more widespread.

There are a couple of options in the Singapore corporate bond space – including the recent launch of the LionGlobal Short Duration Bond ETF (SGX: SBO) – but everyone knows that the Singapore Government has one of the strongest credit ratings in the world.

For a bond allocation, being invested into Singapore Government bonds probably can’t get much safer.

In that sense, the ABF Singapore Bond Index Fund (SGX: A35), which has exposure to Singapore dollar-denominated bonds issued by the Singapore Government and other quasi-government entities (such as HDB and LTA), is an option anyone who wants access to government bonds should certainly consider.

Of course, many Singaporeans consider their CPF as their de factor bond allocation in their portfolio but for everyone else, being invested into bonds should mean safety and not “stretching for yield”.

The price of Bitcoin took a hit in the past week as the “go-to” cryptocurrency was part of a sell-off that wiped off US$600 billion in value in the crypto market.

Bitcoin dropped as much as 4% on Friday (17 October) but is still up around 9% so far in 2025.

Tim’s Take: Every time someone labels Bitcoin as a “safe haven” asset, it seems to go out and disprove that thesis.

The latest drop in the crypto market, sparked by a sell-off in a market that has been held up by leverage, shows just how fragile Bitcoin is to news flow.

President Trump’s latest declaration of new tariffs against China around 10 days ago, saw Bitcoin sell off while the other hot “decentralised” asset (gold) scaled new highs.

It’s a useful insight into how the world’s pre-eminent cryptocurrency is still driven by what’s happening in the broader crypto market.

Investors withdrew a nearly net US$600 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs on Thursday as risk-off took hold.

Until a stronger track record is built up of Bitcoin’s resilience in times of turbulence, it will be difficult to see how it can credibly be claimed to be a “safe haven” asset in the same league as gold.

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