When it comes to earning more miles and cashbacks on credit cards, one of the most common “hacks” is volunteering to pay for shared expenses, such as restaurant meals, movie tickets or grab rides first, and then collecting the cash from friends afterwards. The logic is sound – I pay first, on a large bill that will earn more even more miles or cashback than my actual expenditure, then get my friends to repay what they owe me in cash. What happens in reality is a completely different thing. Read Also: Online Shopping: What Happens When You Pay In Foreign Currencies Using Your Singapore Credit Card While I initially agreed with this “hack”, I try to avoid paying first at all cost these days. Here are four reasons why I think you may also want to stop making use of this “hack”.

This is a slightly technical post but highly relevant if you for certain types of businesses where leasing is prevalent. Come 2019, new accounting standards (specifically IFRS 16) will come into effect which will drive up the leverage ratios of businesses which have significant leases liabilities. The new leases standard – IFRS 16 – will require companies to bring most leases on-balance sheet from 2019. Explaining it in layman terms Let us think about this in terms of you buying a car. The normal route to buying a car would be for you to take a car loan. You would take ownership of the asset in your name, and the corresponding debt to pay for it too. The alternative way to do it is to lease it. A lease is simply a contractual arrangement that allows the lessee (user) to pay the lessor

You’ve been reading our articles and watching our videos, but outside of DollarsAndSense, each DollarsAndSense team member has their own unique challenges and financial goals – as parents, a newlywed, or young working adults. With 2019 in full-swing, here are our financial goals for the year. We’ll be striving alongside you, our readers, as we learn to make better financial decisions together. Timothy: “To Cancel All My Credit Cards And Reapply For New Ones That Fit My Life Stage” Rather than the usual “I am going to invest more” or “I will strive to save more in 2019”,my New Year’s resolution is a little unorthodox. I am intending to review the credit cards that I currently have and to possibly cancel most, if not all of them, and to app

SingSaver is an affiliate partner of DollarsAndSense.sg. By now, most of you should already know that it makes financial sense to be using a credit card over cash. As long as you have financial discipline (i.e. pay your bills on time, don’t overspend), not using your credit card when you can is just plain silly. Using your credit card allows you can enjoy discounts, promotions, cashback and of course, earn you air miles. In Singapore, the two main camps that people find themselves on when it comes to card benefits are miles and cashback. We wrote about this previously and explained why a miles card would usually deliver better “cash spent to benefit received” value. We are not saying that there is no place in your wallet for a cashback card, or even multiple cashback cards.

The Straits Times Index (STI) is made up of the 30 strongest and most liquid stocks listed in Singapore. Comprising close to 80% of the entire market value in Singapore, the returns that the stocks on the STI provides is essentially the market returns or benchmark returns. For investors who are new or prefer taking a hands-off approach, being able to invest in the STI can be the most practical way to invest. This is primarily because it offers several advantages such as diversifying our investment portfolio with just one investment as well as receiving the market returns without requiring much knowledge or spending time monitoring and adjusting our portfolios. Currently, there are two listed STI exchange traded funds (ETFs) – the SPDR STI ETF and the Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF – that w

SIA Engineering Company’s (SIAEC) share price hit its 10-year low closing at $2.28 on 21 December 2018, last seen only during the sub-prime crisis period in May 2009. Within a span of more than five years, the group had shed more than 55.9 percent of its market capitalisation as its share price plunged from a high of $5.17 in May 2013 to current level. SIAEC used to garner strong interest among investors for its business moat providing maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services to airlines and aerospace equipment manufacturers. Aircrafts are required to undergo scheduled and stringent checks to maintain their airworthiness certifications before they are allowed to take off. Furthermore with Singapore Airlines as its parent company, SIAEC got to receive exclusive works from SIA plane

The Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), Singapore’s key stock market barometer, has had a rough 2018, falling 9.1% from the start of this year until the end of November. Apart from being well-known among investors, the STI’s 30 component companies are also known for their dividends. But some blue-chips are offering a higher yield compared to the rest. With that in mind, let’s have a look at the top 10 dividend-paying stocks on the STI (data as of 30 November 2018). For the first five, click on this link. 6. ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited (SGX: C52) has a presence in seven countries and is one of the largest land transport companies in the world. Within the transport sector, ComfortDelGro has businesses in the taxi, bus, rail, car rental, and automotive engineering services. Comfo

As the year-end festive season approaches, investors of Singapore Airlines (SIA) have little to cheer about as SIA share price plunged to epic low of $9.17 on 30 October 2018. The last times that SIA share price was traded at such abysmal level were during the 2001’s terrorist attacks in United States and 2003’s SARS outbreak. Both events were black swan events that affected the industry immensely and changed the aviation landscape forever. But hey we are not having any crisis now, aren’t we? As one of the major components among the prestigious Straits Times Index (STI), SIA is one of the biggest blue chips in the stock market. But investing in this leading light of SGX is not so straightforward as challenging operating environment and industry shifts make this stock highly unpredict

Travel is an important part of many Singaporeans’ lifestyle. In fact, Singaporeans take  more than 5 overseas vacations a year on average. It is no wonder that an increasingly popular perk among credit cards is the opportunity to earn “miles” that you can use to redeem free air tickets. Here’s a beginners’ introduction to what airline miles are and how they work, so you can decide whether a credit card that offers miles as a perk is valuable to you. Read Also: Miles Or CashBack? Which Type Of Credit Cards Should You Go For In Singapore? What Are Airline Miles? Airline miles are basically a loyalty programme run by airlines to reward travellers who commute using their airline (or partner airlines under the same loyalty programme). After signing up to an airline miles progr

There are some companies going ex-dividend in the next few days. In other words, you need to own them before a particular date in order to receive their dividends. Let’s take a look at three of them at random. Tuesday, 20 November 2018 On Tuesday, SATS Ltd (SGX: S58), a provider of food and gateway services solutions, is pencilled in to go ex-dividend. SATS is dishing out 6.0 Singapore cents per share for its second quarter. For the three months ended 30 September 2018, revenue rose 4.2% to S$453.1 million due to improved performances from both the Food Solutions division and Gateway Services division. Net profit, though, fell 9% to S$65.7 million. Excluding a one-time gain of S$7.0 million recorded from the sale of assets in the second quarter of last year, underlying net profit would h

Singapore Airlines Ltd (SGX: C6L) reported a downbeat set of earnings yesterday for its second quarter and its first half of the fiscal year ending 31 March 2019 (2018/2019). Here are eight key highlights from its earnings release:- 1. Revenue for its first half of 2018/2019 increased by 2.5% from S$7.7 billion to S$7.9 billion, contributed by both growth in passenger flown revenue (up 5.8% year on year) as well as cargo flown revenue (up 7.4% year on year). For the second quarter of the fiscal year 2018/2019, revenue increased by 5.6% from S$3.8 billion to S$4.1 billion. 2. Operating profit, however, slumped by 34.7% from S$357 million a year ago to S$233 million in the latest quarter, due to significantly higher fuel costs as well as capacity expansion. Operating profit margin narrowed f

Many investors have heard of Warren Buffett, but perhaps less know is Phillip Fisher, and his rules on investing in the stock market. Fisher is one of the investment greats with a stellar track record of investing in well-managed, high-quality growth stocks for the long-term. In fact, Fisher is one of Buffett’s investing mentors. Fisher’s most famous investment was that of Motorola – he bought the stock in 1955 and did not sell it for the remainder of his life (he passed away in 2004). In his book Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Fisher shared a checklist of 15 characteristics he looked out for when it comes to buying growth stocks. I want to discuss his checklist in a series of articles, and I recently published the first two articles in the series (see here and here), which loo

With the recent market sell down, investing in shares with strong fundamentals has become paramount to long term investors. For long term investors, DBS recommends accumulating on strong blue-chip names with significant upside, based on their current share price. Investors Takeaway: 3 Blue Chips To Accumulate Amidst Market Sell Down Singapore Airlines While Singapore Airlines (SIA) did not manage to beat market expectations in 1Q19, DBS thinks that SIA is still on track for a strong year ahead. DBS notes that SIA’s 1Q is seasonally weak. The margin pressure in first half of 2018 has forced the whole airline industry to relook ticket prices and impose fuel surcharges more aggressively, which is expected to show improvement in SIA’s yield going forward. In addition, SIA’s fuel hedgi

Warren Buffett once said that as an investor, it is important to be “fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” The idea is simple. When everyone is buying shares in a company, it’s unlikely that the company’s shares will be a good bargain. On the other hand, when others are shying away from the shares of a company, we might be able to pick some up at a good price. How can we tell if investors are staying away from a company’s shares? By seeing if it has fallen hard in recent times. In this spirit, here are three blue-chip shares with prices that have declined significantly from their respective highs over the past year: Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Limited (SGX: O39), Singapore Airlines Ltd  (SGX: C6L), and Keppel Corporation Limited  (SGX: BN4). T

If you’ve ever flown on a commercial airplane before, chances are you’ve seen an in-flight catalogue under your seat pocket. You may have noticed flight attendants pushing carts filled with merchandise down the plane’s narrow aisles, who are only interrupted by customers who want to make a purchase. According to a 2016 report by m1nd-set Generation, a Swiss-based airline research agency, while duty free sales are projected to double by 2025, inflight sales are expected to fall 1.5% per annum. In recent years, three major American airlines including United Airlines, Delta Airlines and American Airlines have abandoned inflight shopping on the back of weak inflight sales. In a message to employees, United Airlines said its inflight shopping business was unable to compete with airport du

Back in June, Temasek’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Azalea Group, offered the Astrea IV bond to retail investors in Singapore. The bond was the first ever private equity backed-bond to be listed here. This week, Temasek once again broke new ground with the T2023-S$ bond offer — it is the very first time that Temasek bonds are open to retail investors in Singapore, which was previously available only to institutions and accredited investors. For those who don’t already know, Temasek Holdings is a private investment company fully-owned by the Singapore government that manages a portfolio of assets worth S$308 billion (as at 31 March 2018). It manages one of the largest funds in the world — ninth largest according to this list — and many of the biggest companies listed in S

SIA Engineering Company Ltd (SGX: S59) provides aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services to over 80 international airlines around the world. This article provides a quick and useful summary on the business fundamentals of SIA Engineering for those who are interested in the company. Key segments The table shows a detailed breakdown of SIA Engineering’s income statement in segmental terms for its financial year ended 31 March 2018 (FY2017/18): Source: SIA Engineering annual report A few quick words about each segment: 1. Airframe and line maintenance: This segment is pretty self-explanatory – it is where SIA Engineering provides airframe maintenance, line maintenance, and fleet management programme services. 2. Engine and component: This is where SIA Engineerin

Crude oil prices have spiked 30% year to date. This is great news for companies that operate in the oil and gas scene, such as China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corp Ltd (SGX: G92), Sembcorp Marine Ltd (SGX: S51) and KrisEnergy Ltd (SGX: SK3). However, at the same time, rising oil prices can also have a negative impact on companies that are end-users of oil. Two such transport companies in Singapore stand out – Singapore Airlines Ltd (SGX: C6L) and ComfortDelGro Corporation Ltd (SGX: C52). Here are some things to keep in mind when dealing with these two companies right now. Airlines companies biggest users of fuel Airlines are some of the biggest end users of fuel. In the April-June quarter, Singapore Airlines reported a 16.1% decrease in operating profit, excluding one-off items. This wa

According to DBS, statistically, October has a higher tendency to be positive whenever the STI declines in the months of August and September. So far, the current valuation of Singapore’s market is also very reasonable with the STI hovering around 3200 region. As such, there should be adequate cushion against the possibility of earnings cuts in the upcoming results season. To ride out the month of October, DBS recommends three investment strategies. Investors Takeaway: 3 Investment Strategies To Ride On October’s Momentum Palm Oil Stocks Enter Seasonal ‘Sweet Spot’ Historically, the price of crude palm oil (CPO) tend to peak in the month of March. It then bottoms out before mid-October followed by 2-3 months of price recovery. The October-December seasonal rise coincides with

To do well in investing, we can start with a simple premise: understanding the business behind a stock’s ticker symbol. Today, we will look at SIA Engineering Company Ltd (SGX: S59), a company that specialises in aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services to over 80 international airlines around the world. It is also a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SGX: C6L). In this article, we will try to understand one aspect of the company –how does it make its cash. To do that, we can start with the table below: Source: SIA Engineering Annual Report SIA Engineering has two broad categories from where the company earns its revenue, namely its fully owned businesses (more explanation below) and partnerships, represented by its joint ventures and associates. Fully Owned