Postingan agak panjang, waktu baca 8-10 menit.
Setelah 8 tahun memberi kesejukan udara di rumah, akhirnya AC bermerek LG itu melemah dan terpaksa diganti yang baru. Kemungkinan besar kerusakannya dari PCB yang ada di kompresornya dan jika diganti PCB mesti bayar SGD 800 an dan itu pun mungkin tidak bertahan lama.
Di Gain City, harga 4 unit AC sekitar SGD 4,000 (rata rata). Bisakah dibayar secara dicicil? Ternyata kalau membeli lewat online, bayarnya menggunakan Fave Pay (credit card) atau Cash Paynow.
Agar tidak rugi, saya bertransaksi dengan Fave Pay agar mendapatkan cash back SGD 84 untuk transaksi berikutnya. Dan ada credit card 1.5% cash back dengan Standard Chartered Unlimited Credit Card.
Ya benar, Emergency Fund sungguh sangat berguna disaat-saat seperti ini. Akan lebih baik jika kita menyediakan cash sebesar 6 bulan pengeluaran regular untuk hal-hal yang terjadi secara tidak direncanakan.
Di samping itu, saya juga berpikir jika dalam 8 tahun kita bakal beli AC atau tiap 3 tahun pasti beli mesin cuci, sebaiknya kita menabung untuk pengeluaran yang kita sudah tahu bakal terjadi di waktu yang akan datang.
Di manakah sebaiknya menyimpan Emergency Cash? Terkadang rasanya sayang kalau ada uang yang nganggur tersimpan dengan bunga sedikit. Padahal amat penting kalau kita butuh mendadak, uang ini harus:
1. Mudah dilikuidasi
2. Nilai yang dilikuidasi tidak lebih rendah dari pada nilai yang kita simpan.
Sebaiknya jangan berinvestasi ke stock market yang rentan berubah nilainya, demi menghindari saat kita butuh uang tapi terpaksa menjual aset investasi kita yang sedang merugi. Sebaiknya diinvestasikan di money market, fix deposit, sertifikat berjangka pemerintah (di Singapura ada Singapore Saving Bond) atau promosi yang ditawarkan di bank, seperti DBS Multiplier atau UOB One Account.
Saya sendiri menyimpan uang untuk emergency fund di Stashaway Simple, yang mereka investasikan di Money Market tanpa pengenaan biaya apapun, dengan bunga kira-kira 1.9% pertahun. Not bad. Dan tentunya harus bisa diuangkan kapanpun, bukan?
Singapore Saving Bond mempunyai step up interest, jadi makin lama jangka waktunya akan makin tinggi bunga yang di dapat. Kita bisa investasi minimum kelipatan SGD 500 dan ada biaya SGD 2. Detailnya bisa dicermati di websitenya langsung: https://www.mas.gov.sg/bonds-and-bills/Singapore-Savings-Bonds
DBS Multiplier atau UOB One account meminta syarat-syarat yang harus dipenuhi seperti harus giro untuk bayar bill dengan credit card bank tersebut, lalu harus punya investasi di bank itu, juga harus belanja dengan credit card bank itu dengan minimum pembayaran sekian SGD. dan sebagainya.
Jadi kesimpulannya, emergency fund penting untuk hal-hal yang tidak kita sangka terjadi. Walaupun untungnya kecil, yang penting bisa diambil/dicairkan kapan pun dan tidak merugi saat diambil (low risk)
Semoga berguna!
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A/C is not cool.. But the emergency fund saves it!
Long post-8-10 mins read.
After 8 years giving cool air at home, finally the A/C weakened and begged for retirement. Most probably the damage came from the PCB in the compressor, and PCB was to be changed, it costs SGD 800, and it would not last long.
At Gain City, the average cost of 4 units of A/C is SGD 4,000. Can it be paid in instalments? Apparently, if we buy it online, we have to use Fave Pay (credit card) or Cash Paynow.
To avoid any loss, I pay it with Fave Pay so I can get cashback SGD 84 for my next transaction. Plus, there is also 1.5% credit card cashback with Standard Chartered Unlimited Credit Card.
Yup, Emergency Fund is indeed useful at times like this. It is better to prepare the fund in the amount of 6 months regular expense for any unexpected things. Aside from that, I start thinking that if in 8 years I would have needed to buy a new A/C or a new washing machine every 3 years, I would decide to save for the expenses that we know we will take out in the future.
So, where should we keep our emergency fund safely? Too bad that I leave my savings with small interests. In fact, when an accident happens, this fund should be:
- Easy to liquidate;
- The liquidated amount is not lower than the total amount of our savings.
I suggest not to invest in stock markets that tend to change in amount, to avoid an ugly fact-selling your asset when you are losing already. There are so many more options: money market, fixed deposit, government’s futures certificate (in Singapore, there is one place called Singapore Saving Bond) or any promotion that is on the offer by a bank, like DBS Multiplier or UOB One Account.
I also save my money for an emergency fund in Stashaway Simple, where they invest in Money Market without any charge, with 1.9% interest annually. Not bad. And it certainly can be liquidated anytime, right?
Singapore Saving Bond has step up interest, so the longer the period, the bigger interest we get. We can invest our money in a minimum amount of multiples of SGD 500 and the fee is SGD 2. You can check the details in the link below:
https://www.mas.gov.sg/bonds-and-bills/Singapore-Savings-Bonds
DBS Multiplier or UOB One Account require some terms and conditions that you need to fulfill, for example: gyro to bill payment with their credit card, an investment in that bank, shopping payment using their credit card with minimum payment of xxx SGD, etc.
So in conclusion, an emergency fund is essential to any unexpected incident. You might have a small interest, but at least you can liquidate the fund anytime and it is also a low risk.
See you in our next post!