+$600/year by swapping a saving account

I'm a Singapore PR, starting out with 0 investment knowledge.

Until mid 2018, I've been saving all my $70K+ assets on OCBC FRANK saving accounts with 0.05% interest rate. This blog is a journey of me optimizing my personal finance to maximize my net worth.

Hoi An weekend trip for 2 people! Estimated total cost ~$600.

On today's blogpost, I'll show you how I can fund an additional annual vacation - simply by swapping a saving accounts.

Optimizing interest rate in saving accounts

My first step is to move my saving from OCBC FRANK account to OCBC 360 Accounts.

After doing a research of its competitors: DBS Multiplier,  UOB One Account, & Standard Chattered Bonus $avers, I've came to a conclusion that OCBC360 Accounts best fits my personal needs, because:

1. I do not pay bills. My company pays for my phone bills & my landlord pay for wifi & utilities bill.
2. I do not wish to rely on credit card spend. Currently I do not have the bandwidth to learn how to optimize my credit card usage.
3. I did not have any investment. At that time, I have 0 investment experience. Hence, did not rely on investment to optimize my saving account's interest rate.

Result:

Assuming pro-rated interest with average balance of $71,743.22, that's +$50.56/month +$606.72/year uplift --- simply by swapping my saving accounts & crediting my salary to the new saving account.

To put in perspective,

• Cost: ~2 hrs of my time.
• Benefit: Additional vacation; eg. Hoi An for 2 people.

From this point onwards, I've started investing a little bit of time to understand little tweaks that helps my asset grow faster.

Till the next one,

J