Excellent news for Singapore: SGFinDex now formally contains insurance coverage knowledge, which implies that you and I are lastly capable of handle our financial institution accounts, CPF, HDB, IRAS, CDP investments and insurance coverage insurance policies all inside one place. To take action, you’ll want an utility, and the one I personally use essentially the most is OCBC Monetary OneView. Right here’s how one can take advantage of out of it, like I do.
It’s no secret that I’m an enormous fan of SGFinDex. In any case, it’s because of this that I used to be lastly capable of ditch the Excel sheets and see all my financial institution accounts in a single place final yr. And though I’ve recognized this was coming for a while, I’m glad I can now discuss publicly about the most recent addition of insurance coverage knowledge to SGFinDex – an enormous breakthrough that was introduced by the Financial Authority of Singapore (MAS) late final yr.
Should you haven’t been following, SGFinDex is the world’s first public digital infrastructure that allows people such as you and I to securely entry – by way of Singpass – our monetary info held throughout totally different authorities companies and monetary establishments.
Due to SGFinDex, now you can skip the guide work and let expertise do it for you. Nonetheless, you’ll want an utility as a way to profit from SGFinDex. Whereas the totally different banks and monetary establishments are combating to construct the greatest app to win market share, my favorite for now continues to be OCBC Monetary OneView.
OCBC Monetary OneView – a monetary planning device present in your OCBC Digital app – is likely one of the enhanced cellular purposes that you should use to sync with the improved SGFinDex proper now, to get a way of your total monetary knowledge throughout all of the totally different authorities companies and monetary establishments. It additionally occurs to be my private favorite as a result of I’m a sucker for the beautiful UI design, which makes for nice screenshots on my weblog and social media.
With OCBC Monetary OneView, you may leverage the facility of SGFinDex to take again possession and management of your funds, as now you can consolidate, plan forward, monitor targets and even get personalised insights.
In my case, I exploit the app every month to test on the next:
- Are my property rising over time?
- Are my money owed or mortgages decreasing / manageable?
- Did I overspend on my bank cards in my final invoice assertion(s)?
- Are there any upcoming insurance coverage premiums that I have to pay?
- How a lot am I spending on insurance coverage this yr?
- Is there an upcoming insurance coverage coverage cost due that I’ll have missed?
- How has my SGX portfolio allocation modified attributable to risky inventory worth actions in current months?
- Am I on monitor to hitting my 1M65 CPF goal?
- Am I optimising my SRS funds?
These are pertinent questions that you may undertake for your self to observe your monetary well being identical to how I do.
On this article, I’ll present you ways I exploit the app to ensure I’m at all times on monitor, financially.
Handle all the pieces in a single place with OCBC Monetary OneView and SGFinDex
The fruits of SGFinDex could be ineffective with no highly effective utility to make sense of all that knowledge, and my alternative right here is OCBC Monetary OneView.
The most effective half is, the device is free to make use of for all OCBC clients.
Which ought to just about describe virtually each Singaporean, or at the least, each Finances Babe reader as a result of the OCBC 360 account was one of many first few I really helpful most of you to open since I began this weblog in 2014 (the account made its debut only a yr earlier than this weblog was born).
Should you’ve already used it earlier than, all it is advisable do is to sync to replace your newest month balances. But when that is your first time utilizing, you’ll first want to attach your newest knowledge with SGFinDex (see how right here).
I’ll cowl the beneath steps for these of you who’ve but to sync your insurance coverage knowledge, since that’s the brand new growth.
Step 1: Join your insurance coverage knowledge
Begin by tapping on “Your Monetary OneView”.
Choose “Handle” (on the prime proper nook).
Alternatively, scroll to the underside of your abstract web page and select “Add or take away” portion so as to add your insurers.
Choose “From SGFinDex” so as to add the insurers that you’ve got insurance policies with.
Word: You will have to manually login to every of their portals as a way to join and sync the information over, so this may increasingly take some time relying on what number of totally different accounts you may have.
Step 2: Replace your monetary knowledge with SGFinDex
Subsequent, sync to replace your newest month balances throughout the totally different insurers, banks, CPF, IRAS, HDB and SGX CDP.
(Word: You will have to refresh your reference to SGFinDex each month as a way to retrieve your newest knowledge, since our funds are in a relentless state of change.)
If that is your first time, try my earlier article right here on how you can join with SGFinDex.
Now that you’ve got a view of your newest knowledge, congratulations, you’re able to handle it.
Let me present you ways I do it every month.
1. Examine in your property vs. loans
Each month, I’ll sync my knowledge so I can test on my property and what I owe.
What I’m looking for right here contains:
- Are my property rising?
- What my short-term money owed (bank cards) did I incur this month, and have they already been paid?
- Are my long-term debt (a mortgage) repayments nonetheless manageable on this period of rising rates of interest?
After all, there are nonetheless some limitations that I nonetheless can not use SGFinDex to trace for now. Proper now my checklist contains:
- My money and glued deposits held in different banks (e.g. CIMB)
- My equities / securities custodized with different brokerages, which don’t sit in my CDP (particularly for US and HK shares)
- My investments in robo-advisors
I’m hoping these will ultimately get added into SGFinDex, However until then, the excellent news is OCBC Monetary OneView device means that you can manually add your money holdings (in different banks) for better readability and fuller image of your funds.
Merely return to Step 1 and choose “Handbook entry” so as to add what you may have within the different banks (and even your piggy financial institution financial savings).
2. Examine your bank cards bills
Within the earlier step, I already noticed how a lot I’ve spent throughout all my bank cards.
To trace how a lot I’ve spent on every card final month, I’ll then click on on the “Merchandise” overview on my app. This helps me to trace my total spending patterns, in addition to function a reminder to test whether or not I’ve paid off my bank card invoice.
By monitoring this month-to-month, I’m capable of spot if there are some months the place I’ve spent greater than I usually do, and align again to the foundation trigger (normally as a result of insurance coverage premiums have been due in that month, or we went on a household vacation).
Word that in case you have bank cards from an issuer that isn’t a part of the SGFinDex accomplice community, then that shall be a spot that you just’ll must deal with individually by yourself…for now. In my case, my CIMB bank card warrants separate consideration, because it doesn’t present up right here.
Now that I’ve reviewed my credit score spending and am happy with the well being of my bank cards for the month, I am going on to test on the standing of our insurance coverage.
3. Observe your insurance coverage premiums
Considered one of my greatest fears includes insurance policies lapsing as a result of we forgot to pay the premiums. Fortunately, the most recent from SGFinDex now permits me to lastly (!) see most of my insurance coverage insurance policies on OCBC Monetary OneView.
All of our youngsters’ insurance coverage insurance policies are beneath my title, so with this, I’m capable of monitor how a lot I’m paying yearly and get reminders when any upcoming premiums are due.
Now you can monitor your insurance coverage premiums, each individually for every coverage and the gross whole of what all your insurance policies price you.
Want extra particulars on a selected coverage? Merely faucet on it to view – this protects you the trouble of getting to log into the insurer’s web site or app individually once you simply wish to see a fast overview of what you may have!
When you’ve got insurance policies with different insurers who are usually not within the SGFinDex community, you’ll must proceed monitoring them individually. Sadly, this implies I’ll nonetheless have to trace my FWD insurance policies with my Excel spreadsheet for now.
Psst, whereas getting the OCBC workforce to evaluate this text for factual accuracy, they informed me that they’re engaged on constructing the flexibility for customers to manually add another insurance coverage that they’ve, so that may go dwell quickly!
P.S. If it helps, I’m presently utilizing this for consolidating and sharing our household’s insurance coverage insurance policies with my husband.
Overview your protection gaps
After all, in the event you’re undecided whether or not you’re adequately insured, you should use OCBC Monetary OneView to assist spot any protection gaps and see what they suggest for you, based mostly in your annual earnings.
As an example, earlier than I synced all my insurance coverage knowledge over, it recognized that I may need a spot for Crucial Sickness:
and thus really helpful me these plans:
This additionally makes for simpler common evaluations together with your partner and/or monetary advisor, and equips you with extra info when listening to your FA’s suggestions on what to purchase.
In gentle of the inflationary setting we’re in, please be sure to’re effectively protected in opposition to your greatest monetary dangers!
4. Examine your CPF balances
My CPF is my security nest for retirement, so I began making voluntary top-ups in my mid-20s and continued that observe till now. Since hitting the Fundamental Retirement Sum 2 years in the past, I’ve gone on to hit the Full Retirement Sum earlier this yr.
I prefer to test on my CPF balances to ensure I’m on monitor to attaining 1 million by 65 (examine the 1M65 technique right here).
High up your CPF instantly from OCBC
A number of months in the past, OCBC grew to become the primary financial institution to allow Singaporeans to make CPF top-ups instantly utilizing their OCBC app. As somebody who has been doing this manually for the previous couple of years, I can let you know, this has made my life a lot simpler.
P.S. Should you haven’t already completed your CPF top-ups for this yr, be sure to do it earlier than the yr ends if you wish to qualify for tax aid!
And that’s it!
As soon as I’ve synced with SGFinDex, doing the above evaluate of my monetary well being takes me just some minutes on OCBC Monetary OneView every month.
Get your monetary life beneath management
I’ve been utilizing OCBC Monetary OneView with SGFinDex because it was launched, and do quite a lot of my monetary monitoring with the app. That is essential to guarantee that I’m on monitor to hitting my life targets, together with retirement and for my children.
Should you’ve not already been utilizing it, then you definitely’re actually lacking out!
Begin by planning in your life targets utilizing OCBC Monetary OneView, then guarantee you may have a plan to get there. Alongside the best way, you may obtain and make use of the monetary planning ideas personalised for you by the app, with the intention to make better-informed selections with regards to your funds.
Everyone knows the significance of monetary planning, however beginning your plan and usually reviewing it was once a tedious chore. Not anymore.
Due to SGFinDex and OCBC, planning and monitoring your progress every month is now a lot simpler.
I hope that having walked you thru how I personally do it, now you can replicate the identical and acquire that confidence to benefit from the current…with out having to fret about this “must-do however not completed but” accountability that lingers behind your thoughts. It’ll now simply take you a few minutes!
TLDR: use OCBC Monetary OneView like I do to:
- Plan in your monetary targets
- Monitor your property vs. money owed
- Ensure you don’t exceed your bank card bills
- Maintain monitor of your insurance coverage and get cost reminders for upcoming premiums
- Overview your protection and plug any safety gaps in time
- Be sure that you’re on monitor to hitting 1M65 in your CPF
OCBC Monetary OneView was not too long ago acknowledged on the newest 2022 International Retail Banking Innovation Awards (GRB Awards), profitable Best Cell Banking Initiative for OCBC Financial institution.
The most effective half is that the app is free, so what else are you ready for?
Disclaimer: This can be a sponsored publish written in collaboration with OCBC. I’ve been utilizing OCBC Monetary OneView ever since SGFinDex enabled me to attach all my knowledge throughout the totally different monetary establishments, and personally skilled the progressive adjustments to the device made since then, which has helped me get much more readability and management by myself funds. All opinions on this article are that of my very own.