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Shit happens and I lost my low-hanging fruits

My POSB SAYE account just hit its 25th month—the much-anticipated “month of maturity.” I was all ready to enjoy the 3.5% bonus interest I’d patiently saved for… only to receive a measly $17+ cash gift instead of a few hundred dollars.

I was about to send a message to query the bank what caused this interest drop versus what I have gotten on the 13th month. Confused, I double checked my account history and—gasp!—found a single $50 transfer I’d made to a joint account in one of the past months. I hadn’t even realized that I’d chosen the SAYE account as the fund transfer source.

For those unfamiliar with the T&Cs of POSB SAYE:
“To receive the additional 3.5% p.a. Cash Gift Interest, ensure that you do not make any withdrawal from your POSB SAYE account.” 
“If a withdrawal is made in the month, this will result in the previously accumulated additional 3.5% p.a. interest to be forfeited.”

Yes, one tiny transfer = months of bonus interest gone. Even depositing it back the same month doesn’t fix it. Once the rule is broken, the bonus is forfeited. It’s like plucking a fruit before it’s ripe—no second chances.

What I noticed is that SAYE account is not excluded from the “transfer from” drop-down field (unlike fixed deposit accounts), so there was no warning before I confirmed the transaction when I selected it. I probably got careless thinking it was just another transfer between my own accounts.

If you have an SAYE account, learn from my lesson:
👉 Double-check your “Transfer from” account before submitting the transaction
👉 Consider using the bank's Vault function to “lock” your SAYE account and avoid accidental withdrawals of fund.


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Another blunder yikes! - I realized I have over-topped up my CPF SA with OA cash, so now I have exceeded the Full Retirement Sum in my SA and cannot make anymore income tax deductible top up for this year. :(

人生不如意事还真是十之八九。

A silver lining... Celsius has allowed some claims of my crypto holdings and would be dispersing them in ETH and BTC to my Coinbase account. 


A shoutout to an interesting blog post by my15hww- The Market Is A Scam!

The usual lesson: Diversify, spread our eggs into different baskets. Poison or truffle? Only time will tell.


Thanks for reading.

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