We live in exciting times.

These days, technology has greatly narrowed the gap between physical distances to bring us greater convenience to everyday tasks. This issue, Qotion shifts our attention towards mobile applications, especially those that help keep you abreast of financial information, make calculated decisions and perform transactions, all at the convenience of your mobile phone.

Financial institutions have caught on the bandwagon and invested considerable development dollars to make these applications more accessible to everyone. In addition, there is increasing focus on improving security levels, especially for high-level transactions, and even the speed of updates towards real-time on crucial information like Bank rates.

For many of us, loans and debts are something we have to shoulder for much of our life. Whether you are a student, a working professional, a retiree, it is seldom when we find ourselves totally debt-free. Therefore, managing our debts has become an important life skill that we should cultivate.

Having said this, what's your strategy for managing your debts? Do you think that we Singaporeans as a whole know how to manage our debts?

To learn about an easily implementable plan for managing our debt, check out this week's enewsletter issue for 5 steps to better debt management:
http://www.qotion.com/enewsletters/28jan10.html

As everyone knows, the way to wealth is reducing expenses and increasing revenue. Just as it is important to regulate and track your expenses, it is equally important to plan your investments and track their performances. Most of us probably have a portfolio of investments. The question is, are we planning and tracking them? With that in mind, do you think most singaporeans actively manage their portfolio of investments? Share your views with us below!

Emotional spending, as the name suggests, is the act of spending based on your emotions rather than your head. Whether you are happy, sad, fearful, anxious, greedy, stressed, there's always a state of mind when you're more inclined to certain services or products than other times. The problem is, these products and services may not be what you need, or even desire in the first place. As such, it poses a significant challenge to those of us trying to save our money. Do you think that Singaporeans are susceptible to such unplanned spending?

For readers interested to find out more about how to curb this spending, check out our newsletter this week for 5 tips to avoid just that:
http://www,qotion.com/enewsletters/07jan10.html

The end of the year draws near and 2010 is just around the corner. 2009 has been a pretty eventful year, and even as things are looking up, problems loom on the horizon. Despite the worldwide surge in demand and better-than-expected market recovery, problems such as the Dubai crisis and the Greece national debts continue to plague the world economy.

Will 2010 be a better year for us? What do you think? Share your views here!

For those of us who wish to know what trends lie ahead for the year of 2010, check out our weekly newsletter for 3 trends we spotted for the upcoming year ahead:
http://www.qotion.com/enewsletters/31dec09.html

2009 is coming to a close while the new year looms. This has been a hectic year full of ups and downs. We've weathered the worst recession in decades relatively well, and some of us even got a tidy windfall thanks to some shrewd investing. Do you think you have done well for the year? Share your thoughts here!

For those who wish for some closure on the year, Qotion has compiled a list of 5 activities you can do this year in our weekly newsletter:

http://www.qotion.com/enewsletters/23dec09.html

Most of us already know that not all debt is alike, and some can actually be beneficial for us. Financially speaking, Qotion regards a good debt as a situation whereby we get to use other people's money to gain some economic benefit to ourselves. Conversely, bad debts cause us to be financially worse off than when we started.
Do you think we Singaporeans are knowledgeable about what constitutes a good or bad debt, and what to do with them? Share your thoughts here!

For Qotion's take on what to do with a good or bad debt, check out our weekly newsletter here:
http://www.qotion.com/enewsletters/17dec09.html

As we know, the key to wealth is earning more and spending less. As such, savings play a big part in the management of our finances. However, just how knowledgeable are we Singaporeans about the proper way to save and spend money? Is it always better to save more when we can? Share your thoughts with us below!

To learn more about 3 myths on the role of savings in personal finance, check out our latest newsletter this week:
http://www.qotion.com/enewsletters/10dec09.html

Most people realize that saving money in a bank savings account is not exactly the best way to save when there are more attractive options. There are other ways to earn better returns while keeping your money safe e.g. capital-guaranteed funds, treasury bonds and fixed deposits etc. Out of all these products, do you think Singapore fixed deposits are the best for saving your money? Why and why not? Share your views here!

Check out Qotion's take on the SRS in the latest issue of our newsletter!
http://www.qotion.com/enewsletters/03dec09.html

The SRS is a complementary retirement scheme that is little-known by Singaporeans. Created in 2001, the SRS was meant as a complementary scheme for people to save for retirement while saving on income taxes. Here's a brief summary of the scheme. An SRS account can be opened with DBS, OCBC or UOB, and the contributions can only be withdrawn after the age of 62. Early withdrawal is permissible with a penalty fee of 5%. It offers a 50% tax relief on contributions to the account, allows you to invest using that capital, and investment returns are tax exempted.

Even with these benefits, though, take-up rates are poor, according to a recent report in the news. After knowing this, will you be willing to open an SRS account? Why and why not?  [read the full article...]