I have been using Starhub postpaid plan for quite a few years. When I first had my own postpaid plan, the mobile data offered was a whooping 12GB (3G service) per month! It was difficult to use up all the data no matter how many Youtube videos I watched.
At one point of time, my monthly plan costs more than S$60 and that was a 2 years contract. 1 year ago, I switched to Starhub SIM only plan with a 1 year contract. The monthly plan costed about $29. The mobile data offered was 6GB and it was more than enough for my personal usage. This is like a 50% discount with all the same services.
PRICE WAR BETWEEN TELCOS
Thanks to Circle.Life, which created a “price war”, the major telcos came up with SIM only. In December 2018, with more telcos coming into the arena, another price war started. My Starhub 1 year contract ends on 8 Jan 2019 and I was on a lookout for a better deal. Finally after considering my options, I made the switch to M1 (Bye Starhub). The plan is at $20 per month with 15GB of mobile data (4G). WOW! This is another further S$9 off!
HOW DO I LOOK AT THIS?
$9 ($9 x 12 = $108 per year) may not seem much to most people but this is another 31% off my monthly phone bill, which is one of my fixed expenses. If 31% isn’t a lot to you, ask yourself this question – does your salary/income grow at 31% per annum? If yes, I AM VERY HAPPY FOR YOU YAYYYY! If no, then there is really no point spending extra for almost the same kind of services.
What am I going to do with this extra cash of $9 per month? Of course, I am going to invest it. Always find more reasons, ways, methods and opportunities to invest more cash. It SPARKS JOY in me (I borrowed this term from Marie Kondo if you have been keeping up with the latest trend).
Compound $108 at 1% per annum for 30 years = $145.57 >> so little…
Compound $108 at 5% per annum for 30 years = $466.57 >> grew 4 times
Compound $108 at 15% per annum for 30 years = $7150.87 >> grew 66 times
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you are into personal finance, budgeting or keeping track of expenses, I think your phone bill is really one area that you can look into. The competition amongst the telcos created an awesome opportunity for us consumers to choose a suitable mobile plan at an attractive price.
What do you think? Are you going to change your mobile plan to sim only as well? Share with me your thoughts. Thank you.