🏆 thrive’s top newsletter picks of 2024

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💭 2024, unwrapped

The moment the clock struck 12 on New Year’s Eve last year came the moment the entire country dreaded for years: the goods and services tax is now 9 per cent.

But as it turned out, there was plenty to look forward to in 2024. Inflation would finally come down, though not as much as some had hoped.

Taylor Swift became an unexpected economic hero, generating hundreds of millions in tourism revenue through her sold-out concerts, which also caused a diplomatic hiccup between Singapore and its South-east Asian neighbours.

In sports and politics, the old made way for the new. As the Singapore Turf Club held its last race, kitefoiler Maximillian Maeder shot to fame and won bronze at the Paris Olympics. Lawrence Wong became Singapore’s fourth prime minister, taking over from Lee Hsien Loong.

Fans of political drama had plenty of tea to enjoy with their lao hong biscuits this year. Former transport minister S Iswaran resigned in January before being jailed for a year for receiving illegal gifts. Thousands tuned in to daily live blogs as Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh fought charges that he had lied in his testimony to a parliamentary committee.

And finally, condolences to Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat and all the civil servants who had to fight fires over problems on land, air and sea: the SimplyGo saga, train breakdowns, severe turbulence on a Singapore Airlines flight and a massive oil spill.

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We’d also like to take this time to compile a list of thrive newsletters and Instagram posts you may have missed that will set you on the right footing next year in your financial planning, career and personal development. See you next year!

📧 Newsletters

💼 Can office life actually benefit younger workers?

Now’s a better time than ever to revisit this piece that my colleague, Chloe, wrote back in February. With Amazon – and then Grab shortly after – bringing back return-to-office mandates, more employees here are having to say sayonara to their mid-day trips to the hair salon.

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Want work-life balance? You have to make sacrifices, say panellists at dialogue on careers

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But making the treacherous daily commute to the office doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. Here, we share how to make the best use of your time back in the office.

🎯 Is saving S$100,000 by 30 possible?

Somehow, Singaporeans collectively decided that we should all aim to save S$100,000 by the time we turn 30. Some back-of-the-envelope calculations show that it is quite possible for an average university graduate to hit that goal.

Even so, is there any merit to such a goal? (Spoiler: Yes, but read on to find out the better way to set savings goals.)

🌾 Does the grass keep getting greener for job-hoppers?

The conventional advice is to change jobs frequently to grow your salary. That’s fine, but there will come a time when you should decide on a definite career path and deepen your skills.

Nor does it mean that people who don’t job-hop necessarily lose out. As Chloe writes: “Sometimes, the grass is not actually greener on the other side – it’s greener where you water it.”

☠️ Your generation is doomed… Or is it?

Do me a favour. The next time someone older starts a sentence with, “You know ah, last time…” stick your fingers into your ears. As Gen Zs enter the workforce, people around me have been grumbling about how the new generation is lazy, entitled or impatient.

But I don’t think people are giving the Zoomers enough credit. Take it from me, a half-Millennial, who remembers being ridiculed as the “snowflake generation” (I think we ended up…fine?)

☔ How much insurance do you need?

There’s no right answer to the amount of insurance you need… but that’s boring to hear, right? And I know that many of you are busybodies. So here is a list of the insurance plans I own.

It’s not meant to be copied as a template – my plans probably aren’t perfect – but my hope is that by giving my reasoning for owning the policies, those who are new to insurance can better decide on the coverage they need.

After all, revealing my insurance policies isn’t like giving away my NRIC number, right? *badam-tss 🥁*

🤳  Instagram posts

Why Singaporeans aren’t having babies

Singapore’s fertility rate has been so bad for years that Elon Musk – though I hate to admit it – is probably right to say that the country is going extinct.

But it’s not for a lack of want. A survey suggests that Singaporeans want children – so what’s holding them back?

Don’t envy the Dinks

I had to do a double take when I read a report that suggested that Dink (double-income, no kids) couples might be faring worse than parents in financial planning.

Shouldn’t these couples be richer? To find out, I dug into the report and laid out three reasons why I don’t think the findings are as dire as they’ve been made out to be.

Travelling with friends: A survival guide

Overseas trips are a funny thing. We look forward to them and they’re supposed to be fun, but countless friendships (and relationships) have been broken on these trips.

Read this for some tips on how to prevent this from happening to you. After all, some people can be great friends but terrible travel companions.

Why are more young people on a digital detox?

It’s no surprise that “brainrot” was Oxford’s pick as the word of the year. We’re so glued to our devices that we’d literally much rather watch junk content on social media than do anything in the physical world.

Here’s something to think about the next time you catch yourself in a cycle of doom scrolling.

What we get wrong about ‘hidden youths’ in Singapore

Here’s a piece of original reporting we did after finding out that nearly one in 25 youths were not in employment, education and training (Neet).

For the number of Neets or hikikomoris in Singapore, we don’t often hear about these youths precisely because of how hidden they are from society. So, we spoke to several social workers to learn about this phenomenon.

TL;DR

• 2024: The year we got 9 per cent GST, sequels to political dramas and an unexpected economic saviour
• Our top five picks for newsletters you shouldn’t miss out on reading
• Five thrive Instagram posts you may have missed