Alternative Ways to Earn Money While Staying At Home

Sometimes when we have extra time on our hands and wonder what to do if we do not want to study or just do nothing. How nice it will be if money will just drop from the sky. However, there is no free lunch in this world and money still needs to be earned. What if there are options that do not require much effort? Here are some of the things that I am doing to increase my income. However, do not wish for the sky as these methods only provide minimal amount of money and can at most buy you a meal or two in a given month. If interested, you can have a try. Here are some of the easy ways to earn money while at home in Singapore.

Latest Updates:
Sep 2018

Updated as of 3 June 2018

Surveys
Yougov
I have withdrawn at least S$75 from Yougov via Paypal but the only sad thing about this is that the payout rate seems to be lower than the one they have in UK where 5,000 points translate to 50 pounds. The singapore version pays S$25 for every 5,000 points.

Minimum points to withdraw: 5,000 (S$25)

Withdraw Rate: About once every 2 months

Payment process: ~1 month

Mysurvey
I have withdrawn at least S$75 from Yougov via Paypal but the only sad thing about this is that the payout rate seems to be lower than the one they have in UK where 5,000 points translate to 50 pounds. The singapore version pays S$25 for every 5,000 points.

Minimum points to withdraw: 600 (S$10)

Withdraw Rate: Quite random and is hard to estimate (average should be a month)

Payment process: ~0.5 month

Toluna
I have not withdrawn from this company but I am close to the pay out points.

Minimum points to withdraw: 40,000 (S$20)

Withdraw Rate: ~1 month

Payment process: 4-6 weeks (But it took about 7 weeks)

Surveyon
I managed to cash out US$2.64 on paypal but they have other options for withdrawal.

Minimum points to withdraw: 20,000 (US$2)

Withdraw Rate: About once every 2-3 weeks

Payment process: ~1 week

AIP Surveys
I managed to cash out $10 recently and i found out that the survey frequency is high. So i will continue to monitor

Minimum points to withdraw: 150 (S$10)

Withdraw Rate: ~1 month

Payment process: ~ 22days

Android applications
These are lockscreen applications that require minimal effort but the payout is low.

Slidejoy
Average point per day: 80

Maximum Video Ads per day: 18 (1 point per ad, can only watch 6 every 6 hours)

Minimum points to withdraw: 2,000 (US$2)

Withdraw Rate: ~1 month

Payment process: ~30min

LifeSlide!
Average point per day: 40+ + (30 if you watch all the videos to hit the 30 points limit, 1 point per video which is on average 30 seconds each)

Enable persistent mode and check all the ad sizes to increase the points generation. Interstitial ads give more than the banner ads.

Use my promotion code: spammist2 (to earn 200 points, not sure how much I will get though)

Try to hit the daily event, 1 of it which is easier to hit is to have 150 slides a day for 60 points.

Maximum Video Ads per day: 30 (1 point per ad)

Minimum points to withdraw: 2,000 (US$2)

Withdraw Rate: ~2 months

Payment process: 1 day

Screen Stash - Lock Screen Cash
I am still testing as of 3 June 2018

Average point per day: 30

Maximum Video Ads per day: 0 (no such function)

Minimum points to withdraw: 1,500 ($1.25)

Withdraw Rate: ~2 months (based on about 30 points per day, 2 points per hour)

Payment process:

Paid Swiyp
I just downloaded this app to try but I am unsure what the payout will be like and will update when I do get paid. The bad thing about this app is that there is no video ads to watch to increase the amount of points you can get a day. Unlike Slidejoy and Lifeslide which can give an additional maximum of 18 and 30 points respectively just by watching video ads. (similar summary to Screen Stash).

Average point per day: 2+

Maximum Video Ads per day: 0 (no such function)

Minimum points to withdraw: 500 (US$5)

Withdraw Rate: ~8 months?!?!?!?!? (based on about 2 points per day)

Payment process:

This average point is quite pathetic and shall be monitored if I should continue due to the low points given and the lack of much screen ads (which is why the points is so little).


UPDATE:
HoneyScreen has closed down and is solely on Slidejoy
HoneyScreen
Sign up now and get 300 points using the referral code: k4uhr7
Similar to Slidejoy and bought over Slidejoy. However, the pay out rate is lower.

Average point per day: 40

Minimum points to withdraw: 2,050 (US$2)

Withdraw Rate: About once every 2 months

Payment process: ~30min

In the end, in order to earn these small money, you will need to have patience and be willing to sit down and do the surveys slowly in order to earn. Furthermore, not all surveys will be suited for your profile or it might have reached their quota already. Hence, do not be discouraged and if you have time, try to do them ASAP.

Disclaimer: These are the things that I used that worked and paid me. I will not be responsible for any loss of points if any of these providers do not pay you. You have been warned.

Advertisement Alternatives to Google Adsense

Some of you might have noticed about the blank spaces present in my blog sometimes. This is because me trying different ad providers as google adsense might be fickle sometimes. Some reasons why you might be banned are invalid traffic or invalid clicks. These happen sometimes when you have enthusastic friends that might accidentally click the ads and so on. There are many reasons that you can be banned and sometimes, it does not hurt trying out other ad providers. Hence, I tried a few of it and I will provide my opinions on them.

PopadsPopads - as the name suggest, it shows pop up ads which can be irritating, but it has a low threshold for cash out of $10.

Chitika - easy to implement but somehow all my ads are blocked which I am unsure why.

Media.net - need mostly US and UK/Canada traffic

Infolinks - need mostly US and UK/Canada traffic

However, I will like to conclude that due to the low traffic of my blog, I will be better off spending my time doing surveys than getting any money from these ad providers.

Investment: Portfolio

If anyone is curious, these are what I bought and are in my portfolio. I am not an expert in this field and I am still learning. However, sometimes I try as greed will over take me.

Holdings:
ETF:
iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF | IWDA
iShares S&P 500 Information Technology Sector UCITS ETF | IUIT
SPDR Straits Times Index ETF | ES3
ABF SINGAPORE BOND INDEX FUND | A35
iShares Core MSCI EM IMI UCITS ETF | EIMI

Stock:
DBS - D05
Singtel - Z74
China Aviation Oil - G92

REIT:
 First REIT - AW9U

These are what I have now in my portfolio and I do not recommend anyone to follow it as I will not be liable for any losses incurred. Please make an informed choice on your own. I realised that a lot of the stocks are bought on impulse and I might have been over diversified or too concentrated on the ES3 components. However, we shall see when the next down turn arise.

You can refer to my previous posts on investment if you are curious on some of the things I bought. I never mention about buying individual stocks as they were more of impulsive buys.

Procrastination

Here I am typing this post as I am procrastinating as usual. I tried not drinking coffee a day but I lost the fight. Even though I have close to 8h of sleep, I went back to sleep at 9.30am slept for another 1.5h. Now, I am still feeling very sleepy. It might be due to my laziness but I feel that it is the coffee addiction at work. It is time to give in to coffee.

However, in the future when I get to retire, the first thing I will do is to quit coffee and the dependence on caffeine. It will certainly help me save on my expenses and at the same time I will be able to keep sleeping all I want until the sleep debt is all gone and I will be able to fight against caffeine.

Medical Fees in Singapore

I am going to discuss this issue due to the need for me to visit either a polyclinic or a private clinic when I was down with fever one day during my internship period. Without consulting a doctor, I will not be given medical leave to official skip work in order to rest at home to recover and not spread the disease to my colleagues and the others who will come into contact with me throughout the few days. However, I will not have this issue if I am not interning or working as I will be able to skip some classes and self medicate which will most likely be cheaper and provide more rest for myself

Public vs Private

Public
Price: Cheaper
Polyclinics are a lot cheaper where the consultation fees are about $15 and the medications are cheap.

Waiting time: Very long
One of the worst thing when you are sick is to wait and wait. For example, if you have a fever and is really sleepy, it is hard to be able to keep track of your queue number. The waiting time can be about 2h.

Private
Price: EXPENSIVE
Expensive and is dependent on the location. The ones that I visited in the past were ranged between $40 to $60. However, recently, the one that I visited near the rich people's place was $90. Just the consultation itself cost $30. It is very expensive and that price is worth about 2 days or more of my internship. If not for the need for medical leave, I would have rather taken no pay leave and sleep at home. However, there are subsidies provided but only for families that are below certain level of income per capita and my family just happened to past that threshold recently.These people are qualified to receive the blue CHAS card and will receive up to $18.50 subsidy when they visit CHAS registered clinics.

Waiting time: minimal

Hence, best case is to not fall sick causing yourself to suffer. Furthermore, it saves you time and money.

Thoughts On Going For Student Exchange Programme (SEP)

Based on sources, it appears that Student Exchange Programme (SEP) will cost about 15k - 20k if Europe, US or Canada is chosen. Given my high debt, it is not possible to add more to the debt pile and go and enjoy my 6 months. It will certainly be a good break from the rat race in Singapore and choose to learn things at your own pace where the pressure is just to pass the modules. Furthermore, it will be a good opportunity to immerse in the cultures of other countries. However, usually the question will be about money. Do you have the money to spare? If you can spend the 15k - 20k without batting your eyes, SEP should provide a good experience. However, in my case, there is no need to go through the process of thinking where to go, what modules to map, because I have no money.

No money.

Investment: New Counter - IUIT

I realised I have started my "investment" journey since 2015 and my portfolio has not changed much. It is still the usual 3 exchange traded funds (ETF). However, recently, due to the rally of the technology sector, I too also have the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) symdrone. However, as a Singaporean, we want access to cheaper overseas ETFs, especially those that are taxed less for withholding tax by the US (from 30% to 15%) if we choose funds that are domiciled in Ireland, we will usually have to look at those listed in United Kingdom (UK). For technology ETF, I hope to follow the technology sector that has the most exposure to the world technology ETF. What I found was iShares Global Tech ETF | IXN which has an expense ratio of 0.47% which is pretty high for ETF. In addition, as it is domiciled in US, we aliens will be taxed 30% for the dividends which is substantial and should be avoided.

After looking around, I found the next best one which has low expense ratio and is domciled in Ireland:
iShares S&P 500 Information Technology Sector UCITS ETF | IUIT
It has a an expense ratio of 0.15% and 15% dividend withholding tax. However, it is only US technology stocks and Amazon is not considered a technology stock. If we want exposure to China or the rest of the world, IXN is better but not all technology stocks are held by the ETF also. As an alien, this is the best choice in terms of expense ratio and dividend withholding tax. Furthermore, since majority of the largest technology stocks are still mainly in the US, this ETF will suffice but when a more encompassing one arises, I will look forward to buying it too.

In the future, if there isn't any good world tech etf, the only choice is to buy Amazon, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent to complement the current IUIT and forgo some of the other smaller technology players world wide.

However, I do not have much money currently and can only purchase a small amount every month and I do hope that more money can flow to me so that I can put more of them into ETFs.

If you will like to know of what I have in my portfolio, you can view my previous post here.

Disclaimer: I not telling you to buy this ETF, please do not treat this as an advise or encouragement to buy. I am not liable for any losses that is incurred. However, I am just sharing what I have found and is buying as I will like to gain more exposure to the technology sector where I feel that it will be growing faster than the other sectos. (I am still invested in the world ETF:
iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF | SWDA)