Kelvin Ang, father of 3 and blogger at cheekiemonkie.net, published a sponsored review of us and our Wealthcare® philosophy on 22 June 2021. Below is an excerpt of his article.
Hugo is essentially a digital account that helps you to spend, save and invest, starting with gold.
Note the above words in bold, because that is what Hugo is all about – to help me champion my and my family’s Wealthcare® so that saving AND investing become part of our daily routine and over the long term, it improves our financial wellbeing by building healthy financial habits. Because by spending smarter, saving for our goals and growing our wealth, everything that has to do with our finances becomes a HABIT.
How does Hugo work? Simply put, it is an account which functions just like your basic bank account where you can transfer money in and out, and comes with a Platinum Visa Debit Card which you can use for both physical and online purchases.
Instead of the usual credit/debit card packs that are sent out by other banks, I was pleasantly surprised with Hugo’s Welcome Pack. Well, the Hugo Card being a sleek and fun design is a definite plus but what caught my eye was the silicone card sleeve that came with the card. The sleeve has an adhesive at its back, and I can stick it onto the back of my mobile phone casing – which means Hugo is truly my Wealthcare® Buddy as the card reminds me of my savings and investment goals every time I spend.
HUGO ACCOUNT
For starters, being a “Digital First” card, your Hugo Account comes with innovative security functions. So yes, your money is secure and it is the same with the Hugo Card too. Notice that my Hugo Card is a numberless one?
It is deliberate so as to reduce fraud risk and ensure safety of one’s transactions. If I should require the card details and PIN, I can securely access them within the Hugo app itself. And even if the physical card is stolen or lost, I can easily change my PIN, lock the card and request for a replacement card – all from the Hugo app.
All the important information like my transaction history is clearly shown and easily accessed so I can track my purchases and have a better idea how I have been spending.
MONEY POTS
Within the app, I can create financial goals and actively save for future spends I plan to make… erm, like saving up for a Playstation 5 console at the end of this year. Because that’s what the kids want. 😁
I think saving for a common goal as a family is extremely important, and I involve my kids in the planning using these Money Pots. On one hand, I get to teach my kids the virtue of saving as well as delayed gratification. On the other hand, it also lets them know that money doesn’t come easily and saving up for something actually takes a lot of discipline.
I have told them that I will add money into their respective pots when they earn it… like helping with the housework! See, a housework hack right there too. You’re welcome.
So as an incentive, I have topped up $5 each in their respective Money Pots. But to grow their own Money Pot, I have told them that is entirely up to them. Stay tuned for my updates in my next blog post! 😁
ROUNDUPS
Now this is my FAVE feature of Hugo!
Because almost all of us have experienced difficulty in setting aside money for savings, Hugo helps us by rounding UP our spending to the nearest dollar!
GOLD VAULT
Did I say that the Roundups feature is my fave feature? Sorry, I lied.
Converting my Roundups into GOLD is my fave fave fave feature of Hugo!
We all know how Gold is often lauded as a stable investment, no? Besides offering protection against inflation risks, it generally has positive performance and most importantly, it is a relatively liquid asset.
But even though gold is pretty liquidable, you have to go to a bank, a bullion shop, open a trading account on some platform or go to a broker in order to buy and/or sell gold. In addition, most gold trading comes with minimum amounts per trade.
All the above does NOT apply to Hugo’s Gold Vault. Because it cuts out the middleman and allows you to BUY and SELL gold easily. Therein lies the beauty of it all – everyone can now trade gold easily as Hugo has made it very flexible and accessible to all. Best of all, you can trade in fractional amounts too, absolutely no minimum trade required.
How Gold Vault works is each week on Wednesday, your accumulated Roundups are invested into your Gold Vault automatically.
So while my Gold asset isn’t substantial yet, I am happy to see my investment in Gold grow and long may that continue.
In case you are wondering, for each of your transacted gold purchase, you get physical gold allocated to you against your investment which is stored in an accredited LBMA (London Bullion Market Association) vault. So, you can sleep easy at night knowing your gold is safe and secure as it is insured by Lloyd’s of London. 😊
I found that how Roundups is used to buy gold is a great tool for teaching my kids that it’s never too early and no amount is too small to save. Every little bit counts when it comes to managing money. Every time Hugo notifies me that my Roundups have been swept into the Gold Vault, I get reminded of this money growth hack too.
So for someone who is not that disciplined enough to set aside savings each month or even if you are disciplined but want to manage your money better for the sake of your family, the collective usage Roundups, Gold Vault and Money Pots through Hugo will incentivise and train your brain into saving and investing on a regular basis.
And it will become a habit for you eventually.
If that isn’t brilliant, I don’t know what is.
This article is an excerpt of a sponsored review of Hugo published on cheekiemonkie.com on 15 July 2021. You can read the full article here.