How I Use My Midori Traveler's Notebook

I found out about Midori Traveler’s Notebook through no idea where, it made me start using notebooks. It made me more productive. After a while, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get a MTN.

But as I dive deeper, I found that most users seem to be using it for aesthetic purposes and blogging on a paper rather than for productivity. It’s a notebook to help you remember things to do, events that take place. Not for you to bring on your travels in $50 leather bag that only fits one MTN + various colour pens/sticky tape/insert quotes that you find meaningful.

Don’t blame me, I’m a guy, I would be pretty pissed if we spent so much money to go abroad and time spent is “notebooking” (fingers inverted commas).

Firstly, notebook is a means to be productive and save time, by spending time “paper-blogging”, it is quite counter-intuitive no?

Secondly...

search image for photo credit please

Anyways, I saw someone on facebook wanted to know how I use my MTN, it’s boring, but it works for me.

I work in a shipping company, I have to take note of the daily operations of slightly less than 20 ships. Unlike most 9-5 jobs, I work in the office from 9-6 daily, but any other time, I am on call and have to check my email constantly on the go. The only time I get to not do that is if I don't work in shipping. FYI, it costs 2-3 times my monthly salary to operate a commercial oil/chemical tanker a day.

I lug my MTN around every where I go, especially on weekends when I do not have my office desktop in front of me.

This is how it looks like from 9-6. Too lazy to loop it properly. 

Pretty, straightforward, the gap is from the pen (uniball 307 with jetstream refill). It lives in the page as a book mark for the last written page. The stringy book mark is used on the vessel schedule page that changes weekly.

I have 3 booklets inside:

- Week in two pages (credit to Ray Blake) for my personal events, usually is nothing much. I do not record birthdays or anniversaries unless I'm doing something that day. Wishing someone happy birthday is not doing something so I do not write down birthdays.

- MTN Ruled notebook - this is where I write all my work stuff. I initially wanted to try bullet journal style, but quickly realise it is pointless. So everything is marked with either a "-" or "•". More important/critical stuffs will be underlined or boxed. when it is done or irrelevant, it gets 3 crosses (one at the front, one in the middle, one at the end). Don't strike it out, so that even if it is over, I can still read it.

As you can see, I printed some chronodex (credit to scription). I only use it when I have a very busy day or if I am sleepy and this helps me not think of what to do next rather than as a daily use thing to show people and blog about it.

- 2015/16 monthly view calendar (credit to Ray Blake again). I'm getting married in 2016 end. I use this monthly view calendar to note down important dates or things coming up. e.g. when we signed for our banquet, when we took our wedding photos, extra points to note. any our-wedding related things.

I cut the edges all at one go using scissors because I don't care how neat the edges are.

As you can see, it is boring, I do use a bit of semi translucent post-it stubs to mark out pages that needs constant referring. Or the current month/week in my two calendar styled booklets. 

I also used an old folder to make the folder thingy, it helps to make writing easy when I have no surface to write on, and it keeps the shape I suppose.

I am not saying that it is stupid to bring out colour pens all the time, it is your hobby/lifestyle to use your MTN as a decorative thing to put on blogs/instagram/facebook/twitter and show people your colourful pages. I see some use it as a wallet on their passport size which I understand, but what I don't understand is keeping paperbags, tickets inside. And also having so much pens that the pens takes up as much space as the MTN. But I do have to say, it is a very beautiful thing and I appreciate beauty...like a vase or whatever.

Broke Kids.

Getaways or Get Away?

This morning, I was pondering in the shower over an article I read a few days ago about a guy who doesn't get why youths these days blow so much of their savings on travel.

For the experience, for the people you meet and the amount of photos post-able in social media.

Seriously, please stop it.

This glam-travel BS has to stop. Spending your savings in a few days. After that only making you come back to the real life and making you want to save more to get away again.

Getaways ... get-away ... escape.

See the underlying meaning? All this, I want to travel, so fun, sunglasses, sand and sea is all a sand-coated veil of escapism at its costliest.

All we see is youth complaining that there is nothing to do in Singapore, but honestly, we are just missing out.

There are plenty of things to do and see in Singapore, if you looked as hard as you did for your air ticket.

This is in Singapore, I kid you not.

Next post, I'll be reflecting on the wiki-abstract of the famous book, The Richest Man in Babylon.

Wedding vs Marriage

Weddings last for a day but a Marriage lasts forever.

We say that all the time together with relationship goals, said as ideals when looking for their "bae", "SO", "HTB", "WTB". Funny yet when together, all of that isn't mentioned at all. Wedding bands that involves both couples, is now replaced with conversations about the shiny engagement ring. Girls tend to be referred as birds because of their tendency to like shiny things. And guys are referred to as blokes probably from sounding like broke. (jk jk lol).

What is the priorities?

What kind of percentage of money do you set aside for things like your house, furniture, wedding, engagement ring, wedding bands.


Just a school of thought, my disclaimer, my fiancee and I pays everything half half unless its things I buy for her or if I don't mind. 

No sound No picture

I tend no to include pictures in my posts unless it is my own, reason being, if the source website for the picture changes or gets taken down, for instance imgur or photobucket, I'll end up with an ugly blog post, sentences with no context.

Plus it is easier to load.

Whatsapp Lagging on iPhone after updating in early October 2015

Just a quick post, in case you have updated your whatsapp recently and finds that it is like shit with all the lags.

I find that these lags only occurs in particular chats with alot of media (whether you downloaded it or not) and long chat history.

Think: group chats of your hobbies, chats with spouses.

I got very pissed off at this update, thinking at this day and age, whatsapp could still get screwed up. But anyways, they did release an update soon after and now the problem is somehow solved.

In the name of change, things always get messed up...I understand the need to change, but some things are really better off as it is, unless it is really ground breaking.

Try: reinventing the wheel.

Buying Flats Series: Buying a flat in Keat Hong (part II)

This is part two of the series about buying flats. There is no right or wrong...if you have the money. But otherwise, please always evaluate your financial situation before jumping in and regretting it later or worse, put a strain in your relationship due to financial woes.

Part (I) Buying Flats Series: Buying Clementi Crest right off the bat

Now we are gonna look at buying a very affordable flat. 

What constitutes as affordable? 

Firstly, instead of looking at the flat price and calculating whether you can afford it, why not do the reverse? When you are about to take up a HDB loan, you apply for HLE (please go read it up what this important document is). HLE will tell you how much HDB is willing to lend you. So if your flat costs much much more than the maximum amount HDB is willing to loan you, you cannot afford it. So simple!

Like previously mentioned, you cannot say that you will strive harder and earn big bucks in future to pay for your high end HDB because HDB will not loan you that much and you have to pay for the difference now in up-front downpayment. Try telling HDB that you will earn big bucks in future, see what they say. So don't tell me you have 25 years to work and pay off when HDB won't even lend you the money because why should HDB believe you?

Now that we have move all those aside. Lets see what constitutes as affordable. Skipping the maths, My HLE shows that I can loan about $496,000 max. Now, this doesn't mean I go out looking for a flat that costs $550k ($496K is  90% of $550K). What we are striving for in life is to reduce debt. It is much more easier to reduce debt than to increase your money. Instead, we look for a reasonably priced BTO at about $300,000?

For me, I chose a 4-room flat as I think it is much more sellable than a 3 room or 5 room and also it is neither too big to clean nor too small for a 4 person family.

There are always these kind of "affordable" price range for houses everywhere in Singapore, lets just go ahead and analyse this one.

Pricing:

This is the pricing taken off the BTO Launch of Keat Hong Axis which is in July 2012 BTO exercise. So probably in today's money, it will be more expensive.

Now for the 4 room being at about $280K on the higher side, a couple can easily afford the place and not put a strain on their wallet. For a couple earning $4,000 each a month, they have about $920 going into their CPF every month. This is $1840 every month into ordinary account only.

The thing about debt you have to understand is compound interest (Also, please read this up to understand the effects of compound interest). And if you understand it fully, you will see why some people who can pay full for their condo say that they no money to pay interest.

The more you can afford a place (meaning you have no problems paying for your flat), the quicker you can pay it off and reduce the interest, which is key if you want to move out eventually.

Quick math:
Flat price: $280,000.00
Dwnpymt: $28,000.00 (see if you remove the vowels, you still do not lose the meaning or identity of the word)
Balance: $252,000.00

Loan period/Monthly installments/Total (mthly installment X 12 months X no. of years):
10 Y / $2388 / $286,560.00
15 Y / $1693 / $304,740.00
25 Y / $1144 / $343,200.00

When I saw these figures, I immediately feel that this is literally "长痛不如短痛" a chinese saying that means long term pain is worse than short term pain. I would rather bite the bullet and push for 15 yrs or less. All in all, I pay lesser interest (that you cannot pass on to your future flat buyers). And I also have lesser accrual in my CPF OA and have time to grow the pool of money properly.

This first 10-15 years, your children also do not incur a lot material wants, they can really survive on bare necessities: no need to give expensive gifts, pay for expensive tertiary education, and their holidays, you get the drift. Not to say that young children are cheap, but they do not complain when you give them hand-me-down clothing.

Also, I keep telling people this, it is very easy to find out where couples mis-plan their money. All you have to do is see what banks are providing loans for. Banks do not provide wedding/honeymoon loans but they provide plenty of home and renovation loans.

Always plan your money till at least 2 months of living in your house. This includes money from wedding to your honeymoon to your house renovation and lastly at least two months worth of installments.


There are quite many disadvantages in living in Clementi versus living in Keat Hong that is intangible that you are paying for, I am fully aware of that. In the next post, we will explore how to still afford any place you want (inlcuding Kallang/Whampoa)

Buying Flats Series: Buying Clementi Crest right off the bat (part I)

Buying Flat series: This is part I of the buying flat series, which covers ways to eventually own homes of various pricing tiers as well as the implications that you probably weren't aware of.

When I talk about buying flats, I do not mean it as an investment. When you invest, you stand a chance for something to lose its value. Can you stand to lose the value of the flat you live in?

Oh, right now, some of you are thinking, there is an intrinsic value to the flat, blah blah blah. But let me tell you that when you bought the flat, you are not buying it from a HDB warehouse sale, you are also making a profit for some in the middle. So for a S$300k flat, the cost is most definitely much much lower (by how much, no one knows really). With that in mind, lets just assume that you cannot stand to sell the flat you are living in at all without increasing your debt by a lot.

Over the next few posts, I'll be showing ways to which you can own homes and how to get about it the smart and seemingly-smart-but-foolish-way.

Before we start off, lets just set a few things first. I'm not discriminating areas of Singapore, but Choa Chu Kang costs less than half or maybe a quarter of what housing is in Orchard road.

My end game is very simple, I want a nice flat in along an area that is convenient to town be it for work or play or grow old.

Choa Chu Kang/Yew Tee/Gombak is just very out of the way, there is also nothing there as you can see in this very reddit post or maybe google and it will come up. I live in the west all my life: Bukit Batok to Yew Tee, I spend at least 2 hours travelling everyday to whatever/wherever I want to go in Singapore. It isn't far compared to Europe, but then again, East side people do not need to travel that much and the bus services is much faster and more established than the west.

Lets compare buying and owning 4 room flats.

But anyways, lets look at owning one of the most expensive BTO in Singapore: Clementi crest.

Print-screened from HDB website, the launch is still there to show, but you can google clementi crest BTO and be brought back to this page.

Lets see how much is a 4-room flat selling for:

$478,000 - $621,000!!!

Huat big time!

Let's see what is being said on the web to 'guide' you to own this flat.

Suddenly, typical price of a 4 room becomes $550,000. So $478k is nothing, don't tell people it is less than $500k due to various options like flooring/kitchen fittings/door, and legal and stamp fees. (its an oxford comma, atas ang moh there)

Any how, for $550k, you have to have a $55,000 money either in CPF or cash to pay as down-payment.

On top of that additional monies is needed as you are most likely not going to be able to loan this amount of $495k in your HLE.

HLE - housing loan eligibility letter, it calculates the maximum amount of money HDB will loan to you. Also a means of 'refinancing' your loans by constantly renewing with your new pay, you can reduce loan quantum. Also this is also roughly 30% of how much you going to earn 25 years down the road, in line with MSR (it is not definite but at least it is a good indication). If an organisation like HDB refuse to lend you any more money, I don't see why you should take up more debt by paying more than 10% down-payment.

Now these are all quite technical, HDB has a calculator to calculate roughly how much you need to pay a month for your installment. Lets refer to this picture again.

If you understand how CPF works and MSR, you can roughly gauge if you can afford the place.
$1495 CPF OA monthly between you and your spouse.

This is the monthly allocation rates for CPF.

As you can see only 23% of your monthly pay goes to your OA for you to pay for your flat.
$1495/2 = $747.50 (contribution by you alone)
$747.50 divide by 23% = $3250.

That's it, you and your spouse needs to earn at least $3250 each. This is a very rough yet effective indicator whether you can afford the place or not. With that in mind, lets give you a boost to $3300 a month for easy calculation.

$3300, after 20% of your own contribution, it is left with $2640. On top of that, lets not forget you have to pay cash monthly of $455 or $227.50. If you earn $3300 a month, after you pay for your house, you are left with less than $2500 a month to spend.

This is quite a serious implication. Being this tightly wound to your own housing loans. As much as you think you are going to get increments as you work, you are also equally subjected to lose your job as well. If you get increments, better hope it is more than 3% as you are also accumulating accrued interest in your CPF account as well.

Bottom line
To own Clementi crest 4 room flats, you and your spouse need:
- to earn $3250 monthly each (or total income of $6500, this amount leaves you not eligible for any grant)
- neither of you can lose your job. if you do, the flat still needs to be paid, you will have to fork up $450 cash on-top of your CPF contributions (if I'm not wrong, you can defer some payments), doing so will leave you with $2190. The sole-breadwinner taking home $2190 is really insufficient these days (hard truth). Not to mention, under MSR, earning $3300 and taking home $2190, you are almost touching 30% of your gross income for housing loan.

If this is not a clear enough sign that you cannot afford the place, then you probably had it coming.

*Also, I have not mentioned renovation and furniture costs. So good luck if the couple do not earn at least $5999 each. ($6000 each is the income ceiling).

Otherwise, if you can afford to pay up-front so much cash that you bring the loan amount down to $300k or less, you are good.

This post represents my views and opinions based on the current rulings, there are many many rules/grants/loans and other things to help you work around, but it is roughly there. But nonetheless, do take time to read it. 

Words of wisdom: If you had to do precise calculations to find out whether you can afford anything, it means you probably can't.

Moving On

I'm one of those guys who teaches others a lot. But my fiancee doesn't appreciate that I overdo it as it tends to touch a raw nerve especially when some couples I see do not have the proper financial mindset and are heading for doom without realising it themselves.

I know I sound very haughty and blinded, but let me explain myself over the series of blog posts about buying flats for young couples today.

Thankfully, I realised I have 300 readers last month, huats...keep reading, I'll keep writing.

Productivity tips: Midori traveler's notebook (Men's Perspective)

As y'all know, I have been using the 555-dori for awhile now. It has been great, the leather ages well and it does its job. I occasionally fall out of use of it but i do go to it once in awhile. First and foremost, this is not a post about what kind of pretty inserts is inside my midori traveler's notebook or the limited SMRT edition.

One thing I realised after using 555-dori for awhile is that given it's small size, you cannot really write alot inside the book. Now that in my new job, I'm required to keep track of more things now so with the push of my boss who said that I should stop writing on scrap paper, he will reimburse me any notebook i buy, so what other notebook to buy than the bigger grand daddy of all the notebooks that i use: the Midori Traveler's Notebook.

While i like they system, i find that most user of this notebook tend to crave for form over function. The amount of stuff people do to their MTN, the charms, the amount of different coloured pencils, writing pretentious crap inside. Perhaps their schedule should include 30 mins - 1 hr; twice a day colouring their notebook, followed by another 1 hr of therapeutic, relaxing colouring of the secret garden colouring books.

Do not get me wrong here, I do like the looks of this notebook and its form, but i value the function that this form offers, the most crafty thing i do is to make out inserts for the books as these inserts are so god-damn expensive at SGD 5 a ruled book up to SGD 12 for some others and some slots and pockets costing more than SGD 10.

The amount of 555 notebooks i can buy with SGD 5 just makes no sense and value to purchase them on a long term basis. Though I bought a ruled book with the purchase, I still see no absolute sense in bringing out 7 different highlighters and 7 different pens to write and colour and shade areas with. Maybe now you will walk out to your fixie bike and cycle to starbucks to write on your MTN but not me i guess.

I understand the beauty of hand carrying a big old luggage briefcase from a period when trolleys weren't invented, but it is just not for me.

The orange band just gives the right amount of colour splash

Usage of the notebook
Anyhow, in a sentence: i'm someone who has a lot of things to take notes off but wants to spend as little time as possible using the notebook.

Work
I work in the shipping industry in a shipowner/ship manager company, we have a lot of info coming in all the time, trust me when i say, taking care of 19 ships is like running a childcare center for children.

I scribble bits of info in that pertains to what will be important so that i could refer back to them in meetings or during weekends. They include mostly itinerary, technical/operational issues as well as upcoming inspections if i come across them.

Wedding planning
This is seriously alot of stuff to write down as you compare shops and prices. I printed a 6 month weekly planner from Ray Blake (thank you very much sire for your contribution to human productivity). But since i started using it from last week (mid september 2015) i have plenty of pages to freed up and i stirke off the date and use it to compare stuffs and take notes regarding wedding.

Weekly planner
Together with the wedding stuff, it exists inside the weekly planner insert. I keep track of upcoming events, things to do this week that could also be related to work, finances, good quotes etc.

Investments
The blank book has nothing inside and I do not sketch a lot so i use it to put things related to stocks and analyse them in my free time. on the first page, I'll write down a stock ticker symbol, then I'll go home to read its financial reports to get a good feel of it.

Abit of bullet journalling here to help

Not made in Japan from Kobe Leather???

very minimalistic

This notebook is great, it does nothing and alot at the same time. Here's a good; unrelated; helpful; tricky; simple quote: Measure twice, cut once.

Budget state of emergency

Since I've last blogged, I have been spending some money here and there. Here are some of my big/significant spends:

- resigned from my current stable job (though the job didn't pay as much i want, i resigned and thankfully, i managed to find another job paying me more in a short amount of time. thus far, work has been quite good)
- paid $2000 for the engagement ring (my ring costs slightly north of SGD 6000)
- bought a pandora bracelet mounting up to $700 for my girlfriend
- blew a bit of money on a vacation/stay-cation
- bought a midori traveler's notebook (this costs nothing to me as i bought it under company's account, but i foresee the inserts being an expense much later)
- took a few no-pay-leaves here and there. They costs  me about $100 a day
- SGD 2000 towards my hotel banquet deposit. But that is claimable from my joint account with my girlfriend


Upcoming pocket burners:

- proposal to my fiance would definitely cost me about $100-$200, i hope i can cut on this as much as i can.
- suits for my wedding (I'm planning to get a suit for my wedding. Not wanting to be sexist here, but spending $1k on gown rentals n no one bats and eye. Tailor a nice wool suit for wedding day and future use, everybody loses their mind.
-wedding bands
- furniture for my room as I'm moving house and my current furniture is all fixed


On top of all those, I maintain a monthly $200 towards investments. As of now, my rate of saving is not as much as my rate of spending. Sure, this is a significant time in my life with wedding and moving house and all, but like a company, it has to have enough cash to keep it going through certain events and even last financial crisis, so i don't see why a human being can be any lesser.


firstly i'd like to say that most of my housing and wedding expenses are also borne equally by my wife to be, but as much as possible, i would like to grow both of our wealth. As she is a  school teacher, her expenses are really very little, but i spend on necessity in 2 days, she can spend for her whole week. food prices in her school is dirt cheap.

secondly, i would like to announce that my financial department has called to order a state of emergency. austerity measures need to be in place. do not take it like bitch or whine about face or pride, there is no pride in not having any money management.

these measures are:
- budget of $15 a day, including transport and $20 from fri to sunday. that is a square $120/week; $480/month; about $6400 a year.
- i now roughly make about $38k a year after tax, so i should be able to save a substantial amount if i keep it up.
- as always, there has to be some leeway as to provide a reward. so at the end of every month, if i spend less than $400, i get to top up the balance to $150 for some leisure if i want and this leisure money is not to be given until earned. and it cannot be brought forward or excessively spent.
- NO MORE BUYING OF WATCHES (this will only have a leeway for a rolex explorer watch which perhaps i could after my wedding)
- limit to 2 holidays a year maximum spending of $1500 for both
- work hard do not get distracted by shopping
- exercise more


maybe these are some things you could do for your future as well.

Lets make some money shall we?

This isn't get rich quick scams with fake Facebook comments saying how sitting at home, working two hours a day can get you $1,000,000 in a year. If you met me face to face and asked me how to invest and why I am going to tell you in less than 15 mins. This is super vague, but this is as good of an advise you can get whilst telling people on a train ride. No need to compare figures or pull out calculators on this one.

Investing is easy to learn, easy to enjoy, difficult to choose, you will always want to get more satisfaction as you go along and you can never master it. (Sounding pretty much like masturbation now).  I'm not claiming to be an expert, I am not even a novice, I will not provide you formulas, ratios and financials to read. This is just what I have learn when I started investing.

Here are a few things investment is NOT:
- Ways to get rich quick: this is the game of day traders who work very very hard and spend a lot of money to achieve by merit. Anything less than that are just speculators no different than those queuing up to buy 4D/Toto (Singapore's lottery)

- Trying to yield better than the economy: For the people who truly invest properly or for a career, getting better yieldthan the economy is only natural. But for regular investors, remember your end goal in life is not to beat the economy, it is just to enjoy comfortably.

- To beat Inflation: When I started out, all I could think about is how scary inflation is, mongering it like the sky is going to fall. Leave the 3.5% deductions to your yield aside. Inflation or no inflation, your $5 is still going to be printed as $5, no one will re-issue your $5 to a $2.

Now that we have swept aside some fog, let's get to it.


The common things people say when asked to start investing:

- Risky
- No money
- Don't know how

Lets address them, tear them down and face them, when you are reaping the outcomes of your investments, pat yourself on the shoulder.

Risky
Honestly, if you actually calculate out the risk of everything you do, you will find that investing your money is really just a small speck compared to falling down on a slippery toilet floor, where it involves risks of injury, risks of touching someone else's pee/shit fecal matter, risk of social embarrassment, risk of damaging something you are carrying, the list goes on and you get the point.

Obviously, I am not talking about investing away your coffin money and buy high return stuff. Those are more often than not making other people rich first. Invest in only small money you confirm won't need in the next 3 years or more.

No Money
Linking to the previous, what kind of money we are talking about? Obviously it depends on how rich you are. Do not say you no money when you have $1000 rotting away in a bank and you always never touch it for the next 3 years or more. Of course if it is all you have then I think it is better not to invest at all.

But if you have a stable income, where you can afford to buy $8 lunches, ride the taxi, watch movies every Fri/Sat/Sun, I don't see why you cannot eat $4 lunches, take public transport, watch movies on weekday and download animated movies. For instance, if you do the lunch thing, every month, you will have $120 extra. For $100 a month, you can invest in POSB Regular Savings Plan/OCBC blue chip investment plan. These little money that goes away will come back in shocking amounts. Compounding will work in your favor no matter what so long you have an interest rate on your money.

Don't Know How
Here's two ways to invest that is relatively low risk, requires little to no knowledge about finance. I draw similarities to these investments towards our daily lives common occurrences and you'll see how easy it is:

1) Buy the economy
2) Be a lazy landlord

That's it, simple and the yields for these forms of investments tend to draw about 4-8% yield annually. Pretty good money for really doing nothing.

1) Buy the economy
POSB Regular Savings Plan/OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plan provides low cost dollar cost averaging (DCA) investment methods on the STI. The gist is that you just buy with $100 (or which ever you set) every month regardless of price of one share. The general principal is regardless of price, on the assumption that the market fluctuates several times a year, you just buy them, for buying low will help mitigate the high prices and vice versa, you won't buy at the best price but its better than nothing. Signing up can be done at ATM machines in less than 5 minutes.

Why STI? STI is a good indication of our economy, as mentioned earlier, no need to beat the market. So long don't under perform the market too badly or make a loss, you are already doing better than most people who doesn't invest at all. STI has been proven to always go up time and again, it is the nature of our country, it is what keeps us rich as a whole, so instead of complaining about rising prices, why not be part of the grand scheme of it all?

2) Be a lazy landlord
This requires some work to protect yourself in any case a crisis hits and the company becomes financially troubled of if business is temporarily bad, but you should read up yourself, its quite simple, you will find many of the factors similar to your own housing/coffee shops. You could buy into REIT, although right now the market is bad and seems like the general consensus is that interest rates are going up and all that, it is not wrong, but if you buy some now with some money, and when the price of the REIT drops, you could buy more right? Essentially REIT gives you money as form of Distribution (similar to dividends, since the S-REIT is traded in SGX) from the rent collected or sort of. But doesn't matter, you go read up on where that money come from yourself. Most important thing here is price and DPU, although other financials matter too, but I am not even a novice, so for now, these should suffice.

Starhill Global owns Ngee Ann City and Wistma Atria, nuff said. Of course it owns more, but what can be bigger than two of the main shopping malls in Singapore with many years of history and extremely high retail value?

Capital Mall Trust owns 11 shopping malls including: Tampines mall, Junction 8, Jcube, Bugis+, Raffles City Shopping Centre, Lot 1, Bukit Panjang Plaza and many malls next to MRT. The human traffic in these place is amazing and has extremely high retail value.



So there you have it, two simple instruments to invest in. But as simple as it may be, always approach it as you would with any other investment: Save, Research, Invest, Sleep, Repeat

One of the best advise any one can tell you about investment: You are responsible for your own investments!!!

How powerful is compounded interest?

How powerful is compounded interest? 

People keep going around saying compounded interest is very powerful, we studied compounded interest in secondary school and probably in tertiary educations (JC, Poly, ITE, Uni, etc...) How useful is compound interest to us average Singaporeans? 

This post will not teach you how to be super rich or invest, none of the posts in my blogs actually teaches you to work 30 secs a day to be a millionaire, but I want to offer a guide on one of the many ways which I have learnt and/or discovered.

Firstly, a disclaimer that this is not a promotional on the CPF scheme, like it or not, it is here and now. I would prefer to use it to my advantage and with minimal effort/calculation if possible.

My goal/target for my (and my wife's) CPF account is to reach the current CPF minimum sum. Upon reaching that goal, I would not have to worry about it ever since. 

Compound Interest

Compound interest is quite simple to understand, the interest earned adds to the principal sum and becomes the new principal sum for next round of interest calculation. 

So assuming a younger you have $100 in your piggy bank and your parents will keep giving you 3% interest at the end of every year of the money in the piggy bank as at 31st December every year.

 

If you do not take out the money or interest earned, your piggy bank's value will be like this:

Year: Amount

2015: $100.00

2016: $103.00

2017: $106.09

2018: $109.27

2019: $112.55

2020: $115.93

This is the rough concept, in schools, we did not use big numbers or higher rates or longer periods to calculate, but the increase in interest is increasing exponentially. At this rate, this $100 will double itself in about 24 years.

Compound Interest: CPF

Again, not a promotion, this is just what it is based on cold figures. 

As at 23 june 2015, the base interest rate in the CPF Special Account (SA) is 4.00%. Time to time, it is adjusted to 5.00% once every 5 years and also if it falls below a certain amount. But we will use 4.00% for calculation.

Imagine at 25 years old, you start working, making $3000 every month for the next 30 years (impossible as it will bound to increase, don't get fired or quit). Month after month, for 30 years. you contribute $180 to your special account. This is based on CPF current allocation rate of 6% of salary into SA. At the end of 30 years, your SA will reflect a whooping $121,143.27.

But wait, if you just put that same amount of money in a biscuit tin for 30 years, you will only save abit less than $65,000.00, just about half the amount of money.

This money will increase drastically under following circumstances:

1) increased monthly salary, if you do not even work hard to be better rewarded at your job, then my entire blog is rendered moot.

2) increased interest rates for CPF SA.

There are many other things, but this is the gist of the whole matter.

Time

When it comes to compounded interest, time is man's best friend. By year 20, the amount in your SA will only be $64,320.65 which means to say, in 10 years time, the sum will gain about $58,000!!!

Principal sum matters of course, but for compound interest, time is indeed the best friend. 

My Goals

As I've mentioned before, my goal is to reach the minimum sum at anyone point in time. Meaning the moment my OA + SA > prevailing minimum sum, my goal is achieved. And you will never have to worry about it unless the scheme changes.

This is the historical rate of CPF minimum sum increases/adjusts for about 3-4% year after year. The moment I hit the minimum sum, I'll take that money and dump it inside the special account. Every year, the interest given will then increase your money accordingly to meet the newly adjusted minimum sum, hopefully. Not to mention the interest rate is risk-free. It may not be a lot, but it is exactly like playing Russian Roulette without any bullets loaded.

Punch Card

I recently heard one of warren buffett's old speech somewhere some time ago. He said something about being careful when investing. Today, the market reacts to crowd mentality, its of course good for value investors. Don't get me wrong, despite the portrayal and behavior, the modus operandi is not to act in the opposite direction regardless of the endeavour. But rather, we act on our own research and findings. Just that more often than not, they seem to go in the opposite direction with the masses.

This is briefly what WB said: imagine you have a punch card, lasting ten, maybe twenty, punches. And this punch card will be with you all your life, each time you invest in something you have to punch it. We will be more careful as to how we use the punch card. We will not just buy a share because we heard someone said somethings in a party or over lunch.

If you act this way, you will know why your investments succeeds or fails and you will repeat or not repeat based on the outcome. But nonetheless, you know something.

Youths today are soft or are they always soft?

I recently saw an article titled: 20 Signs You're Just Not Meant For A 9 To 5 Desk Job. This somewhat lengthy article left me with a bad taste.

Immediately without researching much, the impression the write left on me is that he is a disgruntled employee at his job. One of those people who thinks their job sucks not because of their own doing.

FYI, I'm still mid 20s as of writing, my English is not that good, but try to see the point I'm trying to drive across rather than my grammatical prowess.

Those twenty steps:

1. You want to be able to decide when to begin your day. You want to work when you want to, the way you want to. There goes the concept of 9-5 in the bin.2. Formals? No way. You want to live in your denims - that’s who you are. Following dress codes is a ridiculous concept anyway that you just refuse to follow. 3. More than that, you’re just too restless to be seated at one place for 8 hours. It’s almost like being chained.4. You see no point sitting inside a glass box knowing there is a whole world out there. 5. Your mind just doesn’t work around those boring computer screens and a phone that reminds you of hospitals every time it rings. You want something like a whole wall to express yourself! 6. Nothing puts you off more than seeing people hate every minute of their day at work. You’d rather be around inspiring people who love what they do, because your work is your passion, not a ‘job’.7. You can’t wait to scoot out of the office the moment the clock strikes 6 and do what you love, the rest of the day.8. You hate how all offices run solely on hierarchy. You feel being pulled down by it more than being pushed forward.9. No matter how much you try, your mind just drifts away every time you begin working. You can’t be contained. You have to be set free to bring out the best in you. 10. You’re probably too outgoing and ‘alive’ to fit in to the straight faced, lifeless people at work. Oh no, no, you don’t give two hoots about maintaining the ‘decorum’, whatever that is.11. You want to create something of your own, not spend your whole life living an insignificant life, working for someone who probably doesn’t even know you exist.12. You’re a perfectionist. You need your own space to do things, at your own pace – like waiting for the sun to set for that perfect picture. You don’t believe in doing things just for the sake of it. 13. Life is too short to waste in rat races. You refuse to be a part of the herd.14. You hate Mondays, in fact you loathe ‘em. You desperately need to be in a place where you look forward to Mondays.15. Travelling is not just your passion; it is your way of life. From the depths of the seas to the thin air at the top of mountains – there’s so much to see in just one life! There is no way you’re giving up what you love the most for a desk job.16. You don’t believe in rules. No, not like a rebel-without-a-cause. You just want to figure it out on your own instead of going by what people tell you. You’re here to make your own way.17. You don’t have ‘aims’ in life. Only dreams. And you want to live them all. You owe it to yourself.18. You measure success by happiness and contentment, not by paycheques. 19. You want to earn by living, not live by earning.20. You cannot even begin to list down the things you want to do in life. What you want to be is beyond professions and careers. It’s a feeling. You want to live. That’s your calling. 

This is in fact one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read. It is ridiculous because the writer preaches this as thought it is scripture.

I could pin-point the flaws in every single 'signs' but they are just generally excuses for being lazy.

Although technology has made life easy, we still cannot be lazy, instead of thinking tech is replacing us, why not say that tech can aid us to be more efficient? 

We have to manage our expectations and always think far especially when it involves something like your career, and commitments. Think about two stories:

This is the story of the person who created this wallet. He probably felt the same way about one or more of the 20 signs above. He created this wallet, several things happened in his life and started/joint/left/closed many companies. At one point, he was sleeping at the back of his car if I got the facts right. Now, he is sleeping in a big mansion. 

He is Robert Kiyosaki and the writer of a best seller: Rich Dad Poor Dad. 

Many of you are thinking of following his footsteps, wanting to be the next Warren Buffett/Bill Gates/Robert Kiyosaki or whoever else is rich or famous.

Lets deconstruct the goal abit. Based on the above, you just want to end up being rich/famous, it didn't say how or what you are going to do. Because when you answer these two questions, you find that this 20 signs is complete utter nonsense. 

Many youths today are about being rich and famous, to travel, to buy luxurious items and stay in big houses. So by wanting to become those Warren Buffett/Bill Gates, yet you strongly believe in these 20 signs, aren't you no different from some one who is trying to be a famous star on Hollywood without putting any effort to improve on their acting skills?

Granted, they did quite badly in school, but did you know that they poured in endless hours to be at where they want to be? Not to mention they are inherently intelligent people. 

I, myself, am quite lazy to be honest. The biggest tell tale sign is the condition of my room, its in a perpetual mess. However, I felt that my career is not something I can do till I'm old as I am very family oriented, so now that I'm young, I decide to educate myself on finance, try to invest bit by bit to accumulate wealth, for my wife to be, kids, and grand kids. I'm not going to teach you how to invest as I know nothing myself. But I think we should all set out and learn and do it.

Please take time to read an abstract from the article: THE SUPERINVESTORS OF GRAHAM-AND-DODDSVILLE

I would like you to imagine a national coin-flipping contest. Let's assume we get 225 million Americans up tomorrow morning and we ask them all to wager a dollar. They go out in the morning at sunrise, and they all call the flip of a coin. If they call correctly, they win a dollar from those who called wrong. Each day the losers drop out, and on the subsequent day the stakes build as all previous winnings are put on the line. After ten flips on ten mornings, there will be approximately 220,000 people in the United States who have correctly called ten flips in a row. They each will have won a little over $1,000.
Now this group will probably start getting a little puffed up about this, human nature being what it is. They may try to be modest, but at cocktail parties they will occasionally admit to attractive members of the opposite sex what their technique is, and what marvelous insights they bring to the field of flipping.
Assuming that the winners are getting the appropriate rewards from the losers, in another ten days we will have 215 people who have successfully called their coin flips 20 times in a row and who, by this exercise, each have turned one dollar into a little over $1 million. $225 million would have been lost, $225 million would have been won.
By then, this group will really lose their heads. They will probably write books on "How I turned a Dollar into a Million in Twenty Days Working Thirty Seconds a Morning." Worse yet, they'll probably start jetting around the country attending seminars on efficient coin-flipping and tackling skeptical professors with, " If it can't be done, why are there 215 of us?"
By then some business school professor will probably be rude enough to bring up the fact that if 225 million orangutans had engaged in a similar exercise, the results would be much the same - 215 egotistical orangutans with 20 straight winning flips.
I would argue, however, that there are some important differences in the examples I am going to present. For one thing, if (a) you had taken 225 million orangutans distributed roughly as the U.S. population is; if (b) 215 winners were left after 20 days; and if (c) you found that 40 came from a particular zoo in Omaha, you would be pretty sure you were on to something. So you would probably go out and ask the zookeeper about what he's feeding them, whether they had special exercises, what books they read, and who knows what else. That is, if you found any really extraordinary concentrations of success, you might want to see if you could identify concentrations of unusual characteristics that might be causal factors.
Scientific inquiry naturally follows such a pattern. If you were trying to analyze possible causes of a rare type of cancer -- with, say, 1,500 cases a year in the United States -- and you found that 400 of them occurred in some little mining town in Montana, you would get very interested in the water there, or the occupation of those afflicted, or other variables. You know it's not random chance that 400 come from a small area. You would not necessarily know the causal factors, but you would know where to search.
I submit to you that there are ways of defining an origin other than geography. In addition to geographical origins, there can be what I call an intellectual origin. I think you will find that a disproportionate number of successful coin-flippers in the investment world came from a very small intellectual village that could be called Graham-and-Doddsville. A concentration of winners that simply cannot be explained by chance can be traced to this particular intellectual village.
Conditions could exist that would make even that concentration unimportant. Perhaps 100 people were simply imitating the coin-flipping call of some terribly persuasive personality. When he called heads, 100 followers automatically called that coin the same way. If the leader was part of the 215 left at the end, the fact that 100 came from the same intellectual origin would mean nothing. You would simply be identifying one case as a hundred cases. Similarly, let's assume that you lived in a strongly patriarchal society and every family in the United States conveniently consisted of ten members. Further assume that the patriarchal culture was so strong that, when the 225 million people went out the first day, every member of the family identified with the father's call. Now, at the end of the 20-day period, you would have 215 winners, and you would find that they came from only 21.5 families. Some naive types might say that this indicates an enormous hereditary factor as an explanation of successful coin-flipping. But, of course, it would have no significance at all because it would simply mean that you didn't have 215 individual winners, but rather 21.5 randomly distributed families who were winners.
In this group of successful investors that I want to consider, there has been a common intellectual patriarch, Ben Graham. But the children who left the house of this intellectual patriarch have called their "flips" in very different ways. They have gone to different places and bought and sold different stocks and companies, yet they have had a combined record that simply cannot be explained by the fact that they are all calling flips identically because a leader is signaling the calls for them to make. The patriarch has merely set forth the intellectual theory for making coin-calling decisions, but each student has decided on his own manner of applying the theory.
The common intellectual theme of the investors from Graham-and-Doddsville is this: they search for discrepancies between the value of a business and the price of small pieces of that business in the market. Essentially, they exploit those discrepancies without the efficient market theorist's concern as to whether the stocks are bought on Monday or Thursday, or whether it is January or July, etc. Incidentally, when businessmen buy businesses, which is just what our Graham & Dodd investors are doing through the purchase of marketable stocks -- I doubt that many are cranking into their purchase decision the day of the week or the month in which the transaction is going to occur. If it doesn't make any difference whether all of a business is being bought on a Monday or a Friday, I am baffled why academicians invest extensive time and effort to see whether it makes a difference when buying small pieces of those same businesses. Our Graham & Dodd investors, needless to say, do not discuss beta, the capital asset pricing model, or covariance in returns among securities. These are not subjects of any interest to them. In fact, most of them would have difficulty defining those terms. The investors simply focus on two variables: price and value.
I always find it extraordinary that so many studies are made of price and volume behavior, the stuff of chartists. Can you imagine buying an entire business simply because the price of the business had been marked up substantially last week and the week before? Of course, the reason a lot of studies are made of these price and volume variables is that now, in the age of computers, there are almost endless data available about them. It isn't necessarily because such studies have any utility; it's simply that the data are there and academicians have [worked] hard to learn the mathematical skills needed to manipulate them. Once these skills are acquired, it seems sinful not to use them, even if the usage has no utility or negative utility. As a friend said, to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
I think the group that we have identified by a common intellectual home is worthy of study. Incidentally, despite all the academic studies of the influence of such variables as price, volume, seasonality, capitalization size, etc., upon stock performance, no interest has been evidenced in studying the methods of this unusual concentration of value-oriented winners.

A few things to ponder about

I know this isn't twitter, but here's a few twitter-like things compiled that reflect my cynicism these days.

"Why in this day and age, we are still afraid of insect eggs on food packaging?"

"Why we always value the opinions of the ones who treat us the harshest?"

"What is going through that person's mind when he/she decides to scold people over email or a platform where everyone can see? Does it solve issues?"

"J.K. Simmons in Whiplash: The two most harmful words in the English language is 'Good Job'."

"When someone does something to you that you don't like is bad, but if you do it back, is it revenge or giving the person a taste of their medicine?"

Scenario

For a guy, when you are peeing, u might occasionally see a fly in the urinal.

If you pee on it, it is quite fun (fly rights group please don't sue me).

It's fun until it lands on you as about 35-40% of its surrounding is your legs.

the gentlemen

What does it mean to be a gentlemen? I understand that being dapper (whatever the hell that word means) is in trend right now, but please do not think that you dress like one means you are one.

You may recognise these people in the streets by these characteristics:
- Funky handlebar that looks like a facial hair wig
- Slicking back their hair with undercuts and a lot of product
- Shirts with jeans and leather shoes on weekends
- Suspenders (why isn't this obsolete yet? You mean there are still loose pants when everything looks like pastered on pants?)
- they wear hats indoors
- cheap quartz gold plated watches made in china last year and they call it vintage
- I love whisky (especially macallan and yamazaki, you tried before right, the japanese whisky)

To the last point, I love whisky, I have tried a few although not alot, but I can honestly say I find Yamazaki whisky not to my liking. Simple once like Johnny Walker gold label does the trick, but scottish whisky is the one you should be tasting as much as you can.

There's more to life than what the pop culture, trending twitter, instagram and facebook. Here's a fictional gentlemen dropping some swanologues.

Changing jobs

It is a good time to change jobs because...
- the job market is good?
- you are tired of your current job?
- you want to change working environment?
- you need more cash?

Taking Stock: Luxury brands and happiness

This guy is a clinical professor for marketing in NYU Stern School of Business. I was watching a talk by him where he said the following:

“Rich people are the most boring people in the world. They smell, look, and feel alike. They all fly British Airways, wear Hermès, and party in St. Barths… Luxury brands are able to go global faster because rich people aspire to the same things.”

Its such a simple yet true concept that most people do not realise. Everyday we work and use hours of our lives, cells of our brains and energy from our body to pay for a _____________. (insert name of the brand followed by its item. e.g.: LV bag, Gucci wallet)

Where to strike a balance?
Frugality is a lifestyle, it can be taught, it can be demonstrated but it can never be practised efficiently unless the practitioner is inbuilt or strongly believes in the concept. It is frugal to eat $2.50 chicken rice from Ananas cafe everyday, never put on anything branded and not watch movies in cinema. But do you believe in it? (Personally, I enjoy watching movies in cinema because I am a firm believer in the entire experience of watching the 'talkies' in the cinema.)

I myself admit, frugality is a discipline I will never fully understand or realise. Everyone who is investing like Warren Buffett wants to follow his level of frugality, his thriftiness. But in doing so, it affects themselves and everyone around them. Lets be honest. We cannot never be Warren Buffett in anyway.

I say again: We cannot never be Warren Buffett in anyway!

You can replicate his portfolio, buy whatever shares he buys, drink coke all day long. But you will never be like him. Because for the simplest reason, you are not him. He felt that he started investing at 11 years old and wasted the first 11 years of his live not doing so. Without being a parrot, do you deep down feel the same?

Wasted or Earned
In a recent debate with my girlfriend, I told her money is never saved. It is either wasted or earned.

When we purchase any packages for any service or jewelry, one thing I notice the sales people like to repeat:

"You see this _________(extra service/product) costs so much and I throw it in, save you the money already."

Regardless whether we require said extra services/product or not, the fact that this is said, this is a sign of a complete polished piece of turd thrown at your face and you are suppose to like it. I get that if you are going to buy it, it is indeed a saving. But if something can be transacted at a price so much below its value, it is not worth much anyways.

Remember, not wasted or earned. If it is that crucial to get the extra service/product, why isn't it included into the original package? Hence, despite being cynical, generally for these added services or products given for free, we can assume 2 things:
1) the cost of these services/products have already been factored into the price of the item they are selling for.
2) since it is not required in the original purchase, it is, more often than not, useless.

Invest in Yourself

You are not the centre of the universe. But you ARE your universe.

I'm reading a book called the Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. He is the grand-daddy of value investing.

His most famous disciple is Warren Buffet. Anyways, inside the books covered a few basic things that many self-proclaimed investors do not follow when it is so easy and fundamental.

#1 - Always invest with a Margin of Safety
#2 - Expect volatility and profit from it
#3 - Know what kind of investor you are

Many investors should read up this book and you will find that things he wrote more than 50 years ago still applies today only changed due to difference in some policy changes over the years.

One of the most interesting aspect is the character, MR MARKET. In your co-op with him, his role daily is to offer daily, a price quote which you can either buy or sell to him of that business. You as an owner of business, determine if you are going to listen to him.

Not sure how many investors spend time watching The Big Bang Theory. I find that Howard Wolowitz is the definitive Mr Market. Hence, I'll picture him daily doing what Mr Market does best.

As per the title and first words of this post, invest in yourself. 24 hours a day, take an hour out to learn stuff about investing, read up happenings in the world. The next Microsoft is out there but if all you do is spend time looking for the next Microsoft, plenty of good companies will be missed out.

Below is a few websites to read up for investing particularly in the Singapore market.
The happenings/analysis:
Yahoo! Finance
Motley Fool
Dividend Warrior *always look out to find his latest postings, he has a few blogs under dividend warrior
Turtle Investor *always pool some cash into index funds, for myself, I put some money into STI ETF and Singapore Bonds Index
Hardwarezone Moneymind
Hardwarezone Stocks, Shares and Indices
The SmartLocal *interesting place with plenty of money saving tactics which is not 100% investing related

There are many more out there, especially in HWZ, there are some really insightful and educational postings from various individuals.

For doing homework:
SGX Stockfacts
Muddy Waters Research
Individual company's webpage

Reading books in encouraged, but always take into consideration the writer and his thinking. No doubt Robert Kiyosaki's book is a good read and provides excellent concepts that you can take up into your investing. But upon research, you'll find that he is always in the news linking with bankruptcy. His books to me, are more of a motivation or a side track like the "Life" section in The Straits Times. When reading books, try to always weigh the ideas in the book against your own knowledge and understanding. Do not accept it 100% and build reasons for following it. Instead, pit it against your current fundamentals and see if it is suitable to be used/adapted/rejected.

In a nutshell, whatever you are doing, always always always look up the facts. People can offer you advise and analysis, but end of the day:

You are responsible for your investments. 

fin

My affair confession

- Yesterday, I started a love affair that my girlfriend can never know about.

- We've been seen together in public this morning.

- This is not my first time.

My reader's if there is any, I hereby confess to you. I just bought a new watch without telling my girlfriend about it.

This is very irrational of me, doing my budgeting, this purchase is not a very wise one to make. Not that it's overpriced (some think it's overpriced, I think for the niche, its actually ok for under $1,200.00). I've seen people buy lousier watches for more money because they fall victim to marketing. 

Mainly because my own quota is too high, dammit, now I have to cull a few pieces. Just that my holding right now is some what over, and I have to clear out two watches to recover back.

- End of the most nonsensical post to date (here's a piece of knowledge):

This is the Mariana Trench

This is the deepest point of the ocean. In metric, it's about 2,550 km deep. Thats about thelong-end-to-end length of 51 Singapores (singapore is about 50km east to west)

Till date, there has been lesser people who have been to the bottom of Mariana Trench than into space.

Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond?

This title is ripped of an article by Edward Jay Epstein in 1982. Its lengthy, good read but I didn't find time for it. It many held an experiment where he tried to sell a diamond into the secondary market. This article proved that diamonds is not good as investment unless you belong to the cartels setting the price or it's limited edition stuff. Store bought diamonds are typically overpriced for markups and profit margins of the retailers and many more up the chain.

This article's title alone, if self-wondered, already answer the big question should you buy diamonds as investment. This title alone thought me to always remember my position in all my investments.

By 'Position', I meant: what are you? And, who are you?

In this instance, before even thinking about investing in diamonds (if you even call it investing), think first. Are you part of the cartel that sells diamonds?

More often than not, you aren't. Simply think of it this way: generic items have a price limit. You cannot sell generic Toyota at a Mercedes price. That's it. And every single Toyota you buy from the showroom, is already priced at a point where maximum profit is included inside (no way Toyota will say, lets price it a little cheaper so that the owner can sell the car for a profit later.)

Its the same thing with diamonds, why would Jewelry shops price the diamond for you to make a profit when you sell it? Are they in the charity business?

The same goes for gold that you find in shops, there is no way it will be worth your while unless you intend to hold them for decades and sell it as old gold. Then again, the gains in these prices may just well be eaten away by other things such as inflation, currency and so on.

Always remember your position. 9 out of 10 times, we are just a regular person, living regular lives. We are not in the know, we are within and without. Remember the limit of pricing I mentioned earlier? For any single diamond you purchase, it was already priced to its limit and maybe more. There is no way, you can own a single diamond and sell it at a profit unless you dig it up yourself, cut the faucets and polish it to bling shine. With the exception of it being a collector's grade gemstone.

A Diamonds is Forever overpriced.

There you have it, the article seems to offer more insight, but its lengthy, but good nonetheless. Anything you think you are investing in, never be impulsive (courage and impulsiveness is just a fine line divided by intellect and homework done by investors). Unless you are in the inner circle, these hot stocks are merely just a thin sheet of paper holding alot of hot air.

For myself, I'm just a guy behind a computer, I am not in the position to get hot insider news.

Looking at Keppel Land
Without being too technical, Jan to Feb, the prices was surging like crazy driven by news of  Keppel Corp privatising it. Announced somewhere on the 21st Jan morning times. At which point do you think you are able to cash in on this event?

There is always a limit to price. The inner circles would have already taken out such a huge chunk and cashed out even before you got in, you might even be disappointed in the end of it all and those unfortunate ones might even be not making any money after brokerage and what have you.

Unless you own Keppel Land's share before 21st Jan, most likely, you will not be able to make any sizable profit out of this.

A good read is Tulip mania, funny though Gardens by the Bay decide to use this name to name one of their events, I hope they know the story behind this name.

Thank you Mr Lee

(photo credit: the wall street journal)

The Prime Minister is deeply grieved to announce the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founding Prime Minister of Singapore. Mr Lee passed away peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital today at 3.18am. He was 91.

PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE

23 MARCH 2015

I'm a cynic, when I see everyone doing certain things, I tend to doubt it, and doubt it a lot. This announcement came at a time where everyone was sleeping, the next morning, it sent the whole nation into a frenzy, everyone was 'shedding a tear', tears rolling down their cheeks. I feel some of them are just blindly following a trend. Why did NParks only named an orchid after him now? Was his accomplishments only valued after his passing? Will there be a park named after him? 

Some even got lazy and start naming stuff after him. I'll do 91 chin-ups and name it #LKY91 (don't forget to hash-tag), each chin up shall signify the rises and falls of the 91 years of his life and challenging obstacles he faced in building our nation.

People in my generation are born after to reap the fruits of his work. Singapore was already a first world nation when I was very young.

Unlike most pretentious people, I have learnt about his life since I was very young (I'm really not bragging but how many people queuing to the Parliament house actually knows his English name or when he started smoking or realise that he studied law before entering politics) I didn't shed a tear when he died, to be honest, I have never really seen him in the flesh. (NDP doesn't count). He is a great man, he was ahead of his time in thinking and his work. Its amazing how little we know about this man as as a person rather than from his work. 

Other than just saying he is a great man or he is why Singapore is, lets look at him as a person and then his work:

- He is incredibly smart (check out the amount of academic achievements he has, he even said in a book that he learnt from copying from a classmate and still top the class).

- He is very proud of his Chinese ancestry, which is why he didn't really use his English name (his english name is given at birth)

- He was a really heavy smoker during his Uni days

His political career is something I wasn't really interested in and I feel instead of saying he is a politician, we should say that he is a nation builder. He made everyone not litter, ignore race, afford education, serve and protect our own country, not rely on anyone else. People may disagree but I feel this man definitely knows what it takes to be peaceful and prosperous. 

I hope this brief post can urge you to go and learn about LKY as a person, his life, his legacy is already all around us. The way some people post on social media is as if they are his oldest friends and relatives of him when in fact they don't. If you do, good, teach the young. If you don't stop shedding tears for a man you don't really know and pretend to be just because everyone is doing it.  

He is a great man that many of us do not truly know, yet he built the nation (not single-handedly though) in which we all live in. Though written by S.Rajaratnam, I feel this is the best thing to be recited to remember who LKY was and what he represents. Good job sir. Rest in peace. Please watch over Singapore from where ever you are.

We, the citizens of Singapore,

Pledge ourselves as one united people,

Regardless of race, language or religion

To build a democratic society

Based on justice and equality

So as to achieve

Happiness

Prosperity

And Progress for our Nation

(unknown photo credit)

Budgeting for Your Future

If you observe my posting times, its usually when the sun is up (SG timing that is), its mainly because my house keyboard is anti-typing, but I kept it around because its small and doesn't take up space.

Anyways to my main point: Budgeting for your Future as titled.

Ask yourself: When you are budgeting for your "future", where does this "future" stops?

For most people, its till the wedding, most people plan their wedding and honeymoon, they always forget to factor in the flats and most importantly, renovation. Which is why, banks do not need to come up with wedding loans, they only need to come up with loans to pay your renovation. Never forget this critical point. The whole idea of this post hinges on this.

For the financial kiasus, their future ends the moment their children dies of an ripe old age. It's a little extreme but you get my point what I'm comparing here.

For me I work backwards and I consider these few things in order of somewhat importance:
- Down payment + Option fees + 1st till 5th month's loan payment.
- Furniture + Appliances
- Renovation
- Honeymoon
- Engagement Ring + wedding gifts
- Wedding (photoshoots and banquet inclusive)
- Wedding bands

This broadly covers the things I'll be paying for till about 6 months after I've gotten the keys to my flat.
The breakdown 
Down payment + Option fees + 1st till 5th month's loan payment.

• Reason why this is important is because this is the most expensive thing you are going to spend your money on. This is what your parents is asking you to save money for. 
• THIS MONEY INCLUDES YOUR CPF MONEY
• I put there first to fifth months but it should cover 6 months because your option fee of $2,000 is going to be used for one month's payment. First 6 months should cover your from keys getting till moving in. You do not want to be seeing your money fly out that quickly when you are also paying for renovation and appliances, etc
• This is basis a $300,000 flat. If you can afford a $600,000 flat as your first apartment, better set aside more as option fee reimbursement is not going to help much.

Furniture + Appliances

• The silent killer, I feel renovation can be kept to a minimum if you are strapped for cash, but furniture and appliances cannot do without. You can don't hack the wall to expand your hall, but you cannot have a house without an iron and ironing board (I do not believe in those vacuum cleaner type, they don't iron collars and cuffs)
• Its better to fully stock your furniture and appliances when you move it because it makes the home a more cozy place. Imagine yourself without a washing machine for 1 month because you cannot afford it this month, you will subconsciously loathe the place. 
• For bed and sofa, go for quality and comfort over price. You can buy an ikea side table for awhile, but bed frame must be sturdy for at least 5 years.

Renovation

• This is a very gray area for me as I do not really know how much I have to set aside until I do it. I'll just put out a substantial sum for this just in case, if any remains, I have more cash for furniture and stuff. 
• I have read outside that its much cheaper to individually engage contractors for each components rather than an Interior Decorator, I do not know how true is this, but I believe Interior Decorator is just someone you hire to oversee your renovation, either you put in the elbow grease or pay someone to do it.
• Think about your lifestyle in this flat 5 - 10 years from now, if you do not see yourself in this flat 10 years from now (aka moving out), keep the renovations to the minimum
• I also include kitchen cabinet, stove and sink as part of the renovation
• For 4 rooms, I personally feel there is not much hacking you can do, yet it is versatile enough to deal with most generic family size. 

Honeymoon

• Europe. Paris. Florence. Most importantly, be happy and do not be a miser overseas, you work hard for it, don't go overseas and say things like "this chocolate sells cheaper in Singapore".

Engagement Ring + wedding gifts

• Guys, get your wife-to-be something she will like yet the design will be evergreen. Diamonds are forever, not the design of ring it came with. Just think whether will she wear this ring and look appropriate when she is 60 years old.
• Girls, I know this isn't a tradition, because no weddings are marketed to men. Think, your husband-to-be has forked out a huge amount of cash to make you look good, apart from the good time in the bed room, maybe you could get a little something for him as well. I think the best of all would be a mechanical watch (not battery operated quartz), but a really good watch. Think rolex/grand seiko/omega/patek if you are that rich. Engrave his name at the case back and make it his life-time memorabilia. He may even pass on the watch to his children in future. 
• Including in the Si Dian Jin 四点金 in this portion as well because it is only bought once.

Wedding (photoshoots and banquet inclusive)

• This is very low ranking on the list, second last to be exact, reason being, despite being very important, end of the day, you must understand that it is merely to glorify your woman and impress others. End of the day, there is nothing impressive with a $50,000 wedding and you end up being unable to afford your house and reno.
• No wedding photoshoot is about the guys and no wedding dinner is about how well dressed the groom is. The clothing with the colours, price, detail and impracticality is the gown. If you look into tailoring, you could keep that good grey/navy suit for other events after your wedding.
• Banquets for me, the mindset is this, basis 25  tables, if I throw a wedding at a Chinese restaurant, it may set me back $1000 a table, but a 4 - 5 star hotel could be starting at $1500 nett a table, I already have savings of  $12,500 right off the bat. That could cover for a good 2 nights (1st night for resting, 2nd night for procreation) stay at Fullerton Hotel and still have enough for that Europe honeymoon plus a little top up.
• I planned this portion without factoring ang bao money as you should not rely on people to pay you to treat them food. 

Wedding bands

• This is last for me  as I feel, this wedding band thing could be bought over and over again throughout your marriage
• You could get a new set every 5 or 10 years, to somewhat renew the marriage and provide various significance and milestones to the family.

Maybe you have an idea of how things should be and your order of importance is different. But this is just my point of view that even my wife-to-be don't necessarily see eye-to-eye but is accepting of it because of the surrounding principles and practicality to my future plans. 

But most important thing of all is, do not jump into the water without first finding out if there are sharks in it. Many couples get together because of love but fall out due to money, do not take money matters lightly. Sad to say, if you get married not to start a family of your own, it might not be the best course of action to take. 

(photo credit: today online)

Starting a family should be the main reason for getting married, not the outcome of being married to one another...