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.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
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.
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.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Buying Flats Series: Buying a flat in Keat Hong (part II)
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)
Monday, October 12, 2015
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:
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.
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.
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