Executive Condo as Investments?

I'm sure many people will tell you that EC is an excellent investment and that property always go up and never go down. But being the cynical person that I'm lets look at the maths as numbers never lie.

Consider buying an EC for investment to sell once it is privatised. Lets say for instance, you bought a nice swanky 3 bedroom unit in Yishun for $800,000 which is the price range for most EC, let's not talk about $ psf because the numbers are generally misleading.

misleading how?
simple, you cannot sell half of your unit right?

Back to topic, for $800k, most people will hold out for about 5-10 years before. I've seen some people say 5-10 years, it gets confusing but it does not matter. Let us say 5 year (to make it more advantageous to those who say it is profitable.)

On year 5, you sell the unit for $1,000,000. Ka-ching! It is a profit of $200,000 or 25%. But is it real profit? 


But hold your horses houses, let's put some things into perspective for you. For $800k to be a million in 5 years, the compound interest % is about 4.5% Meaning to say, every year, the value of the $800k unit goes up by 4.5%

It is something like this:
Bought: $800k
Year 1: $836k
Year 2: $874k
Year 3: $913k
Year 4: $954k
Year 5: $997k (or close to a million)

Lets put in the amount of money you have to fork out before you talk about selling it or realising it for profit.

When you buy a EC, you can only take bank loan, being the friendly neighbourhood banks, they will offer you a 3 year fix rate loan for 30 years or rather, but lets put the interest rates at 2% fixed for 30 years which is an extremely attractive and un-do-able interest rate, to skew things in favour of buying an EC, lets keep the interest rates low.

This is the loan repayment for a $800k flat at 2%, by year 5, you will have paid $5300+ for interest only which is very low.

so far, the costs for 5 years of EC ownership is: $805300

what about properties agent's commission? 1% commission for selling at $1 mil is $10,000.

Now, your cost is about $815300k.

We can go further to add renovation costs, maintenance costs, utilities and many more to up the costs for owning an EC for 5 years before selling. If the interest rates is 2.5% fixed 3 years and increased to 3% for year 4 and year 5, you have to pay about $1500 more just for interest alone.

If we were to factor in a low inflation of about 2-3% annually, the unit is actually losing money rather than earning when you sell it for a million.

It doesn't matter if you do not see it the way I see things, but given a very positive scenario, we are barely making a profit from buying an EC, so I hope more buyers will just take into account of these following factors that property agents do not mention when trying to market you an EC unit.

So far I have never seen any property agent able to confirm true profits of EC using maths. Then again, I have not met much property agents.

Yet on the other hand, at it's high point, BTOs bought in Punggol were selling for 3 times its purchased price, even if held for 10 years, it is more than 10% annually. If it sold for twice it's purchased price, holding for 10 years, the rate of return is more than 7% not to mention HDB loans are at 2.6%. If that is not good debt, I don't know what is.


In closing
As always, it is a good mental exercise to do some maths every now and then when it involves a large sum of money. Especially your own money!

Things aren't what they always seemed to be, do not take people's word for it.

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.

Manlines: Start wet shaving today to save money/face

Guys must pay attention, girls also get your guys to pay attention to this life changing post! I think this is one of the only things in Singapore where it is literally better and cheaper to make the switch. You can quote me and any wet shaver (no matter the face type):

Wet shaving has many advantages over cartridge shaving and it costs half as much every year.

Whats the difference between these two pictures?

A

B

Picture A depicts a woman shaving with a cartridge/multi-blade razor  (carts for short), and he is probably using those aerosol shaving gels/foams which is in fact feminine wash and does nothing.

Picture B is how a man should shave. Straight edge (SE)/double edge (DE) razor with a shaving brush to lather proper shaving cream on the face.

KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!!!

Shaving is a thing a men must do, do not be a sucker to advertisements and marketing about shaving from companies like Gillette/Schick or what have you.

In Singapore, it is accepted widely to use a cart shaver, but it's fine. I used to be shaving with carts till I discovered proper shaving ie, SE/DE razor, I'll refer to them as razors for ease of typing this. Albeit I have never understood the notion of the shaving gels and foams. With carts being advertised to be so sharp and smooth gliding, all I did use was water to wet my face and shave two pass, up and down.

I know army give Gillette fusion and is very generous, but once you walk around NTUC to find that the cartridge refills in-fact are more expensive than the handle itself! This is atrocious, the printer situation all over again.

A quick search online shows the many advantages of DE Razors, for myself, these are the advantages I've seen and felt:
1) Areas which I shave have significantly better skin
No matter how many people works in the R & D dept of Gillette, they will never achieve a nice shave in a cartridge if all they care about is fitting 10 blades into one cartridge.

The truth is, all you need is love one blade, gillette developed two blades as the first cart razor, it's idea is to cut the remaining hair left behind by the first blade. I believe this is because they didn't make blades very sharp back in the days. But now, with them being literally razor sharp, after the first blade passes through, what is left is the top layer of skin to be mowed off by the second blade and third and forth and fifth

The one blade razor ensures only facial hair is bladed off your face. And you will not shave parts of your face that has no hair right?

With the regime of shaving a DE razor, you put on proper shaving cream (which I'll touch on later), after shave/toner and moisturisers, your face just feels great. ( I know girls will always harp on guys to put on moisturiser) This brings me to my next point...

2) It's an activity not a chore
I look forward to shaving as a event of the evening similar to winding watches rather than a chore
With the hustle and bustle of urban life, fast moving pace and many of the technology that surrounds us, we have to learn to appreciate some analog things in life

I will typically shave at night, after a shower (which is the best way to prep the face btw). From whipping up the shaving cream to a nice thick lather, application, first pass all the way till I finish the routine with toner + moisturiser combo, my face feels great

3) It saves alot of money
Let's do some simple maths here, I have shaved on both before, I will show you the costs breakdown over a year.
Starter kits:
DE
Edwin Jagger Safety Razor - $59 from Taka (this is a very good entry-mid level handle used worldwide)
Omega brush - $6.50 from Mustafa
Palmolive shaving cream - $2.50 from Mustafa (I've used for 4-5 months already and not 80% squeezed)
Shaving bowl - $2 from Daiso (any bowl you can find also can use, even direct apply to your face and lather with brush is also another practise)

Cart
Gillette basic 2 Blade shaver + 2 refill cartridges - $16
Gillette Aerosol Foam shaving cream - $7

Expendables - items that finishes and requires replacements periodically
DE
Razor blades - $1.20 to $2 for a pack of 5 Gillette 7 O'clock razor blades which is good blades for the price (uses 2 blades a week, so buys a new pack every 3 weeks)

*Razors can buy other brands or types to try them out and they do not exceed $3 for a pack of 5 blades

Cartridges
Razor cart refills - $15 for a pack of 4 refills from Gillette, you are pretty much stuck with the same kind of blade for which ever handle you use (you change once a week because its too expensive to change the blades twice a week, refills lasts you every month or so)

Shaving foams from cans lasts about 3 months

See the price difference in expenditure plotted over 52 weeks:
DE shavers spent: S$137
Cart shavers spent: S$250

On top of that the sudden bump in the DE Razor bar was because the user decided to spend $30 on a body shop shaving cream and he has plenty of both shaving creams left.

Not only do DE shavers get to change the blades they use regularly, they also get new shaving creams and still spend a little over half as much as cart shavers. Also by changing blades regularly, shavers will not experience the tug or pull from a dull blade.

4) Razor shaving is manly
If you still not convinced, and you feel that roger federer's shaving on TV is the way he shaves in real life then so be it.

But shaving with either a DE or straight edge razor is the way our grandparents did it, its also the way indian barber - high end male grooming saloons does it


Tools of the trade (purchase-able in Singapore shops
You are going to need a few things to get you going, as mentioned above, but here's a few items that are low priced (there are always cheaper stuff but they might not be as good):

Edwin Jagger DE89 - $58 to $60 at Taka departmental store, men's grooming section *the Edwin Jagger secton in Taka is actually owned by what he wants as well.
Also can be bought from Whathewants, which has brick and mortar stores around town at the same price.

Comes in black, chrome and ivory coloured handles. If you like, you also can get the gold plated one but that won't really last.

Another honorable mention is:
Rimei Safety Razor - $4 to $5 from pasar malam

Cute blue box has a mirror and enough space to hold a few blades inside you can pack for travelling

You can get them from these kinds of shops that sells everything you need for your house.

Not the boy

The rimei razors is one the better ones out there that does not rust after awhile and shaves quite well. Can use this if you are not comfortable with a $50+ handle which is what I did at first.

Razor blades:
This one is another part of shaving that affects the outcome and your feel. Everyone's combo is different.

I personally used Gillette 7 o'clock as it is sharp, lasts 3 shaves, and easily available. This pack costs about $1.20 and has 5 blades inside. For razor blades, almost all provisional shops will sell a type or two.

Be cautious when buying the razors, some of them can be of same name, but because of its different country of origins, perform differently. Your mileage may vary (YMMV) is a common term in wet shaving forums.

Another one raved online is the feather's razor blades

They are made in Japan, and japan has the samurai sword that is basically what Jedi uses before the light saber, so its quite aggressive for some. But if you are a daily shaver, look out for this one.

Shaving brush:
I bought mine from Mustafa, which is quite a mecca for wet shavers in Singapore. The omega (no omega watch, but got omega brush) branded one costs $5.90 or $6.50. They work fine with time and there is no need for you to use those expensive boar/badger hair brushes that costs hundreds of dollars, not that I'm sour grapes, but I do not see the need to because I'm stingy.

This is not the exact one but you get the idea.


Shaving cream:
I use palmolive shaving cream from Mustafa, a big tube costs $2.50. I have been shaving for almost 4-5 months (2 shaves a week) and I have not even squeezed out 80% of the tube.

Final Pass
My post is not to teach you shaving techniques, but rather how you shave. If you are keen in wet shaving, there are plenty of tutorials online and most importantly is to start slow and do not apply pressure. Gravity acting on the razor + sharpness of the razor is sufficient to cut the facial hair and leave your face and natural oils on.

If you like, you could get aftershave (toner does the same and regular toners marketed to women tend to work better as aftershaves have fragrances that might be harmful to skin). There is also some oils/balms for the pre-shave routine which I find to be hallmark in nature as the best pre-shave prep is just to take a shower and wash your face with facial wash.

One thing I noticed about wet shavers is they tend to over spend as soon enough, it will feel like a hobby because its so fun and there is a community for wet shavers.

I have seen some people spend some serious money on $200 razors, $200 shaving brushes, $80 shaving cream, $70 aftershaves $50 shaving bowls, $150 razor and brush holders. These things are nice, but they are really not necessary. Not that its wrong, but this is about being value for money here. No need to drive a proton, or a ferrari, a toyota does the job just as well.

This costs USD 80 (more than S$100)...