Ethical investing

Do you have a problem investing in companies that does things that you normally don't do in real life? I give an example here. I am invested in HSBC - the world's local bank - for a pretty long time. That was way back in 2007 when I just started this blog. Back then, the financial crisis had not happened yet and in the span of almost 8 years, a lot had changed. The whole landscape of the global financial markets had been changed and now you heard...

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Do you have more than 1 alarm in your mobile phone?

My student didn't turn up for lessons recently. It's a group session so the lessons went on as usual for the rest. A while later, he texted me, apologised and said that his alarm didn't ring and that's the first time in his life that it happened. It happened for me as well. Usually about once a year, I'll have screw-ups in my gadgets. I usually set alarms in my phone to wake me up in the morning. Two, in fact, and they are all on snooze. In the...

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My thoughts on Pre/Post Financial Independence schedule

I read B's post on pre and post financial independence (FI) schedule here. In it, he put in his planned timetable for pre and post FI. He also encouraged everyone to try it and have a little fun imagining what it'll be like upon reaching FI. I thought about it. I'm not reaching FI anytime soon, though I'm sure I'll certainly reach it one day. I'm a full time private tutor. People thought that this means I'll have a lot of freedom in my time, plus...

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The irony of being clean

My teeth are dirty, so I brushed my teeth. My teeth are now cleaned but I dirtied my brush. My brush is dirty, so I washed my brush, My brush is now cleaned but I soiled my hands. My hands are dirty, so I cleaned my hands My hands are now cleaned but I tarnished my sink, As I cleaned up one thing, I dirtied another As I washed up one thing, I soiled another. Did I clean my teeth since I dirtied my brush? Did I clean my brush since...

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Being frugal with your time

I was discussing some stuff with the finance gang, and we came up with the idea of being frugal. You know the usual stuff about being frugal with money, but there's also another less discussed but related topic - that of being frugal with one's time. First of all, my definition of being frugal is to be efficient and not be wasteful. The action you do must be aligned with your values. So the distinction between stingy and frugal is that - whether...

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Not a great tech year for me

This year isn't a great tech year for me. First of all, my old trusty desktop broke down on me and I couldn't get it to start at all. I ended up spending about $800 upgrading the entire things. Thankfully my graphic card did work out in the end, and I probably deferred about another $200 to $300. Then, I dropped my handphone and the screen cracked into pieces. I'm usually very careful, and the height that I dropped from isn't even high, but...

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