Learning from Asta (Black Clover)

I seldom watch anime, but this year it seems I watched a fair bit from Netflix. While waiting for more episodes of Demon Slayer, I started watching Black Clover. It just happened to be in the feed so I clicked on it and realised how great it is. It's very inspirational. Pic from AmazonOne of the main characters in the anime is a young boy called Asta. He lived in a kingdom where everyone can use magic. It's like us using smartphones - everyone...

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Closing techniques applied to Parenting

Recently I read a book on sales, called SPIN selling by Neil Rackman. It's a pretty good book that talks about the differences between the traditional methods of selling low-value items and high-value items. I read such books because ultimately, we all need to be good salespeople. Either we need to tout our own horns or persuade someone to do certain things, we ought to be able to sell off an idea to anyone. These days, my young boy starts...

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Richness far beyond that of Silver and Gold

During CNY, I went to my mum-in-law home for dinner. My son was offered 3 ice-cream cones, of which he was to choose 1 for himself alone. But he quickly grabbed all three and passed one to my wife, one for me, and one for himself. I wasn't really interested in the ice-cream so I wanted to pass it to another person, but my son took it back and pressed it in my hands. It's quite sweet actually that he thought of his family first. It's not the...

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Having a gentle mid-life crisis

I am at this middle age where I see others doing better than me.Their careers are progressing well, getting more recognition and pay. Then there are others who are making more money and are deemed more successful than I am. Their kids are smarter than mine. Their cars are flashier, their watches have more diamonds than there are numbers.If I keep on thinking along these lines, I'm quite sure I'll get a mid-life crisis. But here's the thing - that's...

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Astrea VI bonds : Buy or bye

There is a new bond offering for Astrea VI bonds. The sponsors of the bond come from Astrea Capital VI Pte Ltd, an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of Azalea Asset Management Pte. Ltd, which in turn is wholly owned by Temasek Holdings. That name SHOULD NOT immediately give you assurance of the safety of this bond and is not in any way guaranteed by Temasek or Azalea, so please be aware of that. BOND DETAILS:1. Maturity date: 18th Mar 20312....

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My naive views on financial independence

Last time I was quite naive. Probably still am, but hopefully less so lol. I thought that after reaching financial freedom, I can relax. No need to work, shake legs and spend my passive income and I'll be happy. I calculated my expenses to be $2.5k per month (that's before I have a lot more adult responsibilities like the current me), which works out to be $30k per year. Assuming 5% returns per year, I just need to get 600k capital and I'm settled....

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Sharing my emotional upheaval

Whenever I'm feeling moody, or easily irritated, I try to correct my own biochemistry first. This means that I will settle all my physical bodily needs. Do I have enough food, water, rest and leisure time? If I don't have any of these, I will try to correct them first and see if I feel better. Most of the time, I do. Usually, I don't have enough sleep, and I'm always surprised by how much a good night's rest or even a short afternoon nap can do...

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I have a spate of good luck recently...

I had a spate of good luck recently in the past week or so.Firstly, my car that was parked got bumped by another person (let's say that the driver is a male for convenient's sake). It's not a huge dent since cars that are parking are moving at a slow speed. The good thing is that he put an ang bao on the windscreen with his contact details and is willing to pay for the cost. That's cool. I have had people bumping into my car and running away. Secondly,...

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How to save time?

To save time, there are really just three ways. The first way is to make our usage of time more productive, hence we use less of it, thus saving it. If instead of accomplishing just 1 thing, we aim to accomplish 2 or more things at the same time. That's saving time. The second way is to change our perception of how we utilise time to 'save' it. If we hate reading and doing any reading is perceived as a waste of time, then changing our attitude towards...

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Why am I pushing so hard?

My wife asked me an interesting question recently. I was telling her that I'm quite relieved because I've completed the week's quota for my blog articles. The quota stands at 2 articles per week, rain or shine, until an undetermined period of time. So she asked me why am I pushing so hard? It's not like I am being paid or sponsored right? And there's no manager behind my shoulders barking at me to fulfil my quota. So why?Her question makes me realise...

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So, which am I? A monk, shaman or wizard?

In the last 3 posts (here, here and here), I've shared what my thoughts are on different ways to reach financial freedom. I've done nothing new, as there are other more prominent bloggers who shared similar ideas that I've copied proudly with some of my own inputs. Essentially, one can be financially free by either reducing expenses (monk's path), earning a lot of income (shaman's path) and lastly by being a good investor (wizard's path). Let's...

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The 3 ways to Financial Freedom (Trilogy part 3)

 Fully expecting another knock on the head,I shut my eyes, and slowly opened them in dread.The old man seems older, he took a deep breath,  gave me an unnerving stare, to try to freeze me to death."I'm going to show you the last wayto be financially free,if this doesn't suit you, pack your things and leave.""If you decide to choose the powerful Wizard's way, you will need to study until your...

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The 3 ways to Financial Freedom (Trilogy part 2)

But how can I choose which pathuntil I know much more?Oh please, enlightened one -do teach me, my mentor! The sage looked up at me and this is what he said,"Those who choose the Second paththis road he will tread,He lives the life of a Shaman who is an excellent rainmaker. A Shaman always finds a way, that clever money-maker" "A Shaman can invite a parrotto grant the gift of the gab,to charm his way around youto make...

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The 3 ways to Financial Freedom (Trilogy part 1)

I heard of a sage who lives up the highland,located in an old and hidden,largely forgotten island.I trekked all the way right up to his doorsteps,to ask the wise man the secrets of his success,and what ways there are to be financially freeso that when I'm working, I don't scream like a banshee.After ten minutes (it could have been twenty),he broke into a smilethat meant aplenty."Three ways there are to be free...

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Book recommendations from year 2020

Year 2020 is the year of the books for me. I read voraciously because I can't go to malls and I'm 'stuck' at home most of the time. But I'm secretly happy because that's exactly what I want to do most of the time - just blanket myself up, put a book on my lap, a pillow behind my back and read myself to sleep.I read a total of 59 books, way exceeding my target of 52 books a year. I know, I have no life. Since I have the time, I also wrote down short...

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Don't be a target board

Recently I've been reading on the works of Michael Bazzell. He is the expert in privacy and does consultations with people who need to disappear from scrutiny. I just finished his book on Extreme Privacy and learn some ways to better prepare myself if the need arises. Why am I reading such books on opsec (operations security)?You must have heard of the revolt against the establishment by the people. These days, the fight is not out in the streets,...

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Don't let your Organic Intelligence box me up

Recently WhatsApp had to roll back an initiative to share data with her parent company Facebook. This is after receiving a severe backlash from users, which led them to switch to alternative messaging services like Signal and Telegram. The perception of the data sharing between Whatsapp and Facebook is that if two persons are messaging each other about cars on Whatsapp, both of them will start seeing personalised ads for cars on Facebook. It might...

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The power of small changes

I'm doing a classic SMOL post here (lol!), so interpret however you wish. Here it goe...

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Blogging about blogging

Ever since I resumed blogging this year, I have been quite disciplined in writing. Each article takes about 1 to 2 hrs time to write, edit and essentially just be ready for publishing. This doesn't include time to brainstorm for articles. Hence, you can see it requires a certain discipline to churn out consistently. I'm trying to hit about 2 articles per week, usually published on a Monday and a Thursday to spread them out. The writing and...

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Big fish small pond OR small fish big pond?

 If you have to choose, would you rather be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond? I ask this question because my students just had their O'lvl results. After so many years in this line, I tend to get less excited about their results. I fully understand how getting a great result will lead to undesirable consequences in life. I don't know whether to be happy about good results or be sad about bad results anymore. I'll...

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Expert versus Newbie

I've been a full-time tutor for 18 years and that's a very very long time. I think if I have a kid early, some of my youngest students can be my children already. Over the course of 18 yrs, I've progressed from a newbie tutor to a more experienced one. I've probably seen the same question in exams over and over again for decades. Therein lies the problem. I find that I'm more impatient over the years, and less willing to try new methods because...

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