The swan song of local bloggers

As the market transforms back and fro into a beast that is neither a bull or a bear (perhaps it had always been a hybrid chimera of sort - a bull with bear head for instance), I noticed that more and more old timer bloggers are slowly exiting the blogging scene. I say that with a tinge of heartache, because some of them had been blogging together with me since I started circa 2006 period, right near the peak of the bull market. 6 years had since passed, with each of them patiently and industrially churning out articles after articles, sometimes to an unappreciative crowd of anonymous users, and hopefully not blogging just to yourself.


I guess there's a time and tide for everything. As we grow older, a lot of activities will exact their demands on our energy and time. Suddenly passions that you once had might have gone uninteresting and unloved with the passing of time, but that's only natural, since new activities might also interest you more and you would willingly devote more of your resources on them. Like the market that we, the small group of local financial bloggers, discuss, poke at and debate relentlessly, the blog that we had painstakingly nurtured also has its own bearish and bullish cycles.


I'll try to keep this blog for as long as possible, but I do not guarantee a full premium cbox features in the future as these premium features requires me to pay for your enjoyment. But as avid readers and followers of this blog can see, I've reduced tremendously the amount of blog posts here because I simply cannot muster the energy and patience to blog about another market related stuff. I felt that I've done that and covered that many times in the blog's illustrious (hopefully) 6 years since 2006, so it's just a rehash and churning of stale ideas.


Walk with me, blog articles by articles, and we shall see where this road will lead us.

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How I read (almost) 52 books a year

Since a lot of readers commented that they had only been reading 1-2 books max in a year, I thought it'll be a good time to share what I did to read that many books. First of all, let me add that in my opinion, reading many books is not as important as reading the right books. I rather read less books but books that are important and crucial to your mental well-being, than to say, reading many many books that are just trashy. But it's the law of diminishing returns that really makes it harder and harder to find those books that bring the right amount of inspiration and motivation to pump your hand in the air and gave a mental shout of victory. The best books are books that told you what you know internally already, in a way and mannerisms that makes it so easy for you to absorb. If I can read a handful of such books in a year, I think it'll be a great literary adventure for that year.



I read a lot more after I wanted to have a more disciplined approach towards it. In the past, I only read like less than 5 books in a year. I thought there is something wrong with this because there are so many things - wisdom and experiences - captured in books, written by people who had lived entirely different lives, that if I didn't know about them, I couldn't be living a full life, so to speak. It's a very good habit, I'll say. Things that I never though I knew, I actually knew. Besides being able to talk about almost anything, I find it useful in my work when I can relate certain facts or story and weave them into my lesson plans when teaching.

These days, I'm more likely to hold a ebook reader than a physical book

Anyway, here's how to squeeze more time and have some spare time to read:


1. I never watch tv. In fact, I don't even have a tv at home now, a fact that I'm proud of (despite the many cries by relatives and friends for me to go get a tv). I watch things from my computer though, because firstly I can skip by all the advertisements that a show usually will be splattered with, intermittently every 15 mins or so. I used the spare time to read instead. Roughly I can save around 2-3 hours like that to spend on reading.



2. I read while commuting. Though I don't bring my gigantic kindle dx around with me when I travel, I either have a physical book with me or an ebook saved in my handphone for idle time that pops out occasionally. I make it a point to always have something that I want to read in my bag (or handphone) so that when I'm commuting or when friends I'm meeting are late, I can whip it out to spend the time. Since I've reduced the amount of time that I spent travelling now, I read in between classes while waiting for students to come. I think I can save around 1 hr per day reading by doing this.



3. I always read before going to bed. Minimum of 30 mins or until a suitable stopping point in the book. It had been a habit since a long time, so besides calming me down to ready my mind to go to rest, it also serve as a routine that brings me to sleep. If I don't do it, I might even have problem sleeping! I think everyone needs to prepare for bed by doing things that will relax their body, so that when they actually go about sleeping, their mind will not be so alert and restless. This bedtime reading will allow me to spend a minimum of 30 mins to 2 hours reading.


So, in total, I think I can do about a minimum of 3 hours of reading time per day on average. Of course, there are other hobbies that I would do occasionally if I'm not reading, like guitar and playing computer games. But I think spreading between these few hobbies that I have, it's not too hard to be able to read an average sized book (around 2-3 cm thick) in a week.


Try it, you might find how easy it catches on!

(I'm off for a trip on 21st Jan, will be back on 26th Jan)

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Reflection on 2011

After doing my end of month accounting for the Dec 2011 and thus wrap up my financial year 2011, I realised that a lot of my networth was wiped out. Okay, everyone's definition of networth is different, so here's mine - it's defined as all my assets (includes cash, marked to market investment portfolio, whole life insurance cash value, mmf  and cpf) but excludes my residential property. I also didn't include debts that I owed to the hdb because of the property. I think you can roughly say that's my investible networth since most of it is cash that I can utilize at short notice. I know you can't use cpf anytime you want, but then again, I don't have much of it anyway, so it doesn't matter significantly.



With this kind of definition, I realised that my networth is whacked down to around 2008, way before I had started any kind of disciplined savings. I had never had so little money in my savings account; the last time being just right after I had graduated from university. Wow, what a journey that I had in 2010/2011 right? But I had never had so much satisfaction and fun, so it's all worth it.



I realised that I had to begin from scratch again, working hard, savings hard and building up that excess money that I can hoard away for maybe another life's big bombs to hit me again. Sometimes I wondered if I had spend way more than I can handle. But the deed is done, so there's only one way to go and that's forward. I guess it's back to the 50k per year savings target. I'm really trying hard to double that savings but I think realistically, it's not going to happen this year 2012. There's simply no way to save more than I can afford to do so without sacrificing my current standard of living, so I'll have to do it by upping my income level. That's the challenge isn't it? I think if I can manage to save up 50k this year without including my mortgage payment, it'll be quite a feat already. That's technically 60-70k in total. Gulp.


So what had I set out to do in 2011?


1. Save 50k. Okay, that's old story, been there done that. Even though halfway along the year, I had to start paying mortgage for my flat, so the 50k includes all the mortgage payment too (I don't have much cpf, as mentioned earlier, so all of it is through cash)


2. Read 52 books a year. Nope, didn't manage to do that but I came quite close at 50 books. Here's the books that I read in 2011. Most of it is fiction, not some financial books that I've been gorging on since 2006. I realised that fiction taught me a lot on how to be human being. I haven't been reading so much fiction since my primary school day. PRIMARY SCHOOL - can you believe that? My brains must be super lopsided, haha!

You can see that I'm a loyal reader. If I like a particular author, I tend to 'cheong' all his/her books.

3. Set up and finish up the house. Okay, that's mostly done too. I still haven't got my bedside table and a tv. Yes, most people who came up to my house will definitely remark on the fact that I don't have any tv at home. I just don't see how a tv will fit into my life, so that's quite a low priority in my waiting list of things to buy.



In retrospect, I think 2011 had been a fulfilling year. It's a year that I had spent more than I had ever done in my life. It's a year that my friendship with my parents had just begun. It's a year that I had experienced a lot of new things (like cooking and maintaining the home, buying furniture, supervising renovation etc). It is certainly a year that is a big milestone in my life

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Making mistakes

I made a couple of mistakes these few weeks as I shifted over to my new home. Most of them happened in the kitchen, because that's the part of the home that I had least experience in. In school, we make mistakes when doing tutorials. In work, we make mistakes in handling people and other more technical stuff. At home, what kind of mistakes can I make?



Well, I'm going to list it out:


1. As I was sweeping stuff into my dustpan, I moved it over to the rubbish chute (which is inside my home) to clear it. But without concentrating on what I'm doing, I didn't grip the brush hard enough, as a result, the whole brush fell into the chute, all the way down to the bottom. It's so silly that when I told my wife about it, we all laugh at the kind of clumsiness we can exhibit. My wife had her own episode too - she was putting some door stopper on the window when it dropped off. All the way down from the 22nd floor! Thankfully it's made of sponge, otherwise who knows what damage it can cause!



2. Things that look like silicone might not be silicone. Silicone has high melting point, so it can withstand temperatures up to 250 degree celsius plus minus. I had a scrapper that I had bought which I thought was made of silicone (maybe it is, but not the heat resistant kind), so I used it to fry pancakes with. As a result, part of it melted. Luckily I saw white marks on the pan and ceased using it, otherwise I might become plastic man instead.



3. I first started using the oven by re-heating frozen pizzas bought off the shelf from supermarket. I preheated the oven to a certain temperature, accordingly to the 'instruction manual' at the package of the pizza. Okay, what's so difficult about preheating the oven. Just turn the knob to the desired temperature and wait right? Wrong. I didn't know that there is a temperature light that goes off when the temperature is reached. So the pizza is half cooked. Seriously, it's silly.



4. Cooking without researching (meaning sufficient youtubing and reading through the recipe thoroughly) is a sure fire way to fail. Fail to plan? Plan to fail. There are countless times that I thought the wife knows what she is doing, and she thinks I know what I'm doing. In the end, nobody knows what they are doing.

I think making mistakes is part and parcel of trying out new experiences. I haven't made so many mistakes for so many years since I left school. That means I haven't been trying out so many new things in the past. While new mistakes are unavoidable, repeated mistakes are totally avoidable. I think that mistakes are life's great teachers, if you wish to learn from it. If you live your live to avoid making mistakes, then I'll say your life is pretty safe and conservative. Not much adventure too.



I think the same goes for investments. I've made countless mistakes, many of which I'm still living through the repercussions. But that's life - we have to learn from our mistakes and move on. If because of this and that mistake, you totally give up, then you'll never see the breakthrough. Thomas Edison is said to have made 2000 life bulbs before successfully finding the right material to make the filament. Did he have 2000 failures? Nah, he discovered 2000 ways that a light bulb will not work.


So, don't be afraid of making mistakes. If you haven't made a mistake today, you haven't tried something new!

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Taking on full responsibility

The recent mrt episodes in Singapore highlighted a couple of bias that can be equally applicable in the investment/trading mentality. I saw some report saying that since the CEO had been in the company, the company had grew its profit from xxx to yyy per annum. This implied that the CEO is responsible for creating the profits. But when the spate of incidents causing the train to breakdown happened, there's no report saying that the CEO is responsible for it. I mean, why is it so easy to attribute good things to the CEO but not the bad things?



Will that happen to people who invests or trades too? I guess so. When the stocks that you bought went up, it was a good call or a good investment decision. You picked a stock that ran up, so you are good. But when the call turns sour, you start blaming the general investment sentiments, or the euro crisis, or the fact that you are not there to execute the orders, or that you are busy with work. A thousand and one event happened to prevent you from making the right decision, it seems to me. That's just self delusional.

If you keep on coming up with excuses on why you cannot do this or that, then perhaps you are shifting the blame to anything or anyone but yourself. By doing so, you are empowering others, making yourself a victim of the circumstances. Playing the victim is such a good role to play, it would seem to me, because a lot of people like to complain about their lot in life. Okay, granted that everyone needs a space to vent out their frustration and to release the emotional steam that builds up inside you. But what do people do after they complained? They'll just go about doing the same thing again. If you keep doing what you have been doing, you will keep on getting what you have been getting. I don't know about you, but I try to distance myself far from such people because they tend to be quite infectious in their negativity. I call them vampires - real life vampires do not suck blood, they suck energy from people around them and make others vampires too.



So, this coming new year, how about putting up a resolution to change this mentality? Instead of thinking that "I could do this if only _____", how about thinking that "I could do this by doing _____". Only by taking full responsibility of your situation can you empower yourself to do the necessary changes to improve it. Unless you're contented at playing the victim, of course.

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Choosing quality over quantity

As I get older and hopefully more mature, I realised that if I have to choose between quantity and quality, I'll go for quality these days. It's not always like that. There was a time that I thought more is good. For example, having more of a cheaper share is better than having less of a better one. Or eating more lousy food in buffet is better than eating less but higher quality ones. There are many many such examples where I can quote you that lets you see how I chose quantity over quality. Hopefully I will reduce such nonsense from now on.


Specifically, here are the areas that I would need to rewire my thinking regarding the choice of quantity vs quality:



1. I've always had a target to read 1 book a week. Initially that target was set so that I can read more. I remember the times when I was reading maybe less than 5 books in a year - that was not okay for me. I wanted to change that, so I set up a target of 52 books per year, since 5 yrs ago. While I understand why I set the target back then, I think the reason for such a goal no longer exists. I don't think I need to force myself to do such a target anymore.


As such, I want to read less and enjoy more. Instead of reading 52 books per year, how about reading 12 good books in a year?



2. Trading 20 ideas in the stock market can be further reduced to trading 10 good ideas in a year. Slowly but surely, I'm getting more patience about the kind of setup I want to see before entering a position. I am no longer looking at the market as fervently as, say 2 yrs ago. When there's nothing to do, do nothing. That doesn't mean that you totally ignore the market - it simply means you wait for the right time and right situation before doing anything. If I miss it, so be it. I realised that there are many ways to make money, but unfortunately, going through the stock market is not my way. That's an important realisation. With that thinking, I not longer try to showoff my skills (not that I have any) or trying to hit certain targets. There are other ways that I can earn my money and fulfill my other goals at the same time. I would focus my time and energy on that instead.

3. Playing 15 so-so computer games is something that I simply cannot afford to. If I want to fulfill my gaming needs (yes, there is such a thing in me), I would rather play 1-2 good game. Again, it's a conscious choice of quality over quantity. I will have to reduce the amount of games that I buy online over steam.



4. A few good friends is better than 30 so-so friends?


The whole point of quality over quantity is really also to reduce the clutter in your life. With less stuff and stuff that you really really want, you can increase your satisfaction and happiness while not cluttering and filling your life energy with all sorts of rubbish. Life works best if it's simple but not simpler. Perhaps when one gets older, you'll realise that time is about the only asset that is decreasing whether you use it sensible or not. Not money.

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Hill Harper's "The Wealth Cure"

If you're looking for prescribed, step by step ways to kick start a healthy relationship with money and wealth, then Hill Harper's "The Weath Cure" is not your type of book. Initially when I read the book, I found it rather strange because of the way the book is structured. There are 5 big parts to the book, which each part having a couple of smaller chapters that is related to the parts. But here's the thing - I don't see the relation at all. Perhaps I had been to used to seeing other financial related books that are usually more straightfoward. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's just different. 

Halfway through reading the book, I realised that this is a chicken-soup-for-the-soul kind of book. Each of the smaller chapters are actually stories written in the point of view of the author himself. I thought it's a very refreshing way of looking at financial related stuff. The chapters are not written in the typically sermon like way, "You must do this..." or "you should do that...". Instead, the chapters are really just reflections of things that had happened to the author as he lives his life. Like chicken soup for the soul, this book can be re-read again and again. Depending on your situation at different points of your life, I'm sure you'll get different perspective from the stories. Same story, different life stage, different interpretation and meaning. That's why this book is a keeper - it's not something that you should just read and never pick it up again. 

I don't like all the stories, to be honest. Some of them are inspiring, some are just puzzling. The inspiring ones touch on the key points of important ideas without giving you too much details. Thankfully, there is a bibliography at the end of the book for readers who wish to dig more into the subject matter. This makes the book an easy read, without all the (boring) details and leaving the motivation to find out more solely on the reader. The puzzling stories are those that I think shouldn't have a place in the book. It's either because I do not have the life experience to appreciate the reflections that ought to follow after each story, or I simply don't see the point of the story. Fortunately, such puzzling stories that leaves you duh and speechless are few and far between.

If you've read about other financial related books, you'll find familiar concepts and principles. How many new ones are there? But that's not the point. What I liked about the book is that the same old concepts are put into fresh new perspectives - the author's perspectives - and that makes this book an interesting read. I don't really know the author as a celebrity (sorry, but I don't watch the CSI : NY at all) and you can't really tell from the style that the author writes. The author writes in a very down to earth, honest manner, which is kind of endearing especially if you know his background as a celebrity. He certainly doesn't seem like those financial wreckball kind of celebrities that the mass media loves to publicize. 

Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you're just starting out on changing your relationship with money and trying to find out more about wealth. If you're looking for more detailed answers, this book isn't your cup of tea. Nevertheless, it's still a good and enjoyable read to see how different people interprets age old principles in their own way. I'll say it reads like a blog, haha! 

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Positive mindset vs possibility mindset

I was reading this book by Dr. Robert Anthony "How to make the impossible possible", when I discovered that the author actually differentiate between positive mindset and possibility mindset . We know the usual positive thinking - if we think positive, then the outcome can also be positive. This is opposed to thinking negatively about a situation. But I've always wondered about the limitations of having a positive mindset and the book addresses exactly that problem.



I thought that if I think hard enough, will things really happen? For example, if I 'will' a book to move, will it really do so, even if I'm ultra positive about it? To the majority who don't have special powers, I guess the book is going to stay there. So there is a limitations to how much positive thinking can do to us. It's like if you never study hard for your exams, no matter how positive you are about it, you probably wouldn't do very well in it, unless you're a genius. You can ever call such a person naive, or overconfident. Positive thinking can make a person in denial of the actual situation.



Now what is possibility thinking? That is when you think that things are possible in the first place. For example, if you think that the book is going to move, having a possibility mindset means that you know that the book is not going to move on its own (though it's possible to move it), so you're going to move your butt and move it yourself. Or if you know that sitting for a test without studying isn't going to work but it's within the realm of possibility to pass and even to ace it if you just start working hard on it. Having a possibility mindset essentially entails that things are possible, if you are willing to do it. This mindset takes into account of reality and places power in your hands, because only you alone can change an impossible situation and make it possible.



It's a subtle difference but it makes all the difference to me. So actually, when I referred to having a positive mindset in the past, I'm really talking about having a possibility mindset - an attitude in life that views that things are possible if you are willing to take actions to do it. I'm not saying that having a positive mindset is not good - it's just not good enough. A possibility mindset allows you to think that something that you deem impossible is possible in the first place, and then forces you to address on how to achieve it.



Here's more examples:

So are you ready to take on the world? Haha :)

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Am I certified to trade?

As I logged into my poems account, I saw this screen asking me to do a test. I think it's the new ruling that is going to take effect on 1st Jan 2012. If you do not satisfy certain criteria, you'll be asked to take a test to determine whether you know what you are doing. If you fail, you won't be able to buy (though you can sell your existing holdings, from what I read from the site). I don't know who the ruling is trying to protect - the advisors or the consumers. Anyway, it seems that I do not have to take the test since I had made more than 6 trades with regards to shares. I can't do CFD or unit trust myself though, until I take the test, that is.

Anyway, I would like to take the test and see if I 'know' my stuff or not. It'll be interesting, haha!

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The joys of working from home

As I was starting work in my new flat, I realized that there's a few things that I liked about this arrangement. As I was slacking now after my student left, I realized how fortunate I am to be able to finish work and still be at home. I cherish this feeling and felt an immediate sense of satisfaction. On reflection, I think that working home allows me to :



a. Multitask things with regards to my personal and work life. For example, I could be in between doing household chores and having tuition at the same time. Of course I don't do it while teaching, but I do it during the lull moments like when the student is doing work. These kind of stuff are important to me as a time saver because in the past, I had to work outside and come home and settle my personal stuff. In the future, I would even be cooking lunch/dinner while working. That is something that most people would not be able to experience.

b. Since I'm at home, I can start using some stuff that are useful teaching aids. For example, during today's lessons, I was showing a student about how sounds waves though invisible can actually be felt. My desktop and my big subwoofer is just in the room, so I popped over and asked her to bring a piece of paper to place is near the subwoofer while I played a sound with a good beat to it. The paper became vibrating and I began linking that to the lessons itself. I think such interactive learning cannot be done in the student's place, because I cannot possibly carry all my stuff with me when I travel. Since I'm now stationary and fixed in one location, I can truly add another dimension to the lessons.



c. I feel more energised because usually it's the travelling and walking that tires me out. With that out of the picture, I can have more time of my own and that alone is priceless. I can free up the travelling time in between locations (usually takes up to 1-2 hr per day for a fully booked day). I can nap, I can settle my household stuff, I can prepare lessons, I can play games....infinite combinations with one single result - it's making me a very very satisfied and happy man. I wonder why I didn't do this sooner!



The answer to the question whether the expensive resale and expensive renovation is worth it or not, should be obvious to me by now. A resounding yes. It's one of the best thing that can happen to me in 2011.

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Cbox outing @ Beng Hiang

Bullythebear had a lunch outing on Sat 26th Nov 2011. It had been quite some time where we had a gathering with the guys/gals from the cbox community. Anyway, thanks to Neophyte who initiated it and passed the baton over to me to handle the rest of the logistic. Not to forget sfry who sponsored the lunch though we had never met. It was always the kindness that we experienced from strangers that we will always remember deep in our hearts. Had a great time that day from 'our' restaurant Beng Hiang at Amoy street.


Here's all the dishes, in chronological order. Sorry for the first dish, I forgot to take pictures until we're deep into the dish, haha!

Are you expecting to see people's faces here? Nah, I'm too smart for this. Anyway, it's a unwritten rule that no pictures of faces are taken during the outing. Interesting to see how the faces match up to the online personality, haha!

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Starting a new friendship with an old friend

Today I went to Sitex (the computer exhibition at expo) with a new friend. Rather, he was an old 'new' friend because I've known him for many years but perhaps this time round, I really treated him like a friend. Kind of sad, but I'll always say it's better this way then never. You will never know the unintended consequences when you sow a seed into the universe. In my case, the seed is me getting a flat, renovating it and eventually moving out of my current home into it to live another sort of life. The known consequences are the drain into my financial resources, and of course the time and effort needed to ready the flat into a livable and homely place for me to start a family. The unintended consequence of this seed is that I started to know a friend all over again. Unintended is not necessarily bad, it's just...something that is not known in advance until the event happens. This new friendship that I started is, by no means, bad, of course.

This is my new Xerox printer that I got from Sitex 2011

So we went around Expo getting the things that I needed to get the new flat ready for my move-in. Firstly, I needed to get a broadband connection so that I can access the internet at the new flat. Since during computer fair, there's usually a good discount or extra freebies for new sign ups, I wanted to go there early to queue (if necessary) in order to get the good value plans that I wanted. Eventually, when we reached there, there wasn't such a promotion for the plan that I was looking for, so I didn't even queue for it. But for the few days before Sitex even started, my friend and I began discussing different possible set ups in my new flat. He is used to (and still is) tinkering around with his computer, ever since he got one maybe like 25-30 yrs ago and had been an avid computer hobbyist ever since then.



After getting my printer, we went over for lunch at Lerk thai there, where I treated him to thai food. It was a rather strange feeling because I can't remember having lunch with him in a restaurant for ages (maybe never, sad-ctually). We never really have a close relationship and I would so like to begin one right now. What better time than now, because we're never going to get any younger and more energetic than we are today. With that thought in mind, I also went to book a tour with him and his wife, even though I hated those guided tours and much prefer to go free-and-easy. In guided tours, you are more like having a work schedule with a fixed agenda every day, rushing from one tourist hot spot to the next, snapping this photo and that, buying the must-eat snacks and visiting the must-visit localities. It doesn't feel like a holiday at all; it feels like work.



But for them, I'll do it. It been a while since I went to a tour with them. The first time was a trip to Genting Highlands when I was 15. The next was a trip to HK when I was in my early twenties. This up and coming trip would be the third. Three pathetic trips in over three decades of us knowing each other. I think I can and should do more.



After all, they are my parents and I am their son.


(Thanks smol and ak for their blog posts so that I was suddenly 'jolted' to spend more time with my parents. My parents are still younger and I'm younger still, so there's a good many years to begin a fresh new relationship with my parents - to know them as friends.)

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My reshuffled priority in life

I realized as I sat in my new home, that setting up a home is financially draining yet at the same time is very satisfying. As the furniture slowly trickles in and your house transforms into your home, with all the little imperfections that you will come to appreciate and all the weird corners that you can stand on to view the home that nobody knows but you, an immense sense of fulfillment fills me up. A place that you can truly call your own is such a powerful feeling to have. I think the feeling would be multiplied many times if the next month is the last month that I have to pay the mortgage loans.



Is it worth so much money? I think, so far, it's a resounding yes. Except for a few parts that I think could be further improved (I realized quite early in this renovation game that there's no such thing as a perfect design - there's always this little corner that you can do better on and that little space that you regretted doing...ah, the perfect vision of hindsight), I'm overall satisfied with how the whole thing transforms an old dilapidated resale flat to the present renovated and modern look.



I'm sorry if readers coming in to the blog to read some financial stuff about making money in the stock market have to endure reading me talk about housing and renovation. It's just that such things are taking a bigger part of my interests now. I've little patience for the market these days and I loathe to spend so much time on it. Interesting how life turns out eh? haha!

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The last few ticks of my to-do lists

Finally finished the bulk of my work year! The rest of my work schedule are just some 'stragglers' from the graduating batch and maybe a few students for the preparation in the next academic year. I always said that I've never worked so hard before in the previous years, but I've to say that again this year too. Now that the bulk of it is over, I can finish settling some issues in my personal life.



1. Need to settle my housing once and for all and get ready to move in. This housing project had been dragging on for ages, perhaps starting around June/July and lasted until now. I really have no time to put my energy and effort into it, but no excuses now. I'm hoping to move in towards the end of the month. I've still got a few things to settle, mainly just the buying of the things I'll need to use when I shift over to the new premise and setting up some infrastructure to start a classroom. Sounds like fun :)



2. Catch up on my social life. Life of a tutor is pretty much like the life of a bus driver, or any service oriented staff. Ask yourself the next time you're shopping on a weekend or on a public holiday. Who's the one driving the bus? Who's the one serving you food in the restaurant? Who's the one serving you when you are buying stuff in the shopping mall? Well, the nature of my work is such that I'm busiest when others are not and vice versa. As such, I missed out on a lot of social occasions that I need to go but couldn't. It's time to play catch-up on those. Sorry people, if you've not been hearing from me, you'll do so soon :)



3. Shares? Market? Don't know if there's anything that needs to be done in this area because my cash is mostly drained out from the various bombs that hit me in this year and the last. I'll need to boost up my cash reserves first, so it'll take some time. I've already upped my savings target for this year to 55k (though it's no big deal because this year, I didn't take into account the money that I've to pay for the mortgage of the home loan). Still, I'm proud of the fact that I can keep a cool financial head despite all the turmoil happening around my life. I can handle the storm as they come. Next year I'm not sure if I can maintain my 50k savings (this time round, it'll be 50k after mortgage payment....gasp, a big big target), though I'll do my best to do it. Already did some back of the envelope calculation on how to get an income of 10 (actual target is 12k, but it'll take some time to achieve that). All I'm left to do is to execute it. No buts, no ifs.



4. Got to catch up on my reading. My perennial target of 52 books per year is still not hit yet. Not many days left to the end of 2011, so I better buck up on my reading. Left a few more chapters before I can do the review that I've promised on a book that I'm currently reading. Oh, need to finish up some drawings that I did too. I hate to leave work uncompleted - that'll always be a nagging feeling that makes me uneasy.



Probably will start blogging more often from now on. Can't leave my readers wondering what's happening right? haha!

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Adult quitting

When kids quit, they just stomp their feet and leave the game. The quitting is physical and mental at the same time. When we're adults, we can no longer quit physically because we either need the job or we can't afford to sour the relationship. So adults quit mentally. They would just stay in droning mode and do what is just needed in order not to quit physically, but their mind had already been switched off. They would do what is needed just to get the job (barely) done, but don't expect too much out of it.



I wonder how many people had adult-quitted at least some aspects of their lives? Perhaps most likely it's their jobs that they had quitted mentally. It's not necessarily a bad thing actually. When you can't find a job that fulfills you but you still needed to pay the bills that comes at the end of the month, you just have to suck it up and play adult quitting, until the next better thing sails along. Actually, I kind of think that the next better thing won't sail along...you sort of have to sail towards them incrementally. But that's another story altogether.



But adult quitting harms you spiritually. It is like a leech that sucks your energy, making you harder and harder to wake up in the morning just to do the job that you hate to do. You get less and less motivated and eventually this sort of quitting can affect other aspects of your life too. It's ultimately an energy sucking vampire. May I never be in such a situation in my life.

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Tech hack for android

I'm so glad I found the ultimate technological hack for android phones. Some of you may be aware that amazon had this new amazon app store, supposedly to cater for their new kindle fire tablet so that people can shop for apps through their site. They have this wonderful way to promote their amazon app store by giving free apps on a daily basis. Here's a list of full apps (not the lite version) that had been given away. I came to know of this when I was about to buy a fully paid version of officesuite pro, after trying it for a couple of weeks. I really need to access my spreadsheet on my phone effortlessly, so I thought getting a paid app is great for this specific purpose.

Unfortunately, the free apps is only applicable for US, not for other countries including Singapore. I searched around and came to know of a way to get around it. It can be found here. I tried it and it works perfectly. Great! So now I had a way to get my paid full version of officesuite just by doing a little sleuth work. Saved me $18.89 sgd :)

(On a sidenote, it's interesting to see how your thoughts can turn into reality. I've been thinking whether to get a paid app for my android phone for weeks, searching around for the best kind of office software for my uses. It happened that I was again looking around for such applications when I had an intense desire to just buy the app for 18.89 SGD. But I've no idea how I got into amazon apps in the first place (it's through one of the youtube links, bizarrely) and I happened to see a limited time offer for a free officesuite pro app, which is only limited for today only. Serendipity? Coincidence?)  

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Investing in your life goals

It's important to align your energy to fulfill your life goals. That's the only way to lead a purposeful and fulfilling life, isn't it? Why do you want to work so hard to buy things that you don't care to impress people whom you don't like? Once you recognize that doing certain things are not aligned to your life goals, then stop and prioritize your resources. Resources, like time and money (especially time), are limited, so we really have to think hard on where to expend it to achieve the maximum happiness and satisfaction.



People usually gawk when I told them how much I've spent on my housing. It starts from my parents, to my in-laws (I think they haven't yet know the extent of my renovation costs) and to my friends. But there's nothing that really satisfy me than to see a very homely property that I can call my own. In my vision of it, it'll be a place where many happy moments will be spent and where I'll start my family. It'll also be the place where I'll work and no longer have to travel around to earn my income. Many interesting conversations and laughter will be held at the living room when I invite my friends over for a simple meal. How is this not worth the money? I only lament that I didn't start early enough to enjoy it sooner. But life is seldom Utopian, timing is rarely perfect. We can only do what we can to make the best out of what life throws at us.

I guess I spent nearly 150k all in, which is nearly three years worth of my savings. That's what I call a substantial investment in my life goals. With it, I can utilize it for holding social gatherings, be independent and have a place that I call my own, work and possibly increase my career to the next level and lastly start my own family - all under one roof.



When is the last time you invested heavily in your dreams?

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Winter is coming

I'm seldom stressed about my financial situation because I don't really spend a lot and I save a major portion of my income. However, recently I've been trying to think out of my financial situation. Without giving specifics, I think I might have spent too heavily on both the COV of my resale and the renovation part. The COV of the resale cost me 40k and I don't even know what I'm paying for. At least for the renovation, I can see something tangible. COV? It's just an excess value above whatever valuation they come up with. It's something that I can do without. But this is Singapore - to get a flat fast in a matured estate, that is the price to pay.



The renovation bit is finally closed. Works out to be around 77k. Wah, jaws dropped... The bad thing about getting resale is that the condition of the flat is not that good. Hacking and planing the walls flat itself cost a few xxxx. I really really hope it's worth it after spending a big fortune on my house. If all things go well from next year onwards, I will be staying at home to work and making the best out of the money spent on the renovation. With such a big capital sunk into the home office, I've burnt my bridges. There's no turning back. I'll have to make it!



There's a couple of household appliances and furniture that still needed to be sourced out before the flat is livable. The major items include fridge, oven, dining table and a dining table for the study room (which is used for my work), sofa, a few tables (bedside table, coffee table, desktop for work), some lamps, a few fans, bowls and plates, cutlery, washing machin , cleaning equipment like broom, vacuum cleaner, mop etc. Did I put in TV and dvd player? No, I purposely left it out because that's going to be the last thing I'm going to need right now. That can wait...I'll have to do a few important things first in the proper sequence, so that my income stream can settle the cashout flow.



By end of this month, the bulk of my income stream would have run dry for this year. Hopefully my savings are enough to last me through the winter months as well as to settle whatever is necessary for the furniture and appliance part. I might need another 5k to tide me over, so perhaps I'll have to increase my saving target to 55k for this year. Just another 5k more to tide me through this extraordinary month, though 10k would seriously be nicer. If I can't hit that amount, I'll have to take off whatever bullets I have reserved for investments out. That would leave me with no emergency cash, though I still have quite a bit of holdings in equities that would serve as the emergency of the emergency. I don't think I'll come down to that though, unless I didn't stagger my purchases for the furniture wisely.


4Q plan:


1. Save up another 5-10k to bulk up my cash reserves before the winter month.

2. Work harder through the winter month instead of taking break. That would generate a low but still helpful cashflow in the winter months.

3. Stagger purchases of bulk items. More use of 0% credit installment, perhaps over 1 yr to ease out the cashflow bottleneck.


Wanted to put (4) Rely on help from family and (5) Buy cheaper and low quality furniture. No, I'll not do that. In life, one has to learn how to be independent, because ultimately, it's the way we can outgrow ourselves. It's also for the best because I'll be debt free - not those financial kind but the relationship kind. It's important for me to stand straight and walk tall among my family, so I'll best rely on my own. What about (5)? I'm thankful my journey learning the ins and outs of investing/trading taught me this very important lesson. Rather than buy cheap and low quality counters, it's better to be patient and wait for high quality counters to become affordable. Price shouldn't be the concern here - it should always be the quality. Get the best that money can buy so that time and energy would not be wasted hunting for new, cheaper ones again.



Alright, I feel better now. I just got to get it out so that it clears my mind. I know what I have to do now.


"Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice." ~ Steve Jobs

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4 steps to problem solving

Diagnose, Treat, Comply, Maintain.


Sometimes it's so hard to help students. I would diagnose that the reason why they are not performing well in their studies is because they do not have enough knowledge in their mind. Practicing past year papers a million times (without reflecting) just practices whatever you know, so it would be very hard to increase your knowledge base if they do not read the textbooks or attempt to memorise from the notes that I've written for them. What's the point of practicing the same stale knowledge base again and again - there's simply no attempt at all to broaden that base. Hence the treatment is given to them to read / memorise the notes but they do not comply. Even the best doctor cannot cure your disease if you do not comply with their treatment upon diagnosis.



There are times when students complied to the treatment, but they do not maintain it. It's called losing momentum. These people started sprinting from the start when they have another 5km left to run. Unless they have extraordinary stamina, they are going to stop and rest and restart again. Pacing is therefore important in order to maintain the treatment. It's not going to be very effective if they work very hard for 1 week but cannot maintain it and slack for another 3 weeks.



4 simple truths to solve problems and I'm surprised it can be used in a myriad of situations. This is just from the preface of the book by Hill Harper - "The Wealth Cure" which Victoria Taylor from id.pr kindly passed to me for a review. Will be doing that shortly once I get some free time to really immerse in the book. I haven't even started reading the actual chapters yet and I've already learnt something interesting. I think it's going to be a good read.

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Quick thoughts on strategy

Been super busy at work now, so this is just a quick post.



With the market going down, I think it's time to think of a general strategy to make the most out of it. Since I've already sold what I wanted to sell, there's nothing much more than I can do to raise cash to prepare for the ultimate bear scenario. I've limited cash as I've diverted most of it to renovation and stuff, so I'll just have to make do with what I have now.



The best thing to buy during a deep correction is not reits. No doubt that the price of reits will go down together with the general market, giving a very good and high yield. I think I've enough reits for the time being, so perhaps a smaller bite of selected reits at opportune time will be more than sufficient for generating some steady stream of income. Reits are good when the market is not moving - that is it's trending sideways. That'll be a time for it. The best thing should be the blue cheaps. Some of the major STI components will be sold heavily down and it will represent the best place to look for value. Combined with a small yield brought about by the low price, it'll be okay to hold it and waiting for the general market to recover. In fact, blue cheaps should be the first to recover rather than the mid-tier counters and reits.



As of specific counters to whack, I think it's still an early phase down. The charts will show the way. Patience is needed here.

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