Throwback

My mum mentioned about coming to Singapore in May for a quick trip to see his beloved son. I was so excited and immediately offered all the expenses covered so that I could spend more time with her.

As usual, over the phone we discussed about family matters, her work, her life and how she spent her free time. We also mentioned about future plans and how we should start planning already. It seems that she has a lot to do nowadays. She also mentioned about her health too. I guess she should take a good break befo

It is rather enjoyable to catch up with parents once in awhile. Some how, they understand my situation, listen to my brag and give me advice. I Learn new things, new gossip of the week, things that are happening in Kota Kinabalu. Speaking over the phone with her, had let me envisage images from KK over my head. Although I am still at work and it was pitch dark and while the conversation with my mum took place. I do feel that I was back in KK for a little while, contemplating things I can do, and things I can't do there, how my life would be. 

Although it wasn't solid, I am sure it would definitely be a slower pace. I would have more time doing things I like and want in life. I might not earn more, achieve more, learn more than what I did in Singapore, but I would definitely be happier, at least parents are around me.

Social Sunday 13/4/2014

I started my Sunday before 8, probably that is the time I normally get up for work. For this Sunday, it was a day which I host a gathering for some of our secondary school mates in East ocean. 

Before heading for our brunch at Ngee Ann city Tower A, East ocean, I took a cab to Lucky Plaza. There are a lot of domestic helpers from Philippines remitting money back to their country. Putting myself in a queue with over 99 % of them are female domestic helpers, I feel overwhelmed and somehow blend in. 

After settling some issue there, I then walked towards Ngee Ann city which is opposite lucky plaza. We were running late, it was about 1126 when were still opposite Ngee Ann. However, despite arriving there on time. I somehow is the first one to reach the restaurant, I then quickly register myself with the lady at the counter and started calling my friends. 

For this occasion, instead of just 12, we got more people than what I have booked for. We got Teo, Joann, Foh, Joy, Aik Pin, Kally, Lun, Read, How Wei Yang, Joseph, Karen, Shannon, Zoey, Jenny and I. A total of about 15 of us. There is some minor communication breakdown at the beginning but things are sorted very quickly and we are much more settled within minutes. 

After our meal, we went to walk around Ngee Ann, get a birthday present for Noah and a dozen of Crispy Kreme. I always feel excited to buy fatty food in bulk. They just make me feel awesome. 

After getting both, we then went to east coat park, pit 33 near carpark D2. The weather was good, windy and not sunny at all. When I was approaching the pit, I saw balloons tied on the tables and kids wandering around the tables and food on the tables. Said hello to Damien and Doreen, father of Noah and passed them the food and also present to Noah. We then meet a few more new friends and chat around. We ended our party around 630. and we then decided to have a meal with Angela's Parents and Suzie's Family in Imperial treasure at Great world City. 

Despite feeling exhausted at the end of the day, I am feeling happy to be able to meet up with new friends and catch up with some good old friends. 

How I survived my day with just a one way trip to work

It started of when I was approaching my gym place without the membership card, I smiled with the lady at the desk, said hello with confident and walked pass the counter. I feel good, I then tried to try my luck with the towel collection. Although I didn't manage to get the towel smoothly, I then have to talk to the lady behind the desk that there is no towel card at the counter. After a short while, she then passed me the towel.

After my gym session, I then took out my MRT card and tapped on it, I notice that my card had about 3.30 cents. The trip cost me about SGD 1.44. So my cash card left about SGD 2

 It wasn't a comfortable feeling for not having any money or cash card with me. But I guess these will be the feeling I will be going through when there will be a recession and that is the whole exercise is about. Learning how to be lean.

I have got all my breakfast and lunch included at work. So no money spent at work.

At the end of the day, in aljunied MRT station, I walked to the counter and told the lady that I have lost my wallet, she asked me my name and let me pass.

By the time I reached home, I got a wonderful banana rolls waiting for me as my dinner.


End of Day.


Total spending for the day, SGD 1.44

Thoughts worth taken

After having a good chat with Victor last night, I looked back at my goal for last year, I have concluded that there are a few things which I would like to pursue for the rest of life. The good things about making goals and achieving them are we could also identify things we like and things we don't after we took actions towards our goals. I always emphasize this to people around us. Without dreams and actions, we are just as good as salted fish. 

Why I need to list them down, this is to constantly remind me of things I have done and what I would like to achieve in the next 5-10 years. I understand there might be quite a few of goals or mini goals in my blog, I believe we are constantly growing and changing in taste. I have achieved some and I have also dropped some. Somehow, some goals are easy to achieve and some are just not worth doing it, and some are not worth maintaining it. E.g. Having a glass window facing upwards from my bedroom is not my goal any more. This is due to the constant noise from the rain after experiencing it myself. 

My To do lists are ever changing and goals too. 

So my first questions to my self for this Saturday is to talk about things I enjoy doing:

1. Badminton with good friends. 
2. Invest in stock market
3. Invest in rental properties
4. Invest in simple business
5. Invest time with good friends
6. Invest time in good books
7. Invest time with good mentor. 

End of march- Review

It wasn't long after I started to have a plan for small goal for March, now I  would like to review things that I have done for the past one month. It was really an interesting one, and the more I monitor my progress, the more things I found I am lacking. Perhaps, the thinking process and critical thinking are both lacking in me. Before I start reviewing this month, I would like to list down things I had written down last month.

1. Got my April holiday up to Melaka 
2. Understand more about affiliate marketing. I started up a website for my dad. Here is the website which is still under construction, but do feel free to wonder round http://summitkinabalu.com/
3. Re-read 4 hours work week. 
4. Know more about properties in Mekati, attended property guru road show in orchard hotel, and managed to speak to a pinoy who also bought an unit in Greenfield twin oak place, a future ready home near mekati. I also managed to met 
5. Moved to a new place in chancery lane. 

I guess, before the start of April, I would also like to list down things I would like to do for the coming Month. 

1. Catch up with Cedric this coming Friday 4/4/2014
2. Gathering with Nottingham mates on 5/4/2014
3. To date Jenny in Amara hotel on the 6/4/2014
4. Going to Doreen's son for his first birthday 13/4/2014
5. Dimsum with secondary mates on 13/4/2014
6. Going to Melaka this coming 18/4/2014
7. Will be doing a 21 km run on 27/4/2014

What are the small goals which I would like to achieve this coming April 2014. 

1. Change my diet- Eat less carbohydrates, no more soda, half the portion during dinner. 
2. Put at least 1k a  month
3. Plan for a trip to Kinabalu this coming 13/5/2014 with jenny 
4. Trip to Philippines this coming July 2014
5. No more food after 8pm
6. No canned drink
7. No fast food
8. Plan my finance for the coming years, from property, engagement ring, children expenses, family expenses. It would be a great challenge for me this year.
9. Set up a common goal with Miss J. This would be a priority this month. 

Key word for 2014-Automated Income

Automated income is the key word for 2014.

I re read book by Tim Ferris, the 4 hour work week, it was fascinating. In fact, I guess to some extent, this the methodology he did it is somehow duplicable.

Implementation is key.
How could I execute it perfectly over the course of my life would involved every single actions I take today. The motive is not about earning hell loads of money, but to create a simple source of automated income. This could somehow free up my time and allows me to do things I enjoy the most.

I will need to define things that are most crucial to me, and spend most of my resources on it, generating passive income is the one. What are my plans and also actions for 2014 would be crucial for my future.

So I have got my share position in placed, all I need to do now is to go into property, and prepare a simple online business. This would be a strategy of mine to achieve automated source of income by the age of 35. So cutting all this crap, let's see some of the actions that are on going.

• Started website for Summit kinabalu
• Liaise with Gary mason for Spitting image art
• Invested in stock market and options
• Properties hunting
• Start monitoring simple businesses in KK

I will break down all of these actions into smaller ones when I have got time and will explain every single journey I took for automated income. 

Chicken and Egg

So Saturday has been half day training with the company about our operation team.

Some of the actions I have done for the past few days.

I have created a website for dad's shop, a linkedIn account etc, and relisted item on ebay.

Apart from that, I have shifted my gym routine to more weight lifting instead of just running, on top of that, I start to swim at least 3 times a week, which was suppose to be every night due to the hazy conditions recently.

On top of that, I have proof read Miss J"s CV and cover letter as well..


I also sent a letter to my dad's project coordinator to get more resources about our companies latest policy and drafted on excel what information are crucial for the website together with miss J.

This will be an interesting journey. :)

I am trying to break the chicken and egg cycle, for some occasion, it is crucial for us to jump into it and take action first.

Action of the day

I signed up with hostgator.

One small step for me into internet business, glad that I have made it after struggling with starting the first step.

So what is next,

Download wordpress and start getting some free theme.


 I am so excited. :)

Leveraging

Yesterday I had a quick chat with friends about CEO in corporate world nowadays.

They use their limited time, knowledge, experience and network, to leverage on other people's time, knowledge, experience and network. PERIOD.

Simple as that.

Moving in together by end of March 2014

So, miss J and I have finally found a place to move in, it is a small room at Novena neighbourhood.
 It is one of the cheaper ones we could find which fits into both our budget.

House hunting wasn't easy for us, I guess Miss went through at least 15 units already before we managed to find a suitable ones.

There are a lot of variables to consider when a couple decided to move in to a place together. I guess so far, it wasn't a pleasant experience for me. However, on the bright side, these would be the leanest manner to see if she would be the right one. As we would spend more time together in the future and learn a lot more things about ourselves as a couple.

By the end of March, we will be living together as a couple, seeing each other every single day and survive in this concrete jungle.

As an engineer, I always like to list down things to consider when we co-habit.

• My relationship is going to change- This is inevitable, I will be seeing her more often and things are not as exciting as before
• Sex life will change- That is definitely for sure. No question ask
• House chore - This is probably one of the issue that we need to discuss before moving in together as a couple
• Finance- A lot of things are tied down together as a couple already. We need to have a shared fund. How do we share or split our expenses.
• Is our lifestyle compatible? 
• How do we deal with our conflicts?
• Do we still have our personal life?

I always take this as a life changing event, this action would alter the entire course of my life. It could probably be the largest decision I have made this year. 

1st week of March

It is amazing how quickly time flies, just like that I have passed another week, so a quick recap on things I have done last week.

I went to Suzie's place for pictionary and awesome dinner. We had baked fired rice, charsiew, popcorn and some serious fun. Hanging out with them at home is just awesome. Our next meeting shall be on 13/4/2014.

I went to swimming for at least 20 laps a session on a 20m pool on a daily basis. I have also booked my holiday which is to Melaka for our good Friday, I also understand more about affiliate marketing.

On top of that, we found a place to stay in Novena, it is a landed property and is a room for two. I am looking forward to move in. The landlord, Roger Lim, owns a few landed properties in Singapore. It was a good chat with him on that night, and it is awesome to have someone who has become a millionaire through properties. He drove the smallest car, and dress the simplest shirt ever. One of his properties could fetch SGD 25k rental per month, as he is a humble person. I feel honoured to be able to live in one of his properties and learn a little bit more about him.

As on Sunday, when I have got a strong fever and also diarrhoea, Miss J took care of me, she brought me to my favourite place, Kopitiam for dimsum and take care of my body temperature. I feel blessed to have someone take care of me when I am weak. However, time shall not be waste, and while I am on my cooling pad on my forehead, I was doing research on properties in Mekati city with Mau on Sunday, and met another property agent called Brendon Er on Monday immediately after Mau explained to me that this might be a good investment potential.

As for this coming week, I can foresee it will be another awesome ahead, I am joining a bunch of good friends for a night yachting on 14/3/2014. I am looking forward towards it now. That would be the highlight of my weekend. On top of that, I have got another internet marketing talk to attend on this coming Wednesday and another investment seminar to attend on Thursday.


Last but not least, I will be going to a property road show in MBS convention ballroom on saturday and a beautiful lunch with Miss J on Sunday.

Looking forward towards it now.

Mini goals or to do list for March 2014

I would like to list down a few things for March 2014.

Basically just one week after a start of March, things I have done, invested in companies and left it untouched. I am sleeping well market has got a lot of noise. That is the most difficult part.

I contacted with Affordable art fair and also liaise with them regarding setting up a booth for Gary. 

I attended a few seminars including, affiliate marketing, meet the masters: Thomas Andrew president of Ogilvy and also lean startup circle. I even joined as a member too.

I also revived my ebay account , and would be sourcing for more things to sell. Looking excited on this part. 

So what is next?

By end of this month, things I would want to achieve would be: 

1. Lose 3 kilos of fat- By cutting down on my meal and gym more often. I need to prepare for my 21km run in April. Swim 30 minutes a day until 22/3/2014 and gym at least 45 minutes a day from Monday to Friday, and 2 hours training session with Miss J at the end of the week at gym. Spinning and body combat class. 
2. Prepare my holiday in April- Probably to go back KK with Miss J. 
3. Go for a night yatch with good friends- This is probably for a friend's (Miss S) party around 14/3/2014
4. I am thinking to be able to understand more about affiliate marketing, whether if is still the mainstream or has been outdated. I would need to spend at least 2 hours on reading topics related to it every week. 
5. Think about what to do for april while swimming at night
6. Read annual report 2012 for Ping An by End of this March
7. Re read 4 hours work week by end of this month and take action. 
8. Know more about properties in Philippines,
9. Study more about Makati city over the weekends. Spend at least 2 hours on it. 
10. Apply for Singapore PR, this is important by next week. Spend two hours in the morning of both first two weeks of March for this. 
11. Attend a property seminar by end of this Month. 

Failures

A brief summary of my failures in life. There are all very very precious to me. 

• 2003-2004:I failed to pass my A-level exam, I retake A-level when I was 18, it took me additional half year for it.
• 2010: I failed to be the champion playing for mix double in Malaysia Nottingham games while I am in Nottingham. It was the closest I could get to my tournament life. It was devastating. 
• 2010: I couldn't get a job after I graduated from University of Nottingham. 
• 2011: I went into depression, a year which I couldn't cope after hunting for job in London. I lost 15 kilos in total. I was working more than 60 hours a week. 
• 2013: I failed at my closest social entrepreneurship Startup with a bunch of good friends. Pet Rangers

• 2014: I wonder what would it be. 

Compromised

After my trip from Japan, I found myself have been compromised on a few occasions, I shall describe briefly below, these are things which I would like to record it down for future references. 

I lost 10 days of membership, I renewed my membership for another year, and the guy who signed me up cancelled my previous membership and restarted a new one for me. Making me to lose around 10 days of membership for the transition. 

Just because I was soft, I let him to do so, and bear the consequences myself. although this had e little cost implications on me, but being short changed is not one would fancy. 

Moreover miss J whom was beside me, was trying hard to fight for the 10 days membership for me while I gave it away.After the incident, I am curious if I am really too soft standing on my own ground. 

I lost a good deal for renting a place because I gave people time to consider about renting to a couple. I should have offered options to her and kill the deal immediately. That was a deal of a life time. I would probably have to pay double the amount of rent for not able to secure the house for another 12 months. 

I lost my holiday for good Friday, as I did not booked my holiday immediately after my boss gave me a green light for the holiday. I was trying to be nice to let my boss have time to consider whether it is ok for me to go for holiday. I found people would put themselves first in front of everything. Set the rules myself and stick to it firmly. 

What I have learned from all these is that when we ourselves compromise our own standards, people compromise my requirements, time, standards and also my own life.

Trip to Osaka & Kyoto with Miss J

It was a short trip immediately after Chinese new year, this trip is to synchronise our thoughts and experience and get to know more about each other. Especially when it comes to making decisions, encounter problems, budgeting, planning and having fun together.

I must say, it is a very important trip for myself to know more about myself, and also my partner.

In the trip, I learned more about how to deal with crisis, our strengths and also our weaknesses.

We also discussed about ideas, business plan, action plans for our future. It was indeed a fruitful trip for me.

On top of that, I also managed to experience a very different lifestyle of Japanese and was very impressed with how their culture is. It was mind-blowing. Their mindsets are definitely a few decades ahead of me and it is a pleasure to be able to experience all these with miss J together. We are able to synchronise our thoughts together.

On our plane back to Singapore, we were stuck in our transit and also miss our flights, despite feeling fatigue after 5 hours flight from Kansai to Kuala Lumpur, we still have to run around in the airport, to get a boarding pass and also to board on the plane which is at the other end of the airport. We were definitely the last few passengers to board the Air plane.

We have also eaten quite a lot of extraordinary food in Japan, experience things we seldom even see in Singapore. It was lovely trip indeed.

Looking forward for our next adventure together.

Reason on why I celebrated my CNY in Singapore

Just recently, a few of my friends asked me why I didn't celebrate my CNY in KK. I would tell them this, If I would spend my 4 days holiday in KK, I would probably spent most of my time celebrating with friends.

However, If I would have spent my holiday with my family elsewhere, I could have spent hours and hours of time with them.

I just want to focus my time with the most precious people in my life.Period.

A mentor of mine

This post is about a friend I met in Urban Prototyping Hackathon 2013, whom is also a member of Pet rangers and also a mentor of mine in startup business. I felt so grateful to be able to know him in person and he is a person with integrity. He tweaked Pet rangers pitching in urban prototyping Hackaton week and managed to get us into finalists of Hackathon 2013.

Until today, I still felt that without him, I might not have a chance to explore startups, lead a group, be confident, manage a project and eventually how to kill an idea. He started off my journey in lean startup, planted the seed of thoughts in me and prepare my journey in coming years.

He guided our pitch, made it a lean start up, identifying the critical values in Pet rangers, which our messages are transferred to our fellow judges as well. He had got his own sustainable business which is called Pixaroll. Until today, he is still constantly growing and also nurturing people around him.

He has been a very motivating mentor and friend, nurturing me how to start off a sustainable business within a very short period of time and taught me about how to identify the single most valuable thing in a business.

He had given me the courage to venture into lean startup, and guidance.

His name is Ian Tay. It is a pleasure to be able to work together with him. Even for a short period of time, he has been a great support of mine.

Reading log:A gift to my Children: A Father's Lessons for life and Investing by Jim Rogers

After reading this book, there are a few things I would like to write down. Although some are for daughters, but hey I might have a daughter myself..

Never act upon wishful thinking. Act without checking the facts, and chances are that you will be swept away along with the mob.

Those who cannot change will be swept aside by it. Those who recognise change and react accordingly will benefit. Jim was saying about the great change from US to China.

Invest in China, and their future. China is commodities for now.

Learn Mandarin

The devil of life is always in the details.

Always buy quality product

Always eat before you go grocery shopping

Learn to do as much arithmetic and figures as possible

Always be early for appointments

2014 Chinese New Year in Singapore with Family

Parents touched down Singapore on 29/1/2014. There is this awkward feeling the short moments before meeting up with my parents, somehow is like you miss them a lot but they have been away, or should I say I have been away from Sabah for many many years already.

Technically, I left Sabah around 2006 to further my studies in KL, after that, never really spent solid time in Sabah. I guess probably I am not very keen with the environment there. The only thing worth mentioned is basically my parents, younger brother and aunty in Sabah. Of course, not to forget some of the few good friends I have got in Sabah. They have been very supportive all the while.

So technically, I have left KK (Kota Kinabalu) for about 7 years already. Time flies and I am still counting my years away from KK.

Back to the topic, so met them brought them around, met some relatives and have some few reunion dinner with them. I have to admit, entertaining people is not easy, in fact, it is downright tiring and cost me an arm and leg. However, I enjoyed every single moment of it. Being able to spend time with my dearest family is just pure happiness. Too bad, my younger brother couldn't join us this year. Looking forward for our next gathering in April.

I have learned a few things over the Chinese new year period, how is the family business doing in KK, how is the environment there, and how people in KK.  Catching up with parents are crucial, listening to them and most importantly spend time with them. I am very grateful to have such a supportive parents. They have been constantly nurturing me throughout, I feel very blessed indeed.

Basically, this meaningful Chinese new year is rather an enjoyable one. Of course, to add icing to the cake, we also made a bit of winnings from the casino. My dad was over the moon and brought the entire family to an expensive Korean cuisine in Vivo city.

Huat A!

Reading log:Beating the street by Peter lynch

I read this book over the weekend, it describe peter lynch life as a portfolio manager. Expanding his portfolio and most importantly how he managed to make profit from stock market. He also explained step by step on how he goes about picking stocks, step-by-step. For example, he sits in his favourite shopping mall and observe people around him, what do they buy etc. He also visit the companies, factories and understand more about how they make money. 

There are a few principles which I would highlight here. 

1. When the operas outnumber the football games three to zero, you know there is something wrong with your life. He regretted being unable to spend time with his family. 
2. Gentlemen who prefer bonds don't know what they are missing. 
3. Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon. 
4. When the yield on long term government bonds exceed the divident yield of the S&P 500 by 6%, sell your stocks and buy bond. 
5. If you like the store, chances are you'll love the stock. To me, it is more important for me to love the business/products or even shop. Before I would put my money into the shop. This would be the number one priority to me now. 

Reading log: 4-hour work week by Tim Ferriss

Just recently, I have got hold on a book which I personally like, the title of the book is called 4-hour work week by Tim Ferriss. In his book, he explained what is New Rich. He uses the acronym DEAL for the four main chapters. It stands for Definition, Elimination, Automation and Liberation.

I understand more about my own fear, and definition about about the life I always wanted. On top of that, he emphasised on the 80/20 rules, which I have learned from Jonathan Hiew, a friend of mine when I was in secondary school. (80% of your results come from 20 % of my effort).

The book also mentioned about the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is about how we could complete a task with minimal resources while effectiveness is about working towards our goal, which means doing the right thing. Before reading this book, I used to work hard before planning a strategy. I would pump hours and hours into things I wanted to master, and achieve things I wanted to achieve. But there are times, when all the effort is wasted due to lack of planning. Worse, there are times when things I have achieve are not the things I wanted.

When it comes to Automation, this is the item I wanted to achieve this year, by using resources around me to achieve automation. I guess being rich without time is just  a joke, all I got is just additional figure in my bank account. I would like to set up something which I could run on this year, hassle free. Be it investment, passive income or and internet business. I have managed to set up a substantial amount of my asset in investment generating passive income for me. My money is now working very hard for me even I am sleeping. Sometimes, I would even smile while sleeping.

Liberation, once I achieve automation this year, liberation would be another step for me. I would want to free myself geographically and time. Meaning, I would be able to work everywhere in the world. The idea of this is to leverage the currency, earnings and living standard. Let's say for example, earning SGD while spending in pesos or Thai Baht. All these would give me an edge in achieving ultimate goal. Time and location free.

2nd week of January

I found that my aunty Jo was diagnosed with some sort of health issue. She will be undergoing an operation on 5/2/2014. I believe she needs a lot of strength from people around her to support her and more importantly a lot of attention. I hope she will get well soon. After reading her message this morning, about her diagnosis and reading word by word from the text, my tears soon flowing out from my eyes, running down my face. There are things we have been taken for granted, day in, day out. My relationship with Aunty Jo is like my step mum, I would spend a lot of time with her, she lived with us for a while and have been very helpful for all the while. She sent my to school when I was in Primary school, bought my favourite roasted pork bun for me. I would not dwell too much on the details here. There were a lot of thoughts recently, after knowing that she was probably diagnosed with cancer. In this blog post, I would like to wish her all well, and may god be with her all the time.

Simple happiness

Last weekend, I started a few rounds of swimming session, it was indeed a wonderful experience for me. I guess if I am still the old thinker, I would probably don't have any time for sport and reading session. These two hobbies of mine have been very important to me recently, time for these two activities are not to be compromised. By being able to do these two activities more in Singapore, I need to focus on earning more rather than saving more in the past. I need to leverage capital which I have got on hand and eventually obtain the simple happiness I have been looking for, the ultimate goal of mine is to free up some of my time, for people I treasure/cherish and love. 

The idea is to find people which I could trust to work for me, to earn money for me, even we are talking about RM100.00 a month. I guess it is essential for me to start this year. I am looking for a business model which is simple to maintain and hassle free, automation would be awesome as being hassle free, is by far more convenient than being rich. There are times when money could just not solve the problem. 

There are some precious lesson I have learned from people around me regarding the importance of time versus money. Of course, there are a lot of things which we would probably have to sacrifice just live a life which we truly wanted. I guess becoming a business owner does not sound as attractive as it used to be, I found business to be very time and energy consuming. On a certain manner, it affects our health too ( by looking at the way all my colleagues drink whisky). 

Simple happiness is something I am looking for...

Things I have learned from Tom Yuen in his preview.

I attended a preview yesterday and would like to jot down a few key points which I have learned from Tom.

He started off as an engineer, and worked in Sweden for the first 3 years of his working life, he then found the power of foreign exchange as the fund he received from Singapore government is getting more and more each year during 1980s as Singapore dollar is getting stronger and stronger.

There are a few critical points which he highlighted in his preview. One is to learn from others, this would not make you to become successful quicker but will definitely make your learning curve easier and also less painful.

I guess he had worked very hard for the past 20 years. and had mould him to who he is today.

After consideration, I would like to conclude:

1. Starting risk capital for TA is SGD 20K. 
2. Course is about SGD 4.4k.
3. Learn how to learn from others. 
4. Learn how to let go emotional attachment to my money/stock. They are just tools. 
5. I need to use analysis tools in a way which is different from majority so that you are not part of the herding instinct. 
6. Think of a sustainable way of making money
7. Know myself more
8. Adapt- after all it is all about surviving

2013 brief summary

So a brief summary on my 2013, mostly critical actions I have taken last year.

• Ended Pet Ranger Project
• Attended Value Investing Program
• Joined gym membership. 
• Invested in stock, sold options
• Trip to KK, climbed mountain KK for the second time. VIA Ferrata Route
• Fell in love
• Trip to Brisbane for Brother's graduation
• Went to KL for Eason's Concert
• Attended Sector Connect
• Went to Guang Zhou for Canton Fair
• Went to Chiang Mai for Loy Krathong

Last week of 2013

Between these two celebrations, it has been a relaxing and fruitful week.

I met up with Chairman Mau on Thursday, for a meal at Kovan Thai Restaurant called Norkhon. Both Ocean and also Seah Hean were there too. Although this would be a rare gathering for us as Mau came all the way from KL and met up with some of his friends from KL who have been working in Singapore for quite awhile. Also, worth mentioned would be Kevin, a litigation lawyer from Penang working in KL at the moment. They shared some interesting stories about their clubbing experience in Singapore during the festive season, of course one being how the lawyer kissed an air stewardess in a club in Clarke Quay. Mau showed me the picture too just to proved that he wasn't joking. Of course, we also talked about our relationships and also things that have been happening around us. 

After our meal, Tony, a project manager and also a QS, asked if we would like to go for drink in New Asia, level 70  at Raffles City. We went for a drink, ordered a bottle and our catch up continues. With the rate of they drink, I can see that they are seasoned drinkers. I went back home around 1230, as I got work on the next morning. 

I skipped Friday Morning, as it was a usual work day, apart from meeting up Miss J at Little India,and went for a supper at Swee Choon at Jalan Besar. 

On Saturday morning, I woke up at around 7 O clock, rather late for my normal wake up time which is around 6 am. I then put on my clothes and somehow looked forward to go to work on a Saturday morning. I believe for this time around, attendance is very much appreciated. After work, I went to library to just borrow a book and then went to Mount Elizabeth Hospital at Orchard to visit Miss J whom had just undergone endoscopic therapy for her recent pain in the stomach.

We then went for a meal at Paragon Crystal Jade Golden Palace for a late lunch. This is to celebrate that nothing major were found in the stomach, at least for that moment. After our meal, we walked along Orchard Road and talked about things. The weather is rather windy and also a little bit gloomy that day. I ended my Saturday earlier and decided to go back home for a good rest. 

On Sunday Night, I spent time on planning my next Osaka Trip in February 2014.

On a side note, 

There are a few things, which I have been contemplating recently I have listed down below: 

• It is so much easier to try things out when we are young compare to when we have got commitments after marriage. At least, when we failed, it is only me that is affected. 
• Life has been very fragile, there are things that we can only prepare that much, and the rest of it would have to leave it to our fate. Of course, staying healthy, lean and happy are key too. 
• I put more thoughts about investment, on how to protect my wealth in this complicated world nowadays. Surprisingly, I decided to talk less about it, not because the economy is going burst, but it seems that this would make friends, social circle or Christmas dinner a lot more comfortable. I just need to learn to pick the right time to talk about it. 
• Mentor is important, a man without a mentor would probably take a longer route to achieve more things. 
• Busy is a another form of laziness: lazy to think is the critical one. Spend more time on thinking. Establish a set of thinking process in order for me to execute critical activities in Life which could lead to a life which I always wanted. 

Christmas 2013

It was my 2nd year of Christmas in Singapore. This year I am celebrating with someone special, someone I met in 2013 March, a lady who spent most of her time in Singapore with me and she had treated me well for all the while. 

Both of us enjoyed food and 'moments', but living in Singapore can be a major hassle. Especially going out to dine on special occasion like Christmas. We need to pre-book one month in advance. For this year, I have booked a place in Bukit Pasoh called The Clan. It offers a modern European dining experience with a fusion twist of Japanese cuisine. Although it was rather rushed in the beginning, but after slowing down the chef and also the servers, we somehow managed to get into our own world during the two hours of dining session. I understand that wasn't the best Singapore has to offer, but it was a great experience for myself. 

After meal at The Clan, I took MRT to Somerset and decided to walk along Orchard Road to soak some of the Christmas Fun together with People in Singapore. 

Orchard Road is basically filled with people and is too crowded to walk. Undeniable, the lightings and decorations in Orchard is impressive! Every year, Orchard road managed to get people flooded into this road just for their decorations & lightings. I still remember how I used to fly in to Singapore for Orchard road when I was young. I think the magic seems to wear off when we got a lot of sweaty tourists and overcrowded streets. The noise of the chipping birds at Orchard Road seems to be masked completely. 

After roaming with the crowd for a while, the pairing house wine hitting my head hard. I have drank a mixture of wines for the house pairing with my 6-course meal at The Clan. I felt dizziness as I couldn't catch my breath while walking with the crowd. I decided to take a cab back home and called it a day. I went straight to bed the moment I reached home. It was the best sleep ever. 

Merry Christmas Everyone. 

Joy of doing nothing

Apart from Jon's birthday celebration in Hard Rock Cafe at Sentosa Island, it was a weekend where I didn't plan for anything.

As for Jon's birthday, I was the probably the only one that reaches the place on time in order to fetch our Birthday Boy. I understand everyone has a tight schedule, but I still don't understand why people tend to over commit nowadays. 

I would rather suggest people to just set a dinner around 8pm so that everyone could reach the place on time. It wasn't a rant, but dealing with people who are constantly late tend to get into my nerves. Somehow, I am learning how to suppressed the feelings inside me and just deal it with a smile. Although people tend to waste your precious resources with a silly excuse. 

However, apart from the rant above, I did enjoy myself that night, we had awesome meals, laughters, cupcakes, birthday songs, beer and some hawker centre food. Surrounding myself with a bunch of awesome friends is a blessing for me. 

Sunday morning, it was a morning with hangover and body aches, it was a Sunday without any plans. I guess no plan is good plan. I went for a brunch at Artichoke and went back home to catch some housework and sleep. I also went for a Movie at AMK hub. It was a animation called Frozen, the movie was simple and exciting. Surprisingly, I enjoyed myself very much for the movie. 

I then went for shopping at NTUC and call it a night. 

Weekend with Jenny's Sister

Jenny's sister caty came to Singapore to visit her sister for a weekend. We went out for dinner at Clark Quay, Song Fa Bak Kut Teh, there were many tourists there for their infamous dragon bone pork ribs Bak Kut Teh. We ordered quite a lot for just only the three of us. The interaction between me and her sister isn't that much. Probably because she was tired.

We then went to have a walk at Clark Quay, took some pictures of the scenic view of riverside point and also some people watching. We also walked towards the bridge and climbed up to the side of the bridge while resumed our people watching session. It was a very comfortable just sitting by the river and let the wind unwind all the stress. Of course, we also shared some laughters over time. Especially how Jenny managed to get on the parapet wall at the side of the bridge while wearing skirt and also heels. It makes us laughed.

After Clark Quay, we then went to Somerset for Cold Stone Creamery. This is Jenny's favourite place for Ice Cream. Unfortunately, by the time we reached there, the queue was very long and it seems impossible to get an ice cream for the next 1 hour. 

We then decided to go home and sleep. 

On Saturday, I went to Wild Honey at Mandarin Gallery to book a reservation for them at 11 O' clock. They reached the place around 1130 afternoon, and we proceeded with our order for our brunch. I order the England special and also the New York. 3 of us shared two meal, this is part of our money and calories saving plan. Eat less and save more. 

After our meal at wild honey, we then shop around at Orchard and also Somerset. We bumped into Stella and also Vincent, friend of Jenny at Lacoste. It was such a coincidence that we met up in the afternoon as we had planned to have dinner together at night. World is just too small. 

After exchanging a few words, we then continued our shopping session. I left Jenny and her Sister at Somerset shopping mall, and went to Nicole Highway to collect tickets for our Legoland tour on Sunday. Although I wasn't very keen with the trip at first, but after thinking for a while I guess the sun-soaked fun and outdoor activities with them together in Legoland in Malaysia should be good. 

After collecting the ticket from Nicole Highway, I went to meet up with my Aunty, which would regularly patronise Toast Box at Suntec on weekends. That is like her hangout place with her friends over the weekend. I joined her for some toasted bread, coffee and some drinks for my Saturday late afternoon. 

She bought me a external charger from Hong Kong as a souvenir and helped me to charged my phone immediately when I saw her in Toast Box. We had a solid 2-3 hours catch up and discussed about life matters which I somehow could hardly imagine about the topics we had discussed. It must be I am contemplating about how to move ahead in life recently. 

After our coffee session, I went to Bugis to catch Jenny and her sister again. They were shopping around at Bugis + when I reached there. Before I could find them at Uniqlo, I bumped into Sin, my kindergarten friend. She just joined Prudential and worked around Bugis area that day. We did a very quick conversation and I have to moved on afterwards, as I got a meal with Stella, her boyfriend, Yuyen and Cary at East Coast Park around 730. 

Although there is abit of Hoo Ha when Yuyen called and told us that Stella and her boyfriend Vincent, would like to shop for awhile at Bugis and postponed the meal to 815pm. However, we took a taxi and manage to reach East Coast Park Food Village on time and waited for them there. 

After our meal, we went to Mount Fabre and had some drinks at Fabre Bistro. The night view was good while we continued our discussions about our life plans. It was a good catch up session. 

On Sunday, we started our trip with a MRT trip to Nicole Highway, that is where our bus to Legoland is waiting. We boarded the bus at 915 and reached Legoland about 1130. Upon arriving Legoland, Kids in the bus were very excited and shouting. It makes us, adults excited as well. 

Although it rained for a while, but I enjoyed the trip, especially spending time with Jenny and also her Sister in Legoland Malaysia. 

Stranger than stranger

Last Sunday, it was William Chua and Irene's wedding at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa. I went there on my own.

Until today, I am still contemplating whether if attending the wedding would be a wise choice as most of the friends I am going to meet there are related to Miss E.

Upon arriving at the awesome Amara Sanctuary Resort, I went to the reception, filled in my name and dropped the red packet in a box. I then walked towards the bar near the reception for a drink. While waiting at the lobby for the banquet to start. I started to saw Miss E. She was wearing a black gown and had her a different hairstyle set.

Without hesitation, I walked towards her to say hello to her, however, while I was walking towards her, my heart beats faster and faster with no reason and the entire feeling is just getting a little bit awkward and confused. Every steps I took towards her, It seems that there is a gentle slope, and is making my knees weaker. By the time I get really close to behind her, where she could hear me. She took her camera phone out and started taking pictures of the cupcakes in front of the reception desk near the main door. For one moment, I didn't how to address her which would be more appropriate or how and where I should put my hands. I was in Timbuktu.

'Hi (her name)' I finally uttered it out and in as formal as possible while she is facing the table full of cakes and awesome mini macarons while still holding her camera phone snapping photos.

'Hi' She replied me

'When did you arrive?' I asked while looking at the table of cakes as well.

'Just only'  She replied and raising her camera phone snapping some more pictures.

My conversation with her has just ended prematurely when an aunty walked into us and started to comment on the cakes and decorations.

She then walked off to the reception and say hello to her friends.

From that moment onwards, we became stranger than stranger.

Little things about Singapore

I have been discussing with people around me about little things in Singapore. Basically, I have asked/survey and done a bit of research for the past one month. So it is time for me to pen down some of my thoughts currently about Singapore.

Of course, I would try to list down the pros and also cons to start off first. Just a note to all my readers, these are just the opinions I gathered from my friends, subcontractors, people with experience about things in Singapore. This post does not reflect what I think about Singapore entirely.

I would like to start from the pros about our Singapore.

1. International exposure: Basically, it is a lot more accessible to the international market here in Singapore. Even for start up companies around here, there are so many international incubators around supporting the entrepreneurs. After being through a project with some good friends, I believe the exposure I managed to get here is a lot more than what I can get in other countries.  
2. Politically stable: Despite the little India riot, Singapore has been a relatively stable country with different ethnicities living together in such a small space. 
3. Street is safe: Yes it is very safe here, at least we can walk around the island at 3 am in the morning alone.
4. Disaster free: Earthquake and typhoon free. 
5. Near Home: Home is where my family is, and currently they are now in KK.
6. Strong currency: Relatively stronger than neighbouring countries. 
7. Clean city: Enough said. 
8. Cuisines of Singapore: A world of flavours, basically you can get almost everything here. With its rich multicultural heritage, Singapore serves up a true melting pot of flavours and foods. This would probably get me started another post. 
9. Good public transport: MRT, Taxi and Bus. They have been serving me well for my stay in Singapore for the past 2 years. I can imagine myself without a car for the next 10 years.
10. Convenient: Everything in near our door step.
11. Education: World leading education system. 
12. Savings: Able to save a portion if we just live modestly. 
13. Good friends: I am blessed to have such a good friends around in Singapore. They have been really supportive at all time and have brought me up to be a better person. 
14. Clean Toilet: I must give Singapore credit for this. I just met Jack Sim (Toilet Man). He is the guy who founded world toilet organisation. He has something to learn from and of course has contributed a lot to the toilet standard in Singapore. Did you know? Not flushing your toilet in Singapore is a criminal offence. 
15. Easier to blend in the Singapore Culture : As a Malaysian Chinese, it is easier for us to blend in to the culture than any other ethnicities.

After I have listed down so many pros, it is time for me to list down a bit of the cons now. 

1. Rat Race: I would be running the rat race for the rest of my life. It is very difficult for me to start a business from scratch. Without capital and solid network, it is difficult for me to be an entrepreneur. 
2. Long working hours: I worked for about 70 hours a week. That is equivalent to 12 hours a day for 6 days a week. Time is my essence and it is a limited resource.
3. Expensive rent: The rent here is painfully expensive. 
4. Cars are costly: We need to pay COE here, and this COE is just a certificate which would cost us easily up to $50k-70k. 
5. Pricey networking: It is important to network here, but the price of going out is not cheap. Building network from scratch.
6. Expensive healthcare: 
7. Expensive school fees: 
8. Expensive place to retire: By the time I reach 65, I would need to look for another place to retire. By doing a quick Math, I doubt I could retire comfortably here in Singapore. They got minimum sum too, which would restrict people from drawing all their money out once they reach 65. 
9. Singlish: There is no way to avoid this if I am going to stay here. Thinking of how my children would talk to me in Singlish really turns me off. 
10. Concrete jungle: This is common in a big city, breathing dirty air, noise pollution, air pollution etc. 
11. Kiasu: Singaporean are very competitive.  

A wrap up for last weekend

Yes, it was another fruitful week.

Also, I did goal setting with Miss J on Saturday Morning, while setting our goal, we discuss about our life goals, plans, and to see if we would want to stay here in Singapore for good. We were comparing the good and bad of Singapore with other countries. At some point of time, we were thinking to get a consultant to assess our situation, conditions, qualification, quality of life and decide where would be the best for us. Some of the countries we mentioned were Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, United Kingdom and Malaysia.

After some thoughts, we then went to Wild Honey at Scott Squares for late lunch. We were sharing one and it was awesome. We stayed for a while in Wild Honey. We then wondered around Far East Plaza to do some shopping and asked around the market price for Iphone 5s. I am planning to sell my Iphone 5s Gold colour now, thinking I could cover some of my loss while converting from Singtel to Starhub. For me to save some money from my telephone bills which could easily fetch about SGD 400 ++ a month. With my new plan, I am looking at around SGD 130. A big savings.



Let's come back to Orchard, after a brief stroll far east plaza, we went to Somerset triple one to join ZC and JY Birthday celebration. It was a key dinner for us to wrap up our Chiang Mai trip dinner too. We shared a lot of laughters, photos, stories and memories at the dinner. I am glad Miss J and I made an effort to join the dinner. We went home straight right after our meal.

Sunday Morning, I was woke up by a call from the gym. Asking if I am interested to go for spinning lesson at 9 am. By the time I cleared my vision and looked at the clock, it shows 817am. I woke up immediately and get myself prepared immediately. Miss J joined me for the session too. It was the same trainer, called Adeline which both Jenny and I liked her quite a lot as she is very motivating and friendly. Although the Sunday morning session is not as fun as the night session on weekdays, but the time spent was worth for all the calories burnt.

After my gym session, I went back home, get changed and go straight to Lisa's place, before we start our goal setting session, we went for a meal. The number of people joined the session was a lot more than I expected. I guess people are interested with this goal setting sessions.

After our meal, we started our goal setting session, it too us about 2 hours to complete the whole training of 8 people. After the session, I took a taxi and went to the affordable art fair to catch Jenny at Formula 1 pit building. We were invited by Cary for the fair. The fair is crowded with art lovers and also art for sell. Art fair is a good place for both Miss J and I to synchronise our thoughts. I guess that is why art has play an important role in our society to keep our thoughts synchronised.

Although I am a complete idiot when it comes to art, but wait, there is always first time. So, I tried to talk to a few exhibitors and try to understand their culture. Some of them travelled all the way from India, UK just to sell their art. I am just wondering what is their lifestyle would be like. These are just not a conventional job we met on a daily basis.

After affordable art fair, we went to Novena and had KFC for dinner. It has been awhile since I had KFC, we order 3 piece chicken and also a Zinger burger meal. Thinking back, I had blew my calories quota for that day.

After our meal, we further our conversation about places we want to go and our future plans. Choosing a place to settle down is not easy. There are so many things that we need to consider before really making a decision. At the same time, we are reminding ourselves time is ticking very fast. In a blink of an eye, I am already 28. I guess I need to choose where I would want to go by the time I am 29 and start another chapter of life.

Now is basically a transition period of my life, what I need to do is to experience life.

1% of people's effort

This would be a simple post about my thoughts recently about thinking process and how we approach matters in life. I guess this topic was brought up in my recent trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand. I guess this system would be very useful for my future therefore I would like to pen it down.

So there is a saying that people would rather use 1 % of 100 people's effort than to do 100% of my own effort to complete the job. E.g. Instead of doing a task myself, I would ask 100 people to help me to complete the task. This would leverage the time I have got and also to complete a larger task. Thinking back, people are highly motivated when the task is something worth doing for, and as a team, we could all achieve something bigger, faster and more efficient. I guess it would be a platform for us to learn a lot of things too during the process.

The question brought up by Jonathan during our Chiang Mai trip was how people would contribute their 1% to you in the first place. There are a few methods which in my humble opinion would somehow get people to contribute their 1% to you.

1) The easiest one would be paying people to work for you, so basically I would have to fork the money out to let people work for me. Although it seems easy, but capital is the resources you need to tackle this.
I guess this would be something I would do when I have a certain amount of capital.Of course, with this method, we could probably get 1% more than we required.

2)Be resourceful- I would say in terms of networking, know the key people who could assist me in achieving my goal. This could only be done through networking. Remember there is a saying that it is not about what you know but is about who you know. Also, apart from networking, we could be resourceful in terms of monetary, funding or knowledge which could add value to the group. There is a tendency people would help people with resources, although they don't exactly expect something in return, but their effort could be more justifiable.

An example I would use for this case is Singapore. Singapore is a country with limited resources, they don't even have sufficient water to sustain themselves. They need to rely on Malaysia for water for years. However, the people here are resourceful, I guess this makes Singapore economically sound.

3)System Barter: This is for beginning stage of a cycle, where resources are limited. I help you, you help me. Although this would be very time consuming but at least things could be done. This would be my last resort, as it is time consuming. I contribute 1 % to you and you contribute 1 % back to me.Sometimes, I may need to contribute 2% for a 1% high value work in return.

4) Be convincing: it is possible to convince/persuade people to contribute the 1% to you for free. This would require skills and practice.

As a conclusion, it is key to be resourceful.

Stock vs Property

So let's do a brief summary or at least something for us to differentiate between these two investment vehicle.

Advantages of Stocks: 

Very Liquid: Especially during critical time, it is easier to liquidate stocks from market to Cash than from property to cash.

Tax-Free: So far, all the earnings from stock market is still consider tax free

Transparent: Most of the information are online, it is accessible and hassle free. There are websites that could do a lot of filtering for me too. As time is rather limited, it is crucial for me to read things I need to read only.

Dividend: They got dividend like a passive income.

Disadvantages of Stocks:

Very Volatile: Due to sentiment, market react really quickly with news and black swan etc. It is crucial for investor to be emotionally stable during crisis.

Advantages of Property:

Tangible Asset:

Passive income: Fetch rental


Disadvantages of investing in property :

Illiquid- it takes longer time to change our property into cash.

These information is what I learned from Ken Chee session.


For conclusion, I think Tax Free and being volatile is rather attractive to me at the moment. So for now, I would concentrate on this vehicle first.

Weekend

So what happened over the weekend

On Friday, right after work, I packed my stuff and went straight to Clark Quay to meet up with Choi Mei, Alvin, Lisa, Foh and Shannon for a meal at The sailors. The meal was normal, but rather over priced. We paid about $40 per head for the meal and it was not air conditioned. Seriously, I don't understand how those people would want to dine al fresco in Singapore. It was either too humid, hot or raining. I am not putting a rant here, but it just doesn't make sense at all to do al fresco dining in Singapore. So my suggestion for those who would want to do a comfortable al fresco dining. It is important to have outdoor air conditioner. 

After our dinner, we went a ice cream parlour nearby called Haato & Co, We ordered White coffee, Pistachio, Hazelnut chocolate and Mango. Basically, they were all too sweet. We quickly moved to SQUE for our 3rd round on the night.

By this time, Low sai joined us for a drink Jenny came alone too. It was a rather a fun night. Shannon left earlier after his pure blondes. We also mentioned about setting up a flexible group so that we all could meet up during working hours. Interesting group. Looking forward for our flexible out during our early weekends. 

After our night out in Clark Quay, we left for a beautiful supper in Swee Choon at Jalan Besar. It was a quick supper and we headed back to Novena.

Saturday Morning, I woke up without any thinking of work. It was great. We headed to IKEA at Queenstown to buy some of the crockery and cutlery for some of the home cooking in the future. Jenny said she would want to cook some soup and dinners in the near future, which I am looking forward to. 

Before we start any shopping at IKEA, we went to queue up for their awesome meatballs at their cafe. Their meals are delicious and value for money. No wonder families love coming to IKEA over the weekend. The place is just filled with loads of laughters. 

We went straight to shopping immediately after our hearty and cheap meal at IKEA restaurant. It took us about 1 hour to walk around the entire IKEA, after checking out, we went for another round of tea at TWG just opposite IKEA. 

Saturday night, Jenny went to her farewell dinner at MBS while I went to meet lowsai for a meal to catch up a little bit. 

We had our dinner at nom nom, it was good to catch up with a secondary good old mate after not meeting up for a long time. I hope time could have let us spend more time talking together. We talked about relationships, future plans ( as usual), ways to make money, to stay healthy etc. We covered about travel as well, how important to know more about the world when we were young. 

On top of that, we also talked about things we regretted in the past, if we could restart our life again, what would we do differently. For myself, I would do a work and travel in US and also travel to northern Europe instead of saving the cash now. I could be so much richer inside than to let inflation eat in all my saving. It is rather expensive to save now, especially when the us is printing 85 billion USD every month. 

After a meal with lowsai, I went back home to do some laundry and also to pack my stuff for my trip to Chiang Mai. It is one of my most anticipated trips this year. I guess travelling with a bunch of good friends is priceless. I regretted twice, so I tell myself not to miss any trip with such an awesome travel buddies I have got. I must say I am blessed to have them around me. I hope we could keep on doing this sustainably and make this an annual thing. 

Sunday, started with abit of drizzling, we went for a unique Australian restaurant at 40 craig road called The Plain, I would not want my blog to be a food blog, but I would like to capture all the moments, either sad or happy of course in this blog. I must reassure my self this is not a food blog. 

I ordered darlings and also humpty dumpy, both dish are reasonably served and priced. I guess I would want to go again in the future. After our meal, we went to travel around in china town to check on the IPHONE 5s gold price. Our strategy is to identify the market price first before selling off online. I feel like I am walking along the street in prontera, ( a city in a online game called Ragnarok Online) 

After that, we went to marina square for another tea session at St Marc. I guess, the place is rather pricey. Their portion is minute too. Since I am on diet, I think their portion fits me well. 

I then went to clementi for my badminton session with Andrew, I met Kelvin, Khai wen, wei ping, and also su rong. I enjoyed the badminton session, despite all the pain at my arms while I am writing this post, I guess I love it. 

By the time I reached home, miss J prepared a hearty soup for me.

It made my day and I feel so blessed. 

Deepavali/Halloween 2013

It was a holiday last Saturday, in the morning, we went to Crystal Jade for Dim Sum, their roast pork is good. Lean and crunchy, of course, their settings and the atmosphere is rather a typical delicate yum cha restaurant in Singapore. At least, it is clean. I guess that is the most important criteria I am looking for.

The dim sum session could last about an hour only. It was rather a rush one. I personally don't like it when time is being constrained. I just could not enjoy my companionship and also my food properly. Somehow I just feel like there is a clock ticking in my head. 

After our beautiful lunch, we went to a Japanese Fusion Coffee Shop called Mayson Kaison. They served yummy tangy orange chicken sandwich and also crusty croissant with hazel nut.

We refilled our English Breakfast, as we were on a tight budget and also to control our calories intake recently for the preparation of my Standard chartered 10km run this coming 1 DEC 2013. Through this, I have met a few friends who ran in this event and hence had broaden my topic of conversation with people. I think I showed interest to people more nowadays.

After that, we went straight back to ION and took the MRT back home to change our Halloween costume for a night out with Yuyen. Upon arriving Yuyen place, we brought some drinks over. We were welcomed by Cary in a scary manners.Their door opened by its own and the room is only lit by dim lights. It was spooky at one moment.

After that, when we walked into their living room, we were welcome with laughters by all theirs mates in the living room. It was a proper Halloween costume and we were all ready to party. After hanging out, partying and chatting for hours at their place, we decided to extend our party time to Boat Quay. We took MRT in our chinese halloween costume and we were trying to be friendly to people around us. On top of that, we were all half drunk as well. People were friendly and nice to us when they see us. It was fun.

When we reached a pub, we felt normal again. Because most of the people there dressed up as well. We started drinking some alcohol, make friends do some moves.

It was a lovely Halloween celebration.

Thanks Yuyen and Cary for organising this party. I enjoyed myself alot that night. 

Conversation with my Boss about settling in Singapore

After working with my company for about 2 years, today is my first time to share a lunch with my adorable construction manager. He asked me out for lunch, sitting down in a smoking area, with ash tray on the table. We started to share our first meal together.

Although seeing my construction manager shouting and banging tables most of the time, he is somehow a rather very helpful person and also a friendly one with us.

I learned a little bit things from him about staying permanently in Singapore. In fact, he welcomes me to stay in Singapore, to continue contribute to the economy and also support company I guess. No matter what is his intention, I guess it is good to listen to what he tells me on how to own a HDB property in Singapore.

1. I can put up a GIRO on a monthly basis to transfer part of my pay to property. This would definitely take out a bit part of my salary for me to save up, which I am thinking whether for me to listen to my boss's advice or someone's else. 
2. Me and my partner would have to be a Singapore PR for at least 3 years before I can own a HDB. 
3. I can only own one HDB.
4. I can't own or upgrade my HDB once my joint income for the past few years exceeds 12k a month Yes I am talking about SGD (Fingers Crossed). So each of us would earn about SGD 6k and we are barred from upgrading our HDB. 

There are so much to learn about settling down in Singapore. I guess the best way to do so is to talk with people who had done so.:) 

Weekend in GuangZhou 2013

Last Friday Night, before the clock strike 1730, I packed my stuff and took the bus to Changi Terminal 2 from my workplace. It was a canton fair trip which initiated by Wilson Tsen. Both of us, Teo and I agreed to join him this Canton Fair.

We met up together at airport, had a quick dinner Macdonalds, I had the samurai burger and we then embarked the plane heading to Guang Zhou. We started to discuss about things which had happened to us for the past years in Singapore. From work, women, family commitment, friends and a gossip. We also mentioned about our similarity as we are both Cancerian, which I think really helped a lot in our conversations. 

The flight was about 4 hours, and we took off around 1020pm. Despite being very tired, I was unable to sleep well on the plane. It was a budget flight, so there will be no meal for this trip. 

We managed to talked a little bit on the plane but Teo decided to rest for awhile as our trip shall be rather intense. 

By the time we reached Guang Zhou Bai Yun new airport, it was about 220am. Most of the shops over there are closed and there were little people around. If I am not mistaken, we were the last flight touching down that airport. 

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Both of us do not have any check-in luggage, and therefore we walked straight into the arrival hall. Upon exiting the hall, we were immediately approached by a few locals and they offered to bring us to our hotel in Tian Ho. Of course, at a tourist rate. RMB350. 

With all the research done by Jenny, I am aware that the normal price is around RMB140. So we hackled all the way and finally managed to get the driver agreed with RMB 140. Although it was rather a disaster to bargain with Chinese. Especially when we are all tourist, but it was all worth it. 

Thinking back, it was rather exciting. 

Upon reaching our hotel, we checked in and went to our hotel room 1805. It was a rather new hotel and the room was clean. It was about RMB880 per night for the three of us. So each of us is about SGD70 per person per night. 

Very quickly, we settled ourselves. Teo was very considerate, he bought a few pair of ear plugs for us as he is afraid that his snoring would wake us up. Having said, I had good sleep. 

Day 2, we were rather disappointed with the hotel breakfast and we decided to have a Macdonalds breakfast, it was around RMB30 for a breakfast meal while we were waiting for Ricky, Teo's HK friend and also Wilson. Both of them are travelling to GZ from HK. 

Upon checking in, 5 of us, including ricky's girlfriend went to the Canton Fair via the MRT. 

Upon reaching the canton fair, we registered and entered, although Wilson had some difficulties registering, but it was sorted out with the help of their polite assistant on desk. I must say, looking at the size of the fair, the fair was rather empty. From hindsight, it was the least visitors ever recorded. I guess our gloomy economy climate has an effect on the fair. 

3 of us walked for hours and hours, share our thoughts, jokes and catch up. It was really amazing to synchronising our thoughts, and things we see during the canton fair. It is like 3 little sea turtle looking for opportunity together in the sea. 

After hours of walked, we decided to sit down for a quick meal, we continue our talk, women, world economy, friends and bla bla bla. The place we had our meal was like our Singapore Food Court, just that their food is rather oily. Must be the cold weather. 

After our lunch, we decided to continue our fair, the fair ends at 6pm. We then walked to the nearest MRT station and head towards GZ City. Upon exiting the mrt station, we can see the magnificent night view of GZ. They got sky scrappers all over the place. I was humbled by the progress GZ has made, I think KL is like 50 years behind GZ now. This might not be the case, just my own two cent. I guess Wilson shared the same thoughts too. We were very angry at our government together for one moment. 

After our awesome dinner, which was recommended by Jenny's friend in GZ. We went straight back to our hotel and then to a nearby massage parlour. The massage session was about 153 per person, according to Wilson, it was the best massage he had ever tried. 

We had massage for about an hour and went back to hotel to sleep. 

On our next day which is also our last day in GZ, we decided to skip breakfast and went to Shang Xia Jiu Bu Street for breakfast, we went to a place for yum cha. It was authentic Chinese Dim Sum, it was nicely decorated and they serve proper Chinese Tea. They got several class even for just one flavour of tea. It was a rather enjoying experience to be able to dine with the locals and absorb some of their culture.

After our dimsum, we went to tour around the old city of GZ, and had tea at a Starbucks nearby. Two drinks cost us about RMB66. I still remember there is this report saying the profit margin in China is the highest for Starbucks, which could fetch about 39 %.

After our quick dinner at food republic at the nearby shopping mall in GZ east train station, the main train station for Wilson and Ricky to go back Hong Kong, they boarded the train around 830, and we went for a quick shopping to buy some souvenirs.

We then went to GZ baiyun airport, checked in and prepare to board our flight back to singapore around 220am.

We reached singapore around 620am and that marks the end of our GZ trip.

 It was amazing.

Thank you Wilson for inviting me,  Seah Hean to book the air tickets, covered some of our daily expenses and Jenny done all the research on where to eat, booked the hotel, taxi, packed my luggage and changed RMB for me, Ricky gave me a free ride in Guang Zhou.

I must say it was an awesome and memorable one. Looking forward for another one soon.

Small little things I have learned this month

Things I have learned recently during my last month:

1. Listen- People speak what is in their mind, of course. Actively listening is important too. There are so many things that we could see and learn while conversing with people. Put more attention into it and absorb. 
2. Weekly Goal-This would make you think and grow and actively work towards your goal. Say for example, there are a few things I would like to achieve this month. and also list down things that I have done for the past week. E.g. Going to the gym 4 times a week, 3 percent return from my assets, travelled to KL to meet friends and Eason's concert. Briefly to highlight things to do this coming week: attend property meetings/seminar, and to go Guang Zhou for canton fair 2013. Hopefully everything would go smoothly or better than that.
3. Focus, I am currently focusing on my stocks/shares investment and research at the moment. Starting everything from scratch will definitely do take a bit of time. But so far, I am experiencing the accomplishment of my investment and research I have done and I expect great things to happen.
4. Think - I need to think more in order for me to be more positive and to make this a better world to live in. I am superior human being with greater understanding.  Imagine getting better and better, I am not just bringing myself but also people around myself to a higher plateau in their health, career and also wealth. I must learn  a model that is duplicable. 
5. Journal-It is important to keep a journal, e.g. gym session, food I have eaten, People I have met, Interesting things I have done, Places I have been, Things I have learned, Positions I have tried ( I am talking about my investment position, when to do entry and when to exit, what are you guys thinking? :) )
6. System- For my learning model, my investment strategy, my time management and also my people management. All these, would require a system/model in order for myself to run efficiently. e.g. to floss before you brush your teeth or vice versa? It will lead to a better life in the long run with a proper system in place. 

Weekend updates

2/10/2013- I met qian hui, a friend I knew since uni time during our badminton session. 

We catch up over a dinner in a Japanese restaurant in Somerset, Orchard Central. She is getting married soon this year and shall be settling soon in KL. After our dinner, we went to a nearby bar called 5 and had a quick drink. 

We talked about relationship, how I dealt with mine and how she dealt with hers. She also shared how her Mr Right proposed to her, which I think is rather useful to learn a little bit about it. Just to eliminate some of the unnecessary embarrassment. 

5/10/2013- I met up with A Lu again, this time, we had scissors cut curry rice near Farrer park, the meal was good, we then went to a awesome coffee place nearby Chye Seng Huat for a coffee. 

There were 5 of us in total, weiyang, Lu, Charles, Ocean and me. I ordered an Iced Coffee and delicious cakes. Although it was rather hot, as we were sitting outside, but it was fun to catch up with them. We talked about rubbish. I guess I am rather slow warming up in a conversation with a large group. I would normally prefer an one to one session for a proper catch up. However, due to Lu's limited time in Singapore to catch with everyone of us. This must be the best way for her. 

Of course, with Charles wit and A lu's humour, everything became a joke. :) 

After enjoying ourselves so much, we decided to send lu to terminal one. We all had a lot to catch up, even for among us who were working in Singapore. It has been a while since we last had a meal and a drink already. 

6/11/2013- I went badminton session with badminton mates, Jenny went along and played with us. I am so glad that she joined me. I have been missing this sport so much, I guess I have stopped playing for at least more than 2 months. Time has been so tough on me, that I couldn't even play my favourite sport for even a session a week for the past few weeks. 

As always, I enjoyed my badminton session with my dear badminton mates. It is more like a catching up session with all my badminton mates. Although I lost a few games, but it was good fun! :) 

12/11/2013- This was the third week saturday that I didn't go to work. I am enjoying myself with a longer weekend. hah! I would say this is the time of my non peak. My peak would be around January next year. So don't be surprise if I couldn't be found during the chinese new year period. I feel awesome for not going to work on Saturday. After a brief calculation yesterday, going to work for a half day on Saturday would be equivalent to work additional 26 days a year. This would mean one whole month! This is painful. Of course, when I decided not to sit inside an office I would have to work over the weekend. Maybe with a proper weekend. I could have a work life balance. 

The 26 days a year is just one part, due to my very limited annual leave. I still need to put in additional annual leave for my Saturday. 

Currently on my wishlist, no more working Saturday for my next job. I need to read. The proper way to calculate my next salary would be calculate the per hour rate instead of looking at the annual remuneration. There is no point to get high salary for selling time, most importantly is to learn how to buy time.

19/11/2013- My fourth week not going to work on a Saturday.Although I am breaching my employment agreement. This is worth it, as I am going to Eason's concert in KL. After my 'work from home' period at 1330. I took the MRT and headed to Changi Terminal one. Took an air asia flight to KL, took a taxi to our hotel in Furama. Met up with Low sai, Mau, Charles, Kai Ting, Howeiyang, Lu and Sze Yun. We took the Monorail from Jalan Imbi to Stadium Merdeka. It was drizzling that night, luckily the concert was a rain or shine event. At least it did not defeat the purpose of flying over the concert. I would be very disappointed if the concert is cancelled. 

There are things that I have noted during this particular trip about concerts in Malaysia. Do bring a rain coat, just in case it rains. Maybe I should check the weather before I go. Secondly, water and food are not allowed to bring into the stadium. Although I brought half a dozen of Krispy Creme in  accidentally. Thirdly, although watching from the cheapest seat would only allow us to see a very small Eason. I rely a lot on the big screen. And with the subtitles below while eason is singing, it feels like a mass karaoke session than a concert. 

All in all, I still enjoy the concert. It was a great one. After our concert, we went to Jalan Alor for a proper supper. It was the longest walk on a highway in KL that I could remember in my life. Walking in a big group on a highway is really something new. If someone drunk really drive into us, we had nothing to say. 

On the other side, it was a good experience to walk together in a big group exploring the heart of KL. 

After a long walk, we reached Jalan Alor, we had wonderful supper, a few rounds of drink and of course a lot of laughters. It was a good time. Thanks to Low Sai for inviting me to this event. I enjoyed myself very much. 

Looking forward to my next trip with Wilson and Teoh in Guangzhou this weekend. This will be my 5th weekend not working. 

 

Succeed in spite of anything

After my great depression in London, I guess I see things very differently. 

At least from some of my peers at my own age as I doubt this is about age and I personally think it is down to what the person had been through and what they want in like. 

Why I think self motivating is important. Self motivating is like self-massaging, although there is some area where I might not be able to reach. But it is good to be able to massage myself once in a while.Well, though it sounded wrong, but I guess we can live with it. The mentality of self motivating is to create positive energy and push ourselves forward to achieve things we want. It could help us to leverage our network, friends, people around us with the same agenda. 

By gathering people with the same agenda, we could move forward as a team and achieve things we want together much more easily. This scenario reminds me of how we work as a team to achieve our goals together when we were playing online computer games when we were young. 

Time to continue my work, will update some of the people I have met recently and conversations we have had. Have a wonderful Tuesday! 

Aza Aza Fighting! 

My great supportive network

I am lucky to have 3 groups of supportive network, from mentors, peers family and friends from my great depression period in my last year in UK and I would like to record it down just to remind how lucky I am .


MENTORS:

Sharon and George Lim ( Chartered Accountant - My relatives)

They are my relatives who supported me during my days when I couldn't get a proper job. Thanks to them, I am able to stay for additional one year in UK to at least try to search for jobs and attend interview. At least, I have got no regrets trying out as hard as I could during that period of time.
George, specifically taught me about people management skills, basic accounting, badminton, blackjack and some business management skills. On top of that, He has been a great role model to me on how to take care of a family, raise kids, take care of friends and relatives.

Despite George's tight schedule, running a few restaurants, accountant, semi-professional gambler, badminton session organiser and also my main host, I must admit he is juggling all his roles professionally. I always tell myself that one day, I wanted to be someone like him.

Cayden Chang and Sean Seah (Value Investing Coach) 

I met Cayden and Sean in December 2012, they are my mentors for Value Investing Academy which I had learned quite a fair bit about stocks this year. They helped me in my investing knowledge which I would probably need a few years to learn. While we were attending this course, we had forged a strong bond amongst our peers about investment, time management, goal setting and helping each other to grow together. The experience I have had during the course is amazing.

Ian Tay  (Founder of Pixaroll) 

One of my best mentors while I am working on pet rangers, I got a lot of help from him regarding people management, presentation, time management and how to be determination. He had personally contributed a lot of his precious time with pet ranger team during our pitch in Hackathon weekend. I guess, he is someone who I would be very grateful to have, I still remember how he helped us in our business value proposition and motivated the whole team while we were in that period of time.


PEERS:

Bona, (Friend) 
I guess bona, Anthony's sister is the first person who started to motivate me personally, She has been supporting me all the time while I am studying in the first two years of my university in Semenyih. She encouraged me to play badminton, she taught me how to think more, helped me in my studies and also my social skills. She is the root of my part of personal development. I must give her all the credit.

She has the same trend as George, my other mentor while I am in UK, they talked about ideas most of the time. Both of them are very observant. Of course, on top of that, she is damn smart! She really added value to my life.
.
Kim Lim (cousin)

Kim is my cute younger cousin, I spent most of my free time while I am in Sutton, London talking to her. Somehow, chatting with someone that is so much younger than I am, I felt that we were growing up together. We discussed about everything.  From our conversation, I had a lot of fun, we some




CLOSE FRIENDS & FAMILY:

Anthony (Friend)

Anthony is my secondary mates although we were in the same primary school, we got close only where we were in secondary school TTSS. It was when we started to play games together, from CS to Ragnarok Online. We built our relationship through having fun. Until today, both of us still talked about creatures that we had killed together. We really enjoy the moment spent together as a team. We were so clicked in all manners.

CCY (Friend)

This is a guy where I grow my financial mindset with him. He is the the 2nd runner up in a stock competition while we were doing the competition together. He is a genius when it comes to stock and money.
He brought me to Value investing, property and supported me during the pet ranger thing.

Chai Ann and Serene 

They are like my travel and life buddies, I shared almost about everything with them. I guess, they were the closest friends I have got in life. It is fun growing up with them together. We play, have fun, work hard and joke around quite a lot. We also discussed about life matters and things we need to do so that our life is smoother.

Family

The most important group of all, they believe and supported me.

Having a supportive group of people around me is important. They keep me on track on things that I want to do and to achieve.

Short Sunday

Sunday, the shortest day in a week. This is what I always feel. The sun seems to rise very quickly in the morning and set really fast before night. In this post, I would like to write down how I spent my shortest day in a week, last week.

I woke up about 8.30am, laze in my bed until 11am. The reason I woke up is because I am hungry and there isn't any food in my place. Without any choice left, I have to brush my teeth, dress up and left my house around 11++

Of course, during the period from 8.30-11, I did some housekeeping, laundry and to catch up some sleep.It was the best thing to do in a Sunday morning.

I went to Arteastiq in Mandarin Gallery for Brunch, I ordered the lawn while Miss J ordered flush.

While I am posting some photos to Instagram, Shannon called me and told me that  he is in 313 Somerset with Yun Sin and friends. I wanted to join them but I need to go Singtel headquarters to sort out some of my mobile stuff before it was too late.

Arteastiq is amazing, I would  recommend to friends to go over for their ambiance and also for their tea. Although the tea is about 11 each, which is about double the price of a Starbucks which I could barely imagine how I would be willing to pay the price for a tea. But for the ambiance, quality and service, I somehow pay it willingly. Please note: Groupon got some promotion for Arteastiq.

Heart to heart talk

Tried to recall all the conversation that we had on a trip to a concrete plant.

J(Myself): I have been planning to settle down in Singapore. What do you think?

K(The Plant Manager): It's good, but just go for PR. don't go for citizen. Unless you are married to another Malaysian, only one of you should go for citizen, the other counterpart should remain as Malaysia citizen. This is to ensure you could reap the benefits from both countries. This is a good idea, as Singapore citizen can get cheaper education for children, accommodation and etc. It is like a native in Malaysia. As for the wife to remain Malaysian, this is for retirement in the future when the couple gets old.

J: "How much do you think a household income is required to sustain a two children family here in Singapore." I think the curiosity in me has pushed me to ask more daring question to a stranger.

K:" It depends on situation, for average, both husband and wife would definitely need to work in order to sustain the lifestyle and also the high standard of living here in Singapore. I would say it ranges from 6k - 15k per household. Let's do a brief calculation on my expenses."

As he continues with a big sigh, "I spent about 2k-3k per month alone on my children, 4k on mortgages, and also 1.5k on my transport.( he is driving a brand new 7-seater Volkswagen which he bought for about 150k). It is about SGD 9k per month in order to sustain the a family with two children here in Singapore."

I was listening to all these at the cost of nearly nothing apart from my working time, which my boss paid me for it. Looking at all the figures, I think there is some thinking needs to be done over the weekend already. I need to see if is worth the effort for me to stay here and work until I am 70++
I was intrigued with his lifestyle and decided to ask further, " How do you manage your role as a plant manager, father of two, husband and also a son?"

K: I work until 6pm on weekday, fetch my children and have dinner with them. By the time we reached home, it is about 7pm already. After taking their shower, they would have dinner with me and by that time, it would have been 8pm. They then would need to do their school assignment and also enrichment's class home work. Over the weekend, I would need to bring them to tuition and also enrichment class. These are necessary as the education in Singapore nowadays require a lot of effort from parents. Normally there are three enrichment classes for them to attend, each will be 2 hours and there will be a short break in between. I would have to wait nearby the tuition class on that day.This is to ensure my kids are well taken care of. It would take me about 6 hours of waiting hours for them. Bear in mind Jason, not just me that is waiting for the kid, there are a lot of parents that are doing the same thing as I did. I am no more special than typical parents in Singapore.

J:I guess, it is not easy for the child to bear all these pressure from the school and also the parents as well. How can they cope with it?

K: Sadly, the education system here is to squeeze and push the children as much as they can.

J: From my opinion, I am sure at some point, your child will be very grateful with what you have given them .

K: "When?" showing a hint of impatient and slightly agitated, he seems.

J: When he is around 18-20 years old. I answered calmly.

K: By that time I am very old already,as my oldest kid is only 8 now.

To avoid prolonged awkward silence while I am sipping my tea kosong from Giant Hawker centre in Tampines. I quickly asked another question: "How is your children enrichment class?" while swallowing my tea.

K: I think it is very important for a child to attend phonic class. It is basic of all language and it helps in the child entire career.


It is amazing how I had a wonderful conversation as this depth with someone I knew for about 20 minutes. I am looking for more of these conversation to know more what is in life in Singapore from people's perspective.