My Experience Planning A Wedding During COVID-19

I breathe a sigh of relief that I could hold my wedding during the COVID-19 pandemic. So many things happened in the past 1 year which troubled and worried me so much. Firstly, our wedding had to be postponed from July 20 to Jan 21. It was the hardest decision I've ever made. We didn't even know when to postpone our wedding to as we're not fortune tellers and do not have a crystal ball to see what is going to happen for this pandemic. 

Making the decision to postpone the wedding was coupled with the mad rush to contact all the vendors to check on the availability of dates. I had the fear that many couples are also postponing so it will be hard to get any dates in 2021. We contacted about 5 vendors we had engaged and luckily all were able to accommodate our new date in 2021. 

With postponement, cost increase is also a factor and the fear of any of the wedding vendors going bust and thus losing our deposits. I have paid a few thousand dollars in deposits to several vendors already including the bridal shop where I had sign up a package for the gowns, suits, actual day photography. Thankfully, non of our vendors went bust by the time we held our wedding. 

Experience with Hotel venue

COVID-19 has affected the hospitality business in a huge way. For hotels, they do not have any tourists coming to stay and events were also not allowed to be held. For weddings, the number of attendees was limited to 50 initially then increased to a max of 100 now. 

We chose Hilton Singapore as our wedding venue 3 years back. This became the best decision we ever made. We were served by the wedding sales executive at the point of signing the contract and paying the deposit. Few months before our wedding, the sales executive went on maternity and we were than served by the sales manager. We postponed our wedding to 2021 and never heard from the sales executive nor the manager anymore from then on. I guessed they were either laid off or transferred to other roles. Blessings in disguise, we were now served by the sales director, Anthony, who provided us the best service we could ever ask for. 

We heard of many hotels starting to increase price or cut the perks as the number of tables were reduced. Many people decided to cancel their banquet but could not get back their deposits at all. Some had their 1 night stay in the bridal suite cancelled, others had their price per table increased by 20% or the wine and beer perks taken away. Hilton did not increase our price per table or take away our perks. Instead, we got more perks and experienced the most flexibility in table arrangement which we could ever ask for. Due to social distancing, the number of pax per table could only be a max of 8. Hilton used our per table price which we signed up back then and divided by 10 to derive the per head cost. They then allowed us to be flexible in assigning any number of guests per table and only charge us base on per head. So, I had some tables with 5 guests, some with 6, 7 or 8. They even went the extra mile to not charge for toddlers as long as we tell them not to serve food for them. This could not have happened in the past as most hotels will charge by per table of 10 persons regardless of how many guests were seated on each table that day. 

Besides being flexible with the table arrangement, the sales director often calls me to assure me and update me on any changes to government regulations. We wanted an additional night before the day of the wedding so that my wife could do the make up at the hotel itself on the actual day and were prepared to pay for the extra room night. To my surprise, Hilton offered the additional room without any charge. It was initially using the day use room which we have in our package for the additional 1 night but the sales director once again thought for us and mentioned it will be difficult to move our things from the day use room to the bridal suite so he initiated to let us have the additional night on the day before at the bridal suite instead. This made it so much better for us on the actual day as we had many items in the room. If we had to move the items from one room to the other, it would not have been a good experience. 

We had a live band package which we signed up for and this was converted to virtual live band instead due to government regulations of no live performance for weddings. Hilton initiated to help us contact our virtual live band vendor to test the connection just in case it doesn't work. On the actual day, our banquet manager Hasan and sales director Anthony were there to ensure everything is ok. They took care of our solemniser to ensure he has a space to park at L1 VIP lot so that he can arrive on time and contacted my sister in law to pick up my parents in law when they arrive. I'm not sure if this is the practice for most hotels in Singapore when it comes to service excellence but I really felt like a VIP on that day. I felt that Hilton has way exceeded my expectation on service standards and would like to express my appreciation for all that they have done for us in the midst of having our wedding during COVID-19.

Experience with virtual live band

Many wedding banquets have live bands nowadays to make it more lively. Me and my wife signed up a package for live band with Musical Touch more than a year back. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, live band was not allowed but virtual live band was proposed for us. So, our vendor actually rented a studio and had the live band livestreamed to our wedding venue. I was initially skeptical of whether such arrangements would work as there are many considerations such as whether it will be as engaging, whether the sound quality will be good and whether the internet connection will be stable etc. To my surprise, everything went well that day. The virtual live band had good sound, it sounded like they were there on that day. There was no lagging or cut in internet connection also.  

We initially signed up for a 2 piece band only with emcee service. The singer was supposed to double up as the emcee for our wedding. However, as the singer could no longer be here at the venue, the vendor had to arrange for a separate emcee to come down. There were additional cost due to this arrangement. We were initially not too happy about this as who would like to fork out additional money when its not what you wanted but Musical Touch patiently explained to us the reasons. We had several exchanges before we came to the decision to fork out the extra cost to continue with the virtual live band and emcee service. This vendor was sincere and really provided good services on that day. They even had an additional coordinator came down that day to ensure the coordination for the march in songs and accepted songs dedication as per normal. I would definitely recommend Musical Touch for anyone who wants a virtual live band for your wedding during this COVID-19 pandemic.  

Cost of wedding

A wedding is often the first money bomb in our lifetime. I wrote an article 6 years back in 2014 on how much money is needed to get married and start a family in Singapore. Here is the article: https://sgyounginvestment.blogspot.com/2014/03/how-much-money-is-needed-to-get-married.html

The cost of wedding I calculated back then was: 

Cost of wedding after collecting Ang Baos: $19,000-$26,000. 

This cost included honeymoon which we couldn't go for due to COVID-19. If we add in a honeymoon cost of $5K-$10K, the cost I would have spent for wedding is in the range of $13K-$18K after deducting the ang baos collected. Yes it does cost 5 figure to get married in Singapore but I think all these cost are worthwhile to spend for your once in a lifetime occasion. I could also afford this amount as I've saved up significantly over the years since I wrote the above article and am fully prepared for the cost needed. It would not be advisable for anyone to take a loan for a wedding if you do not have the savings for it. 

All in all, we did not regret having our wedding at a 5 star hotel with all the good services which we needed to make the day better. We were happy, our guests were full of praise for the food and service and were happy too. This will definitely be something memorable when I look back in the future. 

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End of year 2020 - My Reflection On This COVID year

Just like that, 2020 is coming to an end. This year proved itself to be a year of surprises. This definitely isn't a normal year which we would go through as the whole world practically descended into crisis. Luckily for us in Singapore, the disease outbreak is mostly under control and we've not seen multiple waves as compared to other countries. Nevertheless, we have transitioned into a new norm of living with social distancing, wearing of mask and limitation on gatherings still in place probably for another year ahead.

What I learnt in year 2020

2020 would be a year I will never forget. For both my personal and working life, I had to make tough decisions which was not easy. I was suppose to get married this year with almost everything all planned out. Me and my fiancee made the decision to postpone our wedding 3 months before our big day. Luckily we did that else we wouldn't be able to hold a wedding during the circuit breaker anyway. 

For my working life, this is the year which I pushed myself so much that I didn't take a single annual leave at all. This is the first time in my 10 years of working life that I didn't take any leave. Working in healthcare supporting COVID operations in the frontline is never easy. There were several times which I felt totally burn out and wanted to give up but I pushed myself to continue. It was mentally and physically exhausting. I'm glad that the situation is much better now. Looking back, I learnt how much I could actually push myself. I realised how much more I could do, pushing myself to the limits. Of course, this could not be achieved without the support of my fiancee, family, friends, colleagues and even the whole nation coming together as one. During a crisis, work becomes very different. We had SOPs to follow but also had to make critical decisions when situation changes. Policy changes becomes a weekly affair too where we had to adjust to changes almost every other day. 

The good thing about working in healthcare is I didn't have to worry about whether my salary or bonus will be cut. My salary remained intact and bonus was not cut. Because of this, I took the risk to invest more of my savings when the stock market dropped drastically. The ride was really wild as stocks continued to drop every time I bought a new stock. There were times I doubted myself whether am I doing the right thing as I see losses accumulating. Facing a tough personal life, I had moments of depression where I couldn't sleep well at night which was worsen by the losses from my investments.

Fortunately, the stock market has recovered and my portfolio went back up higher than the beginning of this year. All the losses have reversed and turned into profits. I believe this is only the beginning of the recovery and there is still much room for stocks to run up. 

Income and expenditure update

For the year 2020, my income from employment continues to grow. Total income grew 13.8% as compared to year 2019. Other income drop slightly as I had lesser time for income generating outside of work and also dividends from stocks were mostly cut this year due to the economic uncertainty. Expenses also dropped as I did not travel this year and also partly because of the circuit breaker and work which I did not go out for any social gatherings for a few months. 

Stock Investment Performance

For investing, I kept to my believe that the best time to invest is when there is a crisis. I've been waiting for such a time like this for the longest time ever since I started investing more than 10 years ago. There were some small crisis during the 10 years but this is one of the crisis which I've never encountered before. 

As you can see from the blue line representing my stock portfolio value, it has increased by more than 2 fold as I injected more capital every time the stocks drop lower. As the red line (representing portfolio time weighted returns) dropped, I put in more money and thus my portfolio value still went up even though stocks drop a lot. I have seen wide swings in my portfolio to the tune of $50K just this year alone. Not an easy journey I must say but this has made me a better investor to be able to control my emotions better. I learnt not to panic sell stocks during such times and really need to patience to ride it through.

With the support from other financial blogger friends, all of us got excited and invested more as stocks drop. This proved to be the right thing to do when stocks are on a great discount to their valuation. Nevertheless, it is still hard to know which company will survive at that point in time. I had stocks like SATS and hospitality Reits which were the hardest hit. Stocks like these have also recovered back to the price which I bought them at. The whole wait took about 6-9 months for it to turn around. At that point in time when I invested in these companies, the outlook was bleek and future was unknown. There was even fear whether the companies would survive. Looking back, there was definitely risk involved. It may still be risky now as borders have largely remained close and tourism is almost non existent. 

What's in it for us in 2021?

While the stock market has recovered and a vaccine is underway to control the outbreak, there is still uncertainty over the impact this outbreak will bring to the economy. There might be permanent shift in certain industries due to disruptions and accelerating of technological advancements. 

Will travel resume in 2021? I certainly hope so as the urge to have a good break and exploring new places keeps coming back. It might take awhile for normal travel to resume though as the start of borders reopening will certainly face with some hiccups and also travelling cost will definitely be much higher initially due to pent up demand. 

Nevertheless, holiday season is here and its short working week for the rest of the year till 2021. Here's wishing all readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Have a joyous celebration with your friends and family members but do remember to stay safe too! 

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Life and Investing In the Midst of A Recession

News of what was to come came in early January 2020. Working in healthcare, I first heard of the then Wuhan virus in early Jan. Infectious disease experts in Singapore were already starting to monitor the developments in China very early on and preparing for what was to come. We didn't have the mood to celebrate Chinese New Year and the worrying part is when people around the world travel to different parts of the world during the CNY holidays causing the virus to spread.

In the midst of CNY, I was busy preparing slides for manpower planning for COVID-19 support. I had to work till midnight for several days. The CNY holidays were totally disrupted for me. The preparation work continued for the rest of the 15 days of CNY and DORSCON was raised to orange in Singapore even before the 15 days CNY was over. I remembered some of my colleagues had arranged reunion dinner with their family on that faithful night but all plans were disrupted. 

The virus was officially named 2019-nCOV in February and then changed to COVID-19 thereafter. The events happened very quickly and caught many by surprise. It sent shock waves to the stock market and every stock went into free fall mode. Many people, including me started to deploy our warchest to buy some stocks at good bargain thinking this virus will pass by in just a few months. The only comparison we had was the SARS virus back in 2003 and the world got out of it in just a few months. 

Little did I know that COVID-19 would cause such massive damage to the economy as compared to SARS. Fast forward 7 months into COVID-19, we are still far from over from this crisis. Retrenchments are intensifying and pay cuts become a common occurence. Our borders are still mostly closed even though there's some good news now that our borders are starting to reopen to revive the tourism, hospitality and aviation sector. This sector contributes about 5% to Singapore's GDP which is somewhat significant. Furthermore, there are repercussions if there are no tourists in Singapore. Tourists contributes significantly when they spend in our country. Without them, many businesses suffer a drop in income and many had to close down as what we have seen. Singapore's domestic market is still too small to sustain our economy for the long run. 

Is this still the best time for investing?

Nevertheless, I still think this is the best time for investing. Many investors in the past have said that they will take advantage and find opportunity to invest when a crisis happens. I too was looking forward to a crisis so that I can invest more. When the crisis really comes, it was easy deploying cash into stocks at the start but as the crisis drags on and your portfolio continues to see losses, we also start to doubt our investment thesis whether is it correct or should we even be investing now. I had self doubts too investing in this crisis. Almost all companies have cut dividends. The more than 10% dividend yield we see for some companies when the stock price drop becomes less than 5% now after they cut dividends. Its almost like everything is going against you.  

The good thing now is the companies I invested in, so far non have collapsed in the midst of the crisis. This is especially important as some companies will surely not make it and file for bankruptcy. Big names like Muji, GNC, Hertz have filed for bankruptcy in the US. Recently, Genting HK which owns Dream Cruise and Zouk Singapore also defaulted on its loans. Car sharing firm Smove in Singapore also collapsed. In times like this, it is really important to invest in strong companies with good balance sheet to ensure they can ride out the storm. 

This storm may take some time to pass. Perhaps another 6 months to 1 year from what I read so far. For Singapore, we should be looking at a vaccine nearer to the end of 2021 which is still quite some time from now. For now, we still have to get use to living this different life we have since the start of 2020. I am still accumulating stocks which are at depressed prices now. I still believe in REITs which I had accumulated more of Frasers Centrepoint Trust, Capitaland Mall Trust and Lendlease REIT to larger positions. I have also invested more on hospitality REITs such as CDL Htrust even though the hospitality sector may still take some time to recover. However, the REITs that own hotels are still surviving with profits as they cater for visitors on SHN and foreign workers. I believe once COVID-19 is under control, people will start travelling again. There is definitely pent up demand for travel again.

I also bought more Netlink Trust as they continue to generate dividends and appear unscathed from the crisis. For recovery plays, I bought in Comfortdelgro at $1.35 as I feel they should be the first to recover and the stock price is really attractive. I also invested in banks such as OCBC and DBS to ride on the banking giants at attractive prices. Lastly, I also made my first investment in US stock in Alphabet Inc which is the Google company we know. 

Nevertheless, my portfolio is still down 15% YTD while the STI is down almost 20%. This is definitely not a good year for investment and who knows how long this will continue on. Reference to the past during the 2008 global financial crisis, the stock market took about 7 months to 1 year to bottom out and recovered furiously thereafter to reach another peak in 1-2 years. I feel the stock market has already bottomed out and bad news are already priced in, not withstanding another shock to the world again. There may still be another slight dip but it should not be as bad as what we have went through thus far. 

Therefore, I do feel this is the best time to accumulate good companies in the next few months. We are so far about 5-6 months from the stock market drop and if history do repeat itself, then it should take another 5-6 months to see recovery. Remember, the stock market is always 6 months to 1 year ahead of the economy. So, the market can be recovering when retrenchments are intensifying and at the peak. This is the nature of investing. 

Life has not been an easy one for many of us this year and it may get worse before it gets better. Nevertheless, when we get out of this crisis, we will become better and life will be back as normal again. As with all other crisis, nothing will be permanent. Those who look for opportunities during a crisis will become better and emerge stronger. Its up to us to take action now in all aspects of our life. 

Income & Expenses For Year 2019 - My Expenses Has Almost Tripled From 2015 to 2019

In just 1 weeks time, 2019 will come to an end and we will welcome a new year 2020. I have still been tracking my income and expenses on a monthly basis so I thought its good to do a self check on my financial health as the year comes to an end.

Over the years, my expenses have gone up as I decided to relax the tight budget which I used to keep back in 2015. In 2016, I wrote a post titled "The day I stopped tracking my daily expenses". Of course after that decision, my expenses started to go up and has almost tripled from 2015 to 2019.

Here's an overview of my expenses for the last 5 years:

In case you're wondering, in 2019, my expenses came up to be almost $23,000. I'm not sure if mine is considered high or low expenses in Singapore but to me this expense is still a manageable one. No matter what expenses we have, the most important thing is we do not spend more than we earn and still have savings for the future. For me, the higher expenses is a result of a conscious decision to spend more.

Does spending more money makes me happier? I think it actually does. I've felt less restrictive towards spending money than how I was 5 years back. I would eat out at restaurants more often, buy gifts for people more generously and go for more overseas trips etc. I managed to go Japan this year which is a place I've always wanted to go. Even though the cost is not low for a Japan trip, but still it was worth every cent.

However, due to my savings habit which I had since young, it was a struggle for me to increase my expenses initially. I was sort of constantly worried if I would be ok if I spend more but always at the end of the year when I do my financial health check, I would still have quite a substantial sum of savings. I always remind myself every year that its ok to spend a bit more to remind myself to live life to the fullest.

Having more income helps in this journey of increasing expenses while still accumulating savings for financial independence. I would honestly say I have worked harder this year than any other year after I changed jobs and taking on more projects and responsibilities in order to get better work performance which leads to higher pay and promotion. Unfortunately, it has lead to some health issues such as insomnia and migraine headaches which I had to see a neurologist recently and be on daily medication to control it for the time being.

Here's an overview of my income, other income and expenses:

Basic income comes from my full time job which I am currently in my third job now which I switched to back in Oct 2018. This has lead to higher basic income year after year. Other income has naturally dropped due to lesser time for this category because of the busyness of my full time job. Nevertheless, combined income has increase year after year due to higher basic income. I am still able to save more than half of my combined income as a result of this strategy.

I am still trying to increase my basic and other income as I feel there is still much room to grow. For basic income, I am targeting a promotion which hopefully I am able to get in 2020. This will bump up my basic income by a substantial percentage else the normal increment will be around 3%-4% only. For other income category, I'm planning to increase my investments in stocks further. It is not easy to spot good stocks which are at a good price to invest in at current market conditions. Hope 2020 will present some opportunities for investment.

Moving forward in 2020, I expect expenses to go up further as I prepare for my big day in year 2020. My new house will come in 2020 also. Its going to be a busy year ahead. I realised I did not make any new year resolutions in 2018 for year 2019 but well, I think life still went relatively well for the year.

Hope your year went well too and may a better year come for all of us in 2020. Merry Christmas and Happy new year to everyone!

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Updates on Life after 1 month plus of not blogging

Its been 1 month plus since my last post on 29 May. Many things were keeping me busy in life and I've been keeping things to myself struggling to understand what I was thinking about life myself. The whole of June I was still busy with work while planning for a Japan trip the whole of the month. I was so looking forward to the trip in end of June that everyday I went home after work its about more research on the trip itself. I've always wanted to go Japan and finally made the dream come true with a short 5 days trip to Tokyo. It was an eye opening experience.

Walking around Shinjuku in Tokyo

I came back from the trip around 2 weeks ago and was back to the usual busyness of work and life. I didn't have the energy to do anything after work and weekends is mostly spent with the same routine of spending time with my fiancee on Saturday and exercise on Sunday plus spend time with my family. There are lots of things to plan for our big day next year which is getting closer each day. I also had catch up with my friends as well.

Life is full of surprises in a sense that there are always ups and downs. For me, its no different and I struggle to keep myself happy on some days and sink into gloominess. It gets worse and worse when I see the struggles in my life and also in other people's life. I get worried on certain occasions about health, money and so on. Many things have happened in the past 2 years seeing some loved ones gone, some in poor health and this worries me a lot. I no longer focus so much on money anymore as I felt life is getting shorter and shorter. I do hope this feeling is normal and I'm not the only one who feels this way.

One of the reasons I stopped blogging for so long is because of all these negative emotions and I wanted to hide it and to be alone. In the 5 years of starting this blog, I don't think I have stopped for so long before. Now, I feel better and ready to take on life challenges again and wanted to share this episode in my life with all of you. If you're also facing life challenges and feel that life is hard, do not give up as you will definitely be stronger after this. Life is not always smooth sailing and there will always be problems to deal with. Yes we may get tired so we need some time to relax and recharge again. In this instance, spending money on good food and going overseas may be the best thing to do.

For work, its always busy even after 9 months on my new job. This is my 3rd job and its the most hectic among all my jobs so far but its also the job I find most meaningful to do. I've been tasked with big projects to really change things which I feel happy to take on. The working environment has been good and people are generally nicer here in the healthcare sector. This is also the 3rd industry I've changed to and its interesting to learn new things and see how different industries in Singapore operate.

For investments, its been a good year even with the trade war still ongoing. Stocks have went up crazily and with my portfolio made up of mostly blue chips and REITs, it benefited a lot. My portfolio is already up 11.3% for the year and I've started to sold some of the stocks such as Frasers L&I and Starhill global REIT. One of my favorite stock, Ascendas Hospitality trust is having a merger with Ascott residence trust and I think the offer is quite decent. In any case, I've held this stock for many years with almost 100% return on investments already including dividends received. This is the highest dividend yielding stock in my portfolio at 8.4% for many years. Its a pity I can't get that kind of dividend yield anymore if the deal goes through.

I do feel life is short and I want to enjoy fully what life has to offer. Someone younger than me and whom I'm close to passed on a few years back and till now its still hard to accept the loss. There are other things that happened but I shall not mention here. Life situations has changed my view towards it and I hope its a good change for now.

Reflections for 2018 - A Tough Year To Go Through But Ended Well

2018 A Tough Year

2018 will be ending soon. Its another year to reflect again. This is no doubt the toughest year for me but life still went through nonetheless. In the beginning of the year, I had to deal with the death of a close cousin of mine who passed away due to a road accident. It was extremely sudden and we even agreed to meet up 1 week later before the accident. I never got to see him again. This is my first experience in life of losing a close family member who was around the same age as me. It was not easy at all. At the same period, I also had to deal with other family issues as well going to the hospital a few times a week.

Through this tough period, I learnt to see life in a different perspective. I see how fragile life is but at the same time how resilient we humans can be too. While most of us rely on our own hard work and efforts to live through life, when faced with issues that are out of control, some support from people around us and a little prayer comforts the soul. Through it all, the people left in this world continues to live on in search for deeper meaning of life again. After all, its the people around us that matters more than our work, our achievements or our status.


I Changed Job Again..

The first half of the year was faced with struggles. The second half of the year was faced with changes. I decided to change job again in September 2018 after just 1 year plus in the new company I joined. Somehow, this came as a surprise because I did not search for this job but a headhunter called on a random day. I decided to go for the interview and after 2 rounds, they decided to offer me and I took it up. Changing job is not an easy thing to do as I have to relearn everything and build up my network again. The first few months was tough but things got stable after awhile. I went into another new industry yet again, this time in the healthcare sector. Its quite eye opening to me actually to see how the healthcare sector is developing. There are so many people I see everyday who need treatment and the healthcare worker work tirelessly to support all these needs. Not an easy industry to be in but quite a meaningful one with passionate people working here.

Spending More Money With 2 back to back trips

Before I changed job, I took the opportunity to have a good break. I went on an epic cruise trip experiencing the finest luxury of a suite package and then a few days later, I went on another trip to Taiwan. I must have been mad to spend money like nobody's business. Life is short after all right? However, I think this was the best decision I've ever made actually. I always remind myself it doesn't hurt to spend a little more money for enjoyment.


A bad year for stocks

2018 is a bad year for stocks. The STI is negative for the year at about -7%. My portfolio is down about -5% for this year. XIRR came is at -6.45%, a negative after the past 4 years of positive investment return.

I continue to increase my exposure in stocks and took the opportunity to buy the dip. Dividends receive for next year is forecasted to be higher than this year at $4K+.


Lesser Passive/Other Income for this year

Passive/Other income decreased this year as I had less time and energy to work on my side income having to go through tough times and getting more busy after I changed job. This side income still came in decent at $14K. This includes dividends from stocks as well.

Overall total income came in higher than last year as I had a good bonus from my previous job and higher salary from my new job as well.


Increased Savings and Net Worth

My savings for this year broke a new record even with more spending. The increase in income helped quite a lot in managing my finances. My net worth is now almost doubled from 2 years ago. This savings will come in handy when preparing for my wedding and new house in about 1-2 years time.

Life still goes on after all the things that happened. I learnt to cherish life even more. While some people may be gone and some people no longer the same, if we have the opportunity to continue living, we should make the most out of it.

May 2019 be better for you and for me as well. Wishing everyone a joyous and prosperous 2019 ahead! Happy New Year 2019!

Working harder for higher pay in new job and another AMA session this time with DBS

How time flies, I've been in my new job for more than a month now. To be honest, it was a struggle getting used to new work environment as well as different job scope again and time just flew past in an instance. In fact, I was shock when I look at the date today and realised that I've been busy working without much rest for the past 1 month plus.

This is my 3rd job now and every change of job, the work somehow becomes tougher. Of course, the pay is higher as well and with ever career move, more responsibilities comes with the higher pay. I had some catch up with my ex colleagues as well as some friends recently and everyone feels the same way. At least I'm not alone in this.

A few years ago, I set my goals to aim for higher income. When goals are set, somehow we work towards it and it becomes a reality. Then, we reflect on the goals we set and think through whether its the right goals for us? While seeking higher income was the right thing to do, there are sacrifices to be made as well. I definitely have lesser time for other things in life and feel totally burnt out on some days. For now, I'm quite used to my new lifestyle already and then the question is what's next?

With higher pay, finances are definitely not so tight anymore. Saving more money also becomes easier even though I spend more. Budgeting becomes less of a hassle as I don't need to count every single cent I spend anymore and still manage to save some money every month.

Throughout the past 5 years since I started this blog, I've explored various ways to optimise savings, increase income, learn about insurance, housing, CPF and also invest my money. There are hits and misses in everything that I've learnt and tried and I share this on my blog as much as I can. I started out learning from other peoples' blogs as well and through this got to know quite a few like minded friends in the community.

In recent times, Ask Me Anything (AMA) session has been getting popular. I'm doing one of the sessions on DBS NAV platform this time. You get to ask any questions you have and I will answer them on 7th Nov 8pm-9pm. Click on the image below and start asking your questions anytime from today.

There are many other questions that has been asked on the DBS NAV platform where we can learn from others as well. Check it out here today!

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A Good Break Before My New Work Starts And A Random AMA session

Time flies... just like that, its my last day of work in my second job of my career. I stayed in my first company for 6 years and move on to my current role for close to 2 years before moving to another new role again. This is a job I am quite looking forward to as it will be meaningful from what I heard during my interview.

However, I also expect it to be stressful as this is a newly set up department and I'm the first one to be hired for this new role. I will have to squeeze my brain to come up with new ideas for improvements as well as handle mega projects in a booming healthcare industry. This is a totally new industry to me also.

Nevertheless, I took the courage to take up the offer to challenge myself as well as build up my personal portfolio for better career advancement. A nice salary jump was also part of the reason why I took up the offer. I hope this will be a good place to work in when I officially start my new job next week.

I took the opportunity to take a good 1 week break before I start my new job. I went on a 3 day 2 night cruise just last weekend on Dream cruise and it was really great. Together with my family, we stayed in the Palace Deluxe Suite to fully experience what the cruise has to offer. We were treated like VIPs throughout the weekend.

I will be writing a more detailed post on this cruise expeirence. Here's a little teaser on the room we stayed in and the private swimming pool area:

Living room of the Palace Deluxe Suite with Balcony

Bedroom with window overlooking the sea

Private swimming pool for Suites guests only

Do check out my next post for a more detailed write up on this travelogue. 

I'll also be doing a live ask me anything (AMA) session on Tue, 11 September 2018 from 7pm to 9pm on the Seedly page. I am not paid anything for this so its out of my own accord that I'll be answering questions from anyone out there in the community. Feel free to join in and ask questions here. There are already more than 15 questions being asked. You can join in to answer some of the questions too to help one another out in better financial planning. 

See you at the AMA page soon!

The Nail Of Life - How I Got Out Of Painful Situations in Life

I've not been writing much about my life lately as many things happened and I wanted to at least wait for things to settle down before I pen my thoughts down. This will probably be a short post to summarise my life in general.

Life is full of ups and downs as always. Readers would know I had a bad year end in 2017 where I saw how fragile life was. It was a struggle for me to understand and digest and accept what happened. You can read about what happened last year here. The start of the year was extremely painful for me too as I had to handle the emotions of not just myself but of my loved ones as well. I struggled to stay happy even though I know happiness is a choice.

I used to write about life lessons on my blog but realised I haven't been doing that for a long time. Oh well, when I cannot handle myself what right do I have to tell people about happiness? This was what went through my mind which stopped me from writing more. I had thoughts to just get out of Singapore and travel alone so that I can escape from the world but didn't do that in the end.

Work didn't come easy either. My department was restructured and the manpower was cut into half. Half of us were transferred to another department. I was one of those being transferred. I thought I could learn more by doing new things but the department was fire fighting all day long with back to back meetings for the past 2 months. I've had maybe 20 meetings in the past 2 months and some lasted as long as 12 hours. It was extremely difficult to absorb and learn the information myself while I struggled to understand what is going on in the meetings. It didn't helped when the management didn't gave clear direction of what they wanted to do either.

For investments, the market had a significant sell down a few weeks back and my portfolio went down by the thousands. Thankfully, the market went back up again and dividends were paid recently too. The worst investment this year which I made had to be in Hyflux where I invested in its preference share. I went to the town hall session just last week and it is still unknown whether they will pay back the money. It was a really bad town hall with the place very hot and stuffy and the management didn't really gave clear directions on what would happen. It seems like they were as lost as us even though they had the best legal, accounting and C-Suite level professionals in the town hall session. I hope the CEO will keep to her word where she said she will want to take care of the minority stakeholders interest as much as possible.

Then, things started to turn around. Some good news happened just this week. I was so sick and tired of everything that I told myself enough is enough. I am going to get out of my situation and move forward. Just 2 weeks back, 2 recruiters called me and proposed jobs which I may be interested in. I went for one of it and may get a job offer soon. I am really contemplating to leave and will think about it and see how it goes when they call back next week. Its a meaningful job where I get to make impact in the lives of others.

I saw a video on Facebook which talked about "How to Un-Stub Your Toe on the Nail of Life". Are you in situations where you feel pain but you still stay on the pain and unable to get out of it? Watch this short 3 mins video and hope it motivates you in your life:

If you've been in pain for the longest time in your life, now is the time to say enough is enough, I am getting out and moving forward in life again. Turn your failures in success today!

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Everyone hates the corporate world but what can we do about it?

Everyone seems to hate the corporate world but we have no choice but to work for a living. Let's face it, even if you like doing the job, you won't like handling the bosses or the office politics that comes your way.

Your choices affect your outcome in life

A fellow blogger and friend who blogs at Investment Moats wrote a post which recounts his conversation with a fellow colleague who decided to call it quits in the corporate world. He resigned from the job at the age of 45 without another job. This was possible because he choose this path right at the start. He planned out his path to exit the corporate world many years ago when he was much younger.

Most people do not act like the colleague above. In fact, most will never even think that they could exit the corporate world so the only choice is to climb the corporate ladder or choose a role which is less tough to deal with. In my previous company, there were many people in their 40s who didn't want to be promoted because they know that they would face more shit if they go higher up the corporate ladder. Well, its a personal choice and there is no right or wrong in our choices in life.

Also in my previous company, I saw some colleagues who were able to call it quits and enjoy the freedom which they set out for in their early years. Yes, all these people have one thing is common. They made this choice early in their lives.

In my current company, most are young people around my age and a lot are busy climbing the corporate ladder at this age. I too am climbing the corporate ladder but I know my end destination should not be getting stuck in this rat race. I do like my analysis job but there are many re-organisation happening which affected morale a lot and having to deal with this is not something pleasant. There are also many additional "jobs" which are not in my control. People not cooperating is another issue to deal with coupled with demanding and unreasonable bosses.


Why its hard to enjoy your work even if you like it?

Its a irony that I deal with data analysis on my blog too which I often break down numbers and create charts to analyse as well. This is similar to what I do at work. However, it is very hard for me to enjoy the same analysis work in office because of the deadlines, bosses comments, approvals and the many meetings (which may be pointless).

Imagine if I have to meet a deadline for a blog post or having to seek approval just to post an article on my blog. Add in many pointless meetings and presentations just to post that one article. That will be disastrous. Ideas flow because of the freedom to think and not fearing of what will happen if we do the wrong things.


What can we do about it?

Getting out of the corporate world does not mean retiring totally. There have been much discussions on the idea of retiring partially which can be achieved at a much younger age. Instead of doing work we do not like and staying in the corporate world, we can generate enough passive income to cover our fixed expenses and do some freelance work to supplement our variable income lifestyle.

Imagine if you have $300,000 savings and invest it to get 5% passive income, you would be able to get $15,000 annually which is $1250 per month. This can cover some fixed expenses or probably most fixed expenses if you have no outstanding debts. Thereafter, some freelance or part time work can be done to get additional few thousand dollars monthly to supplement our income. This is just an example and it really depends on individual lifestyle on how much they need monthly to survive.

The most important thing is what we set out to choose early in our lives. Do you choose to stay in the corporate world till you're old or you choose to have the freedom in your life? This is an important question and whatever choices we make will ultimately lead us to that end destination which we choose. Remember, there is no right or wrong choices. There are people who like the corporate world but I just don't think that's me. How about you?

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Reflections on turning 30 years old

I have officially joined the 30 league today. To me, turning 30 years old is a milestone in life. The 3 in front of the age psychologically makes one look older too. I started this blog back when I was 25 years old and named it SG Young Investment. I grew with this blog and it has been 5 years now. Can't believe how time flies just like that.

This blog is a personal blog where I document my journey towards financial freedom. It is also a blog where I write on my thoughts on finance stuff. I have learnt a lot just by blogging for the past 5 years. Yes indeed as I write on various topics, I learnt the most myself too. Over the years, my motivation changes as I grew older and experiencing life's happiness and sorrows as well. This post will be some thoughts I have for turning 30 years old today.

1. Money is not everything in Life

A big realisation in my life is that money is not everything. Over the past 5 years, I made more money and my net worth grew because of the plans and goals I set for myself. I was able to generate multiple streams of income and spend more on the good things in life too.

However, after all these, honestly I don't feel much happier just because I had $100K more in my bank account. Don't get me wrong. It is still important to save up for our future especially if we want a good life for our love ones. But, honestly, money is not everything in life.


2. Life can hit you hard when you least expect it to happen

Life is not always smooth sailing. In fact, the past few days before my birthday, I felt an intense sadness reflecting on what had happened in the past and worrying about the future. I realised that I have totally no control over what would happen at all because of some unfortunate experiences in the past 1 year.

Personally, I have witnessed the sickness and death of 4 close relatives in just 1 year alone. One of which was a close cousin who was younger than me where he died in an accident. It hit me really hard that life does not give second chances. We can have all the plans we want but how it turns out later is unpredictable. I struggled a lot because I have been a person who believed in planning for the future a lot. It made me think what's the point of planning anymore.

Fortunately, my parents are still healthy but after seeing unfortunate things happen to people around me, I begin to worry for them also.


3. Keep walking is the only way in life, relationships and hope brings peace to our hearts

Yes there are worries and hurts in life that will bring us down. However, time does heal wounds as long as we continue walking. In fact, this is the only way in life. We either continue walking or we stop walking. But, I don't think to stop walking is a choice at all in life.

In times of trouble, we will know who are the people who really care for us. Relationships are tested and those that can withstand the test of times will become stronger. Even in the midst of all the worries, hope will bring peace to our hearts. I learnt not to give up hope no matter what happens. Whatever may happen in the future, I tell myself not to give up hope as well.

In the financial blogging world, we bloggers know each other in real life as well. It is these relationships that makes blogging much more alive and real. We are all still passionate about financial education which is a common goal we have. We also have families and some of them have spouse and children whom they work hard for.

I asked myself what is my motivation in life after 30. Deep down in my heart, my motivation comes from providing a good life for the people I love especially to my fiancee who will be my future wife. There is still a long road ahead to experience the good things life have to offer. My parents are getting older too and its time for them to enjoy life in their golden years.

Its a coincidence this year that my birthday falls on the same day as Easter Sunday. It reminds me to focus on what God has given me and to give thanks for the small things in life. Happy Easter everyone! :)

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Setting My Directions And Goals For 2018

2018 came as a bad start for me as I experienced the loss of someone close to me. You can read this episode of my life here. My world view has changed because of this. Nevertheless, I am still living in this world and will still be setting my goals for this year.

Life is really short and this has kept me thinking what kind of goals should I set for myself this year. I should be asking what kind of thing I want to do so that I do not take life for granted and make an impact as much as possible. This sets the directions for my goals this year.

My Goals for 2018

1. Helping more people

The first goal which I want for this year is to help more people. There are many ways to help people but the best way is to enjoy doing it rather than helping for the sake of helping. When it comes to helping people, most people think of volunteering. While that is one way to contribute back to society, we can also help people through our own life.

For instance, blogging has allowed me to help more people than I can ever imagined. Since the start of my blog, I've replied to all emails as much as I can to answer any questions which readers might have. I enjoy doing it because I get to help someone out there. For the year 2018, I will continue to do that and reply to all emails which anyone sends asking for advise or help. I also thank the readers who have contacted me to tell me how my blog has benefited you personally. This keeps me going as the motivation of this blog is to help as many people as possible.

I have also helped people through my expertise in housing matters. Since 2 years ago, I started a free mortgage advisory service on my blog where I personally advise people on housing matters including how much loan one can take and also the best loan to take for housing. I also work with law firms to do the conveyancing. I am happy to say that I will continue to do this for this year. I will continue to give my best advice for any housing matters.

Lastly, I'm thinking of setting up additional complimentary services to alleviate the pain and problems which people will normally face on another aspect of life. This is a project in progress and will be revealed when its ready.


2. Do at least one thing I've never done before in life

Yes life is short and this made me want to experience life as much as possible. I've done many things in my close to 30 years of life but I want to set myself a goal to do something I've never done before this year.

Honestly, I have no idea what I really want to try or experience but I will give it a good thought in the next few months. Hopefully by the end of the year when I review back my goals, I can then write what I have done differently in year 2018.


3. Spend more quality time building relationships

Relationships become even more important after the death of a close cousin of mine. I still remembered the last words I told him was to meet up after he comes back from his overseas trip. In the end, he never made it back... It was quite a shock to me.

There are so many relationships which we may take for granted especially our family members. I always value family a lot because as time goes by, I realised my parents are getting old and time is running short. All of us have limited time in our life. With work taking up most of the time in life, what we are left with is just that few hours a day to spend time on friends and family. Not forgetting spending time with our love partner if we are attached or married.

With limited time, the key is spending quality time with our loved ones. This include friends too. Quality is the key for me this year as I refocus to build quality relationships too with friends and family members.


4. Achieve $20,000 passive/other income 

Money may not be everything but everything needs money. I'm still on a mission to replace my active income as much as possible so that I can get more time by making money work hard for me. To have the freedom of time to do what we love is always a dream for many. To make it happen, it requires deliberate planning and execution and patience to see through it. 


Because of certain things that happened, money is needed more than ever before. Even though my goals is not just to make money for the sake of it but it is to make sure there is enough for the future.

In 2017, I manage to create $19k+ in passive/other income. For 2018, I think it would be good if I can just maintain it.

You can read this post on how I manage to create the $19K+ passive/other income.


5. Planning for the future 

Lastly, and the most important one, is to plan for the future with my partner. We are still in the process of trying to get a flat and also trying to plan for wedding and all the necessary stuff for our future.

It has not been an easy time in 2017 and even going to 2018 as many things happened. I pray that 2018 will be a better year for me as well as my loved ones. This sets the direction of my life in 2018.

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Life Is Too Short - Experiencing The Pain Of Life

This week has been an extremely tough week for me as well as my family. On new year's eve, I received information that my cousin could have got into an accident. Moments later, his passing away was confirmed which was a devastating news for me personally. He was only 27 years old and just celebrated his birthday a few days before the incident happened.

This cousin was close to me, very close in fact. 2 days before his passing on, we still communicated on the phone and I said that when he comes back from his overseas trip, we can arrange a time to meet. But, he didn't manage to come back. The whole of this week was very tough. We tried to help out for his wake as much as possible. It was an emotional 3 days as his friends came one after another. Hundreds of them came from all across Singapore. Some gave their eulogy and I could sense my cousin made an impact in his short 27 years of his life.

It is painful to lose someone close to you in life. We grew up in the same neighbourhood together for the past 20 over years. I would go over to his house and he to my house as we stayed quite nearby. A lot of things I do now still reminds me of him. Even going to the gym this morning reminds me of him because we went to gym together before and he would always encourage me to do more sets and tell me how the exercises should be done. We also had late night chats at one of the benches at the sports complex. Its hard to forget someone close and really now I understand what it means to lose someone.

My cousin was special. He was passionate about finance and investments as well. We often talked about life, about investments and the dreams he had to have his own business. Knowing I had a financial blog, he got me involved in the investment club he was in at NTU. I attended a few events organised by NTU interactive investment club back in 2015 such as FINEX which is a financial amazing race style event, Singapore Financial conference and lastly the National Cashflow competition. Some of you may have attended these events too as I posted it on my blog.

The national cashflow competition used the financial boardgame cashflow 101 for many years but some of the concepts were not that applicable in the Singapore context. One of his NTU professors whom he respected a lot came for the wake. The professor said he was a special student, often standing out among the class. When the professor said maybe we should have a Singapore version financial board game, my cousin was quick to take up the task and created a whole new financial board game for use for the competition. To this day, I'm impressed with the concepts he came out, the game flow and the many late nights he spent just to complete the board game in time for the competition. The financial board game was named Asset Finesse which means having the skills and ability to manage our assets with ease. I was told by the professor that the game is still used in the national cashflow competition till this day. He has indeed left a legacy behind.

As you can see, the board game was played by hundreds of students all across Singapore, 500 to be exact every year. I am proud of the achievements he has made. Even though he is no longer in this world, the ideas he left behind is still making an impact.

He was also very hardworking in his life. He made it to the deans list during his studies in a local Polytechnic. In army, he made it as an officer. In University, he was actively involved in the investment club and still got a first class honours for his degree despite his busy schedule. At work, he got a scholarship from Spring Singapore and started work in an SME under their management associate program. For his life, I would think he has lived a fruitful one. He went to Indonesia to start a business for 6 months and he managed to speak fluent Bahasa Indonesia in a short time. He also went travelling to many countries, making new friends and was also able to pick up and speak fluent Japanese.

I'm sure he is in a better place now with no sorrows or worries or burden. We are both Christians and we believe in eternity. When I received news of his passing on, a passage from the bible just pop up in my mind which I reproduce below:

A Time for Everything

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. 

A time to be born and a time to die. 
A time to plant and a time to harvest. 
A time to kill and a time to heal. 
A time to tear down and a time to build up. 
A time to cry and a time to laugh. 
A time to grieve and a time to dance. 
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. 
A time to embrace and a time to turn away. 
A time to search and a time to quit searching. 
A time to keep and a time to throw away. 
A time to tear and a time to mend. 
A time to be quiet and a time to speak. 
A time to love and a time to hate. 
A time for war and a time for peace. 

What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15


Life is short. Experiencing this episode has changed the way I see life from now onward. Who would have expected that a young man in his 20s would pass away so quickly. Rest in peace my dear cousin and till we meet again in heaven. 

Reviewing My Goals For 2017

In just less than 1 week, we will bid goodbye to the year 2017 and welcome the year 2018. I looked back at my goals for 2017 here. Honestly, I didn't really remember what goals I set for myself. The best thing about having a blog is that I can read back on what I have written.

1. Rethinking retirement   

Honestly, I haven't been thinking much abut retirement this year. I've been thinking should I top up my CPF SA to get more interest and plan for my retirement but did not do so until now because its going to be lock in for a long time. It will probably be a good idea to put money in my CPF special account because I will get 5% interest. My CPF SA has not reached the first $40,000 yet. I will continue to give it a good thought and may top up sometime this week. There will also be tax savings through cash top up.

2. Focusing on my new job in 2017

This was a challenging year taking up a completely new role in a new company. The biggest challenge was when one of the team members left and I was tasked to take on his role which is the biggest among the others in the team. I was actually quite scared to take on such a big role just 2 months into my new job but still survived in the end.

I'm glad I stuck it out and persevered to the end even though it was really tough and I thought of giving up many times. The working culture was also very different from my previous company. I realised its through getting out of our comfort zone where we will really learn. I did learn a lot this year.

3. Saving for the future

In order to save more, I embarked on a journey to increase my income. I wrote it in a separate article here on the income I managed to create. Out of all my income, I managed to save about 64% even though expenses increased. This is more than the 50% savings I set out for. If i didn't create additional income, savings rate would have been about 30% only.

4. Relationship Goals

This is the toughest part personally for me this year. Not that I didn't have time for relationships but unforeseen circumstances happened to people around me this year. Life has its ups and downs. The people around us may no longer be the same or even may no longer be around before we know it. I learnt to not take for granted the things we can do now because we may not be able to do the same thing again in the future. Even simple things such as eating, walking we should not take for granted.

Life is short. Treasure the people around us and enjoy what life has to offer. Yes, planning for the future is still important but try not to over plan. There is a season and time for everything.

This should be my last post for 2017. Here's wishing all a happy new year ahead! May 2018 be a great year for you!

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