.::. The Paradox .::.

I might have shared this before. It's one of my favorite quotes from Dalai Lama and one that I keep close to my heart, to remind myself of what is truly important.

The heart is feeling heavy tonight. Its been a long day that ended with tuition. The tuitees are preparing for exams, and there's all that prep talk about life and their future. But the real reason for my heavy heart was work. Not exactly work, but a conversation I had with my colleagues at work.

One of the managers said that he realized early in his life that you need to make friends that enrich your life and have something to offer. It's important to learn how to spend time nurturing meaningful relationships and network with people who could help propel you forward in life. The other management trainee said that it is like a business transaction, there's an exchange of something that each party is interested in.

It makes me sad.

I suppose there is some truth in it, that one should not spend time with people who makes you feel bad or put you down. But somehow I can't bring myself to agree that the basis of a friendship should be whether or not they can give you something in return. I don't befriend someone because I think I can get something from them!

My question to them is, what happens if you are down and out and do not have anything to offer anymore? Does the 'friendship' then breakdown?

Most of the time, I feel like there's a mismatch between me and my work persona. I don't feel like I'm on the same wavelength as the people I work with. I feel suffocated by the power struggles by observing how things unfold in the corporate world, how quickly people fall out of favor, how people go all out to butter up strategically, how people change for the sake of power and money.

It's always about power and money isn't it?

It's during your climb up that your values become important as they define you as a person. Will you go against your values or bring harm to others just so you can profit from it? I can't see myself there. I suppose that these are just things which we have to grapple with in today's world. No matter how I dissociate myself with these, I'm still part of the game.

Sometimes, it's not easy to hold on tight to what is important and make it a priority.

THE PARADOX OF OUR TIMES

Is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers

Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints

We spend more, but we have less.

We have bigger houses, but smaller families

More conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees, but less sense

More knowledge, but less judgement

More experts, but more problems

More medicines, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often

We have learnt how to make a living, but not a life.

We have added years to life, but not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back

But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.

We have conquered outer space, but not inner space.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted our soul.

We've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We've higher incomes, but lower morals.

We've become long on quantity but short on quality.

These are the times of tall men, and short character;

Steep profits, and shallow relationships.

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare,

More leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces;

Of fancier houses, but broken homes.

It is a time when there is much in the show window, and nothing in the stockroom.

.::. It's the little things .::.

Few weeks back, we celebrated Edward's one-year-old birthday with our friend. Edward's a really big baby and he was running around the whole place the entire afternoon. Looking at how quickly the children grow up around us makes me acutely aware of how time passes us by.

Here's a picture of Edward enjoying his snack.

The point is, I wanted to remember this day.

I love attending my friends' children's birthday parties and weddings, mostly because it's where you get to meet your friends and catch up. The few that meet often are people whom I really care about. I was intending to spend the evening chatting with these people till the husband suddenly said that he needed to go to town 'to collect something'. It sounds very fishy, because well, the husband does not buy much. And what do you buy that needs you to collect from town by 8pm?

I kept asking him about it but he stood his ground. The husband is good with secrets like that. He secretly enjoys being able to fool an unsuspecting wife who would keep guessing and hounding him. He never lets any clue out though. After awhile, it became apparent that we were going to Marina Bay Sands. He refused to admit it till we were there. Putting all the pieces together, I proudly guessed that he was bringing me to watch the fireworks. He, as usual, smiled and refused to divulge anything. Well, many people were at MBS trying to catch the national day rehearsal fireworks, and it was around 8pm too! Makes sense right?

Apparently not. I was happily rushing with the hoards of people, thinking that we're trying to get up to street level for a good spot before the fireworks starts. Before I knew it, I was pulled into the MBS theatre!

He was bringing me to watch the 'Sound of Music'! As usual, he manages to pull off another surprise with an unsuspecting wife. You should see the proud smirk on his face, sometimes teasing how 'dumb' I can be. We laugh at each other that way, but I was overflowing with love yet again.

I didn't even know 'Sound of Music' was on! We enjoy musicals, and my favorite is still 'Wicked'. But then again, 'Sound of Music' holds a special place in my heart because I used to watch the movie again and again on tape as a child. It was also why I always wanted to visit Innsbruck and the mountains in Austria.

I get really happy about these small things. It's these little things that make me feel exceptionally blessed and loved. *thankful*

.::. Jojo's Bday .::.

It was Jo's birthday early this month. The last our of us 4 for the year. We had Spanish food for dinner at Binomio. It was a weekday and I had coffee with Ju on Duxton Hill before dinner. It was a great evening.

It really doesn't feel that long, but its been 15 years.

Our dear Jo is also getting married in a few weeks' time!

Really looking forward to our next girls' trip, and wishing nothing but the best for these girls.

.::. Making a difference .::.

Had to share this. Such an inspiration and selfless woman. How many doctors actually has such a big heart and courage?

Makes me want to spend some of my time helping people in a cause I believe in. Makes me appreciate all I have more. Makes me realize that perhaps there's more to life than what most of us are pursuing.

.::. Largest Companies in the world .::.

Part of my job, the more interesting part, involves market research. I’m not in an industry that I’m really interested in, but I am intrigued by some aspects of it. Sometimes, my results lead me to deviate from my original intent out of curiosity. It’s like a chain of thoughts and I research about many different topics constantly, just because. I’m constantly amazed by the things I find, and surprised to find that a lot of the brands are actually under one same company. Did you know that Sealy, Stearns & Foster, and Bassett are all under Tempur? There are many things that you spend so much time choosing between 2 brands, but they are actually; the same company and probably uses the same suppliers with little real differentiation in quality.

I have yet again deviated from my point. The intent was to share my shock and disbelief when I found out which are the largest companies in the world. Make a guess? I bet that probably not many people know that the top 3 companies in the world is actually Chinese. ICBC bank is top, followed by China Construction Bank and Agriculture Bank of China. JP Morgan is 4^th while Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway is 5^th, with Exxon Mobil at 6^th place. Apple is only ranked 15^th. So yes, the tide is changing. Chinese companies now take up the most slots in the Top 2000 ranking, 674 places to be exact. Oil and Gas companies also take up quite a few top places.

Food for thought for those who dislike mandarin, and those stupid policies that reduce the importance of mandarin in Singapore. Even if you do not work in a Chinese company, there are high chances that you will get to work with the Chinese or have Chinese vendors or customers. Being able to speak mandarin fluently will definitely help and make things a lot easier, even if the Chinese do speak English.

Here are the links if you’re interested:

http://www.forbes.com/global2000/list/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/liyanchen/2014/05/07/the-worlds-largest-companies-china-takes-over-the-top-three-spots/

.::. Retirement Planning – Where to start? .::.

Although retirement planning has been on my mind for a long time and I have started my CDP account years ago, I only started my own portfolio this year. One of this year’s resolution is to consciously grow my portfolio for financial freedom and retirement. I revisited a lot of stuff that I’ve learnt from my finance and accounting background to look into companies’ balance sheets and spent a lot of time reading financial news. My initial capital for my portfolio was from the ILP that I bought as a 21-year-old student – that has made me 1% p.a. for the past 7 years with dollar-cost averaging. Investment-linked-plans has got to be one of the worst investments to get most of the time because of the high fees, non-guaranteed returns and expensive insurance component involved. No real finance person would actually recommend ILPs, although many insurance agents are actively selling it. I wanted a regular savings account then, but the banker sold me an ILP instead. It didn’t turn out bad for me, since I would have probably spent all those money during my year in Europe if not for the ‘forced’ savings.

It’s a universal rule that the rich will always get richer while the poor will find it difficult to get out of their poverty cycle. Of course, there’s always exception to the rule, but the lack of financial literacy, even among educated graduates is almost appalling. How many actively manage their money and do financial planning? Most do not want to spend time learning or simply dislike even thinking about it. It has become a reality that we can’t retire or become comfortably ‘rich’ without actually investing in one way or another. It’s getting tougher to be comfortable in Singapore, but one can continue complaining or choose to find ways to get around rising cost. Without good finance management, it’s going to be very difficult to be survive in Singapore. It doesn’t mean having a finance degree, but simply learning the basic skills and knowing the importance of managing one’s own finances.

Singapore has many millionaires, and what is interesting is that many of them (let’s not count the imported ones) are actually working professionals who have worked and saved hard throughout their working-life to get there. It isn’t that difficult to become a millionaire really, because of the power of compounding interest over time. If you save about $700 a month at about 8% interest p.a., you will become a millionaire in 30 years. And if you save about $1700 per month at about 8% interest p.a., you will become a millionaire in 20 years. $700/month or $8400 a year isn’t that difficult if you take into account 13th month and bonuses for most people, since medium household income is at $7,870 in 2013 – simplistically, becoming a millionaire household would materialize by saving the 13th month pay conscientiously for about 30 years with an interest rate of 8%.

Singapore is also a great place to invest or start a business due to our laws. We do not need to pay tax for dividends received, we do not pay tax for capital gains from investing in stocks and property. There are people who actually receive more dividends monthly than their salary and do not pay tax on those dividends. If you start a business as a private limited, you only lose what is invested. If things don’t go right, you simply close the company and open a new one without having to pay your suppliers/customers (and people charge their expenses such as car and meals to the company).

So, the millionaire question – where do we start?

There’s only one answer.

Save.

Spend less than what you earn and save conscientiously. The earlier in life and the more you save, the quicker you can be financially free.

After that, you can learn how to make your money work for you.

Li Ka-shing’s article has been a great hit some time back and teaches many useful principles, although I don’t exactly agree with the networking one. Basically, he recommends one to split their income into different buckets – for daily expenses and necessities, savings to invest, for self-enrichment, for travel and re-charging and for networking. The main concept as I read is to be frugal early in life and only spend what is needed, then learn how to grow your wealth. You can then do whatever you like when you become rich.

Step 1: Save

Always put aside some money from your paycheck every month that you do not touch. What I do is to have a few bank accounts and set automatic transfers a day after my payday. Part of it is transferred to my savings account that I do not touch, part of it is transferred to our joint account that we do not touch (with the exception of some holidays and bigger ticket items for our home), and what’s left will be what I can spend. I’m quite flexible with what is left for spending and not too frugal day-to-day. This works for me because I can spend freely from my spending account, and will still have a good amount of savings every month that ‘I do not see’.

Step 2: Insure

That’s what people usually recommend, and the basic would be to get a term plan and a health insurance. I think a good health insurance to cover your healthcare costs is important as any huge hospital bill can derail all your plans. I also have a term insurance that my mum got for me a long time ago. Both of them cost me about $100/month currently. Our housing insurance is paid to HDB through CPF, and if anything happens to me the housing loan is ‘free’. I don’t see a need to get any other plans such as critical illness plans now since I have no dependents and my parents do not need my support, neither do my husband. If anything happens to me, the flat is free and there’s the term plan, my endowment plan, plus my investment portfolio to generate some passive income. I would rather use the money to grow my portfolio and self-insure at this point of time. It might be different if you’ve parents to support or someone that has to depend on you. And hey, instead of spending so much on insurance, why not spend some time exercising and being more health-conscious!

Step 3: Invest

When you’ve put aside an emergency fund of at least 6 months to a year of your expenditure, and have some money left idle, it’s time to make your money work for you. I think it’s important to have some concept of investing and know what you are investing in. It may be daunting for those without finance background, but with interest and some reading, it’s possible to develop financial literacy. But if you do not want to spend much time on it, buying an ETF (exchange traded fund) such as our Straits Times Index might be a good start. There are monthly saving plans into the STI available, meaning that money is deducted from your account to invest automatically every month. The cost is low and you gain from dollar-cost averaging over the years. Other stocks like Singpost, SPH and  our telecommunication stocks – Singtel, Starhub, M1 also pays high dividends and have remained quite stable over the years. REITS can also be a good source of passive income. Investing is a whole huge topic by itself and it takes some time and effort to learn.

Some local financial bloggers to check out:

Here’s one blog that I really like and find useful. His income from S-REITS dividends alone was S$ 118,081.02 in 2013 and S$ 123,873.80 in 2012 . He’s in his mid-40s and have remained anonymous. He shares many of his trades and views on financial literacy but does not give disclose specific details of his portfolio. There are many easy-to-read posts dedicated to new investors and may be a good starting point.

http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg/

This other blogger who received >$1000/month in dividends before he turned 30 and shares all details of his actual portfolio:

http://dividendsrichwarrior.blogspot.sg/

There’s a lot of information and analytical articles, and a tracker for high-dividend Singapore stocks:

http://www.investmentmoats.com/

This guy is my age, and have saved a larger portion of his tuition income than me and tracks his monthly expenditure and portfolio:

http://www.my15hourworkweek.com/

 Start now!