Please click on the link to read Part I and Part II Maintain 25. Take care of my things I put in the effort to take care of my things because I want to be able to enjoy using them for the long term It doesn't mean that I live my life around my things because after all, they are just tools to make my life more comfortable and convenient, and make me happy. I just take care of my stuff when I use them and maintain them whenever necessary. This allows the things to last longer and reduce the need for repair or replacement Another perk of taking care of your things is that they will retain a higher resale price when they no longer add value to your life, and it would be easier to rehome them than to trash them unless they are beyond   26. Repair my stuff That's right. I don't throw away my stuff once it's damaged or spoilt.  It probably runs in the blood. I have repaired my alarm clock, mended my clothes, stitched my backpack, replaced cracked screens,...

Following up on Part I   Live 11. Develop good habits I don't smoke, go clubbing, or gamble (includes lottery).  Bad habits are bad for a reason, and bad habits are expensive now, or when accumulated into the future (think health problems) Good habits, on the other hand, are good for our health and our finance. Drink lots of water, have a good night's rest, eat more veggies, exercise, maintain a good posture, go for regular dental and health check-ups.  Develop good habits. They are good not only for your health but for your wallet in the long run. 12. Consider a low-cost or free hobby There are many hobbies that can keep you healthy, occupied, or even enriched with low or even no cost at all.  Before reaching my first 100k, I used to spend my free time reading, swimming, rollerblading and playing my keyboard under the guidance of YouTube tutorials Since then, I have tried out a few paid activities and committed to those that I enjoy greatly. Even though they have be...

Last month I wrote a post about this but it wasn't saved before it was published so I had to rewrite the post. During the past month, both the equity and crypto market have been volatile and that affected my net worth but as of now, I'm still safely above $200k :) Despite still in my 20s, I'm already well known for being a long-winded naggy person who is bad at summaries and extremely good at complicating simple things (it's a skill), and that is further proven when I finished writing this post with close to 36 points (gasps!) I have been contemplating on cutting out some points, but it's hard because it's really all those little things that add up and help me reach my milestones. So instead, to save the readers' attention span and prevent this tab from getting closed out of boredom, I have broken this long post into 3 parts: Earn & Save, Live &Spend, Maintain, Invest & Others   Without further ado, allow me to share how I achieved my 200k milest...

The last time I checked the definition of 'toxic', it means poisonous, which is a substance that can cause or be capable of causing death or illness if taken into the body. So anything that is toxic is bad for you. Toxic relationships, toxic plants. Stay away from them. There is also such a thing known as the toxic work culture. I have to agree that stress is necessary for growth and learning and if you are not stressed, you are not becoming better. And tired is normal after a long day of work.  But I think there must still be a limit to it.  A toxic environment is one that harms your physical health by overworking and mental health by constant exposure to negativity. We are more easily influenced by the environment that we thought we are. It also hinders your opportunity to develop your career unless you participate in the right clique of office politics and belittles you making you lose confidence in yourself to get a better position. But the bottom lin...

If you ever lose money in the market, don't bother to think about how you could have used the money to spend on something else. I know a lot of people who lost a few thousand in the market and regretted investing their money, whining that they could have used the money to buy a branded bag, shoes, gadgets, or dine in a Michelin-star restaurant. And some of them were actually foolish enough to really go ahead and spend another few thousand on the stuff mentioned earlier to make them feel better about the loss. Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out how does that works for them. Just like how we differentiate investment from insurance, we  must  also separate investment capital and budget for spending. When we are saving aggressively in our 20s, we are usually saving up money to invest for wealth accumulation or to spend for enjoyment.  Investment capital is money that we are going to put in the market in the hope of appreciation and be willing to bea...

When personal finance articles advise you to "Pay yourself first", they usually mean to save up a fixed portion of your income and then spend the rest.  I find this relatively inefficient.  I do it the other way round whereby I give myself a fixed allowance and save the rest.  This removes the ceiling of my savings as I don't set a fixed proportion or amount aside. Instead, I allocate a fixed amount for my living expenses to maintain my existing lifestyle. This means that I still maintain the same level of spending while my income and savings are increasing. Of course, there are times when I need to do additional top-ups because of big-ticket purchases or other needs. But just like how easier it is to notice how much you are spending on commuting when you top up your ez-link card at the ticketing machine instead of setting up auto top-ups; limiting yourself to a fixed amount of money and topping up when necessary rather than having access to a large p...

This may not be a very popular thing to do as I know a lot of people who have a stack of credit cards in their wallet so that when they buy something or dine in a restaurant, they can ask " Any card got any discount?" or simply just to figure which card would give the highest rebate on their purchases. Not that this is not a good thing, but it isn't really applicable to me because I don't spend much in the first place. I may consider starting to analyse which credit card offers the highest cashback/rebates if I'm expecting to buy a lot of stuff or spend a lot of money, but for now, one credit card works just fine for me. I'm have been crediting my salary into the UOB One account and using the UOB One credit card for the since I finally hit their minimum annual income requirement. I don't see the need to increase the credit limit now even though I could because I hardly buy anything that is beyond the limit.  It makes it easier for me to track my spending a...

Regardless what good things others may say about getting a lower salary for better exposure or learning opportunity, that's BS for me.  This may just happen to the industries that I have worked in, but unless you want to work for start-ups, which have a high percentage of folding up, the company which have the most resources to train you and provide you with the best learning opportunity in their industry, most exposure to the global markets, and best welfare benefits is the one that is wiling to pay their people the highest. Because unlike the smaller or bigger-but-cheapo companies, these companies understand the value of human resources and are more than willing to provide competitive salary package even for entry level jobs to the attract the best pool of people. In fact, some of these companies are even willing to provide better welfare just so their employees can worry less to be able to focus more on their job. Furthermore, it seems that a higher starting pay works in favour ...

As the only child who is also a firstborn, I have the luxury of getting new things for everything ranging from books to clothes to toys. In fact, I don't remember owning any hand me down items from my childhood. However, while my family isn't frugal and is in fact, slaves of consumerism, my parents set a good example of maintaining their stuff and they always try to repair their things instead of throwing them right away when it's not working, so I emulated them and grew up learning how to take care of my things as well. As I learnt more about sustainability, the cycle of consumption, how depreciation works and the concept of utility cost , I started to explore bartering, inheriting pre-loved and buying second hand as an alternative means to source for things instead of buying them from the stores When it comes to buying something used, there are some rules that I have set for myself: I do not buy fabric furniture Unlike clothes, linen and carpet that can be easily washed a...

It is surprising to know that many people didn't know that most things, regardless of products or services, brand-new or pre-loved, personal or corporate, even your salary is open for negotiation. All sorts of transactions are just trading activities, so when it comes to buy/sell, both parties have different interests and objectives The seller wants to trade a product/service for money because the money offers more value than the product/service he has, while the buyer is willing to part his money for it because he determined that the product/service will add more value to him. This is why sellers come up with various marketing tactics to make you desire the product and you may find yourself going through various promotions to try to stretch your dollar and get the best deal you could ever find.  A typical product or service already comes with a price tag. Even though there is a market rate both parties can refer to, most of the time the seller is very willing to lower the price, o...

Everything I own is for sale, ask me and I will give you a quote.  I have to admit that sometimes it is hard for me, but I try not to hold too many sentiments in things, because ultimately, it's the memories with the people that are related to the thing that matters. Resale value is how much money can you get if you put the item up in the market for sale. The resale value is fair because it doesn't factor any sentimental or functional value, but just how much the next buyer will be willing to pay for.  So just because your house worth 1 million according to the market or your painting worth 10 million just because your mom says so doesn't mean anything until you can find a buyer who is willing to pay that amount. If the product is illiquid (can't be sold), or you plan to give it away eventually/ do not intend to sell it at all, set the resale value to zero. Use the purchase price minus the resale value, and divide by the number of times you have used it. That's the ...

The famous marshmallow test  has been a classic experiment to refer to when it comes to educating someone about delaying gratification even though the recent replication revealed more details which most people don't follow up with, just like many other behaviourial experiments. Being someone who has been spoilt with instant gratification since young (my parents used to buy toys for me every Sunday before I entered primary school :)), there's no way I will pass the marshmallow test as a kid. But is instant gratification really a bad thing? I beg to differ. One of the goals that motivate me to start saving aggressively and be more financially responsible is to own a property and achieve financial independence.  When I was still studying in poly, I wanted to buy a house and realised that not only do I need to save up for downpayment, I definitely can't afford the mortgage without a proper job. So when I realised that buying a house is not something I can save...

Just a couple of days ago I was having a call with an ex-schoolmate who's currently pursuing a bachelor's degree locally and will be graduating this year. We chatted about how gloomy is the economic situation and how it would be difficult for their batch of Class 2020 to find a job.  The job market was already bad even before the Covid-19 crisis, given that I had already witnessed some of my good friends from local unis with stellar results taking more than a year to land a job, with the longest being 17 months.  And it's not like those lucky ones who got a job are well compensated. For instance, one of my friends who is an NTU graduate holding a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics with First Class Honours is getting $2,500 as his starting salary when he was finally offered a job in a Japanese MNC after months of job hunting. But the situation now is worse.  Aside from the over 8,600 businesses which ceased or file to cease operations in...