I generally don’t have the habit of keeping cash in my bank account, because I will always be tempted to use them, either spending on contemporary cute frivolous stuff or yet another live performance or shopping around the investment space and locking the money up in a new vehicle. The best way to resist the temptation is just to make it irrelevant, so I try to hide my money in places that are less accessible (in investments) or somewhere I will forget (in my favourite books or old wallets or some decorative storage space – alike to Grandma’s biscuit tins under the bed) So what if I found myself in an emergency situation in need of cash? While it wouldn’t be regarded as a safety margin, my first response would instinctively be to cut down on expenses. My lifestyle is very flexible, so while I do splurge on theatre tickets, meals in award-winning restaurants, quality education in denominations of thousands and sports activities in hundreds, I could still enjoy my life with free ...

  Congratulations to me for receiving the offers to read Bachelor of Technology at NUS!  Other than providing for two cats, pursuing a bachelor degree with a local uni is another thing on my list of  "Things I Want To Do After Saving $300K" :D I have been thinking and preparing for this for many months.  Even though NUS has launched Advance@NUS to offer a more variety of full-time courses including non-tech-related courses for working adults, I still decide to bite the bullet and pick up a computing course under the part-time programme. There are a few reasons for this. For starters, part-time degrees are way cheaper than full-time degrees. For the same cohort, the tuition fees for a full-time computing programme is $8,200 per year which amount to $32,800 for four years, while the part-time degree costs only $23,520 for the whole course of 160 module credits, without factoring in any exemptions that are granted for polytechnic diploma holders. Part-time students are ...

It has been 11 months since my last post that I almost forget I have a financial blog :P Life was so busy and after staring at screens for more than 16 hours every day for work and study, the last thing I want to do is to whip out my laptop and write a blog, plus I have adopted one cat and rescued another kitten last year, so those adorable burdens do take up a huge chunk of my time ;) Milestones Had a major shift in my financial strategy, so I consolidated my assets to update my net worth. A couple of financial milestones: Reached 250K by Dec 2020 ( up 50K in 7 months) Reached 300K by Feb 2021 (up 50K in 2 months) Reached 100K in CPF Special Account by Apr 2021 Reached 200K in Current Assets (assets that can be liquidated in less than a month) by Apr 21 Net Worth on Apr 21 hit 333K (what a nice number :)) the 33K is the money in my Medisave and an outstanding loan to a friend for his university education. The first 50K increment is due to capital gains in investment and the bonus rece...

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...