Have you heard of 'Children laugh 300 to 400 times a day, and adults only 17.5' ? While this may be just another urban myth, it is no news that children indeed laugh much more often than adults do.  That's kind of sad. But who would choose not to laugh? I love laughing and being happy, and being happy makes me happier.  On the other hand, it's sad to be angry and sad, and that fact makes me more angry and sad. Am I still making sense? But who enjoys being unhappy anyway?  Throughout the journey of adulting, we may be overwhelmed by stress, fatigue, responsibilities, peer pressure, grieve, conflicts, fear, guilt, anxiety, frustration or just the fact that the world isn't a perfect place. These not-so-nice things eventually wipe off the smile off our faces every now and then. And if you are not careful, you may grow into a grumpy complain king/ queen bitching about life, society and the world. And you will spend way much more...

Following up Part I , here are another 8 reasons to join the workforce before going for your undergraduate studies. 1. It's easier to get your foot into the industry Companies are profit-driven, and the ever-rising cost of human resources is an area the company will want to control, even cut down when the economy goes down. A diploma holder will be paid lower than a graduate despite doing the same job, which is why apprenticeships that hire diploma/ A-Level holders are increasingly popular not only in Singapore but also in UK and US.  There are also too many graduates out there seeking positions in reputable companies. Those companies can afford to select candidates who are the cream of the crop in their cohort. Don't forget, your competitors are those scholars and graduates from those Ivy League universities whom you can't even beat them in academics. Given that most graduates in Singapore could eventually get a job (over 90% of graduates found employment ...

Just a few decades ago, a bachelor's degree used to be perceived as prestigious, luxurious and a huge advantage at the game of job seeking. Fast forward to the modern times, with better quality education, more universities popping up, and easier access to education loans, it seems that getting a degree is such a norm that we now have more degree holders than jobs that actually require a degree holder to perform. But is rushing into a degree actually 'worth it'? No, it's not that I don't value education and the opportunities it provides. On the contrary, I believe that education is essential for growth and development, and one should never stop learning after leaving school. In fact, I would still love to go to a university to pursue a Bachelor's Degree, followed by a Master's Degree. That's something that's still on my bucket list. A few years ago, when I braced the workforce armed with a diploma, I never thought of not going back to...

Happy New Year everyone! How has your new year been? The year started off really well for me. I watched the breathtaking fireworks at a good location with little people and a spectacular view, managed to hop on the train, found a seat and reached home before 1 am. What a sweet victory! The rest of the day was spent on catching up sleep, dining with my family and strolling in the park with my parents. It's a warm and blissful day that I can't be more thankful for. It makes my smile beamed even wider when I checked my CPF account to make sure the top-ups in December were successful (I topped up on 30 Dec after returning from overseas). I have received a total of $2,379.18 in interest! It's not a huge amount of money, but it almost reached my first paycheck when I first started working and that's significant to me. To think I would actually receive a paycheck worth of interest! Anyway, the top-ups were successful, but there was no interest in it because both t...

I believe in beginning with an end in mind to have a clear vision of desired direction and destination to work towards to, so I'm penning down my current financial goals in mind which are subjected to change according to how I later shift my priority and focus in life. 1. Build a portfolio that generates passive income to provide for my parents, my future family, and myself Being the only child, I am blessed with the responsibilities to take care of my parents. While my parents are really hardworking people, they were not financially savvy thus making some costly mistakes over the years. They also contributed to the family so much that they did not prepare adequately for their retirement. Thankfully, even though my parents are no longer in tip top health conditions, they still live a healthy and active lifestyle, which I hope will buy me more time to build my portfolio so that when the time they need financial support and medical treatment comes, I will be able to give them...

CPF: 38.2% I have been transferring the funds from the Ordinary Account (OA) to Special Account (SA) and making voluntary contribution to the Special Account Retirement Sum Topping-Up Scheme . Thanks to the attractive interest rate, I have been getting more than $1000 in interest for the past couple of years. For now, I aim to max out the Medisave Account (MA) and hit the Full Retirement Sum in solely SA before building up funds in the OA which I plan to use it to purchase a property in future. Shares: 15% Consist of 8 cherry-picked local counters. Due to the recent bull, there's a nice gain in capital appreciation which helped to boost my net worth. Thus far, six counters are profit making, one counter is having a loss in capital but breaks even with the dividends, and another one is making a loss. I haven't dabble into overseas market yet as I'm still pretty clueless in that area. Cash: 13.4% The proportion will drop lower as I will be topping up the CPF in...

It's the sentimental time of the year when everyone starts to sink into their thoughts reflecting about the things they did and the things they hoped they did, before proceeding to set up flags  new year goals to keep them motivated at least for the first week. So let me join the review party dance floor and see what move I've got for the finance aspect of my life. This month marks the 36th month of full time employment after graduation. I count in months because there's a couple of gap months I took for soul searching while making a career switch. I would say that my savings could have been in a better state if I had been more careful with my spending - while some are actually worth it, some spending are just unnecessarily wasteful that I feel compelled to take the time machine back in those moments and shoot death glares of despise to my old self(s). Anyway, I'm good at moving on from learnt mistakes since there's no use crying over split milk. I just have t...