I'm currently not particularly affected by this in my job. And I'm not really bothered by foreigners in Singapore. I grew up with Indonesian/Thai school mates. So I'm entirely fine with them.

However, the influx of foreigners in Singapore cannot be denied. Filipinos /China Chinese in call centers, shop assistants, McDonalds, bank tellers, auditors, real estate agents, financial advisers, the list goes on. Seriously? These are the foreign talents that Singapore requires? I thought the Government said they hire foreigners for jobs which Singaporeans don't want or do not have the experience in. 

I accept that we might not have the global know how of a good CEO. So sure, bring those in.
Maybe Singaporeans don't want to be in the construction business or cleaners. Sure, bring them in too.

But sales assistants, bank tellers, auditors, technicians? These are good jobs. I'm sure that there are Singaporeans willing to take these jobs. Allowing foreigners to take up these jobs provide an uneven playing field for Singaporeans. These "foreign talents" are able to earn enough money in 5-10 years and return to their countries to live a good life. Leaving the high cost of living in Singapore and effectively doubling their money when they return to their home countries. As such, they are able/willing to work at a lower pay in Singapore so as to secure a job and start saving and working to their good life in future. 

This pushes down the salaries for other Singaporean workers and to remain competitive, Singaporeans will have to either increase productivity or decrease their cost/salary. 

Let's first talk about increasing productivity. A Singaporean fresh grad vs a foreign fresh grad. I doubt there is any significance in productivity as both are inexperienced. An experienced hire vs 2 foreign fresh grads, well, it may actually make good business sense to hire 2 fresh grads instead of paying 2 times more for an experienced hire. It's questionable depending on the industry. If Singaporeans are willing to or have to accept lower pay, then we don't really have another lower standard of living country to return to when we want to retire. This puts Singaporean workers at a disadvantage in future as it makes it extremely difficult for Singaporeans to plan for their future and well being in Singapore. 

Some folks in the Government has mentioned that if Singaporeans are unhappy in Singapore, we can always leave to other countries. That's the problem. It's not that easy. The other countries have stringent criteria before foreign workers are hired there. So it's a simple economics situation. Other countries don't take foreign workers. Keeping their supply low so that wages can move in tandem with the economy. Singapore keeps the supply high resulting in suppressed wages which do not move in tandem with the economy. With lower wages for workers, costs are kept low, companies make more profit, keeping GDP high resulting in high/higher inflation and standard/cost of living. This does not bode well for the remaining citizens of the country as the cost of living increases much faster than wages can catch up.

On a lighter note, maybe the policies recently put in place to curtail foreign workers will help the Singaporean workers a bit. The thing is that the Government has put this curb in place for almost all industries without differentiating which industries need additional manpower which results in less manpower available for the service industry. Restaurants and construction are feeling some heat resulting in potentially lower service standards. But I've not done much research into these curbs so I'll refrain from commenting too much on it. I'm just thinking that maybe the restrictions could be more specific to industries and job scope so as to better allocate the Singaporean resources and the foreign resources. Example, we may need more waiters, shop attendants, which we could potentially source from other countries. But instead leave the specialized jobs like PMET (professionals, managers, executives, technicians) for Singaporeans. Also, do we really need more real estate agents and financial advisers such that we need to hire them from other countries?

As I've mentioned. I'm not against foreigners. I think we need more manpower in certain industries so we do have to hire from outside of Singapore. However, I hope/wish that this economic problem could be solved better, that is, that resources could be channeled/reallocated to the right places which require the resources so that the foreign talents will be filling up the gaps which cannot/will not be filled up by Singaporeans naturally, instead of displacing Singaporeans from our country and jobs.



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Nope it's not what you're thinking about. I'm not talking about the riot in Little India in Singapore. 
I'm talking about the Singaporean riot which chased Ashton Casey out of Singapore. 
I'm not justifying his actions. I'm as appalled by his comments as you are and I think good riddance now that he has left this country which has helped him for the past 12 years.

What I would like to do in this post is take a step back and look at what happened in Little India vs what Singaporeans have done in the Ashton Casey case.

Firstly, my opinion of the incident in Little India, I believe, has very little to do with the living conditions of the foreign workers. I believe that this behaviour is deemed somewhat "normal" in their country and in many other countries. This has been reported in a few countries when someone runs over a resident and the whole village will mob the driver insisting that be pays for damages etc etc.

Essentially, this is herd mentality. Some one got run over, I see the guy driving the car, I shout at him, someone else sees the same incident, he stops the car, his friend drags the driver out, a crowd gathers, someone pushes the driver, the driver pushes back, someone throws the first punch, a bloody brawl breaks out, someone throws stones, someone sets a car on fire, the situation spirals out of control. This happens in many other countries.

Let's put this in the context of Ashton Casey. This bloke puts up some insulting comments on Facebook, someone takes offence, and shares the post, more people take offence, some send him threatening letters, Ashton Casey hires some PR firm to apologize, people don't buy his act, Ministers comment on Facebook saying such behaviour is unacceptable, other folks take that as an indication that since the Ministers are on their side, they continue to flame Ashton Casey, he can't take the "cyber bullying" anymore, he leaves the country.
(If you guys don't know, this is considered cyber bullying.)

Ok as I said. I'm not justifying his actions. I hate it as much as you do. And good riddance to him. I'm trying to draw parallel the situation of herd instinct in various emotional situations. I was angry at his comments. I was emotional. I was hoping that the Ministers would revoke his P.R. status. If he's not grateful to the country that has granted him his P.R. status, he jolly well should leave. Either that or he could come back and work as a toilet cleaner for 5 years and I'll probably forgive him. 

But I'm trying to look at it another way. If someone throws a stone and someone else continues, eventually, everyone would be throwing stones and creating havoc. That's a riot. 
Similarly, if someone sends a hateful message and someone else sends a threatening letter. Eventually, after all the messages and flaming and negative publicity, we have created a riot in another sense of the word.



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I don't really want to go into the political aspects of this. So I'll try to stay within the business aspects. This is more in context with SMRT as I do not take SBS much.

Here's some points I've come up with.
1) Usually, shareholders will be the investors who put in money to fuel innovation and quality so as to be able to charge higher prices. Example a pharmaceutical company will invest money from shareholders to do research so that the company can come out with one good patented product and make super normal profits.

2) For LTA to allow public transport prices to increase without seeing an increase in quality of transport services, is akin to a restaurant serving poor food but increasing prices first saying that they need money to buy better raw ingredients. The problem is that for restaurants, we can choose to eat at other places.

3) SMRT is a monopoly. There isn't much choice in this. You can't say you have options. The alternatives are much more inconvenient. I can choose not to take MRT but I'll take forever to get to work by bus. 
(Having an alternative is being able to choose what to eat in a food court. Alternative is taking PIE vs ECP, Singtel vs Starhub. Where the opportunity cost of taking the alternative is low enough so that I am able to switch.) 
So I'm forced to take MRT with worsening service but higher prices as this is the most efficient method. This constitutes to a semi-monopoly since they can't raise fares on a whim. If there are other train services/more private bus services, I would take them. But licenses are not cheap and it's hard for private transport to make a profit. I don't mind paying more for private bus services that travel from my home to work. However, these currently do not exist in my area.

4) SMRT was privatized with the intention to allow the free market to make it more efficient. For better competition and efficiency so that shareholders will hold the management accountable for poor profits and service standards. By allowing price increases without being able to maintain the same service standards, goes against this objective to make management accountable to shareholders of these companies as they can increase their fares without better service. Furthermore, these companies have increased ridership with the increase in population of Singapore. This should increase the profits of the companies already as there is more demand for the products. 

5) By increasing the fares unjustly will signal that the LTA is willing to overlook the inefficiencies of SMRT. This is akin to rewarding poor behaviour. If I was the management of SMRT, I could potentially put less emphasis on increasing services standards as I now know that LTA will increase the fare hikes. Also by increasing fares, what is the use of fining SMRT for the breakdowns? The cost will just be passed on to the consumer. 

6) If LTA had the intention of raising service standards of SMRT and decreasing breakdown times, they should show clear indicators to SMRT that such service will not be tolerated and disallow the increase in fares. Then the intention of point 4 will kick in, when shareholders pressure the management to be more productive and improve services standards as their inefficiencies are eating into their profits and also preventing them from raising fares to maintain/generate more profits.

Thus, when I put the above points together, it appears that the actions of the LTA to allow increases in prices without corresponding increases in services standards goes against the original intent of allowing the free market/shareholders to maintain efficiency and competitiveness has failed and that the actions of the LTA appears to work against the interests of the citizens to ensure and create the right incentives for the public transport companies to run efficiently and provide good service quality to the citizens of Singapore.

The 3% fare increase does not impact me much. It may impact other Singaporeans more. However, my post is not to address this. This post is to highlight that the actions by LTA makes no business/market sense as it does not send a clear and appropriate signal to SMRT to encourage better behaviour.



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I never really mentioned. A few years ago, I left my job without another job. After 2 years of unemployment, I returned to working. Which is my current job. 

During these 2 years is the time when I really understood what it meant to be "retired". I was trying to do some financial sales during this period but I wasn't very proactive with my sales so essentially I was almost doing nothing. However, those 2 years were not wasted. It was these 2 years that I finally understood the pleasures of retirement. Resulting in my desire to get down to retirement as soon as possible.

I had grown tired of my previous employment and I was still relatively young. So I thought, what the heck, might as well leave and try something new at that time before I got any older. Explore for 2 years and if things worked out, fine, otherwise, I could always find a new job. So I left my job without another job. Some people thought I was crazy. A young chap leaving a lucrative job with nothing in mind on what he wanted to do after he left. 

I'll not talk too much on my financial sales as I didn't do too well. I know my products. But the market isn't there for people who sell financial knowledge. People don't like to buy insurance or know about financial planning. So the people who do well are those who just push products and hard sell. It's a sad industry. Most people who buy, usually don't know what they are buying. 

I'm more interested in sharing the other part of what I learnt in those 2 years. Yea! The "retirement" part. 

The first 3 months was stressful. Waking up with nothing to do. Life was always planned previously. Wake up. Brush teeth, wear clothes, go to work. Work til about 6 plus, come home, eat, bathe, watch some TV, sleep, repeat. Life is usually something like that. But at that time, after quitting my job, life suddenly became so unstructured. There was nothing very much to do. I did almost nothing for 3 months. Stressing over my lack of income, watching TV, walking around the house, practically loafing around. I told myself I had given myself 2 years to play so doing nothing is fine. I kept reminding myself that this is only for the interim. The lack of income or direction was only a short period and that I should just immerse myself into this period of my life and not get so stressed to just jump straight back to looking for a job.

After 3 months, life started taking shape. I woke up later. About 10am. I took life really slow. I went for a jog and gym for about 1-2 hours. Came home, bathe, went for lunch or met up with friends for lunch in town. Walked around a bit in town or in neighbourhoods to see how other people lived their lives. Went back home again around 4pm or so. Rested a bit, watched TV, played some PC games, waited for dinner, took a walk around the estate, sleep, repeat. Life was nice and slow. The way it should be. I had a new routine. It was a bit lonely as I didn't have any company but as I walked around, I noticed that there were many retirees doing exactly what I was doing. Except that they were much much older. You can insert some chores, financial meet ups in my routine as you deem fit. But mainly my days were slow and relaxing. I thought, "This is the way life should be."

There was only 1 problem. I could not sustain this lifestyle. I didn't spend much. But I still needed to plan for my future. Getting married, a house, settling down, etc. I needed an income source. I floundered around trying to do other stuff during the remaining of the 2 years without much success. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the fastest way that I could build enough money to sustain this lifestyle was to go back to work, save up, invest, get a passive income and get back into this relaxing life which I enjoyed. 

So back to work it was. I went back to work with a new direction. I always saved a lot but never knew what I was saving for. This time, I had a goal. I wanted to save enough to generate a passive income to sustain my retired life. I'll probably do some simple work after I retire in future. Just to pass the day away faster and get some light income. The psychology of having a small income gives a sense of security rather than the necessity of the income. It will probably help me sleep better at night. I'm now on a good pace to my final goal.

Now, when I meet friends/colleagues who want to leave their jobs without a job, I tell them, "Go ahead! Try, experiment! Life is short (and long), it's short such that you have to try as much as you want and not regret it. It's long enough that experimenting for 2 years or so won't make a significant impact on your end." I realized that these 2 years gave me the freedom to think about things without the noise of my job and the feelings of responsibility to hold on to my job for the sake of being employed. But I'd like to caution. That some people cannot hang on past the first 3 months, cos the first 3 months will be the most stressful months, if you're able to get past the first few months of unemployment and get used to the slower life, then you can slowly think about life and take things easy. Problem I've noticed is that many people cannot let things go and take things easy. It's so easy to just go back to work again after feeling the stress of no income. Another risk the the loafing around with no direction. There is a real chance that after leaving his/her job, some folks might loaf around so much and waste their whole lives away. A target number of years needs to be set. Such that if your direction is not found in X years, then to go back to work and start saving more first. 

Think about your life. You may be 20 now, 30 now or 40 now. Project into the future when you're 55 following your current path. Where would you be? Most people would have their HDB, maybe a car, kids, sufficient cash to enjoy life, go on annual trips, etc. Life would be a routine.

Now let's try something else. Let's say you leave your job for 2 years to explore.
(I assume low risk exploration. If you set up a big business, invest all your savings and fail and end  up bankrupt, that doesn't count as exploring. That's a venture. Exploring is maybe using 10-50% of your savings to set up a small business and grow it as things get better. Or just relaxing your life like take a sabbatical to find out your life calling, etc.) 

Where would you be when you're 55?
If you succeed, GREAT! I'll not dwell much on success. You'll probably be happy. Might be rich or might not be rich but at least you're doing work which is your passion. Every day will be a good day.

What's more important is... what is you fail?
Where would you be when you're 55?
Well. I reckon, if you didn't take too much risk and are still financially stable. But just with less savings, then you'll have to go back to work... most likely by 55, you'll have your HDB, maybe a car, kids, sufficient cash to enjoy life, go on annual trips, etc. Life would be a routine.

I believe that those 2 years would not change very much of your life if you fail. If you take take calculated risks. Most people would end up at relatively the same spot at 55 years old even if they fail. So imagine. The upside is great, the downside is low. Why not try? You'll never know.

After I left my job, I now highly encourage everyone who's willing to listen to go and explore their lives. To take some time off to discover themselves or try something they've always wanted to try. There's really nothing much to lose. It's your life. You have to live it to the fullest. You owe it to yourself not to waste it. But as I have mentioned. Don't do stupid things without planning. Leaving without a job and without savings is not particularly smart. Putting all your savings into a business venture as an experiment is not wise. Besides all these, if you've planned well, have sufficient savings, wanted to take a break and re-group or re-calibrate your life, I say, "GO AHEAD!". Give yourself a few years to play around and life the way you wanted to live and try things you've always wanted to try and if it doesn't work out too well, you can always go back to where you are now, and most important of all, at least you've tried. 

To end it off, I wish that you...

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I've been struggling with my weight for my whole life. I love eating. I don't really like exercising. It's a vicious cycle.

Thing is. I know how to lose weight. I've lost weight on 3 separate occasions in my life. Usually, I gain weight for a few years, then I notice that I have gained too much, then I'll take active steps to lose weight for a few months, then after I've lost 10-15 kg, I'll relax and start eating again and re-gain weight over the course of a few years again and the cycle repeats. Yes. I've lost 10-15kg on 3 separate intervals in my life. It's not particularly hard. It's just a disciple problem.

You see, weight loss is really easy. There's so much fake nonsense being marketed to people on the newspapers and advertisements on how to lose weight. It's scary. The theory behind losing weight is so so simple. It's the doing it that's hard and because of this, people who cannot DO it, end up taking pills and doing all kinds of other treatments to get their weight down. Usually, it doesn't work. It doesn't have to be this way. Here's how.

Weight loss is easy. Here's the theory. Like financial independence, if you spend more than you earn, you get into a deficit. I'm talking about an average human who has no medical problems hindering his weight loss, like thyroid problems, etc. This article is just my method I used to lose weight and I think it SHOULD work for any normal overweight person.

Simple way to lose weight (Calorie counting)
An average human requires about 2000 calories to stay alive a day. (2000 calories for male, 1800 female. These are estimates.) Calories are just units of energy. I'm not talking about carbohydrates, protein or fats. Carbs, proteins, fats all provide calories. Let's just keep it simple for now. I'll go into carbs, proteins, fats later. So simply put, you can either, eat less to lose weight. Assuming my daily burn rate is 2000 to stay alive. If I eat 1500 calories worth, my body will get the remaining 500 calories from my storage. The storage could be from my muscle mass or fat mass. I'll go into that later as well. If you exercise, you will burn more energy. Maybe 300 calories more. So if I eat 2000 calories worth and exercise (another 300 calories), my body will use the storage to burn up another 300 calories more. That's all there is to losing weight. All you need to do is eat less than you use in a day. It doesn't matter what time you eat. Snacking at night doesn't make a difference if your total caloric count is less than the daily burn. Skipping breakfast doesn't do anything bad to you if you do not have gastric problems. It does not help you burn more calories. No. The act of eating itself give you MORE calories. But you may be more energetic after eating due to the additional calories/sugars you have consumed.

Carbs, Proteins, Fats
I've heard, carbs are unhealthy. They make you gain weight, etc etc. Everything is unhealthy if you eat too much of it. If you want to lose weight, eat a balanced diet with a negative calorie count. Meaning, eat a balanced diet with maybe 1500 calories in total per day. Over a long period of time, you will lose weight. Even if you eat 1500 calories worth of only potato chips. This is a fact and has been proven. However, the problem with just losing weight is that it might make your heart unhealthy if you eat only fats. If you eat only 1500 calories of fat a day, you will still be unhealthy but still lose weight. Your body also needs protein to rebuild itself and to gain muscle mass. But, eating protein does not naturally give you muscles. You have to exercise as well. So if you don't exercise and just eat protein, sorry, nothing's gonna happen. It's about the same as if you just ate carbs. Carbs are basically just energy. If you don't exercise, the protein just gets converted into energy and gets stored as fats eventually.

Losing muscle mass and fat mass
Muscle mass helps you burn more calories a day. Remember I said an average male burns about 2000 calories? Yea. If you have more muscle mass, you could potentially burn more than 2000 calories. So it's like an investment. If you invest in building muscle, the less you have to do in future. Cos your muscle is working for you in burning calories without any additional effort on your end. However, if you only diet, and do not exercise, you might be losing both muscle mass and fat mass. This means that your 2000 calorie burn might drop as you lose muscle mass. The body doesn't care where it gets calories from the storage. It just takes what it needs to stay alive. 

Muscle mass burns more calories. The body knows this. So if you diet, the body notices a lack of calories so it will try to "kill off" the muscle mass so as to decrease the calorie burn per day. This is a problem. 

Putting it all together
So knowing the points above. What do we do? Let's recap.
1) Daily calorie deficit reduces weight
2) Eating any time of the day doesn't change anything
3) Eating protein will also make you gain weight useless unless you exercise
4) Muscle mass burns more calories just by being around
5) You will lose muscle mass and fat mass

So when you put all these together, you get. Eat less than your daily caloric count, example total 1500 calories per day. It doesn't matter when/what you eat as long as you don't exceed the caloric count. You will lose muscle mass which is not good as muscle helps keep your daily caloric burn higher. So you need to maintain muscle or grow muscle. So you need to exercise or do some light exercise to tell the body that it needs to keep the muscle mass and burn something else instead. 

Eat a balanced diet of 
1) More vegetables as it is mainly water so the caloric count is low and makes you full
2) Some protein as it helps with muscle growth and healing of injuries
3) Nuts, fibers, some bread, helps for micro nutrients
4) Some healthy fats
5) Anything else you want to eat but keeping your total caloric count low
Total less than 1500 calories per day

Light muscular exercise daily
1) 20 pushups
2) 20 situps
3) 20 squats
To tell the body to maintain some core muscles and not burn them off.

It's really that simple. 
Dieting is like spending money. If you only have 1500 calories to eat per day, what would you eat to keep yourself full and get the most amount of nutrition? You can't eat all rice as it will lack in nutrition, you can't eat all meat cos you might not feel full and also lack in total nutrition. Which is why you need a balanced diet.

Caloric calculator
Here's some estimates I use.
2 slices of bread - 150 calories
1 tin of sardines/tuna - 150 calories
1 bowl of rice - 300 calories
100gm chicken breast - 150 calories
1 apple - 60 calories
100 gm lettuce - 30 calories
1 roti prata - 100 calories
1 egg - 60 calories
1 pkt of hawker food, chicken rice, wonton mee, char kway teow - 500-700 calories
1 can of coke - 150 calories
1 unit of alcohol, 1 glass beer, 1 shot vodka, 1 glass wine - 150 calories
1 tablespoon of cream/oil based items, mayo, cheese, butter, etc, - 100 calories

As I said before, if you only had 1500 calories to spend per day and you want to get the most nutrition, what would you eat? 
I've found success with sandwiches. 2 slices of whole grain bread + chicken breast or sardines, tuna + lettuce. No dressing. Which is about only 300-400 calories. So I can eat 3 of those per day and drink plenty of water to feel full.

Alcohol and the cream/oil based products are a total waste of calories as they provide low nutrition with high caloric count. Sugary drinks are also worthless for nutrition.
Vegetables and fruit are good as they are full of water and fiber which helps keep you full.
Eggs are a good trade off between nutrition and caloric count.
Most lean proteins are good trade offs for nutrition and caloric count but to feel full will require a lot of meat and meat/protein items are high in calories. (It's a good trade off but it's still a high caloric count per gram.)
Bread is full of air, so I like to drink water along with it to feel full. Personally, I feel rice is not worth the calories as compared to bread.

As I've said earlier, all these theories are so simple. No need to go through treatment or eat pills or anything. Personally, I don't believe you can lose something by eating something. So if someone says eating almonds will help you lose weight, that's rubbish. It may only be an indirect relationship that almonds take longer to digest and help you stay full longer and easier so you might tend to eat less in total. 

I've had success multiple times using this formula the only problem I have is discipline to keep doing it. As I love my food and I like eating more than the allocated 1500 calories a day. I also don't particularly like exercising. So it's a double whammy. Love eating hate exercising... destined to be fat. Which is why I go through cycles instead. Where I eat what I want for a few years, then spend a few months getting back into shape then repeat the cycle.

This program has worked for me, I believe it will work for you. However, everyone's body is different. Each person's base metabolic rate is different so you might burn more calories per day or less per day so it really depends. The theories are still valid, just that it might need to be catered to your body. Of course if you don't feel well stop whatever you are doing and consult a doctor. Common sense is still necessary. If you feel like you're going to get gastric and feel faint, for goodness sake eat even though you have already spent your caloric allocation for the day.

If you don't believe in the theories, that's your choice. 
If you believe you can't eat after dinner, that's your choice as well. 
If you believe breakfast is the most important meal of the day, that's your choice. 
Have you ever wondered what it means when people say it's the most important meal of the day? What is considered an important meal of the day? What so great about breakfast such that it is better than the other meals?

I'm ranting a bit in this post cos I've heard a lot of negativity on this weight loss program of mine. Many people tell me how bad or incorrect it is. Most of the time these people who say it are those who need this plan in the first place. Like the people whom I encounter during financial discussions, they want to lose weight by doing things their way. Without changing anything they do. Don't they realize, they are in their current situation COS they are doing things their way? Cos they aren't reading and learning from others who have succeeded? This weight loss and financial planning is very much the same. You can only help those who want to be helped. However, those who want to be helped usually don't need your help anyway as they would have found out by themselves anyway.

I'll say it again. Personally, I've had success with this weight loss plan. I've done sufficient research to believe it to be true. If you want to try this, please exercise some common sense.

Oh and the kind of results which you expect to see are.
If you have a caloric deficit of 1000 calories per day, after 1 week you will lose about 1kg.
Which will be about 12kg in 3 months. If you can maintain such a low caloric intake. 
(Note : Deficit of 1000 calories. Not eat 1000 calories.)
I have personally achieved this result by eating a chicken breast sandwich for lunch and another for dinner. With no breakfast or other snacks in between.

The above is quite a drastic diet plan as I was hungry most of the day. But I wanted to get results fast so I could start eating regularly again.
Alternatively, you may want to try to have a caloric deficit of 500 calories per day, after 1 week, you will lose about 500gms. It might take longer but potentially could be most sustainable.

That's all for this post. Good luck. Hope you've enjoyed this post. I've really enjoyed typing it as it consolidates most of what I've learnt in this topic. 
I'm probably going to start on this plan after Chinese New Year as it's about time for the weight loss cycle to start again. 



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I'm on leave this week. Not doing anything much. Just clearing leave. 

I'm sooooo bored. Like I always say that there's always something to do when I'm retired. But now I'm so bored on the first day of my leave. How will I live when I'm finally retired.

Ok that's not the whole story. I've noticed this about myself sometime back. When I'm still working and take leave, leave is really precious. Rest time is precious so I'll like loaf around and just watch TV and drink coffee. I'll also try to go out and play and enjoy my leave. Else it won't be considered taking a break and actually being on leave. So currently, the value of my free time is quite high cos I don't have many days of leave and I don't have full control of my time. So taking leave is really precious.

However, I have been unemployed previously before. During those days when I had nothing to do, I never felt the preciousness of my time. I could relax, watch TV, drink coffee as well. I could do something today or maybe tomorrow or whatever day I felt like doing it. I also will do things which I don't particularly like to do but have to do for health reasons, like exercise... Sounds confusing?

Let me phrase it in another way. 
Currently, when working, free time is precious. I don't have much to waste. If I have any free time (aka leave), I will want to maximize the happiness I get from it. So I'll plan my days out, going on holidays, enjoying myself, relaxing, etc etc. If I do something which I don't really like to do, I'll feel like I wasted my free time since I currently have so little of it. Mainly only on weekends and some few days of leave a year. So I won't waste my free time doing things I don't like, example, exercising, dieting, etc. I want to enjoy my free time doing happy things. (I don't really like exercising.) So I'll rather be bored than to exercise cos at least I feel like I'm relaxing.

On the other hand, if I had all the free time in the world, retirement, I would not need the relaxing time. Well everyday would be relaxing time. I'll draw up a new routine when that happens. I'll exercise more and cut my weight, etc etc. Free time after retirement would not be as precious and I would be more willing to do things which I didn't like but I had to do. Example, exercising. I don't like to do it. But I gotta do it eventually as I'm not in the best of shape currently. But I'll prefer to leave that til I'm retired.

Simply put, using exercise as the example for now, I don't want to do the chores when my free time is precious. I want to have fun instead. When free time becomes not very precious, I'll complete my chores.  Of course hopefully, I'll still be healthy enough by then to reverse the clock. Cos at the rate I'm eating and slouching around. My heart's turning unhealthy and the belly bulge isn't getting any smaller. Hopefully, I'll be able to retire soon and do all the chores which I don't want to do but eventually have to do.

How about you? Do you have things you always put off til another time? If your free time too precious for you to do those things which you know you have to do but don't feel like doing currently cos it's a chore? Do you think the same? Or do you think that I'm just giving myself an excuse not to exercise and be healthy? Am I just lazy? Although during my 2 years of unemployment, I did lose weight and had a healthier lifestyle. But maybe I should start now? My rationale is... I'm already not excited about work in the morning for 5 days a week. I don't want to be not excited during my free time after work and on weekends. That would be such a sad life to me for now. 

May be sometime in the future... All these will go away :) I know they will. I've already experienced that for a short period sometime early in my life. I hope return back to that phase in my life again soon.



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I always thought that work had no purpose. That as long as I had enough money, working would be unnecessary and I could be happy doing whatever I wanted. I thought everyone was the same.

I realised that is not true at all. I just had this discussion with a friend. She needed to work. She felt insecure without working. Like life had no meaning. I could not understand this. My immediate response was. There is so much to do. Why would you choose to continue to work when you have enough money?

As I questioned further, I learnt more about her personality. She was not an explorer, loved routine. Without work, there was really nothing to do. Some people are just like that. If I had no work, I'd go jogging, cycling, play games, read internet, etc etc etc, I could think of so many things to do and build a new routine to my life without working. However, I've come to acknowledge that each person is different. Some folks just do not like to try new things. They don't want to go jogging, cycling, wander around, etc. It's just them... and there's entirely nothing wrong with it. 

After analysing this, I reflected more upon it. There's so many different people out there wanting different things. It's not in anyone's position to tell anyone what's right or what is wrong. If that decision helps the person sleep better at night, then they should go ahead and do it. If it makes him/her happier in the day, and it's not criminal, then why not. If she stopped working, which she already tried, she would feel financially stressed, although she already has a lot of money. She would feel that her life was meaningless, as she was brought up in the generation where people were expected and required to work. Work gave her a purpose and something to wake up to. Even though it could be stressful at times, overall, work did more for her than just money. 


I just had to accept that some people just did not want what I wanted. Also, these people really would go senile if they did not do any work. As they did not like to imagine, be creative, try other things. They just enjoyed waking up, wearing clothes and going straight to work without thinking of what to do. They would not know of WHAT to do any other way.


It's really interesting once I understood all these. Suddenly, so many things clicked into place. Not only for retirement or work, but hobbies, travelling, things people do, their irritating quirks, etc etc. Everyone is just different and we are made to be like that. Each of us was brought up differently and we should not expect others to be like ourselves. So I've decided not to be too expressive of my retirement plans. Some people just aren't able to accept such an idea. Also, I do not want to waste the energy to explain all these to them. Explaining why it's possible, why I want to do it, why I won't be bored, etc etc. There's really no meaning for all these discussions. 


Of course there might be some people who are willing to accept such an idea. I'll leave my blog to do the talking. I find that probability wise, there's a higher chance that someone is not willing to listen as compared to people who are willing to listen. Thus, I've decided that I won't be speaking about early retirement vocally but rather just continue to type and let people who want to learn more, maybe do a search online and find me. Talking about it with friends, family, colleagues is really just too tiring to explain over and over again. 


Furthermore, why should I irritate them by talking about these when I know they are not receptive. We'll both irritate each other. As we both would not be able to understand each other's position. We'll I think I now understand them better now already. But I think they'll continue not understanding me and they probably won't even bother to see things from this perspective. 


Today's a short post. Work has been really rough. But it was really nice talking to that particular friend about this. As due to it, I finally understood what she was talking about. That everyone was different and wanted different things. I realised I should tell her to work and continue to do so as it gave her confidence and happiness and I should also be happy for her. That enlightenment really helped me this week. 


To end, you can talk about retiring early. But if the person is not receptive, don't bother wasting your time explaining everything to him/her or justifying yourself. They'll get it if they want to get it eventually. If they don't get it, probably, they don't want to get it anyway. 


Thank you! 



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I try my best to live by this rule. 
Really. For all purchases/decisions in my life, I try to remember this.

It's very simple actually. But it's really dependent on each person.
It's all relative so I'll just put higher or lower, etc

I go downstairs to buy my lunch. I look around the hawker centre. This is for a normal weekday lunch. I'm not here to entertain myself. I'm trying to get the best tasting food for the best possible price. To me, most lunches taste about the same. Noodles, economic rice, chicken rice, etc... Yes, there are slightly better ones. But nothing really exceptional for a normal lunch. Best value so far, economic rice, 1 meat, 2 sides + rice for less than SGD3, if you know where to find it. Compare this to chicken rice. Some flavoured rice + small chicken slices for about the same price. I'll pick the economic rice. This is the base best value.

One a day when I'm feeling good. I want to have a nicer meal. I think about the Korean restaurant. SGD10. Air-conditioning, lots of sides + lots of stir fried chicken.
Value = Nicer Food + Air con + A lot of Happiness
Cost = SGD10 + some guilt in spending more
Total ratio higher than economic rice today. I sometimes take this option.

But that's not all.
On another day when I'm feeling broke. I think about the same Korean restaurant. SGD10. Air-conditioning, lots of sides + lots of stir fried chicken.
Value = Nicer Food + Air con + some happiness
Cost = SGD10 + A LOT of guilt in spending more

The cost has increased significantly. I'll compare this Korean meal to Economic rice.
Value = Ok-ish food + no guilt in spending + happiness in spending less
Cost = SGD3 
Total ratio of the same Korean meal now ranks lower than economic rice. Time to eat economic rice to sleep better tonight.


As you can see, happiness and guilt are arbitrary values. It's how much guilt you feel and how much happiness you feel. Personally, I feel a lot of guilt when spending and gain very little pleasure when spending. I gain a lot of pleasure doing free things. Cos the ratio is almost infinite. When costs are low, the ratio is large. 


Another example, for trips...
Going on a long trip spending SGD6000 for 2 to Hokkaido
Value = WOW it's Hokkaido + nicer weather + 8 days + nice food + holiday after effect happiness 2 weeks after the trip
Cost = Full budget for the year + no real guilt as it's budgeted for + nothing more to look forward to for the whole year


Going on 4 trips to nearer areas for 2 costing SGD6000 for 2 for the whole year
Value = 5 days x 4 trips + ok-ish food + holiday after effect happiness of 2 weeks x 4 trips after the trip + anticipation for the next trip in a few month's time
Cost = Full budget for the year + no guilt + might be a hot place

The novelty of Hokkaido and nice weather wears out really quickly after going back to work. The happiness effect of having 4 trips outlast the 1 trip by a far far margin. Basically, most of the time people will forget the trip within a few weeks and with nothing to look forward to, it's going to be a sad rest of the year. I compare this to going on 4 trips. With the constant anticipation of the next trip, I always have something to look forward to. Even if it is back to the same place I visited previously. The option of going for 4 trips win hands down. There is some opportunity cost of not going to further places. I'll visit Europe/America/etc eventually. But not yet. 

Let me go back to food as it's a really large part of my expense. I love to eat. But I hate to spend. So I always have this dilemma when eating nice things. I do like a nice steak like at Lawry's. Its EXPENSIVE. Here's what I sometimes do as an alternative.

I'm looking for some MEAT. I like Lawry's... Really... I think of the expense. About SGD100 for 2 pax if you use the 1 for 1 voucher. That's expensive. But I really want some meat. I go down to the hawker centre with an outlet that sells steak. I call 3 steaks. 1 for her 2 for me. Total cost SGD30. Not the best quality but YEA MEAT! Lawry's will be reserved for our birthday treat. Morton's is out... Dollar cost + guilt cost is so large, it drives the value / cost ratio to such a small number. (By the way, Pepper Lunch makes a good alternative)

I also love going to IKEA. Not for furniture. For food. For about SGD20, I can get meat balls + free coffee + mushroom soup + chicken wings enough for 2. It's pretty good quality stuff too. Compare this against McDonald's / KFC or other restaurants. It's really good value. 

I even use this value / cost ratio for other decisions in my life.
I take MRT to work. I wake up early currently to take the free trips since I exit in the town area.

Value = Free trips to work + Paid to take MRT (visit insinc.sg to understand what I mean) + less crowd in train + success feeling of spending less than SGD30 per month for transport to work 
Cost = Waking up early + SGD30 per month


Alternative is...
Value = Waking up later
Cost = SUPER unhappy due to SUPER crowded trains + about SGD60 per month transport cost to work


Waking up early is a heavy cost. But it pales in comparison to the crowded trains. After adding the icing of free trips and even being paid to take the train early. I'm currently getting to work at about 7:30am.


Other instances where this ratio can be put to use could be at work?
Value = Pay + challenges? + pride? + career progression?
Cost = Number of hours worked + stress level


So depending on the arbitrary numbers. 
How much do you value the challenges of your work?
Do you feel proud working where you work?
Do you feel satisfied advancing in this career?
How stressed do you feel? Are you depressed/suicidal?
The best ratio is to drop the cost to near zero. Then your ratio will be exponentially high. 
If I'm paid SGD1000 per month to play mahjong for 2 hours a day. (If only there's such a job.)
But what if I'm paid SGD10000 per month to play mahjong for 20 hours a day?
Even good deals have a limit. So like always balance is a must. 


I hope this post has been interesting for you. Hopefully, you feel guilt when spending as I find that this guilt is the driving force that keeps my spending in check. I truly feel very bad when overspending when I know I can get the same/similar benefit at a lower cost. Some friends ask if it gets tiring comparing and calculating so much. I just tell them, after awhile, it becomes second nature. It's normal for me to compare the value / cost ratio at a sub-concious level so essentially, all/most of my decisions have been made in this manner. 


This is where the ratio fails to help me make the best decision.
Value = Ability to drive my car + happiness going out on weekends + convenience + happiness of not going through the "troublesome portion of selling my car" (see below)
Cost = EXPENSIVE + quite low guilt + troublesome to sell my car as need to repair before selling


If you follow this blog, my car is my biggest issue. I've made some references to it from time to time. Mathematically, the best thing to do is to sell it. However, the arbitrary value of not facing the issues outweigh the actual dollar cost. (I don't like to have to deal with mechanics to fix the car and the process of selling the car.) As I've said, many of these values/costs are personal numbers. Unfortunately, in this instance in my decision making, somehow, I am unable to make the best numerical decision.



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After doing up a guest post for (http://www.my15hourworkweek.com/) about my own expenses and how, by keeping good communication between my wife and I, we plan our monthly expenses and save and invest, I was thinking what other methods would there be for the lower income in Singapore to move up to the next level. For them to achieve a more stable financial situation and get more control of their lives.

I did an earlier post on "What if I woke up from my Dream" on what first steps I would do to get out of a low income situation. Today I will list out other methods which I think people can utilize to move up to a better financial situation. Some decisions might not be easy. There will definitely be some sacrifices. I will not be repeating on the same ideas as the previous post but other points which I have thought of previously.

Personally, I believe in Singapore, there are a lot of opportunities for a lower income to upgrade into the next level. But first the families need to make some sacrifices and trade offs to slowly climb up or out of their predicament. There is no free lunch.

Firstly as I've mentioned in my guest post, communication is very important. The discussion about existing financial situation needs to be done. Everyone in the family needs to know how good/bad the situation is, the decisions that have to be made, and what each of them can/should do to move the family out of this situation. Everyone has a part to play. Parents or children. My scenarios are based on a family of parents and 1-2 children with some/minimal influence of grandparents. I will also assume that the grandparents are relatively healthy and in no immediate need for medical services.

One particularly important thing is to learn about finances. Some folks might not know about interest, budgeting, expenses, etc. I think the government is already starting to put financial education into schools and this will help youths to better educate themselves on how to better plan and account for their finances. 

Next is economies of scale. By planning fiances with your family, you can potentially get family plans. Like handphone lines for the whole family can be obtained with a discount. Asking what the family likes to eat and are willing to eat for the week so as to plan what to cook or buy in bulk.

Signing on as a Regular. This means pursuing a military career. Agreed it's not the best of jobs. But I think that if your family is not in a good financial situation, to sign on will really put your finances in order. Pay isn't great. But most expenses are already paid for. Medical expenses are free. Food and lodging is readily available. For instance, a son can sign up as a regular and stay in camp. The family then can rent out a room in their house. This is a double source of income. Yes there is some loss of privacy but sacrifices have to be made. The son would save a lot by eating in camp as it is free. The family would have a secondary source of income to help pay off the mortgage or with the living expenses.

One thing I don't understand is why someone would work for minimal pay. Example, cleaners, fast food delivery, etc. Please note, I am not looking down on them. They do provide a service which is essential for the convenience of all of us. What I'm saying is that I don't understand why they would accept such low compensation when there are other alternatives around. A bus driver would be able to earn about SGD3k per month. Instead of being a sales assistant in a small outlet earning SGD1200 per month, one could gain sales experience and move on to higher networth sales, like jewelry, luxury watches, etc, where the pay would be higher. Definitely it would be harder work but that's the point. To work harder to get your family out of the low income situation.

Even a waiter can have a lucrative career path. After gaining experience, they could continue to move on to more luxurious establishments where the pay is higher. Naturally, they would need to have a good attitude and provide really good service. They could also be promoted to Captain where they would supervise the other new waiters. There are people from Hong Kong coming to Singapore to fulfill this role of Service Captains. If the pay wasn't good, why would they come all the way here.

When I was doing financial sales and trying to persuade a cleaner to purchase a whole life policy or endowment policy, she said she had no money. Not even SGD50 per month to save in an endowment policy. The next week when I met her, she showed me her new SGD3k diamond ring. She was willing to spend SGD3k for a diamond ring but not willing to save SGD50 per month for her future. I know of young auditors who look forward to their increments and bonuses every year. They are young and impressionable. They also like to compare. During their periods of high financial ability, they take it as a good season to update their wardrobe, handbags, shoes. I've always wondered how it was like to spend SGD2k on a product without blinking an eyelid. (Then again, I own a car... No excuses. It's an unnecessary expense.)

Another income generating hobby is to set up a flea market. It doesn't take much to set up one. Buy cheap products from overseas and sell them at a flea market. Simple. Anyone can do it. I've started taking a liking to doing this actually. I get to spend time with my wife at the flea market and it's a simple income generating activity. The set up cost isn't particularly high and if you bring in relatively sell-able stuff, there should be no problems covering the cost and making a profit for the day. 

Spoiling your kids is also a big culprit to staying low income. Some parents may "help" the child keep with the times by buying them the iPad or iPhone so that they can keep up with their friends. They think it is a small expense. And in reality, it is a small expense. However, multiple small expenses would accumulate to a large expense. Bringing your kids out to eat every weekend at posh places, piano lessons, etc. These are not a luxury which is open to a low income family. As I said. I am in no way looking down on others. It's just that. These things should not be considered at this point. Options are open when finances stabilize and the family can pursue other interests when that happens. A life of living hand to mouth and struggling with monthly expenses is not the way to live.

Agreed that I have started life in a good footing. However, I do not think that others are any worse off. There are many options for improvement and decisions and sacrifices have to be made. Although I earn enough, I do not spend a lot. I save most of my income. Even I have made or am making sacrifices to improve my life as well. It is not as though my goal of early retirement comes for free. I do not even consider it a sacrifice not to spend as, I have either gotten used to spending less, or, the trade off is so small considering what I hope to get back in future that I do not deem it a sacrifice.

In Singapore, there are many opportunities, it only matters how you reach out to get them. They will never just land on your lap if you just sit around at home all day. The cost of living is increasing in Singapore as well. This is just part of the game and will have to be accounted for during the planning. The raising cost of living is also making it harder for me to retire young. But, I'm not going to complain about it. I'll just have to adjust my plans to work around it and I think this should go the same for everyone else. Yes, you can comment and hope that the government takes measures to ease the situation. But that should just be hope. The main thing that can be controlled is how you handle the situation and work around it. 

How about you? Have you seen/noticed poor decision making around you? If they can afford it, that is fine. Can you think of times when you have seen someone who cannot afford it and still made a foolish decision? Or complained without doing anything about it themselves?



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Today's post will be more about my wife and my approach on this journey of spending less, saving, and investing for your future retirement. 

If there is one word that sums all this up is really "Communication".
We talk about everything. It's sometimes said that talking about money will affect the relationship. I don't believe that is true. Discussing about the finances and working out the finances will help the relationship grow. Many relationships are broken due to finances, or rather the lack of it. If they got together to work out how to better plan and manage their finances, things might not have come to a bad situation. Discussing about money is not about just saying "You don't make enough money!" or "You spend too much!". Discussing is about working things out. Here's how we do it.

I started out on investing long before I met her. She was just a typical Singaporean girl. Never a second thought about spending. Like other Singaporean youths, planning for the future could be done tomorrow. Always waiting for tomorrow. The first financial discussion we did was about her study loan. It was the CPF loan which she had to return to her parents. It was at 5% interest of the Special Account. Like many other youths, she had opted to pay the small sum of SGD100 per month upon gradation. I told her if we were to move to our next phase in life, we would need to clear this debt first. She knew I was doing investments and was willing to invest together. (I know of a friend who's wife is very risk adverse and is not willing to do any investments.) I told her before she even starts thinking of investment then she will need to clear that debt first, as I personally feel that a guaranteed return of 5% will not be easy to beat. I told her that she needed to put every excess dollar of her salary to paying off her student debt. If she needed any emergency fund, I would be the credit line. The debt was cleared in about a year.

GREAT!!! We now can start on the more exciting business of investing. We pooled our investment funds into a joint investment account. As I had more assets, I claimed a 5% interest on the funds above our joint amount. Meaning if she put in SGD5k, I would put in SGD5k. If I had another SGD20k of existing investments, then I would get 5% on the SGD20k as cash into my own bank account. The agreement is that she can contribute more in future and equalize the total contributed. Some of you might think this is too calculative of me. But I would put it in another way. If this allocation was not done, then there is no meaning to having a joint investment account. It would be better for me to keep my own investment account and she keep her own. In that way I can have more funds for my retirement planning as I am the one looking for early retirement as she happy and willing to work til later years in her life. But by keeping separate accounts, it would be inefficient. Brokerage costs would be slightly higher, however, I am more concerned about the joint management of risk. As we would not be properly aware of each other's investments and we could be too highly invested in a particular stock or industry. By combining investment accounts, I could oversee the whole risk profile of the portfolio. The 5% interest is also a double edged sword. If the total portfolio does better than 5%, she would get a bigger proportion of the gains as compared to her contributed amount. If the total portfolio does worse than 5%, I get returns of 5% on the amount I contributed. As I expect my long term portfolio growth to be about 7% year on year, I believe that this arrangement is actually in her favour. Furthermore, as my portfolio comprises of mainly dividend stocks, the 5% return is typically paid to me from the dividends.

We also keep a joint bank account. But it's not a normal joint bank account that most couples have. Money that goes in NEVER comes out. That is the rule of that account. It is not used to pay for our joint expenses. It is the joint savings account. Every month, we will match each others' transfer into the joint account. The amount per month is not fixed. We will transfer as much as we can and whatever excess from previous month into this account and leave fair living expenses for the month in our personal accounts. The funds in this account is be used only for our investments. Dividends go directly into this joint account. The only money that comes out is the interest on my excess mentioned in the above paragraph.

Our personal accounts are were our salary goes into. After the transfer into the joint account. Yes we transfer the funds into the joint account when the pay comes in. This is called pay yourself first. Then we will live on what is left. If there are any joint expenses, we will take it out from our personal accounts in equal amounts. This account is really very much for ourselves. So we can do whatever we want with it. There's no risk of excess spending. After the transfer into the joint account. There isn't very much left to spend in excess. Just enough for our food, transport, credit card bills, phone bills, insurance, paying our parents, some luxuries. Luxuries are things such as maybe a SGD10 Korean meal for lunch instead of SGD3 economic rice. Weekends out are considered luxuries where a meal could cost SGD50 between the 2 of us, clothes, our quarterly short trips, whatever else besides basic living expenses is considered a luxury to us. 

Credit cards are also held jointly. I hold the main card, with a supplementary card for her. We target a joint expense of SGD1500 per month on our UOB One Card. I've written an article on SG Credit Cards which you might want to read on (http://earlyretirementsg.weebly.com/1/post/2013/12/credit-cards.html) and why I spend SGD1500 per month. Everything is charged to our credit card if possible. Yes. Even that SGD2 item from the supermarket. SGD1500 is our main expense for the month. Spending drops drastically once SGD1500 is hit. The amount comprises of phone bills, food and luxuries, our quarterly short trips. But there's a catch! If we go out for shared meals/gatherings, we will offer to pay first and collect cash from the others. This means that we would have less to spend for the month as the SGD1500 would be hit faster. Why would we do that? You ask. Well truthfully, we struggle to hit SGD1500 every month. I really have no idea how folks spend SGD3k in a month. Most of our expenses, we can't use credit card. We eat at hawker centers for lunch. The only times we can use our credit card is during weekends when we go out. Max charge on a Sat or Sun would be SGD100. We go out on Sat or Sun. Seldom both days. We also use the credit card to pay for our air tickets and hotel bookings.

Another thing we find particularly helpful in our finances is planning our expenses. Every once in awhile, something unexpected comes up. Like buying a new mattress or visiting the dentist. In such situations, we would plan our expenses. The "budget" never changes. WHAT?!?!  YES! Nothing changes. These expenses will come from the same SGD1500. What we will do will be to allocate expected purchases to the following months instead. I will monitor the credit card balance regularly and say, "Dear, we're down to SGD300 for the next 2 weeks. Any big ticket items will need to be pushed to next month's bill." This means that we need to book our air tickets for our trip on 1 month and hotel bookings on the next month. Else we can't keep within the SGD1500. We book our trips 6 months in advance. I feel this discussion and planning is very helpful in keeping our expenses relatively constant throughout the months and we don't get significant spikes of spending on any particular month. The only problem occurs when the SGD1500 is hit, we're not expecting any big ticket items coming in for the rest of the month, then suddenly... The car breaks down. It's happened before... 

Insurance planning is also very important between couples. We plan our insurance together. I know of a colleague (female) who insured herself, but her husband is not insured. What kind of lousy planning is that. If something happens to her, her husband will have an easier time taking care of her or her kids. Whereas if something happens to the husband, she will struggle to maintain her existing standard of living. One good thing to note is that both of us are insurance trained. I've taken my tests to sell financial products previously as a financial planner and she has taken the same tests for her work as she deals with insurance related products within her company. So we're pretty familiar with what's available in the market. What I've noticed is that most of the time couples don't plan this adequately together and don't share with each other their financial situation. This works against the couple as insurance planning is about protecting against financial loss. And how can you plan to protect what you do not know. I don't really want to go into details on what we buy as different couples require different coverage based on circumstances. You'll need a trusted Financial Planner for that... an oxymoron as those hardly exist and most FP's don't know their product.

Wow this article was a lot longer than I expected. I went through a lot of what I currently plan with my wife and as I mentioned as the first point, communication is really the most important thing. I believe that it is because we are able to discuss things out and plan together, then we are able to achieve synergies to maintaining a healthy financial situation. There are plenty of other ways to save and cut expenses and I will continue writing on what I feel and do to achieve my financial independence. I hope this has been of help to you and an enjoyment to read. Some folks might think my actions are drastic. I'll like to say that I do not lead a pauper's life. I'm an advocate of balance and value. Spend money on things that are necessary and get the most of your dollar. 

After writing about all these, I realized that to be more accurate, I should use Trust and Communication. As only with Trust can you communicate truthfully about your financial situation for planning together. If my wife was always after my money then I would not trust her and would not be willing to communicate. But then again... If there was no trust, why did you get married in the first place. So Trust is implied to be existing already.



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