A reader sent me a topic to write about. 
Very interesting topic which I did think about. 

There are many expensive cars in HDB carparks. Who owns them? How much do the owners earn? 
Cos I, myself also has felt how come I can't afford such a vehicle. 

There are many ways to look at this question or comment, and of course I don't have all the answers, but I'll try to shed some light with what I know.

Observation bias
Firstly, there are a lot of expensive cars in HDB carparks. But, there are also a lot of regular cars. We tend to notice the nicer, bigger cars. So there is a bias when we see these cars. I think if we really go and count them, we would end up with around 10%-20% being expensive cars. Which is reasonable. 

Next, there is the willingness to spend
I have a friend he earns $10,000 per month by himself. He asked me... "When will I be able to afford an Audi?"
The thing is... he can already afford an Audi, but he doesn't feel that it's worth it.
The question is... WHEN do you think you can afford an expensive car?
For me, even if I have $1m in the bank, I won't buy any car if I don't need it. 
And my friend, I think he wants to have a very big cash cushion before he is willing to put out money to buy an expensive car. 
So the thing is, you may already be able to afford it, but don't feel like it's worth splurging the money with your current level of financial capability.

When I was selling insurance/property sales, the bosses really tried to encourage the staff. They said, "if you can earn $5,000, just buy the car, you can afford it."
And the truth is, with $5,000 monthly income you CAN buy an expensive car.
The reason why bosses like to encourage the staff to buy expensive cars has a couple of reasons. 
1. After buying the car, the staff is happy, and will be willing to go out and "chiong" more sales. Cos he can see the effect of his hard work.
2. After getting into debt, the staff has to "chiong" more sales to keep up the payments. 

So there were a lot of agents who had higher end cars. 
How much is needed? Only around $5,000 income per month. 
You may be surprised, but there ARE a lot of people who are willing to buy an expensive car with only $5,000 income or less. The monthly payments is only around $2,000. Still manageable. 
Most of us would think this is unbelievable, but the thing is, there are many many people who aren't financially prudent and manage their finances properly.

Those who can truly afford it
I stay in a new HDB so all who stay here balloted from HDB, which means everyone's income was of a certain level when they balloted for the HDB.
Around my area, there are 2 property agents that I'm familiar with.
One drives a BMW, the other drives a Honda Vezel. 
Both are doing very well. I expect $10,000 per month average. 
Can both of them afford it? Yes. But one feels it's worth it, the other feels that getting an expensive car isn't necessary.

There are 3 Porsche(s) in my area. I know one of the owners. 
He stays in a 3 room HDB. He was a business owner and sold the business and started other businesses. A very highly successful person. How much he knows about financial management? I have no idea. But I'm sure he can afford it. He probably became highly successful after balloting for his HDB. 

Conclusion
So let's put things into perspective...
How many people are highly successful? 
How many people can afford an expensive car? 
Probably not many people are highly successful and earn $10,000 per month. 
But there ARE a lot of people who can afford to pay the monthly installments of a luxury car. 
So the question then becomes... it's not about whether you can afford it. Most of us likely can afford it. 
But rather, are you willing to pay this large amount of money for a car? 
How much financial security do you require for yourself before you are willing to splurge on a premium vehicle? 
Different people have different levels of financial security and feel that they can or cannot afford luxuries based on that feeling of security. It's not so much the actual cash or income that makes one feel like they can afford a vehicle. 

So don't feel too bad if you feel that you can't afford a luxury vehicle. You probably can. But it's highly likely that you just don't feel like it's worth putting down this amount of money for such a form of transport. It's just that you feel that you want more financial security before you are willing to put out this amount of money. 
So ask yourself. WHEN do you feel you can afford such a ride?
If you find yourself saying, over $1 million in the bank or liquid assets.
OR above $15,000 in monthly income.
Then it's highly likely you just have higher requirements to financial security than others. 
Cos think about it... how many people have over $1m in assets or $15,000 in monthly income?


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This month has been insane. 

As I mentioned many times, due to my freegan activities, my daily grocery bill has dropped to almost zero. Along with my free vouchers from my wife's AIA Vitality app.

Furthermore, due to a change in weekend schedule, we go out to eat less. 
We used to go out on Saturdays and visit parents on Sundays. However our parent visits have been changed to Saturday. BUT, we don't really have mood to go out on Sundays cos we just want to rest a little at home. So as a result, even Sunday meals are free cos I cook. 

This has caused a large drop in our discretionary spending. 
To hit my monthly combined spending of $1,000 each month, I haven taken to prepaying many of our utility bills. 

SP Services = $160 prepaid, they didn't allow me to pay anymore than this amount.
M1 = $87 prepaid. This is 3 months of home internet.
Starhub = $400 prepaid. This is 5 months of my wife's handphone bills + her family's broadband & cable.

Total prepaid for this month = $647.
Not to mention that I ALREADY have a credit balance with Starhub ($90) and SP Services ($53) even before this month, which have not been used up yet. 
So, yes, my M1 bill has been prepaid for the next 3 months, utilities 3 months, wife's Starhub 6 months.

I did make a mistake though. I was in Malaysia earlier this month and I did not charge MYR300 to my card. So I could have spent an additional S$100 which would have made things slightly easier. 

I wonder if I will be able to maintain this level of spending for the rest of this year. 
Even though I might be able to keep discretionary spending low, I will need to find another way to handle months which may have a spike in spending, like dental treatments or replacement of certain items. 

Cos the UOB One card requires me to consistently spend S$500 per month to get rebates, but I won't be spending S$500 per month anymore, so I'll need to find another card which will give me rebates for months when my expense spikes. 

I have another thought though. 
UOB give bonus interest of $100 per month (assuming S$50,000 bank balance), plus $50 rebate every 3 months. 
This ends up to around $1200 + $200 = $1400, IF the customer spends $6000 per year and sets up 3 GIRO transactions from the UOB bank account. 
This is around 23% "rebate" for spending $6000 every year.
If we reduce our monthly expense to $500 on my wife's card, then I will not be able to "earn" this $1400.
Soooo, my thought is this... for the months that I am not able to hit $500 spending, I COULD top up the spending by buying NTUC vouchers. Now of course I have problems using vouchers. 
But what if I sold the vouchers instead? I could sell NTUC vouchers at a 10% discount and I would still be able to obtain a net surplus. 
So I could buy $6000 worth of vouchers in a year, sell at 10% discount, so I get back $5400 in cash by selling the vouchers at a loss, but I still get $1400 worth of rebates back from UOB. Means I get $6800 back. Resulting in a net profit of $800 per year. 

I'm thinking if I should be doing this... So I just use my card like normal and still try to hit $500 on both our cards as per normal. If I have any shortfall, I just buy vouchers and sell them at 10% discount. 
This way, for months that I have spikes in spending, like buying some replacement items, I can still use the UOB card and retain all my monthly rebates. 
Now... the only problem is to find someone who will regularly buy my vouchers. Cos I think it's really tedious to post on Carousell monthly and meeting with different people every month. 
If I can get regular operations out, I think this would be a great idea, maybe one of my neighbours or something...
An interesting thought, but let's see how next month works out...


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In my last post I was talking a little on expense reduction. 
And I was saying that I'd be doing a little post on the top power guzzlers in a household and the alternatives. 

I'll just jump straight into them nothing much to explain...
Sometime before, I mentioned that it takes a lot of power to change temperature. Doesn't matter whether it's hot to cold, or cold to hot, it takes a lot of power to change temperature so you'll be seeing a lot of temperature changing appliances on this list. 

Top of the list...
Obviously the Air-conditioner
For my wife and I, we just use the air-conditioner at night between 9pm-6am.
Our electricity cost is $52. (Just electricity cost for the whole month.)
I don't know the cost of running the air-con. I just know it's expensive. 
I know of people who regularly on the air conditioning for the whole house and their power bill is above $200, for a 4 room HDB.

There's a not a lot of alternatives for the air-conditioning. 
One could blast 4 fans in the room and the power  wouldn't even come close to what the air-con consumes.
Or we could turn on the air conditioning and set the timer to turn it off 1 hour before we wake up, but this might result in stuffy air, cos when air is still it gets stuffy and my wife doesn't like it. 

The thing about it is... many of us have gotten so used to air conditioning when we sleep that it might be hard to sleep well without it. Cool dry air is different from cool air blown from fans. So for me, I take it as a fair enough expense for a good night's sleep. 

Anyway, moving on...
The fridge. This appliance is turned on 24 hours a day. The saving grace is that the door is usually kept closed and there is minimal loss in temperature on a regular basis. 

Some people have bigger fridges, some people have smaller fridges. Some people keep their fridge doors open when they pour the milk, others keep the doors closed as much as possible. 
Once again, this is one of the appliances that we don't have much alternatives to.
The only way is to reduce the consumption, like having a smaller fridge or not opening the fridge too much, or not putting in hot stuff into the fridge. 

Well, theoretically, we COULD live without a fridge... but... let's not go there.

For the next few, I don't know which eats up power more than the others. 
One of the main culprits of high power consumption is the hot water heater.
More specifically, the hot water tank. 
More often than not, people will have to heat up the whole tank then take a shower, that's heating up a couple of additional liters of water which is probably not used. Cos chances are, people don't use up all the hot water in the tank.

The alternatives to this is the gas heater or the instant heater. 
I'm assuming that we are all responsible people and we turn on the power only when we go and bathe and we turn it off after we bathe. 
If so, then both the gas heater and instant heater are probably better alternatives which reduce power consumption. Simply cos, we only use what we need. These heaters will only heat up the amount of water which we need to take a bath then when we turn it off, we stop using power. 
Whereas a heater tank would have to heat up additional water cos... that's the amount in the tank. 

Another heavy power user which is seldom mentioned is the washing machine. 
How many of us use hot water to wash our clothes? I know some people who always use a hot wash. 
For us, we don't use hot water to wash our clothes. We usually just use normal temperature unless for special circumstances. Also, hot water tends to damage clothes. 

So similar as the above examples, the washing machine needs to use electricity to heat up all the water in the machine. I don't know. Some people like to use hot water... but for me, I wonder... how dirty are we? Such that we need to use hot water AND detergent to wash our clothes?

Not much alternatives here. You either use hot water or don't use hot water. 

And along with a washing machine, we must surely talk about the dryer. 
In our small HDBs, we might not get much sun or wind to dry our clothes, leading to a musty smell due to slow drying of clothes, so some of us use a dryer regularly to quickly dry the clothes. 
I use the dryer on wet rainy days when clothes take longer to dry. 

Like all temperature controlling appliances, the dryer also takes up a lot of power, cos it blows hot air.
Of course the best alternative to this is FREE, which is nice hot sun, but for most of us, this is becoming hard to achieve so... we also need to look at other alternatives to sunlight. 

My personal alternative to this is that I put a fan in my drying area and I turn on the fan to blow the clothes after they come out of the washing machine. So I turn on the fan for around 6 hours and the clothes get fairly dry and don't have any smell. It's a low powered fan to provide circulation and to move the humid air around so that the clothes can dry better. 
This is my best alternative for now, unless someone else gives a better suggestion. Sunlight is not available in my drying area.

The last one on my list is what I feel is the WORST power guzzler of them all. 
Not cos it takes up the most power, but cos it's simply silly. 

For all the above, typically, we only turn it on when we need it. 
1. Air-con we turn it on usually at night when we need it, even if we use it in the living room, we turn it on when we come home.
2. Fridge, we need to keep the food constantly cold so that it lasts longer, so we keep it on all the time.
3. Hot water heater, regardless which one we use, we turn it on when we want to bathe, then usually we turn it off again. 
4. Washing machine and dryer, we turn it on when we need it. We don't run the washing machine or dryer without clothes right?

So what is this last appliance which I absolutely feel is the most ridiculous power guzzler of them all???

The hot water pot 

Obviously this doesn't take up the most power. But it does take up a lot of power. 
Think about it. Most of us don't really drink hot water on a regular basis. 
And yet we keep it on 24/7. Even overnight, or when we go out to work. 
No one I know keeps the air-conditioner on when they go out to work. 
But somehow it's OK to keep this appliance on when they aren't at home or whatever. 

And what convenience does this appliance provide? INSTANT hot water on demand. Cos the water is perpetually hot. 

We could easily use an electric kettle like this one... fill it up when you want to have a hot drink, go to the toilet for a couple of minutes, and by the time you're done, there would be hot water. These electric kettles are really fast. They use a lot of power to boil the water in such a short time. BUT, they are turned on for only a very short duration. The total amount of power used is fractional as compared to keeping the water hot perpetually.

If my estimations are correct, IF you are using a 24/7 hot water pot, you could buy a $30 electric kettle,  switch to it for 3 months, and you would have made back more than the $30 in terms of savings off your electricity bill, AND continue saving for the months that follow.
(Depending on how often you drink hot water.)

Of course there are people who DO, drink hot water regularly. Now, by all means, continue using the hot water pot. But at least turn off the pot at night or if you are going out for a long period. I think that would be more energy efficient and provide savings on your electrical bill every month.

Did I miss out any other appliance which most people use and takes up a lot of energy? 


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I do apologize to my readers...
As I go back my past posts, I've come to see that my posts have become heavily lopsided towards a freegan lifestyle. 
And I think maybe some readers will think it's hard to relate to such a lifestyle...

Similarly, on my side... I'm starting to be unable to relate to a normal lifestyle. The feeling is just so weird. 
I think... it's like.
How do you think an MP is able to relate to someone earning $2000 per month? When an MP earns so much more? 
If I earn $2000 per month, can I relate to someone earning $10,000 per month? 
The person earning $2000 would just think, "Oh it would be so nice to earn $10,000 per month."
​But there are other issues that come along with earning $10,000 per month. Everyone has issues and worries, they just have different issues at different levels of income. 
A business owner worries about paying rent, paying his workers, his business revenue. It's a different set of worries. Are we really able to easily relate to someone else who is significantly different from us? 

A rich person may look at a lower income person and wonder... "why doesn't he find a better paying job? There are so many other jobs which pay more."

I think, at every stage/level, we have a certain amount of knowledge. Not the school kind of knowledge. 
Rather, knowledge of the situation. 
For instance, I was in the financial industry, so my knowledge is for a certain level of education and working hours and experience, someone can get X amount of pay. 
Someone who is NOT from this industry would not know this information. 

Or an experienced business owner would know where to get his supplies, where to rent and hire people and how to generate cashflow. He would likely take it for granted that his knowledge which took years to obtain is very easy knowledge. But the truth is, it isn't. 

So when we look at a lower income person and wonder... "why doesn't he find a better job..."
There are a few reasons. He might not know how, he might not know where. Also, he might not be willing to learn, or be willing to change. 
Think that's unreasonable?

If you have a rich uncle. Asks you to start a business, he will just give you advice and ideas and teach you what to do, but you have to do everything, come up with the capital and run the whole business. He is rich and has experience in running a business so his words can somewhat be trusted. 
Would you quit your job and start a business? 
Are you willing to learn? Are you willing to change?
Is this not similar to the example above? 

So for someone without the knowledge and experience it's hard for them to relate to someone with the knowledge. 
Like someone of lower income cannot imagine the difficulties of the higher income.

Similarly, after gaining the knowledge, it becomes hard to imagine why someone would want to stay at a lower income. It becomes easy to say... "Just find a higher paying job lor..."

So I look at myself now... things have changed... drastically. I may not think it's much, but if I look from an outsider perspective, it is drastic. 
Less than 6 months ago, I loved going into supermarkets to look at things and see what I can buy and cook and what would be nice to use for my home. 
Now, when I go in, I look at the vegetables and I think, "But I can get those for free", or "I still have a lot in my fridge". 
I walk past the meat section and think, "I can't afford to buy meat, if I buy meat, I can't eat what's already in my fridge"
I walk past other parts of the supermarket and think, "I can get those for free" or "I still have stocks of this at home, when they run low, I'll just use vouchers to buy them". 

Basically, I have no more happiness when I walk through the aisles of a supermarket. 
And I then wonder... WHY do people continue to be buying stuff???

It's the same as the examples above... "Why doesn't he find a higher paying job?"
Cos likely, the person doesn't KNOW where to find a higher paying job, or he may think that it will require a certain education level or certain levels of stress. So he cannot be bothered to even try.

And I look at my supermarket example and I wonder "Why do people still use money to buy groceries?"
(I understand not all groceries can be obtained for free on a regular basis, some can, some can't)
And the answer is the same... cos likely the person doesn't KNOW where to find free vegetables, or he may think that it will require certain changes, or that it's really difficult and a lot of effort will be required. So they cannot be bothered to try.

Even when I was a regular consumer and now that I've integrated certain freegan aspects to my life, I find it hard to relate BACK to a normal consumers' mentality.

The idea that you might be earning $2000 when you first started work, and maybe now, 10 years down, you are earning $7000, can you imagine what it felt like earning $2000 per month? Can you relate back to those good ol' days? Some can, most can't. 

How can someone who loves their job relate to someone who has never been in a job that they like? 
Vice versa, how can someone who has never loved their job, ever believe that loving your job is a possible thing?
But once they find a job that they love (IF they ever find it), then they wonder... what have they been doing their whole lives? Why doesn't more people look for jobs that they like? Why do people stay stuck in jobs that they don't like?
The thing is, once knowledge is gained, it's hard to look back at a point where the knowledge is unavailable. 
It's a lot harder to imagine a lack of knowledge as compared to a lack of money. It's somewhat easier to imagine a lack of money. 

So when I was a frugal consumer, my posts were somewhat about saving money with good deals and I was thinking, why don't people put in some effort to manage their credit cards, or bank balances properly. 

But now, I'll call myself a freegan consumer, cos I still buy stuff, but as a freegan consumer, I now do posts about free stuff instead of deals... cos... cheap deals are just too expensive. Free is better. And it's really hard to relate back to talk about good deals. I mean... when Redmart used to offer me a 12% discount, I would stock up on canned food, some detergent, induce spending on some other stuff, etc... 

It's not that I don't want to write about the old topics. There used to be so many things to talk about last time, credit card promos, bulk discounts, bank interest rates, where to get cheaper stuff, etc...

But now, I just can't talk about those. 
Without sufficient spending, there are no credit card promos, no bonus interest rates.
Why talk about bulk discounts, or cheaper stuff when free is available? 

The maths is very simple. 
On a normal day, most people spend $3-$10 on food per meal. Assuming that they don't cook at home. 
So a couple who doesn't cook should spend around $500 per month on basic food. 
Then there's the usual utilities, telco bills. 
And housing payments, insurance premiums, transport costs... all the other basic stuff.
Everything else is discretionary spending. Luxury food above $10 is considered discretionary spending.

We all know the basic formula...
Income - Expense = Savings + Investments
Something like this...

Now that I know that a bunch of basic necessities can be obtained for free, how can I talk about 20% discounts now?
There's all the stuff that CAN'T be obtained for free.
Insurance, utilities, telco bills, housing payments, etc...
(Ah great, I'll talk about reducing utility bills in my next post)
​My handphone bill is a whopping $4 per month. So I can't really talk very much on reducing handphone costs. 
Insurance and housing payments are pretty simple... change to a cheaper provider or find a lower bank loan interest rate.

Furthermore, as expense drops, I find that stress levels drop along with it. 
But as income increases, I don't find that stress levels drop when that happen. 
By right, if income increases by X amount, it should have the same effect on stress as a reduction of X amount in expenses. 
And yet this is never the case. 

Think about, the feeling if you receive an increment of $1000 over a time period.
So maybe you received $3000 per month and after a few years you now earn $4000.
Essentially, income increased by around $1000...
Compare this feeling versus... the feeling that you have finished paying your housing loan. A typical HDB housing loan has monthly payments of less than $1000 per person. 
Do you feel less stress now that you have finished paying your housing loan?
Probably less...
But do you feel less stress when you earn $1000 more?
Probably not as much as if you paid off your housing loan. 

So I love talking about expense reduction. It's highly controllable and results in a good reduction in stress levels. 
Anyway, I digress...

The thing about it is... as things go along,  I find it harder and harder to relate back to a normal consumer. 
Regardless if it's a regular consumer or a frugal consumer. 
It's really hard to think about a life when I have to go back to paying good money for some of the stuff that I get for free now. 
Mainly I get food for free, but due to that, I now can reallocate resources (vouchers) to other things which I can't get for free. And since the vouchers are free anyway, that means I get the other stuff for free as well. 

Anyway... next post on Monday will be about the top power guzzling appliances at home and their alternatives. So stay tuned.


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The community has a term... Freegan problems...
This is the term for problems mainly faced by freegans. 

It's like, when people are complaining that their nail polish that they bought is of a wrong colour than as advertised... usually people refer to those as first world problems. 

So what are freegan problems?
Well... they are usually about an overload of stuff. 

Now... I don't collect many items. I just put out word to my neighbours that I'm willing to accept their second hand stuff so they pass me stuff and I just redirect them to other people. I don't proactively open dumpsters anymore. That's just too much effort when I am not really looking for anything in particular.

However, I do pick up stuff if they are left obviously beside the lift lobby or beside the bin near the lift lobby. I take those as easy wins, cos they are usually in nice neat plastic bags and relatively clean.
And similarly, I just usually pass those on to other people. So it's pretty fine, no real clutter at home cos every week people drop by my place to collect items. 

I know other freegans who regularly go out and collect stuff from dumpsters and they clog up their house and... personally, I feel that's just terrible... Unless they have a quick way to sell or pass on the stuff... I don't think living in a cluttered house is healthy.

Ok... so what are my "problems" now that I've pretty much integrated some freegan aspects into my life...
Well... I've an absurd influx of food. Now, I'm not complaining about it. My mum has always said, when there's more, don't complain. It means you're doing well. So I take it very positively that I have more... or an abundance of food. 

Every week, I go and collect vegetables. One collection will provide me with enough vegetables for 2-3 weeks, IF I can preserve them. Cos I only cook around 5 meals a week, I don't really use the food very quickly. But, I'd rather give away the vegetables to neighbours and go and collect more vegetables the following week. 

I also get some other food, meats, fish cake, etc from other freegans, I either go and collect it near my place or they bring some over when they collect stuff from me. So I also have a surplus of meat related food, butter, eggs. I don't get them on a regular basis, but I also don't use them very quickly. It's like, if I eat a bit of my eggs, then my fishcake supply grows, or if I eat more of my fishcake, another item will get stocked up. It's an ongoing cycle of consumption and stocking up. 

I picked up some "atas" beer by the lift lobby, 5 bottles, and my neighbour passed me 4 bottles of apple cider, those sweet alcoholic kinds. All are past best before date, but I'm ok with consuming them, and yet, I hardly drink... I'll likely use them for cooking. 
Someone passed me 6 bottles of taiwanese tea/coffee, you know the one which used to be removed from shelves in Singapore cos of an ingredient which was not registered, or something like that. Well, I think they are back on shelves and I received 6 bottles of it. Unexpired. 
And I get my stocks of morning coffee from the hotel when I travel with my wife, I have enough instant coffee to last probably 2 months, and yet, I will be following my wife again in March and I will be collecting more. 
I get biscuits, chocolates and other snacks from other freegans. It's on a relatively regular basis. Once again, it's like the other food items, I open a pack of biscuits, the chocolate stash builds up, I eat some chocolate... the biscuits build up. 

Then there's the weekly vouchers as well. $10 every week to buy non-food items at Cold Storage, cos I have surplus food. So I look at toiletries, and yet... there's nothing to buy YET. Cos I stocked up toiletries during discounts during my pre-freegan days. So I still have 5 bottles of shampoo, 5 tubes of toothpaste, boxes of tissues, many rolls of toilet paper, etc. As the inventory drops, I'll slowly be using the vouchers to replenish the stocks. But between now til then, I have to find other stuff to stock up on...

And remember, months ago... when I was a regular consumer? I already had issues with hitting the $500 spend on my UOB card, in articles such as this, or this... Guess what's going to happen this month? 
It's not that I don't spend money buying stuff. I still do. But the expenses have dropped significantly, and yet I'm getting stockpiles of food. I did see an increase in $10 this month for my utility bill though, cos I've been cooking more and using more water to wash vegetables.
Anyway, I'm expecting to be heavily pre-paying my utility bill and telco bill this month. 
Looks like I've kind of hit my objective of cutting $500 from my expenses monthly. 
But I'll monitor it for a few more months to see if the reduction in expenses is sustainable. Also, I haven't really made much changes to my lifestyle, just adjusting how I obtain certain stuff, so it's not like I've put in a lot of effort to achieve this. 

I'm not complaining about any of these, all these are good things. Having a surplus of food, being able to give away food, reducing expenses, having nothing much to buy using vouchers or cash... all these are very good things which I have been experiencing. 
Cos it really breaks the whole mental framework which I was used to. The idea of, "Why have I been paying for XYZ item my whole life?", whenever I find a sustainable supply of a certain product which I need regularly. 
I don't like randomness, so the idea of sifting through trash doesn't really appeal to me much these days, cos I can't determine what I get and I don't know if I will need it, etc. So I tend to prefer to do activities which will provide me stuff that I need/want on a regular basis, so that my efforts are more focused on minimizing my spending, instead of just getting random stuff. 

I do hope that more people get to experience this. But it does require quite a bit of change, cos it does take effort to change a daily routine. However, after the routine has been changed, and a new routine is formed, then things are nice and abundant. Of course another point is that I don't WANT to spend money. So any savings from food doesn't get pushed to other forms of spending. 
There are some freegans who say that they have found extra money to spend on other forms of entertainment, now that they get their food for free... which I found kinda defeats the purpose. 
But oh well to each their own. 

Ahh... freegan problems...
I reckon freegan problems is what many people keep talking about during CNY... abundance... 
年年有魚, 多于... instead of just wishing for it only during CNY and spending money to stock up on food during CNY to signify abundance of food, maybe they should try freegan living to experience it on a constant basis.  


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As I sit down and start typing after the long break...
I was overseas before CNY, and then after CNY I didn't post anything...

So I was thinking... what's up for this year??? Now that CNY is over. 
And I thought... well, same as how it's always been. 

My relationship with my wife is very good. We are both generally happy, we get frustrated with each other at times, but nothing really serious. 
My wife goes to work on weekdays. I get free food and cook, and get other miscellaneous stuff if/when necessary, do the household administration, chores, make sure the bills are monitored and payed, etc etc. 
Weekends we visit our parents, and Sunday is a rest day to do whatever we want, which is usually going out to eat breakfast and lunch then coming back home to rest for the rest of the day.

Every once in a while we go overseas for holidays or on her business trips...
And that's likely going to the how this year is going to pan out.

So I wonder... why or how do other people make their lives so complicated?

More often than not, most people follow a routine...
As long as they set up a fairly reasonable routine... everything should work out fine... No?
Most people work, they get their salary, then pay off their housing loan, then pay off insurance, then save/invest a certain amount, then pay off essential bills, then give their parents some money, then all the rest can go to misc spending. 

And that's all there is to it... isn't this what life is in general? 
Then spend more time working on building good relationships with wife, family, kids, friends, etc. 
A typical Singaporean family, can easily follow a fairly reasonable financial routine and be stable financially. Then after that spend time and energy on being happy, or doing happy things. 

​Then I look around me... and I wonder... why are there so many people with issues? 
So many people say. Not enough money, but... there IS enough money for most things. 

I see people get bored and have affairs... It's the thrill of the hunt, or the thrill of not getting caught...

Or I see people get bored and do reno or buy a new car... well, that's fine if there's enough money, but don't complain not enough money after that. 

Or spouses which quarrel over money, and yet they continue being unable to discern wants vs needs. 

I see people who aren't getting more financially aware, either they have no interest, or they can't be bothered, or they are too afraid to talk about it. Don't laugh, try talking to your parents about money, most of the older generation don't like to discuss about financial planning. 
Then the next thing we hear off is usually someone is uninsured and medical costs messes up the family situation. 

Then there's poor communication between people... which is why I find it so important for people to spend time talking with each other and spending time and effort on relationships. Most people work... so the money portion typically settles itself if people are about to prioritize spending. 

It's really the idea of... do the things that are important. Don't do the things that are easy.
Earning money is considered "easy". Just work lor. Just spend more time staying at work. 
It's easy cos it's an actionable thing. It's also easy to quantify success using money. It's a number so my number bigger than yours, then I win lor...

But after a few basic needs, shelter, food, clothing, etc... 
Money becomes not as important. 
Then what's important becomes how you live your life, how the relationships are around you.
How to keep your life fulfilled. How to take care and show care and concern to the people around you. 
How to live a rich life, and I'm not talking about it in monetary terms. 
This is a lot harder to achieve. Cos... there's no easy fixed way to do it. 
Different people react differently, talk differently, want different things, etc. 

Need money? Just find a job, $3,000-$4,000 per month. That's about it. With prudent money management, that amount should be good enough for living a good enough life. 
But... yet, many people lament, money no enough, and they spend more time and effort and energy trying to settle that problem. 

But... is happiness bought with money? 
I think a lot of us are aware of the hedonic treadmill. 
We spend to make ourselves happy, then we get used to a certain level of spending and that's not exciting anymore, so that becomes the new normal. 
So to make ourselves happy again, we spend even more, and the cycle continues. 
Then again, there are people who will say, if you think money can't buy happiness, that means you don't have enough money... that's rubbish. 

If I need to somehow find a way to earn $10,000,000 to be happy, then I would rather find a way to be happy with $3,000 per month. At least this is more achievable and anyone could do it. 

I suppose following the same thinking... it's easier to get a mistress for short term fun, than to build a better relationship with a spouse. I mean... it's really hard to have open communications about one's insecurities, fears, wants, hopes, expectations, etc... it's hard cos there's pride involved... it's normal for the male to be "manly" and he doesn't want to say what he wants, or that he might be insecure over the finances but doesn't want to express it out. 
And this might also be the same for the female, where she might think that her concerns are petty, but they are important to her, and yet she can't say them out cos the husband may judge her for being petty...

Communication is a whole complex issue. A lot harder than earning money, where people just go to the workplace, the boss says something, then just do, and at the end of the day go home, end of the month, get some money... that's easy.

Anyway... so that's about it for today's post... I just find it really strange... Life is really quite simple. But it's people that make life much more complicated than it's supposed to be. 
What do we need in life? Food, lodging, insurance, clothes, medical... a bit of this and that??? Those are actually quite easily settled. 
And yet... why are so many people unhappy? Or uncontented? 

I think?... cos people aren't fixing the right issues. 


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Finally back in SG...

I've always wonder about many things, so vegan-ism is one of them. Vegans are a little more strict than other vegetarians, cos they don't take ANY animal products, including honey, milk, etc...

I'll jump straight into what I think about this cos I don't want to explain veganism too much.
I have no agenda, I don't think I'll be taking up veganism in the foreseeable future, it's just an interest to understand more. 

Let's have some simple facts first. 
Firstly, let's not talk about nutrition. It's a fact many vegans live very healthy lives if they take care of what they consume and eat the right stuff. They get sufficient intakes of protein and Vitamin B, B12, etc...
So I'm not going to bother to talk about this part. 

My main question is... why should I? 
Why should I bother about animals and their consumption?

Let's also not talk about mass produced farming, where chickens are kept in poor conditions. 
Even IF, all farms treated animals well and are free range chickens, vegans also don't think we should be consuming meat or ANY related products. 

You see, I always thought a few simple points. 
1. A lion eats it's prey, no one makes a big deal. 
2. Humans are omnivores. We can choose to eat meat or plant based products. We have evolved to be this way. So it is the way of nature. End of story.

So to me, a pig is edible. So is a dog. If anyone thinks that a dog is any less edible than a pig, that's called hypocrisy. If anyone thinks that people shouldn't eat a dog, but everyday salivate when a nice steak is on the table, that's hypocrisy. Or someone sees an injured bird and takes care of the bird and nurses the bird back to health and releases it, but goes to KFC and tucks into a nice tub of fried chicken marinated with secret spices... Once again, that's hypocrisy. 
If anyone thinks that one animal has a right to live but is absolutely fine to have another animal on the dining table, that's basically... hypocrisy.

I don't have any feelings towards eating pig, snake... haven't eaten a dog before, but I probably won't think much about it... I'v eaten a scorpion, ostrich meat, donkey, horse meat...
To me, all meat is meat. I don't think one animal has anymore right to live than any other. 

And in the circle of life, a lion eats the zebra... So it's normal for me to eat the chicken. 
That was my position. 

During my stay in KL, I was bored so I went browsing through some friend's FB pages and they have links and discussion about veganism, so I flipped through them... most of them are full of trolls, or fanatical vegans who can't hold a proper discussion to highlight points which I feel are worth pondering about. Which is one of the reasons why I never was interested to learn more about it. Cos many vegans are just screaming, STOP EATING MEAT, without putting much logic behind it. 

Animal cruelty? 
A lion eats a zebra. That's normal, nothing to do with cruelty.
(As I said, let's not talk about poor farming conditions. That is a different matter. Cos even with good farming conditions... should humans still eat meat?)

So if a lion eats a zebra, and humans are omnivores, then why is there any cruelty when humans eat meat? 
Somewhere down the line of comments on the FB post, I came across some comments which stuck me. 

1. Lions have no choice. They CANNOT eat anything else besides meat. 
2. Humans have developed to have some sort of morals. 
3. We cannot compare humans with lions. 
4. Lions kill the young of other lions when they take over another lions' territory. 
Info on lions and how they survive are here. 
https://www.livescience.com/41572-male-lion-survival.html
5. Humans don't do that. Well... we likely used to do that, but we don't now. 
6. Lions may fight eat other to the death, humans do that, but not all of us do that now...
7. Or hamsters eat their young if the young have the scent of humans on them... I've seen this happen right before my eyes. 

You see... the thing is. Humans have a little bit more than lions or hamsters. And we can't compare ourselves with animals. 
Humans used to own slaves, people used to own slaves less than 200 years ago. (1865 in the US)
And then they stopped owning slaves. Cos... that's just not cool. 
Well, people still own slaves, but that's usually not legal now. 

The thing is... humans have a choice to eat meat or plant based products. And many humans choose to eat meat. But they COULD live a healthy life just eating plant based products. 

Similarly, we can choose to own slaves before 1865 and it would be legal. 
But some people thought that it just wasn't cool and didn't own slaves. 
And others decided it was fine to own slaves. 

Just because we are given the option to do it... doesn't mean it's right or wrong. That's just the legality of it. 
How many people are willing to take a knife and slit the throat of a pig, or chicken? 
I think if people had to kill the animal that they eat themselves, a lot of people would turn vegetarian/vegan. 

Anyway, this was  a turning point for my own understanding. 
Humans aren't lions. Humans have morals. As stupid as that may sound, but we do have some form of morals that we can think and feel. More so than any other animal. 
So I can't have morals for some decisions and for other decisions I think that I'm just as good as a lion. 
Humans have morals and ALL our decisions should be governed by it. 

So what's the problem with vegans? They think that humans really DO have morals. 

Anyway... as I said. I've no agenda here. It was a learning journey for me cos I was always wondering... Why should I?
I still continue to eat meat, although I'm more aware of it as it eat it now. Doesn't make it any more excusable though...

I'll leave with some comic strips that called out to me. 

​
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We've all watched those shows about an apocalyptic future. Where the Earth is too polluted for human living. Or the air is toxic, etc etc...

What if, from the day we were born, the doctors put an oxygen mask on us. We were babies, we never knew anything and we grew up living on air from a tank, like those for scuba divers.
Everyone uses them. Apparently the air in the world has become too polluted for humans, that's what the history lesson teaches us, and we all need air tanks for our oxygen supply.

So we all live our lives using air from a tank and we have to buy these tanks from an organization which supplies these air tanks. And it's been going on for a few hundred years. Many generations of people all buying air from a company... It's not expensive. But it's not cheap either.

One day, you see someone walking around without an air tank...
What do you think?
Remember. This has been going on for many generations. You have been brought up being told that the air is too polluted to be wandering around without an air tank, and you need an air tank to stay safe and healthy.
You won't die immediately, but it's recommend to be breathing clean air from a tank. You never know what the polluted air will do to you years from now.

1 week later, you see this guy again without an air tank...
1 month later you continue to see him. Alive and healthy...
You approach him and talk to him.
He tells you that the air is absolutely safe. He's done this for the past 5 years and had no side effects.
He says, all you have to do is just to take off the air mask.
Apparently it's a government conspiracy and a money spinning scam by big companies. No one really needs to pay for air.

What do you do?
Remember, this has been practiced for hundreds of years. No one currently alive has lived during the era when air was clean.
Some of you may answer quickly that you will just take off the mask.

Are you sure?
It's easy to answer now, cos we've never lived a whole life where we need to breathe through an air tank. Will you answer so quickly when you have lived your whole life wearing an air mask? When you see all your friends and family still wearing the mask? When your grandparents tell you that the air is polluted and not fit for human inhalation.

Will you really just take off the mask?

So I ask again...
Do you eat food past the best before date?
Do you throw them away?
Do you still pay money for vegetables?
Do you drink bottled water? I know people who regularly buy bottled water for daily consumption...
Do you buy a wedding ring worth 2x your monthly salary?
Do you still do things that someone else told you that it's normal to do, but someone else has done it differently without any issues?

Are you sure you will still remove that oxygen mask?



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DBS is collaborating with homegrown sneaker artist and internationally renowned streetwear designer, Mr Sabotage to bring a fresh new look to the DBS Live Fresh Card.

But that's not all. It's not just a superficial change. There's some great benefits that come along with this new campaign.

A little bit of background on Mr Sabotage.
Mr Mark Ong is a famed sneaker artist whose work has graced the feet of international celebrities like Kobe Bryant and Linkin Park. 

Here's the juicy part of this new campaign...
UP TO 10% CASHBACK!!!

It's a bit unfortunate for me cos I already have the DBS Live Fresh Card...
Existing DBS Live Fresh Cardmembers get a 5% cashback on online shopping and Visa payWave purchases, as well as 0.3% for all other spend.

HOWEVER, for new sign ups within 8 Jan 2018 - 31 Mar 2018, there is an additional 5% cashback for the first 180 days!!! For online and Visa payWave spend.
Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay are also considered Visa payWave transactions.

This totals to 10% cashback for online and Visa payWave transactions!!!

There is a slight condition... there is a minimum spend requirement of $600 for the month.

But that's not so hard to attain right?
Just book your trip online during this promotional period and voila!

The maximum cashback for a month is $60. And that's just nice... cos you just need to book your trip or hotel or make an online purchase for above $600, and the 10% maximum cashback will be hit automatically. Think about it as an ADDITIONAL 10% discount on top of all your other promos that you already have for your online transactions.
And the timing is also just nice to plan for a trip... Cos the period for sign up is 8 Jan 2018 - 31 Mar 2018, so once the card is approved, you can book the trip for the June period.

Please take note of the T&C cos some online payments don't count as valid transactions to earn cashback or to count as part of the minimum spending requirements.
Like payments to government organizations, topping up your EZ Link card, etc.

Actually, now that I think about it, I made a mistake... I used the wrong card to pay for my France trip and hotel bookings. The other card had a lower cashback rate of 3%.
Even though I am an existing customer, I should have used the DBS Live Fresh Card for my France trip cos the flight and hotel bookings were paid online so I should have gotten the 5% cashback instead.
The $600 minimum spend was definitely not an issue at that point...
Oh well, can't change the past, only can remember and learn from my mistakes.

Ok... I'm getting a small non-cash incentive from DBS to make this post.
But that's not to say that I'm biased with my comments.

10% Cashback is really really attractive. And many of us buy stuff online, groceries, gadgets, trips, etc...
I'd sign up for it if I didn't already have this card.
Now, if we induce spending to achieve this, or unnaturally increase our spending to get cashback, now, obviously that's a no-no. This also would go against what I usually blog about. Spending money to save money is not really saving money.
But most of us have an annual trip, or short trips throughout the year. Or maybe the need to replace a laptop or buy something from Lazada to replace something at home. Now, this is the perfect time to use this card.
The 10% cashback is a bonus for new applicants... however, even for existing card holders like me... I need to remember that 5% cashback is still a great cashback especially for the usual trips I make.

Furthermore, for new sign-ups, you can stand to win a pair of sneakers or watch customised by Mr Sabotage when you register and spend with your DBS Live Fresh Card from 8 Jan to 31 Mar 2018.
Existing DBS Live Fresh Cardmembers are required to register to qualify for the campaign, you may do so here.

I would have signed up for this new campaign if I didn't already have the card. I mean... 10% cashback... that's hard to beat. And I travel quite often so... definitely would be useful for me.

The Lucky Draw is just an added bonus... it's just one of those things... if I'm going to spend and use this card, then might as well use it with all the added bonuses.

If you're interested, you can find out more about the card or apply for it here.


​
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So as most readers already know. I'm overseas currently, following my wife on biz trip.

Usually, it's a boring trip for me. But she likes me around and the flight is under $100 to fly me over so I just accompany her.

Previously, what usually happens is, on a regular day, I hardly do much. I wake up around 8am, turn on the news, prepare some coffee, watch some movies or try to eke out a post then at around 12 noon, I go downstairs to buy some light bites, usually 2 wraps (S$2 each) to eat at 12noon and 3pm. Then I dilly dally the day away til 6pm and I'm glad cos I walk to her office to pick her up and we go out for dinner.
Generally I don't really love these trips cos there's hardly much to do. Back home, I clean up the house, do freegan activities, meet friends, prepare dinner, etc. Many more options.

This trip, things changed a little... Due to my wife's frequent stays at a particular hotel, she usually gets a room upgrade. However, on this particular period, there was no room available for her to upgrade to. The hotel reservation instead offered her access to the lounge. This is a first for us... The lounge serves breakfast until 1030am, then tea break between 3-5pm. Then evening snacks and drinks at 6-8pm. The evening snacks are quite heavy so they can use used to substitute for dinner...

I'm sure you all know where I'm heading with all these info...
Morning, she wakes up and goes for breakfast. I wake up around an hour after her, cos I have very poor sleep at hotels. So I go for breakfast slightly later.
I return to the room and hang around watching news or some movie, etc... Then I skip lunch and go for the tea break. 6pm I go pick up my wife and... We go back to the hotel for dinner and drinks at the lounge again...
Even though her meals are covered, sometimes we go out and eat, most other times we just return to the lounge to eat.
After flying to the same place multiple times, we hardly want to go out and eat anymore. So we just return to the hotel early and relax in the lounge instead.

So besides the flight... This trip is pretty much free for me. Food and lodging are provided for. I did buy CNY goodies as mentioned in my earlier post. Those totalled to an amazing MYR200 for 8 large containers of tidbits.
The good thing about this is that I don't need to spend any money. But this also means I don't have much reason to leave the hotel until 6pm...
Yea... I could go for a walk. But I come here almost once a month for 4-7 days... How much more can I walk around.

Anyway, I suspect this is a once off thing. Cos we don't usually get lounge access. I better enjoy it while it lasts I suppose. Free drinks... And yet I hardly drink anymore these days.

This situation did make me think a little bit about other retirement possibilities. Potentially, someone could rent out his fully paid HDB and negotiate a long term stay at a hotel in a cheaper country with all the facilities.
Housekeeping, laundry, food, lodging, gym, pool, wifi. Definitely more expensive than renting a place. But it's easier to administer and execute. No need to bother about electricity, water, landlords, etc.
Doubt I'll ever do that, but it IS another idea.



Ok... Also running out of ideas to post about. Pls request for something so that I have something to write about and help me pass time quicker.
Thank you!


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