We have a $220 restaurant voucher. 
It's one voucher so we have to use it in one sitting. 

We were considering the options which we could best utilize the voucher.

1) We could treat the $220 like cash and be really really stingy with it. 
Now, this place isn't cheap, we wouldn't be here if not for the voucher. Around $25-$35 per dish.
But we could order  stuff which are of good enough value to price.
You know, like fried rice, a roast chicken, stuff like that. 

BUT, if we did that, we would end up with A LOT of food. We could potentially end up with 6 dishes or so. Which is a lot for the both of us.

By ordering the more normal food, we end up with a lot of food so we can either...
1a) Bring our family to eat as well so basically we treat them to a meal.
1b) Order a lot and "dabao" and bring back the stuff we can't finish and enjoy the food again at a later time.

2) We could order stuff which we would never have ordered EVER in our lives.
Like maybe a large abalone each and some fried rice and maybe another dish, and that would be $220 already.


It was quite hard to make a decision on this cos... there were so many ways which we could have looked at the voucher. 
1) The voucher is free
2) Although the voucher is free, it's still good as cash, so should I just squander it?

3) Food at home is already free, by "dabao-ing" something home, I'll just have even more food. 

4) If I order normal food, I could just go to the usual "zichar" stalls and get fried rice and roast chicken for 25% of the price. BUT I would need to use cash.

5) We could treat family members to a meal but like (4) there are "cheaper" options. 
6) But yet even if there are "cheaper" options to treat family members, this option is free.

7) There is little opportunity for us to eat luxurious food for free.
8) I have Capitaland vouchers to use to treat family members which could be used for the "cheaper" alternatives.

9) But Capitaland voucher are even more "good as cash" cos I could use them to buy other stuff.
10) But I don't need much other stuff... 


So logically, the most value for "dollar" thing to do is probably to use the restaurant voucher to buy fair value dishes and eat with our family, then use Capitaland vouchers to buy toilet paper and tissue paper. 
But toilet paper and tissue paper I could use my AIA Vitality vouchers to buy them. 


You may think, why bother with such a long thought process just to use a voucher... but to me, I think it's part of the understanding of value and the options available. 
Cos if I don't think about it, I'll never assess it. 
It's very easy to NOT think about it, and just... Aiyah just use it, it's a free voucher, just go and eat and forget it. 
But the thing is, most things have an opportunity cost. If I spend cash on something, it prevents me from spending cash  somewhere else. So for every dollar I spend, I want to be making a good choice, cos I want to get good value from it. 
If I use a voucher at once place, the decision can affect other places which I could save on, and this determines if I really end up spending REAL cash or not. 
And as we all know, real cash is the most important, cos it allows us to invest and create passive income. 

I think many would agree that it's such a long and troublesome consideration that I did just for a very small decision. And personally, I think so too. But I still go through the motion. Cos I think it's important to create such a habit. Cos it's really easy to just ignore it and forget about it. 
And I think that it's good to be aware and make an informed decision and the opportunity costs involved. And even if the decision is considered "squandering" the voucher, at least it is done with full awareness of what I am giving up due to this decision. 

In the end we decided to be selfish and just take the luxurious choice. We'll just go and eat some nice food which we won't be able to obtain for free. 
Might not have been the best value decision. But it's still an informed decision which I made after considering the other things which I may have to give up.


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The freegan community has this saying...
If you want less stuff, use money to buy. 

For newer readers who didn't follow me on my freegan stories. 
Here is how I got started and the string of posts following the initial journey.

As I've been traveling for sometime, I have been missing out on some activities. 
And recently I've pretty much settled down for a couple of weeks so I thought I'll do some stuff.

Recently, my neighbours have been raving about this bakery which they get their breads/buns from. 
They described a couple of their breads and how much they enjoyed them...
So I thought... okayyyyy... that's interesting, I would like to try how good the products are...
But obviously I wasn't gonna pay for them.
I personally don't really like bread so... to pay money to try it out... not my style. 

So I thought... okayyyy time to get to work. 
Long story short, I knew what time the place closes, I went there 1 hour after they closed, open the bin and pulled out the black trash bag.
Now, obviously, if it was a smelly pile of mixed trash, I'll just dump it back in. 
The bin was nice and dry, no smell at all, cos it's used only for disposing end of day bread. So it's always dry.
The black bag was tightly tied. Inside, some breads were individually wrapped, some were not. 
I brought the whole bag home... around 15+ kg. And sorted them out, some buns I threw away cos I couldn't even find a place to store them. 
Most of them I'll be giving to the freegan community. 
And I kept a few which I wanted to try for myself. 

And oh the irony of it all. 
My neighbours paid good money to eat those breads/buns. Sure it's only a couple of bucks. But it adds up over a period. I go at the end of the day and clear the excess. 
In one day, I got probably more than they ever bought in a month. 
Sure it's end of the day stock, but most people buy breads at night to keep for tomorrow's breakfast right? 
And the only thought I have is... did I miss out on trying any of the buns?
What if they "sold out" one type of bun and I don't have it and wasn't able to try it. *GASP* the horror! 

Anyway, I won't be doing this again or maybe extremely rarely.  
Cos as I said, I don't really like breads/buns.
I did it really for fun.
I wanted to try out those buns that they were raving about... It's a bit sweeter, a bit chewier, but nothing to really rave about. I prefer the artisanal breads that the freegan community gets. Those are usually $4-$8 per lump. 
I wanted to get back into some action for the thrill of it. 
I wanted to once again prove to myself that to use money is to get less. 

I'll be going to Pasir Panjang to get veges again today so it's a short post. 
For folks who are interested to get free vegetables you can sign up here. 
And it's the same thing at Pasir Panjang. 
I used to spend a couple of bucks for a few potatoes and a cabbage. 
Now, I get a variety of fruits and vegetables for free enough for a whole weeks worth of meals and I can even give the excess to my neighbours.
Although I have to put in a couple of hours of effort.
But it's still fun to do it. 

Cos after doing all these free activities.
Free fruits, veges, breads... I really can't bring myself to spend money on these stuff anymore. 
Cos there's just so much of these that could be obtained for free.

Truly, for certain items... it's quite a lot actually, I've only listed bread, fruits and veges, but I get a lot of other stuff for free and it's in large quantities.
But... for certain items... if you want less of it, use money, if you are willing to take them for free, then you will get an insane amount which you will not be able to consume by yourself.


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It's really quite easy to reduce expense. I'm surprised no one really talks about it. 

The easiest way to reduce expense is by doing nothing...
No... literally. Just do nothing. 

And it'd be fun if I just ended my post here. And readers would be like all up in arms. 

But that's really how our expenses have been reduced. 

Our weekly routine is... 
She goes to work, I stay at home.
She works so it's normal for her to spend some money on food. 
I eat some simple bites for lunch and cook dinner.
Food at home is free cos one day of the week I go out and collect/find free food. 
We don't go out on Friday nights. We're getting old and boring. Just hanging at home watching Youtube is good enough. 
Saturdays we visit both our parents starting at 9am. Our parents provide all our meals for the day.
Sunday we are usually lazy to go out and eat and rest at home. 
Saturday or Sunday we go to Cold Storage to buy some additional groceries using the AIA Vitality app.

And very rarely do we deviate from this routine. 
Unless we are overseas on her biz trip or on vacation. 
Or sometimes we go out for nice meals. 
And usually we don't buy other stuff. 

And so the question becomes... what so hard about doing nothing?
In fact it now makes even MORE sense to subscribe to Netflix. 
If Netflix will keep you home on weekends to prevent you from spending even MORE. 
Like if you usually go out to eat an expensive meal costing $100 for 2 pax per week, $400 per month.
But if you subscribe to Netflix, it may be a cheaper alternative than going out on weekends. 
Unless, of course, you subscribe to Netflix AND still go out... Then double whammy!

And I wonder... what to other people spend on ? Or what do they do on weekends? 
How do they spend so much? What do they do to spend so much?

To save money, just do nothing. 

The thing about this is that a lot of people will misunderstand this statement. 
The point I'm trying to make is to understand that there is a lot of clutter in our lives. 
We all add on bits and pieces here and there, parts we never even knew we added. 
Oh I have to do this, oh I have to do that, so and so did this, that's so cool I also want to do it. 
When actually, there is really not very much that's needed. 
And it's so easy to get caught up with all our daily activities that we don't realize that all we really need is just a few necessities. 
And everyone is always so busy. Filling up their lives with activities, things, it's like a whirlwind of activities. I see my friend's Facebook, they are always out, eating at different places, traveling, cooking new things, baking, etc. And that's all cool. 

But if one day you wonder. How do I spend so much, where does all my money go to? 
Or you suddenly want to reduce expenses and don't know how? 
The simplest solution is really... just don't do anything.
Just stay at home over a weekend and eat instant noodles or chicken rice or wonton mee for Saturday and Sunday. 
I'm quite sure that for a lot of people. Just staying home over the weekend would easily cut their expenses by a couple of hundred dollars for that month. 
That's assuming they don't reallocate the funds to the following weekend. 

By the way, staying at home and baking over the weekend is NOT considered doing nothing. 


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I like things that change my perspective. Or give me a new way to look at things.

I somehow chanced upon this serial... Westworld
It's about a futuristic theme park called "Westworld"
And it's set in this wild wild west theme and run by robots or artificial intelligence. 
The robots are preprogrammed to go around their daily lives like normal people in the wild west era. 
And humans come to Westworld to do anything they want. So they come to live their most innermost desires. Murder, rape, pillage, whatever. It's expensive... $40,000 per day, in future dollars.
The robots are preprogrammed to not be able to hurt humans. 
And every few days/weeks/whatever... the theme park resets itself and the robots are wiped clean and repaired if they are damaged and basically the robot's preprogrammed story-line starts again.

Ok so the story builds that the robots start getting sentience and start knowing about themselves and life and what the humans have been doing to them so they start to revolt...

That's the basic story-line. 
And throughout the show, I realize that even though I know that they are supposedly robots and that it's a theme park for humans to do whatever they want, I feel FOR the robots. When they get murdered, tortured, get their heads cut off, etc.

And then I wonder... Where do morals start? Where does life begin? Why do we feel for others? What's right? What's wrong?

I am a human. I'm can think, I have a brain, it's made up of cells, cells are made up of molecules, made up of atoms. 
But... atoms can't think. But somewhere in between, there's electrical impulses that make my brain work and it can think. I can feel pain, emotions, etc. 

In the show. The robots can learn to improvise, they are preprogrammed to follow a certain script but they can learn. They are made up of circuits, which are also essentially molecules and atoms which can't think.
And yet somewhere in between, there's electrical impulses that make their circuits work and they can think, feel pain, emotions, etc. When the robots gets murdered, attacked, they still fight for their "life" cos they don't know that they will be repaired and revived again. 

Which made me think... what's the difference between these AI robots vs humans. You can say humans made them, etc etc, it's going to be a long story. 
But let's look at the similarities. 
It's easy for us to say, that the robots may "feel" the pain and emotions when being attacked. But they will be repaired and will have their memories wiped out.
Does that mean that I can beat another human up as long as the human doesn't die and the human doesn't remember it?

But but... it's different...
Why is it different? Are we not made up of "unthinking" molecules and atoms?
Does both the human and robot not fight for their life when attacked?
If reincarnation was real, does it make it right to murder another human? Just cos the reincarnation allows people to forget about their previous pain and suffering?

Do parents make their children? 
If the creator makes the robots and gives the robot intelligent "life" and this allow the creator to abuse the robots... 
Doesn't that mean...

Are Transformers robots? How did you feel when Bumblebee was captured? Or that scene when Optimus Prime he was about to get killed by Sentinel in "Dark of the Moon"?
And yet when Megatron was captured and frozen and experimented on during the first Transformers movie, I doubt any of you felt anything for him/it... 
What if it was Optimus Prime which was captured and experimented on?

Of course... all these are shows. So there's a lot of imagination going on.
But it makes me question. Where does life begin? Does it need to be what we learnt in our science class? It needs to grow, breathe, move for it to be considered life? 
If something is not within that definition, does that mean that someone can own it? Abuse it? Destroy it? 

Or should anything that wants to live be allowed to live? 
And if we think that robots which are sentient (conscious) should be allowed to live, then... 
Dogs? Cats? Pigs? Fish? Basically anything we eat?
How about a tree? A tree is alive but we believe it to be unconscious. It just lives. 

There's no answers for this. I don't make the rules.
The thing is, when we define something, we basically close our minds.
We separate alive or not alive, conscious, unconscious, human, non-human. 
And what happens when something falls in between?

If I made a robot which has a consciousness. Meaning it can feel, be happy, sad, feel pain, etc...
Can I keep it as a slave? 
And yet I can't keep my kids as slaves. Why?
Just cos they are alive? Or cos they are humans? 
Since we basically can keep animals as slaves, like horses, dolphins, seals... 
So this probably means it's just humans which we can't keep as slaves. 

And what defines a human? 
What if a robot can think exactly like a human? Just that it doesn't need to live and breathe?
So it can feel pain, sadness, anger, happiness, suffering, etc.

The thing is... it's not easy to understand all these new emotions and perspective that I'm thinking about.
Cos... before I watched the show, I had a very normal perspective. 
They are only robots, so humans should be allowed to do whatever they want with their "toys".
But after I watched the show. I see things in another light. I question myself. What I thought was right, may not be so right anymore. 
I highly recommend watching 1 or 2 episodes of the serial to get an understanding of what I'm feeling. Cos when I looked at it from a logical point of view before the show, versus after the show, the understanding is extremely different. 
​
Once again, no right or wrong. I'm just reflecting upon things. 
But maybe in future, we may need to think about this more. Maybe in our generation, or the future generations... who knows?

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I'm sure most of you know about the deaths of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade.
And more often than not, it's likely depression. 

And you know what? Who knows anyone really? 
Everyone has their own struggles. 

I was flipping through Facebook the other day. There was this guy...
Always traveling. Australia, KL, SG, he was doing well in his business, going out having drinks with his friends and staff, going for events, meeting important people... and I wonder... 
I know a jet setting life isn't fun. Well, at least it isn't fun to me. When I was younger, I thought I would like it. But now, I know that it's not really a fun way to live.
However, it's often taken as a symbol of success. The company is willing to send you overseas. This person must be important right? Else why would a company bother to send him overseas right? So of course people post it online, and bask in the glory of everyone saying "Wow you're so lucky" and in return, the person thinks that this is the right way of life. 

Everyone says I'm lucky, they are envious of me, so I must be doing something right... Right?
Even though the person may not be happy with his lifestyle cos it's really no fun. 
So he keeps doing it. Cos... he's living the life everyone is dreaming of. The suffering is just part of it right? It's to be expected. I have to take the pain to enjoy the fruits. 
And of course the strange thing is the people who are saying that he's so lucky... doesn't have to suffer such a lifestyle, cos it's easy to say how lucky someone is when they aren't living that life. 

Most people equate travel with holiday. But when someone is sent on a biz trip, it's not a holiday. There's work to do. People get stressed. It's not a free trip.
It looks so nice flying to Australia, Melbourne, Brisbane, etc... but how true is it? Is he enjoying it? 
I don't know...

I'm not saying he isn't. I'm saying I don't know. I wouldn't enjoy it. I know that. I've talked to a number of people who fly around frequently on biz trips. I find that most people don't really enjoy it. Folks who don't go on biz trips regularly will probably never understand. 
But, the truth is, don't know how other people feel. 

But what I do know is that the whole story is usually not shown on Facebook. So when I see a friend post nice pics, big car, luxurious holidays. I wonder/ask myself.. whats the story behind all these? Is there more to it than meets the eye? 
Is he struggling elsewhere? Is he not happy but showing that he's happy? Does he have depression? Who knows? 
Even one as successful as Anthony Bourdain who apparently goes around travelling and eating nice food and meeting cool people... he's probably rich.
I'm sure there must be people super jealous of such a lifestyle. 
But who knows? Really?

And it's quite ironic really...
The person posting MAY not enjoy what he's doing... but he posts it and gets a lot of envy.
He continues to do it cos he MAY believe that the sacrifice is worth it cos since everyone is envious, he must be doing something right, so he may believe that it's all part of the sacrifice to success. 
He MAY feel miserable but continues to do it. 
The readers/people seeing it, on the other hand, don't know the pains/sacrifices. They don't know the stress, but they see all these good things and they envy. Cos these are the things which they can't "enjoy"... regular travel, big car, big house, events, meeting up with important people... etc... 

So one sides envies without seeing the sacrifices or pressures, and the other side feeds on the envy and convinces himself that it's normal to be in "pain" and continues the journey.

It's like when I tell some of my friends/ex-colleagues that I'm unemployed/jobless/semi-retired/retired...
"Woah so lucky..."
And when I say... well you can do it too. You can't eat nice food all the time, drop the big car, don't travel on your luxurious holidays, etc... 
And suddenly from "Woah you're so lucky", it's changed to... "Oh I couldn't do that..."
And it's not as though as I don't have my own pressures to handle. 
I question myself a lot... 
Is this the right way of life? 
Am I going to be idling away til I'm old? Is this ok?
Will I have enough money? 
What if I run out of money? Will I be able to find work again?

And of course I try to answer these questions on my own and being prepared. 
But being prepared isn't the same as having the solution. 
It just means that if I encounter any problem, I'll have an action plan. However, whether that action plan succeeds is unknown. So I do have my mental demons to battle, it's not all fun and roses. 

But I digress... 
The thing is... it's really easy to see what appears to be success and conclude and forget about the other negatives. 
If Anthony Bourdain came up to you and told you... hey I need someone to talk to. I'm really stressed, I'm not happy with my life, I can't take it anymore...
What would you do? 
There's a high chance you'd respond by saying... "Hey dude, what's there to be stressed about? You're rich, you travel all around, you enjoy your life man! Chill, there's nothing to be stressed about."
And the person who may be depressed, will go away and hide in a corner and bottle up his feelings cos it's so easily dismissed by others cos people will find it hard to believe that someone so successful is depressed...
And he continues along with his life and continues getting the envy other others... 
Until one day, he feels that enough is enough...

So the thing is... we don't know a lot about others. 
What we see on Facebook, it's just an illusion. It's marketing. It's what people want you to see of them. 
So how much are the updates on Facebook worth? How much does it tell about the situation of your friends and family? 
Well... about as much as a company marketing cosmetics. They'll tell you all the good stuff and probably hide away all the side effects. 
​Everyone has their own struggles. We just don't see it. Cos no one wants to be deemed as weak. Cos showing weakness is a sin... apparently... people are proud, they don't want to show others that under that perceived success, is a lot of other troubles. 
We want people to admire us... it validates what we do. So that we can conclude that what we do is the "right way"...
So we show only the nice parts. 
If we show all the good and bad parts... then we may not get as much validation from others. 

Anyway... I'm getting lor-sorh here...
The point about this post is... everyone has their own struggles. We usually don't get to see it. 
What we see on Facebook or at friend's gatherings and all that... MIGHT be just an act to cover up a lot of other troubles... MIGHT or MIGHT NOT... 
Doesn't mean all successful people are depressed... Some are, some aren't it's not so easy to identify just by looking at the surface.
So when I look at someone's Facebook... On one hand I might think... "woah so successful"... but yet on the other hand... I also wonder... "What else is he not telling us?"...


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If all good things are expensive then... All expensive things are good?
Obviously not right? But yet... it's a common fallacy, especially if we don't know much about the product. 

I was reading up about this...
why people like to spend money on expensive things and believe that expensive things are good. 
​The answer is a mix of psychology and stupidity.

I'll copy and paste some stuff off the internet cos if I just post the link some people won't bother to click it. 
(Cos usually I won't, I'll prefer the text to be in the page I'm in.)

All emphasis my own.

Summary of first part
1) Good quality things take more resources to make, so they tend to be more expensive. 
However, usually no one knows any better, so when people encounter an expensive item, they naturally assume it to be of better quality. 

Since A=B many people assume B=A
Instead, it should be, if all tigers are cats, then... are all cats tigers?

2) People get used to a certain product and may be reluctant to change even after prices have increased.
You try a range of restaurants when you just started work. New income so you try many places. After awhile you realize a couple are worth to return to and you continuously frequent the place. 
Even after the restaurant increases their price, you convince yourself that this restaurant is THE place to be. Cos the other restaurants aren't worth it. 
Although new restaurants have popped up, you aren't willing to try them, cos you have concluded that this bunch of restaurants are the best.

OR
You may have gotten used to having 10GB per month at $1 during the promo period, and you freely streamed videos on your phone. It's good, it's fast, you can watch anything on demand. 
Then the promo is over and now the telco charges $50 per month... What do you do?

3) People don't like to be disappointed...
Seems really close to point 2. 
I buy a Samsung phone, (actually I don't), and I conclude that a Samsung phone is not bad, so when I decide to buy a TV, I decide that, hey since Samsung makes good phones, they probably would make good TVs too... so I buy a Samsung TV and fridge, even though they cost more than other brands. 

Cos I don't really want to buy other brands and get disappointed with a lousy product. 

​
Another example in another article below...

What does this 2nd example mean? 
Your brain is EASILY FOOLED. BUT... just by believing something is better, your brain can trick itself to believe it is better and the brain will experience it better. 

This is the funky part. The brain actually feels happier when consuming something more expensive even though it's the same product. 

BUT, I flip it around and further ask myself... if that's the case... then... could I trick my brain to love a cheap product as much as an expensive product?


Ok so what have we learnt here.
1) All tigers are cats, not all cats are tigers.
Most quality items are expensive, but not all expensive items are quality.
Typically, when I look at items, I perceive a happiness value and I judge the cost.
Then I estimate is this value worth the cost. If yes, then I buy it, if no then forget it. The quality itself doesn't really matter to me. 
Article about this is here.
For me, I pretty much look at the value of the item.

2) We may get used to a particular product and be reluctant to change.
When I went to KL for our first few biz trips, we scouted out a good ramen restaurant. 
The same chain can be found in Singapore and the ramens in Singapore are at an unaffordable $18-$30.
When we found it in KL, we could enjoy a good quality ramen at $8-$10. 
We pretty enjoyed it. 
Then I don't know why, as time went by, after a few months, the portions seems to get smaller, the pork slices got thinner. The price remained the same...
My wife didn't notice it, but I did... and I thought... ok the portion dropped by around 10%-15%... I'm not coming here anymore. 
And we had to look for other places to eat. 
Basically, the happiness / cost ratio dropped to an unacceptable level for me, even at the cheaper price. 
I don't value ramen at a high happiness level so it's easy for ramen to drop out of my value equation.

The thing is... the world/country is very large, there are loads of good places to try, new products on promotion, etc... there's probably something of good value for me to try at anytime. 
So when an item drops out of the happiness:cost ratio, I take it as an opportunity to try new things and explore all over again.

3) We may get used to a particular brand and be reluctant to change.
I don't really get affected by this cos I don't really go for brands. 
It's a mixture of points 1 and 2.
It's like assuming if Samsung makes good phones, then they must make good other products. 
Remember, if all tigers are cats... then...

And it's easy to not explore for new products and follow the brand, even if they don't make good products anymore... *COUGH Apple*
Apple products were state of the art. iPhones especially. But as the years went by, other phones caught up. But many people still swear by Apple, phones, Macs, tablets, etc...
(Apple fans will go totally crazy at me. Maybe Apple products are better, but are they of good value?)

This is like assuming and a chef who got his Michelin Stars by opening an Italian restaurant. Will open a successful Chinese restaurant selling dim sum just cos he has Michelin Stars. 

But for me, once again, I go back to the same equation... if the happiness:cost ratio isn't worth it, then it's not worth it... Hey it's not that I don't buy expensive stuff... but if I do, I look for a good value out of it. 
Read about my expensive hobby.
Even though it's expensive, I feel it's a relatively ok deal, cos I can eat 2 meals there.

4) Our brains are easily fooled.
So now that we know our brains can be fooled... I can potentially get even better value from my happiness:cost ratio...
Cos potentially... I can increase my happiness by just believing a product is better!

Most of the time, we don't know better.
Some people can tell the difference in wine... most can't.
Some people can tell the difference in coffee... most can't.
Some people can tell the difference in freshness of sashimi... most can't.

I'm not talking about bad stuff or rotting stuff. I'm saying like...
Sashimi found at a hotel buffet, vs Meidi-ya, vs Tsukichi Fish Market in Tokyo.
Many people won't be able to tell the difference. 

Or for example, I buy a cheap macaroon, and put it in a La Duree box and give it to you as a gift...
Do you think you would bite into it and think that it's not a La Duree macaroon?

Most of us are not experts at a lot of things. We have a few interests and we focus on them. 
If we don't eat macaroons regularly, we won't know what's good from another. 

This is similar to when I consume expired food. I don't look at it as expired food. I just look at it as food. 
A can of expired baked beans tastes exactly like a can of baked beans... as long as it's not sour/spoilt.

Or a handphone is just a handphone, most of us don't use our handphones for powerful functions, such that we need a phone with high specifications.
My happiness using a XiaoMi phone is the same as if someone gives me an iPhone... 
(well I won't be happy with an iPhone actually, cos it's not a dual sim.)

​
I think the thing that wraps all of this points up is VALUE.
Since I have an equation to estimate my value of products...
Happiness / cost = Value...
As long as I feel something is of value, I may consider buying it. If it has low value, then I won't buy it. 
I know some people who just buy something cos they want it. They don't assess value. Like my wife. 
If the value drops due to a change in cost, then I'll just stop consuming and explore my other options.

The fun part is...
1) Happiness can be manipulated... If someone can be "truly happier" by consuming a more expensive thing, means the brain can be tricked to be happier just by believing it. So happiness can be increased for free.
2) After incorporating a freegan lifestyle... cost of many things have dropped to ZERO. 
And guess what... it's hard to beat the value of free. 
And yet, people in the freegan community are fussy, cos some people (aka me) will now only eat artisanal bread, cos between free artisanal bread vs free normal buns from neighbourhood bakeries, free artisanal breads are just better. 


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I did a previous post on Why I bother to do all these stuff to save money and how much it's worth.

And Daniel Tay from Freegan/SG Food Rescue commented to say I should do a version for time as well. 
I thought this was an interesting perspective so...

I'll cover the 6 points which I mentioned in my previous post and also other factors of working and earning money to "buy" convenience.

Stuff I did for my previous post...
1) Cashflow management to optimize bank interest (Savings/Earnings : $2,400)
2) Credit card spend to get rebates (Savings/Earnings : $800)
3) $3 handphone bills (Savings/Earnings : $240)
4) Making effort to get Petrol savings (Savings/Earnings : $240)
5) AIA Vitality App (Savings/Earnings : $520)
6) Free vegetables and groceries (Savings/Earnings : $1,040)

Ok I'll compare against someone earning $5,000 per month working from 9am to 6pm.
It's highly likely that this person gets a total of 15 months salary (12 months base +AWS +2 mth bonus)
Working hours is expected to be realistically 9am-7pm and adding 1 hour in front and back for waking up early, washing up, and travel.
So we're likely looking at waking up at 8am, getting to work by 9am, lunch hours is considered "not free time" cos most people eat around the area they work and they won't be around that area if they weren't working, then they work til 6pm, then slowly finish up and leave by 7pm, make it home, eat and wash up by 8pm. A total of 12 hours from waking to relaxing before having their own time.
Sleeping hours is around 12 midnight to 8am.
So we're likely looking at 4 hours of free time on a work day.
This is without kids.

We have 52 weeks a year, 104 weekend days, 11 public holidays, 14 days annual leave, 5 days of MC taken.
So out of 365 days in a year, 231 are working days.
Each of these working days, people spend an estimated 12 hours from waking up early to getting home and relaxing. That's 2,772 hours. 
Total pay = $5,000 x 15 = $75,000
Per hour = $27.056 ($27)

I go back to my list of stuff I do to "earn" money...
1) Cashflow management to optimize bank interest (Savings/Earnings : $2,400)
2) Credit card spend to get rebates (Savings/Earnings : $800)
Time taken: Around 15 minutes every month = 3 hours
Since the cashflow management is done at the same time, that's $3,200 for 3 hours of "work".
And being mindful of which card to use on a regular basis.

Amount of hours wasted for not doing this : $3,200 / $27 = 118 hours 
This is to calculate that for the convenience of NOT doing this activity, how much time is wasted out of the working hours of a full time job.

3) $3 handphone bills (Savings/Earnings : $240)
Time taken : Around 5 minutes every 4-6 months, it's about the time taken to make an online purchase to top up my card. 
So it's at max 30 minutes  a year. 

Amount of hours wasted for not doing this : $240 / $27 = 8.9 hours 

4) Making effort to get Petrol savings (Savings/Earnings : $240)
Time taken : 1 hour every 4 months, total of 4 hours for around $240 worth of savings. 

Amount of hours wasted for not doing this : $240 / $27 = 8.9 hours 

5) AIA Vitality App (Savings/Earnings : $520)
Time taken : Usually 3 hours per week but done simultaneously with other activities. 
So I could count this as 0 additional hours, or count it as 3 hours per week for 52 weeks.
I'll take it as 1.5 hours as an average, so thats... 78 hours

Amount of hours wasted for not doing this : $520/ $27 = 19.3 hours 

6) Free vegetables and groceries (Savings/Earnings : $1,040)
Time taken : I've managed to cut my collection timing to around 2 hours per week including traveling time.
So that's 104 hours per year, this results in only $10 per hour. 

Amount of hours wasted for not doing this : $1,040 / $27 = 38.5 hours ​

Ok so I've quantified a number of things...
And maybe some people would say, "Ah-HAH! It's obviously not worth it." (Especially the free vege/fruits)

Now, there's no right or wrong about this. Everyone has different wants and desires and circumstances. 
The problem with calculating everything like this is that it makes everything "Yes" or "No".
But work is usually full time, it won't be easy to get a $27/hr paying job on a part time basis. 
Part time jobs usually pay $7-$10 per hour, unless it's a special skill and that's closer to freelancing. 
To me, part time jobs or freelancing is a great idea. It allows time flexibility with some income.

Anyway... 
A full time job sacrifices 2,772 hours annually for around $75,000. 
If a person does NOT do money saving activities due to being "lazy" or "inconvenient"
He could be "wasting" precious money which he sacrificed his hours for. 
Just out of the 6 activities above, it totals up to 193.6 hours wasted. This is around 7% of his annual pay.
Whereas I take in total, 189.5 hours to do all the above which is similar as compared to the returns of a full time worker. And I'm very happy to do so cos I have a lot of time to do it. 
Now, of course someone who works could do all the above money earning/saving tips. That's great, but I think that many people don't cos... it's inconvenient.
And when someone is working, they like to "buy" convenience. Cos they are already so bothered by work and rushing for time. 
But convenience is expensive, and many people are sacrificing a lot of their time and health for it. 

Work also has it's costs... 
Many people buy breakfast, lunch and dinner cos it's more convenient.
They have to buy nicer clothes and replace them cos you have to look nice at work. 
There's a higher chance that someone working would want to treat themselves nicer with better food, items, holidays. All of these are working hours traded off. 
There are many people who would easily blow $5,000 on a trip, shopping and everything inclusive. 
That itself is 185 hours or 6.7% of the total working hours in a year. 

Some people may hire a domestic helper, that's a different stress entirely, the cost may be a few hundred every month, but managing another person in the same household is not an easy task. I'm sure those with helpers can relate to this. Sure, they help out with the chores and cooking and cleaning up, but they come with their whole set of other issues. 
It's like another management job AFTER coming back from work. 

(I literally know someone who doesn't do any of the 6 items that I listed above, they happily go on $10k Europe trips and have a domestic helper and a big car.
But I believe that most people fall in between somewhere between convenience and effort.)

The thing about full time work, is that it is usually, all or nothing. 
There's usually very little time for yourself. Only 4 hours of free time after work. That's very little. Convenience is important due to this. People are very happy to pay others for convenience, like hiring a helper, subscribing for Netflix, ordering food delivery, etc. A lot of people really can't be bothered to "pick up pennies" after work. And it's understandable. 

For me, I like having the 2,772 working hours free to do whatever I want. 
Around 190 hours (around 3.65 hours per week) are spent "working" by "picking up pennies". 
Leaving me the 2,582 hours free to type my blog, which earns me a couple more pennies, and do other stuff, like chores, cooking, relaxing, etc. 

Now, IF we calculate it PER HOUR for EVERY hour, then working is probably worth more per hour.
The problem is that working is usually full time. Which leaves very little time for self. 
For me, I prefer to have more time for self, and earn a little bit here and there without the related stress. 
Which is why I really like the idea of part time, freelance or ad-hoc work. 
Although it doesn't pay as much per hour, it allows someone to have a lot more free time without the full time commitment. 

I believe that we are on this Earth for around 80+ years, or around 30,000 days and time is all that really matters, cos once time runs out then... bye bye. 
So I think for me, the balance between money, work and time is very important. I'm contented living a simple life, so for me, I worked in my younger years, pretty much paid up my HDB, now my main cash expenses are my utility and insurance bills. (The amount I give my parents are bleeding me quite a bit.)
The rest of my time, I would like to enjoy myself and take it easy and chill. 
I don't discount the idea that in future I may take up some part time/freelance/ad-hoc work to earn a couple of bucks when I feel like it. 

Of course, this is my own views of what life should be about. Other people want their lives to be full of other experiences, that's their own choice. Like for my wife, she loves her job, so who am I to tell her what she should do or not? Since she's so happy to work, and happy to pay for certain conveniences, like the car, why not right? 

But for those people who aren't happy with their work, then begs the question... 
Are all these conveniences worth it? Cos convenience has a dollar value and that also means it has a cost in terms of hours and the number of hours in our life is extremely limited. 
Cos I know there are quite a number of people who are working just for the weekends and public holidays. And that's terrible, cos even in their free time on weekdays, they aren't happy cos there's work tomorrow. Can you imagine 5/7 (71.4%) of most people's prime adult life is spent on work?

Many people work between 25 years old and 60 years old, that's around 35 working years. 
Assuming that conveniences cost around 7%, this means that by doing some inconvenient things, one could potentially retire 2.45 years earlier. Some people may think that being inconvenient for 30+ years isn't worth it to retire 2.45 years earlier. Others might be willing to make the sacrifice. 


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Fast or Slow?

Life's too short to take it fast... 
Life's too short to take it slow...

What do you think?

I've pretty much come down to the conclusion that for myself, life's too short to take it fast. 
I wanna chill, relax. I really don't want to be rushing around all day. Nowadays when I go to Tanjong Pagar area to meet my friends for a meal or something, I feel that the place is soooo... rushed, everyone is busy... and yet for what? Doing things that have no real meaning but yet it gives them money. People dressed up in their nice office attire with make up on rushing around looking busy. 
I know everyone provides a service, just that the way I look at work and people and being busy is just pretty different now. 

And for me, I feel that spending a large bulk of my life doing something for an organization just doesn't cut it for me. For me, I think... I'm here for 80+ years. I wanna relax and chill, not work. Work is tiring. I'm not someone who wants a lot of stuff. I prefer to have less stuff and not work, as compared to having a lot of stuff and work. 

Then there's the people who feel that life's too short to take it slow. They wanna do more things...
I do wonder what... Hey, nothing wrong with it... I just wonder...
Cos usually these folks are super busy... fill their lives up with activities, work, after work events, stuff like that. 
Most of them aren't like Bill Gates, now, I think he's busy and he's doing really good stuff. 
But most people I know are just chasing stuff, they work, they travel a lot, they buy a lot of stuff, they upgrade, but more or less, they live pretty much a similar life as me, except that I don't have so much stuff as them. 

I look around my friends. Most are staying in HDB, some drive others don't regardless whether they can afford it or not. 
Some are thinking about upgrading to a condo. Some are planning to stay in their HDB and not upgrade. 
Most go overseas a few times a year. 
Most have nice meals regularly. 
The above is pretty much what a typical life is for a working couple... We pretty much are experiencing the above situation like most Singaporeans, even with me being unemployed. 

Some have kids... they send their kid/s to childcare, they send their kids to multiple different lessons on weekends making both kid and parent super tired. Some have domestic helpers. 
A lot of times, the parents don't have much time to spend with their kids. 
We don't have kids, so no comment here...

And then there's the luxuries, a lot of people have special add on toys. Small perks, everyone has something special... well most people do... and this is where my life differs from a lot of people. 
We have little toys. Our main sin is our car, travel and high tea.
I find that toys and quirky hobbies easily get out of hand. Cos they are unlimited, I call this leakage of money, cos a lot of time, most people don't know where the money has gone. I see my friends, they buy a small toy for their kids when they go out, it's affordable, just $30+. Just that they do it regularly, they buy costumes for their kids, sign up for lessons, they see something exciting in a Jappy store and buy it to try out this new uber udon/ramen/soba, with premium soy sauce... 
Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this. It's their choice, maybe it makes them happy having these experiences and toys. 

I think that's why most people are kept "busy". To feed this part of their lives, the un-necessities. They may not even be classified as wants, cos they may just buy it without even thinking about it. 
So when I think about the phrase, life's too short to take it slow... 
I think... ok fine... I think it's reasonable. Cos we are here on Earth for a limited time only and we should hurry up and do the stuff that we want to do. So don't take it slow right?
BUT... (correct me if I'm wrong)... I think most people AREN'T doing what they really want to do. They are typically just working in a job which they feel "pays the bills" and their outlet is to buy stuff to destress...
Is this what it means by "life's too short to take it slow?"

Hey... I don't know... cos I came to the other conclusion. 
I feel that life's too short to rush around. So it's hard for me to look at it from the other direction. 
Cos I always wonder... what's the rush... after I took a backseat in life... then now when I go to Raffles Place or Tanjong Pagar, especially the MRT area...

I always think... What's the rush?!


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I was recently asked. 
"Why do you bother to do all these. You don't save a lot, you could get so much more if you found a job"
I mean like... It's very little returns but a lot of small little things. 

Let's not talk about investments. Cos that one a number of normal people do it...
But like,

1) Cashflow management using the credit cards, this nets me the additional 2.43% interest from the UOB One account. This is just under $100 per account per month. ($200 x 12 per annum, total $2400)

2) Hitting minimum spend of $500 per month on the UOB One card, this gets me $50 per quarter per card so it adds up to $50 x 4 x 2 ($800).
I even bother to travel down to PWC building at Raffles place to prepay my SP Services using this card, cos that's the only way to use UOB One card to pay SP Services, you have to pay at the counter. This helps me to clock the spending which I may not be able to hit every month to hit the $500 monthly spend per card.

3) Most of you know that I spend around $3-$4 per month on my handphone bills. I think I can get it to under $2.50 per month with extensions and all that but I won't go into detail cos it's just penny pinching at this point. 
The gist of it is that I have a prepaid card for phone calls and I have a data SIM for data.
I used to get a 1GB data SIM from M1 cos I subscribed to their home internet. But they reduced it to 500MB.
Then recently Circles Life gave a free data SIM for free. They will mail out the data SIM. 
I signed up for it. I get a free data SIM, 1GB data + 30 minutes talk time, 10 SMS monthly.
So now I am back to being able to use 1GB of data per month instead of 500MB per month...
But for my "troubles"... I save around $20 per month, considering that the cheapest SIM only plan is around $25. So I save around $240 per year for my efforts. 

4) I search online for which petrol station gives away petrol vouchers. 
When a petrol station is planning to undergo renovation, they will give out a voucher booklet which can be used for the next 3 months to keep the customer pumping the same brand of petrol.
The booklet usually has 4 coupons per month and each coupon gives a $5 off every $50 pump. This is on top of any credit card promotions. 
I've driven to various parts of Singapore to collect these vouchers when my booklet is about to finish. I've even specifically driven to Yishun to get a booklet... Cos... why not? 
I save $20 per month and a booklet has coupons for 3 months, so that's $60 savings per booklet.
I usually can finish using the whole booklet unless I'm traveling heavily.
Anyway, this equates to $240 savings every year.

​5) We proactively milk the AIA Vitality app which my wife has.
Basically, we make an effort to ensure that we get the $10 per week so that we can spend in Cold Storage.
It's an effort. I know a lot people who can't be bothered to make the effort to clock the required number of steps to get the vouchers. Cos... it's only $10 such a small amount.
And once again, for our efforts, we get an additional $520 per year.

6) I go and spend some time collecting free fruits and vegetables at Pasir Panjang or Little India.
The activity isn't free. I spend around $3 per session in transportation costs. 
But I usually collect one week worth of fruits and vegetables. It's more than what I would typically buy if I were to spend cash on it. This also causes me to "induce" eat cos, I have to try very hard to finish my vegetables before my next week collection. 
So for example I may spend $3 on vegetables (a cabbage and maybe some potatoes) if I buy it for myself. 
However, when I go to collect free vegetables, I get maybe 3 beetroots, 4 brinjals, some potatoes, sweet potatoes, a cabbage, some mushrooms, couple of mangoes, etc... which may be worth $20.
So it's hard to say how much I've actually saved, cos IF I had spent money, I would have spent very little and not bought the excess stuff. 
Anyway, I'll just say I "earned" $20 per week for this case... so this is $20 x52 weeks, so this activity is worth $1,040 per year.

I suppose the above are my main activities which I use to save money. 
This totals up to be $2,400 +$800 +$240 +$240 +$520 +$1,040 = $5,240 per year.
Hey that's quite a lot of money, but it is the result of the sacrifice of quite a bit of convenience. 

Think about it.
How many people actively monitor their bank balance regularly and their monthly spending and try to keep it at a certain level?
How many people are willing to give up their nice data plans and live on 500MB-1GB worth of data?
How about searching for vouchers online and making the time and effort to travel there to get the vouchers?
AIA Vitality app? Many people just don't want to put in a bit more activity to get that few bucks. 
And getting free random vegetables is a chore...

And here comes the crux of this whole post...
There's always a reason to spend money. Convenience is the greatest reason of all. 
It's easy to just brush aside an additional $1 spending for convenience.
Or $5... Or $10... 
Like... come on... many people make more than that per hour. 
Or even if they make less than $10 per hour, many people simply can't be bothered. 
But that's the thing... How much is valuable? Each person values this differently.
It's very easy to take $10 of not worth the trouble or just small money. 
It's even easier to say $5 is not worth the effort. 
But if someone thinks $10 is small money... then they probably won't think twice about buying that bowl of $18 ramen... to me, ramen is freaking expensive noodles. 
And if $18 is a normal meal... then... what is a weekend meal? What is a special treat? 
When someone starts to trivialize different levels of money, things can easily get out of hand... remember the hedonic treadmill... and my discussion with my wife part 1 and part 2.

For me, I always remember my baseline. ALMOST every dollar is worthy. Any treat, upgrade, is a once off event. I always try to return to my baseline after that.
Now, of course everyone values that extra dollar differently, someone who's really really busy might think it's not worth it... that's fine. To each his own. 
For me, it's just an awareness. Of not trivializing each small extra dollar cos the numbers add up. 
To save $1 million dollars, you will have to go through $1, $2 then $10, $11 then $100, $101... Then $5,000... etc. Very few people jump from $1 to $1 million overnight. 
And I remember that I reached my current AUM by going through the smaller numbers, and only thru the smaller numbers could I have reached a bigger number...

So
"Why do you bother to do all these. You don't save a lot, you could get so much more if you found a job"

My response to my friend...
"It's the other way around. I am willing to do all these to stay out of a job."


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Ok! Finally I've got some free time. 
I've been back from France for around a week, but something happened on my wife's family side so I've been busy helping them out til now. 
And I didn't have any free time til now and hopefully I'll be back to my usual routine from now onwards for a couple of weeks before our next flight.

So a reader sent me his current situation and I'll see if I can share some comments. 
I'm not here to tell him what to do. Just sharing some comments and opinions. He'll have to decide what's best for himself and his family. 
​

Ok, once again, I'm not telling him what to do. 
I'll just share some thoughts about his situation. 
Cos everyone has different wants in their lives, what they are ok to live with, what they aren't ok to give up. And eventually they have to live with their own decisions and consequences. 
I also cannot expect people to live like me. I hardly spend any money unless it's for the activities revolving around my wife's work. (Car & travel)
So I'll try to be balanced in my comments.

Ok, let's get down to it. 
There are 2 things that jump straight out at me when I read about the reader's situation.

1) The reader has "gotten used to" staying in the west and was looking for another place in the west. 
My experience with this is that it's quite easy to get used to live in another area. 
I stayed with my parents when I was young. It was around central/west area. Very convenient around town. They had an en-bloc and since the money couldn't buy much within the same area anymore, they decided to move far east. 
My sis didn't like the idea and said "I don't think I'll ever get used to living in the east."
For me, I didn't bother too much. I've pretty ok with moving around cos all I need is a place to stay and eat. 
My sis eventually got used to the east pretty quickly. Humans tend to adapt very quickly. 
And she even forgot her initial comment of "I don't think I'll ever get used to living in the east."
When my sis was planning on moving out after getting married, they were looking at places in the north. 
And during discussion, she once again said "I cannot imagine myself living in the north."
And my brother in law said... "That's what you said about living in the east."

The thing is, I believe, people get used to living in an area very quickly. They will likely grumble a bit at the start and after 6 months, they get used to the new operations, where to find their new groceries, doctor, food court, etc. 
That's not to say that the reader should find some place that there's NO amenities. I understand the convenience of having a doctor, food court, groceries nearby. For example some of the new estates aren't really well developed yet so there isn't many amenities nearby, but I think probably, the reader should open himself up to other areas of Singapore which is equally convenient. 

2) The 2nd thing that jumps right out at me is that he has decided that if his daughter needs it, he will provide her with an overseas education. 
This is his choice. I'm not saying that he shouldn't do it. 
For me and my sis, we grew up with the understanding that we would NEVER be sent overseas. So we knew our parameters and we played along those parameters. We knew that if need be, we would go to Polytechnic or any local private University. That's how our parents set the rules. 
In my opinion, once a child knows that their parents will "bail them out" they may not work as hard or potentially, form a sense of entitlement. 
I never blamed my parents for not sending me overseas. I knew the rules, we weren't exceptionally well off, I didn't expect my parents to scrimp and save just to send me overseas if I couldn't make it into a local Uni. 
There are many successful people from all walks of life, with or without a Uni education. In the end, I think many of us, after 10-20 years of working, realize that it's not the level of education that makes a person successful or not. 
But this is a choice for the reader to make. 

Ok so these are the first 2 things that jump out at me.

The reader is living in an old 5 room HDB. 
This is a really big HDB. As the reader gets older, he may want to get a smaller place. Cos I reckon his daughter will want to get married and move out eventually. People tend to fill the house regardless of the size. So the bigger the house, the more stuff they have. The smaller the house, the less stuff they have. People tend to just make do with what they have. 

For me, I don't like the idea that my HDB expires worthless after 99 years. I'd like to try to leave something left... (I also dunno for what... since I've no kids)
But I think that may be the same for the reader. 

And like what I've said in my previous posts, it's pretty much a zero sum game. 
Price = Lease + Location + Size
For the reader currently this means...
$470k = 66 years left, 5 room HDB in the west.

So if the reader wants to "extend" his lease without injecting more of his own capital then...
$470k = 80-99 years left, 3/4 room HDB in the further west/north/east?
Then top up another $20k-$30k for fees and renovation. 
He can choose to buy a new BTO or straight from the market. 
There are many other areas which have great amenities and also close to MRT stations. 

Also another point to highlight is the need or lack of need for space.
Depending on families... some families expect to take care of grand kids, others do not.
So as the reader gets older, he may not need such a big place with his wife. Maybe even a 3 room HDB would be good enough, cos it will take a lot less effort to keep a 3 room HDB nice and tidy. 
Unless they have a helper... which is an increased expense... really, imagine doing household chores at 60-70 years old for a large 5 room HDB. 
However, if the reader is expected to take care of grand kids, then maybe he would need a larger place? 
Personally, I think a new 4 room HDB is too small for kids to be running around. It is sufficient for living, but it's pretty cramped in my current situation. 

Ok so let's wrap this up a little bit...
The reader is 49 years old, average lifespan is around 85, so we are talking about maybe 35-40 years more.
If he stays in his current place, it will be 25-30 years of lease remaining. 
So theoretically, he doesn't really need to do anything. 

He COULD get a relatively new or BTO HDB and move to another area of Singapore with similar amenities with an increased lease. 80-99 years lease. In his later years, this would end up at around 45-60 years left.
The issue is maybe at this point in time, he might be unable to decide how big a place he needs, cos his daughter is still around.

He alternatively COULD wait 10 years before doing anything. By then, his current HDB would be left with 56 years remaining, then he could do the switch after his daughter moves out, he may also be better able to decide the size of the place he wants, or if he is planning on taking care of grandchildren. 
The issue with doing this is that his current HDB would be worth less relative to the younger HDBs, but this is to be expected due to the depreciating lease. 
But he may look at HDBs with 70-80 years lease remaining at that point in time. Then it would last him til his later years and still have excess lease/value and will not expire worthless. 

He may also consider doing it a few years after retirement. By then, he will be better able to assess his budget and retirement funds. I also find that after retiring, many people realize that they don't need so many stuff in their lives and may willingly move to a quieter area of Singapore and a smaller unit. 
It also provides the opportunity to declutter years of stuff accumulated from decades of working which might not be needed anymore after retirement. 
The mentality after retirement is also different so you may not be interested to do a lot of reno and be quite satisfied with a simple low cost renovation upon moving. 
The thing is, when you're working, you tend to keep a lot of stuff cos it's convenient and there's no real time or opportunity to clear them out, but after retiring, you may realize that you don't need a lot of stuff and you have a lot of time to slowly buy something or work around the situation if something isn't readily available at home. 

Probably the next few big ticket items the reader has to consider is his daughters further education, or some parents may want to help out with the wedding expenses of their kids or housing renovation expenses, and maybe grandchildren, and of course their own renovation if they so decide to move. 

And of course within all this is also potentially to decrease overall expenses. I think a lot of people overestimate what they require after retirement. If you live a frugal lifestyle all the time, expenses will easily drop after retirement. 

And that's about it for this post. It's really up to the reader to determine what's best for himself. 
I think at different stages in life we all want different things it would be easier to decide after key intervals in life, like when/if his daughter moves out. Cos by then he may think, the house is too big and empty and it's tough to tidy and maintain such a big place. 
Deciding now at this point in time, may not be so easy. Cos there's a lot of unknowns about what the future may bring. But of course waiting also has it's issues, cos property prices will change and all that. That's just part of life and we all have to try to make the most informed decision at any point in life, in relation to what we want and whether we are ok with any risks involved. 


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