Earlier this month, I write a post about my dad calling me a cheapskate. 

I was kinda annoyed at the comment. 

Over the weekend, I brought him a TV to replace the TV in his room. Of course it's a 2nd hand one. It's not a great TV, it's better than his existing one. So I pretty much traded this TV that I brought with his older TV. 
Then next he asked if I could get a fan to replace an old fan in the house...

Or my mum who calls me a scavenger... She has a thing for sourdough breads... These are pretty expensive. Usually $4-$6 for a lump of bread. Its' supposedly healthier than the usual sweet breads we typically eat. Singaporeans typically eat sweet breads. Anyway... I supplied her with a big plastic bag full of sourdough breads. And now she requests specifically for bagels...

And when both my parents requested for more stuff, I rolled my eyes at them and took the opportunity to say...
"Great! Call me cheapskate, call me scavenger... but now when I give you stuff you want, suddenly you guys ask me for other stuff..." 

And this is the kinda look I typically give them. 

This happens to most people. Even in other scenarios...

​Have you ever had a situation where you didn't want to try something new? 
Maybe some food. You're so used to XYZ brand of bachang, and you don't wanna try any other brand...
Then someone recommends something and you aren't interested, cos you love the bachang you've been eating since young. It's the ultimate best. 
Then one day you go to your friend's house and he serves you this bachang, which has more filling and tastes better and you go "OOooo did you make it yourself?"
And the friend goes... "-.- I told you about this other brand that you didn't want to try, this is it."

Don't deny it, everyone has had such experiences.
We always console ourselves by saying we are paying for quality, or we won't like the other item. But truly, we'll never know til we try. 

And I see what my parents say as resistance to something new... Resistance to change, fear of the unknown. And that's normal.

BUT it doesn't mean we should accept it. For me, I believe we should adapt. Change. If things are better, learn and incorporate it. If things are not better, try it and understand it. If it doesn't work for you, then forget it. But at least try. Else how would you know? 

So many people have said I will fall sick from eating expired food, or other kinds of questionable food. 
And yet 8 months into my freegan journey, I haven't had any upset stomach. 
I take great care to ensure that my food is safe for consumption. Falling sick isn't worth it. 
For most people, they avoid it entirely, so that they don't fall sick. 
For me, I prefer to understand what makes me sick, and I make sure that it doesn't happen to me. 
The point is to understand the risk.

Many of us invest. 
Then there's those other folk who absolutely swear off investments for fear of a market crash...
Why are we comfortable with investments? Why are the other folk afraid? 
Cos they heard of people who lost their fortunes with stocks, so they don't want to try it themselves. 
Why are we not afraid? Cos we understand the risk, we learn what to do, what not to do, so that a market crash wouldn't put us out of business. 

It's the same. 

So simply put... don't be too afraid to try new things. Try them. Learn from them and determine for yourself if it's worthy or not. 
Don't just IMAGINE that you won't like something and don't even try it. Cos your imagination may not be right.


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Many thanks for all those who gave ideas on how I could prevent myself from forgetting to pay my credit card bills next time. 
I think I'll likely set an alarm 2 times a month to remind me to check all my credit cards twice a month.

Anyway moving on...
I almost missed this...

UOB ONE ACCOUNT IS HAVING AN UPDATE FOR THEIR INTEREST RATES!!!

Imagine my shock. I went to visit my parents on Saturday and my MUM told me that there is going to be an update for UOB One account interest rates. She received an SMS about this change and I didn't!!!
I didn't get any flier, brochure, mailer... nothing... amazingly my mum is more up to date than me...

Ok anyway is the main change. 

Previously (Before 1 Aug 2018), if you put in $50,000 into the UOB One account AND spend $500 on their credit card, you will get around 1.6% on the $50k. Around $800 per annum.

IF you put in $50,000 AND spend $500 on their credit card AND (credit your salary OR set up 3 GIRO txns per month), then you get 2.43% on the $50k. Around $1,215 per annum.

Updated, 1 Aug 2018 onwards, interest as usual will be paid in tiers. But now, it is up to $75,000.

So IF you put in $75,000 and spend $500 on the credit card, you will only earn 1.5% per annum, but since it is now a larger base, total interest for the year will be $1,125.

IF you put in $75,000 AND spend $500 on their credit card AND (credit your salary OR set up 3 GIRO txns per month), then you get 2.44% on the $75,000. 
This is more interest AND on a larger base. Which will result in $1,830 interest per annum. Or around $152 per month for 1 account.
For 2 accounts it's $304 which is typically more than I spend on food in a normal month.

Info can all be found here in the update pdf.

Ok so simply put, this is a great update. Cos it allows us to now get 2.44% interest on a larger amount of money. 
Now the problem is... not all of us has an additional $25k to top up our accounts. 
If we look at someone like me. I manage 2 accounts. My wife's and my own. Where am I going to suddenly find another $50,000 to top up both our accounts. 
That's going to be tough on short notice. So what should we do? I only have 4 days notice.
​

Well based on the calculation above, if we keep $50k in each account with the new interest rate, we would end up with 2.03% for 1 year. 
IF we accumulate all the funds into $75,000 and $25,000 in the 2nd account, then we can get 2.30% interest for a year. 
​So based on this, we should accumulate our funds in one account to max out the $75k in one account before slowly accumulating money in the 2nd accound to build up the funds to $75k as well. 

2.44% per annum is a pretty good return.
So if I look at it at a total return basis. 
I have to spend $6,000 on essential spending every year. 
And I will get around $1,830 in interest for this account.
I further get another $200 in credit card rebates. ($50 per quarter)
Total return I get is $2,030.
This is like getting a 34% discount on my $6,000 annual credit card spending.

Cos for me, I attribute all these returns to the spending. Cos IF I don't maintain this level of spending, then I don't get any returns or bonus interest. However, due to me maintaining this level of spending, I will get this "return" and I take it as a "discount" on all the spending which I made for the year. 

​Well... looks like it's time to start boosting your savings up to $75k if you don't already have it then...
Hope some of you were more updated than me.


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(It's really sad to see that my clickbait article got more hits than my normal article about HDB lease. Really goes to show what people people are attracted to and what they are willing to click on.)

A really scary thing happened to me yesterday. 
Usually I'm in charge of the financial admin matters. So if there's a credit card bill, it's my responsibility to arrange for it to get paid for both my card or my wife's card. 

And of course I know how important it is to pay my bills on time. 
We all know that we are here to use credit cards for their convenience and rebates.
And we aren't really supposed to induce spending just to get rebates and/or cashback...

Anyway, long story short. I forgot to pay the Amex bill for my wife's credit card. 
It's the first time I ever forgot to pay any bill so I was pretty stunned. 
Cos my habit, is immediately, when I get any bill, I check it, and place it on the laptop, so that I can immediately pay it when I turn on the laptop. So this process has work for years. 

I had some issue with Amex rebates the past few months, so last month I put the bill on the desk to do some calculations and it was mixed with other documents and basically I forgot to pay it. 

The additional charges were stunning. 
I forgot to pay a $276 bill. 
I got slapped a $90 late payment fee and $10.12 interest charge. 
THAT is quite SICK. $100.12 extra charges on missing a $276 payment. Around 36%. 
I never knew it was so much..

Anyway, my wife called them and they were nice enough to waive the charges cos we were a first time offender. 

But I learnt a lesson here.
It's really really expensive to miss payments. 
I really shouldn't be distracted by other issues when paying credit card bills. I should pay them first before trying to work out whatever other issues I have with the rebates. 

​Cos once we are late with bill payments. Then the credit card company can slap all those charges on us. 
And we can't really do much about it if they don't want to waive off the charges. 
If they weren't willing to waive the charges, at best, I was thinking that we will pay the bills, but leave out the additional charges and cancel the card. 
We were pretty much prepared to say, "Hey, I'm going to pay what I'm due, but I'm not going to pay all your finance charges. And you can just cancel the card. Too bad."

Problem with this is that it would likely affect her credit rating so it's not really a good thing. 
So of course we don't want to go there if it's possible.

I think there may be risk that such incidences would occur again in future. Cos many cards are switching to online statements. This pretty much places the responsibility for me/customers to check the bill instead of the bill coming to me. Furthermore, I cannot put the bill on my laptop as a reminder to pay the bill. 
It's highly likely that I'll receive the usual sms from a bank "Your electronic statement is ready for viewing", this will happen in the middle of the day. I could be out or doing something... Then when I get home, I have a good chance of forgetting to check my online account. 

Anyone has any good ideas? Or how do you remember to check your online statements? Especially for those cards which you don't use regularly.

For example, I don't use my Citibank card regularly. Since I don't use it on a regular basis, I don't bother to check online statements. I will only check it on months that I use the card. BUT the problem is that IF they charge me the annual fee, I also won't notice it when the annual fee comes along. This could go on for months before I realize it and this would mean months of late payment and interest charges. 
Of course by then I would just simply cancel the card, but I'd rather not have to do that if possible. 


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Good morning everyone. Yesterdays post was quite fun, cos I saw a surge of readers which pretty much proved what I posted about...

Anyway, I think this post isn't that much a clickbait, but more people seem to like posts about property so I tend to get better readership when I talk about HDB.

So what does it REALLY mean when Singaporeans "BUY" their HDB...

Everyone is really fooling each other right?
We always say Singaporeans don't rent their homes like overseas where rental is common. 
Singaporean home OWNERSHIP is 90%...
A whole load of BS right?

99 year rental is pretty similar to 2 year rental...
The difference is 97 years. 
Or just a difference in perception. Just cos we can do pretty much whatever we want to the HDB, BUT yet, we need to restore it to original condition when we sell it... does it sound very "OWNER" to you?

Wait til your HDB is left with 2 years lease and see what your feelings are to it. 
Whether you think there's a difference between HDB "ownership"  vs rental. 

So what are we buying? What are we paying for? 
Woah banks even give loans for us to rent HDBs for 99 years. 

Imagine... You go to a bank, you tell them, "HEY I got this great deal on RENT! This organization allows me to rent 99 years at a good rate but I have to bulk purchase it. How about you lend me some money for 30 years so that I can PREPAY the RENT."

Basically, what most of us see as "buy", is a BULK purchase of rental. 
That's what it is. 
We sign a contract for long term rental at a cheaper rate cos we "buy" the rent in bulk. 
Instead of signing multiple 2 year rental contracts, HDB allows Singaporeans to sign a whopping 99 year rental contract. 
And further allows Singaporeans to sell the remaining part of this rental contract to other people willing to pay for it. 
And year after year, more often than not, people are paying more and more for the RIGHT to STAY at whichever particular unit when buying and selling to each other. 

And that's what it is... pretty much a LIE. 
No one owns their HDB, you are renting. The difference between a Singaporean "owning" their HDB, vs the foreigner who comes here to work and rents the HDB... 
Well, the difference is pretty much someone is renting for 99 years, vs someone who is renting for 2 years. 

If any bank or HDB gives a 99 year loan for a 99  year HDB... 
Then the monthly "mortgage" is pretty much equal to the rent you pay. 
Cos there's really no "home equity" at the end of 99 years. 

All this talk about home equity... is just PREPAID RENT!!!

And it's really interesting here... cos WHY? 
WHY did we all get fooled into this fluff of clouds?
I think a lot was due to the Government and how they "sold" the idea of HDB to the people. ​

It's some very very good marketing. 
The Government really sold this idea and branded the idea well to the citizens of Singapore. 
All HDB flats built over the past 50 years WERE rental flats!!!
It's just a very long rental contract and the remaining part of the lease is tradeable. 

HDB is PUBLIC HOUSING. This is typically subsidized RENTAL from the Government.

​Now, I'm not saying this is all a bad thing. 
I think it has helped Singapore and the people to grow with the country. It has provided housing for millions of Singaporeans. So it's a good thing. 

I'm just providing another way to look at things. Or maybe this was staring at us in the face but we just didn't want to recognize it. 
For me, I don't think of things in good or bad. It is what it is. The world will still go on turning. HDB will continue to work like it's always been and people will continue to think that they "own" their HDBs. 

For me, I just like to be aware of the reality behind all this. To take away all the fluff. So that I can see and think clearly when I make decisions or have a more neutral/correct view when I look at things. 

And I hope today's post has been more enlightening and more fun than yesterday's post.

Have a good day!
I'm going to collect some free vegetables.


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Ok so obviously the title is going to be clickbait... as I watch my hits go up today.
And yet it works. You can see all the links to articles on the net...

"Breaking NEWS!!!..."
​"XYZ is going viral"
"What rich people don't want you to know"
Etc...

And yet it all works, it gets people to click on the link. 
WHY?!
I'm sure we all have seen such link titles before, I'm pretty sure everyone has seen clickbait before. 
And yet why do people continue to click on it? Which perpetuates the cycle, if marketers know people click, then they will create titles which are clickbait, and people continue to click. Cos it works, they will continue to do it. 

I think it all boils down to our human nature. 
A sense of urgency and curiosity of secrecy? 
Breaking News!!! What XYZ doesn't want you to know. 

It's also very similar to sales in shops. 
SALE!!! For a limited time only! Get this item at 50% off.
Then there's also those shops that's forever on sale. Always 20% off, everyday of the week. 

Why does urgency attract people? 
Cos humans used to live in uncertainty. When food is available, they eat and make sure they are full, cos they won't know when the next meal is going to come. So when there's an opportunity, we humans take it or make a rushed decision. That's where our Singaporean kiasu come in. 

Why are we so interested in what the rich don't tell us? 
Cos they are rich, so many people want to be rich too. Maybe if I know a little bit of their secrets I can be rich like them. So people continue to click these links...
And do you really think that these link will really help people get rich?

Everyone likes to know a "secret"
Everyone wants to know "Top 10 things that EVERYBODY gets wrong!"
To learn something new? Or to find out that they aren't part of the "everybody" that gets it wrong?

How about those puzzles online that say, "Only the top 1% can solve this puzzle"
Then it's some puzzle that is some simple algebra. But it gets so many comments from people having the answer...
Why? So that they can prove that they are the 1% that can solve this? And obviously NO ONE verifies that it's a test for the top 1%, people just like the thrill knowing that they "are" the 1%. 

But all these... boil down to ONE thing in our current world of technology and internet. 
We are all bored. We have nothing to do. 
We surf Facebook, or other sites, cos a lot of us are bored. It is our form of entertainment. 
And when there's something "interesting" (clickbait) we just click on it. It doesn't really matter whether there's any good info in the article. It just looks interesting. 

It's like when I went shopping in Japan last time buying presents for family. The packaging looks nice. Ok I'll buy it. When I get back, the product, usually some food, was just "meh".

The thing is... marketers know this. They know they only have 1 shot to make an impression and if customers/readers aren't interested, they move on. 
So they find creative ways to attract people. The product itself is maybe only fairly important. But not as important as the presentation. Cos if no one even buys the item, then there's no point in how good the item is. 
All the more so for online, cos all online marketers have is just a small area for a picture, and a line of text. They don't have much space for a sales pitch. 
So their title needs to generate human emotion to make people inherently WANT to click on it. It needs to be worthy of our "entertainment". 

Is it annoying when I surf the net. Sure. 
Cos I keep seeing stuff like...
"Wall Street furious over Bitcoin Millionaires".
"The most tactical torchlight in the market"

And yet, on the other hand I see this as nothing more than marketing like those done at brick and mortar shops. 
People are trying to "earn a living". 
It's for consumers to discern for themselves what to "buy/click" and to be aware of the marketing vs the actual product in itself. 
Unfortunately, such things can turn into scams easily...


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Ok, now this is ONE of the reasons that the poor remain poor. Not the ONLY reason.
And you'll see why this affects you...

I'll loosely classify people's networth in groups. 

So a homeless person/poor has no place to stay, maybe living in subsidized rental flats. 
They don't earn much per month, maybe $800-$1,200 household income, they have trouble making ends meet. 
They don't have much AUM. 

And I'd classify a low income person or family is staying in a 2-3 room HDB. 
They earn around $2,000-$4,000 per month household income. They are comfortable but don't have much to save, or don't bother saving every month due to simple pleasures. At this income level, it's easy to spend on simple pleasures like cigarettes and not have much left to save. 

A middle income person/family is classified as staying in a 4-5 room HDB.
Earning around $4,000-$8,000 household income per month. They are comfortable, they can save if they want to, or if they don't save, they will buy a car, they definitely aren't having much trouble in their finances if they don't do stupid things. 

A middle high income family stays in an Condo or something like that.
Earns around $8,000-$15,000 household income per month. They are the folks who go to Europe for shopping holidays, buy their big cars, etc... no worries about money, but they tend to get into big mortgage debt. 

The low level rich is stays in a semi-D.
Household income ranges $15,000 and above...

Then there are the rich who stay elsewhere...

OK... now these are very very loose classifications. 
Cos rich or poor, high income or low income, a lot depends on spending habits, saving habits, medical issues, etc... 
But generally for this article I need to classify different groups of people else it's hard to continue describing. So just take the classifications as general networth or lifestyle abilities of the different groups of people...

​You see... when I first started working, I was probably considered low income. IF I didn't have the support of my family and stay with my parents, it would be hard to switch to middle income. Cos a lot of my money would be spent on rent. I think a lot of us had this benefit of having somewhere to stay to shore up our reserves before we moved out...

So if we look at a homeless person having a low earning power, for him to move to the next level, which is low income level, is not going to be easy. He already has to support himself or his family with a low income, even if he stays in a subsidized rental flat. Furthermore, if his income gets too high, he will have to move out and not be eligible for subsidized rental. This would mean moving to a more expensive REAL rental place, which would cost him around $700 per room.
Not to mention he would have to scrimp and save from his already very meager salary to save up a few more dollars to move into the next category and in the end he will have to use all this money to pay HDB for a small 2 room flat. 
You see, it's not easy to move from one level to another level. It's possible. Definitely. But it's not a walk in the park. And it's a long journey which will take years. And it takes a lot of dedication a years to move from homeless/poor to low income... And yet, at this point, life isn't really good yet. Cos... low income isn't much better right? He'd probably need to be in middle income to be comfortable. This would mean that it's probably a 30 year journey. And how many people have a 30 year plan and can stick to it? Not to mention if they are struggling day to day, do they have time to think of a 30 year plan and execute it? Do they have the knowledge to chart out such a plan? Do they have the discipline and willingness to sacrifice all their simple pleasures to achieve it? It's not going to be an easy journey. It's going to be long and hard and filled with sacrifices. 30 years is a long time. 

If we look at all the other levels...
Low income to middle income... Most people don't upgrade when they are young. They take many years of savings and working before they move to the next level IF they ever move at all. Furthermore, most people don't use savings to fund their upgrades, they just use their CPF monies. Which means, they didn't really diligently save to move to the next category. They just worked as per normal living their own lives, and didn't particularly save, and just used their forced savings. Those who level up to the next category early in their lives are the ones who saved diligently and strove hard to level up. 

For a typical family who lives in a 4/5 room HDB. When do they usually level up to their condos? Most people will do so later in their lives, usually around 40-50 years old. This is around a 20-30 year journey. IF they ever manage to level up to the next category. 
Is it possible to achieve this earlier? Yes, I know people who do, but they worked really really hard and saved up really really diligently. Most people have other expenses, spend more as they earn more, upgrade the other parts of their lives, they have children expenses, etc...
Now, there's nothing wrong with this... it's just part of life. 

And the next range, when we look at middle high income to low level rich... it's the same. The mortgage on a semi-D is around double that of a condo... the family would need to double their earning power before they are able to afford to move to this next level. So same thing... it's a long journey. 

Now, I think we all can see that all these level ups take time. It's not a one year plan. It doesn't work that way. It takes a lot of personal discipline to achieve the upgrades earlier. 10 years instead of 20 years is still a very long time. How many people are able to be disciplined and save diligently for 10 years straight? 
Not so easy. 
Furthermore, it's easy to get comfortable. Look at me. I stopped working early. Means I'm pretty stuck at my current level. Cos for some people, it's not worth the effort and sacrifice to keep leveling up to the next level. 
And once again, that's fine. 

So what am I getting at? 
It's easy for us to look at a poor/low income and think, why doesn't he try to improve his life. 
Maybe he is trying. But we don't get updates of his life most of the time. Maybe he succeeds in 10 years time, but we would never know, cos we don't follow up on it. We just comment and move on. 
But all these things take time. 
For us to look at a low income and say, why doesn't he make changes to upgrade his life... 
Is about the same as I look at someone staying in a 4 room HDB and saying, why doesn't he upgrade and stay in a condo...
Cos... IT TAKES TIME!!!
Even if the person works hard and saves diligently, it still takes time, and a lot of it. It's not an overnight thing. And it's also easy for the person to lose discipline and just settle in their own category, cos the journey is so long and so hard and it takes so much self control... 

And how does this affect you? 
Well... we are all the same right? 
We can settle in our own categories... that's fine, cos we are comfortable and since the journey to upgrade is so long, we really can't be bothered and we are happy where we are... That's fine...
Or even if we want to work hard and level up to the next category... it also takes time. 10 years for an early upgrade, else it's probably around 30 years for a normal upgrade. 

So all these take time, and effort, and discipline, and luck, and planning, and a lot of dedication...
I think it's fine for anyone to stay and be happy in their own category without upgrading. That's fine if they want to live their lives that way. 
The thing is... to upgrade, takes time, no matter how much hard work you put in, it still takes a lot of time. 
Of course if you don't put in any effort, then even with all the time, it also won't happen. 
So if you really want to upgrade, then you gotta be disciplined and save hard and work hard and be prepared for a long journey. 
It's about the same as a poor man trying to get to the next level. It's going to be a long journey for him as much as it is for someone from the upper ranks. 


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I'm back from my "holiday" in Thailand and can get back down to typing properly.
It wasn't really an active trip, we just hung around some shopping centers looking for food and basically doing nothing. We didn't do any sight seeing. It's rather a getaway from Singapore instead of a trip to explore Thailand...

Anyway, on to my post for today. 
I'm not sure about most people. But for me, I like to keep a constant balance in my life. 
A balance of overall happiness.

I've realized, for myself, I'm most happy/contented when things stabilize.
But when that happens, then I get bored and I try to do something else in an attempt to increase my happiness, then things will destabilize and I get a bit stressed out then work towards another level of stability then I get contented again, then I get bored again and the cycle continues. 

I've come to a conclusion that actually, I like the balance of stability. And any attempts to destabilize is pretty much cos of boredom instead of the real NEED to increase overall happiness, cos I find no perceived real change in happiness from an earlier stable state in life, vs a later stable state in life. 

Due to this, I tend to curate my life. 
I try not to create spikes of happiness or unhappiness. 
Cos it's like drugs. When I'm happy, it's easier to feel the effects of unhappiness when things turn sour. 
I believe that every day, I should maintain a good level of happiness and contentment and I don't try to make anything happier or unhappier than the day before. 

For example, when I was younger, I would go on a crash diet and limit my calorie intake to cut my weight by 8-10kg when I felt chubby, then when I hit my target weight in a couple of months, I'd eat more freely and over a couple of years, I'd put back the kilos again and I'd repeat the cycle again. 
The dieting and exercise months were tough and it took a lot of effort and discipline cos my girlfriend (wife now) wouldn't be able to eat a lot of other things cos I couldn't eat them. And personally, I also hated those days of calorie cutting and exercise. 
So instead, I now choose to eat a more simple diet, it's easier now that I cook for myself, and I get a lot of free vegetables. Then at rare days we go out to eat nicer food, like this month, we went for a buffet at a hotel, or sometimes I may go out eat with friends, but generally, we don't indulge in heavy food as much as we used to when we were in our 20s. 

Or maybe when I was younger, I'd look for higher value investments trying to beat the market. Sometimes I do better, sometimes I don't do well. 
But as I get older, I tend to like a more passive low risk approach to investments. ETFs or good dividend stocks are preferred. I don't really like the roller coaster ride of emotions even if I get better returns. I prefer a more slow and steady approach, as long as my returns are positive in the long run and I can sleep well at night. 

The thing is I find that there are many people who like having a range of emotions. Happiness, sadness, anger, exuberance, etc. I know someone who would dispose of her coffee table cos she doesn't need it, and she would just walk around shopping centers and when she sees another coffee table which she thinks is nice, she would just want to buy it. She's just happy buying stuff, cos the act of spending money makes her happier than if she doesn't spend it. 

I know people who change their cars every 2 years, cos they get bored of the old car so they need to get a bit of happiness by switching to another car, it's not about the money, they can afford it, but rather, people just like change. The novelty of having a new item.

Or another friend who likes toys, so he likes to turn the gachapon, you know those egg like balls, you put a couple of bucks into a machine, turn the lever and a ball with a toy pops out. Yea, he likes to turn those, or buy small toys at toy shows, etc... also, simply, the novelty of having a new item for fun...

Which is all fine... everyone should be able to spend what they want, whenever they want.

For me, I recognize that there is no end of the thrill of novelty, and novelty has a cost to it. 
Like trying new restaurants, which we used to do when younger, we tried a lot of buffets for the thrill of it. 
We used to go for plays, Phantom of the Opera, etc...
It's always fun to try new things. 
But I started understanding that I was buying "products" for the thrill of the purchase rather than the "product" itself. 
For example, when we went to hotel buffets, there are some good ones, but more or less they are similar in terms of food quality and variety. But we enjoyed going cos it was always a new experience when we went somewhere new. 

So the thing is. I try not to do things out of our routine. I think it keeps a good balance in my life. I don't like spikes of extreme happiness or disappointment. 
I try not to increase my spending, or find reasons to increase my spending. I try to cut my spending if it doesn't entail a lot of effort. 
I try not to eat too much on a regular basis, so that I don't need to exercise or diet. I really don't like to exercise or diet. 
I try not to buy new things into the house, cos it clutters up the space. 

Basically, I try set up my life in a way where I don't need to adjust too much to make up for the difference. 
For example, I don't eat too heavy foods, so that I don't need to have to exercise to lose the weight. 
Or I don't spend too much, so that in future, I don't have to reduce spending when my finances might be tight in future. 
And I don't get used to too good or expensive stuff, cos the brain loves dopamine, when the brain get used to thrills, then the brain will crave to be thrilled again, and it takes more to create the same thrill. So I don't pick up unnecessary additional thrills, cos someday in future, I may need to cut down on these habits/hobbies and I don't want to get too entrenched into something that I need to make special effort to remove from my life...

As I type this post, I realize, that it might seem like I live a very boring disciplined life. 
And I think that it is somewhat true. It's highly disciplined, I agree. But I don't find it boring. 
I understand why I am doing all these for. Why I keep my life free from other things/habits/etc... it prevents clutter in my life, physical clutter and mental clutter. It keeps my mind very free cos I have little things which distract me. 
I probably do miss out of some experiences due to this but I suppose that's the trade off I am willing to make to keep my life stable and balanced. 


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A man had a plot of land. He also has 4 sons.
When the man was alive, everyone lived on the plot of land, the man and his wife, along with his 4 sons and their families.

Everyone worked on the plot of land. It was quite big so some folks will go out and lay traps and hunt for animals. Some of the family members would plant some produce and harvest the food. Wood was abundant and they built their own houses. They even had excess to sell to other people in town so they had excess money to do other things.

But they didn't over-harvest the land. They worked on a small area enough for them to eat and a little bit more and left the other parts of the land as forest area.

Life wasn't easy, but it wasn't hard either. There was work for everyone, they had time to spend with each other. The daily activities kept them fit and relatively healthy. They didn't had food and lodging and clothes from the work they did on the plot of land.

When the man died, he left the plot of land to his sons.

The eldest son wanted to continue with his father's way of life. Cos that's what he grew up with all along and he was the one most used to this way of life.

The second son wanted to cut down all the forest area and turn all the land into farmland and hire people to run a large scale farm.

The 3rd son wanted to lease out the unused land to any party and collect rent and not have to toil the land anymore.

The youngest son wanted to sell off the piece of land and move to the town, buy a home there and find work there.

So obviously the 4 brothers couldn't come to a common conclusion and so they decided to split up the plot of land.
And they each did whatever they wanted with it.

Now there's no right or wrong with this story...
You see, this is very much like humans and how we have progressed.

We were all hunter gatherers long ago. And food was free. Life was simple. What more is there to do except to feed the family and remain healthy?

Then some people decided that they wanted more.
Some wanted to plunder the land. Eat more now, we'll think about the future when the time comes.

Some want to maintain the same way of life so they take a more chill path in life and eat what they need and let nature take care of the excess.

Other people will think of other ways to live their own lives.

As our values are different, we end up divided and living different lives. The brothers split up and find new ways of living. Same like many of us.

The thing is, without ownership of property, there's no real way to prevent someone else from plundering your land. In an ideal world, we would all consume what we needed and share the excess. Everyone would have enough and the Earth would flourish. There really is enough on Earth for everyone and everything animal. It is due to greed and lives of excess and improvements in technology that we over-harvest the Earth. And to prevent someone else from over-harvesting shared property, we NEED to have ownership. So if someone else wants to over-harvest his own piece of land then that's his own problem.

So there's no right or wrong with any decision made.
But for me, as I look around I see so much excess, of people wasting so much and I wonder, where are we all going as a species. And we are all here for 80+ years. If we work in a farm or as hunter gatherers, vs in a corporate life using iPhones and technology, what's the difference?
It's still 80+ years.

In the end the brothers split up and live different lives, as what we all do, we also will split up and live different lives. Some will spend more money than their siblings, some will squander their inheritance, etc...

And yet, when I look at things from an external point of view... Wouldn't everyone be better off by living off the land, not over consuming and helping each other as a community and sharing resources with the trust that everyone else doesn't over consume.
And that's where it wouldn't really work out... Cos... How are we supposed to build such a trust when it is human nature to be greedy and over consume?


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I'm in Thailand now on holiday so it's kinda hard to be typing cos I don't usually get to walk around with my wife on her biz trips so when we actually have a trip for our own leisure, it's hard to find time to type.

I find that in Thailand, the food prices range greatly. It's really common to find food at around 100-200 baht per person. Which is around $4-$8 for us. And we get to sit in a restaurant.

But of course that's not for me. I know that there's cheaper alternatives. The above picture is 95 baht. Around $4 for the both of us.
And I realize that the typical price of a meal per person is 50 baht for small shops and roadside vendors or food courts in a shopping mall.

Restaurants are 100-300 baht per dish.
And then there's the atas restaurants that charge 700 baht per dish. I won't even talk about these.

Cafes are pretty expensive and yet there are so many people sitting around eating desserts and drinking their coffee.
The cost in a cafe is typically 150 baht per person and above. And that's probably just ordering a drink.

I don't know whether I should be surprised. Cos I had the impression that the average pay in Thailand isn't much. And if I were them, I'd be eating cheap food most of the time to save up and try to move to a better financial position.
Even for me, I think that restaurant food or cafes are over priced when I see the cheaper options that are available.

It's like if I eat a pad Thai at a small shop which might cost me 50-60 baht vs I eat a pad Thai at a restaurant which would cost me double.
It's like eating a hor fun at the zichar stall downstairs at $4-5 vs if I go to Crystal jade and pay over $10.

Nissin cup noodles are a nice surprise at around $0.50 per cup. In Singapore it's almost $2 per cup.

I did go to a couple of restaurants to eat cos my wife was hungry and she didn't want to walk around to find cheaper alternatives so I did try some of the more expensive restaurants. To me 500 baht ($20) for the both of us is considered expensive for a dinner in Thailand.

Nothing much I can talk about cos we haven't been doing much. We aren't doing much shopping. She bought 2 blouses at $16 for both. So I can't really say too much about it.

The roads are a mess, it's hard to walk around cos not all areas cut through to other places so we really had to walk around the area to find the road that cuts through.

Ok I'll end the post here. Maybe I'll do a follow up when I get back if I learn anything more about the lifestyle here.

**PS thanks for all those who commented about my Australia visa issue. I now have 2 visas approved.
1 is the manual visa which I applied after the electronic one failed.
2 is another visa which my wife helped to request from the travel agent which helps her company book flights.
A bit double effort and additional costs, but at least it's one big thing off my mind and I'm relieved. So looks like I'll be having a trip to Perth soon.


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​

I think many of us understand this, but yet, it's hard to overcome. 

I get a lot of items. Stuff. And they are usually free. 
I recently got 5 new mason jars for free, they look like a cup with a screw-able lid, so it's like a cup-jar derivative. 
Hey looks useful right? Some restaurants use them as their cups to serve their teh-ping. 

And my wife saw them and said, "Hey these are useful!"
And yes, that is right. 
They ARE useful. 
BUT, I know they will not be used. 
Cos I already have cups for my home use, and I don't really need jars for anything. 

And I think many of us fall into this "trap".
I have numerous pots and cookware. Some are Corning ware, which are expensive and thermal shock resistant. Great for cooking vinegar pork trotters. Cos can't be cooking vinegar stuff in metal pots right, cos the vinegar will strip some parts of the metal in the cooking process. 
Number of times I've cooked vinegar pork trotters ... ZERO!

I have 3 different frying pans, one flat one for steak, one smaller one for eggs, one for usual stir fry of vegetables. I've only used the big one for stir fry of vegetables, cos I also fry my egg in that one when I cook dinner. 

This issue comes about regardless whether the item is free or purchased. 
I don't have much of these, but when I go to my parents' place, their house is cluttered with useful stuff.
And yet... they are unused. 
So what's the point of having useful stuff if they are unused? 
Means the item is USELESS to YOU!

Cos either you don't need it for that function, OR you already have something else that serves the funtion. 
So for example, a smaller frying pan, I may not need it cos I don't cook small portions. 
OR I already have a bigger frying pan which I am more comfortable with using. 

How about a coffee machine? Is it a useful item? 
It only makes coffee, but if someone really loves his coffee and uses it everyday, then it's a well used item. 
Who cares that it can't boil an egg at the same time?

The thing is, humans love their "options", they like having the option to do things. But yet most of the time, they don't do it. 
How many people have baking ware at home? A full set, egg beater, measuring cups, muffin trays, cake trays, stuff like that? And how often do people usually bake? Less than once a year. 

It's pretty much, I can give you a free swiss army knife, and if you don't know what to do with it, it will be a useless item, although it can supposedly do a lot of things. 

How many of us keep paper bags? Those DFS bags, or Taka bags, or any other paper bags? 
And we have LOADS of paper bags, cos they look nice and are more presentable than plastic bags right? 
So useful, and yet, we don't use them. 
And what do we do? We go to NTUC or other super markets to take EVEN MORE plastic bags to throw away our rubbish... 
Cos why? Cos sayang to use nice paper bags to throw rubbish right? 
But if you don't use the paper bags, no matter how useful they look, they are still useless. So how many of us just keep the nice paper bags in the storeroom til they stack up and we end up just throwing the whole bunch away IN ANOTHER plastic bag???

​This idea of useful vs used manifests itself in so many ways...
Great Singapore Sale? 
So many things are on sale, and they all look useful. 
How many people buy stuff just cos it looks useful and cos it's on sale? 
Only to keep them in the storeroom after purchase? Or maybe use it once or twice and then it's kept and never opened again? 

Would you rather buy something that seems useful but you don't use it for 50% discount? OR even 100% discount? But end up not using.
Or would you rather buy something that you would use but it costs 10% more? 
Of course best is buy something useful that I would use at 100% discount. 

But for most people, a lot of people buy stuff that they don't use at 50% discount. 
And they don't use a lot of things. 
But IF I really need it, I'm ok to buy something at 10%-20% premium. Cos I know I will use it. 
The amount of money wasted buying many useless things at a discount, vs I buy ONLY 1 thing that I use well at a premium... there's no comparison that overall I've spent less money. 
(Although it's highly likely I won't come down to that situation but I would if I needed to.)

I've had neighbours who prepared a separate room for guests during their renovation. Cos you never know when parents want to stay over, so they bought another bed for guests, installed another water heater for another bathroom, etc... 
And many of them, after 3 years, they just dispose of the extra bed and maybe convert it into a room for their kids. 

The thing is... a lot of times, we plan so much for things that don't happen. 
Now of course we need to plan for contingencies. That's what insurance and financial planning is for. 
But a lot of times, many people end up buying things that they don't use just cos they like the IDEA of using it, when being sold to by the sales person. But in the end the idea is just a dream, in reality, many people don't change their habits to incorporate the new purchases/habits...

Examples are people who buy a bread maker and tell themselves that they will make healthy bread for their family every day. Sure... it is healthier, some people really do it. But a lot will balk at the clean up after the baking. In the end, just spending a couple of bucks at NTUC to buy bread is just more convenient. 

Or gym memberships. It's always a nice dream to exercise and be healthy... but how many people go to gym regularly enough for it to be considered a worthy purchase?

Shoes, bags, clothes, pots and pans, various kitchen appliances, that blender that's never been used, the list is long...

So bear in mind when you buy something, buy something that you will use, and not buy something that is useful. Cos useful doesn't mean that it will be used. Even if the item is free... keeping useful but unused items will end up being clutter and clutter isn't good for the living environment. 

USEFUL ITEMS VS ITEMS IN USE... Remember the difference.


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