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Early Retirement SG

Have we forgotten how to relax?

29/7/2019

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-28/extreme-work-cults-15-hour-weeks-and-nordic-ceo-vacation-habits

Extreme Work Cults, 15-Hour Weeks and Nordic CEO Vacation Habits
By Hanna Hoikkala , Niclas Rolander , and Leo Laikola
July 28, 2019, 6:00 AM GMT+2


By about 2030, people will probably only work 15 hours a week.

It seems clear now that the famous prediction, made by John Maynard Keynes in 1930, is unlikely to come true. But the cult of excessive work may also have had its day.

In Scandinavia, where people are currently enjoying up to four weeks of uninterrupted, legally protected, paid summer vacation, many of the region’s biggest companies say they’re keen to shield their employees from too much work. Firms contacted by Bloomberg warned of the danger to productivity if staff aren’t allowed to switch off, and highlighted the importance of having management teams set the tone by taking a long break.

Skanska AB, one of Sweden’s biggest construction companies, says it tells staff to “disconnect from the job” during their summer break. There’s a “strong link” between well-being and performance, spokesman Jacob Birkeland said. And that’s “largely about being able to relax when away from work.”

At SEB AB, one of the biggest Nordic banks and top trading hubs for the Swedish krona, managers are expected to play a “key role” in supporting the vacation culture by “setting a good example” in taking the allocated days, spokeswoman Veronika Osmund says.

Defining the Minimum
Sweden, the biggest Scandinavian economy, requires companies to let employees take at least five paid weeks off a year, though many industries are regulated by collective agreements, which often result in more free time. Similar arrangements exist across the rest of the region. The European average annual holiday allowance is four weeks.

In the U.S., the companies that offer paid vacation tend to follow a progressive format, whereby new hires earn days off the longer they work. A 2018 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that U.S. private industry workers got an average of 15 paid vacation days a year, after half a decade of service.

Legislators in Scandinavia have decided that 15 days a year just isn’t enough to keep the employed population healthy and productive. That attitude dominates across the corporate sphere, and all major companies contacted by Bloomberg voiced the idea that overwork is harmful to a healthy corporate environment. That’s backed by studies showing that employees who feel overworked are less productive.

At Sandvik AB, an engineering group, management doesn’t want people to take less than four weeks of paid vacation a year. “We feel that it’s important to facilitate a work-life balance for all employees, including senior management,” spokesman Martin Blomgren said.

Six Weeks
The top executives and others working at GN Store Nord A/S, a Danish hearing aid maker whose stock has tripled in the last three years, get six weeks off a year, and are encouraged to make sure they take the time, according to spokesman Steen Frentz Laursen.

SSAB AB, which makes steel plates, says that on top of having decent breaks, it’s also important to make sure staff don’t work too hard. Even taking a long vacation “can’t compensate for an unreasonably high workload during the remainder of the year,” spokeswoman Mia Widell said.

Most of the top executives Bloomberg tried to contact for comment were unavailable, due to the summer break. And in most cases, companies insisted their top people not be disturbed during their vacations. Veli-Matti Mattila, the chief executive officer of Finnish telecoms company Elisa Oyj, is just one of several CEOs who doesn’t answer questions in the middle of his four-week break.

“We think that executives need to take a break as well,” said Elisa spokeswoman Katiye Vuorela. “And have holidays in order to relax.”

Or as Keynes put it in his 1930 essay titled, Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren: “We have been trained too long to strive and not to enjoy.”

— With assistance by Christian Wienberg, and Kati Pohjanpalo
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-28/extreme-work-cults-15-hour-weeks-and-nordic-ceo-vacation-habits
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How much more do I need to say? 
When people think that lack of productivity, relaxing is for losers? 
Is life and our time just a scorecard on how much money we have earned? Or how much productivity we have produced?
I think we really have not been exposed to other forms of living and other cultures about life and work. 
Singapore really is just a pressure cooker. 


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What makes a good life? What makes us happy?

26/7/2019

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I haven't been posting much. Life has pretty much settled down for me into a nice routine. 
Nothing wrong with that. It is a nice routine. Things are stable and everything. 
So I've been watching some lessons about life, science, math, etc... 

And I chanced upon this clip. It's really good. 
It's about a 75 year research. And if you think... oh SG is so expensive, life isn't the same as 75 years ago, etc... well... every generation has their own issues, our parents had their issues when they were growing up, and we will have our own different issues, and our children will have their own unique issues. 

But in the end... is it money and fame that makes people happy and healthy when we grow old?

It's so easy to be caught up with what we see in the media, we need to be rich, beautiful, famous to be happy, we need to be productive all the time, we can't stop and relax and chill, that's for losers, we can't waste time, etc...

And with all those social influencers, we see their picture perfect lives, on big boats, or pretty resorts and we think that's what it means to be successful and what will make us happy...

Why do we look at things that we don't have that we think will make us happy? Cos it's easy to show? Cos it's easy to see in other peoples' news feed? 

But... is it really so complicated?


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Is Value ALWAYS Valuable?

15/7/2019

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This is a strange idea... 
Most of us like discounts. Especially for things that we use. 
Like if we buy 2 chicken for the price of 1. That's a good deal right? 
We can eat one chicken today and eat another chicken tomorrow. 

But... is this always true? 

​When I was fixing my laptop...

I was offered this deal.
1 TB Hard disk + repair = $120

500 GB + repair = $110
Just for $10 more, I could get 500GB more of storage space in my laptop...
But yet I chose to only spend $110... Cos... even though there is more value, I would not use it.
It's not like the chicken where I can eat it tomorrow. Basically, even IF I bought a bigger hard disk, I would still not utilize the additional space. 

Recently, in Paris, I got myself a mobile line, so I can be contacted if I go out and use data IF I go out. Even though I don't go out often, it's always good just in case to have a mobile line for emergencies, it's kinda like insurance. Never know when I need it. 
But, I typically spend a lot of time at home. And I have signed up for home data plan. So 95% of the time I can be reached via WhatsApp. But we decided that it's good to have a mobile line anyway, in case I need to run errands or something...

And I got offered this amazing deal...
5GB data + 2 hours talk time = €4.99
40GB data + unlimited talk time = €9.99

​WOAH! 40GB for ONLY €9.99, with unlimited talk time! We don't even get that in SG. And there's no contract. It's just a SIM only plan which can be cancelled anytime. It's quite an insane deal.
But yet, once again. It's not a chicken... I can't eat it tomorrow. 
Even if I have a great deal at €9.99, I will never use 40GB of data. Even in SG I use only 1 GB of data and in SG I go out more often.
So similarly, I only subscribed to the €4.99 plan. Cos, I simply do not need that additional data. And by doing so, I save €5 per month.
The thing is, just cos it's a good deal, doesn't mean you/I need to get it. It's whether we actually need the product. Some products can be consumed another day, like the chicken. But some products/services will never be consumed. 
Even though it's relatively cheaper for the "amount" of services I can get, IF I don't use it, it becomes absolutely more expensive. 

There's probably a lot of other examples which pop up in life. And I think it's prudent or interesting to note how our minds look at value. Cos, sometimes, we are so inclined to buy it, even though we don't need it, just cos it's "good value"... and truth be told, I almost subscribed to the €9.99 plan... cos it's really so "cheap" even in S$ terms.


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Doing more with less

11/7/2019

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Doing more with less, or rather, making the best of what you have.

I didn't realize this, or rather, I didn't think much about it.
The thing about freegan living is that... well, I don't get exactly what I want, and I don't get spices and a lot of other condiments and stuff. So yes, I do have so buy some. I try not to buy too much variety cos most of the time, people buy different types of condiments but end up not using them. They use it for one recipe then they keep it in the cupboard for months cos it's not a common condiment or sauce or spice. 

Anyway... cos I've been living a low spending livestyle and I try to get stuff for free. For my cooking, I get random stuff. And the challenge is... what can I do with these stuff. And I like the challenge of getting the free stuff and getting ideas online and making do with that I have and mixing ingredients to see if they work, and thinking of free substitutes IF I don't have the ingredients. 
And I like this as a challenge. Trying to do more with less. 

I know people who may think, "OK I'm going to cook XXX for dinner today...". Then they go to Pasir Panjang to look for ingredients and if they don't get those specific ingredients, they just go to the supermarket and buy, cos they couldn't get exactly what they want. 
Nothing wrong with that. Most people do that. Most people buy stuff from the supermarket. 

For me, I like to go to get free food. I go and take what I can get then from that bunch, I'll think... "Hmmm... ok now that I have these, WHAT can I do with them... " and I go online and read up what flavours match with what flavours or what is good to mix with what.

And I realized this difference happens very often in other aspects of life. 

I know friends who think... "Oh I feel like eating XYZ today." So they go to that restaurant. IF there is a discount on that day, then lucky, else, it's ok, they don't mind paying full price.

Whereas, on weekends, when I was in SG, I would look at the list of promos and choose a place I would like to go which has a promo, and if there's no promo, it's ok. I can go elsewhere and wait for a promo to eat at a particular restaurant. 

Both ways of spending is fine... I'm just noting a difference on how I view things vs how many of my friends view things. 

Or take even the idea of retirement. 
Many people lament. "Oh I don't have enough money, I don't have this, I need to buy this, etc etc...". So they put off retirement or they feel that they are too financially insecure to retire. 

But I'm ok with working with less. I don't have a lot in my assets. But for me, I feel that that's enough. I'm willing to work around that and make other changes to work within those parameters. 

Now, I'm not saying any of these ways are wrong. It's just different mentality.
I'm willing to make changes and experience some inconvenience to lower my cost.
For others, they may want something immediately and they don't mind the cost. That's fine.

The worst is when people want the best of BOTH worlds.
They want free food but they want EXACTLY what they want. 
Or they expect food to be cheap but using good ingredients with good service.
Or they complain that they cannot retire when they have expensive lifestyles. 

Many things in life, it's a trade off. The only thing that's in our own hands, is HOW to make the trade off better for yourself.
For example, I may not get great ingredients for my cooking for free, so I learn how to use simple ingredients to make nicer tasting food. Not best, but good enough for what I'm given.
Or I may not have the best job, but HOW, can I make the job as bearable as possible to farm the job for the money so that I can move out after X number of years. 

And everyday, we are given these choices. If we are lazy, or refuse to change and adapt, then we just have to pay for our decisions. If we want convenience, then just pay for it. Or if we want to do things our way, keep living the same lifestyle... That's fine. Nothing wrong with that. But someone who complains about the cost of their choice... Now... THAT is also NO problem. Cos... at the end of the day... his problem is not my problem. 
If someone wants to live an expensive lifestyle and in the end cannot retire and he complains or grumbles about it... Doesn't affect me right? So no issue for me also. 

What's important is for me to take ownership of my own life and my own decisions and make the best of what I am given. The small decisions and steps all add up eventually in the long run.


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Mind Control! Are you being manipulated?

10/7/2019

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We always think we are ... free people... able to process independent thoughts...
But... how true is that? We already know we aren't rational. People buy stuff based on emotions, feelings. Not logic and value. 

Of course these manipulative tactics don't work on everyone. But sales is a numbers game. 100 people walk into a store, maybe 5% buys something... so marketing folks just need to get the numbers up... maybe get 200 people into the store? Or try to make 10% people buy something... 
Or make the 5% spend more...

Here's a clip talking about such things.
I'm not going to talk much about the clip. I'm sure just by watching it, you know what they are talking about...

You see... humans are strange creatures. We place value on perception. 
Now, I believe better quality might result in a more expensive product cos it may take more resources to make. And maybe sometimes a good product is better. No harm with spending a bit more and buying a better product... IF it really is better. 

Sometimes, we are presented with a choice of a good product and a good+ product. Meaning the good+ is slightly better than good... you know like when we talk about grades... B and B+.
But a lot of times good+ is retailed at maybe 50% more expensive than good. Is this really worth it?

And sometimes, a product is just expensive for the sake of it... Humans equate expensive with better quality... better quality is usually expensive. But not everything that is more expensive is better quality. Problem is... do people really know the difference? 
After buying the item, can they feel the difference in quality? Or are they telling themselves that?

I really hate marketing. Cos it takes advantage of people. It unnecessarily increases consumption. Makes people spend more for things that people need, like food and the idea of "premium" food... and spend more by buying things that they don't need.
But it's a fine line. Cos without marketing, we also won't know other products and services which MAY REALLY help make our lives happier and easier. 

When marketers are tapping into our subconsciousness to make us do things that THEY want us to do. Isn't that a form of mind control? Sure. It might not work on everyone. But I'm sure everyone has fallen to the tricks of marketers at least once or more in their lives. 


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It's not a holiday in Paris

9/7/2019

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​So I've been in Paris for around 3+ weeks. 

And the thing I would say... it's not a holiday...
No, I'm not suffering. I'm living quite well really. But if people are thinking that life is a holiday just cos I'm overseas, then I think they don't know what I'm here for. I'm not here to enjoy myself. It's living in another country. Same as in Singapore. 
My life is minimally different from what I have in Singapore. 
My wife goes to work, I go and get food. Cook, (if you cook, you'll realize that prepping food takes a long time), clean, type my blog, read news, etc...

But I'm not here on a holiday... So I'm not visiting the Louvre, Effiel Tower, Notre Dame, etc... Like how many times am I supposed to visit those places? We're planning to travel to smaller places of interest maybe once or twice a month. Similar to our weekends in Singapore, we don't go out and wander much, we spend a lot of time at home or visiting parents/in-laws. So we aren't going to be doing anything out of the ordinary. 

Going out costs money. And in Paris, going out costs a lot of money. So I'm not going to change my lifestyle just cos I'm living in another country. I'm the same person, just different location. 

We do intend to travel around Europe a bit, cos we save on flights. It's like when in SG, we fly around Asia for holidays, cos it's cheaper. Similarly, now that we are in Europe, we'll probably travel around the region once or twice a year. Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and we'll visit Singapore every few months too. 

I go back to my past and I think about my feelings about moving overseas and migrating. 
Well... there's really not much difference between countries. Let's not look at countries with internal strife and war torn countries. 
But... well... most countries are similar. Everyone tries to make a living. If you Work and spend less, then life is simple. If you want more and spend more, then life gets harder. Everyone lives roughly around the same way. 
I used to cook everyday in Singapore, so cooking everyday now is pretty much normal.
If I am used to eating out in Singapore, then that would be a problem, cos in Singapore, I could get a meal for less than $5. But the cheapest lunch I can get is a sandwich at €5, and it's a miserable lunch. A cold sandwich, everyday... That's it. There is no cheaper food for a cheap lunch.
Most offices have a cafeteria where they serve highly subsidized food for staff, which is reasonable, considering it's not sustainable for staff to be eating out everyday. My wife gets a warm meal for less than €5 everyday with dessert. 

Transport is a bit expensive. I went to a small town around 45 minutes away. The train ride cost me around €9 for the ride there and back. And some people stay in this town and travel to work, so imagine €9 expense EVERYDAY just on train rides. BUT... they also have a monthly pass, which is €75 per month and it's unlimited travel. Furthermore, most companies subsidize half of the cost of the transport pass every month, so that's not too bad too. 
Looks like the company benefits are quite good here.

After some research, the pay here is around €50k per year. That's around €4,200 per month BEFORE tax. So if we estimate 30%-40% tax, we're looking at €2,520-€2,940 disposable income per month. 
After deducting rent, insurance, utilities, phone/internet bills, transport, food... there's really not very much left. It's manageable living frugally, maybe a bit of luxuries once in awhile, but... life isn't like a party everyday. 
Simply put... everyone has their own struggles. Same same, but different country. 

I'll end by showing some of the food I obtain for free on a regular basis. 
I get fruits and veges 3 times a week and bread around 3-4 times a week depending on whether I need them or not. 
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What Credit Card Should I Use?

5/7/2019

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Ok so Dexter, one of the co-founders of Whatcard.sg contacted me and just highlighted that he and his pals have a page which he hoped that I could share...

So I was like... $$$... maybe I could make a couple of bucks out of this. 
Like should I ask for some endorsement... you know... free meal... whatever...

Then I flipped thru the site and I was thinking... hmmm... what if we aren't able to come to a conclusion, like what if he's just asking for a favour and he's not thinking about sponsoring...

So I thought to myself... would I hold out on my readers on this service/website, if I don't get any money out of it? 
And the answer is... No... Cos I think this service is quite good.

So, no I didn't go and ask them for any kinda monetary benefits.
And I decided to do a post on it anyway. Cos it's useful.

The website  Whatcard.sg is pretty cool.
This basically shows merchants and the options you can use to pay for it. 
It has a miles option or a cashback option. 
So users can just key in the name of the place they are buying from and check what card is reasonable for them to use. 
Now, of course some cards require a minimum spend. So users will still need to monitor whether they hit the minimum before they get the miles or rebates. 

They use the merchant's MCC code, which is what card companies use to determine the kind of service provided by the merchant and give the rebates based on the code. 
I don't really know how accurate the data is, or how many merchants are inside, I did some searches for NTUC, AirFrance, Singapore Airlines, AirAsia, Pizza Hut, 7-11, etc... and the merchants show up with the credit cards and the respective rebates awarded. 

1) I think it would be quite useful if you want to make a big ticket purchase and want to know what's the best card to use for a once off purchase...
2) Probably also useful if you have the top 10 merchants you go to within a month, then you can shortlist the best cards from the list and see which card you want to hit the minimum spending on. 
3) Also good for people who are playing the Miles game. I wrote about Miles in 2 articles last time, you'll need to read both to get a feel of what Miles is about. (Reward Miles, Reward Miles... Going the extra mile)

UOB One card isn't on the list though, cos it gives a flat 3.33% or 5% rebate for 3 months of consecutive spending so I think there isn't really an easy way to put that into their list. 
Strangely OCBC 365 is not on the list as well. That card gives some of the best rebates and I use it quite often for my flights, so I'm quite stunned that it's not in the list. 

So go and have a look if you're interested. It might save you a lot of hassle if you're planning on going for a trip or planning on which card is most useful for accumulating Miles.


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Going to the More Expensive Supermarket to Save Money

4/7/2019

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I go to the supermarket once in awhile to buy stuff that I can't really get for free.
Like salt, some butter, pasta, detergent, etc...

There is a big supermarket 3 train stations away from where I stay. Here, things are cheaper. It's a big 2 storey supermarket. Something like Giant at tampines.

Then there's another supermarket, which is considered the more atas supermarket chain in Paris. Probably something like Cold Storage. Selling some things which are better quality and some things which are the same but at a more expensive price...

I've bought stuff at both the supermarkets.
After some calculation, I realized that logically, I should be buying from the more expensive supermarket. 

Butter (President brand 250gm) at the cheaper supermarket is EUR2.10.
Butter at the more expensive supermarket is EUR2.19.

Both sell dried pasta that I use for under EUR1 per kilo.

The thing is... Firstly, I buy very little things. The price variation for the stuff that I need is very low, around 5-10%. 
The price variation of fresh food, vegetables, fruits, meat, seem to be more, but I don't buy such stuff. 

So considering that I don't buy much stuff, and I don't go frequently, it's actually more worth it for me to buy stuff at the more expensive supermarket. Cos transport to the cheaper supermarket costs EUR2.90. Considering that I'm likely going to buy stuff maybe once a month or less once my shipment of consumables arrive, and not much stuff per trip. My savings would not make up for my transport cost. 

I COULD... buy in bulk and save in the long run... But, that's just ridiculous. I'm not going to keep 10 blocks of butter stored in the fridge or 10kg of pasta. It's not like my apartment is big and I can store all these stuff easily. 

Incidentally, I also use less shampoo and bath gel, cos I bathe once per 2 to 3 days... No, I don't stink. The thing is, in dry weather, bathing too much with shampoo and bath gel makes my skin dry and I tend to get eczema. So now, my bathing supplies can last twice as long. 
Don't try to do this in Singapore though... it's humid and sweaty and... nvm...

Hmmm.... I do think that the idea that everything is expensive in Paris is flawed... Eating out is exceptionally expensive, rent in central Paris is pretty expensive, but general living outside of central Paris is affordable... It's like staying at Clementi or Punggol and travelling to work at Shenton way. One end of Paris to the other end of Paris is like 12-15km across so it's really a small area. So it's not surprising that it's going to be expensive. It's like if you live in Orchard road or Shenton way area.


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Paris Expense Update 14 - 30 June 2019

1/7/2019

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Picture
Okay! 
I've started tracking expenses again cos I'm in Paris and it's going to be interesting to see how much I spend when I'm here. 
Note that this month's expenses will be quite messed up cos I've been here for only half a month but some of the expenses here are also from my fixed expenses in SG. I've stopped tracking my SG discretionary expenses so I don't have those numbers. 
So the expenses this month will be just a feel/estimate of what my expenses will be like the next few months. 

So let's just look at the Paris expense for this month ONLY, cos that's pretty accurate for these past 2 weeks.

Food was EUR134.19
Quite high, cos we went out to eat a few times. 
Most notably a steak at $53 and a burger at $21.
If we remove this, the total drops to EUR60.19.
This includes some supermarket shopping for some basic groceries (salt, pepper, etc), and some days of light eating out.
Nonetheless, there's a good chance that this will drop next month, cos I won't be buying much more groceries cos I've stocked up already and chances are we won't be eating out at expensive places much as well cos... Somehow it just doesn't taste that nice at that price. 

Toiletries was EUR21.50
Not too bad, needed to get some shampoo, knife, battery, detergent. 
Again, this should drop once my shipment comes over, cos I already have detergent and other toiletries on the way.

Transport was EUR55.50
This is purely my transport expenses. My wife's transport expense is covered by her company.
This is like a top-up card so this EUR55.50 can probably last me the rest of July as well. 

Misc expense was EUR179.
Quite expensive. We need to do an inspection of the gas heater in the apartment every year at EUR176. It's mandatory to do an inspection once per year. We could probably do it at a cheaper rate but the landlord was using this company so we just engaged the same company to do it for us. 
Another EUR3 was spent on taking photos for her resident application. Quite cheap. EUR3 for 8 passport sized pictures. In SG we get 4 pictures for S$8. 

Paris Home Internet is EUR43.90
EUR14.90 per month, but there is a set up cost of EUR29 for the first month.
I signed up for the cheapest connection. ADSL, not fiber. It's good enough to stream movies so... no complaints yet. 

I haven't signed up for my own mobile line yet. It's likely going to be EUR4.99 per month for 5GB data and a EUR10 charge for the SIM card. This should show up in July bill. 

Paris utilities is estimated at EUR75
This was taken from online sources. Cos I haven't gotten my bill yet. This pays for electricity and gas.
Water is part of the rental contract. It's part of the building costs apparently. 

My wife eats at her office canteen at EUR26.24
She gets really good stuff, like restaurant steaks and pasta and even dessert. It's highly subsidized for staff. Cos eating out around her area is ridiculously expensive.
She can get a meal with dessert for around EUR3-5, but eating out at her office area is going to cost around EUR8 for a sandwich/sub, for EUR20+ for a sit down meal.

In Singapore most of my fixed expenses are still running. 
I closed my M1 home internet cos there's no way to pause the contract. 
And my SP services is also still running cos my fridge is running and my mother in law goes back to my place to turn on the air conditioning every few weeks for a short period to make sure that the appliances don't spoil in my absence. 

My wife's rent, transport and mobile plan are covered by the company.
I've included it in the table so that by the next few months, we can see how much it costs to live in Paris as a fairly normal frugal person. Note that we could get a cheaper apartment further out of the city if we were paying rent for ourselves. But since it's covered by the company we got a place as close to her office as possible within the company budget.

Note, all these numbers are in EUR, I've given the SGD equivalent using the exchange rate of EUR1=SGD1.60. This is a bit high, but since I'm using my Singapore credit card to pay for most of my stuff, that's the exchange rate that I'll be facing. 


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2 Comments
    This is the link to my first post... how it all started...
    ​

    Mindset changes
    throughout the years


    How I make use of my wife

    An Interesting Email

    Author

    Male, born in 1982. 
    INTP
    Graduated with a degree majoring in Banking & Finance, Financial Adviser for a period of time resulting in in-depth knowledge of insurance products and marketing techniques of the industry.

    Inspired by MMM and ERE.

    Decided to embark on a mission to retire early in Singapore, a place where such an idea is considered impossible. As I believe that life has a lot more to offer instead of just a working career. I've decided to start a blog to note down my journey to achieve this mission and help others along the way who are willing to listen and try doing things differently from everyone else.

    I have decided to remain anonymous until I finally am able to actually retire, reason being that this idea might not gel well with the company which I am working for currently and also to avoid real life flaming from people who say that such ideas are impossible and that an individual is lazy for choosing early retirement instead of contributing to society in the form of labour.

    More about me.
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