I had a really boring day today. I went to the outskirts of Perth. I bought the day pass again and took train rides hoping to see more exciting things.

Well... Nope...
Here's a map of the train routes.
I went to all the end stations...
Except for the end of the yellow line. I was lazy. I stopped at Thornlie which is halfway.

Mainly, all I see are rows and rows of houses.
There's some shops around... And along the train ride there are factories and wood lands, and the occasional 'mall', it's like IKEA but for other stuff.

What was interesting is when I got Midland. Which is the last stop for the purple line.
There was a supermarket there as well...
And here are the prices....

You'd think that if I left central Perth, the prices would get cheaper? Well doesn't look like it. If you compare these pictures with yesterday's pics. There's almost no difference. It surprise d me... Really. I had expected some cheaper food and maybe in larger packaging. But nope. All the same.

The rest of my time on the train I was just pretty much seeing these for hours...
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Rows and rows of houses...
And trees...

Home prices in the outskirts aren't cheap as well.
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​Mortgage rates are high... Hey but at least they own their own homes at the end...

Well long story short.
Today was pretty boring.
If you want to do some shopping, then it's mainly found in Perth City, Fremantle, and maybe Joondalup, which has quite a large number of shops and is quite a large retail center.

I do recommend Joondalup, cos it's a novel area. But it's hard to get around. Cos the retail buildings are quite stand alone and you have to walk very far, so a vehicle would be good.

Besides these, I think the other attractions are the usual ones, wildlife parks, sand dunes, vineyards, etc...

But as I think about it.
If we don't visit the zoo often, would local Australians visit their wildlife parks often?
I reckon they would probably love their lives very similar to us.
Work, home, and some simple weekend activities.

Same same in every country.


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Second day in Perth.
Heard from my wife that yesterday during lunch time, no one accompanied her to eat. They all had prepacked food and they just heated it up and ate in office.
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Which pretty much confirms yesterday's post that the food here is really very very expensive.
Either that or people are lazy to go out to eat, which I think isn't really possible cos there are free buses around Perth. So it's quite convenient.

So I packed food for my wife for her lunch. I bring plastic containers with me nowadays. It's a Freegan habit. So I had some plastic containers to pack lunch for my wife. Some bread, ham, canned corn and instant soup.
Will probably continue to do so for the next few days when she's working. Not so much due to the cost, but rather she doesn't want to walk to go out to eat.

Today I bought a day pass which is AUD12.80 and I can take train the whole day. I think I can take all buses as well, but I didn't try it.

Took to some suburban areas... They really are what we see in TV shows. Just rows and rows of houses.
Not many shops in sight.
I kinda appreciate how Singapore clusters the homes. We have a central mrt station, like bedok and there's a mall there and food and groceries and the HDBs are all around the mall and shops.

It's not like that in Perth. When I come out of the train station, it's a parking lot. A big one. Cos people drive from their homes to the train station and take train to work.
Beyond the carpark are the homes. Usually 1-2 floors. Some people have converted their homes into shops. But it's mainly a quiet town.
And I realize it's all around...
That's what's life in Perth is about.

It's not about kangaroos and koalas, or sand dunes or wine...
Just like every country, people work and struggle. And there are very few fun places. There are a attractions... But mainly people work. They go home, and go to work. So the train stations stop at places where people stay.
That's life.

The percentage of entertainment areas vs housing and work areas... Of course there's significantly more housing and working areas.

As I grow older I tend to see the normalcy of life across all countries. It's not fun and games all the time. People work everywhere. Most of the time when people travel, they just see the attractions, and fail to realize. Life is the same everywhere.
I know people who are so infatuated with Japan cos they only see the stuff they see during trips and on TV, and they fail to realize that life there is a struggle as well.
It's the same in every country.

I do think countries that have a lot of land tend to squander the land. When I see 100 houses side by side and this means the last guy needs to walk quite far from the train station. I'm thinking, hey why not build a tall apartment and everyone can stay just beside the train station.
But oh well, it's a different life here. People like to have their garden and such.

The lifestyle here is pretty nice too. It's really common for people to say, "hi how're you doing?" No people aren't waiting for a reply, it's just a greeting.
But it's nice. Like I walked past people in the park and they smile and say "hi". It's nice.

Cars drive slower. There are less traffic lights in the suburbs. There are less cars and they tend to give way to pedestrians.

That's it for today. It was pretty tiring travelling from suburb to suburb and seeing the same thing... Dinner is just going to be a sandwich with some chicken mayo spread from the super market and some instant soup. What to do... Food so expensive. Wife is eating with colleagues tonight. I'll probably spend more on those days when my wife isn't working.

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*Add on
I went to a couple of supermarkets.
It's not significantly cheaper than in Singapore. Some things are cheaper. Some things are more expensive. So I would say groceries cost about the same as in Singapore depending on what you buy.
That's expected.

In Singapore, if you prepare your own food, vs going to eat at the hawker center, it's about the same cost.
However, in Perth, if you compare and say you prepare your own food, then yes, food is definitely a lot cheaper if you prepare your own food as compared to eating out.

Pictures are below of the prices of items in a super market in the middle of town. It is crowded and shelves are often emptied by shoppers. So don't say I shouldn't be comparing such prices. Cos people, like many of us, don't have time or are lazy to go to other places to buy.

Why don't Singaporeans go Pasir Panjang Wholesale center to buy cheap food in bulk? Same reasons ok.

You all can compare prices yourself via the pictures below, cos some people eat more meat, or more veg. Or for people like me. I don't even spend money on groceries.
So everyone is different in their consumption. So best for readers tp compare for themselves.

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I landed in Perth on Saturday.
It's gonna be quite a long trip. 9 days. As usual she's working half the time and I'll have to explore a bit on my own.

The first thing that struck me when I got here is how expensive the food is.

I mean food here is more expensive than in Paris.
Which I find absolutely amazing.

If you account for exchange rate, Paris food is more expensive. But that's not how you're supposed to look at cost of living in most countries.
Singaporeans earn S$3000, they go to Malaysia and think everything is cheap. But many don't realize. Malaysian earn less than MYR3000.

Similarly, in Australia, or Europe, people earn AUD or EUR, 3000. So when we go to other countries we aren't really supposed to do a FX conversion.

Like in Singapore. You earn S$3000, you can get a meal for S$3.
In Paris, I can get a sandwich for around €5, and it's easy to find.
In Perth, I can hardly find a cheap enough meal. A sandwich is AUD6+, and I can hardly find such places. It's really not so easy to find cheap eats here.

Fish and chips is AUD15-18. That's the price of a normal meal here. There's little options under AUD10.

Today is my first day on my own. I managed to find a supermarket selling "reduced to clear" sandwiches at half price. So I grabbed 3 packs for breakfast lunch and snack. Total cost AUD8. Which is not too bad already for almost the whole day meal.

Dinner is going to be expensive again. But we usually share a meal cos she can't finish a whole meal anyway.

I'm expecting expenses to be running high this month mainly due to food and transport over here for the 9 days. And we are planning on having a day tour as well.

Transport is expensive as well. A 30 min train ride from Perth city to Fremantle... 4 tickets. 2 Tix to Fremantle, 2 Tix back... Costs AUD19... That's almost AUD5 per trip. That's freaking expensive!!!
Perth city isn't as historical as Paris so I dont have as many things to see as when I was in France. But I'll probably venture further out tomorrow and explore a bit more.


Anyway... That's all for today...
Although I now seriously wonder...
With such a high tax rate, high food and transport cost, how the heck do these people save up to buy their own place and to retire?!?!
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It's probably really tough.


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It crops up now and then. 
Like the Joseph Schooling thing, or now the Ben Davis thing...
Or when Singapore wanted to be in the World Cup... 

Ok... so I understand how the system works and why they do it. Like, if they allow people to start deferring over all kinds of different matters, then they expect to open the flood gates for many other people to do so. 
That's only partially true. 

If people only looked at just results, then companies like Facebook, Tesla, would have failed miserably. 
That's the thing isn't it. 
Sometimes, we have to look at the potential of something. And I think it's really lacking. 

A lot of us, or even the system. Wants returns so so badly, that they aren't willing to make the "investment", time, energy, money, to foster and nurture their seeds. 
That's what some types of investment are. Like private equity. They are moon shots. One in a million. But you have to try, you have to put down your investments. Else don't even bother talking about it. 

If you don't plant seeds, you won't have trees. After you plant the seeds, some trees will grow, others won't. Some trees will grow bigger, others won't, and eventually, you may end up with a few big trees. 
People who do sales know this. They do cold calls or whatever, it's a filter. Some are interested, some aren't eventually, talk to enough people and have some good sales technique and they get a sale. 

Similarly, if Singapore wants to win awards, they have to have a good system to train athletes, AND actually have athletes to train and give them the runway to develop and succeed. 

It's just a lame reason to say... "Oh if we allow this then everyone is going to do it..."
That's not going to happen. There's only going to be a handful of people who are going to be fairly good and interested to pursue sports as a career. Eh really... if I ask any of you to pick a sport which you think you could have done relatively well in. Most of us wouldn't know what to answer. 
And as a country, I think we should support them, IF we decide that we want to build a healthy sports culture. Else just stop talking about it. Cos it's just BS. 
It's like asking for a low risk high return investment. That's just rubbish. 

And even if these folks don't entirely succeed on the international stage, they can come back and train our next generation of athletes. It's a long process if we want to build a healthy sports or arts culture. 

We need people to start the journey. Walk 10%-20% of the way, then train the next generation to go the next 30%-50% and keep going. We can't expect people to go from 0% to 100% all at once. Joseph Schooling is a one shot. It's not always going to happen. 
What happened to our ping pong investments? They ended up with nothing. Why? Cos we don't have a robust foundation of people who have walked 10%-50%-80% of the way. When these "key" people leave, we have nothing left, no one left to train the next generation. 

IF/WHEN Joseph Schooling comes back to train Singapore's next generation of swimmers... 
Would potential winners be blocked once again? Like he himself once was? 
Is this how to treat our so called "talents", by hindering their growth potential? 
Then let's not even bother trying to develop any form of sports success cos that's not how it works.
Even if they don't win any medals? So what? You'll need people with the experience to train the next generation. It has to start somewhere. 

How do you build generation after generation of people passionate about sports and arts and culture? 
When an ex-Prime Minister feels that only people who earn more than $500,000 are good people who are suitable to lead Singapore?

Isn't this what we always talk about? Not all expensive things are good? Not all cheap things are bad? 
Would a good military leader make a good politician? 
What about an economist? Or scientist? Or engineer? They don't make $500,000 a year, but they may have insights to what's important in the future and lead the country in the right way. 
I'm sure Tin Pei Ling didn't earn $500,000 before she started her political career. So I reckon that the government hires really really mediocre people if we were to think in the same way as how our ex-PM thinks.
But they gave her a chance and it appears she's doing pretty well in politics. 

So you see, it's really not always about results and numbers. I think if Singaporeans and/or the government wants to develop a sports or arts culture or technological hub, they really need to walk the talk and be willing to open the gates for to allow people to develop. Or at least not block the way. 

Which is quite telling about Singaporeans and the way it's being led...
Cos think about it... we are "trained" by the government to always think about returns and results.
And... now we have a falling birth rate... which isn't really unexpected right? 
Kids aren't a good investment, low/unexpected returns/results. 
So how? Don't make that investment lor. So people don't have kids. 
But having kids is a life choice for some people, so some people still choose to have kids. 
But for a large number of Singaporeans who have been programmed this way... Low returns/no returns. Then have kids for what? 

Same thinking no? 


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Ok, now this is more of a question rather than a post. 

Cos I really don't know.
For my wife and I, we visit both our parents on Saturday, and on Sunday, we just hang around at home and eat whatever I have in the fridge. Basically free food which I've collected for the week. 
So we hardly spend much even on weekends. 

And so I wonder... what DO people do on weekends? 
The typical thing that crosses my mind is...
Well I suppose a whole bunch of people will go and settle their marketing, and household chores.
A bunch of people will have their weekend cleaners come to their place for 3-4 hours. 

Then of course there's people who will go out and eat nice meals. That's what we used to do last time. 
And I'm pretty sure the movies will be packed and people will spend money on popcorn and drinks. 
When I was younger I'd probably do stuff like this. 
I would probably have gone bowling, played pool or billiards as well... 

I suppose there will be folks who have some form of outdoor activities, like at Sentosa, East Coast, beach activities, picnics, Gardens by the bay, pretty much free outdoor activities.  
Then there will be the usual paid outdoor attractions, like the zoo, Universal Studios, I can't think of anywhere else...
So these would be activities like playing basketball with friends, cycling, etc etc. 

Some people would hang around their clubs, playing golf, tennis, and swimming.

Then parents will also bring their kids to enrichment classes, dance, piano, martial arts, tuition, all the expensive classes... 

Ok, there's church on Sundays, that probably takes up half the day.

And then what? What else do people do on weekends? Is this it? 
Are the rest of the people are just walking around shopping malls and just hanging around? 
Shopping malls are packed on weekends. Orchard, Tampines, Jurong, Nex, Vivo, Bishan, etc...

Is this it? Did I just cover around 80% of the stuff people do on weekends?
Or am I missing out a huge chunk? 
Cos it seems like it's really pretty simple stuff... and yet... these activities don't really cost a lot. 
So my next question becomes... THEN WHERE ELSE DO THEY SPEND THEIR MONEY ON???

Cos when I read that many people don't plan for the future, or many people don't have a lot of savings, or that people don't have an emergency fund... 
I ask myself, where do people spend their money? 

Food isn't really expensive in Singapore. 
Weekend recreation isn't really expensive as well. 
Housing is pretty expensive but most people pay using their CPF. 
So where is all the money going? What do people buy? How do they end up in a situation where they don't have savings or an emergency fund? Or have difficulty accumulating it? 

Would really appreciate some insights from readers. Cos... well I mainly see the world with my own eyes so naturally I'd miss out stuff, and I hang around a few friends and family, so my exposure might not be as much. So it'd be great if we can pool together more experiences and knowledge from other readers here. 

Many thanks!


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I look around Singapore. We're known to be a green city. 
There's greenery all around. It's quite pleasing to the eye.
When I come back from overseas. I take a Grab or cab back, and I see the rows of trees along the PIE or ECP. 
It's pretty... 

If you ask Singaporeans, do they enjoy the trees, I think many people would say it's nice. 

Now, let's ask again. If you could pay 5-10% less tax and we sacrifice those trees. 
How many Singaporeans would want to pay less tax? 
I think a lot more people wouldn't want those trees. 
All these greenery in Singapore has a cost. Maintenance costs money. It comes from our tax dollars. 

Ok, maintenance also creates jobs and creates more tax dollars so there's some additional benefit to having these trees. 

Similarly, if you look around your estate, there's trees and parks. 
Now what if we get rid of those trees and you can pay less conservancy charges? 
Would you prefer to have less trees? Cos trees shed their leaves and this means we have to hire more cleaners to sweep those leaves. 
My estate has one of the highest C&C charges around. 

Currently, there's no choice. The government decides that they want trees, beside our roads, around our HDB estates, etc. And of course we all "enjoy" it. We take it for granted. BUT, most of the time, we don't realize, we ARE paying for all these. 

Look around your house. What extra stuff do you have that's unnecessary? 
My neighbours have come to my place and said it was "sterile", like there's no heart in my house. 
It's true. 
Others have said that it's like a rental flat. 
That's true as well. 
The house was set up to be efficient. Low cost in running. Good and acceptable enough for me to live in. 

Of course there's no right and wrong with this. One can make their house like a castle and feel like they are living in a Victorian castle, or it can be sparse and look like an AirBnB. 
It's a choice. 

Whether we make the best choices or not, it a question mark. 
Cos if we always thought about dollar and cents, then we wouldn't want all those trees around Singapore and probably other aspects as well, like parks and events. 

Although I do wonder, if we had a vote, would we choose to pay less tax and C&C charges without our current greenery, or would most Singaporeans choose to pay more tax and "enjoy" the view. 

I agree that some public good are probably necessities instead of good to have. 
For example, I think street lamps are necessities. Brightly lit areas tend to have lower crime rates. So even if I had the option to pay less tax to reduce the number of street lamps, I'd still choose to pay taxes to have a good number of lit streets. 

Anyway I'm getting draggy. 
Look around your house. Admire what you have bought or renovated or decorated. Cos you paid for it. Don't just take it for granted. Admire it like the first day you moved into the place. 
Similarly, admire the trees, go to parks, and other public services. Cos you also already paid for it, don't just take it for granted. They aren't FREE. People think that they are free, but they aren't. They have already been prepaid with your tax dollars. 

If you paid for a gym membership, most people would want to make full use of the membership right? 
So now, knowing that you paid for the parks and other public facilities, shouldn't you also make full use of all these paid "memberships"?


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SP Services bill came in a couple of day ago. I thought it would be pretty normal.

My average electricity usage has been slightly above 200kWh for the past 5 months. (~$45.41)
This month, my electricity usage is 141kWh = $33.74
A drop of around $12.

My gas usage used to average around 40kWh. (~$7.74)
This month it is 54kWh. ($10.01)
An increase of around $2.50

It was a pleasant surprise to see around a $10 drop in utility bills. 
I had expected a slight change due to changing some habits, but I thought it would be negligible. 
A $10 drop isn't a lot in absolute terms but it's still pretty cool. 

Ok so the change that I did was that I used gas to steam stuff instead of using electricity. 
Previously for many months, whenever I needed to steam anything, I would put water into the rice cooker, put a bowl inside with whatever item, like a bit of bread, and turn on the rice cooker to steam my bread, or whatever. 
In essence, this is using electricity to boil water and steam items. 

Recently, I got a steaming pot. Just $20 at Giant. It's a big pot where I can put a plate of stuff inside and steam things. Well... it's just a big pot, doesn't really need to be a special pot. 
And I've now started using gas to boil the water used for steaming, this is why my gas usage has increased and my electricity usage has dropped. 

I still use the rice cooker to cook rice, but I don't use it to steam miscellaneous stuff, and I steam a lot of stuff, cos that's the main way that I heat up all the leftovers and free food that I get. 

And as we all should know from my previous posts about power usage, it takes a lot of electricity to change temperature. Using electricity to heat things up or cool things down use a lot of power. 

So I attribute my savings to changing my process for steaming food, from using electricity to gas, . Which is really pretty cool, cos it's such a simple change and when I steam in the pot, I can steam more things at once instead of using the smaller rice cooker. It's more convenient and it's faster. I don't know why I didn't bother to make the switch earlier. 

Anyway, I don't want to keep going on about the same topic.
Long story short, I saved $10 off my utility bill just by changing my process to steam things. 
Instead of using the rice cooker to steam things, I now use a big pot and use gas to steam my food. 


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I was reading 15HWW post on owning a car and was inspired to do a write up on my experience owning a car in Singapore. 
I never realized, I didn't really talk about the car in itself. I talked about the petrol savings and stuff like that but never really a holistic view of owning a car. 

**The irony of things is... you actually OWN a car, but you don't OWN your HDB.
BUT, although you own the car, you don't have a right to drive it without a COE.
So... you're still pretty stuck in our sunny Singapore.**

Ok... let's talk about the car in itself. 
A typical car's value in Singapore is pretty much...
Value of car = COE + PARF + Premium/Body price

The "Premium/Body price" is an arbitrary number which will be slowly revealed as you read on.
When you buy a new car from the dealer and you immediately want to scrap it, LTA will pay you back the COE (the COE will drop every day of usage) + PARF (the PARF value will drop every 6 months of usage)
So the "Premium/Body price" is basically the additional you pay to the dealer.

Which is why it's always better to sell your car instead of scrap the car. Cos you can get back a portion of the "Premium/Body price".

When you buy a car which is greater than 10 years. Aka COE car...
Value of car = COE + PARF + Premium/Body price
PARF = 0
Cos LTA won't give you anything back except for the unused COE. 
So if I buy from a second hand dealer, I am paying him for the COE + (the body of the car + some dealer premium) for fixing it up.

Ok moving on.

There's some plus and minuses to buying a new car and 2nd hand car, and not all 2nd hand cars are the same. 
I think it's well known that buying a new car is more expensive generally. 
But there are benefits. You basically have recourse, you can go back to the distributor and make some noise, you get a few years of free maintenance, etc.
Whereas 2nd hand car dealers will probably adjust the mileage, make it look lower than it truly is, the car has probably met with an accident, probably needs some repairs here and there. But the monthly depreciation is lower. 

So it's a give and take. You have to know what you're getting into. 

The first time I bought a car, I was pretty goon-doo. Bought a cheap 2nd hand car Chevrolet Aveo 1.4L.
It was 5-6 years old, terrible. A lot of issues, but maybe I was really aggressive with my driving as well. So I think it's a bit of both. The car wasn't a durable good car and I didn't take care of it well. 
Furthermore, as a newbie, I got chopped at workshops for everything. It's a learning process. 

Before I got my 2nd car, I talked to a couple of neighbours. So I was asking them for a reliable car. 
You see... a car isn't all about cheap. Sometimes, the inconvenience of a repair isn't really worth the stress. Having the car breakdown in the middle of the road, or have a leaky radiator isn't fun. It's scary seeing the heat gauge raise while driving and realizing that the radiator is out of water. 
So I wanted a fairly cheap but reliable vehicle. And my neighbours recommended mainly the Jap cars. Toyota, Honda mainly, which would last for 20 years. 
Jap cars generally also have better fuel consumption.

So my 2nd car, which is my current one, is now a Toyota Altis 1.6L. It was around 10.5 years old when I got it. It is a COE car. 
COE cars typically have the lowest depreciation. But they have a higher road tax. But it's still cheaper. 
We were contemplating between the Toyota Altis vs the Toyota Vios. The Vios is cheaper but the car is pretty light and flimsy, so we decided to get the bigger Altis instead for $2,000 more, over 4.5 years. Or around $37 more per month. 
It's been around 2 years since I bought this car. With no required repairs. *keeping fingers crossed for the next few years* But my driving pattern has also changed, maybe cos I'm older as well. I don't push the car as hard as I used to. 

Personally, I prefer owning an older car. Cos I can choose not to repair things if they can last 1-2 years more. Or if I didn't want the car anymore, I could easily scrap it for the COE value, cos the "Premium/Body price" isn't very high. 
 
It's still a learning process of car ownership so I don't proclaim I know everything there is to know about it. 

​
Learning points :
1) The older the car, the lower the depreciation.
2) For me, buying a reliable vehicle is important. Having to tow away the vehicle or have the vehicle breakdown is inconvenient. 
​3) Don't drive too aggressively.
4) Jap cars are generally more durable, fuel economical.


Moving on to fuel...
I did a post on this previously. 
Most cars do not need top of the line petrol. RON92, 95, 98, VPOWER...
Most cars will do just fine with RON95. 
Yes you might not have as much pick up, but the price premium for better petrol isn't worth the additional acceleration. 

For me, I'm most interested in KM per dollar. Not just KM per liter. 
I've tried all the fuels across SPC, SHELL, ESSO and tabulated them when I bought my 2nd car. Cos now I'm a lot more curious about these things. And I don't want to be a carrot anymore.  

For RON92, my pick up was poor, but the KM/$ was the same as RON95
(statistically insignificant, differences could have been due to driving patterns or road conditions on different days.)
RON95 is the baseline recommended by the manufacturer. Acceptable acceleration, baseline fuel consumption.
RON98 is more expensive, doesn't give much additional pick up and costs around 20% more per KM. It's around 10% more expensive, BUT gives 10% less mileage.

VPOWER (only for SHELL)... now THAT'S a class on it's own... VRROOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

Between the 3 different brands of fuel, SPC, SHELL, ESSO. 
The different grades did not provide any better mileage against each other. 
Meaning SPC's RON95 did not provide anymore mileage vs ESSO's RON95.
Although SHELL's Fuelsave fuel appears to give between 1%-5% more mileage. 

Which then leads to the available discounts using various credit cards. Cos even if there's better mileage, if a credit card gives 5% better discount, then it's better to just get a guaranteed 5% discount instead of a random 1%-5% fuel economy which might depend on many factors. 

I previously did a spreadsheet on petrol discounts. 
But there's been some slight changes so here's the new spreadsheet. 

Recently there's been a dearth of vouchers in the petrol world. Petrol stations aren't giving out as many vouchers as they used to. Also cos there's been a bunch of idiots who've been trying to sell the discount vouchers and the petrol stations started cutting down on the vouchers given out. 

Caltex also isn't really good with their discounts, so I've left them out of the list. 

The baseline for petrol is always POSB Everyday card at SPC. 
That's the baseline price. As you can see, anything that beats the SPC + Everyday combo has conditions.

Example,
-ESSO/Shell with Citi CashBack card, can only beat SPC+Everyday, ONLY if you count the 8% cashback from the Citi card, but that requires a $888 monthly spend.

-Or SPC with Amex requires the customer to have pre-registered the credit card and be one of the first 20,000 people who registered to be eligible for the promotion.

-Or SPC with UOB One only beats SPC+Everyday, ONLY if you count the 3.33% on the UOB One card, and that requires $500 per month spend for 3 months AND ONLY during the promo period which gives $3 discount on $60 fuel purchase. 

So POSB Everyday card at SPC is usually the baseline price and discount. Unless there is some voucher which will give a additional discount during some promo period. 

I've just run out of discount coupons and can't find anymore for the time being. So looks like I'll be using SPC+Everyday, OR SPC+UOB One for the months where I have difficulty hitting my $500 minimum spend.

​ Learning points :
5) For most cars, just use RON95.
6) Baseline discount is SPC+Everyday card combo.

​
Next is Basic maintenance. 

The most basic is engine oil and filter change. 
This is usually done every 10,000km, using fully synthetic engine oil. 
This is a necessity. 
I found most workshops charge $70-$200 for this service. They will change the engine oil with whatever brand they are carrying, and the oil filter. Then they'll check areas of the car to recommend repairs. 

Some people "feel" the difference in the different types of engine oil. So some people swear by Motul oil or whatever. For me, I FEEL the difference in my pocket. So I just go for the workshop who is going to do it the cheapest. 

A common practice is for people to buy their preferred engine oil and bring it to their preferred workshop and ask them to change the oil, then they will pay the workshop for labour and the filter. 
The labour and filter charges range between $20-$120. 

For any basic car in Singapore, like mine, I think there should be no problem with using motor oils with grade 0w30, 5w30, 0w40, 5w40. Usually 5w30 or 5w40 is the most commonly available engine oils. 
It is possible to get a cheap 5w30 in Giant (Schnell brand) for $19.90, or 5w40 (Schnell) for $24.90.
This is for 4L of engine oil for a typical car like mine.
Then bring it to a small workshop and they will charge $20 for labour AND filter. 
So total cost would be $40-$45. It's possible. 
But it's hard to find workshop these days willing to do it for such a price. 

Also a lot of people cast doubt over the price of oil vs the quality. 
They'll say things like... OOhhh you never know what's it going to do to your engine in the long run, etc etc. and they convince themselves that they NEED to buy a more expensive engine oil to ensure the engine keeps running well, etc... 
We've been through this conversation before. I don't wanna repeat. 
More expensive is not always better. More often than not, you are paying for the branding more than the quality of the product. 
Similar case here. 
Motul costs around $20 per liter, so for 4 liters, it's around $80 just for the engine oil. 

I'm not saying there's no difference. Some people really feel that the drive is smoother. And that's fine. 
For me, I'm ok with a good enough engine oil which is good enough for my vehicle. 

The cheapest cheapest way to change engine oil and oil filter is to DIY.
But many people don't want to do it for fear of getting dirty or messing up the car. Also, engine oil is non-biodegradable and cannot be just disposed in the normal trash. So it's a bit troublesome here. 
So I'm not going to cover this part. 

*Wheel rotation, by right, car owners are recommended to rotate their wheels every 10,000km. This is done by moving the front wheels back and rear wheels forward. This ensures even wear on the tyres. The typical cost is $20 for wheel rotation. It's not as simple as just changing the wheels, the wheels have to be re-balanced by a machine so you can't really DIY. 
With my first car, I never rotated my tires. Never had any issue with it. So I don't do it. 
Not recommended as advice. Just that I don't do it. 

**Tyre pressure, typical tyre pressure is around 30 PSI. This ensures a "softer" tyre so that it grips the ground and prevents hydroplaning when roads are wet. 
However, with a harder tyre, there is better fuel economy. So pumping up to 36 PSI or more can help to save fuel. It's like, is it easier to roll a hard ball or a soft ball? Similarly, a high tyre pressure will help roll the car easier, but this is potentially dangerous cos there is a higher chance of slipping during wet weather. Also, if you roll over humps, harder tyres will feel the bump a lot heavier so the drive isn't as pleasant. But the pick up and drive is easier due to the harder tyres. 
Once again, not recommended advice. Just some additional knowledge.

​
​Learning points :
7) Most engine oils are the same.
8) Cheapest way is to buy your own engine oil and bring it to a cheap workshop and pay labour and filter charges. 


Other expenses
Then comes the other expenses...
Road tax, you can't avoid this. Cars above 10 years old pay more road tax, but overall it's still cheaper than a new car's depreciation.

Inspection, cars younger than 10 years old only need to go once per 2 years. 
Cars like mine need to go once per year. 
Every inspection at VICOM or other authorized agents costs around $60.
I need to clear the inspection before I can renew my road tax.

Parking, usual HDB parking rates is around $110 per month for covered multi storey carparks. 
I know people who park a few blocks away at the nearby unsheltered carpark and pay a cheaper rate.

Insurance, OK, this one is quite interesting. 
For most cars, the insurance covers any accident and third party coverage. 
So if a car runs into a drain. The insurance will cover the repairs, and increase the premiums. 
If the car bangs into another car, this is third party coverage, so the insurance will cover both the car's own repairs and the guy who got knocked. 

HOWEVER, for older cars like mine. The insurance doesn't cover own damages. It only covers third party. This is because my "premium/body price" is very very low. 
Remember, the value of my car is mainly my COE + premium/body price, IF I run into a drain, the repairs may be more than the value of the "premium/body price", if that's the case, it makes sense for me to just scrap the car and just get back the COE value. 
There's no sense for me to repair a car for $4,000 when the car itself is worth less than $4,000. 
The insurer understands this, and understand that no one is willing to pay full price premiums to insure an old car. 
It makes sense to pay $1,000 per year insurance premiums to insure a new car, cos if the car gets into a personal accident, the driver would want to repair the car. 
But for an old lau-pok-chiah, if I run into a drain, I'll just scrap the car. So I won't want to pay $1,000 annually, cos I don't want to repair the car if the repairs are expensive. 

The insurance still covers third party. So any accident involving someone else, the insurer will pay for the repairs for the other person's vehicle. But for my own vehicle, I'm on my own. 

Long story short, due to this, my insurance premiums for my old lau-pok-chiah is significantly cheaper than normal insurance that most people pay. 
This wasn't planned and it just happened after I bought the car. I found out about it and thought, "Oh that's a nice surprise..."
But of course this means that I need to be careful when I drive and make sure I don't do anything stupid. 

​
​Learning points :
9) Older cars need to do inspection more often and pay higher road tax.
10) Can potentially park further away a bit to save on monthly HDB parking at an open air carpark.
11) Insurance for COE cars are really cheap.


Misc points to know
12) Never park at Takashimaya, it's daylight robbery, park at Wisma instead.
13) CapitaMalls provide reasonable parking rates.
14) I find there's no real need to subscribe to AA membership. There's no real need for it. Just have a number of a workshop on hand if towing services are ever necessary.
15) JB is always an option to fix up your car if you know your way around. 


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Are you one of those asses during exams. You finish the exam paper super early. Like in a 3 hour paper, you are able to finish it in 1 hour and you make a great show of flipping the paper loudly, then tying up the paper, or stapling the paper. 
And then you lie on the table or fidget in the chair like there's nothing to do and act all bored?

I'm sure in school, you're either one of those who do this, or you've seen someone who's done this. 
And it's super annoying, especially to those who are struggling in the paper. 
And these folks, you know it's not an act, cos they will do well in the paper.
It stresses other people up. Cos others may be wondering how can this guy do the paper so quickly when they themselves are struggling to finish the paper on time. 

You see... I was one of those assholes. For some papers at least. I remember during my A levels. I went into a 3 hour paper and finished in 1 hour. And I was thinking did I miss out half the paper? I was puzzled. Why did they give me so much time? Why is everyone struggling, like they don't have time to finish the paper. It's not that hard right? Is there some trick question that I missed out? Did I think too simply and maybe it's supposed to be harder and I didn't do it right?

Alas... I didn't miss out anything. I really did finish that paper in 1 hour and got my "A".
Anyway, this isn't about showing off. 

The thing is, I think this is very much similar to how we live our lives. 
In a way, I think I've "finished" my life early. 
I don't know why everyone else is still rushing around. I even doubt myself now. Did I miss something? 

Whereas on the other side, others/my neighbours may look at me and think, why is this guy able to survive without working, he must be super rich... 

In an exam paper... it's kinda like a game. If you know how the game is, then there's no problem. After doing a lot of revision papers, I pretty much understood what kind of questions would come out, the way they will ask it, the tricks that they will use. And if you're familiar with all the tricks, then the paper is pretty easy and can be completed fairly quickly.

And in financial life, that's pretty similar. There's a few simple tricks. Spend less, try to earn more, invest. 
Once AUM is large enough and spending is low enough, there's no need to work anymore. 
That's PROVIDED you don't upgrade and "increase" spending. Else the cycle perpetuates. 

Sometimes the answer is so simple. There's no secret. And yet, so many people can't see it. So many people don't relate what they do with their money to their employment. 
Many people take employment as a given part of life, along with getting married, buying a house, having kids, falling sick and dying. Many people just accept employment as a necessary part of life.
And that money is a separate topic. 
So since employment is a given, then money always appears in the bank on payday, and since they will be working forever, then they can just spend whatever they want cos... why not right? Since they are going to be working for a long time anyway. 

But yet, if we look at it from another way, it's not the same.
Life is a blank sheet of paper with only one main objective. Stay alive. 
Everything else is secondary. Money is just a way to store value and make transactions. So that money can be saved and used during the years when a person isn't earning any money. 
Employment is NOT a necessity. It's a choice, but it lies within other choices. 
If someone chooses NOT to save, chooses to spend MORE. Then employment becomes NOT a choice. 
But if someone saves a lot, and spends very little. Then employment IS a choice. 

And that's the thing about exams and life. 
Can you find the trick? The usual salient points?
The answers are always the same. If you know the usual questions and tricks in exams then you know what to look out for and you can breeze through the exam. 
Similarly, if you know what the answer is to financial freedom, then that's going to be easy as well. 

The problem is... can you relate your actions to your employment? 
Can you relate that that trip you want to go for, Europe? US? This trip will keep you in employment for maybe 4-6 more months. Multiply that by the number of years of trips. And also the other spending decisions in your life. After adding it all together, those are the number of ADDITIONAL years needed to work. 

Of course if you love your work, that's great. But if not, then maybe it's time to start thinking about how to finish the race earlier and making the decisions to get there.


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This month's expenses was kinda high.
Due to the Australia trip and all it's problems. Around $1,300 for my ticket, extension accommodation, insurance and visa.

Basic food expenses in Singapore was $290.95.
Mainly my wife's lunch at work and a day or 2 of eating out.
$103 came from a hotel buffet we went to early in the month at W Hotel at Sentosa.
This is already after 50% off.

Nothing much to talk about in the transport ($11.80) and healthcare ($24) area. Couple of 10s of dollars. 

I went to KL early in the month we spent $120.60, a portion of this is covered by the company. 

We went to Thailand for a short trip. 
$127.25 for food and transportation. Flight and accommodation were settled in a previous month. 
$50 for gifts, the usual snacks from Thailand for family, friends and colleagues.
$15 for 2 blouses for my wife. 

An additional $26 in gifts, cos I bought my parents a dinner recently. 

If I remove all of my wife's work related expenses... KL, Australia, Blouse, car...
Then our monthly expense would drop to $1,202.66. 
​
I flipped through my past few months' expenses, mainly the bulk of my expenses come about when I travel with my wife for her biz trips, or when we travel for leisure. The costs of the tickets and eating overseas and probably some extension of the trip for our own leisure take up a large chunk of our expenses. 

If I look at just my fixed expenses $672.66 and my basic expenses, I think I can quite comfortably keep total expenses under $1,000 per month on average.
But then again, that probably won't be a life worth living. Cos I'd give up on so many other experiences.  

And here comes the next challenge. How do I live a life of rich experiences WITHOUT spending even more money? Spending money is easy. The challenge is HOW to do as much as possible without spending money. Just cos the answer isn't always obviously apparent, doesn't mean the answer doesn't exist. And the quest is to slowly search for the answer, by talking to people, exploring new ideas, being open to other lifestyles. 


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