A Discovery at Yishun

The Little Things around us - A unique drain cover

We know Singapore has a well drainage system, that means we have little to worry about the possibility of flooding. In a highly urbanized crowded city, these drains are almost everywhere around us, well concealed by some of the most commonly seen drain covers such as these:

 

  

But I found something different.

This one comes engraved with ‘HDB’.

LOL. Pretty rare isn’t it? Ones could really miss it without paying attention to our feet. This one located just outside the Zhong Hua Medical Hall at Yishun Blk 215.

Protect your future. Don’t act hero.

I have spent some $600 for this month on medical bills. No, it was not some common illness. It was an old injury which I got it during my younger days as a technician. 

Occupational health hazards are a common issue for technician who are exposed to toxic chemicals and hazardous physical activities that involved a lot of carrying and climbing.  When we were still young, we tend to ignore such potential health hazards. I did not wear any gloves when handling chemicals and oils, so now I am having some skin allergy issue. I injured my neck spline while working at a pro-long duration handling heavy stuffs in improper posture, but because I was still young I heal fast and it did not reoccur over the years. As I aged however, it came back to haunt me like a persistent ghost and I ended up spending $$$ to get it restored. 

Recurring injuries are a long term issue and can become a potential financial burden as this indirectly increase the cost in wellness expenses. I certainly paid a price for it.

The greatest gift we can have in life is to be well and healthy. Only then we can really enjoy what life has to offer for us. Without health, we ended up spending our time fighting the illness and injuries with our hard-earned incomes, and derives us the time to live our life. Life is short, we have such little time to do the things we like to do, and I lost so much time travelling and sitting in the clinic for hours. 

Time once lost is lost forever. So don’t act hero. Please protect yourself and your future.

 

A conicidence at Labrodar Park

The little things around us

Singapore is well known as a Garden city. We do not have to travel to a park to find flowers and trees. They are everywhere around us, along the pavement, underneath the bridge etc. There are some which are so well blend with our surroundings that most people did not even notice it.

Some might think these are in some beautiful park or garden. Actually, it is located just at the junction of a road.

Located just outside of the train station of Labrador grew some of the less noticeable plants which most passerby ignore. Exact location is at the side of the escalators leading to the overhead bridge.

Amazing isn't it? It is so easy to be overlooked.

Work smarter?

When I saw this. I was intrigued and seem like that not all the pointers are really possible for some of the situations in our job. 

Plan out your weeks and days in advance

I more ‘kiasu’. I planned in months and years. How much time more to my first CPF pay out.Ops, sorry that has nothing to do with my job.

Turn off notifications for useless apps

I simply deleted them off. Make my handphone last longer. LOL.

Find tasks to eliminate

I am trying now to eliminate my housing loan. LOL.Eliminate your task? What happened if the bosses had a second thought about it when you think you could have eliminate it.

Use Do not disturb on your phone

I went much further. I simply off my mobile data. Try WhatsApp me if you can. Oh, by the way, my mobile data consumption is less than 300mb a month. Shocking? No. It is just a matter of choices. 

Invest in learning

This might not be clear. It actually means investing your time to learning. Rather challenging as most of us are pretty much caught up with the pace of life. But of course, for those simply do not like reading. How about reading the things you like instead?

Sometime, the bosses aren't really interested in your learning but rather on the progress of the tasks he/she has set upon you.

Automate tasks

Not easy. Especially for people who are trapped in a system controlled by others. Nowadays. Bosses tend to create processes based on individual in mind rather than a system where anyone can work with.

Don’t multitask

It encourages ‘focus’. But as usual, that isn’t what most of the bosses wants from their workers. Some of them expected an individual to be multi-tasking. So really, sometime it is not that we do not want to stay focus. It is just that people are constrained by the processes created by some idiots.

Do important work only

This means ‘prioritise’ your work. Again, it is rather difficult for those trapped and restricted by the processes set by others unless given some degree of autonomy in work. But ones can do more for their own life isn’t it? Spending time with your children and polishing car, which one do you think is more important?

Become organise

Let’s be realistic. Half of the time, things just seem to goes haywire for no reasons. The more organised we are, the less likely we will get panic. An organised army takes less damage when they are under a surprised attack, because they can rally and recover faster than a disorganised mob.

Limit to 3x email a day

In this age of social media where almost everything is control by computer. It is rather tough to maintain. LOL. Still, it encourages focus and less complications. But then for most of the time, we all know it is not really up to us to decide, especially when our jobs demand a lot of emails communications.

Measure results, not time

Ho! Ho! Ho! This require some dose of foresight and wisdom to do it. Far too many individuals are trained to measure things with beautiful charts and statistic. It is very easy to get lost in those pretty numbers and figures when the real stuffs are actually happening just outside the windows.

Write things down, don’t rely on memory

It helped keep track of things. I kind of rely a lot on memory. Mainly because it keeps me alert. But I do organise my memory bank to make things easy to remember. How? Well, I remembered by image rather than names. Image is far easier to stay imprint in mind than exact name. Example, the colour and shape of a building and its surrounding. But there are important things that best written down somewhere such as ‘password’. 

Oh yes, it sort of become rather stressful when you realised on your notebook a long list of tasks you have been assigned by bosses to do.

Work in block

Ok. It actually means focusing on one task rather than doing bits and bits. A full focus of 2 hours work on a single task could achieve better productivity and results than doing it in pieces. Once again, sometime we are so caught up with the pace of life that we can’t fully allocated a block of time to a task. Especially when the bosses bombard the emails with ‘do this do that’. LOL.

Relieve Stress

Stress relieve is important! Imagine a balloon, keep feeding it air and one day it just explodes. We need platforms to relieve stress. Be it a short trip oversea, or a simple walk at a park. As for me, I am a gamer, I played games to relieve stress. LOL.

Do the difficult task first

Well, I have to say this. Sometime, I am just really not in that ‘challenging’ mood to do the difficult task first. Especially when we are already so much caught up in life. Still, it does have its merits for neutralising the most difficult task to make things smoother before it gets worse.

Stick to a routine

If we are aimless and do not know what to do next. A set of routine helps to propel us forward in achieving our goals. But a good routine should allow some flexibility for change and modification when needed. But sometimes, a routine can gets really boring after months of doing the same things again and again, especially those with little value.

Merger between Ascott Reit and Ascendas Hospitality Trust

Just a day ago, CaptiaLand has announced to merge Ascott Reit and Ascendas Hospitality Trust.

channelnewsasia

The merger would turn it into the largest hospitality trust in the Asia-Pacific region. This would meant a bigger portfolio and exposure for CaptiaLand.

I have holdings in both Asott Reit and Ascendas HT. Both were purchased during the time of oil crisis in 2016.

Ascott Reit has announced that it will acquire all the Ascendas HT units for a consideration of S$1.0868 per unit. So how much did I pay for it in 2016? Hmmmmm, I had purchased it at the price of $0.755. Ok. I guess I will be getting more bonus than I thought. 

3 years of waiting. Patience do pay afterall. 

Congratulation to all patience Ascendas HT holders. 😃

What is Financial Indpendence?

I have been asked a few questions about Financial Indpendence.

Let us see the definitions of some of the financial terms related to it.

Base on the definitions extracted from wikipedia.org.

Financial independence is the status of having enough income to pay one's living expenses for the rest of one's life without having to be employed or dependant on others. Income you earn without having to work a job is commonly referred to as passive income.

Passive income is income resulting from cash flow received on a regular basis, requiring minimal to no effort by the recipient to maintain it. Any kind of cash flow property income – which includes profits from ownership of capital, rent from ownership of resources such as Rental income and incoming cash flow from property or any piece of real estate, and interest from owning financial assets

Salary is a fixed amount of money or compensation paid to an employee by an employer in return for work performed. Salary is commonly paid in fixed intervals, for example, monthly payments of one-twelfth of the annual salary.

From the above definitions, we can see that passive income is different from salary. The income from salary require an individual to trade in his time and effort in order to receive an income, once the individual becomes unable or could no longer work, the income stop. Passive income however does not stop even after an individual stop working.

As we can see, having passive income is the key to achieving financial independence. It free up more time for us to pursue our passion, less worry about losing income or chasing after money. There are many ways to create passive income from different platforms such as rental Income from properties, dividends from stocks invested, royalty fees etc.

But why seek financial independence? 

Because life is short. There are people who do not want to spend their entire life trapped in the rat race chasing after money.  They have a purpose in life to pursue their passion without worry about income, which can be as simple as spending more time with family and on hobbies. 

Each individual has different level of financial status, which can be judged based on the below image, extracted from Investment Moats website created by another blogger Kyith. Kyith has posted a detailed article. 'The 11 Stages of Wealth: Which Stage of Wealth are You at?'which can be found at:

https://investmentmoats.com/financial-independence/stages-of-wealth-financial-independence/

Interesting isn’t it? I have been using this as my guide to gauge my financial level. For now, I am at level 8, hopefully one day I will be able to attain level 9. 

There are many useful tips and guides on achieving financial independence, they are everywhere and I have benefited greatly from financial bloggers and websites. In this age of social media, all we need to do is google it!

Here is an inspiring quote I learn today:

“Impossible is not a word. It's just a reason for someone not to try.” 

So, my advice for those still chasing after money and waiting for paycheck to pay your bills. Start your financial journey by taking CONTROL of your LIFE. Start EXPLORE!!!!