My Journey

I have a story to tell you. A story of my dream.

I had a dream, that one day I can spend my day in my favourite café enjoying a cup of coffee with my books, without any worries about tomorrow.

It is a simple dream. Yet, almost impossible for majority of us. For we have a life to commit. A life that is already planned at birth, a clock of schedules to follow. From schools, to works, to family. The paces of the society have gone too fast to give us any more time for ourselves.

It takes an awakening, to realise that the key to my dream is to achieve financial freedom. The freedom to live your life at your own pace. Ironically, it was such a simple answer, and yet the hardest to achieve.

This is my dream. And this is my story to reach that dream.

Warning: It is a long story 😊

The beginning 

‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going get.’

Quotes from the movie Forest grump.

If anyone had seen that movie before, it makes a lot of senses. A life is like a journey, it is full of uphill and downhill. We either stay where we are or we keep moving on along the road, whatever your choices there will be times when we reached a crossroad where we need to make an important decision that would affect both our life and others. The truth is, we can never really know what It would lead us to. Life is a road of discovering; we experience it and live with it, the most crucial ones are the ones that would resulted in an awakening moment. This is the point where the mind sets begin a new realization, something which had never stuck you before suddenly came to you and challenge your life belief. These are the crossroad of belief; whichever road you would choose it would affect the life at later stages. If ones are to reflect upon his own life journey, it would seem like watching a drama.

A mind set is not something that happens overnight. It evolved and developed over a period of time through the course of your life journey. Where it leads you to today is what you had believed and made a decision of which path to take at the crossroad.

A life begins.

I was born super down-to-earth. Aye!  We were simple folks living in the typical HDB neighbourhood. My sliding and I grew up in a simple HDB 3-room flat, we were taught the values of being independence (Clean that dishes after your meal! Sweep that floor! Mop that floor!). Most importantly, the good habits of saving money. I started my first saving bank at 9 years old. Ahem! In a chocolate tin can. LOL.

My pocket money was $0.50 in my primary school days. I learned to manage my money by choosing how much I would spend to fill my stomach in school. On average, I save $0.10 to $0.20 a day. Ok, you might be shocked but that was my time. One cup of drink was only $0.10.

One day, while i was on my way home from school I saw a nice model kit selling in a bookstore and I like it, it was selling for $1. I rushed back home. I rob my chocolate tin can and grab 5 x $0.20 cents. I bought it and that was my first purchased toy. I was only 10 years old. My father was particularity surprised at my ability to buy a toy on my own, so he got curious and checked on my chocolate tin can, he was greeted with a pile of silvering shiny 10 cents and 20 cents coins. Thereafter, he brought me to POSB and opened my first saving account starting at $103. I am still wondering how I managed to save that amount.

The virtue of savings is vital to financial security. This was actually the first baby steps toward wealth management on spending and saving. Unless ones enjoy chasing after money goats or born freaky rich, it is best to master this skill as early as possible.

As a typical Mr Average who attended neighbourhood schools, I got my papers eventually after years of screaming and roaring over the mess of grades and level up. But not good enough to get into college to pursue a Degree, in fact I almost KO when studying for my Diploma. Years later, after much self-reflection I realized I was not studying for passion or even a single streak of interest, but merely following the crowd and gotten into Engineering field. My talents are in another field of Arts which I would not discover until much later into my life. Even now I am still having occasional nightmare in the middle of the night on seeing myself failing my school examination, no jokes! Its serious! I had a nightmare studying in a field I do not have any interest at all.

So, what did I do after I got my papers? Well, serve National Service. But I went a bit further, since I had no idea where to start my career and what to do for my next stage of life, I followed the crowd at that era and joined the armed forces becoming a regular as a Technician in the Air Force. And that’s when the next stage of my life begins.

For Singaporean male, it is mandatory to serve National Service for at least 2 years. This resulted in late entry into the workforce, and the exposures required to further awaken the mind. It is best to take this opportunity to think about the future, either your future academic or a career path.

The First Awakening – A Revelation

After the basic military and vocation training which spanned 1 year, I was deployed to a unit where I served for 6 years as a technician. I began as an OJT (On-job-training) and during my first week I was assigned to work on my first aircraft. There were another two seniors with me. There, I stood behind them and watched both of them working over the details of the job sheets.

I was watching them, but my mind wasn’t on the assignments and jobs we were about to do. I was looking at them, and I quite suddenly imagining myself doing the things they are doing now in the years that would to come. And that’s when it comes. As I watched, I had a leap of awakening moment. I suddenly realised one thing:


‘This is not the life I want!’


That was my first awakening. But I was too young to realise it and had no idea why I even had such funny thinking. What I meant here is, everybody is working, but why am I thinking not wanting to work like them. 

I was 22 years old and my mind set was not fully developed, it was not the age of internet, information was limited and I did not meet any like-minded people around me. Naturally, I didn’t do anything thereafter. It would however come back to me when I am near the end of my service. And so, for 6 years, I worked my life away like a good boy, reported on time, followed job orders. It was a normal working life, I got my pay check on time, got promoted and built up my savings. It was a time of uneventful days, and it sheltered me from the upheavals in the outside world- the 1998 property crash crisis and SARS.

I often reflected upon my life in my first career, it was not a bad job, just lesser exposure to the real world. There were no liked minded people like me, so I was pretty much alone in that environment. The security offered by the job was good and It provided me a strong footing in preparing me for the future adventures. But I was never happy. My performance was mediocre, as I did not find any interest in it, it was just a job to put a plate of rice on the table.


The Second Awakening – The Mind opened

This came rather gradually and almost near the end of my service with the Air Force. In those periods, many of my fellow colleagues were actively pursuing part-time degrees to prepare themselves for a second career. They chose either an engineering degree or a management degree. It was a hot topic among us during the boring night shifts, how they would build their next career and what to be expected.

Naturally, I got curious and begun to explore that path of taking a part-time degree. It took a few months and, in the end, I did nothing. Why? Well, actually I had no idea why either. Somehow, I just felt that this isn’t the path I want. Yet again, my mind set was still not fully developed to understand why am I thinking that way. And it was much later when I was almost near the end of my service that I finally realised why I did not take that path. The same thinking came to me once again, but only more.


‘I get a degree; would I be able to live the kind of life I want?’


It was one of my night shifts and I was thinking deeply about it (While struggling at a stubborn screw with my spanner). I looked at my colleagues around me and quite suddenly I figured it out.


‘Even if I get a degree and finds a better job. I still need to report work on time, I still need to answer to a boss! I still need to wait for my pay check!!! I still need to apply leave to do my things! I still need to get doctor’s certification to report to my boss in order to rest at home!’


Thereafter, I finally know what I want for my life. I am not trying to get a better job; I am trying to find my freedom out of the ‘rat race track’. The question is. How? It was an early awakening and I was 27 years old; the term ‘financial independence’ was totally alien to me. But that was to be known at later stage.

This was the first phase of a life. Our first employment job where we come face to face with the real world. Apart from obtaining working experience and expanding life experience, it also forms the base of our first source of income. I spend 7 years in my first employment. As I am a good saver, I managed to build up a rather goodies number of armies to prepare me for the adventures ahead, but I went head in without realising my weakness and limitations.



The First Exploration – The Business Venture

Year 2003 was a year of doubts and unknown. It was the year of my last service with the Air Force. I still had no idea what am I going to do thereafter. I was 28 years old. Even after I had left, I was inactive for a few months until 2004 where I finally found a job in a semi-conductor industry, it was a massive pay cut from what I used to get. But I was already planning about setting up my own business and be my own boss.

During my employment with the Air Force, I had saved up quite a bit of savings and also rewarded with a gratuity at the end of my service. And so after 4 months into the new job, I resigned and went into setting up a business with a friend. I would admit, I was inexperienced and rather naïve. And I was not mentally prepared for what I was about to experience.

It was a simple franchise business selling some food products, a form of traditional retail business running in a small kiosk within a shopping mall. It didn’t work out. At first, we thought it’s the bad location, we moved around to a total of 4 different locations. The results were the same. It last about 1 year, losses were mounting up and took a huge toll on my savings. I had to give up. Was it a bad experience? Well, to see the numbers falling day by day in my savings was indeed a bad experience. I did however learn several hard lessons from this experience. It was also an experience of the discovery of my own personal weakness.

1) While I had the mind-set, I do not have the strength of a character to run a business. The retail business world is a harsh world, it is not a kind place for honest man.

2) I learned and studied the concept of inventory cost and profit returns (I was Engineering trained! I know nothing about business management). The franchise model was working against us; the inventory cost was at ceiling high of 71%. The sales returns were hardly enough to offset the high inventory cost. Although we tried to reduce it, it proved impossible to reduce the wastage and the sales volume was too low to offset it.

3) The retail business was highly dependent on moving crowds for business. Once the crowd cleared, I sat through for more than half the day staring at empty air. That was the hours when I studied about the inventory and cost managements. Although I considered a few marketing options, none of it produced any results.

4) The retail business was essentially a model between the tenant and the landlord. What I realised at the closing stage of my venture was that the tenants are the workers while the landlords are the real boss. As a tenant, we are contracted bound and whether your business can make it or not, you still need to pay your rental and obey the rules. And respect the landlords, even their clerks. As an upstart business with no strong corporate backings, small business tends to struggle, as we did.

5) Competition. Singapore is a small country. When we saw a competitor selling the same stuffs at a competitive price-not three metres away from us, we know we were in a tough time.

The business platform did not work for me, I am simply not cut out to be a business man and I would say I failed very badly. The results of this adventure was, I lost my entire gratuity and a quarter of my savings. Ouch, that really hurt isn’t it? But amazingly I still did not give up.


The Second Exploration- The Multi- Networking

Prior to the closure of my retail business, I was introduced into another platform through a friend which was becoming rather common at that period. An MLM (Multi-level marketing) model. Yes, sound familiar isn’t it? After some exploration, I went ahead and tried my hands on it. And the results was------- I failed. In fact, it was a total fail. LOL.

Some says this model is a scam. But I would say it suit certain industry, and certain group of people (real estate property agents and insurance agents). Pushing aside the negative experience with it, it was indeed a platform where I faced the solid truths of my weakness.

1) I am an introvert character. This factor alone is enough to kill me in this platform

2) I am too down-to-earth. I can work but cannot talk like a champion.

3) I am not lucky enough to find a Zhuge Liang like Liu Bei. (Characters from the famous Romance of the Three Kingdom, where an unsuccessful leader after numerous failure finally succeed with the aid of a genius advisor). To be realistic, do we expect to catch Zhuge Liang walking around Orchard Road to help us?

It was however not entirely a wasted experience, while the concept didn’t work out for me, it did put me into a field of like-minded people. The platform also provided valuable exposures and trainings. It was here where I got to learn some of the important financial terms and concepts, and understand what is passive income, what is financial freedom. Through it, I actually realised that the world is much bigger than I had thought, a retail-business model is not the only way to attain financial freedom, there are many paths, and there are bound to be one that could suit me. The question is which one?

This was the book introduced to me while i was in this platform. It completely changed my perception about this world and i realised the world is far bigger than i thought.

So how much did I lost in this adventure. Well, another quarter of my savings. All in all, not only I lost my entire gratuity, I lost more than half of my life savings as well. Not too inspiring isn’t it?

Self-discovery can be a painful process, I discovered my weakness at the price of losing time and money. The earlier that we discovered our strength and weakness, the less likely we make too many mistakes.



Back to work - Start over again

So, after two failed adventures I am badly burned. What did I do next? I celebrated my 30th birthday, raised ‘white flag’, became a ‘good boy’ and crawled back to employment workforce. I returned once again to the Aviation industry and joined a private company, the pay check was low (Less than 2k) but it was enough to stabilise my financial status.

This was the period where I came face-to-face with tight competition from the foreign workers, I had to admit they were a brunch of hardworking lots. But I had a family life and I really do not wish to work my life away from morning to midnight.

I was pretty much burned out from my failed adventures. The new job thus temporary offered a shelter for me to rest. But in my heart, I knew it isn’t really the type of life I want. But I did not know the way out. It was however a short period of calm and peace. Something dramatic happened which changed my life forever. Every time I thought about it, I keeps wondering whether some kind of Force was at work.

A year after I began my new job, the company suddenly had a major re-structuring. Things started to go downhill thereafter, I was posted into another new department, much like a piece of chess on the chessboard, and it was there over a long period of 7 months my working life turned into a living hell. For the first time in my life, I faced discrimination, abuses or maybe just simply facial dislike from the new boss in that department. Within 2 weeks, I knew I must leave. But there was only one way out, which was to find a new job. But that was not easy for someone with a Diploma who have worked 10 years in the Aviation industry with no other skill sets.

My job resumes flew out in massive numbers every month, I got called up for job interviews but nothing happened from it. The abuses I faced escalated day after day. I thanked the few good colleagues who had helped me pulled through these toughest time. How bad it became? Well, there was once I found a quiet corner during the night shift at 2 am and cried myself out. Now that I think about it, I was probably having some kind of depression. Why didn’t I just quit and go? The same reasons that keeps everyone from quitting their jobs. Without a regular job, we have to rely on our savings to pay our monthly expenses, and I have already lost half of my armies in my failed adventures.

This is the common fate of employee; majority of employees are not working for passion. To them, it is just a job to pay the bills and put foods on the table. We worked and gets paid for our work, there isn’t anything wrong with it. While this is fine for most people, it was not for people like me. Perhaps if there had been no awakenings, no ambitious or strange passion within me. I may would have been content working as a salaried worker. Ignorance can indeed be a great blessing. But it was not so to be for me, as such throughout my employment life I was never happy.

Every time I reflected on this part of my life. I realised that I owned that monster boss a huge gratitude. If I had not suffered discrimination and abuses from that monster, I might have content living in that place and waste my life away. I might not have aggressively find a new job to trigger further awakening and ended up where I am now. He was the painful catalysis that forced me to take actions. 

After nearly 7 months of fruitless search for a new job, one company finally says ‘Yes’. I woke up from my depression slumber and realised it was a different industry with a normal 8 to 5 office job. Like a bird who had been trapped in a cage, I flew out of the cage and accepted the new job offer. I was 32 years old, the year was 2007 and a new life was about to begin, but what I didn’t realise was that there was to be another awakening.


The Third Awakening – A Reflection

The new job environment was almost like a heaven to me at that time. After all, I had suffered nearly 7 months of living hell. The new colleagues were great, the boss was good, and so were the works. This was another personal discovery, I found that I can write, read and understand charts easily without a sweat, I can work out numbers and statistics using excel sheets even thru I was never trained for it. I am known for power of creativity, I could come out with designs and storyline easily. I discovered my real strengths in soft skills, and I spend 10 years in Aviation industry without realising it.

One of my old classmates discovered his interests’ field early, he made a bold switch from engineering to designs arts. But it was carried out at the price of losing good stream of starting income, as he lacked the actual qualification in designs field. Why didn’t I do that too? Same reasons as the time of 2nd awakening when everybody was busy pursuing a degree. My ultimate goal is not to find a better job or an alternative career, but is to find my freedom out of the ‘rat race’.

I was slowly settling down and becoming comfortable. It was easy enough to become complacent in such peaceful environment. But something happened yet again that was to change my life. Perhaps because I had already opened my mind set, it was easy enough to get into that frequency even thru it had been buried down. Or maybe some kind of Force yet again was at work.

There was a long serving employee in another department, whom I happened to get acquitted with, he was however sort of a condemned man being denied promotion and bonus. As I got to know more of the story, it appeared that he was one of the victims of the performance quota system, targeted and condemned by boss. I saw a reflection of what I had been through in my previous employment. That man had already suffered many years of unhappiness, he eventually resigned in frustration. Thereafter, I came to realise:


‘Good things never last.’


I may be in a good department and under a good boss, but it can change anytime through a re-structuring. No matter how good a working environment is, it can transform one day into a living hell. The fate of that man can happened to me one day. Once again, I knew I had to do something, the question yet again is ‘how’ and ‘where’?


The Third Exploration – A New Path

At the same period of the 3rd awakening. There was an old worker in my department who had retired before I joined the company. He retired well and rather rich. Is he of high position? Actually no. He was just a normal worker and also a victim of the performance quota system. But he laughed his way to retirement. Such a huge difference between him and that unhappy man who had been forced to quit. I became a ‘busybody’ and went exploring. I found many answers, but ‘one answer’ strikes me like lightning. He had once said such words to his colleagues:


‘No bonus? My dividends paid me more than that bonus’.


What was that? I wondered. Yes, I had no idea what was that. It did not take me long to find out about stock markets and how it works. Before that, I always had these frightening thoughts about stocks market. Purely the results of watching too many TV dramas about the scary things on stocks market. I explored and realised it worked a lot more differently than most people thought. I studied on my own and attended seminars, it was however a very short period of exploration. I did not have much time to absorb what I had learnt, because a powerful force strike and hits very hard over the world.

In 2008, the stock market went down dramatically. Yes, that was the infamous Global Economic Crisis, one of the biggest storms that last from 2007 to 2008. STI index from 3000 collapsed to as low as 1500 points. I was still a novice in stock market, but deep inside me I knew this was once in a life time opportunity and very unlikely I would see a second one again.

I did, perhaps the craziest thing in my life. I pawned everything I could on my hands to raise as much soldiers as I could. I terminated every fixed deposit, unit trusts and some insurances. Then I attacked, and grabbed some of the giant blue-chip stocks at a bargain (DBS was as low as $9). I was still not fully recovered from the heavy losses incurred from my two failed adventures, and my new job’s salary was still at lower grade. I realised I need more soldiers.

As I had mentioned, I am a good saver and I went into extreme mode. Through a draconic control of wealth management, I was able to inject almost 70% of my monthly salary into the market for the entire crisis period. If you are wondering how much I was getting paid, my take-home amount was less than 2k per month.

‘You planted the seeds. You reap what you sow.’

And there is no better time to plant the seeds than during a world economic crisis. Months after months, I waited for my pay checks and invested into the market. By the time I finally stopped as the market recovered in toward the end of 2008, my portfolio grew to a modest size of 50k with an annual dividend return of 5-6%. The 3rd exploration had worked out well, but I did take a huge risk pitting in almost my entire armies into the war.

Some of my friends thought I was insane, saving every penny not enjoying life. I would say we were on different mind-set. I do not derive joys from eating in high class restaurants or carry branded goods. I see things as necessaries and un-necessaries. My folk are all simple people; we do not need vanity or status. My ultimate goal is to get out of the ‘rat race track’, not running after money.

In 2009, I collected my first annual dividends from my portfolio. In that moment, I knew I had found one path that suits me. I had failed as a business owner. I had failed as a multi-networker, and found a path as a value/dividend investor. The dividends helped fulfilled one of my long childhood dreams, it fully financed my Europe tour in 2009 where I finally gets to see with my own eyes on the places I had wanted to visit.


The Fourth Exploration- Creation of Second Path

What did I do as the stock market recovers? Nothing. I did nothing. I went into sleep mode, I continued working on my career, saving up money. As I worked, I continued my self-study to learn some of the financial stuffs and its formula. We were blessed that in the age of internet, there are immense amount of information free for grabbing which made self-study possible. I came across many like-minded people who were pursuing the same dream, there were many others bloggers in that period like ASSI AK and Brian offering their insights and opinions. I benefited greatly from these bloggers as I am not financially trained.

As I drifted across my 35 years old, the time came again for another exploration. As a single, I had reached the age with the ‘licence’ to buy a HDB (Government built) house. The prices of houses were running high in 2010, it was definitely not the best time to purchase a house. But if I choose to wait for a miracle, I might have lost many years of opportunity. We have only one life, how much time we have before the next ones comes? So, I started exploring the housing market.

Two different options came into my mind: a condominium or a HDB resale flat (The HDB rules in that time only allow Singles to purchase resale flat). I visited some show rooms and done some financial review on purchasing and financing a private house. And these were what I concluded based on my financial resources at that time.

1) The financial liability of taking a loan amounted to as high as 60% of the unit. I am not a highly paid salaried worker, and as a Single the burden of servicing such loan was too risky. This compared to an HDB loan, with a fixed interest rate and the ability to fully use CPF to finance it.

2) The value of private condominium had risen to one of the highest points in that period. Many speculated further increases, which it did. A unit of studio apartment was valued at $420,000 - $450,000 at that period but I do not have the resources to undertake such risk. Compared to an HDB unit, private house’s value grew much faster than HDB. However, I lacked the holding power.

3) The maintenance cost of a condominium can be as high as $300 per month. Yes, beautiful environment with swimming pool and gym facilities. Question is, do I need those? No, so why should I be paying for things I do not need? This compared to an HDB, I only need to pay town council fees, not to mention the solid facts that only HDB owners gets GST rebates, because our government feel that the rich condominiums do not need help.

I probably shouldn’t say this here but I felt obliged to share a disturbing experience. I once dined at Ajisen restaurant and overheard a heated argument between two school girls, they looked only 15-16. This girl was commenting over the facts that people living in HDB are 2nd class citizen, while those living in condominium are 1st class citizen, she went further emphasising how luxuries to be to live in a condominium. She was talking with a smug look and highly proud of that facts. It disturbed me profoundly. What kind of upbringing had she been through?

4) The cost of getting a private studio apartment was $450000 located away from facilities, which coincidently matched closely with a 4-room HDB cost around $400000 with close vicinity to a MRT station and Bus interchange. Well, the difference in practicality between them are rather wide isn’t it?

Based on these 4 factors, I chose HDB. I know about the possibility of locking an even higher value in a private unit. But different people had different needs and risk level. I chose based on my needs and resources. When comes down to everything, it amounts to the facts on how to utilise your resources to unlock values. As for me, I prefer to sleep with a peace of mind.

And so, after a few months of exploring I finally secured a HDB unit near the central of my neighbourhood with valuable facilities of shopping mall, and public transports like a Bus Interchange and MRT station. Singapore is an amazing place; the value of a house unit is largely determined by location.

Thereafter, I fetched my folks to live with me and we rented out their own HDB unit for some passive rental income. True! The rental rate was not as impressive as a private unit, but hey it is still a passive income. The whole concept revolved about how to utilise our resources to create an alternative source of income, not about getting freaky rich.

Because the first property was already fully paid, the rental income goes 100% into household income. No need to worry about relying on rental to finance any housing loan that act like a time bomb as the second property was financed by my own CPF. We can sleep better with a peace of mind even with some months without any tenant.

That was how I unlocked the value of the properties, it was not the most impressive and certainly not the most profitable. But we are simple folks with simple needs, as the years passed the passive income from that ‘modest ancient unattractive unit’ grew slowly inside the bank, and further re-invested into Fixed Deposits.

The creation of this second passive income was vital to my path to financial independence. It went 100% into paying for our household expenses, because we are simple folk with simple needs, there were always leftover from it to grow the savings. This freed me from household financial commitment, and released more funds from my salary income to goes into investment. When you have 3 different streams of income coming in at the same time, you will see an exponent growth of the figures, assuming you do not recklessly spend your money on financial un-necessaries things

There have been countless arguments between some of my friends and I on financial un-necessaries topics. Most of them said: Life is short, why not enjoy it. Spending money on things they love be it an item or tour. They are not wrong. But they just do not understand me. I do not find any joy in those things neither do I desire any of it. What I want and really want is ‘Freedom’. If this is the price of Freedom, I gladly sacrifice it.


The Time of Harvest and Invasion – Escalation

The year was 2013. STI index had recovered. I came out of sleep mode and reviewed my portfolio once again. I sold off majority of my holdings to obtain some profits. I had waited 5 years for it. Not only I recovered all my losses incurred in my early failed adventures, it increased my war chest as well. I went into sleep mode again and slept for another 2 years, getting pay check, getting bonus, collecting dividend, saving up money blah blah blah. Boring isn’t it?

In 2015, I woke up again from my 2 years’ slumber. Yes, a new crisis had come. The China stock market crisis which was followed with the oil crisis in 2016. Keppel Corps price went down as low as $4.50. This time, I had a huge invasion army set upon a second invasion. The scale of the invasion was bigger than it was in 2008, while the invasion in 2008 had been near reckless, the invasion between 2015 and 2016 were planned. Several counters fell under my invasion armies. By the time the ‘Operation’ ceased toward the end of 2016, my armies had conquered new lands, and created a United Kingdom of Reits and Blue chips.

The size of my portfolio grew vastly, and it contributed my first annual 5-digit dividend income in 2016. Only then, I realised I had achieved my first milestones - Financial Security.

Dividends from the portfolio = Annual Expenses

8 long years of waiting.

Financial journey is not about getting flirty rich. The seeds take time to grow and ripe before the harvesting. Patience and persistence count more than just speculation. While waiting for harvest time, focus on other parts of life exploration. Ones must constantly explore the world to see the bigger world out there. The real world is outside the window, not inside the castle.


The Fourth Awakening – The Limit of Mortality

I had thought I had seen the last of the changes on my mind-set, but it was not to be. For the Force of Fate strike once again to me.

‘A man’s life of 50 years under the sky

Is nothing compared to the age of this world.

Life is but a fleeting dream, an illusion. Is there anything that lasts forever?”

Quotes from the famous Warlord Oda Nobunaga of Japan during the warring period


In 2016, I was suddenly strike down by an illness. Although it was not life threatening, but it changed my mind-set. I was confronted with the truth of a Fate which no man can escape:

‘The limit of mortality.’

I was 41 years old and I realised at that point that I am running out of time. My energy was falling, and so is my body. I realised I may not have the time to wait for another crisis of 2008 or the minor ones of 2015/2016. I would need to do more than what I am doing in order to achieve my long cherish dream to redeem my freedom out of the ‘rat race’ in order to pursue my passions.

This triggered me into active mode of explorations, for a period of 2 years from 2016-2017 I explored several other platforms namely e-commerce, forex trading, cryptocurrency, multi-level property investing etc. I reviewed my portfolio more frequently than before and found several loop holes in it. This prompted me to the re-balancing of the portfolio.

Certain counters no longer met my criteria, as I discovered there were many ‘small cap’ counters, ‘high risk’ counters and the dangers of ‘dividend traps’. I am in my middle age, I could no longer undertake too much risk as before. My risk level has changed. The portfolio underwent some re-adjustment. Small caps counters and high risk investments were kept to very small amount (which turns out to be a blessing when the value of Asian Pay TV came crashing down in 2018), counters were kept to minimum (I had as many as 50 different counters at that time and it proved exhausting to keep track all of them). At the same time, I begun setting benchmark for entry and exit for my targeted counter accordingly to its 5-10 years charting to serve as reference to my comfort level.

At the same period, I recognised the importance of having a healthcare insurance. Singapore is an expensive place to live in, one of the worst financial ruins can happen to anyone is the crazy medical bill. It’s such a solid fact in Singapore that we have a ‘folk lore’ circulating among our society that in Singapore you are better off be dead then falling sick. A major operation itself can cost ones a frightening amount of $30,000 (This is exclusive of all scanning, medication etc. Purely only for the cost of entering that operation room). Enough to wipe out your entire 30 years of CPF medisave. I got myself a healthcare insurance with ‘rider’, but sadly I did not add that ‘rider’ before I got strike down in 2016. I learned a hard lesson when I seek medical attention and found that my healthcare insurance could not help me because I did not have any ‘rider’ to offset the ‘cap’ and I ended up paying the full medical cost with cash and CPF. Only then I realised how lacking my healthcare insurance was, I improved my coverage by adding the ‘rider’ but it was too late for me as I was considered with an existing medical condition, and the ‘rider’ was added with certain exclusion. Nevertheless, it was a necessary change, who knows what might strike next.

In 2017, an associate colleague passed away of cancer. He was near retirement age and was preparing to enjoy his retirement. But illness struck so suddenly that he had only a few months to finish his life. His parting words was also his greatest regret for working so hard but didn’t spend time to do the things he wanted to do, it rings true to anyone who had realised the limits of mortality. And that further convinced me, the importance of achieving financial independence.

Financial independence is not about getting rich. It is about not having regrets in life as well. We have only one life. Only one!

In 2017, exactly 1 year after my 5th awakening. I finally achieved my first level of financial independence.

Dividend from portfolio > Annual expenses.

The increase in Dividend were mainly the results of adjustment of counters for security purposes. The return rate was average 5-6%, but performance counters increased dividend as the companies’ profit improved. And I consistently reinvested it back when the prices reached a comfortable entry level.

It was at this point, the war chest grew rapidly, feed by both the salary and dividend at the same time. But there was no time for celebration, as a negative event strikes me shortly thereafter. Once again, I wondered whether some kind of unknown Force is at work, for the timing of two events coincided closely with each other. Too frightening close.

The History repeat itself – The Endless Cycle

The history of mankind tends to repeat itself like a cycle, because generally mankind never learns from lessens, whenever there are changes in people, another cycle begins for good or bad.

In 2016, the vicious cycle which I had feared begun to show itself once again. The retirement of a good boss signalled a change which was to disturb the once-calm peaceful working environment. It came rather gradually as the new successor was not a bad boss but lacked the strength and wisdom to face the wave of overwhelming changes. Within 2 years, the structure begun to collapse and fears begun to envelop the once peaceful working environment.

In 2017, the company policy took a shift in orientation and the performance system entered a dark age. For this I will not comment much on it as it revealed the darker part of human history as human values gradually eroded over time.

In 2018, my name entered the list of victims. There shall be no promotion and lesser bonus in the long coming years, if I am to regain my career climb I will need to prove myself by doing a lot more than my current assignments but to also outshine my co-workers slaughtering each other fighting for the seats at the front row. Sound familiar, isn’t it?

But I did not do so. Fate had done its work on me once and I knew I do not want to face it again in the same situation. History had repeat itself, but this time I am no longer the same man subjected to the mercy of the company policy, for I had learned my lesson well. By 2017, I had achieved the first level of Financial independence. For once, I realised my efforts for the past 10 years had finally paid off. I do not feel as terrible and helpless as I had been in my previous employment. As I looked at my disillusioned co-workers who had been hit hard, all they could do was to live with it. Yes, there is nothing much we can do about it. Company polices are there for a reason, and it doesn’t have to benefit us. Most of time anyway. The traditional threats of promotion and bonuses no longer affect me, as I already had enough passive income to buffer that fate.

The achieving of my first level of financial independence and the downtrend of my career occurred within a short span of a few months between 2017 and 2018. Two different events, one negative and one positive. Some says life is like a drama, like a show unveil itself through the years, reflecting on my life, it would seem so.

Many employees are trapped in the vicious cycle of unending wars within the madness created by the ‘rat-race’, the strongest triumph while the weaker ones suffered or worst whipped by the stronger ones to move faster. The most ironical facts are these are all man-made.


The Final stage – The Second Stage of a Life

As I creeped passed my 43 years old toward the end of 2018, my portfolio reached a new height. From 2008 where I started my quest with only forty thousand soldiers to half-a-million. 21 years had passed since the first awakening. I had lost time and money for the first 10 years, and took another 11 years to be on the right path to achieve that level.

I am nearing the last stage of my 40s life before I faced my 50s. It was a time of re-awakening; the time had come to prepare my eventual exit out of the ‘rat race’.

I reviewed my financial situation and identified one more obstacle: - the housing loan. Although it was financed by my CPF, I knew once I exit the ‘rat race’ I would lose the benefits of the regular contribution of CPF from both my salary and the employer. I considered the part on semi-retirement working part-time, but soon I concluded that I should simply neutralised it.

I drafted out a new road plan that would span 18 months of down payment with contribution from both salary and dividend. It was a bold move, as it involved dumping of cash to lower down the principal amount. But with the Mr Market not been active and generous, I am thus sitting on a pot of reserve army. I see the ‘housing loan’ as a potential threat to my financial independence, therefore I decided to neutralise it once and for all. Basically, I liked the ‘idea’ of paying a monthly rental of $200 to HDB (Do you realised that HDB owners are not owner of house but merely a tenant of HDB?).

On the 20th December 2018, 5 days before Christmas Day. An event happened and it triggered the signal I have been waiting for, I decided to activate my plan. The 18 months’ journey begins, breaking into 5 different phases of down payment, scheduled to conclude in June 2020.

Why not just clear it off immediately? Because we will never know when Mr Market would be generous, there is a need to maintain a war chest for it. So, I choose to maintain the war chest and clear off the ‘loan’ at the same time. As long as I remained employed, I would make full use of it to destroy that ‘loan’. So how much did it go? 100% of my salaried income including the bonuses + some from dividends. Am I crazy? Not really. As I mentioned, my dividend income was already more than my expenses, and I dared claimed that I am a great saver. So, I am actually weakening the enemy and growing my army at the same time.

So, here we go.

January 2019 - First down payment. Cleared.
April 2019 - Second down payment. Cleared.
August 2019 - Third down payment. Cleared.
January 2020 - Fourth down payment. Cleared.
April 2020 - Fifth down payment. On hold.
August 2020 - Fifth down payment. Cleared.

December 2020 - Judgement Day. Mission Accomplished.