A giant step into a new phase of life
Gone were the days when i can forget all the worries of life and lead a carefree student lifestyle. After 3 good years of education in NTU, I manage to graduate with a decent degree with honours. Puzzled, resistant and lost about what to do next, i venture to search for the job that suits me the most. Will i be like the traditional undergraduate with a banking and finance degreee to pursue a career with any reputable banks and slog my way for the next 3 years.... 5years.... 10 years.... Damn forever. I cannot deny the prestige that comes with having a bank job, for most of the general public would view the profession as stable, full of opportunities and lots of challenges.
The life of many in this little red dot on the world map can be picture as running a marathon where one have no idea where and when he will step pass the finishing line. The raising living standards, increase inflation and projected positive GDP growth in SG pushes middle income citizen beyond imagineable circumstances. The new generations of young working adults, steer by the influence of peers or by nature of their family background, tend to lead a lifestyle which involves pretty much everything to do with labels. Just take a look on the street, how many young working ladies are carrying their favorite LV/Gucci/Chanel handbag to work. It not as though they cost 10%-20% of your monthly paycheck, they cost a freaking 1000-3000SGD. And for the record, branded handbags are not just for bankers or senior managers, even people working for an administrative position desire for one. Ask a lady how many of the many desires they have turned to possession, you will be amazed/perturbed/impressed by the statistic. I'm not saying that people can't have desires or wants, it will be quite boring if one has the resources to own it but is restricted by self discipline. Many a times discipline is one traits that makes people's dream a reality. Discipline can come in terms of allocating a certain amount of undisturbed time to fulfil their work requirement, discipline to maintain one's investment objective, discipline to work with the budget plan out for the month and also discipline to save. Having mention a mouthful of what some of the disciplines one does in life, i will like to focus on "Discipline to save".
Why is it a common sight to see loads of people queueing outside the banks on weekends or even weekdays. People are periodically putting money into the bank and withdrawing when needed. I see, people are willing to spend 30mins or more during peak hours to shift money from their bank to their pocket or vice versa. What will become of the stagnant/unused money residing in your favourite bank? It's not as though Singapore bank interest rates is as high as what Australian banks are offering to their local counterparts. Let's put it this way, suppose the money you have surplus after setting aside money for emergency funds, what will become of this surplus by the end of 10 years? Imagine this, you have a piece of 10,000 note, as years gone by, the note starts to erode by itself. FIrst the edges, then to the centerpiece. Would one be happy to see that what is left from putting the money in the safest place on this planet turns out to be worth probably 8k-9k depending on the inflation rate? Singaporeans are really pleasing the bank too much in this sense, they give u peanuts but on their hand, their earn some freakingly huge abalone. Opportunities often manifest itself with those that could envision and make calculated judgement. People always say, the govt is helping the rich to the extend that we often hear this familiar saying " the rich will get richer ". Well if a middle income household sit there and do nothing about investments, they have just enrol themselves into the rat race.
Weeeeellll. According to Singstats from what i remember after doing a project 1 years back, about 45-50 percent of Singaporeans fall into the category of middle income household. And just by looking at the middle income households, there are brackets to segregate them into middle lower, middle higher and middle. My vision here is to help people from the middle lower and middle income households to achieve where they could possibly in by the time they reached golden years. It's going to be challenging but not impossible. With prudence and the right receipe to investment and savings, you are one step closer to changing your family lifestyle, not for the worst but for the better. I'm embarking on a amazing career offering clients the most objective, unbias research based recommendation that solely represents the client's interest. What name do they give for such a career? IFA.. which stands for Independent Financial Advisory.
"A man who established a mission is more likely to complete it compared to one who leaves everything to fate and mere coincidences"
posted @ 8:52:00 PM
Adjusting my attitude
It's has been quite a while since i last see things from the positive side. Guess some way or another this is affecting my mental health. Feeling restless and lost focus on stuffs.
IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE!~~~ FOR my studies, career, life.
posted @ 1:55:00 AM
Beginning of 2009
Without me procrastinating about the 1 month break being too short, we have stepped into 2009 in just a blink. Will 2009 be a beckoning year for many? I guess many including me are rather pessimistic about the economy and how the world is going to change for the better. It's day 3 of school and i'm still feeling sluggish over academic work. Although my time-table was quite well planned for, i still couldn't escape the claws of some really crazy professors that conduct their seminars as early as 830. Thinking about waking up @ 7am just irks me and i have to go through this from wednesday to friday.
In about 7hrs time i will be attending my first wealth planning lesson. Yea~ finally something that i'm enthusiastic about. I'll make sure i bring some tooth picks to support my heavy eyelids from shutting. Who wouldn't want to know anything about wealth planning if u are going to support yourself and your families in the future. I hope i will be good at it practically ha not forgetting academic performance as well. Who knows in years to come, one of you might just be my client. (i think i'm sleep-talking....)
Ok now some serious stuffs about myself.....
Here are some of my 2009 resolutions
1) Be consistent
2) Stay away from unhealthy food~ hard to resist but worth trying
3) Save up some cash to get a laptop
4) Gym Gym Gym..... I'm getting older everyday and yet to achieve my desired body shape
5) Better time management
6) Doing something more productive during my free time. haha
7) Take one step at a time
8) Focus Focus Focus
9) Constant meet ups with pals~~
posted @ 1:29:00 AM
Post birthday updates! :)
Last friday meeting with my secondary school pals was just awesome! My first intention was actually to arrange for a dinner session @ mushroom pot located at Millennia Walk. However i had this funny feeling that it won't be a eventful night. So i came up with a short itinerary. 1) Meet up to eat my favorite parklane wanton noodle. 2) After that head to short street for the famous selegie tao huay 3) Head to Mindscafe to end the day. The wanton noodle needs no futher explanation. Tao huey was just smooth and silky. Melts in your mouth! Poor CST missed out all the action due to last min OT from boss but joined us shortly after @ minds.
Feedback from CST and Yizhen was that the food @ minds wasn't good. Too salty if i wasn't mistaken. We started with this game call ticket to ride. As usual, eugene with the tactful planning won the game eventually with the most points and the longest connecting railway. KR, eugene and me teamed up in the end to block Yizhen route towards the end of the game... KR eventually got a scolding from YZ for attempted peeking @ her cards. My sweetie took snapshots of the game with her fav pink sony cam. Thanks dear. Details of the event can be found on facebook.
The highlight of the day would be the last game we played. We are supposed to pick a card with an emotion. The rules of the game is that the player is to throw 3 dices if he/she landed on the 3 zone. On the dices, there is 3 action that we can do. First to charade, second to draw and lastly to narrate the sentence from a pile of cards using the selected emotion. CST being less of an expressive person had no choice but to try his very best in narrating his emotion. He made the entire table banging tables in laughters.
Dear took the entire sunday to go grocery shopping for the feast she had prepared on my birthday. I had a slurplylicious chocolate cake from Cannelle coupled with a box of chocolate @ the stroke of 12. She started of the 3 course meal with a specially made "lemonade". Appetizer is pan fried prawns marinated with basil leave and some other spices that i dunno as i have no access to the receipe. Following the appetizer is a well presented beef short ribs with mashed potato plus some greens with balsamic vinegar. i will rate it 10/10. Finale, strawberry puree with champagne jelly. The combination was damn good. Heard from my baby she used the entire bottle of champagne to make the jelly. Alcohol roxs~ @ the end of the day my baby was like dead tired. Love you baby for everything you have done for my birthday. I felt so appreciated!!!
And aslo not forgetting the greetings that i received from friends all over Singapore and one from australia. Now i'm trying to coordinate a meeting with my poly friends V6 -1 (wei when u come back the celebrate). They have been busy with work and we hardly meet nowadays. So people better make urself free. We have some catching up to do...
Now back to school stuffs. Next week marks our term break. It's hard to believe that half a semester had been completed. Expected to chiong 2 projects during the break and hopefully able to make good use of this "vacation". Went to AMK library to borrow some books to enrich my investment sense... And also to pay my 30 cents fine that i owed the library for years. Haha Friday is the day for persuasive writting test and i haven done any readings or practising till now. Tomorrow seems like a good day to start everything i've planned..
posted @ 12:43:00 AM
Being slacking lately till i haven got the time to blog what is happening in my life. In just a blink of an eye, the semester is almost half completed. Soon enough, i will be sitting for my 3rd examination in NTU. Time really waits for no one. Ok enough said, here are some updates of my life.1. My latest investment " adjustable bench plus lots of weights and barbells!!!
Since last semester i have beeen procrastinating about my laziness for gyming. And just one fine day, i was calculating the the expenditure for going gym say 3 times a week, the total amount i spend each month and even years, or even signing up for the membership. Then an idea struck across my mind "zoom",why not invest in a gym set. In that way i can do my workout anytime i want without having to wait for other people in the public gym to finish theirs. Been consistently keeping up with my gym regime. I'm one step closer to my perfect bod haha.
2. After like a good 4 years, i finally change my phone. Samsung F480
Manage to get this phone at a fantastic price using my bro "ultimate plan". Save me a good 200bucks on this smart phone. This phone fits just right and comfortable on my palm. Was thinking of getting "Omnia" but found it too bulky. Futhermore, this phone comes with a leather flip. Good in a way it protects the screen and looks real 'classy' type. As for the phone features, i'm still satisfied with it till now. Below are the photos taken from F480.
F1 car seen @ vivocity
Men's grooming shop. Might be the next trend.
"At this moment when the time stop, we are thinking of each other"
A picture taken using phone camera function. Just a test shot.I know it makes no sense to many of you. Be a little romantic can? Will try to figure out new concepts to improve my photography.
3. My first ever indoor stadium concert "F.I.R"
Scene when we first arrived
Concert supposed to start @ 730pm. Common sight among singaporeans
Snapshot of the concert beginning. :)
The concert was not bad although the crowd was quite dead during the first half. Female lead singer was awesome!!! Great vocals and stamina!!! Was quite surprise to hear that soon that is also present @ the concert.
posted @ 6:56:00 PM
It's finally nearing weekends
Finally decided to post something after quite a while. For the past few weeks working part-time, i was employed by 4 companies. 1) Taylor Nelson SG my very first job that my agent in recruit express has introduced me. Working hours is totally superb 7am-2pm (but dragging yourself to work everyday and having to wake up @6 could be a hassle). Basically the job just requires us to make phone calls to Australian HR manager to have them participate in a "biz study"/survey. After multiple failures, i finally succeed in completing one. And that 1 survey that i completed remains till the end of my stint there. This job could be quite boring and demoralising but the pay is good. But all good things come to an end.... I was supposed to be contracted till the end of Jun. Unfortunately i was employed only becos their project was overdued and required addition manpower to complete it. In the end i only worked there for 6 days.
2) ESPN - I was yet again contracted to work for espn. BUT only for one day.... It was a good experience for me. The structure of the workplace was indeed an eye opener for me, the decor, color scheme relax setting attracts me. I was telling myself, how nice if i could work there next time. The management there was just as wonderful as well.
3) Hasbro - Worked during the first ever toy and comic convention held over @ suntec city over the weekends. I'm situated in the star wars booth. It's the best and most attractive booth in the entire exhibition. During the closed session on friday, Lin Jun Jie came over to our booth and set all the female hasbro staffs hormones "raging". My first ever closed contacts with him, though i din get to take pictures with him. He is about my height though hehe.
4)Hawker Pacific - My current job. Situated in some ulu part in seletar camp. Job scope, temp assistant. Attached to indoor warehouse.
Time for lunch first, i can smell the fragrance from the packed bryani. :)
posted @ 12:37:00 PM
Setting off to genting
We are doing last minute preparation for our genting trip later. Checking if there's any stuffs that we left out. It seems that my gf bag is super filled and of course the things that she bring is about twice of mine. All those night cream, skin cream etc... there are just too many stuffs that a lady has to apply in order to look pretty. See they are sacrificing so much for us guys, so better cherish them like i do. (only to crystal of course).
The prawns got a new home!!!! Just look at the effort i took to give them a better living habitat. More space to move around compared to the small basin. By placing them in a tank, i could actually see how exactly prawn eat and how they clean their head with their little feeding hands. Maybe when i'm back from genting, i will try to count how many legs does a prawn have. haha
View taken from top of the tank
Normal view of my prawn habitat
posted @ 7:43:00 PM
