How I lose 3 kg in 1 week!

Last week, I went for my regular medical checkout and was asked to take my weight. I was quite shocked to see that I am 88kg. Well, I used to be hovering around 84kg to 85kg with my regular meal and once per week 3km jogging routine. Well, not so regular about the recent weight gain. I was guilty of having the delicious double roast pork rice 2 times per week. And that is the reason for my weight gain. By the way, I am not overly obese because I am standing at 1.84m so with 88kg I am just slightly over 26 BMI ;) but its still not in my best shape.

And so I decided to trim down to my 'normal' weight again which is around 85kg. After jogging weekly for about 2 years already, I found that jogging alone is very difficult to lose weight as I still eat like a pig. Meaning I eat whatever i want or desire from the juicy roast pork, OMG KFC fried chicken, yummy mutton bryani, etc. For the past 2 years I managed to keep my weight stable with just once per week jogging. But with my sudden shootup from 84kg to 88kg, just relying on my regular once per week jogging is not enough.

I have measured before, running for a siong siong 3km can only burn 300 kcal. This can be easily achieved by going for lower calories and more effective! Assuming each daily we burned 2000 kcal performing our usual daily routines, we just need a 1500 kcal or lesser to get the weight loss we wanted. But this doesnt mean that it is bye bye forever to our favourite food. We can still take it once a while :) eg if you are going for company dinner or buffet just wack and forget your diet for a while and play the catchup game later :)

Being a food lover, some drastic change in my diet is required!

So for last week, I switched to these low calories options. Not sure which one of them is the most effective so I will just list them out:
1. Kopi O Kosong (Black coffee with no sugar)
I call this an upgrade from my early kopi to my past years kopi o and now behold my bitter kopi o kosong. I always laughed at my friends that life is already bitter and we are adding more bitterness into our everyday life.

2. Soup Yong Tau Foo with no noodles for lunch
Going from dry to soup based can easily cut down by 100 kcal and not taking noodle or rice is down by another 200 kcal. This I can do during lunch time when I buy my food but it will be difficult during dinner as I usually eat at home and not nice if I refused to eat the food that was laid on the dinning table. Yes, I can take Soup Yong Tau Foo without noodles everyday for all the weekdays and not feel tired or sian of it!

3. Apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar mixed with water before dinner can help in weight loss. But some people may not like the strong smell and taste. I have no problem drinking vinegar because I love to put lots of it when eating my lor mee :)

4. 10 min walk from MRT station to Home
This added activity can reduce 50 kcal . At least it helps in burning some fats.

This is just a before and image image of my typical diet for last week. It seems to be working and very effective too as I can lose 3kg in 1 week! When I first started I thought it will take my 1 month to do it. So far so good, I will be continuing to follow this diet till I hit 75kg and below. This is my army days' weight, the fittest time in my life :)

Breakfast

Before	Calories	After	Calories
1 slice of bread	79 kcal	No change	79 kcal

Lunch

Before	Calories	After	Calories
Kopi O (Coffee black with sugar)	66 kcal	Kopi O Kosong	5 kcal
Economy rice with 2 meat 1 veg / roast meat rice	430 kcal to 636 kcal	Soup Yong Tau Foo without noodle	296 kcal

Dinner

Before	Calories	After	Calories
Home cooked 1 veg, 1 meat/fish, 1 soup	300 kcal	No change	0 kcal
Home cooked brown rice (small scoop)	111 kcal	Home cooked basamati rice	150 kcal
NA	0 kcal	Apple Cider Vinegar	22 kcal

Just some motivations that will make me stick to my plan:

Motivation	Remarks
Health benefits	Being slimmer, of course, have its health benefits, you can stay away from deadly health issues such as diabettes, high blood pressure, etc. I also have high cholestrol and this will help control it
Looking good	Its very easy to know that you gained weight, your clothes will be tighter. For me, I feel that when I sit down, I can feel the fats on my stomach pressing against my chest haha scary right? Now, my face also look chiselled with less fat. Wow! cant wait to see myself when I am 75kg again :) Thats another 10kg to shed!

Certainty of death, Small Chance of Success, What are we waiting for?

I especially like LOTR and there was this part where the gang are going to setup a rather odd fellowship of ring comprising of a human, a elf, a dwarf and 2 hobbits. It was when Gimli the dwarf said this 'Certainty of death, Small Chance of Success, What are we waiting for?'. Kinda of funny though, I would think. Also kinda sink in deeply into me as after a few years after the movie was shown, I still remember this dialogue :)

Well, I think its pretty practical in our real life too. Just like in the movie, we only live once and during our lifetime is there something you are dying to do and it is within your means ie your health, time permits and expense that you can do it?

Then do not take too long to fulfil your dreams or wishes. Remember we only live once. Do not waste your youth away, and by the way, it will not come back.

As for me, I am quite a simple person, I have no craving for branded goods or do not blindly chase after fabs or fashion or the 'in' thing. I am ok to own a XiaoMi handphone and I must say it is performing very well. At least it doesnt cost a bomb and doesnt explode in your pocket :) I also stay in a HDB flat, got a family car to travel to different places to eat. Every year get to travel around the world for a holiday. Opps not forgetting that I have a stable job and doing ok in my career. But nothing fantastic baby came out of it :) But still got to be thankful for that.

Come to think of it, I have actually done most of the things that I wanted in life.

Since young, I am very interested in investing and growing my wealth. I have since setup a retirement portfolio step by step. Hopefully I can live long enough to enjoy the fruits of my labour. If not, my spouse and children would be very happy when I am not around :)

The latest 'want' or what I hope to achieve is for myself to be a sexy trader, owing a flashy sportcar and stay in big terrace haha Kidding.. but such dreams do keep me going in my trading journey. I keep imagining or having that illusion that someday I will be like those superstar trader on the youtube.

Yes, I am still at it after failing a few times but I have not given up yet. I am still progressing and the equity curve does look better nowadays, I feel that I have seen through the 'trick' and I hope I can maintain it and be a consistently profitable trader every month. I am in the realising stage and hope to grow along the way.

I will give a separate update on my trading journey and I do have some things or experience to say about it.

So its the same for everybody, a certainty of death so what are you going to do when you are still alive and breathing? What are you waiting for? Remember we only live once ;)

Singapore's First Olympic Champion

My daughter and I was watching the news about Singapore sending a small team to compete in the Olympic Games. My daughter mentioned why send our Singapore team there when there's really no chance of winning. I replied in a diplomatic way that well, we still need to try and gain experience from it. Maybe one day, Singapore might win a gold medal back.

Then, when I knew Joseph Schooling got 1st in the 100m men's butterfly semi-finals and beat Micheal Phelps who came in 2nd. I said OMG, this could be it. There's a chance Singapore might get a gold medal in this Olympic Games! Dont have to wait for any more 4 years.

That Saturday morning, I woke up early and witnessed the history! First time we got a gold medal and first time that our National Anthem was played live in the Olympic Games! Hooray! Congrats Joseph Schooling!

During the recent SEA games hosted by Singapore I wrote a post about Gold Silver Bronze medalist who is the happiest?. Well, this time, there is only 1 happiest person in the world and 3 unhappy silver medalists :)

Then I happened to watch a short video about Joseph Schooling on how he got a scholarship in University of Texas training as a swimmer and having to attend classes and swim hard in the day time and then to study and revise his studies till late night. It certainly wasnt an easy path to be a Olympic Champion.

It certainty will not be a easy path to achieve our golden financial freedom but through hard work and perseverance I can do it too :) I can be the happiest person in the world too :)

Why a Trader Should Invest Too

I was at a traders' fackbook group when someone asked which stocks should he buy for investment. Immediately there were a few replies and most actually said that they will ramp up their trading capital and trade bigger lots. Why need to invest in stocks they say when they can earn bigger bucks by increasing their trading capital and trade bigger. Agree?

Hmm this I do not quite agree. In fact, I think that all traders should invest in stocks, property or other business assets. Even for those good traders who can profit consistently needs to invest too.

Why? Very simple because trading is an active income too just like a job. If your hand or brain stop, your trading income will stop too.

This is the same question I popped up to my boss too when I asked him if he has done any investing. Well he said that he doesnt have any time for that and doesnt need to invest :P He is risk conservative. He cannot stand losing money or paper loss.

Our job is active income. Meaning if our hands stop, our income stop too but our mouth cannot stop :D Just need to do some passive income eg investing in stocks or property or any other business assets which will continue to generate income even when we are not working anymore eg retrenched, retired or unfit for work, etc

Hope you get my point :)

Don't Fall into the Vicious Cycle

This is a real story that I heard from my colleague. They were implementing a project and was told to be on standby ie stay back for a while to monitor the job to ensure that the new changes are implemented correctly and to react fast for any abnormalities. However, my colleague said that 2 of them replied that they cannot stay and left office on time.

I tried to imagine what was going on inside their mind. Well, it could be that they really have some urgent family matters to settle and couldn't stay. Its also possible that they feel that their work effort is unappreciated and there's no point to really work hard to proof it to their boss or themselves. Whatever project they do is of no use, they feel that they are blacklisted. Well, if that's the case, then its a very dangerous thought. I would call it the vicious cycle, you will never get out of this black hole if you harbor such thoughts.

For example, if this year you didn't get a good grade and if you keep thinking that there's no point in studying harder because you cannot absorb anymore and your IQ is this much. You hit your maximum capacity. You are just psychologically limiting yourself. You are setting a ceiling, a mental disability for yourself. You will not get far if you have these limiting thoughts.

Let say you are on a weight loss program, you try to cut down on your carbo intake and exercise regularly. After a while, you didn't see any results, you slowly resign yourself to the fate that you are just a genetically inherited chubby boy/girl and its in your DNA that you are heavy and that nothing you do can help you reduce weight. Its like you are giving it up easily.

Or if you have a credit card debt and you can only repay a small amount each month. If you think that it doesn't matter and doesn't make any difference. Then you are doing a disservice to yourself. Well, it does make a difference. That little money you put in to repay your debt is going to help reduce your principle amount and one day you will clear your debt.

Same for your financial independence journey, when you just started working, you have little savings and those hard earned monies you frugally saved is just too little and it doesn't seem to generate any sizable dividends from your capital investment. You feel like you are taking ages to reach your destiny and there's not a shadow in sight.

Sure, many times while trying to reach your goal, the long journey will make you feel fruitless and you feel like you are wasting your time. We are only human and sometimes we will have such negative thoughts hovering in our mind. Well, Rome was not built in one day. So we all got to keep on trying.

Give yourself a chance. Don't give up on yourself.

Try To Be Yourself

We often hear people say that life is like a movie or serial drama. Many a times we have to wear a mask and be pressured by fellow peers and environment, we are forced to become another person. If not, we are considered outcast or people who does not blend in the group. This is especially so for the youngsters who are conscious of what people think of them or are they nerds or geeks. They are very concern of others perception of them.

Nowadays, I am more immune to this kinda of things. If I am not happy, I will just find an excuse politely and walk away. That makes me happier than when I was much younger. However, not very true. In workplace, no choice, when I need to entertain or attend a official event, I still need to wear my mask and look friendly.

Guess my happy hours are not in any pubs or drinking session but in my home with my family where I can do whatever I want, be it staring at my TV or playing with my pet fish or children.

I particularly like this song 'Try' by Colbie Caillat and find that its very meaningful. Even the MTV casts are not any super models or pretty lass. They are just plain Jane who wore no makeup or wigs.

This song is about being yourself, no need to change yourself or try to act like another person or pretend to be somebody so that other people will like us or accept us.

Every day when we wakeup, when we look at the mirror. We should like what we see. We should like ourselves.

Its Better To Be A Giver Than A Receiver

On 2nd Aug 2015, my wife saw the Blood Donation Drive banner around our neighbourhood and asked me if I am ok to join her. Ok why not. By the way she was a first time donor and was pretty nervous about it as previously, her weight was below 45kg so was not heavy enough to donate blood. Now she's 47kg so off we go!

When we reached Metta School @ Simei Street 1, Oh boy! there were many people there and we were quite surprised. Its a Sunday and we can see quite a few donors are from the Y gen meaning those around 20+ years old. Good good!

We had to fill up a few pages of questionaire to make sure we are physically fit without any serious medical history or disease. After that, we have to have our blood pressure taken by a on-site doctor who will run through the survey form and ask questions on some of our answers. Wow I must say its quite strict in making sure that they got the right donors.

Made a small chat with the doctor and he said this donation drive very strange. Suddenly all the old donors who stopped donating long time ago appeared today and also lots of first time donors haha. I was one of those old donors who didnt visit them for long time. He said my last visit was 2010 or 2011.

Then, when it was my turn to lay down and got my blood siphon out, a senior nurse came along and chat with me. She told me that the Blood Donation Drive was supposed to end at 3pm and it was already 2.30pm and looking at the huge wave of donors coming in, they can only end after 5pm. She told me, she and her team of nurses have not taken their lunch and wouldn't want to hold us back and was happy that so many donors came forward. Suddenly all the nurses who are busy working look so attractive to me! Such a nice white nightingale :)

I feel so fortunate and blessed to still be a abled bodied person to donate blood to the needy. Knowing that my blood will one day save a life and make a difference. I got a colleague who got involved in a road accident told me that she used up 20 bags of blood when she got hit by a taxi. See one bag of blood is not enough and you can only donate blood once every 3 months. Those who are keen please be a regular donor :)

Well, its better to be a giver than a receiver. Ok, I empathize over my colleague's mishap but in this case, everyone would rather be the donor than the receiver. Just like the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of giving :)

Same for money, isn't it great to have enough or surplus money so that you can help less fortunate people who are in need of help for emergency use? I wrote it in my motivation that in order to help others we have to first help ourselves only then are we in the advantage or position to help others.

GE2015 How We Can Apply To Portfolio Management

Finally, Singapore decides who they want to lead them for the next five years. The past 2 weeks are dramatic with rallies by opposition parties and ruling party. I managed to attend a rally by WP and PAP and looking at the large turnout of the WP rally. It is scary. The crowd is like going to a soccer match with many people from different generation and background. Especially the WP rally, you can hear people cheering and shouting. It can be very entertaining when the WP speaker talk about the people's usual problem such as CPF, jobs taken up by foreigners, etc.

Chee Soon Juan from SDP also improved alot this GE2015, he's not so aggressive and more reasonable. No shouting at Mr Goh like during the last election. He also played the empathy card by telling people about his humble life via social media. He also showcased his family, especially his daughters in the politics during his rally speeches. Something I feel he should not involve them.

For a moment, I thought PAP would have a hard time defending their grounds.

When the result is out, I was kinda relieved. I know that some of my friends want some opposition party to be in the Parliament not because they are good but they just want them to be in so that they will watch over PAP. This is a very scary thought. What happens if majority thinks like that and start voting for opposition not based on merits but purely this reason? What will happen to Singapore? Are the opposition party ready to be the ruling party and lead Singapore?

I am relieved that despite all the ra-ra from opposition parties, majority of Singaporeans still choose PAP as it is stable and reliable, a proven working ruling party, status quo.

I think it apply to our portfolio management too. We need it to be a stable and reliable cruise ship sailing towards our destination. Our portfolio should not be exciting and entertaining with high beta stocks making high swings in the the price. We need it to be a stable business and consistently gives dividends.

So choose wisely how you want to build up your stock portfolio.

Do you want it to be exciting like gambling ? or stable like a business?

Are We A Bunch of Losers?

Below are some of the loser's thoughts.
Are you a long term investor now because you lost money in trading?

Are you a trader now because you sucks at investing?

Are you spending too much time on investing or trading now because your career has no future or you are blacklisted by your boss at work?

Are your portfolio bleeding now? Staggering massive paper loss and it gets worst everyday?

Below are the winner's thoughts.
You switched to investing because you found out that trading is not your cup of tea. You couldn't sleep well, thinking of the forex position which is open 24/7 per day except weekends and Public Holidays. Glad you are out of trading :)

You are a trader now because they found that investing doesn't work for you. There's no kick, slow and looking at the huge paper loss makes me sick.

You invest to create your investment income in addition to your active income (job). You will retire happy and not worried about your finance.

Its just the usual market correction, up and down, up and down, stock is volatile. Very much expected. In the long run, stock will out perform any other asset class.

Some people are very good at showing off their wealth or goodness in life especially facebook which I find its a 'hao lian' platform where friends will post pictures or write on just how good they are and how enjoyable is their life.

Of course life is not all bad and no good. We don't have to envy or compare with others. They may not appear as what they seem to be.

Its actually a state of your mind.

A good example is a glass half filled with water.
Is it half full? or half empty?

Let's switched your mind to the winner side and be a winner!

Then you will be happier.

Let It Go

This is my little nephew and niece's favourite song. Sometimes they will just sing out loud. "Let it go! Let it go!" suddenly it rang a bell in me. Yea, these kids are right, we got to let it go! Kids can teach the adults who are usually blinded or numb by our mundane, ruthless world.

Wonder how would a surgeon perform a good job if he keep on thinking of how much can he earn from the operation or worry that their patient couldn't foot the bill. Money is the least thing he should worry and concentrate on getting the operation done successfully.

How would a office worker perform if he/her keep thinking that its past my office hours and I will "lu gi" or "bo hua"(make a loss) if I still continue working and not get paid for the extra hours put in.

How would a nurse perform her duties well if she has to keep thinking that she is working late night shift and earning a miserable pay instead of attending to her patients and making sure that they have the best care.

How would a property agent sit around the Million Dollar round table when he keeps worrying that he is wasting money or not getting his money worth on advertising or wasting time doing door-to-door calls and sales. He got to take the first step to reach out for potential customers. I got a property agent friend who told me he started off by doing door to door sales call and get rejected countless times in order to build up his customer contacts to be what he is today.

Next time, if you got a big assignment or project, if you straight away link it to your big bonus or promotion, probably not a good idea. Try not to think about the rewards first, because they may not come to you even though you did a good job. Instead focus first on getting the project done in time and do it well. Recognisation and rewards will come naturally.

How would your portfolio perform if you keep thinking that you will be losing money if you invest and do not dare to press the 'buy' button. Don't be too scared to lose. In the end, you will not take any action and no action means no result.

Try not to worship Money, it should be your least concern. Important thing is to get your work done properly :)

Next time, maybe try to 'let it go', only then you will perform :)

Happy SG50 Singapore!

Happy Birthday Singapore!
Have a super long weekend ahead!

Auntie Uncle Stock Indicator (Proven Accurate!)

I was sweeping through China Market ETF and China Bank stock to see if there's any high dividend blue chips to buy. Then I remember there was a Weibo article in May 2015 reporting that many cash rich 'Dama' or Chinese aunties who are noob about stocks are opening accounts to buy shares in the stock market to earn big bucks and be instant rich.

See what happens after the strong China stock market rally in May 2015?

This indicator is quite accurate, I seen it before. If local newspaper reported huge number of auntie and uncle buying stocks with cash or retirement fund. BEWARE! Stock market is going to crash!

Plan for Failure Or Success?

During my working life, I have reported to a few bosses. Some were 'monster' boss or tekan kings or queens. They wack you upside down and inside out and make you lose all your cocky confidence.

If you come out of their torture chamber smiling and surviving, congratulations you made it through the '36 luo han chamber'. This is a very famous movie when I was a little boy. In Shaolin temple, if a monk or disciple wants to 'graduate' and leave the temple, they have to prove themselves that their kungfu are ready for the tough outside world. They have to fight their way through the 36 chambers and must be able to pass all of them before you can go and see the outside world.

Same for the monster boss, they will throw you the toughest project they can find or volunteer you to other siong team or project and see if you can swim out alive and handle the project well. Its either make it or break it. If you give up and throw the white towel, then too bad, you failed the test and you are not cut out to be the elite core management team. This is to me, means 'Plan for Failure'. The monster boss want to make you fail, screwup the project or make you quit or resign. If you survive the whole ordeal, congrats, you passed the test.

If you are very lucky to have those nice bosses who 'Plan for Success', congrats. If you are already earmarked to be the elite force, the nice boss will protect you, shield you and praise you infront of others to make you successful or make it a success. Its a much easier process then the 'Plan for failure'. You do not have to put a lot of efforts and things are pretty planned out for you. You just need to go through it and it will be a breeze.

So if you are the candidate, which one do you want? Do you want to take the easy way out of 'Plan for success'? I think majority wants the easiest way out or shortcut. But the truth is that you will not be as tough as the guy as the one who went through '36 luo han chamber'. But who cares right? its easier to be the guy who got the 'Plan for Success'. I also want haha

Ok, let us change the context. So what about your portfolio? Do you want to 'Plan for failure' or 'Plan for success'?

We definitely want our portfolio to withstand the volatility, economic cycles and weathered the ever changing business world. In our portfolio we 'Plan for failure' by asking ourselves questions like :
1. are we overexposed in a particular company which give us too much risk?
2. are we overexposed in a particular sector eg oil and gas sector is quite beaten down. do we keep loading up those energy stocks?
3. are we having too many small caps ?
4. are we having too many REITs, medium caps and blue chips?
5. are we overexposed in stocks?
6. What happen if there's a global economic crisis? am I ready to take advantage of it?
7. Stick to your plan! Make sure you buy those beaten down blue chips at dirt cheap prices and not watch it go up again with your balls shrink

A Road Accident

Last Friday was supposed to meetup a colleague for a farewell lunch of another who is leaving Singapore.

Then on that day morning, I noticed the colleague's close friend was crying so went up and asked for the reason. Then was shocked and sadden by the news that my colleague met a road incident involving a taxi and she was the victim as a pedestrian. Then we slowly got news that her skull was fractured and in ICU ward. Kinda serious.

That Friday night, me along with some others went to the hospital to visit her. The sight was bad, lots of supporting devices and air tubes connecting to her nose and mouth. Some said she was tied down to the bed to prevent her from any violent movement or probably to calm her down. It was sad to see something like that. She had to be sedated for 2 days so that her brain's activity would be lower, stabilized and to ease the pressure from her head. That's what I heard.

No one knows how she end up like that except that it was a road accident involving with a taxi. It wasn't a hit and run case as the taxi driver had given his statement to the police. We just have to wait for our friend to wake up in order to hear her other side of the story.

Over the weekend, we worried over her condition and her close friend constantly update us about the progress of her condition. Colleagues told terrible stories that some poor people will lose memories or be a vegetable. Just hope that everything will turn out well.

Finally on Mon, good news! She started responding when people talk to her but she still cant talk. Then on Tues, finally we received news that all was well so she is off the life supporting devices and can be moved to normal ward. What a relief!

Heard that she was crossing the road of a 2 way traffic and was standing at the road divider. Apparently, the taxi had an accident with another car and was trying to avoid hitting the car and turn the wheel towards the road divider and our friend was unlucky to be standing right there.

This incident come as a grim reminder of how fragile our life is and it can happen to anyone. Always spend time with your family and loved ones. And I know that we all save a little bit harder all to have more investment fund to build up our retirement nest. But don't forget what life is all about and set your priority right. We invest to live not live to invest :)

Next time your loved ones asked for something which is not too much or too difficult, just give in and give it to him/her. The smile on their face will be priceless :)

Gold, Silver, Bronze Medalist Who is the Happiest?

Since Singapore is hosting the 28th SEA Games so have to support it by watching LIVE on our TV and follow some of Singapore's better sports such as swimming, table tennis, water polo, sailing, etc I was quite surprised our bowlers didnt do that well. This year Singapore has a surprised 52 gold lead in attaining the number of gold medals as compared to other SEA countries. As far as I remember Singapore usually do not have so many golds and usually is lead by countries such as Thailand or Indonesia. Anyway at the time of writing this post, Thailand is now leading in the struggle for more golds. Nevertheless, I still think that Singapore has done better as compared to previous SEA games.

Well this reminds me of a story, a colleague told me which I find it very nice to share. She asked me so which of the 3 medalists do you think is the happiest? I straight away replied 'The Gold medalist!' without much thought, pretty obvious isnt it?

'Nope...' she said.

'Then its the Silver medalist!' I said, since 'cannot get fish get prawn also good' right?

'No No... its the bronze medalist' she said and then go about about explaining her answers. Well, the Gold medalist already very cocky and expect that she will get a gold will not be very happy as its expected.

The Silver medalist is the most unhappy because she tried very hard to get the first place but lost out and got a Silver instead.

The Bronze medalist is happiest among the 3 and glad that she is in the 3rd place and got a medal if she got a 4th placing then no medal at all.

So this also applies to us

Try to think like a Bronze medalist and be glad that you managed to get into 3rd placing with whatever you have. Do not think like a Silver medalist as you will always sulk and disappointed because you cannot get a better result.

So how's your portfolio doing? is it attaining Gold, Silver or Bronze standard?

Low Expectation Leads To Nice Surprises

I want to relate another true story. Hehe can be a storyteller already.

We had a colleague who was our lunch mate for many years, more than 10 years. Then one day she was on long MC, so out of concern another colleague asked her the reason for her absence. Her reply was 'Sorry confidential, for close friends only'

My friend was shocked and disappointed to hear this answer. Me too.

After more than 10 years of colleague eating lunch and chit chatting during lunch times, sometimes a drink after office hours, we are nothing more than colleagues? Are we not close friends? This reminds me of a movie 'Sleeping with the Enemy' is a 1991 psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Julia Roberts and Patrick Bergin. Am I 'Eating Lunch with the Enemy'?

Do you classify your friendship by the different category?
colleague
friend
close friend
best friend

Someone I knew told me 'yes' they do have different classification of friendship.
Am I thinking too much?
Why are there so much segregation?

I try to think of an explanation to this, and find that its all about expectation.

I remember a time, my daughter asked my wife why she is harsher to them but nicer to stranger or neighbour? Ever wonder why your family members eg parents, especially wife haha are harsher to you or your kids but are nicer to strangers? Its because of the thing called 'expectation'. Along the years, because of closer ties and relationship, your family members expect more from you, their standard given to you are raised.

So, after so many years of 'friendship' with my lunch mate or colleague, some of us began to have expectations from our colleagues or may have 'upgraded' them as 'close friends'. Sometimes we expect others to treat us the same as friends. But not so. You treat them as friends doesn't mean they will do the same to you.

So what does it got to do with stocks?

Yes, there is.

When you buy a stock what was your inital expectation? Just to collect dividend, capital gain or waiting for that privatisation? Maybe after many years, your expectation of that stock have growth. Eg Your initial expectation is only to collect dividend. But your expectation had silently growth to capital appreciation, stock bonus, takeover, privatisation, etc and you keep holding on to it to fullfil your high expectation. But does it mean to do all that you had expected?

Another example, if you buy a stock because it was under valued but it is now grossly over valued. Do you hold on to it as you start to expect it to do more than that?

For an undervalued penny stock, investors and big boys usually do not monitor it and have low expectations. Sometimes, a slightly better news can produce very positive results :)

So was it wrong to have high expectation? No.. not at all. We just need to manage it. Eg sad to say some colleague will just stay as 'colleague' and cannot be advanced to 'friend' status. Some stocks are just dividend stocks, not much capital gain. Some stock can only have capital gain and pay little or no dividend.

High expectation will lead to disappointment and low expectation will lead to nice surprises.

Set your initial expectation as what it meant to be and whatever received after that is considered bonus :)
Then you will be a much happier man or woman :)

Singapore's Greatest Loss! : Mr Lee Kuan Yew

Today, all of the government buildings and schools have their Singapore flag lowered at half mast as we, Singaporeans, mourn for our founding father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

I still remember when I was a school boy in the 80s, my impression of you was that you were a tough, no nonsense PM who will bulldozed anyone who was in your way. Some of the tough action from you was the sacking of the Singapore PR SIA pilot who lead the strike in SIA. You just sack that fellow off and banished him back to where he came from, Malaysia.

Your vision of Singapore all came true!
“this was a mud-flat, swamp. Today, this is a modern city. Ten years from now, this will be a metropolis. Never fear.”

The Marina Barrage is also the result of your vision nearly two decades ago when you envisaged damming the mouth of the Marina Channel to create a freshwater reservoir.

Without you, there will be no Singapore.

Thanks for preparing us to face the tough world, we will survive and prosper!

Thank you

Kid's Money Management Gone Wrong

This isn't actually happening in my family but its a true story that I witnessed which I am going to share with you.

Its one of the weekend which my family and I will go to market to have our usual brunch (breakfast + lunch). There's this mother and 2 kids (about one 8 years old boy and other a 5 years old gal) with a packet of soya bean drink walking just infront of us.

The boy was saying 'Mummy why you ask me to give mei mei (younger sister) drink my soya drink?'

'Cannot the drink is mine' the boy said.

Apparently the little girl ignored her elder brother's plea and just innocently drink the beverage.

The boy was clearly upset and demanded 'Mummy, mei mei drink my soya bean, I dont care she must pay me the drink'

The mummy was getting a bit annoyed and said 'Why cant you just let your sister drink a bit'

The boy answered 'No! cannot! I buy using my own money leh.. I dont care mei mei must return my money'. The boy was very insistence and kept on demanding to have his money back.

The mother became very angry and shouted 'You want your money back?! ok!' and she threw the coins on the ground and fumed off. The boy then went to pick up the coins by himself.

Seems like the kid's education on value of money had gone wrong. Its good that we let our kids manage their money at an early age by giving them a fixed amount of money daily or monthly and they manage their own expenses. But this is something his parents definitely doesn't want to see.

One of my friend's style is to give his primary school daughter $2 per day and at the end of the day, ask her how much is the remaining balance and what was her expenditure. Wow :)

Currently I give my kids daily allowance but there's a piggy bank which I told them if they do not have enough money, they can just go there and help themselves, buffet style :) I don't really monitor their expenses :P So far they have been sensible gals :)

We want our kids to value money and not to be a spendthrift. At the same time, we also don't want them to grow up as a selfish miser. So how do we strike a balance?

Health Is Wealth 健康就是财富

Today is the last day(元宵节) of Chinese New Year (CNY), I hoped you have an enjoyable CNY with your family and friends. I certainly did. So would like to write abit about this CNY.

During CNY, Year of the Goat, was tossing yu sheng 'lo hei yu sheng' with my relative and friends. This dish is very popular during CNY. It is a very simple dish which made up of shredded raw fish and vegetable. We usually stand around it with our chopstick to toss the auspicious dish and at the same time shout out our CNY greetings and wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

These are the common greetings:
恭喜发财 “Gong Xi Fa Cai” meaning “Congratulations for your wealth”
万事如意 “Wan shi ru yi” meaning “May all your wishes be fulfilled”.
年年有馀 "Nian nian you yu" symbolising abundance or excess through the year, is added.

Then someone shouted
健康就是财富 "jian kang jiu shi cai fu" meaning Health Is Wealth

This phrase suddenly brightened me up. Indeed its true, no health no wealth. If we do not have good health, we chalk up high medical expenses, cannot work or invest to bring in more wealth.

Without health, we also cannot enjoy our fruits of labour when we grow old or retire.

Without health, you cannot live through the years to reinvest for the magic of compounding interest rate to work.

Last year when I started my financial freedom journey I also started my fitness journey at almost the same time. I am now running once per week usually during weekends. I know its not alot but its good start and hopefully I can exercise more and run longer distance in the future :)

Some of us use 'expense manager' apps to keep track of our expenses so much so that we can study our expenses and decide which one to cut or reduce. I also used a diet apps to keep track of the calories of the food I eat so that I do not exceed my daily intake of 1500 limit. Now I am going to miss my favourite mutton bryani very much as it can easily hit my daily limit with just 1 meal of it. Eating now is never the same as before :(

I know some of you may have started taking charge of your wealth but have you started taking charge of your health?

I hope I can influence some of you to start your exercise or diet regime too, if you have not done so.

Happy New Year 恭喜发财! 三羊开泰! 喜气羊羊!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!
恭喜发财!
三羊开泰!
喜气羊羊!
Huat ah!