uncle lim kopi

 Uncle is entering semi-retirement now. Stopped working to see if this will work out Suddenly, noticed that I will fall asleep every day at around 3-4pm.  Initially I attributed it to my tiredness after years of stressful worklife But after 2 weeks of taking naps, it didn't go away.  Then it hit me.... Its my body and mind trying to find a new rhythm of life. You see, when you have a full time job, the rigours and schedule of that job takes over your life. It becomes the center upon which you revolve the rest of your life around, including personal, family, schedules.  Now, take that job away, and you lost your "center" schedule. And your mind and body goes hunting for directions, and becomes disoriented.  I need to find a new center to replace the old one. But this time it will be a better version.Why? Because, when you are employed, you have no control over this center of life, since it almost dictates when your "own" time starts and ends, and sometimes, it ta...

  https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/gifted-education-programme-revamp-primary-school-high-ability-student-moe-4558771 Quote " The GEP revamp signals a shift in policy. Rather than taxpayer-funded resources flowing to a small minority of students, those resources could be spread out to benefit more students across all primary schools. " Will be interesting to see if this change actually changes the financial demographics of the GEP cohort. My take is it won't. Parents with resources will still be win out. In fact, more parents with resources are now able to aim for GEP by funding tuition, since there are more seats available and there's no need to move to another school. So this could potentially have the side effect of expanding the GEP crazies. Good for the tuition centres. But bad for the kids of such parents. More tuition, more stress, more homework, and then more stress after being selected, especially the "gifted" comes from tuition training, a...

  https://www.asiaone.com/singapore/didnt-even-bring-bag-singaporean-woman-day-trip-stranded-jb-4-days-after-losing-passport Quote: The 22-year-old influencer had driven up to Johor Bahru on Aug 10 at about 1am for a quick massage and hotpot meal, she said in her first video. Sim explained that she and her friends had stored their passports in the glove compartment of the car before heading to the hotpot restaurant. Uncle thinks this group simply took their own personal safety for granted. Drove into JB at 1am is already a red flag. And go there without a bag to store your passports? Put passports in glovebox? They think they are going to Geylang for supper is it? LOL So now want to post ordeal in TikTok for what? For whole F world to laugh I think. 

Hard question at this age. Technically it is possible, but socially it seems not acceptable. Wide-eyed stares when I talked about it to peers, probably thinking that Uncle had overdosed with kopi-o cannot think properly lol The rat race mentality, competitiveness, materialism in Singapore is part of our DNA so much that no one in general would question if it all make sense, nor dare to take a different path. Either you are ridiculed for being foolish, or frowned upon for being able to do it when they can't. But Uncle is determined to forge my own path. Uncle always believe that if you do the same thing as everyone else, you won't be successful. Success is about being relatively better. Doing the same thing at same level as others means you are no different from the masses, so why would you expect to get better opportunities?  Once you stay in a condo or landed house, why can't you re-adjust and move to HDB? What's the shame in that?  Shame is if you foolishly try to imp...

  https://www.asiaone.com/singapore/singaporean-slams-motorists-over-disrespectful-flag-display-side-mirrors?utm_source=a1home&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=A1+trending&utm_content=c11 WTF did I just read?  Some clown actually think it's an issue here. And thinks car drivers want to use the flag designed covers to protect their car mirrors cap.  Wake up lah you mountain turtle. As a car driver, I believe most of us F care about the side mirrors. The national flag designed covers are sold all over petrol stations during the National Day period, and this has been going on for years. I think it's a fun thing to do to display. Don't be a sore loser. Go work harder and buy that car you envy your neighbour has. F loser.

 Uncle had opportunities to uproot and move for work, but Uncle never want to. I don't see the appeal of it. Singapore always feel more like home to me anyway.  Happy birthday SG. 

 Read this today  https://stackedhomes.com/editorial/from-large-condo-to-small-flat-homeowners-share-their-downgrading-regrets-in-singapore/#gs.da420j For the 2nd case, it brings up good points/lessons. Don't over-react and make drastic changes to "imaginary" worst case scenarios that play out in your mind. If you are not mentally/financially prepared and something bad happens, don't over-react and make wrong decisions, especially on issues that could be very hard/impossible to reverse.  Even if mentally prepared, when the risk materialises, you will still need a cooling period to absorb the event, and make a sound decision. Don't rush into things. When Uncle decide to take a career break, Uncle also play out worst case scenarios in my mind, and see how I could handle it. But Uncle also didn't act on it immediately, and took on a more moderate approach, but adjusting exceptions on probability on what could happen realistically.  Here were some drastic decision...

Bought some Capitaland China again. Wonder how long Uncle can afford to keep doing DCA on this bugger. Mr China, please please please, get well soon. I always believe you are strong in long term.

Uncle not born with silver spoon, no rich parents to dispense money to me for large life expenses (marriage, housing), but Uncle not complaining as Uncle has responsible/sensible parent (yes, parent) to give Uncle a chance to complete undergraduate studies to get a basic degree to get a good starting point in career (in general lah).  So when Uncle started working at age of around 25, I have $1000 in my name. And it starts from there. Uncle don't live like a miser. I go on dates, go clubbing, buy gadgets, even buy car. But somehow Uncle still managed to diligently save 10-20% each month consistently, and this percentage goes up when my pay increases over the years (i.e. expenses/lifestyle costs rate of increase is lower than pay increase rate) Still, Uncle cannot afford to buy condo when I got married. So have to go for BTO HDB, which we were lucky as there was a surplus of HDBs in the mid-2000s, so HDB has balance of new flats for Uncle to pick and choose and move in immediately o...

Wow, suddenly every blog/YouTube about finances are talking about REITS, only after the prices started to trend up. Why don't they talk about REITS when prices were down and down and down, and when there is a great REIT sale going on? I am going to slow down REIT buying while all these fellas influence (subconsciously) the public to go into REITS, which will push the prices up too fast and away from reality. Soon, the impatient ones will take out their money again and the froth will be gone and I'll buy again in larger amounts at a discount.

 Well, it's XD plus some not so good news from SIA? SIA posts earnings of $452 million for 1QFY2025, 38.4% lower y-o-y Anyway, its a DCA chance, so uncle bought some of it at $6.31 still profitable business, so jumpy the market