Perks and creature comforts in workplace

In tech, these came up. Think Google, Meta and the likes. Free food, massages, snack bars, beer after 7pm, sleeping pods, kombucha and so on. Other tech companies emulate these, because they all want to attract the same talents who had been “spoiled” by such perks and comforts and would not settle for less.

Seriously, don’t fall into such trappings.

Especially those that make you feel that office is more comfortable than home. You linger around, stretch your time to do work that could had been completed in shorter time, because you want to take a few minutes to go to the lobster live station at tea time.

What are you losing?

Your personal time, your freedom, your time to live a life outside of work.

You are now a hamster, trapped.

You work longer hours. For the same pay. Geez.

Isn’t it ironic that we have all these technology that supposedly make us more productive but yet we end up working long hours?

Then I’ll rather do away with the tech.

You are now running ever faster in a most shiny and high tech treadmill, congrats. Hope you wake up and see it before your health and time left on this world are gone.

Comments

Expenses of a middle-classy Singapore uncle with family

I don't know what exactly is considered middle-class in SG, but I figured its the fat range in the middle section if we were to line people up based on income. There will be a steep drop off from the bottom 5% and a steep surge from the top 5, and another galactic surge from the top 1%. Uncle is pretty sure I am in that middle chunk of 90%, and based on my estimation, should be in the front 30 percentile in this chunk. Now, this is how my expenses look like for myself (excluding what my wife contributes). The numbers are on per month and in SGD Car expenses (loan, insurance, maintenance, tax, fuel) = $2,500 Insurance premiums = $800 Utilities bill = $350 Mobile lines for 5 = $90 Home internet line = $30 Services (Netflix, Spotify, iCloud) = $60 Condo maintenance fees = $350 Property tax = $250 Groceries and take out meals = $1200 Allowance for my parent = $1000 Allowance for kiddos = $200 School fees for kiddos = $150 Tuition fees = $270 Piano, and music classes = $900 Sub-Total fo...

Getting comfortable without a salary from working

Not sure if I am there yet. Basically I am effectively drawing down my cash each month, primarily due to 2 things : mortgage and income tax mortgage (after CPF) is about $9k per month income tax is about $5k per month My investment cashflow covers all my other expenses, including utilities, groceries, handphone/internet bills, insurance, property taxes, condo maintenance fees, personal spending. With some input from wife who is still working, I am still out of pocket by almost $11k per month. She will continue to be able to save a decent sum per month and I'll let her grow that and managed it for her via safe investments. Am I comfortable? Not really. I will if I am not out of pocket per month. If I really stop working for good, the income tax amount will go to $0 after 2025. So only mortgage left We can pay off the mortgage but I think I said before, it doesn't make sense since it's our home and we will be locking the money up with little leeway to do other things. So I ...

How Uncle’s financials behave during 1.5yrs of early retirement

Been a roller coaster... Due to changes in USD vs SGD strengths Due to volatile NASDAQ stocks Due to SG stock market movements (but this one is mostly up, and on a bull!) Hopefully 2026 brings peace and some prosperity The above included about $150k of dividends collected Of course the above is nett after Uncle's expenses lah. No need to makan meh? lol The above doesn't include equity in Uncle's home. That is likely around $1.8-$2M SGD Uncle's lao pok car? that's neutral now (resale value covers outstanding loan)

uncle lim kopi

Search This Blog