Tea with Matthew Seah: A pâtissier on financial freedom.

Regular readers know that our guest blogger, Matthew Seah, is a good investor but I dare say that none of us knows that he is also an aspiring pâtissier (pronounced "pah-tee-syay"). In this guest blog, Matthew shares with us what the processes used by an investor and a pâtissier have in common:

I have been making tiramisu for years in a very specific order:

1. Separate egg whites from yolk. Make sure yolk is not broken.

2. Beat egg white till firm.

3. Add liquor into egg yolk.

4. Mix mascarpone cheese into yolk mixture, a little at a time.

5. Fold beaten egg white gently into yolk mixture.

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And the result?

 

Note: I am NOT trying to boast here nor am I promoting my culinary prowess…

Having tasted my healthier choice tiramisu (no additional sugar was added, all the sweetness come from the ingredients alone), my friend wanted to try making one. So I hastily came up with a soft copy of my recipe for him.

Over the weekend, it took him 2 tries to get a good looking tiramisu, but it tasted a bit different from what I made although still delicious.

Having talked through the process, I found some critical mistakes in my recipe such as:

• An alternative is to place the biscuit on the cream, then pour coffee over each biscuit.
  My friend did as per recipe and poured too much coffee in his first tiramisu such that the cake came out wet and soggy.
  My intent was to pour 2-3 tablespoons of coffee over the biscuits.

• 1/4 cup of liquor
  My friend measured ¼ metric cup of rum and the cream turned out runny and the cake reeked of alcohol.
  This is actually an estimate, as typical Singaporeans would say, “agar agar” What I meant was about ¼ of my coffee cup, but it was interpreted as a standard ¼ cup measurement (1 cup = 250 ml).

(Ok, I am a frog in a well for not knowing a standard cup is 250ml… I have cups of all sizes at home and I don’t have a metric measuring cup -.-“)

On a side note, I was lazy once and combined steps 1 – 5 together. I beat the hell out of the mixture, but I never did get the same fluffy texture.

Through these examples, I have learned a valuable lesson which I believe most culinary experts would agree: The quantity is just as important as the order of ingredients.

And since AK blogs about personal finance and food, why not have both in the same guest blog? What am I saying? There is a connection with what I learnt in the kitchen and in personal finance!

You see, just as anyone can make the same tiramisu by following the same recipe, financial freedom can be achieved by anyone too as long as they follow the steps in an orderly fashion.

Regardless of your income, you can attain financial nirvana when you choose to follow the basic steps to financial freedom:

 

1. Get educated.
2. Start saving.
3. Get insured.
4. Invest in income generating assets.
5. Repeat step 4 until financial freedom is reached.

Some of you may disagree and can still be financially successful if you do not stick to this order. However, you certainly increase your odds of success when these steps are followed in proper order.

Some people jump straight to step 4 due to lack of patience, and they usually lose a significant amount of money that may dissuade him/her from investing ever again. 

So, how about following step by step so that you can get more interested in your own personal finance and ultimately achieve financial freedom?

Related posts:
1. Tea with Matthew Seah: Financial freedom.
2. Be a millionaire next door.
3. Free e-books by AK: Financial security.
4. How to be one up on wall street?
5. Tea with The Minimalist: Personal finance & investing.

SATS, er, SAF must get AK to be a food ambassador!

When I first enlisted in the Singapore Armed Forces, combat rations were made up of canned sardines, canned chicken curry, canned baked beans, hardtack biscuits and chocolate bars.

When I went back 4 years later, combat rations came in army green packets and the variety was amazing! The packaging was strong and practical too.

We would leave the packets on the bonnets of 3 tonners and they would heat up under the Sun. Simply tear open the packets, pour out the contents into mess tins and we would have really yummy (almost gourmet, I feel) and warm meals.

I brought home a packet of red bean soup then and my mom loved it! My mom is very critical when it comes to red bean soup and she loved it! So, it must have been really good.

Anyway, a friend who went for reservist training recently told me packets and packets were thrown away as none of his fellow soldiers consumed any of the combat rations, preferring to simply dump the food packs in the rubbish bin at the end of the exercise.

It really pains me to think that so much perfectly good food is going to the landfills. All the resources that went into producing, transporting and storing the food are wasted. Of course, it is also a waste of precious tax-payers' money.

I do not understand why people would throw away perfectly good food:

Potato, cheese and sausages.

Black pepper mushroom noodles with sausages.

Baked beans, corn, cheese and sausages.

To readers who are still serving our country either as active servicemen or reservists in the military, please don't waste food. Please don't throw away your combat rations.

Like what my mother used to tell me when I was a boy, "Think of the many less fortunate people who do not have enough to eat."



Finally, for a bit of trivia, do you know that there is a company called Singapore Food Industries (SFI)? I used to be a shareholder. They are the people who supply combat rations to the Singapore Armed Forces. I rather liked the regular and good dividends which they paid.

Soldiers have to be fed and MINDEF is a good paymaster. 

Unfortunately, SFI was bought over by another company, SATS. 

Yes, interesting bit of trivia, isn't it?

Related posts:
1. AK71 gets recognition from the government!
2. SATS: A nibble while learning from Rusmin Ang.