Retiring by 40 is a fantasy for most and AK talks to himself.

Imagine a guy in Singapore who is in his 20s.

Imagine he is in love with a female and they decide to get married right after graduation.

Imagine they decide to buy a flat or a condo right away.

Imagine them having 2 or 3 children in the next three years.

Imagine the wife becoming a stay at home mom after having their first child.

Imagine them buying a family car.

Can they retire early?

Well, if they are born with silver spoons in their mouths, yes.

Otherwise, early retirement is highly unlikely unless they got very lucky.

The title of this blog might look familiar to some readers because part of it is taken from a much longer title from a recent article in Today.

Links to financial planning sites littered that article but I guess that is normal since Today isn't a hobbyist blogger like AK.

Anyway, if we want something and if we don't plan it right, we won't get that something.

So, if an early retirement is what we want, then, we must know what will help and what won't.

How to achieve early retirement?

In a nutshell:

Build wealth and avoid wealth destruction.

In more than a decade of blogging, this is something I have blogged about extensively.

I won't rehash since I am lazy.

Instead, I will point interested readers to some blogs here in ASSI which might provide food for thought.

1. A happy marriage is worth waiting for!

2. Do you want to be richer?

3. How to upsize CPF savings from $100K to $225K?

4. Good habits now for a comfortable retirement!

5. If we are not rich, don't act rich!

6. 3 good reasons to buy a car.

7. How to have children and a comfortable retirement?

Finally, we need insurance but know what is necessary and don't overpay.

See:

What is the purpose of insurance and are we overpaying?

To be fair, retiring by 40 was a fantasy for AK too.

AK only retired a few months before he turned 45.

See:

To retire by age 45, start with a plan.

There are so many blogs in ASSI and I might have missed some useful ones. 

However, the above blogs should be good enough to make many readers lose sleep for many nights.

Jokes aside, for an average person in Singapore who wants an early retirement, it isn't impossible.

It does need good planning and disciplined execution.

Now, why is an early retirement a fantasy for most in Singapore?

If AK can do it, so can you!

Believe it!

Gambatte!

Related posts:
1. Planning for retirement early made early retirement possible.

2. Why did AK want an early retirement?

If you are using the mobile version of ASSI and would like to read more related posts, go to the full web version of ASSI by scrolling to the bottom of this page and clicking on the link.

Links to more posts in the left and right sidebars can be found.

How to maintain lifestyle in retirement?

Reader says...

My friend each month spends about $2k on tuition for her only child! 😮

4 tuition each cost about $500!! 😱







Money is a scarce resource for the vast majority of us.

What do we do when a resource is scarce?

We try to conserve it.

That is what the government keeps telling us when it comes to the use of water in Singapore.








We should have the same attitude towards money.

Of course, if you are very rich and have money sloshing around, ignore this blog.

I believe that for the rest of us, we can easily strengthen our balance sheet just by reducing unnecessary expenses.






A reader in his 40s who makes more than $8,000 a month told me that he used to save about $500 a month of his take home pay but now he saves $2,000 a month.

What motivated him to save more money was my blog on how we can save 100% of our take home pay.

$2,000 is not 50% of his take home pay but it is already a vast improvement from $500.








Some of the changes he made:

1. He downgraded his car and although not what I would advocate, has a much smaller car loan to service.

2. His family eat out less often and he was very impressed by how much money they could save by not going to restaurants.

3. Extra classes for their two children were reduced to only what they thought were essential.

He also decided not to upgrade to a condominium but will continue to stay in their HDB flat.

Becoming a better saver is the first step towards a financially secure retirement for him and his wife.






What kind of lifestyle we can have in our golden years, to a large extent, depends on the kind of lifestyle we have today.

Don't want to downgrade our lifestyle in retirement?

Don't upgrade our lifestyle too much before our retirement.

Quite simple, really.






Related post:
Saving 100% of our take home pay.

Bribed to buy a diesel car and regretting now.

Earlier in March this year, I blogged about how I could sell my car for a higher price when the Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES) is introduced. 

This new scheme replaces the Carbon Based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS).

The VES will come into effect in the new year and we will see some vehicles which used to enjoy green rebates from $5,000 to $20,000 being slapped with surcharges of up to $20,000 instead. 

My car, for example, will go from receiving a $15,000 green rebate to being slapped with a $20,000 surcharge. That is a $35,000 difference!





Many car models which do not meet the EURO 6 standards will also disappear from the showrooms. 

A couple of popular examples are the Toyota Vios and the Toyota Camry. Apparently, all the models from Chevrolet being sold in Singapore do not meet the new environmental standards.

Of course, I am just a little guy in his little car and I am very much concerned about how everything affects the money in my pocket.

For those who don't know, I have a diesel car. Diesel technology has gone from dirty to green and, now, back to dirty. 

So, apart from the higher price that a diesel car would attract from 2018, there is also a usage based diesel tax. 

Diesel, for many months now, costs an extra 10c a litre.





So, the more diesel I use, the more I pay.

Fortunately, diesel engines are pretty economical compared to petrol engines. This coupled with the fact that I do not drive as much as I used to, I buy only about 40 litres of diesel a month. 

This means that I pay $4 more for automotive fuel each month. 

OK, that is hardly a disaster.

Actually, with the usage based tax, it seems that I will end up paying less because the government is reducing the lump sum tax (road tax) that diesel cars will have to pay by $100 a year.

I read an article titled "First bribed to buy diesel cars and now they want to tax us" and had a good laugh.







The article is about the predicament of diesel car owners in the U.K. and although I had a good laugh, it is no laughing matter for them.


"When I bought my diesel-powered Citroen C5 estate six years ago, the last thing on my mind was that I would end up being treated as an environmental vandal by a government minister.

"It is quite a shock, then, to hear Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin warning motorists like me that we face a hike in taxes designed to punish us for doing what we thought was the right thing and buying a diesel car."

Read the full article: HERE.









Although I am somewhat disappointed that my diesel car is not as environmentally friendly as I once thought it was, when I do drive, I still enjoy the car very much and I am glad that new measures taken by the Singapore government are more reasonable than punitive.

In fact, it might even help to lessen the monetary loss of selling my car if I decide to do so in the new year.

Bribed to buy a diesel car and regretting now? 

If I were in the U.K. maybe but not when I am in Singapore. Heng ah!

Related post:
1. Make $35,000 from selling my car.
2. How much to spend on a car?
3. 3 good reasons to buy a car.

Cost of car ownership skyrocket in Singapore.

Dave Lim, a reader who seems to be to be quite the expert on car ownership in Singapore, weighs in on my last blog on the subject:


Dear AK,
Appreciate your post on car ownership and bringing up some noteworthy points of consideration before one buys a car. You never fail to be honest and wise.

However, being a former hardcore car enthusiast (well, a folly of my younger days – a story for another day), I find that I’m “morally obligated” to call out the glaring factual inaccuracies as evinced in the blogpost by Bullythebear (http://bullythebear.blogspot.sg/2014/03/whats-good-about-owning-car.html#.WWpZFIiGPIV), who doesn’t seem to be too well-versed about cars.

- In order to give decent meaning to numbers, a proper calculation of annual car expenses should take into consideration the depreciation of the car, and not merely the sum of instalments one chooses to pay. It is absolutely futile to discuss car expenses without delving into the interplay of depreciation, COE, OMV and ARF – concepts which the blogger himself were probably unfamiliar with. To add insult to injury, the foregoing discussion was, ironically, featured in a financial blog educating readers about numerical fluency.

- The blogger had grossly oversimplified the types of car expenses. His monthly “running costs” had conveniently left out items like ERP expenses, road tax, car grooming, car inspections, provision for traffic summons and accidents/repairs, and regular wear-and-tear items like tyres, brake discs/pads, mounts, bushings, etc. A total “running cost” of just $500/month ($6,000/yr) is unbelievably optimistic, especially when the estimate is made by a supposedly prudent financial blogger.

- Do we really believe that the total cost of owning a bread-and-butter ride is merely $860 a month? And that of a “flashy car” is just $1,200 a month “all in” as asserted by the blogger? Based on the numbers provided by the blogger, the depreciation cost of his Mazda 2 is already about $6,000/yr ! (*total purchase price of $34,000 incl. interest paid, for 4.8 yrs, assuming a PARF rebate of $6,000)

- I noted that the blogger purchased his ride sometime in early 2012, back when car prices (specifically that in the second-hand market) were still somewhat palatable (https://bullythebear.blogspot.sg/2013/05/reflections-on-owning-car-for-1-yr.html#.WWtU64iGPIU). 

As we know, the environment has changed radically ever since. 

It first began with the drastic cooling measures on vehicle financing introduced by MAS in Feb 2013, which changed the entire playing field. 

Next, in Feb 2014, the new COE categories turned the market topsy turvy. Second hand dealers called the shots in the market, and in 2014, countless numbers of Toyota Vios and Honda Fits started changing hands at $11,000 to $12,000 depreciation. 

Given the high COE (hovering at $70,000 in year 2014), most brand new Korean/Jap models were priced above $11,000 depreciation, excluding interest payable. 

Was anyone still able to purchase a Mazda 2 at $6,000 depreciation in the year 2014? – the odds are almost next to nought, unless we are talking about a lemon sale.

Given the foregoing context, I question the blogger’s intention in writing an article in 2014 to recount his purchase in 2012, and to use it as a premise for telling his readers that he “really think it's affordable for people who wants to get a car.” 

For the avoidance of doubt, the blogger was silent about the cooling measures and changes in COE in his article. At the time of writing his article (Mar 2014), the COE was also at a high of $78,602. (http://www.sgcarmart.com/news/COE_past.php?YR=2014&CAT=a). 

While it is arguably forgivable for him to miss the news about the cooling measures/COE changes, I find it inexcusable and morally irresponsible for him not to check up market prices before telling his readers that is “affordable” to buy cars.

However, to think on the flip side, I could well be wrong about the blogger. He could be a car expert himself, completely au fait with the MAS cooling measures, the COE system and the market prices. The article might then have been written blindly, to reassure and rationalise his buying decision retrospectively. Whatever the reasons behind penning the article, and regardless of how uninspiring his reasons for buying a car might be, it is imperative to highlight the perilously inaccurate and irrelevant contents in his article to avoid misguiding the masses. 

I do not have any personal issues against the blogger and neither do I know who he is or follow his blog actively.

Fast forward to today, the average depreciation of an entry-level bread-and-butter car, old or new, is still $10,000 or more. Followers of the car market would recall that this same amount could get you a Mitsubishi Evo or an entry continental sedan just a few years ago. 

Ever since the blogger wrote his article, petrol duty has risen (an increase of around 20% in fuel price), parking rate has increased by 20%, and as most of us would know, emission taxes will be implemented over the next two years. 

Further and significantly, the financially savvy consumers would know that interest rates have risen – the average car loan interest rate is now at an obscene 3%, equivalent to about 5 or 6 % EIR!*

I will not dwell on details, but the current annual expenses for an entry level ride is about $20,000 to $24,000. Such information is everywhere on the web, in the online forums, and even on the government website – https://www.gov.sg/microsites/whatsyourplan/finances/can-you-truly-afford-a-car-in-singapore )


*AK says readers who are unfamiliar with this issue (i.e. EIR) might want to read this blog:
http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg/2014/04/a-car-loan-is-different-from-home-loan.html

Thank you, Dave. For sure, staying prudent when it comes to big ticket consumption items like cars in Singapore is essential for most of us who are seeking financial freedom in a country which is known to be have one of the highest cost of living in the world.

For readers who are thinking of taking advantage of the relaxed rule for car loans, please read this:
http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg/2016/05/what-new-mas-rules-for-car-loans-mean.html
Financing cost will almost double! 
Related posts:
1. Cooling measures for cars.
2. How much to spend on a car?

How much to spend on a car? Ask 2 questions.

Guy A:
I want to buy a car but my elder brother keeps telling me how expensive it is. He even worked out the depreciation. All in, about $12K a year. I think that is OK.

Guy B:
$12K a year in Singapore for a car is quite normal. My car is about the same.

Guy C:
Can be lesser than $12K a year lah but that is OK for most families.

Is it a good idea to lose $12K a year to own a car?

Hey, having a car definitely improves our quality of life. It is worth it!

Sure or not?

Cannot find an unoccupied seat on the train or bus? 

What?

Cannot even get on the train because too crowded?

What?

Train broke down? Again?

Alamak. 

All these issues are magnified if we are on an outing with children and the elderly. Stop for a moment and imagine that.

I get exhausted just by thinking about it. Shudder. Yes, we have a finite amount of energy too.

Of course, like many people have pointed out, having a car also helps to save lots of time used in travelling. Time is precious.

Here is a something from a fellow blogger whom I respect:

"Financial bloggers are more conservative than the general public. My advice to all financial bloggers is this: 

"Just live life a little."

Read his blog here:
What's good about owning a car?

In my retirement, I don't need a car but I have a car too. It definitely helps to make life more comfortable.

Now, before some start building castles in the air, we really should be asking other questions before we buy a car. I will share two questions in this blog but before I ask them,

Guy A takes home an earned income of $40K a year.

Guy B takes home an earned income of $40K a year and has passive income of $12K a year.

Guy C has no earned income because he is unemployed but he has passive income of $120K a year.

So, what are the questions?

1. Are we using more than 10% of our total income for the car?

Why 10%? For an average young worker, spending $200 per month on transportation is pretty normal, riding mostly on mass transportation and with taxi rides on certain days. Assuming a monthly pay of about $2,000 a month, $200 is about 10%.

2. How much of our total income depends on us holding a job?

Of course, regular readers would be familiar with this line of thought. Try not to consume with our earned income. Instead, invest to have passive income and consume with our passive income.

If being jobless means we have to cut back on our consumption drastically, we might want to think twice about that car.

There are some other things I would consider and if you are interested, please read related posts at the end of this blog.

(This blog was inspired by an email from a reader and my subsequent reply.)
Related posts:
1. Buy a car with 4D winnings.
2. AK learns to embrace YOLO.

https://www.gov.sg/microsites/whatsyourplan/finances/can-you-truly-afford-a-car-in-singapore

Borrow $100,000 to buy a car in Singapore?

Hi AK, 

When I get back to Sg next year, i'm planning on getting a car (depreciating asset boohoo!)

Now, on my previous car purchase, I felt i made a mistake of buying too early and had to take a full car loan. It ate up a lot of my monthly pay. So this time round, I wanted to do my sums right before diving in. 

I do have enough to pay upfront for a car (eg 100k). But could you talk to yourself if paying upfront for a car is a good idea? 

My alternative could be taking this 100k and throwing it into the Sg savings bonds/safer type of bonds, and earning the interest. As long as this "bond interest" is more than the "car loan interest", this would make it worthwhile? Am I missing a blind spot here? 

Can I just compare a 2% car loan interest vs a 3% interest earned from bonds and conclude that I will earn 1% interest? 

Could you talk to yourself on this issue? I will be eavesdropping!

thank you!!!

Hi,

You have to understand that when they say your car loan interest rate is X.X%, it is really more than that:

http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg/2014/04/a-car-loan-is-different-from-home-loan.html

I don't like the idea of borrowing money to fund consumption and if we have to borrow money to buy a car, keep the loan quantum as small as possible:

http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg/2016/05/what-new-mas-rules-for-car-loans-mean.html

Welcome back to the land of expensive cars!

Best wishes,
AK

Say VES and make $35,000 selling my car?

There was the CEVS and, now, we have the VES.

Lucky for my readers, ASSI is always just ASSI.

Anyway, the CEVS stands for Carbon Emission-Based Vehicle Scheme. Basically, cars with lower carbon emission were given rebates and I benefitted from this scheme when I bought a diesel car about a year ago. It reduced the price tag of my car by more than 10% which was a big deal.

In January this year, when the government announced that they were looking into the real environmental cost of diesel cars, I expected them to disallow diesel cars eventually. It would take many years to achieve this but, in Singapore, if the government wants to do something, we better believe it will be implemented.

So, to discourage higher consumption of diesel, last month, we saw an additional tax on diesel. 10c per litre. That is a few percentage points higher in price but still about 30% cheaper than RON95 petrol. It was 40% cheaper but 30% cheaper is still a lot cheaper. Diesel cars still make more sense for the cost conscious car owner.

Negligible impact.


I was also pleasantly surprised that the government decided to reduce the special tax on diesel cars. I am paying about $1,200 in annual road tax for my diesel car whereas I was paying $700 for my petrol car, both are 1.5 litre cars. 

Apparently, I will be paying less in annual road tax in future. I guess I am lucky that taxis make up the bulk of the diesel car population in Singapore and the government has quite a few (very good) reasons not to rock the boat too much.

Zero impact.

Now, what is the VES? This is the new Vehicular Emission Scheme and will stay in effect till end of 2019. Vehicles will enjoy rebates or suffer surcharges based not only on carbon dioxide emission but nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions as well.

So, diesel cars, with their lower carbon dioxide emission which enjoyed rebates in the past will suffer surcharges. Now, this, in my opinion, will really discourage diesel car ownership. It will do what the 10c per litre increase in diesel price cannot do.

If I were to buy my diesel car under the VES, I would be looking at a price tag that is some 15% higher whereas it was 10% lower with the CEVS before!

Earth shattering impact!

10%? 15%? No big deal?

OK. Let's put it in dollar terms.

Imagine a $140,000 price tag receiving a CEVS rebate of $15,000 which brings the price down to $125,000.

Now, imagine the same car receiving a VES surcharge of $20,000 which brings the price up to $160,000!

We are looking at a $35,000 difference!

For most middle income households, that is a big deal.


I really enjoy driving my diesel car and I am lucky I paid a lot less for it too.

Now, I wonder if I can sell my car for a higher price. Yes, I know. Bad AK! Bad AK!

(Oh, I hope you enjoyed the 3 video clips too. I laughed a lot and my jaw also dropped many times. Think I need to see a doctor liao.)

Related post:
5 reasons to buy a diesel car.

References:
1. Diesel vehicle taxes.
2. Vehicular Emission Scheme.

Selling a car or a flat yourself.

Things change and that is one of the few constants in life.

Some changes hardly matter but some changes affect our lives in a big way. 

Changes could also be catastrophic. 

Remember the Dodo.

What is this leading to?




A few months ago, I sold my car without going through a middle man. 

Cars of the same make, model and age at pre-owned car centers were going for upwards of $50K at that time. 

I was offered $40K to $45K by different resellers then.

I decided to find a new owner for my old car myself. 

It was a relatively short search as a friend was looking to replace his much older car then. 




We had a win-win situation with the middle man removed.

It did mean, however, that we had to visit LTA in Sin Ming, queue up for more than an hour to do the transfer of ownership but that was just a minor inconvenience.

If you are thinking of selling your car, you might want to do it yourself. 

It is quite easy:
http://www.oneshift.com/used-car-buying-guide/718/how-to-sell-your-car-directly-to-a-buyer



Now, if selling your car without having a middle man is a good idea, what about selling your flat without engaging a property agent?

Well, it seems that many people are also selling their flats without the help of a property agent:

"According to figures from HDB, the number of resale flat buyers and sellers who have gone the DIY way rose to 24 per cent in 2015, from 11 per cent in 2010. 

"So far this year, 23 per cent of resale transactions carried out from January to May were completed without a property agent."
Source: CNA





It is probably an understatement to say that real estate in Singapore is expensive. 

Real estate is very expensive. 

A commission of 1% or 2% (as in the case of a HDB flat) is a big deal. 

I remember selling my home a few years ago and having to pay a 5 figure sum to the property agent. 

That is a fair bit of money.

If we can save a bit of money, why not?

If we can save a lot of money, what are we waiting for?




So, how easy is it to do it yourself?

I went to the eCitizen website and found out how easy it actually is:
https://www.ecitizen.gov.sg/Topics/Pages/Selling-your-HDB-flat-A-step-by-step-guide.aspx

"We were surprised because we thought it would be quite complicated. 

"The officer at HDB (Housing and Development Board) was also very helpful to go through the paperwork with us." 
Source: CNA






For a seller who is willing to spend some time to do some work, considering the huge amount of money saved, it is worth it.

“Especially with the emergence of social media, people get connected much easily compared to 10 years ago. 

"That’s why many home owners are now able to find home seekers by themselves or vice versa...”
Source: CNA

Selling your car or flat?

I think it is worth exploring the option of doing it yourself.

Related posts:
1. Fixed rates, SIBOR, FHR18...?
2. Affordability and value for money.

An unbeatable level of certainty in wealth building.

Although we have to take chances sometimes, I always try to inject a high level of certainty in my life. 

Generally, I do not like leaving things to chance because there is a chance that things could go wrong.

So, when people tell me I should have taken a 5 year loan to buy my car because the interest rate is only 2.68% per annum and I could use the money to invest for higher returns, what do I say to them?






Apart from telling them that the effective interest rate is really higher than that, I would ask them how sure are they that they would not suffer a capital loss or that the investment returns would not dip or disappear in those 5 years?


(If we could only afford to buy a car by taking a huge loan to do so, wouldn't we be financially better off not buying the car?)

Without taking a car loan, however, I know I have avoided a hefty sum in interest payment over a 5 years period. That is certain.







When people tell me that some financial gurus tell their students that they don't need to keep cash aside as emergency funds, that they only need to have credit cards and lines of credit, how certain are they that their debt would not one day snowball (or, worse, the credit lines terminated)?

Imagine dealing with an emergency with borrowed funds and having to pay interest. 





Remember that if we have to dip into an emergency fund, the situation could be dire and it could also happen at a time when our source of income dries up.

Sometimes, it is not whether we are responsible borrowers or not. 

Sometimes, life just throws us a curve ball or deals us a bad hand of cards. I think you get the idea.

I have an emergency fund although I have what might seem to be a comfortable passive income stream. Why? 

Is there any certainty that my passive income stream would not slow to a trickle or dry up one day?







This is also why I strongly believe that we need a risk free and volatility free component in our investment portfolio. 

So, I max out the benefits of my CPF membership. 

It might not make me rich but if everything else failed, I know I won't become old and destitute.






As investors, often, we have to take risks but, as savers, a penny saved is a penny earned. 

We should all try to be good savers first on our journey to financial freedom because that level of certainty in wealth building is unbeatable.






Leave fewer things in life to chance? 

Yes, please.

Related posts:
1. Don't think and grow rich.
2. A meaningful emergency fund is important?
3. A note on the CPF.

What the new MAS rules for car loans mean in $ terms?

ASSI has many blog posts on the ownership of cars in Singapore. A few of these are about the cooling measures implemented by the government to inject some financial prudence into those looking to buy a car.

Of course, there were people unhappy with the cooling measures but I feel that it is like taking medicine. It probably doesn't taste good but if we need it, we should take it because it is going to make us better. 

For those who need to take a loan to buy the car they want, not buying the car is probably going to make them financially healthier. I don't think that is a bad thing.

Anyway, for whatever reason, the government has decided to make it easier for people to buy cars in Singapore now. Notice I did not use the word "own" because as long as the car is not fully paid for, we don't own it. We get to use it but we don't own it.

So, what are the changes? 

Car buyers are allowed to borrow up to 70% of the asking price (for cars with OMV of $20,000 or less) and for up to 7 years instead of only 5 years.

I have previously said that we should try to keep the loan figure to a maximum of $20,000 and the loan period to a maximum of 3 years if we absolutely need a car and if we absolutely must take a loan. This keeps the cost of financing minimal.

Assuming a price tag of $100,000 for a car, the new rules allow a $70,000 loan to be repaid over 7 years!

What does this mean?

Previously, in another blog post, I said:

... if a person were to buy a $100,000 car and if he were to take a loan for $50,000 at an interest rate of 2.5% per annum for a period of 5 years, he would be paying $1,250 x 5 = $6,250 in interest...

Now, this same person could borrow $70,000 and assuming the same interest rate of 2.5% per annum but for a period of 7 years, he would be paying $1,750 x 7 = $12,250 in interest. 

Financing cost will almost double! 

The more we borrow, the longer we take to repay, the more we pay in interest to the lender.

How is that not wealth destructive?

To take loans to pay for consumption (home renovation, furniture and home appliances are a few examples that come to mind) is generally unwise. 

Cars are very expensive and rapidly depreciating items in Singapore. To take a loan to purchase a car in Singapore because we want one is without any doubt most unwise.

Related posts:
1. Car dealers unhappy with LTA.
2. Car loans are different from home loans.

AK shares 5 reasons to buy a diesel car.

By now, many readers have found out that AK bought an "inexpensive expensive" car.  Why the peculiar phrase?

Well, the car might be from an "atas" brand but it is rather inexpensive to run and it is also less costly to the environment. Yup, the car runs on diesel.


I love my new car and if you are wondering what is so good about a car that runs on diesel, here are 5 reasons to consider one:

1. Diesel cars are less expensive to buy than their equivalent petrol versions with the CEVS. What is CEVS? Carbon Emission-Based Vehicle Scheme. Cars that produce less CO2 will enjoy subsidies and it could be a big $XX,XXX deal!

2. Amazing fuel economy! I could get as much as 20km per litre with relatively smooth traffic on the expressways. What about driving about town? If not caught in a traffic jam, I could get as much as 15km per litre.

3. Diesel is much cheaper to buy compared to petrol. When the time comes to refuel, remember that 95 Octane petrol costs about 80% more than diesel here in Singapore! After all the discounts at the pump, I pay about 82 cents a litre for diesel only. Yes, I know, only.

4. Diesel cars are cleaner these days. Hey, Euro 5 standard, ok? Don't refuel with cheaper diesel from across the Causeway. Those have higher sulphur content. They are still stuck at a lower standard. Later, your diesel car "poon orh yen" (i.e. spew black smoke) like those J.B. trucks, don't say diesel cars no good hor.

5. More torque! I really love this! You must experience this for yourself. My car flies and I thought my old car was good! I am still learning to be very gentle on the accelerator.

Although I have already granted ROFR (i.e. right of first refusal) for this car to a friend who bought my last car, I might just drive this one for the full 10 years. 

I am in love.

Related posts:
1. My new car's fuel consumption.
2. My passive income all gone...
In the comments section, a reader shared with me that diesel cars give off other types of pollutants. Cham. How like that?
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/05/the-truth-about-londons-air-pollution

My passive income from 2015 all gone!

I always say that we have to be careful to avoid activities which lead to wealth destruction, especially if we want to achieve financial freedom at a faster clip. 

Even though I have never specifically said what I consider to be wealth destructive, I suspect that, intuitively, all of us know what they are or am I too optimistic?

I guess in today's world, many things can be wealth destructive and it would be quite difficult to list down every single wealth destructive activity. So, how do we know if something is wealth destructive? 





I might be putting my neck on the chopping block here but, in a nutshell:

As long as something does not create wealth directly or indirectly but consumes wealth to keep it going is wealth destructive.

If we want more of something, we don't want to do anything that will destroy it. So, if we want to be wealthier, we don't want to do anything that will destroy wealth. 

Simple logic, right? 

Simple logic this might be but it is not easy for many to adhere to.

Believe me, however, when I say that it might be difficult at first but, after a while, we will get used to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation. 

It will become easier. 

It will become a habit.

Remember that as we grow older, we become creatures of habit and it could be harder for us to change. Know some older folks with bad habits that they cannot kick? 

So, we should try to acquire good habits as soon as possible. The best time to start is always now.

In recent months, however, I wondered if a good habit could eventually become a bad one?

Everyone knows that AK is pretty frugal and is very careful with spending money but, actually, AK is quite happy to spend money on his family and is quite generous even with friends. It helps that that AK's family is small and friends few, maybe. 

However, AK was not as ready to spend money on himself.

Was?

AK has been learning to treat himself better. He bought new clothes, basically renewing his whole wardrobe. Well, he didn't have much of a choice, having lost quite a bit of weight. He also has healthier (and costlier) eating habits now.

AK sold his car and was without a car for 2 months but now has a new car, a car that costs almost as much as his passive income for the whole of last year!

Pause.

Pause.

Pause.

OMG! 2015's passive income gone, all gone!

What happened?





AK has some friends and readers to thank for this transformation. Without their suggestions, nagging and, sometimes, scolding, AK would not have transformed. 

Why use the word "transformation" and not "improvement"? 

Well, is it an improvement?

I used to think that friends who keep encouraging us to spend money are 损友 which means "bad friends". I remember a Chinese movie in the 80s with this title too.

Could friends who keep encouraging us to spend money actually be good for us?

I am so confused now. 

How? 

I blur.

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