Spent money and now will spend more time.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you must have noticed that I have not been blogging as much as before.

If you regularly send me emails, you must have noticed that I do not reply to emails as promptly as before.

This has been going on for many months.








What have I been doing?

I have been spending more time on my other hobbies and the one that is taking the lion's share of my time is online gaming.

Specifically, MMORPG.

I have blogged about this before but things are about to get more intense.








After almost a year of online gaming, I decided to get a dedicated gaming laptop.

A beauty, it is.

Serious gamers would probably scoff at this entry level machine but it is a big deal for me at $1,348.

The keys glow red.

So cool, right?

I won't be pressing the wrong keys anymore when I play at night with the lights off.








The fact that I only went ahead with the purchase after so many months of online gaming means that I enjoy online gaming enough to part with some real money to get the hardware to at least satisfy the recommended requirements of the game.

The PC I was gaming on didn't even meet the minimum requirements and labored excessively under an IT challenged task master.

Who?

Who IT challenged?

I blur.










Logically, this new purchase also means that I want to spend more time gaming.

When a friend found out that I read only the Money section of the newspapers many years ago, he joked that I had no life because I didn't read the Life section.

When he found out about my latest purchase, he gave me the thumbs up.









No more choppy movement and low resolution images for me. 

Example of a low resolution image,

Not very nice, it was.

Yes, for the last 10 months, in game, I was like a character exploring a new world while suffering from cataracts and palsy.









My Celeron processor driven PC has huffed and puffed enough.

No more demanding online gaming for it.

I think I hear it sighing in relief.

I could be spending a lot more time gaming than before as I revisit many places in the game world now that I can move and see a lot better.









You could say that I am going to be spending more time travelling.

Well, at least I won't be spending money travelling.

OK, I know.

Bad AK! Bad AK!

I got an atas mouse too.

A fellow blogger suggested that I blog about this purchase and what it means so that readers could manage their expectations.

Mission accomplished, I hope.





Related posts:
1. Freedom in retirement.
2. AK is playing Neverwinter!

Generous monetary legacy for children good or bad?

This chat happened after I shared again a blog on a reader's intention to top up his new born's CPF SA account (see related post #1 at the end of this blog).

Reader says...
Imagine if it works... put 171k at age 0, get 2.18mil at 65, that's 2 mil from the government.

AK says...
Haha... it is very amazing. I know





Reader says...
The figure makes me think that there's something wrong with my calculation.

AK says...
If you have money to spare, i think it is ok to do it.

It is legacy planning.

I dunno about the hazards related to character building tho...

Reader says...
I think a graduate can easily earn 5mil in their lifetime. 

But if their habit isn't as strong by the time they found out abt their SA account, I'm afraid they have no desire to work hard. 

And when they meet obstacles, they might say "ohh I will just quit, I have enough for the future anyways." 

That's my biggest fear, snatching away their burning desire and drive.






AK says...
Yes, I know. I feel that way too... 

I mean I didn't like the idea of having to work for money but I had to do it. 

If I had a lot of money in my younger days, I might have stopped working even before I started. 😛

Reader says...
Ohh gosh so that's normal right, we humans won't work hard if we know we have enough! 

Hiez how ahh I want the government's 2 mil but I don't want to steal his drive?





AK says...
Hahaha... 

I am glad I don't have that hot potato in my hand. 😜

Reader says...
How uncle AK? 

How how how? 

What should my mommy do?

AK says...
Mommy should ask daddy. 

I blur... 😛





When my niece was still in primary school, we transferred money in her savings account to her CPF account. 

That is her own money (i.e. savings from ang baos and pocket money).

I think that is OK.

Teach children the importance of saving money and also explain to them how the CPF works.

儿孙自有儿孙福, 莫为儿孙作马牛.





You might also want to read a blog I published earlier today:
Pay home loan and HDB grant fast.

Related posts:
1. Leaving a $1.4 m legacy?
2. Retire by age 45.

Pay home loan and HDB housing grant fast?

Reader says...
I hope you bear with me while I share the info about it - resale flat was purchased at 480k and I got a hdb housing grant of 50k for 1st timer.

My fiancee and myself went for a bank loan instead of hdb loan.

The loan principle I have to service is 384k.






I would really appreciate your advice/guidance to my following questions:

a. I thought of repaying my housing loan using cash instead of cpf.

I think this is still manageable from my side from a cash liquidity perspective since I could save on the chargeable accrued interest (at the point of future flat sale) and at the same time continue to earn the 2.5% int.

What do you think about this approach in terms of pros/cons?






b. I took the housing grant of 50k which I know will be charged accrued interest.

I'm not sure how accrued interest is charged on this 50k but is it considered wise if I try to repay this?

Or in actual fact, it doesn't make a difference because it will net off from the interest that I earned for the OA that continues to reside in my cpf account?






c. If at any point in time I thought of partial loan repayment to my bank, say a sum of 30k in cash every beginning of the year so that principal amount will reduce and I look to repay the full loan in 7 to 10 years.

What do you think about this approach and possibly the risks that go with it?

Many thanks in advance, and I really appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

AK says...
As long as your home loan attracts an interest rate of less than 2.5%, it makes sense to pay your loan with cash instead of using money in your OA.

(I would also add that as long as money in your savings account is paid less interest than the interest paid by the OA, it makes sense to pay your loan with cash.)

If you have no intention of ever selling your HDB flat, you can worry less about accrued interest on OA money used or the grant as long as you hit the prevailing full retirement sum (FRS) by the time you are 55.






By 55, you can withdraw all money from your OA and SA in excess of the FRS.

So, if you were to sell the HDB flat after you turn 55, you could take out all the money which includes the accrued interest you owe your CPF account.

It would be like asking you to put in money only to immediately take it out again.






Partial capital repayment makes sense when interest rate goes much higher.

When exactly to do that?

It is up to you as it should also partially depend on what you feel you could get if you were to invest the money instead.

I remember when I paid the housing loan for my previous home in full, the interest rate on the loan went from 4.1% to 5.1%.

Ouch.






Congratulations on your new home.

Related posts:
1. How to stop accrued interest from growing?
2. Almost 55 and worried about CPF.

How to get a 12% dividend yield?

We should know but do we know what to look out for as income investors?

Here are the basics.





Reader says...

Recently, my friend intro my to allianz income n growth.

He mentioned that the growth is not a lot but dividend is relatively attractive around 12%..

omg.

But i better ask shifu level like u

AK says...

You should ask 2 very basic and important questions:

1. How is the income being generated by the proposed investment?

2. Is the income generated sustainable?

Asking these questions would very likely help us avoid investment scams and also products which are highly risky.







You might also want to read these:
1. Invest in high yield bond fund.
2. Get 14% return per year on investment.