My girlfriend is more than US$100K in debt!

Human beings are rarely solitary. 

Although in modern societies with very high cost of living like ours, fewer people are thinking of getting married unless they want children (but, in Singapore, people who don't want to have children will still get married just to get a BTO HDB flat).

Fewer who are married are staying married but many still need companionship in life.

Realistically, once we have a partner in life, for better or for worse, naturally, things will change. 





Our life is no longer ours alone. 

It is shared. 

This is only fair. 

We gain something. 

We lose something.

When it comes to money, however, I personally feel that couples, unless they are married, should keep their finances separate. 

To pool financial resources together is a BIG step, whether forward or backward will depend on the circumstances each person brings to the relationship.





Money, I think we all agree, is a very sensitive issue. 

It is probably more sensitive than religion. 

Don't agree? 

Would it be easier to ask your date whether she goes to church or what is her personal net worth? 

See?





If we care about financial security and if we are not rich which I assume most of us are not, no matter how strong our attraction, it is probably a good idea to stay away from someone who has growing financial debt. 

The question is how do we find out?

Some of you might remember my female friend, Posh. 

If you don't, see related post at the end of this blog.

I never did find out how much her net worth was and I didn't know if she was heavily in debt and, if so, whether it was growing in size. 

I only knew that if I wanted to be rich, I would have a better chance if I had a frugal partner. 

Posh and frugal didn't exist in the same space.





Now, say, I gave Posh the benefit of the doubt and thought that she had plenty of money and that, despite her lavish spending, she was only spending a small percentage of her income (hey, love is blind or so they say) but found out much later that she was actually in debt and that it was snowballing! 

Then, what?

By then, it could be too late. 

"I didn't notice the crows nesting in the attic of the house before. Love the house, love the crows." 

Of course, I derived this from the Chinese saying "爱屋及乌" but I always get the feeling that the saying is to console ourselves when we discover something bad comes attached to someone or something we love.





I might be putting my head on the chopping block here (and this won't be the first time) but if we are not rich and if we want to be rich, we are probably better off with a frugal partner in life.

If you are willing to get married to someone who has snowballing debt and to help pay off the debt, you are a better person than me. 

Good on you!






Related post:
A story about a lady in my life.

"With as little as 30 (or 20) minutes a day!"

High frequency trading. Try beating this! I blur...

Feeling so warm! This is although I have taken a shower just now. 

Alamak! Why like that? Flu? Cold? Fever?

Aiyoh, none of the above lah.

I climbed some stairs again.

Usually, I would have to shower twice after my stair climbing exercise. Once after a twenty minutes cooling down time and again half an hour before I go to bed.

Sweaty!

I have been eating a bit too much comfort food lately and this being my birthday month doesn't help. 

Friends and family are showing their love in the usual way, if you know what I mean. Burp.

With more buffets on the way for the rest of the month, I must really step it up. Pardon the pun.

Anyway, it isn't the first time I have blogged about the benefits and convenience of stair climbing as an exercise in Singapore.

With 80% of us living in HDB flats, we have easy access to stairs. We are also very lucky that HDB flats have stairs which are well ventilated and not closed in like some I have seen in private housing here.

Go climb some stairs!

If you have not been exercising for a while, stair climbing could be demanding. I have been there. I know. So, don't be too ambitious.

Take a step at a time and see how many floors you could climb before you start huffing and puffing. That's a sign to slow down and, maybe, stop. 

Do this regularly and you will be able to climb many more floors without feeling winded in time to come.

Frequency? 
3 times per week is good.

Number of floors? 
Depends on your fitness level but you should be able to climb many more floors by the end of the 3rd or 4th week.

Advanced technique?
When it becomes easier, try taking two steps at a time. This creates a bigger mechanical disadvantage and is more demanding. It will help to strengthen the legs and butts faster.

With stair climbing, the excuse that we don't have time to go to the gym is a less convincing one because for, most of us, the stairs are there outside our home. 

Seen stuff like this before?

Unlike some trading gurus who tell us how we can become richer trading just 30 minutes a day, we don't even have to climb stairs daily to become stronger. 

3 times a week, 20 minutes to 30 minutes each time. That is all it takes to climb stairs and to become stronger.

Finally, we don't have to worry about Mr. Market's health. We should take care of ours.

Related posts:
1. Climb stairs and be better investors.
2. Passive income and a topless pic.

"If you worry about corrections, you shouldn't own stocks."

We need a home but a condo?

Hi AK,

I have been reading your blog for sometime & found you to be very smart & prudent. Are you able to give me some advice based on my current situation?

 

Employment status:

Unemployed

 

Age:

40

 

Housing:

Condo with $650k outstanding loan (mkt value $1M)

 

CPF OA:

$400k

 

CPF SA:

$100k

 

Dividend stocks:

$50k

 

Cash:

$150k

 

Expenses:

$20k/yr

 

I have been trying to do trading with mix success. Had also been doing part-time job to earn about $1k/mth.

 

Should I try to find another corporate job? ( I really hate it & had been unsuccessful trying for a while)

 

Thanks in advance!

EW

Hi EW,

Aiyoh. I am just another lazy fellow. Prudent enough but not particularly smart.

At 40, I think you would be financially pretty comfortable if not for the housing loan. ;)

If you were to sell your condo and get a resale HDB 3 room flat, you would probably be debt free and free to do whatever you want without having to go back to the corporate world which you hate!

We need a home but we don't need a condo. :)

Best wishes,
AK

Related posts:
1. Sell HDB flat to buy a condo.
2. Parents asking me to buy a condo.

"The big money (Pandan) is not in the buying and selling."

As I work on probably the two most anticipated blog posts of the year in ASSI, I am reminded of an important virtue of any successful investor.


In July this year, I shared a few photos and some thoughts on my Facebook wall. I did that a lot for a while as I didn't feel like blogging. (Aiyah, lazy say lazy lah.)

If you have a mature Pandan plant at home and it has babies, you can do this too. Just make sure not to hurt the mother plant in the process as you might have to snip the baby from the mother at the roots.

In a jar of water, the baby Pandan will take a couple of weeks to grow proper roots. Once that happens, transplant into a small pot of soil.

In September, mine looked like this a month after transplanting:

The older leaves died and a new bunch of leaves emerged.

Today, I decided to move the plant to a bigger pot:

The wish I made in July came true. I got a Pandan plant for free. 

Wait a minute. 

Is it really free?

If we want wealth, for most of us, realistically, we have to work for it.

If we want our wealth to grow, for most of us, realistically, it will need time to do so.

To those who have sent me emails and messages on when I might be sharing my full year results, remember, patience is a virtue. ;)

"The big money is not in the buying and selling … but in the waiting." - Charlie Munger
Have the right conditions and patience.
A money tree for you and me? 
常将有日思无日，莫将无时想有时.  

Build our wealth but take care of our health.

I met up with a friend for dinner recently and he remarked on how I used to blog about my cooking. It has been a while since I last had such a blog, has it not?






Well, although not as often as before, I am still cooking but I am just too lazy to blog about it. What's new, right? AK is a lazy fellow.

Anyway, I was in the mood. So, this was lunch today:

Fried rice and seaweed. I used:

1. Cooked white rice.
2. 3 eggs.
3. 3 tbsp. coconut oil.
4. 4 gm of seaweed.

And I ate the fried rice with seaweed. You can tell I have probably been watching a bit too much K-drama. 

I still think a high fat, low carbohydrate diet is good for me but I am no longer very strict. 

I used to keep my carbohydrate intake to less than 50gm a day. For a while now, I have allowed myself between 50gm to 100gm of carbohydrate a day.

Still, I have rice (which is made up mostly of carbohydrate) only once in a while. Half a bowl of cooked white rice has about 22 grams of carbohydrates. That's plenty. 

Eggs have about 1 gm of carbohydrate each. Per serving of seaweed (2gm) has 0.2 gm of carbohydrate and I had two servings.

We want to build our wealth but we should take care of our health too.




Finally, for readers who want to lose weight, remember, losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise. Less carbohydrate is the way to go.

Related post:
A topless pic.

Not giving in can only make us richer.

Although we like to say we have saved money when we buy something at a sale, the truth is if we spent money at a sale, we did not save money, we just spent less money.

Happily, this reader didn't spend less money, he saved some money.

Hi AK,

Thanks to you ! I have just cancelled my 3 orders brought from Amazon's Black Friday. (around 350 USD)

Upon re-reading one of your blogs again, I decided that they are non-essential items and I can live without them. 

But I did not cancel the birthday present for my wife because I still want to have my marriage and it is already shipped (I may have to pay for the return good) hahaha. I know it's an excuse but I cannot expect my wife to understand why she does not have a birthday present because I tried to save some money.

I do a lot of thinking especially retirement early plans, your blogs constantly remind me whenever I lost directions and it feels like a trusted companion walking with me on my journey to my dreams. (its also feel like the journey to the west where there are demons and temptations) You just have to stay focus but it is never easy. 

Working in Singapore is so stressed that you will always feel like taking a deserving good "detox" rest and indulge yourself with materialistic pleasures eg buying a big condo, car, branded clothing, lavish & exotic holiday, eat out at expensive food outlets etc. 

You worked so hard why you cannot enjoy ?! many time we fell into a cycle of bad decisions......

Sometimes I ready hope we have more simple answers and I can see you are doing your best to write them in your blog. 

Please find time to continue writing and thanks a lot for being there when we need some guidance.

Have a good day.

Best Regards

SK

Hi SK,

Thanks so much for the email which I enjoyed.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are lost on me. I am a marketer's worst nightmare. ;p

You have probably read this blog post:
http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg/2015/04/wealth-is-attracted-or-repelled-by.html





On our journey towards financial freedom, it is worth remembering to keep our needs simple and our wants few. 

Keeping your wife happy is, by the way, a need. Good job! 

Gambatte,
AK


If we could, we probably should cut ourselves some slack once in a while but, remember, not giving in to our buying impulses can only make us richer. 

A shorter time to reach financial freedom? It's your call.




Related posts:
1. An unbeatable level of certainty.
2. Retirement (Needs and wants.)

Audio books on saving and investing money.

I receive many emails each week. Unlike my early days in blogging, I might not reply to all of them although I still try. Believe it or not, I also receive emails in Chinese.

My proficiency in Chinese has never been high. The best grade I received was a B3. Not bad but not good either. 




Unfortunately for me, emails in Chinese are the second most common after emails in English and they are usually a bit of a struggle for me.

Anyway, with the help of Google Translate, there is my translation of a recent email:

"My husband is a big fan of yours. I hope you will not find my request rude.

"Since he started to read your blog a few years ago, my husband has become very careful with money and he has also invested in stocks.

"I am an ignorant housewife but my husband would explain to me what he is doing. From having nothing a few years ago, my husband tells me he receives almost $10,000 in passive income each year now.

"He likes to say, "Imagine what we could have when we are AK's age!"

"He would read your blog every night and his favourite ones are about saving money. 

"Unfortunately, because of an accident recently, he won't be able to read for a while.

"I thought of how to cheer him up and wonder if you could talk to him?"

I left out plenty of details.

Anyway, I think regular readers would know what my reply was.

However, I decided that I could still do something for them. Took me a while to do this and I hope it does the trick.

Here are my first audio books (or blogs) for your listening pleasure:

Book one.

Book two.

Book three.

Book four.

Book five.

Read the full blog posts:
1. Mr Lee Kuan Yew was very frugal.
2. If we are not rich, don't act rich.
3. Is AK a rags to riches story?
4. A piece of advice on saving.
5. Save 100% of your take home pay.

To pay down HDB housing loan faster or not?

Not only do all of us have different financial circumstances, we also have different capacities to stomach stress.

What works for one might not work for another (i.e. what might give someone peace of mind might be quite stressful for another).

So, listen to what others have to say but, ultimately, make our own decision, one that will not rob us of our precious sleep.



Chat with Reader #1

Reader:
 Hi there Ak. I have a question. I have a new bto flat that im staying in with abt 200k hdb loan spread over 25 years. It takes up abt half of my oa contribution every mth to pay it. Should i use the excess oa funds to channel it to sa or focus on paying off the house asap?

Like · Reply · 1 hr

Assi AK
I would max out my SA first. Money should go to where it is treated best. Doing so, I would maintain a buffer in my OA sufficient for 24 months of loan repayment in case something goes wrong.

Like · Reply · 2 · 33 mins

Chat with Reader #2

• 
  

  12:31pm
  

  
  

  Reader:
  

  Hi AK, do you think i should pay off 10k of hdb housing loan whenever my OA accumulates to 20k so that it stays below 20k to enjoy the additional 1% interest? i.e. 3.5% instead of 2.5%

  
  
• 
  
• 

  12:51pm
  

  
  

  Assi AK
  

  Earning more interest is always appealing to me. ;)

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  1:11pm
  

  
  

  Reader:
  

  Cos I have a friend who says it's more impt to pay off housing loan as the 0.1% on a big loan is more than 1.5% on the 10k transferred. I.e. It only makes sense if the housing loan is less than 150k, correct?

  
  

  
  
• 

  2:37pm
  

  
  

  Assi AK
  

  It depends on what you are after. :)

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  2:38pm
  

  
  

  Reader:
  

  Maximized returns lor

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
• 

  2:41pm
  

  
  

  Assi AK
  

  You have to remember to compare like for like

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  2:41pm
  

  
  

  Reader
  

  Meaning?

  
  

  
  
• 

  2:41pm
  

  
  

  Assi AK
  

  Compare $10K with $10K, $150K with $150K

  
  

  It is meaningless to compare 0.1% on a $200K loan and 1.5% on a $10K savings

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  2:42pm
  

  
  

  Reader:
  

  Ah. So for 10k, where can it get maximum returns

  
  

  
  
• 

  2:43pm
  

  
  

  Assi AK
  

  By paying $10K of your loan, what are you saving? By putting $10K in your SA, what are you gaining?

  
  

  You will have your answer then

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  3:00pm
  

  
  

  Reader:
  

  Ok, I get it. Only that the SA monies cannot be used for other purposes in future.

  
  

  Thanks AK! 👍🏻

  
  

  
  
• 

  3:01pm
  

  
  

  Assi AK
  

  Yesh... ;)
  

  
  

  If you are saving for retirement, go for it. :)

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  3:02pm
  

  
  

  Reader:
  

  姜还是老的辣

Whenever we do something, it is important to be clear what our motivation is. Then, we will know if we are doing the right thing.

Related posts:
1. Pay off home loan and hit MS.
2. Related to housing loan repayment.
3. Fixed rates, SIBOR, FHR18 or HDB loan?