SP Services say total amount payable is $0.00! (AK uses his air con more but keeps the bill in check.)

(Update 4 Jan 17): 
AK has denied SP Services some revenue! Happiness is a utility bill that looks like this.

All thanks to the really cool weather recently (and not the miserable reduction in electricity tariff).
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Since having my own place once more, I have had discussions with friends on more domestic topics like the household utility bill. In all these discussions, I discovered that my utility bill is relatively low.

My consumption is below the national average for my house type, apparently.

What about my bill in dollar terms?

It has remained more or less the same compared to my utility bill a few years ago when I had my old place and stayed there for 4 years or so, $100 a month, give or take a few dollars. I think this is quite remarkable.

I absolutely cannot live without the air con being on at home. If I am home, the air con and air purifiers are on. Since I am home for many more hours now each day compared to a few years ago, the air con is on for many more hours per day too.

I also watch more TV now as I have more free time. I like watching the Travel Channel, HGTV, Discovery Channel, National Geographic and the History Channel. 

I have a 40" Full HD LED TV now compared to the 26" LCD TV I had in my old place before I replaced it with a 32" LED a year before I sold the place. I think my many TV watching hours now should consume more electricity.

How is it that my utility bill has not gone up much?

I think it is fair to say that the air con probably consumes more electricity than other electrical appliances at home. So, the first thing to do is to make sure to insist on having the energy saving Invertor technology. 

4 ticks, nothing less.

Then, I will usually set the air con temperature to 24 degrees centigrade. On a very warm day, maybe, 23 degrees centigrade.  

The lower the temperature we set, the higher the energy consumption. So, 23 degrees centigrade is usually the lowest I would go.

I have a friend who sets the temperature to 18 degrees centigrade at home as the norm. That is freezing and sends the energy bill through the roof!

Well, since moving to my new place, I got acquainted with my new Invertor air con which has a neat dehumidifier function. This function removes moisture from the air.

Often, we feel warm because of the high humidity level in our climate. The human body is not able to cool itself as well in a humid environment. If we are able to lower the humidity level in a room, our body will feel cooler naturally.

If we set the air con to dehumidifier mode, it lowers the humidity level in the room to about 60%. This is much lower than the usual humidity level in Singapore.

What does the symbol look like? 

A couple of  water drops. Unfortunately, you won't find this mode in older air cons.

If you have Invertor air cons at home and if they are quite new, they should have the dehumidifier mode. If you cannot live without the air con on at home, try this mode. It should lower energy consumption and you should see some savings.

When I go to bed, I would switch the air con back to the regular mode, the one with the snow flake symbol. 

This lowers the humidity level as well as the temperature in the room. 24 degrees centigrade, of course.

It keeps the room cool enough and I don't even need to use a blanket. Just need to wear socks to bed. 

I hope I have not put anyone to sleep with this blog post. Zzzzzz.
Related posts:
1. Photos of AK's home.
2. What can we do to survive the haze?

InvestX Congress 2015: Chit chat with readers.

Happy that I got to meet many readers at InvestX Congress 2015. 

I was part of the 4 member Q&A panel at the end of the day and because not everyone got to ask me the questions they had, I stayed back till 7.30pm to continue chatting with readers who came up to me. 

I hope I answered all their questions and, more importantly, got them thinking about their own strategies. Yes, it is important to have our own strategies. 

Don't simply do what I do because you like to build passive income. Not everyone can do or should do what I do. 

Remember: 
Have a plan, your own plan.

I received quite a few emails and there will probably be a few more to come. I would like to share a couple of emails from readers here and I hope they inspire:

Hi AK,

Re your articles related to saving, I had cut my morning gourmet coffee from 5 times / week to 2 times per week, every 5 cups  purchased , I get 1 free coffee :) still can't cut down totally, enjoying sitting in the cafe before start working.

I bring breakfast, lunch and fruit to the office regularly except when I meet friend for lunch. When I lunch out I try to cap at 6sgd per meal (work in CBD). 

I start to track my expense and had established a budget for 2016. I have decided it will be a frugal year for us. Extra money goes to investment. 

I have purchased my first 4 stocks in my life and more to come as I learn. 

For tomorrow, I will wake up early to pump milk for my baby boy, take MRT and bring my breakfast to attend the event of the year :) Thanks for sharing and always be there to answer our email.

Hi J,

It sounds like you have a plan and making progress too. Good on you! :D

I think you will see that every dollar does add up over time. :)

Hope you enjoyed InvestX 2015. ;)

Best wishes,
AK




Dear AK,

I finally got to meet you in person :)

I shall try to keep this short and sweet because I'm sure many readers email you, comment on your blog and your active blogging takes up quite a bit of time.

You were the one that sparked my interest in investing and also providing avenues of learning i.e. Dividend Machines, InvestX Congress 2015. From there it has encouraged me to keep learning and also sharing with others what I have learnt (as much as it's very basic).

I don't have much to ask you right now because I should put in the effort/due diligence in learning and forming my foundation from your blog and the treasure trove of previous posts as well as books, the internet, seminars/talks etc. I just have to put in effort searching through your blog with the search function or follow related posts.

I'm a newbie hence I want to keep and open mind and consider as many perspectives as I can. I never knew of the existence of "shorting". Sell High, Buy Low. I was like huh what magical technique this is. There's so much to learn out there! I only scraped some simple concepts of TA like Moving Average and CCI, which admittedly I have yet to fully internalize. Off to "investing/trading" school for me :D

I would like to thank you again for sharing your knowledge freely. I'm sure you get it often but I really mean it each time I say it.

F

Hi F,

I am happy to see so many readers at InvestX 2015. 

I am always happy to talk to myself as long as people are interested in listening. ;)

All of us were newbies at one time. 

The learning process these days is probably a bit less daunting and a bit more fun thanks to the internet. 

It is easier to get our hands on information and also to be educated. I am sure you will do well in time to come. :) 

Best wishes,


If you went for InvestX Congress 2015 and would like to share with me what you think of it, please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Source: The Fifth Person.

Thank you and have a good day!


Related posts:
1. Greater financial well being is not beyond us.
2. Heart to heart talk on achieving financial freedom.
I keep saying that all of us have difference circumstances in life. We might make very different choices in life and with those choices, there are pluses and minuses. We must make the best of our situations and, if possible, improve on our situations.
3. AK is a panelist at InvestX Congress 2015.