Disappointed
The job search is not going anywhere. On appearance, all are a waste of time. I had gone for about 9-10 education related ones.
Of them, so far I had 3 offers which I turned down. The first being that 2k for 6 days, the second being 2.5k for 5 days but no weekend and public holiday, and the 3rd being the $30 per hr but prepare my own materials but in the end the scheduled classes makes up only 6hrs a week for 4 days of work. All are not what I had expected nor do they appear decent. Well at least 3 out of 10 get offers, be it poor or good offer.
What really diasppointed me was the centre, which had arranged for a trial lesson. Then maybe work out a schedule. Postponed from last Sat to this Wed. Then I headed down on Wed and was told they forgot to contact me about postponing. Imagine I reached inside for less than 5mins, told the news that they forgot. And besides a word "sorry", there wasnt any effort made to make some sort of arrangement except next wed cos I told them I couldnt make on friday. I had told FH I was going in, even though FH had indicated to me that I could leave anytime but I had already DID my part by turning up. You are the one at fault for changing on me. Then less than 5mins after arriving, I left to go home. Of course I grumbled at the bus stop, calling Candle to complain.
The next day I went for the Shanghai interview at Hougang area. Got to get up earlier and head out and travel longer to reach. Took a while to finally locate and find the place cos took the feeder bus and it took damn long for a ride. Anyway after the interview, I headed straight back to MRT and headed to driving school. I had gotten a driving slot finally and this sudden, last minute interview came in suddenly. Only consolation is that they dont clash. Arrived at driving centre, without having time to eat and did almost 100 mins full of driving with no stops. After the lesson, was so zombified. Met up with Tab and Candle for dinner and then Quetzal came and we walked around a bit.
Feeling rejected
Reached home, checked email and saw that tuition centre that postponed on me, sent me an email to 'cancel' me cos they found a part time, and I was looking for more full-time so they dont want to hold me back. PUI PUI PUI. After reading that, all my foul language came out. Usually I dont use the cb, lj, fcuk b1tch but all those came out. Didnt want to fuss family, so just sian and cuss that centre and that b1tch. Then later on, after checking the stocks, I went to bed cursing and swearing still. Then watched a bit of Naruto anime and then slept earlier at 1am cos I needed to work the next day. Was feeling the effect of sleeplessness on Wed evening.
Standing up again
Woke up for flexible work. Before I headed in, I logged into stocks to key in 2-3 sell orders. Then when market opened, one went through. The Irritating part is that I am selling now after the market has already turned, so the gains are lower than what it could have been. About halved. But the consolation is that I still make gains, halved but still income for me, compared to current inflow. So I take consolation in that. By the time, I reached office, 2nd order executed. I count myself lucky that I had sold in the morning cos prices stayed lower than what I had keyed in for the entire day. So recover capital to wait for more drops. I still have my CapMall, CapMall Asia, Capland. My Kland is a loss. My cpf counters are still there cos those counters, some didnt fall as much, some are not as affected, even those affected, little bit of gains after the gains vapourized does not justify me selling cos few lots. Care more about my cash portfolio cos more money due to more lots.
So a painful lesson about monitoring for turns instead of waiting for secondary indicators to confirm it, cos by then market already turned down and part of the gains have vapourised.
Actually I feel better today. Cos of good, deep sleep. I woke up almost forgetting why I had set my alarm. Except tio some food poisoning aka stomache and gastric from poisionous roti prata if not is the coffee. The sale of the stocks to realise actual profits helped perk me up too. Nevermind about feelings of regret, if 早知道就没有乞丐 and everyone is millionaire already. So just move on. I can sulk over it but I limit myself to a couple of days and move on. I am sure there will be other opportunities to buy back and sell again. Just have to be patient and refrain.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Stock results 2009 and Lessons in 2010
Just to do a book closure of my stocks for last year.
Made SGD$19.6k, RM$10.3k and CPF$5.7k.
Cash about $23.9k but some of these is taxable especially for those REITs distribution.
I have been unemployed since early Aug, meaning about 5 months plus including Jan. Though I did work flexible for Jan.
I am feeling kinda sian. Last year was a good year indeed esp on the stock market front. The gains helped me make the decision to leave easier.
But cos stock prices have gone up quite a bit, so this year is not that easy to earn something of this figure. For 2010, I have made 4 trades, 2 buys, 2 sells in Jan, not all of them good decisions. But the least is that I didnt lose capital in overall terms. The cost is wasted opportunity and lower gains ba.
Then after the Capricon effect, aka since Last Thursday, the Stock market has been diahorring down. As I am still mainly invested, I am seeing gains evaporate. Man I need to learn to read the market and am starting again reading that Chinese wave theory book again... only at chpt 2.
This quick downturn in prices has prompted me to sell off as prices are going down.
WHY?
Cos if prices are headed down south, I wanna to have capital on hand to take advantage of the lower prices. Then I actually bought in some... another judgement mistake, cos yesterday bought, today fell lower. Must remember this lesson about buying in a falling market... Getting a bit rusty and reckless. Need to remember this.
So this waiting and seeing prices going down south, meant that I COULD have earned higher profits esp before prices started going down. It meant that IF I had made the decision to sell just a few days earlier, I could have made several hundreds of dollars extra, and not the paltry sums I am getting... Signz another lesson to learn and remember about being more vigilant about changes and also making a selling decision earlier.
Hope the job front can fare better, then I dont need to monitor so intensely and can afford to put into more middle to long term investment.
Made SGD$19.6k, RM$10.3k and CPF$5.7k.
Cash about $23.9k but some of these is taxable especially for those REITs distribution.
I have been unemployed since early Aug, meaning about 5 months plus including Jan. Though I did work flexible for Jan.
I am feeling kinda sian. Last year was a good year indeed esp on the stock market front. The gains helped me make the decision to leave easier.
But cos stock prices have gone up quite a bit, so this year is not that easy to earn something of this figure. For 2010, I have made 4 trades, 2 buys, 2 sells in Jan, not all of them good decisions. But the least is that I didnt lose capital in overall terms. The cost is wasted opportunity and lower gains ba.
Then after the Capricon effect, aka since Last Thursday, the Stock market has been diahorring down. As I am still mainly invested, I am seeing gains evaporate. Man I need to learn to read the market and am starting again reading that Chinese wave theory book again... only at chpt 2.
This quick downturn in prices has prompted me to sell off as prices are going down.
WHY?
Cos if prices are headed down south, I wanna to have capital on hand to take advantage of the lower prices. Then I actually bought in some... another judgement mistake, cos yesterday bought, today fell lower. Must remember this lesson about buying in a falling market... Getting a bit rusty and reckless. Need to remember this.
So this waiting and seeing prices going down south, meant that I COULD have earned higher profits esp before prices started going down. It meant that IF I had made the decision to sell just a few days earlier, I could have made several hundreds of dollars extra, and not the paltry sums I am getting... Signz another lesson to learn and remember about being more vigilant about changes and also making a selling decision earlier.
Hope the job front can fare better, then I dont need to monitor so intensely and can afford to put into more middle to long term investment.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Grocery shopping can be fun
One can never realize that grocery shopping with parents can be fun sometimes. It's something I hadn't really done much cos the 4 months, I was out almost daily on the week days and IMM is crowded on the weekends and we avoid like plague. Then the last month sparked all the job interviews plus my normal classes and driving and exercise so also not home free on most weekdays.
Today I am free... Have guitar in the evening cos last sat got postponed. Then was thinking of going for flexible work nut FH is not around in the morning, so if nothing pops up, will go in on Friday. So I was at home, woke up earlier at 8.30 to adjust body clock. Started looking at the share market at 9. Today quite some fall but of course not as bad as the previous fall in end 2008. I am still mainly invested but I sold a bit, so am looking for some trades for cash and some thing longer or trades for cpf. At one point there was a rather intense fall. To cut long story short, I made 2 trades, one cash, one cpf. hope market don't crash on me.
Then went grocery shopping with both parents at Giant IMM. One would think it boring but I quite enjoy walking around a rather empty Giant. Don't feel any urge to buy the clothes or electronic stuff but once we reached the food section, man I had to really controly myself. Imagine pushing trolley to the veg section, one would dismiss it saying that there is nothing I would be interested in. Wrong!
I was suddenly looking at the sweet potatoes, sweet corn and watermelon. Thinking how it's been a while since I ate those. Then walk to frozen section lagi worse. I saw the fillets, wedges, wanton, pop corn chicken, prata, tempuras and all are tempting though they are frozen cos the amount of cooking is minimal. But I made it out empty handed. I was being reminded constantly of the steamboat at krynnder's home on New Year eve. That was a good hot pot I hadn't had in quite a while.
We walked to the canned section and I sucumb to 2 cans of lychee, 1 can of mango. Saw many flavours of instant noodles and I bought curry magee for myself. Then picked up a bottle of sweet pickled vegetables and a yellow kaya. Those for common consumption. Man when I passed the meat section, I was restraining against buying the packs of Taiwan sausage or the hotdogs and stuff. At the Chinese new year goodies area, I bought 2 packs of sweet mainly for temple going. But then I saw and am reminded of some food that I really like and alot is available during cny period. Things like chilli tapioca, egg cakes, rice biscuit and more.
Man, so much desire for food but so little desire for electronics or clothes is not good for my efforts to have calorie deficit to lose weight. I been restraining and started monitoring my food and drinks intake starting yesterday. More effort put into the calorie intake control part. Will power mist persist. Same for will power to exercise.
On the job front, I pushed away that one assigment. Haven't sent out resumes since last week. Will try to work on doing. I wanna be selective and also not want to waste my time and effort going for wasted interviews. Also been thinking and sometimes worry won't be employed and earn minimum wages... There are still many years left in this life, cannot imagine earning minimum wages for the rest of the life. Unfounded fears but it's something I think about at the back of my head. Also a deadline to go into home based tuition. Cos if I keep waiting around for perm offer but nothing is happening, I should start home based ones otherwise just doing nothing much. Though I still have jap, guitar and driving, jap is not that intensive cos I don't need to revise daily. Guitar also interest is waning. Driving, so far into 17th practical lesson. Whole of feb is booked. Sian. So I am left with looking at shares, pia anime like otaku which I can do at night, going exercise which I try to do twice a week. Not really much action. Of course I have started doing up some own resources but not so easy and takes time to reach somewhere.
The problem is that somehow I feel I am heading nowhere. Sign... I better print out my list of 100 things to do, start doing them, maybe even do my cooking experiments and forays. How to balance all these with the jobsearch. Guess after all the low, lousy offers and no answers, I am aflicted with some worries and anxieties. The dust of daily life has covered thyself that even the beautiful clouds in the sunny skies. cannot uplift.
Today I am free... Have guitar in the evening cos last sat got postponed. Then was thinking of going for flexible work nut FH is not around in the morning, so if nothing pops up, will go in on Friday. So I was at home, woke up earlier at 8.30 to adjust body clock. Started looking at the share market at 9. Today quite some fall but of course not as bad as the previous fall in end 2008. I am still mainly invested but I sold a bit, so am looking for some trades for cash and some thing longer or trades for cpf. At one point there was a rather intense fall. To cut long story short, I made 2 trades, one cash, one cpf. hope market don't crash on me.
Then went grocery shopping with both parents at Giant IMM. One would think it boring but I quite enjoy walking around a rather empty Giant. Don't feel any urge to buy the clothes or electronic stuff but once we reached the food section, man I had to really controly myself. Imagine pushing trolley to the veg section, one would dismiss it saying that there is nothing I would be interested in. Wrong!
I was suddenly looking at the sweet potatoes, sweet corn and watermelon. Thinking how it's been a while since I ate those. Then walk to frozen section lagi worse. I saw the fillets, wedges, wanton, pop corn chicken, prata, tempuras and all are tempting though they are frozen cos the amount of cooking is minimal. But I made it out empty handed. I was being reminded constantly of the steamboat at krynnder's home on New Year eve. That was a good hot pot I hadn't had in quite a while.
We walked to the canned section and I sucumb to 2 cans of lychee, 1 can of mango. Saw many flavours of instant noodles and I bought curry magee for myself. Then picked up a bottle of sweet pickled vegetables and a yellow kaya. Those for common consumption. Man when I passed the meat section, I was restraining against buying the packs of Taiwan sausage or the hotdogs and stuff. At the Chinese new year goodies area, I bought 2 packs of sweet mainly for temple going. But then I saw and am reminded of some food that I really like and alot is available during cny period. Things like chilli tapioca, egg cakes, rice biscuit and more.
Man, so much desire for food but so little desire for electronics or clothes is not good for my efforts to have calorie deficit to lose weight. I been restraining and started monitoring my food and drinks intake starting yesterday. More effort put into the calorie intake control part. Will power mist persist. Same for will power to exercise.
On the job front, I pushed away that one assigment. Haven't sent out resumes since last week. Will try to work on doing. I wanna be selective and also not want to waste my time and effort going for wasted interviews. Also been thinking and sometimes worry won't be employed and earn minimum wages... There are still many years left in this life, cannot imagine earning minimum wages for the rest of the life. Unfounded fears but it's something I think about at the back of my head. Also a deadline to go into home based tuition. Cos if I keep waiting around for perm offer but nothing is happening, I should start home based ones otherwise just doing nothing much. Though I still have jap, guitar and driving, jap is not that intensive cos I don't need to revise daily. Guitar also interest is waning. Driving, so far into 17th practical lesson. Whole of feb is booked. Sian. So I am left with looking at shares, pia anime like otaku which I can do at night, going exercise which I try to do twice a week. Not really much action. Of course I have started doing up some own resources but not so easy and takes time to reach somewhere.
The problem is that somehow I feel I am heading nowhere. Sign... I better print out my list of 100 things to do, start doing them, maybe even do my cooking experiments and forays. How to balance all these with the jobsearch. Guess after all the low, lousy offers and no answers, I am aflicted with some worries and anxieties. The dust of daily life has covered thyself that even the beautiful clouds in the sunny skies. cannot uplift.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Birthday post
Yar I seemed to have a whole string of birthday posts in this blog since I started it a long time back. Its a diary of sort and I intend to capture my thoughts and memories over time.
Today I have NO idea why the hell did I get up at the ungodly hour of 7.30am even though I slept around 2-3am last nite. I was watching some naruto still and then either I switched off and slept or I watched until I slept and mom or sis helped me switch off the tv. Think it might have something to do with my clockwork bowels in the earlier part of morning.
So its my birthday again. Yar again. Time 'seemed' to go past quickly even though passing through a day at a time can be either slow-going or even uneventful. Yet time still passes by each and every second, never to return. Am reminded of my list of things to do before I die. I have to organise a 100 things list and then start ticking them off when I do it. So that even in this period of unemployment and relatively lack of focus in life, there is a direction that I am moving towards.
Later before 9am, I will head to the gym, return near 11am and then maybe go out with family. Give them a treat, maybe something not so expensive. Last time whenever I get my bonus, I would give a treat at a restaurant that my parents and sisters never been to, at times expensive, just to let them have the chance to eat at a new place and expand food choices. FYI, my dad loved that korean bbq chicken place for their hamburgs.
So this year, I had told my sisters NOT to get anything for me. Guess I just dont have that many things that I WANT. So earlier on Yingel gave me this $100 voucher to CMPB in Dempsey that she won in her annual dinner. She doesnt have friends who drive and hadnt gone there before. So I woke up earlier in January to see it on my table with a note that Dempsey is inaccessible via public transport and has many Ang Mohs. But I dont really bio Ang Mohs, I prefer Asian. They are the ones who like to bio Ang Mohs. Duh. Geoky got me a PSP soft cover with Cloud and Sephiroth. When I asked her if it was cheap, she assured me that it was cheap. Then I accepted. Still havent put it on my PSP yet.
Then for the celebration with friends, I was working at FH's office that day. Couldnt find my keys, entire bunch with rings, home keys and FH's office keys etc. Cant find for several days liao... Hope I didnt drop it somewhere... Last time I saw it was for Jap class. Either drop at jap class or outside along Orchard area. Then really no hope. So it meant I had to knock off at 6pm instead of my usual 6.30-6.40pm, cos I reach about 10.30am. I wake up earlier but headed out to eat a very heavy brunch and pack some bread. Reversing my breakfast and lunch to heavy breakfast, lighter lunch. So I dont go out for lunch breaks cos not hungry. Clock in about 8hrs each time this way.
I got my first pay from FH. He is generous. We agreed on about $10 an hour, flexible days and timing. When he was doing the pay, he saw that I did ALOT of stuff, a whole year's of receipts, did clean up for his scans for floor plan, legal doc, did excel for recon, help him check the recon and made a user manual for the data entry system. That is quite a lot for about 50hrs of work only. So he gave me a higher pay than the $500 that I would be getting. Its not grand but its better than nothing. I am grateful. He actually gave me the rest of the afternoon off after I finished the final piece of work around 2.30pm. There wasnt anything else to do and he would be out. But Candle and Tab already coming in around 5pm so might as well do some tuition-related work.
I tried to do up template worksheets that I can use for. Cos an offer came in but it wasnt that much when worked out the hours and rate, plus have to do own resource. Asking friends and family later on about whether to take up or push. Seems the verdict is to push. I will reply to the email today or so. So later on, Candle and Tab came and while Candle was chit-chatting with her ex-collegues, Tab and I were solving the maths problem sum that stumped me still.
Well I have to give it to Tab for solving the problem sum eventually using models. But that meant she was in her world of her own up to the time we sat in Fish and CO. I was thinking of where to eat at FH's area cos can reduce time and can go straight after work. Finalize 2 places, Fish and Co or Swenson. Since knock off at 6pm, can go straight in and just sit. No need to do reservations. I did call CMPB and reserve table for drinks.
I must admit, its been quite a while since I ate at Fish and Co. Missed the rice and drinks. But my mind and mouth not coordinated again, I ordered Sambal grilled fish instead of Whole Sambal line fish... But it tasted alright still though the sambal very hot. Had a fishy maria. Thanks to friends for the dinner treat. Really ate until very full. Of course inbetween dinner, alot of chatting and stuff.
We headed to CMPB which fyi stands for Contemporary Melting Pot & Bar and arrived. We sat outside instead of inside cos considering our laughter, later disturb the performers. Wow could see the stars in the skies. Ordered our drinks, with quite a few mojitos and margaritas. Did our usual of crap and discussion about topics relevent to this period of time. FH came and ate his $10 roti john with wagyu beef. We got free mistrone soup on the house later on. Bill came up to $106 but with $100 voucher, its only $1 per person. Cheap and good.
The next day though, I didnt feel like getting out of bed until 11am plus. I was lazing around in bed. Then later accompanied dad to eat Guo Tie at Queenstown and he washed his car. Reached home near 3.45pm and just watched cable tv.
_______________________________________________
Same thing every year.
1) I still wish for health for myself cos its very important. To have the energy and stamina to move onwards. Well-being is important for both body and mind. Yep lemme continue to lose weight... which incidentally, I had gained over and above my fat self again. Argh
2) I hope to continue to change myself consciously to become more extroverted, smile more, be more comfortable and happier being in my own skin.
3) Dunno if this can ever be fulfilled. Find a guy? A soul mate. Guess I am feeling the effects of getting older.
Today I have NO idea why the hell did I get up at the ungodly hour of 7.30am even though I slept around 2-3am last nite. I was watching some naruto still and then either I switched off and slept or I watched until I slept and mom or sis helped me switch off the tv. Think it might have something to do with my clockwork bowels in the earlier part of morning.
So its my birthday again. Yar again. Time 'seemed' to go past quickly even though passing through a day at a time can be either slow-going or even uneventful. Yet time still passes by each and every second, never to return. Am reminded of my list of things to do before I die. I have to organise a 100 things list and then start ticking them off when I do it. So that even in this period of unemployment and relatively lack of focus in life, there is a direction that I am moving towards.
Later before 9am, I will head to the gym, return near 11am and then maybe go out with family. Give them a treat, maybe something not so expensive. Last time whenever I get my bonus, I would give a treat at a restaurant that my parents and sisters never been to, at times expensive, just to let them have the chance to eat at a new place and expand food choices. FYI, my dad loved that korean bbq chicken place for their hamburgs.
So this year, I had told my sisters NOT to get anything for me. Guess I just dont have that many things that I WANT. So earlier on Yingel gave me this $100 voucher to CMPB in Dempsey that she won in her annual dinner. She doesnt have friends who drive and hadnt gone there before. So I woke up earlier in January to see it on my table with a note that Dempsey is inaccessible via public transport and has many Ang Mohs. But I dont really bio Ang Mohs, I prefer Asian. They are the ones who like to bio Ang Mohs. Duh. Geoky got me a PSP soft cover with Cloud and Sephiroth. When I asked her if it was cheap, she assured me that it was cheap. Then I accepted. Still havent put it on my PSP yet.
Then for the celebration with friends, I was working at FH's office that day. Couldnt find my keys, entire bunch with rings, home keys and FH's office keys etc. Cant find for several days liao... Hope I didnt drop it somewhere... Last time I saw it was for Jap class. Either drop at jap class or outside along Orchard area. Then really no hope. So it meant I had to knock off at 6pm instead of my usual 6.30-6.40pm, cos I reach about 10.30am. I wake up earlier but headed out to eat a very heavy brunch and pack some bread. Reversing my breakfast and lunch to heavy breakfast, lighter lunch. So I dont go out for lunch breaks cos not hungry. Clock in about 8hrs each time this way.
I got my first pay from FH. He is generous. We agreed on about $10 an hour, flexible days and timing. When he was doing the pay, he saw that I did ALOT of stuff, a whole year's of receipts, did clean up for his scans for floor plan, legal doc, did excel for recon, help him check the recon and made a user manual for the data entry system. That is quite a lot for about 50hrs of work only. So he gave me a higher pay than the $500 that I would be getting. Its not grand but its better than nothing. I am grateful. He actually gave me the rest of the afternoon off after I finished the final piece of work around 2.30pm. There wasnt anything else to do and he would be out. But Candle and Tab already coming in around 5pm so might as well do some tuition-related work.
I tried to do up template worksheets that I can use for. Cos an offer came in but it wasnt that much when worked out the hours and rate, plus have to do own resource. Asking friends and family later on about whether to take up or push. Seems the verdict is to push. I will reply to the email today or so. So later on, Candle and Tab came and while Candle was chit-chatting with her ex-collegues, Tab and I were solving the maths problem sum that stumped me still.
Well I have to give it to Tab for solving the problem sum eventually using models. But that meant she was in her world of her own up to the time we sat in Fish and CO. I was thinking of where to eat at FH's area cos can reduce time and can go straight after work. Finalize 2 places, Fish and Co or Swenson. Since knock off at 6pm, can go straight in and just sit. No need to do reservations. I did call CMPB and reserve table for drinks.
I must admit, its been quite a while since I ate at Fish and Co. Missed the rice and drinks. But my mind and mouth not coordinated again, I ordered Sambal grilled fish instead of Whole Sambal line fish... But it tasted alright still though the sambal very hot. Had a fishy maria. Thanks to friends for the dinner treat. Really ate until very full. Of course inbetween dinner, alot of chatting and stuff.
We headed to CMPB which fyi stands for Contemporary Melting Pot & Bar and arrived. We sat outside instead of inside cos considering our laughter, later disturb the performers. Wow could see the stars in the skies. Ordered our drinks, with quite a few mojitos and margaritas. Did our usual of crap and discussion about topics relevent to this period of time. FH came and ate his $10 roti john with wagyu beef. We got free mistrone soup on the house later on. Bill came up to $106 but with $100 voucher, its only $1 per person. Cheap and good.
The next day though, I didnt feel like getting out of bed until 11am plus. I was lazing around in bed. Then later accompanied dad to eat Guo Tie at Queenstown and he washed his car. Reached home near 3.45pm and just watched cable tv.
_______________________________________________
Same thing every year.
1) I still wish for health for myself cos its very important. To have the energy and stamina to move onwards. Well-being is important for both body and mind. Yep lemme continue to lose weight... which incidentally, I had gained over and above my fat self again. Argh
2) I hope to continue to change myself consciously to become more extroverted, smile more, be more comfortable and happier being in my own skin.
3) Dunno if this can ever be fulfilled. Find a guy? A soul mate. Guess I am feeling the effects of getting older.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Primary level questions
Hmm I went for an interview yesterday. It was kinda last minute and there had been 2 missed calls cos they called on Monday and I was in JB for the good half of the day. Then I tried to call back but no answers. Then received a 3rd call. An interview on Tuesday. There is a academic test also.
Huh? I have heard of tutors being tested academically but didnt felt the need or urge to prepare by studying cos at this point, some of my maths stuff, esp those that I dont use eg Integration, sin, cos, tang, I had all returned to my teachers. So its either I know, or dont.
So I headed there, its actually near my first workplace. A bit nostalgic cos I walked down the same path daily to work during my contract days. But despite having driving lessons in that region, I didnt specifically walk the same path inwards. I filled up my details which is the norm on a form. Then had to do a Psychometric test, ie DISC assessment (which I found out today thanks to references from Wikipedia) and had to solve a few questions for Maths and Science and mark and grade 2 Eng compo.
Now the funny thing was that a couple of the Maths questions gave me a headache. Esp one deceptively simple question on ratio. I was literally cracking my brain on it. And supposed to solve with models. I tried but unsure if that simplistic manner was the answer. After the interview, I asked my sister, who btw scored better results academically than me. She managed to form 2 simultaneous equations very quickly and solve it. (Now looking at it, she got the correct answer) Problem is, looking at the solution, I am STILL unable to translate into model method. My model foundation is very strong but when it comes to this type of funny ratio, I am unable to use the model way. (Still thinking ath the time of this post)
After jap test, met up with Candle and after Tab left home cos she was unwell, I asked Candle to help me with the question. She also used equations and even an unorthodox matter to help determine the answer. The problem was working backwards. We literally cracked our brains in the BK (which I am 注定 to eat there...) I was almost home when Candle called me and mentioned she managed to solve. Still using equation.
Hmm primary maths literally can make one crack one's head. Cos unless I remember wrongly, up to P6, they only learn 1 variable. Only in Sec then they learn simultaneous equations. But my sister's method did solve with only 1 variable. Yet when I look at the method of solving, the amount of solving is at the Sec 1 standard. At least that's what it felt to me.
Still thinking about how to solve using ratio-proportion method, and/or models. Tomorrow I would go and get the PSLE 10 years series to take a look esp for solutions. Think I need some revision on ratios with models.
Huh? I have heard of tutors being tested academically but didnt felt the need or urge to prepare by studying cos at this point, some of my maths stuff, esp those that I dont use eg Integration, sin, cos, tang, I had all returned to my teachers. So its either I know, or dont.
So I headed there, its actually near my first workplace. A bit nostalgic cos I walked down the same path daily to work during my contract days. But despite having driving lessons in that region, I didnt specifically walk the same path inwards. I filled up my details which is the norm on a form. Then had to do a Psychometric test, ie DISC assessment (which I found out today thanks to references from Wikipedia) and had to solve a few questions for Maths and Science and mark and grade 2 Eng compo.
Now the funny thing was that a couple of the Maths questions gave me a headache. Esp one deceptively simple question on ratio. I was literally cracking my brain on it. And supposed to solve with models. I tried but unsure if that simplistic manner was the answer. After the interview, I asked my sister, who btw scored better results academically than me. She managed to form 2 simultaneous equations very quickly and solve it. (Now looking at it, she got the correct answer) Problem is, looking at the solution, I am STILL unable to translate into model method. My model foundation is very strong but when it comes to this type of funny ratio, I am unable to use the model way. (Still thinking ath the time of this post)
After jap test, met up with Candle and after Tab left home cos she was unwell, I asked Candle to help me with the question. She also used equations and even an unorthodox matter to help determine the answer. The problem was working backwards. We literally cracked our brains in the BK (which I am 注定 to eat there...) I was almost home when Candle called me and mentioned she managed to solve. Still using equation.
Hmm primary maths literally can make one crack one's head. Cos unless I remember wrongly, up to P6, they only learn 1 variable. Only in Sec then they learn simultaneous equations. But my sister's method did solve with only 1 variable. Yet when I look at the method of solving, the amount of solving is at the Sec 1 standard. At least that's what it felt to me.
Still thinking about how to solve using ratio-proportion method, and/or models. Tomorrow I would go and get the PSLE 10 years series to take a look esp for solutions. Think I need some revision on ratios with models.
Monday, January 18, 2010
CitySquare shopping
Yesterday I asked my dad straight out, if he might be going into JB aka either Pelangi or City Square. He didnt mind. I wanted to go in to check out the price for some A3 laminating sheets, A3 sized paper. Was still thinking about making my own resource part. I did cut out another week's worth of articles but alot of them are rather big. He didnt mind. Shun bian buy his newspapers, do banking. Later I told my sister, Geoky and she took leave for one day.
Heeding mom's warning about some rumors of targeting Singaporeans, hence we purposely dress down to fit in to the rest. Basically no handbags, no sunglasses on the head, no 3/4 or berms or khakis and sandles which are some give-away signs. In the end, we looked so sloopy and poor that others wont bother to give a second glance.
So all 3 of us headed into JB today around 10.45am. It was rather smooth, reaching around 11 plus. We headed to the bank, where I withdrew some RM, cos I didnt want to change SGD, and put some into the other bank account to prevent locking up. Then we headed to eat lunch first. Ate at Secret Recipe. Didnt dabao any cakes from them, kinda sian of eating those rich-tasting cakes. BUT I did buy Portuguse egg tart, but only 5, 1 each, no extra cos dont want to overdose.
Then we walked to the Inner City which is the youth belt part of City Square. Bought anime and movies. I bought Skip Beat set, Naruto 1 to 200 in 2 sets, Jishoku ShyoJo 3, cloudy without meatballs and fantastic mr fox. All animes. I did buy the Alo Alo 1 for my mom. My sister bought all 写实 movie titles which I am not keen at all to watch. She bought Mind your language for my mom. So my mom has enough to keep her busy and happily watching. My mom also watches the anime series I buy, so Naruto can keep her very occupied too.
The laminating sheets turned out to be a bit pricey and no A3 print paper. Instead of having to buy an A3 laminator and A3 laminating sheets, chose a cheaper alternative, A3 sized drawing block x 2 which were rather cheap and a glue stick. I bought an identical Green Water Bottle to replace the one I broke after 1.5 yrs of daily use. Yay!
Then Geoky bought 2 T-shirts for herself. Kinda funny print. At first want to buy for bro, but she didnt check the back wordings, got the female version instead. So is 注定to be hers.
We also had a late tea at a HK style cafe in the Inner City. The food was affordable and my order, a cold milk tea and the french toast with ham, were delicious. The milk tea is milk and sweet enough, big glass too. The french toast is warm and very tasty. It had both mayo and thousand island inside with the ham, very delicious combination. My dad ordered some steamed wanton that came with a thick dark sauce with garlic, bit of chilli oil, quite tasty. Next time should try to eat more at other places instead of Secret Recipe.
Saw some malaysian guys with J-Rock hair, Korean hair and even longer hair. A few okay looking ones though they would be younger than me... So just look, and joke with Geoky. Anyway seems to be able to see more interesting and funky hair styles than in Singapore. They seem to dare to wear those styles. Makes for interesting looks.
I spent about RM$150 for discs, and the bit of stationary altogether. Quite a lot of restraint already. Quite value for money in a sense, esp for the Naruto. Each set has 5 disc, each disc 20 episodes, so Pt 1 and 2 already covered 200 episodes. They had a part 3 which would cover episode 201 - 300 but it was sold out. Would go and get it the next time around. Each disc is RM$6. Quite a bargain esp since the Naruto anime is really fantastic esp when it reaches the Shippuden series. No new south park series though.
Heeding mom's warning about some rumors of targeting Singaporeans, hence we purposely dress down to fit in to the rest. Basically no handbags, no sunglasses on the head, no 3/4 or berms or khakis and sandles which are some give-away signs. In the end, we looked so sloopy and poor that others wont bother to give a second glance.
So all 3 of us headed into JB today around 10.45am. It was rather smooth, reaching around 11 plus. We headed to the bank, where I withdrew some RM, cos I didnt want to change SGD, and put some into the other bank account to prevent locking up. Then we headed to eat lunch first. Ate at Secret Recipe. Didnt dabao any cakes from them, kinda sian of eating those rich-tasting cakes. BUT I did buy Portuguse egg tart, but only 5, 1 each, no extra cos dont want to overdose.
Then we walked to the Inner City which is the youth belt part of City Square. Bought anime and movies. I bought Skip Beat set, Naruto 1 to 200 in 2 sets, Jishoku ShyoJo 3, cloudy without meatballs and fantastic mr fox. All animes. I did buy the Alo Alo 1 for my mom. My sister bought all 写实 movie titles which I am not keen at all to watch. She bought Mind your language for my mom. So my mom has enough to keep her busy and happily watching. My mom also watches the anime series I buy, so Naruto can keep her very occupied too.
The laminating sheets turned out to be a bit pricey and no A3 print paper. Instead of having to buy an A3 laminator and A3 laminating sheets, chose a cheaper alternative, A3 sized drawing block x 2 which were rather cheap and a glue stick. I bought an identical Green Water Bottle to replace the one I broke after 1.5 yrs of daily use. Yay!
Then Geoky bought 2 T-shirts for herself. Kinda funny print. At first want to buy for bro, but she didnt check the back wordings, got the female version instead. So is 注定to be hers.
We also had a late tea at a HK style cafe in the Inner City. The food was affordable and my order, a cold milk tea and the french toast with ham, were delicious. The milk tea is milk and sweet enough, big glass too. The french toast is warm and very tasty. It had both mayo and thousand island inside with the ham, very delicious combination. My dad ordered some steamed wanton that came with a thick dark sauce with garlic, bit of chilli oil, quite tasty. Next time should try to eat more at other places instead of Secret Recipe.
Saw some malaysian guys with J-Rock hair, Korean hair and even longer hair. A few okay looking ones though they would be younger than me... So just look, and joke with Geoky. Anyway seems to be able to see more interesting and funky hair styles than in Singapore. They seem to dare to wear those styles. Makes for interesting looks.
I spent about RM$150 for discs, and the bit of stationary altogether. Quite a lot of restraint already. Quite value for money in a sense, esp for the Naruto. Each set has 5 disc, each disc 20 episodes, so Pt 1 and 2 already covered 200 episodes. They had a part 3 which would cover episode 201 - 300 but it was sold out. Would go and get it the next time around. Each disc is RM$6. Quite a bargain esp since the Naruto anime is really fantastic esp when it reaches the Shippuden series. No new south park series though.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Continued about budgeting...
Man I was knocked out after posting up. Feeling under the weather too. Thinking back, its been more than 5 months and I havent had to see the doc so far for any medicine. So I am actually healthier this period and not to mention, can concuss and sleep things off like today.
Really knocked out from 5pm until when I woke up, its already close to 9pm. No intention to practice guitar. Signz this week been rather busy, feeling the tiredness creeping back on me. I better clock in 1 more gym to make it twice. Past two weeks, I managed once a week only... but weighed myself just wednesday. Surprised that almost back to my original fat self firstly. K small consolation that the Christmas and New Year binge didnt leave a lasting impression. Good, now to up my exercise...
____________________________________________
I wanna comment about the 2 different budget method I mentioned in my earlier post, the one about Phantom money.
I feel there are 2 ways of budgeting, which I use at times.
First one is fixed amount a day for 30 days calculation.
I decide to spend between $20-25 per day for 30 days. This amount excludes driving and guitar course. Cos these are higher cost and they are really for a rather transient period of my expense. Also if these are included, it is near impossible to keep to $20-$25 a day target unless I really go into Scrooge and Bear mode (stinge and hibernate at home) I rather take this 2 items out and not consider them my monthly expenditure. But any other things like hp, internet, shoes, clothes, transport all goes into this. But of course I recognise that I spend money on guitar and driving. They are outflows too.
Hence I target a monthly expenditure of $600-$750 for normal expenditure, adding in $120 guitar and maybe $200 driving. That would bring to a sum of $920-$1070. Not an astronomical figure but remember for now, my income is near nil. Hence would have to see if can further minimize, if not, at least keep it within this range, NOT way beyond this figure.
Now at the end of a day, I would recall all the expenses for one day and get a TOTAL figure. Say by today, its already 8 days into the month of January. I recorded immediately the expenditure for today and yesterday which are very fresh in my mind. Receipts helped also. Then I work backwards a bit to trace, starting from New Year party and then the weekend, and then this week where I worked 2 days, went 2 interviews. Of course if you already started a bit late eg >10 days and really cannot get a pic, well simple. Start from today and end your 'accounting' exactly on the date 1 month later. Just to get an better idea of the cash outflows. I am not too concerned if I missed a few dollars, cents but I have to record most of the expenses accurately and also capture all large expenses.
So I am going to show my actual figures. No harm to me. Dont mind ya knowing my expenses pattern. I managed to get a figure accumulated for 8 days $321.10, I paid guitar $120 already. So I am going to subtract it out, $201.10. This seems like a high figure but remember I had a target of $20-$25.
Lets see how I fared, $201.10 / 8 = $25.14. Okay very close. But still at a higher end after averaging. Hence it meant for the weekends and even next week, I will consciously reduce spending, head out lesser etc. I will come back to check this average figure. Definitely would be better if I can lower to closer to $20 but I still have 23 days of the week to fiddle around with. Not to mention other bills like hp, cable tv coming in. Yup its going to be a challenge.
The 2nd method is discussed in the previous post. To put aside a TOTAL amount for each expense item that usually appear in your monthly expense. Eg $200 transport, $100 hp, $200 clothes, $100 shoes, $50 hp, $50 cable, $100 misc, $800 food, $300 outings, $120 guitar, $50 CD, $50 comics => $2120
Now for a nett pay of say $2900 (my old pay), it meant $2900-$2120 = $780. So IF I finished spending most of those amounts allocated in the expenses and didnt exceed much, I should have a nett figure of $780 in my bank account by the end of the month.
Whether how u check it, either using checking nett difference at end of the month method or actually drawing out $780 physically and putting into another savings account.
But of course, sometimes expenses are rather high, maybe cos I take public transport. Maybe I take cab more now, shop more cos need change of wardrobe that even $200 a month is too low. So the planned figures changed.
Cab $250, transport $100, $100 hp, $500 clothes, $200 shoes, $50 hp, $50 cable, gifts $200, misc $100, food $800, outings $500, $120 guitar, $50 CD, $50 comics => $3070
Now you see that this is above the nett salary of $2900. It is NOT FEASIBLE unless I have more income inflows. This is just the bitter truth of Reality. You are spending way too much for your income. There is no other way about it but to either GET more inflows per month immediately or cut next months expenses immediately.
Why do I say immediately? Because this is a situation of negative budget. You are running a negative. Now since money doesnt drop out of the sky, it means, this negative of $170 is being financed out of your savings. It will drain your savings down(like what I am doing now) But at least its your own money. BUT if you dont have savings, its being financed by debt. Either overdrafts or credit cards, cos these are the consumer loans out there, that is easy to draw up on and without having to put in asset as collateral/mortgage. The downside is the higher Interest Rates.
And had earlier explored the whole interest on interest on rolling over debt. It is really difficult to pay off, if every month is tight. So I rather err on the downside and ensure that every month is a surplus instead of a deficit. Some months cos of travelling, so really overshoot. I still have to see how much deficit, so that I can ensure the following months, there are enough surpluses such that the Nett figure at the end of the year is still positive.
I must admit, it wasnt easy, and required more discipline and also monitoring and conscious decision making, deferring Wants alot of times, even evaluating whether this purchase can wait, or even if its a real need. I must admit my guitar course is not a need. But I have my vices too. I dont want to earn an income and yet spend $0 on things I like. BUT I recognize that I shouldnt indulge in everything or most of it at too regular a basis. Its a give and take situation.
K think, I have finished my thoughts about personal finances for now. Subsequent posts will go back to normal unless something hits me in the head to share.
Really knocked out from 5pm until when I woke up, its already close to 9pm. No intention to practice guitar. Signz this week been rather busy, feeling the tiredness creeping back on me. I better clock in 1 more gym to make it twice. Past two weeks, I managed once a week only... but weighed myself just wednesday. Surprised that almost back to my original fat self firstly. K small consolation that the Christmas and New Year binge didnt leave a lasting impression. Good, now to up my exercise...
____________________________________________
I wanna comment about the 2 different budget method I mentioned in my earlier post, the one about Phantom money.
I feel there are 2 ways of budgeting, which I use at times.
First one is fixed amount a day for 30 days calculation.
I decide to spend between $20-25 per day for 30 days. This amount excludes driving and guitar course. Cos these are higher cost and they are really for a rather transient period of my expense. Also if these are included, it is near impossible to keep to $20-$25 a day target unless I really go into Scrooge and Bear mode (stinge and hibernate at home) I rather take this 2 items out and not consider them my monthly expenditure. But any other things like hp, internet, shoes, clothes, transport all goes into this. But of course I recognise that I spend money on guitar and driving. They are outflows too.
Hence I target a monthly expenditure of $600-$750 for normal expenditure, adding in $120 guitar and maybe $200 driving. That would bring to a sum of $920-$1070. Not an astronomical figure but remember for now, my income is near nil. Hence would have to see if can further minimize, if not, at least keep it within this range, NOT way beyond this figure.
Now at the end of a day, I would recall all the expenses for one day and get a TOTAL figure. Say by today, its already 8 days into the month of January. I recorded immediately the expenditure for today and yesterday which are very fresh in my mind. Receipts helped also. Then I work backwards a bit to trace, starting from New Year party and then the weekend, and then this week where I worked 2 days, went 2 interviews. Of course if you already started a bit late eg >10 days and really cannot get a pic, well simple. Start from today and end your 'accounting' exactly on the date 1 month later. Just to get an better idea of the cash outflows. I am not too concerned if I missed a few dollars, cents but I have to record most of the expenses accurately and also capture all large expenses.
So I am going to show my actual figures. No harm to me. Dont mind ya knowing my expenses pattern. I managed to get a figure accumulated for 8 days $321.10, I paid guitar $120 already. So I am going to subtract it out, $201.10. This seems like a high figure but remember I had a target of $20-$25.
Lets see how I fared, $201.10 / 8 = $25.14. Okay very close. But still at a higher end after averaging. Hence it meant for the weekends and even next week, I will consciously reduce spending, head out lesser etc. I will come back to check this average figure. Definitely would be better if I can lower to closer to $20 but I still have 23 days of the week to fiddle around with. Not to mention other bills like hp, cable tv coming in. Yup its going to be a challenge.
The 2nd method is discussed in the previous post. To put aside a TOTAL amount for each expense item that usually appear in your monthly expense. Eg $200 transport, $100 hp, $200 clothes, $100 shoes, $50 hp, $50 cable, $100 misc, $800 food, $300 outings, $120 guitar, $50 CD, $50 comics => $2120
Now for a nett pay of say $2900 (my old pay), it meant $2900-$2120 = $780. So IF I finished spending most of those amounts allocated in the expenses and didnt exceed much, I should have a nett figure of $780 in my bank account by the end of the month.
Whether how u check it, either using checking nett difference at end of the month method or actually drawing out $780 physically and putting into another savings account.
But of course, sometimes expenses are rather high, maybe cos I take public transport. Maybe I take cab more now, shop more cos need change of wardrobe that even $200 a month is too low. So the planned figures changed.
Cab $250, transport $100, $100 hp, $500 clothes, $200 shoes, $50 hp, $50 cable, gifts $200, misc $100, food $800, outings $500, $120 guitar, $50 CD, $50 comics => $3070
Now you see that this is above the nett salary of $2900. It is NOT FEASIBLE unless I have more income inflows. This is just the bitter truth of Reality. You are spending way too much for your income. There is no other way about it but to either GET more inflows per month immediately or cut next months expenses immediately.
Why do I say immediately? Because this is a situation of negative budget. You are running a negative. Now since money doesnt drop out of the sky, it means, this negative of $170 is being financed out of your savings. It will drain your savings down(like what I am doing now) But at least its your own money. BUT if you dont have savings, its being financed by debt. Either overdrafts or credit cards, cos these are the consumer loans out there, that is easy to draw up on and without having to put in asset as collateral/mortgage. The downside is the higher Interest Rates.
And had earlier explored the whole interest on interest on rolling over debt. It is really difficult to pay off, if every month is tight. So I rather err on the downside and ensure that every month is a surplus instead of a deficit. Some months cos of travelling, so really overshoot. I still have to see how much deficit, so that I can ensure the following months, there are enough surpluses such that the Nett figure at the end of the year is still positive.
I must admit, it wasnt easy, and required more discipline and also monitoring and conscious decision making, deferring Wants alot of times, even evaluating whether this purchase can wait, or even if its a real need. I must admit my guitar course is not a need. But I have my vices too. I dont want to earn an income and yet spend $0 on things I like. BUT I recognize that I shouldnt indulge in everything or most of it at too regular a basis. Its a give and take situation.
K think, I have finished my thoughts about personal finances for now. Subsequent posts will go back to normal unless something hits me in the head to share.
personal finances iii - phantom savings & phantom money
Quite tired now... this week a bit too hectic.
Just came back from meeting up with ex-collegue. It was rather fruitful. Its nice to chat with her and she gave me 2 contacts to use for my current search. A pleasant lady, we had helped each other out, buddy buddy when we both transferred to the same place. Now both of us are out, but since in the area, glad can meet up.
Later after that, I went to buy 2 pairs of working shoes. Basically court shoes cos my only pair of interview shoes broke yesterday after the interview. So 2 pairs cost me $74. If I am trying to max spend $25 a day. It would mean, for the rest of the month, I must make sure spend 0 or dont go out for 3 days extra. Just so until I get a stable income.
____________________________________________
I wanna highlight a phenomenon that is common to us all. The concept of "phantom money or phantom savings" that is encouraged in fact by all the advertisements and sales. I would use the term "phantom savings" first and then see how it transforms into "phantom money" .It seems to me to be 2 concepts but similiar.
Firstly sometimes we see a SALE sign. Say for my example, a new pair of sports shoes. At first $150, now after discount $100. The discount is 33% (50/150).
Now one would easily think that by buying now, I actually save $50 (33%). I might need it for future, so I buy now and save. Familiar?
Now is there really a saving? That is a very important matter to ascertain. There are questions to ask yourself to determine if that item is a NEED or a WANT. A need, you really might have savings, but a want, you are actually NOT saving at all.
To illustrate. For me, I already have a pair of sport shoes, perfectly fine, still rather new, another pair which is thin sole for driving. Do I really need that $100 shoe? Actually with both pairs, I could rotate and hence dont really need it.
So IF I went ahead and buy it, telling myself this is for the near future, eg use for going to gym, new shoes for new year, backup for current pairs. It may sound justifiable to you. BUT there is actually NO savings at all.
WHY?
Well firstly you didnt intend to buy a pair of sports shoes this month. You already had enough at least to last until one broke. It meant in your expenses, you didnt make conscious allowance for it, hence when you actually buy the shoes, it cost you extra $100 on top of the rest of your expenses. Is there any real savings? It appears NO to me.
Now what if it is a NEED? Eg my only pair of interview shoes broke. I need a replacement asap. I bought 2 different pairs at one go, one as back-up. You might say, I should have bought 1 pair only. BUT since I already took the time and effort to travel down (cost), if the first one broke again, I would have to make another trip down which would incur some extra cost. So 2 pairs to me is a decent number. Well for different people, maybe they need more pairs for backup. But not exceedingly. Now do I really save? Well since I really need to buy it, and I did. I am making conscious decision to cut other expenses out a bit to balance out my spending. I would be more conscious that I had spent $74 extra and will try to reduce heading out consciously. Can even compute to spending 0 for 3 days or so. Something like that, I am not asking myself to hibernate everyday and be a scrooge. It is just part of the maxim, "Earn more or spend less". Since I already spent a certain amount, if I can spend lesser on others, say eating out in restaurants/cafes for a few times, it can balance out at the end of the month. At least that is what I intend to do and adhere to.
Okay coming back to the earlier WANT. So if I went ahead to buy the $100 sport shoes. In my mind, I conveniently convince myself that I "save $50". . This is the phantom saving of $50. Then is there any harm in this? Well already it is actually an extra $100 spent this month. Next how can this go wrong then? Well as in my mind, I keep telling myself I "saved $50", so I might go and spend extra money cos I 'feel' richer by $50. (by now, one might realize, that the mind can just thrive happily on the 'feel richer' effect and spend more) So dont go too euphoric on "phantom savings". They might not actually exist but your mind thinks it is there.
Now how does "phantom savings" turn into "phantom money"? Again it has something to do with how your mind perceives the "phantom savings" as actual physical money.
Remember you spent $100. You think you saved $50. But this $50 is Not real money that you bank into a bank. Now how can this harm us again? Well in cases where money is a bit tight, you might be going through your expenses and trying to cut or reduce or justify. What manifest is this scenario...
K this month I spent $100 on shoes. Next 6 months, I am NOT GOING to buy any. Then I would "save some money". Yes, IF you do this, you are actually cutting out 1 expense item from your budget for the coming 6 months. BUT is there any ACTUAL MONEY saved just by deciding not to spend anymore on shoes? The answer is sadly NO. If your mind thinks that you actually save money from not spending money on shoes, the "phantom savings" becomes now "phantom money" which you think is an inflow into your bank account. But it is not. WHY?
Cos maybe in the 2nd month, I really didnt buy any shoes, but I spent the $100 on food and going out. Is there savings from not buying the shoes? No. The money is spent on another expense item.
In the 3rd month, I bought a new watch $100, no shoes. Is there savings? No I spent money on watch, another expense item.
In the 4th month, I spent $100 on bras, no shoes. Is there savings?
In the 5th month, I spent $100 on hair cut. Is there savings?
By the 6th month, I bought a $100 shirt and pants. Is there savings?
It is clear that by cutting out an Expense item from my budget is NOT going to result in SAVINGS. You might think it can, but it didnt. So assuming the rest of my expenses are somewhat fixed, like hp bills, cable tv, transport etc. I spend the $100 extra every month on something else, even though no new shoes. Nett result is that I still didnt save $100 every month.
Now when is it actual savings and not "phantom money"? There are many instances..
Example I put aside $2 physically and put it in a piggy bank. I consciously do that. After 5 months, I found I had $700 which I put into the bank. It is physical savings, partly cos it is real money and also it helped to lower my expenditure amount (look at previous 2 entries where I shared on my expenditure over this 5 months).
Another would be I actually put aside $100 for taxi ride in my purse. Then I only use this money for taxi rides, any fare or change is put back into this pocket where I keep the $100 cab fare. Maybe in the 1st month, I used up and didnt take any more rides after that. So savings = 0, extra expenditure = 0.
2nd month, I was more conscious and spent only $60 on cab rides. So I have extra $40 left over. This is a saving. Now if I choose to put it into the bank and then next month, I start over with my new $100, I actually save $40. If I decided to roll it over for next month, and start with $140, which I completely spent finish. Nett result is savings 0, extra expenditure for month 0. Cos you already budgeted $100 for taxi, you got extra $40 from last month, so this month even if you spend extra $40, it does NOT cause you to spend extra money from this month, its using last months extra.
Many more examples. Hence a related question would be HOW the hell do I know how much I spend on clothes, shoes, hp etc? And also how do I designate how much to spend per month? Well there is where knowing your own monthly expenditure patterns, habits comes in useful. Once you can get very accurate figures of your expenditure, NOT AGAR AGAR, you can actually sit down and look at your monthly income and your monthly expenditure. Then you cand designate how much to set aside. IF there is not enough to set aside, which ones to lower not cut. I think I mentioned about binge spending which might happen. AND most importantly, you have to arrive at an amount of money, you put aside in your bank. So maybe after all your designation, you only have $400. To really manifest this, draw out $400 and put in your savings bank, every time your salary comes in. If you are more discplined, monitor your bank account nett changes after a month, to see if it increased by $400. Either way, you are actually forcing out a $400 from your salary to stay in your bank account permanently.
So for expenses, even if this month, I set aside $50 for clothes. To help the less disciplined, might really need to draw out that money and put it in a particular pocket and desiginate as clothes, another $50 for taxi, another $50 for shoes. So if you had accounted for all your expenses and finished designating amount of money for them,
IF that month, you spent $80 on shoes. $50 taxi, $50 clothes. So next month, you can only put $30 (50x2 - 80) for shoes, $50 taxi, $50 clothes.
If in 3rd month, you spend $30 shoes, $50 taxi, 0 clothes. You actually have a surplus. So if u didnt bank in that extra $50, you can let it roll over. You have $50 shoes, $50 taxi, $100 clothes.
Similiarly if u spent $200 on clothes. Then next month, you have $0 for clothes. Until you paid it off.
All these might sound kiddish, give it a try, if you have problems reigning in certain expenses.
I am also working to reign in my expenses. OF course I am human too, also overspend at times in a month but my overall is that I have monthly surpluses during the entire period of time I was working. Except now when I have $0 income. So no matter how I lower, overall is negative. But no excuse to let it run away. I have to reign in still. Guess let's all work towards saving up, cutting down.
Just came back from meeting up with ex-collegue. It was rather fruitful. Its nice to chat with her and she gave me 2 contacts to use for my current search. A pleasant lady, we had helped each other out, buddy buddy when we both transferred to the same place. Now both of us are out, but since in the area, glad can meet up.
Later after that, I went to buy 2 pairs of working shoes. Basically court shoes cos my only pair of interview shoes broke yesterday after the interview. So 2 pairs cost me $74. If I am trying to max spend $25 a day. It would mean, for the rest of the month, I must make sure spend 0 or dont go out for 3 days extra. Just so until I get a stable income.
____________________________________________
I wanna highlight a phenomenon that is common to us all. The concept of "phantom money or phantom savings" that is encouraged in fact by all the advertisements and sales. I would use the term "phantom savings" first and then see how it transforms into "phantom money" .It seems to me to be 2 concepts but similiar.
Firstly sometimes we see a SALE sign. Say for my example, a new pair of sports shoes. At first $150, now after discount $100. The discount is 33% (50/150).
Now one would easily think that by buying now, I actually save $50 (33%). I might need it for future, so I buy now and save. Familiar?
Now is there really a saving? That is a very important matter to ascertain. There are questions to ask yourself to determine if that item is a NEED or a WANT. A need, you really might have savings, but a want, you are actually NOT saving at all.
To illustrate. For me, I already have a pair of sport shoes, perfectly fine, still rather new, another pair which is thin sole for driving. Do I really need that $100 shoe? Actually with both pairs, I could rotate and hence dont really need it.
So IF I went ahead and buy it, telling myself this is for the near future, eg use for going to gym, new shoes for new year, backup for current pairs. It may sound justifiable to you. BUT there is actually NO savings at all.
WHY?
Well firstly you didnt intend to buy a pair of sports shoes this month. You already had enough at least to last until one broke. It meant in your expenses, you didnt make conscious allowance for it, hence when you actually buy the shoes, it cost you extra $100 on top of the rest of your expenses. Is there any real savings? It appears NO to me.
Now what if it is a NEED? Eg my only pair of interview shoes broke. I need a replacement asap. I bought 2 different pairs at one go, one as back-up. You might say, I should have bought 1 pair only. BUT since I already took the time and effort to travel down (cost), if the first one broke again, I would have to make another trip down which would incur some extra cost. So 2 pairs to me is a decent number. Well for different people, maybe they need more pairs for backup. But not exceedingly. Now do I really save? Well since I really need to buy it, and I did. I am making conscious decision to cut other expenses out a bit to balance out my spending. I would be more conscious that I had spent $74 extra and will try to reduce heading out consciously. Can even compute to spending 0 for 3 days or so. Something like that, I am not asking myself to hibernate everyday and be a scrooge. It is just part of the maxim, "Earn more or spend less". Since I already spent a certain amount, if I can spend lesser on others, say eating out in restaurants/cafes for a few times, it can balance out at the end of the month. At least that is what I intend to do and adhere to.
Okay coming back to the earlier WANT. So if I went ahead to buy the $100 sport shoes. In my mind, I conveniently convince myself that I "save $50". . This is the phantom saving of $50. Then is there any harm in this? Well already it is actually an extra $100 spent this month. Next how can this go wrong then? Well as in my mind, I keep telling myself I "saved $50", so I might go and spend extra money cos I 'feel' richer by $50. (by now, one might realize, that the mind can just thrive happily on the 'feel richer' effect and spend more) So dont go too euphoric on "phantom savings". They might not actually exist but your mind thinks it is there.
Now how does "phantom savings" turn into "phantom money"? Again it has something to do with how your mind perceives the "phantom savings" as actual physical money.
Remember you spent $100. You think you saved $50. But this $50 is Not real money that you bank into a bank. Now how can this harm us again? Well in cases where money is a bit tight, you might be going through your expenses and trying to cut or reduce or justify. What manifest is this scenario...
K this month I spent $100 on shoes. Next 6 months, I am NOT GOING to buy any. Then I would "save some money". Yes, IF you do this, you are actually cutting out 1 expense item from your budget for the coming 6 months. BUT is there any ACTUAL MONEY saved just by deciding not to spend anymore on shoes? The answer is sadly NO. If your mind thinks that you actually save money from not spending money on shoes, the "phantom savings" becomes now "phantom money" which you think is an inflow into your bank account. But it is not. WHY?
Cos maybe in the 2nd month, I really didnt buy any shoes, but I spent the $100 on food and going out. Is there savings from not buying the shoes? No. The money is spent on another expense item.
In the 3rd month, I bought a new watch $100, no shoes. Is there savings? No I spent money on watch, another expense item.
In the 4th month, I spent $100 on bras, no shoes. Is there savings?
In the 5th month, I spent $100 on hair cut. Is there savings?
By the 6th month, I bought a $100 shirt and pants. Is there savings?
It is clear that by cutting out an Expense item from my budget is NOT going to result in SAVINGS. You might think it can, but it didnt. So assuming the rest of my expenses are somewhat fixed, like hp bills, cable tv, transport etc. I spend the $100 extra every month on something else, even though no new shoes. Nett result is that I still didnt save $100 every month.
Now when is it actual savings and not "phantom money"? There are many instances..
Example I put aside $2 physically and put it in a piggy bank. I consciously do that. After 5 months, I found I had $700 which I put into the bank. It is physical savings, partly cos it is real money and also it helped to lower my expenditure amount (look at previous 2 entries where I shared on my expenditure over this 5 months).
Another would be I actually put aside $100 for taxi ride in my purse. Then I only use this money for taxi rides, any fare or change is put back into this pocket where I keep the $100 cab fare. Maybe in the 1st month, I used up and didnt take any more rides after that. So savings = 0, extra expenditure = 0.
2nd month, I was more conscious and spent only $60 on cab rides. So I have extra $40 left over. This is a saving. Now if I choose to put it into the bank and then next month, I start over with my new $100, I actually save $40. If I decided to roll it over for next month, and start with $140, which I completely spent finish. Nett result is savings 0, extra expenditure for month 0. Cos you already budgeted $100 for taxi, you got extra $40 from last month, so this month even if you spend extra $40, it does NOT cause you to spend extra money from this month, its using last months extra.
Many more examples. Hence a related question would be HOW the hell do I know how much I spend on clothes, shoes, hp etc? And also how do I designate how much to spend per month? Well there is where knowing your own monthly expenditure patterns, habits comes in useful. Once you can get very accurate figures of your expenditure, NOT AGAR AGAR, you can actually sit down and look at your monthly income and your monthly expenditure. Then you cand designate how much to set aside. IF there is not enough to set aside, which ones to lower not cut. I think I mentioned about binge spending which might happen. AND most importantly, you have to arrive at an amount of money, you put aside in your bank. So maybe after all your designation, you only have $400. To really manifest this, draw out $400 and put in your savings bank, every time your salary comes in. If you are more discplined, monitor your bank account nett changes after a month, to see if it increased by $400. Either way, you are actually forcing out a $400 from your salary to stay in your bank account permanently.
So for expenses, even if this month, I set aside $50 for clothes. To help the less disciplined, might really need to draw out that money and put it in a particular pocket and desiginate as clothes, another $50 for taxi, another $50 for shoes. So if you had accounted for all your expenses and finished designating amount of money for them,
IF that month, you spent $80 on shoes. $50 taxi, $50 clothes. So next month, you can only put $30 (50x2 - 80) for shoes, $50 taxi, $50 clothes.
If in 3rd month, you spend $30 shoes, $50 taxi, 0 clothes. You actually have a surplus. So if u didnt bank in that extra $50, you can let it roll over. You have $50 shoes, $50 taxi, $100 clothes.
Similiarly if u spent $200 on clothes. Then next month, you have $0 for clothes. Until you paid it off.
All these might sound kiddish, give it a try, if you have problems reigning in certain expenses.
I am also working to reign in my expenses. OF course I am human too, also overspend at times in a month but my overall is that I have monthly surpluses during the entire period of time I was working. Except now when I have $0 income. So no matter how I lower, overall is negative. But no excuse to let it run away. I have to reign in still. Guess let's all work towards saving up, cutting down.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Personal finances ii?
This will be a short post. I am kinda feeling the 'toll' of this week. 2 days working flexi job, 2 days of interview, with yesterday being reallly bad with me puking out phelgme cake 3 times, cramping in gym and driving and stayed out until 10pm++, same for today - interview, then hang around out until near 10pm. Feeling very stoned and tired.
Tomorrow no interviews but arranged to meet up with an ex-collegue partly cos I got her help to put down as referee, partly she is on no-pay so not in former workplace and also to catch up with her, since she is quite nearby. So tonight I try to sleep earlier, tom wake up a bit later. Then just take it easy...
RUNAWAY BALLOONING TIME BOMBS
Coming back from the previous entry, where $1.2k, 12mths instalment plan, would balloon up to $1366, with $166 interest ONLY IF it is paid off in full in Dec with a once-off lump sum of $766.
What else can happen? Well now going to look at pro-longing the payment for another 1 year, just to see how the numbers play out.
Remember there is assumed to be NO extra purchases/instalment plans. Hence every month, there is no more additional $100-$50 in terms of nett increase in debt due to increase in principal sum.
Outstanding debt %766, still paying minimum of $50. NO extra purchses.
Yr 2,
1st mth=> $766(debt) + $15.32(interest) -$50(min) = $731.32
2nd mth=> $731.32(debt) +$14.63(int) -$50(min) = $695.95
3rd mth=> $695.95(debt) +$13.92(int) -$50(min) = $659.87
4th mth=> $659.87(debt) +$13.20(int) -$50(min) = $623.07
5th mth=> $623.07(debt) +$12.46(int) -$50(min) = $585.53
6th mth=> $585.53(debt) +$11.71(int) -$50(min) = $547.24
7th mth=> $547.24(debt) +$10.95(int) -$50(min) = $508.18
8th mth=> $508.18(debt) +$10.16(int) -$50(min) = $468.34
9th mth=> $468.34(debt) +$9.37(int) -$50(min) = $427.71
10th mth=> $427.71(debt) +$8.55(int) -$50(min) = $386.26
11th mth=> $386.26(debt) +$7.73(int) -$50(min) = $343.99
12th mth=> $343.99(debt) +$6.88(int) -$50(min) = $300.87
There are a few observations of what happens when minimum payment continues.
After 2nd year. You actually owed $766. You paid up $600 in total again. BUT in Dec when you see the statement, instead of owing just (766-600= $166 more, you actually now still owe $300.87 (300.87-166= 134.87 extra)
Maybe u realised it by now, the extra amount came from the compounded interest. So after 2 years of paying minimum. You owed 1.2k initially, you paid $1.2k already, but you still owe $300.87 extra. That is the accumulated interest in 2 years, compounded at 2% per month.
Another observation is that as the outstanding sum is small, less than $800, the $50 minimum payment actually helped to reduce the interest cos a part of it went towards repaying the principal sum. BUT it is slow-acting effect cos the interest is high.
Now another important note is that THIS interest-reducing aspect DOES NOT come with every and any loan amount outstanding in a credit card. Lets blow up the numbers a bit bigger to $3k. Assuming no extra purchase on this $3k rolling. Maybe a scenario of an outstanding amount on a card not closely monitored. Monitored in the sense, didnt notice how it grows like a balloon. But of course every month, pay minimum.
Yr 1, debt $3000, 0 extra purchase, monthly minimum $50.
Mth 1 $3000(debt) +$60(int) -$50(min) = $3010
Mth 2 $3010(debt) +$60.20(int) -$50(min) = $3020.02
Mth 3 $3020.02(debt) +$60.40(int) -$50(min) = $3030.42
Mth 4 $3030.42(debt) +$60.61(int) -$50(min) = $3041.03
Mth 5 $3041.03(debt) +$60.82(int) -$50(min) = $3051.85
Mth 6 $3051.85(debt) +$61.04(int) -$50(min) = $3062.89
Mth 7 $3062.89(debt) +$61.26(int) -$50(min) = $3074.15
Mth 8 $3074.15(debt) +$61.48(int) -$50(min) = $3085.63
Mth 9 $3085.63(debt) +$61.71(int) -$50(min) = $3097.34
Mth 10 $3097.34(debt) +$61.95(int) -$50(min) = $3109.29
Mth 11 $3109.29(debt) +$62.19(int) -$50(min) = $3121.48
Mth 12 $3121.48(debt) +$62.43(int) -$50(min) = $3133.91
Now its clear enough to see that in ANY loan, so long as amount repaid cannot exceed interest amount, then 0 principal repayment occurs. Which meant that interest compounded on interest is happening and that explains why the interest is increasing still despite payments.
End result is this. You owe $3000. You paid $600. And you now owe $3133.91. No dent in the debt amount. It in fact increased due to interest on interest.
This has implications.
Firstly it is left long enough with just minimum payments, it can ballon up really fast.
Next to reduce this effect, it means the payments should be higher than the interest, keep it higher by a more than just $10 cos the amount you pay over and above interest helps to reduce principal amount. Hence instead of paying $50 minimum as reflected in the statement, pay $100 if can. Next month, pay $90 if cash is tight. Try to go above the minimum sum and dont miss any or even revert back to minimum later on. Just have to bite the bullet lower down the amount until it is like the earlier example, where the overall amount is reduced.
Of course, the price in both examples, the credit card company wins. You lose more in 2nd example than 1st example cos you just might manage to repay and clear off the debt eventually say 1 more year. But in example 2, you can never seek to clear that at all, unless a big enough amount is repaid either once-off or monthly.
These scenarios can happen in any loans so long as there is interest. But the credit card has one of the highest interest out there, hence is much more severe.
So anybody who signs on credit cards have to keep these at the back of the mind, whether financial savvy or not, whether high income or lower. Its a matter of being aware, vigilant and also NOT overspending.
Credit card instalment plans help those without the entire lump sum to purchase something over a period of time, gradually repaying. Definitely the monthly repayment was part of your budget and definitely affordable to you then while you were making the decision to sign on. BUT dont let your guard down over this repayment period. You have to be dilligent and remind yourself that every month, you actually ALREADY spent that instalment amount, cos you have to pay for it at the end of that month. Hence guard against overspending. Cos you have to pay for all your this month purchases and also add in this instalment together. Instalment plans have its good but if you are complacent, it might grow into semething else altogether. Make good on your monthly instalment, make sure you have set aside part of your salary every month for that amount, before spending on others.
Next entry, phantom money and others.
Tomorrow no interviews but arranged to meet up with an ex-collegue partly cos I got her help to put down as referee, partly she is on no-pay so not in former workplace and also to catch up with her, since she is quite nearby. So tonight I try to sleep earlier, tom wake up a bit later. Then just take it easy...
RUNAWAY BALLOONING TIME BOMBS
Coming back from the previous entry, where $1.2k, 12mths instalment plan, would balloon up to $1366, with $166 interest ONLY IF it is paid off in full in Dec with a once-off lump sum of $766.
What else can happen? Well now going to look at pro-longing the payment for another 1 year, just to see how the numbers play out.
Remember there is assumed to be NO extra purchases/instalment plans. Hence every month, there is no more additional $100-$50 in terms of nett increase in debt due to increase in principal sum.
Outstanding debt %766, still paying minimum of $50. NO extra purchses.
Yr 2,
1st mth=> $766(debt) + $15.32(interest) -$50(min) = $731.32
2nd mth=> $731.32(debt) +$14.63(int) -$50(min) = $695.95
3rd mth=> $695.95(debt) +$13.92(int) -$50(min) = $659.87
4th mth=> $659.87(debt) +$13.20(int) -$50(min) = $623.07
5th mth=> $623.07(debt) +$12.46(int) -$50(min) = $585.53
6th mth=> $585.53(debt) +$11.71(int) -$50(min) = $547.24
7th mth=> $547.24(debt) +$10.95(int) -$50(min) = $508.18
8th mth=> $508.18(debt) +$10.16(int) -$50(min) = $468.34
9th mth=> $468.34(debt) +$9.37(int) -$50(min) = $427.71
10th mth=> $427.71(debt) +$8.55(int) -$50(min) = $386.26
11th mth=> $386.26(debt) +$7.73(int) -$50(min) = $343.99
12th mth=> $343.99(debt) +$6.88(int) -$50(min) = $300.87
There are a few observations of what happens when minimum payment continues.
After 2nd year. You actually owed $766. You paid up $600 in total again. BUT in Dec when you see the statement, instead of owing just (766-600= $166 more, you actually now still owe $300.87 (300.87-166= 134.87 extra)
Maybe u realised it by now, the extra amount came from the compounded interest. So after 2 years of paying minimum. You owed 1.2k initially, you paid $1.2k already, but you still owe $300.87 extra. That is the accumulated interest in 2 years, compounded at 2% per month.
Another observation is that as the outstanding sum is small, less than $800, the $50 minimum payment actually helped to reduce the interest cos a part of it went towards repaying the principal sum. BUT it is slow-acting effect cos the interest is high.
Now another important note is that THIS interest-reducing aspect DOES NOT come with every and any loan amount outstanding in a credit card. Lets blow up the numbers a bit bigger to $3k. Assuming no extra purchase on this $3k rolling. Maybe a scenario of an outstanding amount on a card not closely monitored. Monitored in the sense, didnt notice how it grows like a balloon. But of course every month, pay minimum.
Yr 1, debt $3000, 0 extra purchase, monthly minimum $50.
Mth 1 $3000(debt) +$60(int) -$50(min) = $3010
Mth 2 $3010(debt) +$60.20(int) -$50(min) = $3020.02
Mth 3 $3020.02(debt) +$60.40(int) -$50(min) = $3030.42
Mth 4 $3030.42(debt) +$60.61(int) -$50(min) = $3041.03
Mth 5 $3041.03(debt) +$60.82(int) -$50(min) = $3051.85
Mth 6 $3051.85(debt) +$61.04(int) -$50(min) = $3062.89
Mth 7 $3062.89(debt) +$61.26(int) -$50(min) = $3074.15
Mth 8 $3074.15(debt) +$61.48(int) -$50(min) = $3085.63
Mth 9 $3085.63(debt) +$61.71(int) -$50(min) = $3097.34
Mth 10 $3097.34(debt) +$61.95(int) -$50(min) = $3109.29
Mth 11 $3109.29(debt) +$62.19(int) -$50(min) = $3121.48
Mth 12 $3121.48(debt) +$62.43(int) -$50(min) = $3133.91
Now its clear enough to see that in ANY loan, so long as amount repaid cannot exceed interest amount, then 0 principal repayment occurs. Which meant that interest compounded on interest is happening and that explains why the interest is increasing still despite payments.
End result is this. You owe $3000. You paid $600. And you now owe $3133.91. No dent in the debt amount. It in fact increased due to interest on interest.
This has implications.
Firstly it is left long enough with just minimum payments, it can ballon up really fast.
Next to reduce this effect, it means the payments should be higher than the interest, keep it higher by a more than just $10 cos the amount you pay over and above interest helps to reduce principal amount. Hence instead of paying $50 minimum as reflected in the statement, pay $100 if can. Next month, pay $90 if cash is tight. Try to go above the minimum sum and dont miss any or even revert back to minimum later on. Just have to bite the bullet lower down the amount until it is like the earlier example, where the overall amount is reduced.
Of course, the price in both examples, the credit card company wins. You lose more in 2nd example than 1st example cos you just might manage to repay and clear off the debt eventually say 1 more year. But in example 2, you can never seek to clear that at all, unless a big enough amount is repaid either once-off or monthly.
These scenarios can happen in any loans so long as there is interest. But the credit card has one of the highest interest out there, hence is much more severe.
So anybody who signs on credit cards have to keep these at the back of the mind, whether financial savvy or not, whether high income or lower. Its a matter of being aware, vigilant and also NOT overspending.
Credit card instalment plans help those without the entire lump sum to purchase something over a period of time, gradually repaying. Definitely the monthly repayment was part of your budget and definitely affordable to you then while you were making the decision to sign on. BUT dont let your guard down over this repayment period. You have to be dilligent and remind yourself that every month, you actually ALREADY spent that instalment amount, cos you have to pay for it at the end of that month. Hence guard against overspending. Cos you have to pay for all your this month purchases and also add in this instalment together. Instalment plans have its good but if you are complacent, it might grow into semething else altogether. Make good on your monthly instalment, make sure you have set aside part of your salary every month for that amount, before spending on others.
Next entry, phantom money and others.
Inspired Post, part about action and proscrastination, part about finances.
Drawing-down and Personal expenses
As I am heading into my 5th month of unemployment, looking at how my 30k reserve living expense account has gone down quite a bit, about $9k so far. I do know that NOT all of the $9k is pure consumption. I know I have courses going on, bought some new clothes, did hair and stuff. But cos I did lag behind in my daily expense tracking which I did for about 2.5months dilligently, hence I can retrace back and get some figures to work out an average.
Lemme show ya how I work backwards,
To get the exact amount I spent, I took my recent current amount. Take $30k minus current amount = $8819.34
Then I worked to get the big expenses that I can remember in this 4 & 3/4 months, so
Driving course => $1160.62
Guitar => $680
Jap course => $357
Clothing (bra, cosplay jacket, 2 x 3/4 pants, contact lens, new basic makeup, epillator) => $501
2 Hair cuts and 1 dye => 152.50
Wedding ang baos => $296
Mom (last pocket money until i get perm job) => $800
HP (monthly x 5 mths, $90 hp upgrade => $255
Internet => $150
Cable tv (sub and installation) => $ 110
Others RO machine repair => $80
K now with these figures,
I can approximate that I spent $4541.62 on all these.
Then $8819.34 - $4541.62 = $4277.72 on transport and mainly food and other misc expenses.
Which works out to $4277.72/5 = $855.55.
So if transport is about $100 per mth, it means on average about $755.55.
Which can work out to be $755.55/30 = $25 on food and misc.
Now cos I have been saving $2 notes in my piggy bank to help squirrel away and ensure I 'save' what I have drawn out for spending. Saved $700. WHICH I banked into the other bank account that is for shares and investment, not in my spending/reserve account.
The actual draw-down is $8819.34 - $700 = $8119.34
I also realized that among the bigger categories, there are some which are really ONCE-OFF, not a constant expenditure, eg driving, jap, clothings, wedding, mom final allowance, and RO repair. SO to get a truer picture of my expenses, I would only subtract these categories. Cos some course might end soon and is rather short-term, not something I would do longer term.
therefore => $8119.35 - $3194.12 = $4925.23 for my usual expenses and outings.
per month => $4925.23 / 5 = $$985.05
per day => $985.05 / 30 = $32.85
This amount is a bit too high for my current $0 income status. Hence I have decided to draw it down further into $20 per day region. If I can do that, my monthly would roughly reach $600, which is more comfortable.
NOW the NEXT step is to actually JUST DO IT and adhere as much as I can, on as many days I can to hit this target. Cos only concrete action in small steps can help me achieve this target. No one is going to give me money. Though my shares might give me some gains BUT when I dont sell, there is STILL 0 income. So I need to really reduce the drawings on my reserve. Previously I thought I could keep expenditure to about $600 a month. But this little exercise showed me very concretly I need to cut my eating out in cafes/restaurants and eat more hawker, food court, reduce outings to a more manageable number, not like 3-5 times a week, everytime eating out with a meal about $17 - $20. Ya so I would like to eat in less expensive areas and also find cheaper ways of hanging out IF I have to.
So dont be surprised IF I suggest food court lunch/dinner, or something below $10 but filling.
(Now I wish to clarify that I reveal ACTUAL expenditure amounts NOT to show I am better at saving, better at money, have low expenditure etc etc, but to help those who are interested, to see HOW exactly to work out monthly expense, daily, etc)
____________________________________________
Proscratination and Action
After JLPT and Melaka trip, I actually proscrastinated quite a bit in my job search. So by the time I finally looked through the Sat and Sun Recruits which I had put ON my table, some jobs (including teaching abroad, teaching at a tuition centre quite near my place) were CLOSED. Shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Plus prior to Christmas and New Year, there was one week, I sent out resumes on Sunday, by mon/tue, I got interviews. Well though in the end, I screwed up some, some were too low offers and etc... I saw how some extra action on my part yielded something.
So after New Year, I promptly collected the Recruits, looked through, cut out, customise and send resume by Sunday evening. On monday still didnt hear anything, so I headed to work. By monday evening, got one email. On Tue, I went to flexi-work and got 2 calls for interviews. Just checked mail, got one more interview next week. One is supposed to call back for another interview. Hence though I havent scored any offers yet, I have gone for one interview today. Tomorrow there's one. Next wed, there's one. So more chances of interviews, more for me to polish up and hope to score better offer.
Plans broken into steps and Action in SMALL do-able steps do yield results.
Just like making sure I exercise 2-3 times a week also yielded weight loss, at least up until before the christmas and new year eating and drinking binge.
I want to maintain and build up this spirit of actually DOING things in steps gradually than to just think about or wait. It somewhat works for me, whether success or not, but its still better than doing nothing and waiting.
___________________________________________
Tab was asking me about credit card payment for interest-free plans. Hmm.. I really have no idea HOW and WHEN exactly I know so much, but I shared what I know with her.
Its interest-free cos if Kenko package $1.2k over 12 months,
using credit card instalment meant $100 a month. If you pay promptly in full every month, you will end up paying $1.2k in 12 months. U get a loan of $1.2k and u paid $1.2k. HENCE interest-free in essence.
NOW what can go wrong with this picture?
Pls remember that credit card companies, unlike HDB loans, WANTS you NOT to pay fully.
How does it do this?
Simple. Your credit card bill monthly allows u to pay minimum and/or any amount u want. It is easy to just pay minimum. Eg $50 minimum (but $0 is paid to reduce principal amount owed)
Compare this to a statement from HDB loan which states eg $550 for 60 months (which a portion actually pays off the principal sum and part of it is interest) so IF I dilligently pay $550 for 60 months, I can actually reduce my debt to $0.
BUT for the case of the credit card, what happens is the 2 things.
FIRST thing, I paid $50 instead of $100 for 1st month.
It meant the debt start accumulating interest of 2% per month.
It meant on 2nd month, I owe now $100 + $50(debt) + $1(charge) = $151
If I still pay minimum $50 in 2nd month,
It meant on 3rd month, I owe $50 + $151(debt) + $3(charge) = $204.
Now up until now, it seems rather low cos its still in the hundreds. Watch what happens next.
4th month, $50 + $204(debt) + $4.10(charge) = $258
5th month, $50 + $258(debt) + $5.16(charge) = $343.16
6th month, $50 + $343.16(debt) + $6.86(charge) = $400
7th month, $50 + $400(debt) + $8(charge) = $458
8th month, $50 + $458(debt) + $9.16(charge) = $517.16
9th month, $50 + $517.16(debt) + $10.34(charge) = $577.50
10th month, $50 + $577.50(debt) + $11.55(charge) = $639.05
11th month, $50 + $639.05(debt) + $12.78(charge) = $701.83
12th month, $50 + $701.83(debt) + $14.03(charge) = $765.87
Which now got to a rather BIG sum that you are suddenly faced with in Dec when you see your statement.
Remember u had paid $50x12 = $600 already but you still owe $765.87 which meant, instead of paying interest-free(which u had initially wanted/planned when U signed up) u end up paying $600 + $765.87 = $1365.87, an extra $166. Now THIS is assuming you pay off the lump sum of $765.87 in full in Dec. BUT if you didnt, then it continues to roll and as u can see, it can get bigger, exactly because NO PRINCIPAL REPAYMENT and it rolls over due to HIGH INTEREST COMPOUNDING.
SECOND thing that happens, if u start paying minimum. You forget that you had actually PLANNED to put aside $100 a month to pay off. So now cos you only paid $50, you somehow 'forget' that you had spent $100 a month effectively. Then u might go and sign up other stuff... Its like u 'feel' $50 richer cos u paid for something that is worth $100 but u only pay $50. So u might go out and spend extra $50. Effectively, it meant u spent $150, not on the same thing, but it meant u spend more overall.
Last thing, it requires quite clear monitoring of monthly statements (but just have to) to ensure that u pay dilligently and not let it roll. Can be easy to forget given we receive so many statements from bills, bank accs, credit cards, insurance, etc etc etc. Its easy to lose track even for me, given all the bills and stuff. A trick for me is to put all the envelops addressed to me at a part of my table. YES I have a messy table but on it, there is a part where I put my envelopes and open it at a go once or twice a month. I even open, put bills together, then pay at one go when all the bills are in. But at times its easy to overwhelm,
so more so for credit cards. The fewer cards the better, the fewer statements, fewer overdue, fewer compounding on outstanding debt, fewer chance of missing payments. Yes, definitely fewer points. BUT if you ask me about points which maybe redeem something $100 worth or interest charge of $166(above example), I take fewer points ANYTIME.
Dunno about the rest. I get overwhelm even monitoring my bank accs in passbook, insurances, poems statment. And this is me WITHOUT a credit card. Now if I have 1-2, it meant additional statements, but at least not that many more to monitor.
Hope this helps. I still have many thoughts about personal finances that I want to blog about. But today is really a LOOOONNNNGGGG day. Really battery flat. Next post, I will discuss 'phantom' money, overspending or not, and maybe some pointers/ or small action steps that can be done to help out.
As I am heading into my 5th month of unemployment, looking at how my 30k reserve living expense account has gone down quite a bit, about $9k so far. I do know that NOT all of the $9k is pure consumption. I know I have courses going on, bought some new clothes, did hair and stuff. But cos I did lag behind in my daily expense tracking which I did for about 2.5months dilligently, hence I can retrace back and get some figures to work out an average.
Lemme show ya how I work backwards,
To get the exact amount I spent, I took my recent current amount. Take $30k minus current amount = $8819.34
Then I worked to get the big expenses that I can remember in this 4 & 3/4 months, so
Driving course => $1160.62
Guitar => $680
Jap course => $357
Clothing (bra, cosplay jacket, 2 x 3/4 pants, contact lens, new basic makeup, epillator) => $501
2 Hair cuts and 1 dye => 152.50
Wedding ang baos => $296
Mom (last pocket money until i get perm job) => $800
HP (monthly x 5 mths, $90 hp upgrade => $255
Internet => $150
Cable tv (sub and installation) => $ 110
Others RO machine repair => $80
K now with these figures,
I can approximate that I spent $4541.62 on all these.
Then $8819.34 - $4541.62 = $4277.72 on transport and mainly food and other misc expenses.
Which works out to $4277.72/5 = $855.55.
So if transport is about $100 per mth, it means on average about $755.55.
Which can work out to be $755.55/30 = $25 on food and misc.
Now cos I have been saving $2 notes in my piggy bank to help squirrel away and ensure I 'save' what I have drawn out for spending. Saved $700. WHICH I banked into the other bank account that is for shares and investment, not in my spending/reserve account.
The actual draw-down is $8819.34 - $700 = $8119.34
I also realized that among the bigger categories, there are some which are really ONCE-OFF, not a constant expenditure, eg driving, jap, clothings, wedding, mom final allowance, and RO repair. SO to get a truer picture of my expenses, I would only subtract these categories. Cos some course might end soon and is rather short-term, not something I would do longer term.
therefore => $8119.35 - $3194.12 = $4925.23 for my usual expenses and outings.
per month => $4925.23 / 5 = $$985.05
per day => $985.05 / 30 = $32.85
This amount is a bit too high for my current $0 income status. Hence I have decided to draw it down further into $20 per day region. If I can do that, my monthly would roughly reach $600, which is more comfortable.
NOW the NEXT step is to actually JUST DO IT and adhere as much as I can, on as many days I can to hit this target. Cos only concrete action in small steps can help me achieve this target. No one is going to give me money. Though my shares might give me some gains BUT when I dont sell, there is STILL 0 income. So I need to really reduce the drawings on my reserve. Previously I thought I could keep expenditure to about $600 a month. But this little exercise showed me very concretly I need to cut my eating out in cafes/restaurants and eat more hawker, food court, reduce outings to a more manageable number, not like 3-5 times a week, everytime eating out with a meal about $17 - $20. Ya so I would like to eat in less expensive areas and also find cheaper ways of hanging out IF I have to.
So dont be surprised IF I suggest food court lunch/dinner, or something below $10 but filling.
(Now I wish to clarify that I reveal ACTUAL expenditure amounts NOT to show I am better at saving, better at money, have low expenditure etc etc, but to help those who are interested, to see HOW exactly to work out monthly expense, daily, etc)
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Proscratination and Action
After JLPT and Melaka trip, I actually proscrastinated quite a bit in my job search. So by the time I finally looked through the Sat and Sun Recruits which I had put ON my table, some jobs (including teaching abroad, teaching at a tuition centre quite near my place) were CLOSED. Shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Plus prior to Christmas and New Year, there was one week, I sent out resumes on Sunday, by mon/tue, I got interviews. Well though in the end, I screwed up some, some were too low offers and etc... I saw how some extra action on my part yielded something.
So after New Year, I promptly collected the Recruits, looked through, cut out, customise and send resume by Sunday evening. On monday still didnt hear anything, so I headed to work. By monday evening, got one email. On Tue, I went to flexi-work and got 2 calls for interviews. Just checked mail, got one more interview next week. One is supposed to call back for another interview. Hence though I havent scored any offers yet, I have gone for one interview today. Tomorrow there's one. Next wed, there's one. So more chances of interviews, more for me to polish up and hope to score better offer.
Plans broken into steps and Action in SMALL do-able steps do yield results.
Just like making sure I exercise 2-3 times a week also yielded weight loss, at least up until before the christmas and new year eating and drinking binge.
I want to maintain and build up this spirit of actually DOING things in steps gradually than to just think about or wait. It somewhat works for me, whether success or not, but its still better than doing nothing and waiting.
___________________________________________
Tab was asking me about credit card payment for interest-free plans. Hmm.. I really have no idea HOW and WHEN exactly I know so much, but I shared what I know with her.
Its interest-free cos if Kenko package $1.2k over 12 months,
using credit card instalment meant $100 a month. If you pay promptly in full every month, you will end up paying $1.2k in 12 months. U get a loan of $1.2k and u paid $1.2k. HENCE interest-free in essence.
NOW what can go wrong with this picture?
Pls remember that credit card companies, unlike HDB loans, WANTS you NOT to pay fully.
How does it do this?
Simple. Your credit card bill monthly allows u to pay minimum and/or any amount u want. It is easy to just pay minimum. Eg $50 minimum (but $0 is paid to reduce principal amount owed)
Compare this to a statement from HDB loan which states eg $550 for 60 months (which a portion actually pays off the principal sum and part of it is interest) so IF I dilligently pay $550 for 60 months, I can actually reduce my debt to $0.
BUT for the case of the credit card, what happens is the 2 things.
FIRST thing, I paid $50 instead of $100 for 1st month.
It meant the debt start accumulating interest of 2% per month.
It meant on 2nd month, I owe now $100 + $50(debt) + $1(charge) = $151
If I still pay minimum $50 in 2nd month,
It meant on 3rd month, I owe $50 + $151(debt) + $3(charge) = $204.
Now up until now, it seems rather low cos its still in the hundreds. Watch what happens next.
4th month, $50 + $204(debt) + $4.10(charge) = $258
5th month, $50 + $258(debt) + $5.16(charge) = $343.16
6th month, $50 + $343.16(debt) + $6.86(charge) = $400
7th month, $50 + $400(debt) + $8(charge) = $458
8th month, $50 + $458(debt) + $9.16(charge) = $517.16
9th month, $50 + $517.16(debt) + $10.34(charge) = $577.50
10th month, $50 + $577.50(debt) + $11.55(charge) = $639.05
11th month, $50 + $639.05(debt) + $12.78(charge) = $701.83
12th month, $50 + $701.83(debt) + $14.03(charge) = $765.87
Which now got to a rather BIG sum that you are suddenly faced with in Dec when you see your statement.
Remember u had paid $50x12 = $600 already but you still owe $765.87 which meant, instead of paying interest-free(which u had initially wanted/planned when U signed up) u end up paying $600 + $765.87 = $1365.87, an extra $166. Now THIS is assuming you pay off the lump sum of $765.87 in full in Dec. BUT if you didnt, then it continues to roll and as u can see, it can get bigger, exactly because NO PRINCIPAL REPAYMENT and it rolls over due to HIGH INTEREST COMPOUNDING.
SECOND thing that happens, if u start paying minimum. You forget that you had actually PLANNED to put aside $100 a month to pay off. So now cos you only paid $50, you somehow 'forget' that you had spent $100 a month effectively. Then u might go and sign up other stuff... Its like u 'feel' $50 richer cos u paid for something that is worth $100 but u only pay $50. So u might go out and spend extra $50. Effectively, it meant u spent $150, not on the same thing, but it meant u spend more overall.
Last thing, it requires quite clear monitoring of monthly statements (but just have to) to ensure that u pay dilligently and not let it roll. Can be easy to forget given we receive so many statements from bills, bank accs, credit cards, insurance, etc etc etc. Its easy to lose track even for me, given all the bills and stuff. A trick for me is to put all the envelops addressed to me at a part of my table. YES I have a messy table but on it, there is a part where I put my envelopes and open it at a go once or twice a month. I even open, put bills together, then pay at one go when all the bills are in. But at times its easy to overwhelm,
so more so for credit cards. The fewer cards the better, the fewer statements, fewer overdue, fewer compounding on outstanding debt, fewer chance of missing payments. Yes, definitely fewer points. BUT if you ask me about points which maybe redeem something $100 worth or interest charge of $166(above example), I take fewer points ANYTIME.
Dunno about the rest. I get overwhelm even monitoring my bank accs in passbook, insurances, poems statment. And this is me WITHOUT a credit card. Now if I have 1-2, it meant additional statements, but at least not that many more to monitor.
Hope this helps. I still have many thoughts about personal finances that I want to blog about. But today is really a LOOOONNNNGGGG day. Really battery flat. Next post, I will discuss 'phantom' money, overspending or not, and maybe some pointers/ or small action steps that can be done to help out.
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