My CEO Journey

Finance It's just three more weeks before the end of 2018. With the dividends and coupons in already, it's time to wrap- up the finance performances for this year. 1. Stock Investing This is the year of the telecommunications for me. Only sale of the year is M1, while I purchased Singtel, Starhub and Lippo Malls Trust. Summary: Dividend - $4,120.20 Current Market Value - $50,440 Realized Gains - $1235.89 Paper Losses - $4,396.65 2. Bond Investing I talked about the Singapore Savings bonds having a relatively good short term interest here previously. Apart from the SSB that I bought at the beginning of the year, no other bonds were purchased. Summary: Coupon Received - $4,359.10;  Redemption Value - $140,000 (market value not considered, as there are no plans to sell them before redemption date for the time being). When I did a simple calculation, this is about 3.11 % of the redemption value. Not too bad for bonds. 3. Endowment Plan No endowment

Mothers of Singaporean children, who are legally married, and have worked continuously for a company for at least three months, will get 16 weeks of maternity leave in Singapore. There are some flexibility in this leave, which you can find out more here . You need to take the first 8 weeks consecutively, and the subsequent 8 weeks can be taken over the next 12 months. However, some companies may have different requirements over such flexibility. I know of many who take the first 12 weeks consecutively, and then take the other four weeks (i.e. 20 days for a five- day work week job) as and when they need. This is my second time taking maternity leave, and like previously, my choice is to take the 16 weeks consecutively, and I would advocate this if things are generally well, based on my experience. There are many advantages, namely: (1) You can spend 16 weeks of time with your newborn, focusing attention just on the baby -- (almost) no work. Most company generally make arrange

If I could turn back time...  If I knew I would have kids in my early to mid thirties, I would have spent my twenties working hard to earn as much money as possible, save as much as possible, and learn investing early. Get a home, and complete my home mortgage by then. Make my twenties the time of my life in career and finance. Once that is settled, then my thirties is the time I can YOLO- ing, with my kids. My kids will only love to spend all their time with me in their early few years, maybe ten at most? So from my thirties to my early forties, I will spend as much time as I want and they want, with them.  I have not managed my twenties very well. So now, I have to manage my limited resource - time, with career and kids. In mid forties to fifties, very likely, my career is on the downhill. By then, even if I have the time, would an employer prefer a young person or an old one? Well, it's never too late for anything, as long as you are willing to put in the effo

This article is inspired by  MR 15HWW 's article on why he had  never topped up his CPF yet . This article is full of very good rational reasons behind his motives.  There are many articles that talk about the pros, and the benefits one have gotten from topping up their CPF or their parents'. For the sake of a balanced article, do a google search, and you'll get all the benefits.  Why I have never topped up my CPF? 1. Automation in place My current employer ensures that my CPF is "topped up" automatically monthly for all three accounts (OA, SA and MA) from both my salary and from my company (thanks Ms CEO's day job employer!). As long as I stay employed in such firms, this auto top- up stays. 2. Ideology And this is my main reason. Unlike Mr 15HWW, I may not be getting more returns than the CPF interest rate for now.  Have you heard of the American dream? You can read more about it  here ,  here,   or simply do a google search. I

I remembered my previous manager telling us, never to say "yes" to a client who wants us to meet/ finish something the next moment. His reason -- you won't be appreciated, and they will just take you for granted.  He was right. Firstly, psychologically, clients appreciate slightly delayed response better because if you take more time, it means it is better thought out. And you are busy. Of course they appreciate you putting in time and effort for it. On contrast, if you give an immediate response, anything wrong it's because you do it too quickly with little effort. Also, since you can respond so quickly, you must be very free. Furthermore, next time, they expect it to be quicker, or if not as quick, since you are so free. Of course, you need to balance the delay (not immediate, but not too slow). Have you noticed this in the family relationship as well? When kids grow up, you notice, parents (and parents- in- law) are often complaining about the one wh

I used to be a fixed deposit person , putting my money in fixed deposit to earn the interests. So when I found out that this low risk instrument earns better than fixed deposit (or at least for this month), I am totally surprised! Based on risk and liquidity, should fixed deposit will yield better interest than them for the same tenure. Let me give you some examples: -   UOB gives a 1.2% per annum interest (with minimum deposit of $20,000) for a 10 month fixed deposit - OCBC gives a 1.18% per annum interest (with minimum deposit of $20,000) for a 12 month fixed deposit - Standard chartered gives their non- priority members 1.2% per annum for a 7 month tenor, and 1.3% per annum for a 10 month tenor, with minimum placement of $25,000. For their priority banking members, they get 1.25% per annum for a 7 month tenor, and 1.35% for a 12 month tenor. For your information, this instrument that I am talking about is very flexible, and can be withdrawn any month (on a particu

I was thinking about the new year resolutions for this year, and looking at the past years. Apparently, I only blog once about goals . Last year, I was thinking of setting monthly goals instead of new year resolution, by breaking down items into smaller bites. Well, it didn't go well. I stopped the monthly goals even before the first quarter of the year. So this year, I'll try to be different (yet again) by unSMARTing myself. S-M-A-R-T as in the acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, results, and time. This year's goals will be qualitative. There are things that I would like to achieve e.g. get a better job, be more involved in the stock market and so on. But these are just some things that I'll try to achieve. Not a hard and fast year. If by June, I realise that this is a totally aimless year, I can always start making more concrete plans. But for now, or at least for the first half of the year, no definite plans. My intention of 2018 is to make it m