My CEO Journey

I was looking through Budget 2020 . One of the items was a top-up to Skills Future credit. As a Singaporean aged above 25, I get a $500 top- up of Skills Future credit, which can be used to offset the course of approved courses. As I am less than 40 years old, I don't get the additional special $500 credit. For more details, read up Budget 2020 here . I was looking at the skillsfuture website , and do you know that there are some FREE online courses available? These include: Source: My SkillsFuture Of course, you could get these topics free at youtube too, but this will require one to "prepare" your own curriculum to learn the subject. So, if you are interested in these topics, why not sign up for these since they literally put all the material on that topic together. All you  need is to consume the content! I really like the Skills Future credit, as I always have something to use it for. Previously, I used it to offset part of my Advanced Diploma . Honestly, t

This article is inspired by SimplyJesMe's recent article on how motherhood has changed her perception for travelling . It resonates a lot with me. Like her, I have a travelling job. Unlike her, I'm still in the travelling job. Unlike her, after having my first child, I am weary of my travelling job, but yet stuck my head in it, and had my second and third child while still in the travelling job.  Unlike her, I do not have the courage to quit my 9 - 5 to start a business. Go read her blog or support her business , she's an inspiration! ( This is NOT a sponsored post. I don't know Jes, and Jes didn't even know I wrote about her. ) I'm not travelling now. Simply because I am having my 16 weeks of maternity leave, currently. However, my 16 weeks are going to be up soon (in just a few weeks' time), and I will be going back to my (travelling) job. Looking at my work schedule, I have yet any travels due to the coronavirus. Either the clients do not want us th

Having credit card and using them in Singapore is a no brainer. The admin fees are often waived, and you are paid to use them (such as cash backs, more interest for your saving accounts, free luggage bag, etc.). The cards also let us track where our money is going through the transaction statements. That said, whenever anyone tells me about a credit card offer, despite the many freebies I often reject them. Why? The cash backs come with spending, and there's just this much I want to spend and they have been allocated to the existing cards.   Also, people tell me use this card for dining, that card for online purchases and so on. But credit card terms always change. I have better things to do than to keep up with these terms and conditions. The most important thing is, the more cards, the more admin work I need to do! With just 3 cards, I have to check 3 bills each month and pay them. And what's more, I need to call up the banks 3 times a year to ask for a waiver

Last week Friday, I received a WhatsApp message from my friend to stockup on food as the government raised the Dorscon alert of orange. Subsequently,  I went to the grocery shop and to my horror, the queue was way longer than Chinese New Year. I went around surveying what was almost empty, and what was left (Coffee and potato chips shelves are still full --- good enough for me), and went instead to shop for groceries online. For the rest of the weekend, my WhatsApp chats/ chat groups are making a memes of the trolley loads of instant noddles, empty shelves and so on. This incident may make some feel pai- seh to be Singaporean, but instead, I feel extremely proud.  This is why. People are supposedly "emptying supermarkets through buying ", and the queues are horrendously long. Isn't it worded as panic buying? The fact that there are queues and we are still buying (not looting), means, PEOPLE ARE STILL OBSERVING ORDER amid the "panic"! Also, did I miss it? I

I posted very little for the past year. In fact, with this post, I have more posts in the first 2 months of 2020 than the whole of 2019 combined. Reading my first post was a reminder to why I started this blog -- to take charge of my life by focusing energy on key areas that matter to me -- health, family, personal finance, new business, and current business. Reading the posts that followed made me realize I had been distracted by too many other things, which in the long run were unimportant.  So this year, I am going back to basics, by focusing my energy on key areas that matter to me. There are also a number of items that I talked about wanting to do (but had not for years since I wrote it), and I shall review whether to do them or abandon the thoughts.  So my goals this year is to follow up on goals from other years and focus on the important. Not at all a S-M-A-R-T  (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goal, but well that's what I intend to do. 

Many people say that kids are one of the largest expenses you can have. I have 3 kids, and this is how much I spend on them per month. 1. Childcare I am not ready to engage any domestic helper. Hence, while I am at work, the childcare centre will help me engage my kids. There are many reasons why I didn't opt for a domestic helper, but perhaps that will be in another post. My youngest is in infant care, and my two others are in childcare. After government subsidy, this come to a whooping $1,800 ($800 for infant care, and $500 each for childcare). There are occasional outings at the childcare centre. I only let my eldest go, as I feel kids before the age of 3 are unable to appreciate or remember where they have been to. These excursions average $20 per month (so are more expensive like watching a play, while some like going to the library are just a few dollars). Total per month for childcare: $1820 2. Enrichment Following the same concept as excursion, only my eldest goe