My CEO Journey

 I realized, I'm too different, and I couldn't understand most people. Neither could others. When this news and  this news came out  years ago, I'm more concerned about myself. If I fall asleep and accidentally drool on a public transport (no chance now since we wear mask. Love masks!), will my video go online? Why are people more concerned about "this girl ah" and "that girl ah" than themselves? When I talked about bins being overfilled at a fast food place to my friends, and lament with us clearing our own table it should free up labour for such things.  My friends tell me - COVID so minimize contact, split team.  It's COVID, you must show more tolerance... Well, that was still during the last phase's restrictions --- Consumers also split team leh. Can they cope when up to 5 can dine in together. Hmmm.... I hate companies that take my photo, and put it in their website. During the pre- COVID days, there are event companies, and event companies

As a parent, my key responsibility to my kids is to provide them till they are big enough to fend for themselves. This would include a roof over their head, necessities and a typical education (i.e. primary/ secondary school and local tertiary education), medical when needed. Whether I will leave them a legacy when they are big enough is not my responsibility. If I've taught them well enough and done my part, they should have the skills to survive and adapt to however the circumstance is when they are adults. Hence, when we plan for our kids, we look at looking after them till an age of 25. Why 25? Most of my kids are boys. And there's national service, which adds 2 years before they could complete their tertiary education. Hence, assuming the JC route, plus 4 years of University, that would be up till age 25. With my youngest being 2 this year, I'll need to ensure they are cared for till 2044. What if I'm not there?  Then at least, I must make sure there's enough f

I shared  my monthly expense  here , and one of the reason for looking at expenses is to see if there are any quick ways to minimize them.  The best way is minimize recurring cost. One of the items that my partner and I were looking at is mortgage. And seems like now is a good time to look at mortgages since interest rates are rock bottom, and I've just received an email from the bank about repricing. As a side note, 2 years back when I was doing a refinance, I thought interest rate was rock bottom at about 1.8%. Today, interest rate has fallen even more, and we are getting a new interest rate at a low 1+% interest rate. It's a no- brainer to do a repricing or refinancing.  We only checked with 1 other bank, and the rates are about the same, so I would really prefer a repricing rather than a refinance. The bank also waived the repricing fees (subjected to some terms of course). You can read more about the differences between refinancing vs repricing of housing loan here .  We n

In October 2021, a study was done by National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) which found that in a family of family of four, with parents, a pre-teen and a teenager, needs at least $6,426 a month to afford a basic standard of living. You can read more about the article here . I did a short study on my own household to see whether my family is spending above or below this $6426. My family is quite different from this case study. We have one more person, and the kids' demographics (currently all preschoolers) are different. Also, there are a few differing categories that we have. But I still feel it is a way to see how we fare against this "basic standard of living". We are definitely not living any luxurious life, but the expenditure is way, way, way above  this basic standard of living.  Our Monthly Expenses in detail Here's a breakdown of our expenses: Annual Fixed Expenses ($5090

I am an Engineer by training, and I did consultancy for years doing risk assessments and the like. There are many types of risk assessments that you could do, depending on the complexity, and what you really need. Recently, I did a "What- If" risk assessment for myself if I were to become jobless, and I found some interesting facts.  About What-if risk assessment There's a formula for risk: Risk = consequence x probability A what- if risk assessment is essentially, looking at what will go wrong, determine its probability and consequences, then determine if this is risk is acceptable or unacceptable. For those risks that are unacceptable (consequence x probability is too high), actions need to be taken to minimise or eliminate the risk.  To break down the steps of a what- if risk assessment, it involves first looking at what could go wrong. In the process industry, it could be human error, equipment failure, loss of critical utilities, deviation from planned parameters (e.