And so I went for a corporate photoshoot, like all agents š
Iāve always been kind of anti-agent, and I donāt recommend using agent when it comes to buying resale. But the reality is that many people still need help in finding their perfect home.
Yet common folks donāt have the tools and data.
For a start, I am listing all the condos in Singapore, by districts, with ALL the rental and sale transactions. You will be able to see the floor and profitability (without paywall)!
I have also analyze the rentability and resale rate, and aggregated by the number of bedrooms.
An example for The Sail @ Marina Bay:
]]>Some people overthink with Internal Rate of Return, and choose a plan based on how long you can live. I donāt even think the way they calculate is fair.
The monthly payout is for living expenses, not to use for any investment.
As I have been telling my mum, how long we can live is unexpected, so she should use all of the payout to buy what she wants. Use it to enjoy!
Say you have $100,000 in your Retirement Account and you started to receive payout. In essence youāre receiving lifetime dividends. As such, you can look at the ādividend yieldā for each plan.
Hereās the yield for Escalating Plan for my mum:
The yield for Standard Plan is a fixed 7.8% (as the payout is fixed to $7,800 a year).
So Escalating Plan started out at ālower yieldā, then exceed Standard Plan at age 85 for my mum (11 years later).
I even did a comparison of the yield based on the starting amount.
The Escalating Plan is also a hedge against inflation, which averages 2%. So logically, the payout should increase every year so that your spending can keep up with inflation.
In case you didnāt know, the 2% increment from CPF is compounding.
If you pass away, there might be leftovers for your beneficiaries. This leftover amount is simple.
If you join CPF Life with $100,000 and has drawn $20,000 in total payout, then the remaining bequest is $80,000.
There is NO interest on the CPF premium.
]]>My aircon was out-of-warranty, but I still called the serviceman hoping the repair/replacement wonāt be a huge price tag.
TIP: Save yourself $60 and donāt get the serviceman to come check, as eventually they will quote $770 to replace (at least for this model). A new model will be $1,800 but provides another 5y warranty for the condenser.
Many people have the same problem. If a small chip on the board is fried, the whole board becomes useless.
Whatās even crazier is my NEW replacement aircon came, installed, yet it is NOT working! š”
Took them a few days to come service it.. and turns out the indoor fan coil board is spoilt.
The quality of Mitsubishi is very disappointing.
]]>Born 1951 in a kampong, now a landed enclave around Parry Avenue.
Dad has only attended Primary school, and his career is largely a laborious job painting walls, with a petite salary.
Yet he brought up 3 children, and provided me with education all the way to university.
As a dad myself, I donāt know how my parents did it (financially and physically).
They must have sacrificed a lot of their own enjoyment.
He is grandpa to 4 kids.
He is contented to see all of us setting up our own family.
]]>I canāt record in the company office, but I can show the common co-working space in Regus. This is the PLUS building in Raffles Place.
Not as cool as my days in WeWork.
I attended my last morning standup meeting, in which my manager must be shocked, as the culture is to disappear silently after a retrenchment.
I said my last goodbyes, and my manager acknowledged my contributions and technical prowess š
]]>It was a wild ride, as we went into Crypto Winter in late 2022. Then retrenchment becomes a common thing.
Alas, it is my turn.
It happened today. In the morning, my manager spoke to me (over a call), explaining to me on the reasons. It was expected, and I told him no worries. Our iOS team has 4 members, while Android has 2, for the past 9 months š
HR are usually inefficient, but this time it is fast, and we spoke at noon and confirmed my last day exactly 1 month from now.
Just 1 month notice, no work expected from me from now on, without any severance š
Yet I still have a Xmas lunch buffet in office the next day š
]]>Still 4 more years before Kate needs it.
But yea, preparing early š
]]>So hereās my guide for you!
Or if you prefer videos, watch these:
Itās easy to drive in Jeju as it is not congested like big cities. Amazingly, there is no toll and all parking is free.
The cheapest and best website is Lotte rent-a-car. They have a shuttle to/from the airport every 10 minutes, and you can reserve and pay onsite (unlike others where youāve to pay with Korea cards)!
Tip: Nearer the date, the price adjusted down, so we canceled and re-book. As a reference, our ALL NEW K3 (G) (Gasoline) costs 287,000 KRW for 5 days, with zero access.
Google map is not supported for navigation, so you have to use Naver Map.
Driving from airport to the south-most eg. Jungmum takes 1 hour. Driving east-most also takes 1 hour, so it isnāt too long to drive around the island.
That said, our plan was to stay in 3 hotels. They are located at south, east, and north of the island, so we drive anti-clockwise around Mount Hallasan.
Our first hotel is highly recommended, the favorite for my 2 girls.
The unique themed room is the highlight for Lotte Hotel.
Our 2nd āhotelā is at a campervan in the east. The kids didnāt like, but I think it is fine for a quick 1 night stay.
The 3rd and last hotel is Grabel Hotel, and they have a fun room for kids.
The bed is on the floor, along with the tent, which is nice as the play area is huge. They even have cooking toy set in the room! Highly recommended.
Jeju has plenty of horse riding, and we selected Arion Horse Riding as it is on the way. Kate enjoyed it, though it is simply a short walk 10 minutes up and down the hill, at 50,000 KRW for 2 of us.
A short drive away, we visited Baaland Cafe & Farm to feed the sheeps (and rabbits). You pay for the drinks in the cafe along with the carrots for feeding, at a very reasonable price. If I were to run a cafe, I want to be like them. Chill and cosy with roaming cute animals.
We didnāt use the kids playroom in Lotte Hotel, because a short drive away is Pororo theme park. Kids will need a full day at the park.
We bought the tickets from KKday, sign up with my referral link to enjoy some discount š«°š»šµ
Driving eastwards, we visited Aqua Planet. It is not as amazing as compared to sea aquarium in Japan, but nonetheless a nice excursion for the children.
Located in the north, we went to Tangerine Tree Forest to pluck the fruits. For a bag of ~15 tangerines, we paid 10,000 KRW each. Usually they will teach you how to make a jar of syrup, but we didnāt do it as donāt have check-in luggage.
Back home, we make the syrup by following recipes online, and it tasted wonderfully. I wish we can grow some green tangerines too!
Another farm: Baraem Mokjang & Cafe let you feed the cows with milk (time to give back)! Then enjoy the delicious ice-cream and coffee at their cafe.
Nearby, there is World Automobile & Piano Museum, which is full of antique cars and piano. We were hyped to know there is a āChildren driving licenseā where we can drive the car.
Disappointingly, the kids are not allowed to drive (even for 8 years old), and the parents must have car license! And turns out, the driving license is simply a paid photo booth. Pretty dumb IMO.
This car museum is a place I donāt recommend going.
Lastly, my favorite farm is Dochidol Ranch. If there is only 1 animal farm you can go, I say Alpaca is the cutest (plus they have rabbits, goat, horse, and cafe too).
You can feed the baby Alpaca directly. Though they are quite gentle, they did frighten Jade as they keep following you for more food.
Thatās all for our activities this time round. We didnāt visit any beach nor did any hiking, as it is the children wish. Till next time~
Gonna highlight 4 places which are wonderful.
We went to naricomo (Jungmum) for some donuts as breakfast. The place is new, huge, and there is surprisingly empty. Itās a very pretty cafe.
Blossom Jeju Coffee (Seogwipo) is another pretty cafe, and that spaghetti is excellent.
Nearby Grabel Hotel is a beef BBQ place. After having numerous black pork BBQ, this is refreshing. IMO beef BBQ is better. They will be back in 10 years to see their graffiti on the walls. š©š»āšØ
Lastly, we chanced upon this Korean tofu stew (outskirt east of city). It is not just value-for-money, but the best.
I am already craving for more Korean stew~
]]>Itās worth watching the CNA documentary.
And youāve got to watch how it started in 1984 by Lee Kuan Yew:
We often heard our Reserves is managed by 3 key financial institutions: MAS, GIC and Temasek.
There are 2 others:
This is because HDB & JTC hold a very important resource ā our land!
When a land is sold, the proceeds goes into the reserves for investment, and the returns are spent through the NIR framework (see later).
When land is converted into a financial asset, the financial asset remains part of Past Reserves and cannot be used for expenditure. Spending the proceeds from selling land is simply akin to using up more of the reserves.
Instead, the Government invests the land sales proceeds with the rest of the reserves, and spends up to 50% of the returns through the NIR framework.
When the land lease expired, it is returned to the government, and it can be sold again š
Under the Net Investment Returns (NIR) framework, the Government can spend up to 50% of the long-term expected real returns (including capital gains) on the relevant assets.
As PM Lee explained, the 50% of Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC) is S$22b in 2022.
That S$22b accounted for one-fifth of government revenues!
Without NIRC, the government wouldāve to collect more taxes etc š®
As explained earlier, HDB and JTC holds a lot of land, but they are not directly part of the assets.
Only the 3 financial institutions holds the assets. As of Aug 2023:
The GIC assets is estimated by Global SWF, because GIC never reveal the actual amount. Assuming their model is right, the total assets will be S$1,876b.
But there are liabilities that need to be accounted for, namely:
The known total liabilities will be S$716b.
So AFAIK the net asset will be S$1,160b.
Thatās 1 trillion in our Reserves.
]]>UPDATE: CNA wonāt allow me to re-post the content on my Youtube š
I have left out a lot on my PV story.
For the record, my silly wish is for MOE to provide more data beyond academic results; achievements, teaching awards, learning journey, sports, feedbacks, environment ā these are info parents seek for.
But yet again, perhaps ignorance is bliss.
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