Wealth Creation Habits

What A Lovely Lazy Weather Singapore Has Today...

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:19:00 +0000

For those who do not know Singapore's weather well. We seldom get cloudy cooling days which I so love except for a short period during the year end.

Just as I thought the cool period has ended, it was yet another cool lazy weather here in Singapore today. And yes, I have become a more disciplined person. I went for an evening jog.

One of my goals last year was to be a more focused and disciplined person. And it's also one of my goals this year.

Even though I felt like lazing more than sweating it out. I just changed into my running gear and ran into the cool weather. It's simply a lovely weather to work out in.

What about you? Have you set your goals yet? It's still not too late if you haven't. Just like this wish, I hope it's not too late: Happy 2012, everyone!

Is It A Reality or Merely Limiting Thoughts?

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:48:00 +0000

I just read this post from La Papillion's blog.

How true. We often look around us and set our own limits based on the limits we see in others. And if that's what you do, that's the results you'll get.

It may be easier said than done to set higher goals and push yourself skywards. But sometimes, all you is to challenge yourself whether more can be done, or whether things can be done in a different way.

And you'll be amazed by how many more ideas sneak into your mind when you open it.

Opportunity Waits For No Man; My Latest Japan Trip

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:43:00 +0000

Pic from http://letitplay.org/

I am traveling to Tokyo again mid May. I was a little hesitant to travel for leisure again as I just came back from Seoul in mid April.

But I saw a deal that I could hardly resist. Round trip from Singapore to Tokyo on Singapore Airlines were going for only $383.90!

Of course, my life is worth more than the mega savings and that got me pondering for a while... until I bumped into a friend who is returning to Tokyo with her 8 months old infant and 3 yrs old child. We chatted for a while and that got me convinced, I didn't think she'll put her young children's health at risk.

I did my homework and read up more on the current situation in Japan and accessed my risk. I called bf and told him of my wish to visit Japan at a bargain. I know that I'll most probably not be able to travel to Tokyo at this pricing anytime soon and maybe I may not even be able to spare the time in future.

Just yesterday, we booked our flight and hotel room at a total of $627 per pax for 5 days. And this morning, the newspaper reported that Japan is safe for traveling again and is welcoming tourists.

I just checked the pricing for my air tickets on the same time and dates and the price has already gone up by 3.5 fold to $1378! And I am gloating now...

Well well, I know it's no good to feel happy about "saving" money only when you're actually spending. The thought of how I can apply this to investment hit me almost immediately.

I must apply it to my investment psychology. When I next see an investment opportunity, I must do my homework and get a hold on my fear. Just do it after all risks have been accessed and homework have been done.

::Just do it!::

Yeah, I'll finally get to see Mt Fuji 'coz I'm going to Hakone too! Yipee! =)

Book Review: One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 05:23:00 +0000

I have been reading and just finished a book that I find worth buying.

It's a book recommended by my cousin and I found it basic and useful enough for investment beginners. It's based on the concept that beginners have a chance at the stock market by using what we already know. And by opening our eyes wide to what's happening around us.

It has been some time since I found a good investment book. To me, it's simple, easy to read and most of all, makes sense of what common knowledge we already possessed. It also highlights some financial statistics that we should be looking out for good stock buys.

I borrowed it from the library and didn't have a chance to go through it in detail. Hence, I'll be buying it coz it's worth revisiting and a keep!

Amazon.com Widgets

127 Hours: Lesson We Take Away From the Movie

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:37:00 +0000

Ok, I admit, I went to watch 127 Hours mainly because James Franco is so cute!

It's a film directed by Danny Bolye, the same director who directed "Trainspotting", "The Beach" and "Sumdog Millionaire". And the cute James Franco gave a stellar performance acting as Aron Ralston, a mountaineer and a motivation speaker who was trapped by a boulder in Blue John Canyon and had to amputate his right arm with a dull knife to keep his life.

Well, I'm not going much into the storyline and how I think the director did a great job in bringing across this real life story in a very simple, hopeful and poignant manner. It's not easy feat to create an interesting show of 1 man being stuck in the same position for more than an hour. You can read the good review on the amazing filming here.

One scene that bf and I really like was the 1 man talk show moment in the canyon. We can see that Aron had some serious self-reflection on how he thought of himself as a "superhero" who didn't need help. And certainly didn't need to inform of anyone of his whereabouts.

I think in life, it's important that one must be willing to let go of the ego and ask for help. You'll receive when you ask. It may not be obvious but when you accept someone's help, it's a way of opening yourself to them.

As for the much talked about gory amputation scene, I didn't get to see much with my eyes half closed and head tilted away from the big screen. I heard it's realistic though.

Go catch the movie while it's still showing in theaters, it's definitely worth a watch!

No Time, No Excuses!

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:18:00 +0000

One of my personal beliefs is "When you want something badly enough, you'll find a way to do it.". And that means saying that I have no time to do something is just an excuse for not wanting to it badly enough.

I want to be more financially equipped. I want to brush up on my investment knowledge and start building a solid investment portfolio. And this was one my 2010 goals too.

I'm deeply disappointed in myself that I didn't see through it. I've achieved about 2/3 of my 2010 goals and this is 1 major goal that I didn't achieve.

It's hard not to give excuses. And it's hard that it's such a mental barrier to even get me going.

Apart from reading the book "Come Into My Trading Room" as recommended by la papillion, I'm reading a new book called "One Up On Wall Street" which is recommended by my cousin. I know I need to be focused on just 1 book. But the former is a it "heavy" for me at he current moment. Take me quite a while to digest.

I need to read something easier to absorb for now to get me into the momentum of understanding technical analysis.

Anyway, I'll find a way to achieve my investment goals this year. I must 'coz no more excuses giving anymore!

What A Difference A Day Make...

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 04:27:00 +0000

Before I start, I want to wish all a HAPPY & PROSPEROUS RABBIT YEAR filled with joy, peace and love!

It's the lunar new year still so I've been doing my rounds of visiting and unabashedly collected my ang pows at this age. Hehe... And what a difference a day made.

On the first day of the lunar new year, I met with some relatives that are business owners and financially very comfortable. We chatted and in the midst of these exchanges, they also shared investment strategies, great books to read to constantly upgrade ourselves and it was inspiring. We had a great time catching up with what's happening with our lives over a good lunch.

The second day, I joined bf and visited his relatives. One of his distant relatives was so negative... Right after exchanging the expected new year pleasantries, he dived into "politics", blaming the government for their screwed up policies and not increasing our salaries to match with the inflation rate. And he ranted on and on about how the masses used to be able to buy a HDB flat with just 1 breadwinner's income and now it's no longer possible. And that he foresee that our children's generation will need 3-4 people's income to buy a flat. Blah blah blah....

Well, I was so bored that I tried to break the conversation up. Bf tried too by offering some new year goodies to stuff his mouth but it seemed like the sad man couldn't stop voicing out his past year's grievances to anyone in sight.

Oh mine, it was a horrible moment and a pain to sit through.

And if you think the former family had it lucky, heck no! My uncle started out selling bread on bicycles when he was younger and he worked hard to become what he is today. And my cousin got married more than 10 years ago and a few year into his marriage, his wife fell into coma while giving birth to their 2nd daughter. Because of this, the wife has been bed-ridden and in a vegetative state ever since. The younger daughter wasn't spared either. Due to a lack of oxygen to the brain when this happened, she is mentally disabled and need a nurse to care for her 24/7.

But there's no point looking back and blaming life or the government. Look forward and 10 years down the road, I want to be like my cousins. Happy, positive and using God given talents to make the best out of my life!

GLP IPO First Day Sold Off - Mastering My Emotions

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 04:01:00 +0000

I sold off at $2.14 even though it opened at $2.16. And 2 mins later, the price went up to $2.15.

I might have been a little impatient but I realised I am still quite fearful after my 10k losses when I first entered the market about 6-7 years back. I queued at $2.16 then $1.25 and when I saw the price hovering around $2.14, I just decided to sell it off.

Every increase of $0.01 makes me $10 only so I rather just get my profit fast and exit. I've made about $154 after deducting the brokerage fee and it's a 7.86% return!

2.14 - 1.96 = 0.18

Profit = $(0.18*1000) - $25 (brokerage fee) - $1 (OCBCATM fee)

= $154

A little coffee money to start my day and a good lesson learn that I still have some way to go to conquer my investing fear.

Some IPOs Dos & Don'ts

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:37:00 +0000

Just want to share some basic info on IPO application in Singapore.

DON'T think that you you can up the chance of being allocated lots if you apply for the IPOs twice. It's doesn't matter if you use the same bank or different banks to apply for the IPO because you'll be sabotaging yourself and be disqualified immediately. And you also end up paying for the application fee twice for nothing.

OCBC charges only $1 as compared to $2 for UOB or DBS.POSB (I never like DBS/POSB 'coz almost every Singaporean has it and there's always a long queue at the ATMs, tsk).

Banks usually refund the excess fund amount for unallocated shares the day itself or the next day after the results are out. Just minus the amount paid and the amount return to find out how many shares you've been allocated.

To be sure of shares allocation, it's best to check CDP account online or wait for the CDP statement to be sent by slow mail. This is important if you decide to sell the shares before you received the statement as you may be shorting it instead if you didn't get any allocation. Delays or mistakes in fund returns are rare but have happened before.

For more basic info on IPO, you can find out more from this blog.

GLP, Global Logistic Properties IPO Results

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:23:00 +0000

For my GLP application, I was allocated only 1 lot even though I applied for 15 lots.

The results are as follow:

NEWS RELEASE
GLOBAL LOGISTIC PROPERTIES LIMITED’S IPO ATTRACTS STRONG RESPONSE
FROM INSTITUTIONAL AND RETAIL INVESTORS
- Offering of 1,173,244,000 Offering Shares was 12 times subscribed
- Public Offer was 11 times subscribed, with over S$2.2 billion in application
monies received
- Shares to commence trading at 9.00 a.m. on October 18, 2010

APPLICATION RESULTS FOR THE PUBLIC OFFER
To ensure a reasonable spread of shareholders, the Joint Underwriters, in consultation with the Company and the Vendor, have decided that successful applicants who submitted valid applications for the 102,375,000 Offering Shares under the
Public Offer complying in full with the terms and conditions set out in the Prospectus, and who have been successfully balloted, will be allocated all or a proportion of the Offering Shares for which they have applied. The allocations are as follows:
NUMBER OF OFFERING SHARES % OF TOTAL NUMBER
RANGE OF OFFERING ALLOCATED FOR OF OFFERING SHARES UNDER
SHARES APPLIED FOR SUCCESSFUL APPLICANT THE PUBLIC OFFER NUMBER OF
('000) BALLOTING RATIO (‘000) (%) SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS
1 to 19 50:50 1 72.59 74,313
20 to 49 39:50 2 12.72 6,512
50 to 99 38:50 3 7.42 2,533
100 to 499 37:50 4 6.61 1,691
500 to 999 36:50 7 0.44 65
1,000 and above 35:50 10 0.22 22
100.00 85,136
Based on the above basis of allocation, there are a total of 85,136 successful applicants under the Public Offer.

This means that for those who applied between 1 - 19 lots will get only 1 lot. As I was pretty sure this stock will be oversubscribed, I thought that by applying 15 lots, I can up my chances of getting 2 lots or more. But with the way they allocated the shares, I have only 1 baby lot with me now.

Bf frowned upon the way I speculate but but... this hot stock seem like it'll swing upwards with the current demand and hype.

It'll start trading in 9 hours' time and I'm positive about it!

GLP IPO, Mapletree IPO

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:30:00 +0000

These 2 IPOs are all the hype in Singapore these few days with GLP already open for public offering yesterday.

GLP IPO is said to be the 2nd biggest IPO since the disappointing Singtel IPO.

I am thinking of applying for some GLP lots tomorrow and if I do get them, I won't be holding on long. With all the publicity. It seems like the price should go up initially due to the positive sentiments.

But it doesn't look that promising to me for long term holding. And now isn't a good time to buy into the market if you wanna hold long too. STI is rather high...

What do you think?

I Don't Know What To Make Of The Market

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 15:46:00 +0000

These 2 are 1 month period charts for both the STI and Dow Jones.

I can't see a sure point of entry, especially with the past 2 weeks of news. The market seems to swing with daily news.

Maybe it's a trader's market currently and I should continue on my wait again.

A Pleasant Exercise at East Coast Park - Citi-YMCA Charity

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 04:52:00 +0000

I got my blades about week ago and have been fervently working my ass off trying to master it. It feels good to be finally keeping to my new year resolution and looking forward to exercising now.

We were at East Coast Paark yesterday when a group of young girls approach us for donation to Citi-YMCA Charity for the handicaps.

For a small sum, we got a happy moment captured in a polariod picture and signed our well wishes on a T-shirt.

Just before leaving, one of the girls gave us a lovely peach coloured TY beanie bear, saying we were the last they'll approach for the day, hence the extra bear.

The girls were so sweet and such a cute way of doing charity work!

It definitely makes more sense then just asking for money donation. The volunteers do something extra, the people who donate get something small in return. The fun and happiness get amplified! Everyone is doing good and having a good time.

We had a lovely date last evening! =)

Don't Invest For The Sake Of Investing

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:03:00 +0000

"If you don’t know what to do with your money,
DON’T DO anything with it!"

One of the most important lessons I have learnt in Wealth Academy is that if you don’t know what to do with your money, don’t invest for the sake of investing.

Sadly, I have repeated this mistake recently! I saw the market moving up and down and seeing so many opportunities passes me by. I got really tempted and got some tips from my friend. I was told that CapitalMall Asia is quite a good stock because the IPO price is $2.12 and it has ever hit a high of $2.70.

Knowing just the very surface information of CaptialMall Asia stock, I went in and took position at $2.15. My rationale behind my buy is that as a stock with an Asian focus, it should be a safer investment since Asia economy is currently deem more stable as compared to the European's and USA's.

Coupled by the fact that CapitalMall Asia has so much investment in China properties, I thought it was a good buy. I strongly believed that China's economy will be heading north in short term contributed mainly by the Shanghai Expo 2010.

Yet now, I’m feeling jittery about my investment. Although I can seek comfort in the following factors:

My buy price is low
CapitalMall Asia is a relatively safe stock as the parent company is a blue chip
The company still has a huge potential of growth

The intrinsic value that I calculated with the Missy is less than $2...

So what do I intend to do next? Break even and exit. I'll do my due diligence when it comes to investing. And really drill it in to not invest for the sake of investing.

Market Correction and My Emotions Correction

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sun, 23 May 2010 10:42:00 +0000

The last week saw the market tumbled as more bad news arise from the European market.

I'm sure many saw this as an opportunity to enter the market. Likewise, the thought has crossed my mind and with more cash on hand, I'm also on the lookout.

It has been about 5 years since I last bought some shares. Having lost quite a fair bit of my hard-earned money, I have been hesitant and reluctant to touch stocks and shares for a long time. I knew I went into the market as a novice, buying with greed as the market was going up, up and away and selling with fear when it tumbled.

Knowing full well where my problems lie, I have since educated myself financially and now is the time to put my investment emotions to test.

"Focus on where you want to go, and not on your fear."

-Anthony Robbins

I still have my doubts, insecurities and fears. And these were the exact emotions that betrayed me previously. And the the lack of practice doesn't help too. There's only so much I can do studying. It's time I put what I've learnt into practice and I wonder whether I'll do ok...

Having done my studies, I think the shares will come down again maybe later part of this year but this correction is my opportunity to enter the market. I have to cast aside my fears and lizard's emotions and move forward with confidence. For a start, I'll start with the stable STI ETF.

A Good Workout - Rollerblading

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:20:00 +0000

It's dating day today and we accomplished so much!

And we finally bladed again after a few months. After quitting my gym membership and disappointingly pushing myself to run every week, I am kind of itching to finally buy my own blades.

It's a fun workout as a couple. And even if I don't slim down, I might just get a toned butt while keeping fit!

I'm keeping my eyes open this Great Singapore Sale! =)

Why Regular Premium Investment Link Policy Makes Bad Investment Sense To Me

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sat, 15 May 2010 06:06:00 +0000

In my previous post, I mentioned why I felt that my Regular Premium ILP was a bad investment tool and some readers have commented that if I haven't relinquish my responsibility to my agent, I wouldn't have made a loss.

I beg to differ.

I admit it was my mistake that I did not take control of my own finances and it is a lesson well learnt.

Let me share with you the reasons why I'd suggest any hopeful investors to stay away from Regular Premium ILPs if they want to get good returns:

Only 20% of premium in the 1st year goes into investment portion

Remaining 80% goes to agent's commission.
Out of the 20%, a good proportion of $100+ goes to admin charges and whatnots, leaving me almost nothing left to invest.
The moment I "invest", I'm down almost 100%!!! (-100% returns in 1st year is absolutely crazy!!)

Still only 60% of premium in 2nd year goes into investment portion

More to catch up... it's an uphill battle.
No liquidity at all!!

Fund management's fee of 1.5% per year

In addition to catching up with my 100% loss, I still had to cover 1.5% every year that goes into the fund manager's salary. Breathless...

After age 35, mortality charges shoot up

Buying a term insurance or life policy may have serve the insurance coverage purpose more aptly.

Too many mechanics and charges

Til now, I am still somewhat confused and unsure.

I don't know if all cash Regular Premiums ILPs work the same way but the one I bought worked like that. My ex financial agent painted a pretty picture of returns averaging 5-9% on a yearly basis and now I know better.

At the same time, I also had a Regular Premium ILP bought using my CPF funds. For that policy, I did get back an estimated returns of 3.75% as 100% of the premium already goes into buying of funds' units from the very 1st year onwards. I held on to this policy for 4 years and sold it in 2007, just before the financial meltdown. I can't say for sure the returns would be as good if I have cash out only now.

If I want to buy funds now, I'll buy direct from Fundsupermart. Not as confusing, less charges and I don't need to rely on someone to patiently explain to me countless of times what is going on with my money.

And for my other coverage needs, I buy term insurance instead.

What about you? Do share with me in details if you did make money from your Regular Premium Investment Linked Policies.

I Finally Sold Off My ILP and Stop Burning My Money!!

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Tue, 11 May 2010 06:59:00 +0000

Yes, I did that last week. That was one of my last terrible "investments" I am holding on to. I made a lost of 2k+ after about 8 yrs!!

So, why did I only decide to withdraw the money now? I did my calculations and didn't think that the funds will be likely to break even if I continue to hold on to them. And it's too complicated for me to comprehend the mechanics. I had to ask my poor bf to explain to me again and again whenever I wanted to review my funds.

To make it simple, I'll use an estimate rounded figure here. Every month, I put in about $100 to buy the units for my ILP. And so far, I had put in cash value of about $9000. My cash out value last week was about $7000. And 100% of my money will go into investment only from the 3rd year onwards.

I shall ignore the $100 I put in every month to make it even simpler. To break even in 2 years, I needed to achieve about a whopping 16% returns per year taking into account of both the funds' management fees of about 1.5%!

Current Value = $7,000

Loss = $2,000

Break Even Period = 2 yrs

2000/7000/2 *100% + 1.5% (est. mgt fees) = 15.79%

= 16%!!

This is a very rough estimate but a close one.

I don't believe these funds can achieve such good returns in 2 years. And even if I were to switch to a higher yield funds and monitor them, I rather pay myself to watch my own stocks than to pay the fund managers to invest for me.

Lessons learnt for me:

Don't buy financial products I don't understand.

I had to rely first on my financial agent who left the company mid way. And another 2 who were assigned to me and didn't help me much.
I was lucky that bf was patient enough to sit me through these seemingly easy insurance calculations and mechanic and yet after many rounds, I am still a little unsure.

Don't buy products with so many hidden costs and confusing mechanics

Management fees
Admin charges
Mortality charges
Fund switching costs
20% into investment for 1st yr, 60% for 2nd yr blah blah blah and I shall go into details why my ILP was a bad bad choice in my next post.

Keep investment and insurance separate

I should have find out what I wanted before parting with my hard earned money.
Buying a term insurance will be better if I needed additional coverage as I already have a Life Insurance Plan.

Stop throwing good money after bad money

I'll make more even if I leave my money in the Savings account with an extremely low interest
I'll not loss my principal sum at the very least.

Be responsible of my own investments and take control

The more I didn't know, the more I needed to find out and understand and take over the reins because no one will care about my money more than myself.

Well well, lessons learnt in a painful and embarrassing way. I was a monkey with my money...

Don't Be Such A Lizard!

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:27:00 +0000

Did you know that as human evolved from reptile to mammals, our mammalian brain took over some of the human functions in the middle portion of the brain while keeping the inner reptilian portion of it.

In other words, human brains have 3 distinct layers:

Reptilian (inner)
Mammalian (middle)
Neocortical (outer)

The inner brain which is the reptilian portion has remained virtually unchanged by later evolution and it controls the most basic function like breathing and temperature recognition. It's actions are automatic and fast!

Thus, when we react to our emotions, we're actually activating our reptilian and mammalian brain and temporarily lose access to the outer rational brain needed for long term analysis.

In making investment and money decisions, do you behave like a lizard? If so, it's time to stop! ;)

Relinquish Your Past, So That You Can Move Ahead

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:39:00 +0000

The stock market has been moving up up and up for months now. And I've finally let go off 2 out of the 3 terrible stocks I own.

I bought these penny stocks about 6 years back based on some "hot news" and up they did go. But they went down even faster. The horrible thing was they never went back as high as when I first entered the market. All in all, I paid about $10+k worth of my hard earned money. They're worth slightly more than 50% of what I paid for now, after 6 long years!

Like many foolish people, I hung on to the paper loss as to avoid the pain of real loss. I've always wanted to let them go but never got down to it. Yes, I was the clown.

And I finally did sell them off last week.

I believe that as I let go of my past (mistake and foolishness), I'll be able to reclaim my effectiveness and be smarter in the present because of it. I know I will!

Why We Make Money Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:43:00 +0000

"We make money mistakes because we use money to accomplish non-financial goals."

I came across this liner by David Krurger and it makes perfect sense!

We use money to regulate our emotions; we use it to buy respect, envy, acceptance, happiness, ease guilt and pain etc. and we all build intimate relationship with it. Eventually, we may even lose the real money of it.

No wonder so many people have issues with it. We should just treat money as what it is... MONEY!

I recommend you read the book to find out what your money story is today! And it's a light hearted enjoyable read too!

I'll end off with another interesting quote from Sigmund Freud.

" Money questions will be treated by cultured people in the same manner as sexual matters, with the same inconsistency, prudishness and hypocrisy."

Amazon.com Widgets

Petrol Prices Comparison

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:06:00 +0000

A useful website I came across:

http://www.petrolwatch.com.sg/

Time For Flea-ing Again!

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:50:00 +0000

I'm a serial junk seller. And the fleas I go to to sell my junk are not the arty kind of flea markets. Yes, it's none other than the Tanglin Mall Flea Market that I go to to dump all my junk there!

Over the years, I've clearer boxes of shoes, jewelry and mountains of clothes (you really won't believe how much Linc and I have brought to the market all these while)

We usually get back at least $300 per sale and this is even if we let go most the clothes at $1 - $2. Told you we have tons of stuff.

I really enjoy the cheap thrill of converting my trash to cash.

Some other sellers gawked at the fact we sell our old Levi's jeans at $10 or even $5 but what monetary value is there to a pair of jeans that I can no longer or want to fit into?

To me, the few dollars in hand is worth more than a piece of clothing bought for $100+. Of course, I could have sold them off at some nicer flea market or ebay for more. But then again, with so many clothings, I have since lost my patience waiting for ebay buyers to respond.

Also, it makes sense to us to sell these second hand clothings at an affordable price to some of the foreign workers.

It's a tedious and tiring affair but I look forward to the spring cleaning this April again! And I have since cut back on spending thoughtlessly on fashion too. ;)

Keeping to Our Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:23:00 +0000

It's already March! Time has just passed by without much realization. And I have been slacking. Now that I am no longer sick, I am pushing myself even harder to keep to my promises.

The heavy rain this late afternoon was a relief and welcome to the super-humid and hot weather that has hit Singapore recently. It was a bonus for our evening jog!

It's refreshing to run at the track. The last time I did that was 12 years back! It's definitely easier to push myself with a target (end point) in sight.

Wet shoes of 2 satisfied joggers.

And now, to rest of my resolutions. I'll achieve them one by one, step by step.

Successful Time Management Is All About Managing Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyhabits) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:47:00 +0000

We often hear of people complaining that they don't have enough time to do the things they want. Yet, there are also several successful and really busy individuals that seem to be able to do the things that are important to them.

It's funny because we are all given the same amount of time yet some people are able to achieve much more with this same resource!

I say, it's just a matter of how badly you want to do something and being able to manage your time successfully. I am a strong believer that if you really want something badly enough, you'll find a way and time to do it.

When I first heard of how some CEOs can force themselves to wake up for daily morning jogs at around 6am before heading off to a busy day at work, I was amazed. Initially, I thought these people must be bursting with energy, that's why they can achieve more than the rest of us.

Now, I know I was half right. Yes, they're bursting with energy with the right frame of mindset and anyone can be like that if we just choose to be so.

Managing time successfully is more than about managing time. It is all about managing yourself successfully in relation to time.

Here's some suggestions to help you manage your time more effectively:

Be aware of how you use your time daily

You can start by keeping a daily schedule or reflect on how you spend you time every night before you sleep.
Do this for both your personal and work lives as well.

Plan, plan and more planning

Set goals; decide what are the important and urgent tasks that you need to do on a regular basis and how you are going to divide your time doing these tasks.
Do the important things first and you'll probably find that your pile-up of urgent things will decrease over time.

Leverage and share the workload

Find various ways in which you can leverage by working in teams or partnership so that you can achieve more in life.
Allow others to take up new roles and be willing to ask for help. (Ask and you shall receive, remember? ;))

Stay disciplined

Stick to your plans and be ready to continuously improve your time management strategy.

Review and look at the big picture

Have a yearly or even monthly review if necessary on how well you're doing in managing your time.
Remember to look at the big picture while you go about with the smaller details in your daily life. Are you any nearer to your goals yet?

And when you find yourself with more time, do remember to reserve some "me-time" to recharge so that you can go a longer way in life.

Don't be the white rabbit anymore, start taking charge and be in control of your time!