Cory Diary : How much is enough before Happiness increases become marginal ?

Perspectives

In Singapore context, what is enough ? First of all we need to view it from personal experience perspective. If you have yet seen S$500 lunch on a daily basis, this aren't going to be your baseline of reference but if you are going to challenge that this is unrealistic, sorry to say you are not in that league yet to even hear about it. So where should we start with ? I think social norm or median average maybe a good starting point. And then we put a plus one or two over it.

Bucket List

Condo maybe the one. Why ? Well, 80% of Singaporeans probably lives in HDB. Don't get me wrong, HDB is really nice and comfortable flat and many are proud of it. However with so many Condo around in every town, is not uncommon to know someone or friends who stay in them. It has it's own facilities and atas feel of being in the "Inner Circle" kind of thing. Pardon my analogy because there are always inner of inner circles (iterations). The fact is Condo is much more expensive on average speaks volume. Will one be happy ? That's depend how affordable is it to you. If you slave for it, then maybe not. However if you able to manage it wisely to give you just enough in cashflow, that may work.

Car ya lah. Damn expensive but how come everywhere can see them. Carpark is usually quite full by late evening. So despite the cost and financial logic, many owns them. Is a lifestyle ok. The freedom and convenience are more important. Well, there are different class of cars and Tesla will be on the road soon. So much it will set you back ? Decade ? forget about it. You aren't earning the amount yet probably. However the time saving can be quite significant if one could afford especially for family.

Holiday lor. Hey I am not talking about Thailand Beach or Malaysia picking (plucking ) durian ok. The real thing like Climbing the Paris Tower or taking Thames River Cruise in London. To be shiok throw in 2 weeks on semi-annual basis will be Perfect ! Wah lao .... . The essence that able to get away to cool cool place, new perspective and out from routine and experiences makes life meaningful.

Family a Must. I say this because I already have one with 2 toddlers. Able to form a family and seeing your children grow certainly has some level of satisfaction and happiness. Of course if you like being Single this does not apply. I aren't going to stir the Hornet Nest which is an ever-growing in today world. Financially, this will definitely speed you up. Maybe that's the main reason why we are in this. But the number one devil is loneliness. Not easy to overcome.

Parental Allowance for those who are in sandwiched class. Able to take care of our old folks give happiness when we can afford. I heard of many stories. If life is hard for you, how about them ? Every family different and is not for us to judge. At least at minimum return what they have onto you. Inflation and Opportunity cost adjusted !

Medical Insurance could be critical for many. One never know what will happen the next day. If we are to worry day-in day-out due to medical cost, able to afford a good coverage is probably necessary insurance or mitigation. Never really believe one should use insurance as an investment tool. This only adds complication that clouds what is really needed. Being focus on Medical, and Life Insurance on the early part of our career helps family. Buying too much of it or wrong insurance products maybe detrimental to one investment finances and cause regrets.

Passive Income obviously needed for most people unless one has significant saving. For Cory case is dividend investing where we continuously compound the returns plus capital injection to grow the passive income annually. Ideally if we can hit a return at age 50 that is near to our salary income of Age 50 this should be very attractive. Yeah, not easy since is a moving target. Maybe a level where we can cover all the other points in the bucket list is a good target and be really happy. Anything more may become good to have. Interestingly there are people who keeps arguing many stuff such as this aren't really truly Passive Income. Dude ! It doesn't has to be. So stop wasting time on pointless argument  and get on with it.

Conclusion

For the Article Title, if we ask a 10 year old, maybe singing and no money is Happiness. For 20 year old yolo is Happiness. And each country could be different due to Education, Tax/Benefits and Culture. This are really multi-facets. However, enough Money can HELP.

From the Bucket List, Happiness level will taper off as checklists are met for specific individual. Looks like there are still much room for Happiness to Grow in this study.

Cheers

Cory

2021-0718

Articles in this Blog is personal take and educational purposes only. Reader should seek their own professional help when making financial decision and be responsible for their decision.

Cory Diary : The Elephant in the Room

From the day we are born and going through years of educational learning (Some take it further ), the whole idea is to get a good job so that we have enough money for our family and retirement. That's like basic needs in life. 

What-if we push ourselves further and achieve earlier the monetary needs can be covered ? Will grinding for one more million make sense ? And here's the take. When we do call it stop and do things that we truly like ? And here is the crux of the matters. We procrastinate on many things, get them postpone intuitively but unfortunately only the top few percentage will able to meet the biologicals deadline. We have limited lifespan and productive years.

Life is not 1 and 0. However many people thinks that way including myself. For example, some people may only want to marry the pretty lady or handsome man that everyone is also hoping for else will not get settled. But time do not wait. Soon you will find yourself in mid 30s, 40s, 50s .... . You really want to remain single for rest of your life? Deep down most will not if they can. Who is going to care for you when you on wheel chair or sick. Do we think this scenario is improbable or most likely ? Living in a luxurious apartment but only have yourself in it. What for ?

Personally for myself, I want to make sure I have enough before getting married and having kids. For many, by then we are too old. Fortunately, I am a guy so no problem. But for the ladies once you hit near 40, is really pray for miracle to have one. Even then there maybe health issue and both parent can be contributing factors. The best time to have babies probably is in early 20s.

Same with Retirement we want to make sure to have all it needs before we call a day. We truly forgot how to live our days before that. If there is not enough we can do part time for few hours and enjoy the process of socializing with others. Is not a clear cut retired line that has to be drawn which places the bar too high. People who get retrenched in late 40s or early 50s, maybe is not a bad thing after all. The key is how we manage our finance before and after. Delay gratification helps but Procrastination is not.

Life is Now. Don't be 1 or 0. We cannot turn back the clock.

Cory

2021-0623

Articles in this Blog is personal take and educational purposes only. Reader should seek their own professional help when making financial decision and be responsible for their decision.

Cory Diary : Saving and Frugality

To start in proper - Saving is the act of spending less than you earn in income, and placing the remainder into a reserve account for later use. How much ability to save ties somewhat to frugality.

Being Frugal

To me it could means minimize wastage. It can be avoiding large wastage of uneaten food. Imagine the amount of saving from uneaten food of each meal as it forms a large part of our basic cost. However, we cannot trade it over balance diet else illness may visit us which will cost a lot more. Fortunately I do not have crave for titbits and soft drinks. So on both health and saving wise, stars are aligned for me.

If we do often enough, drinking Starbuck instead of KopiTiam where the marginal utility may not be very wide for me, saving could be quite significant. Probably 3 times.  So frequency matters in this case. If it provides high satisfaction for your life, do go ahead for your daily Starbuck, while I enjoy my kopi siew tie !

There are items in home we should never brought home. Unused bulky exercise equipment. Souvenirs or tons of  fur toys that we never really appreciate when brought home. I would go as far to include massage chair. That's doesn't mean you should if it does bring you big comfort. Being frugal also means able to focus on big ticket items. If Tesla car design is what you need, while it could be luxury for some, may not be for others. Maybe we can go for Model 3 instead of X. 

To some others could be stringent control of expenses. I find this unnecessary "suffering" for myself. What we need to take is a balance approach in life before our mind get conditioned to think is ok. Some could think that's the way however I beg to differ. People who track down to tiny expenses daily, for years. Take a step back and think, are you the character type that will  spurt or time is better spend else where to grow your income unless you telling me your life is to keep track of such. I close my case.

We should still go for occasional social, cab when is not convenience to use the rail and short holidays. And no way I want to be late for work or appointment just to save on taxi fares. Being early for a meeting may put me in a better shape to kickstart my working day and further my career and therefore income. Once in a long while maybe a delayed major trip. Delay gratification helps but don't push it out too far out. What this mean is we should try to expand our life to some extend to appreciate and enjoy within reasonable budget constraints while we compound our money but not to stop us on to get better on appreciating humanity and cultures.

Things I valued is like walking out in the morning through the garden to freshen up my mind on the way to nearby kopi shop to take my breakfast. I could spend like $5 and enjoy slightly finer things in life. I know some would try to cut down to $2 or have it at home eating bread from QAF. If that's is what one preferred is ok too if that's what you enjoy to do but make sure you do ! A short chat with the stall employees and cleaner brighten up the day.

As one may remember I got a notebook recently after many years till if I find the efficiency beginning to be a drag. Is not like I am stingy to get a new one in a shorter time period but the old unit I had was a power itself for my needs till auxiliary parts start to weaken. And I decided to look for medium range value or better. 

Being excessive in saving habits or subconsciously could have unintended consequences when ones life in earth is limited. And yes we live only once ! So don't waste our life time just to skim in everything or for argument sake in most. Often we are so busy we miss out other aspect of life which form our existence in this world instead of enjoying the process of it. I was single for a long time. While people admired the freedom I had which I do have, deep down in my heart, if I could married and have kids, making like full circle, I would. But I am not going to trade it without getting the right partner. Luckily, I did but is ok if we are not as we will find different option paths of different life and my expenses rocketed. Yup, it REALLY does but I am happy. That's what matter.

Personally, the best way is to find ways to improve our earning and this could be spending more to improve ourselves, skillset and broadening our perspective in life. Looking for way to improve our value in the company and leading project to improve efficiency. Time is money too so we need to watch the fine balance between them.

I come up 2 scenarios of different people just to give us a thought in perspectives. Is not trying to convey spending beyond our means definitely or trying to achieve FI by ensuring lifestyle remains the same after salary tripled. I do not think is ok for one to do that. There is no prize saving the extra Million to beat the others when our life is limited. I am more like Scenario 1 Person 3 in the past. Now working towards Scenario 2 Person 3. Not the exact amount of salary though but you know what I mean. 

To sum up my idea using above table. Using Scenario 1 assuming varied income with same expenses. Person 3 saving is 13 times ! of person 1. This is a little extreme of higher earning but continue to maintain low expenses of one who only draw 3k years ago.

Scenario 2 is where as one income grow, we adjust our spending. Person 1 in this scenario tried many means to squeeze saving.

Scenario 1 of person 1 and Scenario 2 of Person 2 and 3 are options we could possibly choose. Lesser saving when one is earning less, by proportion. And adjusting for better lifestyle when people earns more. We still ride on larger absolute savings. That's what earning more is about, winning both ways. The Way of life.

Cory

2021-0104

Cory Diary : Benefited from Covid-19

There has been a lot of negatives about this pandemic. In reality it has. Many people died from it. Many will have long term suffering. In many countries, many has lost their jobs. Cory was hit  when the portfolio came down as much as  -25% at one point. Interestingly, the investment remains and not waiver.

As today, the portfolio has fully recovered. What's more. Here's my list to put up in positive perspectives during this period. 

1. Theoretical Annual Dividends increased by 10k with similar portfolio size. That's probably 20% increase in dividends.

2. Birth of 2nd daughter. Bringing home a premature baby girl has it challenges but we are happy to have a second child. Ability to work from home helps my wife significantly as we take turns doing all the needed at home.

3. Company re-org resulting I need to also manage Europe and America staffs. So working from home helps with the different time zones and further add to my justification to go less to office. Some people may say no work life balance. I beg to differ due to significant  flexibility of my time.

4. Cab price has comes down some. The cost is about 20% cheaper and helps to lower the cost transporting my elder child to nanny home

5. Most of the time we order food online and delivered to our home. This save quite an amount of time as we dine at home.

6. Transportation cost has been basically reduced. This is not just work but also travelling abroad. Communication is now Video conferencing or Chat messaging.

7. Cash payout from Covid-19 support packages

8. Oil price has remains low. This translates to stable or lesser increase in electrical and water bills. Due to inflation constant price increase is actual normal the key is how much. So I view that things can get much worst than we have today when we look at price increases.

9. Lesser pollution to mother earth. The air and sky have never been much better due to lesser consumption. People from less develop or poor environmental policy countries benefited the the most interestingly with the economic slowdown. People will miss it.

There will be major shift in the industries and country economy from this experience. Is a good time to position ourselves for the future for a fresh start. Virus testing industries. Medical and manufacturing of protection products. Education systems. Working lifestyle. Even Supply Chain robustness. Instead of looking for Offensive Strategy, will Defensive Strategy works like avoidance ?

Something to ponder about.

Cory
2020-0709

Cory Diary : Good Bye Johnny

Whatsapp has been nothing but amazing. Four old friends of 30 years messaging each other in a group but hardly meet each other for years. As the years go by between them, each develop their own life path but they continue to keep each other in-touch using the messaging apps.

There's always different viewpoints depending each social circumstances. As we get older, we get more "Weird". More "Stubborn". More "Experience". More "Stress". More "Work". More "Wealthy". This can be observed by myself on them and likely they on me. Everyone of us have our own flaws in us but the focus is always on others. We talked on many sensitive topics like  Immigrants/PMET, Investment, Politics, Jobs  .... often end up with quite diverse views.

Sometimes the apps will get a little heated up. One would leave the chatgroup, and be back weeks later. A number of time the apps will stay quiet for weeks for no apparent reason. A number of times I have to mute the apps because it is getting too noisy and will find a time to review them at one go to avoid constant distraction.

I still remember that day when I have personal emergency. Wife in serious labor situation and we manage to reach the hospital in 10 minutes. ( Thank God is a Miracle !). The doctor on duty knew something is not right and go for immediate cesarean with the help of another doctor called up from another floor. Fortunately, both mother and child are fine. It was really a close shave. That doctor reminded us twice....

Weeks later while in confinement center when the mental tempo of newborn starts to calm down, I noticed one of my old friend has been missing in the chat group. He is the oldest of the group and prolific in forwarding u-tube links for sharing. Higher foreign educated but has a number of medical health issue to manage later in life unfortunately. Background wise, among us he has the best growth environment. Career wise not as well. Back to present day. I started to ask for him but to no avail. He is usually alone, attend church service, and part time education job that last I know.

Then it suddenly strikes us that we only has his mobile and Whatsapp. No address or next-of-kin that we know. Modern day issue? I am getting a little concern but it has already been weeks, and if there is mishap probably is already over. 

We did not give up. Months later, one of my friend manage to use unorthodox method search to find out he was deceased. Someone said in his inactive Facebook that he has passed away later. And then it strikes on me I have lose an old friend forever. I never felt that way when grandma passed away decade ago but this time seems like some part of me was loss too ( What ?! ). And this started the search of what happen. I felt we owe him something. The feeling of guilt. The responsibility and needs to do something now. 

The only thing I can say now is that his passing taught me something that no textbook can provides. The inner pain of missing something. Friends in this earth is a short time but we are fated to meet and be friends in this life. Cherish them. There is a lot more things than wealth, job and politics. Maybe I am too sentimental. Rest well my friend. Rest well ( teary eyes ). Don't think I will ever forget this episode.

Cory
2020-0708

Cory Diary : Poverty

More than 20 years ago,  I worked in a local company and has a good Malaysian friend as lunch buddy. As a young graduate then whereas he is very experience and knowledgeable but lesser educated. In one of our discussion, we talked about stocks and he commented he don't have enough saving to do that. I could not comprehend that time because I am just new into the job and have enough money to dabble in stock market. Fast forward today, I think there are variety of reason probably. This is best summaries by this teacher below on pitfall that can fall into us today.

A Video which I thought is excellent from this Chinese Teacher who is able to collect wealth of information on why people are poor. A lot of controversy however this makes us think how to do thing more smartly. How can we not fall back below poverty line. How can we be richer.

I hope this can help some of us.


Cory
2020-0521

Cory Diary : Tray Collection Robot

Smart Tray Return automation piloted in a food court recently. Pretty cool huh. There is some issues here and there. The walkway is too small and the robots are a little sensitives which i think is alright due to safety. Nevertheless I find it interesting. What I do like is we probably have created a number of higher value jobs. Well is still pilot and may not take off. However this may ignite other initiatives here and elsewhere.

I still remember like "yesterday" having a vivid discussion with a respected blogger on old folks hired to help clean up the plates in food courts. His main concern is what type of values he want his children to have. Old people helping to clear his kids dishes ? I respect that. And then we also have the efficiency addition where the government want to rely less on foreign workers, and grass roots promoting self service. Well it is not going anywhere.

Curiously that time in my thought is, did anyone ask about what the old folks think ? I am more empathy that many of this old folks need to work or spending few hours of their time a day trying to earn some pocket money.

This is especially so for those who do not have enough saving. There is limited job alternatives for them. They are one of the social interaction remaining links. What more there is some value creation. There is also some interaction in their life. I think we need to appreciate their service.

But if you ask me now, i would say the tray automation system complement all our needs. The robots will likely complement their work. The workers are still needed, the children can still walk up to put their tray, the robots will lighten the labour needs and we have created higher value work supported by engineers, hr, managers etc.





I come back to Singapore few times a year. Every time i will not miss buying my Business Times copy from this old Indian Lady. A temporarily prop up store. Very friendly. And I would always like to put up a chat with her every time in the morning when I am there. She lights up my morning with her cheerfulness and ideas.

And then another older Chinese lady solo many a time on the Kopi-Tiam noodle store. Excellent food. Shes looks like 70 ! One of my favourite. Irreplaceable cooking skills. Who next's ? They all play a part in our daily life aren't they ? Do we really like to see newspaper vending machine ? Factory produced noodles self-collect at pick-up point ? Maybe some people like talking to "Wall".





Key part of the life equation is how technology enable and complement our daily experiences especially those that are the fabrics of our society. Not just dollar and cents. Maybe our future can be more exciting  in this lacklustre market.

Cory
20160917