The sharing session has been postponed as the organisers will be holding a bigger event at a later date and combined with other bloggers. The scheduling of this date was too rushed so they were unable to get more speakers.

Now, this is a better idea!

I am honoured to have my own sharing session to meet and greet my readers. You can register them at this link - Unconditional Parenting Made Easy.

I have no idea who thought of this title because parenting is never easy. Yet it's the tough and challenging times that create the most unforgettable memories. Me? I have no secret recipe, I just try my very best and I think that's enough.

Yep, completely informal session!

I will start off 2018 with an in-depth post.

Many of you know that I quit my regional sales job to start my own business at SnackFirst. What I have not mentioned is why I feel that it is the right move, instead of accepting another job offer or go for more interviews. Yes, it was mainly due to my boss who asked me to shut up but I could have found another similar job. It was hard for me to explain my decisions clearly at that time but in retrospect, it was mainly due to these reasons:

Will I fall?

A year of a complete change in my life. Right after getting adjusted to being a mother, my career path has gone haywire. A drastic change and a brake to climbing up the corporate ladder. Questions started coming the longer I stayed away from my family, which is why I started to dig deeper and ask myself what I want in life.

There was a big outcry from many of my friends over the merger of 8 JCs in Singapore from the recent news. Our school, Jurong Junior Collge was to be closed down and 'merged' with Pioneer JC. They were pretty adamant that we should keep our JJC name or even Jurong-Pioneer JC. Why should we have to move when we are more established and have a longer history?

The schoolyard where I sometimes have to run to avoid being late!

If you are keen to find out more about my financial background and details, click here to read the interview at Investopenly. I am grateful to Richard for publishing my invite even though I am not a financial but a lifestyle blogger. Anyway, for the more personal stuff, here is an interview I imagined for myself:

Oh, this is me, not my baby :)

I barely scraped through this year.

I could finally drag no more and have to buy a car.

Recently, I received a few advertisers asking to post on my blog without mentioning that it is an advertorial. Worse part is, I have no say in the post or what is going to be published. This becomes not my blog anymore but a platform for advertising.

I hated it.

I want the money but yet I cannot accept it. Sigh, why is it so difficult to earn some money?! I think my readers will know that it is not written by me but then, my credibility as an objective reviewer will just go down the drain. What if the advertorial post goes against what I believe in? Am I blogging for money or for my hobby?

Preferably both la!

Too bad my hobby can't translate much into earnings. However, this made me realise one thing - I am blogging to share about what I feel, hopefully good deals and prudent tips for everyone. If you can help to click on my ads, then I will be happier, haha!

I welcome advertorials openly but too bad, my blog does not attract much traffic. It's ok because I have less pressure to commit on topics that I do not feel strongly about. It's a nice hobby and hopefully I will have more inspiration once I start travelling again.

I am not here to shame bloggers who do so because I know money is a strong motivating factor and there is a price to everything. Free money why refuse? I did not even give them a chance to offer before I rejected them. Stupid?! Maybe $10k leh? If one day you recognize that it is not my rambling then you will know that some advertisers offered $10k. Haha ok, daydreaming.

Let's not be too quick to judge others (me!).

Salute to all SAHM! It's really a tough job handling kids all day, everyday.

Your life circles around the children and you plan your schedule around them. Every day, your little victory would be their fully satiated stomachs and peaceful naps.

No house wife could look like that!

This is a thorny issue among everyone, especially so when you just graduated and started working. Turning independence means you will have to consider the expense that you will incur and health related expenses are the biggest worry.

The scariest part is not the hospital but the bill!

I am in a comfortable position right now.

I got a good job and not overworked. Right now, it's the lull period where the sales figures are more or less fixed for the year and people are having holidays. It's like the end of the business cycle and new development will be next year's problem. Everyone is looking forward to collecting their bonus and busy slacking enjoying the rainy season.

So of course, I have more free time.

How else can you use this?

Many people who went university always tell me that secondary/poly/JC school was one of their best times in their life and I always think that it is because these people did not know how to optimize university's activities fully. I think I set a record by going for 4 freshmen camps consecutively for 4 weeks and made great friends there and had such a blasting great fun because of that.

But nothing can compare to this. One of my best times in university was an opportunity to go Work and Travel. It's a once-in-a-lifetime deal to leave your parents to work for 1+ month and travel USA for the rest of the summer holidays which is 1 full month of vacation!

The wave pool at the theme park

Still can't believe I managed to churn out articles for one year. I was thinking I would run out of juice in 6 months but luckily, I did stay on long enough to mark my blog's first year birthday! Thank you to my readers for the support and I am also lucky to get some extra bucks from Google Adsense.



Some thoughts:
1) On Coftea
The most popular post is not written by me... sigh. Haha but I am grateful for Coftea on writing this excellent piece - 'Can HDB owners own a private condo', This topic has indeed troubled many Singaporeans which promoted a lot of searches and went viral in facebook with daily hits hitting more than 10000 a day! I also like his appreciation to being a Singaporean and 10 lessons in Warren Buffett's letter. Thank you Coftea for your great contributions and please write more :)

I also welcome all guest writers who feel the urge to write once in a blue moon...

2) On travel posts
I did not expect my travel posts to be popular as there are so many free and easy blogs out there. It was a pleasant surprise to see 4 of them in my top 10 namely for Hokkaido, Seoul, Tokyo and Bangkok. These posts don't generate any good views in the beginning but after some time, the search results will push them to regular daily hits. I am also glad that my travel stories are able to amuse some of you, especially on my lesbian friend's story and my encounters with taxi drivers. This made me motivated to continue writing on my travels...

3) On OCBC and UOB
I will continue to update their changes regarding their accounts and credit cards as I am using the OCBC 360 and 365. I have stopped using Frank after they stopped the rebates and am considering UOB One account as I have applied for UOB One card. Hope to keep sharing my thoughts and how I milk my cash fully so as to benefit you too.

4) On being a finance blog
I have failed terribly at this as you can see from what I bought for my first stock. I am not good enough to dole out finance advice and sometimes, I can only advise people to save more and make it a habit or be conscious of their spending. This Sheng Siong and Riverstone post is one of my newbie attempts though it's easier for me to write about not losing $10,000 a year to expenses. My writing flows easily on little tips in life like what you should get for your girlfriends and wives but...

There is always the problem where those who should be heeding my advice are not my viewers. The big question is still on how to disseminate the information to non-savers/investors and I am not sure my other posts are able to do that.

5) On Simply Sales Talk series
I started this as I wanted people to know that every job has their difficulties and discriminations and many toxic people to bring you down. Although I was terrible in my job initially, with passion and perseverance, I could still get to my current ideal job as a regional sales manager!  Hard work is definitely necessary in order to prove yourself and there is no easy way out. My job satisfied my need to travel yet be paid to do so and appear to others as leading a high life.

Work is not our everything but it takes up one third of our life and seeking fulfilment in that significant amount of time is essential.  For me, I would want to see how much I can contribute back to the society. The payroll will sponsor my travels and also my continued contribution to my investments.

Happy birthday, SimplyJesMe! Hope I will get to my second birthday :)

I recently attended a course mate's wedding and I was glad to meet some of them again. We don't really meet up that often and only during weddings which occur around twice a year. There was this guy I have not seen for other weddings so naturally I talked to him longer.

Lifelong commitment

How embarrassing.

And I just have to be in sales. Whenever we meet someone, we have to shake hands. Two times mostly for customers, the moment you see them and the moment you are leaving. It's twice the embarrassment.

My usual sheepish face

Not from laughing too much but from running.

Running to or away? (Source: wikipedia)

My 50 year old colleague recently had a quadruple bypass, which means 4 of his blood vessels are blocked and needed to be unblocked. His top most regret and advice to his 30 years old self and also to me, is this:

We should never stop exercising.

Exercise for life (Source: wikipedia)

A very chim word.

The short form of this is Ortho-k, which means to wear corrective lenses only at night and get perfect vision throughout the day. No surgery is needed and instead of wearing contact lenses during the working hours, you wear it to go to bed every night.

I am still amazed that the lenses can correct the shape of my cornea! (Source: wikipedia)