I blogged previously stating how 30 to 40 years old is a period of  'Not enough time'. Yet I find so many becoming a hamster on a wheel, whereby you allow non consequential people and circumstances to dictate your schedule.

If you cannot manage your time well, it's difficult to feel happiness.

Success? What exactly is success?

Some days, my daughter love school so much she looked forward to going to her lessons even on weekends. Other days, she cried so much and clung on to us before her teachers dragged her away. The teachers also take it personally that she does not like to go to school on those days and asked me why.

A single mother brought her 3 daughters up single handedly. Now all she wishes is for her children to live happily and healthily. No, that is not the only wish. She wants them to all live in abundance and preferably in wealth.

Everyone wants to have so much they can even top up their children's CPF

Repost to give you more ideas on the upcoming Valentines Day:

After all the debate about the Top 10 unwanted gifts, you will have to ask... then what is there to buy?!! Okok, this is a bit unfair and my choices are definitely different from other girls but it's better than giving hello kitty presents all the time. Let's see if I can give you some ideas... Warning: All of them require certain amount of time, effort, research and sincerity.

1) Electronic gadgets/accessories
Honestly guys, stick with what you are good at and what she is not in general cases. Most guys know more about gadgets than girls so it should be a safe bet. Hard disk, bluetooth hands-free earpiece, selfie stick, handphone car holder, cover, or even the accessories! They are definitely practical and much appreciated. A hair straightener that can double up as a curler is also a cool idea that most guys will not think to buy. You can even give her a thumbdrive that include your love story and photos in nice powerpoint slides and heartfelt messages in it!

If budget is low, just buy the accessories! (Source: lifestyle9.com)

2) Water bottle
Everyone always needs to change their water bottle. I actually have 3 of them, 1 for work, 1 at home and 1 for sports. A good, nice one is easy to get from Royal Sporting House or Taobao. Write a simple note and insert into the bottle together with some stars, ribbons or petals and there you have your simple, thoughtful gift.

3) Thermal flask
Working adults normally need it for their coffee/tea and it's great for travels. If you have time to spare, plan a picnic. Otherwise, let me share with you the perfect way to worm into her heart: Fill it with hot cocoa/coffee and bring it to surprise her on a cold night and you are bound to get lucky that night.

The perfect image in my mind... (Source: ciderwithrosie.com)

4) Facial and hair apparels
Let's face it, our skin will not be so youthful forever. Body moisturizer is like the essential product that every of my female friends has so it should be safe and practical. Check out her usual brands and you could go even further to buy other things like face mask, nail polish or hair products. It doesn't sound romantic but she will appreciate that you have paid attention to what brands that she is using. Best is if you buy her make up remover and you remove make up for her that night.... Score!

5) Jewellery box
I have found that every girl needs a jewellery box and I have started giving all my girlfriends this handy gift recently. Surprisingly, none of my friends have got a nice, fashionable and big one with lots of compartments to store rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets. You can shop around depending on budget at all the online stores. If you have also bought some accesories then store it inside and wait for her to find out!

Doesn't cost much if you buy online (Source: Wikipedia)

6) Accessories/Watches
Diamonds are girls' best friend. If your pocket is not so deep, go for pearl earrings then. Please don't go for those sold in Accesorize shop. I heard Pandora is a really good choice but quite steep. Couple watches are also a safe bet as it goes to show your commitment to her and always seems more expensive than it really is. City chain 50% off is a good bargain but price makes all the difference in this case.
7) Customized travel kit
One of my best and most thoughtful gift that I have received. It contains some basic medication, nail clipper, band-aids, zip lock bags, small bottles of sun screen, lip balm and knick knacks. With some good packaging, you can even sell it as a plan for your next overseas trip together. Swee.


8) Puzzles
Everyone loves a good teaser and it excites your relationship and brings the intimacy to a whole new level. Someone once drew me a treasure map and then passed it to me on valentine's day. The X marks the place my present was hidden in school but I had to find it on my own! I gave up looking after a while until he hinted that I was looking at the right place. I think this idea is great but please be beside her while she is doing the search if not, she will look quite idiotic looking around.

I once did a treasure hunt with hidden clues leading to the next and ultimately to the end point (which can be the present or the dinner place) and it was easier than I thought to do it! Less crowded places will be better to hide the clues and it can be somewhere that meant something to both of you. Or if she loves food, make it a food hunt. My friend once did a crossword puzzle and the girl has to solve all of it to find out the final word which is the place for dinner! All of these doesn't have to be just on the guys' initiative, actually the girls can do it to surprise the guys too.

9) Flowers
Yes, you know about flowers (Not potted flowers!) but I need to explain why it is listed here. The truth is, not everyone like flowers. I don't and I think it's a waste of money. But, flowers are meant to be a display of affection and a symbol of romance. A show off. A proud declaration that she is attached. An announcement that she has a romantic partner. If every girl has it, then she will need it to make you and her look good. Flowers are only given when there is a crowd around, like in her school or office or a gathering. Luckily there is social media so it's still meant to be broadcasted to the world if she wants it.

10) Hand made/ home made stuff
Nothing says sincerity as much as when she can see that you have put in effort to do something for her. A home made dinner, cake, dessert, chocolate will touch her even if it tastes disgusting. Hand made cards, scrap book, little sweet notes/post-its, a simple drawing captured on camera and sent to her, even a customized desktop or mobile wall paper/ screen saver will secure your happiness late into the night.

Better not expect that she will clean up for you.. (Source: Wikipedia)

Even if you are married, you shouldn't take your relationship for granted and should continue to put in effort to create some romance once in a while. Please share your best gifts and feedback so that we can all benefit from it! Good luck everyone!

It's the start of the year yet I have reached my mid life crisis. Or rather, a mid career crisis although I have only been working for 7.5 years. Yep, don't laugh.

From Nick Hubbard

I barely scraped through this year.

People are more assertive as they grow older. The older we get, the clearer we know our likes and dislikes. We are not afraid to fight for what we want as we know what we want. We are not afraid to fight for happiness.

I wonder what it is with branded goods, why everyone seems to want to own it to elevate their status and position in the society. I thought cash is more important but apparently, your face value is very important too.

It was a normal day. My family and I were having zichar dinner in a neighbourhood restaurant. Not high class at all but there was air con so it's quite a comfortable setting.

Since starting work a number of years ago, I have been on the search for my passion but to no avail. Things I have tried taught me what I dislike, but what I like is few and short lived. This elusive passion I want is the passion in work, a career I could spent half my life building, be excited for and proud of. The search has so far been a needle in a haystack. Despite the lack of passion, I think I’m surviving okay in this rat race. A shelter over my head, ample food, occasional splurges and yearly vacations. I could continue to be okay, climbing the corporate ladder one step at a time. But the thought of going through life without knowing what I’m really good at scares me. Essentially, what we are good at defines us, and I will not stop searching until I discover who I really am.

My friend's wife literally forced him to take a part time job on top of his full time job so that they can have more money to spend.

When he told us this, my jaw dropped literally.

Red packets are what most children look forward to every Chinese New Year. For married adults, it's a hole in the pocket but it's not really that big a hole.

Oh no, this was not said by me but by this article. I find it very interesting and was asking myself why our General Paper topics are not more like this. For the lazy bums, to summarize, this 50s lady chose not to have kids because:
1) She does not want kids even though she met someone in her 40s. They eventually broke off because her partner wanted kids.
2) She used her time and limited money in her career building up her own bookkeeping business
3) The extra time and money she used it to do something she is passionate about, which is helping other women. No way she could have done it if she had kids
4) She has $125k set aside for retirement and half a million dollars worth of business
5) Instead of investing in kids, she has invested in herself

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 :)

Toxic people are those who bring you down in work and also life. They spread negative emotions to you and make you feel depressed or not as optimistic after talking to them. Their actions generated so much negativity that the whole working or group environment will feel the change and dislike their job and everything else.
Example 1:
A good friend of mine usually insults and puts down my potential love interests and new friends.  He will point out their flaws and made me reconsider my friendship with the rest. I did not know it at that time but he will also say bad things about me behind my back or join others to ridicule me.

Example 2:
This ex-colleague was really friendly in front during working hours. After working hours when I bumped into him, he did not even acknowledge me when I greeted him outside. Whenever I made a mistake, he will try to make sure everyone knows it while for my success, he will attribute it to good timing and luck.

Example 3:
A senior in the company advised me to stay away from a certain group of people. I was friendly with everyone and did not want to start the primary school childishness. Then she started to relate the stories of how those people back-stabbed her and prevented her from getting her promotion. I sympathised with her but it did not happened to me and the group of people also has their own story.

Needless to say, good friend can become acquaintances and some colleagues will never be your friends. Some relationships just ain't worth hanging on.

Indeed, these people all have their hidden agenda and not in my best interests.

I did not know that the ex-good friend had feelings for me but ridiculing me just did not make sense. I was also given a promotion ahead of my ex-colleague which explains the fake politeness while the senior just wanted more people in her clique to go against the other group.

Never trust people especially when they badmouth others. They will definitely gossip about you too. How someone treats others can be taken into consideration but one should not be too quick to jump to conclusions when you are not the parties involved. Who knows what was their previous history and how good these storytellers can distort the facts.

Stay away from such people as they will only bring you down in life. And of course, don't be toxic yourself.

After more than 10 times of applying to get into Google Adsense, I finally got it after almost a year of doing so! I thought I would never get it. Actually, I was not expecting to get approved when I did because I changed nothing since my last application.

Anyway, these are the steps I took:
1) Include an About Me page
2) Include a Disclaimer page at the bottom
3) Include a Privacy Policy page at the bottom
4) Revert your template to blogger approved ones to see if it's the template that is unsuitable
5) Delete any sentences that I copied from any news website as they have copy right on them
6) Delete any images that are not 'Labeled for reuse' under the Search tools tab in Google images. Hot links are perfectly fine if the image is safe for reuse.


However, I discovered something and it might be the reason why I finally get the much awaited approval. The period where I got the approval is when I got at least 50 clicks through Google searches daily. I do not  know if it's a criteria but I definitely did not change anything at all after completing the above steps.

I am just glad I can finally start earning some money from my blog, even though it's earning peanuts every day :) 

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

Starting with our outpour of emotions and respect for the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, followed by our sportsmen doing us proud in Sea Games and finally witnessing a spectacular Jubilee NDP, I have never felt prouder to be a Singaporean. The feeling was especially strong while I was listening to PM Lee Hsien Loong's rally speech on 23 Aug. As with previous rallies, he started by recounting notable events in the past year, but this was a special year. The events he recounted were things that all Singaporeans can relate to, and will always remember.