Living Investment Volume 3

Living Investment Ideas on living, a collection of blog posts

by Lim Kim Tong

Š Copyright 2019 by Lim Kim Tong Book Design by Lim Shu Ning Illustrations by Lim Shu Ning All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Typefaces used: Gill Sans and Fertigo Pro

To Lim Chau Lee and Lim Shu Ning, Love of my life

Contents Introduction to book I Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning 2016

Return on Investment (ROI) at end of the year 2016 3 Do you know where your money went for the year? 4 Asset Mix of Investable Funds – December 2016 6 Changing strategy from dividend stocks for 2017 7 Which markets did well in 2016? 9 2017

Fear of Protectionistic United States of America? 11 Losses on Currency linked Investments 12 Nikko AM China Onshore Bond Fund (CNH) 14 Stopped foreign currency denominated investments 15 Investing in bonds and fixed income investments 16 POSB Invest-Saver 17 Not A Risk Taker 19 In share investment never say, “I could have…” 20 Actual dividends received in 2017 21 Top up Retirement Sum with Cash 22 Distribution Yields of SPDR STI ETF beat CPF interest rate Calculating actual dividend yields 24 Change in Asset Mix of Investable Funds 25 Do you know your expenditure for the year? 27 Return on Investment (ROI) for 2017 28 How were the stock markets in 2017? 29

23

2018

Investors in equities are running for cover 30 Stock Markets spooked by President Trump 31 Stock Markets declined in First Quarter 2018 32 Not Active in Investing 33 Knowing the China Stock Market – Shanghai Composite Index There were times that I wish I did not invest 35 Financial Management

Investments

Retirement Planning

34

Investing in Investment Property 36 Parents can offer advice on retirement planning 38 Cost of Living under spotlight 40 Property prices got hit every time in an economic downturn 41 Watch out when COE price declines 42 10 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers 44 No where to hide – Financial Assets Distress 46 Difficult Environment for past 10 years since Global Financial Crisis You thought you could cut back on spending on retirement? 49 Ways to reduce expenses or spending 50 Sources of income to pay for expenses 52 Advice we gave to our daughter on financial matters 53 2018 – A year of volatility 55 Actual dividend yields for 2018 57 Change in Asset Mix of Investable Funds – 2018 58 Return on Invested Capital - 2011 to 2018 59 10-year Bull Run for US stock markets halted 60 How was my family expenditure for the year? 61 2019

47

Performance of World Equity Indices - 2018 62 When to withdraw from Supplementary Retirement Scheme? 64 Investing in 2019 65 How much will you be getting on CPF Life? 66 Buying Life Insurance Policies as a way of diversifying investment portfolio 67 Cost of driving a car 68 Know who you have nominated as beneficiaries for life insurance policies 69 Lost confidence in Singapore Equities 70 Reducing Risks as I get older 72 US and China stock markets did a V-Shaped Recovery 73 Lasting Power of Attorney 74 Shanghai Composite shooting higher 75 All it took was one tweet by Donald J. Trump … 76 When US and China cannot come to a trade agreement 77 Stocks weakened in three weeks 79

Financial Management

Investments

Retirement Planning

II Living Tips 2016

A sense of justice disturbs peace of mind Don’t push my button 84 Surviving the turbulence 85

83

2017

De-clutter your home 86 Can we be more considerate? 87 Sustainable Living for Me 88 Why are people getting angrier and in a rush?

Time Stealers 91 If only life can speak to you 92 You walk alone 93 What worry you? 94 Are you in control? 95 All phenomena are transient 96 Less is More 98

90

2018

Resolve to tackle busyness 99 Fake News 100 How much time did you spend on your mobile phone?

Obsession on Academic Performance 103 Hope 104 Are you constantly planning ahead or living in the past?

Fears of Retirement 106 Doing our parts to save this earth 108 2019

Treat others kindly 109 Competitive Society causes Stress to Children One CEO 111 About Death 112 Stop collecting. 114 Forest Bathing, Shinrin-yoku 115 Questioning our Priorities 116

110

102 105

Honesty cannot be compromised 117 III Life Journey 2016

Mindfulness Retreat without the distractions Miserable 122 Looking back at 2016 124 Writing Journals 127

121

2017

This Rooster Year has significance 128 When I get on to be 60 129 Being 60 131 40 years of Camaradarie celebrated 132 Gifts to my child 133 Meeting my Secondary School classmates 135 Looking back at 2017 136 2018

Five Days of Worry 140 Subtle Love 142 Facebook – Entering phase of housekeeping for me When your cupboard/wardrobe was so full 144 My home was a hive of activities 145 On Growing Old 147 Tributes to all my friends 148 2019

Looking back at 2018 149 What is most important in this life? 153 Using old currency notes for Hongbao packets 154 Not buying boxes of oranges 155 Spring 156 Reunion Emotions 157 Stopped Driving 158 Life without a car 159 Terminated Safe Deposit Box at Certis Cisco 160

143

Recall power weakened over time 161 Cancelling DBS Esso MasterCard 162 Coping with impairing mental agility 163 My Life Partner 165 About Parenting 167 Keeping mind active, picking up new skill 169 Ageing process and its impacts on me 170 Learning to live with imperfections 171 Running Thoughts 172 Meditation Retreat in Taiwan from 21 May to 6 June 2019 Not going to live by targets 176 Weighty Issues on Ageing 177 Sixty-Two, 62 178 Epilogue Glossary References About the author

174

Introduction to book

This is Volume 3 of Living Investment and would be the last. In 2013, I released my very first book on Living Investment. Volume 2 was released in 2016.

Volume 3 continues from where we left off in Volume 2.

Living Investment is a collection of my meaningful pieces I had written in my blog since 2006. The blog Living Investment (http://limkimtong.wordpress.com) was started when I went into early retirement in 2006. Because I was trained as an accounting and finance professional, I have experiences to share in areas of investments and retirement planning. The second aspect of Living Investment is living this life. It is a journal of personal encounters.

Volume 3 covers period from November 2016 to August 2019. This period was significant for me as I turned 60 in 2017. One other major life event had impacted me as well. I made some major decisions after I was categorised as a Senior in Singapore context. Living a meaningful life takes on an important focus as I live each day.

This book is structured in chronological order and blog posts are marked by themes. It captures moments of past as major events happened, like the trade war between the US and China in 2018/19. The writing is therefore in context.

This book has three main themes: 1. Financial management, investment and retirement planning 2. Living tips 3. Life journey

Disclaimer The material presented is intended to be general and written in layman’s language as much as it is possible. The author shall not be liable for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of material written. Please seek professional advice from your financial advisor or financial institutions on material written covering financial matters.

23 December 2016

Return on Investment (ROI) at end of the year 2016

One way to decide whether your investment is worth keeping is to look at the return on investment (ROI) over a period of one year. You could use the calendar year to track the dividend or interest received during the year. Since the year is coming to an end, it is time to work out this ROI. In its simplest form, ROI = Dividend Income or Interest income / cost of investment The ROI would be most accurate when the investment was held for the whole year. If the investment were held only for part of the year, some form of pro-ration of ROI would be necessary.

Capital gain or loss on sale of investment is to be excluded from the ROI. Another difficulty is with the denominator, ie cost of investment. During the year the cost of investment could fluctuate with sale/disposal of investment or additional purchases of the same investment. In this case, I use the average of the opening balance (start of the year) and closing balance (at end of the year) of the investment. This is the easiest way to track and the value of the ROI is good enough for my decision-making.

Investment type ROI Singapore equity, Reits and STI ETF 3.17% LionGlobal Singapore Dividend Equity Fund 2.99% BlackRock European Equity Income Fund 4.08% OCBC Preference shares (4.0%) 3.87% Note that I did not consider the current values of these investments. It can be lower than the cost you had acquired them in the past. The current value fluctuates especially during period of volatility. In making decision, you could also consider the current value of the investment. So you have both ROI and current value of investment when making buy/sell or hold decision.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 3

24 December 2016

Do you know where your money went for the year?

Money came and went throughout the year. At the end of the year, do you know how much money came in and how they were spent in the year? Sometimes, you scratch your head and wonder how come your bank balance is so low at the end of the year.

You would need two parts to work out the answer: Cash Income and Cash Expenditure.

Cash Income includes (A): - Salary/Bonuses (if you are working) - Income from investments - Fixed deposits/Savings accounts interest income - Capital gain or loss on sale of investments Cash expenditure includes (B): - Overseas trips - Donations - Car expenses - Computer and related expenses - Ang Pows (CNY and weddings) - Medical expenses and check-ups - House-related items (appliances, repairs, etc) - Utilities bills - NTUC Fairprice bills (via credit card statements) - Property tax - Management fees & Sinking Funds (or S&CC charges) Cash Income – Cash Expenditure = (A) – (B) = (C) (C) can be negative or positive depending on whether (A) is bigger or (B) is bigger.

4 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Net Change in your bank accounts balances and your investments between start and end of the year is computed next.

The Net Change figure can be explained by (C) amount above.

Since we are tracking major items like the above items, (C) is not exactly the same as the Net Change figure. As long the difference is not huge, you are alright in identifying where the money went.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 5

25 December 2016

Asset Mix of Investable Funds - December 2016

From the start of 2016, my portfolio asset mix had changed.

The biggest reduction came from divesting some fixed income/bonds (-7.5 percentage points). Correspondingly, the cash and cash equivalent went up by almost the same margin (+7.0 percentage points).

There was a marginal reduction in foreign currency linked investments (-0.3).

Insurance linked investments went up just 0.8 percentage point.

Asset Mix in percentages (%) Equities Fixed Income/Bonds Forex related investments Insurance related investments Cash & Equivalent

Dec 2015 24.5 33.6 8.1 9.5 24.3

Dec 2016 24.5 26.1 7.8 10.3 31.3

Change 0 -7.5 -0.3 +0.8 +7.0

I kept to the same exposure to equities with no change in percentages at 24.5% of the total portfolio.

Fixed income/bonds investments stood at 26.1% of portfolio. With bonds markets tumbling after US Federal Reserve (Fed) raised benchmark interest rate in December, it was a move I took to reduce exposure in these financial instruments.

Because the financial markets were volatile during the year, I turned risk-averse and kept more cash in the portfolio at 31.3%.

6 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

28 December 2016

Changing strategy from dividend stocks for 2017

My portfolio of Singapore equity selection was mainly based on dividend stocks.

If the dividend yield was above 3.00%, I would be happy to hold on to them.

Dividend yield is based on the actual dividend received in the year against my actual cost of stocks purchased. This is my return on investment (ROI) on investing in stocks.

The following lists some dividend stocks I owned.

Counter Actual Dividend Yield (%) in 2016 SPH Reit 5.81% StarHub 4.70% Keppel Reit 4.42% SPH 4.37% Singtel 4.33% M1 4.15% UOB 4.10% OCBC 3.48% DBS 3.32% Keppel Corp 3.04% STI ETF 2.86% This is just half the picture. The other consideration is the price changes resulting from drop in stock prices.

The Price Decline is from cost of purchase against current stock price as at 23 December 2016. Top four Price Declines came from M1, Keppel Corp, StarHub and Keppel Reit. My price entry was high when I purchased them. M1 and StarHub were hit by new fourth Telco entering the market in Singapore. As for Keppel Corp, it was affected badly by collapsing oil prices.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 7

Counter M1 Keppel Corp StarHub Keppel Reit

Price decline (%) -48.0 -41.2 -35.0 -32.9

Come 2017, my strategy will change. I have enough dividend stocks and won’t be adding more. If I look at SPDR STI ETF, my STI ETF only declined 9.2% from my cost of purchase. The dividend yield was 2.86% which is decent enough return. So instead of picking individual counter/stock, I would like to consider more of SPDR STI ETF. STI ETF matches the Straits Times Index (STI) and is a basket of 30 bluechip stocks. By investing in STI ETF, I am spreading risks across a basket of stocks.

Risk is lower than if one selects a few stocks.

8 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

31 December 2016

Which markets did well in 2016?

UK’s FTSE 100 outperformed the rest in the stock indices I tracked below. Despite the Brexit hanging over UK, UK stock market did very well with a jump of 14.4% from a year ago. Dow Jones Industrial Average came in second at a rise of 13.4%.

This is more in line with strong economic growth in US. The worst performing index was the Shanghai Composite at a sharp drop of 12.5%. China was in the doldrums since the beginning.

At home, the Straits Times Index (STI) hardly moved. One can go to sleep for a whole year and wake up without any lost in time! STI was trying desperately to keep its head above water. It was down by 0.07% at the end.

Stock Indices FTSE100 (UK) Dow Jones (USA) Taiwan Weighted S&P 500 (USA) Nasdaq (USA) Australia All Ordinaries Germany DAX CAC 40 (France) Kospi (Korea) Mumbai BSESN Nikkei 225 (Japan) Hang Seng (HK) STI (Singapore) Shanghai Composite

31-Dec-15 30-Dec-16 Change 6,242.32 7,142.83 14.4% 17,425.03 19,762.60 13.4% 8,338.06 9,253.50 11.0% 2,043.94 2,238.83 9.5% 5,007.41 5,383.12 7.5% 5,344.60 5,719.10 7.0% 10,743.01 11,481.06 6.9% 4,637.06 4,862.31 4.9% 1,961.31 2,026.46 3.3% 26,117.54 26,626.46 1.9% 19,033.71 19,114.37 0.4% 21,914.40 22,000.56 0.4% 2,882.73 2,880.76 -0.1% 3,546.13 3,103.64 -12.5%

The STI moved down sharply in February 2016. Subsequently, it was a yoyo until the end.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 9

22 January 2017

Fear of Protectionistic United States of America?

On taking office, President Donald Trump moved to withdraw from the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact. TPP was dead even before it started. So we are back to original position where the existing trade agreements among nations still hold. Until these are renegotiated in the future, there is no change with the existing trade agreements. We have to wait and see.

I learned in Economics that the world would be richer when there is free flow of goods, capital and people across country borders under the principle of comparative advantage. Goods are produced in a country that has lower (opportunity) cost than another country. For this principle to work, trade between nations must not be hindered by protectionistic measures such as tariffs on goods..

It appears that Donald Trump’s administration is going along the protectionistic route. The other nations hurt by this would retaliate resulting in trade wars. This won’t be good for global trade. The World Trade Organization (WTO) would be busy with mediating trade disputes.

I see the governments of different countries would be busy with this disruption. If not managed well politically, global economies may go into recession in the worstcase scenario. However, we may not reach this stage if common sense prevails.

Electorates of countries would not want to see a recession and the governments of the day know it. The current government put into power by electorates can be removed in the next election.

As an individual, we can do things to adjust. If things are expensive because of protectionistic measures, buy less, buy alternatives or do without. It is in our power.

If a country is antagonistic towards us, do not travel there for leisure. Choose another country that is friendly. The collective consumer power can be harnessed to make a statement to nations. When the pockets of individuals are hurt such as a recession, we would tackle it as a nation coming together. It takes a recession to emerge stronger and wiser. This has been the case in successive recessions in the past. Has no fear and live in the moment. This too will pass.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 11

23 February 2017

Losses on Currency linked Investments

Back in 2008, I invested S$400,000 in currency linked investment (CLI). CLI is a short-term yield enhancement structured product based on investor’s view of the exchange rate movement between 2 currencies.

The currency pair was Aussie dollars against Singapore dollars (AUD/SGD).

The strike price I had contracted was A$1 = S$1.265. So long that Aussie dollar remains strong and stays above S$1.265, the investment would not be converted to Aussie dollar. At the same time, the investment earns a yield of 4.50% p.a. interest income. This yield was big and enticing. However when the Aussie dollar weakens below S$1.265, conversion to Aussie dollar may mean that you would not be able to get back to Singapore dollar at the original strike price. The negative is that investor gets stuck with Aussie dollar unless you convert back to Singapore dollar at a lower value and lose a big chunk of your investment. Alternatively, the bank relationship manager may try to pair your investment with another currency to beat the market and regain your investment value.

My actual experience with this currency linked investment was bad. From S$400,000, I reduced my exposure to CLI to just S$100,000 in 2013 when the Aussie dollar was below my initial strike price of S$1.265. The Aussie dollar did not recover to S$1.265 against Singapore dollar (AUD/SGD) since 2013. Now the currency pair (AUD/SGD) is S$1.0902.

I took a drastic decision to get out of this type of investment last year and this month by selling out the investment.

For eight years since 2008, my income and capital losses for CLI were as follow: Interest earned: S$13,184 Capital losses: S$33,488 Overall net loss on investment: $20,304.

12 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Considering the amount of loss in relation to the quantum to start with, it did not look as bad. It could be much worse.

Clearly, this currency linked investment carries risk. I do not think that I can beat the market with this kind of currency volatility, especially when the Aussie dollar against Singapore dollar had declined significantly over the eight years.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 13

11 April 2017

Nikko AM China Onshore Bond Fund (CNH)

Back in September 2014, I invested in Nikko AM China Onshore Bond Fund CNH. It is denominated in CNH (Offshore Renminbi RMB or Chinese Yuan).

This fund invests primarily in RMB denominated fixed income instruments issued onshore in China. Their publicity material indicated monthly potential payouts of about 4% to 7% per annum.

I had redeemed the investment after holding it for about two and a half years.

How did this fund performed for me?

Details of investment: Date of investment was 9 Sep 2014 Cost of investment was 250,000 CNH (S$51,215) Exchange rate between CNH and SGD was 0.2045 (1 CNH = S$0.2045) On redemption, I got back 263,636 CNH (S$53,175) for holding it for 31 months.

Investment return is 1.45% per year in Singapore dollar term (with consideration of CNH and SGD currency rates). This actual return pales in comparison with the marketing brochure that stated a potential return of 4% to 7% per annum!

Investment return is 2.06% per year in CNH term (excluding the currency impact) The CNH/SGD from the start of investment was 0.2045. CNH weakened 1.37% to 0.2017 at redemption. The impact of currency rates in this case was not in my favour since Chinese Yuan (together with CNH) weakened against Singapore dollar over the period of my investment in the bond fund.

When investing in foreign currency denominated investment, watch out for currency movements that have a huge impact on your final return even when the underlying investment was positive in its return.

14 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

12 April 2017

Stopped foreign currency denominated investments

I have sold off all foreign currency denominated investments. With the latest redemption of Nikko AM China Onshore Bond Fund CNH, I do not own any foreign currency denominated investments.

My experience with foreign currency was not good. I used to track Australian dollar (AUD$) and Chinese Yuan (CNY) against Singapore dollar since I had investments in both currencies. Singapore dollar was strengthening against AUD$ and CNY and consequently my investments lost values as a result due to currency rates.

Depending on foreign currency to grow my wealth is not something I can live with at this stage of my life. I cannot afford to take risk since I have no regular income. It is now wealth preservation and decent returns on investments would be the way to go for me.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 15

5 May 2017

Investing in bonds and fixed income investments

I had allocated more funds into fixed income investments (loosely categorised as bond-like instruments). The latest addition was Singapore Airline 3.035% bonds with maturity on 11 April 2025 (8 years later). Interest payment is 3.035% per annum to be paid semi-annually. This bond is unsecured.

My investments in bonds that are traded on the Stock Exchange of Singapore include: 1. DBS Bank 4.7% Non-cumulative Preference Shares (Coupon or interest is 4.7% per annum) 2. CapitaMall Trust retail bonds 3.08% 7-year bond till 2021 (Coupon is 3.08% per annum) The good thing when investing in bonds is receiving the fixed interest income on a regular interval. The major risk is the possibility of default by issuers of these bonds. Bankruptcy of these issuers can lead to you losing the capital sum of the investments. There were several cases of defaults of some corporate bonds in the past year.

If investors want a lower risk environment in investing in fixed income investments, there is the 10-year Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB). The latest SSB (issuance date 1 June 2017) has average annual return of 2.16% per annum when held to maturity.

When a coupon rate (interest rate) of a bond is high, the risk of investment is higher. The coupon rate must commensurate the higher risk taken by the investors to entice them to lend money to the corporation. So when one invests in bonds, it is important to look beyond the coupon rate. The business risk of the borrower is one area that requires careful study.

16 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

12 June 2017

POSB Invest-Saver

My daughter and I went to a POSB branch to enquire about POSB Invest-Saver, thinking that it is a product, which must be executed at the bank itself. We then realised that we could do it on our own with POSB Internet Banking. But before we can buy into the regular shares savings plan (RSS), we must answer a few questions on the Customer Knowledge Assessment (CKA) on-line to assess our risk profile. Once we clear this step, we can then go ahead to execute the savings plan.

Nikko AM STI ETF It is a RSS, meaning we put in $100 per month to Nikko AM STI ETF. At the end of 12 months, the total money put in would be $1,200. The bank sales charge for this Nikko AM STI ETF is 1.0%. For every $100, you would invest only $99. $1 goes to the bank. This is a low sales charge.

You do not time the purchase of the STI ETF under RSS. When the STI ETF is high in the month, you would get lesser units of the investment. When the STI ETF is low, you would get more units of the investments. You then average out the costs per unit of investments.

When you decide to sell off the investments in the future, there is no fee on selling.

Dividends earned on Nikko AM STI ETF will be credited in CASH to your POSB account. Distribution is credited semi-annually.

ABF Singapore Bond Index Fund This fixed income fund is also managed by Nikko Asset Management (Nikko AM).

We decided to put in $100 per month into this fixed income fund as well. Now the total investment has two parts, the equity (stocks) and the fixed income (or bonds). Every year the investment comes up to $2,400.

The bank sales charge is 0.5% on each investment amount. For every $100, $99.50 Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 17

is invested. $0.50 goes to the bank. Distribution of interest income is credited annually.

Overall For $200 each month, you are invested in Singapore STI 30 component stocks and the Singapore bond markets (86.8% in Singapore Government bonds).

18 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

30 June 2017

Not A Risk Taker

I am not a gambler. I am not good at taking risk.

In August 2015, I bought some units in a unit trust – JP Morgan Europe Dynamic Fund. It is a fund that invests in equities of European companies (from UK, Germany, France and others).

The price per unit was S$10.96 in August 2015 when I bought in.

One year later on 24 June 2016, UK voted to exit European Union (Brexit). The global stock markets lost US$2 trillion the next day.

I sold off JP Morgan Europe Dynamic Fund at S$10.50, losing about 6.6% in July 2016.

Now another year later in 2017, the same fund is at S$12.67 per unit. If I had held on to the investment, it would reap a profit of 12.7% instead of loss I made.

2016 was all about worries of Brexit and risks in investments in Europe. 2017 is better for global stocks. I did not see that back in 2016.

This is with hindsight. I rather rest easy thinking that I had limited my potential loss in investments back in 2016. I cannot look backward and bemoan I missed the opportunity to make more money. What was done is done.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 19

16 July 2017

In share investment never say, “I could have…”

On July 14, the Straits Times Index (STI) touched a 52-week new high at 3,287.43 points. Why did I sell my shares so much earlier and missed out on making a lot more? Let me give few examples of actual transactions.

Counter Cost of purchase Price sold UOL 5.70 5.90 DBS 18.06 19.30 UOB 19.99 21.72 OCBC 10.30 10.52

Actual gain 3.5%

6.8% 8.6% 2.1%

Current Price Could make 7.72 35.4% 21.10 16.8% 23.85 19.3% 11.05 7.2%

All sales were made within a year and were recent transactions.

UOL was a sad case. UOL and most property stocks were quite stagnant and not moving much because of poor property market environment in 2016. I sold off UOL in November 2016 after holding on for 3 months. I could make 35.4% if I sold them on 14 July 2017.

The three local banks were sold off when the bank shares were climbing in recent months. I should have waited. In DBS, I could make 16.8% and for UOB I could make 19.3% if I held on.

Why I did I sell off these counters, you may ask? At the start of this year, I made a strategic decision to off load shares since I was too heavily weighted in local equities. At the same time, I was picking up unit trusts that invest in Singapore equities and I was invested in STI ETF also. This way I reduce my exposure in Singapore equities and pull back some invested funds into cash.

It is always tempting to look back and say I could have done differently. This is too stressful. Once a transaction was done, then it was water under the bridge. Let it go. This is the nature of investing in stocks and shares. You make some and you lose some. Be also contented if you have made some money even it could have been more.

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26 August 2017

Actual dividends received in 2017

I keep track of dividends received for each stock and real estate investment trust (Reit) in my Singapore equity portfolio. I received dividends for SPDR STI ETF too.

When I computed the actual dividend yield based on my cost of investment, my best dividend yields were: Counter SPH Reit Singtel Comfort Delgro STI ETF StarHub M1 Keppel Reit Keppel Corp

Dividend Yield 4.3% 4.3% 3.6% 3.1% 3.1% 3.0% 2.9% 2.0%

All these investments provide dividends. The yields were adequate for me to hold on to these investments.

I have winners and losers in my portfolio. On an overall basis, the total portfolio dividend yield was 2.5%. I can live with this rate of return on my investments.

SPDR STI ETF had done well for me. The dividend yield was 3.1%. Instead of picking stocks, it is better to buy STI ETF. The yield was better. One may select stocks that do not perform well.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 21

16 September 2017

Top up Retirement Sum with Cash

Let’s say that you have cash and you have also balances in your CPF Ordinary Account. You have already set aside the full sum for your Retirement Account ($166,000). What can you do with the cash sitting idling waiting for investment opportunity?

CPF Ordinary Account balances earn 2.5% p.a. interest rate while the Retirement Account balances earn 4.0% p.a. interest rate (subject to higher interest rates under certain conditions).

If you can find investments for your idle cash that earn 4.0% p.a. with principal protected, then the question at the start of this write-up is no longer relevant.

If not, CPF allows members to use cash to top up their Retirement Accounts up to the Enhanced Retirement Sum of $249,000. Do not concern yourself with the Ordinary Account balance. (It would continue to earn 2.5% p.a.)

With Enhanced Retirement Account balance, your monthly payout under CPF Life on reaching 65 would be higher than if your do nothing.

One condition is that cash top-up in Retirement Account is not reversible.

Please refer to CPF for more details.

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12 November 2017

Distribution Yields of SPDR STI ETF beat CPF interest rate

SPDR Straits Times Index ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) invests in a portfolio of stocks that are on the list of the Straits Times Index (STI). As such the fund gets dividends from these companies and it then distributes them out to investors of SPDR STI ETF twice a year.

Prices of SPDR STI ETF moved in nearly lockstep with the STI. Below is a table showing the distribution history of SPDR STI ETF from 2010 to 2017.

Date Distribution ($) NAV* ($) 30-Jun-17 0.101 3.274 30-Jun-16 0.093 2.886 30-Jun-15 0.097 3.362 30-Jun-14 0.088 3.298 30-Jun-13 0.085 3.191 30-Jun-12 0.095 2.937 30-Jun-11 0.080 3.188 30-Jun-10 0.060 2.887

* NAV = Net Asset Value

Yield (%) 3.1% 3.2% 2.9% 2.7% 2.7% 3.2% 2.5% 2.1%

The average distribution yield was 2.8% per year for eight years above. This beats the interest rate offered for the CPF Ordinary Account of 2.5% p.a.

By investing in SPDR STI ETF, one gets to be invested in Singapore stocks. You need not spend time to research and pick specific stocks for your own portfolio.

Based on my past experience, I had hits and misses. Another idea to consider – set up a Regular Savings Plan (RSP) to invest in a STI ETF on a regular basis. You pick more units of STI ETF when the index is down and you get lesser units when the index is up. This is called Dollar Cost Averaging. You need not time to enter the market.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 23

8 December 2017

Calculating actual dividend yields

It would be informative to know what was the ACTUAL dividend yield based on cost of purchase.

I tracked actual dividend received each year by security counter. I have the actual cost of purchasing a security. With these two numbers, I can calculate the actual dividend yield based on my investments. Below are some of investments held with dividend yields compared with the year before.

Counter 2016 2017 SPH Reit 5.81% 5.84% Singtel 4.33% 4.33% StarHub 4.70% 3.99% Keppel Reit 4.42% 3.88% SPH 4.37% 3.64% Comfort Delgro 3.15% 3.55% M1 4.15% 3.01% Keppel Corp 3.04% 2.03% Overall 2.72% STI ETF

2.86% 3.11%

Despite the decline in dividend yields this year, most counters gave above 3.00% yield based on my actual cost of investments. Granted some of these stocks had declined in market value, the dividend yields were still attractive for me.

On the whole portfolio basis, the dividend yield was 2.72% for this year.

I had bought SPDR STI ETF substantially; the dividend yield was 3.11% on my cost of investments. It is much better than my pick of individual stocks in my portfolio.

24 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

11 December 2017

Change in Asset Mix of Investable Funds

Asset allocation of investable funds is an important aspect of investments. One should not put all money in one basket. The risk is too high should the single asset collapses. Remember the Lehman Brothers’ minibonds went kaput in September 2008. I heard horror stories of people losing a fortune back then.

Some 10 years ago, I took more risks with my investments. I took advice from my relationship managers on how to invest my money. I tried out currency-linked investments betting on the future of currency movements. I went into credit-linked notes that were not the same as plain vanilla corporate bonds. The risk was high. I saw with horror how the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/09 affected my portfolio then.

As I get older and now in retirement, I could not afford to risk my money on assets that carry higher risks. My asset allocation in my portfolio reflected that.

1. I sold off all foreign currency denominated investments this year.

2. I invested in a corporate bond to bring my exposure to fixed income investments to 47% of total portfolio.

3. I reduced my equity exposure to 17.7%.

4. Insurance related products remained stable at 11.0%.

Cash and cash equivalent were reduced to 24.3% after putting more into the corporate bond above. Of this 24.3%, my cash amount is 18.4%, ready to deploy when the investment climate is less volatile.

Investment in Singapore equity was 14.4%, slightly lower than 2016.

Asset Mix in percentages (%) Equities (see below) Fixed Income/Bonds Forex related investments Insurance related investments Cash & Equivalent

Dec-16 Dec-17 Change 28.0 17.7 -10.3 26.1 47.0 20.9 4.2 0.0 -4.2 10.3 11.0 0.7 31.4 24.3 -7.1

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 25

Asset Mix in percentages (%) Dec-16 Dec-17 Change Equities - Singapore 15.8 14.4 -1.4 Equities - Others 12.2 3.3 -8.9 Sub-total 28.0 17.7 With 47.0% in fixed income investments, I was aiming for more stable interest income. This is a more cautious portfolio mix when compared with a more volatile equity investments. I am at this stage of my investment life cycle in trying to reduce volatility in investment income.

I just want to rest easy at nights and not to worry about my investment portfolio.

26 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

15 December 2017

Do you know your expenditure for the year?

At least for the big ticket items, I know my expenditure for the year. I know it is tedious to track all outflow of money over the year. Despite that, it is still better to know instead of scratching my head as to where my money went at the end of the year.

This information allows me to budget my expenses. I can decide what items can be cut back in the New Year.

Cash outflow for 2017: Major cash outflow Proportion Overseas trips 34.5% House-related items and services 19.7% Donations 12.5% Medical expenses 9.9% Computer and related expenses 8.9% Car expenses 7.9% Ang Pows 6.6% 47% of total outflow went to overseas trips and donations. About 20% went to pay for house-related items such as property tax, management fees & sinking funds, and repairs & maintenance.

Owning a car is an expensive affair. The costs of running a car amounted to about 8% of total outflow. In time to come, it makes more sense to do away with owning a car.

Medical expenses that include health screening, dental came to 10%.

So you have it, I know where my money went for the major expenditure items for this year.

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28 December 2017

Return on Investment (ROI) for 2017

One way to decide whether your investment is worth keeping is to look at the return on investment (ROI) over a period of one year.

In its simplest form, ROI = Dividend Income or Interest income / cost of investment Capital gain or loss on sale of investment is excluded from the ROI. The following investments/funds distribute income to investors. All investments are in Singapore dollars without the risk of exchange loss.

Investment type Templeton Global Total Return Fund BlackRock Global Multi-Asset Income Fund A6 DBS Preference Shares (4.70%) on SGX LionGlobal Singapore Dividend Equity Fund BlackRock European Equity Income Fund OCBC Preference Shares (4.00%) CapitaMalls Trust Bonds (3.08%) on SGX SIA Bonds (3.035%) UOB Structured Deposit 2015 Series 1 OCBC Interest rate linked Structured Dep (1.88%) Singapore Equity + Reits + STI ETF (own selection)

Return (%) Remarks 6.02% 5.55% 4.70% 4.33% 4.03% 3.86% 3.08% 1.51% Half Year 1.88% 0.94% Half Year 2.55%

Almost all investments had ROI above 3.00% with the exceptions of two structured deposits with the banks (at 1.88%). My own selections of stocks, Reits and STI ETF traded on Singapore Stock Exchange could only manage 2.55% ROI. Note that I did not consider the current values of these investments. It can be lower than the cost you had acquired them in the past. The current value fluctuates especially during period of volatility. In making decision, you could also consider the current value of the investment. So you have both ROI and current value of investment when making buy/sell or hold decision.

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31 December 2017

How were the stock markets in 2017?

2017 was an exceptional year for the stock markets. When compared with 2017, 2016 stock markets were a yawn.

Every single market I tracked went up including the Shanghai Composite Index.

The indices were shown in the table below.

Stock Indices 30-Dec-16 29-Dec-17 Change Hang Seng (HK) 22,000.56 29,919.15 36.0% Kospi (Korea) 2,026.46 2,647.49 30.6% Nasdaq (USA) 5,383.12 6,903.39 28.2% Mumbai BSESN 26,626.46 34,056.83 27.9% Dow Jones (USA) 19,762.60 24,719.22 25.1% S&P 500 (USA) 2,238.83 2,673.61 19.4% Nikkei 225 (Japan) 19,114.37 22,764.94 19.1% STI (Singapore) 2,880.76 3,402.92 18.1% Taiwan Weighted 9,253.50 10,642.86 15.0% Germany DAX 11,481.06 12,917.64 12.5% CAC 40 (France) 4,862.31 5,312.56 9.3% Australia All Ordinaries 5,719.10 6,171.00 7.9% FTSE100 (UK) 7,142.83 7,687.77 7.6% Shanghai Composite 3,103.64 3,307.17 6.6% The Straits Times Index (STI) was up 18.1% and it was in the middle in terms of performances compared with the rest.

The Dow Jones Industrial Index continued to power ahead rising 25.1% in 2017 even after climbing 13.4% in 2016.

Nasdaq rose 28.2% riding on the technology boom in 2017. iPhone released iPhone 8 and iPhone X in 2017.

To sum it up, it was an incredible year for the stock markets in 2017.

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6 February 2018

Investors in equities are running for cover

The inevitable happened. The warning signs were there that the stock markets were expensive. The former Federal Reserve Board Chairperson, Janet Yellen said that the stock market valuation was high.

The Straits Times Index (STI) reached a high of 3,592.08 points on 23 January 2018. It had declined to 3,358.03 points at lunch time today. That was a whopping decline of 6.5% and brought the STI to negative territory since the end of last year.

The gains in January were totally wiped off and worse still it is now negative 1.3% from end 2017.

The stock markets rout started from US stock markets since last Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial index dropped 4.60% last night. This sent investors running for cover.

Stock Index 29 Dec 2017 6 Feb 2018 (12.30pm) Change STI 3,402.92 3,358.03 - 1.3% Dow Jones 24,719.22 24,345.75 - 1.5% Nikkei 225 22,764.94 21,218.96 - 6.8% Hang Seng 29,919.15 30,651.31 +2.4% Those investors who borrow to invest on margin would be badly affected since the downward pressure on valuation of their share portfolios would trigger margin calls by the lenders.

When the going is good, investors chase for even higher prices. When the market turns abruptly, no one wants to hold on to rapidly declining share prices. When the music stops, no one wants to have no chair to sit on in a musical chair game.

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26 March 2018

Stock Markets spooked by President Trump

I was on the flight home on Friday (23 March) touched down at 7.00 pm and when I looked at the stock indices, Shanghai Composite lost 3.39%, Nikkei 225 lost 4.51% and Singapore’s STI lost 2.00%. That was ugly. I searched for reasons for the carnage. As it turned out, President Trump had signed an executive memo to slap tariffs on US$60 million imports from China. China fired back with tariffs targeting at US$3 billion of US import into China. The fear of trade war between two top world economies looms.

During the period I was away, the stock indices moved downwards between 3 March and 23 March (3 weeks).

Stock Indices 3-Mar-18 23-Mar-18 Change Dow Jones (USA) 24,538.06 23,533.20 -4.1% Shanghai Composite 3,254.53 3,152.76 -3.1% Nikkei 225 (Japan) 21,181.64 20,617.86 -2.7% STI (Singapore) 3,479.20 3,421.39 -1.7% Hang Seng (HK) 30,583.45 30,309.29 -0.9% Germany DAX 11,920.12 11,886.31 -0.3% The worst hit indices were Dow Jones (-4.1%) and Shanghai Composite (-3.1%).

The Straits Times Index lost 1.7%.

Lesson learned was that stock markets could gyrate by politics of nations.

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31 March 2018

Stock Markets declined in First Quarter 2018

After a spectacular 2017, stock indices suffered the jitter in the first quarter ended 30 March 2018. The change in stock indices ranged from negative 8% to positive 2.3%.

Stock Indices FTSE100 (UK) Kospi (Korea) Nikkei 225 (Japan) Germany DAX Australia All Ordinaries Shanghai Composite Dow Jones (USA) Mumbai BSESN CAC 40 (France) S&P 500 (USA) Hang Seng (HK) STI (Singapore) Taiwan Weighted Nasdaq (USA)

Change in 2017 7.6%

30.6% 19.1% 12.5% 7.9%

6.6%

25.1% 27.9% 9.3%

19.4% 36.0% 18.1% 15.0% 28.2%

30-Mar-2018 7,075.15 2,445.85 21,159.08 12,096.73 5,868.90 3,160.53 23,848.42 32,968.68 5,167.30 2,605.00 30,093.38 3,427.97 10,845.92 7,063.44

1st Qtr Change -8.0% -7.6% -7.1% -6.4% -4.9% -4.4% -3.5% -3.2% -2.7% -2.6% 0.6% 0.7% 1.9% 2.3%

Only Hang Seng, STI, Taiwan Weighted and Nasdaq managed a positive momentum. The rest of the stock indices were negative. The Straits Times Index (STI) moved up marginally by 0.7% for the quarter.

Shanghai Composite was down 4.4% in the first quarter nearly wiping out the 6.6% made in 2017. Dow Jones was down 3.5% on account that President Trump pushed USA’s interest in the trade imbalance with China. The rest of the world did not escape the threat of trade war between USA and China. Their stock markets suffered too.

32 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

14 April 2018

Not Active in Investing

42% of my portfolio remained un-invested. Since January 2018, I decided to take a back seat and watch the financial markets by the side. Looking at the volatility of the markets in the first quarter, I am glad that I did just that. My overall position was down only 1.12%.

With the strength of Singapore dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, keeping money in Singapore dollar in low inflation environment is alright. My cash holding is not eroded by inflation at the current moment.

At the same time, I am watching my expenditure side of the wealth equation.

Neither a spendthrift nor a miser, I spend wisely when necessary. I ask the question: “Can I afford to spend?� If so, spend it happily. I sleep comfortably without fear of the financial markets turning downwards.

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9 May 2018

Knowing the China Stock Market – Shanghai Composite Index

Looking historically at the Shanghai Composite Index since the time when the Global Financial Crisis struck in 2007-2009, the index was once very high at 5,272.00 points by the end of 2007. It came down sharply to 2,093.00 points on 2 March 2009. In the last 4 years (2014 – 2017), the index was above 3,000 points.

However, it vacillated between 3,000 points to 3,500 points (after a brief spite in June 2015).

Date 31 Dec 2007 2 Mar 2009

31 Dec 2012 31 Dec 2013 31 Dec 2014 31 Dec 2015 30 Dec 2016 29 Dec 2017

30 Mar 2018 8 May 2018

Index 5,272.00 2,093.00 2,269.13 2,115.98 3,234.68 3,546.13 3,103.64 3,307.17 3,160.53 3,161.50

Now the index was 3,160 points in recent months. If one were to believe that the world’s second largest economy is to continue to grow with the Belt & Road Initiative in the years to come, then it warrants investors to consider the possibilities of uplift in its stock market in the longer term. This is on the condition that the global economies do not face trade protectionist scenario and China is willing to free up her economy to market competitions. China’s shadow banking credit risk is also one area to watch carefully.

One caveat though is that China stock market can also defy rational thinking as the past is any indication. A single country investment can be risky. Maybe a calculated risk in investing in China economy is worth taking?

34 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

21 June 2018

There were times that I wish I did not invest

My investments took a tumble again.

With the US imposing tariffs on trade with several countries in particular with China, the world is on edge. The Federal Reserve of US (Fed) is also increasing benchmark interest rates faster. This did not help to calm the investment community.

My Singapore equity consisting of mainly blue chip stocks of the STI component stocks declined over the past weeks. As a whole, it declined 23.6% from my costs of purchases. Some stocks were bought as far back as in 2008.

I am of the opinion that to pick stocks for investments is harder with the volatility of stock markets. After buying them, I see them declining later.

Holding cash seems to be an option for now. If inflation is benign, then cash will not be eroded due to inflation. Sometimes one wonders whether it is far better to spend money than to invest and then see one’s investments losing values. That is the stage I am at. I have no confidence in investing right now.

Some would argue that we have to invest for a secure future. I then would add that you have to look at both your current investment objectives and your risk profile to determine how you want to go about building your investment portfolio.

That is theory and I know it is not easy to get it right.

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19 July 2018

Investing in Investment Property

Like most people interested in investing in residential properties, my wife and I too did this back in 1997 (before the Asian Financial Crisis). On 19 July 1997, we exercised an option to purchase a unit in Trellis Towers directly from the developer, City Developments Limited.

This is a freehold property. Details: Purchase price $1,121,580 (after developer discount 7%) Area of units 1,163 square feet Cost per sq ft = $964 At that time, the rule on purchasing a private property was: Items Property Stamp Duty 20% deposit in cash $224,316 2.5% on purchase price for stamp duty $28,250 Lump sum from CPF $326,264 Rest of purchase price in bank loan $571,000 Total $1,121,580 $28.250 The loan was taken from Credit POSB (before the merger of POSBank and DBS Bank on 16 November 1998). From then on the loan was transferred to DBS Bank. Interest rate on loan ranged from 4.75% to 3.5% p.a. on daily rest basis.

We redeemed the mortgage (loan) on 15 June 2004, some seven years later.

Our starting point was that we had dual income. We would redeem part of the mortgage whenever we had bonuses from employment or had build up substantial sum in our CPF Ordinary Accounts. The rental income of this unit was used to repay the mortgage too.

From 1997 to 2000, the property was under development. We took over the property on 24 February 2000. It was rented from 22 August 2000 and then we moved in from March 2009.

36 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Comments We took risk when we were younger and were earning well. We invested in a property when the chance came. Now that we are older, we only have one property to stay in. I see the current property prices are way too high. It is tough to own a private property at prices like $1,500 per square feet. The property curbing measures make it harder. I count myself lucky.

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29 July 2018

Parents can offer advice on retirement planning

We often hear about vulnerabilities of parents when come to retirement planning.

Children are encouraged to top up their parents’ Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts so that they could draw down more in their silver years. This is well and good. As a reversal, parents could help their children plan for their own future and then retire well enough when it is their turns. This is one of the parenting roles in bringing up our kids to be self-sufficient and not to depend on the next generation after them. Instead of looking back on their children for financial support, we could work towards looking after ourselves even in our old age when come to financial adequacy.

One of the most important things we ought to do is to encourage our kids to save. Always save some money first and not to spend every single cent that comes your way. Spending on credit knowing that you could have difficulty paying later would not be encouraged. When one is still young, getting into spending on credit too soon is not wise. Money does not drop from the sky. Consider using debit card instead of credit card.

The next thing is to teach our kids about investing the money saved. Having money sitting in the savings account is not advisable since it pays very low interest rate. Look out for safer investments and recommend these investment ideas to them. One idea is putting money into the Singapore Savings Bond. Our children is clueless on investments when they are starting out working (if they are not skilled in financial matters).

So our kids save, then invest the savings in safer investments. Do not spend on credit. This is the way to sustainability living with regard to financial matters.

By starting early on financial planning, our children have a longer period to accumulate wealth until it is their retirement age.

The next things we could do is to encourage our children to buy insurance when they are still young and healthy. Consider buying whole life insurance with cash bonus, living assurance with cash bonus, integrated shield plan for hospitalisation insurance.

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As parents, we must set a living example of prudent saving and spending, and wise investing. We have to walk the talk. Otherwise what we say will be hollow and hypocritical to our children.

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20 August 2018

Cost of Living under spotlight

When I looked at my financial wealth, it wasn’t great for this year. 2018 is turning out to be worse than 2017. The Donald Trump impact on financial markets was felt keenly in recent months. My invested assets returned only 1.12% on costs so far and my overall portfolio was down nearly 2%.

Because my income comes from investments only (having no employment income), I am spending on my capital beyond the income on capital. This is one big worry on coping with cost of living.

Besides looking at the income side of personal wealth, I have to look at the expenditure side of the equation. Where else can I cut to cope with cost of living?

For this purpose, I keep a record of major expenses and asset purchases. I know where my money was spent on and will adjust my spending before the year ends.

Now I appreciate how my parents’ generation coped with cost of living. The methods were the same. Watch what comes into your hand and spends on what you have on hand. It was tough struggling to put food on our dining table. My parents did not travel for leisure and did not spend beyond the basic necessities of life.

40 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

12 September 2018

Property prices got hit every time in an economic downturn

This is a fact. The Private Residential Property Price Index dipped when there was an economic downturn. The really bad recessions for Singapore were in 1985, 1997 and 2008. The property index declined a year later after recession hit in 1986, 1998 and 2009.

I lived through these dark periods after I started working in 1981. There were mortgagee sales where owners gave up servicing their loans in an economic crisis.

I have my views on the current debate of home ownership and property value as the lease expires in the end. When I treat my property as a home, a roof over my head, I do not bother with the fluctuations of property prices. I am not going to sell a property simply because the price is going up. It would be a different story if one were to treat his property as an asset and hoping that it will go up forever.

Then the person is sensitive to price changes.

Treating a property one stays in as a tradeable item can bring unnecessary anxiety.

With less property transactions in the market, it will remove the speculative froth in the market. After all property is also subjected to supply and demand to determine its prices like other economic goods.

Don’t wait for the next economic downturn to see property prices collapsing. It will be painful and history will then repeat itself.

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13 September 2018

Watch out when COE price declines

Certificate of Entitlement (COE) to own a car in Singapore is a good barometer of consumer sentiment with the economy of Singapore. If the people living in Singapore had no confidence with the economy, COE premium declined.

The following table tracked the Open Category COE premiums using January second bidding numbers.

Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2018 2018

Month Open Cat COE ($) Jan 48,800 Jan 30,712 Jan 32,001 Jan 27,416 Jan 22,801 Jan 19,002 Jan 9,801 Jan 12,599 Jan 13,801 Jan 3,000 Jan 21,899 Jan 67,009 Jan 67,101 Jan 97,889 Jan 78,810 Jan 76,790 Jan 51,000 Jan 52,600 Jan 44,000 Aug 32,311 Sep 31,801

Remarks Dot com bubble burst SARS (Second Bidding starts)

Global Financial Crisis

Uber starts Grab starts Uber leaves in April COE 1st Bidding

January 2000 COE premium was $48,800. COE premium declined to $30,712 in 2001 when Singapore economy (GDP) gone negative. COE premium dropped to $3,000 when Singapore economy was again in negative territory due to the 42 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Global Financial Crisis.

Since 2010, COE premium had been climbing. It reached a peak of $97,889 in 2013 before declining subsequently. 2013 was the year UBER came to Singapore.

GRAB started in 2016.

At the start of this year 2018, the COE premium was $44,000. UBER left Singapore in April 2018.

COE premium declined in August and September and the last bidding exercise resulted in current COE premium of $31,801. This level of COE premium suggests a lack of confidence with the economy going forward.

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17 September 2018

10 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers Inc filed for bankruptcy on 15 September 2008 that sparked financial markets panic round the globe. Lehman Brothers Inc was a major casualty of the sub-prime mortgage crisis emanating from the US. The global stock markets went into a tailspin.

It is now 10 years later. We saw how the US stock markets shot up spectacularly in this period. It is now 10 years of Bull Run for the US stock indices. What would trigger a collapse of the stock markets going into the future? It cannot be a oneway street as history tells us.

I had been through it when the sub-prime mortgage crisis hit in 2007-09. I had written blog posts of these events as they happened. It was ugly!

Since 10 years ago, how did some major stock indices performed as of 14 September 2018?

Index Mumbai BSESN New Zealand NZX50 S&P 500 (USA) Dow Jones (USA) Germany DAX Nikkei 225 (Japan) Hang Seng (HK) FTSE100 (UK)

Shanghai Composite Australia All Ordinaries Paris CAC40

STI (Singapore)

15-Sep-08 14-Sep-18 Change (%) 13,531 38,090 181.5% 3,319 9,270 179.3% 1,192 2,904 143.6% 10,917 26,145 139.5% 6,064 12,056 98.8% 12,214 22,821 86.8% 19,352 27,286 41.0% 5,204 7,295 40.2% 2,079 2,681 29.0% 4,875 6,276 28.7% 4,168 5,329 27.9% 2,486 3,161 27.2%

The Dow Jones Industrial Index more than doubled (2.4 times) over the 10-year period. Japan Nikkei 225 Index nearly doubled (1.8 times).

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The Straits Times Index (STI) was only up 27.2%, far below what the other indices were doing. The Shanghai Composite was quite the same as Singapore’s STI (up 29.0%).

Should there be a another major financial crisis or economic crisis, the high-flying indices had much to lose on the way down. India has much to lose having been the best performing market compared to the rest in the 10-year period.

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29 October 2018

No where to hide – Financial Assets Distress

Week ended 26 October was a terrible week for investors. I was not spared.

Investments Valuation – Cost Singapore Equity investment (own selections) -26.5% First State Regional China Fund SGD Acc -14.7% LionGlobal Singapore Dividend Equity Fund SGD - A -12.1% Considering all invested assets (excluding cash), my overall portfolio was down 4.7%. The last time I saw such poor performance was in 2016. 2017 was fairly stable.

The China equities and Singapore equities were giving me negative returns.

My own selection of Singapore stocks performed even worse than the professionally managed unit trust. A more diversified equity portfolio like the STI ETF and LionGlobal Singapore Dividend Equity Fund held up better.

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5 November 2018

Difficult Environment for past 10 years since Global Financial Crisis

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) started at the end 2007 and became fullblown in 2008 and 2009. More than 10 years have passed and the world financial markets were still unstable for investors. Investment environment was fraught with dangers. To get consistent superior returns on investments was more difficult. One would be lucky if one got positive return for a particular year.

I went back to track my investment portfolio since 2011 and was curious to know how my portfolio returns corresponded with various significant events shaping the investment climate of each year. The results are tabulated below: Year ROA Marked to TSR Remarks Market % 2011 -2.6% -1.3% -3.98% Eurozone debt crisis 2012 1.5% 0.2% 1.70% 2013 2.0% -1.0% 1.03% Fed Taper tantrum 2014 4.1% -1.1% 3.01% 2015 3.7% -4.5% -0.80% China slowdown.

Oil dropped to below US$30 2016 2.0% -4.7% -2.70% Brexit, Donald Trump won Presidential election.

2017 2.8% -1.3% 1.51% 2018 1.1% -3.0% -1.97% US Trade War ROA = Return on Assets = Income/Total investible assets Not all assets were invested and some portion remained in cash or near cash.

Return on Assets included assets that were un-invested (eg cash that is not deployed as investments).

The worst year was 2011 when the ROA was negative (-2.6%). 2010 and 2011 were the years when the Eurozone Debt Crisis gripped the world.

All investments were marked to market comparing cost of investment against Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 47

current market value of the year. Total Shareholder Return (TSR) was negative (-3.98%) in 2011.

2012 and 2013 were flat. In 2013, Federal Reserve Board (Fed) indicated for the first time that the US was cutting back on quantitative easing. Federal interest rates would be raised gradually and the programme of purchase of bonds from the markets would be scaled back signaling the tightening of monetary policies.

2014 was a good year when the TSR was 3.01%.

Then came China economic slowdown in 2015. Oil prices collapsed to below US$30 per barrel. Marked to market loss was -4.5% on the portfolio. TSR was -0.80%.

2016 was also a bad year with TSR at -2.70%. UK voted to leave the European Union. Donald Trump won the Presidential election in 2016 and his impact on the investment world was felt since then. These two events were being played out this year 2018.

2017 was to be a better year with investments doing well globally. My TSR was 1.51%.

With 10 months into 2018, 2018 will turn out to be a roller coaster ride for investors. The volatility of the stock markets was more prominent. My TSR so far was -1.97%. 2018 belonged to Donald Trump and his trade policies for US. The policy of trade tariffs on China export to US is one main cause of the poor sentiments of the investment markets.

Notes: 1. Income from investments comes from dividend/interest and gains/loss on sale of investments.

2. Marked to Market % = unrealised losses or gains between cost of investments and current market value of investments.

3. Total Shareholder Return (TSR) in S$ term comprises dividend return (actual income received) and price return (resulting from changes in valuations of investments as at year-end).

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12 November 2018

You thought you could cut back on spending on retirement?

I find it difficult. We are into 11th month of this year and I have already surpassed last year’s total expenditures for the family.

I tracked major expenditures as I paid them or incurred them. This is just for the family. Personal expenditures (that include meals, public transport) were excluded.

This was accounted separately.

Expenditures for the family for 2018 and 2017 are shown below: Major expenditures Overseas trips

Donations Car expenses Computer and related expenses CNY Ang Pows Medical and Health related House items and services NTUC Fairprice Total

2018 2017 Change 12,266 10,196 20.3% 4,500 3,700 21.6% 2,449 2,344 4.5% 100 2,634 -96.2% 905 1,568 -42.3% 3,352 2,934 14.2% 7,336 5,818 26.1% 1,762 2,096 -15.9% 32,670 31,290 4.4%

We tried to keep to a lifestyle that was not vastly different from the days when we were working. We did not move out for a cheaper accommodation. I still drive my car occasionally though I use public transport a lot more. We continued to donate towards causes we identified with and we did not cutback on overseas travel. All these add to total family expenditures.

Up till now, we already spent 20% more on overseas trips and 26% more on house related expenses. Donations were up 21%. As the apartment is nearly 20 years old, things need to be repaired through long-term use. Therefore there was a spike in house related expenses this year.

More money was spent on health care and checkups as we get older. This is one area I see to increase over time. It had gone up by 14%.

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16 November 2018

Ways to reduce expenses or spending

The approach is to spend on necessities but cut out on the nice to have. For a number of years now, I have been finding ways to do that.

First, I resigned from almost all professional bodies except to keep one, ISCA (Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants). In the case of ISCA, I am a retired member at a lower fee.

Second, I gave up membership at social clubs.

Third, we ate at hawker centres and food courts instead of expensive restaurants.

The latter was when occasion called for.

Fourth, I took public transport with less driving my car. I will be giving up my car when it is up for scrap next year.

Fifth, We do not have domestic help. We keep house ourselves.

Sixth, I did not go shopping often. I only shop when I need to replace an item. This leads me to say that we try to reduce, reuse, and recycle. I bought items that were on sales or at a discount as far as possible.

Seventh, I stopped buying new books, instead read books borrowed from libraries.

Eighth, I do not drink alcoholic drinks and I do not smoke. That saves a bundle.

Ninth, we walk a lot to keep healthy. Keeping healthy is very important to reduce health care costs. We go for annual health check-up. Consider consulting doctors at the nearby polyclinic. It will be way cheaper than private doctors.

Tenth, I go for cheaper telco plan. My plan costs me about $40 a month on 2GB data plan (Silver Plan). I use home broadband WIFI and Singtel WIFI, Wireless@ SGx when they are available.

50 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Last and not least, we stopped going to the movies. Instead, we borrowed DVDs from the library and watched them at home. There are also entertainments available on YouTube on our digital TV.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 51

18 November 2018

Sources of income to pay for expenses

Now that we know what the expenses are like. The next question is where to get the money to pay for them. If you are still working, the major source of funds is your salaries and wages. If you are not working and have not reached the age of 65 years old, then you have to depend on your investments to generate income to pay for them. After 65 years old, CPF Life starts paying monthly payouts.

I belong to the second category and I have to rely on investments to help me.

Ideally, investments should generate sufficient income to pay for your expenses and other spending. This is easier said than done. A lot of time, we have to use our capital to pay for our expenditures (especially during poor investment climate).

This reduces our net worth over time.

The next question is where to park our money to achieve investment returns that are sufficient and safe for our investment capital. Well, this is the million-dollar question. One can write a book on investments and there are many books in the market. There are courses on investments that one can take too.

I have reached an age that I cannot afford to take major risk on investments. I have turned conservative and investment returns are moderate commensurate with less risk-taking. As for now, my investment return was about 2.0% in the year that is turning out to be a difficult year. This rate of return is hardly sufficient to cover total expenditures to-date.

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1 December 2018

Advice we gave to our daughter on financial matters

We want our daughter to be self-dependent financially. Therefore we share our knowledge with her to set her on the path of financial independence.

The values of thrift and savings are the starting point. Next, with savings in the banks, what should she do to grow these savings? Current savings interest rate is way below inflation rate, hence there is a need to deploy these savings for higher returns.

Investing in equities and exchange traded bonds When she was 21 years old, she had an on-line trading account and CDP account to trade in stocks and shares.

The shares she bought were mainly dividend stocks, exchange traded bonds, Reits and ETFs with well-established names. Investments include Singtel, Comfort Delgro, Mapletree Commercial, Nikko AM STI ETF, SPDR STI ETF, Astrea IV PE bonds, Temasek bond, among others.

Regular Savings Plan (RSP) In June 2017, she applied for POSB Invest-Saver, a regular shares savings plan.

Since then she had been putting $100 each month to buy Nikko AM STI ETF and another $100 each month to buy ABF Singapore Bond Index Fund. These two funds provide dividend and interest income.

Singapore Savings Bonds She invested in Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB) when the interest rates were better, ie three tranches with start dates November 2015, January 2017, July 2018.

Held-to-maturity interest rates are 2.78% pa, 2.18% pa, 2.63% pa respectively.

Insurance My daughter is covered under 1. GE’s Supreme Health Integrated Shield Plan (IP).

2. Living Assurance Policy with CRB 3. Whole life insurance with CB Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 53

4. NTUC Income SAIL single premium plan Concluding Remarks It is hoped that once someone has started work, it is important to manage his/ her financial affairs in a responsible way. Investments need not be a gamble. There are investments that carry lower risks. Though equities are riskier assets, stocks purchased could be blue chip stocks with a history of corporate governance and a history of paying out dividends. Because, young people started early in investing, there is a longer time horizon to adjust the portfolio to mitigate the risks of stock investing.

My further recommendation is not to incur personal debts like unpaid outstanding credit card bills. Bank debit card serves equally well instead of credit card. Bank interest on unpaid credit card bills is too expensive.

54 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

7 December 2018

2018 – A year of volatility

The Straits Times Index (STI) reached two peaks over the course of 2018.

3,609.24 points on 24 Jan 2018 3,615.28 points on 2 May 2018 2018 started with STI at 3,402.92 points. After May 2018, it was on a downward spiral. It was at 3,115.52 points yesterday (6 December 2018). This was a drop of 8.4% year-to-date.

Back in February, ex-Chairperson for Federal Reserve (Fed) Janet Yellen said that the stock market valuation was high. On 6 February 2018, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) was at 24,912.77 points. The Dow went on to touch new high at 26,828.39 on 3 October. Since then it was brought down to 24,947.67 points (6 December). The Dow was back to February level when the warning by Janet Yellen was made.

2018 was that volatile reaching new levels before coming down hard towards the end of 2018.

2018 belongs to Donald Trump and his trade policies for US. The policy of trade tariffs on China export to US is one main cause of the poor sentiments of the investment markets. The other is Fed increasing benchmark interest rates to remove accommodative monetary policy of US since the global financial crisis (2008/09).

The other factors causing volatility was oil prices and Brexit outcome.

Oil prices reached US$82 per barrel for Brent Crude on 25 September and then declined sharply in November to now trading at US$53. (-35.3%). The outcome of Britain leaving European Union (Brexit) hangs in a balance. UK Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to clear the UK parliament with the Brexit deal she negotiated with EU. Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 55

Looking back my earlier posts in 2018, I started to feel uncomfortable since February. Lesson learned was that stock markets gyrate with politics of nations. To stay with cash would have been a wise decision. It is almost impossible to time the market for investments or even selling them with this kind of market volatility.

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10 December 2018

Actual dividend yields for 2018

I tracked ACTUAL dividend received each year by security counter. I have the actual cost of purchasing a security. With these two numbers, I can calculate the actual dividend yield based on my investments. Below are some of investments held with dividend yields for 2018.

Counter Avg Cost $ Dividend Yield NetLink NBN Trust 0.81 7.0% SPH Reit 0.95 5.8% Singtel 4.03 5.1% Keppel Reit 1.48 3.8% StarHub 4.26 3.8% STI ETF 3.23 3.6% Comfort Delgro 2.93 3.5% Lion-Philip S-REIT ETF 1.02 3.4% SPH 4.12 3.2% M1 3.68 3.1% Keppel Corp 9.86 2.9% SingPost 1.47 2.4% Overall Portfolio 3.04% Even when the shares/ETF/REITs were purchased at costs that were higher than the current market values, the dividend yields were still good. On an overall portfolio basis, the dividend yield was 3.04%.

I was surprised that NetLink NBN Trust topped with dividend yield of 7.0%. SPH Reit (5.8%) and Singtel (5.1%) followed on with very good yields.

SPDR STI ETF offered yield of 3.6%. This is better than my overall portfolio yield of 3.04%. Buying SPDR STI ETF is a good choice instead of picking up stocks yourself.

One may notice that some of these counters had declined drastically from the costs I purchased them. But they were still offering attractive to decent dividends like Keppel Corporation (2.9%).

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11 December 2018

Change in Asset Mix of Investable Funds – 2018

Asset allocation of investable funds is an important aspect of investments. One should not put all money in one basket. The risk is too high should the single asset collapses.

2018 turned out to be a volatile year for investments as anticipated at the start of this year. Hence, 38.8% still remained in cash and cash equivalent items. This was up significantly from 24.3% in 2017.

Asset Mix in percentages (%) 10-Dec-18 Dec-17 Change Equities (see below) 22.7 17.7 5.0 Fixed Income/Bonds 26.6 47.0 -20.4 Insurance related investments 11.9 11.0 0.9 Cash & Equivalent 38.8 24.3 14.5

Equities - Singapore 15.9 14.4 1.5 Equities - Others 6.8 3.3 3.5 22.7 17.7 Investments in fixed income and bond products came down from 47.0% to 26.6%.

This was mainly due to the redemption of OCBC preference shares by OCBC. OCBC Preference shares were redeemed and returned in cash into my portfolio during the year. I have not invested this amount in any asset and it is still in cash.

Investment in Singapore equity was 15.9%, slightly higher than 2017.

Investment in overseas equity was 6.8%, an increase from 3.3% in 2017.

Investment in total equity was 22.7%, up 5.0% points from 2017.

Investment in insurance related products remained stable at 11.9%.

This was a cautious portfolio mix. Investments in equities and bonds were comparable (22.7% vs 26.6%). More amounts remained in cash because I did not want to risk my capital in a volatile investment environment.

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16 December 2018

Return on Invested Capital - 2011 to 2018

Return on Invested Capital tracks the performance of investments. It tells about income made on these investments in a year. Any realised capital gains and losses made on investments are added to and deducted from streams of dividends and interest income (coupons) earned on these investments throughout the year.

It shows how well the investor had been doing with their investments in generating income for him in that year.

I tracked these statistics since 2011. For this year, my ROIC was 2.40% per annum.

2018’s ROIC (2.40%) was lower than 2017’s (3.89%).

2.40% return is not a good number bearing in mind that CPF Ordinary Account earns 2.5% per annum. I was cautious in 2018 and a third was in cash (univested).

Return on invested capital (ROIC)

Year ROIC (%) Remarks 2011 -4.45 Eurozone debt crisis 2012 2.59 2013 2.99 Fed Taper tantrum 2014 5.06 2015 4.85 China slowdown. Oil dropped to below US$30 2016 1.83 Brexit, Donald Trump won Presidential election 2017 3.89 2018 2.40 US Trade War with China 2011 was a particular bad year with negative return of -4.45%. That year, I started to book losses by selling some high-risk investments at losses.

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21 December 2018

10-year Bull Run for US stock markets halted

US stock markets hit rock bottom during the Global Financial Crisis on 1 February 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) was 7,062.93 points. It was on a bull run for nearly 10 years touching a high of 26,828.39 on 3 October 2018. That was whopping increase of 280% or 3.8 times over this period. After October, the Dow continued to drop and it was now 22,859.60 points last night (20 December 2018). For this year, the Dow was -7.5% below the start.

World Equity Indices US S&P 500

US Dow Jones US Nasdaq

Japan Nikkei 225 Singapore STI

Hong Kong HSI China SHCOMP

29-Dec-17 2,687.54 24,719.22 6,903.39 22,764.94 3,402.92 29,919.15 3,307.17

20-Dec-18 2,467.42 22,859.60 6,528.41 20,392.58 3,050.62 25,623.53 2,536.27

Change (%) -8.2% -7.5% -5.4% -10.4% -10.4% -14.4% -23.3%

All three US stock markets were in negative territories for this year.

The other stock markets were not spared.

Japan Nikkei 225 was down 10.4%.

Singapore STI was down 10.4%.

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was down 14.4%.

China Shanghai Composite was down 23.3%.

2018 was a bad year for stock markets. If we look back to 2017, 2017 was a fantastic year for stock markets. The party ended in 2018.

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30 December 2018

How was my family expenditure for the year?

Our family expenditure went up when compared to last year. It was up 8.7%.

I tracked big-ticket items over the year. The following table shows where we spent more.

Cash outflow for 2018 is compared with 2017.

Major cash outflow (in %) Overseas trips

House-related items and services Donations

Medical expenses Computer and related expenses

Car expenses

Ang Pows

2017 34.5 19.7 12.5 9.9 8.9 7.9 6.6

2018 37.8 23.1 17.0 10.5 0.3 7.6 3.7

We spent more on overseas trips, house-related expenses, donations and medical expenses.

54.8% of total outflow went to overseas trips and donations. 23.1% went to pay for house-related items such as property tax, management fees & sinking funds, and repairs & maintenance.

Medical expenses that include health screening, dental came to 10.5%.

Computer and related expenses came down to 0.3% of total expenditure (last year was 8.9%).

More than half (54.8%) went to discretionary items like overseas trips and donations. These can be reduced in the future.

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1 January 2019

Performance of World Equity Indices - 2018

All stock indices declined in 2018 except for India Mumbai BSESN. World Equity Indices Mumbai BSESN Indonesia JCI

Nasdaq US Dow Jones Malaysia KLCI

US S&P 500

Australia All Ordinaries Taiwan TAIEX

Singapore STI

CAC 40 (France) UK FTSE 100

Japan Nikkei 225 Hong Kong HSI South Korea KOSPI Germany DAX China SHCOMP

29-Dec-17 34,056.83 6,355.65 6,903.39 24,719.22 1,796.81 2,687.54 6,171.00 10,642.86 3,402.92 5,312.56 7,630.87 22,764.94 29,919.15 2,467.49 12,917.64 3,307.17

31-Dec-18 35,935.31 6,194.50 6,635.28 23,327.46 1,690.58 2,506.85 5,709.40 9,727.41 3,068.76 4,730.69 6,728.13 20,014.77 25,845.70 2,041.04 10,558.96 2,493.90

Change (%) 5.5% -2.5% -3.9% -5.6% -5.9% -6.7% -7.5% -8.6% -9.8% -11.0% -11.8% -12.1% -13.6% -17.3% -18.3% -24.6%

The worst performer was Shanghai Composite, dropping 24.6% followed by Germany DAX (-18.3%) and South Korea KOSPI (-17.3%). Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was down 13.6%. Japan Nikkei 225 was down 12.1%. UK FTSE 100 and France CAC 40 did not do well.

Singapore’s STI was down 9.8%.

US stock markets surprised all since they went into negative too.

Nasdaq US Dow Jones US S&P 500

-3.9% -5.6% -6.7%

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We are facing uncertain times for global economies. Investing had been difficult.

There are too many moving parts: trade war waged by US, Brexit outcome, and Fed raising interest rates. All these are making investors nervous.

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2 January 2019

When can you start to withdraw from Supplementary Retirement Scheme?

Withdrawal from my Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) without 5% penalty will kick in when I reach statutory retirement age of 62 years old as at 1 April 2020. The withdrawal period is every financial year from 1 April to 31 March yearly. I can spread out my withdrawal over 10 years.

Though there is no penalty to withdraw because I fulfill the conditions set out above, 50% of the amount withdrawn is subject to personal income tax.

The next question is how much can I withdraw each year (over 10-year period) so that my personal income tax is zero?

Assuming that one has no other income (like rental, salary etc), the maximum one can withdraw is $40,000 in the Year of Assessment 2018. 50% of $40,000 is subject to tax, ie $20,000 is subject to tax. Since the tax rate is zero for the first $20,000 of the individual’s chargeable income, the tax payable on the SRS withdrawal is $0. As for future Year Assessment 2019, 2020 onwards, the tax rules are dependent on the rules prevailing in that particular year.

For now, withdrawal from SRS should not exceed $40,000 if you have no other income. To avoid 5% penalty, you should only start to withdraw from SRS when you are 62 years old at 1 April of the year.

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3 January 2019

Investing in 2019

Will there be a perfect storm in 2019?

What if US and China continue with their trade wars? There is no deal Brexit.

Oil prices continue to decline. There is slowdown in global economic growth starting with China. There is gridlock in US politics with Democrats controlling the Congress against Donald Trump. All these do not give me confidence in investing in the New Year.

One year is a long time for investments. As an illustration, 2018 started with so much optimism but it ended the year with gloom. No one can predict how 2019 will play out.

As I see it, US would not want a severe economic slowdown in her hand and so is China. It is quite likely that US and China would not escalate the trade war. Then again I cannot read what Donald Trump’s behaviour would be like. It can be erratic and stubborn.

The above uncertainties aside, I would be going back to fundamentals to see the signs of global economic growth and Singapore GDP numbers. From macro level, I then read the company level data. The fourth quarter financial results of 2018 would be important. Buy, sell and hold investment decisions would be dependent on these readings.

It would still be risk off for me in 2019. However, staying invested is still important for streams of income from investments. I would go for lower returns but safer investments.

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30 January 2019

How much will you be getting on CPF Life?

This question can be answered by referring to the CPF Statement for 2018. CPF members would be receiving their statements via the post or by eStatement if they have opted for it.

It tells me that I am on CPF Life Basic Plan. From age 65, I will receive an estimated payout of $1,662 - $1,807 per month based on my CPF Life policy. It is estimated for now and CPF Board will tell me my exact monthly payout nearer my payout eligibility age (at age 65 in my case).

The monthly payout amount is on the basis of Enhanced Retirement Sum, CPF Life Basic Plan, and I am a male.

From this amount, one can decide whether the monthly payout amount would be sufficient on retirement. Perhaps, one may look at other sources of payouts from Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS), investments and insurance annuity policies.

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4 February 2019

Buying Life Insurance Policies as a way of diversifying investment portfolio

Recently, I decided to take up a whole life policy with OCBC. This product is called Premierlife Generation II administered by Great Eastern Life (GE). It is a single premium policy paid upfront. It provides guaranteed cash survival benefits from 5th year onwards. The policy participates in the returns of GE’s Participating Fund and therefore the cash survival benefits have both the guaranteed benefit and cash bonus that is not guaranteed.

If one survives for up to 100 years old, the policy would continue to pay the survival benefits in cash to one’s bank account.

As an illustration.

One time premium paid = $120,000 Payment of survival benefit in cash from 5th year onwards: Guaranteed portion $1,947 per year Non-guaranteed cash bonus = $2,337 per year (at illustrated 4.75% investment return) Payment every year up to 100 years of age if one lives as long as that.

However, if death occurs before that there will be death benefit. Death benefit provides a cash legacy to one’s beneficiary.

If one wants to terminate the policy, one can receive surrender value. The catch is that surrendering the policy too early, one is subjected to losses from the full premium paid.

NTUC Income SAIL I had a similar kind of life insurance policy from NTUC Income called SAIL bought in 2011. This is a policy with single premium paid upfront of $50,000. It has 10 years accumulation period and 20 years of payout period. During the pay-out period, one gets guaranteed cash payments of $3,223 per year up to 20 years. The non-guaranteed cash bonus is $2,869 per year (at illustrated 5.25% investment return).

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9 February 2019

Cost of driving a car

When I bought my Toyota Corolla Altis 1.6L Auto 10 years ago, the car cost me $54,088 with COE included. COE was $4,460. There was no financing cost for this car. After I scrapped my car, PARF/COE Rebates are $8,106.

Car Costs Purchase price + COE PARF/COE Rebates Total cost of car

Amount ($) 54,088 (8,106) 45,982

The car was used for 10 years. Depreciation cost is $12.60 per day or $4,598 per year.

I had incurred costs to maintain the car and costs to repair the car amounting to $9,040 for 10 years. This works to $904 per year.

Let’s look at all costs in using my car on a year basis based on 2018 data.

Types of costs Annual costs ($) Remarks Costs of car 4,598 Repairs and Maintenance 904 Car insurance 878 50% NCD Car road tax 742 1,600 cc Car Park/ERP 300 Petrol 928 Total 8,350 All in the cost of driving a car was $8,350 per year. This works out to about $695 per month. This figure is quite conservative as I take public transport too besides driving a car.

Without a regular income, $695 per month is too much to bear.

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15 February 2019

Know who you have nominated as beneficiaries for life insurance policies

I had taken up four life insurance policies in 1980s and 1995. I did not remember whether I had nominated someone to be the beneficiary of each policy when I passed away. These policies were taken up more than 20/30 years ago and I did not bother about them.

I was reminded about this recently when I took up a new life insurance policy.

Circumstances may change and I may want to change the beneficiary. In some cases, the beneficiaries may have passed away. Even with a valid Will, the beneficiary of life insurance policy may not be the one we wanted in our final Will.

I wrote to two insurance companies to ask for the name of the beneficiary I had nominated for each policy. The results came back and these beneficiaries are the Estate (in other words, I did not make a nomination). This meant that my Will takes over as to how I want to distribute my financial assets on my death. That is good.

As part of retirement and end of life planning, this is one aspect not to be neglected.

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17 February 2019

Lost confidence in Singapore Equities

When I thought I have invested in established companies with past track records, I was deeply disappointed with these companies.

I own 9 stock counters with paper losses ranging from 85.0% to 26.0%. Total paper loss comes up to $39,000.

Counter Cost ($) Latest Price ($) Loss (%) Hyflux 1.38 0.21 85.0 StarHub 4.26 1.67 60.8 SembCorp Marine 3.34 1.60 52.0 SembCorp Industries 5.13 2.57 50.0 M1 3.68 2.04 44.6 Singapore Press Holdings 4.12 2.48 40.0 Keppel Corp 9.86 6.08 38.3 SingPost 1.47 0.955 35.0 Singtel 4.04 2.99 26.0 Of the list, I do not think I will get back much from Hyflux. 21 cents was the suspended share price. The re-structuring plan will leave me with near nothing.

StarHub, M1 and Singtel were shocking to say the least. The entry of the fourth Telco entrant TPG was government initiated and not anticipated by me.

SembCorp Marine, SembCorp Industries and Keppel Corp were affected by the sharp collapse of oil prices to US$30 in 2016. These companies are still trying to recover from weak oil prices.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) that delivers The Straits Times, ZaoBao, etc saw their revenue shrinking from the media businesses. SPH is affected by the way people have been reading news and entertainment in the digital world.

SingPost was in the news lately with losing sight of its core business of delivering mails and parcels.

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It is interesting to note that M1 is being acquired by SPH and Keppel Corp. I will be letting go of ownership at a price of $2.06. I am a price taker in this case with no say since I am a small investor.

My dilemma is whether should I cut loss and lose $39,000 now or should I give faith that the CEOs and the Boards of Directors of these companies can reverse fortunes for me? Would the share prices of these companies continue to decline in the future? Much I would like to be optimistic, but it is getting harder to be confident.

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23 February 2019

Reducing Risks as I get older

I have been reducing investment risk progressively as I get older. Without a stable income, I could not afford to take huge risk on investing my money.

Over a 10-year period, I had stopped the following investment products: 1. currency-linked investments 2. credit-linked notes 3. foreign currency denominated unit trusts All these are rated higher risks for investors.

I went one step further. I did not invest in single company equity for some time now. Instead, I buy into group of companies like the SPDR STI ETF and unit trusts. I diversified risks using this approach. Therefore I do not need to pick stock to invest in. As past experiences showed, even some well-known dividend stocks were not doing well.

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25 February 2019

US and China stock markets did a V-Shaped Recovery

US and China engaged in trade war in mid-2018 each slapping tariffs on each other’s exports. The stock indices of US, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore on 31 May 2018 before all these trade tariffs were tabulated below.

These indices came down by the end of 2018. However with the possibility of trade agreements between US and China, these stock indices rose indicating a sharp V-shape recovery in just two months.

Stock Indices 31-May-18 Shanghai Comp 3,095.47 Nasdaq (USA) 7,442.12 Hang Seng (HK) 30,468.56 Dow Jones (USA) 24,415.84 S&P 500 (USA) 2,705.27 Nikkei 225 (Japan) 22,201.82 STI (Singapore) 3,428.18 * at 3.10 pm

31-Dec-18 2,493.90 6,635.28 25,845.70 23,327.46 2,506.85 20,014.77 3,068.76

25-Feb-19* YTD Change 2,957.80 18.6% 7,527.54 13.4% 28,956.34 12.0% 26,031.81 11.6% 2,792.67 11.4% 21,528.23 7.6% 3,270.25 6.6%

Indeed, the trade war had a significant impact on investors’ confidence. China is a star performer compared with the others, rising 18.6% as at 25 February 2019 from end of 2018.

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8 March 2019

Lasting Power of Attorney

The Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is my last major action I took as part of my retirement planning. This completes a series of actions I did for a peace of mind, as I get older.

I had drawn up my Will, applied for Advance Medical Directive (AMD), made my nominations for my insurance polices, and made nomination for my CPF money.

LPA is the last.

With the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), I know that should I be mentally incapacitated or suffers from dementia, I will rely on my wife to take care of my personal affairs with regard to personal welfare (including medical treatments) and property & affairs matters.

It is important to pick the right person whom you can trust to look into your affairs.

Application for the LPA took considerable time. I started it from 26 December 2018 and I got the LPA registered on 21 February 2019. I only received the notification of successful registration today (8 March 2019). It was about 2 months for all the due processes to be satisfactorily completed.

Please note that the fee for LPA Form #1 applications of $75 was waived until 31 August 2020 for Singapore Citizens.

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3 April 2019

Shanghai Composite shooting higher

Shanghai Composite Index was up 29.0% since the start of 2019. At this level, it had surpassed itself before all these trade tensions with the US. As at 3 April 2019, it was 3,216.30 points (up 1.24% over the day before).

The other stock indices did well too.

Stock Indices 31-May-18* 31-Dec-18 2-Apr-19 YTD Change Shanghai Comp 3,095.47 2,493.90 3,176.82 27.4% Nasdaq (USA) 7,442.12 6,635.28 7,848.69 18.3% Hang Seng (HK) 30,468.56 25,845.70 29,624.67 14.6% S&P 500 (USA) 2,705.27 2,506.85 2,867.24 14.4% Dow Jones (USA) 24,415.84 23,327.46 26,179.13 12.2% Nikkei 225 (Japan) 22,201.82 20,014.77 21,505.31 7.4% STI (Singapore) 3,428.18 3,068.76 3,279.78 6.9% * date before US and China started trade tariffs on each other I have decided to cash out my China unit trust investment, taking some money off the table. In a short span of one quarter, the Shanghai Composite Index was up nearly 30%! This is too good to be true in this weak global economic growth environment of 2019.

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6 May 2019

All it took was one tweet by Donald J. Trump ‌

On 6 May 12.08 am, Donald J. Trump threatened to raise tariffs on China export to USA from 10% to 25% on Friday on US$200 billion goods and 25% on untaxed goods from China not already subjected to tariffs. The President felt that the trade negotiation with China is going too slowly.

Just one tweet by Trump after midnight and the stock markets slumped in the morning, Asian time.

Shanghai Composite dropped 5.34% Hang Seng Index dropped 3.31% Straits Times Index dropped 3.22% (At 1.24 pm.)

See what happen in the next few days to see whether the stock sell-off is sustained.

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9 May 2019

When US and China cannot come to a trade agreement

The stock markets were driven by investors’ sentiments in times such as this.

The on-going trade negotiations between the US and China is one factor driving the global stock markets. The markets were generally positive until 6 May when President Donald Trump suggested that trade negotiation was going too slowly.

The stock indices from the start of 2019 and 30 April 2019 were up for the major indices below. Shanghai Composite Index was up 23.8%.

Stock Indices 31-Dec-18 Shanghai Comp 2,493.90 Nasdaq (USA) 6,635.28 Hang Seng (HK) 25,845.70 S&P 500 (USA) 2,506.85 Dow Jones (USA) 23,327.46 Nikkei 225 (Japan) 20,014.77 STI (Singapore) 3,068.76

30-Apr-19 3,086.40 8,095.39 29,699.11 2,945.83 26,592.91 22,258.73 3,400.20

YTD Change 23.8% 22.0% 14.9% 17.5% 14.0% 11.2% 10.8%

Then came the bombshell that the trade negotiation seemed to hit a roadblock.

During the week, the stock indices corrected downwards.

Stock Indices 30-Apr-19 Shanghai Comp 3,086.40 Nasdaq (USA) 8,095.39 Hang Seng (HK) 29,699.11 S&P 500 (USA) 2,945.83 Dow Jones (USA) 26,592.91 Nikkei 225 (Japan) 22,258.73 STI (Singapore) 3,400.20

8-May-19 2,893.76 7,943.32 29,003.20 2,879.42 25,967.33 21,602.59 3,283.84

Change -6.2% -1.9% -2.3% -2.3% -2.4% -2.9% -3.4%

Shanghai Composite Index corrected 6.2% down between end of April to 8 May. This was a significant adjustment. As at 9 May 2019, the Shanghai Composite was 2,850.95 points. This brought the drop to negative 7.6%.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 77

It now depends on the China trade negotiators and the US’ to come to an agreement this week. Otherwise, more red ink is the pipeline. It now appears that month of May is going to be a frightening month for stock investors.

78 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

10 June 2019

Stocks weakened in three weeks

In the three weeks when I was away for a silent retreat without any access to news of any kind, the stock markets continued to weaken.

Stock Indices 17-May-2019 Hang Seng (HK) 27,946.46 Shanghai Comp 2,882.30 Nikkei 225 (Japan) 21,250.09 STI (Singapore) 3,205.46 Nasdaq (USA) 7,816.28 S&P 500 (USA) 2,859.53 Dow Jones (USA) 25,764.00

7-Jun-2019 26,965.28 2,827.80 20,884.71 3,166.29 7,742.10 2,873.34 25,983.94

Change (%) -3.5% -1.9% -1.7% -1.2% -0.9% 0.5% 0.9%

The four Asian stock markets were in negative territories. Hang Seng Index was down 3.5%, the worst performing stock market.

The STI was down 1.2%. My portfolio of Singapore equities took another beating.

The US stock markets were relatively unscathed. The trade war between US and China still weighs down the global stock markets.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 79

2 December 2016

A sense of justice disturbs peace of mind

I was brought up to differentiate what is right or what is wrong. I have expectations of what is righteousness. I want justice to prevail to curtail wrongful act. I was never happy when I was bullied into acceptance of a point of view that is not in accordance with my sense of justice. I am certainly not going to tolerate when someone takes advantage of me.

Let me share some examples.

I can never understand why people leave an empty Red Bull can at the lift landing. It bothered me that someone just leaves an empty potato chip bag at the poolside when a dustbin is nearby within sight.

As I read the politics of governments in the newspapers, it often gets onto my nerves. Why must a country bully another country? Why are innocent people suffering because of war? Some government policies were not well crafted as to discriminate a particular class of citizens.

A recent example was one of taking advantage of a free-lance designer. Just because the designer is young with just few years of working experience, that does not give the client the right to cheat on her. There was no written contract or documented agreement (clearly the client avoided this) and she relied on good faith for the client to honour his part of the verbal agreement.

The designer executed the work and delivered the product. But no payment was forthcoming. Mind you, this client is an established name in the industry.

How is one to know that he is going to cheat?

In the last example, she has decided to move on and not to waste energy in pursuing the matter.

Having a strong sense of justice is tiring and a waste of energy trying to right things that were wrong. I have learned to let these pass and not to get disturbed by them. A peace of mind is more important than getting agitated. I will simply note them in the future and not to dwell in them.

Living Tips | 83

18 December 2016

Don’t push my button

I still have anger in me. I thought I could remain calm in face of provocations and unreasonable behaviours. I know anger raises my heartbeats, and blood gushes to my head. It is not good for my heart and my well-being. Yet I cannot control the urge to raise my voice and to give a nasty look. I felt hot and flustered.

I have my pet peeves. I hate some government policies and actions, like the one with regard to raising public car park charges and not ensuring sufficient coupons for sale.

I hate an independent survey company asking about how your bank relationship manager (RM) was doing on her job. It was sneaky and not fair to the RM. Why must the bank do it?

I hate driver who toots his car horn behind you at the traffic junction. Why the rush, the light just turned green?

Anger serves no useful purpose in our lives. It is going to be long journey before I can remain unaffected in face of provocations. I can look inward at myself each time someone pushes my button. The problem does not lie outside me. The external factor is there to test me how I react to the situation. I have a choice, to be angry or to remain unaffected.

The reason for being angry is because I am self-centred and only think of myself as the most important person on earth. If I could shake this notion of self-importance, then I could forgive the other party or the unpleasant situation.

To help in stopping from getting angry, we could take a pause of few seconds before reacting. These few seconds could do wonder to stop us from flying off the handle. Check your feeling in these few seconds and not to react yet.

I hope in time to come, I could work on compassion more instead of aggression and competition and reduce the self-centredness in me!

84 | Living Tips

20 December 2016

Surviving the turbulence

2016 as it turns out is a year of upsets. Two major incidents were: 1. United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union with votes of 51.9% in June (Brexit).

2. Donald Trump of the Republican Party won the Presidential race against Hillary Clinton in November.

2016 will end with uncertainties moving into 2017.

1. The interest rate hike in December by US Federal Reserve (Fed) is causing concerns with investors globally.

2. US under President-elect Donald Trump could be embroiled in diplomatic row with China. There is risk of armed confrontation should one country make a wrong move.

3. Brexit is a great unknown for the European economies.

4. Oil prices may continue to be low in 2017.

5. Several nations are turning nationalistic and their citizens are against opening their borders and markets to other countries.

Welcome to a new world that is breaking the status quo. It is normal to worry about how the future is going to be like. If not managed well enough, this can leak to anxieties and depressions.

Coping strategy All phenomena are impermanent. Bad events would not last forever. Uncertain events may not happen and if they do happen, the outcome is still unknown. To predict the future with pinpoint accuracy is not a science. No one can. So why worry now about the future?

For me, NOW is the most important. Living in the present is my coping strategy. Live this very moment, live this very second. Any thought that stray into the future, note the thought and bring it back to the present moment. If we can lead a wholesome and moral life and be kind to ourself and others in this moment, this is what we can do to alleviate the worries and anxieties.

Living Tips | 85

13 February 2017

De-clutter your home

We have been reducing stuff in our home. We gave up things when we did not need them. We will not buy something unless we need it. These are the basic principles of keeping our home clutter free.

To us, space is a premium in our home since we live in a small place. In addition it is aesthetic to see less clutter in the house, a minimalist look to the place.

We create space in our wardrobes, cupboards, book shelves, table-tops and drawers by reducing things and putting things away neatly. To do the latter, one can consider investing in containers, boxes and files. When we put away things consistently in a specific place, it helps us to retrieve the items when we need them. This is especially important when one gets older and our memories are not that good.

Let me suggest some practical examples. I learned about a few recently.

1. Remove shirts and pants hanging in a wardrobe that we have not been wearing for a long while. Fold them and stack them flat in the cupboard. This creates hanging space.

2. I used to stack current and KIV papers and documents on the table. Each time I wanted to retrieve a particular document, I would have to search for it in the stack. It is all too time consuming. Instead of lying flat on the table, I bought a plastic holder to help me place these files and documents upright.

3. Buy some arch files and file away documents and letters as soon as they are dealt with. Do not let them lying around in a pile and soon these items would be forgotten.

To de-clutter the home does not require some consultants to help us. All we need is a mind-set of not to hoard things. Instead, we should be ruthless in removing things that we do not need and give them up to charity. At the same time, we should stop buying things unless they are needed for practical living.

This way we not only save money, we have more space in our homes.

86 | Living Tips

19 April 2017

Can we be more considerate?

On a Sunday, I was driving my car in a car park and came to a stop behind another car. The driver of the car suddenly reversed at fast speed. I could not prevent this car from crashing into the front of my car. What happened next was ridiculous. The male passenger came out of the car and was aggressive towards us. I was with my family, so was he. His wife was the driver. He said that the car had already come to a stop and its hazard light was switched on. I should not have come so close to the car and the accident was my fault.

His car back bumper was scratched slightly, whereas my front bumper and number plate took the knock more obviously than his car. What I did not understand was the aggressive behaviour of the husband. It was as if I was totally at fault! I was prepared to let the matter rest. But he insisted that we exchange ICs. His wife was more reasonable and said that it was our bad lucks that this minor accident happened at the car park. We then parted without anyone taking any action of reporting the accident.

I reflected since the incident. The aggression shown was something that I was not expecting. I was actually expecting an apology. How can someone reverse a car without regard to obstacles or cars behind it and at such a fast speed? At the end, a person’s personality shows when he becomes the aggressor. When a person gets angry, it gets in the way to resolve the situation.

I am thinking how nice it would be when this world has more people who are considerate.

Always think of others and less of oneself.

Always make things more pleasant for others.

Better still do these without the other party knowing about it.

Make our world a kinder place to live in.

Living Tips | 87

22 May 2017

Sustainable Living for Me

We live on this earth with finite natural resources. We owe it to future generations not to waste these natural resources resulting in less for them to tap on. We must be part of the solutions to sustain the level of natural resources that the future generations would need for their developments. This is sustainable living. Each generation looks after the next generation.

You may ask wat we can do as an individual towards this cause. I say there are many actions we can take. Let me share some of my thoughts and some simple ideas.

Reduce use of energy Start with turning off air-conditioning in your house. Use electric fans instead.

You save huge amount of electricity and pay less on electricity bills.

It was only recently that I had changed my kitchen lights from fluorescent tubes to one that uses energy-saving LED light bulb. It is now easy to change the light bulb should it needs changing in the future. That is another advantage besides saving energy.

Take public transport Taking your car out each time when you travel waste petrol and not efficient in transportation. Take public transport like buses and MRTs instead.

Stop hacking up floorings Often time when a new owner takes over an existing property, the new owner would do extensive renovations like hacking up the marble flooring. It is a waste of perfectly good flooring. All it needs is just a grinding and a polish job. I think we can live with some imperfections and it may not be new but it is good enough. For that matter, some people love old things.

Buy less for the wardrobe I do not go shopping for clothes often. I use what I already have in my 88 | Living Tips

wardrobe. It is usually sufficient. I have no problem wearing the same outfits as long as they are clean and presentable.

Bring along a tote-bag or plastic bags to carry things home Plastic bags are a killer for the environment. The sooner you use less the better.

Read books from the library I like to read and our National Library carries many titles to choose from. There is no need to own a copy of the book, whether fictions or non-fictions. It is also a waste of money and you need to have book shelves to keep them.

Walk instead of taking transport If you can walk to a destination, why not walk? It is a good form of exercises to keep you healthy. We try to do so when the weather permits, like evening when it is cooler. We walk to supermarket, to the library and for our meals.

Bring along your containers for dabao (packing food and drinks) Styrofoam is toxic and is hazardous waste when disposed. Yet some hawker food stalls and food outlets use these relatively cheap material for packing our food and drinks. Next time when you want to pack your food and drink to go, bring along your own containers. Do not allow a chance for Styrofoam containers to be used.

Bring along your own cutlery set when eating Avoid using disposal chopsticks, plastic forks and spoons when eating. Bring your own cutlery set that can be washed and re-used. It is safer.

Collectively, we would have ideas of our own and we can do our parts to save natural resources and protect this earth for our next generations.

Living Tips | 89

16 June 2017

Why are people getting angrier and in a rush?

Is it my perception or are people getting angrier and always impatient nowadays? Are people caught up in highly stressed lives that trigger this behaviour? Is this the price people pay in a modern society? Stressed and unhappy.

We read about a couple who shoved and hurled abusive language on an elderly man in a hawker centre over a seat in the centre. If you drive on the road, you would definitely encounter road bullies. These drivers were in a rush to get to somewhere. Do a few minutes saved on a journey make a whole lot of difference to people’s lives?

Some twenty years, thirty years back, it was less hectic. We had no smart phones and no Internet. We did not live with the speed of Internet. There were lesser distractions on our times. Property prices were within our reach. Motor cars were cheaper without the COEs. Raising a kid now is very expensive with child-care costs and tuitions. The ratrace to the top gets keener.

All these add to the stress level of people. But this does not provide people with a passport to be nasty and angry. If we live without kindness and compassion in our hearts, the society would be poorer.

90 | Living Tips

17 June 2017

Time Stealers

You and I have the same number of hours in a day. Everyday, we wake up to 24 hours in a day. How one uses time is personal and is different for everyone.

For me, I do not spend inordinate time on my smart phone. I do not watch movies or catch-up TVs on the phone. I do not play on-line games on the phone. These two alone would reduce our precious time from what I consider as worthwhile activities. The same applies to my personal computer.

I would limit my access to Facebook and Instagram during the day. It is not time sensitive that I have to access them to see what friends and others are posting on these platforms. It can wait until it is convenient for me to do so. My Facebook is private, limited to friends I know and would like to associate with.

While my Instagram account is public, I do not follow many accounts.

As to messaging applications, I have WhatsApp. I belong to two chat groups, active in one but not the second one. I limit my time on these chat groups. I do not re-post or forward links or information that were widely circulated.

Looking at my phone, I have limited number of applications on it. I have only 16 GB of memory/storage space, which is a whole lot less space for many applications and data files. With less space, I get more time on my hand for other activities not related to accessing the phone.

Living Tips | 91

10 July 2017

If only life can speak to you

Slow down Keep pace with each moment Life is not a race Be fully aware with what you are doing Do you know what is happening at this present moment?

Life is ups and downs It is not permanent One time you are over the moon Another time you are disturbed by unhappy thoughts Do you know the unsatisfactoriness of living?

Actions create results Bad actions beget bad results Good actions beget good results Every action of body and inner thought will ripen in the future Do you know that now is the most important time?

Compassion brings happiness All living beings need your compassion They fear death and want happiness like you Be kind to all even to somebody you dislike Do you know what you can do to offer compassion?

Let go Negative emotions cloud your mind It affects your health and a hindrance It serves no useful purpose except that it disturbs your mindfulness Do you know that you have to work at it constantly?

92 | Living Tips

14 August 2017

You walk alone

When you came to this world, you were alone.

You depended on your parents and people around you.

They were the people who cleaned you, fed you, and protected you.

They were your caregivers.

They watched over you until you were able to take care of yourself.

The day will come when you grow old.

With aging and ill-health, you then depend on others to look after you.

You move from caregiver role to being cared.

This is the circle of life.

You will need the goodwill of people around you to look after you.

Be kind to them when you are growing up.

Give before you can receive.

Show gratitude and remember how your parents cared for you.

When the time comes, take care of your parents.

This will require sacrifices on your part.

You owe it to them.

You walk alone at the end of your journey.

You came alone and you leave alone.

When you live morally and are kind, you have no fear walking alone.

Live with kindness, compassion and with generosity.

Living Tips | 93

24 August 2017

What worry you?

The government has been telling us that we have to move with the time.

We have to keep up with technology. Singapore must catch up with other countries which have moved ahead, like the cashless payments. We cannot stop innovating and to keep up with productivity at work places. Singapore must have economic growth to maintain our way of life, to keep with latest life styles.

We must have money for retirement and to afford ever increasing health care costs.

What worry you? Can we afford to retire? Can we afford health care costs?

It looks like a vicious cycle of stress. To get well-paying jobs, we need to study hard and train hard. With things and services getting more expensive, we need that paying jobs. Things and services get expensive because we chase up the prices with our rising wages. With more pay, we have to produce work to justify the pay. When we are ready to retire, our health takes a hit from mental stress and neglect to our bodies. What is the use of retirement when we have ill health? Stress goes round and round.

Is there a break from this vicious cycle?

We are caught up in this rat race. At some point in our life, we must call a halt to this madness. We must know our limits and be contented with what we have.

We must worry less and live each day as it presents itself. “It is better to add life to time than add time to life.” It is sad to live a long life of misery. It is much better to enjoy this moment and to cope with life’s ups and downs as they come.

We need not envy others with fat pay cheques or the luxurious lives they lead.

Our lives can be meaningful too without the excesses. Remember the goal is to reduce mental stress and to worry less. It is most difficult, but we have to try.

So step back and take stock of our current lives.

94 | Living Tips

5 September 2017

Are you in control?

Life is full of surprises.

It is always in a state of flux.

You will never know what to expect for the future.

You wish that it would be in your favour.

You wish that there are no changes that would upset you.

You cannot will the future to go your way.

You cannot control what is to happen.

Instead of brooding about the future, why not accept it and deal with it as it happens.

It is unproductive to worry presently.

The future is not now.

You can plan towards a better future.

But the action now is more critical for the future.

Live in the moment.

Go with the flow.

Adapt and accept the flow.

It is futile to go against the flow.

Living Tips | 95

6 September 2017

All phenomena are transient

We live in a world that is transient.

Nothing is permanent.

The river changes with the water flow.

The beautiful lotus flower sheds it petals.

The trees lose their leaves.

The ocean waves erode shorelines.

The majestic mountain loses its shape.

Change is imperceptible but it is there.

It is the same with lives.

Take a look at our photos when we were young.

We do not look the same.

When my daughter was three years old, she could sit on my lap comfortably.

Now she is an adult and we stand side-by-side.

My mother loses so much weight with age.

Her face has a wrinkled and sunken look.

We are no longer as good looking.

Every living beings have life forces.

Ultimately lives have to end.

Our consciousness changes rapidly in split seconds.

Our mind is not the same moment to moment.

We have our range of emotions depending on the stimulus.

We can be happy, angry, sad, anxious, fearful, remorseful.

We only want happiness and reject feelings that are unpleasant.

But can we choose?

Knowing that all phenomena is transient is the first step in coping with living.

Nothing is going to stay still including our mind and body.

It has to change.

If life throws us a lemon, taste it and feel the sourness.

Act in the present, knowing things will change.

96 | Living Tips

Love yourself and all living things around you.

Adapt and make the best of the situations.

And do it with goodness in your heart.

Living Tips | 97

14 September 2017

Less is More

This does not sound logical. To put this in context, the less one acts can achieve more benefits. I am talking about human interactions.

Very often, we hear a person X complaining about person Y. Person X wants to take us into his confidence and to agree with him about person Y. Person X wishes that we can be on his side. It will suit him well when we add comments that are negative towards person Y. In fact, he will feel a sense of satisfaction because we agree with him. It is either you are with me or you are not. He forces us to take side.

If this is in an office environment, then we are engaging in gossips and office politics. It is very common and I saw it in every workplace I was in. There was no exception. This can be very tiring.

If this is a family environment, then we are causing animosities among members of the family and those connected with the family, such as the domestic helper.

This is very different from the office environment. We cannot withdraw from the situation easily since we are bounded by family ties.

We often hear complaints about people within the family. We also hear complaints about domestic helpers. One thing about such conversations, the aggrieved person is not there to defend herself. There could be another side to the story which may justify her action or inaction. It is not what it seems. In such a situation, it is wise that we stop further comments in the conversation, to stop “adding fuel� to the unhappiness. Just listen sympathetically. If we know the truth or another side to the story, just state the fact if it is beneficial to do so at that time. Remember to apply the rule: Is it the right time to speak? Is speaking beneficial to the hearer? Is the hearer ready to hear and has calmed down?

Sometimes the less we speak ill of another person, more harmony is possible.

Sometimes, less talking and more listening works. Less is more.

98 | Living Tips

10 January 2018

Resolve to tackle busyness

We are just ten days into the New Year. I already feel tired. There are many activities that require my attention. As I walked the busy malls and bus exchanges, people were rushing and cutting into my path. There was this feel of stress among these people.

This feeling of stress is a mental state. It constantly occupies your mind and even when you sleep. One can get into a hole feeling helpless.

I noted this came over me. The good thing is that I am aware. I therefore resolve to do something about it.

Each day is 24 hours. You can see this as a constraint or see it as time is just that. You cannot squeeze too much into 24 hours. There is always another 24hour day the next day. This brings us to an aspect of prioritising our activities.

When you are inundated with work, learn to say NO to some requests of your time. Do not feel guilt about this. Remember that you are not indispensible.

Allow some people to take up the responsibilities. It is good for them and for us. It is better than to over-commit and could not deliver.

When you on a task, keep to the task and do not be distracted. It is more effective to deal with one issue at one time. Our minds deal best with one thing at a time. Create a list of tasks if these keep coming up to your mind while you are on a task. Set them aside and not to think further about how many other things you have to complete. Less worry is best for thinking.

Distractions are a time stealer. You should avoid checking social media when you are on a task. There are appropriate times for such things.

The most important thing is to stay present all the time. Are you aware of what you are doing and thinking at this current moment? I am certain that there are many thoughts that run through your mind every single moment. If one is calm, this agitated mind slows. Stay present. Do not lose patience. Be kind to yourself and to others.

Living Tips | 99

24 January 2018

Fake News

When I was younger when there was no Internet, I looked out for fake news in the Straits Times on April First – April Fools’ Day. That was the only one time that respectable newspaper tried to fool readers with one piece of fake news, out of fun in keeping with age-old tradition.

Now with the prevalent social media, messaging platforms and on-line news media, you cannot tell whether the news you read or see were fake. The social media facilitates propagation of fake news with a click of a mouse or a finger touch.

One time, we were told that Stephanie Sun had “died”. What an unkind thing to spread the news on social media by re-posting that piece of fake news. The on-line world did not stop to question whether it was true before the people hit the send button.

If netizen could play that kind of joke, I become wary with every piece of news that comes on to the Net. Like the story about the boy who cried wolf, when truth be told I would not believe it without skepticism. The real news got lost as a result.

I have a Facebook account and am in several Whatsapp chatgroups. I find more people are re-posting news (fake or otherwise) on these platforms. They also posted videos that I may not have interest in. I have reached a stage where I simply delete the chatgroup messages without opening them. I got impatient scrolling down Facebook posts because many of them were re-posting of someone else’s creations.

How to handle fake news?

I read news from reputable sources. I still go for newsprint for daily news and on-line sources that I can trust. These sources have a reputation to keep.

100 | Living Tips

I avoid sponsored sites where news-maker has personal motive of putting out the posts.

I go for original contents created by the person. This thing of re-posting what is not yours does not excite me. I can understand why my contacts like to re-post interesting snippets or videos. They like to share. But imagine more of same things (same contents) posted by many friends can be counter-productive. It gets boring.

I avoid political sites and lobby sites. I am not into politics in a serious way.

Sometimes, opinions of these commentators can get you down.

Living Tips | 101

7 May 2018

How much time did you spend on your mobile phone?

Have you ever stopped to wonder how much time you had spent on your smart mobile phone each day? Can you break it down to time spent on it because of work-related imperative and time spent for personal purposes (outside of work)? Do you constantly switch on your phone to check on status updates on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other social media? Do you watch YouTube and movies on-line while on the go? Do you spend time on online games on the phone?

Smart phones are time stealers. Modern technology and easy access to the Internet have made people dependent on the smart phones. Our lives are so much faster than those who lived in the industrial revolution. We want instant responses to our requests.

Let’s step back and look at the issue. Info-comm technology is there to aid us in our work and daily living. We must not be slave to the speed of information flow. We can control how we can use the smart phones.

In my case, I do not have many apps on my phone. For each new app loaded, I turned off notification feature of the apps. I choose when I want to open the apps.

Call me old school. I prefer to: - have personal quiet time - watch the world go by (on the trains, buses) - do more reflections and contemplations - come home to watch television - read a book - talk to people face-to-face (not via Skype or FaceTime)

102 | Living Tips

30 August 2018

Obsession with Academic Performance

One incident happened in the lift when one group of people came in to join us in the lift. We did not know them. Their conversation centred on the boy (perhaps doing his “O� Level) achieving a C6 grade for one subject during an examination. One female adult in the group suggested that the boy should take up tuition to improve on his grade. This seemed to be a solution to address the grade issue.

Second incident happened yesterday while we were on the bus. A mother and a boy (still in primary school) came up and sat behind us. The mother was trying to impress on the boy that his careless mistakes on written examination papers can affect his streaming into a better secondary school. Just a few marks can result in him missing out of entering a better-ranked school. When we alighted from the bus, the mother and boy were walking behind us and the mother continued to talk to the boy about his careless mistakes.

In both cases, the adults were the ones concerned with the academic performances of the children. Despite the efforts by the government to downplay the importance of academic grades of kids, the reality is still that the students with their parents cared a lot about grades.

My fear is that when parents push their kids too hard to perform in examinations, some kids may harbour a sense of worthlessness in them with dire consequences (if they cannot meet their expectations).

Private tuition is the key to improving grades as these tuition centres want everyone to believe. They rake in millions in fee revenues. This is a case of not wanting to lose out. What is taught in MOE school is not sufficient!

The society has a long way to go when comes to addressing the obsession of academic grades. This has gotten worse from my days in schools when I was young (in the 1960s and 1970s). Private tuition was not rampant during my daughter’s time in schools. Why have we come to this predicament?

Living Tips | 103

10 September 2018

Hope

We live under the same sky and yet we could not live in harmony.

Fighting to preserve their own kinds throws human races into conflict.

Politics and powers corrupt the minds of so-called leaders of war-torn nations.

There are no rooms in their hearts to share the joys of happiness with others.

We may be of different colours and faiths but we are all thinking human beings.

Demeaning and setting one against another is not compassionate.

Anger does not solve problems. Loving kindness can and will find a way.

My heart goes to those who are oppressed by others.

Will the day comes when we all live happily under the same sky?

104 | Living Tips

13 October 2018

Are you constantly planning ahead or living in the past?

My mind is darting around. It jumps around three states – past, present and future. The nature of mind is such. Dwelling too much in the past and the future robs us of staying in the present. The key word is too much and worse still a person could get into a loop of dwelling constantly in them (past and future).

There is nothing wrong if one plans for the future or if one reminisces the past.

It becomes a problem if one gets stuck in one of the mind state and losing the present moment of daily living.

I am more the future oriented person. I habitually plan what to do in the future down to the details of execution. Occasionally, my mind jumped to things or events that happened in the past. Regrets and self-reproach of past events cropped up now and then. These two states took up disproportionate amount of time. I lost the pleasure of living in the moment. I lost to admire the wonderful nature that surrounds us - the sound of birds, the beautiful flowers, the smell of rain, the clouds in the blue sky. I lost to connect with my loved ones intimately.

I lost more of the present moments. If one can measure the proportion of time during our waking hours on all three states (past, present and future), I can safely say we spent too little on the present moment. We are good at multi-tasking and therefore this does not count into staying in the present task you are doing. Take the case of eating. One could eat and still one’s mind was somewhere else instead of on the eating process.

The joy of the moment was lost. Why not spend some hours walking a park (eg MacRitchie Reservoir Nature Reserve) and appreciate the flowers, the trees, the animals, birds, the water streams? If you were into mindfulness meditation, spend time each day on it to train your mind to stay in the present.

Be aware of what your mind is doing now. Is it in the present moment? Break the habit of looking into the future or dwelling in the past constantly and spend more time in the present.

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18 October 2018

Fears of Retirement

With Singapore’s life expectancy rate of 83.3 years, assuming if one retires at age 67 years old, he has 16.3 years of life in retirement. However, if another wants to retire at 62 years old, then he has 21.3 years ahead of him to live out.

Having experienced how it was like to be out of the workforce for 6 years now, let me share how it was like to retire. It covers the fears of retirement.

There are three aspects: Money, Health and Time.

Money The fear is when money runs out. Your savings are being depleted year by year.

Every big-ticket item like a vacation, buying home appliances, house repair, etc can set you back. One would be extremely lucky to be able to increase wealth by investment returns. More often it is the other way round.

Health As one gets older, he may not be as healthy and fit as when he was younger.

Common health problems increase over time. He is prone to accidents when his faculties are not so agile. Health care cost goes up. Without adequate health insurance, money is depleted as well.

Time Time refers to how can one use his time meaningfully since he is not engaged with work in the workforce. Waking up everyday means that there is 16 waking hours ahead to be occupied. This is a bigger challenge than the other two above. It is real and happens every single day.

Fear Not Time does not wait for man. Majority of us has to face retirement at some time. When the time, are we prepared?

Financial Planning, Retirement Planning and Money Management address the money aspect.

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Health aspect includes physical health and mental health (mind and body). With regard to mental health, living a wholesome life and morally helps. One should be conscious of one’s body so as not to cause stress to it, such as alcohol consumption and smoking. Physical exercises must not be neglected. Suitable food intake is the other. Going for regular health check is necessary to address health issues that may surface.

On the aspect of spending time meaningfully, one has to draw out his own plan according to his interest and skills set. I like to read and I write. I watch over our investment portfolios. I do book keeping for two entities. My wife and I spend one day each week to help in TOUCH’s Meal-on-Wheels programme to benefit the beneficiaries. We also like to explore places in Singapore to visit.

There are many places of interest and parks and nature reserves we have yet to visit.

Retirement can be fulfilling if some routine can be built into one’s life. Because we have seen through lives, we have wisdom to share. Pass this wisdom on. We can be useful to others and it is rewarding.

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23 December 2018

Doing our parts to save this earth

We live on this planet called earth. We see more extreme weather conditions in recent years. Scientists attribute this to actions of human beings in modernisation, excess consumerism and indiscriminate destructions of earth natural resources.

Though we may not be zero-waste warriors yet, we can certainly do our part to reduce waste, help in fight for sustainable earth resources, reduce pollutions of air and water, and reduce carbon dioxide emission.

These are some ways we did as a family in this endeavour.

1. We opt to cancel magazine subscriptions from various organisations like our alma maters. We can read their news on-line.

2. We bring our own plastic bags each time we go to markets and supermarkets. We refuse to accept new plastic bags from them.

3. We bring along a cloth bag each time we buy bread from the local bakery.

4. We refuse to patronise foodstalls that use plastic cutlery and Styrofoam or plastic plates and bowls. We rather bring our own cutlery set if we want to eat from a particular stall.

5. We walk to places within our neighbourhood. We reduce the use of my car and instead opt for public transport.

6. We collect materials that can be recycled like plastic or paper-based packaging materials, old newspapers, etc and bring them to recycling bins.

7. We re-use envelopes and you can find many uses of these envelopes!

8. We target to save water, electricity and city gas usage by monitoring their usage each month.

9. We do less shopping and buy when necessary. We use what we have in our wardrobes or in our homes.

10. We cool our home with ceiling fans and natural air flow instead of airconditioning.

By doing all of the above, we hope to reduce our carbon footprint and do our part for earth.

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2 March 2019

Treat others kindly

Treat others kindly is the most important behavioural trait I learned growing up and more important when I am growing old. I find that people will reciprocate and treat me kindly too. Life will be so much easier when I deal with different people whom I encounter. It made going to schools and to work a lot happier for me in the past.

Treating others kindly must be out of sincerity. Do not take advantage of others. If not, people will soon find out that it comes with ulterior motive.

Treating others kindly also requires honesty. Be fair when we deal with people even when the truth may hurt. I recall discussing promotions and increments with subordinates that could be most painful.

Do not lash out at people or lose your temper. This is the sure way to lose your friends and even your loved ones. This has always been the most difficult aspect to control. Controlling anger is necessary before we can treat others kindly.

When we treat others kindly, try not to expect return in kind. We do not live in utopia. If we are trampled on, avoid this kind of people. If we treat others kindly, try to be universal in approach. The animals, birds and living creatures need protections. Treating them kindly is to offer them fearlessness to live without fear.

I learned this important trait from my associations with countless people. It started with my parents, my older brothers and sister when I was in their care.

It is my turn to pass it on to my child and to others.

Treat others kindly the way I want to be treated.

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12 March 2019

Competitive Society causes Stress to Children

Parents always want a better life for their children. This is true for most parents in Singapore. Who doesn’t want their precious kids to do well in schools? This mindset is so ingrained over decades of phenomenal progress in Singapore since independence. During my times as a kid, I was consistently reminded that children must study hard. The saying then was that if we did not study well, we would end up sweeping the roads. I certainly did not want to be a sweeper.

(I was too young to understand that road sweepers had pride too for us to belittle these people in this manner. They too played an important role in society.)

Over the years of economic success, Singapore depended on scholars to helm the government ministries and government agencies. In order to be hired for jobs with higher wages, educated employees with good academic results stood better chances of getting it. This explains why there are more people going for post-secondary school education. More than 9 in 10 of today’s Singaporean youths are expected to have a post-secondary education. (Source: Mr Heng Swee Keat’s Budget Debate Round-up Speech) A secondary school’s education is not sufficient in today’s competitive society.

It does not help when there is still stratification at Secondary School level even after MOE had decided to do away with Express Stream, Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) Streams. The Integrated Programme (IP) is desirable to strive for by primary school children. It is a feather in the cap if the child can get into the coveted IP schools. Stress still remains if students push to get the grades for IP schools.

Finally, we can only do that much to reduce stress for our students and to help them cope with studies. Ultimately, we live in this world where competition comes from not only among citizens, it comes from the talents of the globalised world. This is the real stress of the competitive world. Coping with stress and failures is the way forward.

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15 March 2019

One CEO

There can be only One CEO. There can be only One Managing Partner, One Principal. There can be only One Prime Minister of a country. This is the hierarchical structure of the governing world. Only one person can reach the pinnacle of an organisation. For majority of us, we can only play the roles to support the formal leader.

I have been thinking of why there has been so much stress in the society, especially in a society where economic growth is the focus for the well-being of society. Only with GDP growth, can the government hands out subsidies and money to those who need them most. It is an irony. One would think that with good GDP growth, citizens would be happy.

Stress builds up when workers have to deliver results. To keep up with the costs of living one wants to be better than the next person. Parents wish their children could excel in their academic and other pursuits so that they could have a head start in earning a living.

This brings me back to “there can be only One CEO” at the start. It must be accepted that each one of us is made differently, different DNA and different upbringings. We have different capacity, capability, aptitude and interest.

Acceptance of who we are is key to less stress. We cannot force someone to be who they cannot be. This is especially so with young children. They mustn’t be pushed to their limits until they cracked. This applies to adults climbing the corporate ladders or leadership positions.

With acceptance, comes contentment with whatever we have and whoever we are. We are the ones to decide our own destinies. We alone bear the consequences of our actions. The devil is our greed. If greed can be acknowledged and then set aside, we can reduce frustrations and unhappiness.

Be content with what we have.

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17 March 2019

About Death

One read about sudden mass deaths as a result of an aircraft crash or a terrorist attack or an earthquake in recent times. Lives were lost for people who were still healthy. It is not like old age when one could see the deterioration of one’s health over a period of time.

Much that we do not wish to be the unfortunate victims, we need to ask ourselves whether we could die with a peace of mind.

It is never too early to start a conversation about our own deaths. This is especially so once we are married and have dependants. Just like we need to have our own peace of mind, we do not wish our loved ones agonising over our deaths and what to do subsequently.

I can think of few broad areas to cover.

Financial Affairs and a Will Writing up a formal Will is important. Have we nominated beneficiaries for our financial assets and properties? CPF nomination and insurance policy nomination are to be executed. Set up a list of all financial assets, properties and insurance policies details so that our loved ones could follow up on these.

It would be nightmare for them to try to piece together what we have in our own names.

Matters on the Internet We have accounts in cyberspace, such as e-mail, Facebook, Instagram, personal blogs, WhatsApp, etc. What are our loved ones supposed to do with these accounts? Would our loved ones be able to access these accounts and close them off? How can they know our passwords and details in order to do that?

Think about that.

Locations of these items mentioned earlier Tell your closest ones where these items are kept and how to access them.

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Make the locations obvious to them and not hide items secretly.

Insurance and Banking Accounts These two items deserve a special mention. Knowing these will help them to do insurance claims and to close all our bank accounts.

Funeral rites The last area to consider is on funeral rites. What to do with our ashes after cremation? I had seen cases where there were differences in opinions on funeral rites from older relatives. By setting our wishes upfront, this would facilitate our loved ones when they carry out our wishes.

These actions are like keeping our house in order. It is necessary because life is uncertain. We cannot know what will happen the next moment. We do want our loved ones to know what to do if something untoward happens to us.

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20 March 2019

Stop collecting

Life can be simple. In the past, I kept things. I bought them and sometimes things were given to me. As I started to clear my drawers and boxes recently, I found items that I had forgotten I had them. One such items are key-rings to hold my keys. Do I really need them? I know some of these had sentimental values with a history behind them. Common sense prevailed and I do not need so many key-rings. I decided to give some up for jumble sales.

I am at this stage in life when I would be offloading things instead of collecting.

There is no need for keepsakes. I do not need clutter. It would be wonderful to live life simply without many items that are not going to enhance my wellbeing. When we go on an overseas trip, do we bring along the whole house?

Surely not. We only bring along essential things to keep our lives going and comfortable in the foreign country.

If one is attached to material things, we may run the risk of hoarding them. It is time to let some of these items go. Do we know what we are keeping in the house? I am certain that for most people they may not know they have them.

Let me share that it was a great feeling to clear things and let these go.

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30 March 2019

Forest Bathing, Shinrin-yoku

Being with nature is the most natural thing to do. In our highly-strung society, we are overwhelmed by daily tasks with all the modern amenities and gadgets, of which they are man-made. We sometimes forget there is a natural aspect of this earth, the forest. The forest where you find plants, trees, birds and other animals; water streams, water falls. The forest changes with the seasons, rejuvenating itself. It stimulates our senses with its colours, sounds, smells and cool air surrounding it.

Forest Bathing or Shinrin-yoku in Japanese language is popular in Japan, Norway and Canada. It is natural therapy by immersing in a forest.

Each time when I walked in a forest, I could lose myself and be one with the trees and other inhabitants of the forest. It was an indescribable happiness with this kind of experience. It is NOT happiness when you make money in a stock market. It is NOT happiness with your loved ones. It is NOT happiness when you do well in your study.

Try it and feel for yourself.

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14 April 2019

Questioning our Priorities

Do we know where our priorities lie? Did you encounter a situation when someone said that he was coming for an event but gave excuses at the last moment for not turning up? Did you also encounter a situation when a freebie class was fully booked very quickly and when the day came, some of these people did not attend thus depriving others of places in the class?

Some may give an excuse that they have work to do and cannot make the date. Some may find that they are too tired to attend. Some may find that there are more interesting things to do instead of attending.

These excuses cut no ice with me. Would one want to miss a flight for a holiday for the reasons indicated above?

If we made an appointment for an event, wouldn’t we want to honour it by attending? This is courtesy and respect shown to the organiser. After all, the organiser had already prepared the programme with the number of headcounts expected. We will also not deprive other keen participants who were bumped out because of limitation in the number of places.

Trust is a very precious attribute of a person. Trust is beyond money. Are people losing trust more now? If I say that I am coming, I will make effort to keep the appointment and be on time, every time. Trust is built overtime and can easily be lost. When we promise something, keep to it. Friends will remember that you are reliable and trustworthy.

Setting priorities is important, the right priorities. There will always be workrelated matters to attend to. There will always be distractions to keep us occupied. Do we know where our priorities lie? I would not want to sacrifice trust, a promise, mental and physical health when making choices.

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14 May 2019

Honesty cannot be compromised

I was brought up to be honest and to be truthful since young. This is an important virtue. Later in life, I read Accountancy in the university. I was exposed to the Code of Ethics of the profession, key of which is to be honest in all professional and business relationships (ie integrity as a fundamental professional trait).

So when I read in the newspapers of cases, it saddened me to see some business owners failing in this front. Investors, customers, employees, and suppliers want to deal with a business whose owner is honest and can be trusted. It is no good to keep silent knowingly that silence can lead to misinformation. This kind of silence is not good ethical behaviour. All business transactions and dealings must be above board. If there is any conflict of interest, this should be spelt out clearly and let the receivers of this information judge for themselves.

Dishonesty and evasion of tax have been around since I started work. Yet, it still happened even when the penalty for evasion of tax is a heavy one. One can only hope that business owners can use honesty as a mantra when in business.

Only then would one be able to sleep soundly at night.

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30 November 2016

Mindfulness Retreat without the distractions

I spent four days of last week without my smart phone. I surrendered it at a retreat centre in China. I was cut off from daily news either in print or on-line and I had no access to social media platforms such as Facebook (FB), Instagram and Whatsapp.

Effectively, I was cut-off from the mundane aspects of my life. There was no exposure to politics, social news, stock prices and financial markets. There was no contact with family members. I had only me for company.

During this retreat, the objects of silent observation were your mind and body.

Aware of your mind includes knowing your thoughts, feelings, emotions and all body sensations. To help us in this practice and to build concentration, all external distractions was minimized.

I learned to be in the present moment. Numerous thoughts were noted and set aside and I got back to what I was doing at the moment. In our daily lives, we tend to multi-task and sometimes we just vaguely know what had happened.

To fill up gaps of free time, we checked our mobile phones for the latest postings on social media platform. We checked them several times in a day. The retreat allowed me to be “detoxed� from these unproductive habits. Well, I have started to cutback on using the social media. It is refreshing to stop chasing for stimulations of the mind, liking every posting on FB and Instagram.

Keep our minds wholesome and uncluttered for the more important aspects of our lives. Live in the moment.

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7 December 2016

Miserable

I was miserable for the past few days. My left ear had this buzzing noise and I could not hear clearly with this ear. Hearing from only the right ear was not something I could get used to. I had to turn my head to hear properly. Some two years back, I had the same problem with the same ear.

I have this earwax buildup inside the ear canal. It had hardened and covered the ear hole completely. This caused pressure to build up inside and it was uncomfortable. Through this, I understand how the partially deaf or people who are hard of hearing feel. You began to appreciate the importance of hearing in your daily activities. Talking to people, driving the car, viewing TV programmes, all become difficult. You may look perfectly alright outwardly but little would people know that you had lost the sense of hearing. It is an important faculty like the eyes.

I thought I had learned my lessons some two years back. I did not use cotton buds to clean my ears. This is something the doctor will advise against. Earwax is a natural phenomena and our movement of jaws (like eating) would be sufficient to cleanse the earwax. So why the problem again?

This happened after I returned from my trip to China. During the nine days, the weather temperature was 4-6 degrees Celsius on average. I did not hydrate enough and my skin was very dry and flaky when I came back home last week.

My earwax must have hardened.

When my left ear felt stuck, I thought I was losing my hearing. Luckily, my doctor did not think too much about it. She prescribed eardrops to soften the wax.

Over two days and this morning the earwax opened up a hole for me to hear sounds again. I woke up to this morning to the sound of birds and traffic noise. I never felt better and was less irritated with the traffic noise. I can hear again!

Being miserable and at times depressed was a clear negative emotion. For me, I decided to get along the days and nights as normally as possible. I would do 122 | Life Journey

the daily routines to get my mind off the matter. I kept my appointments with people. I continued to watch TV programmes at night. It helped a lot. My last advice: go and see a doctor earlier when the problem surfaced.

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31 December 2016

Looking back at 2016

Ten years ago, I took the decision to quit full-time job. I left Temasek Polytechnic back in 2006. Times fly. I then did a bit of adjunct teaching for the polytechnic for about six years before dropping out of the labour market in 2012. I think I did alright.

Many friends often asked how I spent my time during retirement. For one, I write actively for my blog named Living Investment. I am happy to say that I released my second book on Living Investment this year. This book contains blog entries from 2013 to 2016. Secondly, my wife and I started to volunteer at TOUCH Home Care Meals-on-Wheels programme to help deliver lunch packets to its beneficiaries. We did this once a week since May. I like to read. It is enriching to read books that are fictions, religious books, financial books, TIME magazine and daily newspapers. The public library is a good source for novels. One needs not buy novels and this saves money.

Investment Climate I manages my own investments. I hold Singapore equities for their dividends. It is increasingly difficult to invest without losing capital in 2016.

2016 was marked by two significant events. United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union with votes of 51.9% in June. Donald Trump of the Republican Party won the Presidential race against Hillary Clinton in November. Both ended with a completely different outcome as predicted by political observers and news media. These events created uncertainties in the financial markets.

When you thought that 2015 was bad, 2016 was even worse. My Total Shareholder Return (TSR)2 for the years since 2011 are shown in the table.

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Year TSR 2011 -3.93% 2012 1.70% 2013 1.03% 2014 3.01% 2015 -0.84% 2016 -3.51% This confirms that 2016 was a bad year for my investments. TSR for 2016 was negative 3.51%. (2015: -0.84%) My Singapore equities were down 23.7% on cost (2015: down 18.9%).

Total investment portfolio was down 4.7% on cost (2015: down 4.4%).

Income1 from investments was only 1.19% (2015: 3.65%).

During the year, I took some losses on investments amounting to 0.6% on total portfolio. (2015: Gain of 1.9%) Travel My wife and I made four trips overseas during the year.

1. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam January 2016 2. Hua Lien County, Taiwan April 2016 3. Taiwan Trip, October 2016 covering:

a. Taichung

b. Tainan

c. Fenqihu

d. Taipei 4. Hangzhou, Wuzhen, Shaoxing in China November 2016 We were more adventurous this time round, going to Vietnam and China. Both were new destinations for us. When we went to China in November, we faced with very cold weather. Temperature ranged 3-6 degrees Celsius on average.

Major cities in China have become modern and tourist-friendly. The last time when I was in China, it was some 30 years ago. In three decades, China has rivaled other major cities of the world to pull in tourists.

Overseas Retreats My wife and I went on 2 overseas retreats this year. One in April in Taiwan and another in November in China. These retreats allowed me to get cut-off from Life Journey | 125

news and Internet access. It was a silent retreat on mindfulness.

Reflections on 2016 In March, my siblings and I had to look after our elderly mother full-time. Her maid took urgent leave to go back to her hometown (after many years away).

We never appreciated what the maid did to look after my mother, who have difficulty walking and doing things herself. We quickly realised that looking after an elderly person required a lot more patience, tolerance and acceptance.

The things that hoard the news headlines were global and Singapore economies. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for Singapore is forecast to be lower than 2015. The Ministry forecast 1.0 – 1.5% growth rate.

Throughout the year, we kept hearing bad news that hurt the financial markets.

It was hard not to get affected by declining value of investments. It was a rollercoaster ride from one event to another.

2016 was an eventful year, full of surprises. The world has an uncertain political climate with a new administration in the United States of America taking office in 2017.

Income from investments comes from dividend/interest and gains/loss on sale of investments.

2 Total Shareholder Return (TSR) in S$ term comprises dividend return (actual income received) and price return (resulting from changes in valuations of investments as at year end).

1

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2 January 2017

Writing Journals

If you were like me who has a short-term memory, you can forget the past quite easily. My recall of past events, like where I went for lunch a few days ago, what did I eat that day, was a blur. I can even forget the year when I went for a particular overseas trip. I can navigate the roads to get to a new place now, but in a few weeks time I would forget how to get there without the help of a map.

I do not have the memory of an elephant. It is transient. Is this a good thing? I know I can live in the moment. Fortunately I am not working now and I can live like this without worries of my progress in my career.

When I was younger, we wrote diaries. We captured the day’s events and emotions on paper. But this was not kept up when I got busy. I started writing blog in 2006. Since then, I have been writing. This is one way to capture the day, the moment on record. I know that this will help me in my recall of memories into the future. This is how Living Investment was started. I compiled the entries into two books. Reading them brought back memories. It also serves as a legacy for my daughter when I pass on.

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26 January 2017

This Rooster Year has significance

My father was born in the Year of Rooster in 1909. The Chinese zodiac sign for 2017 is the Rooster. I would have gone through five cycles of 12 zodiac animals before Rooster comes around again. This means that I would be 60 years old this year.

60 is a milestone. Being 60, you are officially a Senior Citizen. You are entitled to have Senior Citizen Concession Card for concession travel on public transport.

In the past, 60 years old birthday was celebrated big. I do not feel anything different. 60 is just a number I would cross over this year. Each year lived well is more important than the arbitrary figure. Do I feel older? Yes, from the perspective of my body ageing. The skins wrinkle and there are more aches and pains. Accepting ageing is a first step for a peace of mind.

We find opportunity and reason to celebrate an occasion. So, being 60 is that reason. When I was growing up, I could not imagine reaching 60. Time waits for no one. As I get older, I begin to reminisce about my past life experiences.

I ask myself, “Have I lived a worthwhile life?� As I move on, I wish to live in the moment and to lead a wholesome life. Live a life without regrets.

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26 July 2017

When I get on to be 60

Well I thought it would be a long way to it when I was growing up.

It crept up on me and by the time I realise, it is round the corner.

Three quarters of my life have gone by if I live to be 80.

Nothing remains permanent.

My physical appearance changes.

I still imagine how I used to look when looking into the mirror.

It is merciful that my eye-sight is not perfect to see the changes.

Thinning hairs and receding hairline is the new look.

Instead of being taut, the body is out of shape.

I lost body mass in the wrong places.

When I eat, I am careful not to bite too hard.

My teeth chipped easily.

I did not think I have to wear a singlet underneath my shirt.

Singlet will keep me warmer in air-conditioned places.

I have become like my older brother.

I am conscious how people view me as a person.

Reputation was important when I still had a career.

It does not matter now how I dress.

My past achievements were just that, past.

It is not going to make any difference to my life.

I start to count my money, spend them carefully.

It is to last so that I do not have to depend on others.

I cut back on some expenditure (goodbye TIME subscription).

I find ways to stretch my dollars.

50% discount on Muji products is what I look out for.

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I did not expect this day can come and so soon.

But I am happy that my life has been kind to me.

It is a journey that once I was born I have to move on.

Time waits for no one.

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1 August 2017

Being 60

I am now 60. Call me senior. I am fine with it.

Senior is a label tied to me now with regard to government policies on ageing. I am part of this statistics.

I am happy that I reached this age. With age I see people around me growing up. I see an ever-changing world. I lived through crises and good times. I realise how it might be like for my parents and older siblings living through it. I am always the youngest in the family. We all crossed 60 in our own quiet ways. It was like an anti-climax, a non-event.

At the end of day, 60 is just a milestone. It is artificially demarcated timeline. It is nice to cross this arbitrary number. It is just a moment to live through.

What now when I cross 60?

For one, I can look forward to receiving PAssion Silver Concession Card to enjoy concessionary fares on public transport. This helps to reduce my public transport cost by 25%. I can get my senior’s discounts on groceries bought from NTUC Fairprice and Giants. These would be easier on my wallet.

As I move on, I remember so many people whom I met along the way. They had been kind and were there when I needed them. Life is like a big classroom where I learn how to live by real-life lessons taught to me. I reminisced more in recent years and recorded all these in my blog posts (so called memoirs). I do not wish to lose these memories.

What is truly important is acceptance of it and as someone said, “carry on”.

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19 August 2017

40 years of Camaradarie celebrated

Back in 1977, forty nine young officer cadets graduated from the Officer Cadet School as Second Lieutenants. We went through tough trainings and field exercises together as a fighting unit. Our bonds and camaraderie lasted through the test of time. We kept in touch by getting together over the years. Last night, we celebrated our 40th year re-union.

In this get-together, we invited our instructors to the function. We had thirty nine turning up at Casa Verde at the Singapore Botanic Garden. It was a memorable night of laughter and happy chatting. Most of us are already 60 years old or older. We remembered some of the events that happened some 40 years back. It was surreal and I could visualise myself with this group of friends back in those days. It was that meaningful, this 40th Reunion.

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3 October 2017

Gifts to my child

Money is not one of those gifts I am thinking about. To give money or to leave a bequest for your child after you are gone is easy on condition that you can afford to do so.

There are gifts that are more valuable. These are the intangibles. They are love, support, protection and rapport. Since we decided to have a child, it became our responsibilities to bring her up to lead a meaningful life. It is paying forward from generation to generation. I remember what my parents did for me. I then do the same for my daughter. The ways of bringing up a child may not be the same because of differing conditions and environment between generations.

However, parental love and care remain the same.

When we age, we gain experiences. That are our values. We learn the pitfalls of lives and ways to cope. We have life experiences and work life experiences.

Instead of keeping them, why not share these experiences with our child?

Having rapport with your child is crucial to keep the line of communication open. As parents, we do not want to talk down to your child. It can be counterproductive. You would know when to share and whether it is appropriate. That is where rapport with your child comes in.

As parents, we have these conversations going with my daughter. We talked about work related issues and bounced off ideas to tackle them. For example, we shared how we approach an email reply to a difficult email. Over time, work life experiences get transferred and there is less and less need as years go by.

Bringing up an upright individual is very important for me as a parent. To teach moral values, we have to walk the talk. Children follow the parent’s behaviour. If we say one thing and do the opposite, then the child can be very confused.

Since we live in a materialistic world, we cannot not talk about money. I am not talking about obsession with money or how we can amass plenty of wealth. I Life Journey | 133

am alluding to how to manage money. We work to earn an income. We do not want to squander away our hard-earned income. Because we went through pitfalls about money management, we should guide our child in this regard.

Money management includes also sound investments to grow our wealth legally.

Finally, bringing up our daughter, we need to provide a safe home environment.

Her health is our concern. Eating healthily and living happily are important and we can do our parts as parents.

Ultimately, my daughter has to live her own life in a different environment that includes different political situations and technological advancements. We find opportunities to inculcate values and ways of coping with life. There is no age limit when we stop sharing our experiences. In fact sharing experiences is a two-way traffic. We learn from our daughter with changes in technologies and we inculcate life skills to her.

One last note, over-parenting is not something I would do. Give our child some breathing space. She needs it. She is owner of her life. You would need to find the balance.

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7 October 2017

Meeting my Secondary School classmates

Six met at Grand Copthorne Waterfront for a buffet lunch yesterday. We were classmates at Gan Eng Seng School from 1970 to 1973 some four decades ago.

We were celebrating one friend who had his 60th birthday recently. All six of us are 60 years old now. I did not feel the age when we met. My memory of them was still when we were in our teens. We still look the same, almost. We still have the same mannerism. One would lean back on the chair and rub his tummy when he was happy after making a point. One was still as soft spoken as before. One liked to tease another and tried to make him angry. It was all good humour. All these brought back memories of so long ago.

Imagine, we have families with grown-up children and one is a grandfather. I saw that we still wanted to have fun. It was not that we did not meet up for many years and this was the first time we met. We still kept in contact over the years.

Starting this year, we planned to meet in the birthday months for a makan1 session.

I like this group of secondary school friends because we do not have to keep up with pretences. I can remain who I am. Being a less chatty person and more a listener, I was accepted as who I am. We do not impose on each other with personal requests. I would be uncomfortable if a friend were to push a sale, such as insurance or property. There was no such thing. We have reached a stage in our lives that we are comfortable with our finances. We do not compare.

The bonds built up in our secondary school days were strong and this has brought us together. Well, I am fortunate to have such friends. Friends like that are harder to come by as we grow older. For example, colleagues in our previous work places were friends for a short while. It did not last. I count my blessings and thankful.

1

makan = eating in Malay language

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31 December 2017

Looking back at 2017

Investment Climate When we started 2017, UK voted to leave the European Union; Donald Trump became the President of United States; China was asserting her control over the South China seas. These were significant events that portend an uncertain world order going into 2017.

On taking office, President Donald Trump moved to withdraw from the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact. President Trump put America first and adopted a more protectionist approach with nations who had a huge trade surplus against the US. We saw this played out throughout 2017.

I was expecting volatility of the financial markets as a result of the big unknowns. Instead, global stock indices powered upwards. US S&P 500 was up 19.4% in 2017 and Dow Jones Index was up 25.1%. Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was up 36%. Nikkei Index was up 19.1%. Singapore Straits Times Index was up 18.1%. The reasons for this fantastic performance were that the global economy (including Singapore’s) was better than years before and the corporations were turning in good profits. Liquidity was still plentiful and investors were finding ways to invest to improve yields on investments in face of low interest rates environment. (This may change in years ahead when US Federal Reserve starts to increase its interest rates.) Oil prices were doing better this year when compared with 2016. It increased from US$57.07 per barrel for Brent Crude to US$66.64, up 16.7%.

I was cautious throughout the year and reduced my exposure to risky assets. I sold out an Australian denominated income fund and Chinese Yuan denominated bond fund. With funds freed up, I then invested in Singapore Airline Ltd 3.035% S$ corporate bond. Having said, I am still invested in Singapore equity. It comprised 14.4% of my total portfolio. Singapore equity did well this year, up 18.1%. The Straits Times Index (STI) moved from 2,880.76 points to end at 3,402.92 points.

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Portfolio Performance 2017 was a good year for my investments when compared with 2016. Total Shareholder Returns (TSR)1 for 2017 was positive 1.33% against a negative 3.51% for 2016.

Year TSR 2016 -3.51% 2017 +1.33% Total investment portfolio was negative 1.31% on cost (2016: negative 4.7%).

Income2 from investments was 2.64% (2016: 1.20%).

My Mother’s Passing 2017 marked the year when my mother passed away on 17 October, the day my family was returning back to Singapore that night from Hanoi, Vietnam. She was 93 years old and we saw her health took a turn since May. She died at her own home which was what she hoped for. Life has not been the same since her passing. I had stopped paying foreign domestic worker levy for mother’s domestic helper. We did not have to go to my mother’s rental flat every week. The routine was no more. Once a while, memory of my mother came on when I saw something that connected with her. My mother loved to eat durian and when I saw durian cake in the supermarket I would say that she liked it before. My mother had a relatively good life except for the Japanese Occupation. She had 33 children, grand-children and great grand-children who celebrated her life journey. With her passing, the four generations is now three generations. What is left is some emptiness in my heart.

I compiled a little book in remembrance of my mother. It captured how I feel as we bid a final farewell to her. I published it on issuu.com.

Travel - Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa My family visited Hanoi, Sapa and Halong Bay from 9 to 17 October.

Last year (2016) in January, my family visited Ho Chi Minh City. HCMC sits at the south of Vietnam. This year, we returned again to Vietnam and this time to the north of Vietnam, Hanoi.

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good English and a 7-seater SUV car for our exclusive use.

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam. It is in the Northern part of Vietnam and is the seat of power of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam after the withdrawal of the American soldiers. Hanoi is divided into three distinct areas for tourists to visit.

The northern part is the Old Quarter with the Hoan Kiem Lake. The southern part of Hoan Kiem Lake is the French Quarter. The north-western part is West Lake. We stayed at the Old Quarter and spent most time at the Old Quarter.

We took a cruise that sailed the Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Bay has some 1,600 islets with limestone karsts, some huge and many small ones rising above green and calm waters. The attraction is to go on a cruise and sail around these islets and see them up close. We had a night stay on the cruise.

The other place we liked was Sapa. It sits about 1,200 to 1,800 m above sea level. It was cool and wet when we visited. The weather for this October month was unusual. It was supposed to be a dry month but we had a very wet weather condition.

These nine days were memorable. We made friends with the owner of the local travel agency and the tourist guide. We were treated very well during the trip.

Books read For 2017, I read 24 books (2016: 24), 6,915 pages in total (2016: 6,104). That was one book every two weeks.

Published a Book – Walk in the Parks Singapore is not a concrete jungle with houses, buildings and roads. She is known for her parks with green fields and water bodies. Over the years, National Parks Board has done much to make our parks more accessible and beautiful. We enjoyed walking these parks both for their beauty and for physical exercises.

Instead of keeping photographs on my phone and hard disk and only I can enjoy, I thought it best I create a book to let people enjoy the beauty of the parks I had visited. In the book, I described the parks in brief. The main items would be photographs I took on these walks in the parks. (See the book on 138 | Life Journey

issuu.com) Reflections on 2017 Too much things happened in 2017. I turned 60 years old and started to get senior rates on travel on public transport. My mother passed away in October.

She had been in poor health since two years back. It was a precipitous drop in past five months of this year. But my family members were not too sad for she was able to live 93 years. My mother was not a major burden in her last days. We were thankful. With her passing, my brothers and my sister were even closer.

On a brighter note, for this year our financial portfolio performance did better than 2016. We achieved 2.64% actual cash return on total investable fund against 1.2% in 2016. It was more than double the return compared to last year.

Footnotes 1 Total Shareholder Return (TSR) in S$ term comprises dividend return (actual income received) and price return (resulting from changes in valuations of investments as at year end).

2 Income from investments comes from dividend/interest and gains/loss on sale of investments.

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9 April 2018

Five Days of Worry

When your child is really sick it affects you emotionally and it is draining.

I believe all parents had gone through periods of anxieties under the circumstances. When my daughter had severe diarrhoea last Wednesday night with suspicion of food poisoning, we were thrown into a state of unease. We thought that it was a common enough malady and our body immune system could cope with it. Some diarrhoea pills, Panadol and a night sleep would do.

When next morning came, the diarrhoea did not stop and it became severe.

Her body was so weak that going to our family doctor was fraught with danger of blackout.

Her blood pressure was so low that my daughter was escalated in the queuing system for the doctor to see her ahead of the rest. It reached the state where the doctor was considering between intravenous drip and oral medication. On balance, the oral medication was adopted in the end with five types of pills prescribed.

One lesson we learned was that after severe diarrhoea there was lost of fluid in our body system. My daughter was severely dehydrated and we did not do anything in the night before. We could have gotten her to drink honey water or 100-Plus isotonic drink to keep her hydrated. Another thing we could have done was to bring her to a doctor on Wednesday night and not to wait and see.

On Thursday night, her fever did not subside. It threatened to disrupt her recovery. I had a sporadic night sleep because I needed to wake up in the middle of the night to check her temperature. This started the days of her recovery. Soft diets were prepared for my daughter.

We thought that it would be back to normal quickly. We were wishful but not realistic. The body needed time to heal! It was only today, we saw a return to some normalcy.

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This is the truth of living. So long you have a human body, we cannot avoid getting sick. We can only minimize sickness by being careful with our diets and strengthening our immune system. Seek medical treatment early if a sickness could turn out to be life-threatening. Do not forget that we need to hydrate our body constantly. A lesson that we should not forget.

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21 May 2018

Subtle Love

Love needs not be showy Love touches each other in a subtle way A gentle touch, a quick glance express a message of I care We share an umbrella with you at my side Staying a step behind on the up-escalator Allow for proximity to share an intimate space reduce the distance between us As we grow older and familiar with each other We change in our physical appearances Our quirks and flaws on full display accept each other as the real us Occasional disagreements happened Temper and frustration are natural We watched these to subdue let negative feelings pass We cared even more when one was sick Reminded each other about unhealthy food Took more walks to count the steps stay healthy for the sake of the other

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28 May 2018

Facebook – Entering phase of housekeeping for me

I had Facebook some 9 years ago (7 September 2009). When I first started using Facebook, it helped me to connect with family members and friends. I got friendship requests from my students, long lost school friends, colleagues and anyone who knew me casually. Overtime, I have built up a list of many Facebook friends.

Facebook lost its allure among some of my friends. They did not post anymore and the accounts remained inactive. For some, they provided links to all sorts of videos, other people’s photos and posts. They do not have their own personal updates. I got all sorts of updates that I did not read them. It was too burdensome to scroll through pages and pages of updates.

I have reached a stage in life that I have become more private. I do not want to share too much on Facebook. I only want to share those moments with people I knew who would appreciate them. Hence, I have been unfriending some Facebook friends to reduce my number of friends. I have reduced the number by two-third. I have also stopped accepting new friend’s request.

I felt quite good doing this housekeeping.

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3 July 2018

When your cupboard/wardrobe was so full

When we found that we had cupboards full of our clothings, what we did six months ago was to impose a moratorium to buying some more clothes. Six months moratorium ended last month (June).

When we used to browse Uniqlo or Muji for bargains in the past, we stopped all that for six months. We would not frequent these shops and ignored sales advertisements in the newspapers. We made do with what we already had in our cupboards.

Now that the moratorium is over, we did not feel that it was all that bad. The urge to shop is not there anymore. From now on, it would be selective buying on needs basis or when special occasions call for it.

We are advocating less wastage. Use what is available and buy only when really necessary. It is eco-friendly and at the same time it saves us money.

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29 July 2018

My home was a hive of activities

Hosting party at our home is not something we are good at. In fact when we moved into our new home some nine years ago, we did not have a housewarming party. There are several reasons. Top most on the list is that we are very private people. The home is a sanctuary where we get off the busy life and tempo out there in the public. The second reason is that our flat is not really big to host a large gathering.

So you have it, we did not open our home to parties until yesterday. Whenever my brothers and sister met for an occasion like Chinese New Year or Mother’s Day celebration, it was always at my mother’s rental flat in Ghim Moh. All four generations would gather there. Things changed when my mother passed away in 2017. In order for my siblings to maintain contact with each other, we would find occasions to come together like birthdays.

When my sister asked me one day about hosting a gathering at my home, I hesitated a bit (but for a very short time). I thought and my wife agreed that we had to accede since we wanted to allow a platform for my siblings to get together often.

Preparation went into full swing. Sister is great at planning parties and took the lead in organising. We would do potluck lunch with each bringing some food.

Because of the sheer number of people coming, we had to take out all our stash away cutlery, bowls, plates and cups. We did not want to use disposable items as part of our eco-friendly efforts. We had to create space in our living room and to put way items that are not playthings for children.

What came as a surprise to us yesterday (and my sister never told me how many people were coming) was that we had 19 people turning up. There were three generations under one roof. We had not prepared for 19. Because our families had the experience of hosting large gatherings at my mother’s flat for years, we got into the groove quite easily. People eating, sitting around, children looked after and some helped in washing up at the kitchen.

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Things were restored to original state by late afternoon and my wife, daughter and I claimed back our sanctuary of a quiet home. It was an opportunity to bring our family members together, occasionally to meet up and to catch up.

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30 September 2018

On Growing Old

I have reached this age that I could not imagine ever reaching when I was still a teenager. Yes, I saw my parents getting old. But not me when I was still in school and I had my whole life ahead of me.

I crossed sixty and I started to experience what it meant to be getting old. To some, age is just a number. I beg to defer. Our physical bodies age once we are born. It gets more pronounced when we are labelled seniors.

When a person gets old, it will come a time he/she must leave this world. This is an unpleasant subject matter to write about. But this is the reality of our human existence. If one were to treat dying as part and parcel of living this life, it would be just that - we live out our lives to the end.

Regardless whether it is a long or short lifespan, we can make our existence a meaningful and wholesome one with no regrets. I learned that someone, so revered by many, was diagnosed with colon cancer. He is now undergoing treatment. Ageing and sickness come together. Many parts of our bodies are subject to deterioration. When you visit specialist clinics for eyes, and ear nose throat (ENT), you will see many patients with these problems.

I know this because I see it happening in me. My left eye could not read. The macular had degenerated. My hearing is not as good as before. My knee hurt when it was impacted while climbing steps.

When you realise that life is fragile, it then hits you that our problems with colleagues or relatives, our money worries, our family problems are not significant when compared to healing our health problems.

Acceptance is the start point, that this ageing and its myriad illnesses are the journey we take on the road of living. It can be the life-soothing balm. This does not mean that we can be reckless in wrecking our bodies. We still need to be kind with ourselves and be careful with ways of treating our bodies.

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9 October 2018

Tributes to all my friends

Suddenly I wanted to do this. I have not done it before.

I would like to pay tributes to all my friends I made along the way of growing up. After six decades, I made so many friends from school days, from National Service (NS) days and from work lives.

My friends taught me life. I was richer because of them.

I remember one NS friend told me to see far while driving a car in order to anticipate driving condition ahead. This could be trivial, but I remember it till this day. Friends meant to do me a good turn. My friends shaped me who l am today.

Looking back from the days when I was a young boy, there were so many memorable moments. Chasing and kicking a ball in a basketball court with my secondary school friends was so much fun and it forged a bond among us.

During the pinnacle of my career, my Principal/CEO told me to pace myself. It was a timely advice and it helped me to avoid burnout. How can one forget such moment with my superior telling me over a cofffee break in the canteen?

I met with so many good bosses and colleagues at various places of work that I learned to be good. These were life lessons that one cannot pick up from reading. You have to experience it yourself.

I may not appreciate enough and I do not say it outwardly. I will always remember my friends. My sincere thanks to them.

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8 January 2019

Looking back at 2018

Unilateralism Instead of multilateralism we see unilateralism being acted out in 2018. National interest took precedence over collaboration among countries. President Donald Trump pushes for America First as his political agenda. He and his administration is waging trade wars with several nations, chief of which is against China. When America unilaterally raised tarrifs on goods exported from China, China retaliated, the world sees restrictions in the free flow of goods round the globe with cost implications and negative impact on global GDP growth rates.

United Kingdom voted in 2016 to leave the European Union. UK Prime Minster Theresa May is trying to get her negotiated Brexit deal through UK Parliament.

There is uncertainty as to whether this deal can be passed.

America pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement under the order from Donald Trump. This is another example of unilateralism.

Federal Reserve interest rate hikes The Federal Reserve (Fed) increased its benchmark funds rate four times in 2018. Now the interest rate is 2.50%. By doing these rate hikes, Fed is removing the accommodative monetary policies of the global financial crisis era. Interest rates affect investments, borrowings and spendings. Already the capital markets are reacting negatively with the global stock markets getting a beating.

Oil Prices declined At the start of 2018, oil price for Brent Crude was US$66.64 per barrel. It reached US$82 per barrel on 25 September and then declined sharply in November to now trading at US$54.40. It is trading below US$66.64, a decline of 18.3% for the year.

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Volatile Financial Markets The Straits Times Index (STI) reached two peaks over the course of 2018.

3,609.24 points on 24 Jan 2018 3,615.28 points on 2 May 2018 2018 started with STI at 3,402.92 points. After May 2018, it was on a downward spiral. It was at 3,068.76 points on 31 December 2018. This was a drop of 9.8% year-to-date.

Back in February, ex-Chairperson for Federal Reserve (Fed) Janet Yellen said that the stock market valuation was high. On 6 February 2018, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) was at 24,912.77 points. The Dow went on to touch new high at 26,828.39 on 3 October. Since then it was brought down to 23,062.40 points (28 December). The Dow lost 6.7% from the start of 2018.

2018 was that volatile reaching new levels before coming down hard towards the end of 2018.

Looking back at 2018, I started to feel uncomfortable since February. Lesson learned was that stock markets gyrate with politics of nations. To stay with cash would have been a wise decision. It is almost impossible to time the market for investments or even selling them with this kind of market volatility.

I was cautious throughout the year. Hence, 38.8% still remained in cash and cash equivalent items. This was up significantly from 24.3% in 2017.

Portfolio Performance 2018 was not a good year for my investments when compared with 2017. Total Shareholder Returns (TSR1) for 2018 was -1.75% against +1.52% for 2017.

Year ROA Marked to Market % TSR 2017 2.82% -1.30% +1.52% 2018 1.32% -3.07% -1.75% Return on Assets (ROA2) ratio shows how the total portfolio (invested capital + cash) were providing income on investments. Marked to Market % shows the changes in valuation of financial assets from cost to market valuation at yearend.

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ROA for 2018 was 1.32% against 2.82% in 2017. Though positive return, the TSR was dragged down by marked to market losses from investments of -3.07%. TSR for 2018 was -1.75% as a result.

Family Matters This year was different from past years. My mother was not with us for the first time for the whole year. She passed away on 17 October 2017. Her presence at family gatherings was missed by us. Chinese New Year was celebrated differently from traditional past. The three-generation family continued to meet for Chinese New Year dinner at a restaurant. The following morning, we met at my nephew’s home for lunch.

In July, my family agreed to celebrate my birthday with a gathering at my home.

We did not open our house for gatherings in the past. Since my sister asked, we decided that it would be a good thing to provide opportunity for the extended family members to gather. For the first time, my brothers, sister and the generations after us mingled at my house.

Travel I made three trips during the year.

Taiwan Meditation Retreat - 5 to 22 March 2018 Sydney Trip - 10 to 18 May 2018 Kunming, Lijiang and Dali of Yunnan province, China – 30 July to 5 August 2018 Books Read For 2018, I read 45 books (2017: 24), 12,523 pages in total (2017: 6,915).

Reading is my favourite pastimes. The National Library is there for us to pick up books to read.

Walk in the Parks The second edition of Walk in the Parks was released this year on issuu. com. We continue to visit several parks and nature reserves in the year. With that, this edition has fifteen places described in the book accompanied by photographs. Singapore has many places to explore and I recommend that we should try to get closer to nature.

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Reflections on 2018 It was a quiet sort of year. I did not travel to Ghim Moh where my mother used to stay there. For the first time, I did not have to worry about my mother and her health condition. I have more time on my hand to do the things I always wanted do. We visited more parks/nature reserves and walked some heritage trails in Singapore. There are many more places in Singapore to explore. We need not always travel out of Singapore to explore something new. We have them in Singapore!

As for the financial situation front, the financial markets were very volatile. The stock markets of major capital markets declined below the levels set in 2017. It would be fortunate if investors did not lose big with their investments. Going into 2019, I would be doubly cautious with new investments. The expectation is that the global GDP would be lower than 2018 Footnotes 1 Total Shareholder Return (TSR) in S$ term comprises dividend return (actual income received) and price return (resulting from changes in valuations of investments as at year end using marked to market valuation).

2 Return on Assets (ROA) ratio shows how the total portfolio (invested capital + cash) were providing income on investments. Income from investments comes from dividend/interest and gains/loss on sale of investments.

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24 January 2019

What is most important in this life?

Over the past weeks, I had attended two funeral wakes of two elderly men.

One was a relation. Both were cremated at Mandai Crematorium. To some people, talking of death is morbid and not auspicious. Death is something you cannot avoid. It is part of living with an end point. My secondary school classmate’s mother had died not too long ago. My mother too died in 2017 at an old age. All four were in the generation before me. They were the ones who raised us as children.

I was reflective and imagined how friends and close relations will view me when I pass away. Is there a scorecard to rate me? Are all these important? Do I care how people see me when I am gone?

The ego part of me says that I do care how people judge me. The rational part of me says that it does not matter since reputation is relevant to the living only.

What is most important is now and how I live this moment. I would like to leave this world without too much regrets. Regret that I have not taken care of myself and my family to the best of my abilities. Regret that I have not been truthful and honest with my dealings with others. Regret that I have not cared for others. Regret that I have not connected with my love ones at an intimate level.

Love and compassion and living a moral life are keys to less regrets. Have these as the overarching ways of living this moment.

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25 January 2019

Using old currency notes for Hongbao packets

I am breaking tradition.

I went to three local banks recently and they ran out of new currencies for the day. It is Chinese New Year (CNY) fever again and the queues at the banks for new currencies were madness. The same can be said for premier bank customers. They too had to wait. The only difference was that they waited in the comfort of the lounge.

The Straits Times reported that about 100 million new notes were printed each year. After the end of CNY and when the new notes were deposited back to the bank accounts, up to 40 million new notes (40% of total) had to be incinerated. This is a terrible waste of resources.

I know that it is considered a good gesture to give crisp new currency notes for Hongbao. It had been a tradition. For this year, I am going to break this tradition.

Two advantages of doing so are obvious. One is that it is a sheer waste of time to queue at the bank for new notes. Two, I am doing my part to be eco in my action. $10, $5 and $2 currencies are now polymer notes and this makes them more durable than paper currencies of the past. Used notes in current circulation still look as good as new. Furthermore, money is money whether it is new or old notes.

Therefore, I had withdrawn money from the ATM for my Hongbao packets this year, minus the horrendous queue in the bank!

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2 February 2019

Not buying boxes of oranges

I am breaking another tradition.

Come every Chinese New Year, we would buy a box of Mandarin oranges.

NTUC Fairprice promotes these oranges from different suppliers. In the past, we would pick up a box and carried it home. Mandarin oranges were brought along when we visited our relatives and friends. Oranges represent prosperity and good luck for the recipients.

This year will be different. Instead of buying a box of oranges, we bought loose ones from fruit sellers. We bought just sufficient for the purpose of visiting homes with these oranges. In the tradition of Chinese New Year practices, we exchange oranges with the people we are visiting to signify there is a giving and a receiving, a balanced and a flow of goodwill (and fortunes too). Therefore there is no necessity to buy more oranges on the fear of insufficient quantity.

Furthermore, oranges do not keep well. It would be a waste of oranges if these go uneaten.

Based on anecdotal accounts, it appears that the sale of Mandarin oranges for this year is slow. There is no usual frenzy of the past. It may be that some people are buying boxes of oranges on-line for delivery to their doorsteps.

Our neighbourhood fruit seller was telling us that he dared not bring in more oranges. He said that some sellers were burnt with excess stocks in the past.

We are also doing our parts to cut back on wastage. This is one way among many others to reduce waste of fruit items. Buy enough for the purpose.

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4 February 2019

Spring

Spring brings hopes of a new beginning.

Lunar New Year starts with celebration on the eve.

Reunion dinner brings us together.

Some of us have not met for a year.

Good to catch up when we are one year older.

Some traditions we want to keep.

We grew up with them.

Hongbao, Mandarin oranges, and visiting relations.

We continue to hang up Chinese leek.

Spring clean our home.

I like the anticipation of the arrival of New Year.

I will create a greeting card to send to friends.

In it are my good wishes of happiness, health and prosperity.

Whatever the past is the past.

Leave it aside.

Happiness is in the Spring.

Just as the new shoots of plants.

New life experience starts from this day onwards.

Embrace the good and discard the bad.

Live a life that we can be proud of.

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6 February 2019

Reunion Emotions

On the first day of Chinese New Year, we gathered at my nephew’s house for lunch. I have nine nephews and nieces and like the year before one nephew opened up his house for a large gathering of thirty-three people. There are three generations with my siblings and I and our spouses at the uppermost layer, followed by my nephews and nieces and their spouses. The last layer belongs to the young children of my nephews and nieces.

My three brothers, sister and I are either the Pioneer Generation or the Merdeka Generation. I am the youngest of the family. We have done our part to bring up our children and it is their turn to do so.

This once-a-year big gathering on Chinese New Year kept us abreast of the developments over the past year. In a way, we do not lose contact and grow distant in our relationships. In a group gathering like this, there were two distinct groups: the young parents will be busy with engaging their children; the older members of the family gathered together on our own.

As I looked at my older brothers and sister, I felt the youngest still even when all of us are above 60 years old. I was generally quiet and not the bubbly kind when I was growing up. I remain so. My generation worked very hard to be where we are now. We are now enjoying the fruits of our labour. It was a joy to see my brothers and sister happy where they are. They talked about travels and planning the next ones. They enjoy life moments and the good food spread of this reunion gathering. This year we did something differently from 2018. Last year we catered food from a caterer (and they were late in arriving). This year, each family brought food items for the lunch, potluck style. Food was good and the company was intimate and cozy. This is another worthwhile memory in our life journeys.

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8 February 2019

Stopped Driving

I got my driving licence in 1977, my first car in 1983. I was driving since then.

After 35 years of owning cars, I de-registered my Toyota Corolla Altis this morning. This car had served me well for 10 years. I wanted to be carbon footprint lite and to take public transport from now on.

I have this feeling of “loss� when I finally did it. Instead of chasing the 5 Cs during my heydays, I have dropped 2 Cs: Clubs and Car. It was a momentous moment today. When not owning a car, life can be simpler and not forgetting the reduction in expenditures that go with driving. No more road taxes, car insurance, petrol costs, parking charges, ERP charges and repairs and maintenance costs.

I had not been driving much leading up to today. The mileage was 79,459 km over 10 years. It shows that I do not really need a car. This car was bought on 27 February 2009 during the Global Financial Crisis. The COE paid was $4,460.

Total cost of this car with COE was $54,088. This kind of price of owning a car can only happen during financial crises.

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19 February 2019

Life without a car

On the 8th of February, I sent my car for scrapping after 10 years of using it. In less than two weeks, I received my PARF Refund and COE Refund into my bank account today. I used the service of Automobile Association of Singapore (AA) to help me scrap my car. Being AA member, I did not have to pay administrative fee for its service. The only thing one ought to know is that whatever value that can be obtained on scrapping will go to AA. (This may not apply if one goes to a motor dealer to scrap one’s car, ie one may get some money on scrapping.) The whole process was hassle-free and I trusted AA to do the correct procedures for me to deregister my car. I do not own a car in the LTA’s One Motoring Registry.

I began my life without a car. I gave up my NETS cash card. I passed my unused car park coupons to my friend. I have no need for owning DBS Esso Master card. No more petrol from Esso petrol station! No car wash.

Each time when I passed by my usual car park lot where I parked my car in the past, my car was not there. It was empty and sometimes another car took its place.

Whenever I think how much I can save by not spending on a car, I knew it was the right thing to do. I will depend more on public transport now. There will be some adjustments but it’s alright since I am retired. Life can be in a slow lane. I can enjoy the rides since I do not have to drive!

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28 February 2019

Terminated Safe Deposit Box at Certis Cisco

We took the momentous step to terminate our safe deposit box at Certis Cisco. We had this box since 2011. Before 2011, we were using the safe deposit box at DBS Bank to keep our important things. We had been using safe deposit box for a good number of years.

Rental of safe deposit box does not come cheap. The bill for one-year’s rental at Certis Cisco is $469.73 (inclusive of GST) for a large box. We then recovered all items in the box this morning and placed them at home.

We have a private safe at home and this is where we keep our more important items. All we did was to do some re-organisation of items to free up space in the private safe.

This way, we save some money on a yearly basis.

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4 March 2019

Recall power weakened over time

I write blogs for a reason. I find that my recall of past events is impaired as I get on in life. My little grey cells are not like they were when I was in schools. My memories are transient. I remember wrong facts and I cannot remember things that happened in the past. It may sound scary. It is a fact for older folks to lose the faculty of the mind gradually. Dementia is frightening if one suffers from it.

Therefore I record significant moments in my life as they happened in my blog. This serves as markers in my life journey. To be able to write is a blessing.

Hopefully, it can sharpen my mental faculty as I put thoughts on paper or the computer screen.

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16 March 2019

Cancelling DBS Esso MasterCard

I had the DBS Esso MasterCard for many years. I held it until DBS upgraded it to Platinum card at an annual fee of $36. Then I received a statement advising me that from 12 December 2018 the annual fee will be revised to $192.60.

I am not going to pay $192.60 each year for DBS Esso MasterCard.

Furthermore, I had already stopped driving and I do not need to pump Esso petrol.

Instead of using credit card, I have decided to use debit card. With the Passion POSB debit card, my charges will be deducted directly from my bank balance.

This debit card is doubled up as my ATM card.

This is my journey from chasing the 5 Cs in the past to slowly removing each C, starting with Clubs, Car and now Credit Card.

I now have one credit card left and I do not pay annual fee for it by virtue of my relationship with the bank. I shall be using less of this card and instead rely on the debit card for my transactions on-line or otherwise.

I actually feel good when I cancelled my DBS Esso MasterCard. I know that I would be spending responsibly and within my means.

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24 March 2019

Coping with impairing mental agility

I am first to admit that as I get past 60, my mental capacity is reducing. I can forget things every now and then. I have a short-term memory and I could not recall easily what I ate the day before because I did not retain them in my memory. I do not have the mind of an elephant or a long-term memory. Part of the reason is that I process information in the now and then for the task of the moment. I then forget them later.

I have to live with this condition as best as I can. The following are some ways I have adopted.

Set up daily routines I have my regular routines throughout a typical day from waking up until going to bed. I would not forget to do certain things because they are in the routines, e.g getting ready for breakfast at the dining table. (Some people may oppose this idea because we need to vary the routines to keep our minds active and engaged. I have other ways to do the latter.)

Keep things at usual locations I know where to get my things, such as wallet, keys and locations of household items. We will put back these items where they are kept after using them. This way, I will not be wondering where to find them.

Put up a list of things to do I do this by using the back of an envelope to write down a list of things to do and things to buy. I do not rely on my mind to retain this information. My mind space is freed up to do what is current. I have less anxieties and I am not overwhelmed with thinking of the future.

Write a blog post of past events (or journaling) I write to record past events. I have found this extremely effective in helping me recall facts of the past. The on-line platform allows me to search by keywords to get to the blog posts I needed.

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Keep reading I continue to read to keep my mind active. There are many materials I can read from fictions, non-fictions to news. I enjoy reading novels borrowed from the library for the plots, the twists and the mysteries.

Get out and walk in the parks When I walked in the parks and nature reserves, I felt connected with nature and appreciated that human beings co-exist with the environment. We cannot exist alone without the eco-system of air, water, heat, and earth and other living beings sharing the same space of this earth.

Spend time with local places of interest There are so many places we can visit in Singapore for their histories and heritage. I get stimulated in mind with new sights, sounds, and smell of these places. Check out the various heritage trails of Singapore.

Travel to broaden your horizon If one can afford to travel out of Singapore, travel to immerse in a different culture from us. Travel can open up our minds and it is healthy.

Take photographs Now with a smart phone on hand, I can take photo shots of places and sights to remind me of these encounters. Go for unusual angles and framing to tell a story of why these photos were taken. I put them on Instagram to share with the public what I saw and experienced. I then wrote a short caption to highlight the unique photo I had taken.

Share my life experiences Before I lose my mental agility, I continue to write my life experiences. One purpose is to share. The other is to keep my mind active.

Life is uncertain. Instead of fighting the ageing process, I have decided to “go with the flow” or some may call it “go with the tides”. I am not a dead fish when I say go with the flow. On the contrary, I am much alive and I do not fight the current of the flow. I let the flow take me to different places and adapt as best as I can. I wish not to be frustrated by life events. This is nature of life!

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29 March 2019

My Life Partner

When we have lived together for more than thirty years, my wife and I have encountered numerous life events together. From getting married, staying under one roof, having our only child, and growing old together. We build our world around our home.

As I reflect on this, what I am most thankful of is that I have a life partner that offers companionship. Companionship that includes one with give-and-take, one with the same religious beliefs and pursuits, one with complementary behaviours, one with understanding of each other moods.

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Life Partner When I get older I appreciate my better half even more She has been a constant in changing times When I get older We can take each other for granted She complements me To make a whole When I get older Though not without a mood She knows me well enough to smoothen the edges When I get older We get to be alone more often She is a companion to pass the day When I get older I lean more to religious pursuits She demonstrates I can do more When I get older I begin to have poor memory She is my recall support Better memory than mine

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31 March 2019

About Parenting

My parent’s parenting approach was vastly different from parents of today.

Back then Singapore was a developing nation and now we are an advanced nation. My elder siblings’ generation was only too happy to complete secondary schools. Some only had primary school level qualifications. After my parents, we too became parents ourselves with kids of our own. Our children are now parents of young kids. My brothers and sister are now grandparents.

My father and mother had no formal school education. My brothers, sister and I depended on our schoolteachers to guide us in our studies. We were not able to afford private tuitions. We did not go to kindergartens. We learned our ABCs only in primary schools. What my parents did was to ensure that we were fed and taken care of with basic necessities like a home and clothes to wear. We went to government clinics when we fell sick, waiting in line before dawn for our turns to see the doctor.

I learned manners and right moral values from my parents and my older siblings. I was generally left alone. I did not go out of the house often because my mother wanted to protect me from associating with bad influence. In any case, we were not well off to afford me to catch a movie when I was still young. My behaviour was formed in this kind of family environment; a bit of an introvert and quiet most of the time. I knew my status in life as one not with a silver spoon in my mouth.

I learned being independent from a very young age. I learned to survive and to work hard to be better than the rest. I made my own life-changing decisions such as what course to take in the local university. I choose my first job after graduation. Who did I thank for who I am? - My father and mother and their parenting styles.

With five children in the family, my parents could not micro-manage our lives.

We were left alone to take care of ourselves and to look out for each other. I was truly happy that I had a good dinner last night celebrating birthdays of my Life Journey | 167

two older brothers. My sister and all the spouses were present. We all grew up alright.

What were our parenting styles for my daughter growing up in the 1990s? Did we over-protect her as to do things for her that she was clearly capable of doing it herself? We were more concerned that she did not grew up stressed.

At the same time, she had to do things herself. This was to ensure that she grew up independent. We ensured that she was brought up with right moral values. We set examples ourselves and to practise what we preached. We adopted a rabbit for her with the idea that she could be kind with looking after it. Kindness, compassion and moral values are more important than grades in schools.

Parenting style is very individualistic. We have no right to criticise others.

The results of parenting styles have a long-tail impact on our children. After our children grow up, it is up to them to walk the path of life. Hopefully our nurturing efforts would pay off and guide them in the future. The rest is up to them.

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18 April 2019

Keeping mind active, picking up new skill

A common recommendation for a person who is getting on in age is to keep his mind active. Our minds would lose their functions gradually when we do not use them to the fullest extent. This is especially so when a person retired from full-time work and has too much time on his hand.

There are so many ways to keep our minds active and challenged. In my case, I have taken up the challenge to read Chinese novels. I have just completed one that is 218 pages long novel. It is contemporary and was published this year.

It was not as easy as reading an English novel. I was able to understand the story line even though there are several idioms and Chinese characters that I did not know. This novel is written at the level for youths and it is a level I can handle.

My exposure to Chinese is limited since I left junior college in 1975. I only read English newspapers and was only exposed to English books all along. Over time, I have lost most of my Chinese Language knowledge.

Reading this Chinese novel is my first step to picking up the language again. I hope to persevere with more readings of Chinese materials. This is like picking up a new skill or so should I say re-kindle my interest in the Chinese language.

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21 April 2019

Ageing process and its impacts on me

One cannot stop the deterioration of our body as one gets older.

I bit into a hard sweet and caused a chip of my lower incisor tooth this morning. When I was young, biting into things did not result in chipped tooth.

Tooth was as hard as nail. Not when I am older now. I had forgotten to be more careful when eating or biting.

Skin discolouration and blemishes, and thinning and falling hairs are part of ageing. I can accept these. However, I am more concerned about slipping and falling while walking especially during a downpour. I know how it was like when I slipped and fell on a wet and cold pavement in South Korea some years ago.

Falling for elderly people can be a health hazard.

One cannot hope to be same as before as one ages. This morning’s incident reminded me to be more careful when eating. It cannot be life as usual. I have to adjust.

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26 April 2019

Learning to live with imperfections

I continue to wish order in my life. If things were a mess, I would straighten them out. If the newspapers were not placed nicely under the coffee table, I could not help it but to stack them up neatly. I could not let them be. I know it is a mental thing, maybe a very mild form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

I like to work with a clean table and not like others who can have a table full of papers and things. Stationery must be in the right place and items on the table must be only those that are worked on presently. After which, these papers and every item are kept away in their correct places.

There must be order. When I was planning for a big group outing, I had to think through and planned to the minutest details. There was no broad-brush approach to planning. I could not let things be and then react on the ground during execution stage. I am very much a planner and a worrier that things may go wrong.

Do these sound familiar?

It is my personality type, more like Type A. Over the recent years, I have been addressing this kind of behaviour by trying to be more laid back and cool about happenings around me.

I know that I cannot be perfect in every ways. Things cannot happen neatly for me. I have tried to be more tolerant of imperfections both for myself and for people around me. It is less stressful. One example was when I bought a white polo T-shirt on sale, I found there were two small tears on it. The manufacturer tried to sew up the tears. I had accepted it and decided not to trouble myself by getting the item exchanged. So it is imperfect, but it is alright since it is not too obvious.

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2 May 2019

Running Thoughts

My mind runs away with many thoughts. It is working on overdrive, darting in and out in split seconds. Some thoughts are fleeting and I may not notice them.

Some may linger longer and I am suck into it, planning, thinking about them. I may not even realise that I am with a specific thought for far too long. My mind cannot be void, empty. So long as one thought ends, another thought fills the void. My mind stream cannot stop and I cannot stop it unless I am mindfully conscious about every single thought and redirect my mind into something else, such as watching the in-breath and out-breath. This is the biggest challenge and the hardest to achieve.

Therefore, I continue to be dragged along by thoughts and not knowing when I can move out of negative thoughts, e.g. thoughts of worries, anxieties, fears, anger, jealousies, unhappiness. If I dwell too long in these negative thoughts, it harms my mental health, and in a worst-case scenario it may lead to depression.

If depression sets in, it is important that one has close friends or confidants to notice and to seek help for the sufferer.

I wonder how many people are stressed out of their minds that their thoughts are running overdrive without a breather to calm down? I went through a period of constant stress before I decided to resign from my last job. I realised back then that I must take back control of my life and my mind. The salary may be good, my position in the organisation may be good, but did I have the mental health to enjoy them?

One of my major obstacles is not being able to let go, take a back seat and leave the problem aside. Being obsessed with responsibilities and always thinking of others, got me in the bind. Things got better once I am retired. The problems related with office work are non-existent and that is a big chunk.

However, my mind is habitual and it chooses other things to think about. The crux of the problem is still there if I continue to over-think.

Recognising I have the habit of thinking is the preliminary step to put my mental 172 | Life Journey

health in order. I have to seek advice to address my problem. This is work in progress and a big endeavour. I am not being prescriptive here as there are ways to address that suit different individuals. First recognise our mental health and act on addressing it.

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16 June 2019

Meditation Retreat in Taiwan from 21 May to 6 June 2019

I spent seventeen days at a Meditation Centre in Nantou, Taiwan. I had been to this centre for 6 years consecutively since 2014. This was a mindfulness meditation retreat. Meditators maintained silence and we were cut off from outside interferences without access to mobile phones or other web-based devices. We had no access to newspapers or news that we used to read everyday.

Meditation method is to look deeply into our mind and body. What are our mind and body in this present moment? If thoughts were to arise about past events or future activities, we are to bring our mind back to the present.

One may think that this is easy. Let me say that it is the hardest thing to do as our thoughts flash by like lightning speed that sometimes we miss noting them completely. Our minds are so muddled that we cannot “see� these thoughts as they appear. Practice of long period of Mindfulness Meditation is to get into deep concentration before we can see our thoughts as they appear.

Thoughts include how we are feeling and what we are thinking, I am oversimplifying here. One has to experience by oneself in order to appreciate what I am writing.

I found out more about myself at every retreat I had attended. This time round, I experienced more of my very active and agitated mind. It was still running away to the past or fleeting into the future at the beginning of the retreat. It only calmed down mid-way into the retreat when I was concentrated enough to follow my mind.

I found out that I have a Rushing Mind, an Angry Mind, an Ego Mind and a Righteous Mind. All these minds manifest themselves as and when I am not mindful of my mind thoughts. These minds are not wholesome and actions arising from these minds are negative.

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I told myself that I would let things be and to be less hung-up when things did not go my way.

Another thing I learned was that I understood what it meant to stay in the present in our everyday activities every moment. By staying in the present constantly, I can be more careful in my speech, thought and action of my body.

This can reduce the negativity in my life.

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18 June 2019

Not going to live by targets

I set targets all my life.

Businesses, education sector and government set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and measure their performances against these KPIs. When I was still working, KPIs were a pain and detrimental to health for people coping with meeting these KPIs. Personal targets for me were - achieving good results for academic studies, a good job, a good reputation, a life of relative ease with a car, a house and solid bank balances.

A thing about setting targets is that I work towards trying to achieve these targets. Let me share one example. I read books and I track how many books I read in a year down to the number of pages read! Come the following year, I pride myself in exceeding these targets set in the previous year. Silly when I come to think about it. I lose the joy of slow reading instead I read hurriedly to meet the number of books to be read.

Setting personal targets and living by them is stressful. I got irritated when I did not get to do what I set out to do. Another example – I want to go to a place on a par ticular day. If I were unable to fulfill this, I would be upset.

I shall stop all these targets setting. I will try to accept each day as it comes and adjust as I live the day. Live the day and be flexible so as to reduce the stress level.

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18 July 2019

Weighty Issues on Ageing

If you were to look at news and personal updates on social media, you would see glamour and beauty that are not entirely the real world. The real world consists of the young and the old, the healthy and the sickly, the rich and the poor, and the good and the bad. Not often people want to talk about ageing. Yet, everyone has to live with ageing process when the time comes. My parents and older siblings did not tell me much about ageing. It seems that people has to cope with ageing on his/her own. This involves not just the physical body, the psychological aspects are very crucial too.

Friends who had not seen me for a while often commented that I had lost some weight. It was tiring to have to explain and it can be annoying. I knew that some people meant good and were genuinely concerned about my health. Such personal matter could be left unspoken in front of the person.

It could result in embarrassment for the one losing weight. I had one person who even asked me how much I weighed! It is as if I have been neglecting my health or that I have a serious health issue.

There are several reasons why one is losing weight besides health reason.

I eat less as I age. I stop eating meat and poultry choosing more vegetarian type of meals. I cut back on sweet with high calorie stuff. I walk a lot more and do more house work. I stop growing and in fact I would be losing bone mass as I age. I have been on the low weight side all along. Health is not the reason because I go on annual health screening.

I tell myself that I should not be obsessed with my weight. So what, if I am 46 kg? It does not matter, when I am healthy. With ageing, I do not look as good as before. I have to live with it and accept it gracefully. I have accepted that coping with ageing will be the next phase of my life.

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5 August 2019

Sixty-Two, 62

I am sixty-two years old. It is a significant milestone.

62 years old, this is the statutory retirement age for Singapore workers with option of re-employment till 67 years old. However, age for payouts for CPF members remains at 65 years old.

I grew up during Singapore’s Independence in 1965 and the communal riots of 1964. I did two-and-a-half years of National Service (for all enlistees attaining the ranks of Corporal and above). I belong to the Merdeka Generation.

I witnessed Singapore moving from Third World to First World under the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. I moved from landline home telephone to personal mobile phone. I was impacted by great disruptions in technologies especially in the telecommunication space.

At 62, I am exposed to many mobile applications, learning to use PayNow for electronic cash transfer, using Emojis in some of my communications with others, and doing on-line reservations and purchases. It is a continuous learning of new skills to keep up with changes to the world I live in.

Do I feel old? I wish I could say it in the negative decisively. But young people would not agree with me. I am still uncle to them. My first step is acceptance that I am a senior based on definitions by the society and government policies.

I am happy to be where I am at in this stage of my life. Looking back, Singapore has no war with other countries. We live in relative peace and calm. Yes we had economic crises and recessions every now and then.

However, we survived these crises.

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Epilogue

My last Central Provident Fund (CPF) contribution from my last employer, Temasek Polytechnic was for August 2012. It has been 7 years since I retired.

I have never been without a job since April 1981 when I first stepped into the world of work after graduating from the National University of Singapore (NUS). I did not know what I was in for when I retired some seven years ago.

I stopped wearing office attire with long-sleeved shir ts and tailored trousers.

I gave up many neckties, since I did not need them. I exchanged leather shoes for casual or spor ts shoes. My dressing philosophy is one of comfor t.

I do not care much for my image since I am not going to meet my clients or my students. I now look more and more like an uncle eating in a HDB coffee shop with each passing year.

Aging adds years to my look. Behind this person is one who was different when I was in the workforce. It is a transformation to an older person when I look at my past photographs of my younger days.

I gave up my car in February this year after 35 years of driving. Now I use my Senior Concession card for travelling on public buses and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT). It is less stressful since I am no longer in the driving seat! My maximum bus fare is $0.88 regardless of distance. It is a big deal for people like me without an employment income.

Seven years had been a meaningful journey for me. I connect more and more with my daughter and my wife. I connect deeply with my Self, reducing bad habits and am trying to be kinder to all including self.

The work-place stress is non-existent but it is replaced by retirement stress.

Retirement does not mean you have no stress. The chief one is how to occupy each day with meaningful activities. Money worries and health stress are the others. This is the continuation of my journey of life.

Glossary

Financial Management - Main aim of financial management is to maximise one’s wealth through financial and economic principles. Finance looks at sources and uses of funds to achieve the main aim. Financial principles would include concepts such as time value of money, risk returns tradeoff, cost of capital, etc. Economic principles cover scarcity of resources and how best to allocate limited resources to investments to maximise returns on investments.

Investments - Investments offer returns and cover many investment instruments such as equity, bonds, currencies, commodities, properties, derivatives, etc. One decides on what to invest in for maximum return. It covers valuation and application of various investment instruments with regard to risk and expected return.

Retirement Planning - It is financial planning applied towards retirement from job market. How much to save and invest in assets in order to continue to receive sums of money in future for spending? It also covers Central Provident Fund, annuity, insurance, medical insurance.

Living Tips - Ideas on good and healthy living for both body and mind.

Life Journey – Description of writer’s life journey and milestones in life.

References

Websites: Central Provident Fund Board. http://www.cpf.gov.sg Supplementary Retirement Scheme. https://www.mof.gov.sg/MOF-For/Individuals/Supplementary-RetirementScheme-SRS Singapore Stock Exchange. http://www.sgx.com Yahoo! Finance http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/ Newspapers: The Straits Times The Business Times

About the author

Back in July 2006, I formally tendered my resignation as Deputy Director of School of Business, Temasek Polytechnic (TP). I was then forty-nine years old and had been working for twenty-five years, last fourteen years in TP. The first eleven years after graduation was with the public accounting firm, Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers). I rose through the ranks to become Senior Manager when I decided to switch career. So I had two employers in all twenty-five years, a rare phenomenon in current job environment. While in TP, I completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) on a TP scholarship where I came up top in class in the specialisation of Banking & Finance.

I felt that all these trainings and experiences would go to waste if I retired and not do anything. I have the credential and because I could afford to retire at an early age, I wanted to write meaningful blog posts to share my life experiences.

Hence, I started my blog Living Investment with my first post on 9 October 2006. www.limkimtong.wordpress.com The intention of setting up this blog is to share some of my experiences in Living Well with Peace, hence I adopted the name Living Investment for my blog. Most of it covers financial management, investments and retirement planning matters. Some good practices came about because they yielded results and because some did not and hence valuable lessons were learned not to repeat them.

I am married for thirty-two years now and we have a daughter. Raising a family is every parent’s responsibility and to do it well can be challenging at times.

My attempt at writing living tips and life journey covers my experiences of living out this precious life. It is also my way of documenting them to serve as memories of my past. When one gets older, memories fade so it is important to write them down as they happened.

I count myself very fortunate. I began to take a keen interest in spiritual development when I went into retirement. When I was working, stress level was tremendous. Health was an issue. I had this condition known as Irritable

Bowel Syndrome for many years. In 2002, my left eye failed me. I was inflicted with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). I continue to live with this condition and fortunately my right eye is still functioning well.

This book is a compilation of some of my favourite and meaningful blog posts.

I got my daughter who has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree to help me provide art-work and illustrations to liven this book.