Voluntary Downgrading of Residential Home And Full Time Job

We can voluntary downgrade our residential home for more money to fund our retirement and we can also voluntary downgrade our full time job to part-time or free lance for more free time or more non-monetized time to pursue other interests.


Downgrading = More money and/or more free (non-monetized) time!

Time is fairest of all. 

Everyone has just 24 hours no matters who you are! 

Millionaire Mindset???

There are few classes of millionaires e.g. business owners, land owners, enbloc, lucky ToTo ot Big Sweep and lastly the employee or self-employed (No work. No money).

Employee class of millionaires in HDB heartland are more likely to be conservative in their spending and not into expensive materials show off.

Economic Rice Or Zi Char???

Uncle8888 has no issue with eating economic rice for lunch or dinner when he is eating alone. It is just a meal!

But when he goes out eating as a family; then the decision to have economic rice or zi char is not that simple.  $4.50 or $13.50 per head? Cost analysis not working well under such circumstance to be frugal as he just can't shake off this thinking of feeling funny where each of his family members queue in line to get their own plate of economic rice and then eating off from their own plate.


$13.50 per head 

Maximize Or Optimizing Your Wealth In Your Younger Years???

Read? Hey! Are You Married With Kids?


Same as the CPF Talk. Initially; the topic suggested was Maximizing CPF For Your Retirement when he was first approached to participate in the talk. If it is about Maximizing; then don't find him. LOL! 

So do you want to maximize or optimize your wealth in younger years by monetizing all your available free time?

Any time lost in your younger years can never be recovered with whatever large quantity of money that you have maximized.

For those who wish to have spouse in their life; it is better to find one when you are poorer and not richer. When you are richer; you may become too cautious whenever someone gets too close to you. 

Love me or my money. Hmm ... Arh. Think and think! Soon senior citizens!

Most Of Us Will Have A Few Financial Bombs Ahead Of Us And We ourselves ASK for them

We are among those many brave ones who have travelled the normal path . We have chosen to be bombed a few times over our life. 

Some of us might be bombed just one or two times at most while the rest of us are bombed until Chow Ta; but we just restart our finance all over again!

No regret! Life is not just about having MORE and MORE money!

At the end of our bombing journey; many of us still manage to be quite OK financially.

Sometime, Uncle8888 is wondering how he did it?

HURRAY!

Well done. Folks!

Give yourself a HIGH FIVE if you have completed your bombing Journey!

We are the Role Models for our future generations!

Consumerism is NOT the Problem. Over and Under Consume is the Issue!!!

Over consume than our earning; it is not sustainable over long run and then we will not have enough to retire.

Under consume?

"When we are in heaven, our money will still be in the bank."

"We don't seem to have enough money to spend; but, when we are gone; there's still lots of money not spent.
 
Our money can never disappear when we are gone; someone else will get their hands on our own money and happily spend it!

What Is Frugality Really Look Like?

Uncle8888 doesn't spend MORE than his net earned income after tax as he has been budgeting for his yearly spending.

He will be spending his LAST year's bonus in according to the following year economic forecast. He has picked up this habit after 1998 AFC when his variable bonus for that year was zero and his pay were cut for the first time since he started working in Aug 1977.

Our bonus and pay can never be seen as safe!

When time is looking bad ahead; he will stretch his last year's bonus over the next two years.

From his monthly and yearly spending trend, can this be frugality too?

If not, what is really frugality?

Money Management - What to do with your year-end bonus? (Timely re-posting)

Saturday, 27 November 2010

Read? Money Management - What to do with your year-end bonus?

Becoming an Ant to think ahead does have advantage. 

It is not just about living the present well. It is also to avoid living badly sometime from now.




Read? I can save, invest and retire with $1M

Get the moral of the story?

Is money more important in urban Singapore???

Uncle8888's days in the Kampung ...


Very poor, but still can have eggs, We reared our hens and ducks.

Very poor, but still have sweet potatoes. We planted our sweet potatoes.

Not enough, could go around hunting for wild tapioca.


Later, moved to Toa Payoh ....


Where no money means NO EGGS, NO SWEET POTATOES on the table.


How important is money in Urban Singapore?


You say le?


Read? Hougang home grown sweet potatoes!!!

You try planting sweet potatoes now.

Your "friendly" neighbours will develop sore eyes and complain to MP hor!

So don't plant, plant! It is not Kampung!!!

10 Common Misconceptions About Money

By Stacy Johnson

I recently celebrated my 57th birthday, and have arrived at a common conclusion about getting older: It sucks. But there’s one good thing that comes with age – the wisdom that can only come from experience.

Experience helps you understand how life actually works, and how remarkably different life is from the kind you so often see portrayed in commercials, movies, and daydreams.

Prime example? Money. The myths surrounding money are numerous and widely held, especially among the young. It’s a shame, because pursuing myths will lead you astray, waste your time and, taken to extremes, ruin your life.

Here are 10 popular misconceptions about money that experience has taught me are more often fiction than fact…

1. The more money I have, the happier I’ll be.

Let’s ask Howard Hughes, Anna Nicole Smith, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Elvis about this one. OK, guys, show of hands… did fame and fortune make you happy?

Happiness comes from liking yourself, something completely unrelated to money. Riches buys recognition, too often confused with validation. But respect, especially self-respect, isn’t for sale.

When you’re on your death-bed, will you be thinking about money? If so, your contribution to the gene pool was negligible. Rather than obsessing about money, think about what really makes you happy. Then make only enough money to take part in those activities. Making more is a waste of the only non-renewable resource you have: your time on the planet.

2. A big income will keep me out of debt.

What’s the difference between someone who makes $50,000 a year with a $100,000 mortgage and someone who makes $500,000 a year with a $1 million mortgage? Answer: nothing. Unless they have money set aside for emergencies, they’re both a paycheck away from disaster.

Debt often rises with income. What keeps you out of debt isn’t a high income or net worth. It’s not borrowing money.

3. Millionaires drive fancy cars, wear fancy clothes, and live in fancy houses.

Not according to the folks who did a bunch of research and wrote The Millionaire Next Door. According to their studies, the average American millionaire drives an unexciting American car, lives in the same nondescript house they’ve owned for years, and avoids designer labels. That’s how they became millionaires.

So who’s buying all the designer clothes and Porsches? Many times it’s people who will never become wealthy because they’re swapping tomorrow’s financial freedom for today’s appearance. As I’m fond of saying, life affords you the opportunity to either look rich or be rich, but few live long enough to accomplish both. The younger you decide, the better.

4. The more money I have, the less worries I’ll have.

Balderdash. Money doesn’t end anxiety. It gives you something else to be anxious about: losing your money. Granted, those without enough money to eat or keep a roof over their heads have lots to worry about. But once you have enough money for all your needs and a reasonable number of your desires, the excess will add to your concerns, not alleviate them.

5. Money will help me find love.

In my experience with women, they’re not attracted to money. They are, however, attracted to ambition and intelligence, especially when it presents as humor. Everyone’s attracted to people who are self-confident, non-needy, and able to laugh at themselves.

Like a peacock, wealthy people can easily attract attention. But attention isn’t the same as admiration or affection. And even if it works, do you really want to spend your life with someone so shallow and insecure they were attracted to your money?

6. I’ll have more fun if I have more money.

When I was young, I didn’t have two nickels to rub together, but I had a ton of fun. Today I have lots of nickels – and am happy to report, still having a riot.

There’s no doubt that money can furnish the elements of a good time. But if you need money to have fun, you’re boring. And should you become a billionaire, you’ll still be boring.

7. Money means security.

When you boil it down, a primary purpose of money is to make life more predictable. It allows you to control your environment by being prepared for the unexpected.

While that’s partly true, there’s not enough money in the world to completely control everything. I could have a heart attack and die before I finish writing this, and you could have one before you finish reading it. Accept that we’re all bobbing on a sea of uncertainty, no matter how much money we have.

8. Money will enable me to meet interesting people.

In my experience, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting interesting people. But if I want to maximize my odds of meeting someone worth knowing, I won’t be heading to the nearest country club.

I’ve met plenty of fun and interesting rich people – but I’ve also met rich people who were vain, myopic, pretentious, and judgmental. They weren’t that way because they were rich. They were that way because they were born rich and as a result never had to overcome adversity.

Overcoming adversity is what makes people interesting, not how much money they have. People without at least a few skeletons in the closet are often shallow as a puddle.

9. I need money to travel, and travel is important.

The world is an interesting place, and being well-traveled makes you interesting. But travel comes in many forms, including the budget variety. If you want to see faraway places, you’ll find a way.

In my book Life or Debt, I conclude by describing the first book I ever read about something I love: sailing. The book was about a couple who built their own sailboat and traveled around the world, working when they needed to and never accumulating more than a few thousand dollars at a time. Their boat had no air conditioning, no refrigerator – not even a radio.

What most people do in the same situation is wait until they have enough money to buy what amounts to a floating condo: a boat that’s luxurious, seaworthy, and far too expensive to ever actually buy. The result is they spend their lives on the dock. What a waste.

10. Money will buy friends.

This is not only untrue, it’s the opposite of what money actually does. I’ve got a super-rich friend or two, and what I’ve observed is that money attracts plenty of hangers-on – but almost no friends.

People with vast wealth or fame can’t trust the motives of those surrounding them (see No. 5 above). That’s why the people they count as true friends are normally either people they knew before they were rich and famous, or people who are equally rich and famous.

There’s the advantage of being judged on your personality versus your net worth: The friends that result actually like you, not what you can do for them.

My yearly living expenses (cash only)

Read? Year-end budgetting for the next 2 years

Tightening the belt in 2009 due to sub-prime crisis in 2008/09 as expected. LOL

Your year-end bonus is here!

Read? Money Management - What to do with your year-end bonus?

I have been doing it for a long time and still doing it again for this year.

Budgeting is an important personal financial skill to acquire. It can help us to minimise financial stress and financially prepare for the next coming Bear without having to liquidate our investment near market low and regret.

How do you prepare yourself for the next economic downturn?

Money Management - What to do with your year-end bonus?

Tomorrow, there will be an article in thesundaytimes on Money Management - What to do with your year-end bonus?

But for me it is a different question - What to do with my last year bonus?

After experiencing my first pay-cut and zero bonus during 1997/1998 Asian financial crisis, and thereafter I have decided upon on this strategy - keeping the full current year-end bonus as reserve and spending last year bonus till the next bonus. In this way, I may not under-spend my money and to avoid spending away future money and I will be in better position to face the next  pay-cut and zero bonus scenarios if it happens.

Firstly, part of last year-end bonus is reserved to pay income tax. LOL!