I'm Alive!

Been pretty busy this month because of Chinese New Year and also my house is under renovation. I hope that the renovation can be done by end of March and me and my fiance can slowly move our things into the house in April.

I am intending to pursue CISA certification and have 'invested' in their study manual and 12-months database subscription. I plan to take the June'16 examination if time permits. Otherwise I will enroll the exam later half of this year.

It is almost the end of Feb'16 and I have come to a realization that I have not been meditating diligently.

Things I have fare well in:

• Exercising and making trips to gym diligently.
• Not having supper. I will change this to 'Not indulging or consuming any food 4 hours before I bed'.
• Saving regularly and keeping track of my expenses. Make sure I do not exceed my budgets.

Things that I need to improve on:

• Waking up at 5am. I have started to hit the snooze buttons recently.
• Not allocating time for meditation

Chinese New Year

I have been busy because it is Chinese New Year. It is a tradition to visit my grandfather and then my eldest uncle every Chinese New Year. We hardly see them and thus this is a time for catching up and bonding with the cousins and relatives.

There is nothing much for me to blog but shall wish everyone a happy and prosperous chines new year. Stay healthy, happy and rich! Huat Ah!

JARS System of Money Management

Today I will write about JARS System of Money Management. I first knew about this concept from my friend about a year ago. He attended an event which was T. Harv Eker's "Millionaire Mind Intensive" course. Initially I applied what he said exactly but I feel it is not suitable for me and so I tweaked the percentage allocated to suit my personal lifestyle and goals. In Singapore, we have to contribute to our CPF account and thus the percentage of income I use will be based on Net Income or the money I take-home.

Necessity Account (65%)
This account is for everyday expenses and bills. For me, it also includes parents' support. Hence, I am allocating 65% to it. This is a huge chunck of my income but I will aim to keep this constant even when my income increases in future.

Play (Shopping) Account (2%)
This money is spent every month on purchases you wouldn't normally make. To me, this is a 'shopping' account because most items that I have purchases are usually wants and not needs. I am also using this account to make sure I do not overspend.

Financial Freedom Account (10%)
This is my golden goose. I am using this money for investment and building my passive income steams. For now, I am spending them on Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF.

Long-term saving (Contingency) Account (10%)
The money I put into this account is actually for contingency use. In case I am out of job or require money urgently, I will tap into the money in this account. Otherwise, it will just be sitting in my bank account and earning the low interest rate from banks. After I have accumulated a larger sum, I will place them into fixed deposit for a slightly higher interest rate.

Spouse's Joint Account (13%)
This account is used to pay off everything for the house such as utilities, household items and also travelling. My fiance and I will contribute an amount we are comfortable with into this account. 

Education Account (0%)
Money in this jar is meant to further my education and personal growth. I have completed my studies and so this money would be spent mainly on books and attending courses or seminars. I love to read and in Singapore, we are lucky to have libraries where we can borrow books for free. As such, there is actually no need for me to spend money on books. I do buy books when I am unable to find them in the libraries or online. When there is a need for me to buy books, I will use the money allocated in my Play (Shopping) Account.

The above are my 6 jars and the percentage I am allocating to them. I hope you find this useful.

Self-Reflections - Jan 2016

It's almost the end of January 2016, time flies. This year, I really want my 2016 to be spent meaningfully and achieve big things. I am re-thinking my resolutions to focus on what I want to be and achieve. Below are the many areas which I am currently unsatisfied.

Fitness Goal
Issue: I have gained weight and I am eating unhealthily. I still eat supper and I have not been exercising enough. I do not take my meals regularly and sometimes indulge in junk food instead of a proper meal, leading to me getting hungry late at night as I tend to sleep very late. I plan to exercise at least 3 times a week but sometimes, I have dinner appointments with friends, which make me skipped exercising. The only way I am certain I can exercise is waking up early and doing it before heading to work. This means I need to wake up earlier than I currently am.

Solution: To change my exercise routine to morning, before I heading out to work. If it happens to rain in the morning, then I will either do some stretching exercises or head to gym after work if I do not have any appointment. I will also not eat at least 3 hours before sleep and no food after 9pm.

Self-Improvement Goal
Issue: I have been reading a lot lesser than I used to. I have stop visiting libraries for months. I think I have read less than 10 books in 2015.

Solution: No matter how busy I am, I will make time to read. I aim to complete at least 1 book a month.

Financial Goal
Issue: I used to spend most of my income and do not keep track on what I spent on. Since late 2015, I have started to keep track of my expenses and increased my savings. I have installed application in my phone and diligently keyed in my expenses. I set my monthly budget for food and shopping etc and ensure I do not exceed them. I have up my savings and realised I can actually save more if I cut down on unnecessary expenses. There is still one thing I am unsatisfied with and that is the amount of take-home income. My goal for 2016 is to have multiple sources of income.

Solution: Keep my day job to ensure a stable monthly income while I increase income from other sources. Save a portion of it and invest the rest. I will write a detailed post on investment and what I do with my money when I am satisfied with my returns and achievements.

Lifestyle / Productivity Goal
I am a reader of Charles Ngo's blog and really like his articles in productivity. I want to make the best out of my 24hours because time IS money. I am still in the process of structuring how I can make the best out of my time. Weekdays will definitely look different from weekends since most of the time during weekdays will be spent on travelling to and fro work and working in office.

With the above in mind, I will have a new sets of resolutions for 2016.

Tomorrow is Monday. Hope everyone had a fantastic week. I shall spend some time reading before going to bed. Good night everyone!
   

Multiple Sources of Income #1 Paid Surveys

This is the 11th day of 2016. I intend to re-think and re-schedule of how my day starts in order to maximize productivity. If you recall, my 2 resolutions for 2016 is to blog at least once a week and also to find ways of making money besides from employment and forex. After doing some research, I discover one of the easier ways of making money and that is from doing paid surveys.

For this post, I will start of with 1 of the paid survey site that I am currently enrolled in. Don't worry, this is not a scam.

Cashcrate
This was the first paid survey that I signed up with. You can sign up via this link. I remembered I earned a few dollars shortly after signing up and doing a quick survey. Yes, I know, a few dollars is not a lot of money but imagine just forking out a few minutes of your time and getting paid, it's not a bad thing after all.

This is not a get rich fast scheme but this is a good stepping stone if you are wondering how to make money besides via employment or your full-time salaried job.

Give it a shot and I will tell you about other paid survey websites in my next post.

2016's New Year Resolutions

Time flies and today is already the third day of 2016. I am going to make my 2016 new year's resolutions and hopefully, all will be fulfilled.

• Blog at least once a week
• Discover new ways to make money besides making money from forex and employment income

Do not undermine these 2 resolutions, although I just have 2 resolutions, it still takes effort to accomplish them. Lastly, I hope 2015 had been great to everyone out there and let's have another fantastic year in 2016! Happy new year to all!

30-Day Challenge #2 - Meditate Everyday

It has been a while since my last 30-Day Challenge and here I am, ready to take on another challenge. This time, I intend to meditate everyday. There are many benefits of meditation and since I am already waking up at 6AM everyday, why not start to meditate as soon as I wake up, to make my morning even more meaningful and start the day right.

I intend to meditate 5 minutes a day for a start. My ideal time would be 15 minutes a day.

Here are my steps:

1. I installed an app known as Insight Timer and set the duration to 5 minutes
2. I will sit cross-legged on the ground and overlap my hands. Keep my back and head up and then close my eyes.
3. When the timer goes off, I open my eyes slowly.  

I will write about the effect on me after 30 days. Meanwhile, you may read up on this link for more information too.