Dear friends,
Please forgive me if I start seeing less of you for the next few months or years. Perhaps I'll be too busy at work, but I suspect the real reason is because I can't afford to eat at a fancy restaurant with you anymore. Or let me put it this way, we can still meet for hawker food, or dinner at coffee shop, but much less often from now on.
Let me share with you my story, and you'll know why. I am a typical Singaporean living in the rat race, and I choose not to stay like this forever. In the rat race means, despite working my ass off, money is still never enough. Some might say, "Hey, you have a good job leh, earning so much, where got not enough?" To begin, I don't really earn much, and a very large portion of it is for paying off my liabilities. Every month, it comes down to the minimum last $500 in the bank account. And sometimes, I have to squeeze over the last few dollars before that minimum.
No house, no car, you may ask, "What kinda liabilities do you have?" Since the day I graduated, I am 25k+ more indebt. I was lucky to have my parents who funded my education, but unfortunately, their CPF is not enough for them to write off my debt. Even if they are able to do so, I'll pay them back, but it will be interest free. Then there is also my PC loan. I think this interest free loan is definitely worthed taking. My laptop has been very kind to me so far, and proved to be very useful during my final year in school. With the two loans aside, there are also the month bills to service. Utilities bills, service charge, phone bills (land and mobile), internet bills, SCV bills, and insurance bills. Living in a so-call bigger flat than some people, means having to pay more utilities bills as the rate is higher. Phone and internet keep us connected and are very important too. The good thing is I can get them at corporate rates. SCV is important too cuz it keeps my parents from being bored at home. Whenever I think of the SCV advertisement about this guy who wanted to make his mum smile as she cried over different things in his life, I think it is the least entertainment I can pay for my parents. And the insurance bills, including my parents and mine, ensures that they can live with one less field if I suddenly leave them. Then there is also the money needed for groceries. Apart from my family, I also need to spend on daily breakfast and lunch. Transport adds up quite alot since I live rather far from workplace (at least 4 bus trips and 2 train trips everyday). I try to have some kind of savings too as if I don't force myself to do so, I'll never have enough to spend. But then again, it'll be used to finance my future liabilities. So I'm still very much rooted in this race. Of cuz other than trying to earn that extra income, I also believe in improving myself so that I can escalate my advancement. However, that also mean having to burden more liabilities. Hopefully a fat bonus will settle that for me.
I will never blame my parents for living a semi-retired life, before 60. They had slogged for they past twenty years to let me live a comfortable life. If now is not the time to repay them, when will it be? If they have given me so much, the least I can do is to maintain their lifestyle and free them from financial burdens. Luckily I have a sister who is working, and helping to pay the medical bills of the family, and some of the other expenses. But since I am doing better than her, I shouldn't let her bear too much.
Life is not that bad as I hang on fragilely to my present lifestyle. When all that liabilities are paid every month, whatever is life is for myself. Although that isn't much. The lil' money life enabled me to go for a budget trip to Thailand earlier this year. It may not be some wonderful graduate trip to Europe, the States or Australia, but at least I am going somewhere! Besides, my company is nice enough to reward us a sum of money to "improve ourselves". That is good money to pamper myself with nice gadgets. The down side is, that money is still taxable and I can't use it to buy just anything I one (it has to be within the list). Btw, income tax, property tax, TV tax, and what not tax, I don't even want to start thinking about how to cope with them with my pathetic budget every month. 8% GST in the future? Oh please kid me not!
All that said, I am just sharing all these with you, and not complaining or whinning cuz at least I am not poor. There are many people out there who are really unfortunate or much worse off than me, and they ain't complaining yet. I'm just in this race, and sometimes it gets tiring. So its nice if some other people hear my story, understand my situation, as I appreciate theirs too. I try to work hard and ask for your understanding, if I appear abit stingy and calculative over the few dollars or cents. If you have any lobang, please don't forget me. The facts of life gets to me once a month, and makes me sad sometimes. But that is just coping with challenges in life, and I hope to make best out of this experience and stay really happy whenever I can. Thank you for listening to my story, now I gotta get back to the race. See ya! ;0)
Please forgive me if I start seeing less of you for the next few months or years. Perhaps I'll be too busy at work, but I suspect the real reason is because I can't afford to eat at a fancy restaurant with you anymore. Or let me put it this way, we can still meet for hawker food, or dinner at coffee shop, but much less often from now on.
Let me share with you my story, and you'll know why. I am a typical Singaporean living in the rat race, and I choose not to stay like this forever. In the rat race means, despite working my ass off, money is still never enough. Some might say, "Hey, you have a good job leh, earning so much, where got not enough?" To begin, I don't really earn much, and a very large portion of it is for paying off my liabilities. Every month, it comes down to the minimum last $500 in the bank account. And sometimes, I have to squeeze over the last few dollars before that minimum.
No house, no car, you may ask, "What kinda liabilities do you have?" Since the day I graduated, I am 25k+ more indebt. I was lucky to have my parents who funded my education, but unfortunately, their CPF is not enough for them to write off my debt. Even if they are able to do so, I'll pay them back, but it will be interest free. Then there is also my PC loan. I think this interest free loan is definitely worthed taking. My laptop has been very kind to me so far, and proved to be very useful during my final year in school. With the two loans aside, there are also the month bills to service. Utilities bills, service charge, phone bills (land and mobile), internet bills, SCV bills, and insurance bills. Living in a so-call bigger flat than some people, means having to pay more utilities bills as the rate is higher. Phone and internet keep us connected and are very important too. The good thing is I can get them at corporate rates. SCV is important too cuz it keeps my parents from being bored at home. Whenever I think of the SCV advertisement about this guy who wanted to make his mum smile as she cried over different things in his life, I think it is the least entertainment I can pay for my parents. And the insurance bills, including my parents and mine, ensures that they can live with one less field if I suddenly leave them. Then there is also the money needed for groceries. Apart from my family, I also need to spend on daily breakfast and lunch. Transport adds up quite alot since I live rather far from workplace (at least 4 bus trips and 2 train trips everyday). I try to have some kind of savings too as if I don't force myself to do so, I'll never have enough to spend. But then again, it'll be used to finance my future liabilities. So I'm still very much rooted in this race. Of cuz other than trying to earn that extra income, I also believe in improving myself so that I can escalate my advancement. However, that also mean having to burden more liabilities. Hopefully a fat bonus will settle that for me.
I will never blame my parents for living a semi-retired life, before 60. They had slogged for they past twenty years to let me live a comfortable life. If now is not the time to repay them, when will it be? If they have given me so much, the least I can do is to maintain their lifestyle and free them from financial burdens. Luckily I have a sister who is working, and helping to pay the medical bills of the family, and some of the other expenses. But since I am doing better than her, I shouldn't let her bear too much.
Life is not that bad as I hang on fragilely to my present lifestyle. When all that liabilities are paid every month, whatever is life is for myself. Although that isn't much. The lil' money life enabled me to go for a budget trip to Thailand earlier this year. It may not be some wonderful graduate trip to Europe, the States or Australia, but at least I am going somewhere! Besides, my company is nice enough to reward us a sum of money to "improve ourselves". That is good money to pamper myself with nice gadgets. The down side is, that money is still taxable and I can't use it to buy just anything I one (it has to be within the list). Btw, income tax, property tax, TV tax, and what not tax, I don't even want to start thinking about how to cope with them with my pathetic budget every month. 8% GST in the future? Oh please kid me not!
All that said, I am just sharing all these with you, and not complaining or whinning cuz at least I am not poor. There are many people out there who are really unfortunate or much worse off than me, and they ain't complaining yet. I'm just in this race, and sometimes it gets tiring. So its nice if some other people hear my story, understand my situation, as I appreciate theirs too. I try to work hard and ask for your understanding, if I appear abit stingy and calculative over the few dollars or cents. If you have any lobang, please don't forget me. The facts of life gets to me once a month, and makes me sad sometimes. But that is just coping with challenges in life, and I hope to make best out of this experience and stay really happy whenever I can. Thank you for listening to my story, now I gotta get back to the race. See ya! ;0)
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