Financial Freedom, Being Debt Free and Quitting My Job

Today, I asked myself 3 questions:

How long more do I need to achieve financial freedom?

When will I become debt free?

How long more must I work at my job?

After so many years of working, it seems that I am no where closer to my goal and dream of financial freedom (where my passive income will surpass my monthly expenditure).  I did a quick calculation and estimate my passive income to be slightly around $2800 per year.  That is much less than what I thought I would have achieved 3-4 years ago when I first started out on this journey.  It seems that I will still be taking a long time to reach my true goal of financial freedom. Over the years, my monthly expenditure has also crept up slightly.  This can only mean one thing:  I NEED TO WORK HARDER AT MY GOAL!

Being debt free of course is one of the things that I look forward to.  It simply means having more disposable income to play around with.  Of course, if you manage to borrow cheaply, it does not make sense to pay back the loans if you can get a higher rate of return compared to the interest you are paying on your debts.  However, I don't know...perhaps it is just psychological.  But being debt free is something that I hope to achieve.  Well, at least I mean clearing my bad debts (e.g. car loan).  Good debt is still welcomed.

Well, the last question that I asked myself is really related to the first 2 questions.  When I can quit my job is probably the day I am certain that I have attained financial freedom.  It is not that I hate my work or anything.  It is just that I feel I can be doing so much more with my life and time then having only remnants of my time to give to my family and friends.  

 I want to work for the rest of my life.  But I don't want to have to work for a living (a.k.a having a job). 

Time to get down to business.  

Stop Letting Work Define Who You Are

We often fall into the habit of letting our work define our entire being. And it is difficult to get out of this mindset. Sometimes, I wish I were a little braver.. That I will be able to stop living life the way others have defined it for me, break out of the moulds, get out of the silly rat race, and start truly living life.

But then, there are bills to pay. And someone has to feed the family. So I put off all my wildest dreams of like travelling the world (on a really shoe string budget), or setting off to some far flung place and anchoring myself there for like the rest of eternity...

And i know that slowly the bright spark in me is dying and slowly fading. I am very much less cheerful nowadays. I prefer to be left alone. I desire for something more than this seemingly mundane life. I am not making a living. I am making a "dying" literally.

Don't get me wrong. It is not that I am not happy at my job. But sometimes, I just get the sense that this isn't what I should be doing. Reaching home past seven pm on each weekday is not something that I desire. (Of course, i know there are those of you who reach home much later than I do).

I need to find new inspiration, set new priorities, find my purpose and live my life with passion.

So my dear friend: Please don't let your work define who you are. I am trying hard to do that. We deserve so much more than all these.

Paper Chasing in Singapore and Choosing a Job that Makes You Happy

I wrote about the Paper chase in Singapore a few days back. I must admit I got a bit side tracked from writing about how much one needs to get married where I wanted to share more about the costs of getting married in Singapore. I promise to get back to that once I am done with my ranting on the ingrained mindset of paper chasing in Singapore.

ARGH! THAT WAS ME IN THE MIRROR

I seriously could not believe that when I got home today, I actually spent a large amount of time researching on the various masters courses that I could take in Singapore. A good part of my evening was gone just researching on SMU, NTU and NUS. I even contemplated signing up for other courses like ACCA or CFA. But then I got lost in the myriad of requirements and stuff. This pretty much sums up the Singaporean obsession with paper qualifications. I have seen the enemy and I am one of them! I am just like any other Singaporean who focuses too much on paper qualifications.

Choosing a Job That Makes You Happy

It was definitely timely to read an article about choosing a job that makes one happy. Am I happy in my job? Do I have passion for it? I can't be certain. Some days I wake up gearing to go to work. Then there are other times (long stretches I admit) where I simply don't fill the urge to go to work at all.

A Brutally Honest Post

I have slowly realised what makes a good blog post. It is simply this: Sharing honestly about your thoughts and opinion. And that is what readers truly want to see and read. They want to hear about your honest thoughts about a matter and not some regurgitated facts (which I am sometimes guilty of).

Being brutally honest is necessary for blogging. But it is also relevant our lives in general. I had a flashback of some vacation work that I used to do while I was waiting to enter into the army for my national service. It was at a conference room. And the manager was rebuking his staff for not bringing value to their jobs. He even told them that he often went on job interviews outside to test his market value and encouraged his staff to do so. To which, one of his staff answered: " We are loyal to this company. Why would we do that?"

At that point in time in my life, I thought that manager was seriously one of those bad bosses. His staff would talk behind his back. They clearly did not like him. But today, I recalled the lesson he taught and realised that his staff probably missed the gist of his message. Loyalty to a company is not relevant to the question. The manager was really asking his staff what sort of value were they bringing to the job and why the company should be paying them. His challenge was for them to quit complaining and add value. And the true test of whether you are bringing value to the job is if another company is willing to pay you as much or even more.

Today as I thought about this point, I realised how true it is. For many years in my life now, I have been working and receiving my pay as though someone owed me a living. I shunned extra work and was always jealous of others who got promoted faster than me. I then had to ask myself this question. Do I quit and find another job? Or do I stay on?

But perhaps the more important question is whether do I add value to the job that I am in. How am I performing? Can someone do this job better than me? Where is my value add? Does my boss look at me and think: "This guy is the best person for the job." Or does he simply look elsewhere. This are hard questions that I ask myself each day. And it is particularly difficult because I am introverted in nature and don't get the chance to shine like the extroverts do. Somehow in all my education, I feel that I have somehow neglected my interpersonal skills, communication skills, persuasion skills and stuff. I might be older but I sure ain't wiser than the fresh graduate who comes in.

I have searched hard for an answer and the harder I drill down to the important questions, the more brutally it hurts. The sense of inadequacy, the feeling that I would do better at the job if I were an extrovert nibbles at me. I question whether it was my family upbringing or whether it was just my personality that got in the way. Or perhaps it was because of the faithful decision I made not to study overseas but locally that has driven me to where I am today. But one cannot look back at the past and wonder. Instead, I need to look ahead and hope for the future. But the baggage of the past sometimes weigh me down. Perhaps a better university would have done me some good in my career progression. Perhaps a more outgoing personality. Perhaps being a little taller. Perhaps being a bit more handsome. I don't know. Somehow, it seems like working hard alone is not enough. A certain X factor is required.

I once thought I was clever. But when I started working, I realised that there are much cleverer people around me. Now I no longer think I am clever. In fact, I doubt whether I am even average in intelligence. Surely if I was above average, I wouldn't be where I am today.

This is a brutally honest post. It is about brutal questions I have to ask myself.

Rooney, Manchester United and Job Loyalty

So Wayne Rooney has been having a poor form lately in football. This was after his dismal World Cup performance earlier in the year. Then some news came out that he had an affair while his wife was pregnant. To make things worse, his form on the pitch did not improve and he was left on the bench for many games. For some of the games, he was not even considered for the bench.

Now, the latest news is that Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney are going their separate ways. After some weeks of denying that Rooney wants to leave, newspapers today reported that Wayne Rooney had asked to leave Manchester United. That's after he had spent almost 6 years at United since moving over from Everton. Job loyalty? Just throw it out of the window. Here comes the mercenary. Well, at least that's how the newspapers were reporting it.

Come on.

Who amongst us dares to say that we have sticked with one company for 6 years? Most people don't even practice job loyalty nowadays yet when soccer players want to change clubs, we suddenly call them mercenaries and blast them for being selfish, money-faced and what nots.

This is incredible considering that many people today do not even stick with a company for 6 years! Most people I know have only been with their company for less than 4 years. In fact, it seems common for people to change companies ever so frequently nowadays. Job loyalty? It seems that people nowadays are no longer loyal to only a certain company. After all, no company today dares to promise its employees lifelong employment. What they can guarantee is lifelong employability and not lifelong employment.

Considering that soccer players have only such a short career span, it definitely makes sense for them to eke out the best opportunities for themselves before they hit the "official" retirement age of 35. To be left on the bench for a season is almost akin to loosing your work experience for like 10% of your working life.

Job loyalty certainly does not exist in work outside football so why do we expect this kind of standards from footballers. Give Rooney a break.

Peer Pressure To Stay Back Late in Office

I read with interest Mr Tan Kin Lian's blog post about Singaporean workers facing pressure from peers to stay back late in office even when they have no work to do.

I must admit that this peer pressure to stay late is indeed VERY TRUE in Singapore. One feels obligated to stay back late especially when other colleagues seem to be rushing for some important work that was needed yesterday.

In my previous job, I remember the countless hours I have stayed back late because colleagues stayed back late. In fact, I am not too sure whether they were even doing work. Maybe they stayed back late BECAUSE I was staying back late because I thought they were staying late.....You get the drift...

So it is just peer pressure to stay back late. It seriously affects productivity and does not make sense.

After some time, I reasoned that I did not have to rush my work during the day as I would most probably have to stay back late after all. So I simply took my own sweet time to do my work.

This peer pressure thing is indeed TOXIC. We should all have the guts to look at the clock strike at 5 or 6pm and shout out loud: "OKAY FOLKS, I AM GOING HOME!"

(The repurcussion is perhaps tons of work piled up on your desk the next morning for you as your boss will think you are SUPER FREE)

I think this is crazy and one possible solution is to establish Overtime Pay (OT Pay). In this way, bosses will want employees to go back home on time so that it does not result in additional costs to the company.

The same should be implemented for the civil service whereby a variable component is added to their pay structure and they are paid additional amounts based on the OT work that they have done.

This is only right and fair. If there is really SO MUCH work to be done under such tight deadlines, then it is only right that more people are employed to share the burden.

Making employees reach home at 7 plus to 10 plus everyday is simply unacceptable.

I wonder whether people out there are still facing this kind of peer pressure?

How To Survive A Job Hunt

Surviving a job hunt is probably the most important information you would need if you are between jobs and the whole world seems to be crumbling around you.

I speak from personal experience.

Up till now, I am still looking for a job. The weekdays don't feel like weekdays and the weekends don't feel like weekends.

People keep asking: "So what are you doing?"

The wife is meaner to me than usual. She gets angry easily. It's because I am sitting at home all day long.

But the job hunt process is a long and tedious one. Especially if one does not know what job to look for. The application process is also one LONG WAITING GAME.

The most difficult part of the whole process is to keep one's head lifted up high.

Afterall, society (and I mean family, friends, etc) judge you by what job you do. And if you are jobless.....Uh Oh.....they give you a pitiful look....

Surviving a Job Hunt is thus perhaps the most important thing in the search for a job. When I mean survive, I don't mean locking yourself indoors. What I mean is to make the best use of this time to do the things that you enjoy the most.

Whatever your hobbies that you have put off, go pursue it now. Reading, cycling, etc, etc. Sitting at the computer the whole day and checking your emails or facebook is not going to make the job hunt any quicker.

Don't be pressured by others. Take time to think what is it you really want in life.

I managed to do that for a few weeks and go through my life purpose and skills which I am good at.

I hope to share with you the exercise that I did and which I think everyone will find helpful whether you have a job or not. That is however best left for another day.

Just remember: In your job hunt, you are not alone!

If you are feeling frustrated or depressed, you can feel free to contact me at this blog. Perhaps I could share with you my experiences and you will feel much better! =)

What Color Is Your Parachute?

In my current search for a job, I have been reading this wonderful book called What Color Is Your Parachute.

I borrowed it from the library and I must say that this book is impacting my life in more ways than I can count.

I am not too sure why the title of the book is as such but it is really a good book to read.

Amongst the books that I have read, Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Richest Man in Babylon are perhaps some of the books that have affected the way I think about things.

Holding this current book in my hand is indeed such a joy. It is as if I am being introduced to a new concept altogether just the way my world was opened up to things like passive and portfolio income when I first read Rich Dad Poor Dad.

I have followed the book's instruction to sketch the picture of my ideal life here.

A Picture of My Ideal Life

"The clearer your vision of what you seek, the closer you are to finding it."

Why use pictures to draw a picture of your ideal life?

Apparently, using pictures and symbols bypasses the left side of the brain (the safekeeping self) and speaks directly to your right brain (experimental self), whose job is to engineer change.

The picture of the life you really want has the power to bring about the change that you desire.

So there you have it above, the picture of my ideal life. (As you can see, I am not much of an artist)

Lessons From A Beach Bum

We all know the story about the rich and successful man who went to the beach and saw a surfer dude bumming around. He asked the surfer dude to have more aspiration, to get a job, save enough money and then be able to retire...

The surfer dude asked him:" And what am I going to do when I retire?"

"Well, you could sit down at the beach, relax and surf" replied the rich and successful man..

This anecdote always hits me as it reminds me that many times, we can be pursuing the wrong goals in our lives.

We think that money can make us happy and keep looking forward to the future where we think we will be richer and maybe happier.

Alas, the years pass and we are richer but we still do not find ourselves happier.

We analyse the situation and figure out that perhaps we are not RICH enough so we carry on working ourselves to death, trying to keep us with the Jonases and whoever.

I figure that many people realise that after twenty to thirty years of working, they have literally WASTED their entire lives away living up to other people's expectations of them.

This is truly sad but it is extremely real in a society like Singapore.

I guess that there are 2 Key Lessons that we all can learn from the story about the beach bum.

#1 - Treasure the Present

Too many times, we keep thinking about the past and fantasizing about the future while dreading the present. The key to happiness I guess is to learn how to treasure the present.

#2- Get Out of the Rat Race

The race is for rats only. If you are not a rat, please get out of it and spare yourself the miseries of keeping up with the whos who. Seriously, nobody gives two hoots whether you drive a Lexus or a BMW or a Toyota. The people you are trying to impress are busily trying to impress you too so they will hardly notice what car you are driving.


The author of this blog is a well-qualified bum in every sense of the word. He advises you to take everything you read in this blog with a pinch of salt.

Quit My Job, Blog and Travel the World

Quitting my job was one of the toughest decisions I made in my life. Nevertheless, I am glad that I made the decision.

My end goal is to be able to just blog and earn money while travelling the entire world.

This however is not achievable currently as I am still not drawing enough income from online sources. When my online income sources reaches $100 per day, then it could seriously be something worth considering.

On top of my online income source, I could rent out my apartment and get a decent amount of money too.

Travelling the world will most probably begin with a road trip to Malaysia through to Thailand and perhaps even driving all the way to China if that is possible. I will just drive all the way to Europe if I can.

Am I dreaming? Is this dream too far fetched?

Will I be able to realise this dream in the next 10 years, 20 years or never?

What must I do to increase my online income? Can I hit $10 per day by year end?

WE SHALL SEE..........................TO BE CONTINUED

Thoughts on the Sweat Debt

I woke up early around 7am. After some reading, checking on my adsense earnings and serving out my food in Cafe World (a game in Facebook), it was time for breakfast.


We went out to eat again.


For me it is always the same food stall but I simply adore the food. The hustle and bustle of the market just makes the food taste so much better. I ordered a cup of $0.70 coffee from the coffee shop. The uncle gave me a knowing look. I was his regular customer afterall.


After eating breakfast, it was time for a family walk as we walked around the neighborhood and did some grocery shopping.


Back home, we spent our time reading the newspapers.


I was just reading this article on the Straits Times which talks about the 'Sweat Debt'.

A global management consultancy firm (Hay Group) actually says that workers are feeling increasingly frustrated especially if they have undergone wage cuts and stuff.


A poll showed that 29 per cent of employees felt frustrated while 35 percent feel detached. Only 16 per cent felt effective in their jobs.

I am not too sure how the survey was conducted but it seems that a total of 64 percent are either frustrated or detached from their work.


That is a huge number of people who are totally not involved in their work. If work takes up such a huge amount of our waking hours, isn't it worthless to pursue something that we do not enjoy and which we have no attachment to?


Too many people work simply because they need the money to survive. They work for money. And yet they claim they are not a slave to money. How can that possibly be??


If they are doing something they do not enjoy for the sake of money, aren't they a slave to money?


Too many people sacrifice lots of their time and effort on earned income. They have not explored the potential of passive income from online sources, businesses and stuff.


And then I looked at myself and realised what a different life I am living from the rest of the people around me! It is 12 noon and here I am writing about the events that have happened to me in the morning =)


When others are dressed in their office attires rushing off to work, I am dressed in my bermudas and slippers going for my breakfast. I sometimes give an almost apologetic look to those whom I meet in the elevator and it seems that they look at me scornfully (especially those who have seen me so many times before).



This also got me thinking deeper about pursuing my dreams and goals that I have set for myself and how I should reward myself if I achieve them.

I am still very much like others working for a living. The only difference is that I hope to be financially free by earning passive income that is greater than my monthly expenditure.


For a start, I have been trying to earn more money using online sources. My daily earnings from online sources currently amount to less than $5 a day.


If I am able to hit the $10 a day earnings in online income, I will buy myself a PlayStation 3 which I always wanted.
Once I hit the $100 a day earnings, I will buy myself a Mont Blanc Pen



Once I hit the $200 a day earnings, I will go on a short holiday trip to Europe with my family.

3 Tips to Survive Job Loss

Alot of people have been asking the question on how I am surviving if I am sitting at home everyday, not working and just blogging.

Well, firstly....I am not exactly unemployed per se. I am self employed.

I am still running in certain things before my business starts. As such, time is what I have on my hands. It does feel a bit like I am jobless though.

So what do I do everyday while I am bumming around?

Here are the top 3 things I do:

1. Trade The Stock Market $$$

I am not really a full time trader. But nonetheless, with time on my hands, I have time to read about books on trading as well as trade the stock market.

The month of October has been kind to me in terms of trading profits =)

9 Oct 09 - Profit $126.14

13 Oct 09 - Profit $237.54

14 Oct 09 - Profit $479.42

I am also still in the midst of combining FA and TA into my investment strategy.

2. Blog and find ways to advertise my blog.

Yep. This is the 2nd thing that I do the most.

That's me on the poster. Not exactly me per se but a manga replication of me.

3. Surf the Net.

Yeah.. I surf the net like a lot. Research shows that people surf the net mainly for education/information & for social purposes (internet messaging,etc). I surf the net mainly for information.

Read Related Articles:

1. Decided to Quit My Job

2. More Free Time Now

3. Portfolio Update

Portfolio Update

I have sold off Hongguo and PWE (Penn West Energy Trust) for profits of around 30%. Decided that a 30% gain was good enough so decided to exit both stocks. If the opportunity arises, I will enter into both PWE and Hongguo again.

I have also been trying learn more about technical analysis. Just downloaded ChartNexus. It seems like a pretty good software to play around with. Think I will be combining both FA and TA for my purchases of stocks next time round. Still need to learn a great deal about the various indicators and stuff though.

Still no success at the job front. Just bumming around each day with nothing to do. Don't really know what job I am passionate about. I just feel so weary and tired and feel like I could do with a really really really long break.

Just for my records purposes:

Dividends received from PWE = $11.27
Dividends received from ST Eng = $30.00
Cash from selling 24000 shares of Hongguo @0.355=$8488.93
Still waiting for the proceeds from the sale of PWE.

READ RELATED POSTS:
1. Decided to Quit My Job

Tired and Weary

For those of you who know, I have started on my new job for sometime now.

It has been tough and that's why the number of posts have gone down for quite a while.

The wife also started with a new job so there is lots of adjustments to make over the mean time.

Hope to start posting regularly again soon.

More Free Time Now

After quitting my job, I found that I have a lot more free time to play around with.

However, it still does not seem that I am putting my time to good use. Too often, I spend my time procrastinating or just doing unproductive things.

Perhaps it is time I pick up some serious time management skills.

On the passive income portfolio end, I purchased 10000 shares of Suntec REITs last week.

I heard a story about a guy who owned 3 properties and when the valuation of his properties went up, he basically refinanced them while doing a upgearing to release the equity in it thus getting about 800k in cash. He then used this money to buy into REITs. Imagine the kind of passive income he is drawing now on top of the rental income from his property!

Is the financial sector dead

Many friends have told me that the financial sector is kind of "dead" in a certain sense.

Does that mean I will have to look for a job else where first?

Decided to Quit My Job

I made the decision to quit my $5k a month job today.

I have not told anyone about the decision.

Will I regret it?

A stable job that pays well but gives me no satisfaction whatsoever. Is time more important than money to me or is money more important to me than time?

With this job, I will be able to pay all my debts in maybe 20 years and be pretty well off (if nothing goes wrong). But the prospect of staying just does not excite me. I want to do something different with my life.

Is it foolish to be making such a decision during such a time as this with all the financial crisis?

What about my responsibilities to my family?

On the other hand, what if I do manage to find a job that pays just as well and gives me more satisfaction?