Buying a Car : The Hidden Costs

Buying a car is like cutting a hole in your wallet. The upfront downpayment for the car and the cost of monthly maintenance is seriously high.

Let's not talk about the monthly installments that one has to pay for the car loan. Let's just explore the cost of maintenance alone:

Road Tax ($700 to $1000)
Road tax that you pay depends on the type of car you are driving. In Singapore, expect to pay around $700 per year for a 1.6L car.
Carparking ($2400 - estimated $200 per month)

At the cheapest, car parking will cost you easily $200 per month. This includes parking for both work and home. If you work in town and drive there, the costs will be much more.

Motor Insurance ($500 to $1600)

This depends on a whole host of factors such as the age of driver, model of car and whether you have been involved in an accident before. One should expect to pay in the region of $800 to $1200 if you have never been involved in an accident. (See how you can save money on insurance)
Petrol ($3600 - estimated $300 per month)
This depends on how much you drive per week. But you can roughly expect to be filling up at the station every week. Depending on the grade of petrol that you pump, you can expect to pay $70 to $100 for a full tank.

Car Washing ($100)

Let's say you only wash your car like once a month, it will still cost you easily $100 per year.

Maintenace ($500)

Changing tyres, aircon filters, etc , etc.. Everything seems to need replacing after a few years. Expect to be paying up to $200 to $300 for each servicing trip you make.


THE HIDDEN COSTS

Adding up all these hidden costs, you will see that owning a car involves paying up to $8000 per year. This does not include your monthly installment payments and also other charges like ERP. That is close to 2 months salary for most people!!!

Good luck if you intend to buy a car anytime soon.

Online Income From Adsense

The Beginning

My journey into the world of Adsense began when I started this blog. I wanted to explore ways of earning income online. That was about a year ago and I would not say that I am earning as much as some professional bloggers are. The amount that I am earning in Adsense income however has slowly and steadily increased over the year.

For a start, look at my first update on my adsense earnings here
I was earning less than $1 per month then but it was slowly increasing!

The Journey

I started to explore other methods of increasing my online income but so far, I have narrowed it down to Google's Adsense. Though I know the existence of other affiliate programs, my decision was to concentrate on increasing my income from Google's Adsense. I read up quite a fair bit and am glad to say that I can earn an average of $10 to $20 per month now based on Google's Adsense alone.

Just for the month of August 2009, I earned $14.75 while the earnings from Sep 2009 are likely to be slightly higher. The reason why I blog is mostly to sort out my thoughts but earning a passive income on the sideline does provide some added motivation. To konw that each and every post I make has the potential to earn me money in the future keeps me going and makes me disciplined in my postings.

The Goal

I started out with a simple goal of increasing my adsense earnings to $1 per day. Until today, I have not been able to achieve it. But I will keep on trying. Of course, my dream job will be to just stay at home and blog =)

Who knows? Perhaps that could be a possibility in the future!

Singapore's 40 Richest (2009)

Apparently Singapore is set to become one of the countries in the world with the highest density of millionaires. Read it in the news that the number of households with a supposedly high networth of over $1 million in USD investible assets is up. I figure that out of every 10 households in Singapore, 1 household will likely fall in the "High Networth" category with over USD $1 million in investible assets.

However, the big names in town were recently published in Singapore's 40 Richest. In fact, the total wealth of Singapore's 40 richest has jumped by 20% !! Apparently, the economic crisis has not affected them at all.

I decided to try and see what did the rich invest in and how did they get so rich to have their total wealth increase by over 20% even in this economic climate.

The list of the 40 richest Singaporeans are as follows:

1. Ng Teng Fong (Real Estate)
2. Khoo Family (Hotels? - Goodwood Park)
3. Kuok Khoon Hong (Commodities - Wilmar)
4. Kwee Brothers (Real Estate)
5. Wee Cho Yaw (Banking)
6. Zhong Sheng Jian (Real Estate - Yanlord)
7. Peter Lim (Stocks - Wilmar)
8. Kwek Leng Beng (Real Estate - City Dev)
9. Lee Seng Wee (Banking - OCBC)
10. Ong Beng Seng & Christina Ong (Real Estate, businesses)
11. Lien Family (inheritance - banking)
12. Tan Boy Tee (Business - Labroy Marine)
13. Chang Yun Chung (Shipping)
14. Peter Fu Chong Cheng
15. Ho Sim Guan
16. Chua Thian Poh
17. Kwek Leng Kee
18. Henry Ng
19. Vivian Chandran
20. Koh Wee Meng
21. Olivia Lum
22. Chew Hua Seng
23. Simon Cheong
24. Ow Chio Kiat
25. Cheng Wai Keung
26. Ho Kwon Ping
27. Tan Pong Tyea
28. Lee Kian Soo
29. Yao Hsiao Tung
30. Ng Chwee Cheng
31. Loo Choon Yong
32. Kwek Leng Peck
33. Oei Hong Leong
34. John Chuang
35. Goh Lik Tuan
36. Sunny George Verghese
37. Brian Chang
38. Victor Sassoon
39. Wong Ngit Liong
40. Tay Liam Wee

I got tired after reaching no.13

Basically you get the main idea already. The 40 richest in Singapore basically got rich through the following means:

Real Estate
Banking
Businesses
Inheritance

Makes me wonder... should i start concentrating my efforts on Real Estate and Businesses?


Read Related Articles:

1. Key Lessons from Rich Dad, Poor Dad
2. Donald Trump Lessons
3. David Bach Automatic Millionaire

Investing in Canadian Royalty Trusts (Canroys)

I have canroys in my portfolio. Canroys are basically Canadian Royalty Trusts (CanRoys) and usually own oil and gas fields. Canroys receive tax advantages that allows them to distribute quite a lot of money to their shareholders monthly so as to avoid paying corporate taxes. In Canada, canroys often feature in people's portfolio especially if they are looking for high dividend yield stocks.

However, it seems that there will be certain changes to the legislation pretty soon. The Canadian government will change the laws in 2011 to make existing canroys pay taxes at the same rate as that of corporations. Without the tax incentives to pay out dividends, the yield from canroys are set to drop to levels around 2 to 4% (in line with those of corporations). During the recent economic crisis of 2008, canroys prices dropped due to the announcement of the proposed tax changes in Canada.

In Singapore, you can invest in canroys as long as you have a US stock trading account. Canroys and similar stocks that can be found on the US stock exchange include the following:

• Penn West Energy Trust
• Pengrowth Energy Trust
• Enterra Energy Trust
• Baytex Energy Trust
• Enerplus Resources Fund
• Provident Energy Trust
• TransGlobe Energy Corp
• Nexen Inc
• Compton Petroleum Corp
• EnCana Corporation

The monthly dividends that canroys distribute will then be sent to you through mail via a cheque. Do note however there there are charges that include withholding tax (15%), postage/handling charge ($5) and 7%GST. For the month of September 09, I just received a cheque for $9.94

I currently own Penn West Energy Trust (PWE). Used to own Pengrowth Energy Trust but sold it and consolidated all my holdings of canroys under PWE.

SEE RELATED POSTS:

Read : The 25% Cash Machine

Read: Dividends I have Received Thus Far

Received Over $1000 in Dividends for August 09

I received over $1000 in dividends for the month of August. Pretty pleased also with the way my portfolio is regaining its value. The month of August was also significant for me as I started a simple 10 part mini series about the Journey to Financial Freedom. You can read all the postings here:

The Road to Financial Freedom
#1 - The Greatest Mistake
#2 - Protect What You Cannot Afford to Lose
#3 - Spend Less Than You Earn
#4 - Spend Less Or Earn More
#5 - Buy Assets Not Liabilities
#6 - Read and Learn More
#7 - The Magic of Part Time
#8 - Health Equals Wealth
#9 - It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint
#10 - Congrats! You have Achieved it!

I have also begun to explore using HubPages to increase my Adsense Earnings

Thoughts at StarBucks

So I am sitting here at Starbucks at 3pm in the afternoon. Just got some work done and was wondering what a funny life I actually have.

3pm and people are most probably working in the office. And here I am sipping my Starbucks Cafe Latte and blogging. I never expected that I would actually be living such a life!

After so many years of schooling, I would never have expected it if someone told me that I will be living the life I am living now.

Going to be 28 years old soon and it seems that I don't really have any career ambitions. It certainly does not seem that I will be someone important or famous. Afterall, all those people are perhaps being "groomed" right now in the MNC boardrooms and government agencies. They are probably rubbing off with the "who's who" in Singapore at a golf course or something. And here I am, sitting at starbucks blogging about my life. What a funny irony =)

But I guess it is a good break from the rat race and stuff. I am taking things a bit slower right now. The rat race has done me no good. I have probably not grown or matured as much as I wish I should. I now just try my best to live up to God's standards and not man's standards. I try to read more, think more, love more and give more. I have decided that the corporate ladder is not really something that I would like to climb.

So I sit here near the counter and realised what a great deal of students are actually able to afford Starbucks! My goodness..kids nowadays really have lots of spending power. I certainly do not remember drinking Starbucks during my schooling days! The irony of it all.. People who are working are not enjoying life while those who are not working per se are learning how to enjoy life.

I am not saying that these school children are not working. They do have their school work and stuff. The reason why they are able to enjoy life so much better is perhaps because they still have dreams and hopes of what the future might be. For someone my age, I think I have grown a bit disillusioned about what I was told to pursue in terms of my job and career.

I really need to sit down and ponder more about the kind of life that I would like to live and be remembered for.

#10 - Congrats! You have Achieved it.

This is the #10 posting to the Road to Financial Freedom, a simple 10 step mini-series to get one started on the road to financial freedom.

This posting is actually the final posting on this topic.

Congrats! You have achieved it!

I know you have most probably heard it before but what begins in the mind most likely results into something that you see later on in your life.

I am not trying to be a motivational speaker or writer but I really see the point where they say that if you have a self defeating way of thinking, you most probably will not be able to accomplish anything great in life. Likewise, to achieve financial freedom, one needs to start on the correct footing and this correct footing begins with one's MIND.

As the common saying goes:

Your thoughts determine your actions.

Your actions determines your habits.

Your habits determines your character.

Your character determines your DESTINY.

To achieve financial freedom, one needs to have the correct mindset. You need to believe that your goal is achievable before you can achieve it.

Usain Bolt believes that he can run faster and that is why he is breaking world records. Likewise, you need to believe that you can achieve financial freedom when you are searching for it. As simple as that. Just do it. Nothing is impossible!

This brings an end to a simple 10 part mini series on what I think are the essential points to get you started on your own journey out of slavery from your job and money. I hoped that you have learnt something useful is this 10 part mini series.

To see all the postings, please see the links below:

The Road to Financial Freedom

#1 - The Greatest Mistake

#2 - Protect What You Cannot Afford to Lose

#3 - Spend Less Than You Earn

#4 - Spend Less Or Earn More

#5 - Buy Assets Not Liabilities

#6 - Read and Learn More

#7 - The Magic of Part Time

#8 - Health Equals Wealth

#9 - It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

#10 - Congrats! You have Achieved it!