Conversations With The Poor

The poor people in Singapore really have sad stories to tell. While I am striving for financial freedom here in Singapore, there are actually poor people all around me who cannot even dare to dream of such an end goal.

Their lives are tangled in an unending cycle of debts, medical bills and other payments that they must make to simply survive. They have simply no savings at all.

Sometimes, one can really wonder whether it is due to their own efforts or pure misfortune that they end up doing what they are doing.

We can see the poor all around us in Singapore if we open our eyes. They are there begging on the streets, collecting soft drink cans, selling tissue paper, lottery tickets and stuff. Some of them have a sad story...some of them just have themselves to blame.

However, I don't think that one should judge them and not give them any money just because they are poor.

You never know all the sad stories behind their lives and how some of them were just like you but due to some family problems (usually illnesses and hospital bills) that they end up where they are.

As our society gets significantly older, many people might not have done the necessary financial planning to make sure that they are insured and saving sufficiently for future unxepected events. I guess that is the government's concern and it's also why they are encouraging people to save more and setting the retirement age much higher.

This video shows a sight of Singapore that is not commonly seen. I have personally seen some of these sights before and it saddens me.

How To Eat Chicken Wings

I have been eating chicken wings for a cool twenty over years now and just realised that I have been eating it the wrong way!

Here is one way to save money...by eating your chicken wings cleanly so that you are not wasting any of the meat. See the video below:

How Would You Spend $100?

A few days back, I wrote a posting on 1001 Frugal Things To Do

It seems like a lot of people have many crazy and wicked ideas on how to save money. I particularly liked La Papilion's suggestion on going to Macs to store up on chilli and ketchup.

Anyway, I thought today was a good day to write about spending instead of saving.

Many people are adverse to the word SAVING.

The reason for that could be that they do not know what they are saving for or they just do not like their spending power to be limited.

That is why you do not get people who follow their monthly budgets. We all have budgets but we most probably can't stick to one (okay, perhaps those who go to Macs for chilli and ketchup top-ups are able to do so)

So let's turn the game around. Instead of asking you to stick to a budget...let's say that I am giving you $100 today and demand that you spend EVERY single cent, what would you spend it on?

This is basically what a budget is about. If your monthly budget for spending money is $3000, and saving the remainder(that is after excluding all your fixed expenses like mortgage loans and car loans), go and work out a daily budget for yourself and figure out how you are going to spend every single cent of that budget that you have given yourself.

Here is how I might spend that $100

1. $20 on a bottle of wine

2. $15 on a book to read

3. $40 for a nice dinner for two

4. $25 for some home accessories to make my home more homely and beautiful

Doesn't this way of thinking make budgeting much more fun? How would you spend yours?

Save On Home Repairs

I just fixed some leaking shower head recently and realised that it was really a simple task! Saving on home repairs is much simpler than I thought it would be.

Recently, the shower in my bathroom started to leak and water seemed to be squirting out of the hose that linked to the shower head. There was an obvious crack and it need replacing.

You see...the problem is ...in all my years of schooling or staying at home with mum and dad's, I have never had to fixed a broken shower head.

If I were ten years younger, I would have just called the plumber or repairman in.

But the wife looked at me squarely in the eye and said: "My father says that it is really easy to fix it. Just go buy another of those things and it can be done."

So I went out and bought those bendy flexible pipes (I am not sure what you call those things) for less than $10 from one of those provision stores and returned home.

I was not even sure how to get started and there were no instruction manuals or stuff that came with the piping system!

To cut the long story short, I just simply unscrewed the shower head from the pipe that it was connected to and replaced it with the new one. It took me less than 5 minutes to get the job done! It was that simple.

I felt like a man...a real man ..you know what I mean? Like some young boy who had just crossed into manhood.

Anyway, I figured that I must have save a good thirty to forty dollars repairing the stuff myself instead of calling a plumber. Looking back at how easy the task was, I think the plumber would most probably be laughing his head off after fixing it for me as it was REALLY such a simple task! Just screw it off and screw it on...

Anyway, I realised that everyone could do with some tips on saving on home repairs:

1. Get Free DIY advice. Search the internet or youtube.com to look for how-to videos to carry out simple procedures like fixing a tap or replacing the light bulbs.

2. Learn Their Lingo. To cut the best deal from those contractors and repairmen, you need to be able to speak their lingo. If you are not able to speak their lingo, they will know that you know next to nothing. Before calling on them, be sure to check out forums and sites to be better informed so as to be able to speak their language. (For example, I was getting a quote for window grilles recently and searched a few forums to find out what was the average price that people were charging for window grilles. In addition, I learnt that they charged window grilles per square foot so when calling the contractors for a quote, I simply asked them how much were they charging per square foot of aluminium bronze colored window grilles. When I did not asked them how much they were charging, they simply offered to come down to my place to do some m easurements.)

3. Get 3 quotes or more. Try to get 3 quotations or more whenever you plan to repair something. You will be amazed at how much money you can save.

Read Related Articles:

1. Save Electricity Save Money

2. 1001 Frugal Things to Do

3. Top Ten Money Saving Tips For Financial Freedom

10 Things That Would Make Women Happier

Okay, so yesterday I posted a list of 10 things that would apparently make men happier. Today, I will share with you 10 Things that would make women happier:

1. A permanently clean home

2. A luxury trip

3. A big house

4. Losing 10 pounds

5. A great body

6. Time for themselves

7. A really romantic relationship

8. Being smarter

9. Saying "no" more

10. A luxury car

So what can we gentlemen learn from this list?

1. Help Out With The Housework! Get out of that seat and start clearing up the mess that you make.

2. Start saving money for that luxury trip

3. Start earning more money to afford a big house

4. Hide those mirrors or bring the wife out for a jog

5. Same as above...

6. Offer to baby sit and let the wife go shopping.

7. Buy some flowers today. Don't wait for some special occassion

8. Buy her a book

9. Let her say "no" more often. Ask questions that will lead her to say "No!"

10. Buy a car or rent a luxury car for the day.

10 Things That Would Make Men Happier

Here is a list of 10 things that would make men happier. (Note: I ripped this off a magazine so do not ask me how accurate the data is. Only a few thousand were surveyed)

1. A Big House

2. A really romantic relationship

3. A luxury trip

4. Being smarter

5. A luxury car

6. A better sex life

7. A great body (Will the below suffice?)
8. A permanently clean home

9. Losing 10 pounds

10. Having a pretty personal assistant

Read Related Articles:

1. How To Achieve Financial Freedom

2. Don't Run The Rat Race

5 Things You Cannot Buy with $8.55 Million

So this young chap (should I still call him a chap?) from Michigan won the poker tournament. Cada is only 21 years old and he has already won a cool $8.55 Million dollars!

But wait a minute... before going off thinking that this chap will most probably be able to afford every single thing on planet earth, here are 5 things that he still will not be able to afford:

1. Patek Phillipe's Supercomplication ($11 Million)

Sorry dude. Think you can go shopping for a watch already? This watch alone will set you back by $11 million. You most probably need to go for another round of poker before you can afford it.

2. A House in Singapore (estimated $120 million)

Did we tell you that houses and property prices are soaring in Singapore. Want to live in one of those good class bungalows? How about the Arwaa Mansion? That will cost you a cool $120 million in Singapore dollars. Yep, you can convert your US currency to Sing dollars but it won't get you anywhere that figure.

3. Dragon's Chair ($27.8 Million)
Need a nice chair to play poker in. How about this dragon chair? This chair that was formerly owned by Yves Saint Laurent and costs a whopping $27.8 million. You will most probably need to find another chair to play poker in.

4. Wayne Rooney (>20 million pounds)

Step aside for Wayne Rooney. With a mere $8 over million in winnings, you cannot even afford the transfer fee which he commanded when he made the switch from Everton to Manchester United. That guy in the background? Anderson? Oops..18 million pounds...sorry dude..way out of your budget too. With the weakening USD, you most probably need to win another 3 more tournaments before you can afford to buy Anderson.

5. 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe ($9.7 million)

So perhaps you think you will just settle for a really cool car.. but oops.. the winnings still won't get you near this car. This 1931 Bugatti is only one of six cars ever made. This example was sold way back in 1987 at the price tag of $9.7million and if you know what inflation is, you won't be able to get it at that price today.

So there you have it! Five items you cannot buy even if you win $8.55million.

If I had the time, I could probably bring the list to a whopping 100!