Mid-Year Bonus for Civil Servants

The Singapore government announced that the mid-year bonus for civil servants just two days back. It will be the largest mid-year bonus in the past five years.

The mid-year bonus is reported to be at half a month's salary plus a one-off payment of $300.

While that might not be a lot compared to the private sector, I am sure a lot of civil servants will welcome the news especially since there was no mid-year bonus declared last year.


This is also good news to the rest of the population as it shows that the government is positive on the economic recovery even though downside risks like the soverign debt crisis still lurk at the background.



The author is currently self-employed and does not get to enjoy such benefits as mid-year bonuses and year end bonuses. It makes him recall the days when he used to enjoy such benefits.

How Powerful is Your Blog?

Every now and then, I am amazed at the power of blogging.


I am not a natural blogger and blogging does not come naturally to me. Yet, I find it much easier to express myself through writing compared to speech. Thus, I blog.

What makes it amazing is the ability to rank high on Google searches for certain keywords. In a certain sense, one is able to get your thoughts across to many people at one go. Imagine people reading your postings on certain topics and taking action on your advice or recommendations!

Just another scenario. Imagine being able to "talk" to thousands of people each month without actually having to meet them. This is what a blog is able to do. It really amazes me on how powerful a blog can be if you use it for the correct purpose.

Many times, I have had ideas on how I could expand my blog be it in terms of layout or the content. I have brainstormed on various topics that I would like to write about but simply procrastinated. Perhaps it is time I take some action to propel this blog forward to greater heights.

How powerful is your blog? How do you intend to make it more impactful?

Dividends from Kingboard and China Aviation Oil

I have received dividends from my holdings in Kingboard and China Aviation Oil. It is a small amount of $62.02 and $140.00 respectively.

With the $315.00 that I collected from Capitaland earlier in the month, the total amount of dividends for May 2010 is $517.02.

I have also been using the coin deposit machine by POSB to deposit all my loose change into a POSBKids Account for my child's university education fund. Thus far, I have accumulated slightly over $2500 including money from red packets received during Chinese New Year.

Considering that it is still a long way more, I think I still have time to save up more in the future. But at the current rate I am going, the education fund will probably only hit $50K plus when it needs to be utilised.

How Important is Reading?

In front of me right now are two books.

One is titled: "Teaching Kids to Read" and the other: "Supporting Struggling Readers and Writers".

Through my brief interactions with students, I have come to realised that it is important to learn how to read.

When it comes to picking up a language like English, there are various components to it. I like to break it down to 3 main components of reading, writing and speaking.

All my life, I have slowly come to accept that speaking is perhaps the most important skill that one can have. After all, great leaders and sales people are known to be very eloquent. It is indeed hard to find a successful person who does not speak well.

However, I have also come to realise the importance of reading. Without being able to read, people are not able to gain knowledge. If one cannot read, you simply cannot comprehend the information that is presented to you in textbooks or books.

On the flip side, not being able to read perhaps frees one from group think that commonly exists in society. It enables one to search for the truth through experiments and thinking. A lot of great people were known to have problems reading.

If one was not able to read the news about investment, will it make the person more immune to the fluctuations in the stock market? Will it make the person a shrewder investor compared to one who is always reading up on the latest happenings?

So how important is reading really?

Keep Counting and Let's See Who Has More

I remember waiting at a crowded bus stop once and saw a beautiful convertible car pass slowly by. It was one of those peak hour jams where the bus stops were really crowded and the buses themselves were also packed. I could not help but notice quite a few people at the bus stop stare enviously at the person driving the convertible.

It was then that I remembered something. It is very common for people to become unhappy when they focus on the things they do not have in life.

I was reminded through a fellow blogger's posting that it helps to count your blessings. Instead of focusing on the things that you do not have in life, why not focus on the things that you have in life?

Counting my blessings

1. I have a great family.

2. I have a healthy body (thus far though I have put on quite a lot of weight lately)

3. I have spare cash.

4. I have a HDB flat. Though I only own 22.5 square metres of it (based on the amount of mortgage loan I have paid off).

5. I have a car. Another few more years to paying off the debt.

6. I have friends.

7. I am ALIVE!

Keep Counting your blessings to see how fortunate you are.

2nd Anniversary - A Good Time for Some Reflection

This day marks the 2nd anniversary of this blog. Or to be more exact, the day when the idea of blogging came to my head.

I still remember very clearly that two years ago, I was sitting at the balcony of some hotel room enjoying the breeze and just doing some journalling.

Two years have passed.

In this two years, I realised a few things. Perhaps it is the "older but wiser" syndrome.

1. Friends don't stay forever. I have lost contact with a lot of friends. This is due to either a change in workplace or due to other unforseen circumstances. I meet up a lot less with close friends compared to the past due to family committments. What I have realised is that friends come and go. When you have the opportunity to meet up every day because you work in the same office, it seems like the relationship will last forever. Once things change, you realise that you most probably will not meet up with some people again. Perhaps in facebook only?

2. Be a bit more discerning. I have learnt not to be too trusting of other people. I am now a lot more skeptical when I hear advice from people.

3. Investments go up and down. It has been a roller coaster ride in the stock market for the past two years. I am a lot more immune to the ups and downs in the stock market now.

4. Unclear of future direction. I remain very unclear about the direction that God wants me to go with regards to many things in my life. I feel a bit lost sometimes as I do not seem to be progressing in my career. For a guy, a career basically sums up his relevance to society, family and sometimes even defines him as a person. Without a clear cut career path in front of me, I have been lost, discouraged and depressed.

5. Blogging is good but..... At the blogging end, I now blog to keep readers entertained and educated. Hopefully they learn something from my mistakes and experiences. Blogging is good but it takes up a lot of my personal time.

The picture above depicts slaves taking the route from Africa to Americas during the slave trade. Sometimes, I feel like I am on this ship not knowing where I am going and what the future holds for me.

Perhaps I am at the start of my mid-life crisis...

No Such Thing as a Happy Peak Hour Bus Ride

I took the bus during peak hour today. It was around seven pm.

The bus was already quite packed when I first got on. I was literally at the front door holding on for my dear life.

The bus captain however decided that more passengers could still get on at the next bus stop. I found myself squashed like a sardine with the rest of the passengers and had to hold on the frame of an advertisement as I could not get my hand on any hand rail or stuff.

The whole journey was unpleasant to say the least. The bus was totally packed and the bus captain still made sure that all passengers got on board at every stop.

I could not help but laugh when I got off the bus and saw the advert at the exit door reminding passengers to tap off. The "passengers"/ models in the advertisement all looked so happy.

I looked around the entire bus and saw only grumpy faces all around me.

How ironical!