What is Your Per Hour Rate?

I used to be obsessed in the past with calculating my per hour wages. This was simply calculated by taking one's gross salary divided by no. of hours worked in a month.

Per hour wage = Gross salary / No. of hours worked in a month.

Of course, the person who had the highest per hour wage had the biggest boasting rights. Afterall, he or she is "valued" more highly by society based on an hour's work compared to the normal worker.

In the past, I used to work close to 9 hours per day. That worked out to 45 hours per week and 180 hours per month. Based on my pay, that worked out to roughly $27 per hour. The only way to increase my hourly pay was to work less. That meant going to work later or leaving office earlier. Of course that did not go down well with my work ethics and I refused to do that. But when confronted with the cold hard facts, I realised that there was no other way to increase my pay per hour unless I got a pay raise or promotion. I was limited by the fixed pay concept.

Right now, I realised that one can actually earn a much higher hourly wage if you are doing your own business. Not all hours are created equal. Some people can earn an hourly wage of $50 to $80 dollars per hour. Others can even charge as high as $300 per hour!

I looked through the classifieds the other day and realised that some workmen or carpenters were charging easily $50 for changing faulty cabinets and stuff. That means that in one day, all they have to do is to fix 4 cabinets and they could easily earn $4000 per month! And if you have seen them change cabinet doors before, you know that it is a pretty simple task that could be completed in less than an hour.

What is your hourly wage? Are you limited by a fixed pay and thus unable to increase your pay?

Aceing the Job Interview

If only job interviews were as easy as the cartoon that I have pasted below....

How does one ace a job interview? Are there any tricks or tips that are worth noting?

I noticed that favorite questions by interviewers are always this:

1. Why did you leave your last job or Why do you want to leave your current job?
2. Why do you want this job or this position in our company?

I really wonder what is the use of such questions. What kind of answers do they want to hear?

FAQ about SgFinancialFreedom

Here are some frequently asked questions about sgfinancialfreedom:

Q: How do you compute your networth?
A: I compute my networth by adding my family's assets subtracted by liabilities. Assets include items like house, car, bank deposits, stocks, insurance moneys while liabilities include things like housing loan, car loan and other outstanding debts.

Q: Are you financially free?
A: No.

Q: How old are you?
A: 28 years old

Q: Did you serve National Service in Singapore?
A: Yes, I did.

Q: How much do you earn from adsense/blogging?
A: I earn an average of $30 to $60 per month

Q: How do I contact you?
A: The best method to contact me is to leave a comment on my most recent posts. You can also email me at sgfinancialfreedom@gmail.com

Q: How much passive income do you earn per month?
A: Not enough....around $400 per month.

Q: What do you work as?
A: I don't know.

Q: What do you mean you don't know?
A: I am doing so many things now that I don't really know what I am working as. Many sources of income but each source of income is very small.

Q: Why do people read this blog?
A: Beats me... But 1,500 UNIQUE readers visit this site every month. I do not know what they find interesting about this site. I wish they would tell me at times.

Q: Why did you start blogging?
A: I started to blog so as to keep an online journal of my journey. It gives me an avenue to rant my feelings, thoughts and stuff. Besides, I earn a little pocket money from it too.

Q: I have a blog named XXXX too. Want to exchange links?
A: You can place a link to my blog. My link exchange policy is to link only to blogs that are 6 months and older. Too many new blogs have come to this site asking for a link exchange. It causes me a lot of maintenance problems to find out which sites are still being updated. 6 months is a good time frame for me to judge whether you are a serious blogger or website owner. Please don't get me wrong. I am very willing to exchange links. Just prove to me that you can keep a site updated for more than 6 months first then contact me again. If you have a blog that is less than 6 months but seriously wish to have a link to your site, you can do the following:

1. Offer to write a guest post on this site with a link to your site.
2. Write a really good post and let me know. If it is good, I might link to you in one of my postings.

Monthly Expenditure and Cost of Living

As I was walking to the nearby coffeeshop to get my breakfast today, I could not help but wonder how much my expenditure has increased over the years.

As a primary school student, I was only given like $5 to $10 pocket money per week.

In secondary school, that was increased to $50 per week.

In junior college, the amount rocketed to around $80 per week.

I was so-called "financially independent" from my parents after JC and paid for my way through university. My expenditure per week then amounted to around $150 to $200 per week.

Today, without doing anything...my expenditure is easily $700-800 per week because of all my loans, bills and stuff.

So I was thinking to myself....AMAZING!! My expenditure has increased by so much over the years.

THEN I CAME TO THIS SUDDEN REALISATION....

Actually, my expenditure has not increased dramatically.

What happened was that my parents were footing the bills for me in primary school. The things that I used and enjoyed, like a roof over my head and food on the table were actually costs that were borne by my parents. I was only thinking of the money that I spent in terms of pocket money but failed to realise that my parents were actually paying a much higher cost for all my other miscellaneous expenses.

The only conclusion I have come to is this : The cost of living in Singapore is really high.

One generation pays for the next generation and the next generation pays the bills for the next-next generation. When it comes to the time for them to retire, parents who do not have enough retirement money (because they have spent it all on their children) will look to their children for support. By then, their children themselves will already have children of their own and will have no choice but to shoulder the burden of feeding three generations (their parents, themselves and their children).

How to retire in Singapore?

The World is Flat

I have been reading The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman the past few months. It seems like I just cannot complete reading it. Too many distractions in life and too may things that crop up whenever I pick up the book to read.

There are 635 pages and I am only at page 207 now. Because of my start-stop start-stop reading habit, I often forget what I have read before that and have to go back to reading the previous portion again.

Anyway, Thomas Friedman suggests that the world is flat and the flattening of the world is enabled by certain flatteners. These flattening forces worked together to create an almost flat world where people are interconnected together.

Lately, I experienced this flattening of the world personally. Here is my story:

I was trying to set up a wireless network at my place. After fiddling with it for sometime, I had no choice but to call the help line from the router company. I was directed to a call center that I believe is located in the Philippines!

After giving verbal instructions for close to half and hour, the operator decided that the problem was not being solved and directed to me to hand over control of my computer to him for him to fix it. Wow! So there was I sitting in my living room while I watched the mouse cursor moving all around the screen as the operator from Philippines gave an account of what he was doing to fix it.

The problem was fixed in the end and I can only say that I am amazed at how flat our world is today. Years ago, the solution would have been for a technician to come down to my place personally to settle the problem. Today, everything can be done online. Even the person fixing the computer can connect to your computer online. Simply AMAZING!

I can only concur with Thomas Friedman. The World today is indeed flat. Very FLAT indeed.

My View on the Jack Neo Scandal

I give my view on the Jack Neo scandal firstly as a Christian, secondly as a man, thirdly as a married person and lastly as a father.


Firstly, I must say that as a Christian, I do not condone adultery. Adultery is wrong. However, I do not know the reason why a person's religion should be brought into light when he has committed an offence. Is a Christian supposed to be more holy than a normal person? I doubt so. As a Christian, I believe that I am the worst sinner on earth. That is the reason why I am a Christian. I need a savior because I cannot become good by my own will or works. After becoming a Christian, there should be a change in the person's life. Yet, the bible tells we will still struggle with our flesh. And at the end of every defeat, every succumbing to sin, I become more aware of my need for a savior.


Secondly, as a man, I must say that we are open to all sorts of temptation. Think about Tiger woods, John Terry, etc, etc. Every man can fall into the danger of adultery especially when he has risen in terms of stature, power and wealth. It is easy to stand at the sidelines and say we will never do the thing that Jack Neo has done. It is quite another to actually go through it and say NO. As a man, I can understand the temptations tthat exists. Every day is a battle and I would rather not cast stones at those who have fallen. Instead, I can relate to why they have fallen. We men, are only human. Is Jack Neo a worse human being than me? Definitely not.


Thirdly, as a married person, I would like to think that marriage vows are important. We swear to be faithful to our partners and I intend to honor those vows. Yet, we all know that marriage does not automatically transform a man (whatever his religion may be) into a person who cannot face temptation.


Lastly, as a father, I would say that Jack Neo was wrong in the sense that his actions have caused much grief to his children. Again....I think that a father at the end of the day is still a human being. Is a man less likely to do wrong because he is a father? I don't think so.


The truth of the matter is this: As humans, we all make mistakes. Some mistakes are big, some are small. Some go unnoticed, some become published for the whole world to see. The most important thing after making a mistake is to realise our mistake and confess it. That is what Jack Neo has done and I admire his courage. If it were me, I would have flown away to hide in some foreign country instead of having a press conference.


The way the media has lashed out at Jack Neo makes me feel sad for him and his family. A mistake is a mistake.


Jesus when confronted by some religous leaders who had brought an adulteress to him to be judged said this:


"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

Time to Buy a Car?

With the recent announcement last Thursday that the number of COE available in Singapore will drop sharply, is it time to buy a car?

Afterall, if a person has $50,000 in spare cash now, he could easily afford a Jap car. After the rise in COE prices, he might not be able to afford the same car one or two years down the road.

The Straits Times reported that Singaporeans are most probably still not in a hurry to buy cars before the rise in COE prices as most will probably adopt a wait-and-see attitude.

The rush to buy cars will take place once people see that COE prices keep increasing. That is when the panic will set in.

Are you planning to buy a car in the near future? It might be wise to actually bring forward your decision now before COE prices rise.