About this blog

I am writing this blog to:
1) Journal my way to financial freedom for my family and me in Singapore.
2) Share my financial knowledge and wealth management in an easy to understand way.
3) To plan for retirement.
I am using a picture of flying dove to symboize lifelong freedom.

Motivation in writing articles in this blog
I have been talking with people around me and I have discovered three things that normal people want:
1) To get out of poverty
2) To get out of the rat race
3) To get wealthy

I also discovered three problems that normal people face:
1) Not earning enough
2) Zero or little financial knowledge
3) No control over spending

Currently many people including young professionals are buying lottery like 4D or Toto. They wish that they can strike lottery so as to solve their financial problem. However this is not a good way to solve the problem as only a few people are that lucky to strike the amount that they no longer need to work any more.

My purpose for this blog
My purpose is to write articles on how to solve financial problems that people are facing, and how to gather wealth slowly in order to gain financial freedom. Remember, it is never too young or too old to learn all these practical knowledge which are not commonly taught in school.

I have created another blog for my investment portfolio

As my current blog is a bit messy, I have decided to create another blog for my investment portfolio. Please feel free to visit it @ http://myinvestmentportfolioinsingapore.blogspot.com/

Vicious cycle of being lazy

If you are lazy, more likely you will be in the vicious cycle as shown above.

Spend more money for convenience
When you are lazy, you tend to spend more money for convenience. For example you may cab/taxi instead of bus/mrt, buying food nearby at a premium price for the sake of convenience.

Work more to earn more money
After spending unnecessary money, you may need to work more to earn more money to pay for your convenience.

Feeling tired after working long hours
Since you are working for long hours, you tend to feel very tired after work.

Become lazy
Since you are tired, you tend to be lazy again.

I have created a new blog "Saving money in Singapore"

I have created a new blog titled "Saving money in Singapore". The objective of this newly created blog is to share tips on how to save money in Singapore.

The blog url is http://savingmoneyinsingapore.blogspot.com/

Feel free to visit and comment.

Personal Happiness Index

I always wanting to find a way to measure happiness of an individual. After some brain storming, I have come out with a simple formula shown below.

First, we must list out all the events that you will do for a month.

For example.
Working
Entertaining
Sleeping
Relaxing

Second, for each event, we have to state the value for the degree of happiness. The value is range between -1 to 1.
-1 means you are very unhappy when doing the event.
-0.5, you are unhappy when doing the event.
0 mean you are neutral when doing the event.
0.5 mean you are happy when doing the event.
1 mean you are very happy when doing the event.

For example:
Working (-0.2)
Entertaining (0.5)
Sleeping (0.3) (Value can be negative, if you always cannot sleep well due to some reasons)
Relaxing (0.5)

Third, we must know the total duration in minutes for each event done per month.
For example:
Working (14400min)
Entertaining (7200min)
Sleeping (14400min)
Relaxing (7200min)

Four, we will use the below formula to find out the happiness in each Event.
Happiness in each Event = Degree of Happiness X Time Duration

Working (-0.2) x (14400) = -2880
Entertaining (0.5) x (7200) = 3600
Sleeping (0.3) x(14400) = 4320
Relaxing (0.5) x (7200) = 3600

Lastly we will use the below formula to calculate the Personal Happiness Index.
Personal Happiness Index = sum of happiness in all event / 43200 min.

If the index is -1, mean you are very unhappy.
If the index is 0, mean you are neutral
If the index is 1, mean you are very happy

For example:
Happiness Index = (-2880 + 3600 + 4320 + 3600)/43200 = 0.2
0.2 means slightly happy.

Upgraded my computer from Windows Vista to Windows 7

I have just upgrade one of my old laptop from Windows Vista to Windows 7. It is amazing that the performance has greatly improved. I don't feel lag any more when I using the old laptop. To play safe, I will use it for a few month first before upgrading my the other laptop.

Looking for new blog template

I personally feel that my blog is ugly. I will try to find a better design template for my blog.

Two of my favourite idols

They are Sun Tzu(left) and Zhu Ge Liang(right). Both are them are strategist in the past. You may google them if you interested in their stories. They are my favorite idols due to the fact that they are able to predict accurately what will happen before a war. With this abilities, they are able to counteract their enemies by surprise.

Sun Tzu said "if you know your enemies and know yourself well, you are able to win a hundred battles." What he meant is if you don't know yourself and don't know the enemies well there is not point in fighting as the result is unpredictable. He also suggested that the best outcome in a war is to win without even fighting. He did not see the point of losing a lot of man or resources just to win a war. Reducing the number of casualties is his utimate aim in every war.

Other than just a strategist, Zhu Ge Liang was also an inventor at his times. He invented an automatic car to transport grain and a special cross bow which enable multiple shoots at one time. These inventions gave him the advantage in the war, which effectively crushing his enemies.

I am trying to learn from them and apply the tactic in order to achieve my lifelong freedom aim. One thing that I have learned from Sun Tzu is to learn my strength and weakness. One thing that i have learned from Zhu Ge Liang is learn and apply new knowledge. Stick to the same method all the time will eventually lead to failure.

World Richest Man

Taken from http://www.forbes.com. Here are the top 20 richest man.
William Gates III (Bill Gates)
Warren Buffett
Carlos Slim Helú
Lawrence Ellison
Ingvar Kamprad
Karl Albrecht
Mukesh Ambani
Lakshmi Mittal
Theo Albrecht
Amancio Ortega
Jim Walton
Alice Walton
Christy Walton
S Robson Walton
Bernard Arnault
Li Ka-shing
Michael Bloomberg
Stefan Persson
Charles Koch
David Koch

The link is here http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/11/worlds-richest-people-billionaires-2009-billionaires_land.html