GST hikes

Today is July 1st. What is so special about July 1st? It is the first day whereby GST (Goods & Consumer Tax) is officially increased from the 5% to 7%. In fact months before July 1st, some of the items for instance the price of coffee has already been raised by additional 20 cents! Never mind what other’s say, the cost of almost everything seems to be on the hike. Transportation cost has increased multiple folds. I have to top up my EZLink card more frequently and mind you, the SMRT business profit has increased despite the fact that the company has reported that it has spend more to upgrade its bus and train fleets. Furthermore public transport is not supposed to operate based on profit basis. How does SMRT keep up with maintaining the profits despite the increasing expenditure? Well it’s simple, by increasing the bus and train fares.

Singapore has overtaken New York in terms of being the more expensive city to live in.
It is not something I am proud of by the way, to live in a city that is rank top in terms of cost of living. We used to hear about how Singapore has achieved world-class standards in terms of transportation, health care and education. Are we really and truly living a in a world-class city with regards to this? I doubt so.

One of my friends works in a local computer IT company mentioned that her company is currently engaged by SMRT to develop a GPS system to track the SMRT bus fleets while on the road. It is hope that such systems would result in a more accurate and timely manner for projecting bus arrival and departure time. Trial runs were being conducted in and around the Changi International Airport vicinity.

There are proposal to install display panels on some of the bus stops to indicate the arrival time of the next bus. Commuters would know when the next bus arrival time. All this seems pretty cool; I bet the bus fare is going to rise once they start to implement this system though. Just the other (yesterday evening to be exact) I had to wait for almost 40 minutes to catch the bus service 911 from Woodlands Regional Interchange to my home in Woodlands Street 82, so much so for world class transport and high tech vehicle tracking system.

Good mutual fund

For those who are interested to invest in mutual funds, here’s the link to a great mutual fund company which is rated one of the best in the world. Check it out at http://oakmark.com
Cheers!

Is it too much or too little information?

Have it ever occur to you sometimes we don’t act on something or we are afraid to act on something simply not because we don’t have the necessary information to make the appropriate decision but rather we have too much information and hence became confuse and do not know what to do?

Just consider the stock market pickers up there. Go to any bookshop and you will find dozens of those selves proclaim gurus publishing self-improvement books proclaiming on how to become the best stock traders. Newbie in stock trading would have become confuse with all the different techniques pertaining to stock trading.

The same goes for those books on how to become rich or how to become the best Internet marketers. At the end of the day it up to us to filter out those tons of information and to pick up those ideas, techniques or advice that best suits our risk appetites and expectations. What works for you may not work for another person though? As the saying goes, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. There is nothing wrong with gathering information before we decide the next course of actions. However we ought to set a limit as to how much information is considered enough and to act on it thereafter. A good analogy would be that of reading and gathering as much information regarding computer programming but missing the point of not actually getting ourselves with the actual hands on such as writing a program and seeing it runs on the computer.

In summary, set a date as to when, how long and how much you wish to gather the information of interest and after that set another timeline to act on it. As you carry out your objective, in most circumstances you will know deep down inside you if the information you have thus far gathered is adequate or if you need further information to fill the gaps. If you feel that you need further information to proceed, set a new timeline as to how much and how long you will spend on the information gathering process and a new time to act on it. By doing so you will not fall into the trap of experiencing the fear of too much information and not knowing how to act on it.

What is hard work?

There is a general misconception that rich people do not need to work as hard as ordinary folks because they have money. This is far from the truth. As a matter of fact, many rich people work as hard if not twice harder than the ordinary folks who live on day-by-day basis. Donald Trump, the multi billionaire once wrote that he sleeps less than 3 hours daily because there is just so much to learn and to do with regards to expanding his business empire. Donald Trump is a prolific reader who would spend much of his time to read as much as he could. That billionaire Manhattan business mogul understands that knowledge is power. How many of us could boast ourselves with regards to spending time to improve ourselves intellectually as compare to him? The way I see it, most of us ordinary folks prefer to idle away our time in canteen gossiping and talking about others.
There are those who would rather leave it to fate and luck to become rich. Just take a look at the crowds that gathers to try their luck with 4D and Toto bets. It is funny though that there are people who would rather spend time to queue up to buy lottery tickets rather than to pick up a book to improve oneself.

On a footnote I am afraid that the rich dad poor dad author does the general public and readers a disservice. His concept and idea that we should not trade time and effort for money earn is rather misleading. Robert Kiyosaki should have clearly point out that hard work alone cannot guarantee us success in life. We should work smart. Instead that fellow goes beating around the bush in his rich dad poor dad book that we should learn to take risks and all the nonsense how he became one of the most successful real estate agent in the world! I bet if here were born in Singapore he would probably become another statistic of the ordinary folks.!There are those who prefer to bury themselves in their work and claimed they have done their best but just that luck or fate is not on their side. How silly of these people! As the saying

If only

If only I possess the skill and education…
If only I have the money…
If only I am not married and have no family.
If only I come from a rich family.
If only I am much younger..
If only I am half as smart as he or she..

Does the list above of ‘if only’ sounds familiar to you? I am sure at one time or another one of these ‘if only’ comes to our mind. Somehow I feel that the ‘if only’ is as good as useless and unproductive thinking since it does not help us to solve whatever problems and challenges we face in life. The ‘if only’ thoughts serves more as an excuse and easy way out for us to lament the problems and challenges in life.
We cannot change the past. Having thoughts of the ‘if only’ cannot change what that has occurred in life nor does it help to address the reality in life.
We must take concrete steps and measures to address all problems in life instead of indulging in self-pity. Yes, it is human nature to lament over problems we faced in life and to envy others. At the end of day, having said thought of all the ‘if only’, no one can help us if we do not help ourselves. So the next time if we feel being inclined to or having thoughts of ‘if only’ why not switches off our negative thoughts and re-enforce our positive thoughts, not of trying to change the past, instead to learn from the past, to learn from our mistakes and to face the future with confidence, knowing that success is not the destination but part of the journey.

Doing what you know best versus knowing what you do

Most of us are contented with doing what we know best. Most of us are do not like change to our life style, be it work or personal social life. Subconsciously and deep down in our hearts, we are resistant to change. Most of us are afraid that change in our life, in particular with regards to the nature of our job would displace us from our comfort zones.
There is an ancient Chinese saying that if we love our job we don’t need to work a single day. However on the other end of the spectrum it also make sense that at times doing what we love and what we know best may not be to the best of our interest. I once work in a disk drive company for close to eight years simply because I love my job. As years passed, I realize those who left the company ahead of me has gone to make it big in other companies whereas I continue to remain in the same position for the past six years.

Some of the successful people, in particular those who achieve financial wealth can testify to the fact that sudden and unexpected twist of events, at times due to company lay off or unforeseen events force them to rethink their priorities and strategy to coping with financial responsibilities. Some of these financially successful people who would never have make it big time should they continue to work in their previous company. Change of environment and new challenges brings forth new opportunities for those who dare and game enough to seize it. The rich people knows what needs to be done to achieve their financial goals, it may not be something they love to do, the middle class do only the things they know best and always afraid to consider and venture into new opportunities.
Therefore, I say that even though it is important for us to do things that interest us and which we appreciate, we should never lose sight of the bigger picture, bigger opportunities that may come along our way only once in our life time, in which at times we may have give up doing the things that we love and know best.