Kusu Islands revisited... 29 Oct 09

It's the annual Kusu Island Pilgrimage 2009 and since I am currently jobless and nothing to do in the day, I asked Ruilong along to the island. We met at about 4pm at Marina Bay MRT Station and took a bus to Marina South Pier where the ferry is. Once we arrived at the pier, we bought our tickets at the booth and went onboard the ferry.

The ferry left shortly after we went onboard and headed for Kusu Island. It was just a short fifteen to twenty minutes ride and we arrived. Kusu Island, also known as tortise island or formally as Pulau Tembakul, it's a small island with two lagoon and a chinese temple as well as a malay shrine.

After entering the island, we went to the temple and bought the offering and prayed. After that, we walked around the island and experience the changes it had went through after so many years. Like I mentioned, it's Kusu Island revisited... The last time I visited the island was like 20 over years ago, when I was still very young.

If I had not remembered wrongly, I actually stood on this statue for picture before when I was young. Wonder if I am ever able to find that picture again...

We went over to the tortise santuary and used the left over vegetables to feed the tortise... There were so many of them, some in the pond while some it the tortise shelter.

We continued walking around the island and took some pictures. We went to the Malay Shrine and had some drink at the food centre before taking the ferry back to mainland.

After reaching back at Marina South Pier, we took a bus out to Tanjong Pagar MRT Station and travelled back to the east and had our dinner at Bedok Market Block 85 before proceeding home.

Lawrence Sim Belated Birthday Celebration

Lawrence Sim's birthday falls on 21 Oct 2009. His event staff, Carol Ho and one of the boater, Eric Cheong jointly organised this kelong get together trip for him. We met at SAFYC Sembawang Clubhouse on 24 Oct 09 to take a ride on Eric Cheong boat to the kelong.

Once everyone arrived, or rather the maximum capacity of the boat was reached, we set off to the kelong with the first batch onboard. Eric and myself came back to the Clubhouse immediately after dropping the first batch at the kelong to ferry more guests over to the kelong, including Mr Sim.

Once everyone had arrived, we started BBQ all the good food we had brought along as well as the freshest seafood you can ever find, provided by the kelong.

Oysters and Mussels fresh from the kelong...

Half way through the BBQ session, it was the kelong harvest time, the net was hauled up and everyone crowd around to see what prize it's going to bring up....

The BBQ session continues after that and knowing that it was Lawrence Sim's birthday recently, the biggest catch was presented to him.

More boaters came along to the kelong for the BBQ while the first group who had eaten their fill, roam around the kelong and interact with each other. After the second group had taken their fair share of food, it's the singing of birthday song and cutting of cake for Lawrence.

After the cake cutting and having a taste of the delicious cake, some went back to mainland and went home, while the rest stayed on and chat and played mahjong till the next morning... ;p

It is something different that I had never experience before, simple kelong yet so much to explore and experience. I wouldn't mind going back to the kelong in future and spend another peaceful day on it...

FOREX end-of-week Summary (19-23 Oct 09)

I had a wonderful week trading, especially the last few trades I selected. Account growth - 27%.

Next week onwards, it would be a test for me to go through discipline and to cultivate the trader's mind. Since I am out-of-job and without income, I will have to rely on my trading income. I was told that as full time trader, they do not have monthly income and they trade to make money not to create monthly income. I guess I have to make a difference here and decide how to go about it to have the best of both world. I understand the reason behind not having a monthly income but in this realistic world there are times where you have no choice. With discipline and a strong mind, I'm sure a difference can be made. Good Luck!!! ;p

FOREX end-of-week update (12-16 Oct 09)

Closed a few trades in the beginning of the week in the negative. These were brought over from last week trade. Using the longer term trading method, took a few trades and at the same time deployed short term trading method and traded intraday. Overall result for the week is positive. ;p

Overcoming Yourself...

I read this on facebook and thought I duplicate it here for all to read and get enlighten... ;p The original posting can be found here.

“You are who you think you are”… this is very true in every aspect of that statement. It is not difficult to see that we are often our biggest obstacle… not the problem itself… not the people around us… not fate… not destiny… In every situation (even in the worst), there is always a brighter side of things… a positive side that we can focus on…

So how do we move from a state of helplessness to a state of empowerment? How do we overcome those negative thoughts that are distracting you and keeping you from moving ahead? How do we overcome ourselves?

When something bad happens (and I can tell you.. bad things will ALWAYS happen), there are two ways that we can respond to it... react negatively to it… or react positively to it… We all know the consequence of our negative response and the need to respond positively. Then why it is easier said than done? Is responding positively really so difficult?

Honestly, there may be a million answers why humans respond negatively when they know that they shouldn’t. I’m sure I can write a quite an endless list of it but why would I want to do that? Do you see where I’m heading? I mean why spend good energy & efforts to try to measure something that will give you an undesirable outcome anyway? Isn’t that unproductive? Why don’t we focus on the positive thoughts? But how to do that when negative thoughts keep popping up before you? (familiar?)

Here’s how I do it. I saw a joke about a problem solving flowchart and I thought to myself that the answer could be in a simple flowchart below:-

Well, if you’re the sort that screams… “but… but”… GET REAL… GET DECISIVE… In life, there are not but’s.. I mean, seriously,… if you cannot solve the problem and nothing can be done about it, then dwelling on it or feeling lousy about it (till the cows come home) ain’t gonna help either. Discard those contemplating negative thoughts immediately before they consume you.

And if you’re the type that goes… “what if this”… “what if that”…. Try using “so what if” and “so what are you doing about it?” instead… For example:

“So what if I have cancer? What am I gonna do about it?”…

“So what if I’m a bankrupt? What am I gonna do about it?”…

“So what if I’m gonna die tomorrow? What am I gonna do about it?”…

You see, it is not “what if I’m gonna die tomorrow” that will matter… it is what you decide to do AFTER you make that statement “so what?”…

“So what if I’m gonna die tomorrow? I still have now till tomorrow to be happy?” THAT… my friends… is what makes the difference… Instead of sulking your way to your grave, won’t one be better off enjoying whatever one has left till then..

In this perspective, the problem don’t matter anymore. Since you cannot do anything to change the destination, you can always choose how you wanna get there, can’t you?

FOREX end-of-week Summary (5-9 Oct 09)

It had been an exciting week for me; monitoring, deciding, watching and finally taking the trade. This is only yet another week of result, but I can feel that I am more confident and more experience in selecting trade opportunities. Out of all the trades that I took, roughly more than half are positive trade. From the graph above, 3 trades were losing trade and the last losing trade bring me back to a new low for my account. I called that a greedy trade, I was already gaining 15% on that day and had told myself there's no more requirement to take any more trade and can rest early that night. Well, I looked at the chart and took LONG on GBPUSD, mistake! Chart and indicators showed that the reason for my trade was not wrong, but reading the report on actionforex tells me that it was already near the top and price movement would weaken and start to come down. Took the losing trade and hit my SL at 150 pips. Continued looking for opportunities and successfully took 4 winning trades to reduce the 150 pips lost. Due to market closing, I was not able to hold on further to breakeven my losses, but in any case, it's still a overall gain for this week. ;p

Something to share - Retiring without tears

This article was published in The Straits Times on 2 Aug 2009. Someone emailed it to me and I find it enriching and valuable, hence I decided to quoted it here to share with readers of this blog. The 8 key considerations when planning your retirement nest as mentioned in the articles are summarise here for your convenience:-

1. Retirement age
2. Years of retirement
3. Retirment lifestyle
4. Inflation
5. Financial commitments
6. Medical expenses
7. Leaving a legacy
8. Existing assests and post-retirement income

The article is as attached below

Aug 2, 2009

Retiring without tears

What you need to factor in when doing your retirement sums
By Lorna Tan

More Singaporeans are facing the grim reality of retiring later or having to lower their lifestyle expectations when they do retire. This is partly because they fail to plan early for their retirement, if at all. Recent surveys on retirement have indicated that the majority of people are unprepared for retirement. An annual Future of Retirement study from HSBC - It's Time To Prepare - has found that an alarming 91 per cent of Singaporeans do not have any idea what their retirement income would be, and only 9 per cent are prepared for this phase of life.

In addition, while 39 per cent feel that they understand their short-term finances very well, only 23 per cent can say the same about their long-term finances. Said Mr Sebastian Arcuri, HSBC Singapore's head of personal financial services: 'The lack of understanding and knowledge of long-term financial milestones like retirement could be intensified by the current economic downturn, which may have led more Singaporeans to divert their attention to short-term survival needs instead of their long-term goals.'

Last month, HSBC launched a free retirement planning service for its mass affluent customers who have at least $200,000 with the bank. To improve your prospects of a comfortable retirement, you cannot afford to delay reviewing your retirement nest egg. Here are some considerations.

1 Retirement age

For a start, it is important to determine at just what age you hope to retire in order to work towards retirement goals, said Mr Ho Kien Hung, a manager at Alpha Financial Advisers. The earlier a person does this, the more time he has to plan, and to resolve any hiccups along the way. Failing to plan for a specific retirement age may result in a person procrastinating over his retirement plans and ending up with not enough savings to retire comfortably, or having to continue working even after reaching the desired retirement age.

2 Years of retirement

This refers to the length of time that you require your retirement funds to last. Of course, to some extent, this is in the lap of the gods. But based on current statistics and the retirement age of 62, most Singaporeans can expect to live a further 20 to 30 years after retirement. According to statistics from the 2008 World Population Data Sheet, the life expectancy is 78 for Singapore males and 83 for females. You should also take your family's medical history into account. Given advances in medical science, people are living longer and it would be wise to make provisions for additional years of retirement, said Mr Arcuri. Mr Darren Lim, 78, wished he had done all this. When he retired from his job as a tennis coach at 60, he never thought he would live past 70. By the time he was 70, he had used up his retirement nest egg and is now depending on his son for monthly cash handouts.

3 Retirement lifestyle

A comfortable retirement means different things to different people. Your expectations of just what a comfortable retirement will look like affects how much you need to set aside for your nest egg, said Mr Arcuri. For instance, if you plan to travel around the world when you retire, you are likely to need more income than someone content to pursue hobbies and activities that are easier on the pocket. The choice of which country to reside in is also a consideration, as the cost of living in some neighbouring countries is much lower than in Singapore.

Here are some questions you could ask yourself. Do you still plan to work? Do you plan to go for an annual holiday? Would you consider downgrading to a smaller car or even switching to public transport?

Such retirement lifestyle requirements would help to determine the bare minimum sum one needs for a retirement nest egg, said Mr Albert Lam, investment director at IPP Financial Advisers.

4 Inflation

You cannot ignore the impact of inflation, which is the increase in the general price level of goods and services. This is because inflation adversely affects the purchasing power of your money. For example, based on an average annual inflation rate of 3 per cent, $1,000 today would be worth only $642 in today's terms in 15 years' time. As a result, a retirement income that is enough to sustain you in your first year of retirement may be insufficient by the 10th year, said Mr Arcuri.

5 Financial commitments

Consider what your likely monetary commitments in retirement are. With more people marrying and starting a family later, you need to consider whether your house would be fully paid off by the time you retire, and whether you still need
to support your children in their studies, said Mr Ho. Other dependants may include aged parents, said Mr Arcuri. If so, you would need to ensure that your retirement income also caters to their needs.

6 Medical expenses

Studies have shown that medical expenses are substantially higher in the last years of life. As they have the potential to put a major dent in your financial security, medical insurance plans that can take care of health-care related expenses should be considered. Mr Christopher Tan, chief executive of wealth management firm Providend, says that when working out your retirement income, take into account the premiums of medical plans and other insurance policies that you still need to pay beyond your working years.

7 Leaving a legacy

Be it a desire to leave an inheritance to the next generation or a charitable bequest, your legacy plans would also determine how your retirement portfolio is structured. In either case, a portion or all the capital has to be left untouched, said Mr Arcuri. Hence, you would need to make provisions to ensure that the earmarked assets would not be drawn down to fund your retirement.

8 Existing assets and post-retirement income

When working out your retirement income needs, consider your existing assets as well as future income streams. For instance, you can project the values of assets, like your Central Provident Fund savings, insurance policies, unit trusts, bonds, shares, properties and even antiques, till retirement, said Mr Ho.

You may also receive post-retirement income in the form of pensions, annuities or property rentals.

lorna@sph.com.sg

Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement & Condition of Access

FOREX end-of-week Summary (28 Sep-2 Oct 09)