like there's no one you know actually controlling the movement of the boat it is really just reliant or dependent on the wind and the high current, so it is really super scary I really thought that we are died because we are really just a small small carter small boat in the middle of nowhere and just went into a storm so yeah it was really very scary ya


then, [orh]


cause recently I started investing so I'm very scared that you know the money that I put in because it just doesn't only consist of my money cause my I also my father also give me some money to put in because he thinks that


like you know having a accounting degree I'll be more or less able to uh read and analyse the company itself so like you know with the COVID and, you know things are markets are just really very volatile and you don't there was a stock market crash on twenty third of march


but honestly uh we I don't really know what cause it to drop because more or less this stock prices are uh determined by investors sentiments on the economy so like you know suddenly it just crash and it's really very scary lah because like you know


your stocks could be worth a few thousand dollars or maybe a few tens of thousand and suddenly just off like you just wake up the next day and it just crashed to like few tens on dollars and now it is scary because recently like like you know despite this COVID nineteen


the share price of apple google everything suddenly skyrocketed to pre COVID level so and now you see the cases US are having daily record highs every day so currently I have about twenty K inside my stocks what will happen really I really


am afraid that you know it just have a second crashed again lah because now , despite the five hundred companies in US like the general trend is going up however this trend is mainly contributed by the top five technological company the rest of the company's are actually declining and I've read reports that say this


trend right that the markets currently facing is the same as, january to february twenty twenty before the big crash in march so I'm very afraid that, my twenty K will hit zero and I'm the worst thing is that it is not my own money it consists of my parent's money so I'm very scared of this ya


and, ya lor so I very worried


, but do you feel like you know with this uh COVID thing right know when like more companies are adopting worked from home like you know at the start like it seems to be a really good thing whereby you know there's no need to travel here and there but do you feel that because you have started working mah like do you feel that


it actually blurs the line between work in life then you find like you are, working more do you feel that way


boring , (mmhmm) because for me


for me I feel ah like uh because I actually went for uh LOA, uh the last five months and suddenly halfway through right we we started working from home and to me uh the moment when it started when I started working from home my the productivity decrease because like okay I interned at an audit firm so


like you know because we are new mah so I feel that you know work from home is very difficult for the seniors to teach us and it's also very difficult for us to learn things properly because it is just very inefficient like simple things whereby you know normally or normal circumstances you can just, ask your colleague how to do certain things however like now you know we have to do things like share screen you have to like communicate via call via skype so it is just very difficult to transfer knowledge so I feel definitely for new workers like me it might pose as a challenge and it is a worry also ya


part two positive experiences


ya maybe you would like to go first shannon


do you go to three sisters or the blue mountains because I've been there when I was, six when was it after A levels so two thousand fifteen two thousand sixteen when I was sec when I was eighteen yeah I think it was quite nice so did you go like eco point ya


how's the weather though because I remember the other time when I went in december it is pretty hot because I know australia is like the opposite of other parts of the world so I heard that like, may is like the winter season in australia is it true


ya we went to Sydney only like uh I think mainly is like, to like kind of celebrate the end of my A levels and also to visit my aunt who is there, ya because like she migrated there with her husband and ya lor they have been there for I think thirty forty years already so I think it's quite interesting lah like we went there and we see how her life there was like


but actually to be honest it's quite sad because like after her husband pass away she's just living at her home with a cat so ya lor I think, it's very weird lah because like you know in singapore everyone just live so closely together but for people who live overseas right


like no their, like everyone is just are just living at landed properties so like you know their friends also like you if you wanna visit other people you have to drive around maybe you have to drive like forty minutes to the other side of the same city ya so it's it's just very weird lah like to compare singapore to australia ya


but I think, ya lor as what we say like the lifestyle there is definitely more chill ya because I think australia have a much slower pace in life slowest slower pace of life ya australia ya because I think in europe


is also the same thing because I actually went on exchange of I went on exchange during my year three one so actually I went to norway so explored like many parts of europe lah so in general I would say that it is


a really nice place overall because, ya lor because like you know everything just end so early like because when I was in norway it was like the winter season so like you see like, three PM the sky already dark and you know at four PM people are already like you know or boarding the train and going back home so definitely like it's just very chill there as a whole I think it's just how things work


at overseas country because like over here things are so fast pace and I think uh the government or you know just everybody just focus on productivity so you like we just want to get work done so it's definitely very different and I really feel that my time in norway will really very relaxing and chill


ya, ya I think I visited about twenty cities all around but I I feel that my top three would the iceland it's very very nice iceland you you have to go


ha uh, ya second place would be I like London city life I think it's very nice London so London iceland I also been to morocco I think there's really exotic, because like you know europe all around after being there for like four five months I feel that more or less you are just seeing the same thing like old town churches


like it's just the same few thing over and over again but you know having been to iceland is like a totally different place altogether where you get to experience like waterfalls thermal bath uh you also get to see like cave, which are really very nice lah ya mountains


ya and the geyser whereby you know every forty seconds like hot jet of water just shoot out from the underground so it's really cool , then morocco is also really different because europe more or less, they are very develop but morocco is like part of african then where we went there it was like a


it's just something that we haven't seen before it's like very, a rural and undeveloped ya so ya lor we rode, the camels inside the a desert then we stayed there overnight also then we graze under the stars ya so it's really very nice ya


but do you get sick of the korean food because I think exchange you are probably there for like five six months right then you only have like more or less one cuisine to eat


then what's your favourite korean cuisine a korean food


, is it very different like compared to those that are in singapore


, ya


oh ya cause in norway we also spend like most of like we also cook like, most or if not all of our meals there because things in Oslo are really very expensive like I remembered uh we were there like we were there for about five months but definitely we travel around lah but


in Oslo right we only ate out in the city centre once throughout our entire stay there, and like you know that one time like the meal itself was thirty dollars, ya so you imagine like how can I eat those food every single day when I'm there I will definitely be broke ya


so oslo like from there we also learn to cook lah we we have to because things are really expensive, ya so we cook every meal like uh days when we have classes at school right we will actually meal prep beforehand so meal prep the night before then the next day uh during lunchtime we were just microwave the food yeah so this is our routine every day


and it's actually quite a funny in the sense that you know there's also a canteen inside school but we see that the queue for the microwave is actually longer than those at the canteen because yeah it's actually not cheap I mean , ya lah but the food is like twelve dollars but how can I afford a twelve dollar canteen meal every single day the thirty dollar is for like the outside like the city centre


like for a proper restaurant meal lah but outside uh there's this one place which our senior went because ya he went to Oslo and the same university one year before and he said that the most worthy thing is actually a kebab, so ya lor it's actually really cheap lah considering uh how expensive uh things in norway are so the kebab actually cost I think about


uh ten sing dollars but the good thing is that it is very the portion is huge lah so it is quite uh filling, and also right you know before I actually before I been to exchange I actually thought that you know europe portion are actually huge but actually that's not true you know


like I've been to McDonald's in oslo and I feel that the burger is like smaller than those in singapore , ya but looking as as well and like typical restaurants ya however the only exceptions will be there of germany because germany the portions are huge however like if you will to go to europe in the future right yeah there's like you know people will say oh the portions are huge then you maybe you need two person to share I think that's not very true


ya , maybe in the US lah ya but in europe so far uh my experience is just germany the rest the portion is actually pretty normal


then ya I also think ya lah I'm super lucky in the sense that I actually been on exchange last semester because if I were to go one later right which is january twenty twenty to like I think may twenty twenty


I'll be forced to come back earlier so so I think ya lah I'm really lucky in that sense like if not, because you know travel travelling right will definitely book a flight ticket and a accommodations and like activities beforehand


so one of my friend said right because he want one a semester after me so like you know all the trips that he bought advance all the all the tickets for the attraction they can't be refunded so they have to bear all the losses and come back yeah so I've ya lor


and I've this army friend because his uni only started in his his german uni only starts in april but he went there in february so it's really funny cause he went in february he came back in mid march so


so is actually he didn't even attend any lesson in school and he had to fly back, so I think that is also pretty sad lah so, ya ya lor but it's just very sad lah like luckily didn't happen to me because honestly I feel that exchange is the only time it's the only time in my life that you know I will actually have like


all this time to really travel around because next time if I were to start work I'll be restricted by the number of leave that I can apply, ya so I'm thankful I'm really happy that this uh didn't happen during my exchange semester ya if not I will be quite upset


, ya lor oh then I also see a question okay what was the proudest moment of my life okay I think proudest moment of my life was in uni year


year end of year one and start of year two so we me and my friends we participated in this audit accounting challenge and initially like we know we just wanted to go there for like the free food and for the most creative team name


award so but at the end like after the preliminary round my team actually was like one of the top four and we moved on to the case study so we're really taken aback because, like we are only in year one then the


there are many questions during the uh first part of the competition right whereby like you know we totally we didn't learn before so we are honestly quite surprised that we actually moved on, and you know in the end it came in second runner up and even got home eight hundred dollars for the team so I think I'm very proud of that lah but I honestly


my result in school isn't really that good but you know to be able to, to emerge third place out of like hundred over teams uh like island wide it is not just NTU challenge it is like a it's like open for people all uni so I think it's really quite cool and interesting ya so I was really very proud of that


oh legendary accountant , like you know general ledger like this kind of thing ya so I think it's quite cool ah and the fact that you know we managed to kill in the I think that kind of a


uh is one of the reason why I'm able to secure a job, at the big four because the big four was a sponsor of this event so I I think more or less it kind of play a part lah ya so honestly


ya lor I think I'm really very proud of our team then like you know we honestly didn't even we're we're just there for the free food lah ended up like we had to go through everything and even give a presentation in front of an auditorium full of people ya so it's quite cool


ya cause it was totally unexpected so ya then somehow when our team name was flashed as the top four


then all of us were really really happy ya (ppb)


part one financial related topic


eh but if you have to pay sixty dollars a month then like currently you are still in school right then like so how did you afford this or you take it out of your like allowance


I see, eh what what did you say this covers again, oh okay


okay uh for me I also recently just bought like a personal insurance plan like cause I think I started working for, just, under a year and so one of my friends from uni who recently became a financial adviser approached me to sort of look into my insurance portfolio


so I think I bought a plan from him from Great Eastern the plan is actually called, uh supreme early multiplier, so I think this plan is actually a life, life insurance where I, have to pay


premiums for about, uh for twenty years then after that the plan would just be like, sort of something like an endowment plan that builds up a builds up money at at the end of like, six


when I'm sixty five I'm able to, sort of get a lump sum amount out of it, ya so I think this plan is quite good uh in a sense that, it, it's like life insurance and it also covers this early stage critical illness so according to my friend the financial adviser this is actually very important nowadays given that


uh many of the old plans last time they only covered like critical illness in late stages but the newer plans help to cover the early stages of critical illness which are sort of the conditions that people would need, more often because at the early stages you would already need to seek a medical treatment health care and so on and so forth ya so I felt that this plan was quite important and there therefore it's like the first plan that I've bought since I started working


but definitely I would look into buying like more plans to cover more aspects such as like maybe, hospitalisation accident plans but definitely uh, hoping that my income would rise more first before I start to buy more of these ya


I think for me the main reason is uh as what you said like buying the plan later would be more expensive and for this plan, let's say if I buy in five years time I will still have to pay the premiums for twenty years and, these premiums will be higher since my age has increased and ya insurance premiums would be charged based based on age as well so I felt that it's


you it will be good if I started it early to to pay the lower premiums, and of course I think life is unpredictable so whether we get critical illness is ya, maybe the statistics had showed that it's a low chance but I think it's better to be safe than sorry


as for like hospitalisation plans, if I'm not wrong I think my parents actually has uh bought some like CPF related, plans for me so uh there is a certain amount of coverage I believe but obviously would be


better as recommended by my financial adviser to, ya to increase the amount of coverage uh gradually as my income increases


, I think you are talking more about like investment linked policies like IOP for short like, my my opinion on these policies like, so they're basically insurance policies that are have a investment element in it but


I think my opinion is that we shouldn't be mixing lah like our investment with insurance like I think the downside of having such investment linked policies is like let's say if these investments don't do well then, like, I believe the coverage of the policies won't be as good


uh as as it's supposed to be and for like insurance this kind of things uh we would want the coverage to be sort of like guaranteed and to be there because these are for like in cases of emergencies that we cannot predict , then uh one more thing on the term


term life insurance versus the whole life insurance , for me I would prefer to get whole life insurance mainly because it sort of involves a savings element in it, every maybe every month we are paying a certain amount of premiums but in the end this this value of the premiums is actually built up over the years and then we can actually draw out something at the end of it


so it's a form of like, forced savings in a sense so ya


but I think in this sense it's sort of a more like a safer safer avenue, in in the sense that you are like, you are like guaranteed a certain amount of percentage that builds up over time, if you are if you invest the it by yourself it


it does not guarantee that you will make profits over time , uh ya and it sort of maybe it just boils down to how much risk you are willing to take ya, and, ya


I think it's more of uh my friend approaching me cause I think I have actually quite a few friends who have ventured into this uh insurance industry so as as they see people graduating from university they will tend to approach you


err sort of sort of to get some business in that sense ya, uh but for me, I actually relied a lot of my friend to sort of tell me more about the different kinds of policies uh I didn't really research much on my own before that but I think I


uh from like meeting meeting up with him and having uh all these discussions I really learn a lot about the different sorts of plans available , and ya I think it's quite interesting to he to, to, sort of plan my own finances uh with the help of ya my friend who is in this industry


yourself, like , did did like an insurance agent approach you or were you the one who went to seek seek out for these insurance plans


ya I think I agree with you like we must be very discerning with like the sort of insurance plans that we buy because, not a lot of the time we can trust like our, insurance agents cause maybe they like have they just have the motive of like selling to, sort of earn their commission so like I think seeking out various avenues of like maybe different agents to hear their opinions and ya to maybe cross reference between different people would be good


ya in the sense ya so ya so, that's my view on insurance lah ya


yeah actually I also not very sure,


okay, yeah actually personally I feel that, I would still need to research a lot more about like all these insurance we CPF related insurance and like the dependant protection scheme cause I think currently I don't really know much about it yeah perhaps I need to go and find out from my insurance agent the next time we meet


ya cause all these would definitely come into play as we grow older and, ya we would need to like tap on this sort of insurance ya


part three negative experiences


sure


uh I think maybe ya like what you said maybe he doesn't give an opinion sometimes sort of to, follow the crowd in a sense like so he's trying to make the decision easier by not like saying something different or like


suggesting a different place to go when other people want to go to this place because maybe deep down he's really okay going anywhere but ya I think I get what you mean by, someone who doesn't sort of contribute much to like maybe the planning process cause as you said all of you are quite new to this like travelling things and definitely it will help to get


uh more inputs from everyone and, to have everyone like doing their own research on , the different things like travelling around ya


yeah I agree with that I think for my exchange, I won't say I had a similar problem but maybe actually quite quite a different problem in the sense that, maybe too many people had opinions like uh everyone had their own idea of where they wanted to explore and travel uh maybe at different times of our exchange and so the difficult thing was like coming into a compromise to find like the best sort of


the best schedule to to fit everyone's schedule and I think some of the people that I went with were not exactly the most accommodating in that they would be insistent or where they wanted to explore, ya so often a time we had to, give in to these people although it didn't really fit what we wanted to do but at the end of the day I think it's important to sort of


uh, sort of like uh not have conflict and tension amongst your friends especially when you are living together for like a prolonged period of time, if not this might like bill on on like uh the negative experiences and then like if you are constantly arguing it will just make the whole experience uh not as not as fun ya so


, ya so for me like maybe the main learning point for exchange was to maybe like to know your friends well before you go with them like, you don't go with people who you know you cannot really live with for a long period of time cause uh definitely there will be a lot of conflicts and this will just make the whole process like


not very fun ya for both parties and like the other people around you


what what did you mean by that , (ppc)


I think that's a very weird question but , I think it's quite different because like ultimately when you are getting together with somebody you would already sort of have like, sort of have a feeling about the person like whether you


whether you actually like the person that kind of thing but I mean going on exchange is like eh maybe I just living with this, friend for like uh, a few months but you're not say like, uh dedicating your whole life to the person so I think it's quite different lah but I mean ultimately you will get a sense of


the other person like whether they give off negative fights or like they're prone to starting conflicts , ya uh all those are like telling factors to help you decide lah like when choosing your friends to bereave or like choosing your


your life partner which is your question ya, uh ya for you if like the fact that you ask the question maybe you have an opinion on it


okay , what is my greatest fear, , I never really thought about like what is my greatest fear lah but I think one of my most fearful uh


experiences was actually during army, when, I had to jump off uh like a aeroplane , ya cause I was ya actually doing some airborne course and , so this involve us have having to train how to use the parachute into like sort of jump off the plane so you're actually


it's a bad quite a intensive training program that teaches you like uh all the steps involve what to do in case of uh the different kinds of emergencies like, maybe in the air when it if you collides with someone or if like your chute doesn't open in time how to activate the reserve chute so uh personally like


I did have like a fear of heights so this uh enhanced the fear even more like having to do something so scary, but definitely, it was a it was a, I won't say a negative experience but uh quite a


torturous experience had like having to do something that you were so scared of , ya but looking back it was definitely something worthwhile but, uh something I would never try again ya


oh so, oh so actually this boat, this boat was holding like all fifteen of you


then it was like raining and stuff, oh okay


!wah! that sounds very dangerous


uh what oh one question I have is all in this like COVID environment what are some of the worries and anxieties that you face, okay


I see I think, ya for me my main worry is like, , for me my main worry is basically like travelling like cause of like the current environment like we can't travel uh in the near future and yeah and like going on holidays is something that I see is very important especially now when I start work like


most of my colleagues are all just like thinking of food when is the next uh break or vacation that they can, take to sort of have a break from work, and the fact that now like international travel is like sort of uh not allowed unless for like important cases or business travel ya so that's probably something that we can't do in the near future and we probably have to like explore new ways of like


relaxing uh locally in singapore although there's not a lot of things to do lah in, in our small island nation ya


uh ya for me, I actually I've been working from home like since march, ya so working from home definitely makes it like convenient in the in the sense that you can just wake up late and then just start work when you want to, but yeah definitely it blurs the lines in the sense that uh you can be expected to do work at night or even a weekends


ya because you basically have access to uh all your emails and the company's stuff, and so maybe like clients will be more, demanding the sense that yeah they know that you can actually access it so there's like no reason that you can't deliver


in the in that sense but, for me I would I would say I still prefer working from home , uh it saves a lot on like travelling dining or like a food expenses like because the food in the CBD can be quite uh


uh pricey, costly uh ya, so ya for me I'm still enjoying the work from home environment for now but, maybe if you ask me like in one one or two more months ya maybe might be a bit


uh how it say uh ya , like you just feel enclosed at home yeah


part two positive experiences


okay sure uh, uh one positive travel experience that I recently had was uh going on a trip uh to Sydney australia with two of my close friends, uh, ya we actually went like last year around may it were right after I graduated from university


uh so, this was actually quite a, I won't say last minute trip but ya we only maybe plan it like one or two months ahead, and, I think it was a very nice experience as it was the second time I've been to australia the first time being when I was very young so I hardly remember anything but I think I found australia uh very


refreshing and sort of fun country to be in uh given that the people there were very friendly the weather is good and, yeah I was just a very like, peaceful environment and a nice city environment too, uh for holiday


so some of the things we did on the trip was to go to, like the Sydney opera house yeah one of the famous attractions there and also to to take the ferry to


I can't really remember what it was ah I think we went to bondi beach one of the famous beaches there uh, and the weather was very good as well, oh uh I think one of the, highlights of the trip was going to a casino for the first time in australia


and ya we actually played uh some blackjack and had quite a, good time making friends with the people around and like the dealers at the casino ya


oh yes the the blue mountains we actually went there it's actually uh quite a distance away from the city of Sydney so weuh I hired a car and we drove our way up to the blue mountain so it actually took like


I think about, maybe four to five hours to drive there if I'm if I remember correctly, ya so we actually uh stayed, overnight there in a hostel, for one night and then the next day we uh went to check up the mountains uh we even took this cable car thing to get a good view of the


whole environment and scenery over there so I think it was quite a breathtaking experience, and, and ya definitely something that uh, I would reminisce over time and to enjoy the good memories that we had


uh yeah in fact ya may it was really cooling I remember it was like super windy most of the times and maybe the temperature was around, about maybe fifteen to twenty degrees which was just nice in a in a sense that


uh we didn't have to wear on like a, maybe a jacket or anything but eh but we could just enjoy the, ya the cooling air and just walk around like that I think definitely uh, big difference from singapore where the weather is like constantly hot and humid


ya , so you you mention that aren't you been to australia uh, was it also in to Sydney and or that other parts that you have been to


(mmhmm)


ya but I think definitely like I enjoy like the chill and laid- back, laid back style of australia like, and I feel that the people there are also tend to be more friendly sense yeah maybe that's just, uh my experience when I went for the holiday but


ya I really enjoyed it like that


that sounds like a nice exchange experience like so it was in europe so did you like travel around to the rest of europe or anything, !wow!


oh I've never been there, wait


sounds sounds fun, I think for my for my exchange last time I went to korea, ya, there was the first time I've been to korea and I I also actually quite enjoyed my time there, mainly


the I mainly enjoyed like the city life like at at night, the like the city was very sort of uh happening in that sense, like there were a lot of street dancers K pop K pop dances all around


ya then they will just like dancing around with the fans all cheering like this kid this can be even on like weekdays, where ya they are just dancing in the streets so it's like !wow! like don't they have to work or anything like, because I guess uh a lot for a lot of them that they choose they choose to like


take this path of being like k pop dancers or singers in the hopes of becoming like popular one day, ya, and then other uh one other thing that I enjoyed was the food in korea, like I think the food there is a lot of good food around in korea like k BBQ and then the stuff there is also very cheap compared to what we have here in singapore so


, I mean there are I mean nowadays korea is also quite international so they do have a lot of like international uh brands that obviously that's like Macs and


KFC this sort of fast food chains also , but uh on exchange I also learn how to cook so ya tend to, maybe like half of my meals there I would, cook with my


err roommates ya so we we all were new to cooking but we, gradually learn through like watching YouTube videos and just experimenting on our own so ya it was quite a fun experience in a sense, that yeah we're all learning something new together and trying out something


interesting, uh definitely k BBQ uh especially when it's a buffet, ya cause I just like eating a lot of meat


I won't say very different cause I think a lot of the the K BBQ we have in singapore sort of draw inspiration from the korean ones but the ones in korea really feel very authentic and like the the meat


somehow this uh better like they had like very good sauces also, ya so it's like very nice tasty, ya and also added by the the cooler weather so like, you can have the K BBQ like out in the open


so ya imagine like, although it's like the hot smoke from the K BBQ but the cooling weather helps to, ya balance everything out and then it just feels very Shiok in a sense


oh really


oh ya I always I always heard that saying that ya you can just share the portions but I guess not, ya maybe that's more for like US ya


ya then uh in korea I think the, the meals there were not very expensive, I would say like the normal restaurant food price over there is cheaper than singapore


however they don't really have like, uh what we have here like hawker centres and like this Kopitiam type of food, so like the average price would still be more than singapore generally lah so that's one of the reasons why we also decided to cook more often


yeah to save money like I guess that's sort of a common experience that many people have when they go for exchange, ya because it's like living overseas for quite a long period of time so, we also can't afford to spend too much on food ya


!wah! that's, !wah! that's very sad


okay but, at least he got to go for like a short holiday lah


ya I think you're very lucky


!wah!


instead you all were trying, instead you all were trying to get the best team names so what's your team name


I guess it's because it was a surprising outcome that maybe even like, a sweeter moment , ya


part one financial related topic


okay can hi Hakeem how are you, okay okay I just facilitate this uh conversation ah, I think we have a common insurance agent right, you you you wanna tell them his name


okay k k okay k k okay, okay can you wanna you wanna share a bit okay can can


insurance policy one is also personal as in two actually personal insurance one is hospitalisation plan the other one is accidental accident plan, for hospitalisation plan I've taken the highest tier I cannot remember what's the name but uh it covers


private hospital and during the during my stay in the hospital I am given view remu remuneration for the uh, days that I am not working, so I have a I have a experience actually my wife has this plan also uh she actually was warded I think one day it was a very good experience because after she has been warded


and the uh nurse or the attendant who ask which ward I wanted to , you know put my wife in I just say I I want the uh second highest because I I I was quite apprehensive to go for the highest first uh which is the A ward


I just went for the B B plus is it B what it's called B one B one B B one ward B one then it was seamless from there I called my insurance agent and afterwards he settled me settled for me everything so I think it's a it's a good experience lah


, do you want to share about your other uh insurance policy


interestingly actually I do have the critical illness plan but, it's not with AIA don't tell the our, our change of agent ah , is is another one uh uh I I've taken with Manulife she's also the uh agent is also a personal friend of mine so actually the reason why I took from Manulife instead of AIA is because of the lower premium price instead of covering yours for hundred fifty thousand right


mine cover, ah mine covered everything uh and and it covers fifty thousand only, covers uh early stage uh and also the the critical stage advance stage ya, anyone asking


premium every month is about, fifty if I'm not wrong, (hmm) ya yup, yes yes fifty dollars per month so , okay lah


okay let's move on, endowment plan wanna talk about endowment plan


oh interesting you really have done your research ah uh I have taken this actually uh I've checked with uh our, insurance agent there are there's a difference between endowment plan and also uh , investment plan so I don't have an endowment plan but I have I have an investment plan so the investment plan is tagged


to my , life plan, wait let me think uh, investment plan, okay in any case in life plan if I'm not wrong in any case if I


passed away my, wife will be getting an amount of hundred thousand so that's basically it lah, uh maturity wise I think I can withdraw the money when I reach a certain age which is fifty five it is


confirmed lah confirmed that the investment can mature to up to hundred to hundred fifty thousand, ah when I am at fifty five years old


monthly payment is about hundred and five dollars, hundred and five dollars per per per per month lah, hopefully lah hopefully hopefully


okay er you wanna, talk about the term life insurance I think I have touch about term life insurance lah what about you do you have a term life insurance


no I don't do any investment, eh no I did uh is it if you talk about the life plan it is linked to the investment like I've shared earlier so, if you ask me about my thoughts when I purchased that plan actually I cannot tell you a lot of thoughts because I was not say sweet talk lah but


uh my my insurance agent gave me a solid briefing through it and I was I I I I bought this idea lah so I didn't put much thought into it all I want was, at that point of time when I reach a certain age I want


uh some money for me to retire, as of now, not at the moment lah I am quite not say apprehensive at uh


sorry sorry, ya not say that I do not want but I would rather save my money at the moment because I have just bought a house not too long ago , and uh ya lah the other commitments that I would


you know want to , fixed deposit okay interestingly I have a friend who who who do fixed deposit


but, I don't know whether this is uh related or not but I think fixed deposit I've asked my teacher , fixed deposit is not Halal so that's why I didn't want to go into fixed deposits la


because it uh kind of give you what's the thing called , what what what do you gain when you return ah the returns is is not Halal lah, so that's why I how about you do you have fixed deposit I hope you don't


go into it lah understand


interesting I only know the term, as in I only know the term term life insurance lah I think, like I've mention at the point where I took the term life insurance I wasn't thinking a lot lah I didn't really do much research about it that was like probably five years ago lah right so all I wanted was


A A A AIA AIA, AIA, Manulife is critical illness, eastern life insurance


term life uh like I've shared lah just now lah I think I took like thirty minutes to share just now uh I just want a certain amount of money for my wife


and I to retire comfortably lah not say comfortably lah but at least there's a enough money for us to spend if we were to retire and also if I were to pass away my wife has certain of money certain amount of money to rely on


being the sole breadwinner of my family lah not that I have a child yet but it's just me and my wife so at least she has some of my money to carry on with life how about do you have uh term life insurance or full life insurance


oh the critical illness is actually whole life insurance ah, oh okay understand understand mine is uh just the critical illness if you talk about critical illness yes it covers me until a certain age only I think sixty five or seventy five


ah then it doesn't cover me anymore, but interestingly for the Manulife, critical illness I don't know whether your plan has this one also but once okay let's touch wood lah if you are you are diagnosed with a critical illness right then after that this is what my insurance uh agent told me for Manulife once you have used up the critical illness


policy or plan then uh you have a relapse or you got another diagnosis of another critical illness, then, this plan covers you again unlike other plans this is what my uh insurance agent told me unlike other plans it doesn't it it uh for the critical illness plan you only covers who once once you Kena


then it won't cover you anymore it covers you for that particular one then finish already I don't know about yours, or three times


I think mine early and critical it covers, more than one type ya


, medical coverage ah, medisave I think medisave is a is a good plan lah because if you talk about


a good plan when you, you contribute consistently , right if because if you are not a, government servant or you don't work with a company for example you are you work as a grab driver or you have your own business I believe that


ah self-employed ya correct me if I'm wrong lah they need to , put in on their own, eh I think I I think is mandatory lah right mandatory for them to yup to put it on their own so I think it's it's good lah because, uh you might know you might not know what happen to you in the future to come if you have any illnesses I think the medisave can help you to pay a certain amount if it


uh if it, fulfill the criteria lah that you can claim from medisave but not all the things that you can claim uh can be claimed from medisave right what what do you think


this is the one that you can pay for your dependant is it


yup yup yup yup I think I think I think it's a good plan lah and you were saying sorry


can I think I think it's a good plan lah for this because is a is a no brainer lah I mean if he leave, uh we want our dependant our sons our daughters to have certain amount of money lah like what we , have insured ah but I want to touch about I


medishield life is it I think is one of the , uh government policy some okay not not everyone knows about this this is what I feel lah I think the government should , uh educate more to people who probably are less literate I know of some people who


who do not, what's the, the the the the thing that you pay with your CPF think medishield life right, to get hundred percent coverage ya so not not everyone


uh good point I know of some people who don't even have a medishield life don't say about integrated lah medishield life they don't even have so they don't even pay using your their CPF and I think what they are not aware is that because of


the medical expenses in singapore, uh, probably touch wood lah they haven't they haven't Kena anything yet so I think if they Kena right then they will know the reality of


correct correct so people are still still not aware and they are very uh, how to say ah fifty fifty apprehensive lah to you know we got act reasons they hear is insurance means they don't want ah you know so because I I I I think I have


rope you in the uh into doing some social work lah right to help give people uh needy people than these people right actually they are a lot of people which we do not know we are sheltered in a very nice life you know at least at least lah we have our houses and everything I


I think we I think just went a couple days ago uh to visit needy people I don't think all these people have all these plans covered for them you know if they Kena Kena right I think they will be a problem for them, that's why the poverty cycle continues right so you want to move on to other I think you talk about a lot about this already


oh uh yes, , for one I think must be reliable lah like you I think we've shared before this lah one is reliable someone who you know so he can trust anything


part three negative experiences


describe a time when you felt trap or, helpless I think you know not too long ago I think I have this recurring not say illness but it's a condition, where I have, palpitation heart palpitation I think you know also lah


so there was one point of time it was really really bad, , for example uh when you wake up, you suddenly have this palpitation of the heart, it was it was really beating very fast ah so you don't know what to do you felt very trap and helpless lah like you will feel like you are going to die you know ah so it that is not a point where you are having a heart attack lah but you feel like you're having a heart attack but


uh what I I would do is I take deep breaths think of good thoughts and , ya and it will go away lah went for a couple of heart heart, heart checks everything lah from treadmill from the ECG from bringing home all those wired stuff and all okay lah my heart has no problem Alhamdulillah alright so I have another diagnoses which actually I cannot share lah maybe I can share with you later lah okay


that , yes yes I'm on medication now, I have medication now, ah so I'm feeling better lah much much better, ah it's something that only my wife knows and probably you are the first one lah then probably your wife lah the second one


uh that is ya I will share with you off record lah


you walk ah you walk, !whoa! interesting how come I I think I forgot about this ah you told me about this before ah


why why why do you ask for off


oh it's gonna be a busy day ya I understand understand, good lah good work ethics


okay saddest scene you ever witnessed , , I think I have a sauce oh you want go go go you go first


saddest scene I have a soft spot for two things I think my wife know I don't know whether you know or not one is animals the other one is old people, so what happened was I actually uh went to an old folks home old folks home during my poly time


right and do you ya, ya I then I was paired with this , old uncle lah he is very negative right he all he wanted was to die to die to die right but, I we manage to cheer everyone up including my uncle lah so brought them up to the uh west coast park


sing them songs you know clean clean up their their place their old folks home and he was he was rejuvenated lah he was alive you know he was happy the saddest scene was to see him bid me goodbye you know, like, you know uh like I'm I I I like I'm gonna leave soon lah you know uh then say please don't go please don't go you know he was enjoying because at the point where we were cleaning up the area he was having a nap


so we had to if you want to say goodbye to your partner uh to to to to to to your pair right you have to wake him up lah or her up so I had to wake her up or wake him up and say uh uncle I'm going off already uh it's time to go lah right so please don't go please don't go next he teared


I was so sad that I teared as well so I was wearing a cap and I say uncle this is something for you to remember me by lah right I gave him my cap and ya then I went to the toilet and I just cry buckets lah I just, cry my eyes out lah I I cannot Tahan lah, old old people lah so


ya I think it's a saddest experience for me lah, other than that I think having seen animals being for example cats lah you know your community cats under your void deck being uh tortured or being you know not treated well I think that really saddens me lah


what do I offer to about lah, I think this is something that we shouldn't be worried about


because as someone or somebody who has uh you know, islam you're a muslim lah islam as a religion right you shouldn't worry about your Rezeki lah Rezeki meaning your, uh your your your your money your


finance you know we shouldn't be worry because we believe that all these, is already uh being, set up by by god lah right so, none none nonetheless nevertheless we are still human right I think we sometimes worry about having enough money to go by in life later in life you know


having you know if what happens if we were to get retrenched especially like I said in this day and age where you are facing this pandemic, will be enough to pay for our house you know for the car


ya I think this not say worry about a lot, but really like the , have this at the back of your head lah


is it because due to COVID


then they keep saying that what , push a virtual meetings can replace uh physical meetings you don't agree ah


understand understand good good good, okay K I would like to share with you the most traumatic incident that I've ever experienced in my life okay, okay so while I was watching television one day this is this happen I think one and a half years ago back ago ah ya so I was watching television I suddenly hear a very faint cry


BB BB this is what my wife called me lah baby lah ha bb right very very faint cry it was coming from the kitchen or the toilet okay so I was like okay maybe she's joking or what right so then it was at another time a faint cry, then I went and open the toilet


I saw my wife on the floor of the toilet, gasping for air, almost unconscious that is the most really traumatic incident I had to really you know the thing that I do at work right so I had to put on that hat right and you know


react quickly at home so I dragged my wife out literally drag ah you can imagine from the toilet to the living room and up to the chair and she was, she was she was blacking out lah so I was I I I was afraid that she was having a heart attack but actually is not lah is not


okay so she was gasping for air she say she cannot breathe then I was just waiting for the moment where she passed out without pulse I assume CPR lah but that didn't that didn't happen lah so what I did I called for, ambulance nine nine five and while maintaining communication with her lah I see her face very pale she really gasping for air she wasn't you know like going in and out of consciousness so !wah! that one I really thought like she's gonna die or what lah right so


when ambulance came was found out that her blood pressure was really really low like really really low, uh so had to stretch out to the ambulance and brought to the, the the the hospital lah right so followed


followed to the uh I followed her to the hospital and she was warded lah that's that's when I shared about the insurance right, ya ya uh so, uh got to know that she had low blood blood pressure, and, the fact that it was very funny lah the fact that she you know when you


past motion right, then you when you are having , first thing off difficulty to, constipation ya when having constipation then you need to use pressure to or forced to, cleared it out right, ah that is the cause


for her blood pressure she really, like you know, use pressure to then she blacked out , so the doctor advised to eat this peel with red I don't know to promote red blood cells for to to promote your blood


productivity and also eat red meat lah actually it was is is not really as serious as I thought lah but just you know you you when you were there right you see your wife , face pale gasping for air and say like I'm gonna pass out you know is really a traumatising experience for me lah


how about you , uh okay already she went for one follow up, then ya, okay lah okay then just just just eat the proper thing lah just eat red meat you know to boost up her red blood cells and everything


okay if there is one thing you wish you could change but will never be able to, is there one thing understand okay


one thing that you wish you could change I I am going to answer this in a different perspective lah one thing I could change is that , to have everyone, or rather the rich right the really really rich right


uh how do I put this to balance out lah to balance out the, the wage lah the wage or the money that people is getting lah so, I think I have shared earlier on that uh we, go to you know


people living in you know those , rented houses right I saw the conditions they are living in some of them is, they don't even have enough food to eat, I am is is is is really sad and it's happening in singapore ah it's happening in singapore


people have no food to eat they depend on especially some more in this COVID situation uh some of them are retrenched and they are really living in a very poor condition, I feel that if I could change the world right everyone you know at least


live in a very comfortable uh, condition lah, at least have food to eat, they live comfortably and nobody is living in poverty , poor condition , having to you know


go day to day and earning like per hour kind of rate that kind of stuff lah, so ya but I cannot do lah right, all all we can do is just to help them lah, ya ya ya, have you gone through any loss in your life


uh describe okay uh, lost in your life you I think I think we can share the similar experience lah maybe you can add on lah I think we lost baby lah baby is our cat lah okay shouldn't laugh right ya I think baby he spent his good years with us I think more than ten years right since baby


since since he was a baby lah, more than ten years ya he's our he's our cat but he's actually a cat we picked up, at near our


drain at our void deck lah it was raining that he was viewing I think his mum left him or something so we picking up and we we we we make him our cat lah, right so I think we create or we had a special bond like you know owner impact kind of sleep with us play with us eat with us that kind of stuff lah so one day I'm he was really old teeth missing uh no energy to run around anymore just sleep and eat sleep eat


until one day I think there's a saying not saying lah there's a belief that pets if they want to die , if you will that let them roam right they will not die in front of the ones they love, right, so what happened was one day he just go missing I think he went out from the window, and we haven't seen him since then lah


think that is quite sad lah right think that our mum cried, our mum cried ya so, it was a it was a nice cat to have lah (hmm) I think have one minute


left you wanna touch on a simple, what makes me stressed ah I think now I'm, more relaxed as a person lah I think during my the time in secondary school poly not so much poly I had really fun time lah think secondary school lah when I was having my O levels was really stressful


didn't like to didn't didn't didn't really like to study you know so I wasn't doing very well during my prelims but I okay lah I did quite well I can go JC lah with my my O levels results but it was really stressful at that point in time lah because I was catching up a lot I didn't because I played football during


my secondary school days played for club for awhile than had to stop because of my studies, ya how about you Hakim twenty seconds


but yesterday won yesterday they won congrats man (ppb) ya ya pick up good good


positive experiences, part two positive experiences ya, okay uh what is this describe a moment okay, you want to start first Hakeem thing we we start off with a


easiest one lah what is the nicest thing someone has ever do for you


no lah no lah I think it has more nicer connotation to it but ya ya ya I think similarly similarly I I I have, a few people who tells me that, I am a caring person ah which really warms my the cockles of my heart okay warms warms my heart lah ya caring


yes, so I just want to share with you one of my most memorable travel experiences I think I, not say recently I think almost two years ago I have gotten married and I went to the uh honeymoon to istanbul and


, Cappadocia right hard living in singapore hot country it's really a change in uh whether there lah I really like it the weather can go up to zero degree celsius lah it was really really cold and I wasn't really equipped with uh the the the right attire I had just a bomber jacket


which was really really cold lah at that point of time , I think you've been to a similar place before right, ya so what happen was, it was very good right what happen was, during the uh transit no not transit connecting flight from


the Instanbul to uh Cappadocia, uh my wife actually accidentally lah not say her her fault totally lah she didn't really check the right, flight time, so we were late to get a flight so because of that had to buy another set of a pair of tickets to the connecting flight to Cappadocia and had to


spend twelve hours ah twelve hours at istanbul airport uh istanbul airport ya so basically we just go out we go in we eat we sleep, and we took a flight at about two AM in the morning, and reach Cappadocia at four AM


ya ya ya how about you how about you


I know I know I know I know


check check in ya , didn't work yes I at ya you should see my system it didn't work


oh !whoa! amazing race ah


okay lah thank god they didn't miss a flight right, !whoa! lucky lucky interesting


for the whole flight there's no aircon seriously


good good good good, you wanna uh talk about okay lah I I I share with you uh what am I thankful for lah okay I think we have we have talked about this also I what I'm thankful for is the beautiful family that we have that we shared lah actually actually we are brothers right uh


that we shared I think our parents are they were strict uh during the earlier days of our lives right but now they are very loving right they they actually teach us the value of family the value of life


, ya I think I'm thankful for that and also the religion that has been bestowed upon me lah, right the the the, it is islam lah I am thankful for them also how about you


interesting yup I agree


yup yup yup I agree agree job, your job is important lah a lot of retrenchment in the news nowadays a day eagle engineering just retrenched I don't know how's the update like right but if they really retention or not because the uh NTUC have stepped in


I think they will need to come to terms lah, okay , let's talk about food lah okay uh let's talk food okay what is your comfort food Hakim that you can always rely on to cheer you up


you you eat it like that like that or with jam or with butter, on its own ah understand I think I I agree ah our sister in law make the best scones ah, , but uh for me you say sorry


easy, okay okay interesting interesting, um) my comfort food is actually thai food ah interestingly lah thai food it can be from all Mobukong near your place I always go there I think it's closing soon nine nine august nine august if not my wife cooks


one of the good thai foods ah she can cook good uh tom yum #pad kra pao# ah #kra pao# is actually the minced chicken was it call ah minced chicken dish lah ah basil yes minced chicken basil, and also uh Kangkung lah Kangkung is actually malay also cook lah right


so I think that really, really really really uh #belacan kangkung# really eh sorry you were saying ah she's not she's not around she's not around she's outside cooking she's outside cooking for me to go to work later ya so I actually inside the room study room


ya she cannot hear this lah no worries but actually ya really she she cook good food lah I am thankful for that so when I'm hungry after work and I see all these good food on the table it really cheers me up lah after a really long day at work , okay K let's be narcissistic a bit lah what do you love most about yourself you love a I know you love yourself a lot lah right


yup yup I agree, , or is irritating lah just kidding lah


interesting, I think I I I have to attest to you lah I think I agree lah you're very friendly easy going I think you laugh the loudest in the room anywhere everywhere also you can laugh you know uh which is good I think for me love okay lah not love lah what I think


I, actually can ya ya actually I can I can work, well under pressure lah this is what I feel and also make decisions under pressure because as you know I'm actually a duty officer at work lah so under me there are a couple of charges I mean uh there are a few people under me so I actually


deal with incidents accidents at work uh so it's very critical for someone who has uh someone like me right who has my post to have this criteria where you need to do decision in split second and under pressure


sometimes what I deal with uh concerns life and death lah, so one not say mistake lah one bad decision can lead can cost your life lah, so it, uh tough job when there's a crisis if not it's a Lepak job


uh right right okay okay, right so Nauzubillah touch wood I hope I don't see any emergency again, alright if not then we just have to respond lah


uh, the fastest time that we can and also to save life, lah, and my job you wanna ask the question Hakim


!whoa! interesting, I think I use, to hate as a kid, !wah! I I want to answer your your your answer but I think I know your answer you maybe you answer first then maybe can gather some of my thoughts


vegetable right you wanna answer vegetable right


yes oh yes yes yes eat with chili ah ya, yes popiah Basah


turnip turnip turnip yup turnip turnip turnip, it's good lah ya I agree so I I okay lah I've put some thought into this question maybe something different uh ice we all hate to go to school right Hakim, right, as an adult I think you will love to go back to school right and do well right


ya so I think that's my answer lah if I were given a choice it back again I would go back to school ace all my subjects probably get uh, second uppers or what what what have you rights, first class honors lah at least second uppers lah


, okay sixteen thousand ah now it's good lah, ya, ya okay how many more minute (oo) okay


oddest or most unique compliment you've ever received ah , !whoa! this is a good question, so you have any ah top of your head now Hakim, you wanna share first


weird, oh that's good that's good ah uh this is a good one


hardly did do you remember you remember the rest of it like peach tea what what does it mean maybe you can give me a compliment based on that


oh maybe normal lah okay can no no no I don't, yes yes yes yes yes uh, I cannot think of


ya I would think so lah if you ask me top of my head I cannot not say not cannot lah but I I cannot think of any unique complement that I've received


the the I mean complements are all generally normal lah, you know like friendly lah nice lah you know, you smell good that kind of stuff yup yup, ya , we watch a lot of genuine fragrance okay never mind I don't think people know about that ya


biggest blessing in disguise ah actually


ah oh okay okay this is quite, not say biggest lah but it's one of the blessing in disguise lah uh you still remember when I have just POP from army, right that I was really really oh I I really wanted to go into OCS officer cadet school


right but, then on the result day as I was waiting then he suddenly come up CDBOC I have no idea what CDBOC was so I called the the admin the admin person than they say oh is actually civil defence basic officer course it's actually an officer course as well


but under civil defence ah so you are no longer tied to the SAF you jump ship to SCDF, I think that's a blessing in disguise, that is right that is right I think after that right uh I'm still doing what I


uh, I am doing back then until now lah I think about more than ten years already ya so it kind of sparked the fire in me to save life you know to to to do more good lah I think it's a noble job lah,


yup yup so how about you


and buy more watches uh, true true and not and not say wipe off lah you can save five thousand eh take twenty percent you know twenty K maximum twenty K right


ya especially twenty K think you should save ah twenty K lah like I think our insurance agent have advise us ya, uh , touch wood yup to buffer ya that's right that's right, okay what was your best birthday present Hakim I think I can answer for you lah but maybe you want to answer yourself


yes I know it, I the one you're wearing now right no ah


Pelagos right Pelagos, I wanted that watch also lah I think interestingly right, ya you're saying you stole what yeah yeah yeah, interestingly right yes yes that's interestingly right


when I I had a failed not say failed in marriage lah fail engagement right I have a couple of savings ah so my heart was really you know okay lah, like okay screw this lah right I I feel this I'm not getting married so I have a couple of savings I wanted to go to the shop and just buy you know but I think the unconscious get the better of me like I think I shouldn't waste that kind of money lah


so for my best birthday present, I think anything that my wife bought me lah uh it could be as simple as a perfume a couple of polo tees because it comes from her heart lah she's not working okay so she whatever that she save right she really want to


you know buy for me to make me happy lah on on her on her uh on my birthday but her birthday ah of course I buy her you know one thousand dollar bag no lah not to show off lah but, ya lah ya lah so, ya okay,


(ppl) she's not around don't worry she's not around she's not around, (ppl), okay (um) yup I think we are done


part one financial related topic


alright, uh I don't think so lah I think it's quite confidential we just tell just tell them where he's from


the company lah ya okay so uh for myself I do have uh personal insurance so my personal insurance is from AIA and prudential so my first uh personal insurance is the solitary personal accident


which covers me for you know uh personal accidents or you know accidental deaths dismemberment, or something like that lah so they cover me for you know hospitalisation bills and anytime that I am in hospital they will pay they will give a payout for how long I've been in hospital I am not sure how much but think there's an amount lah they they give-- so what about yourself


my other insurance policies is the prudential active life the crisis care and also the early crisis care lah so what this is is it covers me for my whole life


incase I have uh any terminal illness so it covers me for advance early early terminal illness and also the advanced stage terminal illness so they, cover me for the uh medical bills and all that up to hundred and fifty thousand for the CI I mean the critical illness


insurance agent


advance stage how much is your premium for every month, fifty or maybe that's why I have uh triple the coverage because mine is almost hundred and fifty dollars


ya sure so for myself I have the AIA smart reward saver which is uh about eighty dollars per month and it has a twenty one years maturity so up till


I'm forty five years old I started this about few years back so up till forty five years old also after the maturity period I get a payout lah, so it's around two point five, okay guaranteed and other non-guaranteed amount which is based on the investment of the AIA lah and also I also receive a five hundred dollar coupon


every year which you can reinvest lah so at the end of the maturity period you'll get back that twelve K for five hundred every year then the last year is two thousand five so all in all is around twelve K how about yours


oh (mmhmm)


(mmhmm) ah, ah okay (mmhmm)


ah !wow! that's so how much is the monthly premium for yours, ah that's why small than mine ya lah


so we are quite quite safe in terms of our future planning I guess, ya ya ya, so ya as I mention just now my the personal plan is the life insurance lah so it covers me until ya until death so did you do any uh investment currently


ah so it's mix of insurance and also investment lah,


so do you want to do any other investments in the future outside of insurance


what about what about those uh non-risky investments like bonds or FDs fixed deposits


ah


and no I don't have but I'm maybe considering like those uh government related bonds but I'm not sure whether it's, Halal or not but I guess I will ask first, before I go on about it lah so just now I


I heard you have the whole life insurance so what do you think of term life versus whole life and what do you think is better for you


okay so


so the sorry the uh Manulife insurance that you took is it whole life or AI AIA just now the the other one the Manulife one the


my prudential one is actually whole life insurance so it will cover me until I pass away lah so I think term life there is a certain age where the insurance won't cover you anymore so for mine


up till my death if I have any you know diseases or any critical illnesses they will still, uh got me they cover me lah, that's it ya so it's whole life


(mmhmm) (mmhmm) (hmm) (hmm) (hmm) ah, for mine the advanced stage critical illness it covers me three times so I can ya Tak Cukup relax two times then it will still cover me lah for the early critical illness is only one time


three times ah, more than one time alright , okay let's move on to the what you think of the government's policies regarding the


medical uh medical coverage so (mmhmm) so first what do you think of uh medisave, (hmm) (mmhmm)


self employed lah (mmhmm) (hmm) ya correct ya it's mandatory


ya ya for me I think it's a good scheme lah so I think we both of us uh the ruling party supporters I guess


ya so I think is a is some kind a for savings lah, for employed and also self employed people lah so it one one good thing is it helps us pay the medical bills and also, using your medisave you can pay for the DPS which is the uh dependent protection scheme so we don't have to use cash for it so speaking of DPS do you know anything about dependent protection scheme


actually this is a uh you know that's a policy whereby every year you pay a certain amount of uh what you call it premium by your ya is by your medisave you pay by medisave and if you you know pass on


you get the assured sum of I think around forty to forty six thousand ya so you know yes so it you know gives your dependence you know not like something to tide tide on with lah so they don't just you know


ya, (mmhmm) (mmhmm)


ya it's medishield life uh had not the the medishield life only covers you until I think B two and C ward but it's not a hundred percent, anymore so you need to get the integrated plan to get it or discovered lah which is you need to pay a premium on top of your what you pay for your medishield life


I've seen I've seen roadshows lah about this you know those at singpost they just randomly come to you and they say oh do you have medishield life if not we can help you sign up


ya, married ya resistance to it lah, ya (mmhmm)


I think , alright can so how okay my next question is how do you pick your insurance agent I know we have the same but how they


ya (mmhmm)


for me it's uh knowledge lah so when they first introduced me to all these plans they need to know from A to Z about this plan and if I have any questions if they can answer me well that means they are quite knowledgeable about it lah


(hmm) ya


part three negative experiences, alright so we're moving on to the negative experience I think we don't read ah


maybe we start with the first first one lah


(mmhmm)


(mmhmm) (hmm)


(mmhmm) (hmm) (mmhmm) (hmm), (mmhmm) alright, (mmhmm)


so for me I think it happened like uh ten years back is not uh anything serious lah so it's just a situation I think I was, sixteen or seventeen I was uh wanting to go to work that time at uh parkway parade so at that point of time I didn't have any money on me


so I think my parents I think our parents were in JB or something and I banking wasn't a thing back then so they couldn't transfer me any money so I didn't have money to go to work so I had to walk all the way from Tampines all the way to parkway parade which is at marine parade


ya so before that I was like quite helpless lah so I like I didn't know what to do, cause I was quite ya I walk for two hours from Tampines from our house in Tampines all the way to marine parade it took me two hours I walk from Tampines to Bedok you know the victoria there all the way marine parade


(mmhmm) so, ya I think it was sixteen or seventeen lah I was working at fish and co that time, (mmhmm) I think you were in NS or something you weren't t there also and our second brother wasn't there also I was alone in the house our


parents went to JB or something and they couldn't transfer money lah so after when they came back they did lah transfer me money for me to go back, by bus instead uh I don't know I didn't, I didn't think I didn't I wasn't thinking back then I was still young I didn't want to you know disappoint those people back then the managers and all that by not coming to work so it was I think was a saturday or sunday


was one of the weekends lah it was going to be very busy so ya so (hmm) I didn't want to disappoint them so I just walk lah from Tampines to parkway parade, there is one of the things that I will ya I won't forget lah in my life


(mmhmm) maybe I can go first not, okay so I I not not really a first hand experience what uh


I don't really have like I've ever witnessed first and only said but it was in the movie lah, so I watched this movie called I think me me before you something like that there was this guy got uh into an accident and he didn't want to burden anyone so he he committed not committed suicide but uh


a voluntary suicide something like that lah so it was quite sad lah so I think the whole cinema was crying including me and my wife ya it was quite sad lah not first hand experience but you know through the film's lah


(mmhmm) (mmhmm),


, (mmhmm) (hmm) ya


so, I think we move on to the next question which is what do you often worry about


(mmhmm), (mmhmm)


(mmhmm) (mmhmm), , so for me unlike you I'm not really good under pressure so I think the one thing I'm worried about always is not


meeting deadlines at work because I'm running a project currently for my work lah so I have this very very tight deadline that I have to meet, and I think, I I mean for me ah if you if it's up to me the project would have been done like weeks back lah but it's not up to me so I have to you know uh


rely on the developers and also the people doing this uh project as the tester and all that so ya so it's not going well right now, so I think we are going to be delayed for about one or two weeks, ya so that really ya worries me lah


uh, partly because we couldn't meet you know physically I think physical meetings and you know online meetings are very different in physical meetings you can get your point across very well and what you want you know


want them to do on ya so it's, projected across very well lah before I think for online meetings some of them you know during meetings they don't hear you or they just uh zone out so you, don't get your point across very well so I think part ya partly that's the issue lah


ya I don't agree I think physical meetings are way better like last time also when I worked at my previous job we have calls with


people from india I think when they came everything was better because they were there physically ya, I think ya virtual or online conferences cannot replace those physical meetings lah


for me like hundred percent maybe at most ya fifty or sixty percent lah but you know


ah


so does does she still go to like follow ups ya doctor follow ups


so I think for me, I haven't really experience any traumatic incidents, but I've seen like, uh those uh on the road accidents whereby the other party or the one I see is having a traumatic time lah so ya


currently I don't have any or experience anything traumatic lah in my life, this thing is but we never built so I always tell my wife or anyone who asked me this question is to go back in time and study very hard for my O levels and then go to a good JC and then study hard again go to local uni


because I think uh, uh to have a good local uni degree is very important lah when you are in working adult you can see lah, I think singapore is ya is very what you call it mostly on meritocracy and everything is about education education all the papers I think those people who say otherwise it's not true lah I think it's still you know


those papers is still very important so I I didn't say I mean uh not say I did very badly lah for my O levels but it was just you know those, par where you can go to a JC with twenty points nineteen points kind of thing but I know if I went that route and I would have flunk


my A levels and all that lah so I took another route lah ya so, if one thing I could change is that lah I could wish I could go back in time and then study hard for my O levels and then go to a good JC, study harder become you know those good professions like you know doctor lawyer that earns like those for five digits


every month kind ya lah how about you


(mmhmm)


(mmhmm) (hmm) (mmhmm)


ya lah we can only do so much lah (mmhmm) okay so quite negative ah all these question, loss in my life


ya that is ya, I took, two thousand fifth eh two thousand and five up till few years back so more than ten years lah


ya she really loves that cat ya


in so to I think the ya to wrap things off I think we can ask what makes you stress lah, okay


uh I think on a lighter note is what makes me stress is watching my football club Arsenal, play ya because their defense really cannot make it so every time the opponent attacks I get mini heart attacks because they really cannot make it but yesterdsay they won yes yup that's good


(ppl)


part two positive experiences


nicest thing nicest thing is when uh, that time I had the like a retreat of some sorts with my company so we had to write down what we feel about other colleagues and all that so I think one of the points that they shared is that I always put others first lah before myself so in other terms there are calling me a yes man


ya I've been to Cappadocia also before it was very cold


ah oh my oh my , I had a almost similar experience but I didn't miss my flight lah it was almost I almost missed it so


it was uh in it was my honeymoon as well so I wanted to go to Santorini so it's via athens airport, so for me I like to plan my itinerary very very well so until the time you know the minutes ya


so I gave myself a very short window to transit from uh athens to take the next connecting flight to Santorini lah so I think it was one hour and thirty minutes the gap so we arrived I took the flight


from Istanbul to athens it the flight was late and we arrive late and once we reach there no one could speak english and we were running to find the gate and also uh we had to do the baggage uh what you call it check-in check-in baggage ya


so it was there was no manual counters so it was an automatic counter and the automatic counter was, spoil ya, it didn't work so uh we were asking the person like uh how how do we do this how do we do this


they would he share I think uh she she didn't understand us and she was just speaking in greek or I don't know what language and she was like oh you go there you go there !aiya! so we tried like I don't know how many times so after that after we manage to do that we only had like around ten minutes before the flight took off


so we had to run across the whole, athens airport for a good ya it's like amazing race it was uh good, I think ten minutes sprint from one end to the other end our gate was so far so we had to run for a good ten minutes sprint


so when we reached the gate uh they said it was almost closing lah so once we get got on the plane everyone was just looking at us and was just waiting for us we were just sweating , ya and there, ya I miss flight like so uh after we set like around five seconds or ten seconds later the safety briefing and then


took-off so they were literally waiting for us to board the plane yup ya and the plane had no aircon or I don't know it was so hot so you will just sweating the whole flight luckily was a short, I don't know if there was no aircon or the flight was too hot or we just ran so we were sweating we were sweating lah


for the whole good I don't know one hour or maybe forty five minute, ya it was one of the most memorable travel experiences lah


(mmhmm) (mmhmm), so I think in this current situation the one thing you have to be thankful for is to have a job lah basically


ya ya in this current current situation with this pandemic and all lah I think a lot of people lost their jobs or I don't have jobs uh the graduates they couldn't find any job so that one thing I'm thankful for for this period is definitely to have a job lah


to have a stable job (mmhmm) and also to have a good wife good family lah as you said, (hmm) for everything lah


step in ya the labor chief has step in I think they will still do the retrenchment but the way they do it, is I think is not part of the practice lah usually


food lah , ah my favourite favourite food is you know those uh buttery scones, I think mine is I think our sister in law makes makes them ya it it's so good if I if she's not making any I will just buy some at texas chicken you know those buttery biscuits from


texas ya I can buy up to like four I like eat I can eat for four like in one sitting and my, no it it's good just like that ya yes so so when I'm (mmhmm)


ah so when I'm like angry with my wife or sad like you know, sulking she'll just she knows what to buy she'll just buy like four pieces of texas biscuit and is all good , ya, how about you ah


ah, ah, closing in august ya


what uh what a politically good answer


is she is she, is ah, ah, ah


(mmhmm) (hmm) (hmm), alright


ah so what I love about about my most about myself is I think everyone says I am caring friendly and also easy going lah so I can get along with most people I love to make people laugh and they also say I'm funny my wife says I'm funny


, I don't know is uh either funny or irritating I'm not sure but ya lah I'm easy going lah so I can, you know like talk to from the range of young people up to old people I can talk about a wide variety of things lah ya


how about yourself


it's good about yourself lah


sounds like a tough job ah , alright alright so


ya so let's move on to a like a relaxing question so what did you use to hate as a kid but not love as an adult, (mmhmm)


alright so what I used to hate a kid yes I want to say vegetable so last time as a kid I used to hate vegetables, you name it lah Kangkung uh Tauge onions all that but now I love it lah I don't know why I think Kangkung is nice you know those curry puff vegetable curry puffs the one with Tauge and those tofu


yes ya I love it and also the Popiah you know the crispy one and the the not crispy one the one you eat with the chilli with the you know I don't what you call it ya I don't know you call english uh Sengkuang and, turnip yes turnip turnip carrots ah is is good


ha yes yes yes


first first first first class first class honours, then can can join PAP ah as an MP good life ya good life


okay uh, let's talk about something odd which is what is the oddest or most unique compliment you've ever received, (mmhmm) (mmhmm)


I have actually so ya at work we were ya so we were scrolling through facebook and my friend my colleague came across this post from pokka so they should ya pokka drink so they said the post is what this pokka drink says about you or what drink you like says about you something like that lah so there's like


peach tea peach tea green tea honey green tea and green green tea peppermint I think green, tea peppermint tea ya so my friend said that eh you know what you are like the green tea peppermint tea, so that ha then she said ya so she said


what it says is you are weird and have a good ear for music not taken seriously half the time but your friends will always come to you first for for advices, ya I was like [orh] and like [orh], okay it's quite odd lah to say I'm like a green tea peppermint tea oh even though I love that drink but ya lah


I think peach tea peach tea is, for someone who is calm and likes to do the norm something like that is like very normal ya I think I don't think is you lah you are very adventurous


I think one of those lah at they've there is one like adventurous I think it's either honey green tea or green tea itself I'm not sure but there's one that is like adventurous bold I think that is you lah


, (mmhmm) (mmhmm) ya lah ya lah


is very good do use uh a lot of you watch lot of jeremy fragrance , , this smell good eh okay alright so, let me ask one thing what


okay lah I don't know I think is quite deep not say deep lah but it's quite uh challenging question what is your biggest blessing in disguise


(mmhmm)


, , (hmm), (hmm) uh, ah, (mmhmm) ah


oh so you so you got transferred from the army to the SCDF lah


nice, mine is not really as deep or as meaningful as yours lah but but at the top of my head I can think of is my


BTO flat lah so I was supposed to receive my keys in july june this year but due to the whole COVID situation it got pushed back to uh first quarter twenty twenty one lah so is a blessing in disguise because I get to save more money for renovation


and also, yeah not not buy more watches but uh save more save more money for my renovation and also uh have more money inside my ordinary account lah before it gets swiped off, (hmm) (hmm)


save twenty percent twenty uh twenty K yes ya maximum twenty, ya ya it's important also (mmhmm) in case you get retrenched you get you have that twenty k to buffering ah


(mmhmm), ah right, I don't get a lot of birthday presents lah but ever since I got married every year I got a birthday gift, so my favourite is it my best birthday present is the most expensive one which is my watch


which is my I'm not wearing lah, at home but later I'll be wearing lah so it's my, five thousand dollars tudor watch that my wife bought for me last year it's the best birthday gift because I always wanted that watch and she bought it for me ya


, ya tudor pelagos, I know I still, (uh huh), I stole the idea from you lah actually, you told me you wanted to buy the watch so I (hmm), (hmm) (uh huh)


(mmhmm) (mmhmm),


again another politically correct answer (ppl), (ppl), (ppl) alright I think we are done


I think for investment wise right I usually I don't really look for retirement at the moment I'm just doing like stocks and markets


investing in stocks and markets or like unit trust I haven't really thought about retirement at the moment, yeah I just started actually this year


I wanted to invest on SIA because of the whole uh COVID situation right like I heard SIA was good but I haven't invest yet, ya but I'm pretty new to all these


oh I haven't really thought about those insurance where you know they have like health insurance and stuff like, it's still too early for me to look into that I feel like I haven't think in that like also like like those insurance like someone needs the, money you only get back when you're over forty or


also because like I'm studying university right so I feel like I can't really commit to monthly payment thing


yeah, sorry , a lot so like apparently there's a few agents right, they keep contacting me but like I'm still not sure I still need more information in how all these insurance health insurance or


yeah all that works I'm not really sure I know that there's a monthly payment you're supposed to do but, I think they have a few plans where you have certain, uh number of years like after five years ten years and fifteen years like certain marks where you can actually withdraw money start withdrawing money


so I still need to go and look through all that stuff but I am planning to do that maybe not now maybe like four or five years like that


actually the monthly payment is not a lot quite affordable


so you're still doing, the health insurance then


ah savings plan, ya I think the lowest I saw was twenty dollars but that's for student I know it's so, cheap right but I think it's I don't know if it's Prudential not sure but like told me it's a student plan so it's for those people who can't really afford all the high costs


for insurance and that it was actually a very good idea for me to start saving up at a young age but it's just that we didn't really have a job at the time and paying twenty dollars every month, I was like a little sceptical about that ya but actually


it's a student plan so it's quite affordable and then while doing the health insurance they also have like this different uh


different type of investing and you can like tell them what you want to invest on whether you want to invest on food and beverages or on technology and then, there're they have like managers who's gonna take your money and then something like a unit trust but they're gonna put your money in a pool of money and then you get down


ya you got the dividend but uh for that you need to put in more money not just twenty dollars


that's the whole reason why I wanted to do investment this year because like after training for investment for like, or you'd rather picking investments for a year now I'm like !wow! it's actually quite good like the monthly income that you get it's, pretty real like the money you put in but of course you need to go and do your own research and whether which stock are uh


having better performance than whichever it is because like it's very easy to get a loss when you're investing without actually knowing your product, and like I think the safest is unit trust but the only problem is they have service charge for that and I don't want to pay for the service charge it's quite expensive one


ya, I know no because for them the unit trust is different agent they're different agent altogether it's not the stockbrokers it'll be stockbrokers so their service charges quite


uh expensive for me because like they're going to manage your unit trust you just have to put in your money and then they will look at the performance and put in your money accordingly so they do all the hard work for you so of course they're gonna charge for it but


it's the percentage I think different person have their own ya I think let's say you're going to invest in maybe like first dividend income dividend advantage I think, ya then they have their own uh managers so you need to see what's their specific what's their percentage they're charging for the


service charge I think it's based on how much you going to invest ya, ya but it's still quite expensive like if you are gonna invest hundred dollars right thumb some some unit trust maybe like forty dollars then there're service charge


ya so you need you really need to trust your agent whether if they're able to make a good decision with your money


at my age I don't need a credit card I don't thing it's, necessary it's not a necessity for my age I think, ya maybe credit card when you're having a family or maybe you when you're married when both of you have a proper job and your earnings


not really at a early stage in life the credit cards charges are so expensive are you holding a credit card, uh not really so it's


three credit cards, is that expensive to own three credit cards


I heard the service charge is quite expensive no


they got monthly or something right


do you meet the criteria, unless you're actually paying for this do you pay for what you


ya I'm not paying any bill I think the only thing I pay for is my travelling and, , ya my daily expenditures I haven't start on the oh my phone bill I guess ya that's the only and I try to calculate if I'm gonna get the one card because I think the benefits are quite good right the one card


Grab benefits ya because I I use Grab like crazy like I'm I'm already a platinum member ya so the one card have good benefits I I wanted to get the card but I couldn't meet the monthly so I haven't really check on the monthly lah


ah that's a lot, you could do that maybe start doing that


charges of twelve percent per annum, !wow!


do you recommend make for credit card because I joined SIA as well right then I'm supposed to prepare a monthly and I don't really know how I'm gonna start doing that, do you recommend for a credit card


ya you turn me for cards for a UOB right the last part the I only know the benefits of the credit card


but I don't really spend that much I'm not I'd yeah I usually uh think a lot before spending so ya


CPF contribution okay


because I'm a PR so I still have to pay CPF is it yes, I, ya okay, ya I think it's the same, it's quite high right I think seventeen percent per month right


seventeen percent is it or twenty percent, ya I think it's I'm quite positive about it yeah, at least I can still use it for investment right I wanted to try the CPF investment thing but you need to have a minimum twenty thousand for that and ya I still


have like a slightly lesser than that so I can't do it right now and because like I don't wanna use my cash at the moment for investment I rather prefer to get investment because my CPF is going to be there for a very long time I rather just use it for investment right


so for CPF investment right uh for you to start investment firstly you need to have a minimum twenty thousand in your bank account sorry CPF account, and then we only touch your uh special account, yeah we don't touch any other because there's a few other things you can


uh invest but for UOB they only touch your special account for investment, so sorry ordinary account not special account we only use ordinary account for investment ya we don't touch special account but some of the banks do invest in in invest using special account as well and then


ya actually a lot of people are doing that it's quite underrated I feel like it should be a lot of people should be aware about it because like my parents weren't aware that you can actually use your CPF funds to invest and


generally my advice is that the, money you get back it's worth the investment likes I've been ya the minimum people get right I think it's three hundred per month, and it's ya it's quite good already and you can just let your money be there


per month and then like check your CPF for all the income and stuff, and you tend to micromanage like how when you're using your cash to invest right you have to micromanage like when the stock go up or when the stock go down and then you sell when your money when you're going to invest with CPF right you can just let your money be there for a very long time


ya so it's more convenient for students maybe, ya you can only take the money if there's dividend and they allow you to take it via cash ya but then if it's a right


sense to you like more shares if they offer you more shares and then all that funds you are not able to withdraw, only the income also depends on the stocks and on the fund as well some funds they do not allow


cash withdrawal they only allow ya there will directly contribute to your CPF so you need to look at all those, as well are you planning to do a CPF investment already


oh so you can use your CPF to do investment right for UOB there's a service charge, for every investment you're going to make like three dollars fourteen cents, at the moment, three months


on top investment so if you have if you have like three investments then will be nine dollars plus ya maybe you should take note of that as well, yeah it's not so bad but it's let's say your uh funds are not making money right then you're actually losing money over time


so ya that's one downside a lot of customers when they call in then they'll be quite upset that they're charging, for uh just for their investment to be hold with you ya I I don't think a lot of bank has the charges I'm not sure but


ya it's not waiverable strictly not waiverable most of the complaints case is about that like you know they're they're quite rich right they're premium customers and they don't want to pay for that three dollars


then they like why do I have to charge for my own investment then you're just trying to get money from us for no reason


and also like they have charges for the stuff like let's say you wanna shift your investment to another bank then you get charged or you want to sell still have charge you wanna buy still have charge ya, ya but that's why you need I think I feel like when you're going to invest you need to invest in a bigger amount so when you are going to pay for the charges right then you still have sufficient fund for the investment itself


ya it's not worth it if you're just going to invest like hundred dollar or two hundred dollars you know maybe like at least five hundred dollars for you to have proper monthly income


oh my god


no I think I want to talk about the people , ya a lot of politics ya I I don't really like the work place you know who, like used to be good like the only reason why it's good is because shirlyn and all of you like my friends but the politics is so bad


it's very toxic ya and, you know like my whole uh time there I think if I continued I'd probably go into depression or something, because not only the heavy working hours


and then the stress that you haven't finish your cases and then on top of that all the politics that goes around but like I think generally all all of the workplaces do have politics but, in I really think that this company has a lot you know right like with the whole karen thing


she is I don't know if she was I I don't know if she resigned or she was kicked out


ya oh my like that during that period of time I would like cry with it at least once a week you know because there's, so and Riyah is not there to even help me out even if she is right she was very useless a lot of time


even during the whole card training ya even the whole card training I had no manager to like ask and the only one I could ask was bond


but that had separate the issues with bond itself so I couldn't ask him sometimes ask him as well


personal internet banking you you need to know the app and the whole internet bank


and you know for banking right they didn't even teach us anything about PIB admin or PIB we had self, ya we were all self taught about the whole PIB thing and then like when you you went to ask them like we're not trained on how to assist PIB related enquiries they were like oh the notes and you can refer yourself so ya I until I remember I


they didn't teach me how to assist PIB at all they they told us like they did tell us that there's a PIB admin where you can use but how to use it and when to use it ya, also like if you're if you're not banking trained right then PIB is quite difficult like you don't know how


banking works in PIB I think it should be harder for you right since you're only trained


for PIB, ya so it's


like why are you doing on your last , and the worst part is you had oh to take call back on your last day who takes calls on the last day


can't do your own callback after eight thirty or nine, oh, I'll let them monitoring as well right you have to monitor them


and you know like the communication between the departments is so bad, you know I'm leaving right in three weeks then they send me for cards training


ya the whole I'm thinking they know and then I was like maybe they want me to take cards call for like a week I don't know so then, they just sent me for the training and then like I think one week into the training uh marge called me and she were just uh I told her that my contract is ending and do you still want me to take cards call then she said oh yeah I'll update the


department about that and then I'll just waiting for instructions until I can go back to taking uh banking call investment call and then uh she didn't contact me for two weeks, and then on the like uh #Chee Wei# was like okay I'm gonna uh put all of you for shift shift working hours


ya uh not office hours anymore and then I was like ya but I'm only going to take two days of uh, and now I'll be on leave then she was like how why would you do that then I was like because I'm ending my contract in a week and she was like what not the end of this year


I was like no and marge just make it aware and he was so annoyed, because I think he did all these uh scheduling already and he was pissed at me I was like I told marge already and she was supposed to get back to me about all these so not like I kept it to myself