one weird thing I realised during this circuit breaker period and post post quarantine, ironically I'm spending more on clothes than I do before lockdown don't don't you think so


ya also I think because businesses are trying to, like recuperate their losses from retail outlets right a lot of them are having online sales and like other other deals to get consumers to buy you know so everything is like


on sale everything is like in your face I'm having sale like that very like !wow! the temptation is real, but like ya ya a very, , maybe because we are more active online now than than back then like before quarantine I don't know maybe


ya, ya honestly even school, , but in terms of whether it's justified I think it's quite ironic so probably not, realistically speaking probably a bulk of my allowance goes to clothes and Grab


ya it goes both ways I guess, I think one thing I realized during COVID period the delivery fees for everything just rose up very significantly then at first I was quite wary to buy online like especially food the delivery fees just rose up


a lot, nowadays so I think post COVID period like even though I'm I got used to buying things online now but post COVID I can see myself like, I willl appreciate my time outside more so probably not engage in online shopping as much


even though if it it it has already become a habit right now but, I also realise that I got complacent like , , I forgot the the wonders of going out into the real world and buying things so I think post COVID like when everything is like better than how it is now I think


like when we can gather with more people ya, probably, ya probably may let's spend less on online shopping specially for clothes but probably on Grab expenditure uh I think it will increase


oh I think !yay! confirm, ya I mean I mean ironic cause the public transports are like okay to take now ya but but I think that's a habit that I'll probably like bring forward you know


ya ya ya ya,


I mean, I mean your strategy works


that that's a good idea honestly when you mention about the Shopee one I'll probably do that now, I did not know that how did I not know, that but ya oh


ya ya, it's okay , what are your thoughts on CPF contribution, I agree I agree


I think it's good especially because, uh like, for example you start working now regardless part time or whatever even if even if you're a student, like usually when you're students and youths like us it's not like we don't really think so much about the future we do now now but like in like probably last two years or last year I wasn't thinking about it but when we work part time it forces you to


the salary got cut, for CPF right like just compulsory and I think I think it's a it's a very good security measure for us when we grow older and I think it's a very good scheme that the government has implemented on all its residents ya it's very good idea lah even though


even though we we whine about it when our when our salary got cut but I think when we're younger we can't really see how important it will


older generations, ya also in terms of uh like job security you'll never know what happens in the future so maybe for now you


you you can, you're probably earning a lot of money but you don't know in, terms of like ten years down the road whether your job still relevant or whether you're still doing that job so having like a compulsory saving in terms of CPF all this while is


ya it's a very good security measure basically, ya for property, if I'm not wrong only when you're fifty five yes or you can


err, take out the ordinary account for personal, expenses is that right, you you can withdraw a can use it for travel, ya ah


I wonder when that will be hopefully hopefully we'll work enough, to like retire early and enjoy our life comfortably


uh one thing I've always wondered is about if you work as a freelance how does that work


right that's that's a concern especially because my line of study right now leads to a lot of freelance work it's like a very common job option, for my course of work so that's one worry I have


of my future ya


part three negative experience


I mean it's not much about, I felt that nobody cares about me but more of, people are too busy for me, like I've always known that there are people who cares for me like my family but, people get caught up in things right


so when I was living alone last year being alone in another country is, quite hard in itself but , I mean I can always reach out to people like my friends


whenever I need, something or like my family, but it's always, a thought that oh I have to, I have to do the first step in like approaching or like asking someone !hey! are you free to Skype are you free for call because just because I feel lonely so that was a bit


, a lonely period in my life I guess, but it's not so much about, me feeling like nobody cares it's just like I don't want to burden people, either it's, I just feel like uh people have, lives


busy lives like personal lives I don't want to like, just because I feel lonely like I have to contact someone ya, , ya also I don't want them to worry about me


also like if I'm feeling lonely or something and then uh for example I'll text my family, and say that I am lonely I mean they get they might get worried you see ya so I don't want to implicate that also


if I voice out my, my feelings or like my concerns like that, how about you


is it is it you feel that, people might think, that, with whatever you have you don't deserve to


it suddenly became like a competition as to whose feelings are more valid, ya I think uh as in, for my social media account right for my private account


I've always, felt like I should hold back on airing my concerns to be really honest especially about school because, a couple of my poly friends, they, they are not doing university now right because of


like various reasons like money or like they have to take care of their mother like really serious issues like that and I feel like if I air out like my, quote unquote petty petty school related worries like oh my god my essay I can't finish it you know


like my essay so hard I don't know what to do I'm so stressed meanwhile other people like my friends, like are worrying about money and like finding a job to take care of their sick mom like literally then I feel bad in a way so I've always felt like I I tend to hold back on airing airing such concern


because, in a way I feel like I don't, deserve to feel, to feel like, I'm having a hard life you know like I have to be more grateful for what I have, ya like


I shouldn't be complaining about this I should be grateful and mean it and I am, but I, I mean feelings are not a competition right, so, ya ya lah


ya, ,


ya no also they will just point it to overthinking I think you are overthinking this, ya that's how I always feel because okay especially for the both of us we are quite well known overthinkers so I think a lot of people just uh trivialise it like what you said


just like no lah sarah I think, I think you're just I think you're just overthinking this like I don't think I don't think it's like that but like, for us personally we have so many worries inside our head that like or like I get anxious whenever I don't think about situations or like what could happen what could go wrong yes


I feel more anxious if I don't think about it, ya, think about like possible solutions or something if anything goes wrong, uh


honestly you know , ya


you're putting it up for judgment


I feel, uh I've always find it to be like a double edged double edged thing, ya because, one one thing is, when I hold back my worries and my concerns the thoughts inside my head eh my social media tend to portray like the positive side of my life and when people


like , people tend to think that I'm very like happy go lucky oh you look so happy I mean I take it as a compliment ah you look so happy like thank you I mean I am like contented with my life but I don't want people to look at me as very superficial or very two D ya like


bro she like what does she know like she has it all in life you know like, that's one, like reaction I always get honestly like subconsciously people tend to give out that message to me


and but then, my my thinking when it comes to like private accounts on instagram like for mine personally I feel like there are a lot of like enough negative, things and like negative vibes toxicity online so I don't really want to put my thoughts up for judgments or like put up


put up negative vibes I feel like people don't need it that's why I tend to like hold back but when holding back also you're putting yourself also at judgement of like people thinking that you're not deserving of like feeling sadness or like having concerns you know


ya, ya


ya let's find the healthy balance, uh


mine is, honestly the most hurtful things, always relate back to my family feel like comments like that I can never, forget yes, I don't think I I don't think I want to mentioning it explicitly right now but


uh in my entire life I don't think my heart has, has ever broke that way when I heard that, the fact that it was said so, , ya and like not even trying to be discreet about it I was literally right behind them when they were when they said it


and like I even saw one of them like turn around and saw that I was there, I didn't really I really didn't appreciate it I think, I mean comments about myself I can just take it and like I mean I'll be sad over it and like probably think about it for like a few days but


but I can always internaliae it as like okay sarah never mind you can work on it like maybe it's something that you need to work on if it's constructive criticism, but when it comes to other people like your home or something


it's like that's so unnecessary ya that hit that hits too close man, !yay!, like who are you man, like seriously


ya just just for the food I guess, until now


that's why until now I've always been reluctant to invite people, like I always like every year that dilemma will come like like you I mean if you open your house you'll get, like right ya


but at the same time I can't, let go of this nagging feeling that, what if I'm not a good enough host, you know what if like people feel like it's a waste of time like I don't want to waste people time people's time


like ya that was the that was hurtful man, , ya ya, I think in in a sense we tend like we don't need to invite people that that we don't want to invite


now, you know ya it was worth back then lah but then now it's just like, ya you guys me to come it's like, make yourself at home man


people were very judgemental at that age, because every ya of course !duh! of course the two of us but I think, in that phase of life we're just all trying to figure out ourselves so when we see ourselves we tend to like see other


people also like how they how they act and all that kind of stuff and try to find where we fit in so I think that's where the judgments tend to, to pop out you know like, whenever I see somebody else then I'm like I don't want to do that I won't do that you know


because we are all trying to figure out ya we're all trying to figure out ourselves, , (hmm), ya


, like we're just trying to conform to the


, like the newest iPhone or something you know, exactly, I feel like in a way we're perpetrators too, last time when


even even when our friend Hani wanted to, like one direction we were like, do you know enough about them like, she was just trying to , and she was just trying to make friends with us, , that was mean though we're like


you do you do you feel bad


I feel like we tend to forget as students the struggle, teachers go through like, ya and like outside life you know , other than school like we we tend to forget that we just see them as like teachers but when when we see them in outside context it's like so weird like oh wait what


you you know, which is sad honestly if if that happens to me I'll probably cry, I'll probably grow go home and cry, the whole class was laughing at her man


at at least, now, the saving grace sadly we realised that it was a mistake, quite atrocious K we weren't we weren't bad we weren't bad but we were just judgmental man


also there were a lot of teachers back then who were quite racist, that was really bad


like how do you even speak up to a teacher that oh you're racist because, when when you're in school there are a lot of things that they can, they can punish you with you know which is which is sad so that so like, so called victim always


tend to like not voice out, which is sad you know, ya


guilt that that's why, that's one thing that's concerning also like the people who were getting


bullied on were also laughing off the fact because I feel like they are they are too afraid to afraid to speak out, about it in case they get ostracised you know ya it's sad lah


part two positive experience, so Adila


uh what is a hobby or activity that you felt happiest doing as a child


oh


pretty sure pretty sure it it bled into secondary one when I saw your file full, of stickers one direction , , you tried to make money out of it


how did you even think of business when you're when you're that age


(ugh) , , , not sure if it's the happiest but I enjoyed, , previously I used to go down


to play with my cousins every single sunday uh sunday evening, like sunday afternoon to evening of play downstairs with my cousins and then well I mean as kids you will just mingle around with other kids that you see on the in like at the playground right so I I that was that was quite wholesome especially because now


like a lot of us are attached to the online world ya, so uh that that's a memory that I really miss and feel that that was so wholesome was like, and like


how to say, like , you don't even need to, make a promise or an event out of it but just somehow sunday afternoon and evening every


ya every I feel like all the kids in #chai chee# like go go down , somehow and just there was so there's always so many of us at the playground playing together, and like I think it's so wholesome in terms of like we just mingle with each other we don't we don't really


bother whether like we know you we'll just play together I think that's a very memorable memory from childhood that I truly miss I think as adults we tend to think a lot before before we make friends you know ya ya


ya ya that's that's right, what is the best thing that you have done for yourself


I think uh similar to yours like figuring out what, what I want to do and the things that I want to change, from what I'm doing now I think it's an underrated thing, like it may not seem like a very tangible best thing that I've ever done for example like going to a concert or something like that it's just more mentally I think it really shaped


my life into, at least a decent direction that I think I should be heading like that that enlightenment , eh like ya, of course


ya fulfilling it's like satisfying


I feel I think ultimately we will never know in life whether this is the best route for us like whether you never know, until until you, past that, this is the right path for me you know you'll never know whether there's a better path for you out there but


I think being content enough in the route ya in the route that you're in, it's like one of the one of the best thing that that you can ask for I think


in my in my multiple trial and errors from the different courses that, I've done, I've never once regretted doing it or like I knew it was a mistake to go in there but I've never looked at it negatively where like ah I really why why did I think like that why I should have gone here straight you know like I knew that


the process required me to go through all that trial and errors before


ya ya ya you're back, ya which goes back to what you said about contentment instead of finding happiness


what is your best surprise , uh, I think my best surprise


was finding out that, I can take care of myself as in , because , living alone really uh,


all my life I've been the youngest, right the youngest daughter, then I've always been doted on, and everybody takes care of me so before I, opt to


study overseas and lived a and live alone I always wondered and worried so much about, I really cannot do this you know like I've never really cooked for myself properly properly you know so I think once


I was there I was really like pleasantly surprised at how well like, you yourself can take care of yourself like I think anybody, like in that situation will be able to take care of themselves like you


ya survival mode, I think that was that was quite a a surprise as in like that that , epiphany that epiphany that, ya, ya that everybody I feel like more than independent I feel like everybody has that mode


or like that that ability to like do things for themselves for example like when I live with my parents I don't usually clean my room for example now when you're there and you live and you live alone every, like dust you see you just ah I have to wipe it you know


that that was a surprise in terms of like character like my character I didn't know I was like that, ya ya, ya how about you


oh oh ya


that was a very that was a very good day though honestly, ya , besties besties, ,


ya, how would your life be like if you were a millionaire, !huh!, why do you say so


millionaire


how do you think you would spend your money


I think it's easy for us because both of us like to say eat the rich like nobody deserves to be that rich and holding on to that much money for themselves when there's poverty I think it's I think it's, I think it's ya


ya but I think it's easy for us to , fake like in this position ya but I feel like I think with more money comes more responsibility also I mean I'm trying to think positively of millionaires but like I bet they have a lot of


concerns inside their brain also you know like they have they use money to source out, people that can help with, the multitude of of like things they have to be responsible for you know so I think, that's why they say money can't really buy you happiness because when you are that rich I feel like


uh like, I don't think there are many people that can truly enjoy the wealth, that they have you know, like time, responsibilities, ya


but I agree I, such things, , moderate ya also I agree to what you said about if we weren't living like this now and like we were born into the rich it it's a bit harder for you to see things outside of your bubble right I feel like in that sense we like to blame


millionaires for like why are you not helping enough towards the world, but like when I, when I try to put myself in their place and I was born into the rich for example, I, I think I'll be spending superficially too you know


can be shared too you know


hopefully hopefully hopefully , uh we, we still have this , uh uh ya ya ya ya ya


oh, , no I hate that, no no no no no no, I don't know why the only thing that comes to mind is, Hanis


Hanis the first time the brown one don't know why, I remember there's, specific time and place where she told us, at the bus stop outside school


guys it came guys it came and then, ya no and, the two of us were quite mean we were like doubting her all the way lah are you sure what colour is it blah blah blah blah blah then she was like brown and it was just like


, she's always nice it's just the two of us, story tellers , I mean I we are used to it by now it's I


okay we shall move on , describe a travel experience that left you in awe, Amsterdam, I'm in awe of your travel experience


that was so pretty that was seriously so pretty


it was part of tour group is it


a local driver lah, is it from is it, from Klook is it oh ya she does she does


uh I would say, Surabaya , like uh oh man it was underrated man like, I mean, we we don't usually view neighboring countries as like very !wow! or like put it put it on a pedestal right as compared to like further further away countries but I


thoroughly enjoyed Surabaya it was like mind, blowing how much I enjoyed it it was so peaceful ya it was a vibe it was truly a vibe, I I just remembered , , being on top of the mountain and then


I was just because I went there alone without my sister so I had no nobody, too , for companion other than my parents so I just spent majority of the time, in the hotel lobby alone reading a book and then it was like misty and then


and then it was cooling !wah! was such a vibe, vibe, it was truly like peaceful, ya, , it's like ah you know


it was like misty and then you're immersed in your book oh I thought I was in a fairy tale seriously and then uh for for one of the mornings right uh, during uh we wanted to watch the sunrise then, my


the guide brought us to this uh, place on top of a mountain then there were horses that you could ride on to bring you on top of the mountain so you were like, going up the mountain in horses then it was misty


cause you were going up so high !wah! I really felt like a princess, ya like a, fantasy princess I mean like the horses looked very, like malnourished lah but , other than that fact uh, it was quite, magical ya until now I cannot forget


I think about four four days there weren't much to do honestly it was just a vibe, that I really remember like you you may not remember the, whole experience of it but you, after a trip you'll always remember the feelings that you got right ya so that was very impactful


okay so uh so hi my name is Afifah so we will be talking about uh financial related, topic so I guess the one that is close to the heart would be uh personal finance


and how and how uh we try to you know uh save during the COVID lah most of the time cause right now is the pandemic season so usually so usually for for yourself how do you you know uh uh


take care of your finances since the COVID started


yes yes


so for me I do I do have a uh full time job but because of the COVID and things like that uh things I has been quite slow so uh we were for my for myself I were put to a no pay leave


for uh for one month so during that one month , uh my my uh, cash flow has been uh reduced by by a lot because uh I was put to no pay leave, but uh at the same time with the with the help of a family and friends and also uh I did try to you know uh do home based uh business like I do baking to to just to just


no earn that that money while looking for a for a full time job lah so on top of that uh singapore is doing a great initiative by uh giving uh all sort of uh grants to help those that are affected lah so in that sense


uh even though I'm uh being put to no pay leave uh I'm still quite thankful that uh there're still uh income flowing in lah so not as bad as zero uh zero income lah so ya


ya ya so so I agree I agree with Ain in singapore is a, a slightly uh expensive compared to the rest of southeast asia, so doing a side uh income a side hustle will help to you know uh to to sustain apart from just your full time uh income so just like Ain she did uh she did tuition


uh I did home based home base baking so , so ya I with that I hope that uh you know we we could cover a bit here and there especially during this pandemic period where everything is difficult lah


hello, oh okay so so, so as I was saying uh during this pandemic season err besides uh the cash flow there's other ways that we can save uh our our finance so one of the ways


err uh of course not to just depend on the grants but also uh doing side hustle also uh recently I took up a another uh side job while waiting for for my project, uh to be deployed so uh I did uh delivery delivery because right now more and uh more people are staying at home so uh the the demand in a delivery uh services increases also so I took that opportunity to


to uh uh gain earn some some uh money lah while waiting for the full time job


I agree with ain when it comes to investment uh I'm not I'm a no expert but I do read up on investment every now and then so a bit


of course investment is a high risk so but you if you don't start uh then your money will be stagnant there uh investment is is the is one of the way to make your money work for itself so there's a lot of uh there's a lot of uh different type of investment so uh


uh like like what uh Ain uh friends did was she invested in a in a company and and and and get a return and things like that so there's I one of other safer investment I believe will be CPF, so there's uh there's two type of uh CPF account the OA and the SA


so err I know of people that uh took the advantage of the high high return from the SA so they keep on pumping uh money into the SA, for for better returns ah that one is for retirement I believe so ya so besides uh if you're too worried about uh it uh about like other unknown source to invest in you maybe can start with CPF which is like a government one


, (mmhmm) (mmhmm)


ya so besides uh investment like ain said uh you have to uh know how to divide your income so I I read somewhere that uh there's uh about five ways to you know to start your personal income uh personal saving so one of it is from your income you know what is your sources and cash flow


then after that spending so the spending part is where you uh you need to learn how to divide your cash flow so like maybe uh this there's this rule there's a lot of rules uh on internet that you can find but one of the rules that I read was the fifty thirty twenty so


thirty will be uh fifty will be on the spending thirty will be on the saving and twenty will be on the wealth so spending is the one that you know you pay your your uh uh your bills your your expenses your your your meals or your everything


so the uh the thirty will be your savings whereby you you know thirty percent of your income you keep inside uh uh uh a bank account, so and another twenty will be on investment so ya so I I believe that fifty thirty and twenty will be a good uh a good start for for people who you know uh started working full time and want to start doing this personal savings lah


(mmhmm) (mmhmm)


ya so like besides the income part lah so I I I'd like to talk more about the uh saving part so from my end how I like you said lah uh saving needs a lot of uh discipline


cause it's not easy with the money that you you see, you you tend to you know overspend and things like that so what I did was uh for my income I'd I I have separate banks bank accounts, so I have a bank account for those salary that came in and then I will divide divide thirty to uh thirty percent of my savings to another bank account


so I will do a standing uh instruction, which will go straight to my uh a saving uh account so that I won't touch it at all, so another another twenty I will I will uh standing instruction to another bank account, also I won't touch I won't touch it so the remaining fifty is the one that I will I will I will do make payment and things like that that's the only account that I will touch


so and at so the number will keep on accumulating per month, so ya so from there you can see uh maybe with that twenty percent of the wealth that you have accumulated uh you might want to you know uh uh invest or even put in insurance lah insurance in the sense that if anything happens uh your dependent can get the money back lah


oh ya ya ya uh I only learn recently when I transfer money to ain that I I learned that PayLah is actually a wallet and not like a PayNow so initially I thought PayNow and PayLah what's the difference so I didn't know that PayLah is actually a wallet where you know uh just like a wallet you keep on saving money inside that


in that wallet so as long as you didn't take it out it will be there, so as as compared to PayNow PayNow is different at because PayNow is straight to your bank account ya so maybe ya, now have a lot of apps and uh a good uh uh initiative whereby you you can


take uh you can save uh you uh free you don't have to you know you go to a financial adviser take a product or things like that you can actually save without uh without uh costing more money


ya ya so like uh I believe like things like investment and insurance uh if you're if you don't really uh have that sound knowledge then I guess it'll be better to go through a agent but uh saving money on your own uh I guess there's a lot of


apps out there like uh that kept that could help with a personal savings like uh the standing instruction from banks, so it's like GIRO like that so you don't have to do any uh manual transfer per month it will automatically deducted from your


bank account into another bank account so you don't touch it so I guess when it comes to like something more technical like insurance and uh investment sure I think is best if we , we we consult uh uh expert, yup


, ya so ya I think I think renting is, uh something that I heard from , from a lot of people that it's a good investment, err but ya I haven't got the chance to look into uh renting property yet so so let's see uh right now I still trying to save uh manual err not really manually uh


uh doing it by myself actually like I do standing instruction, from my main salary account into different, pockets of uh like one for one for uh what is it called one for saving uh uh one for wealth one for savings


so I don't touch it but right now the wealth uh bank account is the one that I'm trying to see how I can grow it more like maybe through investment and insurance uh ya


ya so another thing that I would like to like you know talk about will be uh besides uh besides saving the money itself, uh into different bank accounts through and and growing your money through uh insurance and investment what are the ways that uh you use to uh save money because right now it's COVID right so so we are we we


we tend to you know uh we hope because before COVID we tend to you know our daily lifestyle and and things like that and then the drastic change how do you save money then


(mmhmm) , okay okay okay then for sorry


oh okay for me I try to save on uh deals so I'm intrigued by deals so I I love to like you know every morning go to my my favorite website where I can see all the deals so I will go there and try to take a look what deals are there for me too


uh take this opportunity to use it lah so I can save a bit more and I also have, uh I also tried, I think a few years back I I got lucky and I tried to uh save on handphone bills


so right now I think it's been like maybe almost two years I haven't been paying handphone bill monthly, so so so I have uh because there's a lot of uh telco out there that is you know uh uh having competition with each other giving good deals so that uh so that they can gain more customers so I got lucky with a with a


two telco uh quite brand new telco uh they they actually offered a like maybe a one year free trial then uh with unlimited data so uh I use that for my data at at the same time there's another telco that give like maybe uh


thirty minutes talk time and maybe uh SMS hundred SMS for a fourth zero dollar as well, so I use that to to leverage on my you know call and uh uh and SMS so so I don't have to pay so both ways I got my data and my calls and my SMS all at a zero cost


so I've been doing that for maybe going to be two years now so I have been saving on my phone bills a lot cause back then I used to pay like maybe forty per month so ya


ya yup yup ya ya, ya so so I believe there's a lot of , err uh uh


a opportunity to save money uh it's whether you take initiative to look or or not only so like for example if you want to shop you can uh get a cashback uh maybe you can uh look into those uh credit cards that that give you cashback


so for me I have one that is uh mainly for uh a that I use daily , for uh transportation for shopping and everything so that credit card actually uh tracks all my uh daily expenses so I won't like uh you know so at the same time I get a cashback lah so ya that's a win win situation for me lah


ya ya ya cashback back uh uh ya the money to account, ya so besides that uh there's a lot of a deals not only via via application but it also uh because of COVID a lot of companies are looking to uh attract more customer back so there's a lot of


uh deals uh that is uh you know just to attract people to come to their shop and and get it started back lah so make use of those opportunity to get things that you have been wanting to buy


ya ya I I'm so there's a lot of shop uh so uh unfortunately a lot of shop closed but uh but fortunately for us there's a lot of good deals so there's there's a lot like, (ppc)


ya ya ya so like I think every month where you can see like nine nine eight eight ten ten eleven eleven everything twelve twelve all


having promotion so ya take take advantage of that to buy things that you've been you know saving on the cart but but haven't checked out so ya and at the same time top on top of that you can use uh your credit card to get cashback from buying those stuff so additional cashback


and also (um) (ppb) maybe promo codes and things like that ya


, part three negative experience, okay so just now we talk about the positive side of uh COVID-nineteen the pandemic the lockdown and things like that so I guess in every situation there's always the positive and negative so for the negative experience that I I faced during these uh COVID


is uh like for me uh I'm in the uh services, the industry whereby uh most of my project uh are depends on of course client base so more more client actually uh retract from the from the from the contract


so lesser lesser manpower they needed lesser manpower so a lot of us were put to uh no project no project and uh because of that we were forced to go on a no pay leave, so for one month I have no pay and ya there's a there's a negative uh impact that COVID have experienced uh how about you Ain


ya so I believe uh it do it does have like uh psychology impact on people that uh on us that uh especially that loses our


job or were put to uh no no pay, and things like that so ya like uh it'll it'll it'll bring it was a bit of like how do I put it disappointing a bit and disappointment a bit and also


ya so so when when my company actually sent me uh a letter, saying uh uh uh saying that I will be put to no pay leave I was I was actually shocked so I actually negotiated with my with my uh HR saying that ha


how could you like you know suddenly tell me oh uh you going to be like you know uh no pay for the next one month then I told them that's impossible I've like credit cards to pay I have uh bills to pay and uh and and things like that


so uh it was very shocking for me at the same time it was very , sad because there's nothing that the company could offer to you know lighten the burden so ya so at the same time


uh I couldn't find any other opportunity, because of the pandemic so a lot of companies are not hiring and uh err even after sending lots of uh application uh no one get back so it was very demoralising uh ya


(ppc)


oh no oh man


I see oh my god so both the husband and wife got terminated at the same time,


ya so so besides that uh I believe uh besides job security there's a lot of other uh negative experience or negative impact uh during this pandemic and so one of it would be uh


uh ah what is that call , uh social wellness or uh social wellbeing or something like that so like you become, very depressed because uh the whole world is shutting there's nothing there's nothing


ya so so so ya for people who, !wah! like you know in a uh in a uh like for example the family is very far apart like for example they are in another country it's very very depressing for them not to be able to fly to see the family because they're stuck in the country so


I see I see ya and and I believe it'll be harder for parents because they have uh children that they have to show a good role model so but it's very depressing at this time point of time period whereby you have to be strong no matter what so that the kids won't be uh so much affected but


uh I just hope uh things are better now for them uh hopefully


ya so I I I think I watched one video, err this famous youtuber she got uh COVID nineteen uh don't know how so she suddenly had COVID nineteen and she was that sharing her experience she said that it was it was uh life threatening


like I think the first day she got uh that she was suspected it was still okay was just a flu come come to second and third day the the impacted her breathing and things like that so she thought she was dying already so


then after that somehow uh somehow she heard like a voice like her inner voice saying that uh your it it's not over yet for you like you have to fight this it's not over yet your purpose in life is not is not done yet so so she actually fought


she always she fought the battle like if she were to just you know that to follow whatever that the body said maybe she could have died or something like that because she has no willingness so so when when she's she heard that inner voice she actually tried her best but ya she she shared that uh


this COVID nineteen is no joke lah so it's a real thing maybe maybe for me I don't see uh like I don't know people uh uh immediate people that have uh COVID nineteen, but I do hear stories from uh YouTube and things like that that it's very serious and is very very uh saddening for for the your loved one to suddenly pass away because of COVID nineteen


(ppc) ya so so so the COVID-nineteen uh I mean there's no uh vaccine found for for the virus so those people who actually uh recover recover from COVID-nineteen is said uh it's not really like it could relapse because the


the the vaccine is not the right vaccine they just try to you know uh make it improve and things like that so uh that's why when when you know when uh, a COVID nineteen patient visited the area the government will actually notice like you know inform us oh this mall has been visited by a a COVID nineteen patient previously and things like that so it it tends to create uh a a negative scary uh


illusion or or thinking that oh this this place has been you know visited by someone who had a COVID nineteen even though the person already recovered so uh it instills kind of a fear in people, so there's still there's still negativity running around because of these uh pandemic even though there's a lot


even though there's a lot of a lot of numbers that that has improve like maybe right now the number of uh committees to a single digit but there's still like uh you know people are very very very cautious about it


ya and also I believe that


it creates a lot of uh inconvenience like we have to wear the mask we have to uh use hand sanitiser have social distancing which is very very troublesome because we are not used to it so


uh ya and and I don't know I feel I feel like uh the this new new norm is something that I don't want it to you know prolong like I wanted to go back to the to ya,


ya oh my god okay okay but ya for, oh (oo) okay


(ppc), oh man oh that's bad, so ya so ya so like for for I think it's most uh vulnerable group of people will be the kids and the old people lah ya so so like for example uh my grandmother right so


so she she lives alone so when things happen to her uh it's difficult because like for example during circuit breaker we couldn't even like, go out to help to go to her house and help her so so it was , it was very difficult so when whenever we got the chance to you know call her up and ask her like is there anything she she would say that all the the inconvenient thing like she used to be she used to be able to to go to the shop and and things like that but because of COVID she doesn't have


food, she doesn't have food because she she couldn't go out and things like that but for us it's easy because we we know how to uh use uh delivery app and things like that but not for older people so ya the inconvenient actually create a negative impact on her


oh !wow!, !wow! oh


!wow! okay !wow! I didn't know that doctors actually do a house visit, , unnecessary costs because of COVID , ya so ya because of all such uh inconvenience it has created a a negative uh thinking and also instill fear that that you know uh


to that this COVID will not I don't know the because there's no vaccine there's still no vaccine that that could cure COVID-nineteen like I see a lot of country are rushing to get a vaccine but it seems like even after a few tests it is not uh I uh it's not passed yet


so I believe the vaccine uh I don't know until when will they will they get the vaccine , so until then this negative uh impact and negative experience will always be there with us which is uh quite scary lah because negativity won't uh won't make a country flourish lah ya negative citizen and things like that so ya


ya I I saw one photo of a


I think it's a it's a nurse she couldn't she couldn't like you know hug her her child because because she because she she's a nurse in a uh in the infection infectious , department which is the err which is the COVID one if I'm not wrong so ya it's really sad that the child was was wanting to hug her like I think


I think it's been like maybe ya I think it's been one month or something because because it's very inconvenient for for, her also to you know she don't want to to that she don't want the child to get the disease and things like that she also scared because she's taking care of people with COVID so so ya


ya


ya so I think I read a article when uh COVID, uh first outbursts I think it was, uh a prime minister in one of the europe country the finance minister or something like that they he actually couldn't take the stress because of the sudden uh restructuring of uh finance of the country and things like that and everything become chaotic and things like that so he actually kill himself


which is which is very saddening for someone who is so uh educated and you know uh, power yes powerful and because of such pandemic it causes so much stress ya ya it it correct correct so ya he kill himself because of that


so ya the that's the negative, experience that uh not only we faced but also people of a higher ranked that have to think about the whole country faced also , so


ya so so it's very sad for people to you know kill themselves because of, COVID nineteen like the virus is already are deadly and fatal you don't want uh external things to you know pressure you to you know uh give you additional depression or stress and then you resulted in such a such a measures which is


oh my god that's really bad oh !wow! ya, so so ya so so I


I I guess different different country handles it differently, so ya but every country do feel the the the spike and ya and a lot of uh economy err crashes not really crashes but but affected badly


with the closure of borders and things like that so like I think because of uh closure of borders, uh speaking of that uh I think I saw a uh a video, uh of this couple uh from malaysia because malaysia has a lot of uh sub countries right so small small uh states so so the the husband and wife uh


uh apparently working in different state so they were looking forward for #hari raya# to meet but because of COVID they couldn't even meet and they were at the border they were trying to you know , passed uh #hari raya# #hari raya# dishes over the borders so so ya it's really really very sad to see uh such thing is actually happening like you never thought it will happen you never thought that the world will you know stop


in a sense that everybody stop everybody's like you know at home and and borders are are are closed never had cross your mind that such thing will stop I I I mean such thing will you know put a complete stop to everything so, so ya it was really really very uh a negative experience


part two positive experience , okay okay so Ain do you want to share a positive experience first


okay , oh nice, oh,


, so when is your birthday so


like as in a few months apart uh few days apart or few weeks apart, oh oh, nice so so you celebrate together or or or what do you do on the birthday date uh I mean do you guys like celebrate in the middle date or or is it like your birthday or her birthday or together how is it


I see I see so from , positive experience I would like to talk about uh during COVID lah so uh COVID has happened uh suddenly and nobody expected it


so uh in in the midst of the pandemic uh a lot of measures and things like that I find uh there's positive experience to it also like err, everybody tends to you know slow down a bit err you tend to spend time more with your uh loved ones


uh at home uh you learn how to compromise with your family member because due to space constraint and uh uh and you you you get, more you're somehow err more uh you somehow like recharge yourself like you don't you are you're not so hectic compared when you


when you have to go out to work and you don't have time to exercise and things like that so when I when I when the circuit breaker happened everybody had to stay at home so I decided to you know changed my lifestyle, by eating healthily because there's no more excuse of you know going out to buy food there's no temptation there so I I I I achieve my habit uh eating habit my uh sleeping my sleeping habit actually uh sleeping pattern actually changes because I I I'm


I'm able to you know uh sleep early then uh wake up fresh then go for my uh exercise, so I also start picking up uh exercises which when I was working is very hard because I get very tired after you know a long day at outside and a long day at work


so when I'm at home ah, the the tired the the the level of, tiredness is different like you're mentally tired not really physically tired because you don't go out so when you're mentally tired you you just needed to you know go out for a exercise and things like that so it actually it was a reverse for me so I I believe that even though


uh it was a pandemic uh I guess uh is a blessing in disguise lah for I guess for me lah at least couldn't speak for all but for me at least it's a positive experience that I I learn I learn I learn to I learn I learn more about myself and


my family members after so long even though we stay in one house we don't get to you know uh communicate that often because everybody go in and out uh at different timings so ya that's the positive experience so far that


, ya so I I I heard like, err someone told me that you know back then when we were actively outside uh working going out with friends and things like that we always complain that uh if only I have time you know free time at home I could be doing more things like may be cleaning the house or or taking something up


so now we have all the time to be at home so, hopefully with that uh you know uh force we are forced to stay at home we are more productive in a sense that whatever that we have been planning to do if we have the all day or if we have the time at home I hope that we managed to I mean at least


uh for us lah I hope I hope it is a positive uh positive uh, experience for us in the sense that it's not wasted is not wasted like we use every minute that we have at home to to you know maybe clean up the place that we have been wanting to clean or learn something like you said learning Excel and things like that


ya ya ya so so like I wanted to lose weight because of err because of uh what is that called my brother's wedding so at the same time I I started this journey because I was pretty bored at home like


like there's nothing for me to do so I thought like why not I I start exercising it it will be healthy for me and beneficial for me so why not I try that so once I exercise and I learned that, if you want to lose weight the main important thing is what you are consuming not really not really not much on the exercising part so you can be exercising but at the same time you have to control your eating so that's when


I'd try to change my uh food habits also lah by taking more vege uh lessen the sugar sugar food uh sugary sugary snacks and and drinks and also uh lesser carbohydrates


ya


ya so because uh COVID is a very uh is a pandemic so by nature everybody uh humans uh tend to be uh depressed and things like that because because they are confined for very long and things like that but if you


look at things uh on a positive side it could be it could be beneficial for you as well like , in life you have two option which is positive and negative so it's up to you to choose which one you you want to feel like if you want to feel positive try to instill more positive vibes like


ah if something doesn't work it's okay you can always you know try something else that that might suit what you want to do doesn't or you don't have to cater to anybody's timing like it's it's your own timing and your own space and your own comfort level so


ya try to try to , do things that makes you happy doesn't you don't have to you know cater to like you don't have to rush because everybody is at home right and there's nothing like you cannot go out you cannot do a lot of things so so ya just find comfort within yourself and try to improve


on yourself even if there's nothing you can improve just you know have happy thoughts and uh it will instill positivity, oh oh so


(uh huh)


oh nice, ya ya so right now I I think, with technology like TikTok so there's a lot of TikTok recipes that are people actually they call it TikTok hacks so there's a lot of like so like Dalgona coffee I believe it started from TikTok so uh so now I see that more and more you know


uh teenagers actually spend time on TikTok that they can actually make good use of it if they know how to make a good use of it instead of just dancing they could learn a a new skill like like you know like cooking like I think there's a lot of new skill that I learn also uh that I sourced through TikTok like uh finance skills and things like that so


there's a lot of thing that you know uh you can reach out right now within your palms lah it's not difficult it's whether you want or you don't only, ya, , ya I so I started I started baking during the COVID period because uh I realised uh I think it started off when the home based business was affected like they were told that there there shouldn't be any uh baking


or or selling from the house because uh there's a contact uh contact like you need to deliver the food and things like that so from there I realize oh uh actually there's a lot of people that that that does home based business


and it seemed like uh they're earning if is not earning of course there weren't a lot won't be a lot of people but why is there's so many people so it got me thinking then I started to you know uh make my own uh I try to you know join join the bandwagon then try like


uh just baking the simplest thing and then watched and and do my research on how much usually people charged and delivery and things like that , that's when I realised they home based business actually can bring in quite a good profit if uh if you really you know


know know where to source are for things and like the things like that


oh oh


, oh okay I didn't know that like oh that's the first time I hear actually so ya like out of this like I said lah it is really a blessing in disguise everything stop like uh I guess with these also the


environment start to you know uh heal cause less carbo uh carbon dioxide because of uh vehicle less vehicle less uh aeroplane cause you can't fly then lesser pollution lesser , everything and it's just you know uh alleviates your alleviates the world uh the the


ya more peaceful cleaner and everything so at the same time uh increase your you know your bonding session with your family and things like that lah so so ya it's a positive experience even during this pandemic uh in it's a great experience so far


ya, true true because okay for me I have family members that is not in singapore so previously uh previous uh previous #hari raya# we don't even use Skype like we just text each other through WhatsApp


but because of COVID everybody even in singapore you have to do uh Zoom you you tend to do Zoom live or WhatsApp video call so you tend to talk to these people that you know that are not in singapore as well, so there are included and not and not just and not just the locals celebrating together my my family that is not in singapore also we we call in like everybody is there together which is really nice because it didn't happen previously


, ya so so so, ya ya so so ya it's very nice in the sense that even the like my grandmother she doesn't know how to use the uh video call and things like that we we taught her how to you know just press this press that and and she was very happy when she could see everybody so


ya ya ya so so it was very nice like my grandma didn't know there's such thing as video call so it was she was surprised that she could see everybody and ya it was really really very nice,


ya so so ya for my cousin it herself she she she not in singapore so so it's very difficult for her to uh


celebrate when like take off or things like that to come back to singapore so I guess it's really a great opportunity for her to see everybody because usually she will just call her mum, she don't call like cousin and things like that because we we just text each other through whatsapp lah so when when this COVID happen and everybody had to go online uh on video cam it it was really a very nice experience lah like I said


ya then you can also ask for recipe maybe like during during during non COVID it's very hard to you know ask for recipe because maybe you got secret recipe but now then then bopian you've got to like you know ask ya you have to like come Nenek share some recipes ya


, ya ya ya so correct correct so I guess there's a there's there's always like positivity in everything lah like it's whether you choose to to see it or not so like for me for me I


believe like uh why should I be negative when I can be positive lah it's no point making myself sad and things like that


yes yes yes yes and I and and and I I realised something also one thing that was a very positive ah experience for me was uh a lot of courses basically like err I've been eyeing on this course for very long, and uh the course fee is very high but because of COVID err government has a initiative that that uh allows uh it citizen to apply for courses and not pay just pay maybe uh


eighty percent of it not eighty percent as in a subsidised eighty percent of it so maybe you paid only around, five hundred and you can also use the skill future to you know , subset that that five hundred so basically the cost is free and uh on top of that government actually pays you uh money per month


to cover to cover the your expenses uh basic expenses and things like that so I guess it really have uh a positive experience because if not because of COVID I don't think you'll ever get a chance to you know, attend courses for free and on top of that government pays you so ya it's really really a positive experience for me


yup yup, ya agreed so not not only the SG united there's a lot of online cause that uh previously if you want to take it will be like maybe a few hundred but because of COVID everybody's tend to stay at home they actually subset the whole course so it's it's up to you whether you want to take it or not


yes yes so so ya like in my , in my opinion use this time uh wisely like in the sense that uh it might be the economy might be low and uh employment might be bad and things like that but it's a great time for you to upscale yourself there's a lot of free courses


a lot of uh time a lot of opportunity to to do it so ya do it don't, don't uh procrastinate already just that you know it's time to take some action to you know make your life better once the economy is up the employment is up once corona is gone


oh okay for the finance because right now uh uh on top of my full time job I uh also teach tuition so that is a, side income that I have uh, I believe uh you know singapore the living living in singapore is very expensive especially now uh having COVID COVID and you need a you need a side income definitely


so yup with uh having this tuition I get uh to save up money and also I work at home work from home and that is, I don't need to go out and pay uh for my lunch or my


transportation, so yup that's actually uh save up uh a lot of my money income


(mmhmm) okay


ya true uh because in the middle of my uh work I was uh terminated because of this COVID nineteen and then the grant actually help a lot, so there's a grant the eight hundred dollars helps to sustain, uh probably whatever that I need to pay off


and I guess a I think uh basically personal, finance you also you can't just depend on your full time job that's what I that's what I learn from this COVID nineteen ah ya I


can you hear me can you hear me


ah true I mean I also, bought uh bought things from Shopee because I couldn't we couldn't go out because of COVID nineteen I guess, ya and, also I think another way of , of you and apart from the side income you can actually do I know of


uh an acquaintance who actually invested, uh there's there's this saying that you need you invest for you to earn money from your own money, so basically it's like you helping yourself to be a wealth uh from your money which is investment and then uh you can also help to for an early retirement


yup, like uh like a friend of mine of mine he she's a beginner uh be full stigma about investing but she tried to invest a small amount of money of just one thousand dollars and, then she actually got in return, uh so I think uh I guess some people still have the negative perception on investment but if you really strive to study and understand more on investment then you will see the returns


I also I mean investing small amount of money is possible if you don't have big money like example I mean even if you have a few dollars to spare, you can still uh grow your money with compound interest, and then you basically is to develop a good habits like a


putting money away every month and then, and save from there and to invest


(mmhmm) true uh I I agree with you I mean uh, personal finance you can you can you can do it but if you need to have a lot of discipline, and planning like uh you you mentioned just now that you actually did a a part time job right and then you have a business probably uh I think maybe uh it actually creates a future of opportunities for you from your side hustle lah


you can save up and then make a business from that that money and then to create a a a and, to grow your finance from there


truth to be uh speaking of uh of the bench right I think ya though the PayLah PayNow, it is a good thing because uh I mean PayLah and your your bank account is two separate separate uh AC even though it's uh under the same account but it's two uh it's a wallet so you can take that uh parts uh some uh of the money put it to the PayLah and then you can start saving from there too


but think of uh financial adviser I think I would prefer to have a financial adviser, to advice because I have I'm not an expert in financial and I I have not I don't really have knowledge in that, so I guess they can really help us uh how to grow money and how to to save up and what kind of investment is good for us


ya experts knows less and they can help, us a lot ya, other than that you can actually use property, to uh to to grow I mean to to save uh to, to have uh more income uh I mean uh extra income like let's say you are living in a big a five room flat and then there's only like you yourself and your partner probably you can you want to downgrade to a four or three rooms and then you'll get a a money ah from there and from there you can actually save up and invest from there


yes planning is very important if you plan successfully you're planning for for success


okay uh I realised that I have, many things that I'm not using like example code coding, so there right now there's apps like Carousell uh you can use uh you can sell your whatever that things that you you don't use and then you have that extra incomes extra income you can save it uh and then ya I think uh that's one way that


uh you can err save, money or get get money right right like right now I I'm intermittent by my job and then I got more uh uh got in at least there's income coming in apart from my uh tuition


what what about yourself


what this reminds me of the fifth that you uh that you send me the one that we went to for the nails, uh ya if we actually save a lot uh rather than hundred dollars we can only pay for what twenty dollars for our nails for our massage ya really really saved


cashback where you get the money back to your account , , ya you can actually save ah ya I save a lot from there


yes remember I ask brought you to this Marks & Spencer, a shirt that cost ninety dollars now you can get for about twenty dollars I think because of tourist tourist uh the the no tourists in singapore because of COVID nineteen so they decided, to to lower down the price so that we singaporeans can buy


ya but I think now the uh online shopping is that the uh is is getting uh I mean online shopping is is being the uh getting at the peak because of this COVID ya (mmhmm) true ya (mmhmm) ya (hmm) (mmhmm) ya


part three negative experience


ya same as me because of this COVID-nineteen uh there's a downsizing in our company and then five of us we need to to leave , and ya I was uh given a letter termination letter a termination letter where I need to go and so I mean it was a drastic uh it was never mentioned to us before this so uh we were we were we didn't know at all


and then when we when we were told about this uh you know that that sadness that we uh that that I mean the worry that we see that the we faced uh what are we going to do after this and ya I mean,


that's the negative, effect or the side of this COVID nineteen


mean the worried the worry is uh the worry that you you feel because you have a lot of things to pay then what's going to happen to you


right you know , like a, a friend of mine he said that he uh sent thousands of applications but, till now he didn't he didn't he didn't receive any uh calls from any companies and I also know of a colleague, who his partner his wife is also in the same company and both of them got terminated together so do you see how depressing it is uh I mean their house they need to pay their children so ya uh it's very sad I mean I can't understand how


how he would feel now, uh knowing that he hasn't get any jobs, (mmhmm) , yes ya, so they're trying hard to to meet uh to


to meet ends need I think they, try to do some uh business uh online business sell things uh, ya but but I I hope they're doing okay but I think it's very saddening lah it's very sad it's very disappointing


affecting you psychologically, mentally you know


in fact the the the colleague that I told you the one uh the wife and himself uh were were terminated she actually had to meet a, to consult a counsellor a, psychiatrists to talk because it was so depressing it was so depressed it was so sad that he needs somewhere to uh to uh to let out so he told me that he actually meet this uh this uh a a doctor or uh I mean a to consult and to tell him how to tell her how he's doing and all just to let him feel better


(mmhmm) true and I wonder, ah and I also uh COVID there're uh families who are who have uh family members, who had this COVID the feeling I'm sure it's going to be very sad very, these very worrying having to know that


your your uh family members having this this illness this disease this very uh uh ya you know this COVID nineteen


ya I mean that definitely they will feel trap or helpless with the with the disease that uh with the sickness that, they have because you can't do anything and there's no uh if there's no uh there's no medicine or or to cure them, ya they had just have to uh live life and and think positive


f fear (mmhmm)


ya that uh seems like the negative in, likes from COVID-nineteen is no joke like career like my friend who was uh who's in the SQ, till now about four five months have no jobs because of this COVID nineteen and then the fear is that is still in people wherever they go err ya I mean


it's really really uh worrying and very uh scared scary


yes I think the uh correct normal, ya I think the worrying is very uh is serious whereby especially people who has kids whose has to have no choice but to send their kids to school and mixing with other kids to be seeing with people and like their


kindergartens free uh who just knew that uh the teachers have COVIDs has COVIDnineteen and luckily they actually check if not, you know what will happen uh the whole lot of children you will get, being infected because of that, ya


(hmm) I think you just nearby my Bedok, my place uh there was this time whereby the principal was uh, , was uh she knew she got to know that she had COVID nineteen


alright in fact my grandfather who uh usually you will need to go uh to the hospitals for checkups ah because of COVID nineteen and we afraid that, because these are the vulnerable people our uh old old people elderly people so he had to stay home and then we had to call doctors nurses to come in to come uh to come to our house and actually requires money extra money extra income and it's not cheap probably one time visit about sixty dollars and


ya that actually with with me not working you know that actually create this this kind of, financial burden ya we the the worried and the fear is there lah,


ya every monthly monthly doctor and nurses two separate


correct even good uh is because there is no vaccine vaccine , doctors nurses, they have to uh always there to check uh to check on this COVID patients and even them themselves got infected, and I I heard uh some there're


doctors and nurses who actually died because of taking care of, COVID patients and that's very sad, ya and they couldn't even go back to their to their home happily with their family members, because they're afraid that they the children might also get the uh affect uh infected


the missing presence ah


it's actually creates a lot of mental stress psychological stress and , emotionally stress also, so these stress ya they can really uh bring it can if if one is not strong they can actually bringing one down, and, it's very negative


powerful at one point of time, ya, it's still an overwhelming lah for him the stress is too overwhelming


, ya because the responsibility is their is on their shoulder on how to manage this this pandemic


read about uh uh uh some countries I don't know which country was it uh whoever that actually enter the country eh I mean whoever that has uh COVID nineteen , will be shot will be uh will be, ya will be killed, and it's it it it and it's okay uh for the country itself because they don't want this this COVID nineteen to spread


ya it's not that they want to have this kind of of of disease but it's just, happened that they had and then they have to to to die because of that, (mmhmm), I think it's north ah ya


that's very sad,


part, two positive experience, , ah okay uh I would like to share about the birthday gift that I received uh it's not a it's not a


thing but then K uh my uh, my birthday month is in january and in that same month, too uh my, niece was born so, ya and with that she's to me she's the greatest birthday gift that I ever received because I get a new friend and you know


so my uh my home there's never been uh it has been so long since that's there're toddlers or kids in the house so, by having her around the house seems like very lively and alive with her cute antics but of course she will cry and we will fight she's three now though uh but we will always fight uh with each other and get mad at each other but you know at the end of the day we still love each other and she will


see me as her as someone that she can learn from but I think rather than that I also learnt from her because everything is a learning process being with her to understand her to understand her her mood swings you know, ya that's the best birthday gift


uh her birthday is in ten of january and mine is in, ya few days apart few days apart, so it's like a early birthday gift, for me ya


okay uh we separate but I think whenever her birthday it like her birthday there will always be uh birthday uh her mum will make for her a birthday celebration, so I will just you know go in and okay it's my birthday too let's blow the cake together and she like okay no it's my birthday and we will have that kind of uh argument a little but she's a she's very cute ya but uh overall we will go out and eat


together as a family lah during our birthday what about yours any uh what's your positive experiences


ya you you are right uh I mean in fact I actually took up uh this uh online course uh Excel where I always wanted to learn advance Excel but didn't have the opportunity to because of work, and uh ya because uh since we are had working from home and have to be at home no matter what I can took I I uh


took up this Excel and then there's a certification at the end of the day and I think that's a, good opportunity for me to uh to improve myself for , ya to widen my my professional skills


(mmhmm)


ya in fact in fact Afifah you actually is uh inspired me to exercise, where I reason why I actually bought some equipment from Shopee because of the nine nine ten ten is was uh the inspiration for inspiration from you so I guess eh why I have to exercise do means you you you started on exercising I I mean uh it's a good thing so yup


I started too on that


right if compared to before COVID before the uh lockdown, I guess I'm using my off days to just sleep and rest and do nothing and unproductive so ya ya like what you mentioned earlier it's a really a blessing in disguise, we we learn ourselves we can do things that we thought we we have no we had no time to do like uh learning exercising and and and we can venture a lot of things ya it's a good it's a positive experience if you were to really see it in a positive light


right and you know from this right I actually learned a secret ability that I have and that is cooking ya ya so uh there was this uh I think there was one time where the Dalgona coffee is, is very very uh you know


it it it's it's very popular so I try on that then from there I tried to do to to make a, other other foods other cuisine uh other foods like #nasi lemak# Nasi, Ayam and ya I think uh so I tend uh I think there's a new hobby that I


took up and and I found uh while at home while being confined at home


uh I also uh you started on baking right


speaking of which right about the contactless delivery uh you know even though its contactless delivery where uh they deliver the uh, delivery men will just put the your food or your item outside the house and then they go, and there are some I I saw there are some uh singaporeans they actually put in uh like five dollar notes or two dollar notes outside together so and uh and put a sign saying that !hey! this is for you thank you for delivering you know that very kind hearted of singaporeans uh to do that and it really makes


feel so happy and feel , ya their kindness is I mean the singaporeans one together togetherness ya, (mmhmm)


ya in fact in fact during a #hari raya# even though we couldn't go out and visit each other but we have used the technology like Zoom and to still, communicate so there's always uh opportunities for us to communicate and be bonded with each other despite this pandemic and being lockdown


ya it different just hearing the voice and chatting and also looking at each other and and communicating ya the human touch somehow the human touch is there


and that cake bond us too, ya


it's very it's a beautiful experience I mean beautiful , event when you actually can see your uh family members who is not in singapore outside where you have been uh you have not been sleeping at seeing each other each other for a long time


right (mmhmm) you know I like the Rendang from my uh grandmother my Nenek my grand uh, this Rendang so but she's not in singapore but when during the Zoom she actually showed the Rendang that she made, and actually by looking at it I will feel like (oo) okay at least I can look at it see at it and it really make my day ya


sharing is caring , , ya ya and then we can see whether if it's uh it's like a personal growth too for your uh uh cooking


you can read your skills


ya true , I mean uh there's always uh like you said a blessing in disguise there's always a a good thing behind a tragedy or behind everything that happens like like this pandemic we've I mean we have uh seen a lot of good things a lot of good events that we've uh we have gone through and it makes us a better us I believe ya


(mmhmm)


!aiya! government really tried to help us this like SG united cause right, you mention ah, there are a lot of courses that one can can can uh look up to uh can look can look and and take


(mmhmm) true that can actually uh I mean after the COVID you can use that that the skills that you have that you just uh, the courses and and get uh gain a better employment


so I try to look at two things the fundamentals of the company which is like their income statements, and you know news about the company you know what the company's going through how the financial markets have affected the company and also there's a news about the CEO the management so you know if a management is doing well or someone has


they have bought a another company they invested in another company the the prices tend to go up so all these factors which contribute towards the the fundamental side of the company they call fund it that analysis of that it's called fundamental analysis


so ya we can usually read this from uh news articles research reports and financial statements I think ya ya you've uh you've used uh Yahoo finance right


ya so Yahoo finance is pretty uh useful for all these things and I tend to browse that usually, what about you


ya but, okay I also find that the uh historical prices play a quite a big role so that side of investing is called technical analysis you actually look at the stock data, and the patterns from historical prices so you can chart out the graph err then you can try to find patterns like there's something called the W pattern


so if a stock chart has two Us it has a tendency of rising up after that so ya ya ya so like I don't know in a way like a lot of, analysts use these patterns I mean we have a pattern for like a lot of different things for example the there's something called the moving average convergence divergence so it basically measures the volatility of a stock and


uh over the period of time so basically let's say it it takes the simple moving average for like ten or twenty days and then it measures the current price against the average price for the past twenty days, so you can extend this to like uh twenty fifty you know hundred days so it has to compare the historical prices with the current prices and then see uh what kind of standard deviation is there between those prices so that's a very statistical and mathematical way of loading looking at things and ya


okay


ya so for new companies you can't actually use technical analysis because there's not enough data like the whole concept of technical analysis depends on historical prices right so you would at least require around uh five years worth of data or more


to have a a decent accurate uh measurement so without that data you can't measure so for new companies uh you usually you just use fundamental analysis you look at all this news the uh what the valuations that uh cashflow statements and stuff


ya true but for for those old companies which are you know quite big already and they have been around for a few years a combination of both technical and fundamental analysis like yields the best results over a long period


so ya each has each method has its own advantages and disadvantages but like when you put both together you get a very solid assessment of the company, ya


ya I mean buy low sell high is like a very easy concept to like just say it out loud right like obviously it's so logical I mean anyone can buy low and sell high, but the point is like no one can actually time the market so if you look at predictions by those expert analyst right


most of them get it wrong almost every single person gets it wrong but, like let's say there's a million predictions only around fifty or sixty or maybe even less actually turn out to be like even close to accurate so the point is that people only remember those accurate predictions they don't remember the wrong ones it's actually a bias that is built into us right


ya so the the ya no it you continue


but how do you know it's at a low price like that's the main point right


that's true


ya but you know, personally I've observed like buy low sell high is easy to say but when you actually buy a stock right and then the price keeps dropping, for any reason you'll tend to be like you start panicking and then you would want to sell it like really fast because even though it's on paper the loss is still a loss


so like psychologically it affects you and the thing is like it's even the opposite side is true right so let's say you're making a profit, and then you buy like thousand dollars worth of stock and you make a hundred dollar profit so there's this tendency to want to sell that stock at that price because you're scared that if you don't sell it'll start going down soon and you'll be scared of that you'll be scared of missing out the profits


like you know it's like something like FOMO fear of missing out, ya so you're like if you don't if you don't sell now you would, err and then it goes down you would have lost that potential profit but the thing is many times like if you keep holding it over the long run it's been proven that the stock market always rises like currently we're in a recession


but if you take a span of five to ten years definitely the the stock price will increase so the the safest and the most logical strategy is just to buy the stock and keep holding it so and then the thing is like that's a passive investment strategy because


you don't have to put much effort into it right you would like uh you can buy blue chip stocks which are like these companies the top companies and they're quite stable because uh they're either government government backed or they have a very high uh financial backing so they're very stable and they


have a lot of investment investors backing it so you buy a blue chip stock and then you keep holding it, now over the long run it'll definitely or I think most likely will go up and while you're holding it you can also get paid dividends that's why I like buying dividend stocks because you know buying in buying a stock is fun but


when you get like dividends are dividends are something like free money so just for buying and keeping the stock right you're getting paid in a sense , so ya one of the strategies I like to do is I like to search for stocks which are, quite safe to buy plus they offer like good dividends


ya but (mmhmm), no but you're talking about that uh increase in price and now people are they feel bad that they missed out on another opportunity right but it's not about it's not exactly what happened with cryptocurrency because it it it increase like exponentially right like it started out like one dollar


and over the period of err I think around ten years it eventually became worth like almost twenty thousand dollars, for one single Bitcoin so people were like err you know they felt like if I buy now I'll definitely get rich because the increase was like thousand or ten thousand percent increase


so people kept on buying and this demand for it increased the price but at some point right the value of the the uh it became a bubble because the value of the cryptocurrency didn't match its price, so its intrinsic value was different from the actual uh price it was having on the stock market or the market itself so that became a bubble ya so no but cryptocurrency is different because


like the difference in that valuation was so high that it became like the biggest bubble in history, so you know okay it is worth twenty thousand like uh I think in the peak of december twenty nineteen or twenty eighteen and now it's what it's like less than ten thousand I think it's around seven thousand and eight thousand dollars


but then it ya but one thing to note is that people who actually bought it when it was like one dollar they became millionaires overnight, millionaires would have been multi millionaires


no but the thing is that exponential increase only happened in a few years, right like that huge increase, so one strategy I read about is ya so one strategy I read about, is like sometimes the the super risky investments they have a potential to make you err like do well like it's a small potential but it's there is still a potential so when you allocate your assets right you should like make put it in such a way like let's say you have


hundred dollars to allocate so we put it you would put like most of it in safe investments or calculated investments like stocks bonds, and mutual funds or whatever and then you would like save a small portion for these risky investments so these risky investments will have like a potential to do well so if let's say you have hundred dollars you put five dollars into cryptocurrency


and then if it doesn't do well okay fine you have that money to lose but in case it does well the amount of profit you can make is enormous


(mmhmm), but if you gain it'll make a huge difference


ya


not like that I mean I could say like let's say I have I invested thousand dollars right how much would I, mind losing so let's say my portfolio is down how much would I, my uh would I be okay with if it went down I would say around like thirty to forty percent because at my at our age it's like pretty we have a bigger uh risk appetite right so even if it goes down that much over the long run it may increase and go back up


I mean especially like right now because of COVID right a lot of stocks like SIA SIA's a very stable blue chip company but its stock price went from like went around fifty percent plus down, I think it used it used to be like ten or twelve and now it's at three or four


so okay although it looks really bad now over the long run it'll still go back up because SIA's a very stable company it has the government backing and it's one of the best airlines in the world and in addition to that like the COVID has impacted airlines like the most adversely so they will definitely feel like


feel the impact of the but I don't know if you read it but I think recently they announced these flights to nowhere right, ya ya so flights to nowhere like very harmful for the environment so SIA came up with this new thing where they offer people this opportunity to like go into planes and dine dine in I think it's really innovative right because you okay normally you would never be able to like travel first first class unless you're like super rich


and this is like a really good opportunity so people can get the experience plus SIA makes money, and it's and they save the environment by not flying those useless trips, so it's like a win win for everyone


part three negative experience, ya so Rahul has there been a time that you've felt trapped or like really sad for some reason


or helpless the feeling of helplessness


there's a culture shock right


ya actually I think I went through something similar during my NS


because yes similar to you I was also from international school I grew up all the way there so although I did have local friends from church you know we weren't so close so like you know and obviously going from like us uh from your house


to the environment in in in a camp the strict environment with it too much regimentation discipline so many rules which are enforced all the time you know and the shouting the parades all the exercises it's it's okay


uh leaving the culture shock it's also like it's a huge it's a whole new environment, and you have to adjust your discipline your behaviour and your whole mindset actually so that that actually I don't know it I felt like quite bad for the first few days like depressed in a sense


so you know the only thing that helped me get through it was like the looking forward to my first book out ya so like


the wrong for me was that for us like


the amount of free time you got was actually very less, because we were in an enhanced err BMT then BMT phase so we had to do everything in like half an hour so we had to like after we finished the whole activity for the day we come back to our bunks


then we only have half an hour to shower use the toilet pack up for the next day and basically call your friends relatives and go to sleep, so ya and and some days you won't even have half an hour you would actually have like fifteen ten minutes some days they would actually end the session after your your lights out which is your bedtime starts


so you'd have to like rush and do it in like five ten minutes so ya I would like barely get time to call my own parents and ya it was it was quite tough, so I mean okay there's actually a saying I saw in this show about a documentary about the US navy like whatever happens the sun sets right


uh so basically like everyday always comes to an end so that was like the thing that got me through that those times, ya also like I mean the worst feeling was monday because you know you had to you had to book into camp ya and then you had to look you have five days left so the countdown began but like it was so far away like it's like a light at the end at the end of the tunnel you had to reach out and find it ya


ya so there was this kid in my school he used to be a bit , challenged ya so it's like not autistic but a bit slow in learning and so a lot of people used to pick on this kid it's actually really sad to see so


the thing is like someone who's used to help him out and like used to get him through stuff, now there're people who used to like just try to tease him and thing is he reacts slowly to like it stuff so he when you tell talk to him he will take a few seconds to understand what you're saying


and then ya there's like a small delay in in his reaction time, so uh ya a lot people used to bully him back in school and it was a really sad thing to see and you know when you try to like talk to those people they they wouldn't understand they would try to just laugh it off or say it's a joke and say that he's part of the joke and actually fine okay that's all good because the uh the guy adjusted well


he made good friends and he's doing well now but the sad thing is like I had this friend, so after we left school he wrote that he used to help this challenged kid through school in his homework and, through err through the hard times he actually wrote this on his resume saying that he actually helped him through the hard times but the fact is he was the main perpetrator who used to make fun of the the guy


so it is like it's you know it's kind of frustrating to see how people just, write whatever you want in your resume take advantage of things and ya


have you have you had a time where you're like so mad at someone that you want to take revenge on them, or like it it


ya I guess it's common among like people that age ya


because once you have your digital footprint online you can't erase it and thing is ya, ya I mean cyber cyberbullying is like I mean they're trying to tackle it now they they've a lot of laws against cyber bullying and stuff or ya but still like the thing is once you post something online it's there for the world to see millions of people can see it so it has a really like traumatising impact on your


psychology, ya like and I think a lot of people have you know gotten depression or suicide after like these incidences have occurred, so it's it's actually quite dangerous


correct, no it's pretty much true because what face ya Facebook became popular at at that time and then the growth of those companies have been exponential so the the they started they started with like a few kids in harvard right and then they then they currently have like more than a billion users


ya so imagine that, no so the thing is like uh after the increase in social media people've basically like lived their whole life on it, so you know so okay so let's say you're browsing your insta story and uh you see people's stories right like they're having such a good time they're partying they're having dinner they're hanging out with their friends and then when you see these stories you're probably at home like on your couch doing nothing so you would feel bad about it


but the thing people fail to realise is that people only show the good part of their lives, right because and that good part usually last for a few hours max or maybe usually a few minutes, but then they post it on their stories and people think like !wow! that's their whole life and I want to live that life so by seeing people happy in a sense like by seeing other people happy and not and us not being in that same position


there is a tendency for us to get depressed, and I think that's what's impacting most teenagers nowadays, like I maybe ya maybe even us, it's true but


so, ya uh so usually I'll not like people who are not genuine, yes, no as in okay so I guess not lying is fine and all to a certain extent but the thing is like uh whenever you uh what I look for in a friend is the main thing I look for is loyalty right


ya so like let's say you are in okay so you can actually know who your true friends are when you are in a hard situation so when you're when like when you're having a good time and when life's good, like fine everyone's around you and you know uh there's nothing much to do as in like there's there's no difficulty on their part to be there for you but like when you're in trouble when you need when you need help and then uh and someone has to go out of their way to help you


or someone takes the time uh takes time out of their own day, or you know to help you out like, ya so those kind of people are like your true friends so the thing is like yes


so ya so people who're like do the opposite like they just come uh be around be around you just for like let's say let's say you study well and then someone's friends with you just to copy your homework or let's say you're rich and someone is just friends with you for your money


I mean those things are like firstly it's it's like a betrayal in a sense because are you even truly friends with the guy for the guy like because you like him secondly it's like it's just it's just sad to see right like what kind of person are you


like if you can't be genuine to someone like ya, what what's the point of ya acting so fake


ya those are like those okay there's actually two types of toxicity right like one is people who're actually malicious they their intention is to harm you the other type is like people who are I mean like you said they are probably friends with you for their own intentions


they don't want to harm you but they look out for their self interest over your I mean over others' interest


that's true shit ya but another type is , I guess one type of toxicity is like let's say you have a friend so okay no uh something that affects me maybe is like let's say ya let's say your friend and then you know you you underestimate or overestimate your level of friendship so let's say you and I are friends


right so like okay I'm really concerned about you I'll do I'll help you out when whenever I can meet you often, but the thing is like you don't feel the same way, meaning like you you don't consider me as good a friend as I consider you


so that's actually kind of uh hurtful in a sense because you know I devote a lot of time for you and then the reverse is not true, ya so I feel that's also kind of one of the things that, no no laughing bro


I mean COVID is not I'm not that worried about COVID because I mean okay for me at least my daily routine is almost the same because university lectures are moved online and I don't ya so it's kind of similar because I used to watch my lectures online anyway


but I mean the main worry now is like you know going and starting uh joining the workforce starting a like getting a job it's like after university like you've basically finished your youth it's like you know you have to start your adulthood officially, and you'll be like you've so many responsibilities like paying bills uh your your financial side taking care of like


your parents climbing the corporate ladder so it's actually like in a sense your holiday period is over and your proper life is starting so, ya sometimes you when you think about that it's kind of you get anxious


ya but once you become adult


I mean I guess everyone feels that way right because adults want to be kids kids want to be adults it's always a cycle


part two positive experience


okay so perfect day I guess like because I prefer to be like alone most of the time in a sense that it's more peaceful to me I prefer like not to go to crowded areas so I would like wake up read a book


and then I don't know I would like be with myself meaning like watch a movie the whole day relax on my sofa and then err surf the web for a bit, and I guess meet a few friends but like close friends so I wouldn't want to like go let's say I don't I wouldn't want to go for a party or like you know clubbing or something like that I just want like a quiet day meet some people that I I'm close to to have a have a good lunch or dinner


what about you


is it


I mean it's basically it's basically Netflix and then like relax at home right ,


oh you mean scrolling your phone the whole day looking at people's instagrams ah okay I mean okay but do you feel like do you feel like , so you know Instagram has that potential to influence a lot of people right, and then I think the recent black lives matter incident it was really heartwarming how everyone took to social media to spread the news and then you know because of that like the news spread better and the err people actually effected some change


so I think that impacted a lot of countries just it happened in the US but that impact is felt all around the world especially like in india right so they place a bit of value on skin colour in india


but uh but after okay a lot, but after after this incident of black lives matter like a lot of change happened in india people were like protesting against err this racism uh in a sense racism colourism in india so and the main reason it happened was because the world is so interconnected nowadays


I mean when I opened my feed the other day I could all I could see was this you know those black tiles you could see on instagram ya and then like a the positive message about how we we can help uh reduce racism around the world


that's a tough question okay you start first what's yours


think for me it was ya you and I had this playground nearby my house when I was around six or seven years old so we used I used to cycle there everyday and then I had this I had a group of friends and we used to like uh it was a huge playground by the way and then there were a lot of blocks around it also


ya so we used to like go to the second floor of those blocks and then it was the old HDBs in those days right so the second floor had this type of parapet thing where you could actually slide down and then it was like a small jump from the second floor to the first floor


ya so we used to like climb on go to the second floor climb onto that parapet thing then we used to jump down , I mean it's kind of dangerous but it was that really fun , ah ya another ya another thing I used to do was uh in school we had uh these swings so like every recess or lunch break we


uh used to go to the swings and play around so you know being being like uh quite adventurous back then, uh my friends and I used to do this thing where like when you swing right okay firstly like the the main thing you do in swinging is like go as high as possible so we took it to another level so when we used to reach the end of the the highest point the peak right we used to jump off


and this is like this is in uh primary one, so at the at the top of the swing right we used to jump off and then like we used to actually fly felt like we felt like we were flying for like two or three seconds until we hit the ground because you know like we're quite short back then and it's like uh


, ya it's actually ya it's kind of so that was risky but it was so fun


yup


that's a very random question, it's like, honestly never thought about it like what am I proud of but have not told people, as in no err


I guess I'm a quite a logical person so I can relate stuff which uh don't have that much of a uh relation meaning like let's say I get a photo from a friend


and then okay it's not like that it's like I can probably see connections where it's difficult to see connections so it's something like intuition right, ya so I don't know I've been like a very logical person from from when I was young


so I like to find patterns in things that's why like I played a lot of chess, so the main the main thing in chess is pattern recognition you would think that it's people learning how to learning all the rules and the tactics and the strategy but up that's up to a certain point but after that it's like kind of practicing and it's about like building your intuition


so the the thing about chess is you need to, okay so you learn from people's games right and the more games you play the more you learn from the games so one at at some point like you will start recognising these patterns so and it it's kind of becomes uh


you know it it kind of just goes into your brain at one point so when you play a new game after a lot of games you'll just know what to play instantly without thinking about it, second nature in a way ya, so ya that's why if you've seen some videos of grandmasters playing chess they play moves instantly because they know what the other person's going to play and they know what the reason behind that move so uh a beginner may think about like why this guy played this move or uh what's the intention behind it but a grandmaster knows almost instantly


so he's thinking about how to take advantage of that in the fastest and most efficient way possible, ya so what about you what's the one thing you haven't told anyone


that's why I called you for this


I mean I guess it's a it's a really handy skill in like today's err workforce right because you need to know how to present and like talk to people instantly get to know them and build a build a good rapport with your colleagues and your


uh boss or whatever , so like how have you how how you apply it in your life like