, ya, , but is is your anyways your does your cousin also feel this kind of trauma or


so anyway I guess the next question will be what makes you stressed,


in you mean like what what aspect of work, you mean like the volume of work or like the idea that you cannot do the work up to your standard so what like what aspect of it


, yup


yup,


what stresses me, I think what what stress me what stresses me out is when, I, I


am not able to meet my own expectations ya I think it's quite uh I think because I hold pretty high expectations of myself whether it's in terms of like reaching a certain career goal


or, doing I think I'm as in I firmly believe that I should be doing something that I enjoy and when I'm not doing something that I enjoy I feel that I'm wasting my time and energy and my life away and


ya it's ya so I okay I mean wasting my life is sounds a bit extreme ya but to me is like I constantly feel like I need to fill I need to fill fulfil and so when I don't meet my expectation it kind of stresses me out that


that like I'm not doing I'm not living my life to the fullest which is actually very uh is very ironic cause you want live your life you want live your life to fullest but then you're also very burdened by wanting to


uh like, not like on one hand you want to live your life to the fullest but on the other hand you are just , very ya bogged down lah like you keep having such expectations on yourself so I think it's important to kind of establish a kind of like balance


in order to to manage this stress well, ya


ya, oh when I didn't meet my expectations , , I think oh when I was like


just entering uni actually I kind of had an aspiration where I wanted to become a teacher ha but somehow I just follow along the course my course lah my university course and then I didn't


I didn't kind of uh further pursue my interest in becoming a teacher and so for a while, for a while during university I kind of like struggle to struggle of like struggle of myself lah of whether like I was truly doing the right thing and in the right course


uh ya so that kind of like I I kind of felt like I was not meeting my own expectations not achieving uh the aspiration that I had set up for myself but someone's advice to me was that like you don't need to make your passion your


your job like it's not like dichotomous you it doesn't mean that you can only do one thing for the rest of your life ah and so I think that kind of that advice kind of helped me to to see that like


it's okay to not teach as a as a job as a full time job like I can do it like by teaching tuition I can volunteer ya so I think is is is important to kind of have perspective like different perspectives and also to to


maintain a balanced perspective lah or or to always seeks out like alternatives when you are feeling stressed so like I think for in your case like when you know are feeling , stress you know that that you have a lot of work like perhaps you could consider alternatives of how to like reach your goal


like for example would it be like uh sharing the load with someone or uh perhaps , returning your focus lah to some other aside focusing your energy on an assignment ya


yup part two positive experiences okay maybe you want to go first


, , sorry, that's, that's quite interesting


, like it's oh so this is sorry is this your paternal's grandmother or your maternal, , oh like is it is it cause you guys grew up as in you grew up in close proximity with her or


oh so so ya are you, uh, how about your grandfather,


, (mmhmm),


, okay ya my my comfort food happens to be like this particular smell of like cooked macaroni that I remember from


kindergarten like when I smell when I when I just smell this smell I just am reminded of like my times in kindergarten when like it's like lunch time and then they just serve it to you in this plastic bowl and


and then you are just like really young and you just like eat anything lor and to me that's just so funny and so like intimate and it it was just so young like it just reminds you of the times when uh you can just


like people will just prepare for for you I mean I mean ya I mean people in my family still prepare for for me but it just like a I don't know like brings me back it's quite nostalgic I guess and ya it just brings me back to the time when, school was quite like


fun and fun and dandy ya ya yup but then, ya ya ya it's ya but I mean it's very hard to like achieve that taste and that smell so like I guess


another, comfort food would be like Kimchi I don't know why but I'm just very drawn to like the sourness of of, ya korean food and anything with Kimchi


uh no actually not in particular but it just like really makes me very like happy and I just want to like, ya ya ya like I just want to like do a little dance when I eat something nice


ya, is good, okay, ideal day, oh


, (hmm) I think for me uh it was just I I think I would consider myself quite a bit of a homebody, so an ideal day for me would just be to spend quality time with like


people I'm close to uh and or like actually with myself also like just to read a book or to watch a bit of TV, , yes that's


ya ya that's right what about you, ,


is it because like we spend too much time after circuit breaker at home and so we're so used to, ya seems like seems like it's quite common like people have become quite


used to staying at home and it's quite it's quite comforting also like you no longer feel like an urge to go out okay no but then again I know that there are people who have been feeling like they are dying to go out and


like experience freedom after months, uh actually I don't know I I have felt a bit of like FOMO like everybody's going out I suddenly feel like I also need to go out but then I don't actually know why I need to go out like actually there's nothing


much to do out there also but I guess is like I would want to go out and meet my close friends uh may but maybe just like not in such like bustling areas, like like a more like cosy hangout at home uh would be more ideal lah


ya, (mmhmm)


oh I wanted to say, if you didn't say in singapore I would have said korea cause my korea trip got postponed uh because of COVID okay I would I mean postponed because I am holding onto the hope that I can still do it lah in the near future but I'm not sure


I mean given that times are kind of, was like I I'm not sure if that will happen but yes oh if any place in singapore


uh I can't think of like a place of solace at the moment but I I think that like I just want to go for like a really long walk, ya like a super long walk cause I like to recently I've adopted a new hobby or like of walking like instead of running


cause it feels actually it's at equally is equally tiring but I mean is not so like in it doesn't have so much impact on the, knees ya and I kind of feel more energised also ya uh ya so I just want to go on like a long walk and then maybe uh


have like a little picnic okay ya picnic or something eh or like a camp, a little campfire kind of thing, but when it's not wet lah and ya I don't think I'll enjoy it being muddy


what about you,


do you have your own pet, oh, I don't, why do you not have pet as in I just don't think that I would have the time to kind of care for uh another uh life form but but uh I know a lot of people who have my a lot of my friends have


have really cute pets but I don't think I'll I can like live up to the responsibility of having one but is is that a reason also, what what are you looking for


oh but then adopt don't shop, adopt don't shop


, oh, ,


!huh! that's quite brown, okay okay, (mmhmm),


, same same same I'm a dog person I'm really really afraid of cats, I don't my only my good experience with dog my good experiences with dogs are watching dog videos so no I don't have much experiences with dogs


ya but I just feel like watching watching like dog videos I just feel like they kind of understand people without words, and like, ya and and I remember this story that my friend told me that like he came home after


school after failing an an exam or something and then he just lay on the floor like feeling really down and then like usually the dog will be pretty like jumpy and be like !woo! but the dog actually like was really quiet and calm and


the dog just like lied down next to him and like I guess snuggled into him or something and I think like whenever I hear that story I just feel like dogs know people


, no I don't think it will be a my best birthday present cause it's like I'm not ready to get it then that's quite scary, oh, uh


ya sure yes as in I mean I I mean it's not that I don't want to feel responsible toward dog but I just feel that maybe also given that you know like a lot of us work full time jobs eh the dog will be so lonely


in in the home and so if like I feel that every day if I have to like leave it at home alone and and then I would see at the door I I I don't feel that it would be very happy and so I wouldn't feel very happy, so ya but anyway on the topic of birthday present I think like


one of the, , I can't think of like a favourite birthday present that I've got actually, uh I mean I'm I'm not big on like birthday present so I always like tell people not to get me gifts


cause I don't think that's my as in that's just not my love language I guess I I don't need to receive gifts what about you


, so if like someone give you a a a pet dog now but it's not a Samoyed, , (mmhmm) really then what changed


seems like you spend a lot of time with your grandmother, do you so would you say like, like she you look up to her the most in your life or something


, that's nice, that's nice , I'm I'm not as uh for my family we're not as, close to my paternal grandmother


we are closer to I I think cause I grew up more with my maternal, I grew up more with my maternal grandmother so uh we're closer we're closer to her interestingly she also like my grandfather actually my maternal grandmother uh grandfather own like a kind of a store also


ya but they they sold fish, ya so uh ya but okay as my ya so my grandmother would just like kind of help out with the store but I think I think what makes me kind of I I just find it endearing


what I find endearing about my grandmother is that she's just like a uh, yes she's she's very strong and very resilient but but on the outside she's like soft so she's just very soft spoken very gentle very like giving not opinionated like she's just very easygoing


she she wouldn't like force uh her opinion onto you ya so I I think that's very endearing and I mean she was like uh not an her her mum her mum passed away when she was very young so like I guess


she always tells us that she had a really hard life but she only like mentioned said very rarely so I mean in those moments I just feel like she's she's very resilient but yet like she, she didn't become harsh and tough even after like how life treated her I guess


, ya ya role role model ah ya as in in certain aspects I guess like I when I think of


like the qualities I want to have as a person or like ya or like the qualities I look for in other people I kind of look for like soft gentle qualities, ya I think that and also to to kind of balance me out uh I think these such qualities are kind of bring me back to earth and be like


like peaceful like ya it make me feel at peace I guess, like whatever adversities that you are going through, , it will all be fine eh I don't know I think maybe also because like the common thread is that uh grandmothers kind of like have seen everything when and then they are just like


calm, ya ya ya like nothing fazes them anymore like what a rat what so what like, ya that's how I feel about them, !huh!


prompt one out of four, K


yes, ya lah you just go by the questions, [orh] okay, what's one financial advice you would give yourself five years ago


so I think five years ago I was only fifteen so like I wouldn't be earning like a stable income yet so like one advice I would give myself will be just to maybe like study hard and learn as much soft and hard skills as possible because like this you can like build your human capital right and like


it will accelerate your income in the future and then you have a basis like build a good foundation portfolio in the future, yeah


J one got scholarship meh, oh okay , ya, is that all, K then we move on, should I DIY or get a financial adviser to plan my finances


K this one I'm not very sure lah I think really depends on person to person so like if you want to do DIY then you should like really do your research and don't don't just do it base on like one source like look through multiple sources and like see which one is the most reliable


but if you really don't know how to plan then getting a financial adviser would be a good method but it also depends on your luck because there are many different types of financial advisers and some might be more focused on like getting their profit instead of maybe giving good advice


so I think it would you would really need to maybe get recommendations from other people in order to get a good financial adviser I feel ya


but that's just only for investment but okay , ya but I think investment wise really depends on your age also lah so if you are younger you would want to invest more in like higher risks product such as like funds and stocks because then you can ride out like all the volatility when you are get when you are older ah


and ya, then also there's I think there's also many other different kinds of products such as ETS also so those kind would be more safe because you get to invest in multiple companies so like if one company fails you still have like another basket to rely on


ya but I think most people do dollar coin averaging more because in a long term the market will increase no matter what cause it will go towards the market cycle so it will go up and down but in the end it will go up, ya, shall we move on


, the next one is the cash flow question ya how you allocate, the stuff, so usually people do the one two three four method which is ten percent insurance twenty percent CPF thirty percent savings and investment and forty percent expenses


but usually before you invest you would want to have like a emergency fund of like three to six months worth of income just in case you lose your job then so you have something to like rely on while you find another job because usually to find another job you need around six months


so should have emergency fund before you start investing, ya


okay , like let's next one is , how you what would you do to earn extra income or improve your income level, you want to say first or I say first


so to earn extra income there's always investments so if your form of like passive income but how much you earn or lose will like depend on how much risk you take and like the method of investing so like what we said earlier the you can either do bait by lump sum or the dollar coin averaging


then I think to improve income level you can maybe like do up skilling so like maybe attend courses such as uh skillsfuture or if you're if you're working and your you have a company your company might sponsor you to do courses and stuff also , and I think to increase maybe you can also maybe do a side hustle like giving tuition that sort of thing and you would want to do like hustles that increase your skills more so it wasn't it wouldn't be like a waste of time in a sense ya


inflow ah


ya, okay, how do you spend your money which expenditure is justified and what have you been spending too much on, yeah


but but it ended


okay, I think ya I think say was still students right you don't have to pay for like your utility bills and mobile mobile bills right you don't pay right ya so in a sense we don't really need to bring that it's not


ya it's not what we need now ah so expenditure wise , for now I'm spending more on food and online shopping because CB so like I got a lot of time to scroll through like shopee that sort of thing and then I'll get tempted to buy stuff that are on discount


so when it adds up it's quite, quite a portion of my money that I have but I ya but since now it's phase two so I can go out so I don't really spend that much on online shopping anymore so it's just really mostly on food I don't spend that much it's just


a portion so it's mostly just food , but I don't I just I just eat whatever I can you know I just I don't have standards for food so , so I don't really spend much lah


and ya, but maybe sometimes it's not justified , when I've cravings that I cannot ya ya okay, next


S so for me it would be to budget well so you don't overspend on your big ticket purchases and also maybe to like plan as far ahead as possible so you would be able to have more time to maybe save and invest so you can like


make use of like the interest rates and everything and also be detailed when you are calculating, for your big ticket expenditures such as like S wedding that sort of thing because there's a lot of different cost you have to bring in so to make sure like you don't over and under estimate those costs and I think maybe it's also important to like learn how to prioritise cause maybe


you want a car but you don't actually need a car cause if you grab everyday it will still be cheaper than actually getting a car paying COE that sort of that sort of thing and also maybe like priorities of what kind of flat you want to buy like how many rooms do you need to have many rooms that sort of thing


so it's also important to like prioritise what you need first before you make these big ticket expenditures, ya


ya


(mmhmm) everything when you are planning like very far ahead in the future you have to bring in also inflation rates lah so at min each year is two percent so if you do it by a long term it's quite a lot so like there's a method to like calculate the future rate also but including the interest rate inside


ya, okay okay , sure depends from couple to couple, K


K, what changes are you making in terms


yeah, ya cause expenses is forty percent right so like you can split it into needs and wants so you cut down on your wants so can probably reach thirty percent, ye, okay maybe one more question ah


K, what oh okay what do you have


ya I think for now we don't really need to use a credit card since we don't have a stable income and stuff, ya and like most of the benefits benefits of credit cards like those cash rebates and air miles you use it for big ticket purchases so maybe before you buy those big ticket purchases you would get a credit card


just for that ya and because of like since it's about debt right so it's there is the problem of also interest rates so if you keep not paying back you have more to pay in the end, ya and it also like link to your credit score so if you have a bad credit score of not paying then like the banks would not want to lend you in future


they can't get loans in the future also so like it's a risks you want to if you want to take for the benefits, ya, eight seconds, okay ,


okay (ppb)


prompt three out of four, okay, which question do you want to talk about


think the first one is okay right , I think, okay I think for the first one I got a few ah so I mean the first one would be I think poverty in like lesser developed countries or first developed countries like even in developed countries itself there's still the problem of poverty and because like


but the problem with it is that it's linked to so many different factors, yes so it's very hard to eradicate so it's not just it's just it's mostly frustrating, ya I feel cause , you can see how can of course you can see how like cause I gave tuition right so you can see like how some people uh can be very rich


and when I volunteer I can see how some people are very poor so that there's this very large gap and for poverty wise because it's always a cycle, because, you, if you don't earn enough you don't have time to upgrade your skills so in a sense you're always stuck at this one level


ya, yeah, then there was one book that talked about it that was published a few years ago I think it was the, income inequality one it was by some NTU professor, yeah that she talked about like okay I have I have to read it for my social work mock lah so ya I think it was about how it's very hard to get out of the poverty cycle and also because because a lot of time because of meritocracy is so ingrained in singapore right so it's


like many people would blame like the people who do not earn enough or like did not put enough effort to like get out of that poverty, cycle right but, it's also because of like many other factors like the system that we are in how it's


like against them in a sense K can't really remember it's been quite sometime but , cause , because it's not just about having like income it's also how they allocate the income also so because they don't really earn that much so they don't really have they can't get like the benefits of earning more money in a sense


so mainly most of their money goes to buying the essentials, ya, ya, I think that's about it I can't really remember much about it actually , yeah, I have a few more lah but do you have any uh


say first


so what happen in the end


oh so that was the okay


okay what the, okay, alright


err I guess I can also talk about another one , ya, so what makes me angry is also like homophobia lah cause, I do have a lot of friends who identify as LGBT it's like since secondary school so in secondary school I have a few then in JC also a few ya so because like if you compare in singapore to many other like more liberal countries there's a very


stark difference in our stance and it doesn't help because , I think we singaporeans are quite apathetic to it like the majority and you only have like a few vocal minorities that's either against or for it so it's quite hard to


bring a lot bring a lot like social change in this kind of climate but I think they are trying their best lah ya but it makes in every cause like there's so much discrimination against them be it like overt or covert like how they can't like get a house


as a couple and like how they discriminate against in a workplace but like all these could be discrimination happens but it's not really talked about and people do not really admit to this kind of like discrimination and prejudice, so it kind of makes me quite angry because I mean ya it just it just makes angry make me angry when people are not treated equally and like be treated the way they should be treated I feel and like they can't really live out


like a ideal life because of the person they the gender that they prefer to like, ya so it just makes me kind of angry , yeah , K


you can move on, to another question, which one do you want to


I can talk about the dreams one, what dreams of yours die a little with each passing day, yeah I think like when I was younger I like to write a lot so like, I wanted to be like a writer I think


like write like fiction books that sort of thing, yeah , that just never had caught me final energy to actually finish anything that I write , so yeah like I used to write a lot lah but now because of like other commitments I don't really


do that anymore and like it's like in singapore it's also quite a difficult industry to get into because people don't, really read singapore literature like if you ask around no most people won't read singapore literature ya


so ya I don't really want to be a writer anymore yeah I think there are other ways in which I could fulfill what I want cause like I think in for writing right it's about, writing in order to like make a difference in like people's mindsets and perceptions


so I think maybe , maybe if I can't be a writer there's still other platforms for me to do so, so ya that's the dream that is dying a little with each passing day but it creates another dream, ya


what about you, like something you want to be when you were younger that sort of thing


why, like what kind of scientist, what kind of scientist


yeah, I mean this is not conventional path so it's like harder, how old were you when you wanted to be a scientist in primary school I I wanted to be those , those people who find dinosaur bones


ya I always play this game online where you tap the dinosaur bone and you find the dinosaurs fossils, ya but in singapore there's , you usually don't find dinosaur bones in singapore it's usually artifacts so


ya oh want to be a doctor actually when I was at kindergarten , no nah now no !huh! what


ya but I was a kid what, you know you know it's just I don't know man yeah, okay


sounds like following bad teachers, your JC your education yeah, cause yeah cause for me, I think most of the teachers I had fortunately were quite passionate so if I ask anything they would actually


like do their research, but even in uni , cause uni is like, they are professional in their field


hopefully it gets better when it's year two and year three , I don't know man, yeah I think teachers are quite important, when it comes to like your interest in studying that sort of thing


no I mean you need to master everything ah but , true true ah could you more focus on research and like just for the ya


you see, K, K, I mean I haven't answer, ya I think for me one time would be after A levels when I was applying for like scholarships


so like, it was because that day was quite difficult to get there so I went to like a lot of interviews, but like you know, like even law but like it doesn't there's no reply that comes back lah so it's like keep re bulk applying but there's no results so I think ya but I just kept applying I just I didn't give up everyone feel like giving up


yeah, okay still one more question, what question do you want


ya I think it's the same for me also cause of COVID nineteen then all the, freshman orientation programs are all online I was really looking forward to be a OGL to hang out with the year ones but I think ya but everything has to be changed online and just doesn't feel the same


and like the year ones probably wouldn't , have a mer as a more memorable of experience as what we did I think ya, and I think I guess COVID nineteen just change a lot of our plans against our will also like how I was supposed to go taiwan in june but then because of COVID nineteen I couldn't go even though I planned it like two years before


but ya, it happens , yeah, yeah, thirty second


two out of four, okay, you want to go back to questions or what


ya it just see how ya, K K, what makes you persevere, I I guess is like visualising the end product and like how


what you persevere like how it would benefit like the people you care about and the people around you so like it it kind of gives you the motivation to like persevere of course you know that in the end it will be worth it lah, I think


ya ya ya like like ya, yeah


ya, okay, okay, ya lah okay, in the post COVID world who and what are you newly thankful for or appreciative towards


essential worker lah, why


ya lah same


yeah, but if you think of it a lot of things are essential actually, ya


I think for me I'm more appreciative to like to like the doctors and nurses cause previously I don't really , go to the doctor so I I don't really know anything about it so like now cause of COVID nineteen right you read the news and like you know about


like the things they have to sacrifice like maybe they could be like a mother of like how many children but they still have to stay in the hospital and like ice isolate themselves and everything so it's like , you read all these stories it's like very touching then it's like you feel more thankful towards them cause like you just never really cross my mind


it's because there wasn't any like contact between them and like the news doesn't don't really cover them unless something like a epidemic happens so like, I think it's good that, now I'm more appreciative towards them


so I know like it could be a people that I can support more and like I can empathise more with them that sort of thing, ya and like, like what you said all those cashiers also like there's a there's COVID nineteen but then you still have to go out to work and like take the risk of interacting with so many people you know that sort of thing


so it's like you have a respect for them, ya, !huh! which one


okay, or


okay one of my best meal that I had right was when I went to my friend's house then our we went swimming which wasn't really swimming cause I was just screaming for the whole thing I cannot swim that's why I was screaming for the whole thing and then my friend was like what the like she was trying to teach me how to swim but I couldn't so was a traumatising experience


but after that we, no no not done then after that we go to the coffee shop and ate this really nice spaghetti it was like really good cause my friend hyped it up for like one month before she was like hyping it up like oh there's this really good spaghetti you have to go at my place but she lives in jurong


and then is just is near the swimming pool then she wanted to scare me in the water ya, so you know I don't know it's just not link but ya the spaghetti was nice there is this really nice hot dog thing like they grill it


so it's not like a normal hot dog it's like, grilled there's like a layer of skin I don't know how to say, it just tastes different , no no but is no it's not the wrapping sider it's hard


I don't know I don't know maybe next time as in jurong it's too far away but ya, K K that's for that question, share a inside joke


why you don't have okay , no, I don't know, can talk who is coming now


stop K hell foster don't like cheese every time we just tag him all the cheese stuff , oh my god , oh I got I got one friend her name in chinese is apple, horrible, all right I got one friend her name in chinese is apple


so like every whenever it's her birthday we just buy her an apple, as in there's other stuff what like you just add in the apple for the lows you know, ya, (uh huh) I don't know ah my jokes are damn are all very lame so I don't want to say I don't have you got friends meh


I don't know K , K lah it's hard to think until it happens ya until it happens then you remember


K, K, which question you want to do, I can say the fond memory one ah


that time I hike with my family at the the bukit timah hill, that was fun, I don't know cause we don't because usually family you go out to like shopping mall that sort of thing so it's quite a unique experience then like I think that time I don't really hike often so like it was


like a new experience also, hike, like fifteen, then the last time I hike was like the last time I was like five I don't remember what happened


so like fifteen you remember what, ya then got monkey so scary, go there was like whole bunch that was very near then like the other hikers were like don't look at them don't look at them just walk just walk it's like , I scared


ya, those otters ah


ya, why cannot cross just cross ah


but cannot just chase the monkeys away


you walk you walk to the other end of the bridge ah, so is there they're just sitting there doing nothing, (uh huh) so you all just , so


ya, you just shoo ah, you you you throw banana ah, you put food at the other end they will go to food


stood you you , okay I okay I think it's illegal anyways so, okay okay


ya, it's a positive yes, !ow! that's good


stuck K, good for you, ya actually speaking of monkeys right that time my my block downstairs got car but there was a monkey just walking around I don't know it was just walking


then it end up at my secondary school, cause like the next day they were talking about like some monkeys entered the school and then the teachers have to like chase it away, I think should be the same lah cause I live I know my school is near my school and it's near my house so it's like


it can't be yours what yours so far away, so many monkeys, ya, but you live in the middle of now where so you know


I think, so it's like normal, ya, one to two, okay, so yes


what do you want, what other things that you look most for you most look forward to when the pandemic ends


how would you want to tuck in cause of that, I mean technically you can just need to split, you just split the table you just don't interact with five people


okay okay , okay for me it's the mask wearing I cannot I cannot wear the mask I cannot I'm gonna I think I think I'm allergic to the mask


the one that the government gave, it's so fury then I keep sneezing , ya, but I think it's going to be around for quite some time, ya since the singaporean cases are not increasing also


ya then I keep , giving out the list of places that people have went to who had COVID nineteen then I keep ya, I'm scared


we talk about that for the next section, yes, ya, then don't don't get arrested


if anything else just laughed at, like what, got racks so so


okay talk okay, ya same ya I just hang out with my friends then we just talk lor stuffs then just start laughing and would judge us okay that time I was eating genki with #bee hui# right then there was like cause we're eating genki here one table and other table will be


behind us was like a group of people ah then we were just talking about weird stuff and they started judging us but I didn't notice cause we kept laughing so it was so embarrassing but that's all the next section , yes


I got the personal growth one, the tell talk about a time when you experience personal growth, ya, is that your your okay


think cause uh that time in J one we got to go on OSLP so I think that was a very overseas service learning program it was very , eye opening for me it's like your ear piece was it mine, okay


uh so basically, cause we got we got to go to vietnam lah so we was we got to like hang out with, taught the kids english and everything and then they were all so cute so like okay so before that I


I didn't really care about children, is it mine or yours I don't know, okay, oh okay ya so like after that lah then I got the


ya but after that cause cause you got to hang out with these children and then like they all so cute and everything but then you realise like the unfortunate situation they are in and how it's really hard for them to like get out of poverty that sort of thing because of like the country they are in and


or the different systems and structures and stuff, so even if they work hard they might not have the resources in order to succeed in life, so ya so after that I I got more inspired


ya, don't know how to say I don't know ya, yes , your turn, yes


okay, ya


okay, but he cannot learn meh like shoelace , what


okay


GG, ya


so did he learn in the end, okay that's good, he what , okay I mean like also your few months okay I guess


okay that's good ah before, he put what, you, okay, cannot put meh I don't know


I don't know, white powder uh ya, yeah, yeah, !aiyo! okay I'm not supposed to do that okay I don't I don't know I'm gonna do, is it I I don't know it's just something that I play when I was younger at my grandparents' house


but it's so fun, okay, okay okay, how to finish this up


ya, ya okay (ppl) okay (ppl) thanks (ppb)


prompt one out of four, okay ya so we supposed to talk about financial related matters


uh you wanna do question one first, okay, ya you can start with question one ah


ya actually for me also same cause five years ago I was seventeen so that's like JC two JC two right


ya so JC one ah okay ya JC one so in JC one I mean like most of us would be schooling <P2>I I was schooling also meridian JC</P2> so , uh can't really say that like I have a job or I went out to the workforce I I didn't really do any part time job before that as well


so I guess one financial advice just try to study hard as far as possible I mean if, I were to give this advice to myself five years ago I would probably ask myself to get a scholarship so can save some money on that and some scholarships provide you with uh additional like what what you call that allowances also so that would be a good boost to


uh my finances ya, JC ah JC have what, ya


ya I for me financial I mean we all have the some form of notion that financial advisers we always tend to relate them to like scammers and stuff I mean even though it's not true but we all have that that thought at the back of our head so


on the topic of whether we should DIY or get a financial adviser it also really depends a lot for me personally actually I have like a little bit of uh experience dealing with this kind of thing before cause uh regarding finances wise I actually have


some investment thing like it's on an online platform known as fundsupermart so maybe I just talk about some investment related topics since we are already here then okay investment topics I guess there are like a few types of stuff which you can invest on


so firstly is like bonds which are basically money you lend to someone else to or in particular to maybe like a company or an entity where they just borrow your money and give you interest based on the money you lend them per se


and then there are also uh stocks which are shares of a company so these are more dangerous because like the stocks may crash when the market outlook is bad and then lastly there is the there are I think these things called funds which is like you lend your money to


a particular company and they will help you to invest it so the one that I actually like sort of buy buying or is called is the last one which I mentioned is funds ah so every month I put in about like one hundred to two hundred dollars into these funds


so how I got about these funds to begin with actually is by signing up on that particular website they they uh allocated a sort of financial adviser to me so this financial adviser though I didn't actually meet him in real life he just emailed me like we just conversed over email lah


so he just like email me like recommended funds so I just pick two of them and ya every month I just put in, this like one hundred two hundred dollars to to to invest in these funds


ya, so I won't say financial advisers are bad also , ya lah true


ya I think mine like my strategy per se is cause recently I like I attended some financial workshop thing like conducted by my one of my friends so there is this thing called dollar cost averaging I think I'm whatever I'm doing now is more banking towards that cause it's like you put in a fixed sum of money


into some in for investment whatever you're trying to invest in and then over a long period of time like the market will right go up and go down so at the end of the day you will just average out so like for me is more of like I'm more banking towards this


strategy ah, ya ya


sure, number three oh uh


ya for my cash flow I also follow this four three two one uh method ah I think it's quite commonly like it's quite widely known so I also follow the same idea of it uh income wise uh I don't really have income yet so


I haven't really had a opportunity to allocate according to this lah but I'm planning to do so in in this manner , ya


out of four , you say first ah


ya I guess for now like okay you you covered most of it already for extra income maybe I can talk about like whatever in in my current capacities so we are all still studying in tertiary institutions


so as as a student I guess you want to earn extra income you can go about doing it in a few ways lah number one is like scholarships I mentioned just now it's not really income but I I guess it's a source of money and then ya it's a inflow ah it's like a cash inflow cause


some scholarships they really give you quite a lot of money especially those government scholarships ah then uh, during free time like in holidays I also actually intend to do uh work either work part time or if I can find a internship I'll probably go and intern so this these are I mean in my opinion I think internship would be a better choice because you get to


increase your skills as well yet it contributes to your CV also ah like what you mentioned just now , so ya internship they pay you though not a lot but at least it's still you you'll get a lesser amount of money in exchange for more amount of things that you can learn


so ya this is a few ways ah, how do you spend your money


okay I guess expenditure being justified of course is first thing that comes to my mind is your daily necessities like food uh water your house housing bills utility bills ya all these expenditures


are justified in my opinion ah and then I think it's justified for most people uh what have I been spending too much on , uh I don't I don't really spend a lot cause of circuit breaker


S spend too much okay okay so like I mention just now, even though I say spending on like food and stuff is justified I also find myself spending too much on food cause it's like


when whenever we go out to eat or or like we dine in take or like order takeaways , we tend to spend like more money because like outside food is more expensive so when I say expenditure justified for purchasing food is more for like you go grocery shopping that kind ya maybe just change my stand on that


ya that's great


okay, out of seven what strategies would you recommend to someone planning for their big ticket expenditures


yup it's roughly the same for me as well I guess, one sentence to put it will be just to start saving early so if you calculate the cost of your big ticket expenditure uh you just divide it by like the number of months ahead that you are willing to start saving for it


and then every month you just put aside this sum of money that like into a separate place that you can ultimately collate and withdraw for your big ticket expenditure , ya of course I agree with you that there are a lot of like unseen course during all this big ticket expenditure ah like you go overseas there are you can't possibly predict every dollar and cent that you will spend


so there are a lot of unseen cost ah like like last minute you need to travel somewhere then you know you hire a you do some private hire car or you just flag down a cab, ya all these will you you have basically you have to put in some buffer ah you can't really plan down to the cent


yup, ya true


okay, number eight can we skip that


yeah ya I guess, number nine , in a post COVID world what changes are you making in terms of your spending saving habits


okay wait, I guess this is back to the four three two one thing in a post COVID world I would probably reduce my expenses and increase my savings , so that would mean the four would be down to a three and the three would be down to a four (eh) would be increased to a four so you're just swapping your expenses and savings now


because during the during as in like in the situation now most of us will end up tapping on our like savings what cause of the very bad economy outlook so once this whole situation has passed


in a post COVID world we'll have to build back our savings that's why I would, uh for me I would increase my savings monthly and reduce my expenses, yup


yeah ya, okay uh I pick pick the credit card fourteen that one looks okay


okay credit card for me right honestly speaking I don't see the need to own a credit card for now because , credit card mostly people use credit cards to pay for like huge loans or to take out loans and stuff for as a student credit card will only cause us more trouble because like why do you want to pay for something


like assuming you can afford it lah why why do you want to pay for it in the future when you can just pay for it now you know like get get the get rid of that debt per se so that you don't owe people money cause credit card is like on a loan system mah you buy the thing but you pay in like a few months or


like in one month's time so like I don't really see the point lah you can just like use NETS or use your debit card you know to pay for the thing like right away but of course if you are purchasing like houses or you are taking up loans for your business then O then you only


I think you are entitled to use a credit card lah otherwise I don't really see the need for credit card ya


yup


yup, okay


prompt three out of four


sure you can start with the first one , I need to think a bit


the poverty cycle


I think mine would not really be injustice of the world in a sense it's just like my experience with things that make me very angry , ya so it's it's back to NS again unfortunately so uh after my basic training when I was posted out I had this there was this change of


command to so so some important people left and another new guy came in to replace that guy ah so in his position he was in charge of like uh, okay basically his role was called head of operations so ya any operational related thing is his role ah okay so when he just came in right we all thought he would be a good change for the like


for us ah because the the unit was very like it was going downhill so when we see this new guy we were thinking okay maybe he can make some new changes to help us ah uh another thing is cause like my unit is mostly NSF


there were very little regulars so we were having a hard time lah since there were no regulars to assist us then you know NSF are like second grade , in the ya they always place regulars first anyway so , so this new guy came in we thought he could make a lot of change but in the end he just made things worse and he changed things to become worse okay so the thing about uh new people right uh not only in NS lah maybe I can generalise this to like


outside world as well because from school and like I used to work part time as a as a waiter so when there's like new people coming in lah the time there was a change of managers in the in the work that like in my waiter job


so the thing about all this new incoming high ranking people or like people in managerial role positions is that when they enter a new environment they like to start changing a lot of things to make their mark as in like to to make their presence known you get what I mean like they just want to change a lot of stuff to


to to make sure that people know who they are like !ow! this guy's coming in making our lives better but what they do not realise right is that some things do not need to be changed like things that are already there and it's like good like good practices ah essentially do not need to be changed


but this guy came in and he started changing all this stuff and then a few months later another important guy left like the commander left ah now that guy was the head of operation then the commander left and the new commander came in and he started to change even more again


so all these new changes got rid of the old practices that we were used to and and although I agree that some practices, that he got rid of is good because like, uh I mean there were some of his the changes that he made were good changes but most of them were very uh it felt more like it was for his personal achievement or accomplishment because he was bound to be the next like


okay maybe I won't say this but like he he he's basically he's he's going to like take over an even more uh important position his prospects were good so he come here to fulfill that prospects , ya but he just it's very sad how he doesn't really care about uh like the people some more he's in their position he's like in the top position with so many people under him and he only does these things for his career prospects per se


ya it was quite sad to see that, happening , ya, I left , I ORD he's just left there ya he's still there


ya nothing real can none can can't really do anything about it I mean I tried there was a dialogue they had this commander's dialogue I brought it up with him and I just only got myself into trouble so I had to see some other guy for four hours the next day of my shift


ya to talk about whatever I mentioned during the commander's dialogue okay, ya I'll tell you about it another time


sure


yup, I don't actually know


which one , okay sure


I don't really have , a dream dream thing , I mean I wanted to be a scientist, but I just gave up on that after a while


cause there were too much studying involved, ya it's just, like those uh research scientist kind


ya more more for like the one where you invent stuff okay I guess you can call it an inventor would that sound better ya, ya


ya I mean just after a while it just nope, primary school, archaeologist


don't you hate doctors, don't you hate doctors, okay, ya I guess I can do the


the the the last question describe a time you felt like giving up, so it was during A levels A levels was extremely difficult for me I have no idea why it was just very difficult to me I don't really have any motivation to to my A levels to begin with


so throughout the , two years of JC it was just like, scraping by, yeah like, the exams were all so difficult and I didn't really get most of like understand it and then the sad thing is you know whenever you ask your teachers why this thing is like that and why that thing is like that after all they start telling you !ow! you just take it as like that


including in universe in university ah, ya so it's like oh man why why do you tell me this kind of stuff it just , you know it just like crashes, your whole idea of studying


and like, like because suck at least for me ah like I prefer to study thing that I like and then the reason why I like to study there is because of your interest and like your curiosity uh and then you go up to people you ask them why is like that then they just tell you to take it as as is as is like that


which are in other words means that either they don't care or they don't know then they just like, you know makes you feel like forget it I don't wanna do it anymore , ya


!haiya! I don't know lah


think JC was not it was just like the the subject didn't really require us to know why it's like that ah so I could understand but moving on to uni uni was when I really felt like this ah cause the lecturers really did not care


I mean I have no idea how they became lecturers to begin with, they really just tell you okay just do it , I don't know , but like this kind of things really makes you lose motivation to do to study ah


ya at least JC all these is still under MOE, but you go to university is they can just pluck someone from the street


ya if they take a expert from an industry they also can what but doesn't mean that guy knows how to teach, ya he's just good at his job he's not good at, teaching


yes, we'll pick our quick question , oh okay


force to change your plan against your will, okay so you know I'm planning the orientation camp


then it got it got cancelled so it became a E orientation camp ya so, when we were planning the E orientation camp throughout the whole planning process , every few weeks like the department that we're planning it for basically the school the faculty department keep sending us new instructions and new uh regulation that we must follow so it was really very irritating cause


I had to change like my plans almost every week, yeah for this event per se ah and I lost half of my manpower because of the the change, cause they decided to split our original event into into two separate events


so originally there were two courses like environmental engineering and civil engineering then they decided to split it, into two, so now, you lost half your manpower and you got to change your plan every week that's that's just bad


okay


prompt two out of four, sure these questions are harder mah than the previous one


ya you just pick anyone that you are comfortable with saying first lor


okay, yeah I guess it's the same it's just, ya I this question can be changed to like what's your motivation right, it's probably just like the people that you care about, ya that's for me


that is as simple as that


bathroom cleaners security guard all these, ya essential workers, there are of course before this most of most people uh I mean I can speak for myself as well who probably not have taken notice to them to begin with because like they are just you know there


providing you with this service that we take for granted , then after the whole COVID nineteen situation then we realise like uh without these people that like we can't really go about our day to day life normally


ya so of course, ya we'd be more thankful and appreciative towards them ah, uh simple simple thing only like cashier all this actually if you think got no cashier also you can't buy your stuff ah so ya you will realise that there are more and more essential like the term essential before the COVID nineteen situation I think the term essential is like do come first thing come to your mind probably like all the


all the defense industry all these right like essential essential ya then you never you'll never realise, at least for most people you never realise like the term like a cashier is essential you know you know what I mean


yes ya, then you don't you don't want to see doctor one what


okay I just saw the question what was the best meal you've ever had , so in my neighbourhood around block four hundred there, there is a chicken rice which is very nice you should try it one day ya but that's what I was thinking that's the best meal I've ever had


ya I was just looking good through the question then I thought of the answer to that so I just say it first, swimming


since when you can swim, then that should be in the next prompt what not this


then what is it gotta do with swimming , , , okay


so all hot hot dogs have that layer of wrapping thing, okay


I don't have one , what racks , does rack count


then what sia mister peterson , ya that guy is also quite troublesome


why so sad , okay, I don't even have


what's that supposed to mean, what inside joke funny inside joke I can't think it any of any of the top of my head, well late later when it comes to mind then I say ya


okay anything else, Sei oh


okay, true


like how old were you uh, eh !wah! you never hike at age of fifteen , okay okay okay ya


lor there was this time of speaking of monkeys there was this time when I was in primary school then because from my house walk to my primary school we have to cross this bridge like across like a some river ah so ya the one with the otters so in order to cross that bridge I mean like there's only one way to get there lah otherwise you have to walk one big round pass some highway then you cross the road


which is definitely not ideal so like during that period of time it was like, there was a lot of monkeys around cause the school is near the park, ya so there was this bunch of monkeys just hanging out then they start they were started roaming until the bridge there so this one morning I was going to school we across it bridge then the monkeys were just on the you know the handles of the railings ya then all the students were stuck on the other end of the bridge


they cannot go to school you know the school teachers ya they cannot cross the school teachers also came out walk out of the school and like went to the bridge and ask ask people to slowly cross like the security guard was there also they were just trying to help people to cross the bridge


where do you want them to go they like they can't jump off it's like water below they're gonna attack you if you do that, the bridge is very small narrow, like it's it's, ya they're just like hanging out there like literally hanging out there then okay the bridge width right is like three person wide that kind three or four ah you stand side by side three or four people only


ya then the monkeys were like on the left side you shoo shoo shoo then they jump in the water then they're not gonna jump in the water they're gonna attack you , who brings, that kind of oh no uh that is a very bad idea eh you put food they're gonna attack you all the more


that side is no feeding of uh monkeys ya anyway after uh ya we just you were just ya we were just laughing at the monkeys and it was a good time I guess this one can be uh okay it's not about the questions but ya it was a positive experience cause I get to skip like a few hours of school


ya then we pull out the like the the you know assemble morning assembly then ya there were it was so empty cause people were just streaming in slowly from that bridge, so ya


monkeys, how did you even get there


our enter school the monkeys the same monkeys that I've told you about right it enters someone's house , I don't know ah, there were a lot of them mah the one near my primary school there it was like five to ten


no I don't, no I do not live in the middle of nowhere, okay any ya okay


next question


dining in in groups of ten, I don't know, basically, I I don't know ah like mass, gathering lol


no you can't uh five fives, no you can't do that you're gonna go jail


oh yes yes yes the mask, I can't breathe through that cloth, yes too hard to breathe


true


okay I can talk about a time when I laughed too hard but like, it's about something bad ah so I don't know whether I should say it


okay, okay nevermind, I don't have a lot of things, like racks


like racks, I I don't know ah what polar


okay, laugh to, where


you can go first if you have


what


okay both ya


personal growth


I guess is during NS, cause, that's the time where you really have to rely on yourself there's no one I mean of course there are your friends but ya you learn to be more independent


so uh okay so I always talk about, my basic training and I were had I had this I had this uh squad mate uh he okay so our bunks were in like ten people per room


so there was this guy I don't know whether I tell you about I told you about him before like he doesn't know how to tie his shoelace he doesn't know how to fold fold his like blankets and his beds put his bedsheet and stuff , so ya at the beginning it was very very irritating cause we keep getting punished because of that guy and then we had to do everything for him or he just like lol stand there


ya so okay but I mean after a while like I mean I also went to help him ah so it's it's like we take turns to help him that's the funny but like it's like okay today ya you all know exact okay that's the thing we keep teaching him but like he doesn't get it I I don't even know but then there's the time limit there's like


they give us a few minutes to finish okay so there's this thing called bunk inspection so they will only warn you about it five minutes before, I mean you can prepare for it beforehand but nobody saw that coming, so that guy the the company commander came in and told us we have five minutes to prepare for it and we were like this guy ain't gonna make it so we just ya this just keeps happening time and time but ya after a while he learn how to like


I mean there's the essence of helping others but of course you have to teach that guy to be independent as well ah I mean this whole experience of mine just taught me to be more independent as well because like, is it tells me that I like it just I don't I not only have to worry about myself but also have to take care of the people around me ah so it was a time of personal growth especially in like in my independence


ya it's like if you think about it you can relate this to like a family situation in future then you have to take care of your kid you have to take care of yourself, yup no offense to that friend of mine I still keep in contact with him ya


ya of course he did , we made sure he did , we made sure he did, ya this was the beginning ah after towards the end he already know how to do already


and ya he put his snake powder in my boots, there was one okay I think this is for the next session lah okay, no you know the snake that one the powder you put already then very hot one


like it starts to be become very hot ya ya the white colour one he filled my boots with that and I didn't know I wear it, no you're not supposed to do that who the hell does that


no you do not play around with that powder , it's it's so hot, okay, ya


financial related topic


let me think


(hmm) I mean five years ago I was really quite young so maybe I will think about uh probably, thinking about health insurance in terms and finding out more on what is medisave CPF uh things like that that the government provides because it's only at this period of time that I find out about all of these things


so maybe when I was younger I should have done more reading up on, investment plans like what you've said and on uh health insurance because I feel it really does matter in a long run ah yeah then do you think you should actually


go ahead and make plan such finances in the future or do you think you should actually go and get yourself a financial advisor


I don't know leh because like I feel maybe a financial adviser firstly you have to do research on whether or not the financial adviser is good and whether or not he is experienced then nowadays like the internet you can literally find a


a lot of things like uh research on what financial plans are available then even banking websites have guidelines for you to kick start your financial plans so maybe


if let's say a friend recommends it to me then maybe I'll try getting a financial adviser but then uh and also some more financial adviser you maybe have to pay them an additional amount to for them to advise you on your finances


so it's additional cost lah so maybe right now I'll just DI my DIY myself lor yeah


yeah true true somebody that's more experienced right and have actually studied in financing yeah,


uh yeah but the thing is I don't even know that I didn't even know that we actually have a savings plan to begin with leh I thought it was like like they didn't do anything then when mummy told us about it then that was the first time I actually thought about like oh they actually came up with this savings plan for us ah


yeah, but nowadays how do you manage your cash flow


that that it's like actually quite I feel in terms of like if you cannot see the cash physically right and then after that now there is a lot of like internet banking and like online shopping it's very easy to actually just spend right


so actually how I manage my cash flow is also similar to yours ah but uh I use an app on the app store called money manager actually there's a lot of like uh those uh financial likes uh this kind of


managing your finances kind of applications to, to ensure that you can track your spendings cause when you track you actually get the better idea of how much that you have already spent right yeah so the money manager app is very similar to yours as well it helps you to categorise your money in money out


then also like it categorises your spendings ah so for example you spend on food then what kind of transaction uh did you use to actually pay for that item so it's either through DBS or like through


uh grabpay or through physical cash ah so I think it's a very useful app then furthermore right that money manager app it can actually allow you to upload the file or your input on to like excel sheet so maybe next time when you want to like better organise it and then


track down uh how much you spent total in like one month it's very easy to do it lah so I feel especially when we started earning an income I think it's very important to manage and figure out how your cash flows and how it comes in and comes out ah yeah


, (hmm) I feel that it really varies leh because I'm not that big of a spender so I don't actually like


err go ahead and allocate a specific amount to how much I want to save or how much I want to spend lah but definitely I'll just put maybe a limit lor like for example uh this week somehow it shows like you know it's my


there is not many events so I don't spend as much mah then that's okay but then on another on the second week I realised that oh it's my friend's birthday or I'm buying a new item for schooling or for leisure then I will just


know track how much I spend so that uh then I have to ensure that you know I don't over exceed an exorbitant amount yeah then for insurance and investment I haven't really dived into it yet because I only recently found out about


the this world of investment ah I heard about the D DBS vickers account for youths aged eighteen to twenty years old and then it allows you it automatically sets up for you a multi currency DBS account which allows you to


trade in the foreign exchange market ah so allows you to buy stock overseas as well as in Singapore lah but then I feel like there is still a lot of reading to do especially in you know the stock market wise because you know the market is so big and


yeah so I I when I called DBS they told me to read up on SGX to figure out how the stock market works and things like that lor what about you


oh yeah I think they did talk about a couple of investments and then what kind of investor you want to be things like that ah so I think it's quite useful yeah I should do more reading about it that


, , then actually seeing that we're not really people who spend a lot right then what can you do to actually earn that extra income or improve your income level do you have any plans or right now you're just working


so actually volunteering didn't doesn't earn me extra income lah but it's more of like getting a part time job cause currently I just uh I completed my A levels last year then received my A levels results so I'm just waiting to continue uni lor so during this period of time


just find a part time job but currently because of the pandemic it is difficult for youngsters like us to find jobs but I'm lucky enough to be able to find part time jobs to earn that extra income lor cause and then also now I can't find to


figure out on how to invest cause that kind of gives you that extra income as well kind of grows ah kind of grows your money ah so that's why I ask uh daddy about investments and how it all works lah so it's a whole new world for me to figure out lah


yeah, then do you actually have the habit of saving like if so then like how do you ensure that you actually save enough, or you just go ahead


true true, (hmm) I feel that the habit of saving from me it wasn't like say oh I was born with this habit of saving I think it kind of grew as I got older because when I was young I never I mean when you're young don't really get much exposure mah you just


kind of study then like play then you don't really know I I didn't really know much about the outside world and things like that lah so I guess my environment was very sheltered lor then it's only after like when I got into JC


then like I started realising that eh there's actually a price difference in certain things we buy and especially when you go out volunteering or like doing part time jobs especially you start to realise that actually a lot of things do like


matter like in terms of finances uh yeah so that was when I started to really get into the habit of saving lor yeah then, as for saving goals right I actually don't really have like a specific goal for saving ah I just feel like oh if there's an opportunity for me to save then I'll just save


yeah so like whenever I purchase an item right it's always like oh is it worth it is it the most , uh worth the money kind of item to buy that kind of things so just and then after like you like that just compare between different suppliers to see whether or not this is the best deal lah so I think that's kind of just our daily lifestyle lor we don't actually have like a goal to meet every single day right


then what about how do you actually spend your money like where do you spend it on


(hmm)


true but then you know since your interest is on like photography and things like that right have you have you been spending too much on like a specific item uh or category


true ah I mean I feel like maybe it's either they have the they are willing to spend and maybe that their interest or their passion for that item is extremely strong that they don't mind spending five six K on it lah but then what I don't agree on is just some youngster that


who don't even have the financial means of you know maybe fulfilling their basic needs that they actually spend on other unnecessary things ah and then they end up like really having almost to like to nothing for their


for their own basic needs, yeah so I just feel like they don't really have that that need to save lah like they spend unnecessarily lor then for me how I spend my money is similar to yours like I would like to on things that I feel that needs to be spent more on


especially like things that are worth spending more on for example getting a laptop or getting a phone you know these are things that you don't change every single day what right usually these are gadgets whereby they stay with you for a few years or even


as long as possible right so definitely you want to invest on like invest more on such items but then like for those miscellaneous things, like maybe a pen or a pencil you probably don't need to spend a hundred over dollars on that item lah yeah but then on items like watches you know things like that have that


value for money then then yeah I feel that is important lah, so I think also what is important is also to do research on items lor because especially whenever we we find when whenever we find something that we like right we usually dive right into buying it then after that we end up regretting because I have made a few purchases where I regret buying also lah


so uh usually I feel research is important ah do you think so


yeah like cause if we make a wrong purchase then we will end up uh trying to sell it on sites like carousell or like those second hand sites right which will then we have we are forced to sell it at a lower price so we are making a a loss at the end of the day ah


so I think these are lessons to be learnt lor uh instead of just impulse buying so I think that one is also through experience ah yeah


, negative experiences


so have you gone through any loss in your life, (hmm) I feel , yeah I actually have gone through a loss ah uh firstly it will be #ye ye# like my grandfather uh he was very very close to my to me ah because I feel that he formed majority of my childhood like he would


bring me downstairs to uh buy you know small little things such as candy or chocolate just to make me happy then also like he's just there whenever


I cry or like whenever I'm looking some for somebody to play with so you know like for childhood right it's it's a very important part of everybody's life because it's like it's the time time of your life where you make


the most important memories and these memories stick to you for a very long time cause that's when you form like your first impressions and you learn about life and things like that lah so when I lost him I was definitely very


sad, because uh he was I when before he actually passed away he was always seen to be a very bubbly person uh always had a smile on his face so


just a few days before his death he was you know on lying on a hospital bed and then he was just very lifeless very weak then sometimes I would see that hint of pain in his facial expressions


you know we you know we can kind of like tell that he's suffering ah while he was in his coma so it was definitely very emotional lor but then how I dealt with the loss is just to kind of just I feel like time really heals everything slowly you just kind of


realise that you know the world is still moving on despite a loss or despite somebody passing on then at the end of the day we just have to deal with it then treasure the memories that we've had with them


and be thankful that they've you know spent uh they have made us happy like during the time that they were here on earth lah so yeah that's what that was how I I dealt with the loss lor yeah since you (hmm)


, like even though I was young I could already tell that , that something was off lah because he started to give us like uh the black and white


shirt like the white shirt and then the black shorts black pants that you have to wear to a funeral so I knew that eh something is wrong already then when I realise that we were actually that you know we were actually preparing for his funeral all this while right


it made me very very sad lah like, I I appreciate that effort that you know cause I was very young he didn't want to make me sad that that he that he's gone ah but later on I start to realise that yeah from time to time I do miss him but


I'm happy that you know he kind of passed away not having to feel as much pain because he was in a coma already yeah hopefully lah yeah, then since you don't really uh didn't really go through a major loss in your life right then what is one thing that makes you stressed


(hmm), I think for me it's also pressure that will make me stressed then also realising that I'm falling behind like other people like I realised that, eh wait why am I not moving as fast or why is it that it's taking me so long to actually get there and things like that so that kind of makes me stressed because


it's just like cause naturally I feel like I'm a very competitive person so for me to realise that oh no I'm falling behind other people right it kind of makes me stressed and upset lah cause I will want to work harder to be able to get on par with them and things like that


then for me I feel like uh that one point that I was stressed from uh JC the recent experience right was from my shooting CCA then I went for competition then after that uh I realised that I was falling behind in terms of points ah


so it just made me stressed then you know when you're stressed you can't really think properly right so like it kind of just like made me even more, did even more badly for my shooting lah so it just made me even more stressed out lah yeah so I feel in times of this kind of like stressful moments right I think the best is just to


see it calmly and then uh take a moment take a breather and then figure out what what you want to do to or how you want to overcome such a stressful period lah yeah, then what is what is one traumatic incident you've experienced in your life


(hmm)


oh, was it recently,


(hmm) I think for me I don't really have a traumatic incident in my life leh maybe for me I do have probably, a most


uh, memorable incident not really say traumatic that really taught me a lot I think for me it was my friendship with uh, my secondary school friend who which ended lah so I feel like she kind of taught me a lot of things like from our friendship then uh it taught me that a lot of things about my character then it kind of just left me a very


, a memory that will stick with me for a very long time lah like it made me realise that !hey! maybe I was too sensitive of a person and things like that so I feel that she did impact me a lot and that was the incident that really impact me impacted me in my life ah yeah


firstly I feel maybe, my goal would be probably to, uh serve in the healthcare sector in the future but one thing that is probably holding me back would probably be my perception that it's going to be extremely tough in the future lah like even now when I tell other people that I'll I'll be studying


in you know a degree that will be allowing me to work in the healthcare sector they will be like oh isn't it very tough or is it high risk things like that so it kind of just makes me feel like oh it was is this the right decision that I've made ah


it kind of made me doubt my passion and it made me kind of like contemplate whether or not it's the right route to take cause a lot of people will say that it's very stressful and things like that so uh it will just make me realise like oh should I really take on this route of uh studying


you know in the healthcare sector in the future lah yeah so I feel that believing in myself and having faith is something that is holding me back lor what about you


, then


(hmm) I feel yes, so, when I was in secondary school I wanted very badly to be the president of my CCA because I felt like I put in a lot of effort


I was responsive you know I was a team player I fought in competitions in for debate and you know I never missed, a single CCA session so my attendance was always like ninety plus percent unless I had a very a valid reason to not be present for CCA ah so I felt during the time when


the teacher announced the EXCO positions right uh she didn't make me president of C of the CCA instead she gave me the role that was deemed to be unwanted by everybody ah which was the welfare head of the CCA


so when I felt uh that I felt like I wasn't being appreciated by her by the by the coaches by the by the teacher in charge in the CCA so I felt like, you know in that sense of burning it down I just felt like why not just not play a role in this CCA you know things like that so it took uh some time for me to finally accept that role and then like move on from it because


you know I really wanted to just Pon CCA and just uh not care about it at tall at all because what's the point of putting in so much effort when they don't recognise your talent you know and they don't recognise your effort it just gets very very tiring and frustrating


in this period of time lah especially when you want to be recognised for it yeah then what made it worse was like somebody who I felt was very undeserving of the role you know managed to get president uh so I just


felt like life was very unfair lor yeah what about you


, true true, !huh! a lot actually like uh I I think maybe


uh one, recent thing that didn't meet my expectations was definitely the recent korea trip lor like I missed my flight back then like for me was like I put in so much effort trying to you know plan the trip you know leading the way ensuring that our belongings are safe


no I didn't lose anything during the korea trip then after that I also put in so much effort I woke up early set up the alarm clock things like that like just did a lot of things just to prepare for the flight and then realised that I end up missing the flight


because of somebody else like I just felt extremely frustrated lah like very upsetting then also at that point of time I was in a foreign country and it was during a it was very close to you know the entire world being going into lock down because of the pandemic that's currently happening


then it was extremely scary for me lor like don't even know I don't even know whether there was going to be a flight back then I still remember like uh while booking for the flight for a new flight and figuring out which was the the next available flight right


I was crying then uh running to the SIA office to ask them to help me check things like that and then crying and then begging to get on a flight but then it was too late already lah so yeah then on top of that I had to


also find a new flight uh and thankfully there was a flight on that very the on that same night lah because if not I honestly don't even know where we are going to stay especially when we don't have cash with us and then uh we literally you know didn't have a lot


uh with us ah like I remember wanting to drink water right but then the water coolers at the uh airport was not were closed down was closed down because of the current pandemic lah so I didn't even have money to buy


bottled mineral water leh so that was extremely like traumatic and also like , that and also it just didn't meet my expectation of wanting to get on a flight lor yeah what about you


, true true, (hmm) maybe, the time when I was studying for A levels then sometimes when you don't do well for certain subject I just felt very helpless lor because I didn't really have an older person who I can ask uh in the family but then after that


come to think of it uh there there were teachers and there were my friends around me lah cause I feel like in such an environment sometimes your friends you don't really want to ask them too many questions also cause they are also having their own difficulties then they also have to study on their own then for me it's like I prefer to study on my own lor


yeah so that was when I just felt helpless lah what about you


but then yeah


positive experiences, (hmm) my best birthday present ah I think maybe receiving the DS from daddy when I was eight years old


I think that was one of uh memorable experiences especially during the purchase of the item lah because that time we went to the shop together then uh the DS the nintendo DS or the PSP was the huge


craze like it was a huge technological breakthrough and then everybody kind of wanted the device right so then I was kind of like debating whether ought to get the PSP or the DS then I remember you wanted me to get the PSP because it was like


more cool and things like that but then daddy managed to uh convince me to get the uh DS Nintendo DS at the end ah so up to till today right actually still do have the Nintendo DS, and it brings a lot of memories because uh remember we will buy like uh pirated games from overseas to to increase the quantity of games that we can play on that device then we also (ppc) had memories whereby


our cousins would fight for the to play just the Nintendo DS so I think it was very memorable especially when I was just primary two then you know finally being able to get a very cool device to play with what about you


(hmm) then what about your biggest what's the biggest blessing in disguise to you


true actually for me I feel the biggest blessing in disguise would be my uh JC years ah because a lot of people even like stepping into JC for the first time I had


the impression uh just like of JC just like everybody else like just like majority of everybody else lah they feel that the life of JC is going to be very tough then you don't really have a life you just study sleep and then


uh eat and that's it lah so okay to a certain extent yes this kind of life is true we do study for the most of our days before A levels so it was like very stressful ah but then also I feel I've met


my closest friends from JC despite like just two years because it's really like people who actually uh go through toughest moments with you such as such as studying for A levels and people who actually relate to the same kind of pain as you that you are able to actually bond with them and


become very close with them ah so the friends that I've met in JC they really help me pull through this difficult period of time studying for A levels because they can relate to you mah so it's very easy to like feel more comforted that you're not the only one


battling A levels yeah so I felt like despite all of the stress it was also like a great experience for me to develop as a person then also to I don't know make a lot of


very very important memories that I will definitely treasure in my life time ah yeah, then actually speaking about stress right what is actually like one comfort food that you actually go to all the time to actually cheer you on


(hmm), uh currently it's the tomato egg noodles uh the tomato fried tomato egg with rice I just feel like it is so comforting firstly cause it's affordable then secondly it's also cause like I feel it's just the way the


the tomato egg is fried right that makes it so comforting that it's very difficult for a lot of like it's very difficult to replicate such a dish even though it's so simple like different chefs if you go to different places right this tomato


fried tomato egg taste different differently leh so yesterday I went to Yishun park hawker centre to to eat this dish then it taste different from the one that is nearby our home leh so it's like very , really depends on the skill lah so something that that is deemed as comfort food and so and it deemed to be very simple to cook right is actually it actually requires a lot of skill ah yeah so not everybody can actually perfect such a dish so I feel that one is just


so like whenever I eat that dish it's like firstly I look forward to it and then secondly it's just makes me happy lor yeah then what do you actually love most about yourself


(hmm) true true, (hmm) I think for me right, , I think for me I am somebody who is very strong headed, then uh like I kind of have a rough idea of what I want to do lah so it's like I believe in being independent in terms of uh like what I want to achieve ah because I feel


in life right cause especially you know life in Singapore it's like extremely competitive so when you want to to achieve something there's always somebody who is going to work ten times harder or twenty times harder than you


so having that kind of mindset it kind of pushed me to actually , believe in my abilities and work hard for what I want to achieve ah yeah definitely each step that I take is very daunting because you know in our family nobody has actually done A levels before or have actually walked through this route before even our parents don't really have much experience ah


so studying for A A levels it was definitely very uh daunting because once you do badly for A levels it's it's basically like end game for you what unless you want to take the longer route lah but then as for polytechnic you still have a diploma so you still have


something to fall back on but then for me I had nothing what so that's why I feel in that period of time being tenacious and also knowing that you can that we have the ability I have the ability to fight for what I want to achieve


it's something that I do love about myself lor yeah, then do you actually have somebody that you look up to in life or like you don't have anybody


, true true, (hmm) as for me right I feel like or I don't really have a specific person who I look up to most uh because I feel that everybody in my life does actually impact me differently lah


like they they teach me in every phase in my life there's always somebody that will teach me something new lor, uh because maybe I'm like very I'm still young and I'm still learning but then I feel my friends they they teach me on how to uh maybe be more flexible be more understanding then my teachers are there especially in JC


who teach me how to be more uh like tenacious be more determined and you know uh despite difficulties in studying and things like that they still never give up on their students and they still continue


teaching us with so much like passion and then after that there's also you know your C my CCA coaches who actually teach me to be focused and not uh lose hope because


for me I feel like whenever things don't go my way right like things aren't perfectly aligned in my life right I do get a little bit annoyed lah but then the people in my life they teach me that !hey! you know life happens there are


you know different there's ups and downs in life and you cannot expect everything to just align perfectly in your life ah so I feel they do uh all of the people who are very close to me they do play a part and in aspiring me to be a better person lah yeah


so then, what about a time when you actually got appreciated for your hard work


actually for me maybe uh it's more of like maybe receiving my A level results but I think that was when I was like !wow! my hard work did kind of pay off after you know that one one and a half years of studying


and then it was a definitely a very joyful moment, because after your A levels it's like going to university which is like your last phase of uh your studying life what so it's like uh you did I feel like I I did achieve something that I want to achieve ah then that kind of made me very happy and satisfied lor


, and also I feel uh I feel most appreciated when people around me are happy like especially when they feel happy for your work and they recognise your effort things like that so I I feel very appreciated by like my teachers feel that their hard work has paid off


that their many hours of teaching and then staying back to teach students for consultation has paid off lah so I think that is very uh satisfying ah yeah, then what would be a perfect day for you in right now actually


was it the second trip or the first trip, uh sadly I didn't wasn't able to join you all but it seemed like it was a lot of fun ah yeah


don't know I feel like a perfect day for me would be like a day whereby I get to do the things that I like to do then uh which probably would be like to go out enjoy the weather and then take videos and then edit them


yeah so just a very chill day for me and then there's no rush there's nobody scolding me or there's nobody rushing time uh to get to somewhere I think that will be a really perfect day for me like in korea right


when I went to Busan uh with my best friend or like going to Seoul uh we literally just, spent our day just loitering around there was nobody to to tell us where to go or anything like that then for us it was like extremely impromptu as well we didn't really have a solid plan on what where we want to go on every single day every single day we just had a


you know a a rough idea of the places that we want to visit in korea but we never really specifically go and arrange or schedule a time for it so it was really like our own time own target kind of thing so it's honestly a very very perfect day as in


you know when we want to go when we pass by this area then like oh we find out that there's a very cool and interesting cafe nearby then we'll just end up going there then we find out like oh that street is super big then we end up getting lost in that street and then we find out like very cute shops


to to loiter around things and things like that because korea honestly has very like what you said a lot of young designers right, so it's like their designs are very innovative and very new and interesting that makes young people like us like excited and interested


as to uh find out uh more about that design lor yeah, even #wei ling# told me about the ADLV shirt which I didn't even know about it until like when I was in Korea even though the shirt is expensive but then the design is quite new and interesting lah right don't you agree


yeah so like do you think Korea is a nice place to visit it is right


yeah (ppl)


click me, , part one financial related topic


what's the one financial advice that you will give to you five years ago, I think that, the one financial advice I can give to myself uh five years ago is probably to start some uh investment plan or any like insurance for myself to like safeguard your future


dexter what about your thoughts


uh I think that now we are much more knowledgeable about all these uh financial plans uh I definitely can engage in a financial adviser with our bank uh so that they can advise us on what can we can do for our current age and current portfolio


given that we are just entering the work force soon and just starting our finances so that they can help better manage our earnings and stuff ah how to like use our money wisely


but I think my thoughts are it's also good to check with someone about all these plans cause if you do it alone it might be quite uh you might not know much about it then like it it will be better it'll be better to discuss with someone who has either like gone through it or is like


uh willing to do it with you so that you have better ideas on what plans to invest in and what plans to buy and stuff ah, yeah, I remember that we were approached uh like quite a while back at the mall then this lady she wanted to advise us on a savings plan but uh mummy really said that oh we have this uh savings plan that she has uh done for us since we were


since we were young so we weren't uh interested in actually starting that plan,


, so like, uh I use the like this DBS app right it helps me to track my spending and then it breaks down my spendings into like transport entertainment uh is it food or online shopping or what so I can really I can see the money in


and also the money out so I help to I can check my spendings like very easily lah it helps me to gauge my finances uh and I don't really withdraw that much cash I use a lot of like E payments and digital payments so it's very convenient for me to check my


spendings and earnings ah,


, so like where you earn like a daily a monthly income right like how much of it is allocated to your savings and how much you spend


, so on the topic of savings right uh and spendings I actually like you don't really spend that much uh actually most of my savings like I would say eighty percent right is savings and maybe only like twenty percent is on spending so I will say that


my saving is quite stable ah so definitely it's good to save more than you spend lah cause you don't really like you won't like meet in you won't like reach a level where you like have really no money to spend or your bank is like in the tens


or like maybe you went negative amount it's actually quite scary to to be in that state ah cause you know like when you don't have money to spend right then it's very hard for you to do a lot of things ah you know especially now everything you have to be self dependent these days like can't really rely on anyone nowadays


yeah and then for like insurance and investment I know that I do have some insurance ah as our parents have set aside for us uh like study insurance uh health insurance is also covered for us uh via medisave medishield as everyone has it


and also uh for savings insurance uh also think we do have some but I need to find out what is that also so I can better of idea of how to utilise it in the future lah and for investment I also haven't really started on it because uh I don't


know much about it also and I didn't study business in polytechnic uh whereas compared to my poly friends who studied business right I'm sure they will have a lot of investment plans or they know about all these investment plans ah so I think it will be good probably if you can if I can ask them


uh what are the good plans or maybe they even try to sell to me lah you know all this business people yeah and then I also have heard about this uh website it's called Seedly uh it's actually a blog ah then they teach you a lot about uh investment and finances ah so I think you can go and take a look at it


(ppc), , yeah, it's actually a blog ah then they have like very uh informative articles and graphics for us like young people to digest these information easily ah so it's good to take a look at it oh


uh cause now in national service so uh there's no way to earn extra income ah cause it will be considered an offence to earn outside jobs so I will say that that is a bit hard for me now ah but I understand for you you actually go out to work uh part time jobs and also do volunteering too


earn some extra pocket money right,


, actually yeah I actually do have the habit of saving like ever since young right whenever I get uh pocket money I always like uh try to keep it at home and don't really like spend it on unnecessary stuff ah like I'll I'll before I will purchase an item right I will actually


uh do a lot of research about it and actually compare a lot of different like shops and locations where I can find the same item but at the best price so that I can make my money to the fullest use ah so uh I think it really has uh


I really has inculcated the habit until I'm at this age ah so the saving habit is definitely good because right now I think my savings is quite uh decent as compared to maybe some of my friends or like people of our age group


they might have like very like bad saving habits ah I would say they don't really like think much about their future they just live in the moment and spend spend what they want now


how I spend money is like I spend it on like items that I I like ah probably like uh technology uh photography items or maybe nowadays like teenagers like us we want to look good so we use like


beauty products so uh, I will say that, I like to go a bit higher class uh when it comes to buying things ah so I would tend to spend like more than average when it comes to buying an item because I believe that if you buy something like that in of quality right


you don't need to like keep on repurchasing it so like you don't like waste that unnecessary time and effort to keep on buying the the same thing all over again, ,


I think my spending is average eh because like I know people who have like some of my friends ah they have like spent way way more than me on the things that they like ah like probably in the thousands or in a or maybe even like sometimes even five six K on


just like a computer or their technology or their things that they like lah but I probably will spend in the hundreds only for like those small items ah unless those big ticket items have already been purchased already and I don't even spend like five six K on those items


yeah some people they like they buy games and they buy accessories and they buy this and they buy that a lot of things so the added cost is a lot yeah


true oh


, , yeah


, mm


yeah, ,


, , yeah definitely do think that the, the research is a vital part to play like read reviews and read different price points all that before making a confirmed decision ah cause like once you buy the item then you regret right then later you try to sell off ah then you'll make a loss or something like that yeah especially if it's expensive lah then


like sometimes you don't bear to sell it at a low price you know,


, , , , yeah agree


negative experiences,


for me I don't really have anything so would you like to share


(ppc),


actually I remember I remember that during once uh he passed away then uh you were still young right then actually uh daddy didn't want to let you like be so affected by it lah so when you came back from school then he said that


uh actually #ye ye# has gone to sleep and then like what was your reaction during that time, do you remember


, , I think the one thing that makes me stressed is like having to be under pressure to do things ah like if people like pressure me like to complete things like like really quickly and like I've just learned that thing within a matter of days right it's a bit hard for me to


grasp on to that especially when it's like technical skills right where you need to actually do practical stuff ah it's a bit hard for me to work under pressure lor for example like uh I was taught to do voice procedures uh on the bridge


uh like when you're when doing my duties uh in NS ah then uh you have to follow a certain voice command and stuff like that when you do a lookout on a on a ship so it's a bit hard to remember all these things all in one go especially when


like I was like really very new there I was like just posted like a few days back yeah, so how about you,


, yeah,


(ppc), (ppc)


so, on, uh I will say that there was once I was with daddy (ppc) in a car then we're on our way to visit uh #nai nai# at the nursing home then suddenly there was a car that was in front of us and then it suddenly swerved