then but that at that period of time that you know when you connect with someone then you don't really like especially during during the honeymoon period, and like over the years is like you kind of got used to the person presence ready then it's very hard to break yourself out of that toxic relationship, so negative aspects of the person's personality yeah but !wah! it it was it was a really !whoa! during that four years like times with him I would say


like mostly negative I think I I honestly think so , uh he he I wouldn't say really cheat it's not really cheat lah but I basically got uh


I found out what he has been doing behind my back I found out on valentine's day it was it's a sensitive topics I'm not going to share with you but uh yeah it's basically something that I could in a way sounds, bad, in a way but I used it to my advantage to break up with him because I really really really wanted to break up with him but he's the kind that's like <mandarin>死黏着你不放:si nian zhe ni bu fang</mandarin> that kind


so I needed a reason to break up !whoa! then when I finally broke out right oh the thing is we were doing FYP together, then after that he did he contributed nothing at all I was very mad at him but honestly he he he really can't do anything lah like his academics really suck uh he is uh


but but ya that's why like I'm I'm just like after break up then !wah! how about you


oh so cute !oops!


sounds like my ex boyfriend (oo), how do you get out of it though


but are you still contact in contact with your ex girlfriend now


so it doesn't kind of like impact your mental well being already ah cause it sounds like your mental well being was like very affected like physical lifestyle also by


that's good that's good ah, oh let's pass this question because I have no negative response


how how about you


ah oh the construction industry was quite yup


especially family right because like parents are older and so on, and as I heard like COVID has some quite like debilitating consequences especially for the elderly like long term uh physical like lungs or something like that


!wow! that that's quite bad then ya


true true true


ya same


part two positive experiences, come let's share what makes you want to be alive


what would you define as a happiness actually like like and there's always a whole debate about like how there's you should feel happiness by yourself, oh so what do you think about that


I think that part of your happiness will come in the few year not not now , , ya but but honestly I feel like this entire CB period right I'm quite happy at home eh like like do you think so I personally for me right I'm the introvert so I enjoy like alone time staying at home spending time my family I feel like happiness to me it's really about


getting a hold, of your life priorities and then really just enjoying it, oh


ya like like I really , ya like like now that there's phase two and now that uh people can actually go out and eat right so like when I go out and eat I get exceptionally happy because


like this is something that I I didn't really I mean I liked it in the past but exceptionally like especially for now right I particularly enjoy it because it's like !wow! there's like so many people walking around that kind of thing


oh it's like like it feels like chinese new year like suddenly there's a lot of people then there's a lot of, excitement in the air oh but yeah so so I I personally like it a lot


uh I'm still working from home now but later I need to go back office to fix my laptop cause my laptop died, feel so sad I need to go and fix it but yeah like mostly working from home but honestly I I really really really enjoy working from home it's like I get to roll out of bed at like eight thirty then I slowly set up then I can take my own time to eat to like


chill while doing work then sometimes when there's no work I get to relax a bit compared to like in office I have to like I have to be like prim and proper all the time that kind of thing


oh that's quite nice also ah, then usually what do you do to like relax, at home


but but it's comfortable also lah like like is is kind of nice also to have your bed just beside you then can lie down anytime


you feel like your overall well being is better right


eh oh I feel so too also eh it's like like sometimes going out too much last time like pre-COVID right like when I go out too much then it's like like is not as enjoyable as as now but now it's like really like when I go out then it's really enjoyable oh


recently I've been using uh, I've been using this also , it's like the the aroma diffuser to help me relax, ya so so I got like this this aroma lavender oil from from daiso so I just like put it on then in the mornings I sometimes when I like feel like I want I have a lot of thoughts going through my head like be like good or whatever right then I'll like write them


down so that it it kind of like keeps my brain moving in a way uh and nowadays I'm into drinking tea also, journal


oh but you fail , you know I have a friend I have a friend who actually journals every day of his life ever since secondary school


like everyday oh really everyday like, I am very impressed and it's not like those short journal entries is like the really really long ones, but according to him he really enjoys it like to him it's a way of relaxing of unwinding after a long day that kind of thing


tea helps me to relax too


I found some like chrysanthemum dried dried chrysanthemums what what's that called oh yeah so it helps but but do you know in chrysanthemum flowers have caffeine, does it does it, cause I don't I don't know like I'm quite sensitive to it so


oh yeah but, it's very nice like I like to drink my tea hot in the morning when it's like still a bit chilly nowadays and then afternoon I drink it iced so it's very Shiok, ha one of the question says when did you blush the


most share your experience, when did I blush the most


(oo) I never had that experience before eh I remember the the uh blushing, the most ah I would say like generally because if like like you know I'm a very shy person, so so when I do like like like like public speaking I mean I mean not not not like this because it's a conversation but uh last time in university when I was to do like uh public presentations then naturally my face will just be red then I could feel like like the


the the the my arteries and capillaries and everything then I can feel my heart beating also but, yeah I think that was like those periods of time that I had to present especially when I didn't have much preparation beforehand well actually sometimes when I had a lot of preparation beforehand like


like actually sometimes freestyle is better for me but like if I prepare a lot beforehand then I have to like remember everything then naturally I'll get nervous then then yeah I'll I'll naturally just blush uh


for me, I don't know eh I feel, like the the adrenaline to me lah in in a way is, it's it's kind of nice, because like like, after after I think about it for a while right presentations are just presentations everyone has to go through presentation so everyone will be nervous then after you present finish then you are done then you enjoy it so to me is like a


adrenaline rush thing, so I kind of like like the experience also, oh, I think in my final year of, uni I kind of got used to presentations already so I would start to like be excited for presentations then I will try to go first


people I don't know, oh for me the, ya, oh doesn't matter I don't really have stage fright because I mean like I I used to be a dancer so I like to me crowds don't don't really matter is more of like


I don't know eh I like to look at people and talk, contradictory ah


, for me I feel like large crowds right in a way like like if you if you have the feeling of like large crowds coming to like hear you speak that kind of thing so, it kind of boost your ego which improves your mood which makes you deliver better but then different people have different takes on this


oh oh oh oh I'm curious about this what is your best surprise


cool , she did well for your sister also right,


!aww!, so sweet , , ya ya, ya that's nice that's nice best surprise ah !huh!


now things are cheaper there yeah, oh I really like JB's dim sum, like usually I don't eat like the salted egg yolk custard thing the what's what's they call in chinese ah uh <mandarin>咸蛋黄:xian dan huang</mandarin> no


no no no <mandarin>流沙包：liu sha bao</mandarin> <mandarin>流沙包:liu sha bao</mandarin> so like, like usually I don't really like it because like some people make it a bit too salty some people make a bit too sweet but I like #gim cheng's# <mandarin>流沙包：liu sha bao</mandarin> should try it next time it's so good, (oo) try it next year two years later


travelling to ah there's, a lot I mean like I went to netherlands area for exchange and I really like like the english country like because it was like winter and then there's snow and I really like freezing under my jacket so so so that was something


that I I really enjoyed, and I ate a lot over there like everyday was like pizza and pasta and then like uh, there's so many things pies and everything I remember like going to amsterdam with me and a few other friends then we got like this famous apple pie but then it was too sweet for my friends so I ate like two


by myself and it was like gigantic with like a lot of whipped cream and I finished everything yeah, I (hmm), brussels is where ah


, I suddenly forgot but but I I would say like uh I I mean I went to london I went to london on a overnight, bus and it was really nice the food was really nice there I really like the traditional meat pies and like all the markets, uh the food there was awesome oh my gosh


ha


yeah I think next time when I want to go because in my previous time I didn't really manage to go all those like like uh lack of times so I enjoyed the food more but the next time that I eventually go I want to enjoy more of like the cultural activities also and like more of the markets


oh nice oh, do you meet like a lot of like locals there like make friends with the locals there


!wah! oh korean food is awesome


independent right ya I really like that also for exchange like like it was so nice to because I'm not the type to get homesick so when I always like go overseas to another country right I literally like forget about family I'm just like living the life over there uh


me too, oh I I really enjoyed studying also it like like to to me because I really liked uh my major which is psychology so even when I went overseas right like I did like psychology courses also and like the professors there right you can really sense the difference like


like when you talk to them they engage you a lot and then they ask you like oh is this course content okay that's not okay I'll change it for you I'll modify it based on like your actual interest so that you can learn better, so for me the entire studying experience is like very very very good like it's so much better than like like local universities for me so I really enjoyed it and like the professors they really reach out to you if there's anything you can always like meet them for tea that kind of thing then they will treat you to cakes like !wah! it's really amazing eh like


like honestly the people that I met there right like there was this, bar not bar pub no no no no no, no it's it's basically a a restaurant selling like pasta pizza and like some drinks that kind of thing like the people there were really nice so it's something that


makes me really happy like they will like talk to you they will uh tell you about their life story then on my last time there before I flew back to singapore then they like treated me to a meal that kind of thing like the owners because it's a family run restaurant, so the so the brothers will like don't don't tell my parents uh it's it's really nice I really enjoyed my time there


oh in korea !wow! oh


professor tend to do that I really like it a lot when they do that what what was he teaching actually


so cute , ya


I really like it when professors like like after you present on something for example then the professors actually reach out to you and then like talk more about that topic because they can sense like when you're presenting you are really invested in it like like that kind of feeling, (oo) ya oh


personally for me I really liked it when I travel to jeju also because for me I'm a, very like water beach or like, uh uh waterfall, that kind of person like I like wind and like water a lot like I find it really relaxes me when I hear like the waves crashing and the wind blowing and everything so jeju right compared to seoul it's more of a (ugh) beach area yeah and I rode a horse also it was so nice


, ya I really liked it (oo) oh ya same , I liked it a lot because I'm I'm always so used to sitting on the passenger seat then then like like for for me on the other side like uh driving from the left hand side actually makes everything a lot smoother for me


oh k do we


stop (ppo) (mm)


part one financial related topics, okay so just wanna ask do you actually have a savings account at the moment


alright


oh , like how many banks are you using though at the moment


okay I see !whoa! actually I only have one bank account which is the POSB savings one that, I believe most of us sign up for during primary school and yeah I understand that the interest rates are very low but I actually take money out of


the account to put it into investments quite regularly ah so I guess I'm okay with leaving this as my primary bank account, yup


yeah well my company is actually quite old fashioned like unlike most companies which actually giro the salary mine actually gives us uh, monthly paycheck so when I received the monthly paycheck uh which varies a little because we get paid for expenses as well I will usually apportion it uh I have a giro arrangement to


uh give my parents a monthly allowance and, apart from that I would regularly take money out and put them in a brokerage to invest in equities ya , yeah how about you


like


oh yeah uh what actually have you invested in recently, , ah I see


ah okay so it's just ibank transfer every month, I see I see , I actually


have let's see, I think like five credit cards because like you know when people just approach you on the street with like uh credit card offer, sometimes offers are quite attractive uh about one in particular the don don donki card I actually shop at don don donki pretty often so yeah I thought there was no harm in getting it and trying it because there is like a perpetual discount for every time we shop there


yeah if if you use the card, yup uh and, other than that actually during uni there were actually several events where , banks came to, propose like credit


cards to us which uh were linked to the school, uh in particular the student union so I guess a lot of us sign up for that as well, yeah and until I started working that was actually my primary credit card, ya


yeah I actually use credit cards a lot because of the paywave function and it's very convenient and contactless like especially in the current COVID situation it's better to use contactless payments ah I feel


well, I feel that , !whoa! I'm not very aware of that because I don't actually use a debit card pretty often but uh I believe that credit cards actually have more rewards and benefits


yeah , even though you have to, yeah oh


ah yup , okay uh but any idea what rewards the debit cards actually has


oh okay okay, right (mmhmm)


ah okay because actually from what I am aware of the cashback actually comes in from the first dollar spent so, no matter how little you spend I think there's actually a small percentage of cashback or miles, yeah uh but personally I prefer cashback instead of miles because miles actually even though there's the allure of travelling


, that that that is true that is true but yeah even though there's the allure of travelling, I've felt that the rate of return compared to the cashback was actually lower and you actually have to create like a krisflyer account to convert the airline's miles uh convert to the airline's miles from the credit card issue amounts which are actually not a one to one conversion rates yeah


right yeah , that's true yeah actually credit cards are quite linked to, rewards or cashback for specific items like previously when I signed up for an insurance policy with great eastern they actually recommended that I get this uh


credit card from OCBC and if you use that to pay for insurance premium there's like an immediate cashback of a certain percentage ah so it can actually help you save quite a substantial amount of money if you have like big ticket items to pay for like uh life insurance for example


yeah yeah , actually I, only use that for the insurance premium other than that I use other cards , yeah


that's right but only specifically for the insurance premium, yup , okay because there are actually several policies the insurance premiums I think, add up to like maybe five K a year but


I don't think, a lot of it's actually very essential but what I feel is really essential would be like, , say life insurance if you have dependents or


if like you are getting insurance for yourself and not uh to benefit others like hospitalisation that kind of thing ya in case of any untoward eventuality ah, yup


right, !wah! , oh okay uh where did you get this plan from is it like a friend or


right right are you are you considering any other, types of like insurance plans other than uh you mentioned the personal accident and uh hospitalisation


alright, yeah I think that's quite important too but uh with like advances in technology I think like late stage critical illness is


also the recovery rate is higher right now compared to like the past year ya,


that's true that's true , oh have you gotten like other types of , insurance plans like savings that kind of thing or do you like just regularly save in bank


ah okay , oh do you feel like having a choice in what you actually invest is important or do you want to leave it in the hands of a financial institution


ya ya I get what you mean


okay okay , okay well actually I feel that like insurance the charges that they levy on your investments are actually quite high so they might actually erase whatever


returns that you get from the funds that you've invested so personally I've actually invested in a wide variety of things like when I was still studying I actually tried to invest in risky stuff with my friends like bitcoin and


because I invested that quite long ago it actually earn me a bit of money but it's very erratic lah and very risky I would say


but for things that are very risky and very volatile which fluctuate a lot some of them might actually the value might actually drop like zero, so you might lose pretty much your entire investment so ya if I invest in something that is very risky I would


actually spend a lot of time actively checking it, well I've leave I've left most of, my cryptocurrency investments in less volatile


stuff becauseuh since I started working I don't really have that much time to actively monitor it, ya , yeah yeah well uh


so more recently instead of focusing on cryptocurrency I've actually looked at the traditional markets and uh well instead of just buying like a normal stock or equity I've looked at riskier stuff like options of futures which


ya that one I initially made some money lost a lot of money made money money back uh well it's, quite an exciting journey and you learn a lot lah, yeah


well, okay actually for most of these things I was introduced to this by my friends who have much more experience investing but uh rather than just following them blindly I also do my own research as well you have to do your own due diligence to ensure that uh you don't invest in something that loses all your money ah


ah right right right yeah there are actually a lot of these like Gurus who


actually charge a fee for the service there are also those that are free because they are just starting out and they don't have a large following and have no basis to charge a fee lah uh , yeah yeah those that have like a proven track record


uh they take it as like a full time job so they charged fees to teach people , ya but personally I've never subscribe to any of this, because I've heard that a lot of them are scams and


ya ya ya like !wah! with COVID and everything like I've heard a lot of stocks just crashed but well in times of crisis like this is also a buying opportunity as well because the stocks will be cheap , ya


ya because REITs actually own properties and , the value of the REITs is actually backed by the value of the properties ah and from what I know about REITs uh it's mandatory for them to actually pay out a portion of their income as dividends to the shareholders ya so I I it's a pretty good investment


, I would say that my dad is actually a big believer in REITs when I first started he actually told me like uh maybe I should get some blue chip


some REITs but for REITs mainly I got those that uh IPOuh, uh in recent years yeah so because when I wasn't, really very actively trading with brokerage account I could just open a CDP account and just apply online uh through the POSB portal like


there's this apply for IPO option, yeah , so it's a simpler process, yeah yeah I agree because like


families are the most trustworthy ah definitely , oh yeah that yeah my parents actually got me a few of those plans but yeah they've asked me to pay for that since I started working lah which ya I feel is fair


yeah yeah that's right , well yeah uh actually speaking of finances have you actually gotten any loans like yeah


oh okay like a study loan kind of thing


[oh] okay so it's (ppo) specifically for exchange, [oh], that's interesting (ppl) I well I personally didn't go on exchange (ppl)


part three negative experiences, okay well this is gonna be a negative chat so !wow! well like to ask what actually makes you sad


okay like what is one recent thing which actually, , what ya what was one recent thing that actually got you unhappy


okay okay, alright


!wow!, but did your friend turn out in the end


but how did that turn out in the end, ah sure sure


(uh huh)


alright right, ah okay so ya it was mainly the communication issue rather than the tardiness of your friend


oh


okay okay, I see alright , (hmm) actually, it's very difficult for me to get unhappy but


it's usually a combination of many factors like work uh personal life, if many of these are negative at the same time and it kind of stresses me out then I'll kind of get frustrated ya so


recently I would say work has been busier than usual uh because we are reopening after the ya during phase two and there's actually quite a backlog of work to be done so work has been quite stressful, and


and, personal life as well I would say ya there there are few family issues and unhappiness but ya it's mainly a combination of all these personal and work life, that gets me frustrated and unhappy ah I would say


ya, oh well, like family issues such as people losing patience with each other during


the circuit breaker period because we interact more because everyone's at home so yeah this that tends to be more friction when people interact more ah it I I believe it's unavoidable but it's still happen, yeah, so yeah that was one


yeah, my greatest fear (hmm), well my greatest fear when


I don't really fear a lot of things like, but, I would fear loss I would say like, loss of someone who's important to me that that would be my greatest fear like not like, heights or some other more common fear yeah


oh ah can you elaborate more on that like how would, uh loss of loved one make you lose autonomy in life


ah okay okay


okay uh other than uh relationship related phobias do you have like phobias of uh other types of experiences or creatures or, ya that kind of thing, like are you afraid of heights


right


(mmhmm), !ouch!


did were you injured, ah okay


ah okay


well we'll discuss like two emotions like, sadness and fear right what about anger what makes you angry


ah right right right that's one thing that gets me angry as well yeah, ya


like was there a reason that she gave like why didn't she she just refused to do the work


that's very irresponsible of that person ,


!wow! how did that turn out though


okay yeah I've had like bad experiences with group work as well ya like uh especially PW eh project work in JC ya like, because we are usually given like a choice of, two topics so at first two of us wanted the first topic and three of them wanted a separate topic so after consultation


ah ya ya, ya so after discussions with uh teacher then we decided on one topic which is the one that we proposed initially me and the other person and the other three, when their topic was not chosen they became very unhelpful and then they said things like since you all wanted to do this topic then you all should do more of the work


ya like when things don't go people's way they tend to act out of be like passive aggressive ya


yeah


!wow! what a sexist


that sounds like a really toxic relationship, ya


yeah I believe like love blinds you to the, ya ya to the shortcomings of uh the person yeah


!ouch! how did you manage to get out of this toxic relationship in the end, which is !wow!


so it's very clean, oh my god


he sounds pretty useless gotta say, okay yeah I've had my fair share of toxic relationships as well my longest relationship was actually four years


I was together with a junior from secondary school uh but we we yeah we actually met uh reconnected I would say long after secondary school, and throughout these four years that we were together she was very unmotivated and mainly focused on playing games like out of the four years we together she spent two years staying at home playing games and two years working


yeah I can't I find it really difficult to accept and actually, her, her, lifestyle actually rubbed off on me a bit like because she was always convincing me to not


put in that much effort and just relax and play games so that was quite a negative and toxic, period of my life I would say, (hmm) well one day one of my friends that I actually knew quite recently just


laid it out for me to show me how toxic was and how much it was holding me back in life and, yeah it was kind of like a wake up call, to just get out of that toxic relationship lah ya


yeah I would say that the ex girlfriend kind of contacts me from time to time but I don't give very detailed replies and we don't really meet up anymore yup


ya like in the past I was very affected but after the break up I would say that improved like it doesn't affect my mental well being now anymore


so actually have you been feeling any negative emotions due to COVID because like many people in the world are affected, quite badly by it


okay okay right, (hmm) I would say that, I actually do have some worries about COVID because uh my job requires me to travel, around singapore quite a lot and I come into contact with many people uh sometimes with the construction industry as well and as you know like many of their workers have been quarantined yeah so I'm afraid of get I'm not afraid of myself getting it because


I believe that, young people are not that badly affected and I don't have any serious preexisting conditions I'm more afraid of passing it onto relatives and friends that I really care about, yeah my parents are quite advanced in age and they do have some health problems as well


yeah, yeah yeah I've heard that their, yeah their respiratory system and the their immune system will get uh long term repercussions if they do actually get COVID


yeah yeah, uh do you do you know of anyone personally who has gotten COVID, no okay like yeah I think the closest that it has affected me would be just


having to, wear mask everyday or just affecting my working schedule not being able to go to cinemas or enjoy stuff ya basically


part two positive experiences, well okay I think like the whole point of life it's uh being happy so


what makes me want to be alive is experiencing happiness and I think happiness can be uh best enjoyed with uh a partner somebody you really love and want to spend the rest of your life with and


right right ya uh how we find happiness is based on experiences and uh at there are wide variety of experiences that can make people happy ah definitely ah whether alone or with a partner and there are many things that the world has to offer that uh


I believe I have not yet experience and I would like to travel travel to many countries maybe and experience their culture, see the wonders beautiful scenery , you're right right right with COVID uh it's really not possible to travel


so sadly


ya I feel that CB has actually given me a different take on staying at home usually I felt like staying at home other than sleeping or


relaxing wasn't all that interesting but now I find that it's actually good to have some time to yourself to reflect to just relax and plan your life basically, ya like you you don't appreciate the yeah you don't appreciate a little things


in life ah until it's uh you are restricted by COVID regulations ah basically


right you particularly enjoy eating out right now, ah okay , , because it's so it's like much crowded, yeah well


okay so were are you still working from home or uh back to office, oh okay okay ,


yeah yeah totally agree I'm actually working from home half the time right now uh most people like for half the time they are doing often weeks but mine because ah we require more interaction so uh we're doing alternate days return to office lah


but ya, ya I actually really enjoy working from home but I gotta admit I'm not very productive when I work from home yeah, uh well , as mentioned the previous conversation I actually very enjoy reading a lot I like lying in bed and reading


and well, the allure of the bed which is right beside me right now is yeah it is really, causing me to be very unproductive for work from home because it's right there and, yeah


yeah yeah well uh what has actually made me focus and be more productive during work from home is I actually set alarms to remind me to do work so I don't just lie there and nap too much


like uh when we are working from office I have no chance to nap but work from home I've napped more relax more I feel like , yeah exactly you put it very well


yeah yeah , what's that, oh right nice


ah so like you you write your thoughts down is it in like a journal or just ah, oh cool you keep a journal yeah well like it a few times in my life I, actually tried to keep a journal, but (oo) I tend tended to I failed I tend to stop after several weeks uh couple of months at most ya


everyday !wow! I'm actually impressed like really really impressed, !wow!


oh will helps you ya ya ya reflecting and unwinding yeah maybe I should take it up, again , ha


oh you drinking tea right now, ah I see I see yeah the chrysanthemum flowers, caffeine really


oh I'm honestly not aware, yeah, nice


, oh !wow! !wah! where did I blushed the most (hmm), okay uh well I remember many occasions in life where I keep blushed because I'm actually quite a shy


person uh but well one in particular where I blushed the most, would be when I was nervous and actually asking this girl that I really like to be my girlfriend so I was really nervous and blushing I could feel like my face heating up


ya ya so ya that's one, oh


ya actually I agree that freestyle is better , well my experience with presenting is like ya no matter whether it's


freestyle or when I'm very well prepared I will still be very nervous and still blush because, I don't know it's kind of like minor stage fright when speaking in front of a group of people that I don't know would you feel whether they're judging you or not


yeah


right right that's true so , oh like uh you do you prefer presenting in front of many people or in front of less people actually


oh people that you don't know so just strangers in general like the quantity of people doesn't really matter


ah okay well personally yeah , , I prefer like less people uh because I can focus more on the one person and convey I feel that I can convey what I want to speak about better if there's just one person that I can focus on like


engaging from his reactions maybe I can uh make some impromptu changes to what I'm presenting about yeah


ya ya that's true , ya, my best surprise well (hmm), there have been many surprises in life but best surprise I closely relate the my positive feelings uh for various events to the people that I'm experiencing these events with so my best surprise I would say


would be with my girlfriend when she surprised me with a hand painted figure of, eh iron man, yeah , like she hand painted it out, quite a few hours I believe so I really appreciated that and I look at it every night before I sleep it's like right beside my bed


ya ya ya she did she did uh because my sister's name is melody and uh she actually painted uh you know the my melody figurine uh the one with a yeah the rabbit thing, yeah yeah


oh she actually did that overseas, I believe like in JB yeah while I, yeah I really miss travelling to JB like I actually travel to JB a lot


right ya, uh


okay okay I will so, like you really enjoy travelling to malaysia right uh where else do you enjoy travelling to like what would say is your best travelling experience yeah


yeah well singapore is really too hot for that yeah


oh , , so do you travel around like europe for your exchange or did you mainly stay in netherlands


wait is brussels in like belgium is it is it belgium ,


I really enjoyed going, to london as well because like my sister had her exchange in , sussex which is like uh near brighton in england and we actually travelled up to london for uh quite a while and enjoyed like uh because there's this thing called the london pass which you can get and it lets you enter quite a few attractions like I really enjoyed london the attractions


and there's a lot of historical things and the foods good as well, yeah


right right well I actually enjoyed travelling, because when I mentioned that I did not go for exchange I did not go for like a semester long exchange I actually went for summer exchanges so for summer


exchanges I actually went to korea twice and I went to, to china once also I went for three summer exchanges like, I really enjoyed it like if, ya ya ya okay for summer exchanges in korea right because a lot of korean actually go overseas for


studies and when they, decide to have summer exchanges to actually go back to korea for summer exchange, like because it's uh their is actually really hard for them to get into the best local universities in korea so when they study overseas they can go for summer exchange to the best universities in korea I think that's they mention that that's actually kind of a back door way to experience the best universities there


but I really really, enjoyed staying in korea because it was a chance to yeah it was a chance to stay alone like uh without staying with family or friends and I really enjoyed staying alone ah could, be more and independent cook my meals yeah


funnily enough I actually really really enjoyed studying


eh overseas as well because that there were like no distractions and even though most people don't bother studying for a summer exchange I really enjoyed it,


!wow! that's very engaging


!wow! that's nice ,


right, !wow! , my experience with professors overseas is also really positive like I got to know this, particular professor he's russian but he was actually teaching in USA ya like uh they invited guest professors for the summer exchange program yeah


russian teaching in USA and, it was actually a very interesting experience he was very passionate about his subject and he actually invited me for several chats outside of class and, !wow! I really really enjoyed that yeah yeah oh he was teaching uh mathematics actually it was a intro to probability class yeah it was


actually quite a simple course so he actually discuss with me about more in depth uh topics for probability yeah,


(mmhmm) yeah , oh jeju yeah I've been there


right right it's , oh yeah that's nice , well I actually went to jeju and I like jeju a lot I like driving in jeju but they actually drove on the other side of the road


oh for me it was an interesting experience because it'll I actually drive quite regularly in singapore but yeah so on the different side of the road was interesting and jeju actually had a lot of speed cameras which required me to drive slower than usual yeah and well because we were


using the korean navigation app so that actually warned about every single speed camera and there were many it's like virtually a speed camera every single kilometer in the populated areas lah not the more rural areas yeah, so yeah it was a good experience


finance discussion


uh one finance advice I will give to myself is to start planning for your future, like for example education funds or like even the funds required for adulthood like BTO ya and then to save up emergency funds


uh so that you know such as this pandemic I could be prepared for anything like that ya


okay next uh should I DIY or get a financial adviser to plan my finances


okay uh for me I often look up the net or ask questions on discussion forums and professionals, and even like financial advisers would reply and give some advices and that's probably the most ideal for me now but same in the future I will also get a financial adviser to plan an ideal solution tailored to my budget and income level


personally I allocate forty percents percent to expenses thirty percent to savings and another thirty to investment and most of the time if I do spend less I'll just throw the remaining expenses into my savings and on top of that I use a money tracking app to control my spendings


so what can you do to earn extra income or to improve your income level


well for me I resort to selling products online such as shopee carousell but on top of that I also look out for focus groups or even jobs looking for short research participants that provide like maybe ten to twelve dollar per hour ya


uh ya I actually review like my savings plan every month I will just write it out like okay how much do I want to save a month and I also use separate bank account like a spending and a savings account so when it's uh pay day or I receive my allowance I will allocate


my expected savings into my savings account and only spend from my spendings account so if I do not spend all the money allocated for spendings I will just park the money left into my savings account and then, this cycle just repeats every month


okay then, then how do you spend your money, like which expenditure is justified and what have you been speding too much on


okay uh for me I think I spend a lot on shopping online shopping due to like current pandemic there's a lot of sales and promotion but other than that I I spend quite a lot on food and groceries as well


yup and, next what strategies would you recommend to someone planning for their big ticket expenditures


okay uh for me I think other than setting a goal with all the emergency funds set aside I would recommend someone to invest in endowment plan as well uh, and if they need more liquidity they can put their money in a bank that provides compound compounding interest at least to let the money grow as they save and


uh advise them to start as early as possible, ya


err as per you know the COVID situation I prefer to shop online as compared to physical stores even if I'm out in phase two I don't find physical stores as attractive anymore because of like the sales and promotions


and I do spend more on food as there are more you know, delicious food that we could not cook at, home so so yah more on food


okay so what do you think of FIRE financial independence retire early and how do you think one can achieve uh financial independence


personally I think if you should at least save fifty percent of your income and look for ways to earn more money and cut down on expenses, so


next how do you invest your money to accumulate wealth and planning for your retirement


ya I agree to that I also place some of my uh savings into singlife but I'm also looking into etiqa's uh endowment two point one percent endowment plan uh which is, two up to, three years if I'm not wrong so that was what I'm looking to but of course it's not enough for retirement so maybe after you know I graduate and start earning I would probably look for a financial adviser to plan for my retirement ya


ya okay next what advice would you give to someone to get him or her out of debt


uh for me I would advise them to try the debt snowball method which is to pay off like the smallest smallest debt off first and then the next smallest uh so on so forth because uh if they have a lot of debt it could be a bit overwhelming


so so ya the debts snowball method so next, do you think one should own a credit card


yah I agree because there's tons of like cashback or promotions that are catered to different credit cards you can save a lot of money, yah


I would, ask them to you know consider inflation into the retirement plan, because inflation will definitely diminish the retirees buying power, let's say in two O one nine half a million is enough for you to retire but in thirty five years it's definitely insufficient to you know meet the retirees buying power with like


I think singapore have a long term inflation rate of about two point seven percent so I think they should definitely consider the age they want to retire and plan how much assets for their retirement plan is needed according to the inflation rate ya


I feel that CPF contribution is actually a very good safety net for elderlys uh uh especially after they retire because some of them may not even have children to take care of them however I do believe that the payout age uh it's a little bit late because some elderlys do have poor health problems and


uh a shorter lifespan ya so they are unable to enjoy all the money they have already earned as it's like paid on a monthly basis ya


personally I haven't really managed my CPF savings, but as mentioned earlier like their interest rate is pretty high for those I think it's up to five percent so if they do wish to enhance their retirement savings they could actually top up the savings so they can get more higher monthly payout ya


okay so what


okay


negative experience


I think one very obvious injustice is like the presence of economic inequality, like if you look at the rich and the poor in singapore the gap is the economic gap is getting wider and wider


and it's very unfair it's not just in singapore but around the world like compared to really poor countries and rich countries the economy gap will only get wider and wider and nobody is actually coming up with a solution to


to try and fix it other than just trying to raise the minimum , minimum salary wage which is uh probably feasible in singapore but in really poor countries I don't think it's really helping


uh but, uh raising a bit of wage is still better than nothing but I think just that the wealth gap getting bigger and bigger wider wider it's just really unfair and, uh so ya how about you


so do you have any embarrassing moments like the most embarrassing moment


I guess the most embarrassing is when, in secondary school like I was walking down the stairs just normally walking down and then I just suddenly faced planted uh onto the ground like I just tripped and fell and then like the moment I looked up uh there were familiar faces like seniors juniors and friends looking at me and


uh I I was a senior back then so I felt really embarrassed ya, so


okay so do you have a moment where you felt like you were treated unfairly


okay, for me I guess when looking for jobs when like people do prefer males who you know have more physical strength that they can do more labour work


which is a little unfair because in general it it could be just a sales associate associate and uh I don't see why is there a need to , uh prefer


uh people who are who are able to do more labour work ya, so, what are what dreams of yours die a little when each passing day with each passing day


the dream of living an easy life like since you know since young we all thought that life is easy but as we move on to adulthood it just gets harder and harder


have to be independent and it's not as easy as I thought so I guess I have to work harder to be able to enjoy a easy life which is not really like an easy life because I have to work harder , so uh yeah that dream just dies little everyday ya


are there any embarrassing moments that make you cringe


okay uh I guess when like you are trying to get close to a friend to like someone new and then you just say a lot of like you just give a lot of personal information or just try to do things out of your comfort zone and uh end up making some


cringey conversations I guess , ya so I guess sorry


okay so


uh what keeps you awake at night


okay well for me is more of like thoughts about the future am I doing enough, uh how much do I really need to you know uh live comfortably in the future and uh uh if I'm able to you know sometimes just like there's a test tomorrow and I couldn't fall asleep have like uh being very stressful or even when I


got into an argument and I just couldn't sleep at night because it's not resolved so things like that keep me up at night ya or maybe it's just , body clock ya


okay moving on, do you recall a situation where you're forced to change your plans against your will


well for me uh this month like july I was supposed to you know travel with my grandma to taiwan however like this pandemic like just


it forced us not to travel and I don't stay with my grandma so uh it was very sad it was a it was a very sad change of plans because she was very excited for it I was very excited for it but uh, uh I guess it has to be postponed ya plus she's pretty old already so uh


we were forced to change the plan lah against my will, if you are going to die tomorrow what are your last words to your loved ones


well for me I would first tell them that I love them and uh tell them that I'm sorry if like you know for my childish or like childish acts or whenever I uh throw a tantrum on them or uh


make them unhappy but I will also like to tell them to cherish every moment when they're with their loved ones and uh don't don't do things I mean just do things that they want to do uh don't regret it


ya so probably that that are the things that I would tell them, so so ya, and do you have a time where you felt like giving up


uh I used to play basketball, in secondary school and I started off as a very fresh person I didn't play before uh I have no ball sense and, uh during my period my four years of secondary school there were like trainings five times a week the trainings are very very uh like


very, uh tight is from like uh two two PM all the way to like six seven PM, and it was very hectic and then there were a lot of rules within the team that we have to abide to, and because we are all very fresh we kept losing at the start uh like our lower secondary years we kept losing there I couldn't really remember times where we won or probably like just one or once or twice in a year and


one of the uh national competition we felt so demoralised because we still lost and I really felt like giving up but our coach like kept us together tell us that, you guys should should should not feel uh demoralised never feel demoralised treat it as experience and


uh although it does help a little but we still felt demoralised and I really really felt like giving up because I couldn't I wouldn't say my grades are the best but, uh, sometimes I couldn't keep up with it because I'm too tired to like revise at night uh but I didn't and the following year after like a lot of hard work from our team and we finally won a championship so I guess like everyday have to


just (um) work hard (ppl) yeah


positive experience


I guess I'm still very young so I have not like explored a lot of things and I want to continue like learning meeting new people travel visiting new places and just experience everything that I haven't tried ya


okay so do you have like a skill or ability that you are secretly proud of like having it


I am very good at managing my time and like my stress levels, so I I planned my times very time very wisely and as a student it's like a very great asset to me so while I could feel stress or tired with the amount of work I have to do every day


whenever I feel stressed I'll just take my phone out play a game or watch a video take a rest for thirty minutes and just forget about everything and then immediately I feel more relaxed and, uh I would say I become more productive and when I feel sleepy I could just take a power nap of like five to fifteen minute and then I can just continue doing whatever I'm doing so ya


!wah! , in general maybe like when someone compliments me like I blush because I feel humble and and blessed like it's not


uh it's not like a very big thing but it's just a compliment that you know recognise my my efforts or even just things that I do so it's like a reflex a reflex action ya how about you


then what's like your favourite activity to activity to unwind and relax


for me is most likely like, be with my loved ones friends family and just spend time with them it could be simply just like sitting down watching TV or just just eating together like just make me forget about everything and like I can relax ya


so is there a time where you made a comeback that made everyone shut up oh ya shut everyone up


genuinely I feel that like when a introverted friend open up to me like they are just shy and keep things to themselves and when they open up to me it was a surprise and


I felt happy cause like I know that you know I'm a trustworthy and comfortable friend to them ya so I guess that's like the best surprise for me, how about you


okay so despite the ongoing global uncertainty what makes you optimistic about the future


, I guess you know during this pandemic there are like a lot of kind acts by a lot of local peoples people and I think this


kind acts just restore like my faith in humanity so I think like it's a very good start I'm sure like in the future things will get better so there's nothing too much to be nothing to worry about it lah ya


okay let me think uh I've been to belgium two years ago and I think belgium looks straight up like a scene from a movie it's so stress free like everyone is happy


and as compared to singapore people can just spend like hours in a cafe and just read a book and or even taking a long stroll so, I feel like the lifestyle there as compared to singapore is lower but in a point of view I feel like, the


I I really admire the people there for being so carefree which is something that we can learn from ya and I enjoy my time there so so ya how about you


is there like you know what's the biggest reward you ever receive while doing a awesome good deed


, like a sincere thank you with a smile


ya so I guess there's nothing much in like uh a reward but more of like a a smile that just let me know that I really help them and they're thankful,


okay usually I'm pretty shy so I guess when I have to face a crowd such as making a presentation or meeting new people


but other than that may maybe when I workout or other strenuous activity that they will definitely raise my heartbeat ya how about you


is there like a moment when you felt the luckiest


!wow!, , uh I guess just in general I'm very lucky like I if I wished to I think one of the luckiest moment is when I really wanted to join


uh a club that I really like and it was oversubscribed like there were three hundred plus people in the in the application and , through like a few interviews I eventually got in so I feel like that was one of the luckiest moment because I really wanted to get into it ya


proudest moment, maybe like when I I mean for example I just bring my parents out to eat and I pay for it or like uh


it's not like a one time thing so maybe few once a month given like my uh I don't really have a uh stable income level but ya I guess so


how about you


okay so are there any comfort food that you can always rely on to cheer you up


a lot of food leh bubble tea , mentaiko fries like maybe unhealthy food


that ya a lot of unhealthy food that you know just definitely will cheer me up lah ya


finance discussion, K so


guess can start with the first one ah uh, what's one financial advice that you would give to the you five years ago


and I think for myself five years ago I would tell myself to save more money ah and instead of like spending so much money ya and follow like the uh the egg concept yah


I think for now DIY will be more, uh beneficial for me right now lah as I try to accumulate as many savings as I can while I keep my expenses low


cause I'm still a student but in the long run definitely after like graduating and earning like a stable income I'll definitely get a financial adviser uh as I will be able to like, uh uh grow my uh


assets


k then, how do you how do you manage your cash flow how much of your income is allocated to savings expenses and insurance or investments


okay I also use an app to track my uh expenditure lah uh and right now uh I allocate about fifty percent to my savings, around there and then about another thirty percent to uh investments actually and then the rest will be on expenses


I think right now at this stage of life right as a student not earning income but still receiving allowances from our parents right uh the best way to like accumulate money right is actually to save ah but of course there are other ways to earn extra income like for me I actually


uh I haven't done it in a while lah but I used to go thrifting so I go to like thrift shops and like uh buy clothes uh ya apparel, like merchandise and then I sell them on like carousell or instagram ya


okay, let's see , but it's very hard to find a job nowadays as uh especially in this situation lah this pandemic ya K then uh do you have the habit of saving how do you ensure you meet your savings goal


okay uh I am more or less the same I guess


ya I have a, I have a savings account and a spending account also yeah and yah lah I do the same thing also ah


think right now, right now especially in this like pandemic situation uh and especially after phase two restarted been spending too much on like food I guess cause yah lah like uh once phase two


started then like everyone wanted to like uh go back and eat like the food that they missed to eat ya but, like what have I been spending too much on like all this time will probably be like uh


clothes I think but that is also like tied to my additional income also lah as I do buy to sell clothes also, like in fact uh the


I won't say I make a lot of money out of it but I do make a profit lah but it's been awhile since I've done that already


big ticket expenditures okay so, Iike I I believe that uh it's I believe that we should all follow the guideline that we should all have uh at least six months of ya emergency funds set aside regardless of uh income level


ya and, because if we don't have this six months of uh emergency funds then we like use a lot, of our money or a big portion of our money to buy like big ticket item then if anything happens we won't have this emergency fund to cover lah but


uh for different items there will be like different ways to, uh plan for these big ticket expenditure also so like for example uh let's say after starting a family then uh having a child right uh endowment plans will be good for education


like right now my parents actually bought for me uh uh think uh endowment plan for my education ya so it actually help, to like uh pay off my


uni expenses lah which is very useful, but then for like uh a house or car uh the best way will probably be to uh find a, suitable loan suitable loan option for your own income level ah


so in a post COVID world what changes are you making in terms of your spending and saving habit


yeah more or less the same lah buying more things online now but I guess like the biggest saving


will probably be transport


well I think that is great lah like I I really I I really aspire to achieve uh to achieve financial independence like with the ability to retire early I think, that's a like a lot of people's like goal in life also


so like, to achieve financial independence like I think earning a passive income that matches uh one's own lifestyle is the best way, like there are many ways to get about it to go about it lah like k uh there's dividend paying stocks or even real estate where you can collect rent ya


K so right now as a student I don't really have that much


capital to invest so I am using singlife where I get up to two point five percent interest for my first ten K which is uh like the best rate that you can find now in the market


and I'm just putting money inside to accumulate interest lah because uh as of right now I don't think I uh, I have the risk appetite to invest in a higher risk options or policies but in the future definitely as definitely I would venture into higher risk investments and policies


as just putting my money inside a savings plan would definitely not be enough for my retirement, ya


ya okay then


I think that when you're in debt the main priority would be to pay off that debt if not it will uh accumulate more and more interest and then if it just starts snowballing lah and then you won't be able to pay off that debt


so uh the best way would probably be to spend just on your bare necessities just enough to survive you know and to live a a normal life and avoid spending on luxury items


and then ensure that the debt is repaid regularly on time as if you don't pay on time yeah then you need to pay extra penalties which will not be good ya


yes definitely there are a lot of benefits to owning a credit card and, but of course it's important that one uses a credit card responsibly ensure that uh one pay off his bills every month if not you have to pay additional surcharges also and might affect your credit rating lah


ya and, as long as you just as long as you track your expenses and just ensure that you have enough money to pay off your credit card bills then ya you one should definitely own a credit card


ya uh so


what advice will you give to someone in order to retire comfortably


i see K ya inflation will be a very big, big problem uh when it comes to retirement, and I I think that


as one approaches uh retirement age you have to reassess your spending habits also cause uh eventually when you retire uh most likely that most likely monthly income would drop quite a lot unless you have a lot of uh


uh assets that can give you passive income that matches your previous income lah, uh so my advice would be either, invest more or to spend less


so what are your thoughts on CPF contribution


okay ya I feel like ya CPF contribution contributions can be very good for a lot of people also as I, I won't say most people but a lot of people they might not have the discipline to actually uh set aside some money for their retirement so actually CPF is a good way lah because most people they tend to seek instant gratification instead


and furthermore the interest rate in like our CPF accounts are quite good way much higher than banks so yeah it provides a very good safety net lah


how do you manage your CPF savings what advice would you give to someone in order to maximise their CPF savings for their retirement


uh same ah I I don't really give much CPF savings right now so


but, it's good lah for the long term just leave the money inside and accumulate interest which is way which is higher than inflation rate lah so it's quite safe


negative experiences


okay negative experience


uh what are the injustices of world that make you angry


ya one one of them is uh economic inequality also lah but I do have like uh there are a lot of injustices around the world that make me like angry or upset lah like, like the exploitation of people and the environment by large companies and countries like for example there's there's uh nestle you know nestle is like a very big company like


we cover like and they have a lot of like different small uh smaller companies that are like covered by nestle also, and they are very how do I say uh they are very parasitic company like


they really exploit like uh the natural resources of like uh a certain place and like the people there like I think in in africa right nestle is actually just taking water from a lot of african countries for free


without paying anything and uh they're not even they're not even like paying back the people there and not only africa like even in like the US also like uh california they were taking like, water from a lot of lakes there and rivers but right at the same time california is like experiencing like a lot of serious droughts and there's a lack of water for a lot of people lah I mean it it's


like a lot of other things they're doing also lah like they're polluting the environment you know they're not paying the the people that live there and, it's just very unfair like really very unfair and like of course economic inequality it's very big thing also like like just look at the billionaires around


the world like the uh I think if I'm not wrong I saw a stat recently like , the top fifty billionaires in the world they have as much they have as much money as like the bottom uh how much ten per cent fifteen per cent of people in the world and that's a lot of people ah like many hundreds of millions


ya that's that's very disgusting for me lah yah


uh for me it would probably be uh when I messed up my student council speech in secondary school lah so I I tried to run for student council when I was sec three and and honestly my


my chances were already quite low lah because I was sec three already most people most of the time usually the sec one students will get elected to student council and for me it was because my teacher my teacher nominated me lah so I I ran for student council lah uh then


honestly I wa I didn't really prepare my speech very well lah so I I messed it up ya in front of the whole school ya then how about you leh


uh I think I, I, I had something similar also ya but mine wasn't falling downstairs lah like sprain my ankle


not really like I can't really think of anything significant lah but maybe, perhaps that time when uh I went overseas then I went to australia because of NS lah like we spent two months there


and we, me and my friends we, kind of experience a bit of racism so I guess that's it ya like people will just drive pass us and then like you know say things like go back to your own country you know that kind of that kind of stuff so ya then how about you


ah I see, uh for me it's probably probably like to do with like travelling like there are many places that I want to see around the world ah but


as we all know climate change is happening rising sea levels you know so ya like one of it is actually like the the great barrier reef, ya and uh I want to see I want I want I want to see like uh explore the great barrier reef like quite like a lot


uh but with the rate like with how like the climate is changing like the seawater is becoming warmer more acidic like a lot of like the corals there like


the fishes the like all the like the diversity there is like being killed off like at a very uh alarming rate lah, so ya I I I hope that I'll be able to like see it one day ya before it disappears how about you


ya oh well


well, well it's okay


I don't really remember any ya like, ya I don't really have any that I can remember lah, you leh ya


ah I see oh actually there's one I there's one I remember, quite well now uh, it's that time that I was in uh I was in japan then, uh me and my friends we went to this uh restaurant like in the middle of nowhere lah so they didn't speak english nothing and me and my friends we just know like very simple basic japanese only then we wanted to ask for the bill but we didn't know what was bill in


japanese so so when we google translate it right it gave us uh biru but, it didn't make sense also because biru means beer ya so we uh we told the person biru ya for for three of us then in the end the person gave us uh three beers then


we had to like tell them no no we didn't want the beer we wanted to pay but ya we spent like I think ten minutes trying to explain to the person and the the thing the, uh the worst part was uh we were the only customers in that shop so ya


sometimes it's a an existential crisis like like so ya I I really like like uh astronomy a lot so


it kind of like contributes to this existential crisis where like, I just think like how, insignificant we are sometimes ya as not just as a person but like


as the whole like human species in general we are just on this one planet earth then, like we have a sun but in our galaxy there's like billions of suns of stars and each one yah is like a sun lah basically and then there are like many millions of other like galaxies around and just it makes me feel like


how small we are you know and how scary it is also that eventually one day like every single star will like die off and there will be just nothing, ya emptiness in the universe ya so that one that keeps me awake at night sometimes


yah it's okay, uh ya like last year when I was in japan uh me and my friends we were supposed to head to a ski resort in Hakata


but we only found out like the day before we were supposed to travel there right that the ski resort actually closed, uh because we we called lah to double check our booking but online everything it says that it was open so ya then we had to change our plans at the very last minute for two days ya


two days and we couldn't get a refund lah for the the airbnb booking that we that we paid for, the ski resort and somehow it was like during golden week in japan so it's basically like a week where like there are four public holidays in the same week so ya it's it's really crowded we couldn't book a single hotel even like really expensive one also cannot book


so we chose to stay in a PC cafe instead ya and, uh it was a very interesting experience lah, ya how about you


yah it's okay,


well , I don't really have anything in mind right now ah but ya would probably just to tell them that I love them and like they needn't be


too upset over my death and they should uh, live life to the fullest lah like don't uh don't just because of my death then like uh affect the rest of their lives ya


you leh


uh for me it was one of them one of the times was during JC also, because know you uh like honestly the the content was quite was very very very heavy


and I, felt like couldn't really cope also lah cause I was struggling quite a lot in like J one honestly and it didn't help that I was in like the


the smart class you know the class where a lot of the scholars inside so like I felt really a lot of uh, pressure ya and my exam results weren't very good also lah like in fact almost almost retain ya so uh and it didn't help that some of my teachers weren't very good teachers also


like uh they were very uh, they can be very sarcastic at times lah and they didn't really like help other students ya like there was one time a a teacher even tell even tell me like uh


uh, my math my math teacher actually so it's quite surprising I got got A lah but my math teacher actually told me like uh that I really CMI already so ya then it kind of got to me a bit


ya like really really really felt like giving up at that time but uh lucky I didn't lah like in the end like somehow I found like uh motivation somewhere lah can't really remember how but, then eventually I pressed on lor then ya got like quite decent grades for my A levels


ya, you leh


positive experience okay so what makes you want to be alive


okay uh more or less the same lah I guess like ya got still got a lot of things haven't do in life so ya just want to experience more things also


, can't really think of like anything specific ah uh but I guess


like, I won't really call it a skill or ability ah I don't can't really think of a word for it but more like


uh maybe I have a very, open mind towards the arts ya like like when it comes to music film movies right I I really like to like


explore a lot like most people might uh find some like the genres I listen to or like the types of like film I watch, are very strange but I like to like uh explore this as


it's like uh, it makes it helps me to like understand like uh the human psyche ya , how about you


, ya lah that's that's good , K so when do you blush the most describe the experience


I think, uh more or less the same lah like I I don't know but like uh I feel like I don't receive like compliments very often lah I mean especially like you know like uh I think between like guys and like


uh, guys like rarely give like compliments to each other so uh, like when you tend to receive one right is like kind of a big thing lah so ya same ah


uh for me I like to like just walk around alone like and listening to music at the same time like uh


I got there was this period I think during NS I was uh very stressed and uh very ya just felt very stress lah and then, like on my off days right I will actually go to like uh town or the marina bay area like alone and just walk around


listen to music and it's quite uh therapeutic for me lah I guess you leh


I see,


I guess like back in JC, uh there was this like bully in my class lah like uh you know your the typical you know rich guy uh big ego you know, like to flex a lot then


he kept putting down other people like I mean because I was in the same CCA as him so so it was very uh it wasn't good it wasn't nice lah to hear like the things that he was saying to like a lot of people, then I I stood up to him like I I call him out lah then like uh


people the people around me were quite stun because I think a lot of people like they they didn't dare to like oppose him also because he was like considered like the cool kid ya the pops kid and he had money also lah so ya


okay then what is your best surprise


I see, uh (ppc) I don't know like probably like, uh when a friend whenever a friend ask me like how I'm doing or if I'm okay cause uh


like between me and my close friends it's we don't do that very often lah like I I'm I guess is like a guy thing also, like , we only


ya I don't know don't really know how to describe it lah but ya cause like it rarely happens lah then quite surprising


one thing it's probably it's probably like, the


how quickly that how quickly we are advancing as a society like in terms of technology lah, like uh, like in terms of like especially because okay one thing I'm very interested in his uh space travel so ya with like what's with the developments in like the past few years and like in terms of space travel like it's been very


exciting and very, optimistic also but like in terms of like just like uh society at large, I think that we don't have to be so pessimistic about uh what we are like what's going around the world nowadays like with all the riots everything that's happening like in fact right now right the world is like


at its like most peaceful ever like over the past few like hundreds of years like, there was like there's there was so much more conflict around the world ah and things are progressing like things are getting better for everyone around the world so ya that makes me optimistic about the future


ya how about you


so ya describe a travel experience that left you in awe


well for me it was uh seeing the northern lights in iceland ah, ya


like uh like in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere like the nearest, city maybe like hundreds of KM away like really like, no one there and like on a mountain and there was like


no sound like couldn't hear a single thing like it was the first time I heard silence in my life like really like nothing no wind nothing, and like everyone just like like the rest of the people around me they were just looking you know at the lights then and like you can see all the stars also so it was very like


fascinating and it just it get it made me feel like !wow! you know like the beauty of nature ah ya


I don't think I really received like a reward before I mean uh probably just like a simple thank you lah that's all you leh


ya , then okay then what leads you to experience an adrenaline rush


uh for me, like


I guess when I'm playing in a competition, like uh, like last time I was in volleyball lah then whenever we play uh competitions and stuff I'll get very like and I was the captain somemore so I had to like


uh show that I wasn't nervous, I had to show like that I wasn't nervous but actually deep down inside I was actually quite nervous lah and uh experiencing an adrenaline rush, but ya then uh other than that it's probably like meeting new people like


especially overseas like uh it's, very thrilling to meet new people from like different backgrounds and different cultures sometimes they don't even speak uh like they don't even speak the same language so like it's quite exciting to like try to communicate with them ah ya


well I can't really like, I am not very sure I don't really can't remember the I can't remember any moment where I felt like super lucky honestly


but I mean there's this one time when I was like very young very very very young I I can't really remember lah, but I guess it was the most lucky part lucky moment of my life so I think when I was like four five years old


uh my dad asked me for four numbers to buy four D , I we actually got I gave him the numbers and actually got first prize, ya so ya


so ya you leh


[orh] I see okay that's quite cool , what was the proudest moment of your life


yah that's that's good that's good, I think for me it was, probably like uh my A levels I mean not exactly like like everything lah but more for like my A levels math lah because uh


I got an A then, uh but the thing was in J one and J two I failed every single test every single exam like u ungraded so and like I got


like bottom twenty I got like twenty percentile for like on average lah but most of my math papers which was terrible lah then, uh and I was the math rep somemore so even worse but eventually like somehow I managed to get an A for my A level maths lah so that was quite I was quite happy


ya


comfort food ah !wow!, I think, ice cream ya like I I I really like to eat ice cream a lot Iike I


I cannot resist ice cream ya so that's like my, go to comfort food lah or if I want to be uh, toxic a bit I can I can say alcohol


ya how about you


oh yeah


should probably I should probably find a healthy comfort food lah, that'll be good ya


part one financial related topic, ah you start first


okay since I had, okay , okay uh for me how I manage my before before getting married I do not have any


, financial commitments besides my insurance and, and basically you know but you need to give to parents I think that is only commitment I have and then uh but after marriage after I have my own house and then we have a car so the financial commitment is


uh a little bit more serious so we actually have an excel sheet, for, for me and my husband to see our income and then, like, how much we can spend on a monthly basis and how much we need to save die die no matter no matter what every month


so that's how we uh sustain our uh finances lah for our monthly basis


okay because at that point of time I didn't I did not earn that much so I already have, , uh I already have commitment from my insurance which is uh partly for uh hospitality and also for savings you know the time deposit


thingy uh, the the end like in and in twenty years time then you get some portion of your money back yeah so uh that's the one so to me that's considered savings for future so most of my savings for at that point of time was for my wedding


yeah because uh we decided to get married in a very short notice so we do not have that much time to to save money as well, so, for one year I manage to save about, not much lah yeah


oh okay yeah , for the car we actually, pull the money together, okay because my you know right my mum was a financial adviser so she had some uh investment for me


which she gave me after my wedding, and then I'm just fortunate that uh my husband's family he also, his family also prioritise savings so when he when we got married he receives, quite a large sum of money from his parents so that's how we


managed to save up and pay off our car, with no monthly commitment yeah so to me that to me like, , I am okay to buy the car because we have that money and, uh it's not a, commitment burden in a monthly basis


like we do not have to pay for the installment, now you get what I mean, okay if you you ask about strategies, to , like in buying a car, in my opinion right if you do not have the whole lump sum money to buy


servicing because servicing can be can go up to two thousand depends on what the wear and tear and then , uh, season parking monthly, is already hundred dollars so one month easily you can spend one thousand for a, car


so you need to see in long term also are you able to, spend that much money, if example


in long term right yeah


yeah got it, correct


what's the minimum year maybe about five ten years right, usually


yeah exactly, yeah exactly


it's running in the community right, yeah , that's why it doesn't mean you have the money now you are able to afford it in the long term you see like right now we we are in the midst of this pandemic a lot of people has lost their job, so


so you think that you can still commit to pay that much money, every month with the economy is not uh which is not doing well even if you got laid off by your company so did you have to think of all these all these as well so for now I don't have


I don't have to worry about that because all I have to work for is for petrol my season parking and my house lah my house sorry I cannot pay off it's too expensive, so uh so what we have to do now is just continue working, like for me and my husband we have to just continue working in order to pay off our house and for our daily expenses


yeah so we do not have that much stress on us, because even if my husband he's the only one working we can still manage to, to live, to live because we can still pay off uh because the house is paid by CPF uh


by our monthly deduction from CPF right, yeah so it's not that bad lah so that's why you know like people sometimes get very pissed off with uh the government deducting CPF money from our salaries which is twenty percent right it can be a lot of money but when you think back when you want to buy a house


is really is really, like, because whatever you, whatever the company deduct from you twenty percent, the, your employer will match with how much ah thirteen per cent right so that's a lot of money you know yeah so basically your employer is helping you pay off for your for your HDB loan as well


correct maybe when you buy a house then you understand so that's why when I got the house that's why don't complain that much like I really need that twenty percent to be deducted


yeah yeah correct, yes and you have to work more because if you have money deducted from your CP uh from your salary like like I said lah the employer will give you thirteen percent so that's like free money you know


so so if you're not working and you have to pay cash will eventually have to pay more, okay then how do you actually manage your savings like to be out of debt, how how do you try to be, out of debt


yeah exactly,


so is your mum working, correct


so do you have like a percentage like like you know what what I did I have an excel sheet of how much I can spend how much I have to save do you have that kind of planning or whatever you earn and then you just aside from, there like it's not a fix amount


oh okay, oh, so you okay


oh okay okay yeah, save up , yeah


yeah so you have to work more in order to earn more right, yeah understand, , so okay uh in your opinion do you think that someone should own a credit card I I answer first lah I think right okay for my own personal thoughts I have credit cards with HSBC OCBC POSB bank of china I have about five


banks, so all five have different purposes like for bank of china is for supermarket because I have rebates and then , POSB will be for petrol because there's a lot of cash backs and then citibank is for shopping so


, a lot of people like when they use credit card they forgot about their expenditure and then they will end up with a bill shock so what I actually do right for me at uh only for my shopping purchases right whatever I spend on I make sure that


I have that money in my own personal bank account to pay for so what I do is I will transfer that money to another, bank account, so at the end of the month when I received my citibank bill so I do not get the bill shock because I have actually already paid off


paid off my citibank yeah so that's how like you know a lot of people will say that how can you spend so much , on your credit card and you know like eventually will get the bill shock because to me I I never got a bill shock before because that's that that is my practice lah I only spend whatever I have


extra money (uh huh) correct


you owe, yes with interest


correct yes, correct yes yeah yeah yeah, yeah yes correct


you will end up with huge debt


correct, yes I think it's in the community right now


uh like a talk right uh, increasingly high yeah


credit cards, correct


and you think in this like post COVID world, , you have to save more or watch out for your spending habits, yeah same


photography , yes, yeah


savings, yeah


how they survive right , car yeah so how


yeah this is what I'm talking about you know, yeah exactly


yeah yeah, yeah yeah exactly same


, same I thought so too so (hmm)


uh yeah, but


uh it's not that high, correct yes and, yeah I do I have I did my insurance and also donations, if you made donations through like some government bodies you can actually uh offset it so, uh


yes and especially if you care for your aged mother, you can actually offset so you really have to read up lah


staying with her right uh, yes


because logically whatever you earn, every month not all money is your money like you have to end up paying for a lot of thing like bills and all so like whatever you can offset ah might so you just offset it


I actually I also know I also found out about it from my mother, because (uh) I think for the first few years I've been I've been paying in full also, without the without the rebates


part three negative experiences


yeah I get I get frustrated and angry very often especially when I'm driving because I feel that my life is at risk, and all this selfless uh all these selfish drivers ah they really only think about themselves, in their own


and their own whatever, when they are in a rush they think that everything they do is right so I get angry the most when I'm driving that's for sure, because I I don't want to die in a car accident and I don't want to,


destroy my my my husband's car, yeah I think so, yeah, they become a toxic driver yes


yeah true, yup I agree


traffic light yeah


their causing danger to others lah


yeah true (uh huh)


yeah true


yeah so basically that's, the thing that makes me frustrated lah when especially when I drive, and my greatest, yeah exactly, so, and my greatest fear


it's actually losing family, losing my family and someone very dear to me this year in january I lost my grandfather my grandfather my husband's, uh grandfather, so we were very close and, uh it really saddens me at that point of time because on that day itself we were supposed to meet him and suddenly he was he went into a coma and the doctor said that there is no way he's gonna live


so the day after he passed away, soon like uh it was really uh I think I think my greatest fear is actually really to lose someone, because I got really affected


and yeah it really it really, bothers me for very long time, so I don't if I don't want to go through, that again, but eventually I still have to right


she suffered, and I think witnessing everything is more painful right


(mmhmm)


(mmhmm), (mmhmm)


, for the, but I think it was done


yeah, (mmhmm) yeah


yeah


have you ever been look down by your friends or relatives


I think uh for me I have because I come from, a broken family my mom and my dad, were divorced when I was a teenager, so uh a lot of people have this mindset that if you come from a broken family you will end up being trash you know you will end up being


err, having kids before marriage and all all sorts of things you know that the the typical , uh stereotype yeah but, uh I feel that I me and my siblings we grew up fine we don't do that we studied we graduated so


uh I think the come back that, uh we had was, the one who said that their children actually end up being like that you know have and they come from a perfectly fine family, so I feel that


yeah I've been looked down by my relatives plenty of times just because of, , a relationship that didn't go well with my mum and dad, which which has nothing to do with me you know, but yeah so


it was really it it was really, painful at that point of time for having someone close to you to have that stereotype on you


and, yeah I, I think


like serve you right yeah yeah


okay, okay uh okay I, will go to the question if I have phobia yes I think you know my greatest phobia is of cats, I can go crazy, uh


and how I overcame them I never did so what I do is I just run away from them, and , it was funny because okay at that point of time I was working as a, , I was doing my attachment in a preschool so we had this you know this morning walk to the garden or somewhere you know just go around the block


and then there's there's this I think it's a community cat the cat usually strays around around that area so this cat when they saw me and the children right I think there's like ten children me and another teacher so ah that the children were calling the cat you know like


and then the cat came, and then the cat came and then I I shouted and then the children who were trying ah yeah I did I went to the I I went to the back so it was really crazy so I don't know how I will ever overcome it I don't think so


I mean I'm okay with dogs, but not cats I don't know, yeah, yeah I got attacked by a cat long time ago, so I I don't think I will ever ever uh overcame it and funny thing is my husband's family they have a cat at home and


and I've been married for six years and I have to uh you know I go to my in-laws house quite occasionally uh quite frequently but I think their cat somehow understood that I don't uh I'm afraid of them so when I come inside their house the cat usually will stay away from me


yeah so I don't mind going to their house but I do keep a lookout lah I do keep a lookout


heights oh dentistuh, but before that no matter what you still have to go go to the dentist so that's something that


of your teeth yeah correct yeah hygiene


!ouch!, two sides (uh huh)


!ouch!, that bad yeah correct


of course lah of course, you already sign up for it


(uh huh) (uh huh) , oh that sucks


unbearable,


it's crazy, a series of unfortunate events I actually do have, you remember when I was driving my car no no no when I was driving my car and then my uncle was driving behind behind me and he hit my car


and it was badly dented and then I went to the workshop to get it fixed and then when I took it from the workshop I think they were repairing it for four days I took it from the workshop, and then another motorbike hit my hit my car


yeah on the same day I drove back home I was driving back home, and then a car hit so yeah so I feel that, uh that was like really everything that could go wrong really went wrong at that point of


time so I sent it back, uh yeah yes, yes and the best thing is the bike was the malaysian motorbike so he he ran off, he ran off so yeah really really uh


I feel that I don't know what I did wrong, that I had to, uh, go through all these , then you have to pay for the


for the, for all the damages, not no uh no the I think the motorbike was cheaper, quite minor one, but still you know you just came back and your car was like perfectly polished and then when I came I drove back to the workshop and then the workshop guy said


ah hit again ah !aiya!, ah girl, what happen , yes uh another yeah another few days


yeah I know right, in this post COVID world, what are the some of the worries and anxieties that you face


uh really I feel that , I don't worry about it that much because, , I wash my hands regularly and then I try to stay away from people and I don't go out shopping I only go out for my necessities


so, I don't really fear about that lah I think I fear more about, not having uh about losing job


yeah that can be worrying also, being infected maybe not but, infecting the family members yeah, I think I think that's more correct understand how you feel


everything yeah (ppl) okay we ended already is it


part two part two positive experiences


uh probably my family and my faith, and enjoying my life lah whatever I have like, I don't want to diet what about you


yes, yeah correct, a lot of people might commit suicide right


yes


buildings yeah, yeah correct , guts yeah true


that makes you want to do that right


yeah yeah that's really sad correct, that makes you want to be alive also right


behind it


yeah correct, anyone would want to do that yeah


just face the face it , suffer yeah


okay, okay let's move on I don't want to talk about dying, , what what okay what's your what's your favourite activity to unwind and relax I to me right if I'm like really stressed out


what I do is uh, I'll just take my car keys and drive, to wherever so so yeah but , on some days when I don't feel like driving so what I do is I will just blast my aircon and then


closed all the blinds and then read a storybook, to yeah, so that's that's what I usually do like to relax myself


with the wind blowing through your face


yeah imagine, yeah exactly imagine like you are so stressed lah and then you watch uh another depressing show, like you know the the the recent korean, about the marriage something, about everyone betray each other yeah imagine watching that I think it's so depressing you'll be so depressing


uh nope


in your life, and betraying you, okay maybe you would like there's like to


share with us share with me your travel experience, that you that left you in awe


their living conditions right


, yeah , yeah exactly


which nobody uses, yeah, somehow you will appreciate singapore's


sleeping , speeding


!wow! I would love that


disgusting ah


yeah I think for all countries mostly, tiring yeah I


shooting at each other


I think for me for my travel experience, when I was in cape town, we actually, the zip lining no no no that was my family trip, yeah, so we went zip lining and from the mountain tops so for someone who is afraid of heights right it was really uh really challenging time for me and my husband


so we actually went up but the view was really breathtaking I would love to to to to do it all over again like we had to I think our longest ride was the thirty metres in that that lasted about thirty seconds you know the zip line


from, one mountain to the other, oh my god I if I think back right I don't know how I actually went through it, with my parents with my parents yeah, it's very nice, so


uh if you ask me I would love to do it all over again, yes yes okay first we take a jeep up and then , after that we have to hike for about two hours


uh yeah I mean with the whole , in order to have the best zip line you have to be all the way up, so if so in order to be, up there you have to hike no matter what, so yeah


yeah exactly , so uh, so that was the challenging part but when, we are we were doing the zipline the first one of course was very nervous I was very nervous lah and then subsequently I think we did a total of fifteen


fifteen rides down down, so yes, it was worth every penny I think it cost about seven hundred dollars, but it's really it's really worth it yes, I think I think so I think so I need to check lah but yeah but it's really worth it I tell you so nice


so if you ask me right all for all the places I've been I still would love to go to cape town, because the culture and everything, oh it is this beautiful like it makes you appreciate life, more, with where when you when you see all the homeless and the poor people around you right it makes you really want to appreciate your life more


like whatever you have, yeah of course of course because , especially when they eat from, dumpster yeah, so it and and apparently the tour guide say it's normal


it's normal for you to see all that so of course when you see that your heartbreaks a lot but, what we were told was to not uh to not give money to them because, yeah you will end up with uh, with people following you and safety issue is also


uh one of the main concerns there also, for tourist especially, yeah but it's really a beautiful country if you have the chance you should go, should really go there


correct


don't , yeah it's not encouraged yeah


correct yeah, actually actually we're thankful that in singapore we don't have to go through all that like you you see poor people but you don't see to the extent that you have to beg for food or for money


right so in I think, to be completely hungry I I doubt so ya, like some people they yeah you get what I mean right


part one financial related topic


sharifa you want start first or, I start first eh


eh why why don't you start firstly uh how do you manage your financial commitments before and after marriage, I mean uh, I think you can relate to that right


before marriage you you actually save money right but whatever that you save is it just for wedding or is it also for future houses and


uh (uh huh) (uh huh), oh


then I mean how do how do you guys like manage to bought a car do you guys like, have a special savings or


(uh huh) (uh huh)


no actually I have to, agree with what you said because I, I did part time like freelance sell cars right so, like on an on a nearly daily basis I I've met like a numerous number of customers came in without knowing their financial status actually whether are they are they you know uh can they afford


to get a car yeah in the long run because the the car the the the plans that we have usually uh they call it zero down payment so when you do a zero down payment actually they do it in house loan so when they do it in house loan the interest is actually a lot higher as compared to uh getting from bank


so and and then and then right now if let's say you you are taking loan from bank uh to get a car you you actually need to down payment thirty percent which a lot of people are not able to, so they they actually took a shortcut and they take the zero down payment and then they tie themselves uh through in house


in house uh loan yeah and that, uh, for four or five years COE it's it can be either uh forty eight months or fifty four months which is quite uh it's quite long lah


you know some people said that oh it's actually short actually long the other time I actually calculated the amount of interest that they actually paid, uh, as compared to the amount of loan that they took it's actually huge


you you hear like oh five point nine eight percent is is is sound small but it's actually when you calculated it's actually huge it's a huge lump sum of, money so yeah these people actually they they're not aware


and they do not have any financial planning so it's it's quite sad to see that you know uh twenty twenty you still have these people yeah these people, yeah you know it


exactly


yeah all they aspects


I guess a lot a lot of people they're angry because they don't see it for the future they they look at it in the present because they need it now and not for the future


yeah true and like my like my step mom like because she her house is still paying but, I guess CPF in her reason that much already she has to pay cash and when I see her going through that, it's it's really painful lah because


it's it's not a small amount


yeah true


okay so I come to because uh I'm living with my mum I have my dad uh living with uh my step mum so it's like two separate uh parents right that I have to give every month so I actually had to like


to to calculate my overhead, I have to calculate my overhead like how much do I give my mum how much do I give my dad, how much do I need for for because I'm staying with my mum so I'm paying, for the utilities, so how much do I need for the utilities


I set aside no, it's it's just it's just me and my siblings so my siblings have some contribution ah but I don't really, uh, take any of it to to use to pay off anything so it's solely on my own lah


so aside from utilities then I have to put aside amount for groceries, so like in a month uh how much how much do I do I put aside for for groceries then uh then I have to put aside uh a set amount for savings


so that that's how I know that !oi! every month this is how much I need to earn so so


no because I know what's my overhead so I I know uh how much I need to earn so I work backwards I know like uh, I I need this X amount so if let's say in totality I need uh two point five my overhead two point five, so that means I need to find I need to be in a job I need to work and earn


two point five or more, so that two point five overhead is inclusive of the amount that that I need to save as well, yeah so if let's say uh, if I if I was work because I'm working uh I don't earn basic


yeah, so so that that's how that's how I work I, yeah yes (uh huh), so run by hours lah so that's how that's how you work so that's how I'm able, to live day to day make ends meet ah


nah


that's the thing you know when when you have, uh when you're open to opportunity to actually own credit card sometimes people like !wow! you know yeah they they thought it's extra money they didn't thought that


!hey! that is the money that you know you whatever you gonna earn it's going to go there, they they yeah they forgot so, they they tend to like overuse it, without thinking about the future about like eh I have to pay back so basically credit card it's like it's to me I think