uh they give is and uh is a lot you know but but there are many people are still still struggling with debt at the middle uh middle income and the low income so my advice would be savings lah savings and the lesser spendings would be the would be the help I will give them ya will be my advice ya ya


negative experience, okay so uh, talking about negative experience let's talk about online shopping uh Lazada Shopee Taobao Carousel and uh what what


are the negative experiences that we might have gone through like do you have any like you want to share first ya


my bad experiences was uh when I actually use this online uh website to buy books which is called book depository, uh book depository I think is located at, australia or new zealand if I'm not wrong


so what happened was I ordered just two books and they took two months to bring it to me I had to write in to them like at least like three to five times, and that they kept saying that it's already shipped it's already shipped it's already shipped there was no form of tracking the


parcel like there are certain uh online uh websites uh online shopping uh apps and websites that does not, actually uh give the the website is so confusing, that you don't know where how to go and find the tracking parcel uh where you know when you take let's say they they they give you the order number reference and then


the you put it into like let's say DHL or Singpost and all that it it says invalid you cannot find it but they said they're sending it through Singpost so uh that, book depository experience was really bad like uh it really took two to three months with uh ya and


by that time by the time the books came I really lost interest, in reading those books already and I moved on to other books so I think book depository is one of them, uh what about like Lazada Lazada Carousell and all these things Lazada


I know I bought these strip lights, that uh I think we had bought , might have bought the same thing the strip lights ya the, like the product quality itself is really good the value uh for money the money everything is good but the way they package it is so bare that it comes like with dense


and like uh and you don't do not know whether the product is damaged or it's actually working uh really good uh so uh that's a question mark and would I actually go and buy again uh from this company it that's that's a risk that I'm taking


so , , product authenticity wise I I I'm not uh I'm not sure authentically like who is the original uh distributors or the ones who really do it but I think when it comes to overall we first look at the packaging you see the artwork uh and the packaging wise was really bad


yes I actually had that experience also, ya, then what else what other facilities like their toilet what what do you have how how's their toilet in the


room I think I the experience I had was at, this this hotel that I wouldn't I wouldn't want to name it like you said uh I open my windows and I didn't see any form of uh, any form of uh, scenery it was just another block


and uh and it's a high floor moreover it's high high level, and uh there's no scenery but the room management wise also like , they were usually the room management is very often in the way how they claimed


and uh when it when when you put the, uh do not disturb or like cleaning thing they will really like respect for that uh there are cases where I know, where you know you put do not disturb when you're there and the people thought that you're not there and uh the room management comes and like uh cleans the wants to come and clean the area


but uh, but in terms of bad experiences for when it comes to like, the bedsheets I went to this hotel and that this bedsheets had actually had stain, uh there are certain and and stains and that it was so bad


uh really I had to call the room management immediately like uh I had to like ask them to clean this up and give me a new, uh new ones and it took them a long time to come up, to the level I'm at uh to the the the my room and you know pass me that and uh also when I asked for


uh like the food like you said you know uh when you're opted for western food you didn't get it at all I had a similar experience like that, uh also when I needed uh let's say uh towel, or let's say I need uh I need uh to


I need a toothbrush or even a a toothbrush or soap uh that I may not have you know brought or forgot or you know uh they took they took a long time to actually , bring it, so such hotels uh yes


there uh that one particular hotel I will mention, that is really uh that was really bad


two hundred and two hundred and thirty-nine dollars for the first


part of Apple's uh main uh profit, is actually less durability why because people brand loyalty wise like, the more they update they would actually uh go and buy it, because uh I think they are purposely doing a very short durable time so that when the next product when the next version of it like let's say you bought airpods now


and then airpods two come out, so they will rectify whatever that you have you would have complained in airpods two so that you will actually go buy airpods two, but actually if they had, if they had actually made it more durable you wouldn't be you wouldn't have to go and buy the airpods two


so it all comes down to the profit of the company like how are they really trying to get people to buy their product so in that way it really Apple has to look into the durability like my Apple app, pods pro uh I just recently bought it


and then uh, uh the charge the charging the really the battery is really super fast it goes super fast there are cases, where I thought I charged it I really charged it but when I went to the MRT and I'm uh travelling and I have to really like listen to need to listen to music or some podcast


the airpods like didn't work like it's out of charge and no battery so it's really frustrating when it uh when the battery hours battery life is very bad so I believe Apple has to look into the battery life as well like not just for their


not just for their, uh earpiece but for their phones also like my mobile phone like talking talking about Iphone uh Iphone X I use Iphone X and like uh the battery level is just so bad like I if I'd


if I have a hundred percent in the morning, uh by, let's say ten AM or like eleven AM it will be like at seventy or sixty percent, uh eh, so it's it's the same issue and moreover like we don't even use it to play games or even like uh we don't use heavy applications that take up a lot of battery life


so uh there is no reason for it to actually drop literally forty percent in like less than an hour like when you don't even use it much so battery life is one thing not just uh airpods but uh the iphone as well


if let's say a family member of mine or my friends actually would want to buy airpods or airpods pro uh I will actually really, tell them straight bluntly that is uh, it's not a good product for you to actually invest your money into you might actually uh use that money to buy like other products other earpieces like I think alternative uh companies that like uh Seinheiser


and Audio Technica, the higher end, they can they are actually uh very uh competitive when it comes to they can compete with the airpods , and also uh companies like, companies like uh JBL


JBL JBL I have a bad review because actually JBL I wouldn't recommend recommend to people , their flip five, uh the speakers is good but their earpiece is not really good like uh the bass and the treble is just the EQ EQ wise is really bad


but uh, but uh honestly I will just upfront tell if it's a friend of mine I'll just upfront tell him or her like you know what don't get this product I have tried this, and err really long-term it won't help you


okay I actually second that I agree with you like we really leave the choice to them, even after telling them uh our bad reviews on it, so like design wise what do you think since we are like in earphones and all that what's the one worst design like for me I've I bought the


Bose Bose uh earpiece that this use it for sport, uh sports and I tried running with it I really bought it and I ran with it and it kept falling off from my ear like I want to do push ups and uh it kept falling off from my ear I don't know and and and my ear is perfectly fine really


I thought it really fits well but but the but the earpiece just you know kept, uh dropping off when I'm like trying to workout so the whole purpose of it of them actually uh advertising it as a sports product


really uh you know over time it defeats it defeats the the purpose of the earpiece cause it's so bulky it's so bulky that it drops off and like , even the wireless one, are also uh people have complain even I've seen people really lose one one side of their earpiece so uh uh like talking about design wise like have you experienced any like talking uh earpiece that is that really didn't sit well with your ears like and they could have improved


you're talking about the Beats doctor dre if I'm not wrong right the, power power beats that Apple Apple actually I think they they they were selling it also, ya and then it really didn't people didn't really buy it because I think of the all the negative reviews like how you mentioned


, so I think the design wise also, the design wise also they can improve


positive exposure, , positive product review so this positive product review


so, food and beverage let's talk about food and beverage, our our Singapore's singapore cultures favourite uh topic , so what are the foods that that that you have what are the dishes in singapore that you have tried that are like


really have blown you away like certain restaurants you can mention


so between hawker centres and uh places like uh these premium places like black tap and uh at MBS uh where would you actually go to and eat, if you are really hungry


would would you would you would you go, to this uh MBS or this uh this hawker centres what do you prefer like in your free time


uh for me I believe that like I believe for do you I agree with what you said like if there's certain occasions and events definitely uh there are places like royal palm uh buffet uh that is a very nice place to go to and I had a very good experience there their service there with live music


that is very good and also uh because we had a birthday celebration and also a mother's day celebration uh we would go be I I like going there, uh but when it comes to let's say I'm really hungry and I need to go to a place and eat uh like with my friends like just


for for for uh, entertainment like you know just to have fun with my friends then I would go to like hawker centres like I believe that I really love the the #mee goreng# at #ayer rajah# road, uh ya so you can I believe uh like what's your opinion on that uh have you gone there before have you gone there and eat before


I think there are varying degrees to that, let's say if I see rats, are running around and like uh, you know I I went to this place uh uh this restaurant, and the it's uh it's a #zi char# it's uh means uh


is it means in english is uh, it's like seafood yes seafood so this seafood restaurant, is uh what happens is what what they did is there're crabs in a tank and then er


we saw we literally saw, uh this guy uh the fishmonger actually uh cutting the fish on the floor while the dog is you know walking around and like, you know licking the places so but the the and and we were completely turned off because like the food uh the food there uh food it was good but


I really I was really uh discouraged to actually come there come back then eat cause the hygiene wise is really bad and there are some places like rats you know they they run around, uh and the that is also a completely uh something that discourages us to ever go back there again the food is good the


the company that we go out with they also enjoyed the food but then once again uh they has a varying degrees like if you say there's just rubbish on the floor, uh out or like there's water on the floor I would probably just you know or is it even if it's in my chair I will just like use the tissue paper or wet wipes to make sure uh clean or asked one of the cleaners there to help us clean


but there are I think like certain things like rats and like you know like dogs you know in the place where they cook the food is really not my a I don't think is a positive ya


I think more than a professional level he, manage to uh you know connect with us in a friendly manner like you say, actually that is very important why because uh to actually get a customer to uh to encourage the customer to buy their products what you need is trust and also how you uh how are you going to actually sell the product and uh I think Apple


has uh actually hired the right people to do that and all their ethical their their work ethics or how they teach their employees, is very good, and uh I was very impressive I was I was very impressed on uh how he uh the the person actually treated uh us when we went to the Apple orchard


yes yes, so actually that encouraged us to actually look into other products


that we might want to buy actually uh, ya so it's a it's a very nice experience that we had yes , also, okay coming to the next point entertainment wise okay uh when we let's say we go for movies


okay at theatre and when you're about to buy the tickets and all and is crowded and all I think uh, the the vivo city, uh the vivo city uh the the people who actually uh you know get our tickets and all that they're they're very friendly and I think I had a very positive experience at the


vivo city cathay if I'm not wrong, it's Cathay ya Cathay if I'm not wrong so I had a very good experience, uh there so talking about like entertainment like could you tell me like where which entertainment is a broad topic but since like you mentioned about like theatres and all like uh what are your favourite places to go watch movies like your go to place to watch movies


I think that actually is a very good uh point there when it comes even like gymming cause you need a community to motivate you to actually keep going to that, place and exercising like there are certain gyms uh, that you just do it alone


but and and you know there's no much interaction with the people around you but uh fitness first uh like you mentioned I went there for trial day, I went one day uh for trial and the instructor there actually brought me through the various uh


fitness uh equipment, that they use there especially and I they maintain uh the cleanliness to the highest degree and uh there're, towels like I think the towel is warm towel if I'm not wrong it's uh and and they give their towel a small towel and a big towel


and uh their shower area is also clean, really clean uh it's a very nice after you after you work up and all that uh it's very nice to just you know have your time there wind down uh


just relax after the uh intense workout and uh more than that like you mentioned is how the people treat you like uh they welcome to me, and also they taught me certain equipment that I didn't know how to use, so the instructor was very patient with me and uh and I didn't see a single uh slight of any slight or any any kind of impatience they were really


patient with me so no uh so I think Fitness First is a very good although I went there only for a day but uh they actually were, uh you know really uh I was really impressed by how they uh manage their customers


company itself ya


yes so that that's the company's success I believe like without them even uh putting so much money into advertising, uh like uh you know uh really forcing people to come to their, to their company and try out their products I think the people themselves will become the advertisements when when the company treats them right like example Fitness First like now since you you have told me I'm I'm feeling encouraged to actually uh try their


their monthly you know their their membership so, this is how uh the company also can grow like you mentioned


my skincare routine, actually I used a different products the one that I really love the most is from Kiehl's Kiehl's the calendula extract yes so uh I believe that product has actually received a lot of positive uh reviews and uh I think I'm one of them


cause uh I've tried that on my skin and , though it might be expensive for you know for certain uh groups of people but uh it's worth it it's worth the money, worth the bucks so like , when I tried it because I have like oily skin you see so when uh it was just perfect for me to you know maintain make sure that uh there's no acne or breakouts or like uh make sure my pores are close and I bought the calendula uh facial wash and also the


, and also uh the the the they will apply this uh I think if I'm not wrong it's call the , it comes along with the facial wash so uh it was very good this calendula extract, uh what else I tried their UV cream Kiehl's UV cream like uh like you go under the sun and all and also like for their they have this cream for your


uh eye bags, let's say your like dark circles around your eye this would actually help you, err, dark circles yes and my, and and and also the there's this another company called Estee Lauder if I'm not wrong ya they they they are very good uh with their dark circles that their cream they uh give is called night night something lah if I'm not wrong uh night cream uh ya night cream uh for my


like I think it depends on the context like let's say the other person they might be living in a different environment uh they have different preferences, uh I might have a different uh lifestyle or how I work or a certain preferences so yes I would actually consider the the good review but also go to the website myself and actually uh research before buying the product


uh if if the product is actually going to be a long-term with me, so I would actually like example like dishwasher, it's a product uh that many people want to get, but uh it depends like let's say if you are indians and the


uh pots let's say the things the the the stuff that we use and we cook might not be able to feed into the dishwasher, so uh it it's really it might be ineffective


yes yes, so, I believe that there are many other products that uh that actually has positively you know really helped us even in our lifestyle, uh though they're like small products like products like you know how your your cables your Iphone cables your your your charging uh the tip like it's always on the floor


but then there's this product where you know you can stick it on to your table or your like desk where actually it'll help you keep the cable uh on top, so it's actually more neater also I think that product is also very good uh and I've and I believe it's an essential uh product that many people uh need ya so


yes the customer and the company ah yes


finance, finance okay, okay thank you, Arvin so we got to talk about finance, okay


so, like what's what's the first thing that comes to mind when you like think about finance


okay so like for like investing your money okay why don't you tell me first and then I'll give my opinions so like how do you invest that do you invest your money and if you do like how do you like invest it


ya I think like what you say was like a very smart thing I think a lot of people do the same thing that you do like if you get like a certain salary and you split it up into like uh multiple parts which is what I do as well, so like for me I split it up into spending savings and investments


so it's the exact same thing that you do say I'm drawing about three thousand for example uh, I will probably put I wouldn't for me I wouldn't I don't, save so much so I'll only saving about five hundred cause I know like I need a lot of money


like just like, on on hand cash so I don't save so much so like about five hundred will go to savings and, spending I would put like you know because I'm a student and it's I I eat a lot outside I travel a lot so I have to spend on travel eating food and everything like that so spending will be quite a big portion of it


and about another five hundred will go into investments as what you said like uh stocks you know the stock market, so my dad's actually taught me how to invest in stocks and that's what I read up all you know just watching CNN everyday watching the stock market it's quite boring but I we have to do it because it's pretty important investment


and another thing that I've read up on but haven't really found out like I haven't really, tried it is bonds like I've like I I heard that that is pretty important as well but what you were saying about this POSB account you know how like you put money inside and they give you like a two percent interest rate do you think that's call investments


if that's like is that the question asking like what strategies would you recommend to someone planning for their big ticket expenditure


okay so like, for me I always thought of it as like the like the government's helping us save by CPF right, like everyone knows about CPF in singapore, and like for me like I think that's like a they're forcing you to save which is actually a very good thing I think like that's really a genius idea


like how they they force you to save and they don't give you your money yet until you reach of certain age with then you can start withdrawing and also when you start withdrawing you can't do it at one shot right you can only take it out at certain steps, and I think that I think that's a very a very smart smart strategy that the government has put in place and I think like I


I don't I just definitely depend on that a lot I'm like, I'm not old ya I'm twenty-two but I I'm thinking like I depend on that so much that, for me like normal savings wise it's gonna be there but, most of it I'm I'm going to just keep thinking that okay the government has puts CPF in place for me so I can't go wrong


for me I think like, I think after like you know so many years of working right if I when I turn fifty-five and so many years of working I think that I'll be so used to getting a monthly salary if you call it, I think that I'll definitely go for that option of drawing it monthly because if I just draw it at one shot I feel like if anyone just draws it at one shot they will be so overwhelmed with the amount that they have


that they you know no matter how much you plan once you get once you actually obtained that amount that big amount of cash it's just going to overwhelm you so much that you you're not going to know what you're gonna do with that money, ya I feel like drawing it monthly since you're so used to it you're so in pace with that drawing every month I think that drawing every month is a very good uh


option to choose


okay if I'm being honest I don't have I have not thought of this like I've never planned for this yet I'm just twenty-two I'm not planning to buy a house or car anytime soon but like reading the question like just saying what I have in mind I think that, if, if anyone wants to buy a a house or a car they're wanting to start a family


I think that they should, they should first things first they should definitely be financially stable like no one should should do any of these options knowing that they're in debt or knowing that they're incapable of, even paying for twenty percent of that like you should not start anything if you know that you are not capable of it


I feel like you must always know that you're financially capable of it and like be strong at what you know and you know for like a car for example you must I think you must have a minimum of at least thirty percent in cash or like in your bank, to at least pay for thirty percent of what you're trying to buy which is uh and then you know that remaining seventy percent you can always pay in installments I think it's a very important thing


because I think some some people just like like you know young people they just buy a car out of like the the the hype about it they just think oh it's cool it's a car it's okay I can pay this off in my future l ah I'm just going to take a loan and buy it now which is a very very bad mindset don't you think


for me personally I would I would do it myself, like I like, I know that I'm disciplined enough to handle my own money and I for personally I just don't like the thought of someone else handling my money for me I don't like someone else telling me what to do or what not to do with my own money that I've earned so like I definitely would do it myself like I know that I'm discipline enough but


I also think that for people who really need it for people who think okay if I'm handling myself I'm definitely gonna put eighty percent into partying or entertainment I think for people like that who plan on saving money they should, definitely get a financial advisor


for themselves


this is a very very tough question I think one thing definitely not to do, if you are in debt is you don't go to illegal money laundering businesses to get yourself out of that because that is just getting yourself into heavier debt than what you're already in that's one thing that no one should ever do I personally feel that


, what advice to get someone out of debt I never really thought of this question I never really had anyone in debt to tell about but, I'm not too sure how to answer this question, why don't you tell me what's your opinions and let me like you know see whether that's


okay makes sense


negative experience, okay


uh I have I I definitely have like so like what you were saying you know when you order on, Lazada or Shopee a lot of these items I don't know, I don't know whether it's just me who sees it or whether everyone uh encounters the same thing but a lot of the items when you order it it doesn't come as like


what it says it's gonna be was it Lazada or was it Shopee I think it was Shopee sorry so like on Shopee, I ordered something I ordered like a light strip, and, it came it delivered which was a very bad delivery experience so it they said it will come in three to five working days but it came in two weeks so you know how far that pushback was definitely such a bummer and I was so angry about that it really left a bad impression from the start


you know just like by delivery time it left such a bad impression, and when it came obviously it wasn't working it was like faulty it was spoiled so I had to write in to them to say that okay I received a faulty thing can what are you guys gonna do about it can you send me a replacement and even that itself you know


they took so long in replying I think they took about three days to reply you know usually when you, you when you tell a company oh your product doesn't work they will get back to you instantly maybe in one day two days max but they took three days and they didn't apologize for anything they just say oh okay uh we'll send you another one uh see whether that comes in


and even the other the second one that they sent took another like one or two weeks to come which was I was expecting it I already had a bad impression from the start, and, that was just a very very bad experience for me why don't you tell me about like one of your bad experiences


ya so, for like another thing was, a hotel right for me, uh bad experience was, how okay okay, this very, dumb story but I was placed in quarantine because of COVID nineteen


came into close contact with someone so I had to go, quarantine myself in the hotel, and I think, that that hotel stay was, one of the worst stays that I've had so from everything from the room to the to the food was so bad so let's just start off with the room like the moment I walked into the hotel


the room was so small it was so the smell was so you know like you know the smell of wet carpet, it's smelled like wet carpet the room the the stench was so bad, the toilet was the toilet like one of the toilet light wasn't working and it was just such a dull room it was such a bad experience from the start from the moment I stepped inside the room was bad


level of comfort wise uh I think it was okay it wasn't so bad like the bed was still decent and stuff the location was, was horrible you know like you open your window you're just looking at like another block, you just and that's the worst thing you can ever have like did you know like do you have the feeling like when you were just open a window of a hotel and you just see another block next to you it's the worse you'll at least want some kind of scenery like not scenery in singapore but like at least you know see like green trees or something it will be much much better than seeing another block right


and, ya you know like the, their their toilet was okay it wasn't it was it was like I mean the light wasn't working that it was just so bad and there was there was such a bad smell


go into it but the worst part of this whole thing was the food the food quality was super bad it was it was I'm not going to name the hotel name but it was so bad, the food was really really cold when it came to us and you know like we I even opted for like a western breakfast no western food came everything was just asian so that was just false


advertising right there you know the the product wasn't even authentic they just they didn't even like tell us where its from they just cooked it they just brought it to us, and it's not even what they said they're going to serve us and it was just really really bad experience from the food wise and I think that main thing was walking into hotel with such a bad smell and the food just left the worst impression of that place on me


have you had any experience with like a hotel that was this bad


oh those are the worst


for me like you know it's like another, okay instead of experience now like a product that that, that disappointed me or like that wasn't up to standards was, airpods you know Apple airpods so like I bought airpods like about a year ago


and, the function was okay you know it was working it was authentic obviously I went to the Apple store to buy it it was it was new it was okay it was it was working well the design is nice everyone has it right because of the design, but I feel like the quality and durability okay the quality


if you are talking about material it's okay it's fine but the durability so my airpods literally just after one year of using it, that it has just gone so bad it's just gone down the drain its its the volume is not even good like when I max it out the volume is like fifty percent of what it was originally was


and, value for money I think airpods are literally the worst investment you can ever buy because it's just it's like so expensive how much is an airpod like hundred and fifty dollars I forgot, just for like exactly


ya just for that two hundred and thirty-nine dollars just for two piece pieces of like plastic with a bit of metals sticking in your ear, the value for money is completely not there it's just the branding wise everyone buys it but the durability and the quality I feel was the durability was the worst part of the product uh like after one year like I've use multiple earpieces


and, after one year they work perfectly fine they just a bit dirty give it a clean it's good to go but these airpods just you know the durability of that was so bad I don't know whether you feel the same way but after one year it just stop working and I feel like Apple should really look into this


you know how to how to make their products more durable and I was just so disappointed with that whole experience


I know I face the same problem


that's just speaking about the quality of the product right, it's just like certain like they're so like small nifty gritty things that that they can better improve on so many things, but speaking about this airpods like you know how uh such a bad experience for me or for you you know because the battery life that ran out


like how would you tell people like do not use this product how would you come across them to say okay, like this is the experience I had I will just tell them to not to buy it


ya for me like I think like I wouldn't say don't buy it because like eventually that's up to them to make the decision but, like you know the the only like they can only see the pros of the airpods because of Apple's advertising and Apple will never state their cons but you can always tell like if anyone if my mom wanted buy Apple I'll tell her


I'll tell her all the bad things about it first before I tell her the good things about it, like I will definitely tell because like you know you form an impression the first thing you tell a person is how you form the impression like you can always say oh the Apple's are this great great great but it has this small


this small, battery life situation, when and you know people tend to overlook that people say oh battery life is nothing much but if you start with all the bad things first you say oh the battery life is really horrible, but the the airpods are okay like the qualities not bad they have like a impression of it like the battery life is really bad so like I think I I will cautiously purpose by telling them the cons first I definitely will tell them all the cons of the product and then I'll say ya you you yourself know the pros but now you know the cons and it's up to you to make the decision whether you want it


you know to purchase the product or what not


purpose ya


so like for me my ears are pretty big so I hate the earpieces that you know they go around your ear like I like the earpieces that just go straight into your ear like airpod, it's like the Bose what dells those go Bose beats those kind of products they go around your ear and I


hate those I absolutely hate those I've had so many bad experiences with them it just doesn't work, like how like something that is meant to help you further, like sit it in your ear just does not work and I hate it so that's just a very bad design a bad experience for me


ya the power beats ya


ya so like on a whole, I feel like on a whole like all these bad impressions or negative product reviews they leave a very bad impression on the company and people are less likely to go and purchase their products like its just general knowledge eh


positive exposure


uh there's so many I can mention there's like Black Tap at MBS or you know Kinki at fullerton bay, all these like restaurants really have they have such a good like impression they leave such a good impression on me it doesn't compare at all to like hawker centres because hawker centres you know they don't they don't they just make food and they don't they don't serve you anything right they just make food you just bring it to a table you eat it but I think when we're talking about


uh experience here it's more on restaurants, or like you know


okay definitely that one is definitely I think, hawker centres take up a main part of like my diet because just simply because restaurants like plated are too expensive to spend every single day, right


I think someone who's looking to you know celebrate some kind of event some kind of milestone like a birthday or anything like if you have a reason for it and you really want like a good good time with your family or friends and you want a good experience going to one of these restaurants would be a good idea


so you know you just get treated well but on a day-to-day basis you know just for hunger you hungry I don't think anyone would go to these kind of restaurants anyone will want to just go to a hawker center pick up any kind of food you know you're not looking so much into like service right this one you just looking to cure hunger


so like but whereas on the event you are looking for like oh just a good time people to like just pamper you pass you food you know welcome you and stuff like that you will just go to a restaurant for that right, so what are your thoughts on that like what would you do


#ayer rajah# I I think I'm the one who brought you there it's a really nice place uh you know the food's really great it's just, it's, is the food is really nice but to be honest the, experience that is not very good because you know the place is quite dirty is not is not exactly clean to eat in you know there's just it's like a a regular hawker center like with like just rubbish on the floor tables are quite dirty so the experience is not great but the food is good so like


what do you think like do you think are you okay with like a with good food but like a bad surroundings what do you think what are your thoughts on that


there was like one experience that I wanted to share which was really great was I just went to the Apple store uh yesterday I and the experience was just so it was so fun and it was so entertaining and interactive so like basically, me and my friend we went to the Apple store I think and you were there as well you know how we all went to the Apple store and we were just you like some one of us were just trying to purchase an Ipad but like the way they like


treated us the way they brought us in, the way they spoke to us like you know the consultant that was with us he was so great he was so interactive I I love that I think that like that's a very important part of like a positive interaction, like you know it's not it's just like one person how like he talks you he's he's like the face of the company right so like when we go to buy Apple product and that guy gives us like you know he's very entertaining very interactive it it's it's like he's representing Apple on a whole


I feel like that was a very good thing for him to do he was like super interactive he was he was not only pushing his product but he was asking what we did asking about our lives, he's asking you know oh what are you going to use this product for oh you're from school okay that's nice which school he was with being very friendly being very interactive I think that's a very important thing in like a positive review


(mmhmm) it was very, he is very like I feel like he treated us more like a friend than just some employee selling a product right


ya that's a very important thing


for movies I will just you know the closest to my house like vivo city good like you know GV at great world great world city or plaza sing I go to these places, I've ya like what you said they're very friendly they like that everyone has a smile on their face is not that bad but I feel like they don't


it's not like it's not bad but it's not good for me personally I feel it's not bad but it's not good like they don't do anything to like make me happy or anything like that it's not like how the Apple was but was for like something that I think was a very good thing, apart from the Apple experience was I go to the gym sometimes


so I have a gym around my house it's called Fitness First Fitness First at biopolis so that the experience there is just so super good, you know how like the moment you step in the gym everyone welcomes you everyone says hi everyone so friendly


and the it's not just like how people treat you it's just and this one's on top of Apple is not the way they treat you but it's also the experience there so like when you go if you didn't know if you go inside this gym they will literally greet you they will bring you to the you know they will bring you to the counter they they even provide you workout attire


they will pass you like a gym shorts and a gym singlet for you to use not every gym has that if you know like you just go in your own clothes but these gym Fitness First just takes everything to an a new level they give you, workout attires they have you know isotonic drinks hundred plus H two O Pocari Sweat everything just on the table for you to just grab and go and workout


so I feel like that experience is just, experience at fitness first was like no other and they really like you know they leave such a positive impression on on a person using their gym that these people will eventually go and share with their friends like how I'm sharing now it's gonna probably reach out to you and like you know to whoever is watching this


recording they're gonna they are going to know that how like how Fitness First is like, greater compared to other gyms if I can say that


ya I think like positive like a product positive product review is not only important for the customer but it's very very important for the company itself don't you think, ya it's like you know like like to reinstate of what I said just now how you leave an impression on a customer


and like it that's gonna be a a big big thing for you because if you leave a very good impression on your customer they're eventually going to go and talk to their friends or their family about this they gonna say oh this place is really really good be it a restaurant or gym whatever movie theater clothing shop anything


how you leave your impression on a customer how you treat them is gonna go a long way for you as a company in the long run when people start talking about you you know in their own community you get more customers that way right


so like another question that we should like you know talk about is like just like uh okay just answer me generally like what's your skin care like what's what do you do for your skincare routine, (mmhmm)


it's just to get rid of the dark circles right


but like why would you like why do you use all these products or not something else like you know if your friends told you a a good review about some some other product say like a simple face wash like if there's if everyone said oh that was good would you try it would you be urged to try that face wash instead of what you're using now


that's a very ya that's a very good example ya is like how you know you have to see whether the product caters to you right just because the product has good reviews doesn't mean it's going to help you right, that's a very good very good example I ya I think that's very important for people to look at as well like a lot of people just you know they they hear their friends reviewing about stuff they hear all the positive reviews but they


they just go with the flow you know they don't they don't see the need for it but they just say okay because it's positive because it's so popular I'm just going to use it which shouldn't be the case right you should always look at whether it caters to you in the first place


ya ya ya , ya so overall like like all in all like


I think everyone has their own positive product reviews or like their good feedbacks as a company I think is very important to leave a good impression on your customers you know not ya it's as of utmost importance


okay so I guess we just start by discussing the questions lah so first question is how do you invest your money to accumulate wealth and all planning for your retirement


uh, so to say or shall I begin, okay ya so basically like uh these are just like some tips that I've learned from like around the internet lah, so like the most important thing I think for retirement is that you going to start saving early I think a lot of people don't think about retirement until they're like in their late thirties early forties or maybe even later so that's actually kind of really late I mean better late than never but so pretty late lah so I think you should really start in your twenties


cause, the whole thing about investing is the magic of compound interest so the earlier you start the more years you have and the more money you can get by the end you going to have like a really good that to, to get in the end lah then I suppose another thing would just made to diversify your your investments and do not get scared off by like market shocks and pull out your money too quickly


cause there's two important things when it comes to like investing for retirement is one is that it's really long term you keeping it for like twenty thirty years so that time will sort of offset little shocks so even if you have like a uh uh like an economy crash, uh at one point of time it's not really going to affect your thing in like thirty years later since uh those shocks are going to be offset by the sheer time period and the other thing is like if like a particular company in your investment thing goes bankrupt well that's the point of diversifying cause your other companies that are doing better will like actually make up for that offset lah


ya, those are those are my investment retirement thoughts


ya no I think there's definitely a concern I feel like for one thing we should be learning more about financial literacy while we're in school like still in, secondary school and JC and poly not not even in terms of this is where you should invest but like these are things you will have to care about in the future when you're earning money so take note of it now so that when you're in a position to start investing you know that this something that needs to be done


cause as you rightly pointed out like we don't even think about it so we don't necessarily have to learn these skills early on but we at least have to, have like a conscious knowledge that this something we need to do and I think, another useful thing would be like you know we have all these skill share credits and stuff right I feel like there should definitely be some sort of financial literacy course that we can take and I think those should be especially aimed at the younger generation cause a lot of these skills future


so skills future there are a lot of these skills, skills future points are like for older people where they're do they want a transition mid career or like they've they've been retrenched and need to scale up but I think they should have some courses in the younger people who are just starting their employment career so we can learn how to be more financially responsible in the future


yeah I completely agree so like going further into this fifty thirty twenty rule right like just twenty percent of savings like general advice is like ten percent go straight into like a retirement account that gets invested, five percent you use to build up your , uh like it's like a a an emergency fund sort of what you put in like six months worth of like your need items


so you have so that that I guess about three months worth of income lah so this is what you use either if you have some sort of a crisis or like a down payment on a house or something like that where you need like a large amount of cash available to, put down and then the other five percent goes into like other things that you might need maybe you're saving up for like a bit like a anniversary vacation five years down the line that's going to that where you're you know you're going to put in quite a lot of money or like a wedding even which can really be quite expensive but


I also think a lot of the information we get about this so like, over the summer I was trying to learn more about personal finance and I took this like edX course but it's very US focus and like the books recommended there which would quite, they were quite good but again they were very US focused so I don't know how much of this like


, these ratios and these like amount of things that you need to save really applied to singapore, I think it's difficult to judge cause like we don't really have the same sort of retirement accounts that they have in the US you don't have like your four one K accounts but instead you have your CPF savings and stuff like that so I think sometimes is also like you're getting a lot of different info from different sources and you don't know how much is applicable to you


that's insane


I definitely agree I think considering that we are like in the same uh phase of life right now I have the same expenditures it's a grabfood delivery or all my subscriptions and I guess to some extend it's Grab uh like Grab rides lah but that depends, on how much I'm traveling so during COVID times it slow down a bit but now that I'm going to school regularly you know some days I'll be staying until eleven PM then I'm like I don't really feel like taking the MRT right now so I'll grab or like if I'm rushing in the morning


I you know, if it's like a dollar cheaper than usually as I'm like kay I'm actually kind kind of saving so I'll just grab to school so yeah those are some pretty big expenditures I think I try to be careful like, more conservative in sort of like more traditional spending thing so like when I go out to places if I'm like walking around in malls and stuff so those are like the more common ideas we have of like


spending in real life here try to be conservative there like not really purchasing, ya I think I don't really purchase things as much so like clothes or , items of anything or like physical books and stuff but I think there's a lot more of like, purchases of either services or online thing so like like all the subscriptions that all services


so in my in my aim to be a little more anti consumer I think I avoid the I avoid the purchasing of goods that I don't need but I think the services that rack up a lot of money


yup so speaking of like controlling and planning our finances we right at the next question I love the synergy in this conversation lah, so should I DIY or get a financial advisor I don't think I have too much to say about this I think that most people don't really need a financial advisor to plan out their finances I think it could say like if you were like particularly rich to the point where even like a small percentage of worth loss again is quite substantial


or like we're adopting different like tax strategies can actually make quite a difference then I think you should get an advisor but like for the ordinary person I think you don't really need one like maybe get a book on personal finance or like you know or it like a university course, I'm trying to learn enough strategies to like have a decent personal finance situation going on I don't think spending on a financial advisor is really worth it for the ordinary person lah the average person


cause I think like when these financial planners are linked up with specific companies I think I'm a bit hesitant cause I don't know if they're going to be pushing the products from particular company onto me like the goods and services when there could actually be better options out there for me yeah so I think if you can use it it's like


you know when you go to a spa and you have that that first time option where you get a really cheap price but then they go there but once you go there they like pressurize you to buy more things or they pressurize you to buy a package or their products so whatever, I think if you can resist that temptation so if you can do that thing where you go


think have that first like super cheap session and then you come out of it with just that such an buy anything else right I think if you can do the same thing with these financial planners that's great if you're going for a first session they tell you this is everything you need like even if they're pushing you towards certain product you just take note of like the big picture


if you can leave there without like necessarily buying their products, I think, it's useful then but if not you know, I think be hesitant I think you really only need, advice if you have some sort of like, particular circumstances such as if you are in that


which is the very next question


I think for for situation such as that I think one thing that's important to consider as how you got into that that like if it's just plain overspending, then there's a lot of like expenditure patterns that you can cut down but if it's something like medical that then I can't really be like stop buying medicine right then that's something would that you have to figure


a different plan out for an I think especially for the latter type where you're going into that for black must have expenditure needs then I think you should really consider getting an advisor but I think for the if it just sort of like over expenditure and, habits that you can change then I think maybe like


reading uh, book or like getting a like a single shot of advice might be more useful so for example you mentioned elizabeth warren earlier right so she wrote this book called all your worth which is basically about personal finance and there she talks about like how to pay off debt and the


the steps are usually like this so first off you start up with like a small security fund so like about a thousand dollars also so if you get into trouble, with like during the next few steps, like if you if you face a crisis then you don't have to like loan on even higher interest late in earn even higher interest rates you at least have like a baseline amount of money that you can use to pay off


any crisis that you face during your period of paying off that, then I think you start off with like, oh we are done it's, oh ya okay next up is credit card debt so you pay off your entire credit card debt while maintaining other payments then you start your proper savings that's what I meant ya


oh sorry uh, part three negative experience


on oh yeah


are this leather shoes, that's so odd cause like I've had experiences with leather thing going bad but that's mostly cause that was back when I do not know how to take care of leather so I had this knee high leather boots I can't remember where I bought them from but


they were just like peel off and it was so sad cause I only wear them like when I went on vacation once a year to like cold places but you know your shoe size doesn't change so you should be able to use it for years, but !wah! they just started peeling off, but I absolutely agree with the clothes shopping negative experience which is why I have switched to Zalora only with that where I get to return them uh I think that's like one of the biggest draws cause


ya so I think in terms of bad clothes one ah one thing is anything that is like coloured I think there is a very high possibility of getting it like super like another thing is like jeans a lot of times you buy jeans online I think I got jeans from like Shopee or something and they were like


leggings but they looked like jeans like jeggings I hate jeggings jeggings are the worst thing to be ever to ever be made and when you get things that are that are advertised as jeans but are not actually jeans when the cotton is like I don't know fifty percent or sixty percent and or something and they just so stretchy I think that's terrible


another, bad experience I had was , speaking was like my my uh skincare experience so basically there was this point of time where you know where I said that my ordinary cellnique as it is currently being reformulated so it's all available so there was a point where I didn't know that it was being reformulated I just thought it was sold out from my usual like my usually I buy them from like more legit


online stores in singapore like look fantastic or uh some other ones I don't know have them screen I have them in my comp, ya so usually I buy from them was but it was just sold out so I just thought maybe you know it's high demand right now so only I buy from the Shopee place, the thing is I have bought original skin care before but this one is


okay one reason I notice that it was office cause they were like if you looked at the the label carefully there's like a capital letter where there wasn't supposed to be but I think that sort of thing that no one would notice but I've used this product before so when I took it out I was like this doesn't smell, the same cause the the original products smell weird actually


suppose a bit of but you know it's it's like a chemically smell but you know there's a chemical and it works so that's great so I took this out and I think it smell too neutral if something is really off I put it on my skin and like I didn't feeling things so I I read the label in detail and there was like uh


like I think the second word of a of a one of the ingredients was capitalised I was like kay you know this is not supposed to be capitalised so it was like this is definitely some, weird china manufacturers who are making fake products and just selling them so I I went to the supplier and I was like !hey! do you you know where do you get this from do you have like can you send me a screenshot of the shipping manufacture or whatever and they sent me something when I pretty sure that that was not it but honestly I paid like


eleven bucks for it and I wasn't motivated enough to go and fight with them over it, and it was like a week or two later that I realised that it was actually being reformulated so it wasn't being sold anywhere, so unless they bought this like a year ago which I know it's not the right product but regardless unless they bought a year ago and just kept it unless shipping it now


was definitely a fake, so that taught me to you know the one instance where I bought skincare not on a proper platform and it has warned me of it forever now would not would not do it again


so the thing that's been going on with macbooks like just issues in black particular year to rule out I remember, when I bought my macbook it was a twenty seventeen macbook I think they so the I think a lot of the macbook pros that came out in that year and maybe the year either before or after had these issues with


keyboard so they introduced a new kind of butterfly keyboard that was supposed to be super soft as you type, but the thing is that dust will just go inside it and then your keys will stop working so and my keys first stop working I was so stressed cause like as you said macbook repairs are insanely expensive I didn't do anything I was very careful to not eat near it so I was actually just you know normal dust not even food now I was super stressed about it


uh so I didn't do anything I just dealt with like worsening keyboard situations until I actually got a problem with my screen itself and I went to get a changed but I got lucky cause they were replacing those keyboards for free, for anyone with those particular devices so I actually got my other issues offer fixed for free thanks to my keyboard but


at least you know with a keyboard it's you know the keyboard gets switched out but I don't know what they will do with like if they can providing sort of solution for yours


that's part of when you become such a big company that people are buying you more based on just like the brand and the perceived value as opposed to like the actual value of the product you you supplying right regardless of if apple has all these issues and you have cheaper brands, that could be doing so much about the people still going to buy apple products right it's a it's a symbol


absolutely I think the convenience factor is huge cause like you know I can just air drop things I can use multiple screens it's all the same sort of interface so you have to figure out differences ya


actually I don't think I really had any bad holidays I think I generally try to do like a in-depth review uh most my vacations are with my family and is usually left up to me to sort of figure out where we going what we're booking like the cheapest prices for everything


so ya I don't think, I've had any bad experiences but we did, we did go this one time to a resort which was like super in the woods so we had like lil cabins and there were trees all around us so like you know bugs, that was not fun but also I think


I think to some degree it was my bad cause like if we are going to the forest I suppose I can't really expect for it to be you know perfectly, uh spotless, seeing as we're actually in the woods but ya that was that was a bit sad , we had the occasional but coming in


I do not like the place but luckily we were only staying for like three, three days so it was fine, ya but generally I think my holiday experiences have been fine


actually speaking speaking of bad bad experiences I do remember one now where I went to Ipoh with my family and the thing is that Ipoh isn't really like a huge, visit like a huge tourist centre right so we couldn't the only flight you could find that was like some tiny


plane I don't even remember which which airline it was but it was some budget airline where there only you know four seats per row, and there was barely any air con and the thing like I wasn't feeling cold at all, ah it felt more like a fan running but you know not at high speed the plane was like rattling at one point I was like are we going to make it safely I don't know


it was a it was a very strange airplane experience I've never done it before I've never done it since I think I'm kind of a fiend for comfort so like I'll pay more if it means you know things are soft and nice but, I think that uh the one area I'm which like my short legs have really bless me and like my my height deficiency has really bless me is that I can deal with you know less


legs leg room in , in flights, so like when I go with friends who are like you know one seven five one eighty you know they really struggle or like they'll get the they'll get the aisle seat and then they'll sort of sit facing outwards just so that they can stretch their legs out and I don't know how you travel like that


oh no, ya


part two positive experience


ya I mean of course things like laptops and seeing everyone use them I've also got one but I'm not going to talk about that since you've already given such a wonderful product review in fact I'm thinking of complete lesson into cosmetics, so this is something I bought a long time ago but I've been using way more recently which is this eye shadow palette it's like this Anastasia Beverly Hills modern renaissance palette which ordinarily I wouldn't use that much cause you know I


the the place where I went most was to school I didn't really want to come with like you know some heavy eye shadow makeup et cetera but now that it's COVID time where we all wearing masks and nothing below my nose can, I think my from my nose onward can be seen I'm doing more eye shadow looks and I have developed such an intense appreciation for this palette like the quality of every single shadow so good so there's like fourteen shadows and they're all so pigmented like the matte the matte shadows are really really matte


like there's no, shimmer at all the shimmers are like properly shiny and like the moderate the moderate ones are like a good nice tone so like sometimes you get these moderate shimmers they just look like someone tried to make a proper shimmer but messed up so it looks like gross and like flaky but it's all so good it's so


creamy it's so wonderful you don't need to use eye shadow primer just put them on your eyes and you look beautiful twenty four seven, it's amazing they have, it was eighty one dollars but it is like the most, like worth its money so I've got eye shadow palette that are cheaper and those that are more expensive but I think this


greatly outperformed anything in its price range so if you have eye shadow palettes from like urban decay kat von D that that sort of like Sephora , like good makeup brands, they they usually fall in the same sort of price range and I think this outperforms most of those it even outperformed some of its like some more expensive one so if you look at eye shadow palette from things like Burberry and Gucci and all right like they have a they have the name but uh the the quality is often not that great


so I think this palette like greatly outperforms those I think the only way you can go better than this is where you go to like, more expensive brands that are specifically for makeup so you have brands like natasha denona where you will get like a two hundred dollar palette, but the thing is that these unlike luxury brands that branch into makeup these are like proper like high high ya high impact


make up brands that are meant for like , makeup artists and stuff, ya so I've been using this and it's been so great the this is the most worth eighty eighty one dollars I've ever spent, uh the packaging is really nice it's like this soft velvet cover and honestly I'm


you can kind of put like a a looky not that great product into really great packaging and half the time I'll just fall for the packaging and I'll buy it, luckily for this boat things are really good but the packaging is like blush pinks soft velvet you just touch it and it feels great like the aesthetics of the whole thing are so good there's like this large mirror the font is great you know


I just love it it's beautiful and it's really functional and I've been using it recently so it's a thing I thought about as, I was thinking about a product with you


(uh huh) ya


ya no I I agree one hundred percent I remember when the wireless earphones craze was first starting I was like I don't want to spend money on airpod so I got this like other random like thirty dollar one I think there was some Xiaomi earphones and they worked fine like the quality also great


but it was okay and then we hit like I think december last year where you know I was at home I had some time so I started like going out on hikes and runs and stuff, and while it took like a week or two and then the sweat started just making them malfunction all the time


and it was really quite a pain so like despite the fact that they were cheap earlier the quality wasn't great to begin with but it was, doable but they could really couldn't deal with any sort of sweat going into them so after that I did like some extensive research and I got this other pair of earphones that were like specifically like ip fifty five certified or something so I can like put them in the water and they'll still be fine


cause like if I run I sweat profusely and like my ears are not spared the the you know the water from the hair will drip into, will drip down your face and then your earphone just stop working if they're not , you know properly certified so that I'm switching to more expensive earphone I think mine cost like a hundred fifty I didn't get airpods mostly cause airpods weren't IP fifty five certified even though like my sis my sister uses them but my sister uses them when she runs and she says they're fine but I was like you know extra careful didn't get those got got a different set and


it's changed my life, it's been years like five six seven years at least


I'm not really I'm I think I'm not a fan of pearls very much so like I'll drink milk tea occasionally but even that's really rare like maybe once or twice a year the last time I drank I I I drank like bubble tea or milk tea with any sort of consistency was back in like secondary school or JC


so now usually I'll either drink like whatever's there okay usually, if I have friends who care more about bubble tea and then going to a certain shop I'll just get whatever milk teas there but if I'm buying for myself I think I usually go for like the nostalgia factor and I go for like Koi's hazelnut milk tea cause that's what I used to drink back when I was in secondary school I had like a hazel nut phase


so back then was the kind where you know I could drink it all the time now if you ask me to drink it regularly I think I wouldn't enjoy it but like you know everyone's a couple months I'll remember like those good old days when I used to go to Koi right after school with my friends get , you know milk tea or bubble tea so I get a hazel nut milk tea but I'm generally not a huge fan of


, bubble tea or a honestly most, sort of, I don't think I drink a lot of uh sugar drinks or like in general water like cold cold water is my favourite drink to go although I would not purchase that


no I just I just, think water taste create like really cold water ya , ya I don't know uh there was a period of time where I went like sugar free for a bit and then I went back when I went back to, drinking sugary drinks they felt too they they felt too sweet lah


so ya so I could I could go for like uh you know twenty five percent or even zero percent sugar, in, bubble tea options but generally I'm not a huge fan lah so I don't have any particular preferences apart from do they have milk tea and are they not ridiculously expensive


ya that's my bubble tea requirement


okay I'm supposed to have a a somewhat extensive skincare routine but it's sort of falling by the wayside now especially considering that you know we were wearing masks all day, so I'm just like do I have the energy to put things on and then sort of let them sink in to my skin then wear mask and go out


so, one of the things that I'm still using is like my products from the ordinary skincare line, so basically I really like the ordinary cause it's good quality skincare like it's actually good quality comparable to, you know more expensive brands like drunk elephant or you know paula's choice but that considerably lower prices so I remember when they first came out it was it was pretty huge cause they weren't really spending money on marketing so don't have like fancy packaging or like you know they don't smell like I don't know flowers or tropical fruits or whatever ya


ya but the, flowers are good and honestly I feel like, based on my personal preference I don't like skincare that seems, too fancy in terms of smells too good or you know, it it uh I feel like skincare ya ya


ya my my think about skincare is always like how effective is it and honestly the more things you put in the more you get worried about you know this isn't for presentation I just wanted to make my skin look good, ya so The Ordinary has really changed my life they have, this like niacinamide and zinc serum which I put on at night which is great they have uh uh like this like cold pressed rose hip seed oil which I never thought I would use cause I have oily skin so like why would I put on my face but


but it's amazing I think cause like a lot of times you with oily face with like oily skin you try to strip off the oil too much and you just end up producing more oil, so this this like a really light oil it like seeps into my skin really easily doesn't make it seem like my faces more oily than it was before it's amazing they had this salicylic acid which sadly they reformulating now so I can't find it anywhere uh but you know


let me wait hold on, there's this, there's this there's this large large toner it's like this huge bottle like the size of my palm almost or like ya it's it's a size of my palm and it's it cost you were like ten eleven dollars


last forever two forty ML they give you a little like it it comes in a proper bottle but then they give you this uh thing that you can use to squeeze it out ya it's wonderful it's just glycolic acid, so I think one of the things I like about the ordinary set it's just plain ingredients they don't give you like this is a toner with something since like no this is just seven percent glycolic acid toning solution you know what the PH is and that's all


so you know how it fits with the rest of your routine


ya agree one hundred percent


okay so I have been loving the Apple watch okay so just to give you some background so there is the most recent Apple watch is the fifth series but I actually bought the third series despite the fifth one being out, cause the only differences are one there's a size difference so I think uh they have two different sizes available but I don't think it's really needed cause all the screen size are pretty similar


second is that the screen sort of goes all the way out which I don't really need like I I'm not going to pay three hundred dollars for like, a slightly larger screen and like one new wallpaper choice and stuff right but yes it's really great I mostly got it cause I mostly got at the time when I really started like running and hiking and stuff so it would like track my steps it will show you my activity it will show you my heart rate and I think it's


it's especially really great if you want to get


part one finance


uh if you could if you start first


I I do agree I think but I think one big problem now is that one of the reasons why we don't really think about investing early is because we just don't know how to do it, as in that's a pity we only realized maybe in our late thirties that you know these are very real things that could happen to us we might not we might not have a job sometime in the future and we definitely need to have uh you know sufficient savings for


a time when we are no longer working as well so I mean currently you know I'm in my twenties and I have to be honest that, the thought of retirement hasn't really crossed my mind because I'm thinking about my ability to get a job immediately after graduation and working a number of years ah so I I do think that you are right and saying you know we have to diversify our investment portfolio and we have to think about


you know possible market shocks that can happen as well but I I do wonder if there are some financial literacy course that we could all take that we we could be better at it because I think we have some, friends who who are already preparing for their future in this way


you know they do uh invest their money very early on and they do part like buy stock which I think is quite incredible at this age because you know they they buy stocks in different companies even zoom I think recently a lot of people have been buying Zoom stock as well


ya so I would say uh a concern for me is just just that the fact that I don't know so much and I don't really know where I should be putting my money in at this stage


I mean we should look for I think prevention of these kinds of problems you know rather than sort of mitigating them in the future I think, ya so financial literacy is definitely important so I guess like that sort of brings us to our next point about you know not just retirement but how do we save up for big milestones in life like our you know starting a family and buying a house buying a car and stuff like that


well I think uh in terms of saving strategies even for big ticket expenditures you know there is that fifty thirty rule and I think , the where they say you know you use fifty percent on the needs that you have uh such as like transport and you know food uh essentials that you need for your daily living and then


thirty percent for your ones as well so I don't know maybe enjoying good food going out for drinks, and twenty percent uh for in your savings for long term savings so I think, I mean I do think that that's a good sort of baseline to start with that fifty thirty twenty maybe not a solid like magic number but just a good guideline to go with ya and I think maybe one thing that I see a problem about saving for big


ticket expenditures is that we usually save without really knowing how much we need to be saving like we just think oh we should save a lot of money so that we can buy a house or we can start a family but we don't really put any specific numbers yeah I think one of the biggest


what what what I'm struggling with now is really trying to do enough research to find out what specific numbers I have to hit, you know whether uh how much how much I would have to take a loans and how much I would have to even start up with uh just so that I'll be able to maybe cover mortgage every month ya so I think specificity is is quite important when it comes to saving for these big ticket expenditures


a very different context lah so you can't just apply those ratios like straightaway here without accounting for you know the different like I mean the expenditure how how different expenditure is here and, the I guess the measures that the government already has you participating in now ya I I think that's ya very very much of it a bit concern even like the fifty thirty twenty ratio is you know I mean it's if I remember correctly it's


elizabeth warren's magic ratio ya so I think it might not be the most transferable , sort of ratio here especially when we think about the cost of living and even like home ownership here is so so much it's so different from in the US or in any other country a prices here and for


for the type of home you can get here as well so I think ya as you said I think context is very important to the information that we receive as well ya but I think you know primarily, as you said I think it's a combination of just trying to figure out exactly what


uh what will work in in maybe in singapore where we live and maybe it's about doing research and, you know really understanding how much money we have to save to specific milestone I suppose the next milestone for us will be buying a house in the future ya and knowing how much money we need to I don't know sign for a BTO and make down payments every month yeah I mean the first down payment and subsequent payment as well


ya, so I guess that also brings us to the question of our current expenditure uh how we've been spending our money and what kind of expenditures justify and, I think as we are students I think one of the biggest expenditures I realised I have is is food and it's not just about buying food from


like going to a restaurant and buying food but I think it's about delivering food you know because we spend so much time in school and it's so convenient to get food delivered and now you know it used to be that I think when Grab first started out their delivery charges were very very low


so it used to be like I think maybe like a dollar or two or something and now with like surcharges and you know with if there is like a very high demand in the area the delivery charges can easily go up like what nine ten dollars I recently had mcdonald's and I paid like nine dollars for delivery


so I think, ya, I think one of the things that I'll guilty of spending a lot of money on is just, food delivery I think it's something I really have to control because when you sort of add up how much have spent at the end of the day it it it's quite it's quite crazy ah just for that convenience factor and maybe another thing that I spend too much money on is just subscriptions


to like Netflix Spotify Apple music Icloud I think even though when you make that payment you just think it's oh five dollars a month but then when you add up, the monthly subscriptions that you have you realise that , it's quite a big amount ya and I don't know if I'm doing that in the most effective way like do I have the best plan for example for spotify I'm on like a student plan which is like five dollars a month but I think if you use a family plan it's so much cheaper if you if you get your friends and you do family plan it's so much cheaper


as you know I'm not sure if I how we can control these things , because I I mean for services especially it's just about the convenience factor I think and even as you mentioned just now that you know during COVID period when we were in circuit breaker you spend less money right but I realise that I think the height of my GrabFood spending really came during circuit breaker because


obviously we couldn't go out you know that much and, uh when I was at home and everyone was out I I can't really cook so uh for me I was just oh you know let me, get and it was a subscription so I bought like a foodpanda subscription and then like I thought oh I better make my subscription worth it you know I better use it regularly so I realise like you know I think now banks do this thing where they show you if you have any like unusual spending activities so


they showed me like oh !hey! you spent like a good amount of money on Foodpanda this month, and when I saw the numbers I was like, oh no , it really added up like a to a lot, ya so I think I think as you said it's about being conscious lah I think uh even if with regards to just material things now I think we spend a lot less money clothes and meal I don't know makeup those kind of things we we really just pay for the convenience of having services


I don't know delivered to us or just provided for us in a more convenient way so I think, that is something that we should be more focused on


I think one thing that I realised is a new trend is that lately there have been a lot of younger financial advisors so I don't think they operate in the same way that the traditional financial advisors would would operate so I think a lot of these financial advisors now have tied ups with


like you know insurance companies as well so they and they have very attractive like marketing on Instagram I often see them on instagram where they will be like and they try to appeal to the ordinary person you know because I mean as you said rich people and as in people who are very wealthy I think they already have their own


, very long term established advises that they and that they get from very established companies as well so I think these companies insurance companies are now trying to market out, a younger range of


financial advisors when they tell you that you know you might be the ordinary person and you might not think that , you know you need financial planning or that you can benefit from financial planning but they they do tell you that you know they can offer you like a free consultation session and they tell you how you can maximise your money how you can make your money work for you


so I I do realised that there's a big trend ah and I think some some of my friends who have actually signed up for you know better financial planning and and , maybe it's something that I should consider as well but again as you said taps I think it's really about


thinking that I don't really have the capital now to , particularly require such services


how to get out of that right, , what I think again as you said that lah I think the reason why you would need a financial advisors if you are and just an unfortunate situation like this where you end up because that the truth is the average person as in like myself I have no idea how what kind of steps one should take to get themselves out of debt you know because


, I think landing yourself in debt is obviously not anything anyone wishes for so it's a kind of situation where you think like as you as you constantly , while if for example if its debts the kind where there is some interest on the debt and you know it just keeps increasing and at the same time maybe you are trying to look for a job or you're trying to make some money on the site but you can't control the amount of debt you have because it just keeps going up


I think the truth is I don't really know how you would , be able to what the most strategic way would be to handle that like this so again I think a financial advisor really comes in handy at a time like that ya


part three negative experience, okay, so uh we talked about the things that we've been enjoying , and I guess now we can talk about things we haven't really been enjoying uh I think most of my negative product reviews come from ah clothing


ah you when there was a time when I just used to I mean stress shop a lot so like I think one of the biggest , where there was a time where you know there were all these brands like just random fast fashion brands that were being promoted like heavily on YouTube and Instagrams so you see ads for them everywhere these are like brands like Shein or even like Taobao EZbuy these kinds of brands they were being like marketed so heavily so every time you


watch an influencer's YouTube video it will be like !hey! guys I have like new products from and then you know so I think there was time where I was really falling for , such marketing and I always thought !hey! like you know clothing is so affordable I I can get like instead of having to spend like going to Zara maybe and spending like


sixty dollars on a shirt I can spend sixty dollars and get like five things or six things which obviously was a lot more appealing to me so I think uh especially in a time where , EZbuy was super popular all my friends around me just started shopping on EZbuy for like clothing so one time I meet a huge EZbuy order like my first ever EZbuy order I think I I did like hundred dollar order or something cause I just put all my trust in it and then when when the products came it was


just a mess and I I obviously I I bought I bought the stuff after reading the reviews lah because I thought you know everyone was telling me oh if you if you look at the reviews you will know like which products to stay away from which products are value for their money so I I looked at the reviews carefully and then I bought so for example one of things I bought I remember was like a white


skirt, and when it came it was like paper thin and and and to touch it was just, it just felt like plastic to touch, you know it was so scary like it was not something that I could wear like, just how uncomfortable it was because of it's it's a material that it came in and just because of how translucent it wasn't even translucent it was transparent like


what could I possibly wear you know with it, ya I think like, a lot of my negative uh shopping experiences come from, these kinds of like fast fashion brands and then when I decided oh you know let me try to stop spending so much money on on fast fashion brands for like environmental reasons as well as sustainability so then now I try to invest more in like quality pieces but I realised that even brands that


charge a lot of money for their products, I I feel like sometimes the quality is not there so you know I have a pair of buffalo london shoes because there was a time where uh buffalo london were, really really hot and they're like these chunky shoes that just and I'm a very short person so I thought that chunky shoes would give me that height that I needed so it was like I think I got it on sale for like a hundred and fifty something dollars on a source and I've only worn that maybe twelve times and


I realised that that so that are black shoes but I realised that the black , of the shoes are coming off already so , you can see like grey bits in the shoe like where the sort not the paint but it seems like paint is peeling but I hope it's not paint like I hope my shoes are not have not been painted on


ya so I think even sometimes when you spend when you think you're spending a lot of money and for like a brand it's very established and very high quality sometime I mean I only worn them like twelve times and I want my shoes to last a lot longer, ya, no they're not level but they're like fabric they're like very ya they're like fabric issues with like a huge platform


ya, ah peeling


oh


ya unless you


ya I think we need uh a lot of these scams come from like e-commerce websites like , they are very very popular now ya like Shopee like Carousell Lazada even but I think the the ones and guilty of these are like Shopee and Taobao ya and then I don't know why but I think people still purchase so much from those places because they are willing to take the risk because they


feel like they're only sinking in like little ah just a small amount of money so they're like oh it's okay even if like you know I buy a skirt that cost like ten dollars and it comes it comes looking like a plastic bag it's okay like I'll just try again ya but I think I've changed because I I realised that


it could be ten dollars now but if I keep trying until I find the perfect , fit I'm essentially spending the same amount of money as I would buying a proper like you know if it's in the case of my white skirt I'll be just buying a proper white skirt from, a legit website that sells a quality product that I could use for many years because I mean with clothes and stuff now I realise that I want them to last like I want them to stay in my wardrobe for a long long time ya so I think


we may fall for like you know very fast delivery cause like Shopee and stuff they can get you their their stuff in what like three four three days, four days ya I think we fall for all those things but I think aside from these kinds of like clothing more material goods as actually no still on the topic of very material goods I recently had to buy a new macbook because


my old macbook that I had four six I think over six years the E key just stopped working just out of the blue the E just stopped working and of course since I'm a student I and the E key is the letter that's used the most in the english language it was truly a nightmare , trying to use that laptop for a couple of days so eventually I I called about repairs but apparently changing a macbook keyboard cost like a thousand dollars like the estimate they gave me was like six hundred to anywhere from six hundred to a thousand dollars so I called the apple store ah


so I was like oh okay if I have to spend this much money get like just replacing my six year old laptop maybe I should just buy a new laptop so, I purchase like the macbook pro twenty twenty and I just got it like two weeks ago but I I'm realising a lot of like issues with it that I didn't have with my previous macbook and one of those things is that it overheats like crazy


I don't know and I after doing some google search apparently it it's a common trend amongst the the roll outs of the new macbooks like the macbooks twenty twenty apparently they overheat a lot so even though like I'm not performing any crazy function on my macbook you know I'm not I'm not a design students so I'm not like running like different


like editing software or something I I just use it for like word processing and reading you know it's just my macbook just heats up like crazy sometimes the fans just turn on and and you can just hear them like worrying so like and obviously the macbook was not cheap I think it was like two point


six K so you know when you pay this much money you think that and if it's an upgrade from something you have already use before you would think that the problems that you didn't face and those in that old one like they shouldn't resurface now why suddenly like the the these issues and another issue I realised is that it's actually a bit slow


so now you know you can connect your macbook to your Ipad as well and use it as like a separate display so long as I connected as a separate display and the whole thing just hangs sometimes, like I I will be like trying to scroll and then my my screen my macbook screen and my Ipad screen would have frozen and I would have to like fully disconnect and retry ya so I don't know quite disappointed by my with but I have to use it for a long long time now you know so


ya I actually think that like, from my checking on the internet seems like this is just, something everyone has it apparently it just I mean I don't know too much about , technical things but apparently it's just, it's just something that they have because of these some new changes that they've made and it it can't be helped like you just have to you know sort of deal with it ya so I don't actually think that I will be able to get a replacement cause I think the replacement will still run as hot as the one I'm using now does


ya so I think I mean ya that I think that's one of the electronic devices that I've been disappointed with , the brand


for sure I mean isn't you know I'm guilty I mean I'm an Apple I use everything Apple you know so for me it's really just oh it's it's been so convenient it's been so comfortable so I just use like my Iphone my airpod my Ipad everything is Apple I couldn't even think about switching over to like a Windows computer because I was like no I'm so used to like my macbook you know


I think as long as we're willing to sort of excuse some of the negative like you know the price for example are like really should they cost this much money who who are willing to sort of excuse the price and some of the defects


, just because of like convenience factors so I just cause we're so used to using, like ios systems and stuff ya, ah there's definitely something, ha so , have you been on any holidays or any staycations that


you know you've not had a very pleasant experience where


I think for me like when I travel with my friends I always want to save money so I'm one of those people that travels on like budget flights and , budget hotels like I'm unwilling to you know even if it's obscure and no one have ever reviewed the hotel I'm like oh you know, it's cheap and it's a room so I'll stay


ya so I think, well actually I realised right lately I do not have budget airlines just been like getting smaller in terms of them, like how much leg room and how much okay I mean obviously we we haven't been on flights in a long time but I think the last time that I traveled, I flew


was it Jetstar was it, ya I think I flew jetstar and I just don't remember the seats being as cramped as they were so it was quite a horrible experience because I think it was like a three four hour flight and like you just you just can't move very much


it's like it because of how much space there is between the seats , uh and the what's that thing called the aisle and the seats there's a very little space between the aisle and the seats so if you want to like you know go to the toilet a few just I don't know if you want to stand up uh you can't really do that there is not much leg room ah but I suppose these are things that you


compromise because you know you you pay for a cheap fly ya I think again it goes back to like my point about sometimes you just willing to look pass like the negative aspects of certain things as long as it's willing to perform , one function that you needed to perform which in my case is just get me to that country and


oh oh no I cannot imagine, it's it's it's quite crazy and I think I'm the opposite I'm just like okay you know it's okay even if like I just have to sit still for like four hours


and you can get me there and I have I can save money then I'll do it, I think also like hotels when it comes to , hotels like so when I went to thailand uh I think it was like two years ago when I went to thailand I went with a bunch of friends and we just wanted to save money so we thought we will just get one room like even though you know like we could have travel and more comfort I guess


right now it's just get one room and, in a hotel that we had never heard of and that didn't have many reviews we got that and so we went there and first of all I think the hotel itself was very far away from like amenities like things that I mean we're obviously going there because we want to you know be tourists and we want to


visit places of attraction but this hotel was so out of the way and I think on their website link they do this thing where they're like oh it's just a it's just a five minute walk away from this train station you know so you think like oh okay and then and then they make it sound like


the train station is very interconnected to like other lines in the city so it's very easy for you to like get from one place to the other but when we went there we realised that okay first of all, walking to the train station it might be five minutes but the walk there is like treacherous because


there there's no like proper proper like roads or anything I think the five minutes is like if you do like a like a shortcut and you do like jaywalking and you you know you, and the roads in thailand there are quite crazy you know so so I think even though it's it's five minutes away like getting there is is an experience itself and it


so it's like when you when you stay in a proper hotels where you have like pick up service or something and they were like, drop you off places like of course you don't have that convenience when you stay in like a, sort of dingy never heard of kind of hotel and also even though there is a train station there it was not interconnected like whatsoever it was one of those like stations where you have to make like


four different transfers to get to like the main part of the city you know, ya so I think I'm very guilty of , one thing to scrimp and then, I just pay like less but then I, then you realise like cause sometimes like when you're on holiday then you're like okay it started being like oh you know what never mind let's just take a taxi instead like let's not ya let's not walk ya so okay


part two positive experience, okay so uh I think one thing that I purchased recently that I really enjoy it is my laptop stand from Shopee so Shopee is is a big vice of mine I think because uh I just I can buy things


for such little money and they get delivered so quickly and they're just I just feel like I need a lot of things from Shopee so one thing I've recently purchased is the laptop stand so it helps me to sort of prop my laptop up at an angle because I obviously I spend a lot of time just staring at my screen and just typing and


if you're just typing at that when your table is, I mean when your laptop is flat to the to the uh table you know your wrists actually start hurting after a while I don't know whether that means I'm doing a good job and I'm spending enough time at my computer but , with with this thing that allows me to prop up my laptop at an angle I it I find that it really helps like when I'm typing my hands don't get as tired my wrist don't get as tired and it's just easier to see as well because


it's just at a nice angle where I can view you know the work I'm doing ya so I think that that's one of the things that I bought recently that I really enjoy, ya have you bought anything that you really enjoy


was this was this affordable


ya I I think well when you mentioned that you know even though it's really expensive you find that it's something worth purchasing for its functionality right I realise that ya I I have a pair of airpods which, like maybe two and a half years ago I decided you know let's just let's just get the airpods because everybody had them and I just felt like I was missing out so I got them and I have truly can it's truly changed my life I think I didn't realise how


convenient owning airpods toward I can just walk away from my computer uh up to a certain distance, I can walk away from my computer and I can listen to everything that still happening and it serves as a mic you know it's it's just so convenient to use and I actually I'm so surprised that it's lasted me this long because I've had it for two and a half years and you know there's this thing with Apple products where after a certain point they start malfunctioning


cause they want you to ya, cause they want you to purchase like the next version of whatever product you are using right but I mean I'm pleasantly surprised at how long they've been like running still work great I I use them for everything I use them to listen music I use them on the few occasions that I exercise they stay in my ear I think


one of the biggest appeals is that they stay in my ear properly, and I used them for class now that when Zoom university you know you need a headset for everything and these airpods they are still still with me so I really really appreciate them ya so I think it again like even though it was when I first got it I think it was like two hundred and thirty eight dollars and like spending that money kind of hurt me but