, for me I feel like if I have a child, I will straight away, like buy insurance like I would have an insurance money for my child because that's what my parents did so ever since I was little they started paying for my insurance and actually my currently my university fees and my school fees and everything are being paid by the insurance


ya and I feel like it's really really it's really really a good idea because who knows maybe in the future something might happen and you might not actually have a source of income but if you have insurance you actually, have kind of like a safety net and I think is really really good and is very very important especially in this current economy ya and like even


even though there are loans out there you can't you can't confirm that you might actually get the loan, ya and I feel like have insurance money is actually in the end indirectly your own money right because it's actually uh


, like your money which you pay little by little which add up to be a large sum and you can use it for different purposes so I feel like the only source of investments that I would really really be confident would confident in will be insurance insurance and maybe banking


ya, but I'm not so sure about the bonds and everything the loans I'm not so sure about that


part three negative experiences,


what frustrates you, , for me the thing that really really frustrates me the most is when after I clean up the house after clean up certain area and then it just gets messy again I really really cannot stand it


ya and for me I live in a rather huge household like if you have eight people that living in my house, and I feel like it's unavoidable how the house gets messy very easily but I really really can't stand when it's messy like I feel like you know when you come back from home from school or work


and you want to see a neat and tidy place that's how I want it every single time to, but like whenever I come home, I I can't stand it I can't stand the state it's in and I would straight away try to clean that up and then the next few hours it's just get messy again


I hate that so much ya, what about you what frustrates you


, oh


for me, , I don't know I'm not very observant like I'm very in my own world so I guess I don't witness a lot of things , but for me the worst is


you know there was this one one time where I actually saw someone belittling a cleaner so for example like you know you know when we live in public like in public areas there will be like people who actually clean the designated place


and then like this this old man was sweeping and he was sweeping and making sure the place is clean and everything, and then like there was this, this guy who came up to him he didn't say anything he he liked he liked glance and like like looked like kind of disgusted by the cleaner and he just went like he just did that and when I saw that


I was I was kind of, like offended by that like why why do you do that to a poor man like a poor old man, who is just doing his job and he was just cleaning and everything and because like okay like the public the public place was actually like a seating area


so like the guy who who who got disgusted by the cleaner actually sat down there and he he he kept on staring at the cleaner as if the cleaner was so disgusting like that, like ya can you imagine that ya I was just trying to mind my own business but


I can't ignore that it was very very annoying and it was just plain rude you know and I knew it bothered the cleaner too cause the cleaner kept on looking up at the guy and was just trying to do his job but I thought that


maybe I could have voiced out or like, tell him to, I don't know tell him off or something, but, I was always taught to mind my own business, you know so I think I kind of felt bad about it, and if I could go back in time I would actually kind of like told that person off or something because he was just really really rude ya


, okay


uh, I wouldn't say anything, oh


that's funny for me, there was this korean drama that I actually introduce you to right and, uh I hated this this character so much so ya but ah uh


is is, no no no no no, oh my god okay I forgot okay so okay this character was very very annoying like, she has this classmate who's actually struggling to make a living and he's not rich nor is he privileged or at least he have parents to actually support him financially and he was just trying to make ends meet and then he met this classmate of his


that he actually had a crush on and it turns out that this crush wasn't happy with her current life ya and because of that he actually ruined, the the main character's life so for me I find it very very uh frustrating and annoying and that made me angry because like if you are privileged and you you actually have everything


then I feel like you shouldn't you shouldn't be messing with someone's life eh she actually messed with his livelihood so for me, that's a big fat no ya so ya, moving on


, what is your greatest fear


, okay don't judge me but you know how I always loved children right and like how I've always wanted them like like a lot of them like I've always had this idea like I wanted a big family so my biggest and greatest fear of all is


what if I can't get pregnant , but ya that's my biggest and greatest fear because, like I already had this picture, you know of my future for so long and then suddenly I find out that I'm not able to have that because of me


this is the worst thing that could happen and if that actually happen I wouldn't actually know how I would react, I think I would just be completely like broken I would just be done with everything I mean there are other ways you can have children like there's adoption everything but


I want my own so to not be able to do something so normal that a lot of people can actually do, really scares me ya


, describe something you watched or read that gives you goosebumps


uh, for me it's quite simple for me about the watch thing like I I saw something like you know you know the the circle, like when you're scared about seeing a lot of circles together


ya I have that and I can't stand it , and and like apparently my cousin found out about it my younger cousin found out about it and he made me watch this entire youtube video


about about those the things related to like circles and I was so freaked out and I got goosebumps all over, ya, like you can imagine it right it was so horrible I was asking him to stop but he was still forcing me he was like no it's fine it's fine watch it and I actually watch through it


ya, it was horrible okay


uh okay like you know sometimes you can't avoid avoid it sometimes you do it unintentionally, so there was this one time where okay was actually pretty recent was like last year so I actually join the CCA


and when I when I joined this CCA like you meet new people, and apparently there was this one girl who came up to me and she immediately went, hi nadia it's been so long do you remember me and I think I slightly offended her when I look super shocked and I immediately asked her so sorry but where did we meet where have we met and she was so hurt by that I think


ya she just went oh it's okay it's okay don't remember me but I remember you and she just went like that and I felt really bad ya and so I asked her where where when have we met and she just went oh it's okay it's okay


ya she she tried to avoid me she tried she tried to avoid me after that and I felt super bad apparently we both met when we were in secondary school and our schools had this excursion thing so we went to brunei together and


she looked completely different back then by the way she look completely different back then uh and I didn't recognise her at all, and the weird thing was when during that excursion we actually hung out together like we were super close like we would spend the entire night talking to each other and everything so can you imagine how hurt she must have felt


when I told her I couldn't remember her ya I felt so bad about that but ya I can't take it back right but ya, but


I think, she felt like we had something going on or something that she felt oh we spent so much time together we did everything together but why she can't remember me ya, me ya how about you


, , but I live with elderly people you know that and like I think the older you get the more sensitive you get and sometimes that gets very difficult for me when I'm handling my grandparents sometimes you will also get a bit frustrating because


you know like they have their own they have they have a certain way how you wanna do things and sometimes it might actually you have to, like it actually is a is a huge favour like for example like my grandma has a certain routine as she can never break that routine


so for example if you want to have dinner outside we can't, is either we have an early dinner or very super late dinner because she needs to be served food there and then at that specific timing, and there was this one time leh I think I got really annoyed because I just wanted to have dinner with my family outside and we we don't usually eat outside so for that one for that one night I really wanted to do that but


my mum was , she she actually like follows my grandma's routine so she would actually like you know for example if she goes out and then uh for example lunch is at twelve she will go uh before eleven come home by twelve and then go back out again later she came back home just for the sake of serving my grandma food


ya and the food must be hot and must be served with the plain water at the side the glass of plain water at the side and everything ya and I think I kind of like hurt my grandma's feelings where I went out it's only for a day where


can't you why can't you be flexible just for a day you know ya and I think it hurt her but imagine imagine having to go through that for so long I was pretty frustrated but then at the same time I I guess I should have been, a bit more understanding and a bit more patient because who knows maybe one day I'll be like her to where I have a routine and like my my entire family my family will have to like work around my schedule and everything you know


ya, , , what, ya


(ppl) I guess the same things [ah] hygiene (ppo) okay I think


part two


positive experiences, what makes you want to be alive, uh for me I think, mostly because of the people around me that I have in my life my loved ones uh which are


my family members my parents especially my friends, and I think for me , I'm in a really good place right now so I I guess I really really wanna be alive ya I think and another thing would be also religion and


having a purpose I have I have a dream like currently I'm a student and I'm studying right now and I really really want to graduate, get a job and just live a normal stable life that's that's my dream and I really really want that and I feel that I work really hard for that because of that that really motivates me to to be alive ya what about you Saleha


I feel like, I feel like something that I learned that's very important so far is actually to to focus on the good thing I know there are as we grow older there will be more challenges for us, and let's face it it's going to get more difficult later on but I feel


it is so so important for you to actually to be able to see, what you have and you appreciate it and because of that it really really gives you a different meaning to life and like you focus on oh I have my parents who actually provide for me and they love me sure sometimes like they don't really express it


but they actually really do love us in their own subtle ways and that's very important for us to notice and remember, not only that I feel that you also need to, , have a comfortable and healthy way to be able to tell someone how we feel instead of bottling things up


I'm actually someone who bottle things up I really really do that for a very long period of time until I really can't take it and then I will just explode and I realise that it's actually not healthy for me nor is it good for the people around me and I usually do that to my family members


and who actually like who actually like to go through that right so I found a new way which is, actually talk about my feelings so instead of I used to just suck it up and bottle it in like for example if I'm unhappy with your behaviour or whatever I just tell myself nah just just


just hold it in just for a few more minutes but now I actually don't like I really really prioritise my feelings and like I feel like it's a certain kind of like sort of self respect, ya so because of that like for example if you do something bad to me I would actually voice my opinions out last time I wouldn't be brave enough but then I realise that it doesn't matter you know if you are mature enough you will actually accept it so that's that's that for me is very very important


ya and I guess you can count as uh an ability that I'm proud of having, uh ya what about you, like what what have you learned so far that actually makes you cope or makes you actually feel happy about being alive


(uh huh) anything lah like like ya sure


, what, when did I blush the most, uh err , okay this is pretty embarrassing but I don't blush a lot but my face gets heated like easily it gets very very heaty but you you don't see it


my uh there was this one time where I was I was really really embarrassed, like I was lost, and it was so obvious that I was lost but I was trying to act okay I won't go to the details cause I was super embarrassed


but ya I was super super lost about was going on ya and I thought that I I understood, what was happening so I actually tried tried to like you know fake and be like oh ya okay I get it but actually I don't and it turned out to be super obvious and it blew up in my face


ya and like I was so embarrassed by it like I had to deal the entire day with it and everyone kept reminding about it, so ya okay I won't go to detail okay I'm just super embarrassed by it but okay, , but imagine imagine uh we're like it's a group it's a group thing and you're not really close with the people ya so it was like okay okay how are you let's move on what about you


so you so you like compliments is that it okay , I'll keep that in mind, well


uh for me, I actually really love reading, I feel like, I can escape from this world for a moment or like, like it it really


I don't know what to say lah but like I just really love it because for a moment you're not you you're the character so I think I really love reading so sometimes when I'm really really stressed, I will just lock myself up in my room, or in the study room and I just read and like I think my family members know that they should just leave me and just let me read because I get really really agitated or angry when I'm reading and I'm so into it but then someone interrupts me but ya I really love to do that what about you


play with your cat


, uh, describe a time when I'm, okay uh, I don't know , like I don't remember anything do you have


ok describe a travel experience that left you in awe, I haven't travelled much but the furthest okay no , travel experience that left me in awe was when I actually went to melbourne so I went to australia melbourne and it was just a very different


it was just different from singapore from any place that I've actually been at actually and it was just so pretty and breathtaking I was so amazed and the thing is that the people there are super friendly like can you imagine you know like we usually when we take the MRT we will just be on our phones


or you know just stay silent and no one would actually say hi to you or say anything to you when you're there everyone is there interacting with you even even shop owners shopkeepers uh even when you go to the market you know and it's just it's just really really nice


and not only is the scenery nice people are nice and you can do a lot of things there and I think, I think surprisingly I actually kind of like the weather like a lot of people complained about the weather in melbourne because it actually changes very drastically super fast during a day you can actually like they can


the temperature change is actually super huge, but I actually love it, no like I could be out there wearing a summer dress and everything then the next minute it's like super cool but the thing that I really love most is, you do not sweat I hate singapore's weather where you like you sweat but there you don't sweat at all and your makeup you just you don't need to use a primer for anything ya I think that's why I really liked it there


, okay what about you


do you still keep in touch with them, really oh okay that's it's okay,


what leads you to experience an adrenaline rush, ah okay weirdly for me when I'm stressed out, ya or when I'm riding a rollercoaster ride I love I love riding rollercoasters


ya but anyways , I love it you know , where I had an F and B job right and I used to be a server or waitress or frontliner or whatever you call it and I surprisingly weirdly I actually kind of like it when it's saturday night


when it's crowded and everything you know I may look tired and I may seem I'm stressed out and everything but actually kind of like how, I like the adrenaline rush like you know like you're rushing for things and everything, I actually kind of enjoy it ya and when I stop working I kind of miss it ya I miss like being stressed out keying in the orders and then like customers be like sorry I haven't I haven't gotten my order and then I just like oh ya


but ya I love it then after after like, a stressful day of work and I go home I'm just like, I did good , that's me weirdly but ya that's me do you experience that Saleha when you work


, okay uh


, I guess for me I guess you could say that to like, I have no self discipline you know that like I'll be like oh I'm gonna eat healthy for a week and then the next hour I'm just like nah


I give up on that ya so for me I guess that would be pretty amazing to like to see people actually achieve their goals I guess what really really amazes me is,


I don't know you know you know sometimes when you scroll scroll to twitter or instagram and then they show you, like I don't know like one of like like you know those accounts, faith in humanity or whatever and they have those like short videos where they actually


look at how kind people are you know like they really went out of their way to help and stuff for me I just really like that kind of stuff ya, and I'll be like !wah! my gosh because like sure being being kind being helpful, being compassionate is actually something that should be encouraged and a lot of us actually would do


but, like the things that they actually do in that video I would think twice, about doing you get what I mean ya so for me I will just like how can people actually not think twice and just straight away help that person in need even though it means you're losing a lot or you're sacrificing something


ya, so I guess for me ya, so, ah can lah , I guess so


true true uh


but even though I said all that like, ya, I would think twice still about like going out of my way okay I'm just bad okay describe what what is your best surprise


okay you want to answer that ya, no (uh) ya do we answer this question


part one financial related topic, okay so what is one financial advice that you will give to you five years ago I think for me one of the financial advice I will give to me five years ago


was to read is to read more about like CPF policies better and understand the policies better as well as to have a better savings account because like five years ago that will be like when I was in poly so actually in poly I was on scholarship


but I was still deducting my school fees from my parents' CPF but I didn't know that I had to pay back my parents' CPF with interest so I kept spend I spent all my scholarship money ya so I think that's one thing I would , tell myself five years ago is to look better into the policies cause I thought it was like my parents can just offset the CPF like say they don't want it but it's only they can only offset when they're like of a certain age and I would have to return them back in cash with interest so now I have like more debts to


pay in a sense after I graduate from university cause I'm still deducting from CPF yeah and also ya sorry you go ahead


ya I think I've heard of that uh I mean I I do use that like sometimes lah so like uh what I do to manage my cash flow is like, uh I have multiple bank accounts so I have like a bank account for spending I have a bank account for savings so uh OCBC uh frank used to be my savings account because the interest rate was definitely higher than POSB than uh


uh but ya recently I heard of the jumpstart account also so ya my friend told me about it so I just uh started to allocate more savings into the jumpstart account because of the higher interest rate, ya so I guess that's how I will allocate my cash flow cause currently I'm a student so I don't really have much cash but I do work part time so for my part time job I usually just allocate like the spending and savings accordingly there lah


like maybe about uh two three hundred dollars to savings and then expenses usually is like from my allowance I guess ya for insurance wise I don't really cover it myself but I do know about my insurance plans, uh ya currently I'm on prudential uh and uh most of it just really covers accidents risks lah yeah yeah ya so that's my extra income yeah


currently I don't have any money invested cause like I I don't feel like I know too much about the market but I'm starting to look at like stashaway because like I don't know I don't really like to take risks that much so I prefer to put in a bank where I can like just increase the interest rates slowly cause I don't want to like I'm not like


I don't know I hear a lot of stories of how like people lose money very easily just by playing with stocks that kind of thing and I don't feel like I have a lot of money to just throw away like that yeah,


uh no I don't but I have heard of it lah yeah


I think for me I, okay I will get a credit card for


because I feel like credit card have a lot of promotions at different places but I feel like I will treat a credit card like a debit card I wouldn't spend it beyond my limit to pay because like uh the interest for when for repayment of credit card is quite high and especially when you have a lot of credit card loans, so ya uh I would get a credit card because I think that there are a lot of like promotions in a sense like even like just petrol or like


eating out there's a lot of credit card promotions which I think are worth in terms of savings in that sense but I think I wouldn't spend more than how much I have like a debit card like cause like a debit card you can't spend how much more than you have in your bank account so ya that's how I would manage my spending in a sense yeah


ya I do have like a credit card I have a OCBC three six five but I but that one is not really like on my own it's like a more of a subset from my parents


from my parents lah because I don't have any like annual income and most credit cards actually require an annual income before you apply yeah so yeah I think, that's yeah yeah okay yeah so uh how do you spend your money what which expenditure is justified and what have you been spending too much on


I feel like uh a justifiable expenditure would be food, yeah cause I mean food is like a necessity so I think it's justifiable to spend on food, and what have I been spending too much on let me think maybe maybe food also yeah cause sometimes like you when you eat out a lot then the spending can be quite high yeah so I guess I can cut a a little bit down on that also yeah


I have been spending a lot on my dog also but I feel to me like that's a necessity because because ya because vet bills I feel like are necessity though, that's what I feel lah so I I will say my expenditure is justified for that but maybe I'm just spending a bit too much yeah


[orh] I think one thing I maybe have been spending too much on in the past would be a bit about travelling, ya because I I like to travel and like live like and and I like to travel and like visit different countries and stuff like that ya so maybe if like in the future I can like cut down on travel spending or maybe like budget accordingly to travel spending but I mean now that's not really a problem


it is for spending too much also lah, yeah


currently because I'm, cause at first right my whole summer right was actually supposed to be spent overseas so I was supposed to go like sri lanka australia and brunei so I had quite a bit of money budgeted just for that


ya so currently because all of that is cancelled so I've just uh transferred it to savings ya so I think like most of my money that I actually budgeted for traveling will probably it would end up in savings lah but I might still take out a few like, a bit just to like enrich my life


a bit more because like I don't know I feel a bit bored , cause like I feel like okay if it was okay I mean singapore is or is great ya but I feel like when you're stuck in a country too long and you can't travel at all I I what I like to I like to keep my life interesting and stuff so recently I've actually I've thought of and I'm think I am going to sign up for horse riding


ya so that's about like five hundred sixty dollars just for a beginner's course ya I I know it's a bit expensive but ya because uh I don't because I feel like I'm really not I feel lah I'm really not spending like three four thousand on like travelling and I I really, feel I want to I'm someone that gets bored very easily I feel and I like to keep my lifestyle active and


uh ongoing so I I feel like I really want to keep enriching it so that , like I I want to try to like get as much experience as possible lah cause also when you're old you don't really get to do all that kind of thing like when I'm forty or fifty I'm not going to learn how to ride a horse


yeah probably break something before I do yeah yeah so yeah that's how I would manage my cash flow I guess ya


do you intend on finding a part time job during university to earn extra income or just using the savings from your NS


[orh] uh as mentioned just now I've been working part time lah throughout my university so I've been uh like on there cause uh in NUS you kind of can schedule your timetable to a certain extent, so I keep like one or two days free on the weekdays to do to schedule work in lah so that I have a bit more extra income


yeah K what strategies would you recommend, to someone planning for their big ticket expenditure, I recently just like sort of attended like a webinar on like housing housing plans and stuff so like they recommended like uh really how how to go about getting a BTO and what kind of grants yous


you can get and stuff like that so I would recommend someone to research better on the kind of grants you can get and maybe plan also to a certain extent how you can get the maximum amount of grants, ya like for example like I think for BTOs like the maximum amount of grants that you can get is usually when one of one person is studying and one person is working


ya because if both of you apply when you're both studying then they will gauge the income on when you before you collect the house and before you collect the house both of your income could be really high and you could just get a lesser grant yeah so the best would be when one is working and one is studying I guess yeah


ya I think for for car wise I think they really need to decide whether it's a need or a want because buying car in singapore is really quite, a large amount ya cause I own a car and just the maintenance of it I think it's quite a lot like COE aside like you still need to pay taxes you still need to pay parking you still need to pay


for fuel and fuel fuel in singapore is not really very cheap, as compared to taking public transport around and parking even if you stay in a HDB right parking alone is at least a hundred dollars a month, ya so it's all these additional costs that you must really plan on taking in when deciding to buy a car because it's it's really something that you can do without so it's usually more of a want than a need


ya so that's what I would recommend someone to really see whether they can afford buying a car, and as well as the necessary payment needed to maintain it ya cause if an accident happens insurance is also quite expensive for a car, and if you hit another car that's even worse lah especially if it's a expensive car yeah


yeah anyway just five seconds left (ppl), (ppb) okay sure


[orh] uh my most memorable part of that trip I would say uh, I think ya I think the ATV experience was quite a good uh experience considering like I never really rode an ATV before and it was like left hand driving


so actually uh actually we got I got rejected from like a few , they made us do a few test runs before we could rent the ATV so like I got rejected by like one or two companies because it was left hand driving and I wasn't very used to it and so they said like you know they can't rent it to me cause the risk is too high ya so I think like when we I finally got to into like a shop that approved it it it was like it was quite fun lah that experience when driving an ATV on yourself


but it was really very annoying the wind lah the only thing was the wind cause it kept blowing like sand and stone in your face yeah , ya ya so apart from I guess uh apart from that uh I think another memorable travel experience aside from greece since you already talked about it would be australia


ya I recently went to gold coast australia and I think that that was really like uh had to be one of the best travel experiences I had uh cause , we stayed at gold me and my friends we stayed at gold coast so at gold coast it was really just whole line of beaches like our apartment was just a walk away from the beaches and I think I really enjoyed like the beaches the scenery and I also like enjoyed the culture there


ya everyone was pretty nice and there was a lot of wildlife which which is something that I'm really very interested in ah so, ya I guess that's one of the most uh memorable travel experiences I had lah like even at the beach like you could go cliff jumping by yourself you didn't need to pay or anything ya the waters are really clear really good for swimming especially with when it's really hot lah yup


yeah yeah okay let's see , err , (uh huh) do you do you want to answer any of the other questions


uh let me think thankful okay uh what am I thankful for okay I guess I'm thankful, for the people around me yeah I think I have a very good support of


friends and ya and like the people around me they are really very supportive of everything I do and they're always there when I need them so I think that's something I'm really thankful for cause not always you find a community that really accepts you for everything, ya and that's


ya that's I think that's one of the the things that really, hold me , at like makes me happy the most I guess the community and what I will really what I really pulls me to stay in singapore I guess yeah


would if you had to do it again would you as in uh as in if you had a choice to not go NS or go NS would you still choose NS,


okay yeah interesting okay uh


describe a moment when things turned out better than expected, I think uh a moment would be for me I guess uh entering uh NUS , NUS hasn't never really been on my mind like I never even like


I never even thought of actually going NUS from the start lah of like my life I guess ya cause I've always had the intention of going overseas to study and yup so and like to me NUS like all the courses weren't very interesting at all


ya so I think that was something that really turned out better than expected so when I went into NUS I went into uh arts and social sciences yeah so it was a very broad range I could choose anything I want but I really still didn't really feel any connection to anything ya so it was only recently that I


managed to transfer to environmental studies so I think like that's something that turned out for the better because it's really something I'm very interested in ya cause I I like animals and wildlife so taking environmental studies really, helps me with that and it's a relatively new course so I think that's something that really turned out better than I expected lah I expected to just be like


uh cause at first I got NTU econs so I expected to just like !aiya! just, you know singapore you have to just get a degree okay just do econs earn some money ya so I was really just like, going into that pretty blind ya so I think that's really something that


uh it really turned out better than expected like even so like even the little things like joining hall in NUS, ya cause I was from poly right so when you're in poly you really have no knowledge of universities not say no lah but not many people go local universities so it's a very blank like a very big question mark


yeah so I really didn't know what to expect and I wasn't expecting much but it's really only when I went into university uh got into the course I really wanted and really made a lot of friends and then had a lot of good experience in hall and that was really something that turned out better than I expected lah yeah


(hmm) I really have no idea uh why don't you go first let me think about that


okay if it's food I guess it'll be like sashimi so like when I was young I never really ate sashimi cause it looked it looked really gross and I mean it felt really gross as well look like actually and then yeah so I think that's like uh something I I never really try or never really wanted to like even


I went to japan and I never touched sashimi at all so I went to japan with the school and they paid for everything lah so basically I had a lot of sashimi like and then I'm pretty sure it was expensive but ya it's a pity lah but I I didn't really like it as in like I didn't try it at all so I just give all my sashimis to my friend


ya so like ya so now I I recently started and I think that's really one of the you know it's it's really one of the food that I enjoy the most and sometimes will crave for, ya so I think that's one of the things I, ya I hate that as a child but love now that I'm older ya like if I go to a japanese restaurant I think now is would it would be pretty incomplete without having sashimi yeah


describe your perfect day for me , a perfect day I think for me a perfect day would be a very productive one ya cause like I said at the start I I don't like doing nothing and I prefer to keep my life active ya so I think like a perfect day would be really fully utilising my time throughout


like even if like you're not doing anything but you're sort of doing something so like , uh like for example you can just like go to the beach and like laze and do nothing but , spend quality time with a friend or someone ya so I think that's like a perfect day to me when I'm fully utilising my time like maybe like nine to twelve I'm meeting someone then


then like maybe throughout the day I get to catch up with a lot of different uh friends or like I do a lot of different activities likes maybe sports in the morning then lunch in the afternoon then maybe like go and hike at night that kind of thing yeah to me those are that's really like a perfect day lah like really


utilising my time and not wasting any yeah


okay wait ah okay I let me see uh the other questions , uh uh, do you want to answer any or


uh K what is the happiest moment of your life what was the happiest moment of your life, okay , okay if it's just off the top of my head I would say the day that I got my dog yeah because ya because like I've always loved animal since I was young lah so


uh and I never really got a pet until I was sec four, so my parents finally said yes I can have a dog but they were very specific on the breed so they they said like [orh] you cannot adopt, !aiya! they they're very old fashioned lah you know like old old asian parents they're like uh like mongrels are dirty that kind of thing but I totally disagree lah yeah so ya so it was something so I had to pay for everything myself so


it was really something I really wanted so I spent my whole holiday after O levels just working so I could get a dog ya so when I finally got all that hard earned money and actually got my own dog I think that was really one of the happiest moment of my life and mainly just seeing her grow up lah is really like something I wouldn't trade for at all for anything yeah so


it she really ya ya my dog is really like I think getting my dog was really one of the happiest moments in my life lah yeah


[eh] [ah] okay


part three negative experiences, K uh


I think for me I often worry about the future cause I'm someone who really likes to plan and planning ahead is really something that I do very often lah like my whole life I always have this timeline what do I need to do to get to a certain goal


ya so I think the future is something I really always worry about like will I get the job I want will I, be financially stable will I, ya will I like my life then ya so I think that's something I really worry about and whether I can achieve what I want ya so that's something I really always worry about how about you


K describe a time when you felt, trapped or helpless I think for me , I think like just now I mentioned how I always had a goal in life and I always have a timeline like how to reach that goal so like since young my goal was always to be a vet


so like in secondary school I will work hard to get into pure science and I will like work hard to get good grades just to be able to go into direct poly admission to, TP vet tech yeah so I I got it in the end lah I got a direct poly admission to TP vet tech and in TP vet tech I always aim to do my best so that I could get good enough grades to go into vet school as well so when the time


came like around year two year three when you're really trying to decide what's next after poly I think that's one of the biggest times when I really felt very helpless , cause uh to go vet in singapore uh there's no vet school right so you have to go overseas lah to get into vet school and to go vet school is about five years course so that's about half a million dollars each year with at least sixty k school fees


ya so and not even australia it can be uh UK ya so in year three I actually applied to university of edinburgh, and I got in lah after rounds of interviews so and it's at that point where my parents told me that no they couldn't fund such a expensive


they couldn't fund a such a expensive degree and, like it really made me feel very helpless lah this was something I planned for my whole life it was something I was aiming for since ever since I knew lah so, it really made me feel very helpless cause there was nothing I could do about it I couldn't somehow get five hundred k I couldn't borrow money from anybody


yeah so it really made me feel very helpless and very trapped also cause I didn't know what to do after that like this was something I worked for my entire life all my credentials go to that so what do I do now that not where the when I couldn't, when I couldn't go vet school anymore ah so I guess that's a point of time where I really felt very helpless and trapped cause I really don't feel like wealth is within my control


yeah cause I mean I can't control whether I have money or not so I think that was really why I felt so helpless like seeing other people being able to go to vet school but I tried my best I tried so hard and I couldn't so ya so I think that's like a moment where I really felt very helpless yeah


(ppc)


ya uh K in a post COVID world what are some of the worries and anxieties that you face


(hmm) I think mine is similar to you as well ya like especially about travelling I think the racism is really quite real like I mean we can see all over the internet these people just getting kicked in the face just for sitting down or getting beat up just by walking


yeah so I think that's something that I I really am quite worried about cause I I really don't want to be judged based on my race and let alone attacked because of my race, yeah so that's something I really worry and I think that's a very big problem that's really very hard to address because I mean you can't tell people don't be racist I mean it's not the chinese's fault that kind of thing people won't listen especially when you go overseas


because I mean there's already such a hatred or such a stigma against it that it's really hard so I really don't expect, there to be any changes in terms of racism so I think that's something that I'm really really very worried about especially since I want to I will I want to do like postgrad overseas yeah so I feel like that is really going to affect


affect a big part of living overseas ah the racism and yeah and [orh] and I mean, now you can even think of like entry to the country because I I know USA like if you are taking if you are international student and your school is gone online you have to be deported straight away yeah so I think that's also another issue that you have to think about like visa because of this COVID situation


yeah , but I guess if I was graduating some of the more short term worries would be uh job availability whether I can get a job whether, yeah just really whether I I can get a job at all cause I know so many people that are graduating this year they can't find a job or if they do then it's usually a very low paying or just a internship and yeah I think it's quite it's quite hard lah to survive currently in this economic state


disgusted ah , if it's just a personal thing I think cockroaches are really very very disgusting I really really hate cockroaches I can't stand them at all like I can't stand being even near a fake or a dead cockroach I think their anatomy is really weird


they carry a lot of diseases so if you're like if you want a very superficial disgusting kind of thing I think it'll be cockroaches but if you want like, a a more like, a more less shallow kind of thing I think


it'll be people that have no respect for anything, yeah so I really don't like it when people think they are above it all and they can do whatever they want with their because just because they are superior race or that kind of thing I think that's something that really disgusts me and it's a


real issue and people people that are unaware of, really unaware of their surroundings and how their actions will affect another or let alone like the world yeah


okay okay uh okay, uh uh


uh donna do you have any questions that you feel like answering


the saddest scene I ever witnessed, uh do you want to go first


I think probably one of the saddest scenes would be I think when you scroll through online you get a lot of like all those human rights videos and animal rights kind of videos so you always see like , uh people beings human trafficking or like animal abuse that kind of thing so I think that's like


really one of the those are really one of the most saddest scenes that I've seen because I feel like , I think for me I empathise a lot so when I see those videos it really I feel I can feel what they're feeling and it really makes me quite sad to witness such things yeah


like for example like , even like uh, you know chicken nuggets okay you might never eat it again if you hear this apparently like, they get all the male chicks because they can't lay eggs then they just put it in a grinder then they just blend it all up and that's your chicken nugget meat yeah so I think that's like one of the few things that I think are really sad cause I mean like I I feel like I can imagine like what if someone threw me into a grinder and just blended me just like that


yeah so I think those are <UNK> saddest things that (um) I've seen [lah] (ppo)


part one financial related topic


okay, uh yes I have it's for me it's the same lah I also use the CPF my parents' CPF to pay for my poly school fees but unlike you I wasn't under scholarship so for me right now I'm having to pay


cause I ever since I started uh national service they actually started deducting, the money from my bank account, uh about hundred dollars every month, to contribute back my mum's CPF so it's quite a, quite of a financial burden so if likewise if I were


to give myself financial advice five years ago I would tell myself the same thing don't use CPF to pay for, the poly school fees, yeah and uh maybe another thing like what you mentioned is, uh since I started NS I


actually started a new high yield savings account with, standard standard chartered it's the jumpstart account, so it they used to offer two percent , interest per annum until the until this month actually because of COVID they actually lowered it to one percent


so right now I'm still using the jumpstart account cause the good thing about it compared to other higher, savings account is it doesn't have any prerequisites or any uh requirements for you to hit to, achieve the desired uh interest rate unlike like uh accounts like let's say DBS multiplier you have to credit your salary you've to spend a bit on a credit card and


uh maybe invest or take a loan to increase your interest rate but for standard chartered there's no uh prerequisites ah or other uh other requirements, for you to keep the necessary interest rate yeah


(mmhmm)


okay then uh you mentioned you don't really know much about your insurance uh like the different types of insurance so maybe I can share with you a bit about that so from what I know is there are different classes of insurance so uh for example the different classes are if I'm not wrong is death


death insurance then total and permanent disability, uh accidents as you mentioned, hospitalisation, and critical illness so I just, give you a brief uh description of the different policies so death is like a life insurance lah death or life insurance and


I think it can go by both names so it's like when you pass away your the insurance company will credit you the amount that your policy is worth, for TPD the total and permanent, disability it's usually credited to you when you have a accident or something happens to you that leaves you


that leaves you uh disabled, and not able to carry out any work any form of work for critical illness it's more towards, uh diseases such as cancer liver failure this kind of thing


uh hospitalisation is for like when you go to the hospital and uh if you stay past a certain number of hours or days then they can cover your hospital your ward uh expenses, and lastly accidents is like if you have falls or uh cuts or things like that you go to a doctor or even TCM and you can claim from these policies


yeah so uh other than insurance uh let's talk about a bit about investments do you have any uh form of money invested currently


I see okay so for me I like I you said I use stashaway, so stashaway is actually a robo investor so what it does is it allows the user to select the amount your risk appetite so based on a percentage of how much you are willing to lose you like you have the stomach to lose in the event that the market actually crashes


so uh what stashaway does is they they take your money and they invest it in different ETFs which are exchange traded funds which are a form of it's a investment vehicle which is generally low risk


so stashaway lowers the risk of by investing in multiple ETFs which are already considered low risk investments, yeah so generally I would say stashaway is rather safe, and uh it's good for someone with low capital because it doesn't the barrier to entry is not very high yeah


they other than stashaway and other robo investors there are actually uh endowment plans and fixed saving plans given by the various banks in singapore that actually give you, higher interest rates than normal uh normal bank accounts but the catch is that there is


less uh fluidity in your in the money less liquidity cause you are unable to have access to the money all the time and there's usually a lock in period, so do you have any of such plans


okay let's move on uh do you think one should own a credit card I'm just curious about your opinion


okay I see if like I actually own a couple of credit cards because I managed to, uh earn a bit of income from NS and they allowed me to apply for one so like what you said I treat it exactly like a debit card so I don't even I never pay the minimum uh


payment required which is what I understand some people do so I always transfer in the money, as when I use it so it's like, when I use it I immediately transfer the credit to the credit card so it doesn't the fees will never build up, ya and uh on top of all the different promotions that you said I think another advantage of getting a credit card early on is it allows you to build your credit score


so credit score is uh quite important especially uh if you start young, if you can pay your debt pay your credit card bills early and on time then you'll start to build a better credit score and this will allow you to, uh to get it will make it easier for you to if you want to get loans in future as the bank knows that you are


uh someone who has a good credit score and uh they would be more willing to loan you money yeah


(mmhmm)


okay for myself I think it's more or less similar, to you like I'm the type of person that lives to eat, so uh I really like enjoy eating, so I'm willing to spend more on that so to me that's justified


but uh [orh] ya uh, big ticket item not item lah a big ticket service I recently purchased is uh I sent my dog for a surgery dental surgery costs me about one thousand five hundred dollars, ya but yeah ya so this one to me is really a necessity lah cause she


uh she was really in need of treatment she had a lump in her teeth or something like that some infection, yeah so these kind of costs are somewhat unavoidable like you can't really say [orh] I don't know I can't afford it so I don't want to pay for it because it's your dog's life you're talking about


so ya this kind of spending is to me is justified, another big ticket purchase I recently made is uh for my laptop which I bought for uni cause I'm starting uni this august, ya it I spent a bit more than like what an average person would I spent about three thousand but that's because I'll be studying computer science and I uh my


the people I talked to encourage me to get a better a laptop with better specs cause this will allow me to, uh perform different programmes at a more efficient rate yeah


yeah, is talking about travelling like uh this is quite an interesting question in the post COVID world what changes are you making in terms of your spending or saving habits because like we obviously won't be able to travel in like the near future so


what how would you allocate the money you would have spent on travelling into your new uh, cash flow lah yeah well your expenses and


okay for me uh, I'm not very sure how my expenditures would be like in the


near future because I haven't been to school in about two years because of NS, so I don't know like how much I'll be spending weekly or monthly or even yearly cause, right now the COVID situation is making a lot of our lessons online so maybe I won't have to spend as much as


uh what an average uni student would have spent, uh pre COVID yeah, so uh yeah I'm not very sure how much I'll be spending but I'm pretty sure it'll be less than, uh pre COVID lah yeah


uh that, okay uh I think that really depends on like what I do during my summer breaks cause if I'm able to find internships then maybe there's I don't have the capacity to


juggle between internships and part time work, and I may take on summer projects so that may also limit my part time working ability yeah, so I'll definitely try to look out for like maybe, if I do well enough I can be a teacher's assistant and I heard they pay decently for that


yeah uh what about yourself do you see yourself doing part time


okay,


, for me how I would advise someone is make sure they have a disciplined uh attitude towards saving


so firstly they should have a savings a plan on how much they want to set aside, uh each month maybe uh to set aside for their big ticket purchase, so if let's say they earn uh a x amount of salary


they set aside about ten percent per month uh like and just be disciplined about it and not uh be tempted to spend it in any way and, uh yeah so they have to plan how much to set aside each month and really stick to the plan


ya and like you said research is really important so they should, ask around maybe speak to financial consultants about uh like how they should plan for their big ticket purchase yeah,


(mmhmm)


part two positive experiences, okay maybe I'll start so describe one of your most memorable travel experiences


so for me that would be my, uh greece trip, yeah uh that we went with uh, friends in poly yeah so like we , stacia was also part of the trip lah so it was really fun cause we got to visit uh different


places in greece, like athens and even the islands like santorini mykonos, and other uh different islands in greece we went during the autumn winter period so it wasn't the best time to visit the islands cause these islands are known for their sunsets


and usually people would go prefer to go in the summer cause this is when the island is more active uh people there are more active in the winter most most of them travel out to the mainland to find work, yeah so what I really enjoyed the trip like the, most memorable part of it for me was in santorini


like the mode of transport there was, uh few people with cars like no one the streets were, really too small to actually drive so, a lot of people either use uh vespa, or ATVs like the four wheeled


uh motorbike kind of thing so ya what we actually did is we rented the ATVs, and we rode around the islands and like on certain tracks like it was very narrow and like on the right of the track is like a steep drop to the sea so it's like a cliff so it's quite


quite a quite an experience cause like, you know that just one small mistake, to the right or left could lead you uh falling off the cliff but, that added to the thrill factor of the whole experience, ya so uh stacia what was your most memorable part of that trip


(hmm), (hmm)


okay


K this one's a general one what are you thankful for, you want to start


okay let's see for me uh what I'm thankful for, similar to you is also like the people around me but I also want to add like I'm thankful for the many experiences that I had uh in NS


because uh I was in the air force so I got to travel quite a bit, so I got to travel to places like australia, and uh brunei even that one not even though that one wasn't really for leisure


but uh being in army even though it's a two year like break from studying like it kinda interrupts your study in like momentum, cause from primary school all the way to poly you


have been studying non stop and then suddenly you take a two year hiatus and you do something completely different like you get thrown into jungles get, uh forced to, wake up at certain timings have meals at certain timings exercise at certain timings


uh even though it's a some people may argue that it's not a very good, uh, not very efficient use of time I really enjoyed the two years that I spent in, the force cause number one like I said the


travel experiences and also it allows you to bond with, uh your coursemates the people that you spent the two years with, and, ya we I actually got quite close to them so like we a group of us went to japan we took leave and we went to japan for two weeks


uh in the middle of our course, yeah so it was really, a good experience ah like we I it was my first time in japan it was my first time seeing snow, it was my first time eating like, uh authentic japanese food so like if not for the these two years'


break, I wouldn't have had experienced so many different things if not for NS I wouldn't have experienced these things, ya so that's one thing I'm thankful for


!wah! that's a good question uh, K honestly in hindsight I'd say no but, if you throw me back and tell me give me a choice without any knowledge on what it'll be like, I would definitely say I don't want to go NS because


like uh every guy feels this way lah like when you before you, uh enlist it'll be like dreading like the, abrupt change in lifestyle like suddenly you have some people shouting down your neck, and yeah that's like


I don't think anyone would ever what like be happy to go through that, after like being comfortable for the past twenty or so years of their life ya so, uh if you tell if you ask me to go back there and make a a decision with the knowledge of what my experience would be like I would definitely definitely say I don't mind doing it again


but if you were to tell me , uh to go through it like to choose whether I want to do it without the knowledge of it I would definitely say no I would rather go to go straight to uni yeah


(mmhmm)


okay for me, something that turned out better than expected was uh as I mentioned just now I was in the air force so I actually uh signed on, there's a pilot trainee for the in the earlier part of my NS uh stage so


we were actually sent to australia as I mentioned earlier as well for a air grading course, so it's like a course where they send you to, uh, grade your flying ability, and to see whether you're suited to be a pilot or not so uh I went in with people who had prior flying experience so


uh a lot of them had experience in the youth flying club singapore youth flying club and some of them even had a private pilot license already a PPL, so uh for me I wasn't really expecting much cause uh I'll be I'm I'm against so many experienced people like I really didn't


uh see myself like even passing the course, so I just went in to experience flying and like I thought maybe just, uh see how it goes see whether uh I like it or ya it wasn't I really wasn't expecting myself to make it through but uh after the first few flights then I realised that's something I really enjoy and


uh even though it require a lot of uh preparation beforehand like you have to mental mentally fly and like, go through mental simulations in your head of how what you're going to do up in the air and whatnot so, uh, I in the end I'm actually managed to pass out of the course and progress to the next stage


ya so that there's a something that, a moment for me that, where things turned out really much better than expected yeah


K what did you use to hate as a kid but now love as an adult, okay sure uh, for me I used to uh


really not like eating uh durian, yeah so I okay actually for my for me that is a bit of the opposite lah but yeah I used to really like eating durian, and one time when I was younger I actually fell sick from eating it


then I from then on I stopped liking durian but recently, uh , because of COVID nineteen then the durian season a lot of people have been buying durian and I've actually uh, uh I started to get more used to it again yeah


so and it's quite a good, uh like, turn of events lah cause I used to not like I I used to love is then not like and then now slowly starting to get better with it again yeah


okay


okay for me a perfect day would be uh one where similar to you I do


I have a productive day it doesn't necessarily have to be jam packed with uh, different activities throughout the day it can be for me it'll be more balanced so maybe I, managed to do a productive amount of work a decent amount of work then I after that I wouldn't want to continue doing work like once I hit my max level of productivity I would rather lay back and


chill lah ya so uh, one would it would it would be one where I productively do a bit of work then I relax and maybe with my, dog and my cat like just stay at home play with them bring them down


for a walk yeah so ya that will be a more or less perfect day to me yeah


!wah! this one need to think sia uh you want to go first


, okay for me I don't mean to plagiarise your story but for me I think


off the top of my head is also the day that I got my dog so for me my dog was uh she was adopted, I adopted her from the singapore police force, when she was five years old, she's a labrador retriever yeah so she, uh we adopted her because she usually police dogs they retire when they're


uh about eight years old but for her she retired a bit earlier cause I think her nose was a bit, insensitive at that point and she was uh was a bit too friendly for, to be a police dog like she go out randomly and start licking strangers, ya so


I still remember the when I walked to the door at that point my parents didn't really let her in the house yet so she was leashed to the door, so when I walked in then I saw her she just, stare at me then I stare at her I really couldn't believe it lah cause it's like my first dog so she suddenly stood up then her tail was wagging then she jumped on me like


ya that's really a moment I'll never forget lah, like the the joy I felt when I saw her and when she saw me ya


part three negative experiences, K this one's a general one what do you often worry about


you want to start


what I always worry about is


so I'm quite worried, about her health cause she is


uh, she has like most like she has arthritis so her movement has been a lot slower, and recently as I mentioned earlier as well she had a surgery for her teeth ya so she, her health problem her health isn't getting any better and she's she's not getting any younger so ya she's one of my many worries


another one would be uh going into NUS cause uh I didn't mention this yet but I was from temasek poly and I took a diploma in veterinary technology, so I work quite a bit with animals and I'm actually matriculating to NUS this year uh for a degree in computer science


so it's uh as you can tell it's really quite a big jump that's what I studied in the past has really no correlation to what I'll be studying now so I'm worried about being able to adapt, and especially since my the course I'm taking is very


math heavy like your foundation in math has to be really, quite strong and I haven't touched math since I was in secondary four so that's about six years ago because of poly and NS, so yeah uh , that's one of the many things that I worry about and also like you said the future cause


uh, you really don't know what the future holds and like, uh, I don't really know what I'll be doing cause I've been jumping around like different fields like, first it was in poly it was at like animal science in NS


I thought I was uh, be a pilot then now I'm going into computing so, ya so I hope my life is will be less like uh random in the future and more stable yeah


okay uh for me


a moment in my life where I felt really helpless was uh, so, uh the reason I got terminated from my air force training actually, they the air force actually puts the pilot trainees through this centrifuge so it's like a


uh a machine that spins really really fast and, brings your brings you up to very high levels of uh Gs like G force like that, maximum I think I experienced is eight Gs ya so eight times the force of gravity acting on you, so uh I


I went for the qualification test multiple times, and uh each time I would , my like uh so what the doctors told me is my body isn't really suited to tolerate G so at high G levels I would all the cause what happens when the machine spins you is all the blood


in your upper part of your body like your head will flush uh rush to the bottom areas and accumulate in like your legs and, your thigh muscles so cause when it spins you the blood will tend to go down, so uh


what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to tense your leg and the your core muscles to prevent the blood from going down but, uh for me I couldn't really hack that technique so I I could tense my leg muscles but I couldn't uh perfect the breathing technique that couple that coupled along with it


so uh each time the machine went up to about eight Gs I would all the blood would leave my head and I would lose consciousness, so when I lost consciousness then it's a immediate failure so on the third time that I took the test I lost consciousness and


uh cause the machine continues to spin even when you lose consciousness it'll start to slow down immediately lah but there's still a brief period where it spins, so when I uh, when I lost consciousness my back actually snapped


and uh I got a it was a whiplash injury lah so I got a back injury from that and after a few months of uh diagnostics and MRIs they actually found that I had a tear in one of my inter vertebral disc


so because of that I got terminated from the force, and yeah so, I felt really helpless cause, uh this wasn't something that I could, control I did try to exercise more frequently and go to a gym but the doctors told me like it wasn't my muscle tensing that was the problem it was more more of my breathing and the technique


so yeah I've uh uh I felt like there was really nothing I could do to uh improve, my technique or yeah and in it resulted in me being terminated from training so I was quite disappointed


and uh yeah it I felt really helpless but I guess, every cloud has a silver lining uh one door closes another opens so now I'm uh going for uh I'm having a new start lah


in NUS trying something completely new and, ya I just really hope things get better from here


(hmm) okay I think we addressed one of this one of my biggest worries, in the first the financial discussion so not being able to travel, so like I really enjoy traveling lah like I mentioned earlier travelling


overseas with the force and, going to greece with friends, yeah and in the post COVID world like it's really a big question mark whether we'll be able to travel for leisure purposes anytime soon, and even if we do


like I'm pretty sure the experience will never be the same, because of the different measures put in place and there's always that fear, that uh, like that risk of infection depending on the place that, depending on which place you go to


and also because COVID was started in china I'm also a bit worried like uh that there's a stigma, uh against uh the chinese, yeah cause it's like


it's happened uh like racist, people uh racist people have been assault have been assaulting chinese or asians across the world so ya that's something, that I fear when travelling post COVID


okay uh next question what disgusts you so what are you disgusted by


, for me I'm not really disgusted by many physical things like, can't really think of off the top of my head what really disgusts me cause I see myself as quite a uh hands on uh don't mind getting uh dirty and messy kind of person yeah


uh so in terms of what disgusts me I think is similar to you like people with, uh lousy personalities like, uh in the army you can meet a lot of, people of multiple personality so


uh like, you some people especially in BMT you can see people of all kinds of character so some people you can see like they will really try, and help each other and try to make sure everyone is okay but then there's the other kind of people who


just care about themselves want to make themselves known, and are more selfish more self centered more self secure so yeah and I don't really I try not to associate myself with such people yeah


okay describe the saddest scene that you've ever witnessed, think I'm pretty sure you can describe a movie scene if you like


(hmm) uh, let me think, K cause uh ya we


uh okay for me the saddest scene that I've witnessed, would be cause I used to uh volunteer in a vet clinic so I would uh there was once a dog actually came in and


uh it was really sick and it was old and it was the same breed as the same breed and colour as the dog I own a yellow labrador so it was really, uh and the dog actually passed away because it had uh some form of cancer


so I was really it really hit me when I saw how the dog was suffering and the owners, actually came down to put it to sleep, so I was in the room with the owners and they uh were next to the dog when the vet actually injected the


the the what's the word called, the drug in it to put it to sleep lah, so it was really quite heartbreaking for me because, the like I said the dog was the exact same breed and colour as my dog


so it really looking at it it really, like make me think oh, like one day that's going to be that might be my dog and I might be put in that position where I have to put my own dog to sleep, so I find that, that was one of the most depressing, things that I've ever seen and like


I really hope that I'm not put in that situation


part, one financial-related topic, what's one


five years ago, work harder, like find a job that pays slightly more


for sure like at least , fifty percent of your pay


eight dollars an hour


it depends I guess if you were still getting allowance five years ago because if you were getting allowance five years ago saving half , of your pay is possible, but I don't think I I don't remember getting allowance five years ago


you were, because after you spend then at least you still have money in your bank


but back then also we couldn't go on much holidays alone


save for the future definitely save for the future


ya like no matter what just start saving even if we don't know what you are saying for just start saving, that's only ya okay same question , should I DIY or get a financial adviser to plan my finances


trust ya someone that really advises you, ya , I guess so I feel like if you D sorry if you DIY yourself you may not have like that consistency


that you need like you just have your, ya the correct , things to do so you can get a bit, difficult, so someone that's like really well-versed in the


financial industry the market and everything can really advise you properly on what you need to do, ya I think I would get a, financial adviser, but not now although I


oh ya for sure for sure like you still have to know your own


saving a few, save a certain percentage on hand and then the rest, in the bank, I feel like I don't spend, I feel like I don't spend with cash on hand


correct that's that's exactly what happens to me so I rather, cash on hand


because I tend to spend more on my card, I I don't know it's just so convenient nowadays , with just like PayWave, just like okay, everything just paywave okay done, ya so I just I rather just keep my money and not put it in the bank sometime


minus food, minus food , it really is especially because during, but especially cause during COVID we cannot go out so all we are just doing is


cooking, buying groceries ordering in, ya so I think ya, so I actually think, this , pandemic made me spend a bit more


, , have to go out and spend a bit right , , I know it's quite sad but amongst the opposite I spend more during the first month of circuit breaker and then once everything like open I didn't want to go out because everyone was going out


ya, I feel it runs opposite


anyway so, ya (oo),


if you have the capital, a lot of people at our age don't have that kind of capital to


it can be very, (ugh) it fluctuates I guess based on the economy you know, ya not now but


just in general not about good time for anything, ya, just in general now's not a good time to go with anything , but maybe another


side business like a part time thing where you can, how others just, you know it's not like uh, stable thing but it's something


or like baking now which is like the norm so you can just like start selling like mini cakes from home, uh really ah I thought was like lip gloss and like Boba tea or something


ya the, the Boba pearl


do you have the habit


I get kinda it's quite a bit actually, I know I did the exact same thing I started, just one two months, earlier than you know, this year this year january I <B>


five dollars also every time I get five dollars I just leave it aside, so I have a five dollar note in my wallet that in in my wallet for two weeks I've been quite good I've I've seen it and I wanted to spend it but it just in my wallet


very fast actually uh <B>, !wow!, he saved quite a bit already you know, in a month I think he saved more than me in a month, cause a~<B>


it accumulates fast, so maybe I should starting like also


that's actually really good, that's kind of good in a way I feel like that's kind of like, CPF CPF Medisave kind of, thing you know, like it a certain part of percentage of your paycheck goes in to CPF


you have to save it for like certain things , except for that is you cannot withdraw, get a job with CPF, that


never come to think of it I don't even know if I have money, ya, for sure I think there's one major financial advise I gave myself five years ago


like if we knew bette~<B>, and you need ya you need a CPF <B>


but singapore is singapore is very expensive lah, it's I think it's the most expensive country to live in


I think ya I guess so I think , okay lah you go to new zealand new zealand also okay can


oh shopping I've been spending too much on shopping


then these kinds of expenditure are justify for me my expenditure just fat would be food, food expenditure is justified for me


food will always be like my one true love food I am willing one thing I'm willing to spend on, still spend money on is food, ya I think, eh if I feel like even if you buy I feel like <B>


and it doesn't, it's just not nice you are just going to feel disappointed you are going to feel like you wasted your meal you wasted like three dollars same ah so buy something that you know you like even though it's


yes ah ya ya , okay that is just, nonsensical spending I feel


clearly they have not like clearly they have not gone to like a coffee shop to eat , right okay , what else ah I guess


one question here that


I think in these kinds of things you have to be very realistic, you have to really calculate like <B>, for


expenditure your housing, it builds, everything you have to incorporate all of that into your financial planning , especially for your future, and wedding


millions ya, and then you have to think like are you going to stay in this house for your entire life or you going to like sell it for sell it after five years and move somewhere else so how much are you supposed invest in something like that


so I think that's very ya so I think that's very, and the location and all depends on where you invest your property and it also depends on where you like which district honestly, like, Sengkang Punggol all is the new BTOs which is reasonable


whereas like condos with like, thousand over square feet and you're gonna pay like three times the the amount for a BTO I think


oh I have I have one like financial question for you, I think , if when when you get married right, housing or car loans, what happens you and your husband fifty fifty


or one pays for one one pays for another , like thirty seventy depending on your income


even ya so even for like even for like simple things like bills for like electricity water bills I think I would just like put like we each put money in a joint account and that joint account pays for like family expenditure


(ppb) okay cool


part three negative experiences, okay what frustrates me, (oo) , I just posted this on social media ya so much I just posted this on social media I think my biggest pet peeve ever is when people touch my things


I wanted to I like I looked into my , bathroom cabinet to like look for something , everything was just rearranged


everything lah my things were like on half on the top shelf half in the middle shelf few at the bottom, I was just like who went to touch all my things I was so upset , and I found out who it was obviously , but, I was just so angry like I'm already so tired when I come home at night I just want to find one thing which I know where it is


and then it's not, it's not there I get so upset and the thing is I'm so shock already right so I purposely put my things at the bottom shelf , and the person just had to go and put it, at the top shelf why


I get so annoyed, I get super annoy


I cannot that's why I'll like , that's one of my biggest pet peeve I hate people touching my things I mean it's not yours just leave it alone, I get it okay if it and I saw, fine but still don't touch it just tell me


and I will sort it out you know what I mean, like just don't touch it it's not yours, leave it alone, someone in my family has the very bad habit of not doing that, very very like don't like it


someone called me passive aggressive two days ago


oh thank god I'm not passive aggressive to you, well a lot of things frustrate me though, ya ya I get it I get it


a lot of things also frustrates me like how, , someone says when someone forces their beliefs on you


so I think when someone like projects, their opinions , they force really I think I I I mean it's good to have like your own set of opinions and you know your own views and you want to voice it out fine you know but , don't


enforce it on other people I guess, judge someone else for not having the same opinions as you


so I think this has been going on, for awhile especially because of like the, situations in the united states even recently in singapore because of GE, so all of these things have been like coming out


so it's a bit, unfortunately, what's the worst thing you've witnessed and kept quiet about


(oo) what's the worst thing you've witnessed and kept quiet about nothing


I don't ya same and even if I have, ya and I even if I have witnessed something I never kept quiet, ya I never kept quiet about anything, I feel like if I see something <B>


my friends are a bit on the rowdy side but I still don't see anything and even if I do I don't keep quiet, of it ya I don't keep quiet about it, like I would tell them like you know you're doing something wrong


I guess so ya, ya I guess so, but for me nothing ya


recall a scene


I don't have actually for this one, recall a scene from a movie that made me too angry to watch uh, (oo) this is a good one, what is your greatest fear


I think I have, uh no I don't I don't I don't care about it , really I have maybe two greatest fears one would be


not being able to have a family, because as, you may think it's very common like it's a natural thing, but it's not <B>


uh what we called that, provide for my family my current and my future family


a series of unfortunate


ya I think you just have to, I don't know I think we are we are very, , we don't have such a, bad luck with these kind of things I think we always prepare for the worst


so we don't ya, so I guess we don't have like uh, series of unfortunate event


but it's not a phobia


I got ya same I think I don't have, uh mine would be lizards I guess


lizards for me ya, other than that I don't think we have any


I guess it can said that it's a bad experience, ya gross ya


that's a bad thing, oh are [orh] that is bad but


describe something you watched or read that gave you <B>, I watched chucky when I was younger


I did not, sleep or sit on a couch for like, a year, I never like I got so freaked out I kept thinking something's going to pop up from the side oh my god no no


I, got I that one I really got goosebumps you know


oh my, I know, oh I was walking my dog right at night like at, one, something two in the morning okay my dog is very unfriendly so I have to go at odd timings where there are no dogs around okay so I walked I walked him late at


night and, then out of nowhere I was walking at this like, dark, area like semi-dark area at the park connector, it just started barking at a bush and a tree I freaked out, I was like just okay let's go home now oh I cannot I cannot


but I have friends that ya I cannot , so the other day I was at my friend's house and the light suddenly went off then he asked me why switched off, the light I was like I didn't


as if the light was on he is like no you just switched off cause it's off but I know I didn't it was on I switched it on , then we looked at each other we are like then we called a dog uh Naga, so with Naga came and he didn't bark it was a good sign !whoa! by that was freaky I cannot


I cannot deal with horror things it plays on my mind, I have to like switch on a million and one lights kind of thing


I cannot I think horror like, horror things is what freaked me out the most that really gives me goosebumps, even what you called that err , like especially like you know those myths, like


you cannot hit like banana leaves or you can't have frangipani trees or something like that, ya and I have friends that can, see things, oh freaks me out when when they tell me their stories I refuse to hear you know


I will walk away I just talking about it gives me goosebumps already I cannot I cannot, that's ya that is one thing, I'm so easily scared right that secondary school for music class we were supposed to watch phantom of the opera


phantom of the opera freaked me out, I didn't sleep I, I never slept in my room ever again I went back to my parents room to sleep I didn't sleep alone , I refused, !aiya! I get quite scared over these like


you can't do anything right, ya a bit stressed out with the amount of like crazy psychotic people that that are out there


like you see see all these like hear all these horror stories like dad kills three kids over custody or something like that you know what I mean, can get quite , so ya I think that's what freaked me out I go goosebumps already okay change topic


oh my god everyday, everyday


I feel like there is a time sometimes everyday, ya I think when you can't help a friend that's one thing that really bugs me, or when you disappoint your parents ya okay


part two, positive experiences


(oo) this is a topic that we can talk a bit, how many thing want to be like ah


alive as in like you feel free, I would say being one with nature, like alive you know what I mean, ya so for me it will be being one with nature ya like hiking going


snorkeling be in the ocean, that will be me yeah, that make me would be like


just like the company , the company that you're with, no matter what you're doing, yeah that's nice, cause I think we're both very are family-orientated, like we're very close to our family so yeah


I think family plays a big part


my day to be sunny yes to be sunny I love it , breezy but sunny at the same time, perfect day to go out and, explore, hate it when it's raining , not me I don't like rain


I like summer, summer cum spring, summer cum spring, like a bit chilly but sun is still out, you know, like it's not humid you you're not gonna like perspire after walking five minutes kind


would say summer come spring, that will be my perfect day,


I want to go for picnic , ya the I guess it is to him


yeah , singapore is one place that is quite difficult to go for a picnic, because it t's humid and, there's like no, vehicles and it's just, everyone will be thinking having the same idea and it's just gonna be very crowded


that's really the wrong time to go


oh no, oh no , soon oh this is an interesting question okay what is the skill on ability that you are secretly proud of having oh my goodness


secretly proud of having !oof!


oh my goodness you did that, , you dismantle everything and you put everything back on the same place, oh my goodness so I don't have to go to that, Apple store anymore I can just contact you do things like that


uh but I I don't know, uh, I don't think it's Grab, ability I don't know (hmm), I think people just


I I don't know if this is like, a skill or ability it's just something that happens to me is like people underestimate me just because I'm small, like they think I cannot cause like they think I cannot like carry things uh like you know like resourcefulness it's just like they just think I can't do it cause I'm small


but in the end I still do it they are like how I'm like I don't know use your brain , yeah I, I I think I'm actually quite, I would say I'm quite yeah


yeah so I think I'm I would say I'm quite, resourceful and that's it that I would say it's a skill, that I'm proud of having is resourcefulness, yeah I think that is one thing yeah so


ya you can just, adapt to any kind of environment that you're thrown into, yeah so I think yeah so I think, and there's also one thing that I'm always stuck having to do like


I'm pretty proud of having it I don't know if it's a skill or ability but you know when things get entangled, like wires or like jewelry your whatever right every nobody has the patient to do it but somehow I just enjoy like figuring it out like slowly un-looping un-threading so every time my sister's necklaces like ten of them get mixed up into one she will like here you go


so far I still doing it and uh , I'll like slowly just ya so just sit there as like sometimes an hour just like trying to untangle it but after it's done I just feel so satisfied , like I did it you know what I mean, yeah so I think that's another thing yeah


ya a lot of people don't, , I know a lot of people don't have the patience but I think I'm quite good, at that yeah , when did you blush the most


my, when did I blush the most when did you blush the most, blush same, I don't think I already blush, I guess


in the beginning of a relationship you blush blush the most , yeah flush maybe but blush no


like you're flushed, sing you happy birthday , , thanks but stop it guys


, oh my gosh ya, I know, I think maybe


I think but it's funny when we were like when we were kids I assume that we were very happy when people start to sing us happy birthday cause we got excited it's our birthday you know it's like a reminder everyone is like focused on you whereas like now at this age where like I don't need the attention thank you


like I just want to like ya just like calm down you guys , yeah that's really fun I guess yeah twenty four yeah


but next one will be twenty five, oh mine is twenty five you know what I, then to do it and I'm I'm really like planning cause I'm so excited it's gonna be a positive experience definitely I want I want to do have a McDonald's birthday party,


, books ah, I know so I really do like, book it and I know it's near , , it will be like having a happy meal , we will having a happy meal you get your ice cream honestly


we will find out we will find out but one thing that, make me happy I think it's just eating ice cream, like !wow! McDonald's ice cream


so cheap so good, yes I know , describe , can I do


or can buy , I know I know one ice cream , no lah actually is seventy cents


seventy cents yeah I think is seventy cents, it's one thirty , , , ah okay, describe your favourite activity to unwind


and relax, (oo) mine would be, maybe for you during like this situation, okay, to unwind and relax places


I think for me would be uh reading, on a, balcony or patio, with a nice cup of tea or a nice cold drink or absorbing up sun sun


recent like during these these few months like circuit breaker my unwinding relaxing , would be watching Anime not even gonna like , Anime , , anyway ah


oh one positive thing that came out of watching Anime was I told my friend , that , I like the name Levi and he agreed it , , so in future if my kid is name Levi just don't be surprise


ya ya ya so in japan and like in japanese his name is actually called Rivai like RIVAI but in english it's Levi so I'm gonna name my kids Levi


yeah, oh uh I wonder what my name in <B>, I should go Google it, yeah like uh Anime oh I am


like picking up things as I watched the show so I want to reach this point where I can watch Anime without subtitles, slowly getting there, slowly getting there


ya so I'm getting there, speak fluently


[orh]


I've only transited in japan I've never like, (<B> ppb) going to visit I've never been over there sad yeah oh looks nice yeah yeah that's true


the next few questions are quite interesting, describe a time when you made a comeback that shut everyone up, , I have too many I can't name them


ah, I I I I have, I have I have I have but it's quite, well it's quite funny for me now but but but other people may not think it's funny


I told you about it , , that's fine ya


what is your best surprise, no but like have you ever received a surprise, yes okay I guess so I guess so yeah okay


oh answer this really quickly , I don't have I have many small surprises that I love like my twenty first birthday is many presents many acts of kindness that surprises me, I mean uh my eighteenth sixteenth


eighteenth eighteenth birthday, ya my eighteenth birthday, (mmhmm) yeah then


uh describe a travel experience that left in awe mine would be Maldives, oh ya fiji for you, actually no maybe mine's hawaii


yeah, so ya so maybe maldives (ppo) (mm)


part one financial related topic, okay so, what is one financial advice that you would give yourself five years ago


yeah, ya I think I would tell myself that it's never too early to start saving


okay but that is quite unrealistic though because like five years ago we would have been working a part time job that pay like seven eight dollars an hour


right and so you'll be getting like maybe four or five hundred a month and then saving half of that and then having two hundred dollars to spend is a bit insane lah but I definitely would have like tried at least maybe like a hundred or two hundred bucks a month each if possible


it's possible, but without the allowance,


oh ya that's true that's very true I think another advice I would have given myself will also have been like if I wanted to go on a holiday I needed to make sure that I have like double the amount of money that I needed


if still have money ya that's I think that's something that I would have done better, ya, that's true five years ago ya but I think I think like ya like moving forward definitely need to save more money ya even if it's like


still early to plan should definitely just put aside a fund for it, ya should


I think there's a good merit in having a financial adviser though I don't have one at the moment, ya but I think that is like uh there is a lot of positives story as well lah especially if your financial adviser is someone that you can trust


ya it can be very frank with you know, yeah


but you may not know the necessary information, ya


ya, but I think it's also, ya but I think it's also important to like do a bit of DIY on your own you know your own research to know like what is out there as well yeah and I think


you know I've been talking to quite a few different financial consultants uh friends and like it it maybe ya maybe you realise the importance of having a good financial consultant that will actually like be very honest with you and very with you and like tell you about


not just like there you know there are some people that you you can't tell like what their intentions are that kind of thing so like , I think you just need someone that you know that you can trust lah cause this is after all is your money right your finances, yeah yeah so how did you manage your cash flow like at the moment like ya


(uh huh), alright I think for me that's about the same lah


I spend more money in my card like I can have like a bunch of cash in my wallet but I don't really use it but I somehow just like tap everywhere I go, and that's the dangerous part


that's true it's like uh paywave , I'm done thank you yeah


I told my biggest expenditure at the moment is food I said as it sounds it's food I don't even shop like I barely shop


ya that's true or like ordering in or ordering food for people, like care packages that kind of thing and I mean


you okay to be fair the first like the month of circuit breaker I did not spend like at all really very good and then once phase two started that was kind of when like, all the food places started opening right so just go lah go and have dinner with this person catch up with that person three months never see already right so need to have dinner need to have catch up and then cause all the entertainment places are closed so you got no choice the only thing you can do is to eat


, that's true ya I rather have like people over like we Dabao food in spend money or like spend money to like order in food I think


ya, so do you okay back to the question what can you do to earn some extra income or to improve your income level


I want to say like investments are obviously the best way for like passive income, ya, definitely I think that's something that I want to do like in the future like I want to be able to have my like normal work income and then I also want to have a passive income like ya like either from


like property investments then you get rental money or just different kind of investment properties is quiet uh fund market I think, ya


yeah well we're not going into a very good time now to buy property anyway you knows we're not going to, good time to sell property but now it's like somewhat going into like a time to maybe, invest that's true that is very true


, I think like passion projects like passion projects always have like a way to or can always become a way to make money also like on the side like if you for example if you like making art or drawing or something you can start like a mini art business ya or baking


like home bakery yeah, oh now the biggest market is face mask like to make your own make yourself


!huh! no lah Boba a bit hard to make from home, okay lah but all the bubble tea shop open already so it's not the best now, ya


you know so I started this thing right I think in december twenty nineteen I started this thing where every time I got a five dollar singapore note which isn't very like, it's not very common surprisingly you only get it like once in awhile like but every time I get a five dollar note I just put it in a box


but I guess it's like, but sometimes a bit Xian ah cause like you want to spend it right but and like I also want to put it in my box eh but,


I think it's quite like you look at it and you like consciously know cause two dollars and ten dollars are more common ah so with a five dollar note you look at it and you're like oh I I shouldn't spend it I'll I'll break my ten and then like when I break my ten I'm hoping that they'll give me five dollars change just so that like I got another five dollar note


but it really helps to saving because it really accumulate superfast,


damn maybe we just need to, , oh you know the I think OCBC just launch this like new savings platform like where you can like set a savings goal and then work towards it so you can set it such that like I mean if you have an OCBC account I think you can like set it so that it


it, for example your savings goal for the end of the year is like ten K so then it will map out like how many months you have in between and how much you need to contribute on a monthly basis to reach that ten K goal and then it will automatically deduct it from your account like every month


so you don't even have to think about it then at the end of the year you have like thank you set aside for you but I mean of course if you ever need it you can always withdraw the money lah from the savings section but like it still quite I think it's quite uh no brainer like no need to think so hard we do like save also


yeah


ah there is one more thing I will have told myself five years ago, yes like go and find a part time cause there are part time jobs or there are contract jobs with CPF right but so far everything that I've done is like freelance so my CPF is like low


ya but, I'll I'll think like must think about your CPF , , the thing is like you don't think is important


is like you don't think is important but it actually is because like I guess like, in a couple years we all be thinking of like buying BTOs and cars and all that kind of thing and like that's where your CPF comes in really handy , yeah I mean like who has like fifty K for a down payment like cash I mean hopefully I will by then but like you know it takes a while lah to build up that kind of capital


it is nice worth it but it's really I just like how clean it is,


, okay what expenditure is justified and what have you been spending too much on, I think lately I've been spending a lot more on like personal grooming like


beauty like facials I mean but with special package ya, then like I think lately I think I've been more into quality, quality items so like I rather spend like a little bit more for something of better quality or like of uh


more like prestigious brand like especially was skin care cause skin is very very sensitive right I rather spend a little bit more for that kind of thing rather than like cheap out on something and then have to fix the problem later,


okay but would you rather spend would you rather spend on like really good food would you could you justify spending like a really expensive a really insane expensive amount of money on like really good food, ya


or like Kopitiam can already, , ya I agree


you know something I cannot like deal with like those fifteen dollar, chicken rice


or like you know those like I think MBS has this one place that like super expensive I can't remember is it chicken rice or some singaporean dish lah I think damn very is so except sorry is so expensive you know and I'm just like, why would you pay fifteen dollars for this pack this packet of chicken rice when you can get like a perfectly good four dollar fifty cent packet across the house at the market


you know , maybe but some people swear by it they're like oh my god this is like the best chicken rice I


ever had is next level you must try this the soup is like good then I'm like is not oily they use like organic chicken !wah! sometimes you got to have a bit of the oil lah,


what strategies would you recommend someone planning to buy big ticket expenditures I guess definitely not spending more than you can afford


so to really think about your finances and to think about where what you in the long term you can afford lah and try not to buy something like if if you want to live in a condo but you don't really have the means or your your income cannot supplement that kind of lifestyle then don't go it lah just because like later on you will struggle


ya especially because with such a big purchase right it's


not just like uh is not like a few thousand dollars you are talking about could be hundreds of thousands even maybe in the millions ya and like it's not just the house itself you have to pay for like electricity internet uh water that kind of thing furniture


whatever, like profit,


yeah that's definitely true ya


ya you definitely have to think lah about what you can afford, yeah fifty


I think I would like for it to be a fifty fifty