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You may not know, but one of the most popular singing competition in the world just happened last night. Sing! China is the most-watched singing competition on this side of the world. It also includes other Asian competitors, hence the viewership has expanded beyond China to most of Asia.

For the first time in our little red dot’s history, our pride and joy (Hartono) managed to enter the finals and came in 2nd ! His mentor was one of the most popular Taiwanese male singer (Jay Chou). His performances were amazing for its wide range of skills and repertoire. Not only can he sing well, he could play an instrument, rap, beatbox and even dance too. This was my favourite of his performances during this months-long competition : https://youtu.be/3xICiBrI7aY  He embraces the globality of his multicultural upbringing, singing brilliantly in Chinese and English, going from slow romantic songs to beatbox and then to jazz in a heartbeat. I am sure he has certainly set a new higher standard for future competitors from hereon.

He embraces the globality of his multicultural upbringing, singing brilliantly in Chinese and English, going from slow romantic songs to beatbox and then to jazz in a heartbeat. I am sure from here on, he has certainly set a new higher standard for future competitors.

The other finalist that totally impressed the hell out of me was Lee Pei Ling from Malaysia. She is only 16 and of mixed Indian-Chinese parentage who shared that she was adopted by an old Chinese couple. For someone so young, her singing has so much raw emotions that it brings one to tears. I dare you to listen to her with your eyes closed and then visually observe her performance. One’s perceived image of the person singing and the actual person is so different.

One of her previous performances really touched me, not just because of the singing but it was also the meaning of the song itself. I have added in the lyrics below. The song encapsulates each of our struggles in life and how we should stay strong and fight hard to be heard. Do enjoy Pei Ling’s version :   https://youtu.be/eiHiymqdPCY

 

“Fight Song” by Rachel Platten

Like a small boat
On the ocean
Sending big waves
Into motion
Like how a single word
Can make a heart open
I might only have one match
But I can make an explosion

And all those things I didn’t say
Wrecking balls inside my brain
I will scream them loud tonight
Can you hear my voice this time?

This is my fight song
Take back my life song
Prove I’m alright song
My power’s turned on
Starting right now I’ll be strong
I’ll play my fight song
And I don’t really care if nobody else believes
‘Cause I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me

Losing friends and I’m chasing sleep
Everybody’s worried about me
In too deep
Say I’m in too deep (in too deep)
And it’s been two years
I miss my home
But there’s a fire burning in my bones
Still believe
Yeah, I still believe

And all those things I didn’t say
Wrecking balls inside my brain
I will scream them loud tonight
Can you hear my voice this time?

This is my fight song
Take back my life song
Prove I’m alright song
My power’s turned on
Starting right now I’ll be strong
I’ll play my fight song
And I don’t really care if nobody else believes
‘Cause I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me

A lot of fight left in me

Like a small boat
On the ocean
Sending big waves
Into motion
Like how a single word
Can make a heart open
I might only have one match
But I can make an explosion

This is my fight song (Hey!)
Take back my life song (Hey!)
Prove I’m alright song (Hey!)
My power’s turned on
Starting right now I’ll be strong (I’ll be strong)
I’ll play my fight song
And I don’t really care if nobody else believes
‘Cause I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me

No I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me

 

I left my old job in Apr this year for 2 reasons, to get away from a toxic environment and to explore 2 possible business opportunities. After about 4 months, the 2 deals fell through and could not proceed further.

Being too young to retire yet, it was time to finally start to look for a full-time job. Started polishing and updating my CV and spreading my feelers out to actively put myself in the job market. I used LinkedIn extensively but somehow, after applying online for 15 positions, never landed any interviews yet.

At the same time, a good friend chance upon an opening in his firm and recommended my name. Thanks to him, I managed to obtain a series of interviews. After 6 interviews in the last 2 months, I am still waiting to see if this will result in a firm offer. Meanwhile, market reports continue to paint a very gloomy picture of the job situation, forecasting it to get worst into the year-end.

It is at this stage that I would like to bring up the importance of Patience and Persistence to remind myself to never give up and to continue trying. After my previous period of joblessness in 2012, I think I can better handle this the second time around.

Even though at times I do get a sense of doubts and dread failure, I must continue to push on and see where life will lead me to next. As the Chinese song goes, “Ming Tian Hui Geng Hao” (明天会更好) – tomorrow will get better. Chin up!

 

 

Have we ever taken a step back occasionally and asked if we truly cherish our parents? Do we sometimes take them for granted because we know that they will go to the ends of the world for us? As one become a parent yourself, we will start to realize that a parent would do anything for one’s flesh and blood, sacrificing whatever is needed to ensure that the child has a better future ahead.

My dad is 87 this year and mom is 82. I am always amazed that as a sole breadwinner of the family, he managed to raise the 5 of us kids. Mom had to make do with just his wage to support a family of 8 every month, including my grandmom. Usually, having chicken for dinner was a rare treat for the family. We stayed in a small 700 square feet public housing apartment. My 4 sisters had to share one bedroom and when I was old enough, I slept in the living room. Somehow, we all made it and it is because of the sacrifices my parents had make.

As we can financially support our parents now, we make it a point now to spend quality time with them whenever possible. Their movements are slower nowadays and short-term memory is not as good anymore. To keep them active, I had requested that they come over to my place twice a week to help me watch over the house. I will drive them home during these 2 evenings and have good conversations with them in the car too.

Today, I brought them to a nice place to have tea together in the afternoon. They seemed to like the experience and I want to cherish these moments with them.

 

Because I am not working in recent months, I managed to clock between 30 to 40 km of running in total every week. Running is therapeutic for me as it clears my mind and helps me think aloud certain ideas that may form and dissect them in further detail as I run.

While I was running this morning, an idea came to me which amazed me in its simplicity and logical conclusion. Let me elaborate further. In the past few weeks, I have been writing in this blog about 2 of my favourite themes : (1) the increasing importance of retirement village developments and (2) the use of REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) as a passive income retirement tool. What if I can combine the 2 together since I am a firm believer of both themes?

I remember doing research on US retirement villages and reading about the US having the deepest REIT markets in the world. The REITs were so diverse that there were even some that specializes only in health care and senior housing. That is perfect as it ties in with what I believe in. As Peter Lynch has had mentioned before : “Know what you own, and know why you own it”.

A new project for me now, to deep dive into this topic and try to separate the noise from the facts to narrow down the handful of stocks I should buy. Given that I have some spare US dollars as I have been selling stocks due to less optimistic about the stock markets, this could be a sweet spot to invest in for nice passive dividend income and hopefully some capital appreciation too.

The US Vice Presidential Kaine/Pence debate is tomorrow. Let’s see if without Trump, the Republicans can avoid another week of melt downs?

 

 

 

Singapore has the Central Provident Fund (CPF) which is a comprehensive social security system for individuals. In recent times, it had started new schemes which essentially helps one prepare for retirement in a sustainable way.

Take for example, CPF Life :https://www.cpf.gov.sg/Members/schemes/schemes/retirement/cpf-life.

CPF has 3 different accounts  : Ordinary, for housing, education and investments purposes that currently pays 2.5% p.a. , Special account paying 4% p.a. which is for Retirement purposes and MediCare account for medical payments.

At the moment, you can contribute up to a ceiling of SGD $161,000 (called FRS – Full Retirement Sum) into your Special account. When you are 55, you can top it up to a maximum of $241,500 to participate in the ERS (Enhanced Retirement Scheme). You then have the option to leave this amount untouched till you are 65, upon which a monthly pension of $1,920 will begin and paid to you till you die. Excluding the interest compounding factor, the break even will be 10.5 years (when you reach 75). If something happens to you earlier, the residual value of the pension will be calculated and paid to your beneficiaries.

While the monthly payout amount may not look like much in the future when you are 65, do note that you have established a steady stream of pension income for the rest of your life – one less thing to worry about in your old age.

To help you bridge the difference between the FRS and ERS (241.5k vs 161k) when you hit 55, there is also another scheme called the SRS (Supplementary Retirement Scheme) : https://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/Individuals/Locals/Working-Out-Your-Taxes/Special-tax-schemes/Supplementary-Retirement-Scheme–SRS-/SRS-contributions/

The SRS helps you to build up another retirement nest egg that ties in nicely with the ERS at 55. Currently, the maximum contribution per year to the SRS is $15,300 and this amount qualifies for tax relief during the fiscal year of contribution, reducing your taxable amount. The available SRS funds are allowed to be invested in various instruments like approved mutual funds. The only catch is that the money cannot be touched till 55, else there will be an early withdrawal penalty.

Besides the schemes I mentioned above, one should also start to build up investments to obtain passive income now.

In a previous blog, I did discuss about putting money into REITs  : http://www.musingsofa50yearoldboy.com/planning-for-retirement-via-reits/

Life expectancy is crossing into the 80s as we are more aware of the benefits of healthy living and advances in medical care continue to prolong life. There is a sense of urgency to proactively plan for our retirement years now.

 

Call me a social animal, but I love to connect with different groups of friends to meet up. They reinvigorate my sense of well being as I absorb the positive energies from these get-togethers. Each and every group reaffirms my faith in the power of having various social circles of friendship.

This week was an especially fruitful one for me as had 3 separate good catch up sessions. Earlier in the week, I caught up with a few ex-colleagues who recently left the banking industry and have started their own businesses, one in F&B and the other in trading. We look back on the old days of office politics and discovered the truth about certain backstabbing incidents from many years ago. We encouraged each other as we face our halftimes and embark on new career paths.

Then later in the week, I had a lunch meeting with another bunch of ex-colleagues. We found a common topic as some of us were from the same school but in different seniority groups. We proceeded to have a lively and animated discussion about school reunions and how one evolved into a fundraising exercise for old boys to pay it forward which the rest of us can emulate.

Finally, I met up with a few really good friends for a 5 hours lunch over 2 bottles of wine and a few shots of whisky. We had a wonderful discussion of anything and everything under the sun and laughed so hard at the silly jokes we cracked. It felt so good on a Friday afternoon leading to the weekend.

A few months back, I was part of the team that organized a class reunion for over 100+ people. It was so rewarding to see old friends reconnected again and the smiles and notes of appreciation being received were priceless. In July, I also had a marvelous overseas offsite with a group of old uni mates and spouses to celebrate our 50th birthdays in style. These were moments experienced where I will treasure till my last days.

You have to put in the effort to want to meet up with different people. DO also go to those meetings with a positive attitude. What you put in, you will receive multiple times of positive vibes in return. Trust me, I’ve been there and loving every moment of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Came across this interesting article today that tries to explain the Trump phenomenon : https://medium.com/@resnikoff/phantasmagoria-3beac7fe516d#.gxjhztzag

Why is it even possible that a constantly lying candidate, even when he is not required to lie politically, can manage to rise to become the Republican nominee for the presidency?

The author postulates that most people view all politicians as liars anyway and they convince themselves you cannot believe in anything they say. Trump’s team go one step further and calls into question the existence of any reality.

“By telling so many confounding and mutually exclusive falsehoods, the Trump campaign has creative a pervasive sense of unreality in which truth is little more than an arbitrary personal decision.”

“They’ve been successfully persuaded that everything is a lie, so the only political choice you have is to select the fiction that most fits your self-conception.”

“When politics becomes fundamentally unreal, the nature of political decision-making changes. Everything is fiction, so voters can only choose the fiction that best suits their taste and aligns with their self-image. Thus politics becomes devoured entirely by personal aesthetics.”

In the final summary, he questions democracy itself :

“Surkov’s philosophy is that there is no real freedom in the world, and that all democracies are managed democracies, so the key to success is to influence people, to give them the illusion that they are free, whereas in fact they are managed.”

An amazing read, one that requires more analysis in the weeks ahead. It seems that in recent times, this trend is spreading across the world. Its impact will turn everything upside down…

Either way, if Clinton or Trump wins, one thing is for certain : the Republican party is totally screwed. We may see the party disintegrating into a few separate groups soon…

And some funnies to end this blog : http://25logicalreasonstovotefordonaldtrump.com/

 

 

If you watch American news, you will realise that most are quite US-centric and very bias towards the opinions of their owners. Fox and CNN are prime examples. Some of my American friends acknowledged that they avoid watching local US news media completely so that they can get a more unbiased and balanced understanding of global events.

Most US citizens are not really aware of the world outside America as they are being fed a narrow point of view all the time. An attitude of “USA is the greatest” with a “I, me, myself” opinion of oneself that sometimes look down on the rest of the world. This is a common apprehension felt by us non-Americans.  To be fair, most news broadcasters are likely to lean slightly to one side as it is human nature. In my humble opinion, the best impartial reporting of news tends to be BBC.

A group of American shows are trying to fill this niche by providing an alternative view through comedy. One of my favourite in recent times is the “Last week tonight by John Oliver” show. He is a British green card holder who tries to use facts to argue his point of view and provide some laughter in the process. Recently, he won an Emmy for the Best Variety Talk Series. His short 15 to 20 min video clips zoom in on a particular topic. The show provides me with a different perspective and I even get to learn about new things. His jokes are a bonus and they usually work for me.

I do also watch a few other shows periodically : The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Late Night with Seth Meyers and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. These shows are easily accessible via youtube.com . They are not overly serious like the Larry King/Bill Maher ones nor are they too light and nonsensical like the Jimmy Fallon/Jimmy Kimmel shows.

Go check them out and give me your opinions.