A Singaporean millennial's journey to adulting

The thing about drafting a blog post is that it isn't like posting instastories - you don't get that instant gratification, and if you let your thoughts sit around for a bit, the feelings of jotting it down start dissipating. So that kinda explains my (almost) 2-month long hiatus from this space. I had these fleeting thoughts about life and such (#adulting, y'know. life thoughts errday everyday), but my mentally exhausted self couldn't find that motivation on weekdays. We all read articles on the routines of billionaires, them waking up in the wee hours of the morning and breaking their days into chunks of productive work, and I'm like "ok. I can never be like them.". Anyway, I woke up this Sunday morning to lovely weather, and felt extra happy to snooze in bed without an alarm. I ate my breakfast at 10:30, and while working through the meal, I had a sudden thought about the productivity these billionaires had. Though I mostly enjoy sleeping in on the

It’s the end of another work week.  After exclaiming my weekly ‘TGIF lo!!!’, I packed my bags, gleamed at my schedule of no plans, headed home for a hearty home-cooked dinner, and had a comforting bath before getting nicely nestled in bed. While performing my daily millennial ritual of social media scrolling, I came across this meaningful video by SoImJenn, featuring Grab on raising the awareness of inclusivity of the PWD community, through their Grab for Good campaign. Here’s the video: After watching the video, I got all teary. It’s amazing how such videos remind me of how fortunate we are, and the littlest things that we often overlook. However, the strongest feeling I got from this video was actually - what the heck am I doing with my life? In fact, this question has been boggling my mind for the past couple of weeks, or even months. This actually came as a surprise to me - I have always thought of myself to be satisfied with where I was, conten

Headed out bright and early this morning to meet my friend, and decided to take a shortcut by passing through the mall. It was about 9:30 in the morning, and the mall was still half asleep. The shutters were still up for most of the stores, and it was quite peaceful and quiet, unlike the usual scene we see in malls these days (crowded!). Caught a glimpse of the retail store I used to work for, back in the university days. It looked exactly like how it was 6 years ago, when I did the morning shift. I momentarily recalled my stint there for a couple of months, and I slightly winced at the thought of that.  I remembered counting my spending back then by hours. This plate of chicken rice? It costs 0.5h of my pay. That new facial cleanser? 3h of my pay. I remember watching the time pass during the lull period, thinking to myself: wow time CAN indeed come to a standstill lol. Money was indeed hard earned. You’re literally trading your time for $7/h, selling off time you could have

When I was little, I didn’t think of money much. All I knew was there was always food on the table, I would get my weekly pocket money, I would get chunks of money during Chinese New Year which would be stashed away in my POSB account. Money never seemed like an issue, perhaps I was just a kid - the parents would never talk about money in front of us. I had art classes, piano lessons, and almost went into ballet classes - I remembered not liking how the class was, so mama didn’t sign me up. Primary school was.... fun? A breeze? I had this confidence when friends who learned piano asked - 'So, which grade are you?', and I would answer with utmost pride - 'Grade 8!', when I turned Primary 6. I was also given opportunities to perform in front of the entire school, and I relished in the applause from the floor. Thinking back, I might have been a lil cocky kid huh. Haha. At that time, money just didn’t seem like an issue. I mean, I was having classes only a few other

This afternoon, I had to attend some training and after the longest time, I had to settle lunch outside alone. Even though I am a true blue introvert, there is just something about solo meals under the glaring eyes of the public that still slightly intimidates me. I mean, over the past few years, I have definitely grown to be more comfortable with hanging out with just myself. You know those quotes saying ‘Learn how to enjoy spending time with yourself, and you’ll never truly feel alone’? I remember treating that as my mantra for a period of time while I was still schooling haha. It’s the truth, right? It’s just like the saying ‘You must learn to love yourself before knowing how to love someone else.’ And all that jazz. You get my drift. Due to this little man called Anxiety which always exists within me, I googled for places to comfortably seek solitude during this scary thing called lunch hour . Crazy queues, hungry (ok, more like hangry) people crowding around, chionging and ch

It’s the end of Sunday. I looked at the clock, and was thinking to myself - damn, we are already 3 days in, out of 4 days of this long weekend. I remember starting the week on Monday, wishing it was already Friday. I kinda felt bad for feeling that. I mean, is that how my life is going to be? Looking forward to weekends? How can I possibly live my days fully if i were to only look forward to weekdays, and always wishing that weekdays would come to an end as quickly as possible? Sometimes i just have such thoughts floating in my head. Is life suppose to be this way? Switching the alarm clock off every 6:30am, snooze a little, jump out of bed, rush for the usual train/bus, look forward to lunch time, look forward to the end of the day, look forward to the end of the week. Spend Sundays dreading Mondays, and the whole cycle begins again. Am i not treasuring life enough? I am able-bodied, working in a cushy office job with a survivable pay, not having to worry about whether i would b

Hello there! It’s a short work week, and we are done with Monday! Decided to pop by this site to remind myself to not abandon it (yet). *sheepish smile*  Happy to have a long weekend ahead! Thank you National Day, and Hari Raya for blessing us on the same weekend.  Now I cant shake my mind off the 4-day weekend while I hustle through the week (and it is barely the start! Oops). Recently started on a popular book, This is what Inequality looks like, by Teo You Yenn. Trying to revive my reading habits these days, and attempted my first book reservation. Think it was $1.55? Past me would’ve never spent it, but current working adult me was like ‘$1.55?? Take it.’ Gladly exchanged my time taken to dig for the book with $$ haha. Is this what a time-deprived adult does? Buying convenience with money. Anyway, I’m currently halfway through the book and i love it. I love how the little essays within the book brings me through the eyes of the writer, as she visits these rental flats and not

I entered university when I was 19, fresh out of JC. Feeling like a toddler flung into the sea of pre-adulting, the world felt like an endless horizon of opportunities, which was both daunting and exciting at the same time. With this new stage of life which felt like a glimpse to adulthood, life was suddenly not just about uniforms, full on mugging and CCAs anymore. You were free to party, to gain more control of your young life, choose your own groups of friends and behave like an semi-adult. With the opportunity to stay in hall, I decided to try it out. I've been a homebody all my life, and staying at a hall presented a chance to step out of my comfort zone. But staying in hall meant fundsSs$s$ needed. So does food. And clothes. And going out. To fund all these, I was very fortunate to get bursaries, which helped cover a bit of my accoms. I also started to give tuition, which was the fastest way any undergrad could earn some money. I started exchanging a couple of hours

Hello! This post has been severely neglected, after my first post hahaha. Determined to not dump this site aside, I'm back! Decided to try to keep this blog up after scrolling Thefinance.sg, and found that there are very few finance blogs which are millennial-targeted, so whenever I spot one I'd be very excited HAHA. It's always nice to read about their journeys, and also relate to them well. knowing that someone else out there is also facing the same issues. It's kinda encouraging, y'know? Anyway, today's post is about the start of my journey towards my first $100k. Some background info (as mentioned in my first post), I'm a newbie who has been dipping my toes in the working world for the past 2.5ish years. Saving money has been my top priority ever since I started work, and I know for a fact that I do not have the calibre to have a high-flying job, which means that the only way to amass $ will really be through time and effort. When I started r