April

I can't believe it, April 2012 is almost over! April is Spring, is the start of a fiscal year at work, is the start of N's school term and also the start of hubby's new post at work. Finally after 6 months of "political turmoil", his direct boss has been sacked and he has secured a position with a much bigger portfolio but a not so much bigger salary package. Anyway, the increment is good enough for us now. We have given up the dream of buying a bigger apartment anyway...

We have instead replaced our 8 years old Mazda 3 with a BMW 523i  despite the crazy COE prices. There is no best time to buy a car in Singapore, I believe that the COE will not come down and I am not willing to wait. The public transport system is getting worse with the frequent breakdowns and disruptions. I know it's kind of extravagant for us to have 2 cars and surely we can have better use for our money...but life is short, we have to try everything once and so we went ahead. We may later replace the 125i with something more fun and slightly cheaper.

Oh, and we signed up for Yoga classes at Platinum Yoga and will start going for classes tomorrow. Anyway, the reason I insisted that we start yoga again is that I feel that my body is getting really stiff and I am easily tired. I think practicing yoga will help to eliminate aches in my body and also help improve my stamina. Am really looking forward to the classes. We have paid for 10 months of unlimited yoga classes and I sure hope that the school won't close down anytime before that!

A reply from CEO of J.P. Morgan to a pretty girl seeking a rich husband

A reply from CEO of J.P. Morgan to a pretty girl seeking a rich husband

I read this from a friend's sharing on facebook and I found it really intriguing so I decide to share it here on my blog....

 A young and pretty lady posted this on a popular forum:

Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?

...
I'm going to be honest of what I'm going to say here.

I'm 25 this year. I'm very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above.

You might say that I'm greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York.

My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married?

I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you?

Among those I've dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit.

If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York City Garden(?), $250k annual income is not enough.

I'm here humbly to ask a few questions:
1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2) Which age group should I target?
3) Why most wives of the riches are only average-looking? I've met a few girls who don't have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys.

4) How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)

Ms. Pretty 

A philosophical reply from CEO of J.P. Morgan:  

 Dear Ms. Pretty,
I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyse your situation as a professional investor.

My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I'm not wasting time here.

From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain.

Put the details aside, what you're trying to do is an exchange of "beauty" and "money" : Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square.

However, there's a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can't be prettier year after year.

Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It's not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worse 10 years later.

By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a "trading position".
If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term - same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or "leased".

Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income.This has better chance than finding a rich fool.

Hope this reply helps.

signed,
J.P. Morgan CEO

I wonder if this is a true incident but nevertheless what this CEO had written is indeed very true. Many young and pretty girls out there who are seeking or dreaming about marrying a rich husband are actually thinking of trading their beauty for money but beauty is only skin deep and it will definitely deteriorate with time. And no amount of money can buy you beauty forever! Strangely, I have never thought about marrying a rich guy, not when I was young and definitely not now since I am already in no trading position. Well, I hope my own daughter will learn to depend on herself too.

10 years on...

How time flies! I have worked for this company for 10 years! Exactly 10 years ago yesterday, I joined the Singapore branch office as the Accounting Manager for the Euro-American Sales Division. 5 months later, they promoted me to Senior Manager of Admin and made me in charged of all the Admin matters including HR, payroll, accounts, IT and warehouse. Then another 8 months later, both the Admin Divisions of the Japanese Sales Division and Euro-American Sales Division merged and I was asked to look after the warehouse as HQ was deploying a global ERP and warehouse management system and they needed someone with very strong Japanese fluency to coordinate with the Japanese staff in HQ. I had no prior warehouse management experience at all! I didn't know what was required of me but I needed the job badly, I was a single mother with 2 young kids and a mother to feed, so I took on the challenge gritting my teeth. Anyway, although it was really tough implementing the system, I gained quite a lot in terms of job knowledge and recognition. So today I am made to be the consultant to a total of 6 warehouses in Asia.

To actually think about it, it was also because of taking up position at the warehouse that I met my present husband. :) I was given the option to employ another preferably Japanese-speaking staff with more computer knowledge to assist me with the system implementation. I still remember vividly on the day of the interview, I stepped into office seeing this handsome guy sitting at the reception area and jokingly commented to the receptionist that I like this one! After interviewing 2 other candidates who were total disappointments, I was looking forward to meeting this handsome guy! However, I was shocked to find out that he had left after the first interview conducted by the HR and Admin Manager! The receptionist quickly called him on his mobile and asked him to come back for interview with me and the rest just fell into places...

10 years later, from being a single mother with 2 kids struggling to make ends meet, I am happily married with 3 kids, 2 dogs, 2 private apartments, 2 cars and a post-graduate degree under my name! And hubby and I are looking into investing in some businesses to get ourselves out of the rat race sooner by increasing our passive income. I hope in another 10 years, I can retire and travel around the world in style!

Baby J is ONE!

Baby J @ 1 year old

It was baby J's 1st birthday according to the Lunar calendar yesterday and it also coincided with a Chinese deity's birthday (大伯公), so we went to a charity dinner in honor of him. Now at 1 year old, baby J is walking and almost running, babbling words such as "mama" which can either be referring to me or his grandma, "mum mum" which means he wants to eat whatever we are eating, "nan nan" which means he wants a bottle of milk and plenty of "woos" and "ahhs" and "bahs" which I have not figured out what they are.

Physically he is of normal weight and height, very close to the 50th percentile mark. But I think he's kind of a fast developer in terms of his mobility skills and also verbal skills. Both his big sister and brother didn't walk or babble words as early as he did and many other mothers are commenting that he is really fast, so I guess he is. Sometimes I think he's growing too fast! I kind of miss him when he was still suckling at my breasts and let me craddle him in my arms. I miss the special smell that only breast-feeding babies have and also the times when we both lied on my bed and he would suck at my breast until we both fell asleep. I felt so blissful!

Baby J's 1st overseas trip!

Baby J so happy to be on his 1st flight!

Hubby and baby J came along with me to Hong Kong on my business trip and we stayed over the weekend to meet up with friends. We took the early morning flight and had to grab baby J out of his cot and went on a taxi to the airport at 6am. He was still rather sleepy but he was such a good boy, no tantrums and no crying all the way to HK. I think he must have got used to the flying while in my tummy and thank God, the flight was relatively smooth despite us sitting at the back.

While I was at work, hubby had baby J all to himself and I guess he must have spent some good quality time with his baby. Then on Saturday while hubby was at his Beta Gamma Sigma Induction Ceremony at HKUST, baby J and I had a lunch date at the UC Bistro next to the hall. He was such a charming baby, the waitress couldn't stop playing with him and teasing him. Most of Ian's friends were also charmed by baby J and granduncle Leung was over the top happy to meet him too. Especially when he did the "kungxi kungxi" gesture and the "bye-bye" gesture. Over all despite not being able to shop much, it was a good trip with baby. I think we can do more trips with him again soon!

One thing new in HK was the "lo hei" aka Yusheng that the Maxim group of Chinese restaurants were promoting now. It's the first time that the Singapore tradition of eating Yusheng made its way into HK and we tried it of course! The salmon slices were thicker and more generous but the vegetables were cut a little too thick and they added some new vegetables not usually used in Singapore such as the purple cabbage.

Lo Hei in HK

Happy Dragon Year!

Happy Dragon Year!

Chinese New Year arrived really early this year! Slightly less than 1 month after Christmas and exactly one week after my birthday. We have so much fun and joy celebrating all the festivities this year with baby J! He was the little Santa and now he is the little Chinese emperor in this traditional Chinese costume. :)

I have gone crazy and bought 5 cheongsam for this Chinese New Year and have worn 2 pieces of it so far. I think I look good, not great but good enough and I am happy with it. I have stopped hoping that I will go back to my old size and opt to buy new dresses in new sizes. I think I will not go for another round of cool sculpting...let's not waste money. With me and my hubby's love for good food, I doubt I can slim down any further even with cool sculpting. So WTH! Happy New Year!

2012 - How will it be?

2012 got off on a rather good note for us, I think. Hubby will get his confirmation plus promotion this month and we are hoping that he will get a good package since he will be holding dual roles. My dream of retiring in 10~15 years may really come true sooner than I think? But what shall I do if I retire? I don't really know. Who knows what holds for us in the future anyway? I am happy for hubby and for what I have right now. Sometimes I get a little paranoid though...afraid that whatever I have now will be taken away from me...afraid that I can't be that lucky, afraid that I may use up my luck soon...Can luck be used up? It's crazy, I know...It's this fear that stopped me from buying that brand new BMW 520i and the Chanel handbag that I have been eyeing...Maybe I am just being rational, maybe it's just that I don't need another car yet and I definitely don't need a Chanel handbag. I am happy with a Prada.

Nevertheless, we will be looking for another car to replace our Mazda 3 soon as it is already coming to 8 years old this August. The 6th generation BMW 3 series will be launching in Singapore in February and we like the sport line version we saw on YouTube and if the price is right, we might get it? Another option for us is to get another pre-owned BMW, maybe a X5 or something, if the promotion coming this weekend is good. And that salesman from Audi has been contacting me since I tested the A6...we are spoilt on choices and the COE is coming down! Oh well...no hurry.

I will turn 41 this month and it's kind of scary...I remember I used to think that 40 something is old...Gosh! If I live to 80 years old which is approximately the average life span of women nowadays, I have already used up 50% of my time! I really have to plan well for the rest of my life and don't waste it anymore! Not that I have wasted my life so far, I think I have accomplished quite a lot considering that I already have 3 kids, 2 degrees and a well-paying job. The job part can improve though...I feel that I am rotting in my job...there is no challenge and nothing new to learn...I am not in top management and I don't get a chance to make any kind of decisions...Whatever I studied will only go to waste here in this job. *SIGH*

Hubby will be embarking into his career in his new roles, N will be attending Poly, D in Secondary 2 and baby J will turn 1. It will be an important year for all of them. Maybe I should just retreat into the background and play a supportive role to all of them instead. I don't need to embark on a new career, I don't need to be doing anything challenging, I am a wife and a mother, my hubby and my children should be the main focus of my life right now, not my job.

So for 2012, my resolution is to be a better wife and mother, to spend more time enjoying life with my family in various ways that we all enjoy.