Rainbow on FI

Renovating your home is an exciting journey—but it can also feel overwhelming with so many decisions to make. From choosing the right materials to selecting colours, finishes, and fittings, each choice affects not only the look of your home but also how comfortable and practical it will be for everyday living. In this post I have compiled the selection tips for 6 key interior finishes that could make or break a functional, and beautiful home: Kitchen Countertop Materials Wall Paint Colours Flooring and Tiles Lighting Bathroom Sink Selection Blinds or Curtains By carefully thinking through each of these aspects, you can ensure your renovation results in money well spent. Selection of Kitchen Countertop Materials When choosing a kitchen countertop, it’s important to balance aesthetics, durability, and maintenance needs. Common materials include: Solid Surface $: Made from acrylic or polyester resins, solid surfaces are seamless and easy to maintain. They can be rep...

1. Not losing money and earning steadily in trading is when the stock prices are trending sideways or slowly trending.  2. Losing and winning a lot of money in trading is when the stocks prices are swinging wildly with long red or green candles. (That's great opportunity for day trading.) The latter needs Jedi mind power - astute and quick judgements (analytic skills) to act on the price actions, hedging if you must, and take profits off the table before you get caught with your pants down. Sometimes you do number 1 for too long until you get complacent. Then you forget how to react when number 2 happens. We need different strategies to ride different market conditions and steer away from speculation. --- We are in a pretty crazy hot market right now, where stocks, cryptocurrency and gold have sky rocketed in prices. When yields drop , we would expect bond prices to rise (it's a vice versa chicken & egg effect). Short term bonds e.g money market funds are no longer offer...

Usual tool and communication apps aside, here are 3 nifty apps that I enjoy using daily. The apps are easy to use and have clean navigation interfaces, good for folks like me who doesn't like complicated functions and ad spams. 1) Life Reminder   The top app that I have been using for years and even spent to get rid of pop-up ads is Life Reminder . Maybe I have been getting on in years and my memory tends to be failing me more often, having this app is a real life saver. Whenever I have an appointment, important matters that need follow up or any urgent chores, I would key into this app.  Under each reminder, I can also attach an image for reference, write notes and set a pre-alarm. I was amazed that it can even set actions like phone calls and SMS with the reminders. The reminders can also be set on an auto-repeat basis so I can easily get reminders on birthdays and anniversaries (besides marking them on calendar app which I will forget to check).  Present and past remin...

I am surprised and feeling wtf to find out today that my $100 Endowus fee reward will be expiring in October this year (rewards earned can be viewed under Earn rewards --> Track my rewards). I was expecting the fee reward to be able to offset any of my invested goals' fees, but apparently not.  On emailing Endowus, they simply slapped me with a reply that contains a link to their TnC. Paragraph 4 reads - Upon successfully registering for the promotion via the Promotional Link provided to you by Endowus and completion of the Qualifying Investment during the Promotion Period, a S$100 Endowus Fee credit (the “Reward”) will be distributed to your Endowus account by 24 January 2025. However, please note that the Reward will be valid for 6 months from the date of distribution of such Reward and will only be applied on or for investments made through your Endowus account using SRS. Great, now I know I can't use it for any of my other investment goals and got to watch it expires. FY...

This is a belated post as I finished moving some times ago and thought I would save some tips to remind myself the next time I move house. I have underestimated the gross amount of items that I have had and ended up needing 2 separate days of truck moving. I booked a Lalamove 10-ft truck with mover for the second big move as I don't need cartons nor wrapping for furniture. Lalamove was very efficient, the driver arrived early and moved all my storeroom items and remaining carton boxes with care despite the rainy weather. Here's my tips for house-moving / lessons learnt from mistakes: 1) Defrost your refrigerator If you have a layer of ice in your freezer compartment, do defrost it a day before and clean up the water. That would save you from having to clean up any leakage of water from a defrost during and after the move. 2) Turn off the tap of the washing machine and disconnect the water pipes Disconnect the tap connecting pipe and drain away the water prior to the move. If yo...

As updated in my previous post, I have finally bought my own place solo. For the past few months I have been busy coordinating with various contractors and vendors for my house renovation. As I am still on flexi work schedule, I decided to be my own ID. With only a simple renovation in mind, I set my reno budget as 20k (aircon & fixtures inclusive). The renovation process and acting as my own ID were not as easy as I thought. It took me about a month to gather and compare quotations from different contractors and another few weeks to finalize all the things that I need my chosen contractor to do. I eventually settled for a main contractor who specializes in carpentry work but also provides painting, tiling and electrical services. I have grossly underestimated the amount of defects that need fixing for this resale flat. Fortunately, the floor tiles and some of the existing built-ins are still in good condition so I kept them, otherwise I would have burst my budget. The first issue ...

2024 has been a relatively peaceful year. So peaceful that I have read countless novels and other books, met my sports buddies almost every weekend and picked up horticulture. Physical and mental health As we say, health is wealth. I have stuck fairly consistently with my exercise regime and tried to include more fruits and vegetables in my meals (although I eat out more and cook less these days). My weight, BP and cholesterol levels are doing ok. For those 40 years and above, remember to get your  subsidized health screenings from the government . Working less and meeting up with friends more contributed to an improved mental health. I see that the government has stepped up on initiatives in the community but work place initiatives from employers still seemed lackluster, especially for those who can't WFH and need to commit 44 hours or more a week at frontline work. I have also started a Gratitude journey to celebrate all my little life milestones. Financials Investment wise ...