Tag: t_jolt22

SG casinoIR: lifestyleCreep “endorsed”by LKY

Posted on by tiger40490

in https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/in-his-own-words-irs-needed-for-spore-to-keep-abreast-of-the-top-cities, LKY said

The old model on which I worked was to create a First World city in a Third World region – clean, green, efficient, pleasant, healthy and wholesome; safe and secure for everyone… Now we also have to be not just economically vibrant, but also an exciting, fascinating city to visit, with top-class symphony orchestras, concerts, dramas, plays, artists, singers and popular entertainment. These are lifestyles of international professionals and executives who locate in Singapore, working in multinational banks, finance houses and other MNCs… And we want those companies who manage entertainment troupes to include Singapore in their tour of cities around the world.

Q: Are these unnecessary finer things in life?
A: I think LKY would not approve his family members engaging in gambling, drugs, extravagance/decadence lifestyle etc. Those things would cross his baseline. However, he recognizes that many “international professionals and executives” have a high lifestyle. If put in his shoes, I would say there are many sides [wellness, reward/motivation, sustainability..] to this issue, but many of those finer things in life are “nothing wrong” by default.

The archetype of these “finer things in life” — high-end alcohol, tobacco, fancy (unhealthy) food, massage parlor,

satiation income_level=USD 75k #Newport,SunsetWay

Posted on by tiger40490

See also self-evaluation of life: CSASS

[[Thinking fast and slow ]] includes a whole chapter dedicated “experienced wellbeing”, including a very brief contrast against CSASS. P397 hypothesized that beyond the satiation level of income, you can buy more expensive (pleasurable) experiences, but you are likely to lose some abilities to enjoy the pleasures of a simple life.

Warning — “satiation level” is only in terms of experienced wellbeing [xpSelf, not rmSelf], and doesn’t even imply hard limits on long-term satisfaction, life chances, success (as defined in 4 ways).  This satiation is really about “savoring the moment“.

Kahneman reported that based on 450,000 (450k) responses from thousands of Americans, beyond the satiation level of $75k/Y household income (as of 2011, in high-cost US locations), experienced wellbeing (NOT the CSASS evaluation by the rmSelf) no longer increases. “The average increase of experienced well-being associated with incomes beyond that level was precisely zero.”

(Note in 2011 I happened to live in the U.S.)

This research is relatively new content in a book of well-researched contents. In a 2022 BBC radio program [[money, money, money: Value]], a Yale professor referenced some similar research.

— moving to Newport .. When we moved to Newport, something strange happened to our experienced well-being. My wife probably felt less well off than before, because every other young mother in the neighborhood was better off in terms of education, English, earning capacity, perhaps dressing. Newport feels young, cosmopolitan, and smells affluent. Perhaps she felt not belonging there. I remember visiting my ex-schoolmate HY.Cai in Newport…

There’s another “reason”. The “more expensive experience” refers to the affluent location including clean streets + landscaping (see other blogpost). This enhanced our experienced wellbeing. But I guess we also lost some abilities to enjoy some simple pleasures of life, like cooking, going to a small neighborhood park.

— Similar experience: PandanValley vs SunsetWay/Clementi .. I remember my first visits to SunsetWay (more intense at Clementi).

At SunsetWay, a typical HDB estate, I was able to enjoy some simple pleasures of life like

  • more variety of hawker food, compared to PandanValley
  • cheaper goods in provisions shops, compared to PandanValley
  • much shorter walk to public transport, compared to PandanValley, and easier to reach MRT or Clementi town

— rural HDB estates.. locations unpopular with the affluent. Places like CCK, Yishun, Woodlands further out from MRT. Or perhaps older estates in TPY-Bishan-AMK.

asset%allocation: imprecise snap=best #eq

Posted on by tiger40490

I got this question every year since my 30’s. Now I think I spend too much time tracking it.

Q: what is your percentage asset allocation (based on book value)?

  • Unless it’s is “1”, one significant figure is sufficient for most purposes and fairly stable.
  • I think three significant figures are unwanted and often a distraction.
  • — Here’s my family’s allocation profile, excluding CPF balances which I don’t track
  • 80% in properties
  • 15%+ in SGD (and USD) cash-equivalents including short-duration bonds
  • 2% in HY/PE
  • 5% eq: SGX + Robinhood + SG/US mufu + 401k (includes some amount of bonds), including SRS

Q: Is the eq portion too low by conventional standard?
A: I don’t care so much about conventional standard. I did experiment with higher eq allocation, using FSM as a laboratory…

buy+!oth #wife网购

Posted on by tiger40490

 

many purchases were bought-without-OTh but the rmSelf would inevitably become critical, and with guilt we will remember the purchase as a failure. Out of sight, out of mind… I would feel less guilt if I get rid of the physical objects.

creep/ctbz/guilt^buy+!oth .. Harmony and reconciliation between two conflicting directives can lead to a revelation and (personal) growth. There is a related case of reconciliation — frugal indulgence ^ ctbz

— keeping track ..
Related to “merchandize return”, another major tcost and stressor is keeping track of “stuff bought and disused long ago”.

When I lose such an item (perhaps at home or discarded), and have to buy again, I feel an acute self-hate, but this self-hate goes against use-without-care

For example, I removed the red pedestal pair from my bike after boy stopped using them. I kept them at home for a few years and discarded them. Then my daughter needed them so I had to buy online. Actually I did all the right things so regret is not justified.

— Directive 1: Below are SMS for many relatively small purchases. I invented these SMS’s more than 5 years ago. They are still valid.

  • use ….. without care
  • discard without guilt
  • buy ….. without oth
  • buy ….. without fear (of guilt, regret)

— Directive 2: ctbz@small spends

ctbz is my traditional strength in burn rate control. However, $2 wasted spend in Daiso .. is to be tolerated, given my nonwork incomes. Buy without oth, discard without guilt… Sounds like lifestyle creep !

Q: Will these spends accumulate beyond $1000/Y?
A: I doubt it. ctbz in this case can be ineffective. My due diligence (System 2) is sometimes too slow before spending such small amounts.

Over the years, Let’s record 10 – 20 small wasted spends (below $10) so as to calibrate System 1:

  • bicycle seat (boy) and helmet (meimei)
  • small paper punch (boy)
  • long cloth  hangers
  • Note: fancy indulgence/luxury foods (or consumables like battery) are never “wasted” esp. if eaten with pleasure
  • extra laptop .. now I feel a _burden_ to use it once a while to avoid disuse->oxidation
  • badminton net .. luckily, I didn’t make the buying decision.

Toilet blue flush .. I used to think this is unnecessary lifestyle creep. Now I think it can
* reduce water consuption because wife (and I) will not “flush again” when the blue conceals the light-yellow. Half flush never worked with my wife.
* reduce conflict with my wife

— How about wife’s online shopp habit? She bought many small furniture items (often non-durable models), used each for about a year and discarded them (regardless of damage) when she buys a replacement.

Beyond furniture, many of her purchases are decorative so she enjoys “churn”.

I think her practice is “buy without oth and discard without guilt“.

##low-cost pain relieves #counsel`@chen2mi2

Posted on by tiger40490

How about mesh router? Sounds like creep.

How about Bata sandals as a pain relief? Depends on durability.

see also

“low-cost” is subjective (No debate please.) but Indisputable value-for-money.

  1. — half-ranked by impact and value of the pain-relief
  2. eg: dhost.. relieving those countless pains on the free wordpress.com site
  3. eg: small laptop with git-blogg .. without it I couldn’t work on my active ideas. A kind of pain.
  4. eg: 2-printer lifestyle, with plenty of paper + spare cartridge
  5. eg: standing desk .. often feels very comfortable. Therefore I call it a pain relief.
  6. eg: powerline networking .. relieving pain of wifi dead zone
  7. eg: $10 LED lamp .. relieving pain of power sockets + heat from a table lamp

Items below are medium-cost pain relieves.. not really belonging to this blogpost.

  1. eg: counselling on chen2mi2?
  2. ElderShield

The rest of this blogpost are extensions of the theme.

— Sophia Cui said cars are real pain relieves even in SG. I don’t understand it, but she  has freedom to spend her own money. Not low-cost enough to be a lifestyle creep.
— I asked Umesh why his stay-home wife needs a maid, when his 67-year-old mom can help with childcare. I liked his detailed answers.  I think old habits are the biggest obstacle, if someone in his shoes really wants change (i.e. remove helper). Many families similar to his could make do without maids.

One old habit is home-cooking-as-default. His mom is possibly rather old for a change in this habit, though some grandmas do change.

I guess the #1 decision maker is likely the wife (rather than husband or mother-in-law). Without the maid, the wife would take on most of the workload. Attitude and perception is possibly the key (difference from my wife). She actually worked for a while before having first baby, and after the baby girl grew bigger. She was possibly less used to stay-home-mom lifestyle than other Indian housewives.

— creep? Lifestyle_creep is a vague concept. This blogpost provides valuable clarification using sharp examples.
Jolt: dhost is a great example. I couldn’t afford it in my younger years.
Jolt: 2-printer does sound like unnecessary luxury, but so did powerline when first deployed
(jolt: two-car family sounds like creep, but so do my multiple laptops, but this jolt doesn’t belong to this blogpost.)

Q: What specific criteria disqualify dhost as lifestyle creep?

  • criterion: total hours saved (less measurable than $cost)
  • .. total annual cost is not really a criteria per se but a crucial factor
  • criterion: In hindsight, do you see it as wasted spend or overpriced product?

HDB rental demand: decline over50Y #Zeng+Felicia

Posted on by tiger40490

— Felicia cautioned me .. HDB rental demand from foreigners could fluctuate in the long run. In the U.S. rental market, half the tenants are local Americans. Singapore rental market is more dependent on foreigners (high home ownership rate), so she sees more risk in my HDB rental model.

Why hold on so tight even after relocation to U.S.?
* low maintenance
* valuation volatility managed by PAP

When I explained to her why I won’t sell my HDB even while I’m settled in the U.S., I realized my deep bias and sky-high confidence in the PAP and SG economy. Over the long term, my confidence would be put to the test. Compared to China, U.S. and SEAsia, I still feel far more confident about SG HDB property. This is a heavy bias, not based on enough data. Once I live through and understand U.S. rental property risks, I might conclude that SG rental market is low maintenance but low yield and not-so-stable.

— Sheng.Zeng’s views:

  • The entire SG economy has traditionally relied on foreign workers. If you worry about HDB rental demand till 2064 (age 90), then you have bigger things to worry about, including SGD strength, CPI inflation, medical inflation, cpfLife… all of which are more impactful than HDB rental yield.
  • Q1: Why must you keep the HDB flat? Legacy? I now feel leasehold is not the best form.
  • Q2: What do you need the rental income for, exactly? If for a modest retirement [CRBR $3k] you don’t need this income, then no real worries about “decline”! If the decline represents a sub-optimal return, then there are many sub-optimal returns in my career.
  • Now I think 50/50 chance I would treasure this “extra” disposable income. In that case we can consider various ways to cash out. Lease buy-back or downgrade to a smaller home
  • Jolt: So taking a step back, the preoccupation with HDB rental yield is perhaps a self-imposed, /hallucinatory/ dependency. My retirement doesn’t depend on it .. Zeng’s wisdom.

[21]OC Felicia discussion: HDB rental, eqMufu

Posted on by tiger40490

Main topics of the Felicia discussion: HDB purchase; eqMufu

— diversify .. I told Felicia I’m well-diversified but my concentration in property is too high to be comfortable.
Bonds .. only bond mufu. Bonds are a reliable, popular, useful asset class to consider. Remember the K.Hu discussion?
China .. not a lot of geographical allocation except the Beijing property. I think eqMufu is a reasonable idea.

— Felicia thinks net rental yield of 3-4% is not very high. eqMufu can beat that. In U.S. market I favor MOETF. In SG, without converting my excess SGD, I may need to be more serious about more eqMufu.

With caution against “100% into eqMufu” she pointed out that DIVA has generated 10% annualized return since inception. This is the fund manager’s claim, not her claim, she said. She’s personally very confident about DIVA, based on trec. I believe since inception, probably 3 years out of every 10 had negative returns.

Over the next 50 years, I believe SP500 would outperform most eqMufu including DIVA.

##NNIA=NET nonwork income from asset

Posted on by tiger40490

— The NNIA concept .. Non-work incomes can come from gov, pension/annuities, adult children, inheritance, cut-loss sales,,, NNIA is about income from productive assets.

However, negative incomes (i.e. expenses) are more overlooked and deserve more attention than the positive income. Better list the expenses on top.

Jolt: Whether you like it or not, the reality is, the expenses are the rent you pay to hold the “cash-cows” generating the payout.

An income stream from an asset may require periodic “work” such as maintenance. I guess it could be a BBB or RRRR type… see ##pff complexities]old age . IFF the workload is too demanding, then it would not be nonwork income. Eg: managing a “hotel” of rental properties.

— Components of (usually monthly or quarterly) nonwork net income from asset:

  • -ve mortgage + rEstate tax
  • -ve HOA — $0 for some SFH or MFH
  • -ve other haircuts on GNRY
  • -ve holding cost of gold
  • -ve trailer fees
  • -ve income taxes on realized gains
  • cash dividends
  • cpf-life payout
  • .. CPF interest is not cash payout. Instead, it’s similar to the theoretical accrual of reference value in AllianzIncomeProtector.