~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

This post is just for personal reference, to record my personal income and expenses in my journey towards Barista FIRE. For the month of May, nothing special happened.  It was just a normal month, with normal expenses.  I am glad I made time to return to Johor, to treat my mum and aunts to a simple Mother's Day lunch at My KOL cafe, which is quite famous for their curry.  Indeed, it was a great meal, and I personally loved every bit of the curry.  My mum and aunts also gave favorable feedback for this meal.   My KOL Cafe Curry Chicken Kway Teow Back to reality, expenses this month has been normal, with some surplus where I will need to save up for year end insurance payments.  There one additional cost of SGD 200.00 this month, due to the administrative fees for my mortgage repricing.  Starting next month, I get to save about SGD 200.00 per month for my mortgage instalments, so this is definitely good news.  How to spend this SGD 200.00 is still u...

In early 2026, the headlines in Singapore and abroad feel like a broken record.  Whether it was tech giants "right-sizing" or traditional industries grappling with high costs, retrenchment has moved from a distant possibility to a local reality.  This is exacerbated with rising oil prices and this creates immense operating pressure for many businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs).  Even in the Prime Minister's May Day speech, Mr Lawrence Wong noted that AI will change jobs, and inevitable make some jobs disappear.   As such, even in Singapore associated with stability, job security no longer feels like a given, especially for a non-citizen like myself.  Yet, in the midst of this uncertainty, I find myself in a position I did not fully appreciate until now.  I am not fearless, but I am far less afraid. The 8-Year Pivot This year marks my transition into Phase 1 of my Barista FIRE journey.  It was not an overnight achievement, ...

This post is just for personal reference, to record my personal income and expenses in my journey towards Barista FIRE. For the month of April, I am pleased to have fulfilled my wish of bringing my mum on a holiday via Business Class , to South Korea , where we have not been before.  It was a memorable vacation, where we experienced many first times.  First business class experience, first trip to South Korea, first time seeing blooming cherry blossoms all over the place and even along the streets, just to mention a few.  Overall it was great and I am already thinking about the next adventure. Back to reality, expenses this month has been low, partly because the costs of the trip had been accounted for in earlier months, so expenses this month was rather low, allowing me to keep way within budget with surplus.   In addition, I have also successfully repriced my mortgage loan for my Singapore property, and refinanced my Malaysia property, to lower interest rates....

This is my fourth trip travelling out of ASEAN region, where I have to plan every bit of the itinerary myself (the first was back in May 2024 where me and my mum travelled together to  Japan , the second was back in November 2024 where me and my mum travelled together to  Hangzhou and Suzhou in China, and the third was back in November 2025 where me and my mum travelled together to ZhangJiaJie and Guangzhou in China).  With these prior experiences, I am less concerned and worried about what to plan for our itinerary this time round, as I would have roughly known what my mum would like to experience, and hence what to include and what to exclude in the planning.  This is the first time we are travelling during peak season to see cherry blossoms, thus it will be a trip highly dependent on luck to see if we get lucky to view full bloom.  In addition, this is also the first time we get to experience Singapore Airlines Business Class travel for single trip, which i...

There are some journeys in life that feel extra special, not just because of the destination, but because of the experience along the way.  This upcoming trip to South Korea with my mum is exactly that.  Not only are we looking forward to the beautiful scenery (praying hard for cherry blossom views), food, and moments together, but this trip also marks our very first time (and quite possibly our last one) flying Singapore Airlines Business Class. What makes it even more meaningful is that this was not something I casually booked.  It took careful planning, miles accumulation , and a bit of strategy.  I got to say I am not a great miles player, as my miles accumulation journey was far from optimized, and thus resulted quite a bit in lifestyle inflation.  Thus I decided to end the accumulation phase earlier, and in the end, I only managed to accumulate and hence redeem enough miles for a one-way Business Class flight from Singapore to Seoul for both of us.  ...

This post is just for personal reference, to record my personal income and expenses in my journey towards Barista FIRE. For the month of March, I believe this is a better reflection of my average monthly expenses from the quarterly spending, due to the maintenance fees and sinking funds that are paid only once per quarter.  Spending this month is more than income, but from a quarterly perspective, it is still positive overall.  Seems like I am in the right direction after all. This month's miscellaneous spending is a little high due to preparations for my upcoming trip with my mum.  Definitely excited about the trip, and hopefully it will create more wonderful memories for us.  Barista FIRE, here I come...!

As someone who has spent years building an investment portfolio in Singapore, I finally made an important financial move to open a Malaysian investment account with FSMOne Malaysia.  Starting in the second quarter of 2026, I plan to begin a new investment journey focused on Malaysian dividend stocks.  This decision is not just about diversification, it is also about currency strategy, retirement planning, and income stability. Why I Am Investing in Malaysia Instead of US Market Retirement Plans in Johor Bahru Although I currently work and invest in Singapore, I am Malaysian and intend to retire in Johor Bahru in the future.  As such, my retirement expenses will likely be denominated in Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) and building a dividend investment portfolio that generates MYR income makes perfect sense.  Instead of the need to constantly converting Singapore Dollars (SGD) to MYR and inevitably worry about the foreign exchange rate, I can rely on dividends paid by Ma...

This post is just for personal reference, to record my personal income and expenses in my journey towards Barista FIRE. For the month of February, I am pleased that I have survived another month with surplus.  As this month coincides with Chinese New Year, I get some "Ang Bao" money, and I also prepared small "Ang Bao" for the elders in my family, recorded under "Miscellaneous Spending".  This is the time of the year where I am able to gather with my extended family and enjoy meals with them, because tutoring means I am usually busy on weekends and I seldom see my relatives.  It is definitely a blessing that I can have an enjoyable reunion dinner with them.   Great Spread For Reunion Dinner This month I went for a movie treat to watch "镖人", which I thought was a fantastic action movie, but somehow lacking in storyline.  Nonetheless it was an enjoyable movie. Nice Movie! Besides miscellaneous spending, "Fixed Spending" remains my larg...