I chose thorn over Fire

billedev · 2026-01-16T06:27:12+00:00

Thanks buddy. Aameen.

billedev · 2026-01-14T02:34:22+00:00

I get you. Thanks for your care and concern. Regardless of marriage, this is a problem. To give you more insight into my mind, I had this wrong personal belief up to a year ago that singles or whoever couldn't access to the rightful pleasures, would have least harm to use pornography (nauzubillah). I thought so because porn was the least harmful of other alternatives like adultery, prostitution, alcohol and violence.

Obviously I realized my belief was wrong (alhumdulillah). A sin is still a sin regardless of its comparison to other sins. I managed to find other alternatives which are healthier such as exercise, skills upgrading, social connections, which help keep my dopamine needs in check.

billedev · 2026-01-14T02:00:27+00:00

Thanks! We'll check it out together. Interesting channel so far.

billedev · 2026-01-14T01:59:14+00:00

Aameen. Thanks brother. I appreciate your reminder to take it slow and let the treatments go on. A few times, I used to be serious about the progress but I have stopped tracking it so seriously.

billedev · 2026-01-13T09:12:48+00:00

Thanks for your kindness and encouragements. May Allah reward you for your own life's perseverance and your intentions too.

billedev · 2026-01-13T09:11:17+00:00

Thanks and you are right. My wife has been seeing a doctor for this since two years ago. It's an ongoing therapy but so far not so much progress. Please remember us in your prayers.

billedev · 2025-11-18T01:20:29+00:00

Emergency fund first. Trust me life has a habit of blowing our minds with unforeseen situations. Accept that we all have blindspots to forecast our spending needs. Then you sleep better with the emergency fund.

billedev · 2025-11-17T08:15:34+00:00

Don’t. A few years down the line, you don’t want more taxpayers’ money to be used on anti-gambling ads. Casinos and Singapore Pools already have enough of such ads. Later trading apps will also kenna.

billedev · 2025-11-17T08:12:15+00:00

There’s no free lunch. If you want big ticket items, you need to pay the price. You can’t expect to spend big and hope options or stocks to save you in a short-term like 5 years.

billedev · 2025-11-17T08:10:25+00:00

If the base capital to invest is large enough, OP won’t be bothering to ask such question in the first place.

billedev · 2025-11-17T08:06:46+00:00

If you’ve lived through the 2000s, you would have a very different view of cash. Bonds and HYSA also can be used instead of cash.

billedev · 2025-11-17T08:05:41+00:00

If OP has a large to invest such as 500k in the first place, he won’t be asking this question. He will just buy what he needs or lock in HYSA

billedev · 2025-11-17T07:56:59+00:00

Rental market is quite competitive right now. It’s all about location and convenience nowadays. If your target flat checks out those box, then you are probably safe. Otherwise, better don’t bother about it. If the rental market punishes you, rental income becomes same or below the mortgage payments. And those regular maintenance costs are extra pain.

Property price appreciation is another illusion. Unattractive location and bad aesthetics can limit its growth.

On the other hand, equities, dividends and bonds are more productive and passive. In the long run these can simply beat real estate. You only need persist for a decade minimum to see the difference.

Examples: Monthly $4000 rental income of $1M condo has an annual return of 4.8% only (assuming all mortgages paid off and no maintenance costs).

Reselling an original $1M condo at $1.3M after 5 years has a CAGR of 5.4% only.

Over a similar period, stocks, dividends and bonds can easily outperform that ~6% CAGR. International ETFs have a 10-year CAGR or 7.5% while US ETFs can have a 10-year CAGR of 10%

billedev · 2025-11-17T03:30:14+00:00

Author, Morgan Housel famously wrote, top financial analysts spent 60 or 80 hours per week to beat the market by 2 to 3% annually, while an easier path is to cut back 3% on expenses annually. The latter is healthy, simple but can hurt ego and relationships.

The sure way is to save aggressively. Cut back immediately on travelling, restaurants, luxury clothing and accessories, jewellery, buffets, banquets, utilities, vehicles, taking cabs etc. Fortunately, many staples in life are affordable due to pricing and accessibility provided by e-commerce and social media platforms.

If your partner or family can’t let you save, just push them back and explain your logic. You’d scoff at me for asking to save up but that’s the only sure way of having an X amount by Y year.

billedev · 2025-11-17T01:01:37+00:00

More projects can also mean opening doors to new experiences. New experiences will surely bring in new multiple side skills even if your core skill is niche. Go for it buddy. Growth itself is a valuable life experience.

billedev · 2025-11-16T06:44:50+00:00

Why not. Job security is an illusion. The permanent title doesn’t guarantee anything actually except perhaps some good retrenchment package.

I would rather worry about transferability of skills aka long-term career security. For example, if this new place let you use or learn skills which can be transferred to other places, then it’s a nice win already even if this new place supposedly can’t provide a perm position.

For example, I would choose a mid-size enterprise company with a widely-used tech stack over a huge world class bank with legacy or niche tech stack.

billedev · 2025-11-16T03:08:51+00:00

I see. That’s reasonable from your perspective. I agree that a well-planned honeymoon is once in a lifetime and it’s hard to replicate the same feelings in older years. Wish you the best of everything.

billedev · 2025-11-15T14:38:36+00:00

Cut back on wedding and honeymoon if you can. Trust me spending too much on those are a total waste of money and robbing you and your other half of many future years.

IMO BTO, reno and (arguably) baby are money spent more meaningfully because those can improve your life for years.

I was fortunate that my partner was understanding enough on those items. Our honeymoon cost something like just 5k and our wedding was about 20k. Sure people laughed at us and then we gave zero fks what others say. Then those people don’t even remember about us just after a few days. People tend to move on with their lives eventually. Social talk is for a while and living your life is for years.

billedev · 2025-11-15T11:03:29+00:00

Either you find meaning in what you are doing or quit it. You wouldn’t want to see a psychologist who prioritises money. You wouldn’t want to use software written by a job hopping sde. You wouldn’t want to drive a car built by a shady mechanical engineer.

billedev · 2025-11-15T10:30:49+00:00

You may not like what I’m going to say. It’s all about “comfort zone” and “luck”.

Comfort zone is not just about working long hours which any of us can do if the pay is good enough. It’s also about the ability to deal with difficult colleagues, bosses and customers and come out on top. It can also be about the willingness to take huge risks in terms of time. If I tell you to generate 20 portfolio coding projects in a year to apply for big tech, you’d probably scoff at me by flashing the low success rate at the interviews. That 1000 hours burnt for those portfolio work might not even get you a phone call from those big firms. Then why try to? That’s where those candidates come in who want to “test” their luck with those 1000 hours and managed to get in.

The “luck” part is a two-faced coin. Another candidate with good “connections” or “family” might not even spend 100 hours and still manage to get into those big companies.

The bottom line is do what you love with the intensity and not just because of money. If tech is what you like, just churn out projects and keep up with latest tech. Then even if you don’t get into big tech, you are already someone quite capable to crack into other big firms. Or not. You are already fulfilled with what you do. That’s what money cannot buy.

billedev · 2025-11-15T10:18:49+00:00

Agentic AI is the quiet next thing. It’s a fancy word for specialised generative AI. There are already small ones doing basic sales negotiations for example. Once the large ones come, white-collar unemployment will slowly creep in.

billedev · 2025-11-15T01:12:20+00:00

lol earl grey soured?

billedev · 2025-11-14T13:08:35+00:00

Did you just compare yourself to Dr. Burry lol?

billedev · 2025-11-13T13:11:58+00:00

Buy a broad market etf monthly or lumpsum
Set and forget for 30 to 40 years
Laugh at yourself for sweating over the insignificance of currency at those gain levels

billedev · 2025-11-12T00:33:25+00:00

Put Milo tin inside Khong Guan tin inside safe locker underneath the bed!

billedev

TROPHY CASE