Here are my monthly financials for August 2022.
Top 3 Income Sources
Government Grants – S$700
This is from the GST payout. I finally got my first GST payout despite not working since 2020.
Interest – S$183.05
This is made up of the coupon payments from Singapore Savings Bond and interest from Singlife and Dash PET.
SSB allocation has been tight as they are oversubscribed. Once I managed to convert the rest of my cash on hand into SSB, I will be redeeming all of my Singlife and Dash PET to convert them into SSBs.
Merch Sales – S$92
I received US$68.02 worth of commissions from selling merch on TeePublic and Redbubble. If you like to find out more about selling merch, you can look at an article I wrote here.
Top 3 Expense Sources
Investment – S$200
S$200 of it is my monthly DCA into STI ETF using POSB Invest-saver.
Groceries – S$147.75
This is from buying groceries from Sheng Siong and NTUC. This is significantly higher as I bought more meat to boost my protein intake.
Allowance – S$119
I bought some exercise clothes from Decathlon and topped up my mother’s EZ Link card.
CLL’s Infrequently Curated Videos
Crime Watch – Scam Alert: Fake Friend 20:30 onwards
I want to specially highlight this scam as I received a similar call. The scammer will pretend to be your friend and then make you guess who are they. Once you manage to list out a name, they will latch onto it and pretend that they have changed their number and ask you to save their number. Next time they contact you, they will start borrowing money from you. The amount might be so inconsequential (e.g. a few hundred dollars) that you might just help them. You can meet up with that friend to make sure that you are lending money to the right person or alternatively, try not to pick up unknown numbers if you can help it.
According to this article on Mothership, over 1,000 victims have lost more than S$4 million to these bastards.
Crimewatch might be cringey at times but it really does a good job at spreading awareness about scams and crimes. Do tell your friends and families about scams to better protect everyone. A lot of scams can be prevented if we are aware of them.
The Biggest LIE about Japan
There are many stereotypes of the Japanese culture based on the media we consume. The media likes to highlight facts that are click-worthy which leads to the stereotypes. In the video, the host is a foreigner living in Japan and he will walk through the various stereotypes and debunk them.
The Food Pitfalls Of Losing Fat
This video is about the various trap cards when one is trying to lose weight. This is the last video of a video playlist of 8 episodes on everything about losing fat.
We all know that we got to eat “healthy” to lose weight however, we might have some misconceptions on what is healthy or not. This video is in Mandarin so I will summarize the points below.
- Unconsciously snacking
- Hidden fats in hotpot meat slices
- Animal skin is actually mostly fat and not collagen
- Using organ meat as protein source
- Fats in processed meats
- Fats in vegetable stir fry
- Alcohol caloric content and metabolic hijacking
- Sugary drinks
Which Vegan Protein Powder is Best?
I have been looking for ways to boost my protein intake and protein powders are a cost-efficient way to do so. However, whey’s prices have increased like crazy so I looked into vegan protein which is quite a bit cheaper. This video shows the different types of vegan protein available and which is best for you. To choose a suitable protein powder, we should not only look at protein content and profile, we should also consider allergens and taste.
You should only treat these as supplements and not as a main source of protein as you will be missing out on some essential amino acids and micro nutrients.
What happened to these Celebrity NFTs?
This video looks at the NFT projects of celebrities and where are they today. Guess what? Most of them are money-losing for buyers, with the winners being the celebrities. This video prompted me to do one for Singapore influencers. You can take a look here.
Soy Milk Noodle Soup – Kongguksu
I bought some soy beans and was looking for ways to incorporate it into my diet and came across this. This is a cold noodle dish that makes use of a thick soy milk as the broth. You don’t have to use a nut milk bag and deal with the leftover pulp. It is a refreshing high protein noodle dish suitable for sweltering Singapore. However, be aware that the broth is high calorie with the added nuts and whole soy beans despite its high protein content.
China’s Slacker Youths: Why They Went From ‘Lying Flat’ To ‘Let It Rot’
This documentary looks at the variation of “lying flat”, “let it rot” in China. Both movements are the result of the lack of hope of youths and their rejection of the hyper-competitive nature on today’s working environment. “Lying flat” is living a minimalistic lifestyle so that one can survive on low income and savings. In comparison, “let it rot” is a movement where individuals do the minimum that they can to get by. They don’t do overtime, they ask if something can be done later or not be done at all, minimizing the work needed to be done to get their salary without getting fired.
They also compare it to the older generation where they do as much as they can to get ahead when China was booming in the earlier years, capturing footholds in the markets. However, today, the market is saturated and controlled by these older generation. These youths do not see any reason in “chionging” as they are not compensated by the work done if they are not in sales or get promoted. They rather do the least they are able to get by and just be happier since most of them don’t see themselves getting properly remunerated even if they work hard. They started with hopes and dreams of making it big after graduation, however, reality hits hard and these youths decide to “lie flat” or “let it rot” in response.
This is worrying for the Chinese government as youths are the future of any country. However, academics say that this is a relatively fringe movement and most of the Chinese youths are still hardworking folks.
Money Manager App
I am using an app called Money Manager to track my income and expenses. It is a free tool available on mobile available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
As far as I know, the data collected from the app is for tracking the ads you view and interact with on the app.
Please check out their privacy policy on what information they collect and what is it used for.
Personally, the value this app brings to me outweighs the value of the information I provide to them.
