Living Near A Park or MRT ?

It would be great if we can all wake up with unblock views and fresh air and walk less than 100m to the nearest MRT to work. 8)

For those interested, check out National Park's Park Connector plans and our projected MRT map.

Now you can think about the next best location of your future home.

Tracking my Gold Savings

Unfortunately, the Gold Savings Account doesn't tell me how much S$ was spent to buy the gold. Thus to make it easy for my simple mind, I shall make a note to deposit 100gm each time.

Here goes.

1. 9 Jul 2007 32.15/32.05
2. 25 Jul 2007 33.06/32.96
3. 26 Jul 2007 32.93/32.83

Assuming I can save 1 kg of gold per year, in 30 years time, I shall have 30 kg of gold for retirement. Ha, gold for old ... 8)

UOB Gold Saving Account

The UOB Gold Saving Account is literally a saving account in gold ... read more about it in http://www.uobgroup.com/pages/personal/investments/treasury/preciousmetals/index.html

It has the following disadvantages

1. No interest payment
2. UOB collects an annual transaction fee (aka maintenance) based on highest amount transacted.

However, it is simple to maintain and one of the less costly ways to buy gold.

Fengshui Fish

One of my remaining 2 tetras passed away over the weekend. Coincidentally, there was a widespread system problem after a supposedly failsafe upgrade of application servers. On the fortunate side, impact was manageable.

There appears to be an errie correlation between dead fishes and unplanned downtime. By track records, my fishes would die when there are problems... So did the fish "blocked" and sacrificed on behalf ? Similarly, a lobster of my colleague was summoned to the afterlife.
Fengshui fish it seem ...

Lesson learnt:
1. Have more fishes
2. Clean the tank.

Gold and Wealth - A 6000 Years Tradition

I might have been influenced since young from reading/watching too much Louis Koo's novel and dramas of swordsman and heroes.

One thing in common, the heroes/villains needed money in the novels and show. Yes, and it's gold, a 6000 years tradition as measure and holder of wealth. Heck, even the author's pen name has gold in it.

Gold, is the ultimate, last option currency. Considering rampant inflation, it appears sensible to buy some insurance using GOLD. 8P

Saving for Retirement

It seems as we age, we get poorer. When I was young, i mean younger, $1.20 is enough to buy me mee pok for lunch, now it costs $3 on average. My parent's HDB costs $80k, now it costs at least $300k. Growth seem to come at a price of value.

If history is any guide, it means I'm getting poorer all the time. How then should we keep value in our retirement ??!