Income Review 2016

Not many streams of income left in 2016 that will bring me into 2017, having liquidate most of my positions to purchase a second home.

Passive income:

As can be seen... my passive income dropped from 2016 as compared to previous years. Liquidated most of my assets to get another house which i am currently staying in. So it will be like a fresh start in 2017 when i try to build up my portfolio again to get income from dividends. Meanwhile, also hoping that the rental from my HDB will add a much needed boost to my passive stream.

Been holding cash a bit the past few years to buy another house, I guess that's why my dividends income wasn't that significant anyway.

Also only managed to get 1 month of rental out of my flat, and i net the agent's commission off. My US apartment continues to generate income, although there seems to be en-bloc interest in that. Let's see if i am forced to sell out, which is not ideal as i kind of like the regular USD income stream.


Portfolio as at 31 December 2016:
A grand total of $2,130. Now that I do not expect to use huge amounts of cash anymore in the near future, I am more comfortable in placing more into equities. Although the current amount i am placing now is still $300 a month. I should be looking to increase the amount in 2017. Waiting for my expenses situation to stabilize further, and to build up a bigger financial buffer too.

Expenses Review 2016

That time of the year when i look back at my expenses in 2016... and see how much better or worst did i fare financially...

I really only started tracking my expenses in 2015 when i got YNAB, and my first year expenses were recorded in 2015 expenses review.

It was pretty interesting to see where my money went to. I guess it would be even more interesting (for me that is) to see where i stack compared to last year.

Car Expenses: $31,687.88 (2015: $33,198.99)
Pretty consistent here. The slight disparity was because I did without a car for slightly under a month where i sold off my fancy ride to get a more down-to-earth vehicle. I expect the expenses in this category to drop in 2017.

Fixed Expenses: $17,792.31 (2015: $14,234.21)
This category is getting higher, and boils down to me increasing my insurance cover as described in here. Also taxation is higher (if i recall, there is a 1-off relief previous year) due to slightly higher income. An area which i can manage better, with SRS, topping up with CPF perhaps. I have been putting this off because I kept some cash on hand to fund my home. Now that that is out of the way, I can look to reducing some income tax expenses.

Monthly Bills: $2,322.48 (2015: $2,943.24)
Phone bills, gym membership. Slightly lower this year, as I managed to get reimbursement for my gym fees late last year as part of corporate benefit. Also my phone bills gets transferred to my 'family account' as part of a total package from Singtel. So likely i will drop this category in 2017.

Daily Expenses: $7,566.51 (2015: $9,081.47)
Total family expenses goes here (food, entertainment etc). Went down due to a conscious effort to cook more at home. Although in the grand scheme of things - it didn't look like it helped much. Maybe savings of $100 a month.

Holidays: $2,839.81 (2015: $8,239.05)
Too busy to take a break - a good thing for the wallet!

Personal Expenses: $6,538.75 (2015: $6,175.5)
Somewhat similar to last year. Was higher this year because i cabbed everywhere when I was without a car. Surprising to me though - because I thought I DID try to watch my spending on other areas like office meals and social entertainment expenses.

Bringing me to a total of $68,747.74 (2015: $73,872.46)
So, after a year of belt tightening, I cut my expenses down by $5,000 p.a. Which is about $600 a month.

Total essential expenses would be $43,897.57 [$31,897.57+$12,000 family expenses] (2005: $42,140.98)

And the daily maintenance expenses would be $3,500. Approximately same as last year as well. Having said that though, I still need to factor in the mortgage of my new house. So in reality, the figure per month is higher.

Overall, I think it is quite surprising to me. Looks like the efforts I have put into cutting my expenses did not bear as much fruits as I thought it should. It certainly felt like I put in more effort than satisfaction I get in the return for the savings!

Transactions, happenings Oct/Nov 2016

Didn't blog for 2 months, was kinda busy. Did my monthly purchase of 100 units of either G3B or ES3.
Guess 100 units work nicely based on savings of $300 a month.

Other significant updates:

(1) Finally secured a tenant for my HDB - market is indeed softening... the house sat empty for 1 month. While logically I know there is definitely a vacancy period, I can't help but feel that every day the house sits empty, I am losing money. All is good now though - the rental deposit is now in my bank account. Ka Ching!
Rates have come down slightly - but still not too bad for a stream of rental income.

(2) Sold my flashy car... after listing it on consignment for 1 year... there is finally a taker. Love that car - especially the cool breeze at night when you drive top down. But after 5 good years, i think it was time to let go... Uber didn't even accept my car as it was a 2 door ride... (back when i was thinking of getting extra cash). In case you think i am being extra financially prudent by selling the car and taking public transport, i have to admit, i am not. I just downgraded to a bread and butter car. It is indeed very tough (i am very pampered) after driving for close to a decade to get back to BMW (bus mrt walk) - doing it for a few weeks now, and actually Uber is quite okay, if there are promotions going on.

So, i guess it is a compromise between wanting to save more money and still have a car around... i know it delays retirement by a couple of years, but it is indeed a conscious decision.a

Square 1

Haven't been blogging much, and i actually missed the Brexit drama, as I exited all my holdings prior to that.

I don't profess to have good foresight. I simply needed the money for the down-payment of my new home, so basically I have to sell off everything to come up with the cash requirements.

I got to say, it means i am starting all over again... no retirement portfolio, starting from scratch again. I consoled myself thinking that it's like giving up everything to be an entrepreneur, like Dividend Warrior selling off everything to open a tuition center, and rebuilding his portfolio from scratch.

At this time of uncertainty, why did i enter the property market? A lot of people are still very cautious, am i being foolish to be overweight on property?

(edit: and just nice one of my long time friend just posted about property http://investmentmoats.com/wealth-building-2/singapore-home-condo-landed-and-hdb-property-prices-grow-over-time/ and i quote "I came out of this exercise reinforced why wealth building through properties will always be a better option for many because of the low probability of people losing money.")

Prices have slightly cooled (though definitely nowhere near a crash have happened). It is a brand-new unit as it was unsold by the developer when it TOP 2 years back. To push sales this year, discount was given to buyers this year for them (or us) to bite. Effectively, I got it cheaper than those who purchased it earlier.

Also, I did not view it purely from an investment perspective as I am buying a home to live in. It really does check the boxes we are looking for for a home, being near good schools, quiet residential environment and being near MRT.

On the positive side, I am glad for this chance to clean up my portfolio as well. Going forward, i will be building up a pure ETF portfolio.

Starting from last month, I placed $300 into STI ETF (100 shares, with some leftover), and would be doing that every time I get my pay.
I did not choose to pay off the loan with the extra 300 as it would really not reduce it all that much, and building up some portfolio provides me with flexibility for liquidation next time.

In any case, it's back to square 1 from now on! After being debt free for some time, it's back to having a mountain of debt on my buttocks!

Up, up, up and away

Been a furry of news these 2 weeks:

Singapore car park rates up $0.10 to $0.20, season parking up $15 to $25

Malls, office buildings set to charge higher parking fees

Cab firms hit by higher operating licence fees

Electricity tariffs to rise by 4.3%

Found a picture that adequately describes this:

I guess the most direct impact would be those driving cars (3 of the news pertains to car park charges). However, there would definitely knock-on effect to businesses - transportation costs etc. Rising costs would eventually be passed on back to the end-consumers.

There's a limit to how much expenses we can save (short of being a hermit) - look to ways to increase income to cope with the rising costs.

(1) Increase salary (easier stated than done sometimes)

(2) Start a 2nd line of income (part-time tuition maybe?)

(3) Passive income (what I am trying to do) - dividends, rental etc

Lend me money?

So recently I managed to get a free copy of my credit bureau report. (if you don't know, if you apply for a new credit card, or have your credit limit re-assessed by your bank, you have a 30 days window period to log in and retrieve a free copy of your report)

So what does mine says?

So I was rated AA, with a 0.15% probability for default and a score of 1953. I was thinking, why was I not rated the maximum score of 2000?

So I read on, looks like one of the factors is that frequent/recent enquiries (in addition to default or slow payment) will affect the credit score.

I was never late on payment (always on Giro) so I wonder if it's the case if I applied for too many credit cards. I admit, I have a lot of cards, mostly for freebies + various discounts at various establishments. So let's see

23 enquiries, and 17 accounts. I guess that must be why.

With a good credit bureau rating, would you be willing to lend me money? Remember, there is only a 0.15% of me not paying you back :)

In any case, the Bureau also helpfully added that 1 way to improve credit score is to reduce unnecessary new credit card application. If you don't need, then don't apply, although I DO still keep apply for shiny new cards.

Drinks and Party - what's your indulgence?

So it was TGIF yesterday, and after a hard and gruelling work at week, I think all of us can related to letting our hair down once the weekend rolls around.

However, due to time-table clashes, I was not able to join my friends for a Friday night of drinks yesterday, and from the group chat that I saw this morning, the bill per pax averages out to between $150 to $200. I do hang out with them sometimes, and I would say that's the average amount each shells out for a night of 'catching-up'.

As I started my trip back to financial independence last year, I have used YNAB, and my monthly allocation to personal dining out is only around 200-400 per month. I would say 1 night out with them would blow my entire month's budget. So in that sense, I have now preferred to have cheaper alternatives like house parties etc, where you can still drink (if you want to), but at a much cheaper rate. [I hope they do not read this entry!]

I think everyone have their own indulgence of choice. I use to have more indulgences I think, but I have learnt to cut down some to get my budget in order.

Café-hopping - those Instagram worthy moments with oh-so-lovely food. I know there are some people who do café-hopping every weekend

Fancy restaurants - A friend of mine don't drink tap water at restaurants, and always order sparkling. That's at least $6 just for plain water at meals.

Transport - There are some who swears by taxi every where they travel. Each trip could be around $20 - 1 month? around $1,000 I guess.

Shopping - enough said.

Hobbies - Some folks travel once every two months.

Of course, I have the largest indulgence to support, my car. I guess that's why some things have to go!

I won't call it a sacrifice - some things I do not really enjoy. I like hawker food over cafes anyway, kopitiam kopi to fancy Americano. I do not think my quality of life suffered, and I do feel that my money is spent on more meaningful things (like my retirement fund)

I guess, as long as 1 has the budget, and has a well worked out resource allocation plan, one should feel free to indulge in whatever they want to. After all, life is short. If you do not have an interest or two to indulge in - what's the point in living?

Spend on yourself in the present, but don't forget to spend on yourself for the future. :)

Consolidating bank accounts

One more step in organizing my personal finances. I closed my UOB savings account and consolidated it with my UOB One Account to earn higher interest rates.

Why did i open up the savings account in the first place?

(1) I have the concept of 'paying myself first'. Instead of the formula. 'Income - Expenses = Savings', i try to adhere to the formula of 'Income - Savings = Expenses'. Having that separate account allowed me to transfer money from 1 bank account to the savings, so that i wouldn't touch it.

(2) I'm also quite compartmentalized. So if i designate 1 account for savings/investments, it feels much more neater to me from an accounting perspective. Dividends from investments goes into that account, and EPS to the various brokerage accounts i have are also directed into it.

Why did i have it closed now?

(1) I don't really need it now. All i actually needed was a way to keep and budget the money away, even if it's in a single bank account. As you may know, i use YNAB, and YNAB allowed me to budget my savings/investment money (as well as other expenses categories) so i wouldn't accidentally used it.

(2) The savings account i have generates next to nothing in terms of interest. By consolidating the money into a higher yielding bank account, the money is 'working' harder in generating extra returns.

It really is quite troublesome, changing bank accounts. Sending hard copy forms for the closure and linkage forms for, and changing bank account for the CDP direct crediting services.

I went through the process once for changing GIRO for my recurring bills, and thankfully, this process is much easier and less troublesome.

Happy to take one more baby steps to organizing my finances. Organised my credit card to get more rebates, and now bank accounts for higher interest.

More steps to come!

If you have any ideas, please do share with me :)

Save more for a rainy day

Had a lot of uncertainty as my company was finalizing the corporate strategy over the last few months, and it was finalized a few days back.

The result? A retrenchment exercise a few days earlier. It's my first experience of seeing colleagues just disappearing from office. A call from a conference room, a chat with the line manager and HR, and off you go. Sounds cold and harsh but that's the way it is. Office appears colder and quieter in the aftermath.

Supposedly the package offered is reasonable. Not very sure, as the 'chopped' workers did not return to their desk to speak with us after the conversation with HR.

Had a couple of thoughts going through that day.

(1) Wonder how those foreigners on employment pass cope - without a job, they need to leave the country in a month's time.
(2) Grateful that I wasn't on the redundant list
(3) If i was made redundant, how long would i need to get another job in these economic climate?

Guess it was at thought (3) that it really strikes home that you really need to have a buffer of emergency cash in case an unfortunate incident happens (even though there's a redundancy package). Also, multiple source of income is crucial. We should not be overly reliant on 1 source of income, or an employer, and having adequate reserves is most important.

Ultimately, my wealth is my business. No one cares about my personal finances more than myself.

Before you know it....

Went running over the weekend and decided to give it a go at the pull-up bar. My NS status is that i am 'excused' for pull-ups so never needed to complete that for IPPT since i fractured my wrist many years back.

Since then i got a bit rounder at the waist, and was a 'zero-fighter' for some time. However, since focusing a little bit more on my health last year in 2015, I had been doing adhering to the habit of doing 20 diamond push-ups every morning before work.

Lo and behold! At the pull-up bar, i managed to do 5 and believe that i can do a few more if i wanted to.

I think there's an inflection point in everything we do. I can't do a pull-up for the longest time ever, and when i DID managed to do 1 pull-up, i managed to do 5 at the same time. To me that is a breakthrough point. The lesson for me is things in life is not linear.... we may be stagnant for a while, but once the breakthrough has been made, growth can be exponential.

0 to 1 pull-up is difficult, but 1 to 5 pull-ups is comparatively easier.

I believe it is the same as my financial journey... while i have not made my pot of gold, the 2nd and 3rd pot of gold will come easier once the first pot has been made. It could be the magic of compounding, could be greater access to other investments, but yea, looking forward.

Note to self to carry on saving/investing in the year 2016 for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! One step at a time.

Financial Resolution 2016

As with all new years, resolutions are always made. I set out to cut expenses and increase revenue last year, and i shall have similar goals this year. However, i will be more specific this time round.

As they say, targets should be a little of a stretch, so i shall try to streeetch it a little.

(1) Save $12,000 in 2016 for myself. I didn't managed to achieve this in 2015, and i shall aim to accomplish this. This amount shall be invested when good opportunities arises. That is $1,000 a month, and hopefully if i do get SOME bonus and tightening of my belt in some ways, i should be able to achieve this.

(2) Continue to build up buffer in each of my expenditure category in YNAB.

(3) Increase my annual passive income by $500 by the end of 2016. Have deployed some of my savings a.k.a war-chest in Q3 of 2015 when the markets took a tumble. Hopefully the full year contribution of the deployed cash (and additional returns from deployed savings into investments) would be able to come into play and help me achieve this increase.

Have you made any goals?

Expenses review 2015

A year has passed when i picked up my financial game again and it is good to reflect back on what i have wanted to do in the beginning of the year: Game plan 2015

Before that, a personal reflection. I did not realise how much personal finance topics were far away from my mind until i actually sat down and decided to re-focus my energy and efforts on it. While i have always been saving and investing, it was not as disciplined and well thought out as it could have been. Dare i say, it was even quite haphazard.

When we fail to plan, we are planning to fail, and at the rate i am going, i would say i wouldn't have done very well when i reach retirement age. Granted i think i probably would not starve and sleep in streets, but definitely would be less well-off than i could be.

Back to topic. I wanted to cut expenses and increase revenue.

(1) Cutting Expenses

I have diligently used YNAB to record and track my expenses. [for some reason, i find it quite pleasurable to record every single transaction. I think it's my accounting training. I just love to balance my books to the cent] While i always have an idea of where my money went, it was good to have real solid data on what i actually spent on.

And truth to be told, the beginning months were quite tough as i tried to 'live on last month's income', which is a key concept of YNAB. I pay myself first every month when my salary is in, but using February's salary to pay entirely for March's expenses was something i wasn't ready for. After a few months of tuning my expenditure and allocation, glad to say that i have passed this 'test' set by YNAB.

So where did my money go to in 2015? The way i used YNAB is by categorizing my expenses in several buckets for analysis.

Car Expenses: $ 33,198.99
All car related expenses, includes loan, carpark, fuel, insurance and any related expenses. I would be the first to admit that the easiest way to improve my finances would be to get rid of this. Even if i take cab everyday, the savings would be hugely substantial. Something i am mulling about, but it's a lifestyle choice at the moment, and i really enjoy the convenience and experience. Lesson here (i haven't learnt it yet) is to cut this away to accelerate savings.

Fixed Expenses: $ 14,234.21
Insurance and taxes comes in here. I increased my insurance coverage for death and CI this year. This is termed as fixed expenses by me, and not much discretion could be made here from my part.

Monthly Bills: $2,943.24
These are my regular bills (phone + mobile broadband) and membership to my Taekwondo school fees and sports related expenses. A little high because i took my 2nd Dan grading in 2015, and it cost me $450 just to sit for the exam. Additionally, i had to sign up for several preparatory courses, and that cost a bit too. The monthly school (or gym if you will) also do not come cheap at $140 a month. I did rationalize my expenses here a little but cutting away the mobile broadband once the 2 years is up, although that helps only a little.

[My joint family expenses which i track in another budget (groceries, utilities, home broadband etc) comes up to about 5k in 6 months. For simplicity sake, i shall estimate it to be 1k per month. I will use this amount to add to my subsistence level of expenditure]

Daily Expenses: $9,081.47
As opposed to personal spending, these are expenses which i incur for the family, including dining out at restaurants, home maintenance fees (payment for part time maid), changing of light bulbs, family entertainment (movies night) etc.

Holidays: $8,239.05
So i took 3 trips this year, 1 week in Australia, 1 week in the UK and 2 weeks in Taipei. I was lucky that my trip to the UK was part of my work trip, so i managed to save on the airfares. Again, a luxury here which can be removed if need be. For 2016 i am actually trying to plan a trip to the states just to settle some banking stuff as well as to check out my apartment over there.

If you are interested, you can take a look here, where i share some pictures from my trip http://www.casualtaketwo.blogspot.sg/

Personal Spending: $6,175.5
Expenditure which i incur solely. Eg: Office meals, personal shopping (yes, YNAB software comes in here), entertainment expenses (unfortunately these can't be done away unless i'm a hermit), personal dining expenses and other expenses related to weddings/baby showers/birthdays etc

Total personal annual expenses: $73,872.46 [or $6,156 per month]

Quite high, i truthfully admit, and the bulk of it pertains to the car expenses. However, if i DO give up on the car, what is my subsistence level of expenses?

YNAB provides me the option to easily select those categories which i will have to incur to just 'exist', and i came up with the below amount (inclusive of family groceries/houseshold expenses).

Definitely no car and no holidays!

Total essential expenses: $42,140.98   [$30,140.98 + $12,000 [family expenses]]

Works out to about  $3,500 a month.

Gives me a solid target to aim towards for passive income. Will write about my investments in another entry.

And before i forget, wishing one and all a prosperous happy new year!

Cutting out the un-essentials in life

Since reviving my personal finance journey starting this year, have began taking small steps to where i want my finances to be, and that includes cutting out expenses which are not essential, or seldom utilized.

This month, my mobile broadband contract is up, and i took the chance to cut that away. Savings per month = $19.90. Sounds very little, but compounded over a long time, it can certainly add up!

Did other things over the course of the year, but shall leave it to another post. Meanwhile, happy to enjoy whatever savings i can.

I am working on a project called 'Less is more' at work, and glad to apply that to my personal finance journey.

Less spendings = more savings. :)

Adding positions

Just added another 10 lots of STI ETF 2 days ago (really having a hard time adjusting from the concept of 100 shares = 1 lot!). I think i have added 40 lots of STI ETF since July this year. Not sure whether this will be the right decision, but with so much fear in the market that it will drop further, i have taken the opportunity to add to my positions.

I have to confess, i am stressed and jittery over the past few months when i added. I wonder if i am just being foolhardy but i believe that in the long run, markets will go up, and time in the market is more important than timing the market.

The volatile situation allowed me to add more positions than in normal circumstances, and i shall look back to see if i will curse or thank myself in the future!

The handy man can

My house has been breaking down in bits and pieces recently. So the bulbs has been going off one by one. I'm not usually a very technical person (admittedly i was a technician in the Singapore Army), but the wires and stuff usually escapes me.

Hired a contractor to remove the mould and repainted the toilet ceiling. (it was really in a disastrous condition, like those dilapidated haunted house), so when the toilet lights went kaput, i got the handyman to do everything at 1 go. That costed me $280.

The bulbs in my ceiling was off too, and lazy me also asked for the price. Seems like changing the bulb cost me $30. I asked how it was to be done, and seems simple enough. I got myself a bulb at $4.60, and saved myself the labour cost and mark-up of the rest.

Moral of the story - get enough life skills to handle minor repairs in the house.

NB: I had a plumber come once to unchoke my toilet. THAT set me back by $120. Since then, i got a plunger and been a part time plumber for my house ever since.

Compare and Contrast - Insurance

The internet is really powerful nowadays.

Due to my upcoming trip to the UK, extending a few days after a business trip, i need to source for a travel insurance.

Etiqa had a 50% off promotion for travel insurance purchased directly from them, and it must have been one of the cheapest (if not cheapest) available.

Of course, there are differences between coverages etc, but overall, i think this is the best deal available.

Shopping around did save me a couple of dollars this time round!

[although the trip to the UK will likely blow off any savings available]

Airfrov

Recently came across something that is pretty useful if you are a frequent traveller. This platform (Airfrov) connects people travelling with people who wishes to purchase something from your destination.

Since a traveller would be travelling anyway, if one has some extra luggage space, why not take the chance to earn some extra cash on the way?

https://www.airfrov.com/

Even better if you travel for work frequently: Free travel, extra income. :)

Financial Scams....

Was introduced previously to a 'deposit' scheme operated by this company called 'Miracle of Power ("MOP")' with a linkage for FX capabilities with an Australian securities company 'Easy Capital' sometime back in August 2014.

You can place money with Easy Capital to trade in FX, otherwise, the money you placed with them will generate a whooping 4% per month. Let me repeat. 4% per month. A whooping 48% SIMPLE interest per year.

They also harped a lot on how Easy Capital is registered with ASIC and hence very safe.

Fast forward 9 months, the current news i have now is that MOP has folded, owner no where to be found, Easy Capital's website is now no longer functioning... leaving lots of 'investors' in the cold and in the red.

There is an oft-repeated mantra - if something is too good to be true, it probably is.

I wonder why do people very often fall for such scams? I think it boils down to a few main reasons:

(1) Greed - honestly, if a scheme offers me 48% return a year.... that is absolutely astounding. I have never generated that much return on my portfolio before.

(2) Scarcity - The story was that the 4% is a marketing and promotional interest rate, and they will be removing such good returns for subsequent investors, so it will be much better to get it while it lasts.

(3) Reasonably plausible set-up - there was a good story. Nice website, a financial institution regulated by a first world country. Nothing of that Nigeria scam now... scams have progressed a lot.

I think if one does enough due diligence on that company, and went to ASIC/ASX website, one might probably be able to prevent falling for such scams. I didn't even bother to check out the company as i did not believe that the returns could ever be so good, promotional interest rate or otherwise.

True, i possibly could miss out on a good deal here and there, but i rather my money sitting nicely underneath my mattress rather than suffering a total capital loss. Yea, i am risk averse in that sense.

Contributing to society

So during the week, i joined my company for a citizenship event, as part of our goal to be a good corporate citizen. There are lots of charitable events being organised, but financial literacy (or the promotion of it) speaks to me the most.

It was a trip to Jurong Youth Center, targetting at kids aged 9 to 12. The aim? Is to inculcate the value and concept of saving money at a young age.

It was an activities based session - kids were given hypothetical scenario amount and asked to make spending decision.












A plate of chicken rice + drink at $4? or McDonalds meal at $8. I think most kids at that age (actually adults are guilty of it too, i know i am!)

End of the day, if the kids (and us) can take home the message that every dollar we spent is a decision in itself. Every dollar we spent now means a dollar lesser to spend in the future.

And that, is an important message for people of all ages.

Going dutch

Titbit of the day - recently i asked my boss (who is a Dutch), where did the term 'going dutch' come from. It was only then did i realise it has a sort of derisory meaning to it. It could be that traditionally Dutch people are stereotyped as stingy and tight-fisted which is why it could have a negative connotation. Another saying is that because Dutch are traditionally very hard working people (stemming from a protestant culture), they watch each dollar that they spent carefully and do not want to waste anything.

For most of my life, i had assumed going dutch in a meal means splitting the bill equally. However, technically, it means just paying for what you order. So in a group setting, if someone orders a bottle of wine, and you are a non-alcoholic, you only pay for your food and not the wine. Same applies if someone ordered a dessert and you are on a diet and choose not to partake. You should not be made to pay for that.

I think this is a good thing - as it levels the financial playing field amongst people and allow everyone to have a good time while sticking to their own budget. You can enjoy the company of your friends in an expensive restaurant, but choose to order something that suits your wallet whilst your friends can order entree, first main, second main, dessert and wine if it so makes them happy. You then do not need feel obligated to split and 'subsidize' their meal if you choose a cheaper option.

Have you ever felt pressured to order a more expensive option to be in line with the rest of your friends (even though you are really on a budget) because you know that the group of friends you are with will almost certainly split the bill equally - so that, in Singaporean term, you do not 'lui gi' or lose out when it comes to settling the bill?

In an Asian context, i think it could be a 'face' or ego thing not to highlight the fact that maybe you did not eat the dessert, or did not order a drink, and just pay the same as the rest. Others may stereotype you as 'stingy' or 'calculative', or it could be that you yourself feel that others may view you so.

THAT is definitely not wallet-friendly. Maybe more so if you are a male and in a senior position, and you could feel the pressure to pay/treat the others or others could expect you to do that? That is enough of a damper to prevent you from hanging out often enough.














Or if the group of friends you are with somehow always wait for you to settle the bill first and conveniently 'forget' to pay you back? Are you the thick-skinned type to chase back the money?
[Actually i don't understand why people don't just take out the cash and immediately pay back the guy who paid first - is it so difficult?]

I'd be a downer if i didn't try to put out a few solutions, so here goes: -
(1) If you only ate a main, and the others have desserts - when the bill come, be the first  to pull out your cash and place it on the table, saying i only had a pasta, and this should cover it.

(2) If somehow you paid first and it's a group setting, send a broadcast message to the group detailing the amount to be paid, together with bank account details. People are not singled out and probably won't be offended with a 'debt collector'. Even then, some people are not 'automatic' enough to pay up, and that's when you need to personalized a collection message.

(3) Suggest an alternative place which is more wallet friendly

(4) Minimize hanging out with people who tend to order expensive stuffs and expect you to split bills equally. Either you join them in eating expensive stuff (and engage in a lose-lose war, lol)

There~ 4 solutions to help you stick to your budget, and still have some level of social life. [Actually i suggest option 4 if your friends do not understand if you have a budget to stick to. Those likely are not your true friends anyway].