To Get Money out of CPF

I have long written to Singapore's CPF to request for my funds to be released earlier, due to my condition. I have to depend on myself and the help of a friend to see lawyers and get the letters certified by a notary public before sending them to Singapore. As of today, I only have exactly 13 days to get this done. Deadline on 1st October. Luckily I have the help of a close friend to run errands for matters such as this. Now I know who I can count on for help. This person is a God-sent.

Got Paid 50.00 Euros

I emailed my invoice to a client and promptly got paid as 50% deposit down payment for 100 rows of short description of retailers in Europe of about 40 words each description. The total contract sum is 100.00 Euros, with 1 Euro for each row of description. This is for a German client and his English is not impeccable either. Hence, he needs some help from people like yours truly. I finished the work yesterday and emailed for the balance payment. I guess they need time to vet through the work submitted via Google docs as there are around 5-6 other writers just like me. I guess Germans are quite creative and enterprising as compared to their neighbouring countries.

Working Hard

I have to work hard for my money. Just cannot afford to laze around doing nothing as it is not my nature to be idle. I am always on the lookout for more work online since I work in a home office as of February 2004. Oh yes, I just received a call from Astro for special channel viewing of WWE Night of Champions live on Monday at 8:00am, repeats 3:30pm, 8:00pm on Monday and 7:00pm on Tuesday. It will cost additional $19.95 for this special seasonal viewing. I am a true blue Chinese and all Chinese are very hardworking, motivated and diligent. If you live in Hong Kong, it is common to find people working at 2 jobs: one in the day time and another one at night.

Working at Home Alone is Good But...

Working alone at home is good but can be boring at times. There is no interaction with other people or colleagues other than my boss. It is ideal for many people as they don't like dealing with colleagues that stab you in the back or badmouth you to superiors. It is very good for me, but just that at times, I miss the human interaction and drama; which could be a source of unnecessary stress. Therefore, here I am working all alone on my laptop in a room with a bed and air-con with nice satin curtains to shield off the sunlight and everything is squeaky quiet except for the tapping on the keyboard by my fingers.

Well, I guess, this is the most ideal situation for me as I can be more productive without all the disruptions that you get in an office. If you work too fast, your colleagues hate you for it as they cannot keep up the pace and wouldn't want to spoil the market. But as a partner in this company, I give my best and work conscientiously every day from the time I wake up till I log off for dinner.

Blogging can be Fun

I am having lots of fun blogging and writing my thoughts on the world wide web where I can have world's attention at my fingertips. It started out as a hobby initially, which has progressed into monetization of my blogs where I get to earn some revenue out of my activities. I can blog about anything - food that I take, places that I visit, my personal thoughts and rants, sponsored posts, etc. Because it is fun, I managed to maintain all my blogs since August 2006 - yes, that is a good 7 years long and still going strong.

But blogging has it limitations. Don't go overboard by criticizing your employer, the government, or people in authority as it does not pay to be put into jail or get a hefty fine for doing so. Just blog on safe topics such as what you have eaten, and the like in order to play safe, and not to be sorry. That is because, whatever you have typed, it will be found online by authorities who scour the internet for seditious comments or posts.

Finally, My Housing Loan is Approved

Finally, my housing loan is approve by not one bank but 2 banks. For the first bank, Hong Leong, it took me 1+ months to get it approved with repeat emails to send in documents and personal information, offering BLR-2.25%. For the second bank RHB, it only took exactly 2 weeks before it was approved with BLR-2.35%. Of course, RHB's offer is very attractive, since I pay 0.1% less as compared to Hong Leong Bank.

Moreover, RHB has already prepared the offer letter for me to sign since Friday and I will go with this bank as they are more lenient and easy going with their loan offer. Hong Leong bank is too calculative and more expensive if I were to take up the loan from them. Finally, I can buy my second property with some help from the banks for investment purposes. Just after I signed the S&P, the price of property went up another 10% due to the hike in petrol prices and all other things.

I Love to Read and Write

Writing is my hobby. The more I write, the better I become at writing. I also buy newspapers every day and monthly magazines to read and improve my knowledge and widen my experience. Reading is the best activity one can do during one's free time and an ideal escapade in a secluded bedroom, all curled up under my silk comforter with a book or magazine in hand. You will miss out a lot on life if you don't read and write. It keeps me mentally alert and knowledge is power. I believe in lifelong learning and will pursue this activity for a very long time to come. It has helped to widen my vocabulary, improved my style of writing and of course my not-so-perfect grammar.

Bought The Edge Magazine

My sister's friend plays the share market by buying The Edge and Personal Money Magazines to track the financial data weekly. The Edge costs $5 each and is published on a weekly basis. Sometimes she makes $50 to $100 or more by playing shares online during her retirement years. This will surely keep her mentally active and helps prevent Alzheimer's Disease during the twilight years. The Edge is well written and information, hence the higher cost as compared to the daily newspapers costing only $1.20 each. I read both the Star and The Straits Times as much as possible to keep track on what's happening on a daily basis locally.