Why keep saying useless things in this forum? Time for people like you to move on.

Me, 36, working in IT, 220K/year
Wife, 33, working in Bank, 80K/year

Cash: 350K
Stocks: 250K (dividend yield is about 5%/year. Barely break even due to pull back of a heavily weighed investment)
CPF: 250K

Own 1 humble car, 1 condo in Singapore (small unit in condo with full facilities, 2 bedrooms just shy of 900 sq feet, 1/2 paid up) and 1 condo in Malaysia (uncompleted, but will have seaview and berth, might consider buying a small boat just for fun)

Drinks free wine whenever I feel like it at the P lounge before starting work. Work is flexible, can work in office and enjoy free breakfast, snacks and drinks and nice chats with smart colleagues or work from home.

I think life is fairly good. I am not rich, and I am not poor.

Hi folks,

I just circled back and was surprised to see 4 pages of new posts, and even more surprised to see the commotion my previous post last week had caused! For those who thanked me for my post, thank you back and you're wellcome! for those who hated my post or ridiculed it......No 3-station IPPT for you sir! ROFL!!

Anyway, I wanted to share something my intern asked me about specialisation until I saw so many negative posts. Maybe I'll do it another day...


Jeff

What do you do in IT? Sounds like a dream job

The person who put icon in his post is probably the same guy...the one asking people to shut up and jump off HDB...

Thanks!
 

Jeff, appreciate your willingness to share. Unfortunately, in this unmoderated anonymous forum, there are many weird postings including some who are too eager to boast their IQs which is of no interest to anyone. After all, if you are smart or stupid, rich or poor, who cares?
We just want to see quality posts. So, do continue to share and impart your knowledge. Thanks. :)

I am in middle management and I run a department with functions such as sales, resource management and services. Will need to hire marketing and planning/operations soon, likely in the next few quarters to extend my market. Will rely on fresh blood and eyes to augment my strategy. Started at 100k around 6 years ago and managed to hit 220K now, being recognized in the organization.

Been enjoying this challenge for a while now. My targets increase 30% yearly but I always over exceed them so it's easy to do what I want to do and dictate the direction, since I have proven my worth. Boss doesn't micro-manage winners :)

Managed to buy my condo rather early in 2008 so it's been an easy ride so far. I scrimped to save my first down payment and now am sitting on a 0.7M profit. Understand that my property value will likely diminish due to the current climate, but I do have enough ammunition for another bigger property. Happy to have it dropped even more to be honest and I can probably buy my dream place soon :)

Investments wise not so smooth. 60K SGD is locked into a counter that does not move much or give dividends due to change in US government policies. The other 190K SGD has been working really hard for me to make up the overall 5% dividend gains.

We save around 200K a year, easy. Not spendthrifts. Baby's on the way, so will be saving less, but I am keeping my eyes on retirement. Wife is extremely wise and understanding (good choice on my part), she hates to waste money and hates doodads. Working in a bank, she faces a lot more temptation to splurge on brands and jump on the comparison bandwagon, but she doesn't give a damn. (disclaminer: she does have 1 prada, 1 lv and 1 chanel, but that's it, and they are all gifts from me. :)

We are familiar with how the media works to manipulate and instill desires, so we are not gullible. We learn to count the cost and more importantly, ascertain the value of things around us. We invest in family and friendships, and strive never to let any one close to us down. We avail ourselves to people important to us, and that means we guard our time jealously. Relationships are more important than money.

I have friends who are a lot more successful and I am genuinely happy for them. We talk about philosophies and I respect them for putting in the hard work at the right places, and they like my chill attitude because I don't judge them. I am happy where I am. I have friends who would like to do better and I will encourage them and share with them my stories. Some listen, some don't, some judge, and it really doesn't matter to me to be honest. I am happy either way. People's worth are not determined by titles or accomplishments, and worse still, by possessions.

Speaking like an old man I know haha

Maybe you should consider to post. When I read back, there wasn't really anyone directly hating your post, just some comments which you can choose to ignore.

Hi guys

So last week, one of my interns who was in my office over the summer hols came up to me and asked how he could excel and differentiate himself from the rest of his cohort. Actually, I am not really very much into interns. I don't enjoy explaining to them as it is too tedious to, plus because they don't have working experience, what I say doesn't really sink in. It is like when my mum said she had problems with her kneecaps every morning...it is only now when I have it too that I realise what she meant. Anyway, I was in a pretty jolly mood so I explained to him one of my ideas - the importance of specialisation.

Now most people when we say specialisation, mean it to be like an engineer specialising in aerospace, or doctor specialising in neurosurgery, or lawyer in corporate or M&A. You're supposed to study harder, beat the rest of the gang and everyone will applaud cos you specialised, and you must be special right? and your salary must be extra special too! it is well and fine, but that is what I call vertical specialisation. Vertical specialisation, there is nothing much to talk about, and everyone knows that the cosmetic beautician (what's his name, the guy with the mole and fined for driving without licence?) earns far more than a GP. What I want to talk about is something that people don't realise much. Its called patchwork specialisation.

So what is patchwork specialisation? It is doing something that you are great at, but which granted many people have (e.g. degree in medicine), and then patchworking it with another strength (say a degree in law) or say a ability to speak Bahasa, or say ability to speak french, or a certificate in clinical hypnosis. Do you get the drift?

So say you're on the wrong side out of NUS, you got a pass degree. Your cohort of chemical engineering NUS schoolmates number like 200 (?? *I'm not a chemical engineer). That's not counting the NTU and foreign uni guys, so there is a floodload of fresh graduates out there. Even PSC's admin service cannot accomodate all the first class honours grads. Don't talk about the a PASS degree! What do you do? Firstly, my answer is, you deserved it cos you didn't study hard enough. But fortunately, that is not the end. If you had acquired other 'specialisations', you could be sitting quite pretty. Say ExxonMobil wants to hire a chemical engineer (odds: 1000:1), the engineer sits in Jakarta (odds: 100:1), needs to speak Bahasa (10:1), is single (4:1 - wohoo, who woudl have thought not having a gf would pay off?!), and willing to travel to Kalimantan coal mining sites (1:1), will pay $10k/mth.

Well, the above is an extreme scenario, but you can see that instead of runing the rat race of vertical specialisation, you could run your OWN race of patchwork specialisation.

But just as you don't want to specialise in smallpox vaccination, you have to look ahead when you think about patchwork specialisation. Here, a few lessons on demographics will be helpful. Which parts of the world will your services be needed most? Easy answer is look at Africa, which will hold 1/3 of the world's population in 2050 (or something like that, don't hold me to it). What language do they speak? Spanish, Portuguese, French in North Africa. Which countries dare to invest in AFrica? Yes, China definitely. Would you take a $25k/mth job at Huawei, based in Singapore and marketing in Africa, with your engineering degree and having a third langauge as French? And more importantly, will Huawei ever fire you? and how irreplaceable woudl you be? Look at the leverage you have over your employer! And with only a PASS degree! You are on the RIGHT side, my friend, and for a long time too!

Stay rich, Stay smart!
Jeff

Good post, I totally agree especially spending time with people who are important to us regardless of stature.

I too keep a circle of friends many of which are more successful then myself and I am really happy for, they work hard for it and deserve every bit they have. I value the friendship we have which is based on trust and mutual respect and advise / knowledge shared by them from their vast experiences.

Its an uncommon trait to find these days successful yet humble, judging from the sheer volume of pretentious pricks on this forum makes that evident.