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Singaporean surviving on rental income, bluechip investment and frugal lifestyle
Post Published: 27 February 2017
Author: admin
Found in section: Latest Articles
I’ve moonlighted in CGH before as Healthcare Assistant, worked in one of the medical C-class ward. The staff there all thought I some Secondary school dropout, but I picked up a lot from listening to the daily Dr’s rounds, nurses’ discussions and Googling those medical terms I didn’t understand.
There was 1 week where 3 patients died (code blue scenario). One of them was Do Not Resuscitate status signed by the family — that means if patient flatlines — no pulse no breathing — do nothing, no oxygen, no CPR, no electric shock, don’t insert IV line, no adrenaline or other drugs to jumpstart the heart etc. No operation.
But the nurse will still pretend to do something — close the curtain around the patient, quickly push the emergency trolley with all the equipment & hook up the heart monitor to confirm flatline (but this cannot confirm brain death), and call the doctor on duty. The doctor knew this was DNR patient and slowly took her time to come, at least 15 min.
I heard the doctor through the curtain asking in bochap voice what happened, when the patient collapse, how long flatline already, confirm is this DNR case. Then nurse ask Dr do you want to call it? Dr said OK, time of death XXXX hours on this date, cause of death blah blah.
And then the Dr just walked away. When you in C-class and especially if your family sign DNR form — your life is worse than useless — you’re seen as wasting people’s time and using up precious space and resources. Everybody including the doctors and nurses hoping you die fast.
Anyway I live simple life — of the 5-figure monthly passive income, I only spend $500 on myself and $1000 on treating my wife and other household expenses. The rest I either pump back into investments or top-up my emergency cash fund.
I estimate I pumped in about $500,000 into stocks during my working years — this has appreciated in value to over 7-digits now. That’s the power of patience in investing in strong MNC blue chips and re-investing the dividends. Even during the GFC in 2008/2009 when my stock portfolio went down by almost -$300,000 it didn’t bother me much as I knew my investments are in fundamentally sound and financially strong companies. Even during the GFC, these companies not only continued to pay out dividends, but they actually INCREASED their dividends.
How many people can say their company increase their salary by 5% or more during the financial crisis?
As for my rental condo, it’s a small 1+study in city location that I bought almost on a whim in 2004. Even though its valuation today is still giving me 100+% profits over the price I bought, I still regret a bit because it would have been simpler to invest in those strong blue chip MNCs I mentioned. Being a landlord is not that easy at times, and to me rental is not really passive income as you have to put in effort and work.
As for my residential home, I still stay in the 4-rm HDB I bought back in 1998.
XYZ
Post Published: 27 February 2017
Author: admin
Found in section: Latest Articles
I’ve moonlighted in CGH before as Healthcare Assistant, worked in one of the medical C-class ward. The staff there all thought I some Secondary school dropout, but I picked up a lot from listening to the daily Dr’s rounds, nurses’ discussions and Googling those medical terms I didn’t understand.
There was 1 week where 3 patients died (code blue scenario). One of them was Do Not Resuscitate status signed by the family — that means if patient flatlines — no pulse no breathing — do nothing, no oxygen, no CPR, no electric shock, don’t insert IV line, no adrenaline or other drugs to jumpstart the heart etc. No operation.
But the nurse will still pretend to do something — close the curtain around the patient, quickly push the emergency trolley with all the equipment & hook up the heart monitor to confirm flatline (but this cannot confirm brain death), and call the doctor on duty. The doctor knew this was DNR patient and slowly took her time to come, at least 15 min.
I heard the doctor through the curtain asking in bochap voice what happened, when the patient collapse, how long flatline already, confirm is this DNR case. Then nurse ask Dr do you want to call it? Dr said OK, time of death XXXX hours on this date, cause of death blah blah.
And then the Dr just walked away. When you in C-class and especially if your family sign DNR form — your life is worse than useless — you’re seen as wasting people’s time and using up precious space and resources. Everybody including the doctors and nurses hoping you die fast.
Anyway I live simple life — of the 5-figure monthly passive income, I only spend $500 on myself and $1000 on treating my wife and other household expenses. The rest I either pump back into investments or top-up my emergency cash fund.
I estimate I pumped in about $500,000 into stocks during my working years — this has appreciated in value to over 7-digits now. That’s the power of patience in investing in strong MNC blue chips and re-investing the dividends. Even during the GFC in 2008/2009 when my stock portfolio went down by almost -$300,000 it didn’t bother me much as I knew my investments are in fundamentally sound and financially strong companies. Even during the GFC, these companies not only continued to pay out dividends, but they actually INCREASED their dividends.
How many people can say their company increase their salary by 5% or more during the financial crisis?
As for my rental condo, it’s a small 1+study in city location that I bought almost on a whim in 2004. Even though its valuation today is still giving me 100+% profits over the price I bought, I still regret a bit because it would have been simpler to invest in those strong blue chip MNCs I mentioned. Being a landlord is not that easy at times, and to me rental is not really passive income as you have to put in effort and work.
As for my residential home, I still stay in the 4-rm HDB I bought back in 1998.
XYZ
Some call it a privilege 
