Financial Freedom

Been thinking about how to achieve financial freedom for awhile now... I tend to think about it when I feel tired out from my job.

Seriously, I wouldn't mind a full time job if it wasn't so tiring? Everyday, I feel so so so tired. Maybe it's because I start work at 7.30am. I took a one hour nap in the evening and the one hour went past like the blink of an eye. The nap was so shiokz max!

The tiredness I feel makes me unmotivated for work. So one thing I really want to achieve now is financial freedom. Achieving it means that I will no longer need to depend 100% on my pay every month. How to achieve that?

INVEST.

This is easier said than done. I hope to save my money and invest in some stocks which will provide me some passive income every year... It's going to require a lot of discipline & hopefully one day the passive income generated will be equal to how much I earn every month. It's a daunting task because no one can predict the stock market with 100% accuracy so far. I just hope I won't make silly investment decisions, afterall I studied finance lol. I really hope to achieve financial freedom so that one day I won't feel the need to work? Just stay at home relax... Learn the ukulele, read books I like and SLEEP IN! I mean, it doesn't mean I have to quit my job, but it's good to have an option that allows me to quit without affecting my standard of living.

I know it might never be possible... But I will try. I will be happy even if I can earn 20-30% equivalent of my pay through passive income, which I can use to fund my overseas trips every year.

 Maybe I will give an update about my progress ten years later!

Europe Travelogue Day 4: London again

You can read my previous posts here:
Day -1, Day 1, Day 2 & Day 3

For our fourth day, we woke up early and headed to Portobello market, which opens only on weekends. It was sooooo crowded.

Look at the amount of people below

Firstly, we headed to the highly raved Hummingbird bakery. It was very crowded as well, but the service is prompt.

Salted caramel and red velvet cupcakes.

Om nom nom. I want to eat it again!! Their frosting was really good, it was comparatively lighter compared to all the other cupcakes I have eaten.

We bought churros as well. What L is holding below is the best churros I have ever eaten! Sadly, the best churros I have tasted didn't come from Spain.

Afterwards, we went back to revisit the sights (Trafalgar Square, St James Park and the Buckingham Palace) in our first day as we didn't get proper time to take photos and chill around the attractions.

A lame video at Trafalgar Square

Random video at Trafalgar Square #jwenadventures


The highlight of the day was feeding squirrels at the park! They are pretty friendly and will eat directly from your hand! We bought a packet of nuts from Marks&Spencer and tried to approach them. This is what happened!

Feeding a hungry squirrel, so cute hahaha


Some photos at St James park! The weather was fantastic, it was around 18 deg so it was cooling to walk around and look at grass and trees.

Buckingham Palace, where the Queen resides.

 Westminister Abbey, where Prince William wed Kate Middleton. All the attractions were within distance so we just kept walking.

After a whole day of sight seeing, we ended the day with dinner at Four Seasons! There were online reviewers who think that Four Seasons has the best roast duck in the world. We went early and managed to avoid the queue.

Famous duck!! It was indeed awesome. Like Burger & Lobster, it will be a must-visit if I go back to London again. The sauce is awesomesauce. I think the restaurant owners came from HK, cus the way they run the restaurant is so Hongkong style. Will ask you to quickly order and when you finish, they will quickly clear it away for you.

Since Chinatown was near Leicester Square, we went to get tickets for another musical, Jersey Boys, before heading home.

2 AM ;

2AM, my favourite time of the day
alone awake
even though I am tired today I
refuse to go to bed

All's quiet
I can hear a pin drop
Watching the minute hand strut
time seems to stop

This moment
I feel
infinite

and truly alive

I want to feel "uncomfortable"

Sometimes, on my way home I'll reflect on the work that I have done. Today, I had an epiphany on the train home.

I realized how much I like to stick to a routine (or is it human nature?). For some jobs, routine is good, but I don't think it's good or essential for my job. For the first few weeks at work, I unknowingly developed a routine and I tried and wanted to stick to it. I guess sticking to a routine makes me less anxious cus I know I would be able to perform if I follow some steps. Maybe not spectacularly, but at least I would be able to meet my manager's expectations. But I realize, having a routine is detrimental because I would stick to a bare minimum and I wouldn't put in more effort to exceed my manager's expectations.

I want to excel in my job and I realized the key to that is that I shouldn't stick to a routine that much. I guess it differs job to job. If you're in operations, I guess being efficient is key so you should stick to a routine and work on minimizing the time needed to do each task. For me, it's about looking at different economic situations everyday and try to weave all of them into one "believable" story. I want to be "uncomfortable" and keep looking for ways to improve the work I do. Saying that is easy, but putting it into practice requires a lot of effort. Some days I feel so sian, I don't even bother to try. From now on, I will try and see where it brings me :)

Europe Travelogue Day 3: Liverpool

You can read my previous posts here:
Day -1, Day 1 & Day 2

For our third day of our trip, we took a train (damn expensive) down to Liverpool for LFC's stadium tour. L is a huge fan of Liverpool and have influenced me to like them as well!

It was pretty fun!

Exterior

At the place where manager/players will give interviews!

This is Anfield!! All the players will touch this sign before appearing at the field. I couldn't touch the frame cus I was too short :( The other people in the tour laughed at me...

L with the jersey of his fave player.

The stadium. The weather was pretty good!

 

5 x Champion League wins. The only real silver trophy in UK!

Only had time to stay awhile cus our train schedule were pretty tight. We had takeaway Chinese on the train back and oh my it was good! I guess we missed eating rice.

We then headed back to London and to Oxford Street again for more shopping. I have very faint memories of that day after the stadium tour. Dinner was at a small burger place nearby and it was good!! Then we headed back.

Can't believe my memories of those days are already so faint :(

Europe Travelogue Day 2: London

You can read my previous posts here:
Day -1 & Day 1

L had a friend in studying in London and so we went to meet him. We had Poppies fish and chips for brunch. The fish was good and the portion was big. I just didn't like the thick cut fries.

L and his friend caught up a bit and then we left to go visit Tower Bridge! It was okay... I wasn't that impressed. Later I would be disappointed by the London bridge, which was even more unimpressive. The May weather in London was so erratic! But one thing's for sure: rain. That day, it rained sporadically like every ten minutes? Don't know whether to keep the umbrella or not.

The Tower Bridge looks nice from this angle! Gloomy gloomy day in London.

Another shot of us! We brought a tripod there. 夸张吗？I think bringing the tripod is a good choice! Cus I get to retake all my photos until I get the angle that I like and I won't be worried that a Caucasian stranger (whom I'll ask to help take photos) will steal my camera. Just don't lose any part of the tripod there.

Then we walked over to the unimpressive London Bridge. Reminds me of my childhood singing the London Bridge song.

Me with the sign.

Yup, the place I am standing on is the London Bridge. Nice?

Then we walked to Borough Market, which was pretty near to the London Bridge. 

 A stall that's famous for oysters! I think there's supposedly a stall that is famous for fish & chips as well but we were too full.

Oysterssssss. Did I mention how much I love shellfish? I love cockles, clams and oysters!! It was nice and fresh! It wasn't salty, the common fear I have when I eat oysters. L let me have 4.

After having our snack, we took a train down to see the London Eye. We didn't go up on it cus the tickets were quite expensive and there was a long queue! We just went to the field in front to take a picture.

The Big Ben was nearby so we walked over and this is me in front of the Big Ben! Wind was pretty strong that day, which explains my messy hair!

L took this picture!! Isn't it magnificent?

Took a train again (Yay to our 7day tube pass) to a Burger & Lobster restaurant close to Her Majesty's Theatre. I love Burger & Lobster!! Service was good and love how value for money it is! £20 for a burger or lobster. Compare it to the living standards in London, when a single way train ride cost like £4! So 5 train rides = 1 lobster meal, worth it right. Don't think you can get a lobster meal for $10 (5 single way train ride) in Singapore! The portions were pretty big!

Me with my lobster!

After our early dinner, we took a leisurely walk (roughly 20 mins) to Her Majesty's Theatre for <Phantom of the Opera>. It was soooo good! I have always wanted to watch it since Secondary School and I finally got to watch it in London 9 years later. When L and I headed back to our airbnb, we were humming to the songs. I love love love the songs, especially Phantom of the Opera (Title Song)!!!!!

Selfie at our seats.

I'm definitely going to watch it again if I ever go back to London! That's the end of our Day 2 in London.

Another version I found online!