Recently I came across this article.
It must have been on Flipboard or Facebook Or something like that. The article explained why we should treasure The times that we share with our cats and dogs. They age much faster than us; we would See them as a puppy or kitten. A decade whizzes by, and then They are gone. I was reminded by L's dog of More than ten years. He has lost all but four of his teeth. He used to enjoy his walks These days he stops after a few steps. I decided to check on Tigger's age. I have never been good with remembering birthdays. His birthdate is (tentatively) 7th of November 2012. Tigger will turn seven years old This November. That makes him the human equivalent of 44 to 56 years. He's going to get Older than me; not just older, But older at a faster rate. Like sands through the hourglass So are the days of our lives Pause and enjoy the moment Relish it as it lingers For we may never pass this way again
0 Comments
Just ended a phone call with mom.
It started like this chain of messages. "Gd nite son." "Shall we do dinner soon?" "Call me now." And I called her. As she lives alone, I think she gets lonely sometimes, even though she does not mention it. I arranged to meet her some time next week for dinner. This is one of my initiatives; to spend more regular time with her, despite my busy-ness. "Why don't you call me more?" She asked. "You can always call me anytime you know?" I replied. "But I am afraid that you might be busy." "I will have time to talk to you. If I am busy I would let you know, so you don't have to be pressured to call." "Do you think of me," she asked. "I think of you all the time; just that I don't vocalise it," I bantered. She laughed. We always have this adorable chemistry with each other. But I think she's lonely. We talked about some other stuff. But she said something which reminded me of what I have been thinking for a while. She said this to me. "Don't worry about making too much money. There is never an end to making money. We can live a simpler life. We can eat simple. Just spend more time together." So apt right. Money. Time. Love. Rethinking happiness. Photo by Aleksandr Eremin on Unsplash Singapore Budget 2019 Infographics - At a GlanceThe Singapore 2019 Budget was recently announced by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat. The theme for this year's Budget was the Bicentennial Bonus, the Merderka Generation Package, as well as the Dependency Ratio. Announced on 18 February 2019, we will try to summarize the key areas of the Budget. Merdeka Generation PackageThe Merdeka Generation Package focuses on the following 5 benefits:
S$1.1 billion Bicentennial Bonus This bonus applies to Singaporeans aged 21 and above, and includes GST vouchers and a personal income tax rebate of 50% (but only capped at S$200 per Singaporean taxpayer) for income earned in 2018. In addition to this, younger Singaporeans will get top-ups to their Edusave and Post-Secondary education accounts. Older Singaporeans who are eligible will get a CPF top-off (one time only). Healthcare SupportThe CHAS subsidies will be extended to all Singaporeans for chronic conditions regardless of income. Also, existing CHAS Orange card holders will have not only chronic conditions but also common illnesses covered. The subsidies for complex chronic conditions will also be increased. Dependency Ratio CeilingAs indicated in the infographics above, there will be a lower foreign worker ratio particularly in the services sector. This will without doubt exert even more pressure on the services industry, which is already squeezed by higher rents and wages. GST Import ReliefTravellers who are away from Singapore for less than 48 hours will have to pay GST on goods purchased overseas worth more than $$100. For those away for more than 48 hours, the value of goods granted relief is increased to $S500. In addition, the duty-free alcohol entitlement will be dropped from 3L to 2L. Diesel DutyThe diesel fuel excise duty will be increased to S$0.20 per litre. In addition, the annual special tax on diesel taxis will be reduced by S$850, while the special tax on diesel cars will be reduced by $S100. ConclusionAll in all, there are pockets of benefits for everyone, especially in the healthcare segment. However, there will be more duties on goods purchased from overseas as well as on diesel. The SMEs in the services industry will also face more pressure. All these will pave the way for the impending GST increase as well.
There is money to be made in Cryptocurrency trading, but you need to avoid these 10 mistakes if you want to be profitable. Crypto gains have attracted a whole new segment of investors, bringing in more capital and growing the market to over $0.5 trillion this year. However, not everyone is making money, and unfortunately, most new crypto traders are making mistakes that can easily be avoided. If you are investing in coins for the long-term, the safest strategy is holding, but day-trading, or even casual trading can be profitable in the short term, allowing you to increase your stack relatively faster. Whether you’re a beginner to crypto trading or just trying to take a chance in this exciting new market, here are 10 mistakes you should avoid. 1. Falling for shills; not doing your own research Almost everyone joins Telegram groups and follows Twitter traders for signals, and there is nothing wrong with that, as long as you do your own research. There is no shortage of ‘shilling’ (promoting coins and market moves for personal gain) across all social mediums, and you will come across tons of people claiming that a particular coin is going to ‘moon’ soon or give 10x gains. If you just listen to these people and put your money on the line, you are extremely likely to lose it. Most of these shills are either fake accounts, paid promoters or members of pump and dump groups, who are creating fake hype to promote FOMO (fear of missing out) and getting more people to buy what they are selling. Doing your own research is the most important step before you enter any market. You need to understand what a coin does, how the price moves, what stage is the development at and so on. Running blindly into trades just because you see a pump is a recipe for disaster. 2. Not understanding basic charting fundamentals Most traders think charting or technical analysis is either extremely complicated, or just over-rated. While both views can be argued, there is no denying the fact that market movements and coin prices have patterns that can be identified and used for, at the very least, ‘increasing’ the chances of successful trades. Just like everything else in life, there are no guarantees in the crypto market, and given how it is largely speculative and emotion-driven, charting and technical analysis will, and does fall apart now and then. That being said, if you are serious about trading, you should understand the basics, such as candlesticks, support and resistance zones and trendlines. Details of technical analysis will not be discussed in this piece, but we will be publishing more in-depth guides and tutorials in the future. For starters, you should understand that resistance zones are price ranges which a coin has repeated failed to break through, while support zones are where the price often bounces back. Identifying these zones can help you assess where the current price stands, and whether it has room to go higher or drop further. Trend lines are also quite simple, where an uptrend is indicated by the price making ‘higher lows’ (green line in the screenshot below) and a downtrend is reflected by ‘lower lows’. The screenshot above is a basic representation of these concepts, where the horizontal lines roughly mark zones where price either finds a ceiling or a floor, and generally, in an uptrend, past resistance zones can become supports later on (notice how candles earlier failed to breach the second-last horizontal line, but later bounce off from the same) and in downtrends, support zones can become resistance. 3.Panic selling at the bottom, buying back at the top The crypto market is extremely volatile, which means price swings are normal, and if you get spooked easily, you will lose money. Panic selling is a common mistake beginners make, where they first get into a market without much research and then, when faced with a sudden drop, sell to ‘cut their losses’. The problem with this approach is that once you sell, you’ve actually lost money (you don’t lose until you sell), and while in some cases, cutting your losses does make sense, most coins will bounce back in days, if not hours, and then the same people, seeing a surge, buy back at higher prices, only to repeat the cycle. Buying high and selling low is a one-way ticket to going broke. 4. Not taking profits; no exit plans You found a good entry, and the price has gone up, what now? Do you book your profits and exit? Do you keep holding? If so, why? Most beginners don’t have any exit plans and just wing it as they go along, and in most cases, end up either losing their profits, or actually going into loss and have to hold the coins until they can break-even. As I said earlier, if you are buying to hold long-term, you are not trading, but if you are trading, you should have an exit plan, where you book your profits and move on. Granted, at times you may see the price going higher after you take profits, but as a trader, you need to expect that. One very effective strategy however, is to sell in stages instead of selling all your coins in one go. This way, you give up a percentage of immediate profits to have a chance at riding the surge higher. 5. Looking for the next Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin This year alone, Bitcoin has gone from $1,000 to $20,000, which is an obviously impressive gain. Ethereum and Litecoin have also recorded similarly massive returns, but not every coin can, or will, follow the same path. Some coins, either due to their large supply, or a host of other factors, are relegated to certain price ranges (for example Ripple), and investing in coins, hoping for 2,000% or 4,000% gains is not a sound plan. As a trader, you need to understand the specifics of each coin that you trade, and that includes its price history and reasonable future projections, so you can plan your trades accordingly. 6. Getting emotionally attached to a coin No coin will go up forever, even Bitcoin has very good days, and then some really rough ones. The crypto space is ever-changing and evolving, with new opportunities coming up every day. If you believe in a coin, holding it for long-term returns is a good approach, but if you are looking to make money by trading, you cannot have emotional attachments with any coin. When Bitcoin is dropping from $20,000 to $12,000, it is hardly smart to keep holding on to it. Similarly, if a coin is surging ahead of an important announcement, you can easily double or even triple your investment with it, instead of holding Bitcoin at $20,000, expecting a $500 gain. 7. Spending all your money in one go Another very common mistake beginners make is spending all their trading money in one go. If you find a good entry, you should buy in with a percentage of your funds (50% - 60%) and hold the rest to see whether your entry works. This way, even if a coin drops following your purchase, you can average it down by buying more at the dip. Similarly, if the uptrend continues, you can always buy more, and even though this approach reduces your profit margins, it secures your position and prevents you from being all-in on a trade that goes south. 8. Putting all your eggs in one basket Even the most hyped of coins can, and do suffer from major dips while the market as a whole stays green. Cryptocurrencies are unpredictable and in a state of evolution, which means there is no single coin (not even Bitcoin) that is ‘guaranteed’ to survive down the road. Whether you are holding, or trading, you cannot afford to put all your funds in one coin. Diversification and risk management is the key to a sound portfolio and finding good entries in multiple coins will increase your chances of profiting. 9 Thinking cheap is always better Just because a coin is cheap does not mean it is a better buy or has a higher chance of profits. While it is true that it’s easier for a $0.05 coin to reach $0.10 compared to a $500 coin reaching $1,000, but it is also easier for a $0.05 coin to go down to $0.01, wiping you out completely. The key here is to not just take price as an indication of profitability, and conduct your research to understand why a particular coin is cheap, and which, if any, upcoming developments can boost the price. 10. Not following the news Price movements, charting and market analysis is not enough. If you want to be a successful trader, you need to follow crypto news and stay up to date on all recent and upcoming developments. Since crypto is a speculative market, it responds very strongly to both positive and negative news, and being in-the-know is invaluable for a trader. On Cryptovest.com, we cover everything of note in the crypto space and make sure our readers get the latest updates as they happen. If you want to get updates instantly, you should subscribe to our mailing list or activate push notifications. Source: Cryptovest Just today, Ethereum is swinging wildy again, reaching to highs of USD 345 before retreating to the $328 range. (at the present moment). With its high fluctuations, how can we make money with Ethereum? Ethereum has grown from a paltry price of $10 to the current $345 within a short period of time. There are several factors behind this price hike. One of the main reasons was Ethereum has been marketed to various potential corporate and government partners are a way of generating revenue through its integration of blockchain technology. Some highly publicized partnership are JPMorgan Chase, Cisco Systems, Inc, Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Microsoft, and other 30 big brands to create a partnership known as the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA). In order to trade Ethereum, you need to know the various phases of Ethereum planned growth. Frontier
Option A: You could Buy and Sell
There are several reasons you should consider buying Ethereum for long-term investments.The technology that underlies Ethereum means that it can be used for a number of other purposes that will be built off of a decentralized and autonomous system. Simply put, it potentially will be a revolutionary technology with the potential to impact a whole spectrum of industries. As the demand for the Ethereum platform and its smart contracts enabled network increases, the value of Ethereum as a cryptocurrency will continue to surge.
Stability – Ethereum had an organic growth, without massive spikes, and it seems to be stable, if not even predictable. The increasing demand and value of a certain cryptocurrency serve as an indicator of its potential. Whatever the reason is, it still increases the demand – meaning a further increase in Ethereum price. You can choose to buy Ethereum, or if you prefer to have more liquidity, you can opt to trade in Ethereum. I personally prefer eToro as it was an intuitive interface and allows several other cryptocurrencies to be traded as well, as such Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, etc. You can sign up for an eToro account at http://bit.ly/etoro-ethereum Option B: You can mine Ethereum
Bitcoin mining started out with simple CPU and GPU mining that can be done on high-powered home computers before the introduction of ASIC miners overwhelmed the industry resulting in only specialized hardware being capable of any worthwhile mining. The Ethereum blockchain, however, is far more resistant to ASIC miners which result in most of the processing being done on rigs mounted with GPUs.
If you have a high-powered system for gaming then your computer is more than capable of mining Ether at a respectable rate. You can choose to mine Ethereum solo but you’ll probably get better results by contributing your resources to a pool. Personally, I have never mined any myself but I have a good read on Nanopool and they’re easy to use. Thanks to their great help page. In my opinion, Ether could be at a high price but still not profitable to mine because your electricity costs are so high, or visa Versa. You also have to account for the difficulty increase associated with a price spike. In any case, we should be seeing Ethereum go up, up and up! Don't wait too long! (Source) This is my second time doing cat-sitting for Ulrike, a Tiong Bahru neighbour living just a few blocks away from me. She has two adorable cats, Luna and Naomi. A mother and daughter pair actually. Naomi, the younger one is usually very shy and would hide under the armchair. During my first cat sitting session, I have only seen a part of her, as she would dash into some dark safe spot once she hears me approaching. This time round, she's more relaxed. In fact, I was even able to get close to her and stroke her. Nice!
Deenise’s post made me feel that it is about time for me to share a bit more about Wellaholic™. It is never easy to start something unique and differentiated. It begets curious stares and understandable reactions like: - is it a hobby? - is it a MLM? - is it a social gathering? Let me clear the air. Wellaholic™ was started, or rather soft-launched in October together with a bunch of like-minded individuals. Wellaholic™ was founded on a H-A-B-I-T mindset. H stands for Have Your Supplements. This is premised on the fact that supplements can help us with our nutrition gaps, and at Wellaholic™, we manufacture our own brand of supplements in a FDA-certified facility in USA and ship it to Singapore. The supplements range from multi-vitamins and probiotics to joint care, and was designed together with my in-house pharmacist and doctor team. We wanted good quality supplements with a good history of value, as opposed to pseudo-supplements with dubious claims. A stands for Activities. We believe that good health must be augmented by good fitness, and an active lifestyle is essential. Hence, at Wellaholic™, we created a platform, which we call the Wellness Marketplace, where we work with passionate fitness proprietors to offer low-cost classes for our customers and everyone else. So far, we have worked with Wildfire Expeditions for Yoga, Ed Chow and Meygan Cheng for KpopX Fitness, Hardpress for Massage, amongst others. We have conducted HIIT, Tabata, Meditation classes, and they are sometimes free, sometimes only $10 for customers and $15 for the public. The idea is simple: purchase a product from Wellaholic™ and enjoy a good discount off the classes. This allows us to combine both H and A of HABIT. We are now working with Benny Lam, a National Discus Thrower to offer Core Training session starting this Sunday, and we will continue to include and work with the community to offer more classes. B stands for Boost. Boost here is associated with skincare and skin treatments. Good health and fitness would be further enhanced with good skin care for greater confidence, and here comes the complexity. We wanted Wellaholic™ to also offer skin care and skin treatments. We then formulated a skin care range with our OEM based on a retinol-based range (which received very good reviews from dermatologists) and registered it with HSA. For skin treatments, we hired our own aesthetic specialists to offer both IPL (for hair removal) as well as Elight (a IPL and Radio Frequency combo). This lies the complexity of Wellaholic™’s business model of bringing together Supplements, Skin Care, Skin Treatments and Fitness Classes. For every product purchase, the customers receive 10 complimentary Elight facial shots (which at market rate would have cost $30), as well as discounted wellness activities. For a $59 purchase, you get $30 worth of treatments back, $5 or more off from classes. In addition to that, you also have access to our in-house pharmacist, doctor and dietician who is always on standby to answer to your supplementation questions (and yes we have received queries on product usages, drug interactions etc.). This forms the I which stands for Interact with Experts. But the most important part of HABIT is really the T, which stands for Thrive with Community. Because health or fitness goals are more reachable when you DO IT WITH A TEAM. And this is the reason to why Deenise’s post made me realise that she has succinctly put across what Wellaholic™ is trying to do – to form a community where we can thrive together, pursuing our health, fitness and beauty goals, to make the change, and then live the change.
As we group together as Wellaholics – whether you are a customer, a fitness enthusiast or even an instructor or a facilitator, we can then through the power of network and social media help to spread positive change. It is not a hobby, nor MLM, nor a social gathering – it is about connecting individuals and to realise the power of network to offer value to the community. If we can bring about goodness and positive change, let’s do it, and I urge you to do the same too. Insights, everyone has them. but not everyone shares them. With every insight is an intention; an intention to be better, for that is the essence in the action. we hope that you can share with us your insights, for what is knowledge and what good is it if you do not pass it on? I ran and ran. It has been a while since I ran so much. To be honest, I didn't run much. It was just an interval training; a high-intensity sort of an interval training, but the stationary exercises, such as the push ups and jumping jacks, were really okay. But the running wasn't. It really wasn't a difficult run -- just that the competitive nature of us made us go the distance, literally. What we had to do for this HIIT Training, conducted patiently by the legendary Ming "Hunk", was five sets of exercises, followed by a sprint over a distance. While everyone could do the sets at their own pace, the faster individuals, who completed the set earlier, had to plank or do a standing stance while waiting for the rest to get back. Doesn't this sound a lot like Habitica? Because of the fact that the earlier ones would have to "suffer" while waiting for the slower ones to return, it spurred everyone to give their best. I was particularly impressed with Joyce, who took the trouble to attend the session but also to give her best. And even with Hobbes, who was in discomfort but made it down to the session as well. We were also particularly happy to have Brenda join us, thanks to Louis. And while it has only been a month or so hanging together, slowly but surely, the frequent activities are bonding the team closely together. A strange and surreal team that we have here - it's like there is an invisible bond that connected each person, and like dots with a numbers, we are like part of a join-the-dots diagram, slowly forming the total picture, but also patiently waiting for the hidden people or dots-with-a-number, to join us, so that we can eventually form the complete picture. In the spirit of Wellaholic, I certainly hope that more people would come to realise the Wellaholic vision, and then come join us for all the fun activities that we have made effort to create. So what about the run? My competitive nature made me want to do the best that I can, and that meant giving my best shot. #livethechange! PS: So what's the picture that would be formed? I wouldn't know, but time will tell. To find out more about Wellaholic, please go to www.wellaholic.com To find out more about the list of wellness marketplace events, visit http://www.facebook.com/teamwellaholic/events/ It was a great yoga outing today. Okay, I had to wake up really early on a Sunday morning. At 630am in fact. After I washed up and drove over to Kallang Wave, I was wide awake and ready for my noob yoga session. It all started the evening before. Andy mentioned that he was reaching out to the team from Wildfire for possible collaborations. Patrick invited us to join the yoga session, and I decided to blast this event through the group chat. It was at 630 am, on a Sunday morning, and while I was reluctant to wake up so early (I was hoping to get more rest this hectic period), I decided to see if there was anyone who would attend. Should there be one, I would join in as well. Wei Ann promptly replied the group chat: "I'm in." Our group swelled up to five of us, which was pretty impressive despite given a short notice (and on an early Sunday morning, I have to reiterate again lol). At the running track area of the Sports Hub, the morning air was fresh, and I was surprised by the number of enthusiasts that were already jogging around the track. XY, our yoga coach for the morning, ran us through the warm ups, and did some good stretching. I particularly found the partner yoga to be fun and interesting - which reminded me of Pink's acrobatic movements during the MTV awards (I think). After the yoga session ended, we proceeded to Starbucks for the collaboration discussion, which went well. I was particularly enthused by the team spirit, and I certainly hope that the #wellaholic movement would continue to grow, and in this process of this, we are able to get more like-minded folks to join us on this journey towards total wellness.
#livethechange!! To find out more about Wellaholic, please go to www.wellaholic.com To find out more about the list of wellness marketplace events, visit http://www.facebook.com/teamwellaholic/events/ While the Davao night market activities has resumed under very strict police and military scrutiny, there was still a sense of loss, exemplified by the memorial erected in remembrance of those who perished in the blast. As the children lit the candles around the memorial, there was a quiet resilience by the locals, as though they would not submit under any terrorism. Perhaps, the best solution against terrorism is the refusal to submit.
|
AuthorI am MrWildy and I am trying to journal more about my life and also my travels. Find out more about me here. Categories
All
Archives
July 2022
|