Compliance Issues

There's been a lot of recent issues cropping up at work, one of which I was smack in the middle of! The reason why everyone has been up in arms is that it involves compliance for which non-compliance carries a hefty fine. I've spoken to a few people and some think that we are over-analysing and going too much into the details. Others, however, think otherwise especially if they were the ones who signed it! The way I see it, as long as they don't read us the Louisiana Jones Act or any other scary Act, it should be sufficient to ensure we have a robust and good process to fall back on. Oh well, let's see what the final decision will be from the people in power.

Cold Day

Its such a cold and dreary day today! It was pouring all morning and I had not seen this kind of rain in a long while. The rain was the kind that makes you wish you could just snuggle up in a warm bed and go right back to sleep or at least have the comfort of a car to make the commute to work a little less painful. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of both! So I arrived in the office in wet jeans and poor DH seems to have caught the cold after being drenched in the rain on the way to his office. Hope he gets better soon!

Extra Coaching

I had a child-filled weekend with DH's nieces. There were good moments and some really tough moments especially when the children started acting up. One surprising thing I learnt was how competitive schooling years are for children these days. There are all kinds of extra-curriculur activities they attend nowadays and all kinds of tuition. One of DH's nieces was telling me about her Statistics tutor whose classes she attended during the school holidays for Statistics help in her weaker Statistics subjects. She used to face quite a bit of Statistics problems when she first started school and always had a lot of trouble doing the Statistics questions her school assigned. Her parents tried to help but found that they were providing Statistics answers instead of encouraging her to think the problem through. So, having no other resort, they had to turn to tutoring to improve her weak subject. However, nothing is free in this world, not even free Statistics help so if you're a parent whose child is facing some problems at school, do be prepared to invest a little in helping them!

Coverage All Around

I happened to chance upon a magazine yesterday which said that one needed at least $350k just to raise a kid here! Can you imagine that?! I certainly can't because the thought of having to save that huge amount of money is daunting! The article went on to suggest for parents to put part of the savings into Real Life Cover insurance for their children as part of the investment plan. Often, parents forget that children need life insurance as much as they do and miss out that important part of coverage. The other insurance the article suggested buying was income insurance which is absolutely necessary in the unfortunate event one parent loses their job or is unable to work further.

It seems like there is an insurance for everything these days from funeral cover insurance to maternity insurance cover. While I don't deny that insurance is necessary, I think it is more necessary to carefully evaluate what insurance exactly you require and allocate your disposable income accordingly.

Investment Choices

I've been asking around what would be the best investments here especially since we aren't familiar with the market. We haven't saved all that much but hoped to maximise the savings we had instead of leaving it in the bank where we will end up losing money to inflation. I was considering to buy gold coins or maybe even shares but surprisingly the recommendations I received here was always to buy property. That's a really scary investment right now as the property prices are at an all time high and there has been a lot of rumours about it being a property bubble. Yet, other camps say the prices can only ever go up higher. Its a hard decision to make and I'm really not sure what we should invest in. Does anyone have suggestions of the best investments in Singapore?

Math Help

I was having lunch with my colleagues recently and one of them was just telling us her children had hardly any time at all. It sounded a little sad but it is unfortunately true as children here attend all kinds of tuition for Math help or English help. In some cases, they go for additional enrichment classes which ends up eating into their weekends. Even DH's 16 year old niece recently complained that she had no time even to look after her pet hamster!

Perhaps parents here should seriously relook at their childrens' school and extra curriculum activities or consider a Online Tutor service which will provide Free Online Tutoring or Math Problem Solver skills at each child's own time and convenience. I recently came across some good sites which specialized in Online Math Tutor help and comprise largely of university graduates who have pooled together their time and resources to form a Math Tutors Online group to help K-12 and college student with their challenging Math assignments.

Times have certainly changed and if you're a parent who has never had a Math Tutor guide you before, don't expect the same for your child! School just has become so challenging and important that parents can no longer afford to be hands off and complacent.

Dermatologist Visits

Right at the top of my priority list when I went back to KL last weekend was a visit to the dermatologist to treat acne that I've recently developed again. Going to see him is no easy feat as it involves waking up very early to queue outside his office to get a number! Then more waiting at his clinic to see him for 2 minutes before I'm finally done. It is a waste of the entire morning but still something I have to do to try to stabilise my skin and try to keep the acne at bay.

Going Short

I did something drastic over the weekend - cutting my hair short into a bob! I have not had short hair for over 6 years already but decided it was finally time for a change. Honestly, cutting my hair so short was a big decision as I have had short hair for most of my life and never liked it. However, keeping my hair long was starting to get irritating as it was growing out of control and started looking very limp since it did not have much body. Luckily I got mostly positive comments about my new hairstyle though I can't wait for it to grow out a little so it'll look better!

Keeping Beautiful

Magazines are always full of how celebrities keep thin, their bizarre diets, fat burning products they consume and their impossible diet secrets. But what most people don't realise is that celebrities have a whole host of people, money and experts whose sole responsibilities are to ensure they keep beautiful and fit in the public eye. If we all had the same resources to invest in being beautiful, I'm sure we will all be body perfect too!