Family Meeting | Economic Crisis

Some of you might know that my parents also own a Condo at Simei, which is currently rent out at $3+k per month. Seems like a decent amount of money to most of us, but not going to last us long. As the contract for the rental ends this year July, and most probably the rental will drop to 2+k if renewal.

Adding on to the situation, both my parents CPFs is sounding their siren, moving into the red zone. Unable to continue servicing the payment for both HDB and Condo. Together with the high leverage of loans, my parents had borrowed to service the down payment of the condo, totally to about 50k (my estimate)

So why do i mention all this scenarios. Currently their is a interested buyer offering 600+k for it, which means making about 10k of loss. *Some background info, peak value of the Condo is 700+k! So you can see how the financial crisis had affected their investment plan. 100k of potential earnings is what some of the working adults could earn in like 3-4 years!*

Its painful, i can feel the pinch even thou its not my money. But somehow, we decided to let it go. Take the 10k as the rental of the Condo for the past few years. Its too taxing for my parents to continue support both apartments, both my sis and my study fees. Their monthly cash flow is already in deficit. We know cause we do the paying of bills on their behalf.

So after liquidating the apartment, paying off all long-term liabilities and topping up my parents CPF from the sale, whats left is a few Ks to sufficiently pay off the study fees for both my sis and I.

Glad that my parents are opening this kind of topics to us. Let us be involved in family decision making. We still yet to experience the stormy and harsh events of being a working adult with family. But a good head start to take a peek into what they are bothered with at their age.


Relating it to my bike selling experience, i usually set aside 3 level of budget. Profit making, Break even and Minimize losses.

When you are making a paper profit, we will sure be greedy and think that price will continue rising. A question to ask ourselves when making investment decision. "How much is enough? (earning)" Even after the sale, prices continue to rinse, don't get dishearten. At least you get what you wanted, be contented with what you have!

Break even is what the cost you get for the asset you own. Although different people have different method to tabulate their break even cost. At this stage, we will be stuck with a dilemma, to hold or to sell? The decision making at this stage is the hardest. We are affected and taking a risk, make or break. At this stage, focus on the satisfaction level and any gain (non value) you can get from the asset rather than the value.

Loss, seeing the value turning red is the last scenario we like to see, just like our study result. Loss limit should be done together with profit, before getting the 'asset' you want. Why? By the time you see red, its already too late. Stay firm on the price limit and cut off all ties you have with it. Don't hesitate!
To feel better even making a loss, tell yourself its the depreciation/rental/whatever cost for you to own that asset.

**Above suggestion are for physical assets. **

Run your Family like Economy
C Cube