Financial Reporting AY 2009: Ledger and Journal

I'm also using this sheet to record my daily expenses. With simple heading, date, item/event and the amount spend. Had started this habit during March when I'm too damn bored with my 4 months holiday. Unknowing its December already, conducted this assignment for like 10 months! Now i can easily set my budget for transport, each meal and bills for my current lifestyle.

Had set aside the heading "investment" which is the amount i spent on my projects. As the figures can fluctuate way beyond my other entries. However, start to feel the need to include Cash Inflow. I will more or less be completed as a cash flow statement. Entries will mainly be allowance and sales proceeds from my projects. With them, i can judge whether I'm spending within my means, also measure the amount of cash inflow. Hopefully i can get some interesting data pattern.

I'm figuring how i can include into my current spreadsheet and make it user friendly when I'm using it through my mobile phone. With the screen size of 2" by 1.5", its not pleasant to navigate if the list of entries gets too long for just 1 day.

Finally i get to the end of my financial reporting. With new format for me to follow next year, i only hope it can gel in well with the old entries. Not sure is it too much or normal for a person to monitor his finance status so closely. But i hope with the time i have as a student, i can use it to come out with a good spending budget before i enter the working life.

Financial Reporting AY 2009: Profit & Loss

This sheet is use to monitor my P&L for all my projects. Had started doing it almost the same time i started with my Balance Sheet. But till now, little changes have been made it to as compared as my B/S. For P&L, its very much simple, Selling Price minus Cost Price minus any expenses incurred, it gives you Profit.

I added in "Margin" through the years, to see how the project fare compared to others of its same value. Another add on is "Sold To", its more like profiling. As i post my ads in many places, knowing who and where i made my sales to is important. I can then put more focus that that area, like refreshing my ads there more often or aware of how much i quoted and earned from the same guy before. But its a pretty small market to play around.

For year 2009, i further segmented my entries for P&L into Oakley, Bike Project and Any Other Items. Oakley is obvious. Bike project only records full bike sales. While Any Other Items could be the bike parts, misc items and fees if i managed to earned from helping a friend to get something online.

I noticed i lacked something very important for P&L, the DATE!! Currently I'm looking at a long list of entries, but they are all spread across 5 years! Hence i decided to add in actual date of transaction, so to track the transactions i made during a period of time.

Till now, i had a total of 17 bikes which i built and sold off. Including the loss of my 2 bikes, Cannondale M500 and DEAN, the total loss i had from all the bikes is 1k+. Keeping at a loss 4% of the total bike values. The $1000+ spread over 5 years, averaging 200-300 per year is an acceptable expense/deprecation. However no champagne popping, as the figures yet to include the Custom Ti frame and OEM carbon bike which can easily set off the 4% to maybe 10%?

2010, i shall focus more on my Oakley entries. As i will put in more effort on them. Also with the use of my credit cards, serving as debt to finance and extend the payment. It will be interesting to apply the accounting ratios, ROI, ROE and ROA and compare them.

Need to come out with a standard format to follow and record the entries. Currently thinking what the headings should be.

Financial Reporting AY 2009: Balance Sheet

This is not a formal balance sheet, we see from accounting standards. This basically touches on the overall picture of my financial status, a sum up of the small entries i had in the month.

A look back into my past entries. Pretty proud of myself for recording them for 5 years (since 2005)!! Back then, my accounting heading only consist of

Date

Cash in Bank ($)

Cash on Hand ($)

Overall

Pay ($)

Remark

Straightforward and simple accounting. End of month, just enter the amount in Bank and in my wallet. Add them up and compare the difference with the previous month. Also record the pay i getting for that month. Then, there is no fixed date for the entries. I recorded any day of the month. Find that its not accurate and does not reflect the difference between the months.

Now i had

Date

Cash(Bank)

Cash(Hand)

Saving

Liability

Total

Available

Overall

Amt

Pay

Remark

My accounts getting a little more complicated. I have opened up a saving account on 2008 and started holding money of others. Hence explained for the extra Saving, Liability and Available. With the extra money of other, can mislead me into thinking that i still have much money in my bank. Making me more tempted to take up high in value projects.

Hoping to add in the money i made from my 'projects', maybe "Earnings", so to give a clearer picture of my Finance Status.

Paypal's X'mas Eve Surprise!!

Just rush home from City Hall after meeting 2 buyers. Before i changed up and meet MK for a jog, i checked my mail box i saw this surprise email from Paypal.

Here the a portion of the email:

Hello C Cube,

PayPal is required by law to comply with the Monetary Authority of
Singapore's Notice to Holders of Stored Value Facilities on the Prevention
of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism
regulations to collect identification documents from customers when they
receive/send more than a set limit. We are sending you this notice because
your PayPal account has exceeded this set limit in total transactions.

Well, I'm not surprise with the exceeding of the set limit in total transactions. For the past 3 months, the amount i made payment to Paypal had exceed the amount of USD$2000!!

Well this email also signaled me that i had put in much effort in my Oakley Blogshop. In fact, when i share this with my sister, we reply with a cold facial expression that she had longed received this email.. -_-" Damned! just when i thought I'm able to brag..


Early X'mas Present
C Cube

Plastic Cards

Had signed up for 2 student credit cards, Standard Chartered Bank's Manhattan Card and Citibank's Citi Clear Card.

Now with these 2 cards added into my arsenal, i can have 23-25 days of credit for my online shopping. Not including the rebates and discounts i can enjoy when doing retail shopping. Especially during festive season, many shops are putting up signage on the discount we can have if we purchase with certain credit card. Went to walk at Raffles City today and noticed most of the shops have discount if uses Citibank's Clear Card.

The Pro and Con of these student cards is the credit limit of $500. But i find it a good stepping stone to learn how to use credit cards smartly before we enter the workforce and higher credit limit. So currently i can use up to $1000 worth of credit.

Will share the discounts and savings i had with these 2 cards. Hopefully not the mishaps i had with them.


Creditor
C Cube

Know-Your Expense: Month Aug to Oct

Its a long 3 months for me to record my expenses. But without me knowing, its has become a habit. Quite cool to see how your expenses 'behave' in different phases of your life. Instead of showing big picture consist of all the entities in bar chart form, i decided to show each one in their line chart and do a brief review on them, see how they correlate with schooling days, working days and do-nothing days.

Meals

Is fun to see how we consume in correlation with going to school.
April - May: Lesser lesson and eventually no lesson on mid May.
June - July and Sept: Meals are almost cut half! Also with work, means eat at work.
Aug: This is the part which stuns me awhile.. Making me think back what I'm doing for the whole of August, 20++ for all 3 meals!

Looking at my other entities, i found out that i was stuck at home most of the time, noting my increase in eBay buying. Well also could be more work, noting my increase in my Pay for that month (*figures not shown). Maybe after Desaru IM, i prefer to rest at home more, training alot lesser, which again means eat lesser

Sept - Oct: Notice that my Sept consumption falls within the same range ($60-$80) as Jun and Jul. But a bit of rise, thanks to School reopen (late Sept)

Now inspect to each meal, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

Breakfast: Having the least movement on the chart, it suggest that Schooling have little affect to Breakfast and also the least impact to the Total Meal Consumption.

Lunch: Using October as the benchmark to suggest the real consumption of lunch during Schooling Period, which marks at range $60-$80. When there is no school, but training hard. Lunch consumption is range $30-$50. How about little activity? Doing nothing, still suggest, I have to consumption $10-$30.

Dinner: I personally see training as direct correlation with my training. As i don't consume dinner during school hours. Note the sudden spike in July which could imply that I'm eating more or better during this period of time. The gradual increase from Aug to Oct shows how well/much i eat as i recover from Desaru and training again for Standard Chartered Marathon. Lastly, thinking back on how to have my dinner for Jun-Jul and Aug-Oct. Jun-Jul, I'm having the cheapo kind of dinner, only Economic Rice. While Aug-Oct, with more money, I decided to eat better food like BBQ Half Chicken and Mini Wok which are all twice as much as Economic Rice.

Transport

Transportation is another linked entity with schooling, suggesting the trips spend to school. During Oct, it hits $60, higher than Jul which I'm most probably traveling to work. April's $70 amount was thanks to numerous trips to revision classes which are not schedule economically. why? 1 3hr lesson a day for 4-5 days per week.. That's the period, I'm having revision lectures which i can plan to squeeze 2 lecture per day.

Wanting to share the effect of School on MISC and Leisure. However, found little correlation in between them. Hence decided to leave them out.


Should I Start Eating Economic Rice Again?
C Cube

Is The Glass Half Full or Half Empty

We all know the above title suggest that a optimistic person will say that the glass is half full while the opposite, pessimistic, will say its full empty.

Before i start off with my post. Would like to share with you all this humorous article on this proverb applied by people from different professions and walk of life.

The government would say that the glass is fuller than if the opposition party were in power.

The opposition would say that it is irrelevant because the present administration has changed the way such volume statistics are collected.

The philosopher would say that, if the glass was in the forest and no one was there to see it, would it be half anything?

The economist would say that, in real terms, the glass is 25% fuller than at the same time last year.

The banker would say that the glass has just under 50% of its net worth in liquid assets.

The psychiatrist would ask, "What did your mother say about the glass?"

The physicist would say that the volume of this cylinder is divided into two equal parts; one a colorless, odorless liquid, the other a colorless, odorless gas. Thus the cylinder is neither full nor empty. Rather, each half of the cylinder is full, one with a gas, one with a liquid.

The logistician would suggest that the you should change a glass, as it is too big.

The seasoned drinker would say that the glass doesn't have enough ice in it.

**********/// \\\**********

From the above article & proverb, keep in mind that for the same thing, there can be numerous perspective. I shall move on to a 'game' which is taken from the book Dear Mr Buffett. It is regarding the Financial psychology of judgement and decision making.

I have gave you $100, and I'm going to give you 2 option:

1. Give you another $50,
2. Flip a coin; Head: Give you another $100, Tail: Give you nothing additional

Most people will go for option 1, since is certain that i will not risk any of my money and yet get more money.

Consider another scenario
I have gave you $200, and I'm going to give you 2 option:

1. Take away from you another $50,
2. Flip a coin; Head: Take away another $100, Tail: Take away nothing additional

Most people now will consider flipping the coin, to avoid the certain loss of$50. Are you the 'most person' i mention in both scenario? Don't worry I'm one of them..

Now the explanation:
For both scenario, you will get $150 if you choose option 1. If you choose option 2, you will get either $200 or $100. You will get same result for both scenario, nothing changed.

But what have changed? Our behavior... People will choose the sure $150 (scenario 1) when they stand to gain. But they will flip the coin(gamble), when they stand to lose. Even if it means getting a potentially worse off result. The feeling seems to be that they should do something to avoid the loss rather than doing nothing and let it go.

**********/// \\\**********

Now another example which i experience personally. Pretty similar to the above example.

It is got to do with the sale of Oakley Sunglass (I happen to sell some of them)

Retail price for Radar: $350 (illustration)
Blogger online selling price: $300
My asking price: $250

Hmm if the buyer(usually friend) get from the blog shop, he saved $50. But if he get from me, another $50. Wah! he saved $100!!

Now i add in another info. My cost price is $150.
"Hmm he is earning from me $100!!" (thoughts of buyer).

Does this thought happen to you? The negative thought of me, earning the $100 from the buyer, have offset the positive thought, the buyer would will have saved ($100).

Don't worry if you are this buyer, cause I'm one.

To Be Continued
C Cube

Pay day Break Down

Most of my readers here had know that i have started working in Capella other than Ritz. Offering at $7/hour compared to Ritz $6.50/hour. However issue is meal break are being deducted from our 'voucher'. So how to compare which hotel is offering a better deal in monetary terms?

Did a small calculation of both hotel. Ritz pretty straight forward, $6.50 multiply by no. of hours worked. However for the Capella, its quite a headache. Asked the coordinator regarding how the meal breaks are being deducted? The answer is 1 meal per shift. So how many hours are there in a shift? Also would the start work time affect the deduction of meal?

E.g.
A shift of 6hours.
Start work at 9am, End at 3pm. No of break: 1 (Lunch)
Start work at 11am, End at 5pm No of break: 0

Working Hour Chart

Click to enlarge

Decided to come out with a chart, stating all Start Work Timing and and All Working Hours. Correspond to them is the End Work Timing. So based on all the start work timing and end work timing, one by one, I review and see how many meal break will i land into.

Non Highlighted: No break
Light Blue: 1 Break
Darker Blue: 2 Break
Purple: 3 Break

Comparison Table

Click to enlarge

Using the data from the Chart, i came out with Table to compare the rates. From both of them, there is a pattern on the No. of breaks.

6-8hours: 0-1 Break
9-15hours: 1-2 Breaks (Not possible for 0 break)
16-19hours: 2-3 Breaks (Not possible for breaks, lesser than 2)
20< hours: 3 Breaks (Not possible for breaks, lesser than 3)

Min, Max Column: As we know there is possibility for different No. of break for a given working hour. So I came up with the Max/Min possible difference you will have when comparing the 2 rates.
%(max) column: The possibility of you getting the max amount

So whats the findings?

1. Add up min and max (absolute value), you will get $3.50 (Amt for Break). Except for 8th and 15th hour
2. For 8th and 15th hour, you will have both min/max higher (Both earn more)
3. If you work 1 hours after them, you will suffer $2.50 lesser (Another break comes)
4. You need 5 hours to break even the 'loss'
   

My Chart & Table isn't really complete. Forget the existence of half an hour, which is commonly experienced while working. Also my calculation did not included the meals being forgo/excuse by mangers. E.g. Forgo meals during rush hours.


Conclusion:
Above are just figures i crunched out because I'm bored. But still, working at different places shouldn't judge by their pay rates. There are more in finding a nice place to work.


Since When We Overpay and Under Deliver
C Cube

Know-Your-Expense: Month of June and July

Yes again to bored you guys with my boring break down of my own expense. Really bored for this whole week, totally no work at all!! haha!.

Managed to sort out my expenses for both June and July, and make comparison with April and May. But it doesn't reflect the my expense behavior as a whole, as I'm currently enjoying my 4 months long holiday. Will try to continue for another few months to see the difference between expense behavior over holiday and schooling.



Added in "Average" for all the entities (in red), using it more like a benchmark against the particular entity. "Average" will tell me how much i could allocate aside for future planning.

MISC:
Seems that when you are busy doing NOTHING, we tend to spend money on more miscellaneous stuffs. However noticed the spike in July and June, could be contribute by my visit to treat my leg injury. Was thinking of visit the Chinese physiotherapist once a month, especially during intense training period.

Meals:
Amazingly i set a new record of lowest amount spent on meal, $60.90, thanks to zero consumption for breakfast! Most probably this figure is achieved due to the increase in working days i have.. A 12-16 hours shift = 3 meals avoided.

An increase for "Dinner" could be explained in the followings

1. More Work = More Cash = Pamper my stomach
   
2. Sick of economic rice after 2 months (especially June)
3. Working Shifts mainly in Morning and Afternoon, explained why Breakfast and Lunch dropped
   

Transport:
Same explanation: Travel to work..

Bills:
Mainly Insurance Policies, decided to cut one of the term plan which i deem as overvalue for my current lifestyle.

Starhub Bill, forget to cancel of the sports channels after TDF

Leisure:
Seems like i had quite a few gatherings for July, Birthdays


Thanks for reading my 'cents'less breakdown. Will most probably review this on end of Sept again.


Money Cents (Sense)
C Cube

SAA: Month of May

2nd Month of my 'assignment'.
More used to collecting the data, doesn't feel like a additional chore to me anymore. Expect that I'm prone to forget recording them when I'm busy.

Added a new categorize, 'investment'.
Investment, is basically the amount i spent on item which purchase with the intention to sell away. They are usually in larger amount as compared to my other categories. Hence decided to separate them from the rest. For the month of Apr, i had added some investment entries to 'Leisure'. But will not make changes to the previous blog.

Definition of Leisure and MISC
Find that i need to clearly mark the difference between the above categories. As MISC, term itself is very general while LEISURE could be a possible subset of it.

Leisure: WANT, can do without it, optional. Usually on luxurious items of events. Such as movie trip and Oakley shades which i intend to keep for own use. Still deciding how to classified "outing with meals involved' Its a common event, stuck in between Meals and Leisure.

I find its troublesome to differentiate our daily meals between leisure meals or normal meals. Its pretty life-less to micro-manage daily expenses to this extent. For April, I entered one of them into meal while another into Outing.

However, i find out that there is implication in doing so.. Say of the sake of illustration, i usually consume a $5 meal, while recently had this $25 meal during a gathering. While that month, I'm consciously reduce my expenditure on dinner via controlling the number of dinners i had outside. A difference of $20, had suggested that i consumed extra 4 meals, while i only had 1.

Conclusion: Further discussion into this issue will really deem me life-less. Verdict for such event, write the entry as Outing, place a remark on it, stating what event is it. Any meal more than $10 should be considered LEISURE! (although i can easily spill over this amount when i got itchy mouth or a grumpy stomach)

Example

MISC: Since Leisure is defined, anything other than all the above categories would go under it. As the amount yet to hit more than $100, there is little need to micro-micro manage this area. If amount spill over a $100, it could be signaling that I'm overspending or entries which need to redefine under new category.

Comparison Chart
Hohoho, boredom had really hit my cerebrum.. Had a comparison of Apr and May, not very accurate due to misplaced entries. But anyway just trying out see what we can tell from the difference of 2 months.

Comparison of Apr and May

Ignore Bills (should be same or little variation), MISC and Leisure (since i had misplaced some entries which could affect the overall result)

Transport: Drop significantly by 50% due to vacation and the need to travel down far to West, Clementi. I'm not really a traveller, prefer to commute around with bicycle. Looking forward for the month of June. Why? With no travelling for schooling needs, i could see how much would it cost me to travel for other purpose and to what extent (in percentage) it cost me to travel for schooling purpose.

Meals:
Breakfast in coffeshop is a unnecessary expenses. Its expensive and not doesn't play a huge role in daily life.
Lunch: Also have been more skimpy or either not having it outside.
Dinner: Significant increase, due to more training sessions.

Also thinking of adding inflow of cash when i get the hang of even recording the data. Inflow might be easier since money flows out faster than in, most of the cases... haha


Jobless
C Cube

Auction Closed. You have a winner!

My second time trying to sell a item in eBay USA. A move which i seldom do to get rid of my unwanted stuffs, due to the high US exchange rate, listing charges on my ad and the unknown risk of the item selling lower than my reserve price. Finally, i entered once more into this free-for-all market. With abit of research beforehand, of course.

My item for sale Oakley Mag M Frame Heater Discontinued Model

Saw this beauty at togo marketplace, going for 188, negotiate it to 150. But I think the seller is able to lower it more. All blame me for being rush, not 'screening' my seller longer. Buy with the idea that i can switch lens with another Oakley M Frame Hybrid


The red lens is mesmerizing... almost on par with Oakley Romeo 1.0. Matching both the red lens and the mag frame will be flawless... Until i found out that the lens for both frame requires different lens.

Selling a M Frame with Heater lens is almost impossible in Singapore. Its the largest lens in Oakley M Frame series, wearing it on my face, as thou I'm wearing a eye mask. Went to eBay to check on its average selling price.

Turn out to be a shock to me that such a 'treasure' is actually sold to me at such low price. Indeed 'Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder'. Its another model no longer in production, similar fate as the Romeo 1.0.. A brand new pair can go easily over 300 USD in eBay, while used sets are closing more than 100USD, which conditions are far more inferior to mine current pair.

Started my auction with 100USD, almost the same as what i got in Singapore, as i dont wish to sell it off at a loss. Auciton was inactive for frst 3 days, less than 10 'watchers', no questions asked about it. Then i received a question asking me on the shipping to Thailand. To my surprise, sing post was quoting over SGD$40!! Whereas i placed USD$10 for standard shipping within US. Implication: Shipping to Thailand, $40+. USA which is further would cost more... Then i found out its $60+..

I thought to myself, 'another loss deal'. Even if i managed to close the deal at USD$100, i need to top up another SGD$50 for the shipping, means I'm selling at a loss of $50. Decided not to be bothered by this till the last day of auction.

Last day of auction.
The bid was at USD$109+, asked a friend of mine to push the bid up. He lost, but was planned for. The current highest bidder was a German. Seems more willing to pay for 'rare' Oakley shades.

last 30mins.
The bid hits USD$120, thank god maybe i can minimise the loss. Still the german bidder. Maybe can chop abit more in the shipping since he never ask me for quote. I checked on the shipping charges again and found out that i looked into the wrong service. Mixed up courier and air parcel, with a huge difference of $10-20 over the range of weight.

Closing bid

USD$142.50
Won by The Thai Guy

A lesson i had learnt:
Not the the last moment, we cant tell who is the winner. I keep thinking that the German guy will win.With their strong euros on his side, eye for collectors item. Thai guy on the other hand, also fall into my not-so-positive stereotyping.

走到桥头自然直. No point worrying so much from the start. Nature will takes its course.

Anyway my 7 days of auction saga has ended. Got to visit the sing post to get the shipping sorted out. Another hustle of going through eBay.


Deal Closed!
C Cube

SAA: Self Assigned Assignment

Its first of MAY! Other than its being a public holiday, 1 month after April Fool. Its the finish date of my 'assignment' I'm sure you have heard me saying it in my previous post, so what is it?

Actually is a 'bo liao' task to keep track of my daily expenses. Presenting to you my data

Monthly Allowance: $320
Transport: $68.86
Montly Bills: $212.50
Handphone bill + Cable TV and Maxonline (Shared) + Insurance of both Aviva and Manulife
Meals: $156.75
Breakfast: $25.70
Lunch: $80.90
Dinner: $50.15
Miscellaneous: $24.50
Haircuts, newspaper etc...
Leisure: $178.57
2x Outings and 1 Oakley shades

Was glad my my allowance was able to cover most of my necessities such as meals, transports, miscellaneous items and bills (Starhub bills). However still I'm over exceeding by $142.60!!! which is the amount of both my insurances... Need to reconsider the death/injury insurance ($40). The over exceeding amount has yet to include the amount i spent on leisure.. which is usually covered by my pay from Ritz, same for the insurances

At least now i know, how to benchmark my expenses.

Committed monthly expenses (bills) : $212.50
Required monthly expenses (necessities) : $250
Total : $460+

Aiming to push this figure below $450. Find that any further reduction from the meals will land me in the category of NO LIFE! Need to dig for another $130 to cover monthly basic expenses.

Will write up another post on my learning from this assignment.


月光族 *not people who enjoy moon light. Its people who are broke by/before the month ends
C Cube

What on 1st of April??

Its April 1st! So what do we expect other than being pranked by your friends over sms or some comments in Facebook?
You might have seen the new poster being pasted behind the driver in buses. The reduction of bus and train fare! But only from 1 April 2009 to 30 June 2010... Well we all had heard the incredible discount of 1 cent from our fare... WAH 省钱王~ ... ... Actually is 1cents to 20cents.

Heard alot of critics on whether the fare reduction, really does make a different. Just nice, i'm on my self-given assignment to check my daily expenses, which i also included the transport fare. Managed to get the fare before and after the price reduction.

Before: $4.64
After: $4.15
*Bus trip to MRT, MRT to Clementi Station, Bus trip to SIM and return trip. Means, 4 bus rides, 2 train rides and 2 transfer rebates

A difference of no more than 50cents a day.. sian~ Not even a cup of drink. But equate it to percentage, that's 10.56%! Oh now the figure seems better.. Seriously, have you ever being bothered by a few cents while taking public transport before? Well not for me..

A few disappointing things that i noted..

The transfer rebates. The flyer claimed to have the 50 cent rebate! But its for SBS transit not SMRT.. So.. good bye 50 cent rebate.. But i think SMRT rebate is about 30-40cents

Concession for Tertiary Students, only a reduction of $1-4. Tertiary students, i mentioned here is not University but Polytechnic Students. Remember the petition which they run to 'protest' about the difference between their concession as compared to JC students.

Really admire the courage of the initiator. Too bad his/her effort doesn't seems to achieve much yet. Instead University students stands to gain from their effort. Well too bad you are classified as Tertiary Students..


I really benefit from this
C Cube
*Above Figures are obtained from 2 days of observation

Down on my knees

*I'm not proposing to a girl

Defeated by my own bike projects, brought down by my ill management of money when I'm in army and the loss of my 2 beloved commute bikes..

Recently had liquidated both my bikes, Identiti and Cube. Find that too much money are poured into them and not efficiently utilised. I can keep them and continue using for the next few years, milking all possible satisfaction from them. But the huge amount of money of 6k+ discouraged me to park my money on them anymore, not to mention the dropping level of satisfaction level.

For both projects, already liquidate 2k+ worth of parts, making a realised loss of 17%.
Still have another 1.5k+ worth of parts still posted online waiting for their new owner. Expecting a paper loss of 10% so far
Lastly are the 'sunk cost', money paid for item which i deemed not unsaleable. Totally to 1.5k+.. However good news is i can utilise these items to fix up my next upcoming project, Single Speed Cube..

Hand itchy, bought Oakleys Juliet and a Road Bike for 'investment' purpose. Hoping to clear them soon. Shouldnt be hard to clear them off within 3mths.

Money had been flowing in from the sale. But flowing out, thanks to driving lessons.. Argh~!!! I'm back to square one again. Need to start setting aside money for another wave of school fees and maybe considering a sub 2k bike to train on.. Bottom line: I need to work hard again!! But upcoming mock exam papers (march) and exam papers (may) is deterring me from working too much. Time management is really not my forte, not including the discipline to study even when i have the time.

Work and Training: Correlation ratio, -1 | After long hours of work, my legs so super chui, cant run. Not to mention, waking up early to join the team for Sat trainings.

Work and Studies: Correlation ratio, -0.5 | After a hard working day, i just prefer to sleep/rest the next day.

Studies and Training: Correlation ratio, 0.5 | Training have positive effect on studies and vice versa. But it also can be a double edge sword. Train too hard, too tired to study. Study too hard, cant concentrate for training (mentally shag). Study moderate, look forward for training. Train moderate, alert to study.


Enough of Rest, Back to Revision
C Cube

Behind Closed Doors

Don't this post is not about me being featured in this TV series as a transsexual or some victim of sexual or physical abuse.

Recently just completed my Dream bike project! Leaving me with around $300++ in my bank, still owing my mom additional $900 while holding on to the Cannondale which set me back another $2k. These few week had been quite tight for me, handling SIM course fees which already cost me $5k. Another echelon coming soon in a few weeks time estimate around slightly below $2k.. Argh~ the whole day just seems to collapse on me, making it extra painful as i do not have a stable income now.. Parents on the other hand have to support 2 apartments and my sis in her studies. Imagine the figure i mention above about my Uni is x2 to my parents to fork out.

The next 2 weeks will see me drink porridge and plain water, locking myself at home..
Increase Training Freq = Increase Hunger= Increase Food Intake = Increase Expenditure = Decrease in Saving. Therefore i conclude that Training more/harder is negatively(inversely) proportionate to Savings
Guess being a vegetarian now isn't a bad choice~ haha!

Welcome to Civilianship
C Cube

Freak-nancial Status | Last Payslip from Army

Shall end off my Chapter on 'Army Life' with the overall allowance.

1year and 10months (2 years if you get below Silver for Poly/JC Napfa test) :
$21400, Averaging: $850 per month

Guess i failed to hit the 20% saving. After all the calculation, i only save 10% or even lesser.

So where all the money fly to?
5 oversea trips, 2 of them to Taiwan which spent around $400 each, the rest $100-200 each. Every time visit to the DFS, buying $200-300 worth of expensive liquor, wine and beer which i don't drink.
$400 PSP which i seldom play nowadays.
$1300+ on my Identiti, $600+ on my Dean
$400 Casio Camera
Visit twice to Running Lab to get $100+ shoes
Monthly bills & allowance which is compulsory

Cant imagine i spent so much over the past 2 years. Too rely on the monthly allowance from the army. Now too lazy to look for job, spending power still as high, no more payday on the 10th...
Got to start looking for job, part time as i still want to train. And if possible work while studying if i manage to get into SIM.

Reality Check, Financially
C Cube

Financial Status

Well thanks to my standby duty and my itchy hands, currently ended myself on the verge of being broke again! Why i said so..

eBay:

1. Won a bike which worth USD1000, spec with DA parts and wheelset.
2. Won a EC90 SLX fork which cost me USD139.

Debtors:

1. Selling of my Kestrel Frame to Nich on installment, still left with $1050. Expect to return by CNY.
2. Lend $1123 to another officer of mine to purchase stuff in eBay, as he does not have paypal yet. Expect to return by today.

Creditor: Owe my younger sister $800 just to pay up for the 2 won items in eBay.. (Haha can just drag)

Cash on Hand: $2xx/-

Now desperately waiting for next month's pay and my friend to pay me the money by today...

Poor Man's Theory
C Cube

Ebay craze..!

Well serving my standby duty till 21 Nov, means no book out for me till next sat. Anyway not a big issue. New problem had start to arise. Everyday facing the Internet computer during free time is really a evil thing for me, especially the only site that i frequent most is EBAY! Only on weekend i can check out the updates on my manga.

Sitting in front of the computer with only $20 to last me for 2 weeks (big savings) really make me feel like I'm getting richer. Currently aiming on a few frames and sunglasses (on hand already have 2 Oakley half jacket)

Biggest temptation is when i saw my dream bike featured on in eBay. However the price for it can easily 6mths of my allowance. (imagine i just got my officer allowance 6 mths ago)

Spec of bike as follows (for those who don't know any parts of bicycle can ignore this)

BMC Road Bike

Size is a BMC 47cm.Top tube, center-center is 52cm.

Fork: Easton EC90 SLX, full carbon

Brake Calipers: Dura-Ace 7800

Derailleurs: (Front & Rear) Dura-Ace 7800

Shifters/Levers: Dura-Ace 7800 10 Speed

Crank: Shimano Compact, 50/34 (170)

Chainrings: Dura-Ace 7800 (53-39)

Cassette: Ultegra (12-25)

Wheel Set: Dura-Ace 7801 SL

Saddle: Fizik aliante, carbon rails

Seatpost: Easton EC90 Full Carbon

Stem: Specialized S-Works Carbon

Bars: Easton EC90 Equipe Carbon, ergo bend, 42cm

Chain: Dura-Ace 7800 10 Speed

Bottom Bracket: Dura-Ace

Tires: Conti GP 4000 rear, Michelin Pro Race front

Another posting that really caught my eyes is another BMC SLC which is posted in togoparts. However its size is not to my wanting even thought i can fit on the bike.

Another thing to announce. My polar watch had finally reached my hands, which means i can play with it during my weekend or evening runs. However, find the watch very 'plastic' , 'fake' and not durable. Well takes time to find out (hopefully not within a few weeks time)

Ok folks, time to rest my eyes now and figure out the functions of the watch. Also waiting for another eBay posting to end which i had bid on it.

Going to be broke again

C Cube

Amazing spending power Chin~!

Well every since i had secured the deal for both of my frames which i kept for almost half a year, i had spent quite a reasonable sum of money...

The recent $100+ from my trip to supermarket, $88 for my new Nokia 2626 non-camera HP, $109 for servicing of DEAN bike (hopefully will be subsidised by the loaner) and today another 172.95 on a pair of asics running shoes. Total of $479 within less than 2 weeks.

Well another stance which i made is to bid on a carbon frame in eBay, which cost around $1000+ when reaches s'pore.. Somemore my sister and i had upgraded our Acer laptop to a Lenovo during the Comex, after a less than 1hr discussion with our uncle who is also upgrading his laptop by trading in his old laptops. So means another $950 which would be shared between my family..

ok ok i should watch my spending, but what can be done is over taken by time.. haha now hand still itchy on getting a camera. Guess will see me volunteering for more weekend duty to control my urge of spending.

Seriously BROKE!!!
C Cube

Trip to supermarket

Wah! just came back from East Point NTUC to shop for some daily products to use in camp and home. Here is the list of item i bought:

1. 2x 2L MEIJI fresh milk
2. Frosties
3. Listerine
4. Biore Men's facial wash
5. Banana Nut Crunch
6. Marigold packet fresh milk
7. 3 in 1 Oat Cereal
8. Centrum supplement
9. TGC Glucosamine cream

All these added up to more than $100.. just like that im less by $100+ from the sale of my kharma bike frame

Broke
C Cube