| the second year
a recap of the 3 year plan was to have the legal ceremony in the first year, followed by the housing matters, then finally the actual traditional ceremonial activities.
in the second year, we were in the midst of a property boom, public housing on the resale market was being sold at a premium, 5 room flats in areas traditionally considered not prime were going at half a million at least, with cov (cash over valuation) ranging from 20-50 thousand dollars. we attempted to ballot for a new project next to bedok interchange, but were sadly given a ridiculously high queue number, and effectively wasting $10 applying.
following that, we started looking at resale flats around tampines and simei, even bedok to take advantage of the near parents grant which would reduce the prices of flats. most places we went to were asking for exorbitant amounts of money, and it's important here to work out your finances.
there's the initial downpayment to begin with, and of course a big amount of cash up front if you're looking at a resale place. so we gave up and chanced upon the sale of balance flats exercise. this then became a reasonable avenue, since quite a few flats(older ones, since we chose to go for a more mature estate with older flats) were going at below the current market rates.
you'll need to figure out whether you can afford your monthly repayments, and the calculators on the hdb website with their HLE are pretty good indicators. by this time, hopefully you've been working a little with a bit of cpf to cover as much downpayment as possible.
it may also be a good idea to take a portion of your cpf and put them in some form of investment, since the moment you sign and the cpf requests go through, your entire cpf will be wiped out. in those years, the economic climate wasn't exactly ideal, and the risk of becoming jobless from retrenchment was very real. even if the economy is good, it's always good to have some funds put aside for rainy days, so yue and i put some money aside in unit trusts. the returns were marginal, but it was a good amount that would probably last us 3 - 4 months of monthly repayment.
you'll probably need to still have cash savings for renovation, for your furniture, for your electronics. if you don't, consider a home renovation loan. sometimes, it also may be an option where you move in with minimal work, and once you've saved up enough, to do more work. we didn't have too much of a choice, seeing that the place was pre-occupied, and a lot of work had to be done before the place was habitable, so we dug into our savings, and thankfully with some help from our parents managed to make it through.
almost every weekend was spent sourcing for deals, attending expos, we managed to save quite a bundle buying from the mega electronics expos, going to home furnishing fares, visiting the factories in sugei kadut for special offers, going to home and living fairs to compare prices amongst renovation contractors.
so you're going to have to be prepared, $2K for the initial deposit, cpf funds, cash on hand for renovation, (or a loan), for your furniture, for your electronics.
next will be the traditional ceremonies, which on the surface seems alright, but comes with plenty of hidden costs. | comments: Leave a comment   |
| recently i finally achieved the third phase of the three year plan of settling down and having my own home. looking back, without adequate planning, a lot of things may not have been achievable, from last minute issues cropping up, to monetary woes. i'm going to attempt to reflect on the entire journey which may actually save future blissful couples some grief when things do cock up.
you'll need a lot of time, and if you don't devote your time and energy to a lot of the activities, sometimes it may help if you can afford a planner, but there are simply things that you cannot leave to someone else.
my journey spanned 3 years, with the first year being the engagement, rom (legalization), 2nd year getting a house, 3rd year having the customary wedding.
1st year
1. engagement ring
you'll probably need to prepare something decent, the unwritten rule from ladies is 3 times your monthly income, sometimes, the bling available from brand names may be overpriced. i went to zyan jewellery, got the jeweller there to look for a particular cut and size according to dy's preference, which saved us a bundle, a 50% discount from going to some brand name.
2. the engagement party
since i split the rom and customary, we decided to have a family only party for the rom. first attempt at it was to engage a planner who was a waste of money, he didn't offer any additional help beyond what we suggested, and in the end we just sacked him. $400 wasted. so it's important to find a planner that has a good name, is reliable and also motivated to help you. in the end we went ahead and approached several venues that were really helpful, and who were in the business of providing solemnization packages. good to know your budget, who you'd want to invite.
then comes the solemnization. you can always opt to do it at the rom, and then just go have a nice meal with the family and friends gathered, or do it outside, which means you need to spend 1 day going down to rom to do the necessary declarations and getting the legal documents, which then leads to the necessity of looking for a Justice of the Peace that would be able and willing to perform the solemnization at your preferred location.
3. wedding bands.
now it's time to go choosing for wedding bands. with gold prices today, don't be surprised if the groom's ring is going to cost upwards of $2k. and also make sure the old folks know and agree to the colour of the bands you're getting. i had to go get another pair of yellow gold rings because the white gold rings were deemed to be inauspicious.
next entry we'll talk about the second year. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| it's coming to 3 weeks to be away from home, 3 weeks too long to be away.
it's been a long time since i've been here, but i guess it's apt to be writing something to help me remember how ridiculously long these 3 weeks seem to be. it's fairly different from before, i have a great colleague to hang out with after work and over the weekends, but that one thing that is missing, is to be able to wake up, and the first thing i see are yue and skeeter, and the last thing i see before falling asleep are them.a
perhaps that's why i'm staying up till 1 so i can have 15 minutes of whatsapp with yue while she prepares to go back to work.
the timing for this trip couldn't be worse, 3 weeks of sabbatical could've been well spent together, but i had to spend it here without her. sure there is a lifetime waiting for us, but that's 3 weeks less in a lifetime that could have been better spent. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 10 years since the millenium bug threatened to strike, for my own memory's sake, i shall try and recap my milestones in the last decade.
finished serving my conscription
was part of a new discipline in skating
learnt to scuba dive
got a degree
got a job
got a car
got fired from the job
got a car
traded in the car
got another car
sold the car
got another degree
got another job
went to the us and europe
got detained before leaving europe
got married
quit the job
got another job
got a house to call my own
sold the car
got a new car
onward to an even better decade! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Our first meal
The entrance foyer
The living room
Walkway to the kitchen
The master bedroom
The dining area
The gym room
The guest room
The study
The kitchen
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| | Security: | | | Subject: | The A/C | | Time: | 04:35 pm |
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Living room a/c
Didn't expect the living room one to be so big, and look different from the other units, but it's alright, it actually looks more sleek and suits the living room. Rick (our ID) was telling us how it's very strong and should have no problems cooling the living area, since we opted not to have a door leading to the kitchen.
Bedroom a/c
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the lamp
MBR 1
MBR 2
Kitchen
Living Room
MBR Bathroom (The Spa)
Shoe Cabinet
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the consoles at ikea were too expensive, and we ended up getting the dining table, chairs, tv console from om furniture, suggested by rick. the sofa was from ifc.
gain city came to install the airconditioning. professional team. they came early, and left late in the evening.
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disappointing windows
the windows had scratches on the powder coating, the workers didn't handle them with care, and on saturday, i discovered a mini waterfall from some rain.
did i mention the contractor claimed the previous contractor messed up the window measurement, and then proceeded to mess it up himself, and left my mbr with no windows for three days.
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erametyn's journal
