Month 2: 7 July 2021 to 6 August 2021

YouTube Statistics (Month 2)

Total Videos: 18 (2 core videos, 16 small videos) (+5 from Month 1)

Total Views: 4,009 (+2,491 from Month 1)

Total Subscribers: 104 (+74 from Month 1)

Niche Site Statistics (Month 2)

Since my niche site is just a complete reflection of my YouTube channel (just words instead of videos), the information here is the same:

Content Clusters: 2 (+1 from previous month)

Total Posts: 18 (2 core, 16 small)

Traffic: 0

Impressions: 0

Did not check traffic and impressions actually because these posts are so new. Also, I’m lazy hahaha.

That’s all for this month’s update!

So… I stopped posting about my niche site for a while there because I was a little tired and disappointed in myself for saying the same thing every month – “I’m still editing, and I’ll get my first few videos out by this month.” I ended up taking 6 months to do what I wanted to do in 1 month.

Perfectionism got the better of me and it was so intimidating and scary to release videos on YouTube that I kept procrastinating by tweaking the video and audio and basically everything under the sun. In the end I decided to just screw it and release my imperfect videos and the reception was surprisingly better than I thought.

My first video was posted on 7 June 2021, so 6 July 2021 ended my first month on YouTube.

YouTube Statistics (Month 1)

Total Videos: 13 (1 core video, 11 small videos elaborating on the core, and 1 useless video)

Total Views: 1,518

Total Subscribers: 30

Thoughts: I didn’t know what to expect from YouTube so I readied myself for a ghost town for about 6-12 months, like what you’d expect from Google. I’m surprised by the number of views and even subscribers that I got.

Goals: I’m trying to make things simple and post only 1 core video a month. It involves a freak amount of effort so I’m not going to try and aim for more than that.

Niche Site Statistics for Month 1

Content Clusters: 1

Total Posts: 13 (1 core, 12 small posts)

Traffic: 0

Impressions: 0

These posts are super new so I’m not even going to bother checking traffic and impressions. They’re probably zero.

And that’s all for this month’s update!

Progress has been extremely slow with my new and improved content (also I struggle with perfectionism!) but I seem to be doing better with discipline and getting into the routine of things. I’m hoping to upload my first content cluster in the next 1-2 months.

Following the trend of my latest posts and considering that I’m taking a step back from this blog, this will be a pretty short update.

What did I do this month?

Uhhh, admittedly, not a lot. I tried my best to learn video editing as much as possible (for the accompanying YouTube channel that I plan on starting), but I let life get in the way far too often. I still struggle with discipline, though I’m slowly changing that.

Hi! Welcome to the 6th month update on the niche site.

Following the trend of my latest posts and considering that I’m taking a step back from this blog, this will be a pretty short update.

Traffic

I haven’t done anything for the site since Month 4, but it was interesting to see double the number of impressions for this month compared to the last.

YouTube

I spent much of Month 6 just chilling and not doing much, but I did spend a little bit of time trying to figure out how to increase the production value of my YouTube videos. I’ve reached a point where my videos no longer look like crap and I can start uploading next month.

Going Forward

I haven’t quite been following my own advice regarding spending at least 2-4 hours a day creating content. I hope to change that slowly with Month 7, and go all in starting Month 8 or 9. 

Right now I’m still struggling with discipline (especially with my sleeping and wake up times) and time management, so I hope to change that soon and start creating more.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

When I first discovered the FIRE community in 2016, I found myself drawn to money-saving tips and articles, rather than income-generating ones. Right up to the end of 2019, my mindset was to work a boring cubicle job and save every dollar that I could.

However, the 3-4 years that I spent working in a cubicle up to the end of 2019 really took a toll on my mental health. I was chronically bored, and nothing interested me. I never had the energy to wake up in the morning. I felt extremely restricted having to sit at my desk from 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., and very worn out from all the office drama and politics. Eventually, I developed OCD and anxiety.

In 2020, I transitioned from a full-time role to a part-time role, and this gave me a lot more time to explore my interests.

Eventually, I stumbled across the power of niche sites, and am planning to invest a lot of time and money into this, in the hopes of creating an enjoyable stream of income.

This has, by far, been my biggest and most valuable mindset change in 2020, and I do believe that I’ll be focusing on creating enjoyable streams of income from now onwards, instead of saving every penny that I earn, for the following reasons:

There’s no ceiling for generating income, while there’s a clear limit to saving money.

Taking niche sites as an example, if I can get an article ranking and making $50 a month, I can easily scale by putting out more articles, or by creating more niche sites.

However, in contrast, when it comes to cutting savings, there’s a clear limit as we still need to spend money on housing, transport, food and other essentials. While I could go without spending money on housing by sleeping in McDonald’s outlets, that’s not something that I want to do.

Penny pinching can sometimes feel miserable.

During my most aggressive phase of money saving when I had no money, I went to the extent of cutting down on meals and walking instead of taking public transport. Years later, even when I wasn’t saving that aggressively, I still found myself feeling restricted and stressed out by trying to save as much as I could.

Working a cubicle job in order to save money can lead to a lot of dissatisfaction in life.

The most fatal flaw behind my mindset of working a boring cubicle job and saving every dollar is that I spent 45 hours a week doing things that I really disliked, and another 5-10 hours a week commuting. It always felt that I had little to no energy and time to do things that I love, and that created a lot of unhappiness and dissatisfaction.

To do this for another 10-15 years felt a little like agony, and I didn’t want to feel that I wasted the best years of my life working a cubicle job.

I already have $200,000 in savings.

One of the main reasons that I’m considering investing money into generating income, rather than saving money, is because I already have about $200,000 in liquid net worth (cash, stocks and bonds, excluding retirement account contributions).

This money will generate anywhere between $4,000 to $6,000 in dividend income a year, and can pay off a lot of my monthly expenses (such as food and transport). My plan is to never touch my invested money in stocks and bonds, and to just live off the dividends.

An enjoyable stream of income can last for many years.

Another reason I’ve decided to invest in generating income is because an enjoyable stream of income can last forever. I can foresee myself working on my niche sites for many years (even if it’s not for the rest of my life), and I also have the option of carrying on with my sites after retirement.

In contrast, I stop earning from my cubicle job the moment I quit, since it’s purely active income. Passive income from niche sites beat active income from cubicle jobs any day.

My Plan for Creating Enjoyable Income

As such, my focus for the next few years is to invest money into finding and building enjoyable streams of income, rather than to save every penny. This will hopefully allow me to quit my corporate job much earlier than at 40 years old, which seems like a dream.

I’ve already put this plan in action by spending a lot of money and time on my niche site. I’ve build out a plan for my niche site for the next year or two, and I plan to focus on that.

Admittedly, I’ve been spending all my money each month, and I haven’t saved anything for months. But for now, as long as I don’t touch my $200,000 of savings as well as dividends, I’m good with that.

What do you think about the saving money vs. generating income debate?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting the blog.

Hi! Welcome to the 5th month update on the niche site.

This is going to be a (very) short update on the niche site, as I’m going out to film for my YouTube channel for the first time tomorrow and there’s just lots to get done beforehand.

Traffic

I haven’t written anything for the niche site since early October, but I got more clicks for November (compared to October), and almost 4 times the number of impressions (compared to October). That’s really cool.

I’m pretty excited because the first few months of starting the niche site I was still finding my footing and making lots of mistakes. The posts I have published feel like rubbish to me, and I intend to make them so much better in time to come. With better posts, I can expect higher traffic and eventually get around to monetizing.

November and December were my break months to stop and to reflect, and I plan to ramp up from January to December 2021. Let’s see where I can go from there.

YouTube

After reflecting, I decided to start a YouTube channel to complement and boost my niche site.

I filmed a short YouTube clip in late November and found it to be incredibly difficult. I’m a little apprehensive about YouTube prospects from here but I’ll just try my best.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Recognising Mediocrity

Childhood Years

I had many dreams during my childhood, and I wanted to do many things with my life. I had dreamt of becoming a singer, a pianist, a drummer, a professional athlete, a martial artist, a world traveller, a polyglot, and more.

Because I had so many goals, I often tried to fit as many of these activities into my daily schedule. For example, a typical day might involve:

• 30 minutes of piano
• 30 minutes of drumming
• 1 hour of exercise/martial arts
• 1 hour of language studies

While this might seem productive, when I look back on my childhood as an adult, I realise that I accomplished nothing more than mediocrity.

I’m a mediocre piano player, and can barely pass as a beginner on the drums. I’ve tried a variety of martial arts (Karate, Muay Thai, Ninjutsu) but am proficient at none. I can barely understand Chinese and Japanese, let alone French, despite having taken lessons for all of them.

Year 2020

My lack of accomplishments didn’t stop at my childhood. When I entered year 2020, I told myself that I would still go full steam ahead toward early retirement (with my corporate part time job + part time tutoring jobs), while working on 2 different websites at the same time, while not neglecting personal development (reading and exercising).

While I wish I could say that my 2020 ended with a bang, it didn’t. I’m no closer towards early retirement, my 2 websites are kind of stagnant, and my personal development isn’t outstanding. In addition to that, 2020 felt busy, sometimes overwhelming.

From October to November 2020, I decided to step away from work and blogging, and to take an extended break for reflection. And here’s one of the most important things I learnt.

Focusing on Only One Thing

Oftentimes, people try to chase after too many dreams at once. They believe they can squeeze in 1 hour of exercise, 1 hour of meditation, 1 hour of piano practicing, 3 hours of building a business, all while holding down a 9-to-5 job.

However, the truth is that when you stretch yourself too thin, all you’re setting yourself up for is mediocrity. You become decent at these activities, but find it hard to push past that into mastery.

As Greg McKeown aptly puts in his book “Essentialism, the Disciplined Pursuit of Less”, the image on the left results in the “unfulfilling experience of making a millimetre of progress in a million directions”, while the image on the right results in the “satisfying experience of making significant progress in the things that matter the most”.

Similarly, in Gary Keller’s “The One Thing”, he asks this powerful question – “What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

The idea here is simple – focus on only a few things, or better yet, just one thing.

That isn’t to say that you’re to drop everything else and do only one thing. What this means is that you should prioritise your one thing every single day by means such as time blocking.

Putting the One Thing into Practice

Unlike 2020, I’m hoping that my 2021 turns out a little differently.

In 2020, I had many priorities, such as:

• My part time corporate job
• My tutoring jobs
• Tracking my finances actively
• Following the crazy stock market and learning about picking stocks
• Working on this personal finance blog
• Working on the niche site
• Taking courses everyday

However, in 2021, I plan to pare down my priorities to the following:

• Writing for the niche site
• Creating videos for my niche YouTube channel
• My part time corporate job
• My tutoring jobs
• Tracking my finances actively
• Following the crazy stock market and learning about picking stocks
• Working on this personal finance blog
• Taking courses everyday

Instead of 7 goals, I plan to focus only on 3.

While I would absolutely love to quit my corporate job, buying gear for my niche site is super expensive so I have to keep it at least for the next 6 months (hopefully, I can last for 12 months).

Unfortunately, I won’t be tutoring anymore so that’s an income stream down, but I’m thankful for the savings that I do have. Also, I won’t be posting as often on this blog anymore (as I find that I’ve been dragging my feet a little every week). Instead of posting every single week, I’ll probably post 2 or maybe 3 times each month.

So basically, for next year, my focus will be my niche site plus the accompanying niche YouTube channel to supplement my site.

With fewer goals, I hope to make a bigger difference in my passion projects.

Are you focusing on too many things at once? What’s the one thing that you might need to focus on?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

About a decade ago, this MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) – MapleStory – was super popular. It burst onto the scene when I had just started secondary school, and I was addicted from the second I played it.

Isn’t it just the cutest game ever?

However, like all good things, nothing lasts forever. Its popularity dwindled over the years, and I stopped playing after secondary school.

When the Circuit Breaker (Singapore’s equivalent of a “lockdown”) began in April, I decided to start playing again just for the fun of it. I thought I would love it all over again, but this was sadly not the case, for so many reasons that reminded me of my own FIRE journey.

Here’s what I learnt.

1. It’s never about the destination.

When I played MapleStory in the past, the highest level you could reach was Level 200. To get there would take months, if not years, of grinding. After 4 years of playing in the past, I had one character that reached a whopping Level 89.

Not even halfway to the maximum level, after 4 years!

But I didn’t care. Reaching Level 200 would be cool, but I didn’t even try to strive for it. Instead, I enjoyed spending time with my online friends and just enjoying the game.

Similarly in my FIRE journey, I’ve recently come to the realisation that I shouldn’t obsess over my S$1 million goal. While it’s certainly something wonderful to have as a goal, obsessing over it would make my life miserable every second that I haven’t achieved my goal. And that could be decades.

In order to stop this obsession over my FIRE goals, I’ve decided to make my FIRE journey enjoyable.

2. The process should be enjoyable.

Many of my schoolmates quit playing MapleStory after a few months or even a couple of years, because the grinding it took to level up was just so tedious. Getting to the next level could take days, sometimes even weeks, of (very) routine grinding.

And they thought I was crazy for enjoying every single second of the process. I savoured every mundane quest that I went on, every monster that I slayed, every bit of monotonous grinding that I had to do to level up. I loved the music, my character, the graphics, everything.

The fact that I loved the process so much made all the difference in the world.

Fighting monsters at Lion King’s Castle.

This year, I’ve started to think about my FIRE journey a little differently as well. Just last year, I was planning to get to my S$1 million nest egg by working a number of corporate jobs. While I really dislike corporate jobs, this journey to FIRE felt unavoidable.

However, after some time of reflecting this year, I’ve started trying to create active sources of income that feel enjoyable to me. Hopefully after 2-3 years, I’d be able to transition out of corporate work and into having enjoyable streams of income. That way, I can enjoy the process to FIRE instead of dreading the Monday blues.

3. A big part of happiness comes from your social circle.

A decade ago when I was playing MapleStory, I had many of my real-life friends as well as online friends playing the game with me. Whenever I logged in each day (and yes, I was so addicted that I had to play every day), I would always have friends to hang out with in game.

On the days that we felt more diligent, we’d go for quests or hunt monsters together. On our lazy days, we’d just hang out in town, go shopping or just explore the different worlds together.

I forced my girlfriend to play the game with me.

Sadly, none of my real life friends play the game anymore. All of my online friends have up and disappeared too. On the off chance that I log in to play these days, things just don’t feel the same. Sometimes it just feels a little lonely.

Coming back to reality, I’ve realised that having a few close loved ones can really make a huge difference to your life. While money is important and gives us freedom, having loved ones that you can count on is equally important.

While I used to think that I’d be happy only when I reach my S$1 million goal, I’ve now realised that I need to change my thinking. It’s not about the destination; it’s about enjoying the process and having your loved ones with you along the way.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog. 

I spent a lot of time in the past month being distant from both this blog and my niche site, as I needed time to reflect and to decide on my direction for the upcoming year (2021). While I still haven’t exactly figured this out, I put some of the extra time on my hands into something productive – decluttering.

While my decluttering process is far from over (as I used to spend a lot of money on random stupid things), I estimate that I’ve already thrown away over $10,000 worth of stuff.

More than $10,000 Down the Drain

So, what did I toss? My biggest culprits are the following:

• Lots of books and DVDs;
• TONNES of movie and anime memorabilia; and
• Many clothing items, such as shirts, jeans, dresses, shoes, bags and more.

A stack of jeans that I donated just last week. There’s more where this came from.

My Insane Spending Habits

When I was in my teenage years, I used to shop for clothes a lot. I would spend $200 each time I went out shopping, and that could be multiple times a month. I also regularly frequented movie and anime shops, and would buy up a storm during each school holiday (in March, June, September, December). I could have spent easily $300 each time.

A small part of my anime collection. Keyword: Small.

In my early 20s, I started collecting books, and then DVDs. Thankfully, I discovered Carousell (a platform in Singapore for buying and selling preowned items) around this time, and limited my collection to pre-owned books and DVDs. While the financial damage wasn’t as bad, my collecting habits still weren’t exactly cheap.

A small part of my DVD collection. My entire collection consists of 300-400 titles.

A small part of my book collection. Why do I have multiple copies of the Game of Thrones series? (Face palm)

What was I thinking? I don’t know either. Nevertheless, here are 3 lessons that I learnt.

1. Little things add up.

While I never found myself being attracted to big ticket items (such as expensive watches, bags, or even cars), I’ve always had a compulsive urge to collect things.

The things I collected were never too expensive. But they added up over the years.

A dress might only set me back $50 today, but an entire wardrobe over the years would cost me thousands.

An anime figurine might only cost me $30 today, but an entire collection might amount to $1,000.

A single DVD might only be $5 today, but an entire collection might be $2,000. (Oh, I have about 400 DVDs titles right now).

2. It’s so much harder to sell than to buy.

I’m not sure whether anyone else in Singapore has had a similar experience, but it’s impossible to sell things on Carousell for a good price; people are always constantly haggling. I previously posted a brand new $500 Coach bag online for just $120, and I still had people trying to negotiate it down to $100 or less.

In addition, a lot of time is needed to post the items online, take pictures, write a description, liaise with the buyer, and then meet up with the buyer.

As such, apart from more expensive items that can sell for $50 or more, I rather donate or throw away than to sell on Carousell.

It took me just 10 minutes to see and buy a $500 bag in the past, but hours to sell it for just $100 afterwards.

3. I never even took the time to appreciate most of what I bought.

I used to (and sometimes I still do) buy stuff thinking that I would eventually get around to using it, but I never did. I’ve had so many clothing items going unused, books never being read, DVDs that I never watched (I mean who watches DVDs anymore, right?). I didn’t even display the anime and movie merchandise that I bought.

I never realised it before, but I was just after the dopamine hit that’s associated with buying something new, not because I actually needed any of the stuff that I bought.

As of now, I no longer buy any books, DVDs, clothes, or even my beloved anime/movie merchandise. It makes me feel wasteful to have so many things that I don’t need.

However, I have been picking up A LOT of outdoor gear to review for my niche site and my YouTube channel (if I ever get around to filming). But it’s not being wasteful if I’m actually using it to start a small online business, right? *Trying to convince myself I’m not still being a compulsive hoarder*

Right. We’ll see where this goes.

Have you been decluttering recently? Is there anything else that you’ve learnt?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Hi! Welcome to the fourth month update on the niche site.

This is just going to be a short update on the direction of my niche site.

Seeing Results?

No, I haven’t started getting lots of traffic, and I haven’t started monetising. However, I did find that I was getting a few more impressions in October 2020. When checking the search results, I realised that one of my posts was ranking on the first page of Google (though right at the bottom) for a few days.

And since nobody really reads the bottom of even the first page, I didn’t get many clicks. Here’s my Google Search Console snippet from October 2020 (Month 4). An improvement over September (Month 3) for sure, so I’m happy about that.

Reflecting

However, my post dropped off the rankings shortly after, which caused me to stop and ponder as to the reason why. In addition, I also got an extremely helpful comment from a reader (who also has a niche site over at Cat Pointers).

These 2 events resulted in me taking the entire month off to reflect on the direction of the niche site.

I decided that I wasn’t happy with the current content up on my niche site, because it felt very poorly written, terribly organised and horribly formatted.

So, I’ve decided to scrap all the existing content from my niche site, and to redo and to reorganise everything.

To clarify, I’m not actually changing the topics that I was writing about, I’m just going to do much more research and to reorganize everything to make it more user-friendly.

Pivoting

Going forward, I’m also thinking of starting a YouTube channel on the exact topics that I write about on my niche site. This is going to involve a lot of work, such as filming and video editing (which I’ve never done before), so that’s pretty crazy.

But this will help with user-friendliness and time on page, and I’ll be learning lots of new skills, so I think it’ll be worth it.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting the blog.

Is it possible to eat out in Singapore for just $1?

With a few awesome money hacks, it is entirely possible.

Today, I’ll be sharing with you my favourite low-effort money hack for cheap eats in Singapore.

All you need is a credit card, and to download the Shopee app on your iPhone or Android phone. It’s also possible to use the desktop version of Shopee as well, though I prefer the mobile version.

$1 Food Deals by Shopee

Shopee regularly runs $1 food deals during their flash sales. These flash sales are usually held at 8am, 12pm, 6pm, 8pm and 12pm, though they do have other timings such as 7pm. 

If you happen to open the app at these timings, do check out their flash sales, and click on their “Food & Beverage” flash sale section. This will take you to all the top rated flash sales; usually, the $1 food deals will be right at the top. 

Here’s what it looks like:

While Shopee doesn’t have $1 food deals everyday, you might get lucky while checking the app.

Alternatively, you could find out when Shopee’s “Dining and Services Day” is. As you can see from the screenshot below, the next upcoming one is on 9 November. On these “Dining and Services Day”, in my personal opinion, $1 food sales are super common, and I’ve scored quite a few things on these days.

You can also look out for $1 food sales on popular shopping days, such as 10.10, 11.11, Black Friday, and more. 

My $1 Food Sales Experience

Though I don’t always check Shopee for sales, I’ve personally scored quite a few awesome $1 deals this year. That’s why Shopee is my favourite low-effort food hack. It takes only about 5 seconds to check, and if there is a deal, it takes only another 10 seconds to make payment. Super fast, clean and easy. 

$1 deal from Jollibean, which includes their famous soy milk and pancakes. Not bad for a few breakfasts or light lunches. I personally find their pancakes a little pricey if I have to pay full price, but their $1 deal was an absolute steal.

In addition to pancakes, I also managed to score $1 beancurd/soy pudding from Jollibean. I absolutely loved these puddings because they reminded me of Lao Ban beancurd. An absolute steal, and highly recommended even at full price. 

Here’s a $1 bento that I got from Sushi Deli, which is a concept branch opened by Jollibean. There’s plenty of vegetables, delicious fried chicken and Japanese rice.

Apologetically, this is a god-awful picture, because I was too hungry to put in any effort to take pictures at all. These are cream puffs from Chewy Junior; I got a set of 3 for just $1. Absolutely delightful. I went back for more even without the $1 deal.

Here’s one of my girlfriend’s favourite deals – $1 Earl Grey Milk Tea from LiHo. While I usually never pay for drinks, this $1 flash deal is super worth it. I still have 3 more of these to redeem, and I usually stock up as many as I can during all of Shopee’s flash deals. 

Chun Yang at Jewel Changi Airport was running a $1 promotion on their milk tea as well. My girlfriend didn’t like this though, so I didn’t buy more. But for $1, it’s definitely worth a shot.

One of my absolute favourite deals – $1 for 8 sashimi slices at Sakae Sushi. This picture shows 6 plates of 4 sashimi slices (24 in total), which set me back $3. An incredible steal. I’d love to stock up more on these, but they don’t have many outlets to redeem these. These were redeemed at Parkway Parade. 

Another awful picture because I was too lazy to position the food before snapping the photo. Here’s a bowl of chocolate-covered churros, topped with ice cream and a can of coke. All for $1, at Chulove Cafe at VivoCity. 

Conclusion

The above shows only some of the $1 food deals I managed to score this year. I didn’t feature everything that I scored at $1, though I might do that in a separate post.

Hopefully the Shopee hack works for you if you’re looking to eat out on a very tight budget. 

As always, thank you for reading and supporting the blog. 

Last year in October 2019, I decided to write a post titled “I’m 25, and I Still Live in My Parents’ House”. That long blog post went into detail on my tumultuous relationship with my parents, my past, as well as my plans for the future.

It’s been a full year since then, so I decided to write this update post just before I turn 27.

I wrote this update using a series of questions, so just click on the question you’re interested in having answered, and feel free to skip the rest.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting the blog.

Hi! Welcome to the third month update on the niche site.

Let’s jump straight into it.

Articles Published

As of the date of publishing this update, there are 12 blog posts up on my niche site.

Summary

• Total Words Published: 154,014
• Total Articles Published: 12

Further Details

Articles #1 to #7 were published in the updates for Month 1 and Month 2.

Articles #8 to #12 were published since the last update.

Article #8:

• Words Written: 15,997
• Date Published: 16 September 2020

Article #9:

• Words Written: 18,269
• Date Published: 25 September 2020

Article #10:

• Words Written: 6,106
• Date Published: 28 September 2020

Article #11:

• Words Written: 10,538
• Date Published: 30 September 2020

Article #12:

• Words Written: 7,596
• Date Published: 6 October 2020

Traffic

The first 6 to 12 months of a new site are always the slowest, and my traffic and impressions confirmed that.

For the month of September 2020, I received 2 visitors, 33 sessions (totally inaccurate), and 241 impressions (people who see my articles popping up on search results).

The session to visitor ratio is still mostly skewed by my girlfriend who likes to check up on my blog for updates.

While I still don’t have any traffic, I’m a little comforted by the number of impressions I received. In Month 2, I received only 25 impressions, whereas I received almost 10 times that amount in Month 3. I’m not sure where these impressions are coming from, but I’m not really concerned with that at the moment. I’m choosing to focus on just writing and churning out content.

Monetisation

As usual, I’m always slow to monetise, so I have no monetisation up yet. Even if I did, I probably won’t be earning anything.

Thoughts

On Goals

I managed to (finally) put up 4 posts for the month, which I’m happy with, although I meant to put up 5 posts and play catch up to my slacking off in the previous months.

Looks like I’m going to have to play catch up in October.

Despite September being a really rough month, I tried my best to push through and continue my writing habit. Some days it got really difficult, where I would sit and not write much at all, but at least I tried my best.

On Giving Up

I wouldn’t say that I’m burnt out, but I am a little bored of writing the same content every day.

I’m still far from giving up, though it’s only Month 3. We’ll see what happens in the next few months.

Goals for Month 4 (October 2020)

Again, I aim to write only 4 new articles for the entire month. This includes publishing, which I’m always procrastinating on.

However, I feel that this is becoming more doable as I am shortening my content, which makes writing and publishing a lot easier.

By the end of Month 4, I hope to have 16 articles published.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

These niche site updates are a little boring now, but hopefully I’ll have more exciting updates after the 12-month mark. 3 months down, 9 more to go!

When I transitioned from full-time to part-time work at the beginning of this year, I expected a lot more free time, and I have been right about this.

However, this wasn’t the only benefit I experienced; becoming a part-time worker gave me a great deal of freedom in so many ways that I had never even considered.

How did I experience this freedom? In many areas, such as the following.

Working from home

For me personally, working from home has been an extraordinary experience, as I detailed in this post here. The benefits are tremendous, such as zero commuting, more efficient meetings, and infinitely fewer distractions. The result? Much higher productivity, in both my office job and my personal side hustles.

Many of my colleagues also enjoy working from home, for all the same reasons. However, many of the higher-ranking managers have felt the pressure to return to the office to “show face”, or to clock in their “face time”, despite not needing to do so. They fear that if they don’t do so, they may be perceived as “lazy”.

In contrast, a modestly paid part-time worker like me has all the freedom in the world to say, “I much prefer working from home, thank you”, without any guilt about “face time” or any fear of losing my job.

Working from home is so much more peaceful than working in the office.

Non-work days

As a higher ranking employee (such as a manager), you are expected to work even on the weekends. If your boss contacts you on a weekend or a public holiday, you’re expected to respond and do whatever he or she requests of you. I’ve noticed that many of my colleagues in managerial positions, and especially my boss, work all days of the week.

On the other hand, a modestly paid part-time worker like me gets to enjoy almost all of my non-work days without the thought of my office work.

As a modest-income part-time worker, I feel no guilt about drawing a very distinct line between work days and non-work days.

My rationale behind doing so is simple – if I’m expected to work more than 3 days a week (as a part-time worker), then what would have been the point of me taking a 40% pay-cut?

As such, my boss knows not to contact me on my non-work days, though I understand that pressing issues may sometimes arise (thankfully, it hasn’t been too often).

Enjoying my time at Jewel Changi Airport on a weekday.

Saying no

When I was a full-time employee, I had little to no ability to say no to things, such as outings, irrelevant meetings, and more job responsibility. I never felt that I had a choice; I had to either do these things, or risk being unemployed or lose out on a promotion.

However, as a modestly paid part-time worker, I’ve been able to exercise my discretion to say no to several things.

I’ve managed to say no to quite a few things, such as:

• Going back to the office to work;
• Going out for lunches and dinners with colleagues that I don’t feel comfortable around; and
• Unimportant meetings that I don’t feel the need to be in.

I also anticipate my boss giving me more job responsibilities in the next few weeks/months, and I’m preparing to say no to this as well, as I’m already doing more than we mutually agreed on when I started my part-time work.

Meetings in the office are usually unimportant and inefficient.

Being laid off

On another note, being a modestly paid part-time worker also means that I’ll probably be the first to be laid off. This is a risk that has crossed my mind many times.

However, my part-time position is nothing more than just a job to me, in order to earn some cash. I don’t derive a single bit of happiness from it, and it wouldn’t affect me very much if I were to get laid off. After all, I do have a plan B – I’m trying to start making money from my niche site.

There’s a unique freedom in not really caring about whether you’d be laid off.

In contrast, people in managerial positions might find it more difficult to cope with a loss of a huge income and a loss of status.

Decreased salary

There are, of course, downsides to being a modest income part time worker. The most obvious disadvantage is the pay. When I went from working 5 days a week to 3 days a week, my pay decreased by 40%.

However, even after a 40% decrease in my salary, my salary is still more than enough for my existing daily needs. I can spend money on my niche site (and on this blog), and even continue to save for my early retirement.

The biggest benefit of a modest income is what I mentioned above – I don’t see myself being affected much even if I do get laid off.

At most, I’d be shocked for a couple of days. But after, I’d just realise that I have a lot more free time to make my niche site profitable.

Conclusion

Going part-time isn’t for everybody. At first, I thought it wouldn’t be for me either. After all, going part-time would mean I can’t retire as early as I thought I would.

However, over the past few months, I realised that I value my free time so much more than I value my income. I value my hobbies, I value my passion work, I value my learning. And most of all, I value my freedom.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

I started working from home permanently at the start of April 2020. At the time this blog post gets published (end-August 2020), I would have worked from home for a full 5 months.

Working in the Office

When I first started working in the corporate world, I proposed a work from home arrangement, which got shut down in, well, 2 seconds. After, I spent the next few years slogging at the office every single workday.

Things didn’t go that well for me, and I found it extremely difficult to cope with the terrible commutes, the peculiar need to sit at your desk despite having finished all your work, and more. I hated the life that I had, and desperately wanted out.

I would never have dreamt of a day when I could work from home, especially so because I was working in a traditional Asian company that valued “face time”. However, over the past 5 months, I’ve been immensely thankful to have the opportunity to work from home.

Focusing on Gratitude

As of late, I realised that I’ve been getting too used to the work-from-home arrangement, so much so that I’ve been taking it for granted.

A few months ago, I used to be thankful for everyday that I get to work from home, and I stopped hating all my workdays. Now, however, I no longer feel the same gratitude, and I’ve even started dreading the days that I have to work.

As such, I’ve decided to write this post as a reminder to myself (and to everyone who loves to work from home) to always be grateful for this amazing arrangement.

6 Work-from-Home Luxuries

1. No Soul-Sucking Commutes

Working in the Office

When I was working in the office, I would have to walk out of my house to a bus stop 15 minutes away, only to find out that my bus had left without me, and I needed to wait another 15 minutes.

After 5-10 minutes, I’d tire of waiting, and I’d hop on another bus that takes me to the train station. I would then need to change to a different train, before arriving at the correct station. Next up is another 5-minute walk to the office. All the while feeling cramped and squished like sardines.

Working at Home

These days, I get to wake up, enjoy the morning sunshine and a lovely morning routine, before sitting at my desk and powering up my computer to start work.

A day where the peak-hour traffic wasn’t so bad. It’s usually worse.

2. No Uncomfortable Work Attire

Working in the Office

When I was working in the office, I had 5 dresses that I rotated throughout the work week; I would wear the same dresses week after week, without fail. This helped to reduce the amount of time I spent deciding what to wear, as well as the amount of money I spent on work clothes.

However, they’re usually not the most comfortable clothes to be in. What annoyed me the most was having to wear dress shoes (usually flats). They’re heavy, bite into my flesh, and don’t feel comfortable at all. I never could understand why people even designed such things, or why I couldn’t wear a comfortable pair of jogging shoes (especially since I wasn’t client-facing).

Working at Home

However, when I work at home, I can wear anything I want. I’m usually in a sleeveless tank top, a comfortable pair of shorts, and I don’t have to wear shoes. It makes focusing a lot easier, when you’re not constantly thinking about how uncomfortable your clothes are.

3. Fewer (useless) Meetings

Working in the Office

During meetings at the office, people would constantly digress from main topics. There was a lot of chit chat, and very little work done. The longest meeting I ever sat through lasted easily 4 hours. And I could never figure out why I was even in these meetings in the first place.

Working at Home

During my work-from-home stint, I realized that meetings became much more productive and to the point, with less casual talk.

Considering that I’m an extremely introverted person, this suited me just fine (though I know that people do miss the casual conversations with coworkers). I prefer to spend 90% of my workday on my own without any conversations, so I’m incredibly grateful for this.

4. Less Distraction

Working in the Office

Another thing that annoyed me a lot when working in the office is that people were constantly coming to my desk to talk. I felt that it was extremely distracting.

I even found myself deliberately trying to avoid bumping into people at the office. One of my superiors was particularly chatty; a few times, I ran into him during my lunch hour, and he chatted my entire lunch hour away. Again, as a highly introverted person, I’d really rather spend my lunch hour on my own. It’s the time that I need to feel refreshed to start work again in the afternoon.

Working at Home

As I don’t have young kids or elderly parents to take care of, there are much fewer distractions at home. It’s much easier for me to focus on one task at a time and get it done in a third of the time that I would have taken in the office.

I also don’t have to sit through one-hour awkward conversations with coworkers.

5. Higher Productivity

Working in the Office

To drown out the chattering of coworkers at the office, I blasted loud music in my ears at all times. Although listening to music was a little more productive than having to listen to distracting conversations, my productivity was still at all-time lows.

Working at Home

At home, however, I don’t have to focus on drowning out chattering. Instead, I can enjoy the relative peace and quiet at home during working hours, which helps me so much when it comes to productivity.

I find that I’m able to complete a task at least 2-3 times faster than I would have in the office, which is extremely eye-opening to me.

The work desk of unproductivity.

6. More Freedom

Working in the Office

I love to take breaks when I’m doing work. After an hour or two, my brain starts spacing out and my eyes get real sore. Taking a break keeps me refreshed and energized.

However, when I’m in the office, it’s extremely difficult to find time for breaks. There are always nosy superiors around monitoring employee movement like hawks. As such, I always had to sneak around whenever I wanted to take a walk and enjoy the fresh air.

As such, I took breaks only about twice a day, instead of every hour or two like I prefer.

Working at Home

When working at home, I can go for a short run or a short walk whenever I need the break, without anyone eyeing me suspicious. Even if I don’t go out for a run or walk, I do pace around my room and get my blood flowing through my body. This increased level of freedom has been extremely wonderful for my mental health.

On top of that, I no longer have to sit around pretending like I still have a lot of work to do. Once I’m done with my office work, I can start working on my niche site, which boosts my levels of happiness.

Conclusion

A common thread running through these work-from-home luxuries center a lot on productivity, happiness and most importantly, freedom.

When you have the freedom to work from home at a computer, to avoid the soul-sucking commute, to wear comfortable clothes, to work on what makes you happy once you finish your office work, and to stretch your body or walk around at will, happiness will follow.  

After enjoying the benefits of working from home, I know I’ll find it difficult to return to the office permanently when that need arises. As such, I’m more determined than ever to build a profitable niche site to maintain the levels of freedom and happiness that I’m experiencing now.

How has your work-from-home experience been?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting the blog.