DBS CEO earned pay package of $8.8m in 2011

wow..all the talk about ministers' pay being high.. this is what i say is high.

how about translating some of that enormous pay package into a few more basis points of interest for us. the interest we earn on our savings account isn't even sufficient to cover a meal. i guess dbs probably could use all that liquidity, lent it out at 2-4% to corporates, pay us a pathetic 0.05% and keep the rest for these kind of pay packages.

more reits books

this is the new book i'm on this morning. i'm just devouring any reits books i can get my hands on. target to finish it by end of this week or early next week.

for the first time, i managed to borrow the latest fortune magazine from my company's library. hahaha..that is for diligently camping on the library portal every morning!

sale-frenzy weekend

The weekend was well spent. Dearie and I attending this private sale at Mandarin Orchard and we were absolutely appalled at how so many Singaporeans grabbed thousands of dollars worth of branded handbags without batting their eyes. I felt like some pasar malam sale!

We went into a frenzy picking of bags too. Ended with about 5 to 6 of which 3 of them were for myself (the initial plan for to find something for mummy as present). I held onto a prada bag for a good half an hour, made John help us check out the prices on the prada Italian website (we were clueless of the prices of prada bags to begin with) and then finally decided to drop all the bags and walked out of the ballroom empty handed.

Dearie thought I looked disappointed and offered to buy me whichever I chose. I rationalized hard and came to a conclusion that such events can lead to impulsive buying. I thought I will probably walk out of it thinking why did I buy this/that?

The first question I asked myself was, “is it really cheap?” though the advert was brazened with the big 75% off words, it was not necessarily applicable to ALL the bags there. In fact, after checking the original prices, we concluded it was not cheaper than Italy and not very much cheaper than what you could have gotten in the boutiques. Then I asked myself, “given that it is not very cheap, is this what you would have gotten given a choice?” dearie picked an orangy-brown prada wallet for me. honestly, given a choice, I would have gotten a pink one. last but most important question, “do I need it?” answer has to be no. so we walked out, not any richer but not $1.8k poorer.

We went on to taka to find something for mummy and at the same time chanced onto a good buy. I got 2 bags from dearie, a lot prettier and cuter.. and in leather.

Managed to accomplish a fair bit of other things too. dearie and I caught a separation at cathay. We did our rr and mr runs. Visited the library and got 6 books. We went to pek kio for a good brunch on Sunday. I managed to complete mummy’s accounts for feb. cooked curry for dinner. Played the piano. All in all, I thought I spent my time well.

It’s the start of the week again, not one that is too long I hope. I finished one of the REIT book (short 70 pages) on my trip to work. let’s see what else I’ll put up for read next.

new treasure trove found

reading the adapt book gave me such a headache. gave up on it. argh. i hate a lousy read.

dearie brought me to the np library today. wowowowow..it's like a treasure trove! i borrow 6 books just today. enough to last me for 2 months! =D

i'm going to start on the book on REITs. I'm hungry to learn more about the business my company is in.

we spent a splendid day today. got my mum 2 presents and she likes them. =) we ate..watched a separation.. shopped (i've got 2 new bags courtesy of dearie!).. it's a good day!

history book?

i have finished smart trust. it's a feel-good book.

next up is "adapt: why success always starts with failure". i'm one-third through the book and there's this big question mark on the top of my head, "is this a history textbook?" the author goes on and on about the american history in iraq...gosh. i'm never much a history person to begin with..so it's boring me to tears. as i flipped to the next chapter ahead, i thought i saw MORE history in them.

i seldom give up on my books half way (i can only think of black swan), but if i reach half way and it's still rambling about history (not that i destest reading history but i borrowed this book with a different set of expectation. the title looks NO WAY like a history book right?).

i hate a lousy read.. feels like a waste of time sometimes. i can better spend my time reading other more constructive stuff. bleah.

reads for the week

done with this! not a bad read. scanned some pages for keeps

now onto this. last of the 3 books from the library. put in a new request for a new book this morning. hehee

biking on the spot

uneventful weekend after a long week at work. somewhat aimless, but i guess it's sometimes good to just do nothing much.

lots of chatter with the half ironman today and other races when we were at asics getting our trail shoes. i can't help wishing i was part of those some events, which would give me something to talk about and train towards.

the run at mr felt exceptionally difficult these days. it's like chasing a bus that seems to be pulling a distance further away; i don't think i can catch up anymore.

tossing with the idea of meeting bel up for morning runs at the padang. i think it'll give both of us some discipline in running more regularly, though logistically more cumbersome.

i think work has gotten somewhat more interesting with the ongoing project. hopefully that fuels me long enough for the next 9mths, to reach the 2 year mark.

my posts sound boring these days. i only talk about my lack of training. my somewhat boredom at work. books i read. what else can i talk about. hmm.

other avenues of learning

i have been eyeing on a masters of applied economics course with NUS or SMU but i don't have the spare $20-30k to do so.

dearie introduced me to the MIT open courseware. it is a blessing! i hope they do add on more lecture videos to econs and management modules. i started on the introduction to microeconomics during lunch today. 34mins and it was superb! to me it's relearning economics again.. and i can distinctly tell the difference between the lectures i have attended compared to this. can't wait to start on the next chapter. this, to me, is a marvellous way to spend my lunch time - learning.

please upload more lectures! i'll scoure for more lectures on itunes after this. hehe.

received all 3 library books today! woohoo!! i'll start with the macroeconomics one. quite a thick book. i'll give myself a week to complete that.

my SMU course has been approved..so that means i'll get to embark on it come early apr and it'll keep me busy till end of may. assessment is end of Jun. am i weird? i'm actually looking forward to going for courses. and i'm just glad i can spend 3 months doing something that will earn me a small certification plus a baby step towards what i feel will be useful for my career!

learning should never stop and i'm just only getting started =)

holy grail

finished the china price this morning. the book is GOOD!! (one of those i won't mind owning a copy, but unfortunately we haven't got such space to house a mini-library of books)

i am learning and making alot of sense out of the books i read these days.

waiting for this book to come via dispatch.

in the meantime, i have already lined 2 more up after this. i am lucky to find the new titles this morning before the email blast was sent out. reserved 2 out of 6 new titles and i hit my loan limit.

in the meantime, filling the gap between now and the arrival of the holy grail, i'll be going through some tax updates and forex-for dummies.