bad habits

210807 tues
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
one of my assignments in sch is behaviour modification, the aim of which is to apply learning theories to real life and change our life for the better. speaking of change, i guess there's so much to improve on! what do we want to achieve by e end of eweek? or even by e end of the day? if we haven't learnt/achieved something or helped someone/ourselves, den wat is the point of living from ystd till today? ok, mayb too serious. den aim for something for e week. if we improve only 1% a day, by e end of the year we've improved not just 365% but more den 500% (compounded, haha, but i 4got how to calculate, someone teach me?)!
some stuff i'd like to change:

• be more independent
• not complaining but making the best of what i have (fine me $1 if u catch me complaining)
• save time & nt dilly-dally. im always bringing my soft toys ard the hse till its time to go to bed n then the work need nt be done (someone help me on this!)
• think more positive thoughts
• start reading gd books once a day, even if its 1 pg (ok, this may really have to wait till i finish my assignments =s )
• not finding excuses for bad habits/consequences; taking responsibility (sounds like the above?)

no excuses. start now. gd luck to me & all ya out there!

1954. a little goes a long way.

thinking of the future

130807 mon
wah! just realised i havent blogged for months. how time flies. and how many things have happened. would update more often about what i learn, hehe.. somehow, most ppl around me do not think about their future. i mean DO NOT. weird huh. we might still b young, but some things r scary when you really take a look at it. just do some simple calculations:

let's say i plan to get a normal 4-room hdb. it shld cost ard $300,000 depending on the location. assuming tt i earn $2500 which is not bad alr, n i save a lot, abt $2000 a mth.

$300k/$2k/mth = 12.5 years.

if u think tt u onli need to start planning when u want a hse, do you think u can wait 12 yrs den? n tt's assuming that u save 2k/mth which is a lot. so say i decide to get a loan n interest rate is onli 4% n i intend to pay back in 30 yrs (so long rite? but let's see..)

$300,000 X 4% X 30 years = $360,000

final bill to the bank amts to $660,000!! y would i (or u) want to pay so much more, in fact interest more than the hse, to the bank?! but how many can afford a hse in cash?

now, with tt debt, i have to pay $660k/30 yrs/12 mths = $1833.3/mth

paying $1833/mth of debt for 30 yrs is too much! how to live a gd life like this? if i just shorten the loan: 20 yrs = $2250/mth or 10 yrs = $3500/mth

nw, if my pay is $2500, obviously i can onli choose a 30-yr debt.

$2500 (salary) - $1833 (mortage) = $667

$667 - $300 (utility bills) = $367

$367 - $200 (food & groceries) = $167

nw, with onli $167/mth left, how much of a life can i have? is retirement possible? sure, you can argue that i might have some cash to pay for the hse n so the loan is not so high or the bills r too much. but dun 4get tt most $$ would have been spent on wedding, renovation, furniture n there's oso other expenses like transport (or car), hobbies, vacations n tax. wat abt even a baby?! nt to mention tt the pay must b steady n not drop below $2500.

if we arent worrying nw, the worry would b 10X worse in future. start planning nw, n there'd still b hope.

2348. fear not that life will end; fear instead that life has not started.