5 to 10 Years Plan - First Strike

First I wanted to wait for m|ng to write an article before I start another one. But he seemed quite busy recently so I will continue with another article before he starts (come on bro do something :P ).

Soon I will be busy with work, by the way, I gonna start work next week (I haven't sign the appointment letter with the company yet) so the thing could be slowed down. I hope I can catch up because everything need discipline to do.

One of my friend asked me am I nervous when I landed to the first job? Until now I haven't start to nervous because I would treat it as learning lesson while contribute my best to the company. The article for today is First Strike which is somehow related to First Job or First Revenue.

How do you plan to use the first salary you got? I have yet to plan but I guess I would spent everything off very easily. My starting pay is a bit low compared to my peers so to think it positive I treat it as a challenge. To think as positive as possible is hard sometimes because everyone get different pay every now and then. Moreover, some of your juniors may end up to be your boss, so you really have to think about your future. Think what you want? Money? Cash? Car? (Family? Children?).

Having a 5 to 10 years plan is really important because it motivates you to go further. I believe all of us will have a point of time that we are tired of life and started to question why you need to do such thing and why things are not as good as you think and why am I so restless? Not that I am telling everything I am good at planning but I just want to say planning is essential. I know action speaks louder than words so I also hope I will practise what I need to do and this article will stay here to remind me of the plan.

Side article (you can skip them if you like) :

You see when you look for first job you have dream like me too. When I interviewed for design engineer I would dream that I could get overseas training (Japan) and come back as a design engineer to design transformer tank. The dream gone after they got the other guy.

Then come to the application engineer in US firm. It is one of the job I like and I see myself as a field service engineer in few years time. Although it is like daydreaming but I treat it as target. I may be still the old junior executive in 3 years and work like no tomorrow but dream is dream. It will push you.

Come to this quality assurance engineer I see it as a "harder" job that suppose to get everyone away from this position. When people hear QA/QC, it really give me a bad impression in a manufacturing/production field. Ok, let me dream I will have the skills from this field and move on to the better future. Telling yourself this is part of your career and who cares your First Strike is a shit job. You won't be doing this for the rest of your life. Work on it, learn from it and go for it. From my position I have chances to get six sigma training and gain what I need for the future.

In short, let me stress that short term plan and long term plan motivates and direct you. Short term maybe 3 years, long term maybe 10 years. I don't really plan so far so I guess I make a short term plan for myself. Here is the to-do-list so far:

1. Get a job.
2. Secure my position. (Insurance, expenses planning, etc)
3. Settle my loan. (3 years might hard for me, maybe settle part of my loan)
4. Save some money for cashflow.
5. Start to save up for small investment. (Might not need to save a lot)
6. Buy a house. (If I plan to get married)

It is individual dependent for the to-do-list in short term plan. As long as you know where you want to go and how you get there then it is all right.

Ask an answer for yourself. What will you do with the money from your job. Are you going to finish them on fashion? Are you going to pay all to the loan repayment? You must need to know where are your money going instead of putting them in the bank. (There is no point to keep them in the bank for large amount). Use them because there is a Chinese folks saying goes like this "Earn money don't use money is equal to poor". But spend them wisely on investment and not something that is not useful.

For First Strike,

1. Don't go travel overseas (other than Malaysia).
2. Don't buy car, take MRT.
3. Don't gamble.

There are much place in Singapore and Malaysia, you still can enjoy your holidays in your hometown or house. Overseas travel is not recommended unless it is your purpose of life. You can have a lot of overseas travel in the future after your financial is stabled down. Car is definitely a no-no in Singapore, the transportation here is more than enough. For gamble, I don't think I need to tell you about it.

Let say $1,800 per month. $600 for daily expenses+meal+rental. $90 to CPF (5%). $500 for loan repayment. $300 for parent allowance. $100 for transportation+misc (should able be claimed from your company). Balance is $210. The balance is tight but there are always some ways to reduce these expenses (which will be discussed in the future).

Do not forget: Annual Income > $20,000 will renders you to income tax (3.75% for $20,000-$30,000). Next topic will be on Income Tax and how you benefit from acting smart when dealing with it.