Great Advice from the Motley Fool, Mr. David Kuo ; 4% rule upon retirement.

Here is some great advice from the financial adviser who goes by the moniker of "The Motley Fool", Mr. David Kuo. 

The 4% 'rule' is a guesstimate on how much interest your savings is expected to earn you yearly if you want to retire comfortably, ie. living with perhaps 70% level of your last standard of living if I may be able to quantify it. Lets say you want to retire with an 'outflow' of your savings yearly of $50,000. He suggests multiplying that amount by 25 so you need to have saved (ideally through rigorous savings, investment gains, business gains and inheritance) approximately $1.25 million. 

If you do not want to downgrade your existing property, then that amount should be kept in liquid assets. He estimates that these savings earned annually should appreciate 4% if it is still being continually invested wisely in a mix of equities, bonds, some cash and maybe a spare property or two. 

Bear in mind inflation of 3% annually will eat into the interest, so his company The Motley Fool will aim to earn upwards of 7% so that the savings saved is indeed kept intact and even growing through these uncertain times of US - China Trade Wars, the slowing down of our economies as we struggle to adapt to the new ways of doing and managing business and our lives are intertwined inextricably with our jobs, work and our companies.Our families should always be the reason we are existing, but our life's work if it can be quantified, should stand the passage of time. Our legacy is ours to create. 

Retirement can be optional, but the mind and body slowing down  and going to a funk is inevitable, but we can slow the process down by rigorous exercise, proper choices in food, living in clean environments and even taking health supplements like I do and have done so for the last 14 years without stopping.    

Another point to note is that you (and I) should be very well insured for all kinds of potential mishaps which require hospitalization fees, loss of earned income, and the slow loss of mobillity - whenever that strikes, it comes very fast as I have seen with close and dear friends recently.

Money, while it is necessary for a good life, doesn't necessarily lead to a good death, hence the thinking I have currently is to help the less fortunate people while I still have the energy and means to do so. That act itself will open my views to experiencing and maybe having empathy for those truly in need.

Death comes in whatever form, so be prepared for it, mentally,financially and physically by accepting the changes that will inevitably occur in time.  

Sushi Kou - Great Sashimi and Excellent Service

Our family have frequented Sushi Kou at Orchid Hotel along Tras Street for 3 years now. That in itself is a feat given my wife's extremely high standards in wanting to eat tasty, clean food and with the requirement of a changing menu every few months. Never an easy task.

Located along the walkway of the Orchid Hotel along Tras Street, the establishment is helmed by a Mr. Anthony Tan and his fine crew of 3 chefs and 3 serving staff.

Piece de Resistance, Sashimi 

Sushi Kou's sashimi always is excellent. The fish is freshly flown in from either Hokkaido or Tokyo's Tsujiki market and we normally order the following types of fish which never disappoints.

- swordfish

- tuna belly (otoro)

- scallops

-sea urchin (uni) ; the edible part

- salmon belly

Lately there has been in season fresh oysters, so we normally have a couple per person

Sushi Kou's boss Mr. Anthony Tan makes it a point to always seat my family even when they are quite full, so I am most appreciative of his support.

California Maki 

Depending on what we order, the bill per person easily comes to S$60 and above per person (including a couple of glasses of beer at $6 per glass). Our family of 4 normally has the following, starters of sashimi and whatever else is in season like oysters, some vegetable tempura , grilled cheek of flying fish or yellowtail.

Next, we will have the sushi which is normally the stamina rolls (soft shell crab), unagi rolls and perhaps California Maki. 

 Unagi (grilled eel) Rolls 

For the young men in our family, they will then order a side dish of a (beef or pork ) katsu don, followed with some miso soup.

To round off the meal, we will normally order each a scoop of ice cream which is not too creamy and with their typical Japanese flavours ; 1 of each so 4 to share amongst the 4 of us.

a) Green (Matcha) Tea

b) Black Sesame

c) Salted Sea Caramel

d) Plain Milky Vanilla

The facade inside the sushi restaurant

So my review with the scores below :

1. Food :  4.8 / 5 

Very fresh fish ; tasty choices and fully satisfying

2. Service : 4.9 / 5  

Almost Full Marks again, Mr. Tan and his crew must be commended for application of Ikigai or the art of focussing on the small tasks and creating the right dining mood for us.

3. Ambience :  3.5 / 5  

Some let down as the building is old and there were times when the air conditioning (HVAC) vent system didn't function properly. Fortunately they had the presence of mind to use high powered fans to enhance the cooling environment.    

4. Price        : $$$       ;
Be prepared to pay $ 60 - 80 per person if ordering sashimi, which is their speciality.

                                

Overall        :  4.4 / 5

SUSHI KOU

1 Tras Link (by the side of Orchid Hotel ; Tras Road)

Singapore 078867 

Tel : 6444 8433 

POFMA should not stifle constructive criticism

The recent Bill called Prevention against Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act is a well intended one.

My key wishes for this bill and now enacted law is that the actions carried by the Government of the day must be fair and balanced, as must the actions, posts and comments of thousands,no millions of blogwriters, people who have FB accounts, Instagram accounts and even Whatsapp accounts to exercise due restraint when posting articles, and so called "news". 

There are so many ways to 'spin' or 'frame' the event so much so that the type of language used, the facts presented, the audience the article or post intends to reach out to, and the expected response or impression created must all be well thought through. 

The spreading or passing of so called 'news' I normally check and double check the source of the 'news' for a) history b) credibility and c) ensuring that there are numerous other news outlets reporting the same event before I consider even passing the information on. If I think there is something dubious or that the 'news' will spark some unease, I will hesitate and probably not pursue putting up that post. It is obvious the more factual and unbiased new sources would be the BBC, Agency Press France, NY Times and South China Morning post although these sources also have inherent 'biases' in their articles from time to time.

Coming to the social media. This not so new media, the open sea, where there are bad people with all kinds of dubious intentions. We need to be very mindful of what we are posting, who the target audience is and what are the ramifications if any if there is indeed bad intent. 

I for one, will not be afraid of the POFMA, as if  it is executed properly, is a good check and balance of the multitude of news and so called facts there both for and against the establishment. 

There is also some doubt that the Government of the day may themselves use this as a means to stifle constructive criticism against their policies. I hope this is not the case. 

West Bank Israel - Palestine Video

Wolves are in the Europa League for 2019 - 20 season

What a time to be a Wolves Fan 

My 'goldfish' have made it to Europe's 2nd tier competition. Wolverhampton Wanderers by virtue of finishing highest in the Premier League at 7th outside the top 6 teams and with Manchester City winning the FA Cup, this ensures their qualification.

There has been no better time than to be a Wolves fan, since I followed them in 1976, over 42 years ago !

We can only benefit and see more of the Wanderers in the coming year. 

Let their success reflect the once again renewed optimism at the town and their followers all over the world.

Time for some Silverware !!! 

Reach In Chambers from QRA International

Presenting QRS Model 4096 Reach In Chamber for samples of 1000 x 1200 x 1200 mm size

Presenting the Reach In Chamber from my company QRA International. We have for the last 15 years been involved in the distribution and service support of test equipment from Germany, Hong Kong, Korea and now China. Last year we rolled out our own brand of chamber. 

Called the QRS chamber, we have many sizes with many different features such as heater windows, stainless steel interior, Hanyoung touch screen controllers and using boiler humidifcation technology.

We build upon requirement, and our delivery times range from 2 weeks to 12 weeks depending on the complexity of the reuqirement. At the moment, we are capable of controlling 2 major test parameters.

Temperature : - 40 C to + 150 C

Humidity       : 25 - 95% rH

We offer our own Calibration Test Certificate (ISO 9001 : 2015) 

We are uncompromising in ensuring the quality and conformity to the specifications of our equipment and provide a full comprehensive parts and labour 12 month warranty worldwide from wherever they are purchased.

Currently, while we roll out the product, we offer Singapore quality, very competitive prices and a Calibration Certification from our engineers in Singapore who visit the factory (Dongguan China) to provide a FULL test audit on the system specifications and compliance to International Standards.

We are most happy to provide a prompt and detailed quotation ; please email my business email at 

mark@qra.com.sg

Quality.Resilience.Support.   

Heuristics - Subconscious Learning

Reading from this wonderful book called "The Art of Thinking Clearly" by Ralf Dobelli there are many lessons which I can vicariously learn from reading and one of these is Heuristic Learning, which is learning by life experience.

To really sequence logical decision making, he states that if we are given 2 choices to make, then logically each and every one of us will need to go through the "fork" or Pro and Con options in the mind using mathematical models, the net gain or loss from the Pros minus the Cons (of course if the Con is subrtacted from the Pros), and the final NET GAIN from either pathway is logically the Action to Take or No Action is required.

Shall I have a snack now (its 11.00 am)  ?  I had a nice Oden dinner at 7.45 pm just now.

YES
Pros 
------ 
    Outcome  (short and long term)                               Percentage        Weightage    

1. Filled tummy and satisfying feeling                            0. 3          X            5        + 1.5

Cons
-------
2. Filled tummy but tomorrow weight gain  (-)                0.3          X             7         + 2.1     
                               
    NET GAIN / (LOSS)        : - 0.6

NO 
----

1. Hungry and some discomfort, no weight gain            0.4          X           10         + 4.0

   NET GAIN / LOSS             :  + 4.0         

So Mathematically speaking and Left Brain saying : Dont Snack !     

99.999% of the people out there will never use this model, in real life, we use a lot os experiential learning to apply to our choices, hence when we make mistakes or poor choices,hopefully we learn and make better choices in the future. Hence Heuristic learning comes into play and the more we interact with people who have 'been there done that' the better our chances of taking the right decisions in every phase in our lives.

That is why there are so many Life Coaches and Gurus offering everything and anything from losing weight, improving your life, your career, your financial situation, your looks and what not.

In addition, for people who have little life experiences, then there are the myriad of Self Help books out there to follow and adapt ; but be warned, each and every person's life experiences CANNOT BE USED 100% as a guide for the person reading it.