ARCHer

Sorry. You are right. I was actually referring to 1 - AR rather than AR i.e. the amount you have left (rather than the amount you would pay).

The simpler way of looking at the amortisiation ratio is this: how much of your income/salary do you have left after servicing all your financial obligations? An AR of 0.75 means that you have 75% of your income/salary left; an AR of 0.5 means you only have 50% left. So when you say lower is better, I don't know from what aspect you are looking at. Lower ARs means you have less income/salary left after servicing your financial obligations. So from the perspective of the bank, you are higher risk since you have less money remaining for emergencies and therefore likely default on the loan. But to someone wishing to buy a property that is just out of reach, a lower AR means you can borrow more. And yes, other forms of income such as rental, interest income, dividend income etc. is taken into consideration.

I have worked with amortisation ratios ranging from 0.75 down to 0.6. Are banks so aggressive nowadays to go down to 0.5?

I believe the bank loan is based on the valuation price or the purchase price, whichever is lower. E.g. Valuation: $1.0 m Purchase Price: $1.2m Maximum loan (assuming 90%) = $0.9m Valuation: $1.2m Purchase Price: $1.0m Maximum loan (assuming 90%) = $0.9m And if I am not mistaken, you can use the CPF to pay the purchase price of the property after you have paid your first 5% of the purchase price in cash.

I thought a balcony is a floor projection from a wall that is surrounded by a railing/balustrade/parapet. Installing windows and closing it up will no longer be called a balcony.

Experienced or not, the energy level is not there anymore. Was on leave yesterday and spent the day looking after my 9 1/2 month old daughter. The work-out was worse than my NS days.

If you think you have a lot of laundry to do when there is just the two of you, wait till a baby comes along. You'll feel like you are forever doing laundry *and* washing and sterilising bottles.

You know you are old when your driving licence is as old as, if not older, than some the people here....... *SIGH*

Prefer full height windows in the living room. Don't need a balcony as my living room is on the ground floor. Anyway, I think a balcony is not that functional. It is subject to the elements, and thus, the floor needs cleaning more frequently. Yes, a balcony can allow you to hang clothes, but would you want to do this in your living room? I would prefer to hang clothes in the balcony of the kitchen/wash-area as I would like to keep the clothes out of sight. Also, Singapore's weather (the rain) can be very heavy, so clothes in the balcony also gets wet.

Are you talking about the A series, C series, the E series or the S series? Personally, the S series has the sleekest look, but it is also the most expensive. My next car will be an MPV. In fact, I almost bought an MPV instead of the E200, but decided to go with the E200 then because I was still single. Now, things are different. The MPV will either replace my E200, or I get it as an additional car for my wife.

If I am not mistaken, I think the home pregnancy test kit may give false negative if it is used too early. You might want to wait for another 2 weeks or so before testing it again.

Mercedes E200. Bought in 2004, used it as my bridal car in 2005.

In all the agreements you mentioned, I would think that the relationship is not important. Unlike HDB, which has rules governing family units, there are no such rules for private properties. The important thing to note is more on the ownership rather than the relationship. For example, in the S&P agreement, you can either have (a) your fiancee is the sole owner; (b) you are the joint-owner; © you are the tenant-in-common. They don't need your marriage cert.

Old thread here. Here's a photo of my daughter at around 9 months old:

What I meant is that if your phone is tri-band or 3G, it should be usable in US.

If it is tri-band, it should be usable. I think 3G, also usable.

It's a case of 'the grass is greener on the other side'. Accounting vocation is not easy. 1) Accounting is not just one type of formula. It is tedious and time consuming. It is also not just about passing entries. Nowadays, people in accounts have to be proactive and support the business more. 2) People in accounts work very long hours. Come month end and year end, they have lots of things to do to close the accounts. 3) Financial institutions/banks pay the business good bonus. Accounting is a support function and there is no direct P&L attached to it. So people in accounts are unlikely to be paid that much higher as they do not generate the P&L (okay.. they prepare the P&L but they don't bring in the business ). And in bad times, cost cutting takes place across *all* departments. Business will be looking at reducing support costs as much as possible. You don't want to retrench a sales person because they bring in the money.

Don't asked how much I spent. Too much is all I can say. Bought this for my wife: Also looking to upgrade this PC

Been a while since I last update this blog. My baby girl is more than 9 months old already. As you can see in my Avatar, she is one cute baby. Anyway, here are some stuff that I have added to my house recently. New PC for me: For the home network:

Not a TCM suggestion but just a general one. One common cause of weak/low sperm count is due to wearing of tight fitting garments. The testicles are generally very heat sensitve (which is why they are in the scrotum bag). When wearing tight fitting garments e.g. tight briefs/jeans/shorts/pants etc., the temperature of the testicles are raised, and this may affect sperm production. If I remember correctly, the 'optimal operating temperature' of the testicles should be a few degrees below the body temperature.

It's not just about getting a replacement maid. It's also training up the maid, and more importantly, it's whether my daughter will 'accept' the maid to look after her. Our current maid (the one that is going home) is not exactly good. She made lots of mistakes, but at the end of the day, we didn't change her because we do not have the time to train a new maid. Also, my daughter has gotten used to her and so she could at least look after my daughter when my wife and I are working. My maid will be leaving on Wednesday. As it is the Good Friday week, we won't get a new maid until middle of the month. It's going to be a trying time over the new few weeks.

No. Didn't see him before. I met him in a dance class and asked my sister about him.

Before our baby came along, we also never have maid. We stay in a fairly big house, so even if we devote the whole weekend to cleaning, we would probably not have time to finish all the cleaning, laundry etc. So we ended up cleaning only part of the house, and even then, we were more tired from the cleaning during the weekends than working during the weekdays. In fact, I even broke my hand once while I was washing the floor.

My wife and I also wanted a piggy. Mind you, it's going to be April in 2 days time, so don't think a piggy is possible unless baby comes early..... provided the baby is conceived this weekend..... which is not possible for us liao. *SIGH* KC Yeo is quite good and well known (if it is the same KC Yeo).

Yesterday, we received news that my maid's mum has passed away. My maid's children are being looked after by her mum, and with her passing, my maid has decided to return home. Now my wife and I are not sure if we should find a replacement maid. The hassle of finding someone whom we can trust is making us worried enough to consider not having a maid. On the other hand, both of us are working (my wife working from home and on a part-time basis), and with a 9 month old baby in the house, we are not sure if we can cope without a maid. Mind you, all my colleagues also told me that having a maid will give us a better quality of life i.e. we don't have to worry about mundane issues like cleaning, cooking etc. So those of you without a maid.... how do you cope?