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sewing curtains at home isn't easy. curtain material is thicker and heavier - machine must be able to handle it and the person sewing must also be able to handle it.

super interesting! Thanks for all the views :)

i thought it's either 80% (no concurrent mortgage) or 60% now (with concurrent mortgage), no longer any 70%???

i took (group) classes at the Italian Cultural Institute and found them effective and fun.

oh, interesting. i had never thought of it that way. i had always been (more) impatient with agents who keep repeating gross yield to me without catering for maintenance etc. Now i understand better i'll be more patient and do my own sums. good of you to share this insight, Plastic3! thanks!

tend to agree with rental yields not being very attractive at the moment, jmo. remember also that when the agent calculates the yield for you, do ask if it's net or not (net being less maintenance, mortgage interest, costs if the unit lays idle, other costs involved such as fees for renting out, sprucing up the place etc etc). btw, even if you pay in full for a pty, it might pad against the pain of interest rate increases, if any, but it's still opportunity cost of putting money into one single investment that could be used elsewhere for other returns. but, everybody's investment approach differs. correct timing would be wonderful, but, in general, how correct a time is is seen after the time has passed and hindsight is 20/20 vision do your sums and ask good informed questions as much as possible. all the best!

we used to put up and remove wall paper in our own home (my mom's a real handyman) - hacking wasn't then required to remove wall paper. we used a certain kind of spatula that skimmed the wall paper off in nice broad and long ribbons which left the walls largely intact - can ask the DIY or wall paper shops for pointers or references too, before gauging how much it would cost you to remove the wall paper (in terms of money, time, effort)

oh, i didn't know that there's 0% downpayment for car! But, the financing companies will assess income before lending, i assume? in what circumstances would it make sense to pay for a car in full without loan, then? based on that, then, do you have a guideline as to how much a car should take up? i'm assuming that though the residence is excluded from total asset calculations, the loan, if any, on the residence will still be factored in the liabilities?

that was the big eye opener for me when a planner was calculating my net worth and retirement needs (and, no i didn't pay for this report, tho i met with many planners before i finally found one that i felt did comprehensive analysis for me, and i didn't buy any products from him either in the end). my kids (both boys) are going to be 6 and 7 this year, and based on their current and projected lifestyle and a local undergraduate education (i allocated 6 year course), the figure for each came up to a 6 figure sum somewhat beyond my initial estimation (ie. their cost up until graduation) which gave me quite some pause. The calculations will also have to take into account the inflation rate you choose to use (i chose a higher rate to create more buffer), length of course, local or overseas (and in which country), etc etc. my retirement plans cater for their education, and also cater for living and providing for myself independently from my kids, cos i do not expect any help from them in the future.

so, i noticed some pointers floating around on the net about how much a house instalment/house price should be as a percentage of income or net worth. are there any of these guidelines for cost of car (just total buy price and instalments where applicable, not counting maintenance. parking etc). or any personal guidelines i can take the cue from? i'm pretty shocked at how much some of my peers spend on their cars, as a percentage to their net worth (shocked as in i think it's v high for something that depreciates so much from the get go). TIA!

i'm not understanding this - would you elaborate please? thanks.

ya lor, i can only retain part of what i come across leh yep, in your situation, you could buy a pte while still within the 1yr MOP (MOP for selling) cos i can't remember what reason li.ao (bank loan or no cpf grant is it?) are you still holding your pte unit? btw, thanks for the tsunami info (actually, thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience all along) - there seem to be some pages in it missing - will you be showing those too?

cannot apply for subsequent purchase ah?

is your table solid wood? i have some solid wood furniture that also sprouted mold. my mom gave me some Old English polish and it's kept the mold away ever since (before that, the helper was sunning and wiping the furniture every week and still the mould came back). My mom tells me she gets the polish from DIY shops. hths

i think it's not a straight out "no". for eg. for yourself, bepgof, you've fulfilled your MOP to sell your place (1yr occupation) but not for renting out (3yrs) cos you bought before some cut off date (can't remember when) and you didn't take hdb loan, if i remember correctly, so you were able to buy a pte unit last year. i remember the discussions in your situation that were posted cos i know of a similar situation though the couple didn't buy pte in the end and i was quite curious about how the whole thing went. so, think needs more details before determining if the thread-starter can buy a pte unit, and, best always to clarify with HDB.

interesting. thanks for the analyses. i had not thought to think of it that way - i merely did a direct comparison of interest on CPF and what roi would probably yield based on past investing track record if investing the cash amount. i suppose, then, if the interest rate is <2.6% then the comparative interest "saved" would be viable for >1 year.

oh, hahaha, ok, i was expecting some formula that you'd come up with. though, each time you pay down 10%,the base gets smaller and smaller so the 10% is reached faster ... say, purely hypothetical, no CPF was used previously for a property purchase, do you reckon it would now be a good idea (or too late) to apply to use it to pay down/off the loan and to use it to service instalments? What other considerations would there be apart from comparative returns/yields? i'm not closed to the idea of buying products, but none of the returns (projected or otherwise) of those i've seen so far appeal to me (maybe i've not seen enough). we manage our own money too - so far so good.

no comment on this, but other banks have it too, amount may be different depending on when you are looking at. for us, was anything below 100k outstanding about a year or 2 back? (can't remember already) - we were with another bank.

How did you arrive at 10% baseline? Does it matter in your calculations if CPF was used for the property purchase or not? And what if the cash is being invested to get net more than the financing interest/charge? tia!

there's a related renotalk thread here too: How much to save for retirement

so you are able trade during the day assuming sgx/asian mkts while at work (your employer doesn't block trading sites; or you use a smart-mobile friendly app, etc). can go and check out other platforms - depending on your transaction size, whether have tiered rate. all the best for the remainder still vested

so your 19.5k profit is net after these transaction costs? Actually, if you still have 220k capital in the market, means your gross return of 19.k is derived from 30k? Is there any specific reason why you choose to go through a remisier than use an internet platform?

so it's 2.2m worth of trades, from a initial capital of 250k. buy fees on 2.2m worth of buy transactions @ 0.275% is $6,050! is that how it's calculated?

sorry, i dont understand that part - means your buy in's (and selling, to buy in again?) amount to 2.2m ie. the movements amount to 2.2m; or you levered up on the 250k to 2.2m? how much did the transaction costs come up to roughly? Thanks!

yes ma'am! my bad! (<-- sorry, that's the closest i could find to a paiseh face) just also looking forward to hear what suggestions and analyses can be given