Before I left PH, I already had the sniffles, c/o Twin I. Seriously, I should have that kid tested for something because she’s always catching colds.

Anyway, I was going around hot and humid Singapore yesterday, which made my condition worse.

I wanted to do my shopping for pasalubong on my first day to get this out of the way since I’m going to be very busy until I leave on Friday.

The girls will have their recognition rites tomorrow to receive their medals. Unfortunately, I won’t be there because our conference is tomorrow but their dad will be the one going onstage with them. Then they will go with him to his home province to see their grandpa who is already suffering from dementia.

I met a friend and former colleague at Joo Chiat, an area not frequented by tourists so it’s relatively quiet. We went Vietnamese food hopping while taking photos of pretty shophouses.

She told me about the time when she had to dogsit for a friend while the latter went on holiday. My friend ex-colleague said having pets in Singapore is very expensive and she realized she cannot have a dog until she is retired because it requires a lot of work. Pet ownership is no joke, especially if you don’t have a yard to exercise your pet. Grooming costs a minimum of SGD 50 for a small breed. A simple trip to the vet can set you back SGD 200.

We talked about a lot of things and of them is retirement. She said she will work and stay in Singapore until before she retires at 55 and then go back to mainland China where her investments/pension can go a long way. She said she doesn’t believe that the housing market in China will get tight like before since they have an ageing population and only a few get married and/or procreate. If they do, they would only have one child. This means the demand for housing in the coming years may not be as high as a few years ago. Right now, they already have a housing glut so she is not in a rush to buy a property there.

Meanwhile, she is looking for a one-bed condo in Singapore to live in and later flip after retirement. She can add the proceeds to her retirememt fund and flee to China. Singapore is just too expensive for a retiree.

Meanwhile, I told her about the several income streams I am planning to have before I hang up my journo cap. I realized that I can’t really retire early because in the last 10 years my equities investments were flat. It’s only recently I started rebalancing my portfolio to more global funds.

As a CFA, she told me I don’t have the luxury of time so I can no longer be as aggressive (heavy on equities) as I was 10 or 20 years ago. I have to rebalance my portfolio, which I did. But I am not as aggressive in terms of the rate of savings/investment that I should be doing. I just have too many wants.

Sigh.