Generational Issue or Just Personal Character?

Typing this now while having my chendol at Bukit Timah hawker centre as I just came across an interesting situation.

So I am seated alone at a table with some seats beside me still available. A lady aged about 30s to early 40s came over and asked me if the seats are available before putting her bag down.

Shortly after another lady aged about 60s came and sat down beside me without asking.

These contrasting behaviour got me thinking.

Is the difference in exhibited behaviours simply due to personal character or is it something deeper like societal norms from different times?

Note that I'm not saying either behaviour is right or wrong. 

What do you think?

From your personal experience, do people in their 60s and above (are they called boomers?) usually ask before sharing your table in public? 

Every Little Saving Helps - Car Related Expenses

Cars are expensive in Singapore. Everyone here knows that. No thanks to the COE game implemented by our policymakers.

While we cannot control the car (and COE) prices, we can choose to do something to help ourselves on the operating cost.

Apart from pumping RON 92 (minimum as per my car manual) and planning routes to avoid ERP whenever possible, I make an effort to do some simple maintenance myself.

So recently I felt the cabin air was getting stale and the aircon was not as strong as before.

I proceeded to buy a replacement aircon filter online for my car model. This arrived couple of days ago.

It is no wonder why my cabin air was stale. Look at the difference. 

Top is the new filter. Below is the old filter (and the black colour is not activated carbon but dust accumulated)! 

New filter inserted in and ready for providing me and my family fresh air. 

True enough, the cabin air quality improved tremendously after that. I mean it is noticeable immediately after I started my drive.

And how much did it cost me? S$5.92 and 5 min of my time.

Most importantly, I have two young kids so I'm glad I did this small maintenance program.

All it takes is to locate the cabin air filter compartment and take some care when removing any parts. 

For my case the cabin air filter is located behind the glove box so a little care is needed to remove the hinges and slow-opening mechanism to lower down the glove box before accessing the aircon filter.

This is not rocket science and all car owners can do this and some other small maintenance themselves. 

Looking forward to the next self maintenance. 

Afterall a penny saved is a penny earned. 

Cheers! 

P.s. Drivers, do let me know what are the other self maintenance that you are doing for your ride too! 

Updates for Oct 2023

Have been adding Mapletree Industrial Trust @ 2.23 & 2.30, CapitaLand China Trust @ 0.90 and Mapletree Logistics Trust @ 1.47 in September and October.

 

These are incremental purchases added to existing positions. Nothing has changed among my top four positions.

 

Have been planning to add Ascendas Reit too but price has ran up abit today so will hold on first. However any price below 2.70 remains attractive for this counter. 

 

 

 

Reason for adding the above is simple. I have confidence in the business of MIT and MLT in a timeline that is aligned with my portfolio.

Obviously a major concern now is finance cost which if continue to rise, would have an impact on coming DPUs. Since my respective yield against cost should remain higher than the present risk-free rate with some buffer to go, it is something I am willing to bear for now.

For CLCT, it is mainly to lower my cost. For this counter, one parameter I will follow closely on would be its gearing which is getting uncomfortable for me. It is for this reason that I have reservation on bigger purchase.

Also, more than half of the business park assets lease would be due for renewal in the coming two years. It would be interesting to see how the management handle this and at the same time improve on the occupancy at the Singapore-Hangzhou Science Technology Park asset.

The macro environment including China's projected economy and weakening of Yuan against SGD is important monitoring factor for this counter as well.

 

At point of writing, my local SGD portfolio is down 6.16%.

 

Will continue to make use of the market volatility to add in batches. As usual, time in the market for me, not timing the market.