Old post I found in my email (unposted)

14 june 2013
I had it good. A life so seamless and seemingly so carefree that To date, I do not remember a major traumatic event all my 33 years of life. To show how good I had it, we'd have to begin from my childhood. Although, much of the memories now seemed like a distant dream shrouded in vagueness I couldn't pinpoint the exact occurrences or vouch if it did happen in its entirety.

As far as I can remember, my first home was 21 Desa Kekwa 43000 Kajang. A single story terraced corner and that meant a large garden to play with. We had wire fences instead of the white picket fences. There were mango and guava trees that I could remember. Mum used to wrap the guavas and mangoes with old newspapers to help them ripen and protect against predators like worms or birds.

Soon after one of the mango tree was chopped leaving its stump an ant hill. There was a time when I was out accompanying mum in the garden that I stood right on the anthill. Needless to say they attacked both my feet in full force that mum had to carry me into the home and I scratched both my feet so badly, the wounds never recover until many years later.

We also had the practice of keeping pets. Rottweilers, rabbits, guinea pigs, tropical fishes and chickens. The latter for food more than as pets.

Mum recently recalled chasing after them daily and gotten scratches before bringing them to the market for slaughtering. This means we'd always have organic chicken for meals. But also the horror of watching them being prepared for cooking. Mum would leave her daily catch at the poultry stall while she picks up other groceries for the day. I would stand there frozen and watch them slice the chickens at their throat and left for the blood to drain, then into a huge vat of boiling water and de-feather. Being a wet market in the old days meant literally wet and dark mouldy floors, smells of poultry or meat remnants and poorly lit area.

We bought our first property together while I was still in New York on assignment. It was in an established estate, buried within blocks of HDBs. It was what we could afford given our savings at the time. The gnawing anxiety that prices are taking off for Singaporean properties meant waiting around is a luxury we couldn't afford. And to us at that time, it was perfect! We are finally property owners. The first step to our retirement plan is finally materializing.

The place needed a facelift drastically and not in an area I envisioned myself living in. But it came tenanted, which meant we could have the cash flow we wanted from day one.

I would go around the city on buses. As and when I saw a nice looking condo in an area I feel comfortable in, I would look up the name of the development on google maps and check on the transactions. If I fell within the affordable range of sgd1m-1.5m, I would 'favorite' that property. Why do I do this? I want to keep a portfolio of affordable developments so that when the right time comes to upgrade or buy a second property, I have stocks on hand to search from.


Best regards,
Yan Leng Ong