Random

Had a long chat with uncle pig that night, on housing. If we were going to continue renting this place forever; or sell the two properties and move to a place of our own. And if moving, are we going to look at condo/cluster/landed? *hdb is out of the question for now bcoz I think my household needs at least 3 toilets 

Actually to me, our current place is fine too. It’s near to town; walking distance to 2 mrt stations; and Joy list of future JCs are all within a few bus/train stops. It’s also near the twins present and future schools as well. Unlike a lot of people, I’m quite comfortable renting. To me, this is my home leh.. I still regard it as my home, my house, not 别人的房子. So I’m completely cool with continuing this current arrangement. We have the space, enough toilets etc. N it doesn’t disrupt all financial plans. 

But if we were to get a place of our own, then we are constrained by space. New condos are either too tiny, or not enough rooms. Old condos will have the problem of increasing maintainence costs as the lifts /overall development needs more upgrading costs etc. Uncle pig is not keen to look at cluster houses bcoz he feels that eventually it will b borne down by the hefty maintenance fees as well. If we were to look at landed, then the price tag is going to be expensive. I mean can buy la, but that means die die need to continue to work and pay mortgage. 

While having this discussion with my BFFs, One of them brought up a v important point. “In life, some people strive to have a landed; some want to stay in a condo; and some wish to have financial freedom; or the freedom to pay bills (帐单自由), the freedom to shop and buy anything without feeling the pinch.. what then is the most important priority for me? What is my bucket list?” She actually made me write down a list of the things I wan for my house; and a list of good to haves… 

And after my convo with uncle pig, we concluded that financial freedom is what we valued as most impt. I don’t need to own a super expensive house ; a designer house etc. I want to have the flexibility of not needing to work to pay bills, like now. If I decide to stop work for the year , fine.. bills will still be paid. If I continue to work, that’s fine too. But it removes the stress of working to pay bills. And that’s what I think is most important to us now - financial freedom. 

Penning it here so that if I ever be tempted to get a much expensive property / car, I’ll be reminded again by my thoughts here.