My vision for SERS came true!

9 years ago, after my 35th birthday, I started my journey to find a HDB 3 room flat under the Single Singapore Citizen Scheme.

The first priority was to find a place to call my own. 

But at the back of my mind, I had a vision to find a place that could be an en-bloc potential many years down the road. No harm right?

Since I've lived in Queesnstown all my life, and would like to continue living in close proximity to my siblings and parents who are also living in Queenstown, it made my selection easier - just focus on Queenstown HDB resale flats.

My first criteria was to find an old HDB 3 room flat - the older the better! Mine was built in 1971. It's the early "Simplified" version of a HDB 3 room flat. The type where the toilet and bathroom were joined together as one. Yucks! Thankfully, when I bought it, it's already upgraded where we have a new extra bathroom attached. Phew!

Next was to find as low rise a block as possible. Mine was a 10 storey flat. Put yourself in the shoes of a developer - would it make more financial sense to tear down a 10 or 16 storey flat to rebuild into a 30-40 storey flat?

My HDB estate is located near One North. Just thought if one day One North needs more space for expansion... And by the way, if I need to rent out a room or the whole flat for income, I think those FTs working in One North would be interested? It's good to have options!

Also, opposite my flat are those black and white bungalows from our colonial days where there's huge development potential many years down the road. Only one catch - we were separated by the Malaysian railway track... I remember thinking we cannot let this "anomaly" continue where another sovereign country has a dagger that stabs right into our city center. Was cautiously optimistic that in 20 years time, we should be able to get the land back from Malaysia - especially with Mahatir out of the way. Was pleasantly surprised we got it back so much sooner! Now that's new Malaysia/Singapore relationship for you!

So location wise, wearing the lens of a city planner, the HDB estate where I bought my flat looks very likely to be in the way of future development.

Yesterday, I got a pleasant visit by HDB officials personally knocking on my door. It's to inform me that I just won the SERS lottery!

It was in the TV news yesterday. I'll be part of the New Beginning at Dawson en-bloc development.

The 5 new development sites are near Commonwealth Avenue and Margaret Drive. I know that area well. My old Hua Yi Primary School was torn down for this development.

It's always nice to exchange old for new. Especially when I remember being a bit sore that as a single, I can't buy a new BTO flat directly from HDB. I guess my turning a lemon to lemonade vision has panned out well. Now I will have a brand new HDB flat in Queenstown just like you all married couples.

Hmm. The new HDB flats got fight with Pinnacle - got roof top gardens and sky bridges.
   
As I've always said, I prefer to be lucky than smart!



P.S.  I'll explain in another post why it's a vision and not a plan or goal.

Trust is Good; Control is Better

For maximum effect, we should say it out loud with a German accent.


Just to be clear, I belong to the "Trust but Verify" camp. Life is easier that way.


I love to poke my fellow Steering Group members when we get overboard with "control" -

- we need another KPI to measure this...

- we need another report to track the progress...

- we need to reformat the reporting to better...

Blah, blah, blah...


Times like this I will say out the above headline in my German accent, and most of us will have a good laugh - except those anal control freaks who are now daggering me with their eyes... 

Verification measurements or KPIs should ideally fit into a single A4 sheet of paper; not a telephone tome...

If not, we would be spending so much time analyzing than on what's we are supposed to do - make decisions. Hello? What's the meaning of "steering"? 


I guess we know those who love "control" in our midst. Heck! We could be one ourselves!

Parents who like to control "what" their child should do and think may want to pause and remember you were a child once.

Let the child have their own dreams; they are not the plan B for your own failed dreams. 


For those who love control, I guess Investing and Trading can be hard for you. 

Outsourcing is out as your would prefer to DIY.

But then you will have a hard time squeezing the trigger as you are forever "analyzing".

Even if you do squeeze the trigger, you would have sleepless nights as markets never behave in accordance to what you have planned.

Perhaps consider a career as a regulator, auditor, inspector instead?


 

Trust but Verify

It's not about being cynical.

Nor is it about being skeptical.

It's about basing our opinions or decisions on some backing of facts - if any.

If we don't verify what we've heard or read and pass the same message to others, we are merely parroting and passing hearsay to others. Rumour-mongers?

And if the message was indeed false or misinterpreted, what do we do? We say it's not our fault and blame it on whoever passed us the information right!?


Let's focus on the verify part.

If we can't, don't know how, or where to start, etc; I hope alarm bells are ringing in our heads.

That means we are out of our depths. Outside our circle of competence?

Think about it for a moment. 


Keep this thought next time you were tempted into an investment opportunity or trading setup offered by others. 

Ask if you are basing it on your own independent analytical, fact verification, and decision making skills; or is it based on faith and trust of the messenger?





P.S.  It's a great habit to have in the Corporate world too. There's only so many times you can apologize to your Board or Steering Group that you have not verified the facts...