My parents had always told me to respect my elders, and especially those who had helped me throughout my life.

Growing up, I was surrounded by my grandparents and aunts and uncles who were always ready to give me advice.

This past Chinese New Year, my relatives gave me a lot of hong bao or red packets with money in them.

I was so excited to get the red packets and I thought it was really generous of my relatives to give me so much money.

I expected to get the same this year.

But as I opened the red packets, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Most of the red packets contained only two dollars.

I felt embarrassed and angry at the same time. Even though I was grateful for the gift, I couldn’t stop the feeling of receiving only $2 in my red packet.

I had expected more from my relatives because who still has the ‘face’ to give $2 for red packet nowadays.

I was so angry and disappointed that relatives I decided to never speak to them again.

If they can be such misers then there’s no point in me looking up to them again.

From then on, I decided to never trust my relatives again. I thought that if they didn’t think I was worth more than two dollars, then why should I bother with them?

I was so angry and disappointed that I felt like I couldn’t even look them in the eye anymore.

I just want to erase them out of my life and I vow never to entertain them anymore.

As an expat working in Singapore, I was shocked to discover after speaking to my fellow colleagues that the average Singaporean office worker earns a salary of within $3,000 to $4,000.

I had heard about the country’s reputation for being a wealthy nation, and I was expecting the salaries to be much higher. But the reality is far from what I expected.

I had been living in Singapore for a few months and had done some research into the salaries of the people working here. I was surprised to find out that the average officer worker Singaporean earns around $3,000 to $4,000 a month.

This is less than half of what I earn and I always thought that given the high expenses needed in this country, their salaries should be much more.

The cost of living in Singapore is extremely high and it is not easy to make ends meet on such a low salary.

During one my Grab trips from my place in Bayshore to my officer in Downtown, I found out from speaking to the Grab driver that many of them had the necessary qualifications to get a job in the office.

However, they instead chose to drive Grab either full time or as a side line and choose to be their own bosses so that they can earn more than what the average office worker earns just to make ends meet.

Hearing this, I finally understood the plight many people which I have met during my time here are going through.

Even I myself, earning much more than an average Singaporean, has trouble sometimes trying to keep up with the monthly expenses incurred over here by my family and myself.

I never thought that I would be the type of person to cheat on my girlfriend, but here I am. It all began when I first met my girlfriend’s mum.

From the moment I saw her, I felt an inexplicable attraction to her. She was older and far more sophisticated than any of the women I had ever been with before, and I couldn’t help but be drawn to her.

At first, I was able to resist my urges, but as time went on, I found myself thinking about her more and more. I started to fantasize about being with her and every time I saw her, my heart would flutter. I knew I was wrong for feeling this way, but I just couldn’t help it.

Eventually, I decided to act on my feelings and started to search for someone who looked like her. I eventually found someone who was a dead ringer for my girlfriend’s mum and began to pursue a relationship with her.

I was careful to keep it hidden from my girlfriend and snuck around behind her back to spend time with her.

At first, it was exciting and thrilling to be able to be with someone who looked like my girlfriend’s mum. I felt like I was getting away with something and it made me feel powerful.

We would often meet in secret places and the thrill of knowing that I was cheating on my girlfriend made the experience even more intense.

But, as time went on, I realized that I was wrong for cheating on my girlfriend and that I was only hurting her. I knew that if I continued on this path, it would eventually lead to her discovering my infidelity and that would be the end of our relationship.

In the end, I made the decision to end things with the woman who looked like my girlfriend’s mum and stop cheating on my girlfriend.

It wasn’t easy, but it was necessary in order to save our relationship and protect my girlfriend from the pain that she would have felt if she ever found out about it.

Looking back, I regret ever having those feelings for my girlfriend’s mum. I know now that I should have kept those feelings to myself and not acted on them.

I hope that I have learned from my mistake and will never make the same mistake again.

as a young university graduate employee you may find yourself worried about retirement.

retirement is nothing to worry about. all Singapore citizens and PR have this amazing pension plan called the CPF life.

the trick to cpf hacking to meet “enhanced retirement sum” and “basic healthcare sum” is inaction.

yes simply do nothing to your MA and SA.

all you need to do is to earn a high income by age 30.

ie. get a minimum of 6K monthly pay and total bonus of 5mths additional wages. ie 102,000 of your income must attract CPF.

at this income, you will find yourself meeting basic healthcare sum easily. and the excess will be transferred to SA regularly. if you continue to attract 102,000 annual income, you will get enhanced retirement sum from just your SA alone, and from the automatic MA transfers to SA.

just use your OA liberally for housing, and enjoy your quality of life. because your (SA+MA) will be able to hit (ERS+BHS) at age 55 anyway. you will get an annuity of 5k per month at age 65.

TLDR: use the skills given by NUS to find a 6k/mth job with 5 months bonus per year & work for 30 years from age 25-55.

Here are what netizens think:

• Somewhat unpopular opinion here but I’m a huge fan of cpf. This is especially true when I went for a back surgery years ago. Long story short after deductions i only had to pay a lot less than the actual sum.

• As for cpf life if we really wanna calculate to the grave then we just need to make sure we hit the sum to be enrolled in the program and live long enough because we’re basically paid a sum of money even when our own cpf dries up.

• Welcome to reality show, you will realise, dreams and reality aren’t the same..Read your post 10 years down the road, then do a survey among your peers, which milestones and what difficulties you will face at age 30, 40 and 50s…

• Knn, mai gwgb lah. U talk like easy especially the 5 mths bonus