Shifting priorities

Plans to do another 70.3 has been shelved, so my remaining races for the year will be TriFactor OD next month and StanChart 42k in Dec.

I had never worried excessively about my finances until Ryan was born.
Becoming a dad and husband means the extra responsibility of making sure that I provide enough for my family, which will become increasingly challenging as the kids grow up.

Though I have started to invest a bit in the last 2 years, but it has been more of simple buying for dividend payouts rather than fully understanding what I invested it. To put it in simple terms, it is almost equivalent to gambling but on a much lesser level.

Attended a short free class a couple of weeks ago, and decided to invest in getting myself educated and signed up for a short course to learn how to trade and invest better. It may save me lots of headache and heartache that may result from bad investments in the future.

Learning to better manage my finances will be important.
Apart from trying to increase my income, the other aspect of controlling expenses and money outflow will be critical.
After exhausting the child tax relief within 2 years and racking up high income tax again, I have started to take tax reduction planning more seriously.
Been reading up a bit on voluntary contributions to CPF and depositing into SRS, which are good means to reduce/defer taxation.

Despite the fact that I may not fully support or agree with some of the CPF policies, there is no escaping from the fact that everyone has to meet the Minimum Sum. So instead of grousing against the policy, it will be better to make it work for me.

CPF SA cash contribution
Benefits:

• Up to $7000 tax relief can be derived from cash contribution
• Good 5% interest rate on the first $40,000 in SA, and 4% for sums above $40,000
• Counts towards Minimum Sum

Disadvantages:

Locked up till retirement and become annuity (uncontrollable factor so no point fighting against this)

Coming to think of it, this is a really good scheme for retirement planning.
Now I kick myself for not looking into this years ago when I broke the higher income tax bracket and paid so much tax to the gov for a "Thank you for your contribution towards Nation building"
I'll make sure that I won't make the same mistake again this year come Dec when it is time to make the final changes towards my income tax relief.

CPF SRS 
Benefits:

• Tax deferment up to $12750 per year
• Can be used for investment purposes (except for property)
• Only 50% is taxable on withdrawal
• Enforced savings in a sense since I won't be able to spend this pool of money
• Flexible contribution compared to an endowment fund where I have to contribute at a fixed rate

Disadvantages:

• Early withdrawal penalty of 5% (except Death, Medical or bankruptcy issues)
• Locked in till retirement
• Possibly of higher taxation rates if my income falls in a higher tax bracket (not a big issue since I don't expect to work forever so my active income at 62 is probably much lower than compared to my prime)
• Possibility of higher tax rates than current levels when I'm 62 (uncontrollable factor and there is no certainty that this will happen so no point worrying about this)
• Investing is necessary. Cash deposit interest rate at 0.05% PA is horrendous and one will just be losing money to inflation this way.

A combination of these 2 will be able to help to substantially reduce the tax that I have to pay every year.
At least the money is still mine even though I can't touch it for the next 30 years.
Better than letting the government squander it away on Brompton bikes (that is more expensive than my racing bike!)


Instead of hoarding lots of cash through worrying about not having enough capital on hand when I eventually start my own business, it will be better to put these cash to good use instead of just wasting them away in cash savings accounts with extremely poor returns.

My 2014 To Do list included 2 sets of 70.3 races.
Since I'm not going to do another 70.3 this year, learning to better manage my finances will be a good replacement.
Anyway it is best to start proper finance management and investments early, so that compounding over time will works it's magic.

I had been procrastinating for years on better managing my finances. It is high time I look seriously into this.
Another good case of facing up to my fears (or rather short-comings in this case) rather than just running away or pretending not to see them :)

Training for IPPT

When I was much younger, IPPT was an annual $400 affair without much fuss.
I was young, fit, and much lighter at around 62kg then.
I'm now much older, at 70kg

Though the requirements for IPPT was gradually reduced as one gets older, the dynamics of the body aging and fitness decling faster than the IPPT standards meant that it will get tougher to score gold as one ages.

There was a period when my fitness had dropped below the Gold standards for a good few years

I always had the assumption that I was fit and could finish full marathons, so it is a taken that I should score Gold for my IPPTs.
Well, this did work all the way till 2009, and was eventually broken in 2010.

When I met my first Silver, I was in a state of denial.
"Perhaps it's just a bad day. I can still finish 42km runs"

My 2nd Silver in 2011 was due to me putting on too much weight, and I could not finish the 9th chin up for the Gold standard. Subsequently didn't put in too much effort to clock <10:14 br="" nbsp="">

The 3rd Silver in 2012 was a rude wake up call.
My 2.4km run is now officially non-Gold standard after 3 tries in 3 years.
"A bad day in office" is no longer a valid reason for not scoring Gold anymore.

2013 was a good year.
I started challenging for the half Ironman in late 2012, and had to take the IPPT during my ICT. Did surprisingly well and managed to clock 9:47 for the run, and regained the Gold standard.

Now, the window for clearing my IPPT for 2014 is almost over, and I have to face the challenge of trying for  the $400 in Gold.

Facing my fears
I had always avoided facing my fears for training specifically for the 2.4km IPPT run.
Speedwork training run has always extremely uncomfortable.
Doing the Long Slow Distance (LSD) run is a much easier training in comparison, and incidentally, I always chose to do the LSD for most of my trainings to avoid doing Speedwork.
This, in fact, is me running away from the reality that I needed to do Speedwork to properly train for a Gold 2.4km run.
The way that I trained in the past, is to keep clocking LSD runs, and pray hard that I can accidentally do a Gold 2.4km run during the test.

WRONG METHODOLOGY!!!

Training for specific requirements means a proper training has to be adopted.

Training for 2.4km by using the training plan for a 42km race is not the correct way to prepare.

This is especially pronounced as I got older, and it gets tougher to translate one class of physical fitness into another class.

Drawing on confidence

Things changed for me when I started participating in Triathlons.

It gave me a different challenge and impetus to change my overly simplistic training methods which I had been using for years for marathon trainings, which is just simply "No pain No gain, run more gain more"

This may have been working for me in my younger years, but my physique changes as I age so and I have to adapt.

What gave me really good confidence was from my swim.

Before I started doing Tris, I could barely swim 100m in freestyle without busting my lungs, so swimming was the discipline which I feared the most then.

Taking on my fears, putting in the efforts, has enabled me to improve my swim tremendously, to the point that today I'm equally confident in my swim and run.

If I can do it for my swim, where freestyle sprints are still lung bursting but already accepted as a norm in my trainings, I should be able do it for my sprint runs as well. 

The mantra of "No pain No gain, run more gain more" still holds true, but now I will have to add a "Train smart Train right" to complete the mantra.

I have managed to clock a 10:07 in my own 2.4km test run this week, so putting in more sessions should place me in good stead to score Gold again this year.

Inspirational video

Stacks of tomorrows become stacks of yesterday - that's when u keep saying let's do it tomorrow.
Hmmmm

Am I losing the way that I had originally wanted to take?
Food for thoughts

Fears

Everyone has their own fears/ worries.

For some, it is so bad that it consumes them and it affects their daily lives.

Then there are those know these fears but choose to run away from them. As long as they don't make eye contact with fear, they think that fear will not catch up with them. Out of sight, out of mind.

Another group are those who dare to face up to their fears, and take daily actions to improve themselves and dispel their fears.


For me, I'm always moving in and out of the latter 2 groups.
At times, I procrastinate on important issues for the sake of not daring to think further, as the more I think about my fears, the more it may serve to make me more fearful for the task seems too big and daunting to handle.
Some times, when epiphany strikes, clarity of thought will help me to dispel and work through my fears. Seemingly impossible tasks are suddenly broken down into chewable and workable bits.

Maybe I should meditate more.
Only with a clear mind will epiphany strike more often, which will help me to sort out my fears.

Time to swim/bike/run more without the stress of preparing for races.
This is my meditation.

Flying off soon... current mood

Will be leaving for my self reflection trip in less than 12 hours.

This post may sound angry, incongruent and full of angst, but this is exactly how i feel now.

Many do not understand the purpose of this trip.

Don't tell me you do, cos even I myself don't know the full purpose too.

I have heard many "Oh, you so good life/rich, go holiday 1 month, I hope can do so too". 

Hello! I'm getting retrenched and you most probably still have a job, and most probably is earning more than what i used to draw! You can always talk to your boss if you want this kind of 'good life' !!

I won't say this in people's face but that is seriously how i think.

Pardon me but I do get pissed off by superficial comments, which I have been getting more than needed lately.

I have always maintained the single most powerful driving motto in my life:

"If I want it bad enough, I'll make sure I get it. No excuses"

I have picked up a lot over the past 2.5yrs.

Of which, the most important lesson is:

Don't tell a man what YOU think he needs, without first understanding what HE really want.

As simple as this rule may sound, most people don't understand what this means.

Probably the sales people see it in certain scenarios, but I'm looking through the same visor at everyday life, and I find almost every single person (including myself) making the same mistake every single day.

I do not need people to tell me what I should WANT to do in my life.

But I appreciate people telling me how I to do certain things to achieve what I want.

There is a distinction between the two.

I have been drifting along for the last 3 yrs.

It is time to wake up and find my direction, and paddle hard in my direction.

I don't want someone to tell me where he think I should go.

I don't want to do this again another 3 yrs down the road.

I ain't got many more 3 yrs to play around with.

I couldn't have found a better opportunity to go out and do some self reflection.

I need to find peace with myself in this trip, and to find out what I WANT to do.

If I'm gonna make any more mistakes or regrets, I make sure it will be my own decision this time, and not say "Wah Lau, I should not have listened to so-and-so advice".

Thanks to everyone who is reading this blog.

I appreciate all the concern and help that may come along, but do not give me any advice or offer any help now. I need neither at this point of time.

I'm not sour over anything, nor am I bitter.

I just want to let my emotions flow, and find my innermost self.

What I need now is just quiet.

Don't worry about me.

I'm not one who is too proud to ask for help when needed, and I definitely will raise my hand if i need any assistance or aid from anyone