Category: Life

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Down But Not Making You Down

Confidence, we all want it but not everyone gets it. Where does confidence come from after all? What makes one more confident than the other? Does confidence mean you need to be a loud and bossy type or appear superior in front of other people? Do you have to be a certain breed to exude a high level of confidence? If you haven’t got it, can you just fake it to make it? So many questions here but the answer might be just one only. Mel Robbins says: Confidence is a skill, not a personality trait. It is the willingness to try. Do you agree? Read the following story, it may change the way you believe what confidence is.

So, I was on the train one Friday night after work. As usual, I proceeded to the middle carriage and stood in a quiet spot. There was nothing else to do except starring at my phone and scrolling through pages and pages of Facebook feeds. This commute was no difference from any other days. But it all started to change when this 30-year-old-ish lady got on the train. She came sitting down next to two female passengers – Presumably a mother and a daughter. They had two big suitcases standing side by side against their knees. With check-in bag tags still hanging, it looked like they’d just got out of the airport or something. Right there and then, this young lady just burst out and started to ask them a few questions like where they’d traveled from etc. Up to that point, I was reading some stuff on my phone, but my attention started to drift a bit. I was drawn by the energy she brought into this confined space. It was delightful to watch her personality shine through like a social butterfly. A great deal of charisma, confidence and a good sense of humour came right out of her – she even joked about her grey hair. Surly she didn’t mind people around having a laugh about it. Soon I found myself smiling and I noticed other passengers were smiling, too. It was infectious. What can I say? She added much fun to this tedious train ride. When we got off at the next station, everyone still carried the side-effect and wore a little grin on the face. I wondered what the incoming passengers might’ve thought. Well, she made our night that’s why. What was so special about this young lady you might ask? Well, do I have to mention that she appeared to be someone who had Down syndrome? I was glad that we had someone like her in our society!

If you are a quiet person, you can be confident in a quiet way. You don’t have to change yourself to be a mouthy human being. If you are an introvert, you can be confident in an introverted way. You don’t have to change yourself to look like an extrovert or act in such a way that’s totally opposite to your true character. To me, when it comes to confidence, it’s all about confide in your identity. How so? Let’s look at the word “confident” and unpack it piece by piece. You’ll see what I mean. I’m not a linguistic expert but I love exploring words in my unique way and make it my own.

All in all, if you buy what I’m selling here which is the notion of personal experiences, then you’ll know that at the end of the day, it’s our personal experiences that form part of our identities, something that no one can ever take away from us. Knowing that it’s already within us, we can work on bringing out the best in us and the rest? Just smile or have a laugh. That comes with confidence…

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One War That’s Always Worth Fighting For

As I write this, I ask myself: How many wars are going on in the world at this moment, right now? Look what’s been dominating the news headlines everywhere – a trade war between US and China is heating up. We see both sides blowing hot and cold about their moves while trying to resolve their differences diplomatically. As to what’s going to happen next is anyone’s guess. Things may well unfold further and further but no one can say decisively who’s going to win and who’s going to lose. Meanwhile, there’re civil wars, cold wars and wars with no name happening in other parts of the globe that we probably don’t know about. Big or small, the number is countless. It’s sad but true. So, what are people fighting for or against and in the name of what? Justice? Freedom? Power? Fairness? Ideology? Religion? Retaliation? All wars bear some heavy consequences and incur human causalities whether it’s physical, mental or financial. There’s a price to pay. Even if one side comes out of it winning the war but may still end up losing the battle. No wonder they say you need to pick your battles wisely.

What do I know about war? Back in the day when I was doing International Relation as part of my Political Science major at The University of New South Wales (UNSW), I learned that war is not evitable and often the last resort to resolving conflict between countries or military groups etc. That’s what you do when all other means have been exhausted and failed to produce desired outcomes. Well, then it raises an important question: What makes going to war worth a while? Sadly, we don’t get an answer till war is over. It’s such a complicated issue that sometimes we’d better let history be the judge.

Looking at something closer to home. February, the last month of summer here in Sydney Australia. After weeks of soaring heat and high humidity, I’m really looking forward to colder months ahead. But what’s coming along isn’t so welcoming – a flu season. The flu virus comes in 3 different types A, B and C. Depending on the regions, flu can strike either in winter months or all year round. The trickiest part of the flu virus is it’s always changing. The flu vaccine available out there is by far our best defense but every year we’re only playing catch-up. Why? Next year, there’ll be a new strain coming out hence a new type of vaccine needs to be developed to tackle it. Have heard enough of the flu virus? What about the word we all dread to hear – Cancer. How many people and their families and friends have been affected by it? Stomach cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer etc. Aren’t they scary?! Fortunately, cancer is no longer a death sentence as long as it’s detected at an early stage and treated accordingly. That’s just a common sense. Overall, these bad guys – the flu virus, deadly bacteria and cancerous cells don’t really discriminate against your race, your religion, your identity or your status. All they care about is to find a crack in your immune system, sneak in, launch an attack on your cells and watch you falling apart.

So, the title here is: One war that’s always worth fighting for? What is it then? By now, you would’ve got a good idea. That’s right! What I’m advocating here is forget our ideological differences, drop the stupid prejudice, spend more time and energy on what matters and what will make a difference to humanity – fighting against our real common enemies – all types of flu, all types of cancer, and all the diseases that have plagued our communities, families and friends…

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The End Of A Chapter, Not The End Of The World

Do you dread changes? Who can avoid changes? Seasons change, things change, people change, businesses change. People come and people go. The truth is no two days are the same.

As our situations continue to fluctuate, it’s quite scary to think that what we have today may well run away from us tomorrow. Whether we’re the ones who call the shots or not, there’ll bound to be a time when life unfavourably turns upside down or decides to go its own separate way. Unfortunate life events like a relationship break-up, a redundancy, a health scare etc. can mess up with our mental health and affect our outlook on life. Remember when last time it happened? How did you cope with it? Did it seem like forever? Did you see it as the end of a chapter or the end of the world? How did you finally get out of it?

Personally, I’m easy to fall prey to that black-and-white thinking pattern and get myself into a position where I see no light at the end of tunnel. Does it sound all too familiar? I don’t think I’m alone in this. Looking back at my past troubles, I remember how I sat on the floor in my living room thinking if I can go on another day, another night. It’s funny now I’m speaking in the present (continuous) tense, I can be quite casual about it. Yes, I did go on another day, another night but not without struggles.

What comes to your mind when you hear the word struggle? For me, I automatically associate it with the grieving process. The grieving process sounds heavy but he isn’t a bad boy by any definition. He just needs you to honour him and give some attention to his crying out loud voice. That’s all he asks for. We know that process is unarguably painful but utterly necessary for survival and recovery even though we don’t want to admit it. The best analogy I can use is it’s like you get a severe sunburn, the aftermath is the skin is trying to shed its old layer before the new layer has a chance to grow.

Here I am writing this post to tell the world that it’s the end of a chapter, not the end of the world. I’m sure if you’ve been there and done that, then you’ll know it’s true. You’ll also agree that the grieving process is part of the package, therefore it should be respected, not be played down or ridiculed by any means. It’s OK we all do it differently in the process. Looking at people around me, a colleague of mine was made redundant last week. As soon as he was told to leave, he became quite upset and withdrawn. At the end, he chose to go quietly and that was his way of “coming to terms” with the reality. Then, another colleague of mine is in the transition of getting divorced. For months she’s handled her relationship breakup like “it’s a business as usual”, so well that none of us in the office has noticed anything unusual about her broken marriage. She’s just one of those people that doesn’t like to show vulnerability in public. Two different people, two different reactions. No big deal. As much as we’d like to help people in their grieving process, they need time and space, not words full of cliché like “life goes on” or “you’ll be fine”. They won’t be taken in seriously because it’s meaningless.

As we finish off one chapter and prepare to step into the next chapter whether it’s a new job or a new relationship, what we’ll carry over is a new set of standards or better quality control so to speak. From there, things start to look up and I’ve seen evidence of successful transformation in numerous cases among my friends and ex coworkers. As for me, one thing I’ve learned in my own grieving process is the notion of expect the unexpected. Whether there’s something pleasant or unpleasant in store, with a “no expectations” mindset, it does get easier, come what may. It’s not about lowering the standards, it’s about not being controlled by the uncontrollable.

Now this post is about to draw to a close. Yes, all posts must come to an end. I thought I’d include a photo of a beautiful sunset over Sydney Harbour taken by myself, with a narrative: The reason why people keep falling in love with sunset is because it doesn’t last… Tomorrow, there’ll be a sunrise, a new chapter. Watch this space!

Thanks for reading. Catch ya in the next post soon!

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A Message To My 11 Month Old Niece

Do you know what it’s like to live a life of privilege? There’s nothing wrong with living life on a fast lane if you go out of your way to earn it. You work hard, play hard, day in, day out, sure you deserve it 100%. Self-righteous or not, privilege isn’t necessarily a dirty word. I’m a firm believer that privilege is something we earn, not something we own. But what if privilege is given to us without us doing the work?

My niece was born on Valentine’s Day 2018. For that reason, I call her little cupid. She’s now a healthy, active 11-month-old baby girl. The first time I saw her, she was only 2-day old and still at the hospital. From that moment on, I decided that I want to be a different type of uncle. An uncle like no others. I’ll be her friend, playmate, soulmate, coach and guidance. One day when she’s old enough to learn about this wild wild world we live in, I’ll be there to tell her the stories about our family – how we came to Australia and how we flourished in The Lucky Country. Oh man, so many things I want to pass down and instill in her but the one that sticks out from all others is the idea of taking nothing for granted. It’s a good virtue for anyone to have. Don’t you think?

Look around, there’s a sense of entitlement embedded in many of us these days which we often take for granted, be it the right to vote, to marry, to speak freely or to move into a new city or a different country etc. These so called human rights we were born with or grew up with did not come of their own accord but because a group of brave women and men before us, before our times, who had fought long and hard or risked their freedom or even lives to achieve equality and justice we now enjoy and regard as the norm. Over a year ago, I was fortunate enough to be part of the history – having a say in Australian Marriage Law. I’m proud of being one of the Yes voters in the postal survey conducted by ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics). When the results were announced, the majority of Australians were overjoyed by an overwhelming, wide spread public support for marriage equality across all states and territories. What it led to was on the 7th of December 2017, Marriage Act was officially amended to include same sex couples. Right when the motion was passed in the federal parliament, Australia went to join the ranks of the other 25 nations to become the 26th country in the world to recognise same sex marriage. On that day, my niece wasn’t even born yet. This is just one of many examples. Things like Freedom of Information Act, multiculturalism, to name just a few. My niece like other babies around her age will grow up knowing her human rights are protected by law, largely thanks to those unsung heroes for their relentless work to fight against the old, unfair laws. Some taboos that were once thought to be sensitive, untouchable or even impossible, are now a way of life. Of course, there’re still more jobs to be done in all areas where discrimination may still be present. We can change the law but we can’t change people’s attitude overnight.

My little cupid, remember, you belong to nobody but yourself. Some day you’ll work your way up to discover a unique trait in yourself like no other, that’s your gift to the world. Give as if it’s a privilege but don’t ever allow anyone to take your goodness for granted. Somehow, I realize this is a message to uncle Ted, too…

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A Reflection On My One Year Blogging Journey

I meant to write something else but as 2018 is about to come to an end, I thought I’d just “cheat” a bit by writing about a reflection on my one year blogging journey. It’s like a year end review that kind of thing. I can’t find a better way to farewell 2018 and welcome 2019 than this.

This is how I see it, when people read my blog posts, whether it’s one or many, whether they spend only five minutes on it or longer, I’m actually taking them through a part of my journey that I hold dearly. Isn’t it wonderful when readers go venturing into the material you’ve written, then decide to give you a like or even follow you? It’s a big honour. I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate it. That’s why it’s ultra important for me to produce quality writing whenever I can. One year on, it still gives me the chills and I’m still like the new kid on the block. I keep reminding myself, stay grounded, don’t take anything for granted.

What can I say? It’s been amazing and daunting at the same time. Just like a roller coaster ride, ups and downs, ups and down, some days I thought my blog posts had done good deeds and added value to readers, some other days I thought not quite there yet, there were still many holes in my writing.

All in all, I’m here for the long-run. Not to dismiss the fact that at one stage I did quit. But two weeks later, I came back and re-launched a new website as you see now. I’ve been managing my blog like a small boutique store on a quiet corner – quality over quantity. We’re all here to “sell” something. So, what do I sell? To put it boldly: I’m here to sell the concept of “personal experiences”. Do I care about the stats? Of course I do. Traffic or readership can go both ways, either encouraging or discouraging. But I try not to get too hung up by that. They say you rather have 1 quality reader than 1000 non-quality ones. That’s so true. Even if my blog posts resonate with only one quality reader, that’d still be awesome and like someone giving me a pat on the back… Very rewarding!

Juggling between a full time job and my blogging “business” along with other commitments has been a challenge. I admit blogging isn’t a top priority in my life at the moment. After all, I have a day job that I enjoy. It helps pay my bills so I need to give it my 100% when I’m there. But outside that, the creative process begins in my head everywhere I go – when I’m out and about, catching a bus, doing house chores, walking my dog, taking a lunch break or having some me time in the evening etc. By the time I sit down and write, though tired and exhausted from all other activities, I still get a pretty good vibe about what I want to share with readers. As much as I’d love to finish writing in one go, the reality is it always takes more than one session to complete one blog post. It’s also not uncommon for me to go back and refine my writing even after I’ve published it.

2019, it’s only one more day or two more sleeps to go here in the southern hemisphere. How time has flown by so quickly this year. I won’t bore you with my New Year resolution in fact I haven’t got one. But now looking at the drafts box on my website, it shows 27 (including this one) blog posts waiting to be published. A light-bulb moment! I think I see the sign. I’ll make them my 2019 New Year resolution. Happy New Year!

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Harness The Power Of Money

Money talks but does money walk? I don’t think there’s such a phrase in English but you get what I mean. We’ve seen money as a good motivator for some people. Let’s face it, when money is good, it’s hard to resist it, isn’t it? So, will you jump at an opportunity or an offer purely based on the money factor? What role does money play in your life?

A month ago, I went to a family dinner party that I was invited to by a friend whom I had just met. It was my first time to see the host family and their guests so I didn’t know what to expect. Fortunately, everyone was so welcoming and charitable, I began to mingle with them and make small talk very quickly. Among many topics, one that stood out a lot was career. I guess talking about ourselves especially what we do for a living is often deemed as a good ice breaker.

The host mother, a teacher and her teenage son, a recent high school graduate seemed to be very interested in what I had to say about my jobs, past and present. I could tell she wanted to hear my perspectives and apply to her son’s situation if any of my words was useful. I loved their curiosity. It really fired me up and made me want to share the practicality, the nuts and bolts of how I landed my jobs. For me, reviewing my career trajectory, all the ups and downs I went through and mistakes I made along the way, serves as a good reminder of how I got where I am today. It’s like taking a refresher course again. When I looked back on it, what I learned most was money was a wrong reason for leaving a current job or accepting a new job. Why? At one point, I went to take a job that looked more money and a nicer title on the outside but a few months down the track I discovered it didn’t bring me more fulfillment or happiness. In fact, I ended up working longer hours and even some weekends. Interestingly, when I saw it from an hourly rate point of view, I began to realize I wasn’t at all better off compared to the job I had before.

What do we get when we break things down into hourly rate pieces? Try this analogy: When walking through the aisles of major supermarkets here in Australia or perhaps your country too, you’ll see unit prices on almost all grocery items you come across. A unit price is a piece of information that tells shoppers exactly what they pay for per unit such as per item or per kilo. In turn, it helps shoppers see the real value of the goods they’re buying. An hourly rate works in the same way. I’m convinced that knowing how much we’re charged or paid for every hour worked, it’ll help us:

  • Rethink if the task at hand is worth paying attention to
  • Use our time more wisely and selectively when it comes to work-life balance
  • Say No more often to time-wasters (imagine how much it’ll cost us if we waste an hour on this)
  • Walk away from situations that no longer serve us

For what it’s worth, money is like a coin that has two sides, each with a distinctive character on its own. Together, money has the power to make or break our career, relationships and many more. Do you let money limit you or stretch you? To show who’s boss and make money work for you, why not start off by “charging” an hourly rate and see if money pay dividends in no time…

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Feel The Pain, Heal The Pain

Pain, no one likes it, we all try to avoid it. It’s only natural. We’re all humans. But is pain that bad? Does pain hurt us so much that it deserves no place in our lives? When we feel the pain, what is it trying to tell us? Is there anything else other than the discomfort that it inflicts on us?

Last week I finally surrendered to my thumping headache. After 2 days of enduring pain, I decided enough is enough. So, I dragged myself to the local supermarket and buy a mini pack of Panadol (paracetamol). It was the first time in many years (possibly more than 15 years) that I went to buy an over the counter (OTC) medicine to treat a pain related symptom. Judging by my poor track record, I don’t think any pharmaceutical companies would like me as a consumer. Why wouldn’t they? I’m just not one of those guys who would reach for a painkiller as soon as I experience some physical pain. It may sound strange or weird but I’d like to test out my tolerance level for pain and give my body a chance to fight and respond before I resort to the medicine option. Of course, provided the pain is not serious, urgent or life-threatening. Luckily, I haven’t been in a situation where I needed to seek an immediate medical attention. Just for the record, I’m not against medicine but I’m a firm believer that my body needs time to settle the pain, understand why it’s hurting, then go into a right channel of healing.

In my recent case, taking medication was certainly a wise decision to make. I started to function like my normal self very quickly. Going through a work day not affected by my headache was a bless. Thanks to the magical power of paracetamol. However, deep down I knew it’d only be temporary. 6 to 8 hours passed, the effect began to wane, the pain came back in no time. It was as clear as it started. A pain medicine is never intended for long term use anyway. If we read the label carefully, it says: provide fast, effective temporary relief of pain. So, after having popped a total of 6 pills into my system in a matter of 2 days, I thought it was time to confront my pain head on, literally. It wasn’t hard to see why my headache was only a symptom. The real cause lied in my weakening immune system due to a lack of sleep. All it took was one wild chilly wind blow, then bingo! I caught a nasty cold.

To treat the cause rather than the symptom, I consciously made time throughout the day to allow myself to rest and slow things down a bit. It was amazing how fast my body recovered from it. I woke up feeling rejuvenated. The headache was gone by itself without drugs. Right there and then, I knew I’d treated my body right.

None of us is a machine. We do need to recharge our batteries every once a while. Walking away from the rat race for a few hours or even for a day for a health-benefit reason won’t set us back both in the short and long runs. If it does, we’ll have to question if it’s all worth it. When we put a highest priority on health, we’re in front in a game. Other less important things can wait. When our bodies start to send a signal to our brains that something is up in the form of pain, it’s a red flag. My experience has taught me that an effective coping mechanism for pain is fundamentally about giving what the body needs, not wants – it may be painstaking but is worth taking…

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Are Rules To Be Followed Or Broken?

Are you someone who does almost everything by the book? Is there a rulebook in your life that you’ve been following but never questioned if it’s still serving you? Is that rulebook written by yourself or someone else? Do you believe in rules are to be followed or broken? 

The world-famous Taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming once said in one of rare TV interviews a few years back: If you look around nature, things come in all shapes and sizes, but nothing in perfectly square. It was such a profound statement. I literally sat in front of my laptop re-playing it in my head and trying to digest every word that came out of it. So powerful that it’s stuck with me ever since. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. I guess I can call it a light bulb moment. In case you don’t know who Ju Ming is, of course you can Google him and find more information about his life on Wikipedia or his website. The reason why I reference him here is because it gives me a good starting point to argue that rules aren’t born out of nature, they are predominately man-made, crafted and created by individuals for specific purposes – like law and order.

Of course in our society, there’re regulations to be obeyed to, protocol to be followed though. No exceptions. All people are expected to be law-abiding citizens in all circumstances or they’ll face the consequences. Anything that is still unfair, unjust, unequal, it takes laws to change laws. We know the process can take years and in many cases, failures, setbacks, frustrations are not uncommon. It can be a whole new set of topic to discuss but for now, to a much smaller scale, I want to talk about what do we do about those rules in our personal lives. Are they helpful? Are they stretching you or limiting you? Ju Ming said, as a beginner you can acquire as many skills as you like when you’re learning. But in a creation process, you need to unlearn, stop thinking, throw away all the things you’ve been taught by others, do nothing but simply executing the work.

Researching on the topic has been a rewarding experience for me. I’m absolutely captivated by Jun Ming’s artworks and his philosophy of life. Even though you don’t consider yourself as an arty type of person, will find his artworks full of life and engaging to watch. I first heard of him when I was only a child but who would’ve thought two to three decades later I’d write a post inspired by him. So, back to the question of: Are rules to be followed or broken? Before I started to write this post, I thought I had a “right” answer based on my own presumption but after I’ve done more study of this subject, I’m going to surprise myself and say: I think it’s both.

If you’re an artist or someone who wants to pursue a mastery in your field, rules are to be followed when you first learn the basic techniques. Over time they will help you lay a solid foundation before you take your skillset to the next level. As you progress, rules are to be bent so they adapt to your unique personal style unlike and unmatched by others. Finally, when you execute your work, rules are to be broken or let go, so you aren’t bound by any preset concepts, thoughts or ideas, that’s when you produce something, a masterpiece truly your own. Sounds like an art? I think it is…

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Wanted. Desperately Seeking Attention

Believe it or not, the moment you open your eyes, get out of the bed in the morning, get ready for a new day, you are already a wanted person, even though you don’t feel like it. Guess which part of you is the most sought after by the world? Your attention that is – the invisible but super highly valuable asset you’ve ever had. Look around, it’s not hard to understand why. You step out the door, go to places, watch for the traffic lights, the road signs, the cars. When driving or crossing the streets, your close attention on the traffic conditions keeps you safe and sound. Meanwhile, there’re tons of distractions from all corners of the world are also fighting for your attention. Somehow, within your conscious mind, you decide to block them all and only focus on one thing that matters most – the road safety. However, as soon as you arrive at your destination, you check your phone or other mobile devices, read your Facebook feeds or new emails, before you know it, another round of battle for your attention has already begun. Day in and day out, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even when you sleep. The world wants your attention badly. If your attention isn’t your most important asset, then what is?

To conceptualize the idea of attention, a good way to start is looking at its closest cousins – thoughts. Much has been said about our thoughts and how important it is to watch what we’re thinking in our heads as it can lead to how we speak to ourselves and others, how we act and react to circumstances we are in. Ever wondering how many thoughts do we have a day? Let’s Google it and see. And? What are the numbers? Thousands! I’m amazed by just how those neuroscientists or researchers came to their conclusions. Assuming those numbers they came up with are right, it goes to show how complicated and thoughtful creatures we as human beings really are. To me, thoughts alone aren’t enough to make or break our days. It’s thoughts that we pay attention to make or break our days. Furthermore, since we can only hold one thought at one time, then the quality of our output all depend on choices we make consciously and subconsciously.

Like it or not, the world is a biased place. It has favuoritism towards positivity. Our attention can go through the roof, work their way to sabotage us if we spend too much time dwelling on negativity. I don’t think negative thinking is that big deal but it’ll become one if we give more weight than it deserves and let it expand out of control. Take my recent experience as an example, the other day I found myself getting more passive aggressive at work. The trigger? I didn’t feel appreciated. It sounds like a silly reason, doesn’t it? I’m sure no one likes to feel underappreciated or underrated especially when someone fails to show appreciation in a way we expected. The question is: Should we be the ones pay the price for it? In my case, I kept hanging on the same thought- not feeling appreciated and the moment I captured myself falling into the deep trap, I started asking myself: Why am I still paying attention to something that clearly doesn’t serve me? How should I stop it? Paradoxically, the harder I tried to stop it, the more emphasis I placed on it, the more attention it got from me and the deeper I got stuck in it.

Later that day when I got home, I no longer got hung up by my earlier thought as there were more important things in my place for me to focus on. I realized: to shift our attention, it’s not about getting an old thought out of our heads or de-focusing. It’s about letting a new thought into our heads and re-focusing. Do you agree? If you’ve read this post up to this point, I thank you for your attention…

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Say Bye Bye to Mortgage Years Earlier

If I can do it, you can do it, too – Sounds easy but is it really? Don’t you love to hate this line? Let’s not kid ourselves. Things like losing that spare tire on your body or becoming a guru or master in your chosen field are never quick and easy. They require a long-term commitment, relentless efforts and possibly lots of swearing (physically and verbally) before you can cross that finishing line. What about paying off a mortgage? It’s even more painful! Don’t despair yet, there’s a way even for a non-risk taker, an average income earner like myself. It’s hard but achievable.

I won’t bore you with too many numbers here. Basically, I took out a 30-year standard variable home loan back in 2006. It’s been 12 years since but fingers crossed this time next year, I’ll have saved up enough funds to pay off my mortgage – 17 years faster than the loan term. OK, I admit it’s only a prediction so anything can happen in the next 12 months. Who knows if the world market will be hit by another Global Financial Crisis (GFC) like the one in 2008 which led to a severe economic downturn, bankruptcies and unemployment everywhere. Been there, done that and survived the financial storm. If GFC in 2008 was the worst thing that has ever happened to us in the last decade, what’s to fear in the future? Here I’m in 2018, 10 years down the road, I’m well ahead on the mortgage repayments and moving closer to clearing the final hurdle. Sounds like a sweet victory in waiting but if anyone asks me what does it take to get there? I’ll say it without hesitation: Sacrifice and lots of it. Wait! Don’t get turned off by it and throw in the towel that quickly. Things do get better.

What are the key measures that I’ve taken (or sacrifices that I’ve made) to help pay off my mortgage faster?

  • Eat two meals instead of three per day every day. Have breakfast, dinner only and no lunch in between. Initially, I did this out of pure laziness as I couldn’t be bothered preparing all the lunches at home. Changing my daily meal routine to such a way wasn’t something I had to adjust or get used to, it just fit my lifestyle perfectly. So, overall it wasn’t a hard thing to do. Also, I avoid buying take-away foods or eating out. Over time the cost can add up very quickly.
  • Take public transport to work. From the start, I chose to catch train (as opposed to bus) because it was the most economical. In recent years, I’ve switched to bus as it’s more timesaving.
  • Holidays at home. Over the years I’ve spent my downtime discovering some hidden gems in the city (Sydney) I live in and all of them are within an hour drive from home. Cheap and cheerful I would say.

Life is full of uncertainties and surprises. Despite the fact I was made redundant twice, out of job for 12 months since the start of my mortgage, as a single person with one single income, I still came out OK, managed to pay private health insurance, all household and car bills on time and stay on top of my mortgage repayments. So, allow me to say this: If I can do it, you can do it, too (but only if you want to)…