The balancing act - Work and studies

Chersiong is a 4th year Economics student at the Nanyang Technological University School of Humanities and Social Sciences. He is not your typical student as he started working part time two years ago. Find out about his experiences and how he juggles between work and school in the following interview.

Tony (T): Tell me who are you currently working for?

Chersiong (CS): I am doing free lance consulting services, providing technical and management advice to a property agent. We have been working together to share and experiment ideas on how to make use of the internet to open up new markets or to expand her customer base.

T: How long have you been working?

CS: For 2 years already.

T: How did it all start?

CS: It all started from a friend’s recommendation as a photoshop consultant. As I started working, the property agent requested me to do more things. As her ideas bloomed, we discussed about the ways to materialised and carry out these ideas. There were many learning opportunities and she gave me the free rein to experiment and learn about web design and email marketing in the process.

T: How much time is allocated on a per day basis for your work and on your studies?

CS: It really depends on the situation. If the work is urgent, I will dedicate time for the work first. However, I will try not to spend more than 2 hours per day on the work. The rest of the time will be for studies and other things.

T: Describe to me a typical week.

CS: During weekdays, I will work in the morning and meet my client before my lesson starts. At night, I will dedicate some time for work and for studies. Weekends will be reserved for revision as well. To keep in touch with my friends, I will study with a group of friends. I volunteer on Saturdays and have a weekly basketball session every Sunday with my secondary school friends.

T: Wow, that’s hectic. What is your most challenging assignment so far?

CS: It has to be image piercing. It took me three days to complete this assignment.

T: What is image piercing?

CS: Hmmm. Just take it as joining different images together to form a large collage. I cannot disclose the actual assignment. I will have to kill you if I do. :P

T: How do you feel this job? Does it value-add to you as a soon-to-be graduate?

CS: Personally, I have a deep interest in I.T. I have been exposed to these skills sets but kind of lost it along the way. Therefore this job helped me in revising my photoshop, webpage editing and video editing skills. Though it does not add value to my studies, but one must realise that in the future, there are bound to be instances where you will be forced to do things you are unfamiliar with. Therefore, one has to be prepared to pick up new skills from scratch and have the right attitude to approach things.

T: What are some tips or advice you would give to someone who wants to work adhoc assignment like yours? How should they go about looking for one?

CS: These jobs mainly come by word of mouth. So don’t hide your skills. If you have the skills, make use of opportunities to show them off. Through your CCAs or projects maybe? If you are good, you will get noticed and assignments like these will come. ●

Feel free to post questions/comments about Chersiong's work and how he juggles between work and studies!

Simple Meditation

Before you start thinking of how grim or sad your current life is, take some time to do a short pause. Close your eyes, sit in a comfy position, listen to your own breathing.

Let your thoughts run through your head, and appreciate the little aspects of life that make you what you are today. Keep tab of things that you could have done better, and things that you did well. Now open your eyes, and start off the day anew.

Remember, you can do this at the end of everyday, to keep your mind relaxed and focussed on things that matter. We all have a busy life, so take at least 5 - 10 minutes everyday before you sleep or when you return home, meditate in this way. It really helps to concentrate better at work or other tasks that you are assigned.

5 things I wish someone had told me before I started investing in stocks

Are you itching to start investing but you have no idea how to start? Here are 5 essential things you need to know before you start your own investment!

1. Know what you want to get out of investing in stocks. I know, I know. This seems to be a dumb question. Of course everyone wants to earn $$ in stocks. But before you move away from this page, please at least give me a chance to explain myself. In stock investing, you can earn money through capital gains or dividends. Capital gains are gains you earn when your stock increases in trading price, while dividends are regular payments (usually once or twice a year in the local context) given by the company to its shareholders. Depending on your preference or investment strategy, you can opt for stocks which have proven track records of recording capital gains, or companies which give out regular dividends.
2. Build up a portfolio! Yes. We have all watched movies in which the main character dumps ALL his money into one stock and before you know it. the price shoots up like crazy, doubling/tripling/quadrupling his cash. Not bad huh? Well, in reality, that’s next to impossible. Firstly, (seriously), what are the chances of you spotting a stock which is about to sky rocket? Secondly, assuming that you have managed to spot such a stock, and the stock indeed is going off the charts, the board-lister (SGX in our case) will probably call for a trading halt to investigate on this unusual increase in stock price, which will probably break its upwards momentum, inject uncertainty into investors etc etc, resulting in the stocks tumbling back down. The more practical way is to build up a portfolio of stocks. As the saying goes, never put all your eggs into one basket. A later post will be dedicated to show you mathematically why building up a portfolio is the right way to go.
3. Spend some time comparing the different brokerage firms on the way they charge the trades. There’s no free lunch in this world and so is the world of trading. You have to pay commission for every trade you make. However, different brokerage firms offer different “packages”. One firm may work on a high commission rate but with no minimum charge, while another may charge a lower commission but has a minimum charge.
   Following the table below, if you were to buy 1 lot (1,000 shares) of a stock worth $1, your commission rate under Firm A would be $25 (as 1,000 x 0.10% = $1 is lesser than $25, the minimum charge applies) and the commission rate under Firm B would be a mere $2 (1,000 x 0.20%=$2). However, if you were to buy 1,000 lots (1,000,000 shares) of a stock worth $1, the commission under Firm A will be $1,000 while the commission under Firm B will be $2,000. Think about it.

	Firm A	Firm B
Commission rate	0.10%	0.20%
Minimum charge	$25	-
Investment of $1,000	$25	$2
Investment of $1,000,000	$1,000	$2,000

4. Understanding the different types of orders. An order is an instruction you give to your

brokerage firm to buy or sell stocks. There are three common types of orders which I will share with you here.

a. Market order- This is an order which is executes your trade immediately at the current market prices. This is useful when you want to wants to buy or sell your shares quickly.

b. Limit order- The limit order is slightly more complicated. It is an order to buy a stock at not more, or sell at not less, than a specific price. For example, when a buy limit order is placed at $1 the stock will only be bought when the price of the stock goes below or equal to a dollar. Likewise, when a sell limit order is placed at the same price, the stock will only be sold when the stock is above this price or higher. This kind of order is useful when you want to control the price you buy or sell your stocks.

c. Sell Stop loss order- A sell stop loss order is an order to sell the stock once it has fallen to a specific price. For example, you own a stock which is currently at $1.The stock climbed up to $1.20. In order to “protect” your profits of 20 cents, you could place a stop loss order at $1.10. In the event the stock suddenly decides to go for a dive, the brokerage firm will sell your shares at $1.10, and in turn protecting your profits.

5. Budget your finances and maintain your liquidity. Although you could buy and sell your stocks in an instant, the actual transaction takes up to three working days. Once you buy a particular share, the brokerage firm chases you for your money only three working days later. Sounds like a good deal?


Oh well, it definitely is if it works only one way. When you sell your shares, the firm also takes three working days to give you the cheque. Therefore, investing in stocks is not as liquid as it seems. It is always good to have spare cash on your hands just in case of emergency.

Measuring What Makes Life Worthwhile

TED has always been one of my sources of inspirations. This is one of my favourites from these thought inspiring and reflection intense talks.

Many people have learnt what is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Yet, we often overlook the intangibles and over-emphasize on tangibles that are at the lower levels of the hierarchy.



I will touch on the hierarchy of needs on a later post. Stay tuned!

Have a great week ahead!

What is Life without Making Mistakes?

What is life without making mistakes? But do you really have to make ALL the mistakes yourself?

We are here to make the mistakes for YOU!

We have been through some rough patches (who hasn’t?), our lives were littered with bad decisions, but every time that happens, we learn, we grow and we come back stronger than ever. I wish someone was there to tell me I am heading the wrong way, or to guide me down the right path, so I will not waste my youth bumping around corners and finding the right way.

And here we are, that “someone” who hope to make a difference to your lives. Our advice might be unconventional and unorthodox, but rest assured, they are genuine and sincere advice coming fresh out of the oven.

At the end of this introductory note, let me share with you an interesting trivia: A cup of chocolate milk tastes better with a pinch of salt (try it!). ;)

You've Got To Start Somewhere..

The following has been copied from my personal notes on Facebook:

Most people around my age or my friends haven't the slightest idea. They are still mostly basking in their dwindling youth, enjoying the day like there's no tomorrow - thanks to the media pumping lie after lie that parties, booze, clubbing, and mindless expenditure are fundamentals of people in this age group. Until they reach the age when they finally graduate, from whatever they are studying, and then they panic. "Oh no, I'm graduating in months and I don't know what I'm going to do."

For some fortunate souls their parents have a gold mine where they can simply dig through when they graduate. They can easily pull strings and land jobs even before they graduate (I'm sure those who know people like that are sniggering hard.) For the majority, the moment you end education is the moment you're thrown into the far end of the pool, and before you know it, you're drowning.

There are those who prefer to bitch, moan and groan, showing their discontent and "why wasn't I ...", and shimmery eyes of envy. Teenage angst is passe, youth discontent with the world is vogue. So they endlessly ignore the deep pit lurking in the front closing in, and continue to discuss their daily rantings and 'mishappenings'. Oh so melodramatic, oh so emotional.

Instead of spending time on such pointless pursuits, I do think it's better off if you start planning for your future. It doesn't differ much if you plan earlier or later than others. The point is to START PLANNING. Rome isn't built in a day, so everyone has to start somewhere.

It's not hard. All you have to do is to have an aim of what you want to achieve eventually. That's your long term goal. Then place a 5/10 year aim that is challenging but achievable. There is no hard and fast rule of what's feasible and what's not. There's no one who knows you better other than yourself.

After all the goals are set in place, you start to jot down what have you done so far to work towards what you want. If this list is empty, it simply means, yeah, you've got to work harder in this field. Since starting out on this journey may be hard, I suggest start by taking small steps.

Of course, before you set your goals, aims and steps to achieve them, you need to know your own strengths and weaknesses. Notice I used the words strengths and weaknesses NOT likes and dislikes. There's a distinction between the two. Knowing yourself is important, I recommend Kaplan's articles on self discovery. Once you are pretty sure of these you can set forth to get your goals aligned.

We're on Twitter!

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First of many to come

Finally, after much work and preparation, this site is now a reality.


Welcome to our first blog post. This will be an excited moment for the both of us, as we have discussed the possibilities of this site for a few months, and finally realised our dream.


Our aim for this site is to be a catalyst of change, sounds cheesy, but that's what we want to achieve. We want to inspire you, lift you up, raise you up, and eventually hope that you will do the same for others. 


For us, we have been through some incidents in life that we would like to share, especially in terms of life choices, which will be a recurring topic in our blog. These will include relationships, course of studies, life direction and so on. We hope, that with our happenings (or mishappenings), you will not have to follow our path to learn it the hard way. We have gone through it, so we hope that via this site, you don't have to.


Kudos to those who have visited this site and supported us. If you haven't already, please let us know your thoughts about this site, if you have some topics in mind you will like us touch on, or want to contribute,k you may mail us at lifewithone@gmail.com.


Thank you, and have a nice day. and... a warm welcome, beloved reader!