1 Year Review - 2009

Alot had happened for the past 1 year. I thank God for everything.

Here is the summary on a monthly basis:
Feb 09:
-ITE pay 2-3 months for holidays to leave conversion. On top of that, they increase my pay by 6%. It was a welcome move which we thought is long dead given the worst financial meltdow ever since the great depression.

-Bought my new apartment at telok kurau at a bargain $630/psf. Paid $164k in cash for deposit. End up with 2.5k in my bank account. This is the poorest state I am in. Me and wife surrrendered most of our insurance policies at a loss.

-Before long, we decided to rent out of out house. We moved on 4th Feb to my in-laws place. Rent was not too good but nevertheless is a good way to build up our finances.

Mar 09:
-Joined Tony cell group for awhile.

Apr 09-May 09:
-Taught CET class for 15 lessons (1.5months). Bring in $2250.
-Wife have a 15% pay-cut in MGdigital and have no 13th month or bonuses for the last working year. It was morale depressing till we had to adjust our expenses and budget to meet the given challenges.

July 09:
-Took part in CodeExtremeApps competition and won merit awards. This was a gruesome 24-hr competition. I am impress with coding ability of my colleague Chee Aik.

Sept 09:
-2 weeks attachment with CAE. I thougt Raymond would not have agreed to it but stranger thing have had happened. End up work parttime for them in the evening and weekends which bringly in extra 2-3k. Although it is tiring, I enjoyed the experience. I have left my coding boot behind since the THALES days.

Oct 09:
-Relief for CET class for 2 weeks as my colleague Hanley is in reservist. Bring in $450 for the month.
-Wife graduated from Kaplan. $18.5K for 18 months of study. I hope the newly acquired degree would bring back a good ROI.

Nov 09:
-CAE offered me to sign for them and willing to wait for me 3-4 months, give me pay increment and sign-on bonus. No interview or medical checkup conducted.
-Wife took part-time job at exploilt for $1.8K while looking for a full time. It was little but it helps to relieve our financial stress since our little VALENCIA is studying nursery classes which will incur around $350 monthly.

Dec 09:
-Quit ITE. I love ITE. I have worked for 4 years. Pay is reasonable but this is a special profession. Infact I took a pay cut to come in. Although not highly paid, I manage to amass most of my wealth here by collecting bonuses, teaching part-time CET classes, doing assignment for RMIT student and playing stocks. From 2.5k in Feb, I have 18K personally without counting our 20k for rental. Trully, a little in the master hand become so much more. This is where I got married and start my own family. I have my little precious VALENCIA here.

Feb 10:
-Seems that job market is still not improving as my wife is having no breakthrough in here job hunting.

Mar 10:
-My wife finally land a full-time job in A*star. PTL, she had being working parttime in exploit for 6 months. We were under tremendous stress. I remember she gave here first fruit to the building fund before she landed her new job. God is just great. Suntec for CHC is beyond our wildest dream.
-Guess what I have won the Staff commendation award after I have left ITE.