Personal Update - Turned down monthly 5-figure job to pursue my legal ambitions.

If you google the word "decision" and you will know that the roots came from an old Latin word which literally means "to cut off". This is the central theme of my personal update today.

a) Just crossed the Rubicon - a legal career it is !

Two days after my final exams, a headhunter contacted me to look at some fairly attractive IT roles in a large MNC. I was willing to look into it because I have yet to begin work on my internship. I thought it may be interesting because I have been out of touch for 3 years and do not expect an attractive offer. I tried to prepare for the interview and just for fun, tried to enrich my previous IT audit experience with some of the stuff I learnt in school about MAS regulatory practices. From a compliance perspective, I walked the interviewee through areas of a MAS compliance which would benefit from legal analysis.

I did not expect the interview to turn out so well. The job which was originally being put on offer was set aside for a larger regional role with a full team to manage.

At the same time, things started out rather well in the law firm I interned in. I troubleshot financial spreadsheets to assess a divorcee's assets, resolved IT problems and researched on fairly cutting edge areas of a law and was actually listened to when strategising litigation with my boss ( All within 2 weeks ! ). It was hugely positive experience and the opposite from the horror stories from many of my peers.  

So I have a dilemma in my hands. I can take on a 5-figure job and would be able to hold out for 3-4 years to resolve my condo mortgage decades ahead of time. Or I might be able to build a legal career and be able to solve complex multi-disciplinary problems every day but at a fraction of my IT salary.

So I crossed the Rubicon and submitted my application for Part B. Having consulted a few friends, I realised that no matter how things turned out, there will be regret either way but my family's wisdom makes sense. An MNC can let me go anytime, but a legal practising certificate belongs to me and follows me wherever I go.

I credit my financial independence for allowing me to make this decision. Every single financial blogger I consulted would have taken the job rather than stay on with legal work.

b) Inflicted with buyer's remorse.

Talking about decisions, I was hit with buyer's remorse lately.

The Onyx Boox Magna Carta reader is a large 13.3" e-reader that is loaded with an Android 4.4 operating system. When a ready set was available on Carousell, I plonked two months of internship salary to buy the device up and was almost immediately disappointed by its performance.

Moral of the story - You can't really graft an Android OS onto an e-reader becare e-ink screens have a lower refresh rate. The system feels very slow and key android apps like Adobe reader and Dropbox are not compatible with the system.

Still I am in the process of getting it to work better. I managed to put Kindle on the system and can now read my Feedly RSS news on it.

c) Prepping for the talk this Thursday 

I'm really hyped up for the talk this Thursday.

We have novel material that just can't be found even if you pay $5k plus to other financial gurus. I bet you cant even find a book on the information I will share on Thursday because they came from social science research papers.

Hint : Once and for all, I will tie up all the scientific evidence which shows that improving your financial capabilities will reduce the psychological strain in your life.

Of course, I also will be talking about getting more dividends.