Today, on 5th October 2025, this blog celebrates its 20th birthday!
And what a ride this has been.
When I started out on this blog in 2005, I had just published my first book, and I needed a platform to promote the sales of my first-ever product. Along the way, I turned the blog into a diary where I share my thoughts on personal finance and some musings on living in a modern, fast-paced society in Singapore.
Along the way, I achieved financial independence, made my first million, attended law school, and inadvertently became an investment trainer, despite initially thinking it was just a side gig. Now, in my latest incarnation, this blog has morphed into a small personal finance YouTube channel.
The financial markets have also experienced significant growth over the past 20 years. On 5th October 2015, the STI stood at 2091.91, and as of today, it is 4,411.95.
At this point, the evolution of my media presence continues. It does not take a genius to figure out that blogging is no longer as cool as it once was, and many of the bloggers who began this journey with me twenty years ago are no longer in operation today. A new generation of content creators has now taken over on platforms like TikTok.
To celebrate this blog's birthday, I have finally agreed to pay for my CapCuts Pro subscription using the blog revenue I have just collected, and I have launched my second mini-course on the Journey to becoming a Millionaire. Hopefully, the video quality will be better as I have added noise reduction and audio normalisation to my videos.
As for this upcoming week, I have no previews of the videos I will post, but the following 2-3 videos will be related to the SGX Next 50 mid-cap stock counters.
Are there any valuable insights or narratives from this twenty-year-old journey?
As we get older, we can only connect the dots in hindsight.
My interest in personal finance was built up the old-fashioned way, through rigorous examinations and taking a leap of faith into buying stocks after stubbornly thinking that unit trusts provided better diversification.
My book was published to prove to some people that publishing a book can be easy if a person puts their mind to it - it is not some kind of dramatic hero's journey that animates others.
Musically, Growing Your Tree of Prosperity was written as a "diss track". It was self-published for shits and giggles. But little did I know that it would only reach the non-fiction bestsellers list at 10th position for just one week, which is a ridiculously terrific win for a rookie author.
The blog was born because there is power in putting thoughts into words.
Along the blog's evolution, I was swept up in BigFatPurse's grand attempt to "unionise" financial bloggers and get us together for drinks and parties.
We even incorporated a small, but very profitable company together called BigScribe. In its early days, BigScribe organised paid financial seminars which sold out at every event, which led me to seriously consider the possibility of becoming an investment trainer after I was admitted to the bar.
I've been an investment trainer for nearly 7 years, graduating over 700 students across 39 training batches. This is longer than any IT job I have previously held.
So moving forward, where am I headed next?
For one thing, many attempts to unretire have failed. When I tried to become an associate with a small firm, my Graves' disease returned, and I was only able to get off the medication yesterday. This year, both attempts to secure a training internship in AI were unsuccessful. I will share details when the report arrives later next week.
But we live in a brave new world, and so long as there are SkillsFutures credits and we can get paid to attend full-time courses, we can become anything we want to be.
However, at this moment, I feel old and tired, having not travelled for two years, as I also play a minor caregiving role for my mum. I will aim to complete all my courses and part-time obligations.
Thereafter, I will attend some singing voice and vocal projection courses.
Maybe you'll see me on Golden Age Talentime next!
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