I’m sure most of you have seen the new green electric buses with 3 doors. Based on past report, the third door is meant for faster boarding and alighting. More than 95% of our bus stops can also accommodate all 3 doors at the same time.

In reality, I don’t see it happening at all. In my experience, most of the time, the drivers do not open the third door at all. Most of us are still boarding directly from the front door.

Electric buses are quiet and clean. That’s nice. On the other hand, these buses became more cramped for some reason. There are way less seats available for everyone.

My question is, how did we managed to get a massive downgrade for a design that serves almost nobody?? Who is even using the third door? Who even gets to use the third door? What are the actual real world benefits of the third door?

8 months ago, I wrote this post about needing wise words to help me transition out of my job. Quite a lot of people commented and shared it. This is an update to share what has happened since then.

AI Usage Disclaimer: This post was first written manually and then fed into Gemini to proofread and format.

-----

Leaving My Job

I left my job at the end of 2025 because I wanted to start the new year on a clean slate. I didn't even wait for my bonus because I was already severely burnt out. Almost daily night calls had drained all my energy to do anything during the day.

The "Curse of Competence" was hitting me hard. I had received consecutive "exceeds expectations" ratings in a pretty competitive domain and became the right-hand man to my boss. However, the extra bonus was negligible. Instead, I was consistently tasked with the hardest projects (global scope, greenfield), which meant more late nights, global stakeholders, and grueling requirements. My calls for help were acknowledged but ultimately ignored because "the work still has to be done by someone."

When you are burnt out, it eventually manifests physically. For me, the symptoms of burnout were:

• Itchy skin and insomnia
• Total lack of motivation and losing interest in my hobbies
• Picking up unhealthy coping mechanisms (brain-dead mobile games, doom-scrolling, overspending)

I noticed these changes and decided enough was enough. I had savings—after all, this is exactly what emergency funds are for. So, I quit.

-----

The First Few Months After Quitting

It felt amazing. All of a sudden, I had zero meetings to attend. I could make plans in the evenings. I finally had the energy to pursue my hobbies (gaming, fishkeeping, handicrafts, smart home automation, and insect-proofing my house) and exercise regularly.

I also traveled—going to Japan for snowboarding and embarking on a road trip in New Zealand. I finally met up with friends I previously had no time for.

I could have done these things while still employed, but the key difference now is that I am 100% present in the moment. I am no longer worrying about technical solutions or planning how to manage stakeholders. I am actually entirely focused on whatever I am doing.

-----

Financials & Expenses

I wasn't born rich (far from it) and graduated with a negative net worth. Based on my current numbers, I am only at LeanFIRE or BaristaFIRE status. My net worth grew by about 5% since the end of 2025, thanks to a mix of my side hustle and market gains.

To be honest, I do miss having a regular paycheck to redirect into my portfolio. As a long-term investor, I like taking advantage of market weaknesses to double my DCA. To adapt, I had to resize my positions so I can continue to DCA for at least 6 to 12 months under a worst-case scenario (zero income from any source).

-----

Expenses

Our expenses remain relatively high and are comparable to last year's Jan–May period. The bulk of it went toward travel and various one-off home improvement/maintenance projects.

I expect these numbers to go down as we are gradually deflating our lifestyle. We aren't scrimping or counting every cent; instead of opting for quick, expensive restaurant meals just to destress, we now plan and cook more at home. As a result, our total grocery and food spending dropped by about 20%.

Living in SG is incredibly expensive. It’s crazy how anyone can afford a decent lifestyle without earning at least the median salary. Relying too heavily on cheap, unhealthy hawker food feels like accumulating a delayed health debt that will come back to haunt us later.

-----

Side Hustle

In my last post, I hoped to scale up my side hustle. However, due to changing market conditions in early 2026, that has become a challenge. I now need to actively seek out new clients. As long as I can cover my baseline expenses and grow my net worth, I am not too worried.

Life has its ups and downs; I accept the challenge and will pivot accordingly.

-----

Family & Decisions

I am married with no kids, and we have no intention of having any. This was a joint decision made with my wife. We don't hate children; we simply have no interest in the lifestyle that comes with parenting. There is no right or wrong answer here, as long as you understand and accept the benefits and trade-offs.

Before I resigned, I discussed it in great detail with my wife. We aligned on:

• How it would impact our day-to-day lifestyle and travel
• How it would impact our long-term financial goals (we ran a lot of numbers)
• What my concrete plan was moving forward

Because we reached a common understanding and shared expectations, I felt secure leaving my job. At the end of the day, you are answerable only to your immediate family. Your friends’, extended family's, or ex-colleagues' opinions simply do not matter.

-----

The Identity Crisis

Even after 5 months, I am still struggling with the loss of my social identity. It remains a source of occasional confusion and anxiety.

How do I introduce myself from now on? This is a work in progress, and my answer changes depending on who I’m speaking to and how I’m feeling that day. I will slowly figure it out.

On the bright side, my personal identity remains intact, if not strengthened. I have more bandwidth to focus on being a better husband, a better friend, and a person with varied, deep interests and grounded virtues (honesty, empathy, humility). Both identities matter, but your personal identity is far more important than your corporate one.

-----

What's Next?

I have identified a few key focus areas moving forward:

1. Side Hustle: Find more clients—just enough to cover expenses without creating unnecessary corporate pressure.
2. Relationships: Reinforce existing bonds by being fully present, and intentionally planning dates with my spouse.
3. New Connections: Step out of my comfort zone to meet new people with zero transactional expectations.
4. Content Creation:
   • Writing posts like this to clarify my own thoughts and hopefully help someone else in a similar boat.
   • Making videos. I started a newbie YouTube channel (link in my profile). I honestly suck at it right now, but I want to practice and get better. It sounds fun.

Thank you so much for reading through this long update.

• If this was helpful or relatable to you, let me know your thoughts in the comments.
• If it felt like a waste of your time, my bad! Haha..

See you in the next one!

8 months ago, I wrote this post about needing wise words to help me transition out of my job. Quite a lot of people commented and shared it. This is an update to share what has happened since then.

AI Usage Disclaimer: This post was first written manually and then fed into Gemini to proofread and format.

-----

Leaving My Job

I left my job at the end of 2025 because I wanted to start the new year on a clean slate. I didn't even wait for my bonus because I was already severely burnt out. Almost daily night calls had drained all my energy to do anything during the day.

The "Curse of Competence" was hitting me hard. I had received consecutive "exceeds expectations" ratings in a pretty competitive domain and became the right-hand man to my boss. However, the extra bonus was negligible. Instead, I was consistently tasked with the hardest projects (global scope, greenfield), which meant more late nights, global stakeholders, and grueling requirements. My calls for help were acknowledged but ultimately ignored because "the work still has to be done by someone."

When you are burnt out, it eventually manifests physically. For me, the symptoms of burnout were:

• Itchy skin and insomnia
• Total lack of motivation and losing interest in my hobbies
• Picking up unhealthy coping mechanisms (brain-dead mobile games, doom-scrolling, overspending)

I noticed these changes and decided enough was enough. I had savings—after all, this is exactly what emergency funds are for. So, I quit.

-----

The First Few Months After Quitting

It felt amazing. All of a sudden, I had zero meetings to attend. I could make plans in the evenings. I finally had the energy to pursue my hobbies (gaming, fishkeeping, handicrafts, smart home automation, and insect-proofing my house) and exercise regularly.

I also traveled—going to Japan for snowboarding and embarking on a road trip in New Zealand. I finally met up with friends I previously had no time for.

I could have done these things while still employed, but the key difference now is that I am 100% present in the moment. I am no longer worrying about technical solutions or planning how to manage stakeholders. I am actually entirely focused on whatever I am doing.

-----

Financials & Expenses

I wasn't born rich (far from it) and graduated with a negative net worth. Based on my current numbers, I am only at LeanFIRE or BaristaFIRE status. My net worth grew by about 5% since the end of 2025, thanks to a mix of my side hustle and market gains.

To be honest, I do miss having a regular paycheck to redirect into my portfolio. As a long-term investor, I like taking advantage of market weaknesses to double my DCA. To adapt, I had to resize my positions so I can continue to DCA for at least 6 to 12 months under a worst-case scenario (zero income from any source).

-----

Expenses

Our expenses remain relatively high and are comparable to last year's Jan–May period. The bulk of it went toward travel and various one-off home improvement/maintenance projects.

I expect these numbers to go down as we are gradually deflating our lifestyle. We aren't scrimping or counting every cent; instead of opting for quick, expensive restaurant meals just to destress, we now plan and cook more at home. As a result, our total grocery and food spending dropped by about 20%.

Living in SG is incredibly expensive. It’s crazy how anyone can afford a decent lifestyle without earning at least the median salary. Relying too heavily on cheap, unhealthy hawker food feels like accumulating a delayed health debt that will come back to haunt us later.

-----

Side Hustle

In my last post, I hoped to scale up my side hustle. However, due to changing market conditions in early 2026, that has become a challenge. I now need to actively seek out new clients. As long as I can cover my baseline expenses and grow my net worth, I am not too worried.

Life has its ups and downs; I accept the challenge and will pivot accordingly.

-----

Family & Decisions

I am married with no kids, and we have no intention of having any. This was a joint decision made with my wife. We don't hate children; we simply have no interest in the lifestyle that comes with parenting. There is no right or wrong answer here, as long as you understand and accept the benefits and trade-offs.

Before I resigned, I discussed it in great detail with my wife. We aligned on:

• How it would impact our day-to-day lifestyle and travel
• How it would impact our long-term financial goals (we ran a lot of numbers)
• What my concrete plan was moving forward

Because we reached a common understanding and shared expectations, I felt secure leaving my job. At the end of the day, you are answerable only to your immediate family. Your friends’, extended family's, or ex-colleagues' opinions simply do not matter.

-----

The Identity Crisis

Even after 5 months, I am still struggling with the loss of my social identity. It remains a source of occasional confusion and anxiety.

How do I introduce myself from now on? This is a work in progress, and my answer changes depending on who I’m speaking to and how I’m feeling that day. I will slowly figure it out.

On the bright side, my personal identity remains intact, if not strengthened. I have more bandwidth to focus on being a better husband, a better friend, and a person with varied, deep interests and grounded virtues (honesty, empathy, humility). Both identities matter, but your personal identity is far more important than your corporate one.

-----

What's Next?

I have identified a few key focus areas moving forward:

1. Side Hustle: Find more clients—just enough to cover expenses without creating unnecessary corporate pressure.
2. Relationships: Reinforce existing bonds by being fully present, and intentionally planning dates with my spouse.
3. New Connections: Step out of my comfort zone to meet new people with zero transactional expectations.
4. Content Creation:
   • Writing posts like this to clarify my own thoughts and hopefully help someone else in a similar boat.
   • Making videos. I started a newbie YouTube channel. I honestly suck at it right now, but I want to practice and get better. It sounds fun.

Thank you so much for reading through this long update.

• If this was helpful or relatable to you, let me know your thoughts in the comments.
• If it felt like a waste of your time, my bad! Haha..

See you in the next one!

8 months ago, I wrote this post about needing wise words to help me transition out of my job. Quite a lot of people commented and shared it. This is an update to share what has happened since then.

AI Usage Disclaimer: This post was first written manually and then fed into Gemini to proofread and format.

-----

Leaving My Job

I left my job at the end of 2025 because I wanted to start the new year on a clean slate. I didn't even wait for my bonus because I was already severely burnt out. Almost daily night calls had drained all my energy to do anything during the day.

The "Curse of Competence" was hitting me hard. I had received consecutive "exceeds expectations" ratings in a pretty competitive domain and became the right-hand man to my boss. However, the extra bonus was negligible. Instead, I was consistently tasked with the hardest projects (global scope, greenfield), which meant more late nights, global stakeholders, and grueling requirements. My calls for help were acknowledged but ultimately ignored because "the work still has to be done by someone."

When you are burnt out, it eventually manifests physically. For me, the symptoms of burnout were:

• Itchy skin and insomnia
• Total lack of motivation and losing interest in my hobbies
• Picking up unhealthy coping mechanisms (brain-dead mobile games, doom-scrolling, overspending)

I noticed these changes and decided enough was enough. I had savings—after all, this is exactly what emergency funds are for. So, I quit.

-----

The First Few Months After Quitting

It felt amazing. All of a sudden, I had zero meetings to attend. I could make plans in the evenings. I finally had the energy to pursue my hobbies (gaming, fishkeeping, handicrafts, smart home automation, and insect-proofing my house) and exercise regularly.

I also traveled—going to Japan for snowboarding and embarking on a road trip in New Zealand. I finally met up with friends I previously had no time for.

I could have done these things while still employed, but the key difference now is that I am 100% present in the moment. I am no longer worrying about technical solutions or planning how to manage stakeholders. I am actually entirely focused on whatever I am doing.

-----

Financials & Expenses

I wasn't born rich (far from it) and graduated with a negative net worth. Based on my current numbers, I am only at LeanFIRE or BaristaFIRE status. My net worth grew by about 5% since the end of 2025, thanks to a mix of my side hustle and market gains.

To be honest, I do miss having a regular paycheck to redirect into my portfolio. As a long-term investor, I like taking advantage of market weaknesses to double my DCA. To adapt, I had to resize my positions so I can continue to DCA for at least 6 to 12 months under a worst-case scenario (zero income from any source).

-----

Expenses

Our expenses remain relatively high and are comparable to last year's Jan–May period. The bulk of it went toward travel and various one-off home improvement/maintenance projects.

I expect these numbers to go down as we are gradually deflating our lifestyle. We aren't scrimping or counting every cent; instead of opting for quick, expensive restaurant meals just to destress, we now plan and cook more at home. As a result, our total grocery and food spending dropped by about 20%.

Living in SG is incredibly expensive. It’s crazy how anyone can afford a decent lifestyle without earning at least the median salary. Relying too heavily on cheap, unhealthy hawker food feels like accumulating a delayed health debt that will come back to haunt us later.

-----

Side Hustle

In my last post, I hoped to scale up my side hustle. However, due to changing market conditions in early 2026, that has become a challenge. I now need to actively seek out new clients. As long as I can cover my baseline expenses and grow my net worth, I am not too worried.

Life has its ups and downs; I accept the challenge and will pivot accordingly.

-----

Family & Decisions

I am married with no kids, and we have no intention of having any. This was a joint decision made with my wife. We don't hate children; we simply have no interest in the lifestyle that comes with parenting. There is no right or wrong answer here, as long as you understand and accept the benefits and trade-offs.

Before I resigned, I discussed it in great detail with my wife. We aligned on:

• How it would impact our day-to-day lifestyle and travel
• How it would impact our long-term financial goals (we ran a lot of numbers)
• What my concrete plan was moving forward

Because we reached a common understanding and shared expectations, I felt secure leaving my job. At the end of the day, you are answerable only to your immediate family. Your friends’, extended family's, or ex-colleagues' opinions simply do not matter.

-----

The Identity Crisis

Even after 5 months, I am still struggling with the loss of my social identity. It remains a source of occasional confusion and anxiety.

How do I introduce myself from now on? This is a work in progress, and my answer changes depending on who I’m speaking to and how I’m feeling that day. I will slowly figure it out.

On the bright side, my personal identity remains intact, if not strengthened. I have more bandwidth to focus on being a better husband, a better friend, and a person with varied, deep interests and grounded virtues (honesty, empathy, humility). Both identities matter, but your personal identity is far more important than your corporate one.

-----

What's Next?

I have identified a few key focus areas moving forward:

1. Side Hustle: Find more clients—just enough to cover expenses without creating unnecessary corporate pressure.
2. Relationships: Reinforce existing bonds by being fully present, and intentionally planning dates with my spouse.
3. New Connections: Step out of my comfort zone to meet new people with zero transactional expectations.
4. Content Creation:
   • Writing posts like this to clarify my own thoughts and hopefully help someone else in a similar boat.
   • Making videos. I started a newbie YouTube channel (link in my profile). I honestly suck at it right now, but I want to practice and get better. It sounds fun.

Thank you so much for reading through this long update.

• If this was helpful or relatable to you, let me know your thoughts in the comments.
• If it felt like a waste of your time, my bad! Haha..

See you in the next one!

Hi folks, hope you are having a good day so far.

I’m looking for recommendations for kitchen carpentry repair for just a small localised area. Basically, the wood around the kitchen drain has water damage and around 5cm around that drain is now soft wood.

I’ve been going through carousell but a majority of them are for those full kitchen renovation. I am just looking for a repair.

Thanks in advance!!!!