Five Cents Ten Cents

Financial freedom, one realistic step at a time.

Financial freedom: it’s a mindset, really!


Flickr image Epiphany 3 by Felipe Venancio

Flickr image "Epiphany 3" by Felipe Venancio

The ultimate paradox of financial freedom has been revealed to me.

All this while, I’ve been reading, researching and writing about financial freedom. It took a recent episode of moving my net worth from one asset class to another that an epiphany struck me.

What is this ephiphany that Panzer encountered?

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Financial Freedom: Reading and Understanding More about Savings and Investments


[This article was first posted on 1 March 2008 on Five Cents Ten Cents on blogspot.]

Have you ever bought a bottle of wine from the supermarket, wine shop or duty-free at Changi Airport?

Do you read the labels on the wine to understand what have you bought?

For many years, I didn’t really read the labels because I didn’t understand what they described until I attended a couple of wine appreciation courses where the speaker shared with us how to read the labels. For example, the label above reads “Cabernet Sauvignon” which is a widely recognised and grown red wine grape variety. Wine labels go by grape variety or region or name of the winery and different types of wine have different types of labelling conventions based on country, custom and marketing. Continue reading

Does having more consumer credit give you financial freedom?


Posted: 02 Apr 2008 03:12 AM CDT


Flickr! Photo by Panzergrenadier.

A commercial bank’s view of financial freedom
A good friend of mine who shares similar views on financial freedom flagged this advertisement by Citibank to me recently. The bank is asking its clients to update their income records as being the first step to enjoying greater financial freedom. Citibank sees financial freedom as,

Getting increased credit for all your needs and desires…

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Building your foundations towards financial freedom


If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

The building you see above is not built without the contributions from various parties. Before the contractors can lay the foundation and start building the structure floor by floor, window by window, the architecture plans and designs have to be established. In it are details such as how tall would the new building be and how much gross floor area it would have. So how is the Bahrain Financial Centre related to financial freedom? Continue reading

Financial freedom: Saving 90% of windfalls and spending 10%


Posted: 22 Mar 2008 02:19 AM CDT

What do you do when you receive your yearly bonus?

The first quarter of the year is the time where a number of organisations give out bonuses and monetary rewards to deserving employees who have contributed to the organisations’ successes.

Some of these rewards are financial, others are in the form of incentive trips, recognition awards and so on. Continue reading