Hi, many thanks for visiting SGBoleh - A blog which I started to in 2006 as a media for me to blast my unhappiness as well as joy in my first job. For those who do not know "SG" is the short form of Singapore and Boleh is an Indonesian word which mean OK. Hence SGBoleh together mean "Singapore OK!". Don't ask me why I name it that cause till today I have no idea why as well.

Who am I?

My name is Andrew, a typical Singaporean guy who like to complain alot (a skill which I am pretty proud of) and in the coporate world I hold a manager position leading 2 teams of very experienced and skilled engineers in both operations as well as product development. At home I am father to a playful son and husband to my wonderful wife. I can be classified as a part time Blogger and part time Technopreneur always on a lookup for new business ideas and having a dream of making it big one day. I hold a Bachelor of Computer Degree (Honors) from National University of Singapore and here I live with my beautiful wife and my son in a simple Housing and Development Board (HDB) 4-rooms flat.

Why I start this blog?

I started this blog on Aug 07, 2006 under the influence of my colleagues ex-colleagues. Initially this blog was started as a personal blog where I blog almost about anything from work, to food, to fun and to complains. During those days my readership was pretty bad about 2 readers a day and seriously I dun bother about it cos to me a blog is a place where I can freely express my views and frustrations so if people wish to read they read else don't. But as I blog more, I realize I actually enjoy blogging and see it as a good form of networking tools and this is where I started interacting with other bloggers from Singapore and around the world.

Passion to Blogging

In late 2009 after my company ex-company second retrenchment exercise where my whole team got retrench except for me, I realize that having a job does not necessarily mean that you will be safe from financial worries cos the chance of retrenchment is still there. And I learn that in order to break free from this I will need to achieve financial freedom and it is also at this point where I started to develop a passion for personal financial stuff and soon I proceed to take up my Module 5, Module 9 and Health Insurance certification.

With my certification I started out to learn more about the financial industry and here I also started to convert my passion for personal financing into my Blog. And I started to pay more attention with my blog contents and my readership as what started as a personal blog ended up as a passion where I devote a small amount of my time to slowly increase my passive income so that I will be financially free one day.

Why now?

I know I should have started my blog on the right track since 2006 instead of 2010 when there are already tons and tons of other similar websites and blogs around. But well I believe I am slightly different from them in that I offer a Singaporean point of view on the various financial matters and events. I am not some rich chap who sit around and money just come in but rather an average Singaporean who got a job, stuck in a rat race like most of others and trying to achieve financial freedom in a Singaporean practical way.

Furthermore I believe I started at the right time cos I can relate alot of my personal experience into my advises and blog posts. Having survived 2 retrenchments, a very bad economic downturn in 2008 and getting my flat in 2010 as well as welcoming my son to this world back to back talk about been experienced in life. Hence starting this blog at this time makes it easy for me to express my views on more matters as I am now more experienced and of cos more mature. But of the stress level which I experience also increases and thus once in a while I might blog some stuff which are abit crazy (siao kia).

Reading On

I welcome your views and comments at SGBoleh but please don’t abuse this opportunity. Be nice. Be courteous. Be sensible. I will delete any comments which does not meet the 3 rules above so dun blame me if your comments dun show up :)