Tuition Fee Loan – Financial advice

Recently, I met a friend named S. she complained about that after 3 years working in Singapore, she has managed to pay only half of tuition fee loan, which valued ~48 000SGD after her graduation.

She is a carefree person. She never cares about how much she spends each month. In a conversation, she revealed that she purchased an saving insurance plan. It promised to give her 6% annually interest rate. Given the fact that the TFL interested rate is 4.75%, she assumed to make a positive margin of 6%-4.75% = 1.25% interested rate.

I am shocking after listening her story. Tuition Fee Loan, a big sum of debt, was not addressed properly in my friend’s financial projection.

Firstly, tuition fee loan is a good loan for investment of degree. It is the prerequisite entry for many job in corporate companies. Those HR people, they look at academic performance and perhaps which school or degree . A loan sounds like good loan when it provide free interested rate. In fact as a student, I never think too much about it. If I don’t pay the interest, why I need to care.

Secondly, it is bad debt after graduation. There is interested rate, thing starts to change. I have to pay monthly instalment.  I have no way to escape from it. Imagine if you borrow money from a bank, you still have liability to make your business profitable and hopefully at the end of day, you are able to pay all. For TFL, it is a bit different. The interested rate may be not high, but it is accumulated over time. I have no way to escape from that. Even I leave Singapore to live in Vietnam, the bank will chase after me if I don’t pay the minimum monthly amount. Sounds fair enough?

In the case of losing money of building a business, I may declare bankrupt and that is it. For TFL, I have to pay back the loan until it is fulfilled. To another extent, TFL is the worst loan ever if you don’t realize its accumulating interest.

So that is reason why if you financial smart, you should never take bad debt into your long term calculation. You should quickly resolve the loan as soon as possible. Set the monthly instalment as high as you can adapt. Then after fully paying the loan, you can start invest into other saving or endowment plan. Basic insurance protection is fine, but saving plan should not be applied at the beginning. Otherwise, you may end up like my friend’s situation.

P/s: I am not a financial consultant. I just read “Rich dad poor dad” of Robert T. Kiyosaki. This book give me many financial advice.

Working with JSON in swift

It is the first time I practice Swift programming.

The first app I am going to build is a catalogue of schools in Singapore. In order to do that, I create a file data.json with the following format:

"centres":[
{"name":"PCF Centre Block 121","code":...},
{"name":"PCF Centre Block 121","code":...}
...
]
view raw data.json hosted with ❤ by GitHub

To read this data, just call file and read it as a string:

var error: NSError?
let bundle = NSBundle.mainBundle()
let path = bundle.pathForResource("data", ofType: "json")
let content = NSString.stringWithContentsOfFile(path) as String
view raw ReadFile hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Here come the tricky part, when I need to parse JSON from string, there are a lot of weird errors mainly coming from Swift. I try to read some online articles. Actually we can use NSData to convert it to NSDictionary or NSArray.

var data:NSData! = content.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding, allowLossyConversion: true)
let jsonDict : NSDictionary? = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data, options: NSJSONReadingOptions.MutableContainers, error: &error) as? NSDictionary
if let err = error {
println("error parsing json")
}
view raw convertNSDictionary hosted with ❤ by GitHub

I strongly recommend using this library SwiftyJSON which saved me a lot of time to navigate data in JSON. Here is the code with SwiftyJSON :

if let jsonDictionary = jsonDict {
println("json parsed successfully")
let total = jsonDictionary["centres"]!.count
let json_data = JSONValue(jsonDictionary)
if json_data{
for var index = 0; index < total; ++index {
var name = json_data["centres"][index]["name"].string
if name {
//processing value
}
}
}
}
view raw processFile hosted with ❤ by GitHub

It was really awesome. After few days, I figure out how to fix the unwrapped optional type value in Swift. As times goes by, you will see a lot of “if let var_a var_b” in Swift like the above snippet.

Have fun with Swift.

My repo is here: https://github.com/aladine/swift-catalogue

Hi there

Hi there!

This post is for you, if you are by chance reading my blog. I know that I meet you a few times. Maybe a couple of times more if we are lucky.

Hi there!

Just keep something sweet and beautiful.

Between you and me, we have no common friends. We live in 2 different worlds, have our own life and live with different thinking. Whether it is Coincident or randomness, I still found some similarities among us. That make me thinking about you.

Your silent smile. Your cute short hair. Your straight way of thinking. I am not flirting, seriously, or I did.

Hi there, that maybe the first impression.

We may not have enough luck to make our road crossing in this universe. It probably leads to nothing. To make something happens, one needs sacrifice, and pursues other. I am not sure I have such courage. Life has tons of other things.

Hi there, if you come to Asia, do let me know. I will be always ready to bring you around.

From my eyes to deep inside my heart.

2048

2048

If you like algorithm and tetris games, perhaps you will like this game right at the first time. The game is called 2048.

http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/2048/

The rule is very simple: use arrow keys to move the tile up/down or left/right. Two tiles with the same number will merge and double its value. The game end when there is no more moves.

Winning is determined if one of the tiles reach 2048

Screen Shot 2014-03-20 at 9.50.50 pm

 

Simple yet elegant

At first, I wonder why people like this game. It is deadly simple. No fixed strategy.

This shape a new trend in gaming. Game is getting simpler, not more complicated. An example is Flappy Bird, developed by Dong Nguyen.

2048 clones

Logarithmic Flappy version:

http://logarithmic-flappy-2048.ajf.me/

Dog version: (Shiba inu meme)

http://doge2048.com/

Multiplayers version
http://hnplays2048.herokuapp.com/

Invisible version

http://ehzhang.github.io/2048-hardcore/

Tetris version

http://prat0318.github.io/2048-tetris/

Doge2048

Gấu trúc

Mình mới đưa về dinh về 1 em gấu trúc. Vốn là heo nhưa đựng tiền xu để quyên góp cho dự án Cơm có thịt Singapore. Trông em ấy nửa giống gấu trúc, nửa giống chó. Thích cái vẻ đen trắng phong thuỷ của em ấy.

panda-front panda

 

 

Tuần sau hứng lên cũng đi vẽ cho dự án này của em Sunnie. Lấy mẫu là Superman. Thực ra mình cũng không phải hoạ sĩ. Chỉ bắt chước theo khuôn mẫu. Giờ là lúc đợi thiên hạ có ai rủ lòng thương adopt con piggy mình làm không.

our piggies

Another lonely trip

This weekend, one more time, I start my travelling journey alone. The place I will visit is Bangkok, Thailand. 

Want to have fun with friends, but all of them withdrawn from the trip due to rumours of violence in this city. 

I am speechless when I know that I cannot convince them staying on my side. 

From this point, I know that I am lonely again in this planet. 

The world will start the way I imagine, not what it has in the past. 

Just go!

2 more weeks before the run

I set goal for 6 months. This time will be a half marathon in the morning.

Sometimes I doubt myself, but the fact that I can reach the finish line really wake me up.

Tomorrow, as planed, I will go for a run in Mac Richie Reservoir. Time to move my feet quick and consistent.

This run will be a health proof before my oversea trip to Bangkok. Like last time, the Sundown marathon is just one week before my Myanmar trip.

IT Training Courses in Yangon

Rise in IT training courses

On Yangon street, apart from learning Burmese and Korean courses, many people are excited to sign up for IT courses. From Microsoft Office skills, web development, graphic design, desktop publishing courses…

Computer Training Centre

On one day, I went to  a printer shop in Yangon for making my business cards. Its location was very convenient, just nearby  Anawrahta Housing Complex, where I work temporarily for 3 days. There was no available template, so I decided to ask a staff to create  following my design. All the employees in the shop were in very neat and friendly uniform. I was very satisfied. My name card didn’t look bad eventually 🙂

Keep learning

Yatanah, an advocate technology evangelist for Free Internet Forum. Her group’s Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/MyanmarIFF. Here is her story a week ago:

At my last training in Than Daung,a hilly place in Karen State, I met with a student who is a “differently abled person” but very passionate and enthusiastic to learn about IT.

Although he had to come over to the training venue alone from a very far village and although he had to walk by using his knees as the roads are too bad and muddy to use wheel chair, he is so punctual and never arrived late. He also listened carefully and paid attention to what teacher said.

I felt so hurt and wanted to help people like him in possible way and now I’m thinking of doing something IT related that would benefit and help differently abled person in earning money for their survival.(may be conducting IT vocational training or something like that) — feeling hopeful.

I met Hein Nan, a young IT trainer at KT Care. He will use his IT knowledge to teach children in Thet Kel Thaung village: http://www.pozible.com/project/13886. I hope he can deliver his enthusiasm and knowledge to the kids. Nurturing IT skills should start at early educational age.

Recent business news reveals that many big companies start to put stronger foothold into Myanmar. Consumer-oriented product, gas, oil and other commodities export are hot sectors with a lot of investment . However, IT investment is still inadequate, given that the internet penetration rate is 0.7% across the country. In my opinion, Myanmar will face a shortage of IT-related human resources in the next few years.

 What is next in Myanmar. Let’s keep watching.