Home Again – And Already Thinking About the Next Move

I made it back to Singapore.

After a decade in Melbourne, two weeks of selling and discarding furniture on the pavement, one notice period, and one very long flight, I am sitting in our apartment in the humidity that Melbourne never quite prepared me for. I had forgotten about this part. The particular quality of Singapore air that hits you the moment you step outside and reminds you that your body has some adjusting to do.

The apartment is comparable to the new apartment in Melbourne. What I hadn't fully accounted for is walking back into a space that someone else has been living in – my father-in-law has had the place to himself while we were away – and seeing it through fresh eyes.

He's taken good care of it, broadly speaking. But there are shelves with dust. Nooks that need attention. The small accumulations that happen when a senior lives alone in a space that, while not large by any global standard, may be quietly becoming more than he needs.

I stood there, jet-lagged and slightly damp, and found myself thinking: is this actually the right place for him?

Not in a dramatic, crisis way. More in the way you notice something for the first time even though it's been there all along.

The Singapore Government has been quietly building out some genuinely thoughtful options for ageing residents. Community Care Apartments – designed specifically for seniors, with on-site care services integrated into the building itself. Smaller two-room flexi flats that allow elderly residents to monetise the equity in larger HDB apartments while right-sizing to something more manageable. The logic is sound: unlock value from a property that's become too large, move to something where the cleaning and maintenance don't feel like a project, and have support infrastructure within reach.

I think these are good offerings and they solve a real problem.

There is a version of this calculation that applies to us too, eventually. We've downsized once already – Melbourne to Singapore, 210 square metres to 60. But 60 square metres was the right size for two people in our current chapter. Whether it's the right size in the chapter after this one is a question we haven't had to answer yet.

The downside of the smaller senior housing options is obvious and personal: there isn't room for visiting children. Our daughters are in Melbourne. When they visit – and they will, I have to believe this – we'll want space for them. That's the trade-off that makes the two-room flexi flat, however sensible, feel premature. For now. The conversation is one for later.

But "later" has a way of arriving before you've had the conversation.

I came home thinking I'd spend the first weekend simply landing. Instead, I'm standing in a dusty corner of a 60sqm apartment, thinking about the housing decisions that lie ahead for two generations simultaneously, in a humidity that makes every thought feel slightly more effortful than it needs to be.

This is fine. This is, I think, what coming home actually looks like when home is also the beginning of a new chapter. Less arrival, more orientation. Less "I'm back" and more "where exactly am I, and what comes next?"

The dust can wait until Tuesday. OK, maybe not.

Have you thought about where you'll actually live as you get older? Not the vague version. The specific one.

👉 Hit reply and share your thoughts – I’d love to hear what’s resonating with you.

☕ If these Sunday reflections are worth something to you, consider buying L-Plate Retiree a coffee on Ko-fi.

Avoiding Common Investment Mistakes: Taming Your Investment Emotions

Welcome back, L-Plate Retirees! Last week, we talked about the futility of market timing. Today, we're diving deeper into why market timing is so tempting and why it often leads us astray: our emotions. Remember our chat about behavioral biases, when we discussed investor psychology? Well, they're back, and they play a huge role in how we react to our investments.

It's human nature to feel things like fear when the market drops and greed when it's soaring. These powerful emotions can cloud our judgment and lead to decisions that are far from rational. For example, loss aversion makes the pain of losing money feel much stronger than the joy of gaining the same amount. This can make us hold onto losing investments for too long, hoping they'll recover, or sell winning ones too soon, just to lock in a small profit.

Then there's herd mentality, where we feel a strong urge to follow what everyone else is doing. If all your friends are raving about a hot new stock, it's hard not to jump in, even if it doesn't fit your investment plan. Conversely, when everyone is panicking and selling, it takes immense discipline not to join the stampede. These emotional swings are part of what's called the emotional cycle of investing, a rollercoaster ride that often leads investors to buy high and sell low – precisely the opposite of what we want to do!

So, how do we tame these powerful emotions? It all comes down to discipline and having a clear strategy. Think back to where we talked about automating your contributions. This is a fantastic way to remove emotion from the equation. When you set up regular investments, you're buying consistently, regardless of market ups or downs, which is the essence of Dollar-Cost Averaging. Also, having a well-defined investment plan (something we touched upon in Investment Policy Statements) acts as your roadmap. It helps you stick to your long-term goals and avoid knee-jerk reactions to short-term market noise.

By understanding these emotional pitfalls and having strategies in place to counteract them, you can become a more disciplined and successful investor. It's about making smart, planned decisions, not emotional ones.

Next up, we'll explore another silent killer of investment returns: fees. Stay tuned!

L-Plate Takeaways:

• Recognize Your Biases: Be aware of common behavioral biases like fear, greed, loss aversion, and herd mentality. They can trick you into making poor investment choices.

• Stick to Your Plan: A well-defined investment plan is your best defense against emotional decisions. It's your roadmap to success.

• Automate, Automate, Automate: Set up automatic contributions to remove emotion from buying decisions. This ensures consistent investing, regardless of market sentiment.

• Discipline is Your Friend: Cultivate discipline to stick to your long-term strategy, even when the market is volatile or your emotions are running high.

• Buy Low, Sell High (Strategically): Instead of emotional reactions, use tools like rebalancing to strategically buy undervalued assets and trim overvalued ones.