Pictures again
Went to play board games with 2 lesbians and a couple of friends. Need I specify their sexuality? No, I need not. That was just to grab your attention. If your attention was grabbed, good. If not, nevermind - do read on.
Went to play board games with 2 lesbians and a couple of friends. As these things sometimes go one of them looked pretty feminine, the other pretty masculine. I wonder if there's some right underlying explanation for this apart from chance. Apartment belonged to the 2 lesbians. The underlying explanation for this is that they want to be with each other for extended periods of time.
It was a nice apartment. Small, cosy, lots of natural daylight, located in a quiet neighorhood. It was beside an expressway, but they had the right kind of windows. Nice pool too. It's the kind of place I would like to live in. Games on a proper table, decent players, nice company, wasn't a bad Sunday at all. Some wine too, but that's really for the rest. I don't like drinking. I said I need to build up my resistance, but the queasy consequences of visiting a bar earlier in the week still remained strong in my mind, strong enough for me to turn away from the wine anyway.
I asked how much the apartment cost. The reply was 800k. I then asked: Would it be possible for someone who earns $3000 a month to buy such an apartment? I was told: No, Not Really. My main obstacle would be coming up with the downpayment, which would be somewhere close to 200k. (The couple had some boost from one of their parents) I asked: What about borrowing from banks? Would they lend me such an amount? Yes, they said. Borrowing from multiple banks might work, but the interest would make such a move unjustifiable. To which I queried: So striking the lottery would be my next best bet? No, Not Really, they said.
If I wish to purchase such an apartment, my next best bet would be to find a female, get married, buy a heavily subsidised HDB flat, wait 5 years, and sell it at a profit. 5 years should see a 200k profit. How can one be so sure, I asked. One can't be so sure. But since the first flat I buy with my spouse would be heavily subsidised and since prices tend to rise, it would still be much better bet than the lottery; even if no profit can be made at least we would still have the house. The main obstacle with this would be finding a female who has similar designs. I guess there's always the worry that the authorities might investigate the grounds of our marriage and thus the validity of our subsidised flat purchase, especially if they were given a tip-off consisting of a screenshot of this blog entry, in which case I would be careless to put this up here if I were really serious in such an endeavour, or I could be overestimating the chance of the authorities actually looking into and successfully prosecuting such implicit, commercial arrangements. In any case, finding the right female, whether of the right-for-life variety or the right-for-5-years-then-sell-HDB-flat one would, I suspect, be a somewhat arduous and off-putting process.
My other friends broached the idea of doing a joint venture. The situation lies as such. 1 of my friends is gay and attached. This couple needs a flat. One of the lesbians' parents still doesn't know about her disposition. She doesn't want them to know. Same for this gay. So this gay and this lesbian have been thinking, and are thinking, of going for a faux marriage so they can both put up a front for their parents and execute the aforementioned maneuver of 5 years in scale. Now, me and the other male who was present could put in some money. For a 4-room flat, we can live at the place too. Since the cost is split, the returns would be lesser of course, so any profit to be made out of this probably wouldn't be enough to boost me to a more upscale habitat. But it's still money gained nonetheless.
A variation of this scheme would be for me to do the faux marriage. This was broached because my gay friend can't touch females affectionately, not even pretend. But this was not pursued in greater detail, for 2 reasons. 1) I'm not sure I can pretend to touch females affectionately either. 2) I don't think I'd want to. The facade would have to be quite elaborate and persistent - chinese new years, family outings, house visits, etc. That's tiring. Too tiring for me. This is something my aforementioned homosexual friends have considered and are willing to do, if only for their parents' sake.
Now, all I've said is predicated on the assumption that tidy profits can be made this way. This might not be the case - I've only taken their word at it and haven't done any more research. But it doesn't matter. I'm not exactly serious about the whole thing anyway, in any variation. It's interesting, the amount of possibilities life offers. It's interesting speculating, discussing, and even seriously considering them. And I would seriously consider this venture following greater discussion. (It's especially important the discussion gets underway soon, as I understand flats take years to build) But chances are this will remain just that - discussion, nothing more. Life offers many paths, and I know which path I want to take for now. Anything else I'd leave to chance. That is to say, I will buy lottery every now and then and see where that takes me, if anywhere at all.
Went to play board games with 2 lesbians and a couple of friends. As these things sometimes go one of them looked pretty feminine, the other pretty masculine. I wonder if there's some right underlying explanation for this apart from chance. Apartment belonged to the 2 lesbians. The underlying explanation for this is that they want to be with each other for extended periods of time.
It was a nice apartment. Small, cosy, lots of natural daylight, located in a quiet neighorhood. It was beside an expressway, but they had the right kind of windows. Nice pool too. It's the kind of place I would like to live in. Games on a proper table, decent players, nice company, wasn't a bad Sunday at all. Some wine too, but that's really for the rest. I don't like drinking. I said I need to build up my resistance, but the queasy consequences of visiting a bar earlier in the week still remained strong in my mind, strong enough for me to turn away from the wine anyway.
I asked how much the apartment cost. The reply was 800k. I then asked: Would it be possible for someone who earns $3000 a month to buy such an apartment? I was told: No, Not Really. My main obstacle would be coming up with the downpayment, which would be somewhere close to 200k. (The couple had some boost from one of their parents) I asked: What about borrowing from banks? Would they lend me such an amount? Yes, they said. Borrowing from multiple banks might work, but the interest would make such a move unjustifiable. To which I queried: So striking the lottery would be my next best bet? No, Not Really, they said.
If I wish to purchase such an apartment, my next best bet would be to find a female, get married, buy a heavily subsidised HDB flat, wait 5 years, and sell it at a profit. 5 years should see a 200k profit. How can one be so sure, I asked. One can't be so sure. But since the first flat I buy with my spouse would be heavily subsidised and since prices tend to rise, it would still be much better bet than the lottery; even if no profit can be made at least we would still have the house. The main obstacle with this would be finding a female who has similar designs. I guess there's always the worry that the authorities might investigate the grounds of our marriage and thus the validity of our subsidised flat purchase, especially if they were given a tip-off consisting of a screenshot of this blog entry, in which case I would be careless to put this up here if I were really serious in such an endeavour, or I could be overestimating the chance of the authorities actually looking into and successfully prosecuting such implicit, commercial arrangements. In any case, finding the right female, whether of the right-for-life variety or the right-for-5-years-then-sell-HDB-flat one would, I suspect, be a somewhat arduous and off-putting process.
My other friends broached the idea of doing a joint venture. The situation lies as such. 1 of my friends is gay and attached. This couple needs a flat. One of the lesbians' parents still doesn't know about her disposition. She doesn't want them to know. Same for this gay. So this gay and this lesbian have been thinking, and are thinking, of going for a faux marriage so they can both put up a front for their parents and execute the aforementioned maneuver of 5 years in scale. Now, me and the other male who was present could put in some money. For a 4-room flat, we can live at the place too. Since the cost is split, the returns would be lesser of course, so any profit to be made out of this probably wouldn't be enough to boost me to a more upscale habitat. But it's still money gained nonetheless.
A variation of this scheme would be for me to do the faux marriage. This was broached because my gay friend can't touch females affectionately, not even pretend. But this was not pursued in greater detail, for 2 reasons. 1) I'm not sure I can pretend to touch females affectionately either. 2) I don't think I'd want to. The facade would have to be quite elaborate and persistent - chinese new years, family outings, house visits, etc. That's tiring. Too tiring for me. This is something my aforementioned homosexual friends have considered and are willing to do, if only for their parents' sake.
Now, all I've said is predicated on the assumption that tidy profits can be made this way. This might not be the case - I've only taken their word at it and haven't done any more research. But it doesn't matter. I'm not exactly serious about the whole thing anyway, in any variation. It's interesting, the amount of possibilities life offers. It's interesting speculating, discussing, and even seriously considering them. And I would seriously consider this venture following greater discussion. (It's especially important the discussion gets underway soon, as I understand flats take years to build) But chances are this will remain just that - discussion, nothing more. Life offers many paths, and I know which path I want to take for now. Anything else I'd leave to chance. That is to say, I will buy lottery every now and then and see where that takes me, if anywhere at all.
7 Comments:
In my mom's time, 2 of her colleagues really did that -- get married for the sake of getting a flat. they lived as room-mates & got divorced after they decided to sell the flat. so er, it's apparently quite doable :P
- owl
Turns out that the sexuality of the people involved is quite relevant to the rest of the blog post here :)
:)
Nice bookshelf.
Nice cat.
Nice Heaven & Earth green tea.
It's always interesting to see how people try to get around the rules and regulations that policy-makers put in place...
Aquila
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