• Work

    Can You Handle Three Jobs At Your Employer?

    “Hey TheFrugalSamurai – can you do this soon as you can, right now?” Whoa, we’re not in Kansas anymore ladies and gentlemen. If there was any indication that we are back to the grind, and away from the hedonism of South East Asia – the delivery and intonation of that message from the big boss on Monday morning brought me straight back to Earth. Mind you, when I woke up – I was tempted to take the greatest of Australian traditions and “pull the sickie” – which essentially means you call your boss on Monday morning to feign a life-threatening illness, obtain a miraculous recovery by Monday afternoon and walk…

  • Travels

    Travelling, Just Do It!

    Scene: Airport lounge. Time: Morning peak hour. Camera pans to a lone individual hunched over his laptop amidst the noise and chaos of Kuala Lumpur International Airport… he starts to type… Oh Wooooow! Ladies and Gentlemen, to say that this trip has been an epic adventure would not be justifiable in terms of epic adventures. I don’t think I’ve ever had one of these holidays for a long, long time. Seriously, need another holiday just to recover from this trip – somewhere which allows me to sit on a beach and pretend to be comatose for 8 hours at a time. The eye-opening encounters and unique experiences in the past…

  • Travels

    Kuala Lumpur (Second Leg)

    What’s up guys! It’s me again – and this time I’m in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It’s the second and final leg of my SEA (South East Asia) trip with my friends and we’ve just landed in KL. I’m really looking forward to some more low-key adventures here in Malaysia because Thailand was just an assault on the senses. The noise, people, lights, traffic, smells of Bangkok hits you like a tsunami. So it’s with a lot of agreement that we decided to have more of R&R (rest and relaxation) here in KL. Fine by me! Been here less than a day but there are many things I’ve noticed about KL……

  • Life

    2 More Things I’ve Learnt From Planning A Wedding (Almost Time!)

    Far out, where has the time gone eh guys? I was so pumped up this morning – get this done, tick that off, do this, forget that, tick, tick, tick. ANNNNND typical as it is – the day got the better of me. Amazing how each day flies by. Time is so precious. That’s exactly how it feels like with the wedding. Admittedly, MrsFrugalSamurai-to-be and I came in pretty late with the whole planning thing. After all, I’ve been to weddings – they seem easy to do right? Grab a bunch of people together in a picturesque location, say some words, hey presto, next couple please… oh what’s that? A…

  • Real Estate

    Investing in Real Estate 107A (a House or an Apartment)?

    “Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, in the middle of our” Oh, it’s you again – how’s it going! HAY quick question: how much wood can a wood chuck chu… oops, sorry wrong blog, let me start again… How much does it cost to purchase an average house in Sydney? The answer is… a little over $1,000,000. So how much does it cost to purchase an average apartment in Sydney? About $761,000… Holy smokes that’s a fair amount of change. No wonder Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world (read here, here and here). But it’s at those levels because someone is…