Jia Yang Li

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. Here I talk about making an impact, finding purpose and leveling up in all areas of life. You can find me on LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/adventgineering

Travel

Travel tips 201

Below is a collection of some tips I've learned to plan big, complex trips. Itinerary * Not planning at all doesn't seem ideal - planning roughly 2 weeks/1 month ahead would be the best. Tours can be booked latest 1 day in advance, but some of them can be seasonal

Installing Ghost from scratch

I've done fresh installs of Ghost a few times and I thought I'd document it all here, to make it simpler for myself and others who may find this helpful. Here we go. Includes affiliate links. What is a "Ghost website"? A ghost website contains the following: 1. Domain -

My credit card strategy (cashback-focused)

After doing some card churning, I now have a lot of credit cards to choose from for spending. Here's how I optimise them, arranged in order of spend. In the brackets is the cashback earned on transactions. Of course, if there are any credit card promotions, I will use the

Creating Unshakeable Confidence

Growing up in an abusive household, I always had my worth devalued and tied to my achievements. It left me feeling down, and as if nothing I did was right. It took me years to get to where I am now and feeling good about myself most of the time,

HowTo

Small scale composting in Singapore

I've been experimenting with composting recently, and pleasantly surprised by the results. It was way, way easier and faster than I thought it would be. In Singapore's climate, the heat and humidity causes food to break down quickly, and I didn't have to maintain the compost much after I got

Referrals

Luce Home Cleaning Promotion Code - use REF-N0NEU for $15 discount off first booking (referral)

As it says in the title. If you book cleaning via Luce, you get $15 off your booking and I get $15 off too if you use the code REF-N0NEU. It's pretty convenient and has the lowest rates I've seen online so far. You can check out the app here

University/College

Learning and developing intuition

I'd like to propose that learning is a process of seeing the world more clearly, and that to do so, developing intuition may be more important than memorising facts. And certainly more fun, too. I may not get the best grades - I didn't drill as many questions as I

Career

Why choose text?

Why write and not draw, or make videos or podcasts? There are a few reasons why I choose this format over the others. Searchable It's easier to make search engines discover text as compared to video or audio. If you want to look back at what you've produced, it's also

HowTo

Passive Income: Creating content/products

I've been thinking about how to earn passive income for a while - I believe that earning money should be separate from the time I invest in it. Here are some of the strategies I've been looking at and thinking of employing, with specific details to help you out. Written

HowTo

Passive Income: Real Estate

I've been thinking about how to earn passive income for a while - I believe that earning money should be separate from the time I invest in it. Here are some of the strategies I've been looking at and thinking of employing, with specific details to help you out. Written

HowTo

Passive Income: Investing

I've been thinking about how to earn passive income for a while - I believe that earning money should be separate from the time I invest in it. Here are some of the strategies I've been looking at and thinking of employing, with specific details to help you out. Written

Why use Ghost for blogging?

I used to be on Wordpress for the longest time, but I decided to move to Ghost. Here's why. Open source. I like that it's all open source and still profitable; I think the team is doing great work and I'd like to see more of this work in the

Escapism

This is all there is.

What is life? Take stock of it - it is your friends, family, people you care about. What you do for work, what you do for your hobbies. Your routine. Things you spend your time on. Take a good, long look. Sure, there may be an afterlife, or other things

Members only

Travel

Companion post: Travel checklist

Checklist for your use.

How do I prepare for overseas university as a Singaporean?

A reader asks: I'm interested in studying at top schools for Economics in the US and in the UK, as I've read that there are definitely fewer opportunities in Singapore as compared to overseas with regards to the kind of exposure one gets. I'm planning on applying to a few

Money

How I earned S$1,375 in cash and cashback by signing up for credit cards

Over the last few months, I've been opening and getting the welcome reward for quite a few different credit cards. Here's why and how I did it, if you want to do the same. I'm now just waiting for the money to be credited to my respective accounts. Why churn?

Paid-members only

Money

Companion post: exact cards I signed up for + $35 FairPrice vouchers

Apart from the ones listed in the other post, here are a few more cards and a brief review of each one.

Travel

How to plan for overseas travel (comprehensive guide)

Travel can be fun but also exhausting. When you travel, you basically have to think again about all of the aspects that make up life - everything you do will be different in a different country. I've listed down some considerations you should think about so that you can focus

Travel

Philippines El Nido, Palawan and Manila Itinerary

I recently spent some time in the Philippines. It was great! Below is my rough itinerary for anyone who wants to do something similar. I didn't see this combination around so I thought to post it. One thing to take note is that at this point, cash is king -

Career

Generalise or Specialise?

I think it is worth it to try to figure out if you're happier being a generalist or happier specialising in something. Some initial thoughts here. It's been on my mind for quite a few years now. Some of the main arguments: "Generalists are flexible!" * You can switch quickly and

HowTo

Resourceful Renovation

I recently completed a renovation and my total spend was kept very low. Renovation costs can range from $10,000 to $120,000, and I'm happy to say that I've kept mine at about $13,000. We also completed the major works within about 2 months. Don't hire an interior

Research

DonateGoWhere: Singapore IPC Evaluation

Sometime last year - between graduation and my first full-time job - I thought it'd be fun to evaluate charities in Singapore based on a few different metrics, inspired by GiveWell. With the help of some friends, we managed to evaluate all the IPCs in Singapore, at least on the

Climate change

Why I give 10% of my income to charity

So the new year is just around the corner, and I just completed my first full year of donating my income to charity. So far it's been great, and right now I want to continue to do so possibly for the rest of my career (and possibly my life). It's

Career

Levels of Development: Skills

If life is a game, then how do we level up? I seek to answer this question and propose different levels available to us in all aspects of life. I'm going to call this Levels of Development. Just some guidelines and goals to work towards, and thinking about what's possible.

Levels of Development

Levels of Development: Life Purpose

If life is a game, then how do we level up? I seek to answer this question and propose different levels available to us in all aspects of life. I'm going to call this Levels of Development. Just some guidelines and goals to work towards, and thinking about what's possible.