These are posts from the years 2004 to 2022. If you’re looking for my latest posts, go to the front page.
Online platforms
- Google’s Helpful Content Update isn’t kind to nicheless blogs
- Why I quit Twitter
- Why you should stop watching the news
- Is your information diet affecting your mental health?
- 3 big reasons why solopreneurs should not use WordPress
- 7 simple ways you can secure your WordPress site
- Five things I wish I knew before I built my website
- I took a break from social media and blogging. Here’s what happened
- How I use social media (tips for ordinary folks)
- I hate what blogging has become: Reflections after a blogging break
- My blog identity crisis
- My Blogging Evolution: Reflecting on 14+ years of blogging. Yes, 14.
- My favourite author blogs
- My favourite nicheless blogs
- Slow blogging: The anti-hustle method of writing for the web
- Tweaking my blog’s content strategy
- Why I created a Youtube channel
- Why I moved from WordPress to Squarespace
- Yes, you can blog without a niche!
- Email’s hottest trend: The Substack newsletter
Personal Finance
- 10 best personal finance Youtube channels (international)
- 10 steps to paying off all your debts
- 5 money tips for college grads
- 5 reasons I prefer to rent a home
- A conversation about money, privilege and contentment
- Being frugal in Malaysia and Singapore (Money & Minimalism Monthly Roundup #3 )
- Don’t be a Scrooge with your home
- Emergency budget: Design one that can sustain you in a crisis
- Guide to robo advisors
- How to become debt free in 7 steps
- How to overcome your fear of investing
- How to track expenses … when you hate tracking expenses
- I embraced “lifestyle creep” and upgraded my lifestyle – here’s what I learned0
- I lost something in my pursuit for financial independence
- I’m moving away from roboadvisors. Here’s why.
- Kenanga Digital Investing (2022 honest review)
- Kicking off my Monthly Money Diaries: 2020 financial year in review
- List of Personal Finance Youtubers in Malaysia
- Managing uncertain times (Money & Minimalism Monthly Roundup #1)
- Monthly Money Diary and Reflections (January 2021)
- Monthly money diary and reflections: February 2021
- My biggest financial mistake
- My experience with a financial planner
- My experience with EPF’s Retirement Advisory Service (Part I)
- My favourite personal finance articles & videos (April 2019)
- My rocky adventures in investing
- Recommended Personal Finance blogs in Malaysia
- Saving and investing in pre-apocalyptic times
- Saving money tips: 10 things I cut from my budget
- Should you use a robo advisor?
- Stashaway Malaysia (very honest review 2022)
- Suicide isn’t the answer to your debt or money problems
- The role of privilege in personal finances
- The time when I was struggling with credit card debt [flashback post]
- Wahed Invest review (2022)
COVID-19 Diaries
- Lockdown diaries, March 2020
- Lockdown diaries, April 2020
- A pandemic, a lockdown and how nothing will ever be the same
- Is minimalism practical in the age of COVID-19?
- No, you don’t have to be productive during a global pandemic
- Saving and investing in pre-apocalyptic times
Life in Adelaide
- Favourite posts from my Aussie blog: Malaysia to Adelaide
- Why I quit my job to move to Australia
- First days in Adelaide
- Yin’s vegetable garden
- I will be a guest of ABC’s 891Book Club
- Appearing on 891 Book Club
- My life as an Aged Care student
- Life has taken me over
- Adelaide libraries are the best
- My year of writing dangerously
- 10 things I learned from working as a carer in Australia
- Homeless in Melbourne
- Why I left Australia and returned to Malaysia
Interviews
- Alwyn Lau on writing your first novel
- The second life of stuff: An interview with journalist Adam Minter
- Can Christians write erotic romance? Yes, says Zena Wynn
- From laid off IT worker to businesswoman: Sharnila’s journey
- How Bella Zamri wrote a hit novel on Wattpad
- How Elizabeth Spann Craig used Wattpad to gain new readers
- Interview with Amanda Hocking
- Interview with fantasy author Carol Berg
- Interview with Jodi Picoult
- Interview with Nina Amir
- Interview with Tim Harford
- Interview with Victoria Aveyard: From Book to Big Screen (Part 2)
- Interview with Victoria Aveyard: Writing the Red Queen (Part I)
- Interviews with Danny Choo and James Sturm
- Speaking to Margaret Stohl
- Interview with Talent Corp about returning to Malaysia
Musings
- Let’s have a Depth Year
- 2022: The year of disasters and discoveries
- Goodbye, 2021. We won’t miss you
- Lessons from 2020: A year of resilience, recovery and reflection
- 10 habits I want to implement in 2020
- My year in review – 2019: Change is worth it
- Is it time for Malaysians abroad to come home?
- 2018: The Year of Change
- 10 things that made me happier in 2017
- It’s a new Malaysia: Post #GE14 reflections
- 5 things I love about Malaysia
- Can faith be simple?
- Chasing your dreams when life comes undone
- Confessions of a morning lark
- The blessings of singlehood
- Don’t let shame ruin your life
- My “Live My Best Life Now” Bucket List
- On being childfree
- One superpower you need to have: Being grateful
- Things I don’t miss about office life
- We don’t have as much time as we think
- What I learned from my month of hell
- Write what you love
- Writing when you’re sick
- Stop dreaming and start writing
- Remembering the Asian Tsunami
Travel
- 8 places to eat yummy food in Melbourne
- Co-living experience: Komune Living
- My first AirBnb experience
- When neighbours hate Airbnb
- Out and about in Geogetown, Penang
- My experience using Uber: A review
- Hostel review: Melbourne Central YHA
- Hotel Review: Avilion Port Dickson – a perfect place to have a reading vacation
- Hotel review: Avenue J, Kuala Lumpur
- Hotel review: Campbell House in Georgetown, Penang
- Hotel Review: Cyberview Resort & Spa
- Hotel review: Ibis Styles Kingsgate, Melbourne
- Hotel review: Richmond Hotel, Adelaide
- KLoé Hotel Kuala Lumpur (hotel review)
- 10 things I learned from working as a carer in Australia
- Pavilion Kuala Lumpur – a foodie’s guide
- Tokyo Memories
- What to do during a solo writing retreat
- Why I love staycations
- Why I left Australia and returned to Malaysia
- Why I quit my job to move to Australia
- Adventures in Beijing
- Hotel Review: Sekeping Kong Heng in Ipoh
- Hotel Review: Avilion Port Dickson – a perfect place to have a reading vacation
- River of Life – turning the Klang River into a viable waterfront
- Seoul’s Oil Tank Culture Park
- Seoullo 7017: How to recycle old motorways
- The guide to being a digital nomad in Penang
- Visiting the Life of Pi movie set in Taiwan
- Visiting Kyoto circa 2005
Books & TV
- A Reader’s Manifesto: Literary darlings actually suck at writing?
- How to catalogue books with the Goodreads app
- Joining a book club made me a happier person
- Batman v Superman – Why you should ignore the critics and watch it (spoiler free)
- Book Mania: Billion Dollar Whale & Sarawak Report
- Books I read in April
- Favourite romance reads of 2016
- Fanfiction: Wacky, Weird, and never boring
- Joining a book club made me a happier person
- Justice League, the dumbing down of Thor and the sad sameness of superhero movies
- Kebaya Tales: Peranakan Party
- Lessons from Come Alive: Live a life with more meaning and joy
- Lessons from Deep Work by Cal Newport
- Lessons from Die with Zero: Getting all you can from your money
- Lessons from The Psychology of money
- Dangerous Books for Girls by Maya Rodale
- Reading Xian Xia novels
- Review of Get up! by James A. Levine
- Review of Love Sick by Cory Martin
- Review: A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen
- Review: A Thousand Naked Strangers
- Review: Happy City
- Review: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms
- Review: Tiger Babies Strike Back
- Scribd: A Review (2015)
- Scribd: Is it worth it? (2020 review updated)
- Stranger To Myself: Diary Of A Bangladeshi In Singapore by Md Sharif Uddin
- Su Tong’s allure
- Subang Jaya Book Exchange (Permanently Closed)
- The Chicken Chronicles by Alice Walker
- The inconvenience of books
- TBR stress – why I want a minimalist library
- The Minimalists: Less is Now … when minimalism becomes a brand
- The Raja Tun Uda Library in Shah Alam: A review
- What I read in July
- Why do people look down on romance novels?
- Why I DNF books
Simple Living
- 25 things I no longer buy as an environmentally-conscious minimalist
- How I went from ‘I hate cooking’ to cooking all my meals
- How I lost weight with intermittent fasting
- How minimalism changed me
- I got rid of bad PMS with Chinese medicine. Here’s what happened.
- I lived without a car for a year. Here’s what I learned
- I started using a standing desk. Here’s what I learned
- Minimalism and the art of meaningful relationships
- On the necessity of becoming a health detective
- Simple living hack: The benefits of growing an edible garden
- TBR stress – why I want a minimalist library
- What’s a work uniform and should you wear one?
- What to do with your food scraps (even if you live in an apartment)
- Why I became a minimalist
- Why I moved closer to work
Productivity
- Why I switched from the bullet journal to Obsidian
- Answer these 5 questions before you choose a productivity tool
- How I achieve Inbox Zero (Outlook tips)
- My struggle with work/life balance
- No, you don’t have to be productive during a global pandemic
- What is burnout and why it’s more than “being tired”
- How I’m structuring my life for more Deep Work
Writing
- How I made writing fun again
- How to blog a book
- New Year resolutions for writers
- The 10,000 hour rule for writers
- The power of unnecessary creating
- What I learned from Nanowrimo 2017
- 7 podcasts for creative entrepreneurs (without hustle culture)
- Confessions of an extrovert writer
- Don’t listen to that inner critic!
- Fanfiction: Wacky, Weird, and never boring
My Shifting Faith series
- Blog series: My Shifting Faith
- Believing: The Accidental Christian
- Learning: The war on culture, family and tradition
- Doing: Being Miss Good Christian
- Unravelling: when faith falls apart
- Shifting: When it hurts to attend church
- Returning: Holding out for hope
- Rebuilding: Resignation, joy, acceptance and sadness