When the government announced that every Singaporean child gets almost $70,000 from birth to 17, my first reaction was simple: I have four kids, so that’s $280,000 for my family. Hosay liao.

Then I actually sat down and did the maths properly. I was completely off the mark.

My oldest just missed the new baby gift and child credits by age cutoffs. My two middle kids get a partial run of child credits plus a PSEA top-up. Only my youngest, at 10, gets close to the full package. Add it all up across all four kids, spread over the next seven years, and my real total comes to roughly $63,000. A fraction of the $280,000.

I go through the full breakdown, kid by kid, in the video below, along with a few things I think are worth talking about:

* Why the $70K figure doesn’t hold its value

* What’s conspicuously missing from the package

* How Singapore’s incentives stack up against Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong

* Whether this was ever really a money problem to begin with

* Why I had four kids myself, and one slightly ridiculous idea for how Singapore could make big families genuinely aspirational

Doing this exercise humbled me a bit. I went in expecting to feel shortchanged by the government but I left convinced that the number was never really the point.

Would a bigger cheque actually change your mind about having kids? Or is it the other stuffs that money can’t touch?

Let me know in the comments.



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I ran the numbers on my $70,000 child bonus. I was wrong.

My face is all over the news right now. Here’s why I’m okay with that.

Eight years ago I flew to Nanning [https://www.adriantan.com.sg/p/nanning], sat through five days of the world’s most elaborate sales pitch, and walked away from what turned out to be a pyramid scheme. I wrote about it once and filed a police report but nobody really followed up.

Then 52 Singaporeans got detained in China over a suspected pyramid scheme, my old article resurfaced, and suddenly my face was in the news.

The question I’ve gotten the most since: how the hell did you not realize it was a scam?

Fair question. So instead of answering it piecemeal in comments, I sat down and answered everything. What actually happened in Nanning. Who I met (a Singaporean of the Year finalist, a former MP). Why I still won’t name them. When it clicked that something was off, and why I put money in anyway even after it did.

I could’ve stayed quiet about all this. A lot of people in my position do, because nobody wants to be known as the guy who almost fell for it. But I don’t think that’s the right instinct. The people running these schemes get to operate in public. I don’t see why the people who got pitched to should have to hide.

Full video’s below



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My 2018 Nanning Trip: How I Almost Joined a Money Game (and Why I’m Speaking Up Now)

Is AI really replacing jobs? Or is something even more dangerous happening?

Everyone is asking whether AI will take our jobs. I think we’re asking the wrong question.

The real disruption isn’t that experienced professionals are being replaced. It’s that the first step of the career ladder is quietly disappearing.

In this video, I explore:

* Why AI helps junior employees more than senior ones

* Why companies are hiring fewer entry-level workers

* What happens when AI takes over the work people used to learn from

* Why today’s graduates face a very different job market

* The hidden risk businesses are creating for themselves

* What leaders, managers, parents and young professionals should do next

Using research from MIT, Stanford, Harvard and real-world examples (including the ATM revolution, factory electrification, and the Air Canada chatbot case), I explain why the biggest AI problem may not be automation, but the disappearance of apprenticeship.

Whether you’re a CEO, manager, HR professional, student or parent, this is a conversation we need to have before it’s too late.

👇 I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Is your company still hiring junior talent?

Or has the entry door quietly started closing?

Leave a comment below.

If you enjoy thoughtful discussions about AI, work, leadership and the future of careers, consider subscribing. New videos every week.

Timestamps:

00:00 AI Hiring Paradox

00:22 Homework Without Struggle

01:05 ATM Story Misleads

01:55 AI Levels Skills

02:39 Entry Jobs Vanish

03:48 Apprenticeship Gets Cut

04:36 Where Seniors Come From

05:34 Why AI Pilots Fail

06:54 Redesign Workflows

08:08 Trust and Accountability

09:05 Protect the Bottom Rung



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Your First Job Might Never Exist

Someone is going to get retrenched today — and they have no idea. After 11 years inside recruitment and hundreds of conversations with blindsided professionals, I can tell you retrenchment is almost never actually a surprise. The signals show up weeks or months early. Most people just don't know what they're looking for. This video names all 9 — and the 4 quiet moves to make before you ever need them.

🔎 Track live layoffs in Singapore → https://layoffsg.com

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 – Someone gets retrenched today (they don't know yet)

0:17 – Why it feels like a surprise (but almost never is)

1:11 – Two things to understand first

1:16 – Why the people who know aren't allowed to tell you

1:43 – Companies retrench roles, not people

2:22 – The signals are structural, not personal

2:37 – Signal 1: The hiring freeze

3:15 – Signal 2: External consultants arrive

4:01 – Signal 3: Communication becomes careful

4:44 – Signal 4: Your manager's behaviour changes

5:32 – Signal 5: You're asked to document your processes

6:21 – Signal 6: Budget quietly disappears

6:48 – Signal 7: A reorg or "strategic review" of your function

7:23 – Signal 8: New leadership with no history with your team

8:08 – Signal 9: Your scope quietly shrinks

8:54 – The two wrong responses (denial vs. panic)

9:20 – Move 1: Update your resume now

9:34 – Move 2: Activate your network quietly

9:49 – Move 3: Build visibility outside your company

10:08 – Move 4: Know what you're entitled to

10:28 – LayoffSG.com [http://LayoffSG.com] — the layoff tracker I built

10:53 – Final thought



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9 Signs You're About to Be Retrenched (From 11 Years in Recruitment)

I'm an introvert. Small talk drains me, and walking into a room of strangers is the last thing I want to do — so for years my "networking strategy" was finding the food table and looking busy with my coffee.

And yet people still walk up to me at events (and once, at a night market) already knowing who I am. That's not luck. It's reputation infrastructure — 8 specific moves that put your name into the world before you ever show up in a room, so trust is already built by the time someone reaches out. I used these moves while running my career coaching practice, and

I'm using them again now as I build my fractional career.

In this video, I break down all 8:

00:00 Intro

03:52 Move 1: Write a Book

05:57 Move 2: Speak at Events

07:21 Move 3: Academic Affiliation

08:14 Move 4: Win Awards

09:03 Move 5: Join Industry Bodies

09:57 Move 6: Get Board Positions

11:17 Move 7: Media Bylines

12:24 Move 8: Podcasting

None of this works in 30 days. But if you're moving into fractional work or self-employment, this is the difference between chasing clients and having them come find you.



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The Iron Rice Bowl Was Never Yours to Hold

My former CEO stood in front of the whole team and said: no side hustles. Too distracting. The company needs your full commitment.

He had three board directorships, two committee seats, and multiple rental properties.

He wasn’t lying to be cruel. He was protecting what he’d built — and hoping you wouldn’t notice the gap between what he said and what he did.

I noticed too late. I went all-in on one company for a decade. $5M revenue, 30 staff, everything I had in one place. Then the partners changed, the investors pulled out, and I spent three months not knowing what to do with myself at 9 am on a Monday. Then I drove Grab.

This video is what I learned from that — and what your boss already knows that nobody taught you.

What is covered:

00:00 Side Hustle Hypocrisy

00:27 Leaders Diversify Quietly

01:41 The Loyalty Deal Died

02:18 All In Then Burnout

03:04 Uber And Identity Loss

03:21 Diversify Without Seniority

03:49 Build Assets Under Your Name

04:03 Writing Builds Reputation

04:30 Fractional Work And Niches

05:43 Commitment Versus Concentration

06:06 What Equity Are You Building

06:42 Do As They Do



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The Side Hustle Rule Your Boss Breaks Every Single Day

After my CNA article on fractional work [https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/fractional-work-freelance-part-time-job-ceo-marketing-finance-6016831] went live, I received many LinkedIn DMs, so I’m answering the most common questions in this video.

00:00 Intro

00:37 What is Fractional Work?

01:58 Can It Work Financially?

03:14 Handling Dry Spells

05:24 Do You Need a Big Network?

05:59 Set Up a Company or Operate Individually?

06:29 How to Land Your First Client

07:35 What If a Client Wants You Full-Time?

08:11 Retirement & Exit Strategy

09:06 Which Industries Work Best?

11:51 How to Price Yourself



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.adriantan.com.sg [https://www.adriantan.com.sg?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Fractional Work Explained (From My Experience): Money, Clients, Pricing & Sustainability

I reflect on Charlie Munger’s wish for more time and share three ideas from Bill Perkins’ Die With Zero that changed how I think about money and life.

First, you don’t retire with money—you retire with memories, and some experiences have real physical expiry dates, so postponing them can mean missing them forever.

Second, I reframe retirement planning by treating net worth peak as a date, not a number, and explain how dying with unspent money can represent thousands of hours worked for nothing, while the fear of running out is often bigger than the math.

Third, I walk through Perkins’ “time bucketing” exercise—mapping life in five-year blocks and assigning goals to realistic windows—plus my own buckets for travel, family, and work changes, to stop drifting and start choosing intentionally.

00:00 Munger’s Wish for Time

00:27 Book That Changed Me

01:05 Retire With Memories

02:06 Experiences Expire

03:19 Peak Net Worth Date

04:11 Fear of Running Out

05:09 Time Bucketing Method

06:16 My Time Buckets

07:07 Bucket List vs Buckets

07:54 Closing Takeaways



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.adriantan.com.sg [https://www.adriantan.com.sg?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Die With Zero: Retire With Memories, Not Money 

I'm back after a six-month hiatus to discuss the origin of his podcast, his experiences with imposter syndrome, and his journey in content creation.



I reflect on the evolution of content creation from blogging to contemporary practices involving AI, and emphasise the importance of maintaining authenticity in one's tone of voice.



Also, a shout-out to ⁨Typeless [https://www.typeless.com/]:⁩ to help you align spoken and written content, and announces plans for more monologue episodes. Stay tuned for a candid look into the world of content creation and personal growth.



00:00 Welcome Back: Where Have I Been?

00:11 The Journey of My Podcast and Book

01:16 Current Work and Future Plans

02:14 The Evolution of Content Creation

03:09 The Importance of Authenticity in Writing

06:03 Tools and Tips for Content Creation

07:20 Conclusion and Future Episodes

Reflections on Content Creation, Imposter Syndrome, and Staying True to Your Voice

In this revealing episode, Florence Foo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/florence-foo/] shares her incredible journey of quitting her corporate job while pregnant with her second child to launching four successful businesses. From starting a boutique digital marketing agency to organising large-scale events, introducing sunscreen dispensers on demand, and exploring groundbreaking LED technology, Florence navigates the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship. Discover her insights on time management, overcoming challenges, and the strategies behind her diverse business ventures. Don't miss this inspiring story of ambition, resilience, and innovation!



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This episode is brought to you by Deel⁩ [https://deel.com/adriantan⁠⁠], the all-in-one platform simplifying global team management with payroll, HR, IT, and compliance solutions, trusted by over 35,000 businesses worldwide. Learn more at ⁠⁠https://deel.com/adriantan⁠⁠.



00:00 Leaving the Corporate World

01:11 Introducing Florence

01:32 Florence's Career Journey

02:12 Starting a Digital Marketing Agency

05:00 Expanding into Event Organising

08:59 Venturing into Sunscreen Business

10:26 Exploring LED Lighting

11:51 Balancing Multiple Businesses and Family

17:34 Managing Work-Life Balance

18:22 Health Impacts of Overworking

19:44 Lessons from Nine Years in Business

20:09 Starting as a Solopreneur

21:35 Dealing with Client Challenges

25:36 Prospecting for New Business

27:28 Adapting to Digitalisation

28:08 Advice to My Younger Self

28:53 Future Plans and Contact Information



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Where to find Florence Foo:

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/florence-foo/

Oakwood Media: https://theresourcegroup.asia/



Where to find Adrian:

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriantanck/⁠⁠

Website: ⁠⁠adriantan.com.sg⁠⁠ [https://adriantan.com.sg⁠⁠]

📕 No More Bosses: https://amzn.asia/d/abmPxU6

166 - Why Florence Foo QUIT Her Job & Launched FOUR Businesses!

Adrian Tan (@adriantan18) · Zencastr

Adrian Tan (@adriantan18)

This is my podcast, where I speak with folks to explore the nuances of modern work and its idiosyncrasies. Beyond just the enablers and vendors who are transforming this space, I will also include intimate conversations with people navigating newfound career pivots. They have successfully transitioned to their new careers, and I hope to distil their ups and downs in this unstructured journey so the rest of us can learn from their best practices.

The Adrian Tan Show