I remembered the first time I tried to fry an egg.

I was twelve. I added way too much oil, cracked the egg in, and watched it sizzle. It smelled really tasty for about two seconds… before I realized that I’d burnt it. My Counterstrike-obsessed self yelled “Fire in the hole!!!” and proudly showed off my destroyed creation to my mom.

It’s hard to get frustrated when you screw up an egg because… it’s just a freakin’ egg. I scraped off the charred bits, laughed at myself, and tried cooking it again the next day. And the following day. And the day after that. Each time, I experimented with a different style just to see which one worked best.

Along the way, I learnt some pretty neat tricks to make cooking eggs a little easier. Like adding milk to my scrambled eggs to make them fluffier. Or using the shells to separate the yolk from the whites.

Pretty soon, I was making some baller scrambled eggs and omelettes for breakfast – a pretty big accomplishment for a twelve year-old with zero cooking experience.

That’s exactly what personal finance is like.

Too many people take personal finance way too seriously. They stare at squiggly charts and furrow their brows and throw out words like “alpha” and “volatility”. And they get really stressed out about it too.

But the truth is, personal finance doesn’t have to be all complicated and serious. In fact, it’s just like learning how to cook an egg:

1. Practice it every day, and you’ll soon get pretty awesome at it.
2. Experiment with different styles instead of worrying about which one works best.
3. Learn some neat tricks that’ll make your journey a little easier.
4. Above all, stay cheerful

Stick to the plan, and the rewards will be really… tasty.

Hi, my name is Lionel Yeo.

The first thing you should know about me is that I love this purple shirt I’m wearing. My friends tell me that I wear it too much, but I don’t care. It’s a nice shirt. I also love eating ramen (with an extra egg, of course). So if you ever see a purple-shirted dude eating ramen in Singapore, chances are, it’s me.

The second thing you should know about me is that I’m a personal finance geek. Some people like sports. Others like cars. I like developing personal finance strategies.  Back in college, I’d take my lunch to the college bookstore so I could eat and read personal finance books for free. Today, I spend my weekends researching through blogs and books, tweaking Excel templates, and eating even more eggs than ever.

But hey, I shouldn’t let all that research go to waste by keeping it to myself. Over the past couple of years, I’ve developed a few kickass personal finance strategies, and I hope to share them with you on this blog.

So what’s cheerfulegg about, anyway?

cheerfulegg is all about using habits, psychology, and systems to improve your personal finances.

It’s not just about money – though I’ll often write about that as well. It’s also about boosting your personal capital by becoming an awesome human being, and hatching a rich life. I’ll also throw in a couple of random stuff and experiments I’ll conduct in my own life, just to keep things fun and interesting.

Why am I doing this? Because I’ve seen way too many people spend their entire lives worrying about personal finance. But please don’t be one of them – that’ll be an awful waste of your talents.

Instead, I’m here to make personal finance as fresh, simple, and honest as possible for everyone. Hopefully, I’ll be able to help you hatch a richer life, and show you that it’s just as easy as frying an egg.

I’m totally psyched that you came. Thanks for being here, and enjoy.

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