The Woke Salaryman Podcast

The Woke Salaryman

Hi, we’re Ruiming and Wei Choon, the co-founders of The Woke Salaryman. We’re a web-comic with over 400k followers across our Instagram & Facebook platforms where we talk about personal finance, investments, career things and more. Follow us on Instagram (@thewokesalaryman) or check out our articles at www.thewokesalaryman.com

  • 48 minutes 38 seconds
    What we're doing amidst the chaos of world events (it's boring)

    Timestamps:

    1:59 World events and our reaction

    9:12 Just stay calm and boring

    12:23 Recent travels

    19:19 Thrifting

    23:01 Japanese quality as a double-edged sword

    27:08 Anti-aspirational consumption

    32:19 I'm glad I didn't YOLO in my 20s

    37:31 Gen Zs have it hard right now

    10 July 2025, 3:39 am
  • 1 hour 14 minutes
    Surviving as an irreverent artist in politically correct Singapore

    We had a chat with our friend Dan Wong. Dan is a super creative and unique visual storyteller that has somehow managed to carve out a professional career for himself whilst staying true to his wild, uncensored artistic expression.We talk about how he does this, as well as the struggles of young artists today amidst Gen AI and much more.0:00 Intro2:14 Dan Wong, A Good Citizen10:16 Has being edgy hurt business?22:51 Drawing NSFW art for $$$ in uni31:14 Dan and WC's previous work together34:53 Young Singapore artist woes41:00 Studio Ghibli ChatGPT saga49:15 Being a moderate advocate54:23 Why don't TWS just use AI fully?1:05:02 We don't love drawing1:13:20 OutroCheck out Dan's works:A Good Citizen:https://www.agoodcitizenobeys.com/fine-art.htmlA Good Citizen's Insta:https://www.instagram.com/agoodcitizen/Dan Wong's Insta:https://www.instagram.com/danwongzijian/Websitehttps://www.agoodcitizenobeys.com

    29 June 2025, 5:20 am
  • 1 hour 29 minutes
    The real estate agent that charges $1999 no matter what

    Our interview with the man who is kicking up a storm in the Singapore real estate industry.

    Patrick Chee is a serial entrepreneur who is a straight shooter, and we had a great time chatting with him. He speaks forcefully but authentically, and what you see is what you get.

    We chat about HDB prices, real estate agency in Singapore, serial entrepreneurship, and finding success without a degree.


    Homeseller SG:

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC47OfrxHXc6Fd-PqfAyYfnA

    TIkTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@homesellersg

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeseller_sg/

    Website: https://homeseller.sg/


    Timestamps:

    0:00 Intro

    2:18 The industry model vs $1999

    8:05 What ACTUALLY sells a house

    11:18 Is the 2% model justified?

    23:45 Homeseller SG's philosophy on real estate agency

    33:18 High agent fees doesn't = better price

    35:04 Homeseller's business model and ops

    44:18 Is Homeseller truly motivated to sell if their fees are lower?

    53:25 The case for a higher fee model

    56:37 "Difficult" units CAN be sold, but...

    1:02:47 HDBs are still DIRT CHEAP

    1:09:38 Patrick's thoughts on Sell 1 Buy 2

    1:15:58 Patrick's entrepreneurial adventure

    1:23:55 Advice for new real estate agents

    4 April 2025, 4:40 am
  • 1 hour 4 minutes
    The tough thing about side-hustles/passion projects

    Hello, this is another tea time video where we talk about something for fun. This week, we talk about why we struggle with our respective side-hustles/passion projects. Hope y'all enjoy. Let us know if you similarly find it hard to start on these things, and if you have any tips for sparking these sessions yourself.

    0:00 Intro

    3:25 The topic

    8:50 It's hard to do things without external motivation

    15:00 Other productive things as an excuse/distraction to not do the creative project

    19:25 Taste grows faster than skill, which sucks

    25:37 What if your creative project is not monetizable?

    34:25 It can feel nice to be productive

    39:31 Doing your passion project full-time is an extraordinary outcome

    44:40 What if your work is never acknowledged?

    49:01 Creating as a way of being

    53:04 Summary, and creative resolutions for 2025

    1:03:33 Conclusion

    31 January 2025, 8:03 am
  • 36 minutes 36 seconds
    A long chat during our retreat in rural Japan

    We recorded this chat when we visited Ruiming's house in Japan. Hope y'all enjoy.

    0:00 Intro 1:20 Why are we here? 2:28 Why did RM get a house in rural Japan? 7:28 How do we like rural Japan? 12:18 The rural Japan dream 21:28 City vs village spirit 29:04 The Singapore obsession with Japan 32:21 What Singapore can learn from Japan CREDITS: Check out Ryunohara experiences: https://www.ryunohara.com/ Music by Kevin McLeod/incompetech Sound effects by otologic.jp

    22 December 2024, 3:18 am
  • 45 minutes 23 seconds
    Young people feeling lost in their first job

    Hi everyone, this is a casual chat we had over tea time. We hope you will enjoy chilling with us. We talk about fresh grads feeling lost and depressed after experiencing work for the first time and discuss whether work is "supposed to suck". Then we meander all over the place. Chapters so you can decide if the meandering will be worth your time:

    0:00 Which came first? Mew or Mewtwo 6:16 Young people disliking first job 15:25 Why do we become more conservative with age 21:30 Socialising with people who disagree with you 27:00 COVID was a weird time and set weird expectations 29:32 Fresh grads expecting WFH as a norm 34:03 Business and management experience will change your perspective

    25 November 2024, 3:04 am
  • 38 minutes 12 seconds
    Surviving and thriving past COVID for SMEs and FnB businesses

    *THIS PODCAST EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY UOB* We sit down with Bernard Tay from Jinjja Chicken and Paul Kan from UOB to talk about the challenges facing SMEs and FnBs post-COVID. Specifically, about inflation, digitalization, and overseas expansion! The insights discussed in this video can be found in greatest detail in the UOB Business Outlook Study 2024, which you can check out here: https://go.uob.com/3TT7si8 0:00 Intro 2:48 Life after COVID, not all smooth sailing 4:21 Inflation! 7:03 Hiring Singaporeans for F&B 11:07 Digitalisation for SMEs! 18:52 Difficulties in digitalisation 22:25 Costs of NOT digitalising 26:44 Overseas expansion! 28:54 Unique challenges of Southeast Asia 35:00 Advice for SME operators

    8 October 2024, 3:00 am
  • 38 minutes 10 seconds
    Our new book and our thoughts from travelling Southeast Asia recently

    We've been away for a while travelling Southeast Asia promoting our books. 0:00 Intro 3:36 Traffic in Jakarta, KL VS Singapore 8:45 City planning is tough 15:13 Vietnam's growth since the 80s 17:43 Would we migrate somewhere else in SEA? 20:14 Retirement village business overseas? 26:05 Book recommendation: Public subsidy, private accumulation 29:33 Book recommendation: Blue Period 31:55 OUR BOOK More on our book and where to get it: https://readtws.com/book

    3 August 2024, 2:59 am
  • 19 minutes 7 seconds
    What you stand to lose when you start a creative business

    We talk about the trade-offs for the creative soul who wants to run a creative business.

    0:00 Intro 0:50 More about our business and me 1:36 Creative VS Business owner 4:15 Delegate to people who like it more, or are better than you 6:42 Consider input, not just output 10:10 Being creative is good for business 11:36 Take creative risks as a part of business 13:21 Unproductivity is part of productivity 16:25 Mistakes are part of the plan 17:47 Give yourself due credit

    22 March 2024, 3:08 am
  • 53 minutes 5 seconds
    She runs a 100% remote company

    Juliana Chan is a scientist and scholar turned business owner. Today, she runs Wildtype Media Group, managing a 20-member team — based in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and India — with 30 to 40 regular freelancers around the world. In this episode, we talk to her about how she took her company remote, and the impact it has had on morale and productivity. 0:00 Intro: The road to 100% remote 5:00 Productivity will suffer 14:14 The types of employees that are suitable for remote work 18:58 How do you know everyone is working? 27:26 What about hiring locals and protecting local jobs? 31:36 Where in the world are her colleagues working from? 35:55 What's the competitive advantage of someone from Singapore? 41:37 Singapore's a great place to start a business 46:00 How you can keep Gen Zs 51:14 Concluding plugs

    28 February 2024, 3:00 am
  • 1 hour 9 minutes
    Employee VS employer: Is it okay to leave after training? (and more)

    Is overtime ever justified? Why do good employees leave? Do you have to worry about your own job being irrelevant? 


    This episode, we get the whole TWS team to have an open conversation on these hard topics. We hope you enjoy it. 


    Also, this is our first sponsored podcast - a shoutout to Workforce Singapore for sponsoring this conversation. To find out more about what grants and tools are available to kickstart your company’s job redesign initiatives, visit https://go.gov.sg/tws-jobredesign 


    Featuring (from left to right):

    Wei Choon (Co-founder)

    Ruiming (Co-founder)

    Vivienne (Account Manager)

    Wen Xin (Artist)

    0:00 Intro 2:08 Why do good employees leave? 3:51 What is a good employee? 7:45 What is job redesign? 14:18 Have you had a job redesign? 20:58 Do all jobs need to be redesigned for relevance? 29:35 Should all employers job redesign? 38:15 Approaching job redesign with limited resources? 47:41 Who should initiate job redesign? 52:27 Is it fair to have employees OT for job redesign? 59:10 Job redesign VS find new job

    12 January 2024, 3:00 am
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