Those of us on the Earn More path, we'll discover soon enough that the sole purpose of Markets is to extract MAXIMUM PAIN from all its participants!
True right?
Just ask those who have chopped fingers and swear off "investing" forever.
For survivors, we've become "philosophical".
Have to.
If not how to explain the insanity of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?
The good news is that if we switched to the Save More path, there is no MAXIMUM PAIN, just MAXIMUM SHEEPISHNESS.
How so?
Remember the electricity liberalisation move by big daddy?
How not to love -20% discounts on our electricity bills!?
Then some discovered choosing the wholesale electricity plan "saves" even more than -20%!
(Conveniently forgetting "wholesale" meant it's for big consumers of electricity who are expected to do the electricity price hedging themselves)
Yup, imagine the sheepishness to find you are paying more than those "stupid" households who remained with PUB ....
How about HDB bank loans?
Who so stupid to choose HDB concession loan at 2.6% interest when we can easily get much lower housing loan interest rates from our nation building banks!?
Well, now some have discovered what maximum sheepishness felt like....
Remember CPF?
One could be forgiven to believe 1M65 never existed, judging by the queues at our banks and the topic of the month in our community!
First it was Singapore Savings Bonds, then Singapore Treasuries, then it didn't take long before someone shared bank fixed deposits give out more lah!
Ink haven't dry, WAIT!
That bank over there got savings promotion that gives much more than fixed deposits!!!
Just as long we're willing to jump a few hoops like spend X minimum sum per month with the bank's credit cards; and transfer our salary deposit there.
Fetch. Rollover. Kneel. Woof, woof! Good boy/girl!
Not maximum sheepishness, but it's the awkwardness you feel when you find what you thought was good, better, best has become 2nd best in a month or two....
In the gacha gaming community, we call it MIN/MAX.
It works until the game developer power creeps your best built hero with a NEW must pull character!
I'm a cat person. But I do notice dog people do become more cat like as they mature.
I mean we are both probably a bit bemused with young puppies - see hoop must jump, see ball must fetch...
We have this old fogey Tarzan at this watering-hole.
I'll poke him like Swiss cheese if he now tells me he is diverting his planned CPF voluntary contributions to better yielding savings vehicles! LOL!
Nah, he won't!
What's the point of long-term planning if we can get derailed just with 1 or 2% extra interests?
And I thought I'm the man-whore!
Another interesting observation I would like to share with readers.
This Tarzan and me are going in opposite direction - he adding to CPF; while I taking as much out as possible - but we both have the same destination in mind. Wink.
The 8 immortals' analogy probably flew over your head if you're not Chinese, or Chinese banana...
OK, this New York analogy clearer.
To get to New York from Singapore, we can fly to London, and then New York.
Or from Singapore to San Francisco, then New York.
Earth is round.
Ding!
Hi SMOL,
ReplyDeleteEh why this post no comment? I was hoping to read some interesting inputs from others in this watering hole.
Sounds like for Tarzan he's going for delayed gratification. Whereas for you, you prefer to go for instant/ constant gratification. Destination same but actually it's the journey that matters.
Talking about jumping hoops from the bank, the hoops are not that difficult to jump for the working youngsters I feel. Earning interest enough to pay for my transport fees plus telco bills every month, why not!
Rainbow girl,
DeleteI've no freaking clue! Although I think the readers at this watering hole is trying to tell me something...
Look at this blog post: What's the best way to earn more moneyr !
2 freaking words - how many comments?
Now compare the length of this blog post - and the lack of comments?
LOL!
Jokes aside, the answer to the Tarzan's and my path can be found in the comments.
DeleteThe things I do for you all ;)
The Tarzan's Earn More vehicle is his well-paying day job. Since he is now coming down the mountain in his early 60s, he prefers the "peace of mind" of no unrealised losses and stable returns from CPF - his target passive income is $250K per year ;)
So even if CPF is negative yielding, he got more buffer room than the next CPF voluntary contributor aiming to get $50K per year as passive income during retirement ...
Same vehicle; different end result. (Size matters!)
For me, my day job used to be my biggest Earn More vehicle. Now I've transitioned to trading as my Earn More vehicle.
Since I'm Trading to Achieve, I'm naturally drawn towards vehicles that require skill and competence ;)
Would anyone pay $ to attend courses on how to Save More?
My point exactly!
LOL!
As for jumping through hoops, of course if it works for you, super!
DeleteI'm sure you remember Uber or Grab?
Drivers got seduced with "incentives" to jump company. Passengers got baited with discounts and promotional fares.
Now? Is the fare different between private hires and taxi very big? Do private car hirers still earn a lot more than taxi drivers?
I remember a young blogger sharing similar promotions about a bank some years back.
One year later, he blogged very angrily like a jilted lover, how the bank raised the height of the hoop - making him ineligible for the "wonderful" promotions anymore!#@!!
He must have just met the minimum PC requirements...
Let's take a bet. Within 2 years your bank will raise the height of the hoop ;)
This is what we do to train our customers - kneel, rollover, stand. Good girl!
The most difficult customers are cats. Cats know they are king, and we in sales are just their "pets".
I've hinted young puppies see ball must fetch, see hoop must jump.
Mature dogs over time will become more cat like.
Why?
They realised through experience it's better to focus on the big things rather than small stuffs.
One big promotion in day job is more than enough to pay for transport and telco bills in the long run.
One monster good trade (be it stocks or cryptos) can elevate us higher up the mountain than several years of "extra" promotional interests...
Marry the right spouse can save us decades in meal tickets (a saying in China girls there like to share with me)
What's the thin red line that connects the 3 examples above?
Its SELLING ;)
Reflect on your experience with cryptos - who made more money?
Those who did the buying?
Or those who sold?