Bacon and eggs - difference between committed and involved

The pig and hen were good friends in a farm.

One lazy sunny afternoon, while shooting the breeze together under the shade of the old oak tree just outside the barn, the hen had an inspiration!

“Hey pig! Would you be interested to be a millionaire?” said the hen, fluttering her eye-lashes in a most alluring manner.

“What? What do you mean?” The pig awoken from his stupor…

“Wake up! Wake up! Pay attention!” the hen nudging the pig as she spoke. “If we work together, we can be millionaires!”

“How?” said the pig with a smile. The pig always had a soft spot for the hen.

“There’s a new casino opened just outside of town. We just have to place a million dollar bet on the roulette table – black or red.”

“But we don’t have a million dollars,” said the pig scratching his head. But he is hooked. The pig has always envied how some of other pigs managed to have all the money in the world; and they are always in the company of the most beautiful hens and chicks of the farm. Yes, the pig wants to be rich like them!

The hen snuggled up to the pig and gently tapped her feathered wing on the pig’s head. “Silly! We just need to borrow it from the bull from the farm across the street. I borrow; and you act as my guarantor.”   

“But what if we lose the bet?” quizzed the pig.

“We won’t!” said the hen confidently. I’ve been to this get rich quick seminar and I have the magic formula!” All we need to do is to wait for 10 straight outcome of reds, and we place all our money on the next 11^th turn on black!” The hen was quite excited and was clapping her wings as she spoke. “What are the odds of red appearing again after 10 consecutive turns?”

The next day, both the pig and hen visited the bull from across the farm. The bull was the notorious money lender of the area. In his youth, he went overseas to Spain and has gorged to death quite a few bull fighters there. Now retired from bull fighting, the bull has diverted his attention to the lucrative business of “private finance”.

“I can lend you the money,” said the bull sucking and blowing his cigar. “But what collateral do you wish to pledge?” The bull was checking the hen out from claw to beak… The hen cuts a pretty face you can say!

“Well, we can pledge ourselves. If we don’t pay up, you can do with us whatever you want.” The hen put one wing behind her head and the other on her hips.

All this while, the pig just stood there frozen with fear of the size and overpowering presence of the bull, and did not pay attention to what the hen had pledged on his behalf. Blinded by lust and greed, and now fear!

I guessed you all knew the outcome of the story. The pig and hen lost their bet at the casino and was rounded up by the bull.

The bull made the hen his mistress; and the hen had to surrender all her eggs to the bull as payment. As for the poor pig, the bull sold him to the local diner together with the eggs from the hen.

There you have it - bacon and eggs!

Can you see the difference between being committed and involved?

The pig is committed, while the hen is involved.

Do you see parallels between the above story and you?

1)     Your relationship?  

2)     Your business partner?

3)     Your work place?

4)     Your investing/trading journey?

It’s better to start young

Yes, it’s better to start young to me. (But not so young that its child labour!)

The Singapore business times have ran quite an interesting series of articles on young investors in Singapore.

I think it’s a good way to foster “entrepreneurship” and “self-reliant” amongst Singaporeans. Look beyond the usual trodden path of:

Study hard, get good grades, get a job in MNC or Govt, get married, have children, and work for life…

I started “late”. OK, I tell the truth! I am more a late developer (some call it slow. Hey! No labeling!) I started investing in stocks at 32 years young. Bought my first HDB property even younger at 35 ;)

Imagine if had started my investing journey at 25 years old. I now would have 20 years of real battle scars and experience. Not book theories and opinions!

I probably would have failed and lost all my investments at age 35. But so what? I can take (or continue with) a job and claw back by age 45. Now imagine peak earnings power coming together with street smarts? Alas, it’s not meant to be. Past is past. I must look forward.

Just take a simple test if you are in your mid 30s or 40s. Look for your cohorts that bought their first HDB in their 20s. They probably have got 2 bites of the HDB subsidized "cherry” before you bought your first HDB. Who is sleeping on bigger “paper gains” or see it in another way – bought at a cheaper price? (Missed the Singapore Great Sale?)  

Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating risk-taking for the sake of risk-taking.

But imagine being ultra “conservative” all through life, and at age 55 or 65, when we have “big” money in our hands, we start to invest in “exotics” without full understanding of their true “risk and rewards”:

1) Bank’s structured products (Bank’s advice can’t be wrong!)

2) Synthetic swap-based ETFs (Guru say ETFs safe what?)

3) Land banking

4) Fine wine investing

5) Starting/investing in a new business (I’m on thin ice here)

6) And so on…

By themselves they are no different than any other investments. But imagine doing all the above at age 55 or 65 with the experience of a “newbie”? Won’t the odds of success be greater if we have 20 to 30 years of prior investing experience (both failures and successes)?

Ah! Starting young’s cost of failure is much smaller than later. Fall down from riding a bicycle at 25 or 35 is one thing (bruises and hurt ego the most!); but at 55 or 65… Hospital and Surgical plans anyone?

P.S.  For all the singles out there who can’t afford private housing, I know I know… Must wait till 35, buy resale, and cannot qualify for HDB concession loan… What to do? But life is not about all about money and what’s fair or not. Life is… (This you may have to figure out yourself)

Roy Orbison - Oh Pretty Woman

I love this song! It's a Freudian reminder why I do what I do everyday. Cut the financial freedom bull-shit away!

Now your turn:

Everything I do, I do it for ..........  (you fill in the blanks)