Macro:
The G20 talks are currently being held in Osaka, Japan, where Trump and Xi will conduct their trade talks.
Micro:
Dave Ramsey and the Anti-debt Movement
I have been listening a lot to Dave Ramsey over the past month. Yes, it is easy to dismiss him and his fans if you are Ivy League educated or have pretensions in that direction. No, he is not some simple-minded hill-billy. The fact that he espouses very simple truths in life and repeats them over and over again does not lower him to a simpleton - it is a sign that most of us have lost our common sense and perseverance that he is able to find fans and audience.
Of Truths & the Need to Repeat Them
If good habits and values are the persistent and repetitive exercise in simple truths, why should the repetition of simple truths ever be denigrated? Repetition is the reason why chanting is performed in many different types of religions, isn't it? It is because people are naturally inclined to deviate from the truths that necessitate the repetition of truths.
Of Overconsumption & Shame
Successful personal finances begin with defining our consumption patterns. Perhaps, I am a very self-aware person, that is why over-consumption tends to make me cringe inside with shame. Last weekend, my friend and I patronized the new darling in the local food scene Beauty In A Pot, over-ordered as we were not able to pre-empt the size of food portions and ended up with distended bellies. Such experiences make me feel shameful - overeating is a source of shame - overspending on food is a source of shame.
Why shame? Because we should respect the universe's resources and take only what we need and truly want. Because we should respect our own resources and not end up paying for what we do not need or truly want. Because I am well-acquainted with the concept of respect, I am attuned to shame, and ashamed was what I felt.
Of Obese Women & Daisy Dukes
But why are people so shameless these days? I see obese women with huge thighs wearing Daisy Dukes and walking up and down in town. The current (nonsensical) line of thinking that everyone is entitled to self-esteem and we should all leave other people's self-esteem alone (an oxymoronic argument) would condemn me for my negative response.
Some form of overeating gave the women those huge thighs (don't give me the dysfunctional hormones crap). Now these women are flaunting to the world the retribution for their overeating. They may not be "flaunting" as a conscious act - they may justify their choice of garment with the "hot Singapore weather". But does it matter what their uttermost intention is when all that is visible are fat thighs exposed to the world? Isn't the meaning of modesty to cover up oneself instead of being an eyesore to others?
Back to the Anti-debt Movement
Because my mind has been soaked in Dave Ramsey over the past month or so, I now realise that the most of the world around me has been de-sensitized to unhealthy forms of debt, namely consumer debt.
Credit cards - Credit cards induce higher expenditure, even among those who make it a point to pay off their cards every month. Psychologically, the parting of cash induces subliminal pain, whereas payments using credit cards neuter the pain. I watch myself and I realise that this is true.
Cars - This is a very old and tired topic in the Singapore context, where cars are very rarely truly needed as we have an advanced public transport system. Cars are a status symbol here and are sold at exorbitant prices (this is a land where a 10-year Toyota Corolla Altis can be sold for SGD 32,000 (USD 24,000)). Yet people still buy cars - saying that they do not evaluate the purchase based on its price tag, but based on its monthly cash outflow. At least, this is the rationale that one of my colleagues revealed to me.
This is irrational to the extreme, because it clearly ignores the impact of expenditure to an individual's overall net worth. To them, affordability is not assessed based on net worth as benchmark, but using cash flow. To express the same idea in another way, in the minds of such individuals there is neither concept of net worth nor opportunity cost. All it seems that is that they live for the immediate or near-immediate time frame. Or they view net worth as something very distant in the infinite future, something very nebulous and malleable that they can shape by their future economic activities and not to be impacted by the cash outflows from their current purchases.
Now that I have bought fully into the anti-debt philosophy, I am very energized to extinguish debt. I have zero consumer debt, having only housing mortgage. For at least the past two weeks or so, I have been living in a constant preoccupation on this topic. This obsession is a rather cheerless one, and one with a strong undercurrent of anxiety. I belong to the personality type that enjoys looking for things to worry and obsess over - this is hardly healthy!
FIRE Movement & the INTRINSIC SELFISHNESS
Recently, I read about a FIRED blogger who practises FREEGANISM as part of how he sustains himself. I feel very disgusted by this.
There are people who regard work as a great taboo, and scorns it so much that they will do anything not to work even if it entails scavenging and salvaging. Scavenging and salvaging is their act of defiance against the system that they abhor - they want to prove to the system that they can live well and sustain themselves without playing by its rules. Yet, in doing so, they are only unwittingly reinforcing the system. The system is created by those who work and labour, collecting the crumbs that fall through the crack only reinforces the presence of the source.
By all means, become debt-free, become financially independent, but the best state to be is to be financially independent to the extent that one is able to help others and still contribute to society.
FIRE is intrinsically a self-centred movement. Its adherents aim to live and die unto themselves. They plan to fall off the grid once they FIRE.
How about having excess, above FIRE minimum, to help those who are worthy of being helped if and when they fall on hard times? Your own siblings, your own nieces and nephews, your own ageing parents? I rarely hear of FIRE calculations that factor in reserves to help worthy people in worthy causes. FIRE is just about "me, me, me and me" - lazing the days away in hobbies and pastimes after achieving the means not to work.
No wonder many FIRE adherents are cold in temperament and unlovable - they care only about themselves and no one else, and the word "giving" is missing from their vocabulary. There is really nothing quite as narcissistic and egoistic in this - how interesting it is that narcissism can assume so many different forms. So yes, they should indeed go and live and die unto themselves, because this is still better than being a burden on others, isn't it?
Daily Spending Report (28 Jun 19):
Breakfast - Soya bean muffins X 2 - SGD 3.20 (USD 2.37)
Lunch - Brown rice with sliced potatoes, box beans & egg beancurd SGD 4 (USD 2.96)
Snack - Brownie from Posh - SGD 3.80 (USD 2.81)
Printing service - SGD 1 (USD 0.74)
Hair Spray - SGD 8.45 (USD 6.25)
TOTAL SPENDING - SGD 20.45 (USD 15.12)
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