Skip to main content

Lubricant of life… money

 Yes that’s what money does

It’s a lubricant of life, like engine oil is a lubricant for a car engine. Without sufficient lubricant, the engine seizes and stops working. Your life becomes very difficult to move along, things become difficult, food becomes scarce etc

But, too much lubricant is also not good. The engine will be damaged too!

Too much money? How dare you say that? There’s never too much money!

Well, I think too much money is harmful to life too. You can only eat so much or drink so much a day. You only lie on one bed to sleep. You can only drive one car at any time.

Excessive money will lubricant your life so smooth that your life become very boring very quickly and you will start having all kinds of issues (think addiction to substances and alcohol etc)

Life becomes too easy. Everything comes easily. Want that car? You got it. Want that house? Here take the keys. Want to fly to Japan for ramen, let’s go! There are no efforts anymore!


We thrive on life satisfactions, that comes from achieving something, big or small. 

When you have a job, each small tasks completed makes you feel better right? Imagine all your tasks are so simple, you will bore to death even if the job pays well. If you pay me $10k a month to sit at desk to press one button for 8hrs per day, I will quit shortly. 

Money can over lubricate your life. 

Zero or insufficient money can make your life hard, or maybe even impossible if your basic needs cannot be met

The key here is to know when you have enough money lubricating the life you want to live. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Expenses of a middle-classy Singapore uncle with family

I don't know what exactly is considered middle-class in SG, but I figured its the fat range in the middle section if we were to line people up based on income. There will be a steep drop off from the bottom 5% and a steep surge from the top 5, and another galactic surge from the top 1%. Uncle is pretty sure I am in that middle chunk of 90%, and based on my estimation, should be in the front 30 percentile in this chunk. Now, this is how my expenses look like for myself (excluding what my wife contributes). The numbers are on per month and in SGD Car expenses (loan, insurance, maintenance, tax, fuel) = $2,500 Insurance premiums = $800 Utilities bill = $350 Mobile lines for 5 = $90 Home internet line = $30 Services (Netflix, Spotify, iCloud) = $60 Condo maintenance fees = $350 Property tax = $250 Groceries and take out meals = $1200 Allowance for my parent = $1000 Allowance for kiddos = $200 School fees for kiddos = $150 Tuition fees = $270 Piano, and music classes = $900 Sub-Total fo...

The joy of freedom

As a parent with young school going children, you want to be there for them all the time, being available when they need help, guidance, company etc. You also want to not miss major milestones, achievements, celebrations as they grow up.  This by itself is a luxury that not many parent can afford in Singapore. With most families having both parents working full time, what happens to their kids? When they are very very young (below school age), there's full day childcare, either with professionals or with extended family help. When they start going to school (primary, secondary), there's after school student care options, or someone could be at home (a grandparent), or a live-in domestic helper, or maybe even just the kids will be home alone after school and before parents leave office.  Then when you finally got vacation leave approved, maybe for 7-10 days a stretch, you plan efficiently for your family overseas trip, squeezing as much itinerary as you can possibly afford to, ...

Getting comfortable without a salary from working

 Not sure if I am there yet. Basically I am effectively drawing down my cash each month, primarily due to 2 things : mortgage and income tax mortgage (after CPF) is about $9k per month income tax is about $5k per month My investment cashflow covers all my other expenses, including utilities, groceries, handphone/internet bills, insurance, property taxes, condo maintenance fees, personal spending. With some input from wife who is still working, I am still out of pocket by almost $11k per month.  She will continue to be able to save a decent sum per month and I'll let her grow that and managed it for her via safe investments. Am I comfortable? Not really. I will if I am not out of pocket per month. If I really stop working for good, the income tax amount will go to $0 after 2025. So only mortgage left We can pay off the mortgage but I think I said before, it doesn't make sense since it's our home and we will be locking the money up with little leeway to do other things. So I ...