Journey Towards Financial Freedom: Food for Thought
Think about this for a second.
Whenever we talk about investing our money, there’ll always be excuses. There’ll be talks about the need of being careful. There’ll also be talks about investing only the money you can afford to lose. In fact, there’s even this fellow blogger of mine who has a friend that when confronted with the idea of investing, the friend said “I’ll just wait when I’m rich“. Imagine that! Wait to invest only after we’re rich. The only way that’ll happen is perhaps through inheritance or maybe lottery? There goes the hope of wealth for the majority of the world’s population. Basically, there’ll 1001 excuses of not wanting to invest (or save money for that matter). The image we project is that, investment is a dangerous thing and a sure way to waste your money.
On the other hand, when it comes to other things in life, mainly luxuries and WANTS, it seems like, making those sort of decisions are much easier. Be it buying the biggest plasma screens, the latest mobile phones, the latest cars, the latest designer clothes, and etc. There are no talks that these sort of things being depreciable assets that give you no returns whatsoever.
Think about this, investing has the potential to GAIN YOU MORE MONEY. Purchasing luxuries and wants is a sure way of losing your money. Folks that talked about the need to be careful with not losing money is now making irrational decisions. So, why then, is the latter more attractive?
P.S. This entry is also aimed to remind MYSELF of the importance of saving and investing. Being a human being, I too can sometimes forget this.
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Other related posts:
- My Lobster Project
- Back to Basics: Recovering from Negative Returns
- When can I consider myself financially free? Part 1
- What is Financial Freedom
- Risk Tolerance Level: Part 2
11 Responses to “Journey Towards Financial Freedom: Food for Thought”
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Thanks, you have restored my faith in today’s younger generation.. I’ve seen many cases (and I repeat many) of those who are into their first few years of working life, spending hard earn cash buying designer stuff.. and these are also the same people who would tell me without blinking that they believe they are capable of managing their finances!
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing with buying designer stuff, if they can afford them, by all means, go ahead and indulge.. but when one is exchanging one’s whole month salary with just 1 bag.. that’s a bit too much right isn’t it?
True, there’s really nothing wrong with splurging on luxuries. In fact, I myself wouldn’t mind flying first class once in a while, get the most expensive mobile phone, get a Hugo Boss suit, but only if one can afford it. You got that right. Keyword, afford. It’s sad to say that delayed gratification is not present in the dictionary of most younger generations nowadays.
1 month’s salary with just 1 bag. I’ve seen that before! Then they’ll complain that the government is unfair for not supporting and helping them, all businessmen are greedy, and etc. To be honest, they’ve got no one else to blame but themselves.
Delayed gratification…yup…that’s the word I need to pass down to my children, and my husband (hehe)
Like you said, there are many reason (or excuses too) why people are ‘afraid’ of investing. My husband’s reason is bad past experience. My idea of investing in unit trust gave him a blaring yellow light, caution caution! So I’m investing in a long-term investment plan like ASB which he trusted. But if I were given the green green light…hmm…
It doesn’t really matter where you invest your money as long as you do, and the investment vehicle fits your risk profile :)
So, you’re investing in ASB. Keep up the good work!
nice post there. i agree with u that todays youth tend to go for teen-stuffs rather than other investment or financial plan. I’ve a question, do you consider that forex is an investment?. Maybe not many people realize these phenomena, in Malaysia maybe, but forex has become one of the main tools used by me and some other members in the forum to generate income.
Au contraire! There is everything wrong with splurging on luxuries!
alique: To me, Forex is an important trading instrument to create wealth. Not so much as an investment. I do trade Forex myself but the longest I’ve ever held a position was 1 week. So, for me, that does not qualify as an investment. I’m sure there are others who have opened a position and hold on to that position for years. So, to them, that might qualify as an investment. Whatever it is, at the end of the day, Forex has earned its way to be categorised as a wealth-creation vehicle.
IASSOS: I’ve got to agree with you on that. Perhaps, my usage of ’splurging’ is a bit too strong eh?
Toward financial freedom
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/05/08/im-twenty-years-old-and-have-no-debt-when-can-i-retire-and-live-off-my-investments/
Thanks for sharing.
so Nad, do u think that we should go for index funds instead of stocks? For the case of Malaysia, is it worth to invest in this funds?
I think first we need to look at what an index fund actually is.
An index fund is designed to track/replicate the performance of the index. How do they do that? Well, two ways really. The first way is to hold every single stocks in that index or to hold a number of stocks (not all) that in the opinion of the managers can represents the whole index.
As such, index funds are not designed to outperform the index it is tracking. If it did outperform, then I’m afraid it’s not a pure index fund. That’s also why, index funds are known as passive funds.
I stand to be corrected in this matter.
I really can’t say for sure whether it is worth investing in index funds in Malaysia.