The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the rank of the insane
- Marcus Aurelius
The majority is always wrong - Orson Wells, Warren Buffet
Living within your means:
- Spend less than what you earn every month
- Spend on things you can really afford
- Accept that there are things you can do without
Dr David G. Myers, the Pursuit of Happiness:
Two way to be rich:
- To have great wealth
- To have few wants
2013 Wish: Live free, die happy.
Free from Debt, Worry and Illness (DWI)
My 3 values: Peace, Sanity and Robust Health
Success is a progressive realization towards a worthy ideal.
I gave everything I own to my wife. I want to be a Nothing. By being a Nothing I am everything.
I am a free man. My time is 100% mine, I have no worries and I am debt free,
That doesn't mean I say no to money. I am on austerity but I'm not ascetic.
3 things I like doing; read, run, write. Especially writing. I write because I am a writer
I set aside some money for myself. Enough to earn me interest to spend on my expenses. The rest goes to my wife.
You save RM100 a month, in 5 years time that will become RM6,000
When you don't have debts, you don't need much money. When you don't have debt, not only you spend less, you actually save more.
Quality first, brand second.
COVID-19 is the corrective mechanism.
I did a greenlighting exercise for me to have a flamboyant lifestyle to last me for 20 years. It costs me RM97 million. Then I did a redlighting and see what are the details I have to put up with. The killer is not the acquisition but the maintenance of the assets and staff. So I decided to scale down to the basic minimum to be happy and I realized all I need for myself is RM6,000 a year. That is equivalent to RM120,000 in reserve. That's the bare minimum to be happy.
Yes you need money. In my case I have ample reserve. But once you have enough reserve, you don't need to keep on stacking money. It's like the story of this island where the wealth is measured in stone. The wealthiest is the family with the biggest stone but the stone is underwater. Just like people who have millions or billions. They don't use all, they are just hoarders of money.
Hedonic adaptation
Hedonic treadmill
There will come a time when you are beyond service. That is when your 24 hours is yours. At that time you don't need to trade your time for your earning. You are free. That's where I am now. Being microscopic, my service is only for myself, my family and people who are close to me.
The key is to make enough and exit early. Then focus on what you really want in life. In my case, my long term goal is health and happiness. My daily pursuit is read, run and write.
What counts really is cash at hand and food on the table. No money is instant death while no food is slow death. The rest of the things can't help you much unless you have jewelries.
This I learned during the hard times. In 1999 I was caught with my pants down. I own so many things but they are liabilities. I have to earn a certain amount so that I can service my loans. Those things I own didn't help at all.
My final advice is get out of debt as fast as you can and save as much as possible for first 10 years from where you start..
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