5 Ways To Make People Puke about “Financial Freedom”

Posted by panzer on July 24, 2008. Filed under [personal finance]
Tags: [financial freedom in Singapore, financial freedom principles, how to lose friends and alienate relatives in financial, personal finance, personal finance in Singapore]

Panzer has started to hit his head against the dreaded writer’s block and am finding it slightly more challenging to bring you relevant and useful personal finance posts dug up from the recesses of his barely functioning brain. So, he has decided in the grand tradition of studying from better bloggers and writers (a.k.a. copying intelligently) to write a couple of posts using outrageous headlines for fun, frolic and financial freedom.

1. Telling your wife/girlfriend that her Coach/Louis Vuitton/Prada handbag is a “want” and not a “need”

This is a sure-fire way to start a cold war that makes the USA-USSR détente look like a spat between two schoolboys over “whose nuclear arsenal/political model/country is bigger?” Wants and needs are confused by many who are not educated in the ways of financial freedom. Take your time to slowly educate your significant other through your personal testimony.

2. Not “oohing” and “ahhing” over your relative’s obvious references to living in district 10 and driving a bad-ass beemer

Property is about location, location and location. One’s social status stems from where one’s humble abode is situated. So if you are totally bo-chap (i.e. do not bother to fawn) upon one’s obvious “uppers” and “betters” choice of home and transport, you commit one of the most serious faux-paus and make your relatives shun you like a child with hand-foot-mouth disease.

3. Insisting to other personal finance forummers that there is no such thing as “good” debt

The debate about good debt vs. bad debt splits people right in the middle with equal numbers being for and against the concept of good debt. Leveraging “good” debt by borrowing for housing loans and maximising the tenure whilst using spare cash flows to invest and do other neat stuff like buying that Coach/Louis Vuitton/Prada handbag to impress your wife/girlfriend gets some people going. Opponents pooh-pooh the idea of incurring more interest to invest in relatively risky assets where the returns are NOT guaranteed.

4. Laughing at conspicuous consumptions of your friends who spot a new Rolex/Phillip Patex/Longines watch while you go around with a $109 Seiko

Financial freedom is a way of life. Live and let live goes a long way to creating harmonious environment condusive for pleasant social interaction. Sniggering at how someone blows away 5 digits on something that basically tells time is a sure ticket towards losing friends faster than you can lose your monies at the upcoming Intergrated Resorts (i.e. casinos).

5. Emailing this post to your friends/relatives and saying, “it’s about you!”

Panzer writes to educate and entertain. Not to trigger flamewars and fights between friends. So I’d rather if you just read this post here and avoid emailing others about it.

Be well and prosper.