Saturday, October 30, 2010
Happy
When i was on the way home after work, something struck me.
Someone truly trained in economics will see everything as a function of something, and everything can be quantified (either nominally or ordinally) using some instruments.
Happiness in life. What is it a function of?
It can boil down to many things. The major items: people relations, physical health, money, outlook for future, satisfication in what you do, challenges that you feel like taking on or unable/unwilling to take on etc.
I'm sure people are mostly aware that these things are required for the feeling of happiness.
However, the minor items that constitute to major items are usually things people aren't aware of.
People relations: It could come from family, your partner (or lack of one), friends, colleagues etc.
Physical health: Being generally healthy is not enough. Simple things like sufficient sleep everyday, proper hydration, proper meals/diet, exercise to keep your heart pumping once in a while etc is neccessary to make yourself feel physically good.
Money: Knowing generally that you 'do not have enough money' is not enough. You must know exactly which are the needs/wants that you want to fulfil yet have insufficient money, item by item. And after which, you must have a plan. Since resources are scarce, you either a) improve your incone stream or b) make the optimal trade-offs in the 'item list' you've done earlier. Really desperate to have that holiday in the near future? Stop spending all those money on unneccessary entertainment. Really unable to shake off the need to splurge every month? Stop complaining for the lack of money for a big ticket item like a holiday.
By planning you'll be able to know what to do: once you have a clear direction, thrift becomes more focused and objective-based, thus easier to execute, giving you more mental freedom.
Outlook of future: Perhaps this is something we can't control. However, one can always keep asking oneself: In the next 2, 5, and 10 years, what do I see myself as? And every bit of your short-term actions to work towards that long-term goal. If you want to excel, excel in your everyday actions. If you want to enjoy and live life comfortably, be relaxed and stop comparing to others. The most important thing is to have a goal and work towards it. Like a captain of a ship guided by a compass. He will know how to steer the wheel whenever he is off-course. Do not have a mentality of 'i'll see where this takes me'. Without a goal you'll not have any intent to your actions - much like the captain, but without a compass. He'll forever be battling the storms of the rough seas, going in different directions, not knowing where the port lies. Discouraging voyage that will be, isn't it?
And of course, there are the little things like the public transport system. Believe me, I observed myself to be very mentally shagged out whenever I encounter irritation on the bus or MRT. Simple things like aunties using bags to shove me around (hitting me around the rib cage area - very irritating), people opening their legs so wide and not realising that someone is sitting beside them, people who keep shuffling (do they have fleas in their underwear or what?) and elbowing your rib cage area as a result, or simply having to stand on the bus - makes me really irritated when I go to work.
This is what was happening to me when I intern-ed at MTI. Everyday, I had to really squeeze on the MRT to go to Cityhall. And by the time I reached workplace, I'm mentally so shagged that it really affected the way I viewed work. Luckily for me now, I have a seat on 506 (Express bus - expensive) everyday I go to work. As a result? I start the day much more happy and thus productive.
In conclusion, being 'happy' is more than just a general feeling. It takes discipline and action to tackle the little little specifics. And these little details will accumulate into major issues which would affect how we feel.
Try sleeping for more than 7 hours daily for a whole week.
Try having a 3-month savings plan to work towards.
Try having a healthier diet.
Try some slow jogging at least once a week.
Try drinking more water than what you usually do.
Try playing some music while you work.
Try talking to your boss on the difficulties you face.
Try sounding out your colleagues working in other industries to increase knowledge of your career choices.
Try buying lottery every week to give yourself some hope of financial freedom.
Try having a 'i wanna conquer this' mentality when matched with a challenge like how you used to when doing 'challenging sums' in primary school.
All these will seem small and insignificant. But when you do all these, you might feel yourself feeling way better than before.
You are the master of your life. It's YOUR life anyway. Go. Go make yourself happy.
lowtide blogged @
11:07 am
Monday, October 25, 2010
Funny
It's a funny world.
People championing the rights for foreign workers to have self-worth, to have proper accomodation; at the same time, not wanting them to stay near as it is socially awkward and 'devalues the flat'.
People saying that we should have more rental flats to house the poor homeless, but a hooha ensues when they are built next to their flats. Same reasons given.
"YOU please go provide humanity, but not at my expense hor, thanks."
Why can't people just admit their ugly sides and stop acting noble? Just admit it - we are crazily selfish.
lowtide blogged @
12:37 am
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Delusional
You're so delusional it's amusing
lowtide blogged @
9:01 pm
Saturday, October 16, 2010
OBS and money
Felt like talking to myself again.
OBS was quite fun! Fortunately or unfortunately we are in a corporate setting, so it wasn't as physically demanding or tough. However, I would loved it to be at least more intellectually challenging, more "mf" basically. Not bad, at least I:
- got to know more friends, and better
- do some good tanning and exercise
- feel young and eager to move around again, in sports attire instead of corporate wear
- get to do something (at least parts of it) I missed out during my sec sch days (now I still don't understand why my family was so kiasi - I'm a guy - I didn't even go to the P5 camping trip!)
- tried crawling the tunnel in total darkness
- enjoyed forest and nature not in SAF no. 4
- had time to reflect what kind of personal relations I want to build with colleagues
- regained that 'active feel' again
Life's good, really. Work's sufficient, not too easy but not too xiong. Starting pay's rather high (but perhaps the grouses will come when others fly few years later). People around me are friendly, even as I'm still trying to understand their likes and dislikes.
But well, again the constant calculations and some worries about money. Perhaps it's just me. Always thinking ahead. Always wanting to settle into some sort of a rhythm and sticking with it, as soon as possible.
I am impatient by nature, so I have to make use of this characteristic to its best: Make use of it to plan far, to do things fast, to be efficient, to innovate, yet being able to withstand others' inertia and slowness, and be able to enjoy and tahan the transition between the present and the 'settled state'.
Seeing this, it's quite demoralising that despite my so-called higher starting pay, i'm not being able to save much, incurring even negative savings. I have less in my bank account now at the end of each pay month than when I started work. Why? A big chunk goes to the study loan.
And after downloading some excel file from some financial site, and deducting monthly fixed expenses (e.g. insurance, normal food, public transport, study loan, phone and utility bills) from my post-CPF pay, I only have a few hundred to save every month. So, any luxuries or daddy spending (better meals, cab fares, shopping purchases, dunno-what bills uncleared) will eat into this portion. With more of these, I can easily save nothing.
With so many wants: build up buffer for emergency, travelling, marriage, current consumption etc, it certainly isn't easy.
If I'm like that, I shutter to think for the rest of society. There are certainly others who earn less than me, have worse family situations or more commitments, how do they live their lives? If they don't do financial planning (perhaps they don't even have the spare cash to), how are they going to see the light at the end of the tunnel? Are they contented to live like that always, living from paycheque to paycheque, not having any buffer or cover for emergencies?
The ultimate question if you are a compassionate policy-maker: How are you going to make life better for them? Or are you going to see that since your life is ok, you disregard the rest of them, stating: "life is just unfair, suck it", while you're happily in your sheltered dome?
That being said, I'm not in the business of economic policy making, and for now I can't do anything. For myself, perhaps I can plan like that:
Short term: Get that bloody study loan cleared ASAP. Be stingy on the unnecessary spending for now.
Mid term: Once cleared, can afford to enjoy a little more. Have more liquid money, both in savings plus wants like travels, future house renovations etc.
Long term: Devote a few hundred monthly into long-term compounding for retirement purposes.
At all times, have good insurance coverage for myself and daddy.
Ok I'm glad I wrote them down. Hope it will help me think less about money daily!
lowtide blogged @
1:40 pm
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Life
It's either I don't know how to enjoy life or I'm too matured and realise that I must suffer little by little now to have greater enjoyment and financial freedom in the further future.
lowtide blogged @
11:59 pm
Saturday, October 09, 2010
To avoid flooding facebook
Actually I live a rather comfortable life now. Ok that's at least financially. Right now, I'm able to take taxi home once in a while without feeling too guilty, able to buy shoes/clothes that I like periodically with sufficient budget. This is way better than the yesteryears, starting from primary school when I didn't even bear to spend the entire of my 50cents pocket money on a small cup of soft drink after playing soccer. Trips to fun locations such as the zoo, movies are certainly out of the way (gratefully other than via the kindness of xiao gu, a great woman I have a lot of respect for). Not to mention overseas trips, non-existent.
Secondary school was better, with me able to afford some 1 cheap meal a day, and that's it. Careful planning/squeezing is needed if I wanted to afford drinks after soccer.
JC was then a little bit better, with me able to afford 1 meal + 1 or 2 drinks everyday, but movies and other luxuries are still largely out of the way.
Why am I saying this? It's because I'm really afraid that I'll be so comfortable in my current stage that I forgot where I came from, or the journey I've been through. To be honest, it sucks to need to scrimp and save for things you want, even as simple as a cold drink after soccer. I'm also afraid I'll catch the Gen-Y disease - as I get too comfortable, I'm unable to take hardship anymore. I'm afraid to lose that resilience I once had. Even though I do not want to return to those sian days, I have to remind myself not to lose memory of those days I had, and that determined character built from those times. I can sense myself losing it.
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Mdm Kwa's passing away only served to confirm the epiphany I had one night sleeping in PGP. No matter how capable you are, how much you possess in the world, how great your life is, one day, you'll pass away, and you can't bring anything back.
From a third person point of view, looking at people feeling emo about the things in life, you can't help but wonder how long can the thing last even you indeed get what you want? Life is like a HDB flat - even in name you own it, but in actual fact it is a running timer - there is a limited time period of lease. And upon the lease expiry, you would have to return it, and all that you have paid will go to nothing.
Ok if you achieved more, or if you earned more, the thing will follow you a few more decades, and that's it. It's not forever. Nothing is. Yes, you will live on in your descendants' hearts. But they (along with their memories) will die rather soon too right? Unless you are some famous/highly-important person which books will remember you. Until the extinction of the human race. Judging by how we consume the Earth's resources, it wouldn't be too far away.
Of course, to view worldly things with such 胸襟 (for the lag of an English equivalent), it's way easier said than done. I was superbly delighted when I got first class honours after 4 years of hard work. I am still very happy for the few-hundred pay adjustment last week. I know these things wouldn't last, yet I'm so stuck in and feel so happy for them.
Lesson: Nothing lasts forever. As the poem goes "There's a time for everything. A time to...". As much as possible, do both. Plan from a whole life perspective, and really make use of every day.
From money, to time, to where to travel, to what to learn, to who to love.
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Yes, I admit I had tears in my eyes when I saw the old man plant 2 kisses using his wrinkled hand on his wife's body in the coffin. At that instant he wasn't the all-powerful man we know. He was just a helpless old man, as vulnerable to mortality as the rest of us is. The loneliness must be painful and consuming. I sympathise the death, but more so with the living.
And don't be mistaken. This scene will happen to all of us one day.
lowtide blogged @
9:07 am
Saturday, October 02, 2010
无奈
Haiz, 无论你在人世间多本事，多风光，另一半多恩爱，最终也逃不过时间的流逝，命运向你的招手。还是珍惜当下，把握现在，那才是最实际
，最明智的。世间的无奈啊，无奈。。
lowtide blogged @
9:19 pm
The best thing that has happened this week is the hedgedeebee envelope with the red 'confidential' chop.
Adjustment = more motivated me! :D
Finally some reprieve after spending so much (not for myself) these months.
lowtide blogged @
1:01 pm
