reflections
Segoi! omoshiiroi wa anime! season fall..
The definition of rich comes in many forms, where more often than not, the mislead and ignorant defines it by the size of your home, the price of your materials and even your angmo-ness of ur language. While i am certainly not rich, i hate it when people say i am. For it isn't presented as a compliment nor a comment, but rather, the tone tags along streams of underlying remarks like snob, pampered, cheap. For whatever reason people do, i shall enlighten them on the definition and meanings of rich in the crash course that follows. Disclaimer: most of the following infomation are not my opinion but knowledge that i have gained over the years.
For a start, if one assume a person lives in a private home, owns more pricey items is rich, probably one needs to be less ignorant, for i have seen the truely rich, even in singapore. Probably off ignorant's scale of wealth measurement. A simple way of segreggating society would be, reaching rich(poor), rich(middle class), wealthy(aristocrats). The reaching rich is not a classification but merely a process, where breadwinners pay of debts (some times accumulate them) at the end of each month and habits of poor money management and gambling, struggle to make ends meet. The viscious cycle could well replace the class reaching, with never reaching, but thats absolute and Ms choy doesn't allow that. My point here isn't regarding the poor, but rather the rich which in my definition happen to refer to the middle class, where arguably, all of us fall into. The reason why we are classified rich is simple, for the oxford says : rich = ample, wealthy = abundant. The poor accumulates enough money to satisfy the basic needs in Maslow's Hiearchy of needs, while the rich(us) disgutingly argue and ask for more and are never satisfied with ever rising masterialistic gains, disdaining those with alittle more, the newer, the shinier, the more expensive. The problem lies with the rich, for the rich have enough wealth to potentially enter the wealthy column, and also have enough risk to fall into the poor column, but most just remain the rat race.
The rat race is a complex concept. Imagine a rat running on a treadmill, where each step represents, work, eat, sleep, payday, spend, back to work..and it continues on the seemingly endless catalogue..Bascially, few break out of this trap, not without luck, but with a lower level of stubborness and snobbishness. Those who remain in the rat race point fingers and blame their fortune or people around while panting and sweating from the thousands of rounds they've travelled, and yet to have displaced 1cm. The barrier to break out of the rat race isn't very high, but the mental barrier is.
Have you ever heard of, "don't work for money, let money work for you?". While it sounds too good to be true, it is precisely how the wealthy class earn their income. Wealthy is defined by those whom possess sufficient wealth in appropriate forms(assets) to provide income without having to lose any capita. For example, if i give 1million dollars to a rich man, and a wealthy man, the rich man would undoubtely, buy a ferrari(fyi a ferrari costs abt a million), while the wealthyman might probably buy a house. Now both of them no longer have any money, but the rich man gets alot of attention, one night stands, enjoys his car(liability), while the wealthy man leaves his property to collect cobwebs. Listen to this, 10 years later, the rich man's car gets scrapped, and the wealthy man sells his house for an appreciated 2million dollars! the rich man returns to work and earns 5k a month spending it at the end of each month or saving it, while the rich man now buys 2 new houses! If you have not grasp the essence of my point here then probably u need to understand the difference between an asset and a liability. An asset never loses its value, a liability has no value. When i said before that both men no longer have any money, it wasn't entirely true, because the wealthy man's money is in the form of assets, property fixed assets in this case, whereas the rich man's money is lost. I know you may argue that his money is in the form of his car and is an asset too, but can he sell his car for the 1million back?i doubt so.
The problem with the middle class is that these people driven by greed and compulsion, fail to see the need for savings, investment and placing their money into assets. splurging on liabilities such as lewis vuiton, goochi, and god knows what. Well im not saying that everyone should empty their banks and pour into the stock market, but my point is to cut down on liabilities and increase ur asset column. Assets always generate returns, it could be the pathetic 2% singapore's banks are giving, or 8% in new zealand, or 6% average dividents in stock markets, or my favourite, long term solid property assets. Bill gates don't actually own anything, this 80 billion worth(not until he donated half of it to charity) are in the form of assets and THIS is exactly how the rich avoid taxes, because federal tax eats away a chunk of ur income and money, keeping ur money in the form of assets and earning from the appreciations and returns don't render any tax paying(unless ur in asset taxing countries like Norway, urgh). In other words, bill gates doesn't pay tax, the government has failed to serve one of its 3 roles of distribution function. its more like distribute from the rich to the poor, and from the wealthy to the wealthy. Asset playing can also be extremely risky, but far less risky than liabilities or the worse, gambling.
I am to climb up the social ladder not based on salary alone but brains and brawns. People often spend in good times and save in bad times, saying trival things like oh lets celebrate and throw parties, buy luxuries even though the are priced high in good times. and in bad times, when interest rates are low and returns are less appealing, they start saving. Talk abt self denial. Don't investors u see on daily papers say buy low sell high buy low sell high buy low sell high?and why the kuku are the rich buying high and selling low? making up the loss with income, its fine but it gets worse when u are retrenched. the moral of the story is, save in good times, invest in bad times.
i wished i had the energy to nag more about the concept of wealth but i have to call Rl and sleep.
goodnight.
GC!!! contact me for more pretty patterns!! datahush@Hotmail.com
Wo0
wo0! HOT
~datahush vi britannia commands..
10:32 PM
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