Real income divide

An old story but one that reflects what we're all discussing here. Draw your own conclusions. =D

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An American investment banker was taking a much-needed vacation in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. The boat had several large, fresh fish in it.

The investment banker was impressed by the quality of the fish and asked the Mexican how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, "Only a little while." The banker then asked why he didn't stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican fisherman replied he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The American then asked "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman replied, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos: I have a full and busy life, senor."

The investment banker scoffed, "I am an Ivy League MBA, and I could help you. You could spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats until eventually you would have a whole fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to the middleman you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You could control the product, processing and distribution."

Then he added, "Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City where you would run your growing enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15-20 years."

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You could make millions."

"Millions, senor? Then what?"

To which the investment banker replied, "Then you would retire. You could move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

(08-11-2011, 08:52 PM)karlmarx Wrote:

(08-11-2011, 08:39 PM)greypiggi Wrote:

(08-11-2011, 08:04 PM)KopiKat Wrote: ...

Opps! By that definition, I am internal scorecard. Thanks for clarifying. So I am just hyper competitive then with a disregard for what others think.

if you are unable to 'take it easy.. slow down.. enjoy family life.. travel... smell the roses', because you're 'immersed in a competitive environment', it becomes unlikely that you are able to 'disregard for what others think'.

i think you were right the first time.

But I select the latter leh... I think buffet meant that you can be very competitive and always want to win and do your best but you do not need others to know. I think that quite describes how I feel.

Anyway I think have been having some success on the smell roses bit. Have been traveling for holiday about 6 times this year and try to go home before 7pm daily. Hopefully chatting with you sensible guys here in this forum will be good too. I am an avid investor having done day trading , technical and now trying to do proper value/long term investing. That is how I found this forum in the first place.

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(08-11-2011, 02:27 PM)karlmarx Wrote: 10,000 housholds may be too big a figure. i don't think bukit timah has that many households (of course, not all the rich stay there).

My 10000 is a guesstimate. Could be high and it depends on whether we count only investable assets or total net worth. See this article :

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business...6142435657

My deduction is that if there are 11m usd millionaires in USA and 1m decamillionaires, then if we use same ratio and apply to sg 100k millionaires, then we get about 9000- 10000 guys... But could be off.

How we see ourselves or self esteem is crucially important too, I think!

If we are "anorexic", no matter how thin we still think we are too fat.

Similary, to an insecure person, no amount of money is enough...

Good story kazukirai! If we just want to look at the sky, why the need to climb the mountain?

Happiness is from within and not from without. If it is from without, there won't be so many unhappy rich people. Put it another way, all rich people will then be happy people. All poor people will be unhappy people.

All of the rich people i know are happy.
One of them told me:
"99% of all problems can be solve by money.
I am 99% of e time happy!"

Inner score card, outer score card.
Seriously, why must it be a score card?
We are pretty obsessed with results and quantifying it.

Why cant it be simple as 'I am happy with the life I am leading right now, I am living a full life'
Also, corporate life is unhealthy, it's just the way it is. If you can, escape and do something else.

Why do I say that, let's start in the morning, before you even start work and face your boss.

1. You wake up. (do you really want to wake up this early? or would you rather sleep late?)
2. You go about your usual routine and you travel to work(after dropping off the kids etc)
Now, here you take public transport or you drive. We all know how crammed the MRTs are.
how can you be happy when you are packed like sardines every 5 days of the week???
So you drive, congrats, you are paying good money to be stuck in traffic and in some places there is no season parking for you.
3. You reach the office, greeting people you wished were dead. You switch on your PC/laptop and heads off to the pantry to take your daily
water. You check your schedule. Deadlines, meetings, con calls, reports...is there any happy event? Actually there is, that is 12.00pm,
freedom for 1hr. 4 hours from now, lunchtime.

(09-11-2011, 12:32 AM)Big Toe Wrote: Inner score card, outer score card.
Seriously, why must it be a score card?
We are pretty obsessed with results and quantifying it.

Why cant it be simple as 'I am happy with the life I am leading right now, I am living a full life'
Also, corporate life is unhealthy, it's just the way it is. If you can, escape and do something else.

Why do I say that, let's start in the morning, before you even start work and face your boss
1. You wake up. (do you really want to wake up this early? or would you rather sleep late?)
2. You go about your usual routine and you travel to work(after dropping off the kids etc)
Now, here you take public transport or you drive. We all know how crammed the MRTs are.
how can you be happy when you are packed like sardines every 5 days of the week???
So you drive, congrats, you are paying goo money to be stuck in traffic and in some places there is no season parking for you.
3. You reach the office, greeting people you wished were dead. You switch on your PC/laptop and heads off to the pantry to take your daily
water. You check your schedule. Deadlines, meetings, con calls, reports...is there any happy event? Actually there is, that is 12.00pm,
freedom for 1hr. 4 hours from now, lunchtime.

totally agree big toe. That is one of the main reasons why I started own business. But as business grows, there are also people I do not like in my office, meetings that I wish I do not have to attend.... But it is a lot less I guess...

But to share my own feeling from no money to 1m and now many many times more... Money does give you a sense of security and it also allows you to buy time for yourself. It also feels good knowing that all work you do is optional. But the truth is, you also worry a lot of how to grow and maintain it. And you still need to work to keep engaged or else you feel you are wasting away time.

As for daily life,money helps so I definitely encourage everyone to hit at least the level that satisfies you. Mine is min 10m usd.

1) can go to work at 930am onwards hence skipping jam. Heck you can choose a work plan or rent office near home.

2) can stay near kids school so that they can walk.

3) tons of concierge services, personalize services so u do not need to queue. Business class, vvip cards, private bankers.

4) lots more time to travel and hence for me catch up on reading non business stuff.

5) go home at 5pm sharp to spend time with kids, better half, parents.

6) no bosses, basically I am nice to people in general but if they piss me off, then I can always just delete them from my life without any worries.

The thing is that I recommend getting richer slowly. If possible don't have a sudden windfall.. cuz I find we get used to new stuff quite fast. Research has shown a new house excites or and pleases for about 1-2 years. I totally agree.new car same... Hermes bags prob 6 mths. So if one gets too much money... Life starts to get jaded fast.

To me ideally struggle 10 yrs to make 1m, take another 5 yrs to get 3m, 5 years to Get 6m and retire after another 5 years at 48-50 with 10m would be good pace.

(09-11-2011, 09:06 AM)greypiggi Wrote:

(09-11-2011, 12:32 AM)Big Toe Wrote: Inner score card, outer score card.
Seriously, why must it be a score card?
We are pretty obsessed with results and quantifying it.

Why cant it be simple as 'I am happy with the life I am leading right now, I am living a full life'
Also, corporate life is unhealthy, it's just the way it is. If you can, escape and do something else.

Why do I say that, let's start in the morning, before you even start work and face your boss
1. You wake up. (do you really want to wake up this early? or would you rather sleep late?)
2. You go about your usual routine and you travel to work(after dropping off the kids etc)
Now, here you take public transport or you drive. We all know how crammed the MRTs are.
how can you be happy when you are packed like sardines every 5 days of the week???
So you drive, congrats, you are paying goo money to be stuck in traffic and in some places there is no season parking for you.
3. You reach the office, greeting people you wished were dead. You switch on your PC/laptop and heads off to the pantry to take your daily
water. You check your schedule. Deadlines, meetings, con calls, reports...is there any happy event? Actually there is, that is 12.00pm,
freedom for 1hr. 4 hours from now, lunchtime.

totally agree big toe. That is one of the main reasons why I started own business. But as business grows, there are also people I do not like in my office, meetings that I wish I do not have to attend.... But it is a lot less I guess...

But to share my own feeling from no money to 1m and now many many times more... Money does give you a sense of security and it also allows you to buy time for yourself. It also feels good knowing that all work you do is optional. But the truth is, you also worry a lot of how to grow and maintain it. And you still need to work to keep engaged or else you feel you are wasting away time.

As for daily life,money helps so I definitely encourage everyone to hit at least the level that satisfies you. Mine is min 10m usd.

1) can go to work at 930am onwards hence skipping jam. Heck you can choose a work plan or rent office near home.

2) can stay near kids school so that they can walk.

3) tons of concierge services, personalize services so u do not need to queue. Business class, vvip cards, private bankers.

4) lots more time to travel and hence for me catch up on reading non business stuff.

5) go home at 5pm sharp to spend time with kids, better half, parents.

6) no bosses, basically I am nice to people in general but if they piss me off, then I can always just delete them from my life without any worries.

The thing is that I recommend getting richer slowly. If possible don't have a sudden windfall.. cuz I find we get used to new stuff quite fast. Research has shown a new house excites or and pleases for about 1-2 years. I totally agree.new car same... Hermes bags prob 6 mths. So if one gets too much money... Life starts to get jaded fast.

To me ideally struggle 10 yrs to make 1m, take another 5 yrs to get 3m, 5 years to Get 6m and retire after another 5 years at 48-50 with 10m would be good pace.

Then what?

(09-11-2011, 10:08 AM)orang Wrote:

(09-11-2011, 09:06 AM)greypiggi Wrote:

(09-11-2011, 12:32 AM)Big Toe Wrote: Inner score card, outer score card.
Seriously, why must it be a score card?
We are pretty obsessed with results and quantifying it.

Why cant it be simple as 'I am happy with the life I am leading right now, I am living a full life'
Also, corporate life is unhealthy, it's just the way it is. If you can, escape and do something else.

Why do I say that, let's start in the morning, before you even start work and face your boss
1. You wake up. (do you really want to wake up this early? or would you rather sleep late?)
2. You go about your usual routine and you travel to work(after dropping off the kids etc)
Now, here you take public transport or you drive. We all know how crammed the MRTs are.
how can you be happy when you are packed like sardines every 5 days of the week???
So you drive, congrats, you are paying goo money to be stuck in traffic and in some places there is no season parking for you.
3. You reach the office, greeting people you wished were dead. You switch on your PC/laptop and heads off to the pantry to take your daily
water. You check your schedule. Deadlines, meetings, con calls, reports...is there any happy event? Actually there is, that is 12.00pm,
freedom for 1hr. 4 hours from now, lunchtime.

totally agree big toe. That is one of the main reasons why I started own business. But as business grows, there are also people I do not like in my office, meetings that I wish I do not have to attend.... But it is a lot less I guess...

But to share my own feeling from no money to 1m and now many many times more... Money does give you a sense of security and it also allows you to buy time for yourself. It also feels good knowing that all work you do is optional. But the truth is, you also worry a lot of how to grow and maintain it. And you still need to work to keep engaged or else you feel you are wasting away time.

As for daily life,money helps so I definitely encourage everyone to hit at least the level that satisfies you. Mine is min 10m usd.

1) can go to work at 930am onwards hence skipping jam. Heck you can choose a work plan or rent office near home.

2) can stay near kids school so that they can walk.

3) tons of concierge services, personalize services so u do not need to queue. Business class, vvip cards, private bankers.

4) lots more time to travel and hence for me catch up on reading non business stuff.

5) go home at 5pm sharp to spend time with kids, better half, parents.

6) no bosses, basically I am nice to people in general but if they piss me off, then I can always just delete them from my life without any worries.

The thing is that I recommend getting richer slowly. If possible don't have a sudden windfall.. cuz I find we get used to new stuff quite fast. Research has shown a new house excites or and pleases for about 1-2 years. I totally agree.new car same... Hermes bags prob 6 mths. So if one gets too much money... Life starts to get jaded fast.

To me ideally struggle 10 yrs to make 1m, take another 5 yrs to get 3m, 5 years to Get 6m and retire after another 5 years at 48-50 with 10m would be good pace.

Then what?

dunno man! ha ha ha! I am finding out slowly too. But at least you got there slow and steady which helps in terms of adjusting to new situation. And u hopefully are more matured at 50 years old... only downside is not young anymore so can't do all the rock climbing type stuff well....

(09-11-2011, 09:06 AM)greypiggi Wrote: The thing is that I recommend getting richer slowly. If possible don't have a sudden windfall.. cuz I find we get used to new stuff quite fast. Research has shown a new house excites or and pleases for about 1-2 years. I totally agree.new car same... Hermes bags prob 6 mths. So if one gets too much money... Life starts to get jaded fast.

To me ideally struggle 10 yrs to make 1m, take another 5 yrs to get 3m, 5 years to Get 6m and retire after another 5 years at 48-50 with 10m would be good pace.

I completely agree with this. The problem with getting rich quickly is that you don't have a good sense of how to manage your money, as it was obtained "without much blood, sweat and tears". Thus, you end up not appreciating the money as it was not hard-earned. This is the case with lottery winners or those with huge inheritances from their grandparents - they spent the money in a jiffy and often on bling and other inconsequential items.

As one grows money slowly, one also learns how to manage it better, and proper money management and financial management skills are life skills which cannot be taught in schools. They do indicate a sense of maturity - as compared to a person who cannot handle money (I would think he was immature).

As for slogging 10 years for the first million, yeah I can identify with it as I am in the process now haha! But it's a good journey and I am learning a lot and enriching myself with knowledge at the same time.