Personal Finance
Personal Finance Part 18 – To Crave and Covet (C&C)
By Musicwhiz  •  August 26, 2010
[caption id="attachment_2620" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Photo by Fuyoh"]Photo by Fuyoh[/caption] It’s been a while since I’ve talked about aspects of personal finance, as I was kept busy the whole of May to July 2010 with analyzing the financial results of the companies in which I hold shares, as well as writing about Sun Tzu’s War On Business episodes. I’d realized the last entry on personal finance was back in April 2010 and was on cycling! I had been thinking in the last couple of weeks about the problems associated with our society in relation to over-spending and lack of prudence or knowledge about financial matters; and it boils down to one major problem which I term “C&C – Crave and Covet”. This will link up to many other concepts which I will point out later (and which have been popularized by the mass media as well). The simple definitions of the words crave and covet are as follow (from Dictionary.com):- Crave – To long for; want greatly, desire greatly Covet – To desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without due regard for the rights of others It is in our basic human nature to crave and desire for more, of course after ensuring our basic necessities are provided for. But society today is a lot more materialistic and capitalistic than it was say, two generations ago. This is sadly due to the modernization of Singapore, which in some ways has outpaced the maturity of the young minds, who are still struggling to adapt to the “First-World” mentality inculcated within them by our education system. A mature mind is one which is able to handle pervasive emotional influences which may have a detrimental effect on one’s wealth and spending habits. Craving and coveting are an embodiment of that philosophy where everyone starts to compare what possessions their friends and peers have, and it results in a relentless vicious cycle and downward spiral into poverty, debt and bankruptcy if not arrested early. The Generation Y and Z have been, arguably, brought up in a world of peace, stability and abundance and have not been through the ravages of war (those born in the 1920’s and 1930’s) or recession/inflation (those who lived through the 1970’s). Even more recent is the memory of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 which brought many rich people to their knees. Because of this lack of awareness of how fragile wealth can be and how difficult making money is, most youths tend to be apathetic when it comes to personal finance and succumb to the evils of C&C. The latest iPhone, iPad, car or luxury item is always an enticement to use debt (credit cards) and to make one spend beyond their means. In this regard, I should introduce some terms which readers may be familiar with:- Read more...
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By Musicwhiz
Musicwhiz who is in his 30s is educated in accounting and works in the investment line (but not in a bank, financial institution, brokerage or fund house). He has a have a full-time job and investing is his side-line as well as passion. Musicwhiz is a value investor and his technique is derived from the teachings of Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham and Phil Fisher. He incorporate all aspects of their investing style, and modify his value investing style to the Singapore market.
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