I came to know of a group of mainly retired teachers and ex-principals that gathers regularly at one of the food centres in Queenstown for coffee and chit-chat in the mornings. Every alternate month or so, there will be organised "excursions" up north to Hap Chai, or down south to Batam. Wink, wink. Yes, they are all males. Some on reading this may get their blood boil... How could these "educated" gentlemen, who should know better, do such things that may cause grief and shame to their families? At their age some more! They should be role models or paragons to the young. Shackles of labels getting hurled out...

Shame

I once wrote that I no longer nag at my dad for smoking or drinking. I now even enable his habits by giving an allowance to do whatever he likes with it - there are no terms and conditions attached. Despite taking medicine for high blood pressure, dad his outlived many of his friends and relatives who had healthier lifestyles than him - vegetarians, healthy living fanatics and all. From him, I've learned life is not a straight line extrapolation. Morality, ethics, legality - many of these concepts I thought I knew have taken a new meaning once I put a human face on them. Something happened what I hit 40. I begin to see things from the other side. Try walking in the shoes of others. And less seeing things from the "I am the centre of the universe" perspective. You can say I have discovered "religion"!? Which is ironic since the acts I now "don't mind" from those retired gentlemen contravene with most mainstream religions' teachings. How did I reconcile with myself? Just pause and think for a while before you hurl stones at these elderly gentlemen - how many more years do they have? On another related topic, I've always wondered why people in their 80s still queue to buy Toto? Now I get it. It's no different from stories about retired people who had saved and worked hard all their lives, do all the proper "safe and secure" stuffs, no speculations. Safety first! Guess what? When they get their hands on their retirement money, they start to "speculate" (of course they will call it investment) on risky stuffs with an all-in make or break mentality? 1) Overseas properties, land banking, etc. 2) Gold trading or other get rich quick "promotions". Ostrich farms anyone? 3) And of course after staying away from the STI for 30 odd years, they now fancy they can be profitable equities investors after reading a few books or taking up some seminars or courses. (Don't they realise the people taking the other side of their positions could have 20 or more hands on investing experience over several stock market  cycles than them?) 4) Or they suddenly discovered their "dormant" entrepreneur spirits and plonk down their entire nest eggs on new business "excursions". (It's never too late; but why now and all-in?) It's called capitulation. When you read the regrets of their stories for those who lost it all, one common thread appears: These "safety first" retirees have had enough of seeing their classmates, colleagues, neighbours, and relatives getting richer than them by taking risks and speculating. At their advanced age, they see it as their last chance to "catch up". How many more years do they have? Hidden behind those words, there's a needle in their hearts: "If others can get rich through XXX, why can't I?"

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Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google it!)