windfall
Friday, February 20, 2009 (5:25 PM)
i'm beginning to see the idea behind the poor people don't know how to handle huge sum of money logic. because they don't know how to handle huge sum of money, that's why they are poor.
- lame -
no, that's not what i was trying to say.
the thing is, we are so used to having that little amount of money that we begin to think that it is ok to have that little because we are still surviving ok. not necessarily the comfortable life but ok. so if a large amount of money comes our way, we have the tendency to spend it all and leave ourselves with what little we originally started. because it had been ok. that explains how the guy who won the lottery spent over $300k within months.
when i was still in school, i've ever had like 25cents in my posb account. of course it didn't last long enough for me to get used to but i'm really used to having only a few hundred in my account. more often than not, i have only around $800, which i tried to limit myself to $300 because of the $2 penalty for accounts below $500. but i never manage to keep it that way. it's hard when you don't take allowances.
once during the holidays in uni, i worked for 3 months during the break and made around $2.5k. interestingly, i felt it was a comfortable level and that i could live comfortably during my uni days. i was too naive. it was gone 1 semester later. i think i am super financially illiterate.
so now, my idea of saving is to spend lesser. fortunately, i haven't really found good enough reasons for me to spend too much. except the japan trip next year. i think for the average student, what i have is enough for me to live comfortably but i still have the problem of not treating myself too well. i still scrimp.
when i see how people spend money to enjoy, i often wonder if i could do the same. if only i struck the lottery. the only problem is, i don't buy them. = =