It’s OK to have nice things. You just can’t have ALL the things ALL the time

It’s OK to have nice things. You just can’t have ALL the things ALL the time

I love the statement in the title! Source of this statement: Article in finance.yahoo.com here.

We must live our lives yeah (and reward ourselves accordingly)

Come on, anyone telling me that we must live our life by NOT buying anything nice is still dreaming or has his / her priorities all wrong! If I earn a lot or at least enough and I save all of them and then I only spend it when I am old, it also meant that I may not spend it all before I leave this world. Just as we could not predict higher price or the lowest price for any property investment, it is also not possible to predict for sure when we would leave and thus spending more or spending less with every passing year.

If I only earn and does not spend until much later in my life, it also meant that I may not be able to go to some places I love because it involves too much walking and I am too old for that.

It’s okay to buy beyond minimum needs but overbuying is not clever

How many pair of jeans could we wear at any point in time? One. So, do we buy just one? Or maybe two since occasionally we will wash the other one? Well… if you ask me, let’s not buy 10 pairs of jeans of the same colour lah. Maybe we can have three to four pairs of jeans, one light blue, one dark blue, one washed grey and one black. I do think these 4 pairs of jeans could already match any T-shirt or top we have regardless of color. So, we must not buy like 10 pairs or even 5 pairs of the same color but if we do have the means, buying 4 pairs of jeans of different colors looks okay in my humble opinion.

How many pairs of shoes could we wear at any point in time? One. Haha. Okay, so how many should be have? Well, maybe three to four as well? One black leather shoe for all the formal events, one cross-trainer sports shoe which can be used whether we run or walk or play badminton too. One pair of loafers for that casual occasion versus wearing some sandals. Last pair could be a pair which we love; could it the design, could be the technology, could be the brand, anything! So, you see four pairs do make sense but we really do not need 10 pairs of shoes.

Admission time.

Okay, my good friend forced me to admit this. I do have maybe 6 pairs of Levis jeans and many pairs of other brands. I have maybe 35 pairs of shoes and have bought shoes from many different countries including but not limited to USA, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and more. However I do not have any pair of luxury branded shoes okay. Yes, I do realize overbuying is not clever because there are many pairs which I did not wear for a long time. I will endeavour to buy less in the future. I also do not own a single pair of luxury shoes or luxury branded jeans. So, I did not overspend I feel.

It’s okay to have meals at nice places, we just do not eat there 3 times per day and 7 days per week

Every now and then when we need to have celebrations, we will go to somewhere nicer than our usual kopitiam meals or the mixed rice shop or the mamak restaurant. I do know that typical spending for 4 of us in a kopitiam is maybe RM60-70 including drinks but if we do go to some nice air-conditioned restaurant, then the bill will be double or more at least, minus drinks. Just think how much we could save or lost when we frequent these air-conditioned restaurants every day… I also prefer my bihun goreng with some sambar and telur mata for breakfast anytime too. That’s still very affordable. Maybe RM4.50 per meal.

Conclusion

They say too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing. Too much meat is no good. Too much sugary drink is no good. Too much video games is no good. Spend our money wisely so that we continue to still enjoy things but we do not lose sleep over high credit card debts. It’s okay to have nice things. It’s just not possible to have all these nice things all the time. Unless we are a startup founder and our startup has just been valued at RM100 million and we own 50 percent stake… 🙂

Happy reading!Property News Malaysia? Sign up for daily investment news updates (FREE since Nov 2013 and FOREVER). 

Alternatively, Follow me on Telegram here.

Please LIKE kopiandproperty.com FB page to get daily updates about the property market beyond kopiandproperty.com articles.

Else, follow me on Twitter here.