Lessons from Silas Marner

Silas Marner is a book written by George Eliot. I just finished this short story which I felt was a wonderful read. In this story, the life of Silas Marner is told.

Silas lives as a lonely waver near the village of Raveloe. He works hard and gains gold and reputation but shuns humanity for it treated him badly once. One night, his stash of gold is stolen and in its place, Silas finds a gift that is more precious....

The way George Eliot wrote this book was wonderful. The way she stringed together words were also perfect in my opinion. What is even more amazing is the way she uses the character of Silas to show the tendency to hoard money amongst human beings. Certain good quotes from the book as follows:

"Do we not wile away moments of inanity or fatigued waiting by repeating some trivial movement or sound, until the repetition has bred a want, which is incipient habit? That will help us to understand how the love of accumulating money grows an absorbing passion in men whose imaginations, even in the very beginning of their hoard, showed them no purpose beyond it."

"His life has reduced itself to the mere functions of weaving and hoarding, without any contemplation of an end towards which the functions tended."

George Eliot has indeed hit many money hoarders right where it hurts. Too often, we treat our work and the accumulation of wealth as the entirety of our lives without giving thought to what purpose they serve.

The end of the story is a sweet ending and I shall not reveal it lest some of you might want to read the book.

World Cup Flops

So France bows out of the world cup together with host country South Africa. Amazingly, France lost 2-1 to South Africa. Even with their Henry and Malouda and Ribery and what nots, they were unable to even get a draw with South Africa!

In this World Cup, I guess we have witnessed what are supposedly "big" name countries struggling to beat the minnows of Asia and Africa. Is this a surprising fact? Or have we just been deluded by the European countries that they are better at football?

Afterall, we are fed regular matches of the English Premier League and stuff like Champions League with footballers like Ronaldo commanding astronomical weekly salaries. We are led to believe that these European footballers are SO GOOD that they deserve their pay and also the additional slots in the World Cup. Just look at how many slots the European teams secured in the World Cup compared to the slots Asia secured and you will understand what I mean.

But perhaps the differences between the big names and the minnows are not so great afterall. As this world cup has shown, the teams can actually be quite well matched. Even North Korea manages to lose to Brazil by just 1 goal. This goes to show that the perceived superiority of European footballers might just be a perception. While Asia, Oceania, N. America and some African nations might be latecomers to the game, they have already caught up significantly with the European counterparts. One can only wonder what it would have been like if Asia was given more slots? Perhaps, we might not see any difference between the big names and the minnows afterall.

Sleepless in Singapore

I think I am suffering from insomnia. I find it difficult to sleep at night. The matter of fact is that I am not tired at all at night. Well, it just feels like my brain is still working on overdrive and I can't seem to calm myself down to sleep.

Sleeping late at night started as a habit that began in national service days and was further cemented during my university days. During those days, sleeping at 3am or 4am or sometimes even 6am at night/morning was common. This must be the reason why I am having sleep problems now.

Or perhaps, a better explanation is that, I am simply a "night" person. I am a walking zombie during the day and at night, I "wake" up. Too bad everyone is sleeping when I am awake.

Well... there is really little that one can do at night. Other than surf the net and catch up on soccer, it is really dull and boring. I sometimes wish I could inject some excitement in my life.

That is perhaps how I manage to start my blogs too. Blogging at night has a calming effect on me. It allows me to make my peace with the day that has just gone by.

Oh well, the street lights are on and I can see them from my window. Trickles of traffic still around. 3 glasses of wine hasn't made me sleepy enough to lie in bed.

Father's Day in Singapore

Yesterday was Father's Day. Or at least it felt like Father's Day.

It was a hot and sunny day as usual and I spent my earlier part of the morning in church. I couldn't really concentrate on the sermon as my mind was wandering around. It mostly went around in circles as I thought of how I am a father now and how it was just so overwhelming.

Being a father means different thing to different people. For me, it has just been an overwhelming experience. I suddenly find myself more acutely aware of my finances and whether I am able to provide the best for my family. If I were to sum fatherhood up in a single word, it will read: RESPONSIBILITY.

I no longer get the freedom to choose my bedtime or when I wake up. I no longer get to choose how to spend the weekends and stuff. It all boils down to being a responsible father and doing activities that are best for my child. The burdens on all fathers are probably the same. And one finds that you sacrifice alot of your time, energies and not to mention money when one becomes a father. It is a very different thing from being a husband to being a father and I must say that I am still getting used to the whole process of it.

On the funny side, dinner was meant to be something special so we ordered some pizza. As the fillings on the pizza was too hot, my job involved eating the fillings on top while leaving the crust for my son to eat. How's that for fatherhood! It was really gross. Me scraping out all the fillings with my mouth and feeding my poor child the remaining crust.

Lazy Saturday Afternoon

It is a lazy saturday afternoon for me. The sun seems to be pretty hot today so it is not a good idea to go out. Wanted to go cycling at first but decided against it. Perhaps I will do that in the evening if time permits.

Ate a late breakfast, had some fried rice for lunch and drank two nice glasses of WolfBlass Moscato.

It has been a habit of mine nowadays to keep a bottle of wine in the fridge to drink over the week. Other wines don't really keep well as they tend to oxidise and turn a bit sourish after some time. I have found out that Moscato wines which are really sweet, do keep for some time while still retaining their taste.

Perfect! Life is worth enjoying while it lasts.

Now all that is left for me to do is surf the net, catch up on my soccer news and then sleep.

Analysis of Asia Junior Life Policy (Part 2)

Previously, I wrote a short analysis on one of the whole life policies that I owned. It can be found over here. Today, I shall continue with my part 2 of the analysis.

In today's analysis, we will look at participating policies and bonuses.

BONUS ALLOCATION

Main feature of a participating policy is its ability to provide stable returns while participating in the performance of a Participating Fund or Par Fund. While one does not have any control over what the par fund is invested in, one can expect to participate in the performance through bonuses which are allocated to the policy holder.

Policy benefits or bonuses depend on the following factors:
1. Investment performance
2. Claims experience
3. Expenses
4. Decision of the Appointed Actuary and approval by Board of Directors

Usually, bonuses are allocated based on the surplus of the Par Fund. When bonuses are being considered, the actuary and directors take into account average performance of the par fund over a period which is longer than one year so as to minimise short term fluctuations in asset values of the par fund.

Hope this short posting explains how bonus allocation works for all you participating policy holders out there.

What Am I Saving For?

Saving money is good.

But we need to know what we are saving money for.

Is it just to see our bank accounts grow fatter? Do we have a clear purpose in our savings?

We can choose to spend our money today. Or we can save it up and spend it tomorrow. When it comes to saving, we need to know why we are not spending the money today and instead saving it up. I am writing this post to tell myself why I am not gratifying my desires NOW but instead putting money aside in a bank account.

Here are a few of my savings goal (in terms of priority) for the short term as well as long term:

Short Term Savings Goal (5 to 10 years)

1. COE for my current car when the COE expires (estimated $25K)
2. Europe holiday
3. Down deposit for 2nd property

Long Term Savings Goal (10 to 30 years)

1. Retirement
2. Child's University Education
3. 2nd Car
4. 3rd Property

This reminds me that I need to start saving for my short term goals.