COVID19 circuit breaker in SG has made everyone think about what is essential and non essential. Bubble tea, desserts and cakes for example, are deemed non essential. And if you reflect upon what are your own personal essentials and non essentials, it might yield valuable insights on your own personal discovery.
Needs versus wants, must-haves (or requirements) versus good-to-haves, these are different ways to mean the same thing. Why is this concept even important to personal finance? Answer: Most of us are not born with a silver spoon in our mouths. Neither do we strike lottery regularly.
But even the well-heeled control their budgets (even for those who have achieved FIRE), albeit for different intents, purposes and objectives (capital preservation and legacy for example). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs apply.
It is easier to adjust lifestyles upwards than to downgrade lifestyles. That is a simple truth. Another infallible truth is that you have to live BELOW your means to generate savings for further financial planning. Those whose personal finances are affected by COVID19, let the Stockdale Paradox ignite a light within you. And for those in the heat of facing voids created by lifestyle downgrades, Fulton Sheen provides insights.
“You must retain faith that you can prevail to greatness in the end, while retaining the discipline to confront the brutal facts of your current reality.”
COVID19 will be a thing of the past.
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