Self Reflection: the desperate need to get rich.

A good friend of mine was deep into his bible studies and shared this little piece of wisdom with me some time ago. (I do not subscribe to any religion but I like this part)

He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone

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According to the Gospel of John, the Pharisees, in an attempt to discredit Jesus, brought a woman charged with adultery before him. Then they reminded Jesus that adultery was punishable by stoning under Mosaic law and challenged him to judge the woman so that they might then accuse him of disobeying the law. Jesus thought for a moment and then replied, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.” The people crowded around him were so touched by their own consciences that they departed. When Jesus found himself alone with the woman, he asked her who were her accusers. She replied, “No man, lord.” Jesus then said, “Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.”

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Simply put, none of us are faultless in our ways. 

With the recent cryptocurrency crash, as well as significant plunges in stocks (tech, medical, etc) in mind, this is a timely reminder. I know many of us, who deem such risk taking behaviour as foolish, might feel very vindicated for being a naysayer. 

"I told you so," are words that many of the didactical ones could easily utter.

It is far too easy to criticise, and far too easy to mock people on the receiving end, for being naive. 

"There is a reason for such high yields"

Lets take a deep breath and self reflect.

Deep within, I think most, if not at least a good majority of them, wish to get rich. Being a poor lad myself, I cannot relate to those who already have a good sized fortune, but still choose to bet the farm on risky assets. So this post is dedicated to my fellow low-middle-to-low earning class readers out there.

I have a friend who is also stuck in the current cryptocurrency mess himself. He have a sizeable amount of his net worth, staked in a certain crypto asset. The maturity to his lock-up stake period is still a distant future away. So he is looking at his portfolio wasting away as time passes. A terrible situation.

This isn't his first time getting into the wrong end of a trade. He was also involved in the Tesla selldown (not the recent one), a covered call cock up by the trading platform he dealt with (which he ended up having to cover with prices bid way up due to a short squeeze) and a few others.

I do feel very exasperated and wished that he would listen to me.

Despite my efforts to advise him to stick to conservative indexing practices, his rejoinder then shook me. Not because of its wit, but because it reflect how helpless we, the generally not that well-off, all are. 

"My index funds are my long term, but I need something for short term too."

At that moment, I took a deep breath, and had mentally organized a set of replies (which were said in the past), but they were stuck in my throat. I think this is not the best time to say harsh words. Thinking back now, all I have is a deep sigh.

As I am writing this post, my mum, at a ripe old age of 69, is coughing. She had two tiger balm plasters pasted on both her knee caps, which were hurting after having to cover for her colleague. My mum is a cleaner, and my dad is a retiree, and before that, he was a ship fitter (repair man).

I am not born into a rich family, and none of them know anything about investing. Saving money is all my mum knew. At her age, she have type 1 and 2 diabetes, and we are still waiting to undergo more tests, which might reveal more worrying problems.

My mum have never say it but I know she kept working because she is worried that she might run out of money for her late years of sickness. Her workplace offer her insurance, which we claim on a regular basis. So that is another reason why she is afraid to quit and retire.

Although the market has treat me well over the last few years, giving me way more than market average returns, the sad fact is that I do not have a lot of money to begin with. I am far from the sum that I need to retire, and other unforeseeable circumstances.

I do feel very helpless and trapped. I earn a very modest amount of salary (<5k). Even if my conservative investing ways were to work out, it will take some years. By then, perhaps my parents will no longer be around. I am not even 70% confident that I will do well in my investments. 

I do feel that I have let my parents down a lot, and have failed as a son.

To that friend of mine, and many others hurt by the markets recently, I genuinely feel for you. 

To my younger readers, I wish you will start earlier. do not end up like me. Index early, concentrate on your career, and you do not have to take undue risk.