Living Below One's Means

Money, money, money

Money. Don't we all just love money? I for one know that I do love it to an extent. Money affords us a lot of things but today I learnt that money is meant to build up our families (especially when you're the head of one) and also to build up others.

Not that it's wrong to buy nice things for ourselves but if that's all is we're doing with our money then I guess perhaps there's an imbalance there. In my last post I was mentioning some of the things I wanted to get for myself this year and today I realised that I've just been thinking about self, self, self! *gack*

I'll be bold and make this statement: we tend to be selfish when it comes to money and lately I've been very much less generous compared to before. To a certain extent I'm guilty of trying to keep up with the lifestyles of my friends and I've grown more accustomed to more upmarket things. My choice of eateries especially can be very extravagant. It's gonna take some time to really learn how to stick to a monthly budget but I guess now's a good a time as any to start.

The challenge would be to live below my means I guess. That means living life and putting aside a whole lot more that would allow me to invest into other people's lives and also to save for the future. Right now I know that I really don't make a whole lot due to the nature of Four Forty Records being new and all but I know that it is do-able to live in a more simple manner. It's just gonna take time to adjust to things. Since I started driving my monthly expenditure has gone up tremendously and I realise now that my riding a bike all these years really allowed me to enjoy life a whole lot more, hence why I've gotten so accustomed to spending so much on myself and on food!

Gosh! I've been telling myself to draft up a proper monthly schedule for myself so I can measure how much time I spend on myself, on work, on church and on catching up with other people but I STILL HAVEN'T done it! Procrastination is such a terrible thing. That's my challenge for this year really ... to order my life while living room in it for a lot of spontaneity. Order is good. And I know that I need to balance it just right cos' I'm very much a creature of spontaneity. Some people really get annoyed with me for that cos' I can just up and go for a movie and be perfectly satisfied with even front row seats. But that's what exactly allows me to be spontaneous cos' I don't fret over getting the best all the time. More so when it's an impulse thing.

Lotsa food for thought in this post. Stay tuned for more!

P.S. If you're interested to find out more about what I mean about money drop me a line and I'll gladly start a discourse with you OR just comment on Multiply and let's start a running thread for everyone to chip in.

Perspective

I was thinking about writing about this yesterday and filed the idea away in my brain so here it is ... I got up pretty early on Tuesday and was getting ready to settle into my daily routine of reading the Bible & writing in my journal when my mom calls me to let me know that she & dad are on the way to my apartment and they wanna have breakfast together.

Anyways, to cut a long story short ... I was having breakfast with my mom & dad at the market when this little Standard 2 boy walks up to us to sell nasi lemak. My parents have bought nasi lemak from him before many times and as I observed this exchange a thought struck me that us young adults can be very selfishly stuck in our own wants, desires & petty problems. Here I have in front of me a very young boy going from table to table, person to person to help his parents make ends meet. Sigh ... It's all about lifestyle really ... all of us are caught in a trap where we want to look good, have the latest things ... have luxuries. I know I'm caught ... I have an expensive hobby in comic books, video games & movies and when it comes to food, gosh I find it hard to resist a nice meal at Chilli's or some other eatery that has a price tag of at least RM10 above for a bite to eat.

What really is need & what really is want? A lot of the things in my life are wants rather than needs. A real need is to have food on the table & clothes on our back. A need is having electricity & running water. A need is having the means to get from point A to point B in whatever form of transport that we're using. A need is being loved. Wants are all those shiny new things that eventually we get tired with. How do we stay contented? The answer to that eludes me right now and I'm still trying my best to be more sensible with my money. After spending the whole of 2007 going crazy on purchases I'm in a better place now although I still have to clear things off with my mom for my lack of self-control.

That little boy gave me a sense of perspective. Are we looking around us to get a little perspective or are we all stuck with our eyes fixed on our own problems & selfish desires? Just some food for thought. I've been telling myself that I need to order my life more and also work on keeping those expensive purchases in check. This is my wishlist of stuff for this year.

Number 1
A pair of Levi's jeans. The one pair I have now just doesn't cut it. Actually any other pair of comfortable jeans would do ... it's just that I don't know any other brand other than Levi's that are actually very comfy. You do pay for what you get I suppose.

Number 2
A couple of new shirts. I don't really buy clothes for some reason. Heh heh!

Number 3
Some ties ... Again ... the reason why I'll have to pick some up is cos' I don't have any nice ties at all! Ha ha!

Number 4 (the FUN stuff - clothes aren't FUN!)
Video games of course! In alphabetical order:

Fallout 3 (PS3)

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots (PS3)

Resident Evil 5 (PS3)

Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Nintendo Wii)

As you can see the list of things to buy never really ends. But I think I shall keep it to these few items this year and these will really cost a bomb. At the end of the day I guess I really want to be wise with what little I have. I do realise that money & material possessions aren't everything and so these items will remain as wants rather than needs. It's really hard right now cos' I know I want a nice lifestyle as much as the guy next door and perhaps God is teaching me to simplify the way I live. I always figured myself to be an anything goes kinda person but that's increasingly becoming not true.

I guess by putting down all those things above I hope to really keep my frivolous purchases to a set of items this year and learn how to save for them or work a freelance job or two extra to afford them. After all I do get my reality escape fixes at the movies already don't I? No more comic books this year I guess ...

Perspective & contentment. These are 2 good principles to live by don't you think?

Crazee, Crazee 2008

It's been a crazy few weeks and January is already half-way through. I've been super busy juggling freelance work while at the same thing doing my utmost to make things work for Four Forty Records. 3 major things are happening right now ... getting more publicity for Liang, Juwita's upcoming participation in a major singing competition and Altered Frequency opening for Switchfoot. There's just so much to do and at the same time I've been figuring out whether or not I should take up a part-time position to bring some order into my work-life. Things are looking up this year but I've not been handling the stress that well and there are days when I just feel so drained. Gosh! Is this what it's gonna be like for the whole of this year?!

Agnel & Andy of Altered Frequency

That's a pic of Andy & Agnel of Altered Frequency doing a promo over at FlyFM last Monday. I really had to rush things out for this and all lot of things happened all of a sudden. The band will be featured on FlyFM's Campur Chart this Sunday so do tune in from 7pm - 8pm to catch the debut of their brand new single 'Beyond Now'. Vote for the band if you like the song at the official FlyFM site by clicking on this link.

That's all from me folks! I hope I can find more time to sit down and write like this. It has been awhile. It'd be good to hear from some of you so do drop my a line to let me know that this blog is being read.

Cheers!