My pay came in today, along with my keycaps that I had ordered from last July.
And I just recalled the process I had to take in order to plan the purchase for these keycaps. It didn’t take too long, it was a process of thinking “hey these keycaps are kinda cute” and “hey it ships kinda quick!”
Quick shipping in keyboard terms usually means within 6 months, and these were supposed to be shipped last year end, but they only just arrived. In keyboard terms, this is also not too late, considering that it was within half a year. Usually keycaps take about 2-3 years to ship, and that’s those that are on time.
In any case, the story is about the relationship with money that I have. I don’t usually consider saving, but the resources I have at hand to use. Sometimes these resources are also into resources that I receive on credit. I know that’s not a good idea, but sometimes I dig into it anyway.
This way of thinking, and having this relationship with money usually lead a lot of people to question my judgment. But I reassure everyone constantly, it’s just that I really don’t see the point of having too much money in my hands that I will die not having used.
I realised over time as well, the privileged life I have lived to be able to say that, and that’s why I do want to talk about how I think about it.
Too often I’ve heard to flip side of the story, especially in Asian cultures, where we save money, or buy money based things, like insurances, stocks, lottery. In Singaporean Chinese culture specifically, it feels as if it’s the best if we spent the least amount of money for the most quantity of things. This results in huge orders of unnecessary things from Shopee, or an extremely large savings account with only one or two names for the dependents of that account.
I see the point of it as storing the wealth for the next generations, but I also see a lot of hurt and brokenness. I see families broken apart because they feel that the money should be theirs. Or worst still, when they are told specifically that the money is not theirs.
Theres money, but there are no humans left, the relationships are all broken.
Both approaches are bad, because there could be better relationships to draw with money. And in the long run of it, I think this is something many people and cultures need to approach. Why do we work, and why do we want to draw a salary. Why do we think savings are better than spending. Why and what drives us for many of these things.
I don’t want to make a positive judgment statement for either approaches, but I can tell you that right now, tonight, I am happy because I have my keycaps, and because my wife is also happy for me to receive these keycaps. Sure money spent helped me get these, but money saved wouldn’t have, that’s for sure.
I’ll probably think different about this some time soon, so don’t worry. I’ll be alright one day. And maybe I’ll think different about that another time after that.