Impulse purchase

[Lisafuller]

What WD40 describes is the kinda of life we led in India where my dad was too extreme in spending n savings. It only works if the entire family is in sync. If the wife or kids disagree or feel unhappy, then it leads to misery. Savings is fine but experiences are worth it too.

Our rule is different. We try not to spend more than 25-40% of our income. We have seen a significant rise in our household income in the past 5-7 years so were able to upgrade a lot.


If you read the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, one of the points is to not deny yourself what u want, instead focus on earning more. Its not always easy but at least one try . Once u reach ur limit, one has to be practical.

so it depends

True, an extremely thrifty lifestyle also makes sense if the entire family is on board, otherwise it will just lead to unhappiness and disagreements.

I am not judging anyone here. Just saying from my experience. I have met indians who claim they have never been to cinema in Sg in 10+ years. While I can appreciate the discipline, it only works if everyone is onboard.

I noticed that in my own family where my father made all choices and never once realised the unhappiness small cuts can lead too. What is hypocritical is that men save only on things where they see a point. And dont mind spending or wasting on stuff that appeals to them.

Often I see, that men decide for the entire family specifically when women are not working. Often, we fail to understand what the other person needs or wants.

I once asked a friend how his wife reacts given he spend 300$ on cigarettes a month. His answer was that his wife does not know his salary. I thought this was happening in my father's generation. But its happening even now particularly when women are not working.

Thats why my only advice to people who want dignity is to earn their own money and be loved

I’m not sure it’s fair to make generalizations based on gender. In my experience, most of those managing their family’s finances are women.

[midlet2013]

True, an extremely thrifty lifestyle also makes sense if the entire family is on board, otherwise it will just lead to unhappiness and disagreements.

Not generalising, just talking about Indian families. If u look at Philippines or Korea, women manage the house even if not working.




I am not judging anyone here. Just saying from my experience. I have met indians who claim they have never been to cinema in Sg in 10+ years. While I can appreciate the discipline, it only works if everyone is onboard.

I noticed that in my own family where my father made all choices and never once realised the unhappiness small cuts can lead too. What is hypocritical is that men save only on things where they see a point. And dont mind spending or wasting on stuff that appeals to them.

Often I see, that men decide for the entire family specifically when women are not working. Often, we fail to understand what the other person needs or wants.

I once asked a friend how his wife reacts given he spend 300$ on cigarettes a month. His answer was that his wife does not know his salary. I thought this was happening in my father's generation. But its happening even now particularly when women are not working.

Thats why my only advice to people who want dignity is to earn their own money and be loved

I’m not sure it’s fair to make generalizations based on gender. In my experience, most of those managing their family’s finances are women.

[Lisafuller]

Not generalising, just talking about Indian families. If u look at Philippines or Korea, women manage the house even if not working.




I am not judging anyone here. Just saying from my experience. I have met indians who claim they have never been to cinema in Sg in 10+ years. While I can appreciate the discipline, it only works if everyone is onboard.

I noticed that in my own family where my father made all choices and never once realised the unhappiness small cuts can lead too. What is hypocritical is that men save only on things where they see a point. And dont mind spending or wasting on stuff that appeals to them.

Often I see, that men decide for the entire family specifically when women are not working. Often, we fail to understand what the other person needs or wants.

I once asked a friend how his wife reacts given he spend 300$ on cigarettes a month. His answer was that his wife does not know his salary. I thought this was happening in my father's generation. But its happening even now particularly when women are not working.

Thats why my only advice to people who want dignity is to earn their own money and be loved

I’m not sure it’s fair to make generalizations based on gender. In my experience, most of those managing their family’s finances are women.

I see, then that’s fair. Interesting how different cultures handle their affairs differently.

[Wd40]

What WD40 describes is the kinda of life we led in India where my dad was too extreme in spending n savings. It only works if the entire family is in sync. If the wife or kids disagree or feel unhappy, then it leads to misery. Savings is fine but experiences are worth it too.

Our rule is different. We try not to spend more than 25-40% of our income. We have seen a significant rise in our household income in the past 5-7 years so were able to upgrade a lot.


If you read the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, one of the points is to not deny yourself what u want, instead focus on earning more. Its not always easy but at least one try . Once u reach ur limit, one has to be practical.

so it depends

We are absolutely not missing out on anything! It is myth that you need to spend a lot of money to be happy. I will give you an example of what happened yesterday:

My wife yesterday evening said, lets order food. I asked her is pizza okay? She said ok. There is a pizza hut 2kms away. So took my bicycle and got the pizza myself. There was an offer for take away, which is not there for delivery, so saved totally $12(including $4 delivery fee) and it was a nice bicycle ride too. The large pizza cost $17.95 after 50% discount. My daughter ate 3 slices and me and my wife 2 and half slices each and absolutely loved it and we were full.

The above didnt make me miss out on anything, it just made me feel good about myself, saving money and having pizza too.

My wife doesnt allow me to drink beer because she is afraid I will become an alcoholic, lol, so whenever my wife is taking a nap or goes out, I go downstairs minimart and get a cold can of 500ml beer for $4 and gulp and then rest of the day try not to breath hard while close to my wife, lol. Who says you need to spend a lot of money to be happy?

We do go and eat out, but we dont go to Din Tai Fung level restaurants, we go to food courts and mid tier Indian restaurants. It is all about setting expectations. If in your mind Din Tai Fung kind of restaurant spending is a must have, then you believe that and then if you cut down, you feel miserable. We never had those expectations. We derive happiness from simple things. Go and have a nice Yole frozen yoghurt after a food court meal, it is awesome and wont burn a hole in your pocket.

And btw, you are a high achiever and you have that pressure in your mind to convert your high skills/IQ/effort to high income and then convert your high income to high spending. We are not high achievers and we absolutely dont give a damn about what the society thinks about us. We would rather not have to go to work and retire early and do what we want rather than do what other people think we should do, aka keeping up with the Joneses.

Also, I noticed you mentioned household income, so I assume your wife is also working. So yeah, no wonder, you better make sure spouse and kid are on board.

In my case, the choice was very clear, my wife is just like me, hates to take any bullshit from bosses. She worked in NCS on LoC for 1.5 years in java web development and she absolutely hated it. She couldnt wait to get out it and as soon as we had a kid, she decided to be a stay at home mom and take care of the house and the kid while I earn and take care of the finances. We save 55% of my single income, 120k SGD gross as per IRAS assessment. So I hope you appreciate the perspective.

In your case, with all the money sloshing around and both of you career oriented, I can see your spending goals would be very different than me, but I dont agree with you that you need to spend a lot of money to be happy.

[Lisafuller]

What WD40 describes is the kinda of life we led in India where my dad was too extreme in spending n savings. It only works if the entire family is in sync. If the wife or kids disagree or feel unhappy, then it leads to misery. Savings is fine but experiences are worth it too.

Our rule is different. We try not to spend more than 25-40% of our income. We have seen a significant rise in our household income in the past 5-7 years so were able to upgrade a lot.


If you read the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, one of the points is to not deny yourself what u want, instead focus on earning more. Its not always easy but at least one try . Once u reach ur limit, one has to be practical.

so it depends

We are absolutely not missing out on anything! It is myth that you need to spend a lot of money to be happy. I will give you an example of what happened yesterday:

My wife yesterday evening said, lets order food. I asked her is pizza okay? She said ok. There is a pizza hut 2kms away. So took my bicycle and got the pizza myself. There was an offer for take away, which is not there for delivery, so saved totally $12(including $4 delivery fee) and it was a nice bicycle ride too. The large pizza cost $17.95 after 50% discount. My daughter ate 3 slices and me and my wife 2 and half slices each and absolutely loved it and we were full.

The above didnt make me miss out on anything, it just made me feel good about myself, saving money and having pizza too.

My wife doesnt allow me to drink beer because she is afraid I will become an alcoholic, lol, so whenever my wife is taking a nap or goes out, I go downstairs minimart and get a cold can of 500ml beer for $4 and gulp and then rest of the day try not to breath hard while close to my wife, lol. Who says you need to spend a lot of money to be happy?

We do go and eat out, but we dont go to Din Tai Fung level restaurants, we go to food courts and mid tier Indian restaurants. It is all about setting expectations. If in your mind Din Tai Fung kind of restaurant spending is a must have, then you believe that and then if you cut down, you feel miserable. We never had those expectations. We derive happiness from simple things. Go and have a nice Yole frozen yoghurt after a food court meal, it is awesome and wont burn a hole in your pocket.

And btw, you are a high achiever and you have that pressure in your mind to convert your high skills/IQ/effort to high income and then convert your high income to high spending. We are not high achievers and we absolutely dont give a damn about what the society thinks about us. We would rather not have to go to work and retire early and do what we want rather than do what other people think we should do, aka keeping up with the Joneses.

Also, I noticed you mentioned household income, so I assume your wife is also working. So yeah, no wonder, you better make sure spouse and kid are on board.

In my case, the choice was very clear, my wife is just like me, hates to take any bullshit from bosses. She worked in NCS on LoC for 1.5 years in java web development and she absolutely hated it. She couldnt wait to get out it and as soon as we had a kid, she decided to be a stay at home mom and take care of the house and the kid while I earn and take care of the finances. We save 55% of my single income, 120k SGD gross as per IRAS assessment. So I hope you appreciate the perspective.

In your case, with all the money sloshing around and both of you career oriented, I can see your spending goals would be very different than me, but I dont agree with you that you need to spend a lot of money to be happy.

Interesting perspective! Personally, I would never go so far just to save a couple of dollars, but if you and your family are happy, then what you’re doing is great! Hell, you even got some good exercise out of it!

[Wd40]

Interesting perspective! Personally, I would never go so far just to save a couple of dollars, but if you and your family are happy, then what you’re doing is great! Hell, you even got some good exercise out of it!

Thanks. Yeah, most people wouldnt do it. People who are frugal are outliers. But the thing is whether you are doing this naturally or out of compulsion. Anything you do naturally and stuff that you like you will love doing it, while things that you forcing upon yourself will make you miserable.

But people think, anyone who is different from them are forcing things upon themselves and so are miserable. Hence my long post, sorry about that

[sundaymorningstaple]

WD40, in all of his guises, if nothing else, has been single-minded as long as we've known him here. I have to give him props as he has an end goal in mind and is doing what is necessary for him and his family to achieve that in the shortest possible time with the assets at his disposal. I wish I'd have had his determination to not wait for what may never appear and work with what one has, to get to where they want, in the shortest time & safest way possible.

I am curious, though. WD40 do you have a bucket list? I don't. My signature says it all.

[Wd40]

WD40, in all of his guises, if nothing else, has been single-minded as long as we've known him here. I have to give him props as he has an end goal in mind and is doing what is necessary for him and his family to achieve that in the shortest possible time with the assets at his disposal. I wish I'd have had his determination to not wait for what may never appear and work with what one has, to get to where they want, in the shortest time & safest way possible.

I am curious, though. WD40 do you have a bucket list? I don't. My signature says it all.

Thanks SMS, coming from you it means a lot to me. I still remember, you were among the the 1st few people I interacted on this forum before deciding to move to SG, almost 12 years back and your responses have always been helpful, over the years.

I dont really have a bucket list. We have travelled a bit around south east Asia on budget trips and have enjoyed our time here. We certainly didnt think it will last this long, but we have lived here like long term tourists, without really getting to know about SG much, without making much friends here.

If there is anything to show for myself over the years I spent here, it is my networth, I guess, when I grow older and look back, maybe I will regret, living in a place for so long, yet not really having "lived", gotten to interact with real Singaporeans, making relationships etc. It is like the time just flew away and I didnt really make much other than money.

[smoulder]

WD40, in all of his guises, if nothing else, has been single-minded as long as we've known him here. I have to give him props as he has an end goal in mind and is doing what is necessary for him and his family to achieve that in the shortest possible time with the assets at his disposal. I wish I'd have had his determination to not wait for what may never appear and work with what one has, to get to where they want, in the shortest time & safest way possible.

I am curious, though. WD40 do you have a bucket list? I don't. My signature says it all.

If there is anything to show for myself over the years I spent here, it is my networth, I guess, when I grow older and look back, maybe I will regret, living in a place for so long, yet not really having "lived", gotten to interact with real Singaporeans, making relationships etc. It is like the time just flew away and I didnt really make much other than money.

It's great that you at least introspect about it. I know a few of our fellow countrymen who live overseas (in Singapore and elsewhere) for years and years, live in a bubble with other fellow Indians and never look back. As far as they are concerned, all they are there for is the money.

I'd rather be like you (introspective) than the guys who never do.

Interesting conversation by the way. I would like to share my own perspective and experience. I'm Indian and my wife is Malaysian Chinese. Neither of us are particularly big spenders but I wouldn't say that we are frugal. Now both of us were working till a couple of years ago when my wife decided to take a break from work. It has continued for a bit longer than anticipated - now that we have a daughter. Once she starts preschool in September, my wife will start searching for a new job.

Anyway, the point is that prior to her break with both of us earning more than a decent amount, we might have sometimes thought twice about certain expenses. Looking back and seeing how different life is with just one salary helped us put into perspective just how much we were earning earlier and how we could have been a little bit more carefree within some limits. We swore that once she starts working again, we will make sure to spend enough to enjoy our time now when we are still relatively young.

[midlet2013]

What WD40 describes is the kinda of life we led in India where my dad was too extreme in spending n savings. It only works if the entire family is in sync. If the wife or kids disagree or feel unhappy, then it leads to misery. Savings is fine but experiences are worth it too.

Our rule is different. We try not to spend more than 25-40% of our income. We have seen a significant rise in our household income in the past 5-7 years so were able to upgrade a lot.


If you read the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, one of the points is to not deny yourself what u want, instead focus on earning more. Its not always easy but at least one try . Once u reach ur limit, one has to be practical.

so it depends

We are absolutely not missing out on anything! It is myth that you need to spend a lot of money to be happy. I will give you an example of what happened yesterday:

My wife yesterday evening said, lets order food. I asked her is pizza okay? She said ok. There is a pizza hut 2kms away. So took my bicycle and got the pizza myself. There was an offer for take away, which is not there for delivery, so saved totally $12(including $4 delivery fee) and it was a nice bicycle ride too. The large pizza cost $17.95 after 50% discount. My daughter ate 3 slices and me and my wife 2 and half slices each and absolutely loved it and we were full.

The above didnt make me miss out on anything, it just made me feel good about myself, saving money and having pizza too.

My wife doesnt allow me to drink beer because she is afraid I will become an alcoholic, lol, so whenever my wife is taking a nap or goes out, I go downstairs minimart and get a cold can of 500ml beer for $4 and gulp and then rest of the day try not to breath hard while close to my wife, lol. Who says you need to spend a lot of money to be happy?

We do go and eat out, but we dont go to Din Tai Fung level restaurants, we go to food courts and mid tier Indian restaurants. It is all about setting expectations. If in your mind Din Tai Fung kind of restaurant spending is a must have, then you believe that and then if you cut down, you feel miserable. We never had those expectations. We derive happiness from simple things. Go and have a nice Yole frozen yoghurt after a food court meal, it is awesome and wont burn a hole in your pocket.

And btw, you are a high achiever and you have that pressure in your mind to convert your high skills/IQ/effort to high income and then convert your high income to high spending. We are not high achievers and we absolutely dont give a damn about what the society thinks about us. We would rather not have to go to work and retire early and do what we want rather than do what other people think we should do, aka keeping up with the Joneses.

Also, I noticed you mentioned household income, so I assume your wife is also working. So yeah, no wonder, you better make sure spouse and kid are on board.

In my case, the choice was very clear, my wife is just like me, hates to take any bullshit from bosses. She worked in NCS on LoC for 1.5 years in java web development and she absolutely hated it. She couldnt wait to get out it and as soon as we had a kid, she decided to be a stay at home mom and take care of the house and the kid while I earn and take care of the finances. We save 55% of my single income, 120k SGD gross as per IRAS assessment. So I hope you appreciate the perspective.

In your case, with all the money sloshing around and both of you career oriented, I can see your spending goals would be very different than me, but I dont agree with you that you need to spend a lot of money to be happy.

Good points but I really dont agree

[midlet2013]

What WD40 describes is the kinda of life we led in India where my dad was too extreme in spending n savings. It only works if the entire family is in sync. If the wife or kids disagree or feel unhappy, then it leads to misery. Savings is fine but experiences are worth it too.

Our rule is different. We try not to spend more than 25-40% of our income. We have seen a significant rise in our household income in the past 5-7 years so were able to upgrade a lot.


If you read the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, one of the points is to not deny yourself what u want, instead focus on earning more. Its not always easy but at least one try . Once u reach ur limit, one has to be practical.

so it depends

We are absolutely not missing out on anything! It is myth that you need to spend a lot of money to be happy. I will give you an example of what happened yesterday:

My wife yesterday evening said, lets order food. I asked her is pizza okay? She said ok. There is a pizza hut 2kms away. So took my bicycle and got the pizza myself. There was an offer for take away, which is not there for delivery, so saved totally $12(including $4 delivery fee) and it was a nice bicycle ride too. The large pizza cost $17.95 after 50% discount. My daughter ate 3 slices and me and my wife 2 and half slices each and absolutely loved it and we were full.

The above didnt make me miss out on anything, it just made me feel good about myself, saving money and having pizza too.

My wife doesnt allow me to drink beer because she is afraid I will become an alcoholic, lol, so whenever my wife is taking a nap or goes out, I go downstairs minimart and get a cold can of 500ml beer for $4 and gulp and then rest of the day try not to breath hard while close to my wife, lol. Who says you need to spend a lot of money to be happy?

We do go and eat out, but we dont go to Din Tai Fung level restaurants, we go to food courts and mid tier Indian restaurants. It is all about setting expectations. If in your mind Din Tai Fung kind of restaurant spending is a must have, then you believe that and then if you cut down, you feel miserable. We never had those expectations. We derive happiness from simple things. Go and have a nice Yole frozen yoghurt after a food court meal, it is awesome and wont burn a hole in your pocket.

And btw, you are a high achiever and you have that pressure in your mind to convert your high skills/IQ/effort to high income and then convert your high income to high spending. We are not high achievers and we absolutely dont give a damn about what the society thinks about us. We would rather not have to go to work and retire early and do what we want rather than do what other people think we should do, aka keeping up with the Joneses.

Also, I noticed you mentioned household income, so I assume your wife is also working. So yeah, no wonder, you better make sure spouse and kid are on board.

In my case, the choice was very clear, my wife is just like me, hates to take any bullshit from bosses. She worked in NCS on LoC for 1.5 years in java web development and she absolutely hated it. She couldnt wait to get out it and as soon as we had a kid, she decided to be a stay at home mom and take care of the house and the kid while I earn and take care of the finances. We save 55% of my single income, 120k SGD gross as per IRAS assessment. So I hope you appreciate the perspective.

In your case, with all the money sloshing around and both of you career oriented, I can see your spending goals would be very different than me, but I dont agree with you that you need to spend a lot of money to be happy.

As said in the book "how and make friends n influence people", the first response of people is to go defensive.


Everything is open to interpretation. I just feel that people who think they are running a perfect life and that everyone is onboard with each of their decisions, are bullshitting. They just dont see anyone else's perspective.

There is no need to take it personally. It was more of a general experience that I have. My dad was extremely frugal, never listened to any of us and yet somehow he believes that he has been perfect at almost everything So, my point was people sometimes think they see and understand but they dont.

And I just feel that if my dad had optimism and foresight about how bright our future is, he could have lived a different life. But he always saw the negative, the fear of losing was so strong that he saved and saved and saved and never lived

[Wd40]

As said in the book "how and make friends n influence people", the first response of people is to go defensive.

So, everything is open to interpretation. I just feel that people who think they are running a perfect life and that everyone is onboard with each of their decisions, are bullshitting. They just dont see anyone else's perspective.

There is no need to take it personally. It was more of a general experience that I have. My dad was extremely frugal, never listened to any of us and yet somehow he believes that he has been perfect at almost everything So, my point was people sometimes think they see and understand but they dont.

And I just feel that if my dad had optimism and foresight about how bright our future is, he could have lived a different life. But he always saw the negative, the fear of losing was so strong that he saved and saved and saved and never lived

You are being too hard on your dad. He had the foresight to save for the rainy day and to make sure his finances are right and he doesnt have to depend on others during his old age. My dad was also like that. Now looking back, we feel my dad could have spent more as he has ended up savings a lot of money which he wont be able to use in his lifetime.

Yet, I feel did the right thing, given the information he had. In our family everyone was poor, so there was no precedent of people being middle class. Also India until late 1990s was a basket case, there was no way for our dads to know that we will become part of the IT boom and end up with so much surplus.

Now compare, other people's dad, who didnt really care much about their own retirement, and depend on their kids to send them money. Their kids started with debt and are significantly behind in their financial goals compared to us.

I feel, I got all the right learnings of frugalness from my dad and I am very proud of him and I continue on that same path. Although relatively, compared to him, we have a much better standard of life, but compared to my income and how others spend, it sounds very frugal.

You dont have to agree with me. We are just wired differently. You and your wife are ready to work hard to achieve whatever goals you have. Good for you! You probably got the IQ in your genes and/or you put in a lot of effort, so you are making use of whatever skills/ability you have. But what is the benchmark to how much you should spend to become happy? I and my wife are not ready to slog, my wife absolutely loves to be stay at home mom and loves to try different recipes, teach my daughter, she does knitting, croquet, painting etc and these stuff dont cost a lot of money. Guess which is the happiest country in the world? Now compare this to working moms in SG. If they really love their job, then it is different. But tell me how many people in the workplace actually love their job? They do it due to social pressure, they need a car, need a condo etc

[x9200]

We are absolutely not missing out on anything! It is myth that you need to spend a lot of money to be happy. I will give you an example of what happened yesterday:

My wife yesterday evening said, lets order food. I asked her is pizza okay? She said ok. There is a pizza hut 2kms away. So took my bicycle and got the pizza myself. There was an offer for take away, which is not there for delivery, so saved totally $12(including $4 delivery fee) and it was a nice bicycle ride too. The large pizza cost $17.95 after 50% discount. My daughter ate 3 slices and me and my wife 2 and half slices each and absolutely loved it and we were full.

You are not any different than any higher spending people. You just have your limits set in a different point. Why do you have a bicycle? You could have gone by foot and save the money you spent on the bicycle, right? It sounds ridiculous but only because you are inside of the box of your own limits. And you own the bicycle because you found an added value in this. So have found other people going to more fancy restaurants or beach resorts or paying for zillions of other things some extra money. It is not like the majority of higher spenders do it because they think more they spend better value they get, but they really see this added value.

The fact that you operate within your own set limits does not mean you don't miss anything. Maybe you don't want to explore so take the risk paying for something new that may later have for you no value? Or you have not developed the taste for something, so you don't see the difference (so why to pay extra if you see no value?). Or saving money is such high value itself (as you perceive it) it outweighs the added value for more expensive goods even if you can see it.

So I think you miss a lot, but having said that if you are just happy where you are then this is perfectly ok. Unless it's only an illusion you created for yourself but I don't think it's here the case.

[bro75]

This is an interesting discussion. I consider myself frugal but not at the level of WD40. We live in a HDB, have no car, have no maid, and most of our appliances are more than 10 years old. I am averse to any type of loan except for the HDB mortgage. We basically accumulated a respectable net worth not due to savvy investing but just due to low spending compared to our income. Prior to the pandemic, we still had our overseas trips, dining out, movies and other entertainment. I do not consider myself ready for retirement and plan to work until retirement age unless the work environment deteriorates severely or unless we get kicked out of here for any reason.
I think WD40 did very well for himself. I have many countrymen in overseas employment that returned home with no savings after their contract ended. Some had savings but placed them in failed investments forcing them to go abroad again.
I understand the story of the very frugal Asian parent or grand parent as this happened to us. For Asians, many of our parents and grandparents experienced hard times and developed a frugal mentality that affected us in different ways. I believe I became more frugal compared to my generation due to my parent's and my own experiences. My siblings are more into the FOMO mentality as they value experiences more than savings but at least they do not borrow for these experiences.

[Wd40]

The fact that you operate within your own set limits does not mean you don't miss anything. Maybe you don't want to explore so take the risk paying for something new that may later have for you no value? Or you have not developed the taste for something, so you don't see the difference (so why to pay extra if you see no value?). Or saving money is such high value itself (as you perceive it) it outweighs the added value for more expensive goods even if you can see it.

So I think you miss a lot, but having said that if you are just happy where you are then this is perfectly ok. Unless it's only an illusion you created for yourself but I don't think it's here the case.

Thanks. My view is, it is all relative to our own expectations of what we want from life. There will always be something out there that we can experience, but we haven't experienced. For example, you can go to Peru to see Machu picchu. Or Africa to see the wild life safari. In the end we will not be able to do everything. We will miss out on something or the other. There is stuff we know that worth enjoying and then there is stuff we dont even know that it is worth enjoying. If I never set foot in an aeroplane, I would think I have missed something big. But I have been to business class also and now to it is like what is the big deal. In the end it is all in our mind. You see the Buddhist monks look so happy, because they completely are at peace and beleive spending their time in meditation is the most worthwhile thing to do.

I will give you the best example, there are some Indian colleagues in our team and couple of them have already gone to Iceland to see the northern lights and there are some Europeans in our team and being from Europe, they havent gone and seen the Northern lights. You would imagine, if Northerns lights such a once in a lifetime must see experience, mostly people from Spain, Italy etc are more likely to go and see it than some Indians working in Singapore?

We went for a trip to Krabi in Sept 2019, probably going to be our last budget trip for a long time, lol. During the trip, the best highlight was the elephant ride. My daughter was absolutely awestruck and ever since then is crazy about elephants, she reads about them, she watches discovery channels and everything related to elephants. She is like really into it and now she says her ambition is to become a zoo keeper(she is only 10 years old).

So I dont know what to make of this. If we didnt do the elephant ride in Krabi, maybe she would have never developed that interest. But now we know she likes it. We will try to make a trip to Kerala elephant santuary and also if possible a trip to Africa and my daughter, as of this moment, would be delighted beyond imagination.