Saturday, April 14, 2007

into the indebted world ...... loans....

It is disheartening and often times, painful and burdening.. But no one can escape it.. with the exception of the filthy rich.

Loans.. loans and more loans..

Every single thing seems to have loans appending it. My entire life seems suffocated with loans. Not that i am bankrupt or anything (place your hands on your head and say "touch wood"). Lets just reflect a bit here.. It is a enormous vicious cycle. These examples are just the tip of the ice berg as to why you are going to need a financial loan.
  • If you want to study (dip or deg) - study loans.
  • When you want to settle down and buy a house - housing loans
  • When you want to buy a car - Car loans
  • When you want to start being your own boss - Business loans, Bank loans
  • When you are in need of urgent cash - James loans, POSB loans (any bank loans) or our favourite loan sharks.
  • Even when you want to read something - Library book loans...
Ok, maybe the last one does not count. Then there are times when you are forced to take a loan even if you do not want to. Like as in paying for my Diploma with my dads CPF.. i am forced to pay him back even if he does not want me to do so.

It is very disheartening to know that a graduate is going to start his life with a huge debt.
It is painful to know that you do not really "own" the car that you drive.
It is burdening to start a family with housing loans burning your income ..
Loans have removed the joy from living.. instead we are plagued by constant insecurities and paranoia as to whether we can sustain our incomes to settle the loans. What do we really own then... when even the 6 feet deep grave seems to be loaned to us .... sigh.

1 comment:

Nunbun said...

Bro, exact sentiments I had a few weeks back when the wonders of working life sank in.


The days of our forefathers, the Sahabahs, where things were a lot simpler, and where one was considered very lucky to not behind any debts, are no more.

Today, people have created a system to benefit the rich to stay rich, and for us mortals to stretch our payments over long amounts of time. It is an unfair system, but it is definitely benefitting those in control of financial institutions.

My conclusion is that it's crazy to be indebted to such an extent. Especially HDB loans. So I treat them as paper work/wayang stuff that needs to be done (cos for the most part you never see the cash changing hands, they're all digital transactions - a series of 1s and zeros). So psychologically the burden is less.

For all other practical purposes, my strategy is simple lah - avoid loans, and if one is forced to take, take minimum amount and pay it off quickly by doing the proper cash projections, and sticking by long-term plans.