An Empty House

Financial bloggers always use rationality to convince readers. I think there's another tool that is seldom used to persuade, and that is through story telling. I can blog out an article with 5 pointers, complete with reasons and supporting evidence, but it will not tug at the heart strings of my readers. It's emotionally dead and will reside in my blog as one of those useful but useless advice that is repeated ad nauseam.

Let me try a different tack. I'll write a short story instead. Stories are robust because they are open to different interpretations. Stories tug first at your heart, then your mind. Stories let you empathise when rationality fails. This is my first short story with the general theme in personal finance.

The Empty House
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This is what he would have wanted.

He sat down in his spartan 3 rm HDB flat and looked at the lonely clock that hung on the wall. In some parts of the wall, the paint had peeled off, revealing the moldy and stained areas.

12:36pm.

In another alternate universe, his wife would be eating chicken rice and drinking a cup of kopi-o with him in a quiet coffeeshop downstairs. His 2 kids, boy age 10 yrs old and his sister, 12, would both be taking a 30 min journey in a feeder bus on their way back home from school. Fun and laughter will transform his 5 rm HDB flat into a home, and that is well worth sacrificing his time and energy to earn the income to support his family.

But in this particular universe, he dreams only about that elusive early retirement and the holy grail of financial independence. He lives below his means and yes, he still cycles 25 min to work to save up on transportation costs. All his life, his only mantra is that his passive income exceeds his expenses. That's his sole reason for living.

12:41pm.

In a few more minutes, he will be going downstairs to buy his $2 50 lunch. Alone. The uncle behind the economic rice stall knows his favourite dishes; he always order the same repertoire of salted fish fried with bean sprouts and the spongy, orangy tao kua, together with a small heap of rice swimming in a watery, spicy gravy of Chinese styled chicken curry. No drinks. That will burst his daily budget of $10 per day for food. His life is nothing without discipline, frugality and prudence.

During the quieter moments of the day, he will sometimes think that his life is indeed nothing. But this thought only last a fraction of a second and the idea has no chance to take root. He will brush it off immediately. This is what he would have wanted.

It must be what he had wanted.