'Filthy' Rich

There's nothing wrong with aspiring to be rich. I always wonder why being rich was linguistically associated with the word 'filthy'. The majority of the society still associates the rich as crooks. The word 'capitalism' brings about many negative connotations with it; consumerism, greed, vanity, oppression, etc.

I am not ashamed to say that I want to be rich. I want to be so filthy rich that I can be financially free. So that I can live life on my own terms; I can choose to work on things or projects that excite me, I can choose the kind of people that I am inspired to work with and I can choose where and how I want to get things done. I do not want my life to be restricted by anything worldly; I do not want my zest for living to be watered down by the balance of my bank accounts, by the decision of a few people on whether to allow me to go on a 6-month vacation to a remote island somewhere just because they write me the paycheck every month.

Recently I came a cross statuses on Facebook of a friend of a friend of a friend (you know how Facebook works) who shared her view on the importance of shielding younger kids from the evil claws of materialism and consumerism. To a certain degree, I agree with her. Kids should be taught to become inventors instead of becoming the hollowed out souls, addicted to the latest gizmos and outwardly appearances, paid for by their parents. But ultimately, we cannot break away from the system put in place by capitalists. and they say, if we cannot beat the system, then work with the system.

Personally I feel that the evil in the world is not capitalism and consumerism, it's ignorance. We are not taught in our formal education on how to advance ourselves financially in the real world, our education system teaches us knowledge that for the most part will be disposable, ready to be retrieved at the tip of our finger via the internet. Our education system teaches us to be good employers; get good grades in order to find good jobs. And after that we make our decisions based on what is expected of us; stay in a the good job, work hard to get promoted to buy a bigger house and faster car, and then drive that car to work to pay the installment for the car. It's a rat race and once we realize it, we are in too deep.

If we are not taught to be wise with our money, and we do not take it upon ourselves to learn, is it anyone else's fault that we stay in a rut forever? Most of the people I know are not aware of the basic numbers in good financial management; the percentage of your monthly salary that should go into car loan repayment. Most new graduates spend more than 30% on their monthly car installment and think that it is ok.

Let me not preach as I am in no position to do so but this post, I hope will serve as a call to all of us including me, to take the initiative to enrich ourselves in financial knowledge. We owe it to ourselves. I think it should be made compulsory for kids to read books on financial management, so that whatever it is they aspire to be, whether a musician, a carpenter, a coder or a gardener, they will have the freedom to do so, not having to make the choice between pursuing their dreams or working for a paycheck.

On that note, I have resigned from my current company! Not to do my business full-time as it is in no shape to support the family financially yet, but to take on another job that inspire me. To be honest, I wouldn't have taken up this job had I not won the RM30k cash. It is a major leap and I don't know whether I will regret this decision or not; only one way to find out.