The beginning of desire: Credit Card Brochures

I talked about examining your wallet in an earlier post and brought up the point that many Singaporeans have a few credit cards in their wallets. The thing about owning a credit card is that you have allowed the bank that issued you the credit card access to your deepest desires!

How so?
Once you are a credit card customer of a bank, they will send you a monthly statement reflecting what you have billed to your credit card. Without fail, the bank will throw in brochures, buy-one-get-one-free vouchers and catalogues with the monthly statement to entice, encourage and egg you on to satisfy your desires for the cute hello kitty bag, that cool Nokia N95 phone or that irresistible spa package at a very special price only if you charge to your credit card!

The intense competition for unsecured credit by banks literally throwing themselves at those who qualify for credit cards has seen my handphone hit by cold calls for balance transfers, free personal credit line weekly. Hardly a week passes without me being bothered by telemarketers working on behalf of the financial institutions trying to get you to have easy credit to engage in retail therapy and pamper yourself. Life is short, enjoy it! You DESERVE it!!!

Throw away those credit card brochures now!
To counteract the machinations of the banks, I tend to throw away the brochures without even reading them! "What?" you may exclaim, "Throw out the brochures without seeing if there is a BARGAIN or GREAT DEAL to be had???!! Are you siao Mr. PanzerGrenadier?"

No, I am quite sane. If you have come to understand that human wants and desires are unlimited and human needs are limited, you will realise that by not seeing the "BARGAINS" or "DEALS", you are reducing the opportunities for yourself to be tempted by the goods and services you see in the brochure that are all aimed at attracting and assimilating your hard-earned money into sometime called "PROFITS" for the bank.

So if you truly want to continue on this resolute journey that we are taking together towards financial freedom, you may want to seriously consider breaking the cycle of I-see-I-want-I-buy-I-regret. At the end of the day, if that good or service in the brochure a need or a want. YOU DECIDE.

Pamper yourself by all means if the spa deal is a really good deal.

Buy that gadget on a 12 month instalment plan if the price is very competitive versus what you can find in retail shops.

Do whatever you want, but make an INFORMED choice.

As ever, be well and prosper!