Am I keeping up with the Lims, Muthus and Rudis?

Singapore society is furiously fast-paced and frentic. The three Ks of kiasu (scared to lose), kiasi (scared to die) and kia cheng hu (scared of authority) keep us on our toes all the time in all aspects of our lives, including our quest for financial freedom.

Comparing ourselves to others
Comparing ourselves to our peers, our colleagues and our neighbours is something inescapable to existing in Singapore. Our very DNA is infused with this never ending quest to go one-up against one another. There are advantages of being so driven by comparisons against benchmarks. It makes us leaner, sharper and hungrier so that we will seek to find ways to improve, to excel and to be better in everyway almost everyday. However, the disadvantages of such benchmarking and unnecessary comparison at times is stress, too much pressure, a less than gracious attitude towards our neighbour, colleagues and relations and sometimes downright envy and jealousy.

Financial freedom - choose your benchmarks wisely!
In my quest for financial freedom, I do on occasion also give myself undue pressure in getting better returns on my investible savings, "timing" my share purchases to buy at a reasonably low price relative to valuations and to sell at a reasonably high price to maxmise capital gains or minimise capital losses if I no longer wish to hold that company's shares.

I do benchmark myself to my peers, my friends who are around my age and informally check out if my net worth matches or exceeds theirs. Comparing as a means of doing a reality check of whether we are on track towards our goal of financial freedom is useful. We need to know if relative to most people, we are okay, lagging behind or exceeding. However, to use such benchmarks to make ourselves feel good or bad may be counter-productive as each of us has to take a very personal and individualised path towards our financial freedom.

Even the very definition of what financial freedom means to each of us can be different!

Run your own race towards financial freedom
When I was serving my national service in the Singapore Armed Forces as a reservist, I remember the tip shared by the mature Physical Training Instructor (PTIs) who were in their 40s. They exhorted us to try out best at completing the 2.4km run within our required timings to pass the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) but at the same time, warned us to listen to our bodies and run our own race. It is no point pacing ourselves against the best runner in the battalion only to (literally!) drop dead mid-way through the race.

Pacing runners who can pass will give us a gauge if it is likely whether we can run within the required timing to pass the 2.4km running test. But it is important to realise that all of us are different physically and mentally and what is achievable for one may not be achievable for another.

In your own quest towards financial freedom, by all means set your specific targets. For example, if you want to pay off your housing loan before age 55. By all means set that as a target. If you are more aggressive and want to pay off your housing loan by age 40, by all means do so. You set your own goals bearing in mind what financial freedom means to you.

For me, it is to be financially free (where passive income > living expenses) way before 55 so that even before I hit that age, I will already be able to retire if I so choose even without considering a need to touch CPF monies for my retirement.

Think of your own goal, write it down, visualise it and make it your own. Review it periodically taking into consideration your circumstances but pursue it with passion and dedication. Remember to set your own finishing point and run your own race. Check out your contemporaries now and then but don't over-compare for everyone is different in income levels, lifestyle spending levels as well as the capacity for savings and investment.

Above all, enjoy the process of achieving financial freedom because you want to be well and to prosper!