Met some friends recently. Seems like most of them are very successful. Live in nice, big houses. Drive new, big cars.
In contrast, I am driving an almost 6 years old car with a lot of dinks and scratches. No doubt I bought it brand new in 2016 and paid off in full with cash.
Still living in my first home bought in 2017. We will complete the MOP by end of this year. The goal is to pay off the mortgage by end 2023.
If $$ is no issue, I suppose most people will also enjoy big houses and nice cars. I would. If I am a multimillionaire like Jeff, buying a landed freehold house is a no-brainer for wealth preservation and potential capital gains in land-scarce Singapore. There is no need to worry about mortgage, interest rate hikes etc.
However, what if the price of the big house and car is bigger loans? Hmmm. Maybe my peers don’t mind retiring later. Based on my estimates, $3-4 million for a landed property, $200-300k for a nice car. Even if one can pay off 50% of each, there is still a $2 million mortgage and a $100k car loan to service. Ok, there’s two breadwinners. Still, it’s a million debt each.
Maybe I am too risk adverse. Hmmm. Maybe I am missing out on some “get-rich in Spore” methods. I don’t know. As long as the music is playing, everyone is still dancing and enjoying themselves. It’s been almost 20 years. No one has been caught swimming naked yet cos it’s always been high tides.
I wonder what will Warren say about this. Hmmm.