It's all over the place. The younger folk all know about it, UOB credit cards even have a card called the YOLO card...
So I wanted to give it more thought...
You only live once... That's pretty true, even if you believe in reincarnation, we aren't supposed to recall our past lives... so in essence you only are aware of your current existence.
As I think about it, it makes a tiny bit of sense... Like you only live once, so we should enjoy our lives as much as we can right? If not now, then when? Can't be wait til we're dead then we enjoy it. That wouldn't make any sense. So maybe there's some truth to YOLO?
We should travel as much as we can when we are young right? Cos when we're older, we might not be as mobile, so we can't go to as many places.
Maybe I should eat all the good stuff, cos there's lots of stuff to try and there isn't enough time to try it all, so I need to start booking all those Michelin restaurants now, cos some of them have a really long wait list.
Or to buy some nice watches and cars. Cos why not right? YOLO. It would be more fun owning a nice car when I'm younger than when I'm 70 years old. If I don't get to show it off then what's the point in owning a fast car or flashy watch?
Let's go have drinks at night and nice 5 course dinners everyday. It's totally the new way to live...
Since we only live once, then I suppose we all should indulge ourselves silly. Totally get drunk on the high of spending. Cos why not? YOLO!!!
So what age does YOLO tend to kick in? Usually when someone starts working? Maybe around 23? Some feel it younger, some older... nevermind... and how long do we run YOLO for? I would think maybe til 35? 40? I think it's pretty hard to sell YOLO to someone 50 years old... somehow, for an older person, when he/she says YOLO, it doesn't sound cool at all. It's like, huh? If they had an old guy in those YOLO commercials, I think no one would be convinced about the YOLO idea... It's all about being young and wild.
As I tend to think about things from both directions, I flip it around.
YOLO right? So you only live once, don't screw it up.
Don't get into debt, save up hard. Invest well. So that when you're older, you can really enjoy yourself without financial worry.
Isn't this YOLO as well?
Because we only live once, then I think we really need to think of how we should not mess up our 80 years on Earth. It's not so much as we should go wild cos we only live once. Rather, we should take care of ourselves when we're young, COS we only live once.
We don't want to have clogged arteries at 35 years old, or gout or diabetes.
There's a long way more to 85 years old. That's 50 more years. YOLO right. That's exactly why we should be careful. Going wild for 5-10 years in one's youth might have terrible repercussions in the long run.
Poor financial habits. Poor health. Maybe deep in debt...
And it snowballs, cos with poor health, insurance costs would be more expensive when the person starts thinking about financial planning when older.
High blood pressure and clogged arteries are long drawn out issues which will last through a person's whole life, it's not easy to reverse such ailments.
With a poor credit score, someone might not be able to get a loan for something really important, like maybe a housing loan, or credit cards which actually provide a rebate on spending.
Lots of things could go wrong with living wild when young. It's pretty much similar with retirement when young. Cos there's just more time to make mistakes. If we start to live wild when we're 65, hey... not much chance for error. Although, after a whole life of prudence, I doubt someone would suddenly change his habits when they reach 65.
So once again, I think there's a balance to this... But leaning on the careful side.
Yes, we all only live once. So we need to be careful about how we take care of ourselves. In all aspects, health, mentally, financially, etc... But we also shouldn't live a life of so much prudence, that it's not fun at all anymore.
We need to do things that we want to do, but take into account that life is a 80+ year long marathon, there's no point breaking a leg early during the marathon and having to stumble all the way to the end.
So, YES... I agree with YOLO. Cos we all really do live only once.
But in a different sense. We need to take care of ourselves cos... YOLO.
We need to be healthy, cos... YOLO.
We need to save for our retirement, cos... YOLO.
We need to have good friends, cos... YOLO.
That's the whole point. YOLO. So don't mess it up. I think we should all fill our lives with meaningful things that will see us through our 80 years here. Not just some frivolous idea thought out by some marketing executive, such that it encourages people to just not think too much about things and "just do it".
Precisely cos, we live only once, that's why at times, we need to think more about it.
YOLO... That's not an excuse for stupidity. It's just a dumb marketing gimmick which has somehow caught on and given people an excuse to do things which they wouldn't have done normally, and they also tend to drag all their friends down along with them.
So yes... YOLO? I believe in it. But not in the way most people think about it.
YOLO... You only live once. Don't mess it up.
Wishing y'all a Happy Deepavali.
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