One of the more prominent members of the freegan community said this...
Considering the same amount of resources, an elephant will die faster than a mouse.
Ok the lifespan of a mouse is shorter than an elephant, but that's not the point.
The idea is... If we consider the same amount of resources, someone who consumes more of the resources at a faster rate will run out of resources and die faster.
So if we live like a mouse, utilize less resources, we can last longer than someone who keeps spending and eating up their own resources.
Now we're not looking at earning more resources and investments, but let's take the idea and learn from it.
Someone can work for less time and retire earlier. Simply cos they spend less. That's what we've always advocated. Reduce our expenses, be more frugal.
We can always control what we spend, but we cannot always control how much we earn.
It's really interesting, cos I've always been talking about rebates and keeping a tight budget. Whereas as time passes, I see how others spend less. Spending to save is flawed. Yes, we should maximize our rebates IF we need to spend. But some of the readers spend even less than $500 per month. They can't even hit the bonus interest rate on the UOB One account. And I think this is admirable.
I'm in a couple of chat groups on whatsapp. On one side I chat with the freegan community and in another chat, my friends talk about spending. Recently they were really excited about these mystery boxes on Lazada. Spending $29 per mystery box. Many of them were caught up in the thrill and just induced purchases.
And I felt this tinge of irony. Cos in one chat people were all talking about free stuff and the other chat they were all so proud of being able to grab the mystery boxes.
And they are all my friends. Yet they are all so different.
They really made me think about my own spending. Do I spend to save? Is it induced? Do I buy stuff or intentionally go to eat at restaurants to push up my spending to earn rebates?
Should I find ways to cut these expenses? How much can I cut? What can I substitute for free?
Is it possible to maintain the same standards of living with even less cost, by getting more stuff for free? Or maybe I don't even need it. So I don't even need to find a way to get it for free.
It's been a great learning journey. I would never have been able to interact with so many different people if I was working. And it has also exposed me to many other ideas and ways of living.
I really hope that this journey keeps me on my toes and I keep learning and seeing different people from multiple walks of life in Singapore.
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