the most powerful thing that a person has control of, is this thing called....

choice

though a person's family is by default, it sure doesn't help to get back home to a pair of naysaying parents. it's a conscious process to realize that one's parents are the world's greatest hypnotists a person can get in his/her own life. and it's usually a one-way traffic too. so when there is discord in the family over the issue of money, one has to consciously think about this - what are the beliefs about money the family has. if a family has an underlying belief of poverty, it might take some time, some pain, to strive towards an improvement in standard of life, as well as to eradicate cognitive dissonance. it also helps to distance oneself from one's family so as to pursue goals that are considered "conflicting" because both parties' viewpoints will be vastly different. because each passing moment in the company of such people is highly contagious; because it may spread like a virus - undetected and insidious - and affect the state of mind of a person.

i'm really glad each day i can stay away from my folks through my work, because their deeply entrenched beliefs about money get into the way of our relationship as a family. at the same time i'm working to provide a service to those who have a deep sense of responsibility towards the well-being of their family - because come high tide or hell water (i know i got this wrong, but you get the drift), i know that so long as the day i still have my health and body intact, we will be able to earn our keep.

readers of my blog, please ponder over this statement and share your views over this phrase:

"the rich die richer, the poor die poorer"

i've encountered things that really shocked me, to say the least. here i am reminded of the following saying:

"if you fail to plan, you plan to fail"

that relates to my failed attempt at teaching, but surely i learnt some unwritten lessons in life from it. but does it take for something massive from the school of hard knocks to wake a person up? how does one save people from drowning when he/she doesn't know how to swim? i've come across a client who earns over 30k a year who told me 120 dollars a year is something he "can't afford". these people are funnier than the funniest parents i've come across in school.

dolf deroos did say before, that one of the contributing factors to marital harmony, is actually financial harmony. i agree that money can't help relations in any way, but without the same harmony as in religious beliefs, the very foundation that a marriage is built upon will be on the rocks instead of being on a bedrock.

as to something i've done recently, this post by shimworld makes sense. i will not be doing wedding photography as a favour in the future anymore.

how big a difference, a misunderstanding or rather, a misspelling can make for a person.

a friend sms'ed me a few months ago that he had fibrodysplasia, which i had to submit for application. he was rejected. it's very rare for anyone to be rejected for a basic hospitalization plan, unless the person has a terminal disease. i'd thought my friend had the fatal disease version of fibrodysplasia.

after mulling for at least a month since the rejection, i just decided to check with him, to confirm which definition he had.

he told me it was fibrous dysplasia, which was NOT fatal! we laughed our heads off... that was heck of a scare! we'll check to see how we can apply for the policy anyway next week.

man, the difference between two similarly named conditions... scary, ain't it?

i'm very curious, are some people i know of, really taking care of themselves? is the habit of buying gizmos a good thing? will these same gizmos take care of the possible financial strain when something bad happens?

a person earning thousands of dollars a month - is a hundred-plus dollars a year an amount that is duly called "can't afford"?

there are many funny people out there.

it's odd, some people. let me share a case study without mentioning names.

this friend, was once employed. married, had a kid. left his job in malaysia, came to singapore. couldn't get a job for quite a while. on and off, he'd type something similar to "stay the fark away" from him in regards to insurance or whatever while he's not employed. fair enough. i can't be bothered about him, but his 1 year old child.

he then got a job. good, i thought for him. not that i want to have him as a client, but to know his wife can take a breather (i know the wife too long before).

while just letting him know of this claim that came out in the st forums last week, a person sent in the old mother for a heart bypass following a heart attack. the old dame passed away, and the family incurred a bill of 50,000 sgd. the writer essentially wrote in to the forums complaining that the claim granted was only 1428 sgd, which is only about 3% of the whole bill. for those who have nov 28's straits times, go have a look at the forums page. all the while i didn't ever mention, nor intend to have him as a client at all - notably for using the word "fark" without provocation.

after mentioning this case to him, his reply was "stay the fark away" and a whole lot of barrage. i've had enough of him.

i can choose friends, and just as importantly, i can choose clients too. it's ok to say "not interested", "can't care less" or something similar, but i draw the line at verbal abuse. this is both a client, and a "friend" i could do without.