Passive income: A higher purpose.

Today is the 15th day of the Chinese New Year or Yuan Xiao Jie.  

It marks the end of the celebrations and, traditionally, the Chinese people would spend the evening together with family to have dinner together on this night before starting work in a brand new year.  

During dinner, glutinous rice balls as a dessert is a must.  

Of course, this tradition is more or less diluted or even forgotten in modern day society and most of us would have resumed work before today and some might not even be having dinner with their family tonight.






As if to support my observations, a friend called me out for lunch as I was blogging this.  

Over lunch, I asked if he would be having dinner with his family tonight and he went, "Huh?".  

Well, maybe not this exact word but you get the idea.  

Over lunch, we also talked about time as a form of capital and how when we spend time doing something, it is actually an investment and we must make sure we invest our time wisely because, unlike money, this is a form of capital that we cannot make more of.  






We have less and less remaining time on Earth as we grow older.

Suddenly, I feel philosophical.  

Life is so very short.  

We have only a few decades on Earth.  

Well, there are people who live to a hundred but I don't know if that is a blessing or a curse.  






Do we really mean it when we wish our elders "Chang Ming Bai Shui" (Long life and hundred years old) or is it just plain courtesy?  

I mean if we live to a hundred and have the good health of someone, say, half the age, good, but what is the probability?

Frankly, I don't want to live to be a hundred years old.  I don't want to be full of ailments and be a burden to others.  

When my time comes, I will go.  





So, what am I trying to say?  

We should cherish our loved ones because the time we have on Earth is limited.

I remember this from my primary school days (I went to a mission school):

"We often love things and use people when we should be using things and loving people."  





Overly idealistic?  

Maybe but you get the gist of it.

Humans have short memories and need constant reminders.  

This is especially true for people living in this modern world with all its distractions.  

These distract us from what is really important in life.





When asking myself why am I trying to secure a significant passive income stream in my investments, the answer is quite clear. 

This is so I do not have to spend so much time at work or any time at work at all and, instead, I would be able to spend more quality time with my family. 

In our pursuit of financial well-being, we should not lose sight of the most important people in life, our loved ones.  

I am looking forward to dinner tonight.

Happy Chap Gor Mei! (Hokkien for "Happy 15th evening!")




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Added on 6 August 2017:

I have been spending every single Sunday with my family and the day started with breakfast with my dad.