F.I.R.E. children, my mom and CNY secret.

I don't know if this qualifies as a Chinese New Year tradition. 

The elders in the extended family would almost always ask the younger ones who are still single when are they getting married?

Those who are married would be smiling smugly until the elders look at them and ask when are they having children? 

Or if they have children, when are they having another one?

It seems that the elders are always stuck in a time warp when getting married means becoming a grown up and having children is a form of filial piety.

Well, specifically, having sons is a form of filial piety.

AK had to suffer such a "tradition" too for many years but not so much in recent years.

How come like that?

Why like that?

I also don't know why or I didn't know why until this year.

For many years now, I have been very thankful that I could peacefully enjoy the yummy pineapple tarts baked by my sister.

Very harmonious which meant eating even more.

Alamak.

Always eat too many pineapple tarts and almond cookies during Chinese New Year.

Anyway, I digress.

So, how did this harmonious situation come about?

What is the secret?

AK found out in this year's Chinese New Year chatter.

Mom: 
Must take care of our health lah. Old already.

Relative:
Ya lah. Cannot suka suka eat this, eat that.

Mom:
Later stay hospital long long like second uncle a few years ago. Did you visit?

Relative:
I visited and you know he asked me if my ah boy was married? When I told him my ah boy wants to stay single, he told me I very good life. Got many stories like that.

Mom:
Aiyoh. Then, the stories I heard must be true lah. When I saw him, he told me he gained a daughter in law but lost a son. Worth or not? Not worth lah.

Relative:
This means you also very good life!

The chat was in Mandarin and, somehow, translated into English, it isn't as punchy but you get the idea.

My dad who was sitting next to me on the sofa, like me, heard everything, and when I looked at him meaningfully, he nodded his head emphatically.

I got to blow my own trumpet then.

That was the best thing this Chinese New Year.

Correction, that was the next best thing. 

The best thing was the tub of pineapple tarts my sister made!

I have many blogs on the topics of financial freedom and passive income. 

I also have quite a number of blogs on children and how we should not think of them as assets.

Assets should generate wealth for us or at least they should have some value (preferably growing) which could be unlocked at a later date.

I don't think children should even be treated as depreciating assets like cars.

Why am I saying this?

Well, there is no guarantee that children will become assets but they are guaranteed to be wealth destructive at least for the first twenty to twenty five years of their lives.

At least this is usually the case in more modern parts of the world which are highly civilized like Singapore.

So, I have suggested before to think of having children as having a hobby.

A hobby brings us joy but does not generate wealth, in theory anyway.

For those who really must think of their children as investments, the best thing to do is probably to think of children as a speculative component of our investment portfolio.

As with all speculative components in investments, we should make sure they are relatively small in size.

So, if children grew up to become passive income generators, it is a bonus.

If they did not, then, it is a component we can afford to write off as we would have sized our speculative positions appropriately.

Our investment portfolio should be robust without having to rely on the speculative components within.

We should not include our children as possible future passive income generators in our plan for F.I.R.E.

As usual, AK is just talking to himself.

If you were eavesdropping, I hope it was good entertainment.

Huat ah!

References:
1. Have children and a comfortable retirement.
2. Children and 钱最重要的!