Facebook: An alternative to real life.

I became active in Facebook only very recently and I have been under a spell since! It is terribly addictive and, honestly, this scares me.

I still remember when older folks were complaining that people rather talked on the phone instead of meeting up in person years ago. Then, a few years ago, they complained that people would rather send text messages on their phones rather than talk to people on the phone.

Now, some might be at a loss when I say the physical world is going to be a lesser reality compared to the online world for many people, well, if it has not happened already! The culprit? Facebook!

Roughly, there are more than 7.1 billion people in this world and Facebook has 1.1 billion users! Just 3 years ago, Facebook had less than half the number of current users!

Facebook has more than doubled the number of users in just 3 years while world population is estimated to have grown only 1.1% per annum. Imagine a business with a penetration rate of 14.29% globally and growing!

We don't have to be very good at math to guess that years into the future, almost everyone will be a Facebook user.

Facebook is not an alternative to real life! It is real life for many people and, I suspect, soon it will be so for all!

Related post:
Really follow AK71 on Facebook.

AK responds to wedding advice given by an IFA. (Financially prepared to be married?)

I might be putting my head on the chopping board with this blog post but this is not something I have not said before: 

"If there is not enough money for a wedding, the two people do not have enough money to be married."

So, when I saw this topic being discussed in Facebook and, shortly after, read an article on how to prepare financially for marriage, the writing bug bit me.






The article written by an independent financial adviser (IFA) is titled "10 Tips on What to Prepare Financially for Your Upcoming Marriage".

The first line in the article: 

IFA:
"If you have finished school, worked for a few years and is attached, your most likely plan next in the agenda is to get married."

This is like someone who translated his emotional needs into action without sending his emotions through a mental filter first! 

A more prudent thing for the couple to do is to ensure that they are financially stable and have the financial capability to be married.

IFA:
"It is OK to rent (a flat) when you get married."

My response:
No, it is not. I don't think I need to say why. (Unless you do not qualify for a BTO flat, why can't you wait for a BTO flat? Why are you in such a rush to get your own place? OK, you don't need to answer that. Think Rule of 15.)

IFA:
"If you are going to borrow to pay that renovation, try to borrow from your own parents first (hopefully they can lend you interest free!)."

My response:
Forget the renovation. If you do not have the money to renovate your home (unless there is a safety issue), don't. You think parents are ATMs?

IFA:
"You may wish to postpone investments until you have fully satisfied that you have set aside sufficient budget for your marriage."

My response:
This is like putting the cart in front of the horse! Consumption before investment? OMG! Whatever happened to delaying gratification? OMG! This is like... er... OMG!

IFA:
"Finally, do spend some amount of money engaging a good professional wedding photographer. Years later, the only way your kids can know about your wedding is through photographs. Make sure you have both hard and softcopies of these photographs."

My response:
I am not curious about my parents' wedding and they do not see the need to tell me anything about it too. I wonder how many are curious about their parents' weddings or how many people would see it as important to educate their children about theirs?




If you ask me, true love does not need a marriage certificate. Of course, if you want to have kids, then, please get married. 

Marriage, in my opinion, is to give the children legitimacy. Unless the family is not part of mainstream society, children born out of wedlock will have many issues growing up.

Two people planning to get married and thinking of borrowing money for everything in the process should not be getting married. 

Obviously, at least to me, they are not financially prepared for it.

"Once you get into debt, it's hell to get out." Charlie Munger.

Related post:
Not enough money to be married.

Really Follow AK71 on Facebook.

OK, I just found this in my Facebook account:



I know, I know. Be kind to me. Don't laugh.

Apparently, the button I provided in my last blog post on my Facebook account was to "Add Friend" and that is different from "Follow".


AK's self portrait!

Related post:
AK71's Facebook.

A fresh grad and $100K by 30. (A fast track to wealth building!)

I have been spending more time on Facebook lately. It requires less work than blogging and with real time people to people interaction, it is somewhat addictive. 

For someone who does not go out much to meet people, Facebook is appealing to me. I think I have discovered another time guzzler.






Well, this morning, my Facebook wall (Is that what it is called?) was abuzz with comments on an article in papers. 

It is an article on how it is possible for a fresh graduate to have more than $100k in net worth by age 30.

See the chart:

Click on chart to enlarge.

Anyway, judging by the amount of activity this article has generated in Facebook, this is an interesting topic for many people. 

It is about money and how to make big money from money. $100k is no loose change. So, I am not surprised.






There is a fair bit of scepticism as to how it is possible to do something like this. Well, read the 
assumptions. 

If the stars align the way they should, then, wonderful things would happen.

In Economics, when we say "ceteris paribus" which means "everything else remaining equal", it shows how changing a variable will affect results. So, for certain arguments to hold water, certain assumptions must be made.

So, how useful then is such an article? Is the article realistic?

Personally, I have suffered scepticism at the hands of others in my almost 4 years of blogging about personal finance and investment as well. So, I am not surprised by some of the reactions to the article.

What I want to say is that it is doable but it might not be easy. All of us have different circumstances and it is harder for some than others to save (and not for want of trying). Some might be luckier than others. 

Yes, we have to be honest here. Luck plays a part.






I will look at the article as something to inspire young working adults on what is possibly achievable if we are willing to give it a go and not cling on to every word (and number) in the article in an attempt to ridicule or discredit. 

Be inspired and I have no doubt that we will all become richer for it.

Source:

Is it possible to have $100k by 30?

The Straits Times.

Related posts:
1. Retiring a millionaire is not a dream.
2. Wage slaves should be fearful.
3. Wealthy nation cannot afford to retire?

AK71's Facebook.

There are great artists in this world and there are great IT brains too.

I am really slow when it comes to IT stuff and I know bloggers like Drizzt (InvestmentMoats) and LP (Bully the Bear) who have kindly tried to influence me to become more IT savvy at one time or another have probably given up on me. Friends and colleagues too have found out what a dinosaur I am.

Which one is AK?

Blogging is something I do for fun and I don't want to feel any pressure to learn new stuff. Otherwise, blogging becomes stressful and when something becomes stressful, it is no longer fun.

Anyway, I think I might have moved up the IT ladder today as I have included a "Follow AK on Facebook" button in my blog's left sidebar. This is after receiving questions from readers on whether I have a Facebook account.

I do have a Facebook account. I started one a few years ago at a friend's recommendation to build up readership numbers for my blog but I didn't do much to it or with it. I still don't.

Anyway, try the button and let me know if it works:

If it doesn't work, I will need to seek help.

Singapore Airlines: Slow to board the social media flight?

I might be slow here but I only read in The Business Times recently that SIA took over an unofficial facebook page. Apparently, the SIA facebook page was originally set up by fans and had almost 100,000 members.

Until almost two years ago, I didn't really know what was social media. OK, I heard of blogs, which I thought was a classy bog, and Twitter, which I thought was a noisy chatroom, and Facebook, which I thought was a vanity item. Yes, that's me, an IT dinosaur.

After I got the hang of blogging, it took me quite a while to get on Twitter and, more recently, Facebook. While blogging serves a purpose for me, being a platform for me to pen my thoughts and analyses, I could not see any advantages of being on Twitter and Facebook. I only started accounts because of requests by some readers.

Since starting a Twitter account many months ago, a grand total of 33 people are following my blogs using it. My Facebook account is less than a month old, so, having 3 members is a start. However, I think the most popular way in which readers follow my blog is still through Feedburner. Almost 600 people are following my blogs via feeds!

I know people who have terminated their Twitter accounts because they were not very successful. I also know people who claim that Facebook is more effective than Twitter in spreading the word. I kind of suspect that these are just different tools for different purposes and, most probably, Feedburner is the best tool for my blog to keep readers updated.

So, the view that SIA is very late in latching onto social media and how it has been detrimental to its business is something I do not quite understand. For those who do understand, please be kind to me. Laugh a little if you must but enlighten me with your insights please. :)