A $71,000 lesson or a haunting experience?

This is a follow up to an earlier blog (see related post at the end of this blog) and there is a simple but important message in this.

All of us make mistakes, some bigger than others.

However, it is important to remember that there is nothing bigger than life itself.

We are always learning in life.

Life must go on and in a good way too.







Reader says...

I am so sad to fall into such greed and indeed lessons learned not to be greedy at all. 

I wonder how many people in your blog had experienced the same and can offer some encouragement and empathy.







I really feel so stupid for not checking your blog in 2014, and feel even stupider for doing more due diligence check. 

I feel so sorry for those who were in the same boat as us because I saw herds of people joining those conference in hotels giving free food and dinners.






"Crying my heart out" and those who pocketed our investors money must be laughing at us for being so stupid.

I do have feelings of burning down some buildings and at least slapping someone if killing is too much??

Where is the money?

AK says...

I do feel sympathetic.

However, it could be better for you to treat the money as gone and not think about it too much.





I have been in situations where I lost money in investments and a lot of money too and it was horrible.

However, I had to get over it and I told myself to take it as a learning experience and not to make the same mistake in future.





It will take time. 

Cry but let it go after crying. OK? :)

I would rather treat this as a $71,000 lesson than to let it haunt me forever.

Related post:
$71,000 bogus investment?

Should I sell my home and downsize or downgrade?

This is a reply to Ruby, a long time reader of ASSI, but it turned out to be quite lengthy.

So, I decided to publish it as a proper blog instead.






Ruby's comment and questions:

My reply:

Hi Ruby,

Of course, the property agent would want you to sell your home and buy a new one (probably from him too). ;p

Ask do you need to sell or do you want to sell your home?





Your home is a freehold property and does not suffer from lease decay.

This is a fact.

Aging freehold property?

I don't understand why is that an issue.





From the perspective of your home holding its value over time, what's wrong with that?

Now, if you need more money for retirement and if selling your home is the only way to achieve this, then, you have to do it.

Then, you can choose to either downsize (rightsize) or downgrade.





You could get another freehold private apartment but one with a smaller footprint if you care about your home holding its value and often people care about this because they want to leave their home as a legacy for their future generations.

I think a one bedroom 500 sq ft apartment should be good enough for a married couple if the space is used efficiently.






If you need the same amount of space as your current home, if you want to stay in Singapore, then, downgrading to a public (HDB) flat is the only way to go and, with the current rules, resale flats are your only option.

As retirees, I guess you don't have to be located in mature HDB estates.

It is a fact that flats in non-mature HDB estates would cost less and this option would leave more money in your pocket.





Also, as seniors, if this is the route you choose, you don't have to be so particular about shorter remaining leases of resale HDB flats as long as the price is right because HDB flats are for staying in and not meant to be a store of value for legacy planning.

You might also want to read the related post at the end of this blog which is about another reader who was thinking of downsizing.

Wishing you good health and good luck!

Related post:
Downsizing our home for better?