What is an ideal life experience? To become a multi-millionaire, live a luxurious lifestyle, and have beautiful houses and cars? But to people who already have all these, are they happy? They might still chase for something that they do not have, right? So, what have gone wrong?
It again boils back down to human nature, under appreciates or did not see what they already have, and chase for things that they do not have. Maybe this has something to do with the competitive or fighting nature in human, where they like to compete and win over others.
So, to me, an ideal life experience is the ability to live an interesting and meaningful life; a life that follows your freewill, and a life where you will not feel that there are any regrets as you have done everything that you ever wanted to do even if it is the last day of your life.
Does it require a lot of money in order to be happy? When you think carefully, money is definitely not a mandatory requirement to be happy. It is not difficult to find people who is already rich but is yet still not happy because they are still chasing for more money and other things that they do not have yet. This mentality will blind people from the ability to see and enjoy what they already possess now. The process of finding more money to get what you do not have is the main cause of unhappiness, because you will not be happy until you get what you want. So what makes people happy? In my personal opinion, it is the ability to be contended and appreciative of what a person already has at present. By doing this, you do not need to wait 20 years before you can be happy and start enjoying life; you will be happier NOW!
So what is the problem if I do not enjoy what I have now? The problem is everyone has a limited life span; usually people spend about 20 years studying, 30 years career building, and the remaining 20 years for enjoying life. There are also some people who chose to focus on their career so much that they decides to give up the part of experience in life for family building. Well, different people value different things. At the end it is a personal choice.
But what if the perceived life span is shortened? Initially, we may think that we can live healthily until the age of 70, and spend the last 20 years for enjoying life. Unfortunately, there are one thing human can never be too sure of, and that is you will never be able to know what will happen to you in the future. What if sickness strikes? What if there is an accident? Then the last 20 years of your life can easily be wiped out without a choice.
The risk of ill health is even higher for modern people, as we do not walk as much (with the help of vehicles), or work as hard (less physical work) compared to people in the past anymore. Coupled with an unhealthy diet and lack of time for exercise, you can imagine why the risk of not being able to fully enjoy your retirement age is high.
This has left many people with regrets when they are at old age, citing that they still have a lot of things unaccomplished but lacking the energy to do it anymore. They have missed the chance to travel around when they are young, missed the chance to see their children grow happily with full attention themselves as a parent, and many more. Life should not be lived in the future, but in the present. There was a wise story I once read that questioned how do you know that you have lived life to the fullest? It is when you have no regrets even if tomorrow is your last day on earth.
There are those who argue that due to financial constraints, they have no choice but to work harder and therefore have lesser time for other things in life. Please realize one thing; that pressure is what people gave themselves due to the choices that they have make. So, a more matured mentality and wiser decision making will be the key for a less problematic life.
So, what should you do? You should evaluate how much money you could spend based on what you can afford. Everyone has to know their limits and capacity in life. What can you expect when a person whose earning is below RM50k a year but wanting to buy a house costing RM1M? They will surely put themselves in great financial burden for at least the next 20-30 years. This is not to mention the high probability of an economic downturn that might occur during that period. So, it is not difficult to imagine why people are unhappy nowadays. We shall discuss more on financial matter under the financial topics.
