Money isn’t just meant for investing – treat yourself, too 

SINCE I started working, I have considered myself to be someone who is careful with expenses, and who has a higher investment risk appetite.

I save most of my income since I still live with my parents, and have low spending needs. Other than some early investments in local blue chips and bond exchange-traded funds, the bulk of my recent investments has been in developed market equities.

I had assumed that this was largely the right way to manage my money – that is, hold just enough cash for emergencies and invest the rest of it, and that any other plan would be suboptimal.

But after speaking to Providend chief executive Christopher Tan last month for my column on windfalls and what one can do with some extra cash, I realised that there are alternative views.

He suggested that some people may focus solely on paying off all their low-interest debt before investing any funds.

In financial management, this would not necessarily be thought of as the way to go. You should invest your funds in, say, stocks and benefit from the spread – the difference between the return and the interest you are paying on debt. In other words, make your money work harder.

Still, Tan said, some folks would lose sleep over the fact that they have debts that they could otherwise pay off if they came into extra cash.

When I asked if there was an objective “right answer” to how to spend one’s money, he told me that “the whole purpose of money is that it’s supposed to enable your happiness”, and people should do what aligns with their relationship to money.

The people who prefer to pay off their debts are not wrong. They just have a different approach to managing money.

Then, a colleague of mine read my piece on windfalls and suggested that, depending on the size of the windfall, he would buy a Ferrari instead, since you do not necessarily get any immediate gratification from investments.

“At least I’m not paying my broker fees to invest,” he said, adding that there was something to be said for using money for something other than making more of it.

These interactions made me realise that I had been looking at money, and life to an extent, through a rather narrow lens. There is more to money than making more of it, or than just FIRE – Financial Independence, Retire Early.

So I decided to buy myself something this festive season as a reward for having survived another year.

It is not that I live an ascetic life. I do buy myself nice things that have some value. For instance, I got myself a desktop computer in July because my old laptop was seven years old and could no longer be updated to Windows 11 (thanks, Microsoft).

Then I got myself an iPhone 16 Pro Max on the day of its release because I thought it should last me another four years, and its nice zoom lens would let me capture holiday memories.

I ordered a pair of wired earphones online because I was sick of flaky Bluetooth wireless earbuds dying on me every couple of years. The wired earphones had replaceable cables, so I can change them when they fray and die on me.

While the most expensive among these purchases was the iPhone, these items were all bought with some consideration for durability and return on investment, that I would be able to amortise their cost over some time to come.

Then – instead of thinking about the returns I could get on a buy – I bought something with absolutely no practical use.

It was an Android game console, for the sole purpose of running games from consoles released in the 90s and noughties, such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Sony Playstation Portable.

I would never have ordinarily bought something like this. The chip that powers the device was released back in 2019 and is woefully out-of-date by today’s standards. My iPhone would run rings around it.

But it has a directional pad (up, down, left and right keys) and analogue sticks that mimic the experience of playing games on original consoles.

It can run all those old games at an even higher resolution than when they were released, so the old games all look sharper than before.

And I can now finally play the games that I yearned to as a kid.

When I was in primary school, I remember when my classmates would bring their Nintendo Game Boys to outings at West Coast Park.

Nobody really played at the swings. All the cool kids would catch and trade Pokemon across their devices with cables. My parents eschewed such frivolous purchases for their lack of educational value, and so I never quite got to play along.

But I did get to play on a good friend’s console for five minutes, and I never forgot the experience of catching a Caterpie. What a rush!

If the point of money is to bring joy, then maybe it isn’t so bad to dedicate some small amounts of money beyond savings and investments to something that is truly untethered from practical use.

So if you have already made great financial plans for yourself and done all your homework, it’s time to go outside and have a bit of fun. Don’t beat yourself up over it.

Buy yourself something completely frivolous with some spare cash, or better yet, find a purposeful cause to contribute to.

Being in a happier frame of mind can keep you going stronger in the new year.

I hope you have a great festive season ahead.