The Hamster's Wheel

Have you ever realized that we have been repeating almost the same routine every day?

Wake up

Toilet rituals

Breakfast

Commute to work

Start work

Coffee break

Meetings

More works

Lunchtime

Even more works

Tea Break

Finishing works

Commute home

Dinner

Spend time with children

Spend time with wife

Toilet rituals

Hop onto bed

Sleep

Repeat

If you ask me, the above is almost like what a typical Malaysian's daily routine looks like. But imagine that you would be repeating the same thing for 40 years (assuming you start work at 25 and retired at 65), it does sound depressing. That is why many companies would give your annual leaves to break the cycle and make you refresh before putting you back into the same routine again and again. Many would call it the rat race but a more appropriate new term for this is the hamster wheel.

I am sure that many others would have noticed this hamster wheel of life but not many know how to actually get off this hamster wheel. Truth be told, running on the hamster wheel is all that we know. In fact, we were "programmed" to run the hamster wheel. We were told by our parents that we need to study hard to get a good degree from a college and university. Only with that degree, we can get a good job to support our lives. We are also being "programmed" that we must buy things in order to make us happy. On an average day, we would "see" at least a 5,000 ads. All these ads would tell you that you should

- get the new iPhone because it will make you happy.
- buy the latest BMW because it will make you happy.
- buy the biggest house because it will make you happy.
- eat at the most popular restaurant because it will make you happy.
- buy the largest curved TV because it will make you happy.
- watch that latest TV series on Netflix because it will make you happy.
- play the latest game because it will make you happy.

I believe you could see where I am going. So, with all these ads "bombarding" us all the time, we would consciously or unconsciously believe that buying things would make us happy. And that is what we would do on a daily basis. We would buy and buy and buy. We would use cash to pay for it initially but soon, we would start using credit cards, personal loans and mortgage to pay for all these things.

And when you finally realized that you are running the hamster wheel and even if you want to get out of it, you are unable to do that. That is because you are living the life that you think you want and would need to continue to work on the same job (even if you hate it) so that you can pay off your debts and sustain your life. Things become worst when you see that the interest charged to your credit cards debts are increasing every day. And the money you can use to pay these debts is barely enough to cover the minimum payment for all these cards. It is a very depressing feeling.

Many would think that there is no way out from this hamster wheel but that is far from the truth. There are ways that you could get out of your Hamster Wheel and that's what this book is for. And if you want to know what method is, it is called financial literacy. The ultimate goal of financial literacy is financial freedom.