Merry Christmas, readers!
So the past few days have been testing. The little one has been down with on and off fever for the past few days. As a parent, you must be willing to spend time, effort and money to both nurse and comfort. It was really tiring for both the patient and the caregiver, a combination of trust and cooperation.
It made me realise a few things, both on health and personal finance.
Be prepared for the unexpected. Things sometimes happen in life. You may be healthy most of the time, but when you fall sick, it might fall upon you swiftly and suddenly. While you may have health insurance, not anything and everything can be covered. You must be prepared to spend money for medical bills, ad-hoc transportation and supplementary treatment.
Be calm during times of crisis. Different people have different tolerance for surprises and stress. Some freak out when they are least prepared for it. Yet, the key to making rational assessment is to have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for different scenarios, even in your personal life. You have a SOP for falls, burns, common illness etc. When you have guiding principals, you optimise your time by making quick decisions after laying all the options on the table.
Be decisive. How many of us have been chided for being wishy-washy in life? While you have time to mull when you shop across Taobao, Qoo10, Carousell and Lazada on 12.12, you don’t have the same luxury of time when you are down in life. It is a habit that you have to inculcate even in your everyday life. I mentioned it before when I spoke about thinking decisive, timely and wisely for yourself. Personally, I tend not to spend more than a minute spending where and what to eat once I am in a particular location. I have a fixed favorite for each outlet, and probably vary my selections a little based on seasonal specials and offers.
Still, life must go on, and I spent some time thinking while I waited in the queue for her coin deposit time. Although it was Christmas Eve, people were still coming in with bags of coins. Surprising, since the coin deposit fees were not exactly cheap for a non-kids account.
Just like the black swan theory, while we can prepare the best for things that we know, we should always reserve some spare capacity for things that we do not expect.
Are you ready to fight a mini-crisis any time?
Theory of Constraints 