I have been listening to the podcast, I Will Teach You to Be Rich by an American author and entrepreneur, Mr Ramit Sethi. While many episodes feature stories of people’s struggles over debt management, financial indecisions, and budgeting, one particular story left a lasting impression on me.
Let’s call this Alex’s story: The Paradox of Wealth and Frugality
When Alex shops for food online, he compares the price of almond milk and strawberries to save a few dollars. He spends hours agonising over the most economical flight routes. Once he even stopped and picked up a used stroller from someone’s driveway. Then he spent hours hunting for spare parts to repair the stroller. Not that he has a dire need for the stroller, but he justifies that he will have use of it…someday. The irony? Alex and his wife have a net worth of $8 million.
Their friends call them cheap, but they prefer to be identified as money hackers. They have lots of reasons why they behave the way they do. But even with their explanations, they are not happy with how they are using their money to live a rich life.
Can you identify with Alex’s story? I know I can.
I frequently sell and buy stuff through Carousell. I participate in the Olio community, exchanging goods. But is this really making the best use of my time? Do these small savings amount to much in the grand scheme of things? Not really. Instead, I realise I could be spending that time with my family, reading, or exploring my other interests. It’s a constant reminder that time, not money, is my most valuable resource.
So, what does it mean to live a rich life? In his book, Ramit Sethi defines a ‘rich life’ as spending on things that bring you joy and value while cutting back on things that don’t. Here we are not talking about living a frivolous life and getting into debt, but about living life to the fullest and making intentional financial decisions that are aligned with your priorities and values. It’s about spending with purpose—whether on experiences or relationships—and cutting out the unnecessary noise that distracts us from what truly matters.
Cross-referencing a book entitled Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Life and Work, author Bill Perkins argues that money not spent before you die is wasted because it is translated to unfulfilled meaningful life experiences. This is especially important when one is young because your earning potential is higher. Making meaningful experiences is like depositing a memory dividend where you can reminisce on those experiences, which bring you great joy and help build an enriching life.
With this in mind, how can we shift from simply saving as much as we can, to truly living a rich life without the fear of financial constraints?
Here are two considerations:
A) Articulating Your Money Values
Your money values are the beliefs and principles that shape your relationship with money. They are the ‘whys’ around your money decisions when you spend, save, and invest your money.
It’s often said that money is an enabler. It is a tool, not a master. If you value experiences, you will be more willing to spend on travel, adventures, and activities that create lifetime memories.
If family is your priority, you will want to use finances to provide a safe and nurturing environment for your loved ones. You will want to prioritise time with family, having meaningful connections, instead of online shopping and hunting for deals on everyday expenses which take away time as your most important resource. This is crucial because the small savings may not even tip the scale in improving your net worth in a meaningful way. It’s about recognising when you’re trading something invaluable—like time with loved ones—for something trivial, like a discount on groceries.
Once you understand what your priorities are, you can start examining your financial decisions through that lens. You can align your actions to what you want in life. This brings a sense of peace and confidence that you are on the right track.
B) Clarity of Your Financial Position
Your wealth plan provides the roadmap and framework to support your life goals ensuring that they are aligned with what matters most to you about money.
Understanding your financial position helps you make confident decisions about spending, saving, and investing.
In my work, I help my clients align their wealth with their life goals. We discuss what truly matters, their concerns about money, and even their legacy plans. Many clients are surprised to find that their concerns often lie not in the numbers, but in whether their wealth is helping them live the life they want.
We take stock of all their assets and liabilities, their income, and expenses. We then analyse and present to the client an analysis of their current position. We run through some scenarios that will enable our clients to live the good life they want and address their concerns.
If their essential expenses are mostly inflexible, we recommend instruments that provide a more reliable income stream, such as annuity products or a portfolio of investment-grade bonds.
To make provision for the unexpected, a buffer is set aside in the form of a reserve bucket to provide for periods when the market can be challenging and the returns, though positive, may not be enough.
We work out the amount of retirement nest egg needed, incorporating their CPF and savings/retirement income instruments and investments. These resources are then allocated into each bucket to provide for income drawdown from retirement to the end of life, i.e., more than 25 years.
Through this rigorous process, clients gain clarity on how to allocate their resources, similar to Ramit Sethi’s “Conscious Spending Plan.” Resources are divided into essential expenses (fixed spending), savings and investments aimed at long-term wealth accumulation, and guilt-free discretionary spending. Once the clients fund their portfolio according to plan—investing in evidence-based funds like Dimensional Fund Advisors or low-cost index funds like Amundi Index Funds, with the support of risk coaching from their client advisers, constant monitoring, and ongoing conversations during their annual wealth plan reviews—they can achieve a higher degree of certainty in attaining the returns necessary to support their life goals.
As their income grows, aside from higher taxes, fixed expenses generally remain stable. For example, if you habitually shop at a particular grocery store or buy a specific brand of toilet paper, this is unlikely to change whether your income is $100,000 or $500,000. Discretionary expenses, like travel, tend to be more variable as income rises.
Having clarity in one’s wealth plan brings peace of mind and a greater sense of control to enable one to live a rich life.
My Personal Rich Life: Finding a Balance
I grew up in a family where cash flow was often tight. My dad was a businessman dealing with high-interest rates that came with borrowing money from the banks to fund business expenses. Throughout my formative years, I learned frugality by observing my parents. I learned to prioritise savings, running my life with a mental budget. I learned to derive joy from simplicity. Having saved and invested all these years, I am financially positioned to retire.
However, I’ve come to realise that the very habits that helped me save may now be holding me back. Today I strive for balance. I use money as a tool to support the values that matter most—family and experiences.
I practice lifetime giving, supporting my children now rather than waiting until I am gone. My children are grateful for the support, both financial and otherwise. They are saving and investing for their future without expectation of an inheritance, although they hope to get one.
A recent trip with my sisters through Europe in a campervan was a perfect example of living a rich life. I couldn’t tell how much the trip cost, but I can tell you about the amazing conversations, the laughter, and the memories we created together. That’s what living richly means to me—not in accumulating wealth, but in investing in experiences that bring joy and fulfillment, far beyond financial value.
Sharing some photos from the trip here with you:
Living a rich life (or what Providend terms as the good life) isn’t just about financial success. It’s about finding balance between savings and spending, between work and relationships, and between the practical and the joyful. Ultimately, money is simply a tool—one that can help us achieve personal fulfillment and meaningful connections, but only if we use it with purpose.
This is an original article written by Eleanor Ng, Associate Director of Advisory Team at Providend, Southeast Asia’s first fee-only comprehensive wealth advisory firm.
For more related resources, check out:
1. The Legacy of Two Matriarchs
2. My Reflection on the True Value of Estate & Legacy Planning
3. Life Decisions First Before Legacy Decisions
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