These past two weeks I have been getting into a consistent habit of following through. I got so much productive as a person but the thing that really struck to me the most is when I go over my grandma's note. Then, a few days ago, I saw this tweet by Naval that basically said " The most dangerous religion is “the world is ending.” There are specific ways to interpret that but in my world view, I also relate it to the fear mongering marketing tactics. This post will have my reflection towards the financial lessons that I have learned from my grandma and the things I do to navigate this important aspect of life.

https://x.com/naval/status/1811570366097019165

As a 20 year old something, I used to get so caught up in the doom and gloom phase. Then covid happened and it felt like everything was on pause. With such uncertainties that we might not survive the pandemic, I maximized living. I had fun when most people's lives are halted and most were suffering. Somehow, pandemic legit was some of the best time of my life. It was a dream came true that I finally got my YOLO moment.

But.. apparently the world didn't end there and we all survived!

I could have bought property and a lot of things when things were cheap and on sale but guess what! I YOLO-ed everything on experience. Was it all worth it? is still the question that I ask myself from time to time. These days especially, I asked myself a lot why I didn't really listen to my mother or bother asking my grandma how she thrived.

The pandemic was the start of me being the breadwinner of the family. I was paying bills for my grandma and my mother. During that time, my mother and grandma were telling me to invest in gold heavily. I always thought it was a little silly because who bought gold these days? I used to see it as an investment instrument for old people but these days, I am heavily stacking gold and only gold.
Maybe now, I am just as old as them.

I used to get into the train of silver but it's not as lucrative as gold. But I guess I was a little too late realizing that because these days gold prices are a little higher. When my grandma passed away, I realized how gold is a great thing to have especially when someone dies, and it can be something that used to fund the memorials and stuff like that. They can be sold fairly quick and sometimes there is a little profit on the side. Still, for any emergency, they are great to have and also easier to sell. That's how it works here, I am not sure about in any other country.

Safe to say, I think gold is also how the unbanked save their money and if they have distrust in financial institution, gold is quite an asset to have.

Being frugal is good!

I used to associate frugal with being cheap until I met both type of people and I know damn well the distinction. Being cheap is miserable and that can affect others in our surrounding but frugality is different. It is being able to manage it wisely and use it when it's needed.

I read/watched contrasting opinion on both sides about how ridiculous $5 latte is but now I do see how certain addiction cost us a lot. I think what truly is the problem is the addiction but we're not talking about that now. So, let's go back!

My grandmother is quite frugal. One of her unique thing is that I found notes on her make up pouches and her notes about dates she's purchasing the items. It's like she knows when the next time she would buy her groceries or need to ask my mom/aunt to buy it for her. She is never wasteful and carefully plan her money out. She was even able to buy me snacks whenever I come visit. Sometimes, even my uncle and her brother borrowed money from her just because she has more cash than most of them.

One of the thing I thought silly was waiting for something. I hate the idea of saving up and waited to get an item. If I could afford things, why not buy it now? and sometimes I also bought silly items that I might not need. That is to say, emotional purchase was my bad habit. Nowadays, I fixed it. I learned some things that avoided me making unplanned purchases and emotional purchases. The death of my grandma really taught me a lesson on savings and how it's better to have planned purchase.

Impressing others without breaking the bank

It could just be how the culture over here works but impressing others, grooming our style and look are some of lives top priority. My grandma never looks shabby just like I mentioned how her stuff were expensive. She was dripped from top to toe but without a job. Everyone in the neighborhood often comments about how well she's dressed and how expensive the looks are.

The thing is, from my observation she follows the idea of buying a statement piece. She would only have one item, purchased them once every year but it's going to be something expensive. For her, $50-$70 on a piece of clothing is a reasonable purchase. It is never not in fashion because what I find is that, expensive items are timeless and work in every season/year.

My grandma also takes care of her skin and looks good. Her make up aren't necessarily high end brand but she does it regularly and she has this iconic brows that we all keept talking about even when she passed. So, it's OK to have the needs to impress other contrary to popular advice but being a lot more reasonable with it is something to be taken into consideration.

As someone who lives life pretty minimalistically, these days I had this monologue so often whether I should pursue more experience rather than things. I talked about this often too and you know, a lot of people in the minimalist spectrum always told us to have more experience rather than accumulating things but now, I realized that I didn't have much to show because I spent a lot on experiences that felt like buried and some are forgotten.

The thing I learned from my grandma and especially grandparents is that they always do once a year trip with the whole family but it was all memorable. It was worthy to be put into an album and always something could be remembered. It wasn't like an expensive trips or sort of, just the togetherness with family and sharing the moments.

I traveled excessively before and I felt like I was running from something. The only thing I was running from was definitely myself. I didn't even think about settling down, stopping or any of that but life has taken me to the point where I have a place I could call home.

Home is a responsibility on its own while it's a fully paid, there are things like neighborhood gatherings and the utilities and maintenance that can be pretty costly. So, these days my shift has been towards making my living area more habitable and realizing how I didn't have the regular things that a home should have.

When I went to my last getaway, I made calculations that it was just one more step that hinders me for more home renovation. Perhaps, my priority just changed but who knows?