$taying afloat

Suddenly 2008 is full of bad news. In the early part of the year, mum's condition took a strong wrong turn and after the max of 3 morphine patches, she was still in much pain and had to switch to morphine injection-pallative care. I really don't know why she was not healed and not saved even after many attempts by christian relatives. Sadly, we all had to see her go prematurely exactly a month short of her would be 61 birthday.

Then the China Shenzhen massive earthquake which killed many but the news not as shocking as my dad's elder sister who died suddenly while we were still mourning for our mum. Apparently his elderly sister had fell and died and was not discovered until she was missing at the dinner table by the huge extended family in china. By then her body had darkened much which was normal as the red blood cells being heavier will sink to the lower parts of the body postmortem.

I was so worried about the emotional blow my dad had to endure. He lamented that he had a bad life : divorce his first wife, two estranged kids now middle aged, lost his wife of 35 years and lost his favourite sister. This was the elder sister who gave him her food to eat when they had nothing to eat except potatoes during the post war years.

With some of my mum's insurance payout, I had invested in some shares more for dividends and with the long term objective of funding for rachel's future more than our retirement. Contra losses aside, I am now sitting on some $30000 paper losses for my entire portfolio including CPF investments. It does not help when Yan told me at church service yesterday, a video footage of pastor prince prophesying the financial crisis in a april 2005 sermon was broadcasted to boost his credibility. (He of course does not need that!) Well, he had warned many to exit the stock market during the bull run as he wants us to believe with him that the stock market is NOT God's way of growing wealth (Only tithing is, God's idea of sowing and reaping through tithes and offerings). Paper money is a move away from the Gold standard and the entire financial world is crumpling.

Well. I agree with the tithing message but personally as ex-financial consultant and ex insurance sales person, I cannot imagine a world without the stock market, insurances, currencies of various denominations and wealth planning and preservation. How can we go back to BARTER trade??? What about internet, fibreoptics, satellites and businesses? Is this too radical?

Anyway, whether one invests in the stock market or not, it nevertheless impacts the lives of ordinary citizens and residents. My dad'd food stall business is kinda of related to the economy. When times are not as good, cash is lacking and credit remains tight, many prefer to eat in, to eat instant noodles than to fork our $3 for a bowl of hot and delicious fish ball mee pok. That's life. With many Singaporeans already asset rich and cash poor before the start of the credit crisis, it is no surprise that many now are asset not so rich and cash poorer.

Tithing is the way out of this vicious cycle for christians who MUST believe that God is our provider and when we honour him with our finances that he had first bless us with, He will definitely provide more than enough. By tithing we also set apart all the finances for our use and that of the church. But to those that are not in the church, like my dad, other than cutting costs, what can be done??? Well for him, nothing beats the Singapore pools and may God bless him, and singapore pools cash takings as well since it is a BIG GIVER to the arts and music in this country.