LET'S examine specific ways — first, for individuals and, second, for entire countries — to grow wealthier, eradicate debt and lay a foundation yielding long-lasting economic vigour. At first glance, the challenges faced by human beings and those by sovereign nations appear to be irreconcilably different. But are they?
WHAT SHOULD PEOPLE DO?
Learning the basics of sound money management is a wise initial step in improving our lot in life. There are three interlinked principles for financial success we should apply to ourselves, regardless of what we do for a living:
1. Work harder and smarter than everyone else around us to steadily boost the inflow of honestly derived income into our bank accounts and portfolios.
2. Sacrifice courageously and intentionally to steadily slash the outflow of cash from our lives.
3. Blend the two disciplines and refine them to raise our monthly cash flow surpluses.
Those who desperately want to accumulate assets, eliminate liabilities and join the ranks of, say, the world's top 10 per cent, will find their personal trajectories to success will be fuelled by their internal stores of passion that eventually yield rich results.
Let's now look at success on a macro scale.
WHAT SHOULD NATIONS DO?
With the reopening of national borders, I have found myself visiting Singapore from my home in Seremban twice in the span of three weeks. This has meant I'm smarting from the agony of having to accept an exchange rate of RM3.20 to S$1! At 58 years of age, I'm old enough to remember when that rate was 1-to-1. Really.
Much later, in 1996, the year I turned 32, I spent a short stint working for a start-up magazine in the republic titled Smart Investor. I was paid in Singapore dollar and at the time was ecstatic to enjoy a RM1.80 to S$1.00 exchange rate. Later that year, I was transferred back to Malaysia as the founding editor of Smart Investor Malaysia.
Fast forward to the recent years of the pandemic and I find that in the two years it took for Covid-19 to be downgraded from feared pandemic to tolerated epidemic, the number of my own white- and gold-collar Malaysian clients who have been lured away to work in Singapore has risen four-fold.
It is my personally experienced example of the dreaded brain drain from Malaysia, which prompted a special report on this migratory phenomenon by the World Bank back in 2011. At the time, World bank senior economist Philip Schellekens observed: "Malaysia needs talent, but talent seems to be leaving."
I, however, chose to return to Malaysia after varied working stints in the United Kingdom, the United States and, as mentioned, Singapore, to painstakingly build a retirement planning-focused practice.
To say that I love the country of my birth (I was born at home in Malacca in 1964) is an understatement. Yet, it doesn't mean I'm blind to Malaysia's flaws, shortcomings and failures.
DOWN MEMORY LANE
Before my time in Singapore with Smart Investor, I spent an energising, edifying and educational 49-month stint (from June 1, 1990 till June 30, 1994) as a staff writer for Malaysian Business magazine in Kuala Lumpur. One of my bosses during that formative period was the legendary S. Jayasankaran, who went on to write for the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Jaya is one of the finest writers I know — alive or dead. Thankfully, he is hale, hearty and regularly writes his Speakeasy blog, which I urge you to read for entertainment and illumination at: https://justspeakeasy.net/
In a recent blog post titled Between the Mirage and the Reality, Jaya wrote:
"In the 1970s, I remember attending a local university that was ranked higher in quality than its peer in Singapore, a time when our educational excellence was right up there with the best of them, a period when standards mattered, when English was taken matter-of-factly and not treated as some dirty word."
Jaya explores much more in his bittersweet romp down memory lane of a Malaysia that once was and (dare we hope?) may yet re-materialise, but I won't spoil your first-hand enjoyment of my ex-boss' engaging prose by quoting anymore from it.
RAISE THE BAR
What I will do in closing is list half-a-dozen principles that I believe nations heading upward — instead of those spiralling downward — recognise:
1. Everything in life rises and falls on the quality of leadership — so elect good leaders.
2. Corruption is a debilitating cancer — refuse to tolerate it in any part of national life.
3. Always seek to raise the bar and elevate standards — catering to the prejudices and ignorance of dumbed down factions of society will destroy the fabric of any country.
4. Exercise fiscal discipline — at the national level, spend less than you bring in to build robust surpluses as bulwarks against tomorrow's unpredictable but ferocious storms.
5. Plug into global opportunities for economic and cultural growth by beefing up the communication skills of the young who represent our future — in keeping with 21st century mega trends, commit to learning, revelling in, and profiting from Earth's top three international languages: English, Mandarin and Spanish.
6. Discern between petty political pronouncements and sterling statesmanlike strategies for success — so, again, elect good or, even better, great leaders.
© 2022 Rajen Devadason
Rajen Devadason, CFP, is a Licensed Financial Planner, professional speaker and author. Read his free articles at www.FreeCoolArticles.com; he may be connected with on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/rajendevadason, or via rajen@RajenDevadason.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @Rajen Devadason and on YouTube (Rajen Devadason).