MONEY THOUGHTS: Loosen the reins, slowly

DO you find it too easy or too difficult to give yourself permission to have a good time? Giving in to either extreme is less than ideal.

If you pursue hedonism for its own sake and give in to every whim that strikes your fancy, you will run the risk of over-indulging yourself in a frivolous self-centred life marked by an endless pursuit of pleasure which dulls your senses and deprives you of the joys and privileges of building character by serving humanity.

Conversely, if your internal wiring causes you to embrace asceticism, then you will behave in an irrationally miserly fashion that leads you to give up high-quality cuisine, possessions and experiences.

Intriguingly, doing so — but only for brief periods — can be helpful in resetting internal baseline expectations so that when you return to normal expenditure levels, you better appreciate a quality of life you may have begun to take for granted.

But if asceticism is adopted for too long, then not only will you be embracing a miserable, low-quality life, you will be dragging down your family into that quagmire of irrational deprivation.

About four months ago, I wrote a Money Thoughts column entitled "Jump off the hedonic treadmill", which you may read (or reread) here: www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/sunday-vibes/2026/05/1447430/money-thoughts-jump-hedonic-treadmill.

In it, I quoted a portion from author John Coleman's book Good Money — Six Steps to Building a Financial Life with Purpose.

In his third step, 'Consume Wisely', Coleman wrote:"Spending is a huge component of our relationship with money. We work to gain the financial resources to purchase food, a place to live, transportation and medical care."

Then, in last week's column, "Make building your cognitive reserve a priority" (www.nst.com.my/ lifestyle/sunday-vibes/2026/ 09/1531503/money-thoughts-make-building-your-cognitive-reserve-priority), I explained that doing so, especially later in life, can help us stay sharp enough to retain autonomy over our financial affairs for as long as possible. That would be a good thing.

To gain the benefits, we should build our reserves — be they mental or financial — well before they are needed.

To succeed at both tasks, it seems to me that striking a healthy balance between extreme hedonism and extreme asceticism is wise. You probably already know this...

OF HEDONISM AND ASCETICISM

The ancient Greeks carved into the Temple of Apollo at Delphi (on the slopes of Mount Parnassus in central Greece about a three-hour drive northwest from Athens) words that translate to "nothing in excess". It is the source of our modern-day advice: all things in moderation.

Now, it doesn't take a financial genius to figure out that as we age, our medical expenses will rise for two reasons:

1. Inexorable healthcare inflation stemming from increased per capita visits to hospitals driven by growing incidence of respiratory ailments and metabolic syndrome-related diseases like Type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, strokes and the like, higher pharmaceutical costs, plus the positive development of helpful yet pricey new technology in investigative and surgical procedures; and

2. Growing expectations of what can and should be done to keep the "engines" of our human body and mind in, ideally, superlative shape.

In that context, it makes sense to scrutinise the fundamental 17-word definition of financial planning to figure out the proper balance between hedonism and asceticism for ourselves:

Financial planning is the process of meeting your life goals through the proper management of your finances.

We all have important life goals, but those morph and change over time as we mature from childhood to young adulthood to middle age and then on to our geriatric years.

To improve our financial position throughout the decades, we should do four things:

1. Err on the side of asceticism in our earlier years to internalise the most fundamental and foundational financial planning principle: delayed gratification;

2. Establish a written budget to generate and then channel a steady stream of monthly cash flow surpluses into a personal savings and investment portfolio (SIP);

3. Spend more money, gradually over time, if income rises as expected. As your income profile morphs from a low stream of active income (AI) to modest blended streams of AI and passive income (PI) to (hopefully) a deluge of PI across the passing decades, loosening the reins of expenditure to live better and better over time by shifting your internal barometer from moderate asceticism to modest hedonism is both rational and smart;

4. Calibrate your expenditure patterns over the years and then the decades by intentionally raising your quality of life. Bear in mind you will probably want to leave monetary gifts to your family through your will. The size of those legacies, relative to the scale of your original retirement nest egg, will determine how little or how much you loosen the reins on your expenditures over time.

Evaluate honestly whether you have the skillset to do so on your own. If not, consider engaging the services of professionals to coach and guide you through this crucial process.

A helpful resource for you would be the website of the Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (www.fpam.org.my).

As you take such steps, do focus on extracting as much joy as possible throughout your precious life.

© 2026 Rajen Devadason

Rajen Devadason, CFP, is a Securities Commission-licensed financial planner, professional speaker and author. Read his free articles at www.FreeCoolArticles.com; connect with him 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).