01 The money mistakes
The eight people wish they'd avoided
| The mistake | The fix |
|---|---|
| Waiting to start investing | Time is the one advantage you can't buy back. Automate a small amount now; the habit matters more than the sum. Try the freedom calculator → |
| Letting lifestyle creep eat every raise | Bank the raise before you feel it. Each $100/mo of recurring spend is roughly $30k of capital you'll need for life. Adulting 101 → |
| Being sold whole-life or ILPs too young | Insure the real gap cheaply with term; keep investing separate. Don't buy 'savings' dressed as protection. Term vs whole life → |
| Buying too much home or car | Right-size it. Every extra $100k of flat is ~$450/mo for 25 years — plus the CPF interest you owe yourself. Your flat, by the numbers → |
| No emergency fund | Three to six months of expenses somewhere safe turns a crisis into an inconvenience. Build the foundation → |
| Carrying high-interest debt | Clear credit-card and personal-loan debt first — no investment reliably beats 26% interest. |
| Chasing hot tips and timing the market | The average investor trails the funds they own by ~1.2%/yr. Boring and consistent wins. How the world works → |
| Forgetting the five-minute admin | A CPF nomination, an insurance nomination, and a simple will — the most loving paperwork there is. The four documents → |
Almost every money regret is a version of the same two: starting late, and confusing looking rich with becoming rich. Fix those two early and most of the rest take care of themselves.
02 The regrets that aren't about money
What people actually regret at the end
A palliative-care nurse, Bronnie Ware, spent years with people in their final weeks and recorded what they most often regretted. Money was never on the list. These were:
- I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
- I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
- I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
- I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
- I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Notice the first one — living true to yourself. That's congruence. The reason to get your money quietly working isn't the money; it's so that it never becomes the thing that crowds out what you'd actually miss. Handle the stem well, so you're free to tend the fruit.
Sources & notes
Financial-regret figures are from US surveys (Bankrate; Clarify Capital; MagnifyMoney) — the exact numbers vary, the direction is consistent. The five end-of-life regrets are from Bronnie Ware's The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. General information and reflection, not financial advice. Jonathan Wong is a licensed financial adviser representative in Singapore, currently between firms — during that period he is not able to provide financial advice. You can check his registration yourself on the MAS Financial Institution Representatives Register at eservices.mas.gov.sg/rr.