I have many friends in their age of 24 and above, some still studying, some just started working, and some worked for several years and are travelling here and there. And I do have friends, that EXPECT ridiculous and expensive things from family just because they graduated or getting married.
I do not know for sure, but sometimes, I feel that people may be too complacent with their life with the support of their family and they do not know how to be independent. I feel that they do not have the motivation to strive to be successful and they are just working for the sake of doing so. Reasons????
In accounting terms, committed expenses are compulsory expenses for the company/family such as clothes, food, water, house and so on so forth for living purposes. For such items, there are no budget as they are our NEEDS.
Discretionary expenses are such as entertainment expenses for employees, claims and etc for a company in which to be addressed based on Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB). When a company is facing liquidity risk, discretionary expenses are first to be cut to save cost. In my context, discretionary expenses are such as buying expensive cars, branded goods, new high-tech gadgets and so on, which are basically our WANTS.
I feel that my generations are abusing the incremental budgeting that their family is applying and that they spend up to their budget and sometimes, ask for an increment to their initial budget. Also, in which that the family do not look into the adverse variances of the budget. (This does not apply to rich family as their cash flow is rather unlimited-people who are rich may ignore my post :D)
Just a random example, someone is graduating, and is it sort of like an obligation for their parents to treat them on a vacation with friends, buy them a car (not myvi, not vios, but BMW, MERC), and etc. To me, are they studying FOR their parents and that when they get good results, parents are supposed to REWARD them? A good present as a note of congratulations, is that not sufficient?
ZBB should be practiced instead. When someone WANTS something, parents should ask for justification on the purpose of the item, evaluate and then allocate funds for the item.
For many parents that have worked their whole life, have not even enjoy half the things that they buy for their children. To me, people are taking things for granted. They are forgetting the purpose of pursuing tertiary education, the purpose of working, the purpose of life.
They think that they are forced to study for their parents, and forced to work cos its how the society works. I believe the reason is because things are given to them as though its an obligation and that they never have the need to strive for anything in life. People like that, how often do you think they have the motivation to be successful? And when they graduate and start working, their salary are all theirs and they go spend on their WANTS with no parents in mind. Their parents may only appear in mind when they need the cash flow.
In a company, managers will usually strive to pick positive NPV projects to make sure that the shareholders are happy with the returns. Same thing applies in life. I always believe that we (managers) are supposed to be studying for our future, and the budget allocated to us to study should bring in profit to our parents (shareholders) in the near future. When we work, we should always allocate profit to our family (something like paying dividend) and that will always make one strive for the better and to be successful in life. When we retain our profit (not pay out as dividend), we are supposed to make sure that it will bring more repayment to our shareholders.
The only difference that I see between a company and a family is just that the parents could not terminate their children. All money allocated to us, should not be taken for granted and should bring back in returns to our parents, maybe in different forms. Besides giving cash, quality time to spend with parents, helping family with chores, talk and listen to them, are also some of the simple returns that our parents look for.
All that being said, what I wish the most for my graduation, is for my parents to say that they are very very proud of me and my achievement and to get a job ASAP for me to start paying my dividends before its too late for me to do so. I may not get the travel bug yet, I may not have the latest gadgets, a nice car and branded clothes but that does not mean that I do not know how to enjoy, I just know how to prioritize my limited funds and to strive in order to EARN my WANTS.
Ps: This post may or may not apply to all and I do not refer to anyone in particular. Its just how I feel and my thoughts. For all who are reading this now, irregardless on whether this post may or may not be relevant to you, please spend more time with your parents and tell them always that you love them so much.
