On... the 10 Dollar Man

Ever heard of the 10 Dollar Man? Probably not - because that's me. This was a name given to me back in my early working days because of my frugal spending habits - 10 Dollar per day for meals (Dollars as in Malaysian Dollars when I was still working and living in Malaysia).


So, how it works is that I have a 10 Dollar budget  allocated for meals each day and I stick strictly to  the plan. If I had overspent on breakfast, I would either scale down lunch/dinner or skip a meal. That was how cheapskate I was.  How did I manage to spend so little and why? Well, initially it was maybe out of necessity and it probably became a habit. Less than a year into my job, I had purchased a house and the mortgage was more than 50 percent of my take home salary. In addition, I was a little paranoid to how long my job would last, so I ploughed as much money as I can into my mortgage, hoping that I can pay off my mortgage within 10 years time.

Why is being a 10 Dollar Man important? Well, first of all, I ended up paying off my mortgage within 10 years as planned (I was kind of a laughing stock  back then but who’s laughing now?). And because of that, I had the 'freedom' to leave my job if I so choose to - And I did, to join my wife in Australia. But more importantly, to be disciplined in following through your strategy consistently is one of the key pillars of success in trading/investing.

Being disciplined is not only hard but it can also be seen as a negative by others because sticking to a plan without budging also means you’re not a  flexible person. Well, if you need to be disciplined to make money, then be disciplined because unless people are putting money in your pocket, it doesn't matter what they say.