There are always things we could have done better – but by looking at commonly shared regrets, we may pick up a lesson or two. This week, we spoke to a range of single-digit millionaires (mostly with a net worth of $2 million to $3 million), on what they could have done differently. Here are some of the most common answers we found:
Regret #1: Not using loans properly
LM is an engineer in his mid-forties, who says that in hindsight, he squandered unnecessary sums in interest repayments over the past two decades:
“I was quite busy at work, so I never took the time to understand different loan features, things like line of credit, credit cards, and so on. My mentality was that, so long as I can pay it back, just use whatever is there – all are the same.
But later, even though I paid back my loans, I realised I wasted quite a lot of money. I used personal loans the first time I did my home reno, and I paid around 9% interest; if I used a reno loan maybe I would pay 5%. I used a more expensive loan for my property, I paid around 3%, but this was in 2011, when people were paying about half that rate.”
LM says it was only after he started running his own firm, and handling procurement issues, that he finally learned to pay attention to credit and loan details.
Another one of our interviewees, Lina, says she made a mess of tracking loan repayments in her thirties. While all her debts are long repaid, she estimates she wasted over $30,000 in unnecessary interest repayments.
“I had just gone through a tough divorce at the time,” she says, “And my finances were in a mess and I was under a lot of stress. I ended up not properly checking repayments. On one personal loan, where I was supposed to pay $700 a month, I was paying over $1,000 a month. I overpaid to the point where – when I checked – they said I had almost $6,000 stored up.”
To clarify: when you’re supposed to follow a monthly payment schedule, but pay above the required amount, the excess may be set aside and used for the next repayment.
This is because most banks impose a penalty, if you try and discharge certain loans earlier. But Lina overpaid so consistently, she would have been better off paying the penalty and discharging the entire loan, or using the excess to pay other debts.
“I also paid off smaller amounts first and bigger amounts later,” Lina said, “Because it felt intuitive. But I didn’t check the interest payable, so I was actually paying off lower-interest debts before higher-interest debts. In hindsight I should have consolidated all the debts.”
Reading the terms and conditions of loans are, frankly, an exercise in boredom. But it does pay to do so, to ensure you can minimise the interest payments involved. Or better yet, try to avoid using expensive unsecured lending altogether.
Regret #2: Having financial goals without wellness goals
MM, who just turned 53, says that he now has the financial means to fulfill his bucket list, but not the physical means:
“I was very focused on work and didn’t take much care of my body,” he says, “At 43 years old, I had to put a stent in my heart. I was obese and diabetic. Everyday I would sit in the office from 7am to almost midnight, even on weekends. I smoke, I drank, to cope with the stress.
By the time I was 52 last year, I had my second heart attack. Now I am nearing retirement, I have the means to travel and I love to travel. But the doctor says air travel is too dangerous, it’s too much strain on my heart. So it’s quite sad, I would advise that you think beyond money, because you cannot buy back your health.”
MM says he’ll likely use his planned holiday funds for other interests now, such as golf and hiking, which he hopes will recondition his body.
Lina (from above) also said she had similar regrets:
“After my divorce I began to self-harm, and I suffered from panic attacks. This also caused me to distance myself from my daughter. It was easier to throw myself into work, which I felt was an environment where I had control. This helped with my financial goals, but it was at the expense of my mental health and my relationship with my girl.”
Regret #3: Giving up too much experience and self-development for money
KT, who is Indonesian but has lived in Singapore for almost nine years, is by all accounts a success. He owns three properties, one in Singapore and two more at home. He has a private art collection, that’s been displayed in museums in over a dozen countries. However, he has regrets about this:
“I spent most of my time working to pay my family’s debts, to grow my investments, and my focus between my 20s to my 40s was all money, money, money. So I did not have the same experiences as many people growing up.
I didn’t have the experience of going to clubs, to hang out and play games, I didn’t even have a best friend. If you go back to my school days, I do not have even one person I am still in contact with. I did not even have my first girlfriend until I was almost 30 years old.
When people were out holidaying, meeting their friends, I was always alone and working.
If you ask me whether it was worth it, I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I think my answer is no. Maybe to pay off my family debts, okay – but I did that long ago, I didn’t need to keep working so hard. Now no matter how much money I made, I cannot buy back the childhood that I lost.”
Kian, a Singaporean “serial entrepreneur” in his mid-50s, had a somewhat similar experience:
“I was so focused on money in my younger days, that I was really unlikeable as a person. Whenever you talked to me, all I could talk about was what car you had, what watch you bought. Everything was down to how much money you made.
And it got to the point where my boss at the time pulled me aside, and he warned me no one in the office got along with me. Clients found me unapproachable. I was rude and abrasive. And that’s when it hit me: I had plateaued because of my lack of self-development.
I was a top earner in that small office, yes, but I would never go further in life. Even my best clients didn’t really like me. No one felt any loyalty toward me, and I was so poorly developed – as a person – that I didn’t even know how to change it.”
This was what prompted Kian to go on a sabbatical, and seek spiritual cultivation in his faith, as well as through community service. However, he still regrets that he hurt both others and himself for much of his earlier years:
“My lack of self-awareness drove me apart from friends, from family. And years later it came back to bite me, when past clients and colleagues attested to my mercenary character in those days. It took decades to undo the damage I did to my reputation, and to unlearn my bad habits.
Wealth is nothing without faith and guiding principles, and wealth is not sustainable without them. I could have saved myself many years of pain if I understood that sooner.”
Regret #4: Being too focused on qualifications
EJ was formerly an occupational therapist in his 30s, but has been a business development consultant for the past 10 years. He says he would have met his financial goals a lot sooner, if he hadn’t been narrow-minded about his abilities:
“I was of the mindset that what I studied in school, was what I had to be. So when I was given opportunities – good opportunities at that – I would turn them down because I would think it’s not in my field.
I had an uncle who was very successful, who was in a biotech sales line and who wanted to turn over a large client base to me. The only thing was that I had to take some courses and switch to a new career. I was very foolish and said no. If I had gone ahead, I would be where I am now in half the time.”
Another single-digit millionaire is Esther (not her real name), who only unlocked her earning potential once she let go of her paper qualifications:
“I did very well in Uni, and I graduated at the top of my class,” Esther says, “And this was an accomplishment to me, because no one else in my family had managed to do so well academically. The closest was my sister, who had a diploma.
So I was very adamant in a banking career, because I had done international finance and banking; and I admit I sort of looked down on other opportunities that came my way. So I worked in a bank for around seven years, and I realised that despite my qualifications I was a bad fit. I felt the job was more about sales and networking than about finance.
So eventually I left and I pursued other opportunities. I worked as a general manager at a non-banking FI for a while, then I joined my then-fiancé’s business in London, where he was working as a photographer. And it was during this period that I really hit my stride, and I discovered I had a knack for it, and a similar passion.”
Esther says her passion for photography ended up being her bread and butter, as “When you find something you’re passionate about, then it’s sustainable, and it’s something you can do, and do well for the rest of your life. If it’s not you, you’ll just burn out, even if you have a good start.”
Today, Esther says she has little desire to return to the finance industry, even though she once defined herself by her educational background.
For more stories and wealth topics, follow us on Single Digit Millionaire. We provide regular insights and discussions with Singapore’s soon-to-be middle class, in this era of rising inflation.
