Moneyness

Today's blog entry has nothing to do with options despite the title "Moneyness". I actually want to talk about money, and the word moneyness sounds cool, so I thought the title was apt. Don't worry I'm not about to rattle off about the Black-Scholes-Merton model or the greeks (delta, vega, theta, rho). Hey I know my greeks okay, don't mess around with me!

Anyway, people often say money is not important. It's not the most important thing and neither does it rank anywhere up there. As someone who could do with a lot more money right now, I take offense at that. How often have you known people from your school days who are socially inept, totally no street smarts, psychological freak, probably can't ever do anything successfully; yet because they have a lot of money they are actually getting along much better than you ever would? Yeah that's right, even the part about being totally out of place in this society, be it arrogant, uncivilised, poor grooming what have you, but they seem to get along with the world just fine, perhaps even better than you and me.

Just think about the guy without streetsmarts but with a lot of money who needs to get married. The rest of us would be hella stressed with the rings, wedding preparations, which HDB flat to ballot for, what to bargain the car dealer for, how to make sure the contractor is not cheating you on renovation. Hell you gotta be pretty streetsmart to survive all that and make your whole wedding process spectacular right? Well, if you have money, just buy the biggest rock (ring), get an expensive wedding planner, pick whichever condo in Bukit timah, and forget the car dealer, you can afford those rims without any free gift or loan anyway. Oh and contractor? Well you can just hire an interior designer to kick ass for you. That solves the problem.

How about in a social setting? Surely one will not hang out with total jackasses just because they are rich? Time and time again I'm proven wrong. Some total idiots who don't know how to say the right things at the right time, offend everybody, dress inappropriately (say singlet and shorts at a church wedding!!!), still get to be overwhelmingly popular and snag all the babes as well. And those girls are actually there to stay, not just down for a one-night stand (what are they thinking?).

Sure money is not everything, wasn't that Maslow's hierachy of needs or some shit that said that? Well I've actually looked at the real table (of sorts) by this Maslow guy. It says that money is not everything ONCE YOU HAVE IT!!!! Human beings firstly need food and shelter. And once they got that they need money, materialistic goods etc. Only when they reach the top of the food chain then they clamour the well being of others and want to love others as much as they want to gratify themselves. Well, I'm not even halfway there yet, so I think I need the money before I can even think about saving the world....

Perhaps that's why people who have thoughts about politics, economics, society, etc dun really gain popularity as easily as some rich nutheads. Okay correction, my point was you don't even need to be "rich". You just need enough money to show off. Perhaps these people have $0 left in their bank account after all their shenanigans, but who cares? They can ride on the coattails of their admirers.

But then again perhaps this is mostly just Asian society and its nuances. I would like to think that in more developed countries people who have great minds and great thinkings are equally or more admired than those who flaunt their wealth. Indeed, Bill Gates is admired more for his vision than his money, so is Steve Jobs.

Moral of the story? If you want to be successful and popular in Asia its much easier to do so by having a lot more money than the average middle-income Joe than any other way. That way you can be a total jackass and still be loved, embraced and get all the cute girls.....