Many people want to be rich, but not so many people want the discipline on how to be rich. Isn't that the plain hard truth? As I do this sideline blog, I contemplated whether I should write another post after writing several posts years back, or when I wrote about Venezuela as a cautionary tale. Back on topic, I thought about how financial discipline is something often overlooked. It's easy to talk about Christmas since that's probably the most wonderful time of the year to be spendthrift, only to find out that one's broke by the New Year. The cycle of reckless financial habits tends to restart in January, even when January becomes that time of reckoning between debtors and creditors! January 2026 will end, February 2026 comes, and then the cycle of financial recklessness continues. It's the same cycle over and over!
Last Christmas, I remember how DTI Secretary Christina Roque spoke about the PHP 500.00 noche buena, for a family of four. I called it tactless but necessary. I interpreted the message as, "If you don't have the money to have a feast, don't have a feast." By January 2026, I had realized that some restaurants I was eating at lacked certain food items. The noche buena naturally caused the shortage. My mother jokingly asked, "Did they have a PHP 500.00 noche buena pack?" I said, "Nope, that's a financial impossibility." My mother replied, "That's the point of getting mad at the DTI comment." I was even reminded of a talk I had with a waitress in a particular restaurant. She even said, "Some people borrow money just to have a lavish noche buena, because they believe a lavish noche buena will bring in good luck!" Well, that's just gambling, not investing!
True wealth building can be boring, as it requires much discipline
This is a harsh reality that we must face. I could easily talk about the late John Gokongwei Jr. or the late Henry Sy Sr.. However, I'd like to focus on one man whose advice can secure anybody's basic financial stability. Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, had a talk with Warren Buffett. Buffett's statement agrees with Sy that there's no overnight success. Buffett addresses the issue that nobody wants to get rich slowly." Getting rich slowly is a boring thing. As I'm currently invested in the stock market using UITFs, I noticed that the excitement of the NAVPU rising can be boring. I look at my GCash every morning and the rise and fall of the NAPVU is "anything but exciting".
Buffett said, "Time in the market beats timing the market." Time in the market can be a slow, painful process. It means that a person may be cost-averaging on regular days and throwing in a lump sum during a crash. Buffett said to buy stocks when there's the proverbial blood on the streets. Some people panicked when the PSEi went down in 2022 and last year in 2025. Yes, I tried buying some stocks via UITF during the down seasons. The boring part was that the stock market didn't recover the next day. But that's part of the boring process. It's like planting trees and youneed the trees to grow!
I was reminded of how I used to overspend a lot during my teenage years. My parents didn't increase my allowance. Instead, I had to suffer the consequences of trying to impress people I didn't like by buying things that I didn't even need. When I think about it, I had to learn to budget the allowance. When I failed to budget the allowance, I found myself stealing out of the household fund of desperation. Thankfully, my parents would scold me as many times as possible for stealing the petty cash out of desperation. I would protest that my allowance was "scarce". However, I had to learn to handle that scarcity whether I wanted to or not. My allowance was increased over time. I had to learn to manage a certain sum of money before I got more money. That means if I had lacked money, I had to face the consequences.
It was a boring process, but it was worth it. It's because when I had to pass through the boring process, the excitement really came. It's pretty much like a slow and steady increase in dopamine or sugar. In my case, it's pretty much like how dark chocolates and muscovado can satisfy a sugar craving, without the sugar crash.
On the other hand, instant wealth is not real financial wealth
Hitting the jackpot releases dopamine, generating exceptionally good feelings each time a gambler wins. Once you’ve experienced the rush of dopamine brought on by a gambling win, you’ll do almost anything to experience that same amount of pleasure again.The dopamine release from gambling makes it easy to gamble repetitively without a second thought. Before you know it, gambling can become a habit and an addiction. Those with a severe gambling addiction can even get caught up in the “dark flow” — a trance-like state in which players get absorbed into a gambling game for hours.
There was a time I got addicted to Bejeweled Blitz on my mobile phone. Sure, it doesn't win real money, but the game has microtransactions. There was the challenge and the jackpot when you win the challenge. I remember hitting the virtual jackpot, and it was already hard to stop. When I realized that I was about to spend more money just to get more items, I realized I had to uninstall the game to avoid more drains. I don't regret uninstalling it because mobile games aren't helping me destress; they're even distracting me from work. However, my bigger reason was always that the jackpot game was completely addictive.
In gambling, there's the problem of using the win, hoping for a bigger win. The money wasn't achieved through discipline; it's a shaky foundation. It's like two honor students. One honor student is from a supportive family that never forced the person to become an honor student. The other honor student was only coerced into becoming an honor student for the reputation of the family. One is an honor student based on good foundations; therefore, they have a strong possibility of becoming the cum laude who achieves both in school and in life. However, even if the other honor student graduates cum laude, that person becomes the honor student who has done nothing with their life after school. That's why I think my classmate from high school, who was consistent in the honor rolls, is still doing well in life, given his parents aren't forcing him. The other one? Well, he's making one bad financial decision after another, such as getting into cryptocurrency.
The shaky foundation is because the money wasn't earned through smart work. The money was only won by chance. The wins are based mostly on speculation rather than results. For example, the probabilities of winning in any form of gambling are rather slim. That's the big difference when one builds a wealth based on a smart foundation vs. a wealth based on speculation.