Business owners and investors (the more evolved business owner) have it the greatest. Apart from money (lots), they have in their hands buttons for control – control over their time, how much money to give to the government, what to pursue, who to pursue, all the trappings that money can buy (or attract). But behind every businessman-turned-millionaire story is the back story: inhuman work hours, doing the work of 5 or more people… Name it they have done it – beg, steal, borrow, the accounting, the contracts, the creatives, the marketing, the evaluating, the letter writing, the thinking, dealing with people, negotiating, planning, selling, cajoling… I should know. I am in the thick of this back story (well, what I hope will be a back story). And can I just add? – it does not end there: from time to time come those little heart palpitations and unbidden thoughts: “Why are you doing this? Are you crazy?” To be capped by the ringing of a defeatist battlecry: “Give it up. Give it up.” And then I would think: wouldn’t it be great to just go back to the simple life, a time when work need not be taken to the home, to nights when there need not be any presence of mind (mind has maxed out its quota during the day), when there are no million and one books and letters and documents to read and study, nights when playing with a daughter, reading, watching television, not thinking – is possible?

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In fact, in his report, the financial planner said, “While the couple’s Emergency Fund Ratio (EFR) will be over 1x by the end of 2007, the ideal ratio is 3x. The couple would need to add around Php149,000 to their annual income to meet such a ratio. To raise their savings rate to 18.1% from 6.7%, the couple would need additional annual income of Php262,000, or add 24% to their current annual income.” After this analysis, without ever explaining what the hoot it meant, or if there was any hope for us, we never saw him again.

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