Borneo Bulletin Digital

Lifestyle

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020

Resist the urge

to splurge

Standard Chartered Bank

All things brand new are always so

bright and irresistibly shiny. From

new mobile phones to shoes, hand-

bags, even cars. Not to mention the

bragging rights you get from show-

ingyour newacquisitionoff to friends

or family. But is it all necessary?

How many times have you

stood in front of your packed closet

and thinking you didn’t have a thing

to wear? How many times have you

driven past a shiny Mercedes and

wished you could have one too?

How many times have you secretly

eyed your best friend’s iPhone and

thought you should get one too?

WHAT’S WRONG WITH WHAT YOU

ALREADY HAVE?

Your current car services you just

ine, the air-conditioning works and

the only thing you had to do in the

last six months was send it for ser-

vicing. It’s not exactly in tatters. So,

do you really need to splurge on a

brand-new car? Car purchasing

here is now almost as easy as going

grocery shopping, where you just

decide which model you want and

off you go driving it out of the show-

room. But what happens when the

irst month’s loan instalment kicks

in? Do you only then realise that you

couldn’t afford the monthly pay-

ment but then it’s too late?

When you are in a position

where you cannot afford to be tak-

ing out a loan for anything, much

less entertaining the thought of

buying something new, you must

take a step back and analyse where

your desire to own this new item is

coming from. Keep asking yourself

if the purchase is justiiable and if

it is really worth the hardship that

you will face from trying to ind

ways to service the loan and pay

for the purchase.

If you are in the position where

you do not need to turn to a loan

or a line of credit to purchase a

‘want’ item and instead have well-

saved cash which you can use for

this purchase instead then by all

means, you may well deserve the

item. But if you don’t then you will

have to think otherwise.

ARE YOU REALLY FINANCIALLY

FREE OR ARE YOU FREE OF

FINANCIAL DEBTS?

Being inancially free means

you can spend as you please on

whatever you desire. However, if

the purchasing is done on loans and

credit cards, then next question is,

are you free from bad inancial

debts? If you have debt, what were

those debts for? Were they for a

good reason?

Being honest with yourself and

your current inancial situation

can sometimes be a hard truth to

face but at the same time it can

also be liberating in the sense that

you can inally sit down and think

hard about where you want to be

inancially and map out the steps

that you need to take to get there.

Getting out of debt is by no

means an easy feat, as it takes a

considerable amount of discipline

and commitment to stay on course

and see your plans through. How-

ever, once you have started the re-

wards are long term and will beneit

you in the future.

You must also have a strong

sense of what is good debt and bad

debt. If you are taking a loan for a

house, which is important as you

need a roof over your head, then the

debt is considered good because at

the end of the day the end result is

that you will have your own home.

However, even on this point, one

must exercise good sense when

taking out a housing loan to ensure

that you have the ability to service

the monthly repayment comfortably

and that the house you are planning

to purchase suits your budget. It is

not inancially viable to over-lever-

age on yourself to pay for a large

fancy home when a smaller home

would have served just as well.

Unnecessary forms of debt

could refer to loans taken to pur-

chase mobile phones, TVs, laptops –

luxury or ‘want’ items as opposed to

‘need’ items. This is where a sense

of balance and also understanding

the difference between a ‘need’ and

a ‘want’ needs to be achieved.

Needs are items that we essen-

tially cannot live without; like food,

clothes and shelter. Wants are all

the other items that we would like

to have but can essentially contin-

ue living if we didn’t have them.

Gaining the knowledge and

the skills or sensibility to spend

money wisely is not an in-born trait

in people. Instead it is a trait that

needs to be nurtured from young.

It is also never too late to start

instilling good habits of savings and

moderation. The key differentiator

that contributes to your success

of inancial freedom is simply your

desire and your drive to achieve it.

This article is for general information

purposes only and while the informa-

tion in it is believed to be reliable, it

has not been independently veri ied

by us. You are advised to exercise

your own independent judgement

with the contents in this article.

Books

‘Kate the Chemist’ book has

25 experiments for housebound kids

Lynn Elber

LOS ANGELES (AP) — If your house-

bound family needs a new diversion,

follow Kate Biberdorf’s example and

tryahands-onapproach tosomething

besides a video game controller.

Biberdorf, who’s proudly adopt-

ed the snappy nickname Kate the

Chemist, wants kids to have messy

fun with science experiments.

The University of Texas at Aus-

tin chemistry professor is a lively

promoter for the value of her dis-

cipline and the joy she inds in it.

She’s made her case on

Today

and

other TV shows and barnstorms the

country to get youngsters, espe-

cially girls, hooked on its wonder

and possibilities.

Biberdorf is adding a new chap-

ter with her irst books.

Kate the

Chemist: The Big Book of Experi-

ments

has 25 entertaining projects

for children ages eight to 12 who

end up learning about — shhhh! —

energy and matter. Safely done at

home, the experiments rely on com-

mon products including dish soap

and baking soda, with a dash of glit-

ter thrown into the “puffy slime” for-

mula. An adults-needed icon marks

ones requiring supervision.

Biberdorf also has written (with

Hillary Homzie)

Kate the Chem-

ist: Dragons vs Unicorns

, the irst

in a planned iction series featur-

ing a 10-year-old Kate as an in-

trepid problem solver. How could

her school musical include a ire-

breathing dragon if Kate couldn’t

devise liquid nitrogen cheese puffs

as a stand-in for lames?

Both titles are from Philomel

Books, a Penguin Random House

imprint, and were released early for

antsy parents and kids alike.

In a phone interview, Biberdorf

explained who nurtured her passion

for chemistry in her hometown

of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and her

efforts to do the same for new

generations. Remarks were edited

for clarity and length.

: How did science capture

your interest?

BIBERDORF

: My mom saw that

I liked to explore and maybe had

an engineering side of my mind.

So she cleared one bathroom and

made it so everything was perfectly

safe and we could mix together

shampoo and conditioner and soap

and all this fun stuff in a huge green

bowl. I’ve always been a little bit

of a scientist and liked to see what

happens if you add A plus B, what

are you going to get? But it wasn’t

until my sophomore year of high

school that I realised chemistry was

my true passion, and I have to credit

my teacher, Mrs (Kelli) Palsrok. She

made chemistry come alive for me.

: You said that the gender

gap in the sciences grows as stu-

dents advance and is widest at the

PhD level. Why is that and how can

it be addressed?

BIBERDORF

: There are a lot

of reasons. If you’re a young girl

and you raise your hand (in class)

and give an incorrect answer and

a boy makes fun of you, that can

have a crippling effect on your self-

esteem. My mission is to get out

there and talk to these girls so that

they’re passionate about science.

Then when they do inevitably give

a wrong answer, because we’re

all human, they have enough

conidence to not be knocked

down and are still interested.

: What changes need to

happen for women in the scien-

tiic ranks?

BIBERDORF

: Female scien-

tists are supporting other female

scientists, and we are banding

together and forming this beauti-

ful community. We’re supporting

each other’s research and talking

about each other’s projects in such

a positive way. I personally feel so

empowered to be part of this that

I can’t even wait to see what’s go-

ing to happen in the next 10, 20,

30 years.

: Does the skepticism some

are now voicing about science

concern you?

BIBERDORF

: As the scientiic

community, we need to step up.

We need to speak out. We need to

use our voices and our credentials

to explain what’s happening. So,

for example, with climate change

and the coronavirus, if there are

questions in your community

about it, we need to be responsible

scientists. We’ve got to make sure

that the accurate information is

going out to our communities.

This undated image released by Philomel Books shows Dr Kate Biberdorf,

better known as Kate the Chemist. Biberdorf released a new book, ‘Kate

the Chemist: The Big Book of Experiments’. PHOTO: AP