Inflation and your pay

I would like to address the demand for cash balances. How much you will keep in your cash balance is a function of price levels.

If prices fall by 1/3, people will need 1/3 less money in their wallets. In the same way, if prices increase, people will need more money in their wallets.

Wallets is merely a simpler way to address liquidity. The more they need their money, the more liquid they need their savings to be.

Prices of money are determined by supply and demand of money
Purchasing power of money is merely the inverse of price levels. As prices rise, the purchasing power of money falls.

If someone uses fake money to purchase goods and services, the supply of money increases and the new price level will increase. The value of each existing dollar is diluted by the new dollar. This is similar to the inflation process. If the government releases more money into the system, the value of your money decreases.

In other words, if you did not have a pay increase this year, the value of your pay package would have decreased by the level of inflation.

Which is a more dominant force in changing prices? It is the supply of money. Government and financial institutions can collectively employ looser monetary policies to increase the supply of money. Theoretically, they could print money, drop it into your mailboxes and decrease the value of money. They could also lower interest rates to increase lending.

I hope all these are clear. But if there is one thing I would like to stress, it is that the value of your money is determined by the supply of money and the demand for money. The value of your money decreases when there is inflation. Pay increases matching inflation is not an employee benefit. It is to ensure the value of your pay remains the same as the year before.

Websites that disrespect consumers should be made irrelevant

Using too many plugins and scripts? Didn't optimize your images? If you don't respect the pockets of consumers you really don't deserve many viewership.

Consumers can collaboratively boycott these sites. Create your own content. What can you do to generate sustainable content for the Internet? 

1. Use simpler words. Don't embed scripts if you want to tell me your Twitter username, type it. Don't embed the code. 

2. Use plain html. You don't need to customize CSS in a Wordpress environment.

3. Optimize images or don't use images at all.

4. Make impactful content. If they are not impactful, use a social platform.

Website Obesity

As a minimalist, it pains me to see how websites have become "obese", overloaded with information and pictures unnecessarily.

What's taking up so much space? Besides pictures which I feel are necessary for visual impact, the biggest reasons are scripts, advertisements and social sharing functions. Merchants and website makers now feel the feel to overwhelm our websites with dynamic content.

We need to strike back. This is why I dislike Wordpress and have moved most of my blogs back to simpler platforms like blogger.

Who gets hurt when website content gets more "obese"? It is us, the consumers. As we consume more data on mobile phones, we will suffer as websites become more bloated.

Here's what we can do to tackle #websiteobesity

1. Blog on simpler platforms

2. Boycott scripts

Working from home - creating value with lesser footprint

I have been thinking about work. Work is the processing of creating value for society and in return, the worker gets remunerated for the value he or she creates. But in cities, many people travel to office for "work". Work becomes a routine to appear somewhere else. They don't necessary give their best because work is not always motivating. They may not like their bosses, their team or even the work they do.

I am clearer now after observing working styles across Europe, China, Australia, Taiwan and Singapore. People appear to be self motivated when they commit time to work on things they love to do. While this is simple, it's often underrated. Working on something you love creates unspeakable value for yourself - as you created, you have fun. No amount of money can replace this feeling. Bosses and workers are equally responsible for ensuring workers love their work. Without joy, they will come to office late, they will be unhappy every night and look forward to the weekends. This is definitely not what man is made for.

Neither do I advocate that everyone takes on online trading and blogging. Most of these are just eye catchers and don't bring in sustainable income. I'm advocating that everyone be open to take a pay cut to find work nearer to your home and to do something you like. In many circumstances, you may find that you like to bake, make clothes, host friends. Be adventurous and be honest with yourself. You can start a bakery from your home and you can start a B&B if you live in a private apartment in Singapore.

A simpler way is to initiate a pay cut to work lesser hours. Take the hours you saved to think about a new business. The new business does not have to be an online venture, it can be brick and mortar. I own a rather brick and mortar business of tailoring. Anyway, the lines between online and physical sales is blurred. Revenue collection online is now far more convenient.

I advocate that you escape from the 9 to 6 pm lifestyle. Do not work on anything that you don't enjoy. Find that spot that you love and work hard on it. This is not new at all. In the early 1960s and 1970s in Singapore, we used to do household chores for income. My mother was a tailor and my relatives sold products door to door.