It is true that we are very blessed to be living in Singapore. Many people from other parts of the world would love to exchange places with us. We should indeed count our blessings.

But it is the very of nature of human beings to compare themselves with their immediate neighbors, which in our case, are our fellow Singaporeans. We cannot help but be reminded of the high cost of daily living here. We see our neighbors staying in landed properties, condos and driving big cars and we aspire to own them too. That's when we realize that whatever we earn is just not enough, although that same amount would make many families in poorer countries feel that they have struck the lottery.

We live in a high cost country, therefore we cannot escape the reality of where we live by simply imagining that our money will go a long way in some poorer countries.