Over the weekend, a few of us were having supper at Bedok 85 after drinking. Marcus was super quiet the whole night, so after the rest went to buy sambal stingray, I asked him if everything was okay. He hesitated, then showed me his bank account app.
Bro… he literally went to take a personal bank loan just to go clubbing, buy bottles, and chiong with his friends.
His logic? He said his circle of poly friends all upgraded their lifestyles recently—table service at Marquee, ordering premium bottles, daily HDL/omakase suppers. He didn’t want to feel left out or lose his “status” in the clique, but his fresh grad salary of around $3.2k couldn’t support it. So instead of just saying “eh guys, low budget this month, let’s just go kopitiam,” he decided to borrow money to maintain the fake standard.
When I asked him how much, he wouldn’t give an exact number, but he hinted it’s easily a few thousand with hefty monthly interest rates. He’s basically paying compound interest for alcohol that he already turned into urine weeks ago.
I was completely dumbfounded. I told him straight: “Are you crazy? They drink $300 vodka, you drink poison, then later you pay bank interest for the rest of the year?” But he insisted that “networking and keeping connections” is important and that once he gets promoted, he can easily pay it off. The mental gymnastics is wild.
Is this lifestyle creep getting way too out of hand in Singapore nowadays, or is my friend just exceptionally cooked? How to wake this guy up before he gets eaten alive by interest rates or gets hooked on licensed moneylenders next?
Sigh. Any advice on how to smack some reality into him before his credit score dies completely?