There have been many articles recently clogging the local press about the so-called "Singapore Dream." This is not one of them. However, it has been inspired in part by the flood of Singaporeans proclaiming their undying love for the country and intending to spend their entire lives eking out their fortunes here.

What this article will touch upon is *how* to go about achieving the dream (roof, wheels, the whole wealth thing, or WWT), and why many of us may be going about it the wrong way. I certainly am.

What the majority of us have been told runs something like this:

"Boy (or Girl), you must study hard, next time can earn a lot of money and live well."

And that's not all. Most people would be willing to put up with a low earning job initially if it will lead to something that makes them embarassingly rich in the future. Unfortunately, companies tend to have a triangular staff structure: the grunts at the bottom with the hotshot executives right up at the top. Like it or not, not everyone is going to get to become one of those guys with the coveted executive toilet key (unless you don't mind being the cleaner). Many will just end up doing the same sort of work for most of their working lives, and getting some nominal pay rise each year. But the WWT? Time to rethink that strategy.

The problem is that we've been drilled to think that education is the key to success. The problem with that is that since everyone's gotten educated, coming out of that university and armed with that spiffy new framed-up degree doesn't mean that much anymore. How many people remember the (good 'ol) days when having a degree in hand meant that the world (or at least the Singaporean job market) was at your feet? "A" levels, I believe, were then the norm. Today, the diploma or the degree has become the standard and many are forced to pursue Masters in some field or other, just ot get ahead. How much longer before that becomes the standard?

The view gets ore interesting if you look on the side of the academic wall. Sent your car to the mechanics recently? One day I heard this disturbing sound as I was rolling down the ECP and I thought I'd better go check it up. What basically transpired was that the mechanic sat in the car while I drove him around the block, listened, opened up the hood when we got back to the garage, pointed to something and muttered "air-con compressor spoilt", and asked for $15. I recall being somewhat surprised to be asked $15 for five minutes' work, and I also remember being suddenly attracted by the idea of becoming a car mechanic. For anyone who's curious about the aruthmetic, $15 for five minutes works out to be $180 an hour. Sure, you're not going to get some bloke as dumb as me to pay you this rate all the time all day, but if you work just this one hour a day assuming it's your net earnings (after overheads and CPF), in a five-day work week for four weeks, this works out to be $3600.

Sure, it's going to be hard work. Eventually, you're going to have to do some real mechanicking like crawling under cars and doing the nuts and bolts stuff. However, who ever said that white-collared jobs were any easier? Ask any office worker how they feel after a day at the office and the odds that they are going to say "Wow, I feel so fresh and energetic, let's jog to JB for dinner" aren't terribly high. It'snot for nothing that the typical picture of the tired husband and wife returnng from the office and being too tire for each other is so ubiquitous.

Car mechanics certainly aren't alone. Little family fortunes are being made in hawker centers around the country, and the cars the owners drive aren't those little Suzukis you and I are going to be stuck with for a decade or so. What about the construction workers? Sure, you don't have to be one of the guys actually carrying anything, you can be some supervisor. Just learn Thai and you're all set. Remember, these are the the people who may go around in muddy boots all day, but the cash they carry in their pockets will probably equal your pathetic year-end bonus.

However, we obviously don't all study just for the money. There are higher pursuits in life. Intellectual satisfaction. A more wordly outlook. Knowing the difference between Proust and prose, Lagrangians and grunge. Stuff like that. We feel edified in our own knowledge. I'll keep thinking of all this edification as I hurry home to dig through my mum's recipes looking for her all-sure-t0- please recipe for chicken rice. Maybe I can get the cool car that man in a white singlet and shorts just zipped by me in.



Philip Lam is currently extremely busy tearing the holey bits off computer paper at Merrill Lynch.