Some people are more stupid than others

I am among the more stupid ones mainly because I let people make important decisions for me... instead of me making them myself.

Take insurance policies for example. I clearly cannot afford to pay hefty premiums when I have no income except my meager pension. And yet I let insurance agents talk me into buying this, that and those policies for protection against all kinds of calamities.

What I really need is protection from these insurance agents who dull my common sense and make me feel I'm a failure and a fool if I don't sign on the dotted lines they point  with their fat fingers while holding their pens in my face. What they really want when they make repeat visits to my house with their borang (and even plants and edibles to side track me) is another fool to put food onto their table; another nincompoop to send their kids to college or to pay for their expensive holidays.

While I am forced to choose between buying nappies for the baby or coffee for me, the agents are enjoying expensive meals I help to pay.

Several years ago, it made sense to take out a medical insurance. You wanted to avoid the long wait at the hospital where you had to compete for the doctor's attention with hundreds of patients. The doctor was over-worked and probably underpaid and all he wanted was to see the back of his last patient. Often he'd be busy writing stuff to add to the record in your medical file and he hardly glanced up to see your face. (It had happened to me when I brought my sick toddler—the doctor only stopped his furious scribbling for a moment and he looked up because my questions had annoyed him.)

With a medical insurance, you could present your medical card at a private hospital and you'd be attended to immediately. No hassle and nothing to pay. You just filled up a claim form and the insurance company paid the hospital.

Not anymore! These days you need to pay a deposit of RM5000 if you want treatment at a private hospital. To me, it makes no sense to pay hefty premiums for a medical insurance and still pay a huge deposit upon checking in at the hospital. If I could pay RM5000 to get treatment at a private hospital, I don't need to buy a medical policy. Call me stupid because I still let myself be persuaded to take out a medical insurance.

Recently, however, I’ve been wondering why I hardly have any money to spend on necessities—such as a new pair of sandals or cheese cake or the long-promised blue nail polish for Baby and me. On checking to see where my small pension has gone to, I was taken aback to discover that more than 50% is spent on insurance premium payments. What a fool I am… saving for future rainy days and yet currently braving stormy nights because there’s no money to repair the roof.

It’s time to cancel some policies and let the good agents go frighten other people into getting them (agents) big, fat commissions.