$10,000 first-month party

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#1
Personally, I think these people have way too much money (and are willing to splurge!). I have a young daughter and the first month birthday was celebrated at home with a budget of about $300. First-year birthday was celebrated in a restaurant at about $500. Nothing in the 4-digit range, much less $10,000! Confused

The Straits Times
Dec 18, 2011
$10,000 first-month party

Parents think nothing of splurging at a hotel to celebrate their kids' milestone birthdays

By Jane Ng

Just a generation ago, the only party one's offspring threw in a hotel was when they grew up and got hitched.

These days, however, Junior is holding his first birthday or even full-month party in a swanky five-star ballroom.

Stay-home mum Joan Phang, 34, decided to celebrate her son Darryl's first birthday at the Singapore Marriott Hotel three months ago to save herself the hassle of organising the nitty-gritty details herself.

'I'm looking after my baby on my own, so I don't have time to go around coordinating logistics with different parties for catering or decor.'

She called up different hotels for price quotations.

'I simply liaised with one co-ordinator who tied up all the arrangements for me.'

Mrs Phang and her husband Adrian, 41, a director in a research company, eventually chose the Marriott for its kid-themed birthday package and shelled out $3,000 for their only child's do for 70 people on Sept 18.

'It was comfortable for our guests,' she recalls. 'Everyone had a seat and proper cutlery to enjoy their meal, with staff serving drinks, instead of having to stand around and eat out of paper plates while trying to balance a paper cup.'

Here they come, the glam tot revellers. Some hotels are now making it easier than ever for parents to mark their kids' merry milestones at function rooms decked out with balloons, flowers and bowls of candy.

Throw in optional services, such as magic shows, face-painting and balloon sculpting, and you are set for some happy - and possibly hyperactive - under-fives living it up in style.

More than half of 20 hotels LifeStyle checked with offer birthday packages - similar to those for weddings - tailored for little ones, from month-old babies to five-year-old preschoolers.

The Marriott started offering them in 2009 after parents began calling about celebrating their children's birthdays there.

Other hotels, such as Parkroyal on Kitchener Road, have also rolled out child-themed lunch or high-tea packages this year.

Prices range from $40++ to $78++ a head for adults and $27++ to $33++ for children. A minimum number of people - it varies between 30 and 50 - is required. For those prices, one usually gets an international buffet with finger food and desserts.

The hotels say they receive, on average, five inquiries from parents a week, and hold up to five such parties a month.

Ms Anne Arrowsmith, director of marketing at Regent Singapore, says these parents range from those in their late 20s to mid-30s, some of whom had held their weddings at the hotel.

Other hotels have hosted parents, mostly from dual-income households, in a range of executive and managerial jobs.

Aiming to please their customers, hotels differentiate themselves by offering a range of add-on services.

Changi Village Hotel, for instance, opens its swimming pool to party guests if the event is held by the pool.

Orchard Hotel and The Regent provide free flow of soft drinks and complimentary carpark passes. The Regent also does bespoke packages with special touches such as plates and cutlery with cartoon characters on them.

The Marriott provided a playpen for Madam Priscilla Tan, 31, when the finance manager held her only son Jovan's full-month party there in June this year.

Madam Tan and her husband Sky Lee, a 34-year-old executive producer in a visual effects and film company, spent $10,000 on the event.

It was 'worth it', she says, as their guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. There had also been a television and DVD player to entertain the kids during their high-tea reception for 183 guests, with 20 tables.

Hotel venues are not limited to ballrooms and function rooms.

Another mum, manager Teo Puay Tin, 32, celebrated her daughter Eve's full month at Goodwood Park Hotel's Min Jiang restaurant.

'I wanted to have it out of the house because of space constraints. I had my elder son's party at home and it was too much of a pain to organise and clean up. There is also ample parking at the hotel,' says Ms Teo, who is married to a photographer and lives in a private apartment in the eastern part of the island.

She spent about $2,000 for the get-together for 50 friends and relatives. As for Eve, she slept through the whole thing.

Parents who have hosted such events say guests at kids' hotel birthday bashes tend to bear gifts that are more expensive.

To ensure her guests did not feel obliged to splurge on presents when she invited them to her two children's first month and first birthdays at various hotels here, Madam Loh H.H., 36, a business development manager, told friends in an e-mail invitation: 'It is not like a wedding dinner where you feel a need to compensate the bride and groom. Please just come and enjoy yourselves!'

Still, some parents feel that there is no need for extravagance when it comes to first-month or preschoolers' birthday celebrations.

Sales executive Jan Tan, 30, celebrated her two sons' first month in her five-room HDB flat in Ang Mo Kio with a simple catered spread. The party cost not more than $300.

The mother of Dan, one, and Dave, three, says: 'It's cosier to have it at home, especially when the baby is so young. They would be sleeping through the party, so is there a need to go to such an expense?'

Madam H. Ang, 65, a housewife and grandmother of three, says: 'During my time, we just prepared red eggs and cooked mee sua. Our children still grew up well.' Tongue

janeng@sph.com.sg
My Value Investing Blog: http://sgmusicwhiz.blogspot.com/
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#2
These people should read "The Millionaire Next Door" and learn a thing or two.
Visit my personal investing blog at http://financiallyfreenow.wordpress.com now!
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#3
Lol! The last line sums it all up!
Visit my personal investing blog at http://financiallyfreenow.wordpress.com now!
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#4
Everything in life is relative.
If Business-Class people wants to show-off, what's $10000?
It's a mere drop in the ocean.
Some of the higher Working-Class may want to or can easily do the same.
As long as you are happy spending your money, who are we to judge?
My way of spending my money may be wasteful or show-off to you.
And vice versa.
i am only afraid, i have no money to spend.
It's not necessary to show-off.
Show-off is the last, last thing on my mind.
But being human, i can not say i never do.
Guess how i did it?
Ha! Ha!
WB:-

1) Rule # 1, do not lose money.
2) Rule # 2, refer to # 1.
3) Not until you can manage your emotions, you can manage your money.

Truism of Investments.
A) Buying a security is buying RISK not Return
B) You can control RISK (to a certain level, hopefully only.) But definitely not the outcome of the Return.

NB:-
My signature is meant for psychoing myself. No offence to anyone. i am trying not to lose money unnecessary anymore.
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#5
I have noticed some very wealthy folks(net worth >50M and growing) living 'lesser' than less rich folks(net worth <10M)

While some are striving to afford that dream car,
those who can easily afford any car simply drives anything that is comfortable.
I personally think that this is to do with self esteem. These folks who had truly made it
have got nothing to prove, they do not need a status symbol to show they have arrived.
They are the status symbol.

I have also realized that these very high net worth folks have some traits in common,
they spend on things that represents value. Businessman A may be worth hundreds of millions but
carries a free nokia mobile phone but lives in a >10 000sq ft property.
Nothing on him shouts out he is a rich man except his face.


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#6
(20-12-2011, 12:20 AM)Big Toe Wrote: I have also realized that these very high net worth folks have some traits in common,
they spend on things that represents value. Businessman A may be worth hundreds of millions but
carries a free nokia mobile phone but lives in a >10 000sq ft property.
Nothing on him shouts out he is a rich man except his face.

I agree with this - very rich people spend on value; while perhaps the wannabe-rich or nouveau rich will spend on bling and status items to "flaunt" their wealth or their aspiring wealth. I also concur this has a lot to do with not just self-esteem, but self-satisfaction.

After all, if a phone is simply for communication, a free Nokia model will do, why carry a diamond-studded branded smartphone just to "show off" (I am just using an example).

I think even for people who are truly rich, their face may not "shout" it. They live humbly and go about their (big) business unobtrusively.
My Value Investing Blog: http://sgmusicwhiz.blogspot.com/
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#7
(20-12-2011, 12:20 AM)Big Toe Wrote: I have noticed some very wealthy folks(net worth >50M and growing) living 'lesser' than less rich folks(net worth <10M)

While some are striving to afford that dream car,
those who can easily afford any car simply drives anything that is comfortable.
I personally think that this is to do with self esteem. These folks who had truly made it
have got nothing to prove, they do not need a status symbol to show they have arrived.
They are the status symbol.

I have also realized that these very high net worth folks have some traits in common,
they spend on things that represents value. Businessman A may be worth hundreds of millions but
carries a free nokia mobile phone but lives in a >10 000sq ft property.
Nothing on him shouts out he is a rich man except his face.
"Nothing on him shouts out he is a rich man except his face."

You are certainly right. i had the fortune of a glance of the late MR. Hewlett or Packard(i think it was Packard) when he visited HP factory, many many years ago. Nothing on him show any wealth. This is where the real difference shows. The Newly Rich or Barely Rich and the Established Rich. But the Filthy Rich really has to seek undercover.
That's life.
WB:-

1) Rule # 1, do not lose money.
2) Rule # 2, refer to # 1.
3) Not until you can manage your emotions, you can manage your money.

Truism of Investments.
A) Buying a security is buying RISK not Return
B) You can control RISK (to a certain level, hopefully only.) But definitely not the outcome of the Return.

NB:-
My signature is meant for psychoing myself. No offence to anyone. i am trying not to lose money unnecessary anymore.
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