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This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 19, 2018 - February 25, 2018

I am not a superstitious person. I mean fine, I don’t walk under ladders and throw salt over my shoulder, but that doesn’t make me superstitious, right?

I feel the same way about horoscopes, especially since my vaguely OCD nature doesn’t allow me to believe that I will have both a good day (according to “Your Stars” section in newspaper A) and be stabbed in the back (#your2018horoscope from trashy magazine B).

Yet, it is that time of year when Chinese horoscopes are out in full force. Yes, it is the year of the Earth Dog or, since that term is apparently offensive to some delicate sensibilities, the year of the Terra Canis Familiaris.

As such, Facebook is filled with feng shui masters giving their take on how the year will be, and for each sign as well. And again, just like normal horoscopes, the breadth of advice is frankly a little painful for my OCD-ness.

As far as I can tell, there is something about a sky horse and stars for my sign, which confused me even more, but it was then that a light bulb went off.

In a way, horoscopes are a lot like financial advice. Think about it — there are many experts with varied views and they use different metrics to gauge what is best for you. Put it this way, if you were to see those sets of skills on LinkedIn, you would find it difficult to tell if they belong to a fund manager or a feng shui master.

Also, both tend to have the “auntie syndrome”, where if your auntie happens to know a good feng shui master or portfolio manager, she will not stop talking about it until you go to him or her for advice.

And just like financial advice, googling it will reveal thousands of hits, and a lot of them have in parenthesis the reassurance that they are completely 100% legit.

I always get fairly suspicious when anything promises to be 100% legal, because as a wise man once said, if someone were to sell you an ice cream and promise that it is not 100% made of cats, you would immediately not eat it.

Before anybody jumps on me, I am not saying that all the advice is bad or that they are simply crooks out to gyp you. But what is worrying sometimes is that in this world where gratification is instantaneous, people will just tend to believe the positive and not really do the legwork.

Even sadder, given that times are harder, people want to believe that by changing something in their room, it could alter their fate.

So, the bottom line is, do your research and make measured judgements. And just like picking financial advice, do it based on your budget and risk profile. So you know to say no the next time someone recommends you a derivative-linked fund or a gigantic jade dragon that doesn’t go with any of your furniture.

And just like financial advice, the good thing about horoscopes is that the overarching themes remain the same — save money, love family and be healthy. So it seems that even for those who don’t believe them, cherry-picking this kind of advice does seem like an okay practice.

Whatever it is, keeping that in mind will hopefully lead to a much calmer year ahead.

Knock wood.

Happy Chinese New Year all!

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