A conversation with colleagues and my thoughts on poverty

Money, money, money is what a lot of us are concerned on. When we enter adulthood, money becomes an essential and a common topic too. Had an interesting discussion on the comments section of my blog on my previous post: 35 and totally broke or $100K savings by age 30?. There were lots of comments by a few other bloggers which really set my mind thinking. Coincidently, i was having a long chat with a few of my colleagues on the topic of money too.

I'm single now and have a simple and low maintenance lifestyle. A few other people commented that it's easy to save money when you're single but it'll be hard when you get married. This i agree and this is also what i've been thinking about. If your future wife and in laws wants to have a lavish banquet, can you refuse it? If your wife wants to buy a 5 room flat can you refuse it? If your wife is pregnant and wants to buy a car for more convenience will you refuse it? Most probably you will give whatever you can.

With the cost of buying a house and starting a family increasing, it is hard for these people to save money. It is hard to even plan for retirement when all your salary goes into household expenses. I really don't want to be just surviving for the sake of living and end up working my whole life still having not enough. Let me share with you a little bit on the family background which i come from then you will know why i have this thinking.

A little story on my family background

I come from a normal family with simple lifestyle. My parents are both not highly educated with my dad having only an O levels cert. As my parents income are not high, often they had to work long hours just to provide enough for the family. When i was young, i remember always seeing my dad asleep whenever i was home. He was working the night shift also. Of course i didn't understand back then but now i know how tough it was for him. My mum had to work all the way even when she was pregnant with me.

The reason why my dad was not educated is because he had to give up his education to work and provide for his family of 8 siblings. Yes, my dad's family had 10 members. Life was tough for all of them and i heard stories of how 10 of them stayed together in a 2 room flat back then. My dad went out to work and all his salary went to the household expenses. Yes, all his salary went to his parents and nothing was left for him. Not a single cent. With this, the rest of his siblings manage to get the education and most of them went on to university. Today, my uncles and aunties have a fairly high income. One of my uncle earns $12k a month and another uncle stays in a million dollar condo and drives a luxury car. In fact, all my uncles and aunties own at least a car. My dad never had the money to buy a car. Which means my family never had our own car before.

I know my dad feels inferior when talking to my uncles and aunties now. Of course they are grateful for my dad who sacrificed to see them through their education and they always treat my family for dinner and also offer to give us a ride. But still, it's never the same of owning your own car plus you feel bad when troubling other people to give you a ride. My mum had gone through all the hardship with my dad and they are still together till now. I know they put their hopes highly on me that one day i will be able to give them a good life. That's probably why i'm looking at ways to have more money so one day i could give my parents the good life they desired.

My parents are getting old but they are still working. I know in my heart that probably in a few years time, they will be too old to work. I have the responsibility to take care of them. My parents definitely do not have money to retire. I also know if i get married, i will have my own finances to take care. Will i have enough money to handle all these? This is probably why i'm thinking so much. If i do not have enough, i'll probably end up like my dad and sacrifice so much for the family and in the future, my kids will go through the same thing. This is what i do not want. That's how the poverty cycle happens.

Conversation with colleagues

My conversation with my colleagues was on how some rich people can don't work and still be rich? In the course of my work, i get to visit luxurious condos and private properties. One thing i always notice is most of the people staying there are at home. They are either swimming, enjoying their time at their balcony, or wearing shorts and getting ready to drive out in their big cars to shop or have afternoon tea. I thought i was seeing wrongly until one day, a security guard at the condominium told me that he too always see the people at home. They seem like they never had to work. He also wondered where they get their money to stay in these condominiums. One unit there is not just 1 Million. It's 7-8 Million dollars per unit.

Today, as i was telling this to my colleagues, one of them then said his neighbour drives a Mercedes and seems like he never works. He was curious so he asked his neighbour where he got his money? His neighbour replied he manages his own investments and owns a few properties. This brought us to the point that these people make money work for them. They don't work for money. Many of us know this but how many of us can really do it? Can we make money work for us instead of working for money? If we can do that, then we might be one of those people who don't work but still have money. Oh yes, one more thing my colleague said. He said seems like those people who worked the hardest have very little money and those who don't work much have a lot of money. To think of it, it seems quite true. Working smart is better than working hard in this world.