Tuesday, April 14, 2009

What we did while they traded monkeys

 

I've always been a non gambler. I've never won any bet in my life as long as money's involved. Every time I put my cash down, it went 'Pooof!!!' The only time I won some money was eons ago when someone asked me to place a bet on a number for her. Of course the winnings went to her. So, since then my hobby has been to watch from the sidelines, until I got sleepy or bored. The only way to keep myself entertained during family gatherings is to make myself a drink, croak into a mike, play with a camera, or just strum on a guitar after all the good food has been stuffed away.

I know of a few people chasing the money in the stock market. Out of about ten, I only remember one saying he made some profit. Only he wasn't sure how much. Another honestly said he broke even with one or two good stocks to cover the disastrous ones. The rest were probably too embarrassed to talk about throwing away their hard earned salaries chasing bulls when the bears ran, tails between their legs. (I’m not sure if bears got tails anyway)

I guess not being in the high income bracket (just what do you mean by 'high'?) makes me very cautious about where I put my money. It's certainly not in someone else's pockets and definitely not for buying monkeys. It could have been the life-long training from the time when I first learned how to use money. It was a scarce item those days. We could even describe it as sacred. We’d learned to stretch every dollar and when the kids came along they picked up the habit. They’d go to school with bread and jam (or margarine) and a bottle of water in lieu of cash (I’m told some kids use up to RM5 a day). Mine said canteen food never appealed to them. Besides they didn’t like the rush and the queues. One even had a classmate called her 'bread-face'. She laughed and thought it was a good joke.

Wife thinks spending other peoples' money is not happiness. And I got sort of dismayed when she also classified my income in the same category as 'other peoples' money'. I had to keep reminding her, it's not MY money, it's OUR money. Truth be told, if she wasn't there holding the fort, handling the ‘homework’ I wouldn’t be having that free hand and ease of mind to bring in the dough. Yeah it’s nice to have both of us earning more money and having everything. But it’s even better to come home to a nice warm meal, change into freshly washed clothes, and walk barefooted on cool squeakily clean floors. You should know what the jungle is like out there. Home is your sanctuary where your wounds get healed from all that clawing and scratching and patching up the bullet holes.

Putting the kids through higher education has been our major goal in lieu of the inheritance we can’t give them. While it looked impossible in the beginning it's now already two done and one more to go. And it looks like we’re making it through without too much of a sweat as the two older girls who're already earning are pitching in. I'm not comparing us with people who're doing it a lot better and could send their kids overseas. I think ours is, and will always be a great team. If we had any specific goals it's just to live our lives well and face the future together, while keeping it simple.

They tell me I've done a great job in spite of being the sole bread-winner. All I’d say is every one of us worked hard for it and together we made some right decisions. But I believe the all knowing One Who Determines it all has dealt me a great hand for which I will always feel thankful. Looking back now, it all seems so easy. But no sir, it's not a gamble. We never trade monkeys.

 

13 comments:

  1. I think your achievement had a lot to do with inheritance - the tradition of living within your means. You inherited it from your parents. Along the way you've also managed to develop a powerful "magic spell" that wards away major financial troubles. Its called contentment. See how it warded off the monkey salesmen? ^_^

    Its what I've been trying to tell people all along. It is possible to be happy with what you got. Unfortunately no one believes me.

    Oh by the way, if you happen to see a bear with a long tail, run for the hills cuz it ain't no bear, hahahaha.

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  2. :D I've seen wolves howling at my front door instead of bears. (That explains the tails.) We learned to forgo certain luxuries until we could pay for them. And when we did, we treasured every minute of the pleasure. Ours is hardly an achievement by ordinary standards. But that tradition of living within our means has always been our preparation against rainy days. That 'sediakan payong sebelum hujan' wisdom has never failed us.

    The gurus and consultants never agreed with me that contentment is a lot better than 'success' in their terms. They kept preaching against living in comfort zones, forgetting that when all extend their hands beyond themselves resources become exhausted and the result is a vacuum. Too many vacuums results in the economic state we're in today.

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  3. well done. a lot of people would want to be in your shoes.

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  4. haha... they'd be welcome to 'em... but they'd be disappointed though. My shoes have to be pretty worn out by the time I look for new ones.

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  5. A wolf in a bear suit with the tail sticking out? Faster than the bear, double the bite, LOL...

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  6. Precisely... You can still watch the bear munching whatever you feed him.
    The other would just 'wolf' it down in one gulp...

    There's one bit of wry humor I heard years ago:
    The father worked hard for years to keep the wolf from the door. Then the daughter grew up and brought one home.

    I just hope I taught my daughters well enough to spot the tails before they got too close.

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  7. err.. i invested with my friend in a group. and i win RM600+ at 2007, and used it for my cambodia trip. And the modal freeze there for about 1 year. I was just asking from the leader and he get me a forum of ours. look like still ok, compare with keeping the same amount in bank, i understand gambler (10 gambler 9 lost), but if invest, also big risk, but the 'remiser' is good in 'juggling' his own colleagues + his own money i think.

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  8. Reminded me my university years, i was gambling with my friend in the cruse (Johor), and i help him with the jackpop, with his money, after my own near RM20 done. He told me, if i pull and win, i can take the money with my hand from the log. So, i try to pull and he WON US600 with my pulling. With his hand (my hand too small to take - so i ask him to take for me with his hand) a VERY big double hand he offer me near US60 (10% he shared me) - if not mistaken, 1 token is RM5. The coin keep on "tinging down", i won back my ticket's money and the gambling money with some extra income - i used for another crues, kakkaa....

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  9. Phoebe, wish I can borrow some of your luck hahaha...
    but still, I'm not interested in gambling. Just don't know why.

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  10. You have what consultants call a "low risk appetite." I've only played slot machines only once in Las Vegas. I won about $20 but not before the machine took twice the amount. A feng shui man once told me, "You don't have any gambling luck. You have to work hard for everything you earn." He's been right so far.

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  11. 2 fortune-tellers told me the same thing. One when I was too young to understand. The other, when I've already figured out my fate. But that didn't stop me from testing my luck once in a while.

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  12. there's such a thing as a "gambling luck"? i better get to a feng shui dude soon.. who knows! ^_^

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  13. It's the 80:20 losers against winners (so I heard), which makes gamblers believe in luck...

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