Dear1 Dear2

When I was young, mum will without fail get me and my brother to set aside and keep our Ang Bao monies in the piggy bank. My piggy bank is a little pink chest and brother’s was violet in color. When I started to receive my first Bursary Award from school, mum opened a POSB Savings Account for me and brother as well. The $300 or $500 then conveniently gets saved away in the bank account.

Probably it was due to mum’s influence of setting aside monies and not wasting it lavishly, Dear2 has always been prudent with savings. Dad is a thrifty and hardworking man, and Dear2 probably inherited these modest habits as well. I cannot remember when I first started tracking my expenses. Every month without fail, I will total up my expenses and tally it with the budget I’ve set myself. Secondary school and JC classmates used to tell me that their pocket money can run into three four hundred, but I’ve always manage to keep it within $200. How did I do that? Just be prudent in spending and dun go for that GUESS or Esprit school bag lor.

I still use the same strategy now, to limit my expenditure to a certain amount every month. Of course sometimes when you encounter a new environment, like just entering the working life, new job or even new responsibilities with a family, it will usually take a few intial months for you to adjust to the new spending pattern. From then on, it is daily control and restraints again.

Some people really do have a spendthrift habit. I am pretty sure that you do know a few people around you who are like that, that they always find themselves in financial dire or simply here-in-there-out. Nothing bad about them, just that their bank account balance will forever be zero.

Dear2 has a friend whose savings account is in the red all the time. After listening to my strategy, she decided to keep to a strict accounting method. Recording down all her daily expenses made her become much much aware of her spending habits, and she is able to see how some of her habitual buys are actually extravagent spends. Cutting down on these Wants while maintaining the Needs results in positive grows of her savings account.

Dear1 and Dear2 are still in the midst of equipping the house. We have already started an accounting book, and with time, we will be making some financial plans as a family. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

- Dear2