Save diligently and live simply
LAST Saturday, I attended a Chinese wedding dinner and happened to sit next to a senior citizen who is about 65 years old. As the rest of us in the table of 10 were younger, we called him Ah Pek, which means “Uncle” in Chinese.
We all listened attentively as Ah Pek started to tell us about his past experiences.
He hails from a small town in the North and was the youngest of seven siblings in a family who ran a drinks stall.
They were poor and he remembered wearing mostly torn or mended clothes passed down from his elder brothers.
He never had any chance of drinking coffee like our young people do in Starbucks or Coffee Bean nowadays.
He and his elder siblings had to help out at the stall all the time.
To cut the story short, he went through hardship, having to work and study at the same time.
He managed to graduate as an engineer from a reputable university overseas.
Ah Pek got his first job as an engineer in a factory in Petaling Jaya with a starting salary of RM750.
He rented a room for RM50 a month, sleeping on a cheap canvas bed and he walked to work.
He paid RM10 a day for his meals and never had supper no matter how hungry he got in the evenings.
He set a target of saving RM250 every month. All he had in his mind was to save money.
After two years, he saved enough to pay for the downpayment of a single-storey house and took a loan from a bank to pay the balance.
He was a proud owner of a property but he had since upgraded to a semi-detached bungalow.
He lived a simple life and continued to save his money even after he got married. He has three children.
With the money saved, he sent his children overseas for tertiary education. They have all graduated and are happily employed now.
During the dinner, Ah Pek never once complained about not getting any assistance from his family.
Ah Pek says as long as we continue to work hard, save diligently, we will be all right no matter which part of the world we live in.
Ah Pek is happily retired for some time now and I believe every single word he shared with us. CHAN SEE FOO Petaling Jaya