when we learn to save and savour

Lee Siew Hua wrote about being financial-saavy in today's ST Insight:
"Learn to be money-savvy the Big Mama way".

Big Mama - the grandmother who was born poor but who managed to live a life of total financial independence. In the now-context, someone who is self-reliant in his/her own financial matters.

This "self-reliance", i feel, is truly thought-provoking and worth a few moments of some serious pondering. Especially to those of my generation - coined the Y-generation who are probably still much-oblivious to the word "independence".

Who needs independence when you obviously have a tight-knit nuclear family catering to your every need -- from cooking you a meal everyday to paying for your handphone bill, and buying you a car just so you don't have to squeeze with fellow "less-fortunate" train commuters every morning and inhale that toxic concoction of Hugo Boss + perspiration?

Of course, to many peeps independence can mean being able to get to one place or another without having your parents drive you around. But when we finally toss our graduation caps into the air and shout "freedom!!", what's next?

We find a job, get paid a few thousand dollars a month and start to work out our daily, monthly, yearly expenditures. Handphone bills, check. Daily travel expenses, check. Food and entertainment, check. Weekly shopping for clothes and shoes, check. The trip to MOS every Friday, check check check. Savings, ch... oh well maybe next time. We'll see how things go next month.

Siew Hua asked, "Do we know how best to stretch our hard-earned dollars each month or for the next three, five, or 10 years?"

Suddenly a disturbing visual popped up in my head. Amongst a plethora of outstanding bills and credit card payments, I eagerly hammar and crash open my huge-ass piggy bank, only to find a year's savings of impulse-Topshop-purchases.

Scary, no doubt. But the real impact might never come. It would never dawn upon us how we can better manage our hard-earned money so we can have the early-retirement we often dreamed of.

I am as clueless about my finances as thousands of counterparts my age. I was pretty horrified at the sky-high number on my latest credit card bill. And then I felt a wave of nauseau and a sudden urge to run to the nearest lottery booth.

Maybe, if we really really think about it, life is mostly about making priorities. Whether or not decision making stems from being emotional or practical -- we splurge $300 at the salon for that dye-job and perm-job, arguing that when we look good we feel good, and hence we do better and get good prospect or opportunities in society.

That, of course, still holds true. At least I still root for the argument above because it has worked for me. But over the years the mountain of desire to look good and feel good has somewhat diminished to a mole-hill of simply wanting to appear pleasant. Other priorities - such as star performance at work and practical self-branding -- has taken over giddy consumerism habits.

I'm still clueless with financial literacy. I think complete financial independence from your family helps somewhat. Somehow when we're thrown in the desert, most of the time we can find our own waterhole.

And then we learn to save, and savour our own findings.