No money no honey

I was at my uncle's till late on Monday night. And for some reason, the conversation kind of drifted onto the topic of money. As the term goes 'No money, no future', we were debating about Australia's minimum wage system and why the working environment is conducive. No need to work long hours and get good pay, hey, who would not want that right? But I was thinking working in Singapore isn't that bad either. Getting 2K for a graduate position ain't that bad also right? Well, assuming if I eat hawker food for lunch, eat dinner at home, sleep and back to work the next morning for the whole year should pretty much save me loads right? After all, what I saved during my 2 year National Service was substantially huge given that my allowance ran in the hundreds. I'm talking about saving several thousands not just one thousand for one year.

So the question remains: 2K, very good also right? I was thinking quite sufficient what, if spend about $400 on day to day expenses per month, I'm still left with $1,600. Maybe I could still buy an Armani Exchange jacket every month which cost say $400-500? After that, I'm still left with $1K a month to save? Well of course, I'm not going to splurge so much every month, but hypothetically, assuming 'ideal' conditions, saving $1K a month is alot. By the end of one financial year, I would have save $12K excluding bonuses and other company benefits.

As I was pondering this, the next comment made by my uncle came hard and fast. He replied that it would actually be ideal if I didn't already have a family by then. Then that got me thinking again, thinking to the 'unknown' realm that I was always so scared to think. It's true, you need a huge enough capital to start your family assuming you want to start a family in the first place.

But hey, let's step back a little from the responsibility side of life and consider the 'lovey dovey' stage. One of the reasons why I managed to save so much during my National Service was because I didn't have the thing called a girlfriend. Most of my NS mates were already attached and were frequently complaining how the allowance was not enough and all the what-nots and me being me felt like I was on top of the world.

So fast forward 2 years after NS, and I'm here doing my final year of uni. Definitely still in my little 'ideal' world. But perhaps one day, the real world might send a being in a form of a female who might 'show' me the imperfect world we live in. That I never know. But for now, as an outsider, I would concur to the statement, 'no money, no honey'.