A Rewarding Shopping Day at Great Singapore Sale (GSS)

Last week, I dated both my children for a day of GSS shopping. With them growing so rapidly & seeing them always busy with their school works & friends, it is really not a easy task to find a day when both of them are free. Finally, a weekday was reserved & there we went on our shopping spree for the whole day.

It was a day well spent with them not just merely getting to buy the things we had wanted for ourselves. It was fun helping each other to make up our minds on the colour selections & many other final details before deciding on the purchases. In between our shopping, we stopped to rest our tired legs & to enjoy our coffee break at Toast Box.

There were so much to see & buy just along the stretch of shopping centres in Orchard Road alone. After a day of tired but happy shopping, the three of us landed ourselves for a good Chinese dinner at Crystal Jade in Ngee Ann City. Hmmm . . . the pan-fried black pepper beef cubes with wine, steam cod & their spinach with three types of eggs in superior stock were all very yummy. My boy highly recommended the dish of beef. The texture & fragrance was done just right to be accompanied with rice.

Too bad, their dad was too busy with his work & couldn't join us for dinner that evening. After dinner, we continued our last stop of shopping at Heeren before their dad came to fetch us home. After dropping off the children to go home with all our shopping stuffs, I accompanied their dad for his dinner. Just giving him my companionship was also a delight although I couldn't join him to eat.

Current Financial Crisis - Changing Financially Illiterate People Into Financially Literate People

The real issue of our current financial crisis making front page news these days is not just the end result started from the weak housing market, fallout from the US sub-prime mortgage fiasco, sliding home prices, stock market volatility or geopolitical unrest in the Middle East, the collapse of Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers, rising unemployment or inflation. Very easily, all these may be viewed as the real issue of our current financial crisis but in fact they are not. They are just consequences of the spending pattern in America, blowing out of proportion. So much so their country financial expert has put it as they are a country of financially illiterate people. Therefore, the real issue now is how to change this lot of "financially illiterate people" into "financially literate people".

This term "financially illiterate people" right away brings home a message for me. Our local schools have all along been paying a lot of emphasis on academic achievements. These days, some of them have even incorporated character building in our children curriculum. How about financial management education? Should the schools start to think about balancing their syllables - academically, character development and financial education?

Just before our country education system incorporate financial management education into their syllables or perhaps they may not even wish to consider it, won't it be better for us, as parents, to teach our next generation the value of money management or wealth creation, starting from as young as they can understand the value of money. Not to take the risk that their schools will look into the matter for us.

From statistics, young adults under 25 are now the fastest-growing age group to file for bankruptcies. Most social problems stem from financial problems. Therefore, it is always important to stress to our young ones that spending less money than they can earn is fundamental to their basic financial well being. Differentiating between needs and wants is a very important discipline we have to cultivate from young and be imparted to our next generation.

As parents, we have to set example to show our young ones that in order to lead a care-free life, arithmetically speaking, we need to have a personal net worth that is very heavy on the personal assets and very light on the personal liabilities. If possible, no personal liabilities at all.

Hence, "Living within one's means" should be our motto in life.



Writer: Doris Teo

A lover of nature. I truly enjoy and thank God for the abundant beauties around us created by HIM. Also blogging to share the joy of building lasting bonding with my children & living a care-free life with financial freedom. Feel free to visit my other blog. URL:http://doristeo.com

In the Night Sky

A simple line from my son has touched me so deep that I have no second thought to leave my full-time job in order to spend more quality time with him.

One evening, while enjoying our family dinner at home, my boy said "I hope to enjoy dining like this together as a family everyday."

Although I knew exactly what he meant, I responded by saying "Didn't we always have good food and going for fine dining at nice restaurants together as a family every now and then?"

"Yes" he replied, "but it is not exactly like how I am enjoying it now at home. I like to be eating at home everyday with you and pa during dinner time and chit chatting while we eat our dinner."

So the message from my son is clear cut - His mummy should not be spending too long hours in her office. Only coming home in the later part of the evening when dinner time has long passed and having so little time left for him. Sometimes not even having the time or space to accommodate a good conversation with him. And what's worse, only to check whether he has completed his school assignments or has he done his tests well and then telling him to get to bed early.

Almost a year now, since I resigned from my banking job, I am thoroughly enjoying myself doing the things I want to do. Needless to say, having the world of time with my two children, especially my boy.

The first thing my boy does each day when he comes home from a tired day at school will be to stand at the gate and greet "Hello". Next, he will leave his schoolbag aside and walk over to check what has been prepared for his lunch. At times is what has been prepared for his snack because he has arrived home late after staying back in school for some extra activities. I always enjoy seeing his elated and appreciative expression when he sees something nice has been prepared for him. I can just stare at him tucking into his yummy dish and feel that sense of satisfaction for staying at home.

There are also days when he come straight home worn out but still cannot wait to share with me certain happy or funny incidents that occurred in his class or to his classmates. With his school uniform still on, he will lie flat on my bed and start laughing and talking about what happened earlier in his class or to his classmates. We will then talk about it and laugh together heartily. Most of the time, we will also poke more jokes with the topics.

This is an impromptu poem he just composed and asked that I published it on my blog. The title is "In the Night Sky". So, please do enjoy it with me.

What do you see that I don't?

What do you know that I don't?

What are you thinking that I'm not?

I see a light at the edge of the night's sky.

I know after the darkness of the night,

comes the light of the morning.

And

I think tomorrow will be a great day.





Writer: Doris Teo

A lover of nature. I truly enjoy and thank God for the abundant beauties around us created by HIM. Feel free to also visit my other blog . URL: http://www.doristeo.com