Savings can be an umbrella for a rainy day.

"I never save any of my money. Who needs it. The old people maybe. But young people like me do not need to save. I have strong arms and body which will get me employed anytime."

It was obviously the positive but unrealistic voice of an immatured person. In fact, it came from someone who obviously needs savings should anything happen to him. A strong body is important but if a person's pay comes not from some kind of skill but only through his strength, then such type of work can be done by almost anybody; he can be replaced anytime.

When there is a monetory crisis like the present time, people think of the future. To those in the private sector, it could be a threat to employment. Demand for goods decreases and manufacturers find they have too many workers with too little work. Sales and profits decrease but the same number of workers need to be paid. So, to prevent losses, there has to be retrenchment. The days of work may be reduced and so the pay lessened accordingly.

When it comes to retail, people are more careful with their money and will not buy unnecessarily. This is the time when savings is seen as such an important responsible act. When people are retrenched or out of a job, food and everyday necessities continue to be important for sustaining life. Without savings, a retrenched worker will be in trouble.

So, savings is important not only for independence as one grows old. It is essential to tide over a financial crisis or as a capital for starting a new income generating venture.

Manage your money to financial security.

Some people complained that they never had enough money despite the fact that they earn RM3,000/- a month. Yet, I see many who earn merely RM1,000/- living happily and having savings in the bank.

Some can have nine credit cards and yet are constantly in debt, owing the bank a great deal of money although they have not invested the money in a business. There are people who have only one credit card and it is more than sufficient.

The fact is we are all human beings with different life-styles and different expenditures. What kind of life-styles we have and the type of expenditures we choose depend upon us and our wisdom. Yes. Wisdom is all it takes to make the difference. The wonderful part is that it does not require any amount of great wisdom to know which lifestyle or expenditure suits us.

My 'sifus', my life's great teachers, Napolean Hill, Norman Vincent Peale and Dale Carnegie taught me money management during my teenage years. I was fortunate to discover these great people very early in life.

Since I was young I knew the importance of money. It gives us the ability to choose our food, to buy the necessities of life and to be independent. No longer do we need to stretch out our hands to have money to purchase things which we need. That is the beauty of having money.

However, unless money is well managed, it can also bring misery and death. I have personally seen and read of its effects on individuals, couples and families. I have seen and read of the good and the bad. (They will be the stories I hope to tell you in future posts.)

From Dale Carnegie, Napolean Hill and Norman Vincent Peale, I learned that savings is one of the most important factors in living a good life. Yes, we have to start saving at least ten percent of our pay each month if we wish to have a better, financially secured future.

At this point, someone could be protesting that the pay is so little that there can hardly be anything left to save. If everyone wish to have the excuse not to put aside some savings, that is the very good reason for everybody.

Yes, nobody has enough money, if he wants to spend every cent of his pay. There are so many ways to do it. Give me RM2,000/- a day and I will show you how that amount can be finished easily. All I need is to jet to one of the increasing number of casinos in another part of the world and very soon even that two thousand ringgit can leave me in debt.

Take some of the very poor people in our country. Some could be earning less than five hundred ringgit a month. Yet, they managed. Of course, they do not live in brick terrace houses. They stay in small wooden bangalows with no television perhaps. Yes, you read me right. A bungalow is a house that has only one storey; and that is the definition of my Cambridge Advanced Learners' Dictionary. Of course, they do not frequent restaurants or drive cars. That is their life-style. they spend on the barest necessities of life. Frankly, I do not know whether they save any money in the bank.

Now, if a family can manage, albeit somewhat shabbily, with just five hundred ringgit a month, certainly another family with seven hundred ringgit can manage after putting aside seventy ringgit in their bank account, leaving them with six hundred and thirty ringgit which is obviously more than five hundred ringgit. (The figure given here are examples and, of course, can change as times change.) If a family with a seven hundred ringgit pay can save seventy ringgit, why is it not possible for a family with a two thousand ringgit pay save two hundred a month?

I know that someone would point out that the life-style and expenditure would be different. And that is exactly how we should manage our money if we wish to look towards a better financially secured future. Thus, a family with a two thousand ringgit income should live a lifestyle with expenditure of one thousand eight hundred.

It is through savings that we improve our financial security and ensure that we are safe from debts. In the first place, we cannot be in debt if we plan our lives well. If we can live within our means after putting aside the savings, we are definitely secure and confident that this financial part of our life is well looked after.

Savings help our money to multiply. Each month we see the interest we get from our savings increase. Such interest is money earned through savings, without further work from us. And the more we save, the more interest we get to add to our savings.

With savings, we may one day have enough to invest when the opportunity arises. Without it, even when the opportunity stares into our eyes, we cannot do anything. It could be a good business investment where the profits are good. In such circumstances, it is true of the saying that 'money earns money'.

And those who appreciate the fact that savings is important for financial security, they would certainly not join the group of people who gamble away their money, get into debts, lose their future financial security and perhaps ......well, I leave you to think of the consequences of gambling.

As we can see, it is important that we learn to manage our money well early in life. I know what I am writing because I have walked my talk and proved to myself that my great teachers are right. Thanks to them, I am on the right track.

Another self-made champ: Seizing the opportunity!

A friend asked me how would a person from a poor family who did not have the opportunity to study be able to achieve success.

Well, it is true that without a university education, there can be no opportunity to be a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer or an accountant.

But life is not about being a lawyer, a doctor or an accountant. There are still so many other things in life we can be successful in.

Allow me to tell you a true story of a very poor man who was determined to achieve success and did put his everything into it when opportunity knocked.

I personally know this young man who is about twenty years younger than me. We were together in learning Martial Arts and Qiqong under Sifu Wong Kiew Kit in Wahnam Shaolin, Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia. He was the son of a Chinese herbal drink vendor at a small stall in that part of Sungai Petani named Old Town.

He had very little schooling as his family was poor. As a teenager, he was a newspaper boy, delivering newspapers to his customers.

Fortunately, he had intelligence, courage, strength, coordination of movements and so was fast in everything he does. He had a strong determination to succeed. He saved whatever money he could.

At one stage, he used to come to me to help him get orchids to plant and sell in the compound of a house he bought.

We used to discuss his ideas. He even requested for temporary occupation of government land to plant vegetables and fruit trees in another town, Merbok.

One day, the government thought of getting back the land for a Disney-like tourist attraction. He got a huge sum of money from the government when he had to give away his fruit plantation on the land.

With that money, together with some people, he invested in a packaging factory.

Today, with a wife who is just as hardworking and intelligent, he has extended his business, having another factory in Kuala Lumpur.

With his hard work and strength, he started projects. When the opportunity came, he quickly used the sudden financial improvement to start something even bigger. The rest was more hard work and greater returns and that is the business of packaging.

So, there are always opportunities. All our children and us need is to be ready for such opportunities. Yes, get ready, learn everything there is to be learned, keep ready whatever money there is and do whatever that can and ought to be done so that when the boat of opportunity comes, we are ready to jump aboard to sail to success.