When I Grow Up..

When you ask children about their ambitions, you will naturally start with "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Often, the reply will be, "When I grow up, I wanna be...."

And the common answer you will get is

• Doctor
• Policeman
• Fireman
• Lawyer

And nowadays, with the media movement, you will get answers like..

• Model
• Rock Star
• Actor / Actress

Of course there is nothing entirely wrong with any of these ambitions. But did you realize something?

None of them aspire to be rich!

Maybe because they are still kids and still do not know the value of money.

Or perhaps, they have been told that money is not important.

I'm just assuming :) If you're curious about what kids are dreaming of to be when they grow up, you can follow this link and spend sometime reading. http://www.whatis.com.sg/educations/primary-education/what-is-kids-ambition-or-dream-in-this-era

When I was young, I was torn between my desires to be rich and my half-logical thinking that money is not everything, and that everything that I have is enough.

As I grew up, and went to school and then finally started working, I realized the importance of money. I began to see that with money, a lot of things are possible.

At one time, I wanted to go to take a part time degree at a local university.

I eventually went but I had to struggle to save money to pay my school fees every semester. I didn't finish however, because I failed to maintain a 2.0 GPA, but this is a different story all together.

At another time, I wanted to take my driving license. You see, in Singapore, you are only allowed to take your motorcar / motorcycle license at 18 years of age and above, and you have to go to the Driving School to take your Theory Tests and Circuit Lessons. All these might cost you about S$2K. I didn't have the money, so I dropped the idea.

Then I obtained a gym membership.

I got hooked doing Zumba.

I wanted to get certified as an Instructor, but I realized that I would have to travel as far as Australia (that's the nearest location to Singapore) to take a 1 day course. I let the idea hang loose because of my financial standing.

I started to feel frustrated because all of my goals and aspirations required money in order for me to achieve them, and I didn't know how or where to obtain such a huge amount of money.

Up till now, you would also notice that none of my aspirations were to be rich and my mind was quite closed up to spend my money. When I was young, I was only taught to save money, and not to spend it.

 

You can say that I am financially illiterate, despite the education that I got. But is my upbringing to be blamed? I can always fault it but I will always be the sore loser, simply because I am just blaming others and not taking any step to improve myself.

I'm still growing up (yea, at the age of 25), and this is my life journey that I'm sharing. So, to answer my own question, when I grow up, I wanna be rich. Rich with not only money but with life's knowledge and many other information that I can gather along the way.

Remember, be the change you want to see in the world. For things to change, first you must change.

And oh yeah, feel free to comment. I would love to hear opinions and feed backs from readers.