That Time I Caused A Fight About Money

MARICAR:

I had a very talented assistant. I tried my best to pay her well because she was such a big help to me. One day, she showed me her bank balance which was almost empty! What happened????

My assistant was the only unmarried child with a stable job.  Her senior citizen parents expected her to support them and also her adult siblings who couldn’t fully pay for all their needs. She was supporting 9 people(9 PAX) back in the province. How in the world could she save?

Ever felt like the future of the whole family depended only on you?  She did.

“Hindi ko kaya pag inaaway nila ako. They will make me feel guilty if I don’t send money,” my assistant said.

I hate fights too, but I wanted her to have savings so she wouldn’t worry about money when she retires. My mentors always told us it’s never too early to save for retirement.

So I told her I would be removing a fixed portion of her salary every month, and put it into a joint bank account that required BOTH our signatures to withdraw money. I knew her family wouldn’t confront me, so I told her to blame me if someone disagreed. ;P

My assistant. Face is blurred to protect her family’s privacy.

At first, her older siblings fought her because she was sending less money. But there was nothing they could do, they were forced to find a way to support themselves better.

2 years later, my assistant’s savings account grew. Her siblings became less dependent on her. Things were going well until super typhoon Yolanda destroyed her parents’ house in the province.

The family was able to evacuate, but had nowhere to go. This was a real emergency, and for the first time, my assistant asked if she could withdraw some money from her “forced savings”.

She withdrew just enough to go home, help her family recover and be comfortable again. And to our happy surprise, she still had a good amount left in her bank account!

After Yolanda, we still continued to save money in that account. By the time my assistant moved on to work as a manager in another city, she had a good amount of savings to take with her. 

I hope she took the “habit to save” with her also.

Can you imagine what would have happened to her family if she didn’t save?

How much debt she would have to take just to be able to fix her parent’s house?

What about the next big emergency?

What about when she gets old or can’t work?

What do you think of our mentor’s words: it’s never too early to save for retirement?

Do you want to know more about saving? Learn from one of our dear mentors Chinkee Tan 🙂

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Posted by relationshipmatters, May 2, 2018