Conversations with my Granddaughter (12)

Little by little a mountain is formed

Hello little one,

How beautiful you looked in your red kimono when you celebrated your third Lunar Chinese New Year  (2014). You have enjoyed the festivities and the attention of your uncles and aunties. And you have enjoyed playing with your cousins. Grampa noticed that you especially enjoyed receiving the angpows, red packet containing money that were given by the married and elders to the unmarried grownups and children. Grampa also noticed that you are more interested in the red paper packets than the dollar notes it contain. Your preference is to play with the red packets.

Little one, you will learn as you grow older that the dollar notes are important. You have already observed that growups buy things with it. Dollar notes are called money. That is why your Daddy and Mummy go to work every day. When grownups work they get money. Having money is good. It is necessary to have money. What you may not know is that some grownups are so obsessed with money that they are willing to sacrifice everything to get money. That is not good. Some things must not be sacrificed. For example little children. Children must not be sacrificed. Not even for more money.

Yes, little one, you have observed that money can buy things. Money also can be saved. Grampa have been teaching you how to save money by teaching you to keep your coins in the many superhero coin boxes in Grampa’s study. You have your ironman, batman, wolverine, captain America, hulk and two dinosaur coin boxes. Every morning you put some coins into them. Keeping money is called savings. Savings is one way to make money your servant and not your master. Your Mummy and Daddy will take you to a Bank one day to start a bank account. This is like a big money box. It is good to save money. When you are older, you will understand more.

Little one, it is important to develop a saving habit. Saving money will help you later to buy important things like your education, car, and a house later without having to borrow money. When your Mummy and Ah Yee were young, Grampa and Grandma taught them to save. Every week, your Mummy and Ah Yee was given some money to use for that week. They can use that money to buy food in the canteen or buy sweets or toys. Your Mummy and Ah Yee are also encouraged to save in the ‘Bank of Tang’, an imaginary bank created by Grampa and Grandma. Grampa will set up a savings accounts for each of them. Every time they deposit money, Grampa will give them an account statement which show the amount of money they have accumulated in their accounts. They can withdraw money from their accounts whenever they want. At the end of every month, the “Bank of Tang’ will give them interest (money). Grampa are very generous with the ‘interest rate’ so that your Mummy and Ah Yee are encouraged to save more by seeing their money grow. Little one, you may start with only one coin but know that little by little a mountain is formed (I will talk to you about teutonic plates another time).

Little one, I pray to God that you will never be in want for money. That you will learn to make money your servant but never your master. I will also pray that you will not have so much money that you forget God. Our God is a good God, little one, He always provides.

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