The third brother of my mom gave my brother and I our first computer when we were in primary five or six.
That was in the early 1990, long before the dot com bust.
My uncle probably just graduated from university and was into computers enough to hand us his spare. It wasn’t even an Intel 286 computer but I remember it has an hard disk and we have to install things from a 3.5 inch floppy disk. For readers who have not seen a floppy disk before, it is that Icon that you might see in the “Save” button nowadays.
My uncle carried the computer from the east side of Singapore all the way to Yishun and taught us how to use the computer and how to wipe and clean the floppy disk so that we can reuse it if we need to.
On the very night we got it, my brother and I formatted the entire hard drive of the computer and we wonder why the computer could not start up anymore.
Turns out the Microsoft operating system back then allows you to easily wipe and delete the operating system in the hard drive easily and we basically killed the computer that very night. We were so horrified about what we done that we called our uncle up.
My uncle must have wondered WTF did he got himself into by giving two young kids a complex machine that is so easily mishandled.
That ignited a deep enough interest in gaming on computers in my brother and me for a long time.
At some point in my life, I started to understand what money is, and what are bank passbooks. My mom would bring me to Chong Pang’s OCBC branch (probably because it is the closest to our house) to open my first kids saving account. I would get some goodies and further goodies to get if we hit some savings milestones.
The amount that I had in that OCBC kid savings account was less than $200.
Eventually, I knew that my mom had two separate accounts for my brother and me in POSB banks. We had roughly $5,000 each in those two accounts.
I come to learn that teenagers can be really obsessed about things.
I was really obsessed about how computers work and gaming. That became my world. I learn that there are improvements that can be made to computers. I could change the hardware parts inside the central processing unit. I could change the monitor as well.
And I thought it is time to change the monitor display.
I went to the local computer shop when I was 14 years old to see what monitor display that I could buy. It has to be a 14 inch monitor with a better resolution and it will cost about $250 back then.
I knew my POSB bank account had $250. More than that.
But how do I tell mom that I would like to use my money to buy a monitor display?
I start by explaining to my mom on some days what are monitor display. I made sure that I tried my best to get some good grades in school.
Then one day I told her I plan to use some of my $5,000 to buy a monitor and it would cost $250.
She didn’t say anything.
I take that as there were no objections because there were no disagreements.
Then I had to think about how to carry a CRT monitor back home after purchase. If I don’t have to involve anyone else, I stand a chance of succeeding in buying the CRT monitor.
Is carrying a CRT monitor even doable for a 14-year old kid? My friend Xian Neng and I went to buy it from the same hardware shop many streets down, and we carried it by sheer strength all the way many streets from the shop to my home in Chong Pang.
I realize it is easier to rest the monitor, in that big box on my abdomen and just support it with my arms.
By the time I got home put the monitor down, I had one the most painful stomach pain I have experienced in my young life. I could not get up anymore.
My mom had to bring me to a Tui Na sinseh at Blk 125 in Yishun. Turns out I sprain my abdomen muscle too much carry the monitor.
Thursday night, my colleague Lena asked me how was money growing up while we wait for her husband to come and collect her and the Nespresso Gran Lattissima that she bought from Providend so that she could improve the value-added service of her space at Daijoubu (message them if you need to rent an event space!)
It reminded me of that $250 CRT monitor.
Not about how obsessed I was. Not about how fxxking crazy I was carrying a bloody CRT by foot several streets down.
I always wonder what went through my mom’s head when I told her I want to buy that CRT monitor.
What the CRT monitor meant to her.
Who actually owns those $5,000 in our bank account?
Me or her?
I nearly teared up inside when I realize while talking to Lena that $5,000 wasn’t my money. It was her money.
And she just let me use it without any objections.
Some of our clients are concern if their children could not manage the vast wealth that they would eventually be gifted or inherit. Some will get my colleagues to explain to their kids about setting good financial foundations even as early as 16-years old.
The weight of millions will weigh on our decisions.
I only felt the weight of that $250 for my mom after that chat with Lena.
I have no idea why I thought about that $250 monitor.
Perhaps it is because I am currently stock taking, tagging and getting ready to get rid of all the free monitor displays that I passed to my colleagues because now they got 34-inch 3440×1440 Prisms recently.
Part of the challenge in solutioning for wealth planning is we need structures, frameworks and decision-trees to help our advisers to advise critical (but also less critical) decisions. I am forced to come up with structures for unstructured things.
Thinking about mom and dad reminds me why structures are important because they simplify money making decisions until what’s left is the most critical thing…. emotions.
How many experiences would your child truly remember? Would they only remember it if it cost enough? Would gifting them experiences better than an item that would depreciate over time?
I don’t know.
If you give people good things and experience all the time, they would remember what you have done for them easily when people asked about it.
That may be much better than if they only fxkngcb remember you when they need to clear so many monitor displays.
Happy Belated Mother’s Day Mom.
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Kyith is the Owner and Sole Writer behind Investment Moats. Readers tune in to Investment Moats to learn and build stronger, firmer wealth foundations, how to have a Passive investment strategy, know more about investing in REITs and the nuts and bolts of Active Investing.
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Kyith worked as an IT operations engineer from 2004 to 2019. Currently, he works as a Senior Solutions Specialist in Insurance Start-up Havend. All opinions on Investment Moats are his own and does not represent the views of Providend.
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