This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 23, 2019 - September 29, 2019

When I was about six years old, I got my first paying job. My mom gave me a pair of tweezers and told me she would pay me 10 sen for each grey hair I found and plucked from her head. So, there I was, diligently combing through her hair, eager to get my cash.

It is debatable whether rewarding children with money for good behaviour is a positive move or detrimental to their morals. Some say this is considered an act of bribery. Others say it will teach them to put finances ahead of personal relationships.

However, in my parents’ defence, they did not give us money for doing anything remotely “good”. Most of the house chores were expected of us, so we did not receive money for simple tasks like sweeping the floor or washing the dishes. We would only generate income for the more tedious tasks (those that require a greater investment of sweat) like washing the car or painting the fence.

When I was a teenager in the mid-2000s, my main source of income was ironing my dad’s shirts. As a bank teller, he would wear buttoned-up short-sleeved shirts to work. He paid me 70 sen per shirt, which meant I would get RM9.80 (actually, RM10 so that he did not have to look for coins) for ironing 14 shirts.

I did a really bad job at first. Although I was used to ironing my school uniform, I had no idea how to iron a shirt. After several trials, my dad finally said I was skilled enough to be paid (although I did hide the shirts that were too difficult to press). Now that I had a steady income stream, I started planning the expenses for my weekend outings.

My weekly allowance was RM7. With the money I earned from ironing my dad’s shirts, I had RM17 in total. A bus ticket to town and back cost RM2.20. A movie ticket cost RM8. A plate of chicken rice for lunch cost RM5.50. That left me with RM1.30 — enough for a song at the karaoke box (a box-type karaoke joint, where each song cost RM1).

Because I was fairly meticulous in planning out my expenses and ensuring that I had enough to cover my activities, and also because I earned my own money, I was never caught short of funds. Well, almost never.

Once, I managed to save quite a lot of money from participating in a cheer squad for a regional hockey competition. I remember having about RM35 in my pocket, so my cousin and I decided to go into town and spend it. Instead of the usual chicken rice, we had lunch at a popular pizza restaurant.

We thought we had it all figured out — until the bill came. My heart sank when I saw that I had forgotten to factor in the service tax. While we did have enough to pay for the food, we could not afford the bus ride home.

Now that I think about it, I am sure that my parents would not have minded picking us up. But we panicked and could not think straight. I texted a friend for help and she said, “Just board a crowded bus from the back door and they will not realise that you have not paid.” But I was too honest to stoop to a dirty trick like that.

I looked at my wallet again. Lo and behold, I had an IDR10,000 note from my recent trip to Indonesia as an exchange student. My cousin and I went to the money exchange kiosk and received a princely sum of RM3.10, which was more than enough to cover our bus ride home.

This incident is still fresh in my mind as a working adult today because it taught me the importance of having a safety net and a fallback plan. Because of incidents like these — yes, this happened more than once, especially during my college years — I started saving money when I received my first paycheque. Thanks to my savings, I can always extend financial help to my loved ones should they ever need it.

Hopefully, I will never face such incidents again. Although, if it did, I would have a collection of foreign currencies in my wallet to come the rescue.

Just in case.

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.