Heaven Helps Those Who Help Themselves

In my pre-Metaphysics days, I was a fan of self-help books. I wanted to live life the best I could have.

Rich Dad Poor Dad was all the rage during my uni days. The first time I read this best-seller by Robert Kiyosaki as an undergrad, I was hooked.

It fast became my bible of personal development and wealth management. Soon, I was buying many of the books in the Rich Dad Poor Dad series. I lived much of my early adult life, according to the principles laid out in the book.

What I did not expect was to witness a sobering version of Rich Dad Poor Dad in my own life.

Let’s call them Couple A and Couple B. They are only a few years apart in age.

Couple A are both bankrupts due to many poor business decisions. The stress of financial turmoil and Mr A’s affair soon led to a very angry divorce and they each spent another ten years repaying their debts. They have two young daughters. The younger daughter left to live with Mr A and the two sisters never got to see each other again for many many years.

The two sisters grew up, receiving many subsidies from the school and the town council. The elder sister went on to graduate from NUS, but the younger sister stopped her education at Sec Five and became a juvenile delinquent. Life was difficult for the two sisters and even more so for Mr and Mrs A.

Couple B have been married for only less than 10 years, when Mr B got retrenched from his high-paying accountant job. Distressed and with 3 young children, they dug into their savings and set up a stationery shop business, with Mrs B providing floral services in the same shop. Things went well for a while and then not so good. They hopped into the hawker lifestyle, selling economy rice at a food court. Mrs B was a very good cook. Business went relatively well. It sure helped that the economy rice stall is usually the most patronised stall in a food court.

It was no mean feat to bring up 3 children from the income of a economy rice stall. Mrs B had to cope with cooking in the early morning and the demands of housework late into the night. But in the cozy comfort of a closely-knitted family, the three children grew up happy and well-educated and were the pride of Mr and Mrs B.

If you read the story till here, who seems like the Rich Dad to you?

Let’s continue.

Mr A grew up living on the streets. He may have been bankrupted, but he never lost his faith in the deities he worshipped. Every first and fifteenth day of each month, he would make offerings of fruits and joss papers, with whatever money he has. Not only does he make offering at home, he also pays homage to several temples and make donations on those days.

He did this for 40 years and counting. He never attended school and when asked the reason for his unwavering faith, he shrugs his shoulders and replies that he believes there is a larger force at play.

Mr A has another habit too. He never walks past a beggar, a handicapped street musician, a student on Flag Day duty or an auntie tissue seller, without giving a single cent. He thinks nothing of giving them a $10 note, even though he usually does not have more than $100 in his pocket.

Mr A thinks that money given away is money well spent. Even more so when it brings happiness to another person.

Mr B was much luckier. His family was rich enough to send him to Singapore to study for an accountancy degree. Even though he got retrenched, the several businesses he set up made him enough money to raise his children up. But the retrenchment experience left him with many fears. He does not like to switch on the lights at home and refuses to buy new clothes for himself. He would wear his underwear till they are loose and holey, and still refuse to change. If he needs to buy groceries from the supermarket, he would always purchase the cheapest one, despite it having the most number of artificial ingredients.

He rarely donates and only does so when asked to by his son. He scrimps whenever he can, thinking that money saved is money earned.

Yet as Mr B ages, he finds his money dwindling. There are ten more years before his house is fully paid up. Anxious about the years ahead, he turns to Toto betting. Every day he spends hours to figure the winning combination of numbers. His occasional wins spurs him on and he often dreams about winning it big, so that he can finally live a life of wealth.

When he doesn’t win, he told his son that he would dismantle his 5-year-old altar and not worship the Earth God anymore. Mr B looks miserly, haggard and unhappy. He walks with a hunch and spend many late nights drinking beer, while listening to melancholy music and grimacing that life has done him wrong by not giving him the money he should have.

Mr A, on the other hand, does not know how to calculate winning numbers. Yet, he is a frequent winner of the lotteries, often in the hundreds and thousands. He has been long been discharged from his bankruptcy and is now debt-free. He looks much younger than his age and when he is not driving his car, he zips around on his electric bicycle. He often says life is too short for regrets, and he has a lot to be grateful for, despite the many setbacks in his early life.

Who do you think is the real Rich Dad now?