For this post, I am going to share stories that show the importance of living a financially balanced life.
Story #1
Recently a friend shared a story where her father who is almost 70 years old admitted to the hospital due to some serious liver matter.
Since her father didn’t have much savings, she has to help to pay for the medical expenses which are about RM20,000. I can see from her eyes that it’s quite painful for her to see her RM20,000 just fly away from her within such a short period of time.
But, I know she loves her father and her love for her father overcame the painful feeling of losing the RM20,000.
Story #2
And I remember an ex-colleague ever shared with me that her uncle had really worked very hard throughout his whole life. He would try to save every cent.
And he would not allow himself to simply spend the hard-earned money. He never travels out of his own hometown nor treats himself to life luxuries.
And yes, he managed to save a lot of money.
By the time he thinks that he should stop saving so hard and it’s time to start to enjoy life, he was diagnosed with a serious illness.
In the end, he didn’t even get to enjoy the money he had saved throughout his whole life.
Living a financially balanced life
Both stories above have a sad ending.
For the first story, the father didn’t have enough savings for his retirement. And thus he had to trouble his daughter for the medical expenses.
He’s lucky because his daughter is willing to pay for the expensive medical fees.
But, nowadays most sons and daughters had barely enough to cover their own expenses. How to expect them to be able to support us in our old years?
For the second story, the uncle had taken financial savings too seriously and thus ended up didn’t manage to enjoy his life even though he has saved a lot of money.
It would be a better ending if my friend’s father had prepared sufficient savings for his retirement and have medical insurance for his medical health.
As for the uncle who worked very hard throughout his life, he should have take time to enjoy a portion of his hard labour.
Final thoughts
Thus, I am reminding myself from time to time, to have a proper saving plan and at the same time enjoy little things in life.
The best would include a fun saving fund in my financial planning so that I can enjoy some life luxuries and knowing that I am not burning a hole in my saving fund.
That’s what I called a financially balanced life.
