I never believed it when people say it. But when I think of how much stress (the lack thereof of) money has brought into most of my adult life, it makes me believe that maybe money may really be the root of all evil. I got my first credit card when I was fresh out of college and my financial life has pretty much been a yo-yo ever since.

But enough blaming the credit card industry because they didn't force me to charge anything in the first place.

I had the chance to visit a home for the elderly about two months ago and the experience has been truly life changing. I met some cool people there and the one elder that struck me the most was an old, single lady who has been staying there for only about 2-3 years. I found out that she worked for more than 20 years in one company and she admitted that one of her greatest mistake is that she celebrated her youth and singlehood mostly by shopping - thinking that she has all the time to save later. Until she realized much later in life that she was already old and retiring very soon without much saved for her retirement.

I can convince myself all I want that I'm different from her and I won't make the same mistakes she did, but the fact remains that the decisions we make today will have a huge effect on us tomorrow. I looked back and I realized that I have spent way too much on things that I felt I deserved just because I work too hard or I had a bad day. These "must-haves" has already ate a huge chunk out of the money I could have saved up and invested.

And besides, in our old days, i guess what we'll remember the most are the relationships we build, the places we've seen and the memories we've shared with people we love... and not the material stuff that we will eventually throw away.