Mom gave me the best investment advice

Growing up, my mom was strict. We had no junk food or soft drinks at home, weren’t allowed to play video games on weekdays, and our TV time was rationed. When I wanted weekday fun, I’d have to sneak out, take the elevator down from our condo unit, and play games with a classmate in another unit in the same build-ing. And unlike most who grew up watch-ing cartoons at 7 p.m., all I remember are the ones past 9 p.m., like The Angry Beavers and CatDog, since those were the only shows I could catch after finishing homework.

- KEITH LIM

My mom was fru-gal. What you spend money on shows what you value, and my mom was no ex-ception. I only got to buy toys about once a year and grew up with cell phones that were al-ways a generation behind. I got my first smartphone in 2013, when the iPhone 5 was already out!

Yet, there was one excep-tion to my mom’s budgeting: books. No matter how tight finances were, she maintained an unlimited budget for them. It didn’t have to be a birthday or Christmas. Anytime we wanted a book, we simply had to ask, and my mom would find a way to get it, no matter how limited her budget was.

My mom prioritized our education and skills, which was unusual in our community. She was surrounded by people who thought the number of hours worked was more important than being skilled at what you do. Many saw education as a waste of time and money, some even thinking that a person’s ability to earn decreases as they educate themselves since “book smarts reduce street smarts.”