MR ALVIN Quek, 42, says the smell of fried ikan bilis is the best financial lesson he can offer his two daughters, Xin Xin, 12, and Xin Rong, 14.
'I like to tell my daughters the story of how I used to be so poor that my siblings and I sat near the Malay stall where they were frying ikan bilis and pretended we were eating more than just rice and soya sauce,' reminisced the owner of a food stall.
'I teach my girls to be content that they have meat and vegetables to eat every day so they are already very fortunate,' he said.
'I don't know much about financial planning but I do know the value of money. I hope my girls do too,' added his wife Celia, who helps at the stall.
Xin Xin, who attends a neighbourhood primary school, always packs food for lunch so that she does not have to buy food. She does not have an allowance as she rarely spends money and wears her sister's hand-me-downs.
Still, contentment does not come easily to children who see classmates flaunting designer clothes and gadgets.
Xin Rong asked her father for a pink iPod nano MP3 player - like her best friend's - for her birthday, but settled for a non-branded one using her own earnings from part-time work at a clothes shop.
'We save $50 every month, hoping that it will cover some of the school fees if the girls go to polytechnics,' said Mr Quek.
Xin Rong admitted that she shed some tears initially over the fact that her parents are not as well-off as others, but said she understood that the family's top priority was to save enough for her education.
'Our next goal is to save more money to buy insurance for the kids in case something happens to me,' added Mr Quek.
He does not invest his money in stocks, but admits that sometimes he buys 4D lottery 'just to try his luck'.
