If I were a Millionaire....

If I were a millionaire...an essay topic that was often given when I was a student in Secondary School.

Now 4 decades later, I am still not a millionaire, but now I think I would like to be one so that I can dish out help to the poor and needy. If I were a millionaire
I would reach out to the family of 12 who cramp themselves in a small HDB flat. I would clothe and house the men who slept on the streets of World Class Singapore. I would go the extra mile to set up an emergency request centre, so that deperate people in need of help like Huang Na's mother could be accommodated. Her daughter would not be left to fend for herself while the mother returned to China for a short trip. I would dream of all the great works of benevolence .....

How many millionaires are like me, dreaming of all the great charitable works they would perform when they had the money.? Yet, why are there people still sleeping on the streets, and tons of people on welfare, receiving $290 a month for their monthly needs? More and more Singaporeans are joining the millionaires' row as announced by the Straits Times. Yet when these people achieve their dreams, why are some still as unhappy and dissatisfed as ever? What caused the late Howard Hughs to say, "If only I could turn the clock back, I was happiest as a shoe-shine boy!"?

Talk is cheap. When I really become a millionaire, would I still be as generous as I am now, even though my giving is little, like the widow's mite? For some strange reasons, the more we have, the harder it is to part with our money! We want to save more and more, and to accumulate more and more. Probably this is the reason why Jack Neo came up with the movie, "Money, no enough."

Very few millionaires are like Warren Buffet who lives in an old house, drives himself around without body guards and whose favourite pastime is to munch on popcorns and watch television after work! He does not care for branded items nor socialising with high society. If I become a millionaire, would I end up like Warren Buffet or like the late Nina Wang?

Mm... now I think I am happy to be where I am .... living a simple life, striking a balance between work and play, and doing my little part, to help make life a little better for those in need. I am contented to have time to smell the flowers; hear the birds sing and find joy in simple things. For I come into the world with nothing; and with nothing I will go back to dust.