Si Aling Mely

I’d like to be a bit sentimental and talk about my beloved Nanay (Mother). Fondly called by our neighbors ‘Mely’ or ‘Aling Mely’ to the kids around the neighborhood.

My Nanay was an epitome of someone who has Financial EQ.

Some anecdotes…
A gossiper and ‘mahaderang’ neighbor, one time, criticized the duster worn by my Nanay and said “Ano ba naman yan Mely, puwede ng basahan ang duster mo, sinusuot mo pa” ( It's disgusting Mely, your clothes can be doormats already, yet you are still wearing those). My mother didn’t mind and just continued wearing clean doormat-like-clothes.

I also remember during fiestas. My mother would lock the front door and we will all go to the backyard and spend our whole day there, which I really don’t mind because there were lots of trees that I can hop on and the yard was big enough for me to do sprints, jumps and all. It is only later that I realized that my mum doesn’t want to spend a single cent nor borrow money to prepare extravagant food just to present to visitors during fiestas.

I also recalled when my Mum decided to buy a Cemetery Memorial plan in the early 1980s. And my mother and father had a bit of a discussion as my father at that time find it quite morbid to buy a memorial lot considering that they were still a young couple. But my mother just shrug off my father’s view by saying, “Bakit kapag namatay ka ba, ibabalot na lang kita sa banig at ipapaanod sa ilog?” (What’s the fuss, when you die will I just pack your corpse using a mat and send you off to the river?), with that my father rests his case.

My mother’s simplicity, mature sense of priorities guided by her catalyzed progressive thinking, really helped to put the hard-earned money by my father to good use – as a couple they were able to invest on memorial plans, burial insurance, properties and education of their children, and more.

It seems the dynamics of the person’s lifestyle depend on his or her family upbringing (including the relationship with parents, siblings and relatives) including his/her Financial EQ. As we commemorate All Soul’s Day, I lovingly remember my Nanay who died 11 years ago and looking back, I will forever remember her ‘doormat’ clothes, our hiding at the backyard and her one-liner of throwing your corpse to the river. These mementos inspire and remind me to try to do my utmost best to handle my finances well enough. 

To all of you who are blessed with children, may you bless them even more by rearing and ingraining them with a high Financial EQ.  Click here to learn more.

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"I see no point in money except to buy off anxiety. I don't want to be rich. I want to be unanxious.  
                                                                                                                 - Sir John Betjeman

​Len C is a proud mother of 3 lovely kids, has more than a decade experience in the BPO industry, with MA units major in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the Ateneo de Manila University