為誰辛苦為誰忙?

Many summers ago I wanted to get away from it all so I went on a hiatus. I was simply too tired both mentally and physically. During one stretch, I had worked 16 days straight, including weekends. I was working almost double shift, trying to help out with the night shift production expansions. I was still young and single back then. There was just one goal in my life, to earn as much as I could. After a few years on the job, I supposed I had achieve that goal. Well, I wasn’t exactly pulling in a 6 figure income but for a 20 something young man, I was quite well off. Most of my friends, though just a small handful of them, were into club scenes, extended vacations, some liked crazy parties. I never did like the limelight and still don’t. Thinking back, I wished I had done more than just being a workaholic.

After reading birman’s posting, an old Chinese saying comes to mind -
為誰辛苦為誰忙? - I think I’m working hard mostly for my family, namely my
two boys. The same goes to my wife. We can actually afford to go on a nice family vacation or some sort of getaway every year. And yet, we haven’t visited Taiwan, not even once in nearly 12 years. I pondered on the question, "Why are we working so hard?" Although we aren’t exactly penny-pinching, we do spend our income thriftily.

Sometimes I can’t help but envy the ET2.0 forum members who travel. All those
exotic on location photos make me want to just pack up and go. You may ask, what’s stopping you if you could afford to go on a trip? You know, that’s a good question! I actually gave it a good thought a while ago. Our home-care lady seems to spend money like there is no tomorrow. New furniture, new big screen TV, family trips. How could they afford all that? I’m quite sure they don’t have the financial means to make all the purchases that they have, with her husband working only part time now.

I got our quarterly mortgage statement a few days ago. It looks like we have less than 28 months left on the mortgage. Another statement arrived, our sons’ education fund. My two boys each has a nice chunk of change in the bank, not bad
for two kids that are still well under 10. 401K accounts, IRA savings….I guess now I know why we are working so hard other than just putting a roof over our heads and food on the table.
為誰辛苦為誰忙? – 是為了下一代, 下半生?

original post date: July 22, 2009