The Sunday Times today posted a rather distressing story of how a family tragically come into contact with nearly $1 million and lost it in 2 years.

I felt that there are a few things that we can pick out from this.

What happened

1. In March 17 2012, cleaning supervisor Chandra, 34 was killed at Changi Terminal by a taxi hijacked by a chinese national. The Chinese national is serving a two year sentence and Chandra left behind Madam Pusparani Mohan, 34, his wife and 4 children (2,7,10,11 years old now). Both of them came from Malaysia to work at Changi Airport Group (CAG), making a total of SG$ 2000 per month.
2. Donations poured in from the public, sympathizing with her needing to bring up 4 kids. CAG helped with the collection, which came up to $800k. There was an addition of $100k in insurance payout. This totals about $950k ...