Mom’s Financial muscle

On the occasion of the birthday, I was transported back to memories.. of my childhood.
My mom has this tremendous capacity to squeeze paste out of the empty toothpaste tube day after day after day. As a boy, to prove my strength, I always took the first attempt. But failed. I am confident the tube cannot get flatter, there is no paste left. But she effortlessly squeezes paste out of the tube. And the next day, to prove I have learnt how to squeeze the tube intelligently, I would try it first. But I would fail again. Again she would do that with the least effort. This continued day after day. As more paste came out of the tube, my depression levels too increased.

But now thinking back about this, I realize it was not the Mom’s strength at work. It was the acute shortage of money to buy a new tooth paste tube. Penury has made her realize that the tooth paste has to go longer if her kids have to brush their teeth every day. The strength came from an unknown source.
Now, when I hear jargons like ‘squeezing the best out your investment’ or ‘financial muscle’, I know exactly what it means.