Unlike the mahjong-loving tai-tai Rosie Phua whom she played in the comedy TV series Phua Chu Kang, Ms Irene Ang is a saver and a workaholic. And she is quite savvy with her finances.

The 40-year-old comedienne and entrepreneur considers herself a moderate-risk long-term investor. That is why she has never dabbled in stocks, preferring to own endowment plans, unit trusts and real estate. 'To me, endowment plans are a form of forced savings. They help to prevent me from overspending on travel and shopping,' she said.

She bought her first insurance plan when she was an agent with insurer AIA for 71/2 years from 1993. This was just prior to her setting up local artiste management firm Fly Entertainment with just $2,000 in 1999.

By then, she was already a well-known TV personality from her role in Phua Chu Kang. That role also won her the Best Comedy Performance By An Actress at the Asian Television Awards in 2002.

After finishing her A levels at Outram Pre-University School in 1988, she started working in sales, first at American Express and then as a sales manager at a gift firm, before joining AIA.

To date, she has invested $100,000 in Fly, which has expanded its business to include event management, casting, training and media production activities. The firm has 17 staff and manages about 40 artistes including household names like Mindee Ong, Allan Wu and Beatrice Chia.

Ms Ang still finds time to act and is appearing in The Extraordinary V Conference at Zirca, The Cannery, Clarke Quay from Sept 4 to 13.

Q: Are you a spender or saver?

I used to earn $2,000 and spend $3,000. That was when I was in my 20s. I played mahjong, partied at Zouk three times a week, shopped and travelled. I learnt to be more prudent when my grandmother died in 1996. She had brought me up and I had plans to give her a good life, but I was too playful and preoccupied. When she died, I still owed her $500. I decided then to lead a more purposeful life. I became a maker and builder, a saver and an investor. Since then, about 20 per cent of my income goes into savings. I still spend, but I learn to earn more and invest.

Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?

I carry three credit cards, mainly for convenience. My credit card bill is about $4,000 monthly and I pay in full each month. I withdraw about $1,000 a month at the ATM.

Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?

I started buying policies when I was with AIA and bought more when I hit 30. I have two endowment plans and five investment-linked insurance policies.

Endowment policies are a means of forced savings. My annual premiums are over $50,000. My plan is to withdraw amounts from my investments when I am at different ages - 45, 55, 65, 75 and, if I live long enough, 100. I also have $30,000 invested in (non-insurance-linked) unit trusts, mainly in technology, commodities, China and India. My investments were down about 30 per cent last year but have picked up a bit recently.

About three or four years ago, I invested a five-figure sum in raw land in Canada and Texas, which amount to about two hectares in total. I expect a doubling in my investments within 10 to 12 years. I don't like stocks and never did.

Q: Money-wise, what were your growing-up years like?

I was very poor. I was brought up by my Ah Ma, my grandmother, and shuttled between her place - which was an attap house in Pasir Panjang and later a three-room flat in Queenstown - and my uncle's four-room flat in Jurong West.

My father was a taxi driver and a gambler. He gambled away the family's savings. My mother did odd jobs and I have an older brother who now runs his own engineering firm. My parents divorced when I was 16.

I have observed three things about money. Firstly, kids nowadays can't afford to support their parents; secondly, the cost of living is getting higher with inflation; and lastly, it is better to depend on myself.

As for gambling, gamble only when you can afford it - that's responsible gaming.

Q: What property do you own?

My first property was a two-bedroom, 800 sq ft apartment in Stevens Road which I bought in early 2007 for $700,000. I sold it eight months later for $1.2 million. It was God's gift.

In December 2007, I bought a 2,000 sq ft refurbished Peranakan two-bedroom house in Katong for more than $1 million.

Q: What's the most extravagant thing you have bought?

I spent more than $100,000 renovating my house in Katong, adding a walk-in wardrobe and an outdoor shower with a sunroof. I love to travel to resorts in Bali and I enjoy showers. It's a very spiritual thing. What's the use of working so hard if you don't know how to enjoy yourself? I have no time to visit the spas, so I enjoy my shower and scrub at home now.

Q: What's your retirement plan?

I've made enough money. I don't work for myself any more. I work for what I like and for people whom I love. I don't need a lot of money when I do retire, just enough for a roof over my head, meals and air-conditioning. To me, a car is a luxury. If I were to be still healthy, I will need only $1,500 a month.

I would like to set up a home to house and retrain single mothers. When they can stand on their own feet and their kids are bigger, they can leave the home. When I was very young, my mother was like a single mother as my dad was never home. I would like to help more people, particularly women, to be more independent.

Q: Home is now...

The terrace house in Katong.

Q: I drive...

A five-year-old black Mazda 6.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times.