Peter Yu saved money by not buying cigarettes for two years and bought his wife a Rolex

Many of us are used to reading about Peter Yu, 54, in the news, and most of the time, his gambling debts and drinking would be brought up.

In early February, as 8days.sg sat opposite Peter, who stars in new Mediacorp drama Fix My Life, Peter was all smiles as he reflected on his good fortune.

He came to realize the importance of saving money, adopting good habits, and maintaining good relationships with those around him, including his wife and two sons, Christian, 10, and Israel, six.

First, let’s talk about his role in the drama.

The drama’s leading man, Fan She De, played by James Seah, is also the landlord of Yu’s fuddy-duddy antique shop owner, Rong Shu.

In real life, however, Rong Shu couldn’t be more different from the actor.

He chuckled. “You know how an old antique is someone who is stubborn, doesn’t like to talk and thinks he is very wise? Yeah, my character in the show is someone like that. But I don’t know anything about antiques!” he said.

A “very beautiful” antique typewriter was given to Yu by his brother, which he ended up giving away.

One day, I had a short film shoot at a house that had antiques. I was like, ‘Wow, the house looks so nice’, and I felt it was right to give it to them.

As he explained, “I felt like they needed it more than me, since they can appreciate it, and there’s no point in me keeping it since everything else in my house is modern,” setting the tone for the rest of the conversation.

YOU’VE BEEN APPEARING IN MORE SHOWS, INCLUDING THE NEW MOVIE, CIRCLE LINE. WILL YOU BE APPEARING IN MORE DRAMA SERIES?

In fact, I have a lot of projects that I’m working on. I film a lot of movies. I’m going to start work on another movie later this month. I’ve shot almost seven movies so far.

Filming movies is actually quite relaxed, because they have a budget, so we have a lot of time to film a bit every day. The pace is not as rushed as filming dramas.