Money can be funny. What is the most humorous financial situation you have seen or experienced?

ABBA was far more cluey when they sang that “Money, money, money, must be funny, in a rich man’s world” than the cheesy lyric suggested.

People spend infinitely more time stressing about money than they do laughing about it. My guess is a ratio of 99 to 1 per cent. Billionaires stress about money – probably more so than most.

But I love the story about Kerry Packer at a Las Vegas casino. A wealthy American punter, irritated by the preferential treatment received by Australia’s wealthiest man, said: “You know who I am, partner? I’m worth $60 million!”

Packer’s response: “I’ll toss you for it”. Classic.

For me, money is fun when I use it to do what it does best – buying time with my family. Even if it’s time spent screaming at the kids, it’s more fun than time spent without them.

But there was one night as a backpacker in Bali I’ll never forget.

I was drinking with four Irish guys I’d met that afternoon. Their idea of fun that night was to find ever more inventive ways to tip their Indonesian waiter.

After wearing out money handshakes and stuffing it in his pockets, they turned to wildly dramatic distraction ruses to continue the game. The drunker those lads got, the funnier and more elaborate the tipping process became. I think we might have even serenaded him, but the end of the night was a little blurry.

A night’s entertainment for about $A50 in tips. And the barman scored several weeks’ wages in a few hours. Laughing all round.

Bruce Brammall is the principal adviser with Castellan Financial Consulting (www.castellanfinancial.com.au) and author of Debt Man Walking.