Self Care

  

Money Management

Money Management as we all know is an important Life Skill. In my case Money Management seems more like a Life Kill- I am always running short of money, how does it come how does it go- I don’t know. On the lighter side I feel the only way to get out of this rut is if Modiji demonetized the entire currency. But I don’t want to give up and want to master this Life Skill.

Let me start with a story that my husband Kailash loves telling all and sundry. Once upon a time there was a wise man with three sons. He called them one day and said Sons I am getting on in age and it is time for me to pass on my wealth to you as your inheritance. I have three things to give you Gold, Land and Wisdom. I will leave each of you to decide what you want amongst yourselves. The elder Son immediately said as the eldest I have the right to make the first choice and he chose Gold. Similarly, the second son said he has the next choice and so he chose land. The youngest son who was a bit of a simpleton had no choice but to choose his father’s wisdom. The father called the youngest son and said you have the best inheritance. Father what is the wisdom you want to pass on to me- asked the youngest son. Said the father Gold, Land and other material wealth can be earned in our lifetime. What is more difficult is to not become a slave to wealth and one way to do that is to marry wisely. May you get a wife that helps you multiply your wealth. Kailash always like to end the story by saying he is the eldest son in his family. So you can understand where this is going!!!!

Money and I have a Love- Hate Relationship!!!! I love it, it hates me. It just refuses to stay with me- however hard I may try hide it in my wallet, try to forget my bank password, hide my credit cards. So much so as the old joke goes which my husband never tires of telling- I hope someone steals your Credit card. I am sure the thief will spend less!!!!!

To me Money Management begins first with knowing your credits and debits- how much do you have and how much can you spend so that you are not broke. May seem basic to you all but this is the most difficult thing for me. I always spend more than I have- that is why they invented the credit card, I guess. At one time I ran out of Credit Card limits in the middle of the month. Kail said you have managed to outspend the credit card as well!!!!!

The hardest behavioral change for effective Money Management is delaying gratification. Once this is overcome everything else falls into place. Do I need another dress? Do I really need to change my phone? Do I need to succumb to the temptation from Amazon? In my case my weakness is shoes. Kail says I am the Imelda Marcos and Dr Jayalalitha of my family. I have enough footwear to open a store. At one time Kailash played a prank on me. He quietly gave away a few pair of my shoes. After a few months I wanted to wear them and kept frantically searching for them. He quietly kept watching me and after 30 mts smugly told me he had given them away 8 months back and surprisingly I did not even feel their absence for 8 months

The next step to successful money management is saving some portion of your earnings. Now you may think how hard can that be. Can one not save a rupee at least a month? Well I couldn’t- till the lockdown was announced. I am a strong believer in retail therapy. My kitchen cupboards have the world’s best sauces, oils, groceries, pastas. My husband told me just as the lockdown was announced if there is one family in this world that can survive a multiyear lock down its ours. We needn’t worry about food till a vaccine is discovered for the Virus. So much for savings!!! The lockdown has taught me that a penny saved is a penny earned. I have cut down on my credit card bills significantly and realized- hey saving is possible however small. Kail tells me for the first time we are buying groceries and not therapeutics.

Waste not, Want Not!!!! We have been taught this invaluable Money Management lesson in school. Reduce waste and you will not need to overspend. Manage effectively with what you have. Kail tells me I must have bunked class when this lesson was taught because everything I buy tends to be half consumed. Half packets of snacks, half shampoos, half perfumes, half oils- Kail calls me the “Half Ticket” of the family.  He says half is weight gain is because of trying to finish the half I have not utilized!!!! His standard joke is he doesn’t’ need a morning cup of coffee to get him going. All he needs to do is open the kitchen cabinet on waking up and one of my many half consumed Bru Coffee bottles will land on his head to give him a Wake-Up knock.

Saving and reducing waste frees up money for investments. Investments multiply our money. We have a Financial Planner who manages our investments and savings. - Peak Alpha. Kail refuses to take me for his meetings with them- says they will have to change their name to Broke Alpha after you interact with them.  On a serious note it is very important for us ladies to understand the Savings- Investment Process. This is key to multiplying our wealth to beat inflation that erodes our wealth. It is altogether another matter that Kail says inflation erodes his wealth to a lesser degree than one of my grocery shopping trips.

Money Management is a learned Life Skill!!!! We can all develop this Life Skill by focusing on a few basics. Also, it is a team sport between the husband and wife. I think the wife has to be equally clued up on the financial aspects of earnings, savings and investments. She needs to participate actively however complex or boring.

So, what am I doing to start taking control of my Financial Life? “You are never powerful in life until you are powerful over your own money- Suze Ormon”

First and foremost is recognizing one has a problem. Thanks to Kail and his humour there is no doubt I have a problem to fix. I have been coaxed rather joked into now embarking on this journey.

I have started with a simple list- before adopting sophisticated Apps or software. I am noting down everything that I spend on. I then review this list with Kail. This is a good beginning- very painful initially but a necessary step. Just like when one starts on a diet one first analyses what is it we eat on a hourly and daily basis. Kail plays the role of the famous Suze Ormon. Susan Lynn "Suze" Orman is an American financial advisor, author, and podcast host.  Her work as a financial advisor gained notability with The Suze Orman Show, which ran on CNBC.” Now every expenditure Kail just like Suze Ormon says- Rejected or Approved.

My next step was to consolidate the spending through one source a joint Credit Card. When Kail suggested this to me I was in happy agreement- I thought no more hassles with trying to spend using my money or my credit card. Imagine my shock when I realized that with every spend on this card either a notification or an OTP would go to his number. One day I was merrily spending away and suddenly I got a series of Whatsapps from Kail showing me the spends. That is when I realized I had been royally fooled. Jokes apart this has helped me to track my spend better

Budgeting is an important lesson that I have begun to follow. I am trying to reduce my impulse buying and move to budgeted spending. I project a budget over 6 to 12 months so that we know what are priority spends. The upside to this process is sometimes priorities change and we are not stuck with things we don’t want but at the same time putting it in a budget gives one the psychological satisfaction of buying the item. Kail is very happy. He says he prefers psychological satisfaction rather than real purchase.

Lastly, I have started getting involved in family money matters- specifically investments. It takes a lot to understand today’s sophisticated instruments like Mutual Funds, Insurance, Debt, Equity etc. I have started actively participating in our review with our Financial Planner. It is very important to be aware and understand how money is managed. In my case I was comfortable in the knowledge that my spouse would take care of everything and I could be the spender-in- chief of the family but for a happy and secure married life it is important that both husband and wife have a sound understanding of family financial matters.

Money Management is an important topic. For our well being this must be complemented by Money Earning. For me personally it has been a career transition post childbirth – from a regular corporate job to now building a career based on counselling and associated life skills. I have always wanted to do this and now I need to monetize all the courses and learnings that I have had. Well this easier said than done. One has to work in building capability and then building a network to utilize this capability. Personally, this journey has been very interesting for me- very different from a stable corporate job. I have spent the last couple of years in volunteering my services to understand the landscape around this. I am now looking to  take the lessons out of that to build a solid practice. A lot of questions are playing out in my mind- Should I focus only on schools, should I focus on working people etc.

 

I have embarked on this journey and am sure each one of you are in different stages of the journey. I would love to hear from you all at some point.