The Family is the smallest building block of the society, it holds the utmost importance in a person’s life. The International Day of families is observed every year on May 15th. The day is celebrated to highlight the importance of families. As they say My Family My Pride, its true that every happy family has a strong role to build happier communities, happier cities, happier states and happier nation as a whole.
If one good thing that this period of Covid 19 will be remembered for ever, will be for the reason of binding the families together. At a time when there was mad rush for every small and big thing in life, Breakfast as well as dinner tables remained empty, exam stress took over entire family and so many other things got missed out, this period brought in times of cooking together, eating together, singing together, talking health together, looking at family albums together, planning ahead together and so many other good things that families missed most of the time. At this moment our heart also goes to those families who lost their loved ones, they will never be back again. May god bless all such families with enough of strength to bear this pain and adjust to this untimely loss of their loved ones.
Finances play an important role to bring families together, its well said that “Families who Save Together they Enjoy Together”. On this International Day of Families, its important that every Family follows certain basic discipline by becoming a Happy family that is Financially Healthy all the times. In most of the cases, its head of the family who takes all the pain in chalking out a future plan, making sufficient arrangements to execute the plan, bearing all the stress to adjust to the plan inspite of lows and highs of life and yet at the end getting brickbats not the flower bouquets. Its becoming a very common dialogue in families these days “This is not what we expected” or “Hamaare Liye Kiya Hi Kaya Hai”. Trust, this is becoming a routine for every class of family where in Head of Family has worked so hard in business, in service or as a Professional only to disappoint other family members that this is not what they wanted…..in fact what you believed to be 9 all these years of working hard actually was percieved to be 6 by others. Both are right actually, what is 9 for you is 6 for others in family since you are in opposite direction. The big change you can bring this International Family Day is let everyone be on the same page and in same direction to enjoy every win together by following a basic discipline
Have a Financial Plan – Most family failures are due to lack of a Financial Plan. Its important that all big & small Financial Goals are well thought, Noted in black and white, Given a timeline to achieve and there needs to be adequate arrangement to finance the plan. Be this Higher Education, Marriage, Building a dream home or buying a Flat, Car Model, Travelling Abroad or your Retirement planning. All these goals are actually family goals and you need to seriously involve everyone in family to decide Why, How and When of each aspect.
Back up Plan – We see almost everyday there are certain instances that shake us all and we feel sad about someone close to us who has been badly affected with that unforeseen event. As a family you need to be well prepared with a Back Up plan in case of any such instance hits your family. Every family member must remain aware of this back up plan on How to pay off debts, how to manage an health emergency, what are familie’s assets and liabilities. Once this is clear to everyone, families become more responsible, more confident and become more closer.
Review Periodically – Every plan needs review from time to time, given that so much is changing around us so fast. With change in Technology, Trends, Inflation & other factors its important that review mechanism is put in place and corrective actions adopted immediately with everyone’s consent.
Family Literacy – Our society at large lacks litercay on certain basic as well as very important issues. Its actually fault of our education system that we remained focused on Trignomatry, Mugals, Panipat War and so on which do not help beyond passing an exam. Irrespective of age or education, every member of family the junior most and even the eldest one needs to learn Banking, Saving, Investments, Insurance, Driving Rules, Tax Laws, Good Health Rules, Basic Ayurveda etc. This will certain make every family updated and future ready.
On this family day, lets come together, plan together, enjoy together, travel together, learn together, save together, invest together and enjoy together. 15th May every year now on be a festival to review and renew family aspirations. May all the families stay happy and healthy achieving all small as well as big goals together.
Kamal K Sharma is an Author and a Financial Professional. “The Piggy Bank Billionaire” book is on Financial Habits for Future Billionaire. Do write back at 9501017769.kamal@gmail.com or visit http://www.myselfkamal.com
