By Kamal K Sharma
Finally we are in 2023, hope you had great celebration to say good bye to the previous one…. wish you n your family great times ahead. This time of the year is the most energetic time of Life, new hopes, new aspirations, new resolutions, new comittments and an emotional feeling about every thing you do. You may be 23, 32, 45, 52 or 65….every New Year has received same kind of welcome, What has changed is locations, friends and liqor brands…..we remain the same.
In next 10 days everything will get back to normal and it will be routined life once again….certainly it should be beacuse no day comes twice into our lives. Every day is a new day and every moment is precious one, what just changes is the Calender and nothing else. As we keep walking this Life Journey that is spread over 100, 90, 80 yrs….if average is considered as 80, then we are just credited with about 29200 days into our Life Account, check how much has already been consumed. Days ahead will be more demanding, more expensive……since bigger events of Life are ahead of us and cost of living is increasing every day. We will certainly need more than we precieve.
Off late, model of our society is becoming more flamboyant, we have started living to impress others, our buyings, our clothings, our home decorations, our holidays, our cars, our cuttlery are becoming modes to impress others rather than treat others well. In first week of Jan, take a look around your Cupboard, your shoe rack, your sports gears, your kitchen, your garage…you will find so much of buyings that happened uneccesirly and without a reason, if you do same exercise with other members of family including children, you will just say “Oh My God”….did we really needed it?
This time of the year is actually a time to find the real difference between Needs n Wants, while our needs are very simple and doable with the kind of earning we bring home but problem is with our Wants that create stress and push us to look for Loans, Credit Cards and so many other adjustments. Brand conciousness in families is further spoiling the game, what can be bought at a reasonable price from Sarojini Market, Delhi or a Karyana store near home or may be from a traditional old market of childhood is now Preferred online, from a big shopping mall or from other high end brand street. We pay premiums from our very hard earned money. The likes of Dhoni, Kohli, Sahrukh, Amitabh Bachhan & Akshay Kumar or even Messi & Ronaldo when they endorse a brand, they charge in Crores….where does this money come from, we pay it from our 30 days of hardwork. Most of the brands that these celebrities endorse, they even dont use themselves but fact of the matter is They keep getting more and more endorsements every year.
Whatever premium we pay from our hard earned money is actually costing us something really big….its actually coming out from Children Higher Education fund or from your Retirement Fund. When we say cost of life is Increasing, its fact that sometime back, Rs. 15000 was may be your first salary and it was good enough to run a house…today you spend this much amount as a family in recharging Mobile, Jio Wi Fi & DTH. What if I say, at the age of 80 yrs you will need about 5 Lakh a month as retired man for Your household expenses…..sounds unbelievable, but actuall may be you will need even more than 5 Lakh/month because a Cup of Tea that was for Rs. 2 some years ago costs about Rs. 15 today. Do you really feel that as a retired Officer, Professional or a Vice President from a MNC…..at the age of 75-80 you will be in mood or position to make a compromise. Certianly not…
Time to draw a black n whitr line between needs n wants is NOW and start Saving enough to ensure every New Year is full of Josh, Masti and Celebrations. I leave you here with a question “Will you keep spending to make someone else RICH?”. As a family, time to set clear Financial Goals, Bring Financial Literacy to every member in Family, Undersatnd the difference in Needs n Wants and get going with more Power, More Pride and More joys of Life.
Wishing you a Wealthy 2023 !!!
Kamal K Sharma is a Financial Professional, .. visiting Faculty BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) Institutes and Author to the best seller The Piggy Bank Billionaire. Share your feedback at 9501017769.kamal@gmail.com
