One lesson they never teach us..

Understanding the true worth of money management is crucial in the modern world, as everyone lives the YOLO philosophy. There are many strategies available today for managing your funds properly while keeping up with your costs.

Hailing from Nainital, Ashish's story of how he realized the value of money management and helped others demonstrates the importance of kindness and discipline:

"I completed my graduation & master's in Tourism and Hotel Management. Thereafter, I completed my MBA from IIFT Delhi; got a campus placement in a Telecom company, got married and we moved to Kerala."

We had little control over our expenditures in the first month and did not make any effort to make future savings plans. By the end of the month, we realized there weren't enough savings, we had already spent it all and even used the meager savings that people just out of college had. We had the habit of recording every expense, large or small, in a register at the end of the day. Upon analysis, we discovered that all of the costs we had incurred were discretionary; there had been no money invested in the construction of a house.

We came to the realization that we needed to have a sound plan in order to prevent such catastrophes in the future.

We began by setting a clear goal – we had to save a certain sum in the next 12 Months and changed the philosophy to “Save First, Spend Later” – something I follow to this day.

We created a house budget, clearly listing down all the expenses that needed to be done to run the household, decided on the quantum we needed to save per month towards our 1-year goal & the remaining was discretionary spending. We further divided our savings plan into Equity & Non-equity instruments – 75% going towards equity and 25% towards Non-Equity.

We eventually opened a demat account for mutual funds, created PPF accounts, and recurring deposit accounts, and consolidated monthly LIC payments to quarterly.

When I came to know that several of my colleagues and other closed ones were struggling to handle their finances properly & were unaware of the various investment strategies, I realized that the root of this lay in a lot of the young folk starting their careers, having little to no directional guidance with respect to personal finance.

I offered this guidance pro-bono to whoever was willing – not as their senior colleague but as a friend. They set their own goals and created their path but made informed decisions.

Over the years a lot of former colleagues have come back to thank me for the initial guidance that set them on their path to financial prudence and how those early conversations made a big difference.

My greatest reward was being able to positively impact some people’s lives.

Here's an Xtraordinary message from Ashish :

"Maintaining discipline is important, particularly when it comes to handling money sensibly. The initial stages will undoubtedly be challenging, but good discipline will facilitate the process."