- How much to spend, and how much to keep aside for future exigencies is an issue that needs to be handled with caution. It is advisable not to squeeze one’s desires to the extent one can, rather than leave it for others, who shall have their way somehow. A financially balanced outlook can ensure a stress-free future.
Saving: A natural instinct: The urge to keep aside for future a part one has today, is instinctive to all living creatures, not confined to human beings alone. The saving instinct is more embedded in females, Nature has so ordained, because ensuring food, shelter and other securities for young ones and other family members continues to be primarily her domain. From beneath the mattress, almirah recesses, inside of large wooden box or ‘nowhere’, the mothers of yore often unearthed large sums of currency notes and coins that came to the rescue of families in financial crisis.
Most animal kingdoms have well developed systems to store spare feed and nesting materials to serve them and their young ones in lean days. The storage system among ants is exemplary.
Thrift is good habit: More than just a cushion for adverse days, monetary and material reserves offer moral support and confidence when most needed especially in old age when close ones are either not around or unwilling to support even when they can. Savings enable one to deal with varied unanticipated situations in life; in metro cities at many locations one cannot pass urine without shelling out a couple of rupees. Some reserves, therefore, are imperative. Thrift or frugality is not a derogatory term. Being frugal doesn’t mean going by lowest price or compromising with quality. It doesn’t either mean depriving oneself of pleasures of life. Thrift is the habit of procuring goods & services only when necessary, and in restrained manner, avoiding wastages and extravagance. Frugality empowers one to devote resources to a cause that is worthwhile and meaningful. In the vegetable market, ordering 2 kg of one item, 1 kg another, 750 gm of third item, etc. and lastly asking the vendor to tell the total and paying it blindly is not a mark of generosity but a sham of royalty. By not observing frugality, one can be cheated in future by the vendor if he is shrewd; they understand the customer psychology very well. By observing frugality you put money under your control.
Unnecessary spending in festive season: In festive season one often makes unnecessary purchases in apparels, upholstery, linens, kitchen ware. One reflexively parsimonious also buys something tangible on ‘auspicious’ days. The buoyant spending goes on till the New Year, and beyond. “Thrift was never more necessary in the world’s history than it is today” deplored the noted US banker Francis H. Sisson. Our age and times warrant exercising utmost thrift in any additional purchases for multiple reasons. Thrift or frugality is not a derogatory term.
Market shall not let you save: With market dictating the life style and the spending patterns of youth in particular, despite growing incomes a decline is witnessed in personal savings. Markets have mastered the art of persuading youngsters and others lead a luxurious life style that appeals them anyhow. It is bent on making every one a debtor by smart tactics. The credit card kingpins have already turned their focus to India that has tremendous potential. In all workplaces in metro cities, for every 100 personnel employed, we have over 150 credit cards.
To promote saving habit in a planned way World Savings Bank Institute (WSBI) has been sponsoring World Savings (or Thrift) Day annually on 31 October (in India it is on 30 October). Through formal savings not only the young generations find themselves in a ‘socially and economically safe environment’ but such funds do contribute to development agenda of the nation.
Advisory for the aged: Mind that the major chunk of the unclaimed sum of Rs. 35,012 crore deposited by public sector banks by February this year with RBI was that of the dead, as revealed by RBI. Further, at least 2.5 times that unclaimed deposits were languishing in maturity proceeds of policies in insurance companies. It is said, at last you cannot take the savings along with you. You have to spend it or give it away. Options are clear.
An affluent man, arrogant of his riches once proudly told Jain saint Tarun Sagar of six palatial properties he owned. Why beyond one, asked the monk. Prompt came the answer: “For his two sons; and others for my son’s sons.” Feeling pathetic, Tarun Sagar said, “Shall they be born lame, handicapped and helpless?” It is time for us to take stock of how much do we actually need while alive vis-à-vis our resources, and how much to save for future that we must.
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Original abridged version published in The Pioneer on 30 November 2021. Link: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2021/columnists/how-much-to-spend–and-how-much-we-must-save.html
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