a tangled web we weave!

I have never worried my pretty head over money matters. It’s a pseudo cultural thing and I kind of stayed out of it for fear of being de-feminised. I know. Not in this modern age and times, right? I mean, I have classmates who work as financial consultants and are authors of books on finance and money management. I even have one classmate from high school who actually is in the top echelons of the Reserve Bank of India.


So it is quite opprobrious that I should have kept myself out of any sort of financial mismanagement...errrr...I meant financial management. (The times have become so confusing that one stumbles over these two words - management / mismanagement. Well, they may not even be antonyms in the world of big finances anymore!)


I do have a bank account, a current account if you will, which basically facilitates the use of cheque to pay the bigger bills like the kids’ college fee and mortgage payments on the house and the car. But all other household bills like utilities and grocery are paid with hard cash.


I am old fashioned in the way that I like to feel the money between my fingers. I think the feel of currency bills between your fingers is the basic unit of empowerment. ( Oh! By the way I do recall the good old days when the bulge of dollar bills in a man’s pocket was the best aphrodisiac there was! ) What about credit cards, you ask?


That’s the one good thing about me. I am so sure of mismanaging the little funds at my disposal that I am passionately opposed to the use of credit cards. That, and the fact that a long long time ago I had major subliminal exposure to my grandfather’s wise ways. I can still hear his words: ‘cut your suit according to your cloth.’ Of course you know what he meant , considering the fact he did not have a penchant for Savile Row suits - never spend more than what you can afford.


But today people seem happy spending money that they don’t actually have. My grandfather, bless his soul, would really be turning in his grave if he were to witness the rut we have dug ourselves into. Not just the family and friends we know of, but the banks and financial institutions that once formed the bedrock of world finance and national prosperity.


And because, on almost every network on television, there is all manner of news or debate or forum on the sorry state of global financial markets I thought it was time to get acquainted with the rudiments of money management. I might as well, because I could be confronted with some kind of major decision on where I want to put my extra cash in the next few weeks. Some high-flying financial consultant might just take a gun to my head and demand that I make a quick decision. Do I want my money in this bank or that, in fixed deposit or invest in shares or ...well, any number of things.


But you know what? I think I will just put it under my pillow. Grandfather may not be too pleased with that decision, but if he only knew the current state of affairs I’d surely get a pat in the back for my wise ways too. Simply because the more I read the more I am sure some people, especially those in bespoke suits, are out there to get their hands on my (OK, my hubby’s) hard-earned money!



And the more I read, the more I tend to agree with what Thomas Friedman and Paul Krugman and even Maureen Dowd have to say. No one out there has the magic formula to get us out of this mess. And there are too many wolves in sheep’s clothing who are leering at your money. Which is why I am happy that I had always believed in what my grandfather had said to me on a daily basis while I was growing up.



“Work hard and be thrifty.”



By hard work he meant for me to use diligently the resources at my disposal: my time, my effort and my smarts to create wealth that I will need in order to have a decent life. And maybe just a little more to put aside for my children. And by thrift he meant that I may never burden myself with material goods that could actually be a drain on me and the wealth that I had worked hard to create. He had often said that if we burden ourselves with material possessions we would end up spending much time taking care of these that we will never find the time to take care of our family, children or friends and we will definitely neglect our spiritual needs; all of which is far superior to material possessions.



Perhaps, somewhere along the way, we lost the simple common sense of the wise words of not just my grandfather but many people of his generation. In all fairness, I think most of us did have an inkling that we were spinning a little out of control, that something was amiss in our pursuit of life and our rather ill-conceived goals. But the greed and the momentum this greed provided, kept us from seeing the truth of our ways. We were in the chase for better, bigger and faster possessions with nary a thought of how we were going about getting these fantastic things.



And that, simply put, is how we have landed ourselves in this colossal bungle.©