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A Beginner’s Dilemma: How To Do Personal Finance?

A young Indian adult sitting at a desk, looking at a computer screen with a contemplative expression. The person is surrounded by financial papers, and cloud bubbles providing an illusion that he is thinking about risk, return, equity, debt as topics.

A Matter of Perspective

Personal finance. Hmm, too many things have been said about it. Almost everyone has an opinion, yet somehow, none of us seem any wiser. Why? Because everyone has different goals and aims in life, isn’t it? What satisfies one person might not satisfy another.

And those who aren’t satisfied? They often can’t resist giving gyaan, hoping that those who are satisfied will become just as dissatisfied. Why? Because as humans, we’re inherently interested in the comparison – what we have versus what others have. We thrive on relativity. And crave social acceptance; but not just acceptance; we want to be one-up in the same circle. Isn’t that ironic?

Personal Finance is Personal

Did we forget that? It depends entirely on one’s environment, background, needs, and wants. It’s shaped by which wishes have been fulfilled and which haven’t. This, in turn, shapes a person’s outlook, their world, their goals, ambitions, and desires – across all facets of life.

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Stop, breathe, think please!

We always keep hearing – Slow and steady… Make consistent efforts… Build a momentum… A long journey begins with a small step – its clear. When you want to build something significant, it cant be overnight. But what is that significant thing – a life? Easy to put it in a word, hard to explain. Because context is different for everyone and it matters.

Context. That’s an interesting concept. Have you noticed, you can generally sound very profound by using a statement that has no context. Just choose a random statement that is true within a context and then pull it out of its setting and throw it around. Every drop counts when filling a bucket or when saving a life. Pull it out of that context and shove it in personal finance context, suddenly that every drop can be interpreted as Save every bit. Wow sounds profound, as you apply it in the context. But here too, each person reads it in terms of quantum that they can comprehend. Our brains cant comprehend the minute nor the huge which is relative to everyone. We can only comprehend the scale based on what is our sphere of knowledge and understanding.

Like the statement above, in personal finance context, for some, reaching that 1 crore saving or 1 million saving point is huge, if they believe that their current skillset and needs warrants them to accept that they earn very little relative to their goals. while for some 1Cr/1M may be what they earn a typical year. For them, this is normal, and they may aim to have 100Cr or 100M as their goal and that they perceive as huge. So for them, saving 500rs using a discount coupon on a meal they are spending 5000rs to begin with may mean nothing while for some the 50r coupon on a 500rs meal may mean a lot. The drop can mean different quantum for different people. See that’s the beauty of context. Everyone can be right and wrong at same time.

Ok. I started somewhere and not sure where this is leading to, there is too much stimulus and too many things attracting attention. The reason attention spans are going down are not because we dont have it in us anymore. its the constant thoughts in back of the mind, if i dive too deep into this thing which is right in front of me, i may miss on spending time on the next things right beside it. the stimulus has increased exponentially and thus we are not spending enough time to give to any one specific stimulus. Everyone wants to become an expert when they see it is reaping someone benefits, so they want to do the same.

But next moment, someone else is an expert is something else and that itself is another stimulus, ok hold on, let me try that as well. End result, we know headlines of everything but nothing too deep. And human mind is so smart, we have even started justifying this. If you are not well read or know diverse topics, how can you be an interesting person to converse in a flight or a car journey with a stranger. And when that happens, how many are really saying hi to that stranger next to them. They are busy in their phones, prepping for that imaginary situation when they will be called well read and able to hold a conversation. But they entirely forgot, that situation is already happening, right that second. People are becoming distanced, but they want to network, but hey they want to network visibly and be seen rubbing shoulders with successful people.

Success. hmm what is success? everyone has a different definition for it. again that stems from their own deep seated world view. For a person sitting on couch who thinks they have the next billion dollar idea, but knows nothing about how to execute it, person who is executing what they idea they had is success. For a person who is executing and trying out many variations of his idea to find a product market fit, is looking at a founder who has product market fit figured out is a success story. That person may be struggling to find relevant talent to get that MVP in front of customers, and for him, an startup with MVP may be a success. For that founder who is now looking for funds to expand it into a full fledged solution and business, a startup which has raised millions of dollars seem successful. For a funded startup founder who is struggling to turn a profit, a profitable business is a success. For a profitable business, a business that has scaled globally is success. This is just a perspective for a budding entreprenuer. Apply the same in any other field of life and you will have these almost everywhere. People have been beaten down into thinking what they have is never enough. Call it consumerism or progress or modernisation or freedom of expression. We are bombarded with soo much stimuli, our brains are getting trained to start focusing on stuff only superficially. Sometimes even those things which if we take a break and stop to think through are somethings which we will oppose, but we are not affording that luxury to ourselves. Its Time that is being slowly eaten away from us by us.

Wake up humans. Wake up brothers and sisters. Wake up whoever resonates!

The Kid on the Train – Chapter Story

“7:51 fast local to Mumbai CST will be arriving 5 min later than usual today on platform number 5…” the announcer shouted into the mike from the comfort of his AC laden Railway Office room behind the Ticketing Window on Dombivli Railway Station.

“Fuck the railways…Trains needed to late today! Why? Why God?” murmured a teenager from amongst the exasperated crowd gathered and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the said train.

Some heads turned towards the originator of the offending remark. The teenager promptly pulled out his smartphone and started punching furiously on it, probably letting the person on the other side, of his reaching late, but obviously trying to avoid gaze of some of the fellow travellers. The crowd settled back again playing the waiting game, but not before some nods were exchanged somewhere and some smiles somewhere else. To an outsider, the crowd looked just that, a crowd, but the crowd knew what it was. It was an unspoken bond of togetherness shared by the commonality of everyday travelling. They are the so called regulars who have been travelling for years on same local train, same compartment and same door. Heck even the places in the compartment were decided.

“Screw the university. They had to change the exam timings for this last paper. Dumb idiots” the teenager still not satisfied swearing at the Railways, continued his rant in a whisper now. He was angry but he quickly turned his thoughts towards the days that were to come ahead. He was about to take a trip to Goa along with few of his college friends. They had planned elaborately for this trip and everyone was looking forward to it.

The force of pushing that made him lose his balance brought him back to reality. He saw the train entering the railway premises. The crowd was preparing itself for the skirmish it was about to see to board the local train. The teenager went with the flow of the crowd and somehow managed to get inside the train. He was inside the train but not comfortable. He was off balance and was unable to stand upright. The train was so jam packed it was difficult to feel your own body parts after sometime. And he had to endure it for next 45 min! He tried to recite some of the concepts to shift his focus from the numbing sensation that was taking over his hands.

After three stoppages, the train finally reached Dadar, the stop the teenager wanted to alight. He pushed and pulled and huffed and puffed as he wriggled his way out of that crowd and onto the platform. He let a sigh of relief. His hair and shirt was all dishevelled. He quickly tucked his shirt and passed his hands through the hair to settle them down and made a beeline, as did the rest of the morning rush, towards the FOB or Foot Over Bridge. Eventually he sauntered out of the railway premises and caught a Taxi probably to his exam centre. But unawares to him, a group of three men got into another taxi and had started following him.

Bittu Hatela had taken the call that informed him that the kid had reached Dadar and would be soon approaching where they were waiting for him. His instructions were clear, follow the kid, let him write his exams and only when he was returning in the evening to catch his train back, he was to be ambushed and kidnapped. Bittu acknowledged the task and disconnected the call. Kartik Puleya and Ronny Ghista had been eagerly looking at Bittu’s face for his reactions to gauge what today’s score gonna be. They had no idea what they were signing up for, but the promise and lure of easy money and some chickens got them enlisted. Bittu explained to them what was needed of them and they readily obliged. Bittu showed them the photo of the teenager whom they were supposed to follow and kidnap.

Soon the taxi stopped in front of ICT Matunga’s unimposing gate and the kid got out, paid his fare and went in. Bittu dropped Ronny near the entrance to the college and moved the taxi ahead and got down at the Xerox shop ahead. Bittu got out and quickly lit up a cigarette while Kartik settled the taxi driver’s fare. Now they had to just wait for signal from Ronny.

Time Crawlers – Book Review

Book Title: Time Crawlers

Author: Varun Sayal

Approx Read Time: 60 – 75 min

Review: It was a fine cold morning. As I was getting ready to leave for my day’s tour of London, my phone beeped letting me know an email was awaiting to be read in my inbox. When I checked and found it to be an email from Mr Varun Sayal requesting in a very humble and polite way, an honest review of his debut book – Time Crawlers, published a month earlier – I smiled. I didn’t have time or focus to do book reviews then. I asked for some time – three months – as I had a few more books to read as well. He persistently followed up for a month to try to get to me read it sooner. But since I was travelling through a new country and soaking it all in, I didn’t let myself find some time to go through the books. That was wrong on my part. This weekend I finally came around to reading Time Crawlers and quickly transferred the ebook copy, that Varun sent, to my Kindle. I breezed through it in an hour! That means I could have done this way earlier, way way earlier. For that, I feel apologetic. But I will not delay reviewing it further anymore. So let me dive into my honest unbiased opinion of it right away.

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How To Prep For International Flying First Time?

Let me in you on a secret. – Everybody who has flown before domestically gets some flutters as they approach their first time flying international. And those whose first flying experience is going to be flying international, well for them, the flutters are even greater. But I assure you for these latter set of first timers, its actually better; since they don’t have anything to benchmark their experience against!

Whatever set one falls in, one can only absorb as much information and try to prepare for the eventual experience. There are generally so many questions and internet provides so many answers to gobble up. But one never gets what one needs at a single place ever. An article can’t be everything for everyone. Its a tall order to follow. Nevertheless, it never stopped people from trying and it wont stop me too!

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Clean Up your Email Inbox Now

If you have ever felt clueless or helpless whenever you open your email inbox, then this is for you. If you have kept procrastinating or dreaded how to get your inbox in order, then this is for you! I was once in a situation where my mail box had more than 17,000 emails and it filled up by 100s or more every day. I HAD to clean it up. I kept procrastinating until it was too much. So I decided I will slug it out one hr every day for next 5 days and hopefully get this to more manageable level.

By the way, a simple Google search for “tips to clean your email inbox” throws up quite a few articles on how to get them done. I went through many of them after I had finished tackling my email clutter menace to see how others attacked this and is there anything I could learn and adapt to my situation in future. I did find few methods more efficient than mine and few where my approach seemed better. So I decided I will write this post to help other people out who are overwhelmed with their inboxes.

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Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of Ramayana – Book Review

Book Title: Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana

Author: Devdutt Pattanaik

Approx Leisure Read Time: 300 – 340 min

Review: For someone who has already read another book by the same author, it generally is quite difficult not to compare the two books. I too was tempted initially. I had picked up the book and abandoned it at least four times by the time I reached first 10 pages because it didn’t capture me right away like the Mahabharata adaptation did. Fifth time, before I picked it up I made up my mind to ignore the fact that it’s a book by same author and treat it individually on its merits and demerits. When I brought myself down from that expectation pedestal and started reading it again, I was finally able to slowly immerse myself in the epic’s retelling.

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Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata – Book Review

Book Title: Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

Author: Devdutt Pattanaik

Approx Leisure Read Time: 320 – 360 min

Review:  Impressions first. Book’s cover is really eye catching. The illustration of Arjuna and Krishna on the chariot on the front cover indicated to me how the book is going to treat the Mahabharata. It somehow told me, ‘Look, if you are looking for meaning in life and want to get all the answers, then please stop, this one is more suitable as a brisk read for those who want to know what the fuss is all about this great Hindu epic called Mahabharata. For a deeper meaning of the incidents, find some other retelling. And that’s what exactly I found it to be. Fast paced, hard to keep down and interesting (for the fact that author seems to have done a bit of research and this is his synthesis of various versions of Mahabharata from various regions of the world.

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Riya’s Office – Chapter Story

Surmiya parked his Swift in the visitor parking lot of FAME park. As he got out and lit a smoke, he marvelled at the fact that this government complex that houses the Ministry of Foreign & External Affairs had the top floor dedicated to the Research & Analysis Wing, the country’s top intelligence agency. Here, the best and brightest analytical minds of the country converge. They track, analyze and oversee the vast network of operations covert or otherwise that the Indian government runs to safeguard the sovereignty of India. One of them was Riya, who probably would be pacing up and down in her office, right now, barking orders on the phone trying to pull in all the information she could find on the situation. The situation; PMO’s office directly put her in charge. It must be pretty bad if it came to her, that much Surmiya had deduced from his past cases he helped her solve. She had a knack for getting the most trying of the cases. Surmiya checked his watch. Its 8:07am. Shit! Surmiya dropped the remaining cigarette to the ground, stomped on it while locking his car and walked towards the entrance. He entered the foyer and walked right past the guards to the elevator. Sound of a bell indicated that elevator has reached the top floor. As doors opened, he was greeted by smell of freshly painted office and wooden panelling. He saw there was a reception desk now and walks there to announce his presence.

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