Monday, 27 February 2017

Share the load

A very famous FMCG company tried to woo many of its female potential customers toward their product coming up with the tag line of “Share the load”. India has a family oriented culture with the oldest leading the way and the men raising the battle. Decisions are hardly taken through the route of discussions and mutual consent. We have always followed the dictum “Experience overcomes knowledge”. Not any longer though. It is time to speak up and share the load. Toiling all alone will not take you to any great heights especially in your money matters. It will only worsen your case further to de-motivate to stop trying something new. It is time to ask for help and make life simpler for ourselves. It is not necessary to bring the gender or age in between in these cases.
  1. The Parents & Children Saga- if you are a retiring/single parent living on your savings then there is no harm to ask your working / studying children to contribute to your home expenses. It is easy to work out areas where expenses can be distributed and the clear path of authority is maintained. Accordingly, if required then encourage children to sponsor their own higher education and lifestyle expenses. Try to inculcate the basic need of health and life insurance requirements to them at early stages. There can be chances where children should take the onus of exposing the parents to new ways of investing money and teaching them the tricks of better savings. Like encourage them for equity investments or explain the ill benefits of market linked insurance products. Try to keep the money matter always as transparent as possible. In case if you don’t intend to take any help from your children, you can design your assets in such a manner that you can get maximum benefit out of it. Something like reverse mortgage.
  2. The spouse story – Every individual should treat their spouse on same footing as self with regards to money matters. If not then the trifle arguments over spending and expenses could lead to huge fights. Speak about your way of saving and spending. Take your spouse’s decision in consideration for every small detail including – asset purchase, jewellery mortgage or even real estate investment. This clarity ensures that your spouse is not cheated by anyone in case of any fatality occurs to you. The best relation to share the load is of a man and his wife. They share emotions, relations then why not even economics. The harder way is to lie to them the whole life rather adopt for simple truth at the very beginning. If you are the DINK couple then it is must that both partners are active decisions makers in all matters.
  3. The Friends truth- it is difficult to have lifelong friends especially if you are not exactly a social media buff. If you are the one, who is happy with his/her handpicked friends then it would be easy for you to be obligated by any small request made by your friend. It is not necessary for it to be emotional support or talk- it could be monetary. So, if you have any such week Achilles heel then quickly resolve this year to stay away from any such act doing. Even if you are involved in such transactions please ensure that you make a written affirmation of the same. It would be helpful for times when friendship is not so great.
Same could also go between siblings, where one could find themselves being made the scapegoat for all needs. It is necessary to voice your opinion and clarify your role. Any monetary matters are different from personal talks. There is a need to record them in a right manner.  
As your financial guide, Saarthi would also advise you to keep safe distance from weak emotions on finances and be opinionated in your thinking. 

Thanks and Regards
Team
Email: saarthifp@gmail.com
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