Life Hacks – I

#TheWriteChoice

I was interviewed by a user experience specialist who is coming up with a finance product for the Indian market.  I point blank told her that I am not the right candidate for her, but she still insisted, so we went ahead with the interview.

As expected, her questions about how I take decisions or plan about big purchases (a car or house), what kind of spending gives me happiness, don’t I think you need to save, or financially plan to live a life later that I are so used to for so many years, do I think people who have a lot of money are considered corrupt or bad people because they are running after money and all, were all answered in long tangents as I had a very philosophical answers..

My answers to her were very simple and the very reason why I was not the right candidate for financial planning product.

I firmly believe in earning for your dreams VS saving for your dreams. During the early stages of my career (I am now 51 you see!) people of our age used to invest in buying a house, since they thought it will become very expensive later.  Me & my husband (we) had the habit of saying, if we put all our money in buying a house, when will we enjoy a luxury car and destination holidays? So, we will rent a house which will be a fraction of our earning, so it will give us flexibility to expand the size of the house as our family / income expands. It worked out well for us, we could buy multiple cars and have many destination holidays thanks to that one decision we took in not buying a house very early on in life. None of the people around us could understand our mindset. This includes the elders, our fellow colleagues and also our own siblings. But we did what we felt was right for us and life went on just beautifully. We both focused on our career and kept earning; eventually we owned multiple properties and multiple luxury cars and had many many destination holidays within 5-7 years. Life has become so luxurious that I don’t have to look at the price tag before buying anything. If I like it, I buy it since I am an entrepreneur by profession and by heart 😊

What kind of spending gives me happiness—I love spending for others. Even now, being a woman retail therapy does give me a high.  But I don’t like to buy anything for myself any more. I buy things for others, be it my family or my employees or to give to others. So, I spend mindfully for my family & others to an extent that it doesn’t become a habit or addiction.

(to be continued)