Thursday, November 27, 2008

Financial Tsunami-Part4

Greetings to all, If your are reading these series for the first time, let me give you an intro. It is only appropriate to call this Global meltdown as " Financial Tsunami", 'cause we didn't know it was coming and none of us yet know the magnitude of this meltdown.
I would like to discuss a couple of points today...


This morning I was reading the New Paper on some comments on what recession means to differnt people. One person mentioned that he is going to live like a dying man without worrying about MONEY. There was another who said, instead of worrying about his shrinking Portfolio, he is going to look at things he has now. Family, Health and Friends.
I have been pondering on this comment.... Its good to look outside the BOX of money. What are the complications. How many of us can confidently say "money doesn't interfere in my relationships, be it family or friends." Its not that simple anymore. We are so engrossed in this materialistic world that sometimes everything seems to need money.

Have you been to a children's birthday party recently..Its a great occasion to celebrate. But children birthday's are no longer a simple event. Its a show of how well the parents are doing financially. The return gifts are more expensive than the gifts the child gets. Isn't there something missing.
On the subconscious level, the child registers this as " Expensive Party= Love you a lot, Simple Party= I don't love you so much". I don't think there is any normal parent who can love their child lesser.
NOW is the time for people to really go back to the basics of Money Management. Now is the time to really identify the NEEDS and WANTS. As a family. Involve your children. Don't under estimate them. They understand Money better than us. :)
  • Need is something that's important for survival. Food, Shelter, clothing, transport, etc...
  • Want is driven by desire. There is no end to WANT. Want is a double edged weapon. It makes us focused, ambitious, competitive and at the same time if we don't know the limits, greedy, unhappy and restless.
Many a times we can confuse NEED with WANT. Did you read the news on a retiree who wanted to buy a house but for a couple of months wanted better returns and ended up loosing 300k. Well, who is at fault. He wasn't clear on his NEED and WANT.
Priorities your WANTS and NEEDS and we should be able to surf through the Recession easily.  Thanks for your time..... I would love to hear your views...... Signing off...... Cheer!..... Swarna

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