For most of us, an American, in general is a spend-thrift who hardly believes in saving money. It is quite true, and if you have lived here for a while, you will realize that. But this American mindset is fast changing. Probably the phase from when I landed in this country till date has been the second worst time this country has seen (after the GREAT DEPRESSION), and hence I, like many others have been able to see this shift in attitude.
Today, in my campus, I got a note from a bunch of volunteers who want students to be more responsible than their previous generation. That note looked something like this…
HOLIDAYS ARE HERE AND WE HAVE SOME NOTES FOR YOU. CHECK THIS LIST TWICE BEFORE ENJOYING YOUR CHRISTMAS BREAK!
• Budget your holiday spending: Don’t buy what you can’t afford. Plan your budget and stick to it.
• Shop Wisely: Come up with ideas before you go shopping. Check out online for good deals and check if others are also interested in buying the same thing, so that you can get some bulk discount. Remember, a sale is good, only if you need a particular thing. Otherwise it can be a tempting trap.
• Pay by cash: With cash you can track your expenses better. Avoid credit cards which are the root cause for the rising debt-rate.
• Track your expenses: Track your expenses and items you want to buy. Neither buy excess number of items, nor exceed your overall budget.
For people who have been raised in India, these guidelines were rooted in them. Indians don’t require a special emphasis on being frugal. But with our country’s economy doing better than the most, I suspect if there is some need for distributing such guidelines. “We are doing well and so why should we be frugal in our approach”, best describes the attitude of our current generation. For those, here is some food for thought. If the USA, land of opportunities, with great economy, an open society and tremendously blessed with natural resources can burn its fingers by showing reckless attitude towards its expenditure, wouldn’t India take a bigger hit, if we imitate the reckless attitude in spending?
It is said that the wise learn from other’s mistakes while fools are inspired by other’s mistakes, to repeat it. Now it is up to us to prove ourselves, wise or otherwise!
4 comments:
Yeah, you know even I realized that recently they have been giving so many advertisements on TV regarding these organizations who help people to stay in budget and other advertisments regarding savings, tips and tricks..
I dont remember showing these many in last year..
Ya, they seem to be learning from their mistakes... which is really good. But we seem to have picked up their earlier wrong habbits!
Truly agree with the fact, financial budgetary planning is really required. But since most of Indian population lives under poverty line, hence I think that the spendthrift nature is not that wide-spread. :)
Very true... But I was talking about youth of our nation, which lives in cities and they have a fancy job. Even they should become mindful about their spending habbits!
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