I play such an important role in India’s economy and all this while I thought I was just a housewife.
I have spent years and years playing hide and seek with my savings, saving and hiding, saving and hiding and more saving and more hiding my savings from my family.
I secretly and proudly felt richer and richer with the increasing count of my savings every year. No one and no one except me knew how much and where that money was.
After all, that was my true treasure and world’s best kept secret. I had seen how my mother resorted to her secret treasure in the times my father needed money. Impressed, I believed in carrying the same tradition. And would have continued to do so, sigh! Happily.
I still remember those ideas of sewing additional pockets in my purses where my treasure could be nicely placed. I still remember how I had to once protect my treasure from being eaten by the rodents which attacked my kitchen (yes, I had kept a few thousands first and then filled my jars with pulses). I had once fallen from the stool trying to keep one hiding in the upper part of my cupboard.
Sometimes my money needed extra protection as I had kept a few under the ‘tulsi’ plant in my courtyard. I offer prayers to ‘tulsi’ daily, though my money hasn't really grown.. if wishes were horses.. !!
My daughter who is now in graduation, would often make fun of me by calling me a ‘hoarder’. Yes, she was my partner in crime as she counted ‘my’ money for me once in a while with a ‘God promise’ to not share with anyone.
On the fateful night of 8 November 2016, when my husband announced on the dining table to look for all the currency to be exchanged in the bank, my heart sank.
I did not want to share the world’s best kept secret so openly and so easily with the same set of people I risked my life to hide from.
After all, it was for them that I was doing all this, just like my mother did, for a rainy day!
How will I ever emerge like a super woman with all the money when my family will need – perhaps on my daughter’s wedding? Or even better, for buying a house a few years later? My dreams shattered.
This was not all. While I was recovering from this shocking news, I heard my husband talking on phone with his friend “that’s why, its best to keep money in the banks. Not only the money grows, it offers opportunities to invest elsewhere and also protects our hard earned money” (in my case hard ‘hidden’ money).
I glanced at my tulsi plant which was swaying with the changing direction of winds. I instantly knew what I needed to do. I confessed to my husband about my savings. All the sewn purses, secret pockets, kitchen jars were emptied. After a hearty laugh, here he was, explaining to me what I should have done for the benefit of my family, instead of hoarding the money ‘for the benefit of my family’:
I should have opened a bank account and deposited my money instead of hoarding it.
Had I been a smart investor in addition to being a smart saver that I already was, I would have actually multiplied my money several times.
By not investing my money rightfully, though I was able to somehow protect them from rodents in the house, I could not protect them from the fall in their value due to inflation. My money kept losing its worth sitting in my purses and I never got to know.
All I needed was a bank account to start a systematic investment plan (SIP) of as low as Rs 500 a month.
The timing could not be better to be financially wise. My husband did understand my self-esteem need of having my ‘own’ money, my ‘own’ savings.
He suggested that I should immediately start investing. In the era where I can withdraw and transfer money with the blink of an eye, there was really no need to keep real currency at home at any time. With the changing times, one needs to change. I wonder why I did not, earlier.
He introduced me to an app known as ‘NJ Wealth’.
There are several other such apps in the market now. I particularly liked it as it appeared extremely user friendly (even for non-finance savvy persons like me) and helped me make my financial decisions with a lot of ease.
When one door closes, the other opens. For me, this blow was an eye opener. I will no longer have to decide where to hide my money. Instead, I will now make decisions on where to invest.
The ‘tulsi’ in my courtyard was springing and my partner in crime was smiling!!
Rajiv Kapoor
BSc, LLb FCS CIA
9839034761
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