Money is the commodity which lets us surf comfortably through the waves that life throws at us. Optimizing the flow of this one commodity determines how peaceful or a thriller can our lives be.

Spend beyond your limits, and soon you will be broke, and asking for loans from friends, family or instant loan apps. Spend nothing, and you will sit on a large pile of cash, but may not be really living the life. Once again, as all things in life, I believe balance is the answer. But this is not a one-size-fits-all answer, in my experience.

We all navigate life in different ways. Sometimes it throws confetti and sometimes lemons! Being from a middle-class Indian family, I had to be careful with my expenses. Didn’t need to have money until 7th grade, because it was home to school and school to home. Weekends were playing cricket and football in the rubber plantation next home with friends. Never needed any money, never crossed my mind to think about it even. 8th grade, my parents decided to put me in boarding school. For the first time ever, I was away from home, and I needed to take care of my expenses.

The major expense? Bus ride from home to school on Monday morning and from school to home on Friday evening. For the first time, I budgeted on my notebook. 50 rupees was the allowance for a week, 5 rupees for bus ride one way. 40 remaining for the remainder of week to spend. Control my craving to buy chocolates or snacks, and I could pocket some extra cash to buy something big. Like that counterfeit MRF branded cricket bat I bought thinking I will play like Sachin Tendulkar. 😀 I funded 50%, my father put in the remaining 50%. This was probably my first personal finance lesson, though I didn’t know this term even existed back then!

I’m glad these things happened. Knowingly or unknowingly, from then I have been very cautious on money management. Though it was years after I even learned the importance of investing. All I did was ‘saving’. Looking back, probably that’s one big regret. Had I started earlier. Had I known what compounding meant.

For sure things are changing. Luckily, people today don’t have to wait as long to figure out money management. Thanks to tons of content and educators out there, more and more people are now aware from a young age. Yet, one has to be sensible enough to choose what advice to apply to their own life and which ones to chuck. That’s what I wish I knew earlier, and that’s why I write about it now.