Money matters !!

Many people envy upon the way, I handle my finances. Though, I'm not a die hard money maker or a materialistic fellow, in a very short period, I had managed to strike a perfect balance between expense, savings and investment. A very few knew that this wisdom did not came by birth.

My dad is a govt employee (electrical engineer) and he spends whatever he earns. Till 10 years back, the salary was hardly able to meet the expense. He had loans for house, vehicle etc. Though my mom had been responsible, all through, she didn’t had the acumen to make the money grow. She had put our education as priority and always strived to give the highest quality education for me and my two younger brothers. She gives a decent pocket money, which I used to spend on my will. I didn’t have the good habit of saving till recently.


The company called for medical examination. From Karaikudi, I took roughly around Rs. 700/- (in 2001) and left to Chennai by bus (around 9 hours of travel). The company insisted to stay for one more day in Chennai as they wanted to issue the appointment letter, immediately after the results of my medical examination that is to be received the next day.

[ I still remember that particular medical examination, - a beautiful nurse asked me to strip off my shirt in an isolated room for taking ECG readings. I was 21 then and had a great physic, thanks to the sports, I play. But I generally feel shy to strip off the shirt before any girl then. (Yeah, an instinct opposite to Salman's.... ) But the nurse insisted to strip off. my shirt. As I laid down with my bare chest, she applied a jelly cream on many places including hips, ankles, chest etc. While the scented aroma from her body was intoxicating, I was feeling tickled at the mere act of application of the jelly. She smiled on my innocence (u know, I rarely enter a hospital those days. I was experiencing ECG measurement for the first time). She studiously took the readings, and after the completion of recording, she showed the first sign of that animal instinct. She took a cotton and slowly (seducingly, pressing her vital parts against my body) wiped the cream off from my body. I was a virgin then, and was yielding to her in steps, just then, the doctor yelled for her. She gave me a smile and ran behind the sound. I got up and dressed.]


I didn't plan for staying the second day. I had very limited money to stay in a hotel. Also, I need money for returning back. The cheapest bus fare is Rs. 111/- The medical results were fantastic and I got the appointment letter for my first ever job on 28th of June (thursday). The company told my to report at Kolkata office on July 2nd (monday). I was nervous as well as excited. I had only enough money, just to reach my home. I took a town bus to go to the bus stand. I bought a ticket for Rs. 5/- and was seated in the last seat. I was mentally transported to the act of reaching kolkata, a distant and foreign place then, and the adventures waiting for me to face there.

Before the bus reached the bus stand, a couple of ticket checkers entered in to the bus and checked for tickets. When they asked me, I shoved up the crushed ticket that I was tightly holding in my fists. The ticket had become wet off my sweat and even crushed enough such that the start point and end point is indecipherable.

The ticket checker got me out of the bus and fined Rs. 50/-. I was startled as well as embarrassed by his stubbornness. If I give him that money, I wouldn't have enough to reach my home back. As he was not yielding for my innocent requests, I offered to give him my gold watch, instead of that 50 bucks. I actually handed over the watch to the ticket checker. He thought for a second and returned the watch. He spared me. oh!! That one moment, I really felt empty, a kind of a feeling that's hard to express. Even few tear bubbles appeared on my eyes. I swore myself to keep emergency cash, then onwards.


I reached home early in the morning next day. I conveyed the good news to my mom and the urgency to start my trip to kolkata. Those days, the flights were reserved for richie rich and they were not even in the sight. After a nap, I checked out for the tickets to kolkata in train (say around 9:00 AM, on friday.) Surprisingly, There were tickets available in trichy - howrah mail, that's starting at trichy (about 2 and half hrs from my home) at 3:00 PM same day.
The train reaches on sunday morning. It was around 10 AM, and I hardly had time to tell people and friends. Even my mom didn't have much time to react, (That's good in some sense, otherwise, she would have stuffed my bag with 10 kgs of eatables for me to use for next one month in Kolkata.), she just gave me a cash of Rs. 5000/- for me to survive the first month in Kolkata. I called up dad over phone in his office and left for my adventure trip from Trichy. My mom waved her hands off in tears (the typical mixed feeling, son becoming great, but going far off.) But she didn't had any clue then, that she's not going to see her son for next one and half years.......

Let me narrate my kolkata experiences later. Just after 15 days of induction in kolkata, I was posted at lucknow. The first day, I went to the lucknow factory was incidentally my birthday, and I carried dairy milk chocolates with me. The very first day, the General manager of the factory handed over the sunday classifieds and asked me to settle down at a house convinient for me. That was quite a dismay for me. A city, I haven't heard of earlier, all in the midst of strangers, a school boy has to settle himself ( I refused to accept that I've already grown up). Incidentally, I didn't know hindi too!!

I looked up to the challenge, - sometimes these are softer yet worth enough kind. I endup finding a PG accomodataion at Mahanagar, owned by a Bengali. There were a couple of guys already staying there. One is sandeep, a smart engineer working in a Geo-satelite company. The other one is Akilesh, working in SAHARA. Akilesh is short (may be 5 feet),an MBA, and had a Maruti 800 then. Akilesh was one of a kind, I haven't seen another one of the same kind yet. He drinks 3 bottles of bear a day, except thursdays and sundays. Sundays, He goes to his house and therefore, no drinking. Thursdays because he thinks that day is auspicious day in a week. Come winter, he switches over to Whiskey, that too, measured, 2 pegs a day. Everyday, before he starts his drink, he washes himself thoroughly, and prays god for 15 minutes.

In a couple of days or so, I also started giving company for his drinking. But i used to readily give the share of money, for the share I drink.I believe and has experienced, that money (taken for granted) gives great trouble to the relationships and even friends. One day, he said let's go to the pub. I didn't see any point in that, but made sure that all three are sharing the cost. Just as we were heading to the pub, he stopped the car in a beer shop. He reasoned that, we all drink a quick beer here and will head on to the pub (for drinking the two more bottles). I drink only Haywards 5000 (a brand concious fellow then), a strong beer, while others resorted to light bear. Prior to that day, I never had beer more than 2 bottles. The pink panther is the only air-conditioned pub in Gole market. We took a corner seat and was engrossed in the kick.

Next day morning, I woke up on my cot, stiff. I checked my purse immediately, It had only Rs. 10/-. The last thing what I remembered was the first glass of second beer. It was 10'O clock, and the others had gone to office. It's only around a week in my new job at lucknow factory, and I'm reaching at 11:00. Unlike offices, factories follow strict timings. In the evening, I went upto Akilesh and enquired straight about the money (Rs. 1200/-) I had. He behaved smart and gave a teaser back.

" U damn stupid, What will we do if U had drunk so much and fainted? I've paid for the beers, we drank on the beer shop. U got to pay in the bar, but U were out of senses."

"So??"

"SO what??"

It was a cheat, a planned cheating. He had paid 160 bugs for three beers in the bear shop, but he had taken 1200 for the beers we had in Pink panther.

I was taken aback, but couldn't do much. For me, it's a strange place, with strange language, and the first friend I run into has evolved as a great cheat. I argued and taken a couple of hundreds back, but that's all I could. I swore this time, to drink only on saturdays, and drink with great caution, especially with strangers.

After few months, I was really missing my bike. With one of my friend’s suggestion, I bought a Hero Honda passion, by loan from ICICI at 9% interest rate. Following me, another friend of mine bought the same bike (a loan at 16% interest rate). Interestingly his EMI is far less than mine. On discussion, with him, I came to know that the interest quoted by ICICI (9%) was actually flat rate, which actually means 24% of reducing interest rate. For a loan of 35K, I paid 5K more than my friend. Prior to that insight, I didn’t even know that interest rate is negotiable. (Even the bank advertises as “best deals” and not as “Low interest rates”. ) I resolved myself to understand more about interest rates, and the way they are calculated.

Soon after, I took loans after bargaining for the lowest possible reduced interest rate. Surprisingly, ICICI gives the lowest rate also.

[ Typical conversation goes like this:

Razigan: What’s the interest rate?

ICICI rep: 9% interest rate and not negotiable.

Razigan: Flat or reducing??

ICICI rep: the EMI is this much. It is very low for such a kind of loan.

Razigan: Flat or reducing??

ICICI rep: !! flat…..

Razigan: That means 24% reducing…… I’m getting 14% reducing at UTI. Thank you.

As I move,

ICICI rep: that is not possible sir. They cannot give so low…..

Razigan: Thank u!!

ICICI rep: OK, wait a minute, let me speak to my Boss and get back to u……..

After few seconds, My boss have agreed to give u 14.5%.

Razigan: Why should I give u 0.5% more, actually unless u give 0.5% less, I’m going to UTI.

……… ]

So, I’ve become smart in taking loans, but yet, at any point of time, I was paying a handsome amount of money as EMI for every silly reason.

With time, my salary was going high. I was looking for good tax savers. Mutual funds were the fastest (3 yrs lock in period). I locked the money in Mutual funds. Soon I have grown greedy about earning money from stocks. I put a bit more of sense in stock market. At times, I used to pay three EMIs, and also invest money in stocks.

I know there was a lack of clarity in my understanding. Though I was having lot of investments, my networth was always negative (i.e., Outstanding loans are more than my assets). I looked out for understanding investments, savings and loans……, I picked the best seller book, “RICH DAD POOR DAD” from Roberto Kiyolski. That book became the starting point of my financial acumen.

All through my life, I had never been stingy. I live the life and strive to live the life with colors, with a subtle effect for money and what money can buy. It had been fantastic yet.

Four years from the day, I took the book, here I’m – A millionaire.