9 Personal Finance Tips I learnt from my Dad to Plan my Present and Future

9 Personal Finance Tips I learnt from my Dad to Plan my Present and Future


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One day during 1980s, my Dad arrived home with a beautiful painting. He kept it in the small living room of our home with great fanfare. Mom laughed and asked, what on earth was he planning to do with it? The entire painting consumed the maximum space of the room. “Well, someday we will shift to our bigger home” he said, “and this was the ‘future’ investment.

My Dad was a great example of how to strike a perfect balance between desires and needs and plan your life accordingly. His values greatly influenced my life and helped me decide what (and what not) to spend on. Let me share some of the important financial lessons which I learned from him and hopefully will come in handy for you, too.

1. Stand on your feet:

From an early age, my dad instructed my younger sister and me, never to be financially dependent on anyone—not even on your parents and spouse. To this day, I still maintain my bank account separately from my husband and also have separate credit cards. I love my husband and have nothing to hide from him, but Dad’s advice gives me financial independence.

Tip: Talk to your partner and work towards creating an independent financial identity.

2. Money doesn’t grow on trees:

Maybe we were fooled by the green colors of those leaves on trees, but from the childhood itself, my dad made sure that we respect and save money diligently.

When I was a kid, along with every birthday gift, my father used to give me money equal to my age with an instruction, ‘Don’t spend the entire amount at once. Put some away for later.” He also gave me a piggy bank in which I would stash away the notes left after spending on chocolates. By the time, I was 20; I had a huge corpus.

Tip: Start saving from the day you get your first pay cheque. Set a limit on your expenditure. A monthly investment of Rs 500 will give you Rs 3.98 lakhs if you stay invested for 20 years, considering the rate of return as 8%.

3. Be an educated buyer:

Whenever we went for shopping, my dad would always say, “First know the real price of items so that you don’t overpay. Even if you are not earning or your salary is meager, you can still save money by being an educated buyer and an intelligent consumer. He would always go from store to store looking for the right deal and preferred to shop from weekly markets like Sunday Market, where items were not only cheap but of good quality.

Tip: Temptation is the biggest villain of sound financial planning. Do compare prices online before buying things. Also, during festivals, you can get exciting discounts and freebies. So, if you can delay your purchase, do it.

4. Stay away from impulsive shopping:

When I entered college, and wanted to buy something frivolous, my father would say, “Think about it. Will you need it a few months down the line or not?” Over the years, those words saved me from digging into my saving funds to make impulsive purchases. Today, I never purchase things which are not long term.

Tip: Learn to differentiate between needs and desires.

5. Start saving for retirement now:

Since my father had always been self-employed, so he saved for his retirement on his own. He started saving for his retirement in his thirties by unfailingly investing around Rs 4,000/month in a retirement ULIP plan. When I started earning, my dad also advised the same to me. In addition to the provident fund, he asked me to invest both in equities and debts and encourage me to grow my investment with a rise in my income.

Tip: The earlier you start saving for retirement, the lesser amount you would require to generate corpus. If your current age is 30 and annual income is Rs 5 lakhs, you can get Rs 45 lakhs by investing around Rs 4,000 monthly after 60 years, considering the rate of return as 8%.

6. Live within your means:

When me and my husband started hunting for a house, my father extended an important advice: “Live within your means so that you can sleep peacefully at night”. Rather than buying a swanky house, we purchased a modest yet comfortable one so that we’d have a manageable loan repayment and are left with funds. After experiencing some layoffs in the same year, me and my husband were thankful that we listened to dad’s advice.

Tip: Spend what remains after saving.

7. ‘Invest’ in things you love:

Money makes us happy, but there are some things which give us immense pleasure. My father always wanted to stay at his native place so after retirement, he and mom waved goodbye to the hectic life of the city and moved towards his small town life. I also follow the suit and invest in books and travelling which make me happy. For me, it’s like money well spent, sorry invested!

Tip: Reward yourself for your wonderful financial planning by indulging in things that bring a smile on your face.

8. Health is wealth:

My dad was diagnosed with hypertension when he was in his forties. His doctor prescribed him medicines to keep a check on his blood pressure and asked to visit again after a month. When my dad went for the second time, the doctor was surprised to see that his blood pressure was under control and that too without taking medicines. Yes, instead of taking medicines, my dad made some changes to his lifestyle, like starting doing yoga, avoiding junk food, etc.; and the result—his blood pressure was under control. He followed the same healthy practice which included waking up at 4’o clock and doing yoga and some light exercises. His attitude towards health has changed my outlook as well. Even I prefer home-cooked meal and avoid junk or oily food at any cost. Though, my hectic lifestyle leaves little time for exercise; still I take out forty minutes at night for a brisk walk.

Besides this, I also bought a family health insurance policy to get a coverage against soaring medical costs. Though I follow healthy habits, in case I fall sick or require hospitalization, my policy would cover medical expenses. For others who are planning a baby a few years down the line, there is a mediclaim insurance policy with maternity benefits to their rescue. 

Tip: Take care of your health to enjoy your life to the fullest.  

9. Your life is not yours only:

My dad worked tirelessly throughout his life for our well being. Our wishes became the goals of his life and he left no stone unturned to turn our dreams into reality. As the breadwinner, he purchased a term insurance policy to secure our life even in his absence. After marriage, my husband and me both purchased a term insurance coverage to ensure that not even the death of either of us should make the other partner’s life financially difficult.

Tip: Love should be eternal so shield your loved ones from life’s uncertainties even in your absence.

There’s not a single day that goes by when I don’t think about my father and take cues from the lessons shared by him. I am sure his words will always be there to guide me throughout my life.

Thanks Dad for your wise words!


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7 comments

Wow now this is the topic I love ..wonderfully written.. would just one sentence which Warren Buffet once said – If you buy things you don’t need, you will soon sell things you need. … And today we Indians do need to save ….
Superb article …
thanks for sharing
Have a wonderful weekend ahead

Don’t we all just love to crash in front of television after a long tiring day? And what happens when it’s not working even for a day or a couple of hours?
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Wonderful tips shared here. I always vouch for better Financial literacy in schools so that when kids grow up they know the right instrument to invest in for better future.

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