What if we got promoted and our salary rose to two hundred
thousand from just forty thousand per month.
Within three months we will become debtors (may be, I should say again).
In the first month we will rock everybody by setting up parties every weekend. In
the second month we will settle all the debts we owe and on third month we will
plan and get marketing calls. Then we will buy a luxury home, Audi or BMW.
These all can’t be done with just two hundred thousand. So we go for a loan,
but we easily get a loan with our last three months payslip. As a result, we
will end up paying interest every month and get back to office with the fear of
losing the job.
This is how it ends and begins on every rise we get. In reality
we do not just plan what we really want. Everybody has a dream to chase but each
day end up in going to the office. We have heard a lot like, ‘want to fulfil my
responsibilities... food for my family, children’s education, home, debts... Is
it all about earning enough money? If yes, then first we must measure the term
enough.
Measuring is important. In reality we pay more for luxury
than what we really need for chasing our dreams. In the hierarchy of needs - food,
clothing and shelter comes first, dream comes after. So we should be clear on
what we want good tasty food or luxury food? They are very much different from
one another. Good tasty food can be cooked with quality provisions or can be bought
from a good hotel. Luxury food means having anything on Hilton, ITC and paying
for their brand names. The same applies for dresses, houses and anything we
spend on daily. We must be clear about the basic only then we can achieve one
after another. When we are not clear on what we need then we do not achieve
love or belonging and easily go for divorce and things get worse.
So firstly, we need to measure what we mean by
‘enough’. Then secondly, the most
important thing is savings, just saving 10%, 20% or even 30% of every month
salary. That is good, but the question to be answered is for what we are
saving? In some cases we earn to save, for the future, which is very much
accepted as uncertain.
Here too we must plan, out of 10% cut it like 2% for
emergency, 5% for children education and 3% to do things we love most. Spend it
before we exhaust or expire on things we love most and dream to experience. For
this, we will never need a raise of some 425%.
