In my entire school life, all I ever learnt about money was to write out a cheque with a deposit slip. No financial concepts were taught to us. Managing money is such an important and basic part of our life, yet we hardly learn about it in school. 

Listing down the concepts I wish I had learnt in school

1. Relation between Income, Expense and Savings.

Do you remember the expression: Income - Expense = Savings? We learnt this in Class 8 - Economics. We were wired since school that the money left after deducting our expenses from our income is our savings. (in fact, that is also the basis of subtraction right). However, this is just a mathematical expression that we cannot use in our daily life while managing money.

Whenever you receive your income, rather than spending, keep your savings aside and spend the remaining. 

REMEMBER: INCOME - SAVINGS = EXPENSES

You can do this by following our Gullacking approach. In this approach, you have 2 bank accounts - One for your income and the other for your investments. Watch our YT video to learn more about it in detail.

2. Plan before you spend

As a child, we usually get what we ask for, therefore we never understood the value of saving. Instant Gratification - a desire to experience pleasure or fulfilment without delay was what gradually built within us. However, we need to understand the importance of working for something before it is too late. So kids, if you wish to go on that trip - start planning and eventually saving for it today! Similarly, if you are someone in your 30’s and planning to have that dream car - start planning for it today, rather than buying it on credit.

3. Borrowing comes with a Fee

Not planning before you spend, mostly leads to borrowing. As a teen, I always thought credit cards to be a way to pay for things when one did not have money. However, how wrong was I? Credit cards are not a means to have extra funds—it is our own money, and it just helps us with an option to pay later. If not paid on time, it can charge us an interest of 3-4% per month, which is 36-48% per annum! This can lead you in a debt trap - So use your credit cards to save smartly and not spend more.

4. You just need 5th std Maths to do Personal Finance 
Many people think managing money is complicated and you have to have advanced knowledge of math. This is such a huge myth. You don’t have to be good at Maths to be good at Personal Finance - all you need to know is the basics - addition, subtraction and percentage. It's incredibly simple, but not that easy - it will need practice. The vision of looking at figures in percentages and not in amounts will help you have a good understanding of your gains and losses. 

5. Learn to make money work for you

Making money work for us - simply means investing our money and watching it generate profit for us. And this is only possible when you give it time. The Power of Compounding is something that one should know about as early as possible - It will help you grow your wealth exponentially. 

6. Always maintain an emergency fund 

A job loss, hospital bills or car repairs are all expensive problems that can happen at a moment’s notice. An emergency fund helps you cover these expenses and avoid stress and debt. It is advisable to have an emergency fund of 6 times your monthly expense. To know more about it - Read Here.

7. Ask for help!

Communicating about financial difficulty is meant to be taboo. Won’t you ask for professional help when you fall sick? Or will you just google it and use a DIY remedy? 

We are SEBI Registered Investment Advisors. You can approach us at iplan@wealthcafe.in in case of any Financial Advice.

Wealth Cafe Advice:

We need to stop complaining about why finance was not taught to us in school and start working on it. We live in a generation where we have easy access to the internet and have a lot of information on how to manage money. However, we need to differentiate and understand which information is right for us. If you wish to learn more about managing your money you can check out our courses. Use code SAVE20 for 20% off. We also have a Free Email Course where we help you get your finances in place by giving you weekly actions that you need to complete in order to get on track.

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