My work is very interesting. It involves a lot of reading, travelling, listening, and talking.

I see a lot of millennials. Wait a minute. I see a lot of young people from their 20s and right up to their 50s and I see financial ‘peer pressure’ . I am sure you too keep seeing, but you may not be seeing such a huge variety of people that I do.

Have you ever wondered how some people your age can afford designer clothes, eating out three times a week in fancy hotels? And those yearly phone upgrades?

While your friends do all that you are feeling rotten, paying your SIP, watching the markets go nowhere and feeling miserable and asking yourself ‘is it worth listening to Subra and doing that @#$%%% SIP which is giving me …some return’?

Fair enough. It is always a question of what I see vs what you see.

1. You see a nice clinic/dispensary and a young super specialist doctor.
2.  I see a lot of educational loan, a rich parent, and a lot of hard work.

When a person wants to be a doctor, it is a lot of hard work, 5 years of education post class 12, and then specialisation and then super specialization. It is not an easy degree to get, and if you have to study in a private school like Manipal, the education costs can rip you apart. Either I see a rich parent supporting this with his own money or a student who has a huge loan burden and he is going to repay this over a 10-12 year period. Nothing less.

• You see a nice beautiful house with a lot of interiors done.
• I see a lot of debt, term insurance, must keep lousy jobs, almost a financial prison – with a self imposed cycle.

A nice house if bought with the earning and repaying capacity of a 30 year old couple has to be far away from town. ‘Drive till you can afford’ is a very Mumbai centric dialog – and is universally true. So if 2 friends earning about Rs. 13 lakhs each have committed to Rs. 87 lakhs of home loan, 12 lakhs of car loan, have some educational and personal loans – frankly I can see tensions, delayed EMI payments, etc. You will be able to see this…or one of their parents bail them out.

• You see a Harley Davidson bike or an Audi car
• I see a lot of debt, a bottomless pit, and a huge lifestyle creep and lotsa energy bills!

All the higher end vehicles have an amazing head turning ability. However, finance people like me keep wondering – do they have a kitty for the rainy day? do they have medical insurance? Is it safe riding the Harley Davidson during the monsoon on the Expressway? Apart from that..how necessary and how sensible to borrow to splurge. These toys are nice to own with OWN MONEY.

• A destination wedding
• I see a father playing to the gallery and wondering why he went beserk trying to please his spouse and kid

Expensive, real expensive Indian weddings are held in various destinations – I saw a wedding hall with a Rs. 1 crore per day rent – no this does not include the food costs. The food costs varied from Rs. 1000 for breakfast and about 5k per plate dinner. Sure if you have earned the money and can afford it, do it. By all means. Sadly, rich people play a role model for the society in which we live. So many a times I see the parent actually take on a lot of debt to ‘show off’. Well it takes it toll.

Can just go on and on with such examples…..these were just for YOU to get the drift.

Proof of living beyond your means!

http://www.subramoney.com/2013/06/proof-of-living-beyond-your-means/