I met a professor and his nephew travelling to the airport on a Saturday afternoon. This was at a place 35 km from Mumbai airport, and they were leaving. The prof had a brilliant idea – why pay full fare, when you can use an Ola share. The nephew was happy to pay less and he too agreed.

For a 7pm flight, they were leaving at 4.30pm. Not bad considering that you could reach in 90 minutes (don’t even ask me, I would have left at 4pm if not earlier).

Will not bore you with the details, but they reached the airport at 6.10 (their version, I have no clue) but reached the counter only at 6.30 – must have been an overbooked flight. They could not get the flight. Both had important engagements the next day. They bought full fare tickets..and 3x the original price.

Another story. A super senior citizen – 87 years of age – has sold a flat. He wants to know where to invest the Rs. 108 lakhs PROFIT so that it can earn well (9% pa is too low), he should pay ZERO tax, and it should be safe. BTW he has an indexed pension, Rs. 3 crores in mutual funds – largely equity, some debt too, – and it is UNLIKELY that he will have to touch his portfolio. His only son is in the US and the son (aged 60) is childless. Needless to say son is independent, and rich.

Both these cases amuse me. Why do you earn money?

You should have a goal. The prof in the first story has money in post office, bank fd, mutual funds, ….etc. His son is settled abroad and has no intention of coming back to India. He need not have used an Ola share – trying to save – believe it or not about Rs. 80! He had no clue about Mumbai traffic on a Saturday afternoon, did not know how a ‘share’ would behave, BUT HE WAS CONFIDENT that he would reach on time. EVEN NOW HE feels that if he were not delayed at the entrance of the airport, he would have got the flight. Cannot argue with a professor, can you?

The super senior citizen has never withdrawn from his investment – he lives frugally within his pension (its really huge, he gets about Rs. 90,000 and his expenses are about Rs. 80,000). They have a cook, a domestic help, and one man Friday to help once or twice a week. He is accumulating money for a son whom he sees once in 3 years. When I met the son during his previous trip to India, he was clear that he hated India, and would NEVER ever come to India for settling down.

Many people have no clue how to handle a surplus.

Yes they have earned money when things were difficult.

Yes, they had to live frugally in their younger days

Yes they are used to save and invest it decently (sure some of them have not invested well)

Yes they have a surplus now.

The surplus is growing. You have a lot of money now.

You need to change strategy. Shift to simple assets, do not change returns. If you are 87 years of age, it will not matter whether you get 2-3% more return. The RoI on the headache will not be worth the effort.

If he can just buy a fixed deposit, its enough.

Anyway he is leaving all this money UNATTENDED. Knowing his son, he will not even come for the funeral, and he has ALREADY told me that he will not take trouble to encash the money.

well, well what to do?