Signs you are living beyond your means!
Some of the kids I know are going to HATE me for this article…sorry guys n gals but you have really inspired me to write this. Honestly this is dedicated to you.
Here it goes!
1. Your cheques bounce: Oh not regularly but 4 times in a year. This could be because your salary came late, you forgot to transfer from salary account to EMI account, your wife withdrew money without telling you…..blah blah blah, but the fact is 4 cheques out of 36 (3 emis per month you see – car, house, mobike)..
2. Last year out of 12 EMIs for your educational loan, 3 were paid for by your dad. Not because of love, but because he did not want your credit rating to slip below default category 🙂
3. You cannot live FOR 6 MONTHS without your job AND without your girl friend/ wife is in the same position. Safety net? you got to be joking.
4. You are shit scared of losing your job which you completely HATE. You have no choice but to stay on in this job and listen to all the shit that your boss gives you. Sadly your pregnant wife is in a SIMILAR situation. If the doctor suggests bed rest for your wife, …..omg…
5. You always pay slightly more than minimum amount to be paid on your credit card. You have NO clue how much interest and penalty you are paying.
6. You married on credit, you vacationed on credit, you bought your furniture and car also on credit. In most cases you are paying off the loan much longer than the use of the asset. Not talking of marriage, though!
7. Marriage came as a boon – there was somebody to share your expenses, but you realized she is just as bad. 🙁
8. Credit Card score? Well well. You do not know what it is, right?
9. When you buy ANY asset the only thing you consider is ‘can i afford the EMI’. This means all your products have an extra interest cost. You do not even KNOW this.
10. You regularly refinance – not because the interest rates have dropped but because you need to reduce your EMIs.
11. You have hopes of doing your own business, but do not even dare to dream because at 34 with a networth of Rs. 22 Lakhs…you and your wife are wondering what to do…
12. You are in debt, but all your work is outsourced. Your clothes are laundered. You eat out 3 times a week. hmmmm.
13. Investing? Your classmate from MBA made you open a brokerage account – you did some FnO transactions, lost about 20k and now have sworn never to go near the equity markets. You bought a ULIP to help a friend meet a target but the policy lapsed when your friend left her job.
want more? i thought this was enough!!
Nidhi
Nice one though.
We would not need to do so if inflation was not growing every day and prices of everyday expenses becoming larger and larger.
I have stopped using my credit cards altogether to stop being able to accrue what pains to pay at the day my salary comes.
3. You cannot live FOR 6 MONTHS without your job AND without your girl friend/ wife. Safety net? you got to be joking.
Setting up a new home requires this. leaves no scope for a safety net. if you don’t own a car at 26 you have done nothing in your life. your parents think you have achieved nothing all their money was wasted. so all this a resultant of the social pressure.
4. You are shit scared of losing your job which you completely HATE. You have no choice but to stay on in this job and listen to all the shit that your boss gives you. Sadly your pregnant wife is in a SIMILAR situation. If the doctor suggests bed rest for your wife, …..omg…
we are scared of losing our jobs even if we hate them( because of our bosses most oft he time) coz we still love the work we do. And we don’t want to waste 25 years and our parents money for which we will have to hear every second of every day if we do quit. and more importantly there are enough educated and lesser jobs each day. we do not have the luxury of living in a world where education was dispensable to only a selected few and they had enough jobs for them. yes omg.. but we have self confidence and we want to change the world.
6. You married on credit, you vacationed on credit, you bought your furniture and car also on credit. In most cases you are paying off the loan much longer than the use of the asset. Not talking of marriage, though!
we did all and paid our bills later. it should not be a concern to anyone as long as we “afford ” it. we buy our assets not get them as dowry ( should be a good thing) one less social issue in India.
7. Marriage came as a boon – there was somebody to share your expenses, but you realized she is just as bad.
and she is just as good, educated and earning to support her needs so its not an additional burden to support her expenses.
8. Credit Card score? Well well. You do not know what it is, right?
every one who has taken a loan would be aware.
9. When you buy ANY asset the only thing you consider is ‘can i afford the EMI’. This means all your products have an extra interest cost. You do not even KNOW this.
at least we think of affordability before we buy. we know the interest rates. even the 0% ones. its an informed purchase decision always.
11. You have hopes of doing your own business, but do not even dare to dream because at 34 with a networth of Rs. 22 Lakhs…you and your wife are wondering what to do…
constantly hating our job and loving the work drives us to the business. by the time we would be 34 we would have had a taste of all the organizations in our industry (we love to switch jobs).
12. You are in debt, but all your work is outsourced. Your clothes are laundered. You eat out 3 times a week. hmmmm.
we are in a private job where our managers are from gen x and they do not want to go back home ever, they are here in the orgn soooo.. deep rooted they would never leave. the work load comes in at 5 and even on weekends. its not we love to outsource but we have to.
and eating 3 times a week is sometimes cheaper than cooking at home( we decided not to buy the gas cylinders & gas due to ever increasing prices)
karthik
subra Couldn’t get the Point no 11..pls explain
Anand
What is a credit card score?
jey
point 11 : I am 34 and i think subra is saying if you are having just 22 lacs as networth being married dont ever think of starting a business.You havent even secured yourself and family and need focussing of building your netwealth before starting a business fraught with risk.. Kindly correct me if I am wrong.
Dheeraj
I like point 4 and 11.
PrAvEen
situation in Point 6 is started in rural India too
akshat
What is the size of the set of people with these habits ? If its rapidly growing, there are serious implications for society because the debts will need to be paid by someone. Are these people looking at the past couple of decades and taking 10-15% hikes as an entitlement ? When they retire (or are fired), there will big social problems.
Sanjay
People who have such lifestyle are not going to be reader of this blog. And people who are reader of this blog would not be having such lifestyle.
Good article. But not targeted properly.
subra
ok Sanjay Viral it on FB, welcome.
Karthik: Jey’s explanation is bang on..
akshat such people? nos. are growing. See bank balance sheet – retail loans
Google you will know what is credit score. I may also have done an article, if not, good, will do soon 🙁
PrAvEen
Point no 6 became mandatory now.
Anand
Oh.. credit score. I know that. The one CIBIL gives you out of 900.
I thought credit card score is something different.
Soumen Dey
Sir,
I am saving almost 25% of my net salary which is locked for 10 yrs in Recurring Deposit @ 10.25%. At the time of maturity I will be in the 10% tax bracket. Will this be enough? Will it be able to beat inflation? As my salary appreciates I plan to start equity SIPs. What can be the expected rate of return in a good SIP?