You(& I) Maybe Wrong About This Concept of Money
Because money doesn’t grow on trees (it grows with you)
I learned this the hard way but I think now it’s my responsibility to pass on the wisdom to the ones who need this, seriously.
That’s why I have forced myself to write this to piece to convey my experiences and relationship with money.
All our lives, we have heard this famous line from our parents (mostly Indian middle-class parents) that,
Beta, Money doesn’t grow on trees !!!
*‘Beta’ can be used for either son/daughter in Hindi.*
And after 30-odd years of my life, I have come to this point where I can literally feel those lines. Need to know why?
Let’s go back in the past a little to understand:
*Sound of breaking into the past..*
Back in Early 1990s
There was a famous and most-talked financial scam that happened in India in 1992.
It was called the 1992 Indian Stock Market Scam or most famously The Harshad Mehta scam.
That scam itched us to believe that we have this abundance of money stored in stock markets and stock exchanges.
And if you have the skills to manipulate people and their systems, you can actually rope seeds of infinite money.
But we all know from within that manipulation of any kind for harming others with or without any intention is not good at all.
After one year, in 1993, I grew up in a lower-middle-class family in Ahmedabad, India.
Packaging childhood under Rs. 10
That is just 0.12 cents in USD (at the time of writing).
This is the max we can get as pocket money for some time of its depreciation.
No monthly pocket money system exists in Indian households(till now).
And surprisingly those 10 rupees feel like everything to us at that tender age.
I personally don’t buy impulsively coz I have this much amount in my pocket. I buy when I actually need it.
And that’s how we all grew up mostly in our middle-class childhood. We save it for our most needed purchase.
There are some exceptions as well in our families, where one of our cousins believes in bulk spending without 0 earnings.
Fun Fact: During festivals, our pocket money gets a big spike of 50% or even 100%, which makes our mini income around Rs. 20 or Rs. 30 (0.25 USD to 0.40 USD).
But Then Reality Struck Our Happiness
Everything going fine and cheesy for us then we grew up and started to go to schools and colleges.
Those extra but required headaches of buying school stationeries, uniforms, and, books hit our parents.
They started to save much more than ever to fulfil their kid’s academics.
But we as school-going kids got a raise in our so-called pocket money.
Still, it is too low to spend on that hot and cheesy pizza 🍕.
At that time we started to realize how and where we should spend these pennies. But somehow we could not resist ourselves to buy that mini puff pastry with potato stuffing.
Fast forward to the times when we grew up so big that we go to colleges back then for further studies.
The expenses chart is now soaring and taking huge leaps. And we are barely saving anything because we have this concept installed in our minds that —
Beta, Money doesn’t grow on trees !!!
And that’s why we never ever openly spend that small amount of money.
Now we are earning good…
From college seats, jumping straight to our comfy office chairs, we are now starting to earn a good amount.
We are now spending more on some stress-buster cigarettes and unwanted coffee breaks. (btw I don’t smoke at all or drink coffee anymore)
Without realizing that those are just killing our savings into intangible assets.
We are somehow stressed from within that money is this complex thing and without it, we can’t survive.
We are gobbled in this spiral of infinite thoughts on what happens to our money if we couldn’t spend it properly.
Now when we are earning 10000% more than our usual 10 rupees pocket money, we are yet to explore the meaning of money and its importance in our daily lives.
I can buy that hot and cheesy pizza now BUT something is stopping me to do that.
That something is my childhood, maybe my mindset, maybe my middle-class upbringing, it can be anything but something cringy, to be fair.
The Most Essential Part — The Conclusion
We all are running behind money like there is no end. We are not looking at the bigger picture.
We are forced to believe that money is a strange thing to explain. And even strange thing to handle.
But what I realized from the whole conversation and experience is that,
Money can grow on trees (hypothetically) if we water those plants daily and passionately.
Those low views or no views on our blogs will increase someday. Those increased views will definitely upgrade our quality of writing.
And that quality in our work will surely bring money into the equation.
And what do we do with those increased earnings?
- Spend more time with our loved ones,
- Do more quality work,
- Share wisdom with the needy,
- Invest more to earn more
- Maintain our health and wealth
And I am still sticking to my subtitle that :
Because money doesn’t grow on trees (it grows with you)
Love to hear your thoughts on this and how your childhood went in that early 1990s. Waiting for your feedback and point of views.
Till then,
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Kudos !!!
