Wise or Conservative?

Some days back when I told my parents that I was not going to the farewell party, they thought I was keeping away from it with money as the reason and they said they would pay for it. I never expect them to know the reason. I refused to take any money even when I could have taken the money and used it for some other thing. There were a few friends of mine who too thought that I wasn't coming because of money. For all of those, I can perhaps mention that today my mother gave me Rs.40,000. It was not cash but in the form of two bank receipts of the money she deposited in my name. She directed that I must be spending it on a specific thing but we both know that that thing hardly takes more than Rs.5000. The rest is mine. I have no intentions of getting it liquidated.

All along these days, I have also told a few of my friends that I neither discourage nor do I encourage the farewell party. Today, I somehow feel that I should have tried to stop it. I should have spoken directly to some people and asked them not to give any money. There were some already who told that they wouldn't give money because I wasn't and I had insisted that they must go ahead with it. I regret not trying to stop anybody. I ended up encouraging. That was my foolishness. I am glad that I kept away form it.

Today I also got to know from my mother a little about how she manages her money. I was amazed to know how meticulously she takes care of her finances and I realized that she is doing a lot similar to what the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" was saying. Mother understands the difference between an asset and a liability. She knows how a house is sometimes not an asset but a liability. She knows how important it is to have a balanced balance sheet and how important assets. She perhaps also know that an asset is an asset only when it can create income. Perhaps the way she has invested her money till now makes things clear.

My mother never bought luxuries until she had sufficient assets. She gave more importance to assets rather than luxuries. Those people especially from poor and middle-class who do not have financial education try to acquire more and more luxuries because they want to show that they are rich. They end up digging holes in their pockets and acquiring more liabilities in the form of loans and credit-card bills. My mother knew how to save taxes and how the government can eat up a big chunk of her salary if she didn’t knew the rules and laws related to the constitution which can help her save taxes.

Wealth is the number of days is the number of days I can live the same lifestyle I am living if I stop getting money now. There is a golden rule. Those who have gold make most of the rules. My college masters in producing students who are good employees. No doubt so many companies come to my college to hire students. So the college has to create good employers for them. My college doesn’t know how to create employers.

I thank Allah that my mother could teach me so much about money and finances. I remember when she explained me how a penny saved is a penny gained. I have also learned that it is not about how much money you earn. It is all about how much money you keep with you. Money is my mother’s area of expertise. I learnt so mush just by looking at her. When I go to college, study my syllabus and do many things just so that I can get a good job to earn money, I find it necessary that I must learn what money is and how it must be kept! And I am learning. My mother is helping me. My father is unfortunately not interested in money. He knows how to earn what he earns. He doesn’t know what has to be done after that. Many people don’t know that. I can give several examples. But not here!

Until sometime back I felt as if I should break my computer screen’s glass or take the car, go for a drive, drive as fast as I could and bang into some wall. To contain myself I thought of calling up some friend and pacify myself. I went to the Asar prayer and came to write this. I feel better now. It’s Magrib now. Alhmdulillah.