Dads– men with the most cringe worthy humor, amazing sleeping ability and the best bear hugs. More importantly, our Dads usually seem to have solutions to most of our problems, especially finance related. To commemorate Father’s Day, we have compiled financial pearls of wisdom from our dads, right from our childhood till now, which we can inculcate in our financial lives.
Our first lesson in managing finances began with a piggy bank. Dropping a coin or two in our piggy bank was always fun as kids, but we may have overlooked the fact that such a practice could be really helpful in our future. Filling up our piggy bank in our childhood can provide us with essential saving tips for the future: the joy of using a full piggy bank to get what we wanted. Counting every rupee in our piggy bank definitely made us feel super rich.
What we take from this is that good things take time. Waiting to gather a desired sum instead of spending right away is definitely recommended by our dads. A piggy bank also teaches us not to spend unnecessarily. Save for the future instead of spending on trivial things.
A pro tip for future parents is; to set up a savings account for when your child’s piggy bank is full. Most banks provide children specific savings account that allows children to run the account by themselves after a certain age. This helps inculcate financial independence right from an early age.
Most of us may have faced a ‘if you do this, only then you will get that’ situation right from our childhood into early adulthood. And of course, we always obliged. Working ‘hard’ and ‘doing’ what our Dads’ asked us to do to get what we want may have been a tedious task, but this has definitely shaped us for the future. If anything, this has taught us that nothing comes easy. The road to financial success is paved with many difficulties which we cannot overcome without working hard. Working hard is always worth it in the end. After all, eating that pastry you wanted has never been sweeter, after cleaning up like your room like your dad asked you to.
These simple bribes have also taught us something else: responsibility. When we were younger, if we did not do what we were told to do, we would not get what we want. Thus, it helps us learn that we are responsible for the choices we make. Similarly, we learn to hold ourselves accountable in case of a bad investment.
No parent likes to see their child suffer. All parents want to fix things for their kids. But even when fixing things for us in our childhood, our parents have molded us to stand on our own feet and fix our own problems as we grow up. Many Dads may have taught us this early on- if we broke a toy, we either had to fix it or make do with the broken one, because we were definitely not getting a new toy.
We can take this advice and apply it with our spending habits. Living away from our parent’s guidance and surveillance can prove to be very devastating if we spend excessively. Spending excessively can lead to serious debt. This is where we need to solve our own problems rather than rely on help from our parents. Take up a job and try to clear the debt on your own. Our parents will always be there to help us, but you need to solve your own problems by yourself and try to not add to your parent’s financial burden.
This is a common, but very important statement. How many times did your dad give you a few coins to give to the less fortunate? Have your parents ever asked you to give your old soft toys to the needy children? Such acts of generosity show that we have learnt to share from an early age, more importantly, we learn that what we own is not what is most important.
As adults, it is recommended that we adopt what we learnt as kids in our daily lives as well. Donating a certain sum in local charities is always suggested. After all, it is correctly said:
“Happiness does not result from what we get, but from what we give.”
This is a common statement from most parents. Obviously, it is accompanied by the standard “money does not grow on trees.” We may have laughed it off as kids, but as we grow up we may realize that nothing really ever comes cheap. As kids we may have never realized how hard our parents had to work to get us the things we want, but as grown adults, who need to be self- reliant and independent.
If you want something, you need to work diligently. Slacking off never works out. Wanting high returns on an investment does not come cheap as well. You need to be financially aware and alert, as well have a great balance of risk and return too. Do not risk too much for greater returns. This is where proper asset allocation comes into place. A good strategy to allocate your assets is helpful as every asset acts differently over time and has fluctuating levels of return and risk. It especially helpful as it allows you to not allocate all your money in one place.
We also recommend reading up on new financial services and being up to date with the latest news and trends.
Remember being told to prepare a time table for your studies when exams were a month away? By telling you to prepare a time table for your exams, you dad was also teaching you to budget yourself for the future. By teaching you to take into account different subjects, and the vastness of portion, you were taught to budget yourself in a way that could prepare you well in advance for the exams. Similarly, what we take is that budgeting is important to learn how to save for what want and need, minus going into debt.
Keep in mind that no matter how much and how hard you work, you will be unable to invest, give or save without accurate budgeting. Moreover, your examinations finally have a purpose and can help you in real life.
We have been so used to our Dads doing our bank work for us. Taking those trips to the bank as kids proves to be fruitful when our Dads give us free reign over our bank account. All those lessons about bank accounts and interest rates finally pays off as our Dads allow us to be financially independent.
Along with the pearls of advice given by our Dads, we also suggest an additional saving tip to help you help your future tiny tots be financially literate. The tip: Open a Kids Savings Account. Kids Savings Account are savings accounts that are specially crafted to inculcate regular banking habits in children, as well as provide a banking platform to help youngsters save up for their future. There are different Kids Savings Accounts such as Kotak Junior Savings Account which will help toinstill financial inclusion of kids to help them work towards their future.
HAPPY FATHERS DAY to the men who taught us everything we know about banking, our Dads.
