Money Making...

Once I came across an interview with SRK where he said, "Do not feel guilty about making money as long as you are making it with your own hard work and not robbing people. Don't be apologetic about buying expensive things or owning things with your own hard-earned money. It is very important to fulfill all worldly desires, to possess things that can be bought with money—that's what you are working day in and day out for!" Well, I agree with him.

Especially coming from a middle-class background where we were told to study hard to live a better life in the future—as one of the kids of the '90s who have sacrificed TV programs, family get-togethers, or going out with friends to a movie—we all did only one thing in our childhood days: we studied. That was the only thing we knew to free ourselves from boring, simple lives. We all wanted to go out, watch movies, drink cold drinks, eat chips, have ice cream whenever and wherever we wanted to. We all aspired to be like the famous characters of Gupi Gayen and Bagha Bayen (created by Satyajit Ray), who could eat, wear, and travel wherever their moods took them, and the only way we knew we could become like them was to study.

But after growing up, we came to know that getting fat paycheques is not enough if we do not know how to increase our wealth. Our previous generation will argue, saying our generation does not know the art of saving; we are too engrossed in showing off our wealth and end up spending too much. I would like to counter that by saying we want to be unapologetic and not answerable to anyone about the way we live. 

Instead of decreasing your expenses, why not increase your income? There are a few sure-shot ways to increase your wealth over time without taking much pain. In this blog, I will talk about a few traditional schemes, though:

1. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana: Tax savings—you can invest up to ₹1.5 lacs per year with an interest rate of 8.2%. However, you need to have a girl child, and the amount saved will mature when your daughter turns 21 years old.

2. NSC (National Savings Scheme): Instead of blocking your money for nearly 10 years in KVP (Kisan Vikas Patra—another Post Office savings scheme with an interest rate of 7.5%), you can keep your money for 5 years in NSC and reinvest the money for the next 5 years to get the maximum return. You can either invest one time or every month so that after 10 years, you get a steady monthly income that would be double the money you invested currently every month! The interest rate for NSC is 7.7%.

3. PF (Provident Fund): With an interest rate of 8.2% and the option of VPF, where you can save up to 100% of your basic pay before your salary gets credited to your account—it is a popular choice among working professionals.

4. PPF (Public Provident Fund): The interest rate is 7.1%, but it is another way to increase your wealth even before you realize it. 

However, diversifying or investing  everywhere is advisable.