To rationalize convincingly (atleast to ourselves) is one of the most common talent among all of us! For example, I have no time to breath these days and so I can’t find enough time for my family. But I happily spend 8 hours of sleep, not to talk of the time infront of TV during the IPL3!
So it is with our financial (mis)management! We blame the wily Agent who mis-sold the ULIPs. We blame our parents for not teaching us the ropes. In some case, blaming parents for their obsolete teachings! Then we blame the media for giving us half baked or wrong information.
Have you ever thought of taking personal responsibility over your financial life? Have you considered that no one will ever care about your money as much as you should do?
Let’s take a look at the stakeholders of our financial life. One at a time.
Agents/Advisors
Out of 3 million Insurance Agents in India, roughly 50000 would be focused on providing real value to their customers through their knowledge and service orientation. The 50K Agents would have an Office of their own and are into it fulltime. You are a lucky guy if you can get them! But even these 50K agents would have consideration of their own benefits taking precedence to what is good for you.
Parents
Dad’s responsibility is limited to being an ATM these days. They can’t bring themselves to teach you things about frugality, investing early and regularly. It is also financial illiteracy rolling over from generation to generation!
Also the things are different. Earlier generations had several cushions like the joint family to take care of the finances. Today the complexities are increasing exponentially.
Media
To my mind, the media does its bit in informing you about the financial choices. But this comes in bits and pieces. It’s like several blind men telling you about the elephant with their own experiences!
Moreover, their agenda is to bring in advertisers rather than taking responsibility for your finances!
Me & You
Lot of us do try to manage our money. And we think our way is the right way. But have we stopped to think whether we can do this in a better way?
If at all we have to blame somebody for our financial mismanagement, it’s We. 
What do you think?
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Congrats on the post in MINT
I came across this FD scheme by Mahindras in moneycontrol. It says they offer 9% interest on Fd.
Is an FD better than regular mutual fund investments? How does it compare. COuld you send me some links to some information on a comparison?
The link for the Mahindra Deposit is: http://www.mahindrafinancelms.net/campaigns/fd/
You have a nice blog here. The Mint mention is well deserved.
Thanks Megha for the kind words.
First of all, it’s important to be aware of your risk appetite. If you can manage risk, why don’t u go for aggressive mutual funds. Even for risk avoiders, there are hybrid debt oriented schemes. Like the one I mention here: http://ranjanvarma.com/conservative-debt-oriented-mutual-funds/
Accepted that one is responsible for ones financial positions. but it is also an accepted fact that maximum people in India are not aware of the terms and technicality of financial world so they depend on intermediaries. and this make them vulnerable to mismanagement of ones finances.
Yes. But they can make an effort. To drive a car, we don’t need to be an automobile engineer. My point is that the people should take responsibility as noone else will.
Sir
Agreed. When you point our index finger to any one, the other threes have already pointed to me.
We are responsible for our own destiny. But we can change it too.
Thanks for eye opening.
Regds
S.Das