Learn to ~finance~ with me

 My grandparents belonged to a generation where they did not trust banks and lived with their life earnings in their locker at home. My dad took it one step further and started with a bank account once he started working. Throughout his career span of over 40 years, his savings/ investments plan included FDs that got prematurely terminated quite often. I, on the other hand, had a bank account from my college days. Once I joined the industry and started earning, I received advice to get life insurance early on which was the only tax saving/ monetary decision I took. I then relied on FDs/ RDs as my savings schemes, then ended up spending them on the new house we were building back home. With no iota of finance background in the family and a passionate dislike and fear of the money side of things, I almost gave up even trying to do something meaningful on my own.

Then around 4 years back, I started a new job that allowed me to save a little more, and incidentally, I found TheFinancialDiet around the same time. The website has had a huge impact on breaking down finance for me. I still did not start acting on any of the advice until a year later when I finally started my emergency fund. I started transferring any bonus I receive, any amount leftover every month, even tried some tricks and tips to find excuses to build it up. I am still learning every single day. I have fallen into plans sold by bankers just to “save tax” and have found myself in a state where withdrawing would do me no good. This year, I am hoping to build on my financial knowledge and take more baby steps towards investments. I have already got myself an investment account and am about to take a webinar to understand how to get started with the same.

So join me on my financial journey here. I will be talking about steps I have taken, the shift in mindset I have experienced wrt money, spending, and saving, and my foray into the world of investments.

Vani