What is common to Michael Jackson, Amitabh Bachchan, Nicholas Cage and Mike Tyson, other than the fact that they are celebrities? Well, give yourself a pat on the back if your answer was poor management of their finances.
If you are surprised as to how such wealthy people end up losing a lot of their wealth, look no further than our school and college curriculum. Today’s education institutions teach students how to develop skills and earn money. In fact, quite a few schools and colleges do not even do that. What is missing in our entire school and college curriculum are lessons in personal finance.
No matter what you end up doing for a living, you need to learn how to manage and grow the money you will be earning. Managing personal finance, therefore, is the “one skill to rule them all.” Whether it is a doctor, a successful athlete, a movie star or an engineer, all of them need to learn about personal finance to secure their financial future. While earning a lot of money makes life comfortable, higher income alone cannot guarantee a safe financial future.
Over the next months, we will look at how you can manage personal finance. We will start with the basics and move on to intermediate and advanced topics. Before long, you will become a personal finance ninja. You will also learn how improved financial fitness can benefit you in other facets of your life. In fact, financial fitness is as important as physical fitness to enjoy our life to the fullest.
Are you excited about starting your financial education journey? Let me give you something to ponder. Like most of my generation, I grew up in a single income household. Back then, most of the families I knew used to get by.
The households I knew did not have any EMIs to pay, simply because they did not have access to credit. Yet, many families have double income these days and still struggle with their EMIs. What do you think is the reason? Email your answers at moneythoughts @money- wizards.com.
The writer is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore and the co-founder of Money Wizards.
