People, Finances and Growing

Diwali is just going by and being fresh from worshipping Goddess Laksmi (the goddess of wealth), I think it will be interesting to pen a few thoughts and words about money. An acquaintance used to say “Money is not god, but money is no lesser than a god as well !!” I think – How True !!

My wife and me often discuss – “what is more crucial in life : People or Money”? A probably cheeky but reasonable answer might be – “People who can generate money”. Money is one aspect of life and there are times when it has no substitute. At the same time, people are another aspect of life and there are times when there is no substitute. Are we not thinking just about life of people? Life exists without money and life also exists without people.

The answer to the question “what is more crucial in life?” has different answers – different persons might have different answer at the same time and same person might have different answers at different times. In a nutshell, both are important, definitely important. Although it seems to be an unfair and unreasonable question, the question keeps cropping up and we have to take decisions – people around versus the money. Don’t we spend more time getting educated for jobs and don’t we spend more time at jobs earning money than with the people closer to us? Doesn’t the house, the car we own and the job we do define us?

Probably, a more comprehensive answer to this question of life is – “There is much more to life than people and money”. The people around us are defining factors of our life and money engulfs us as well as enables us in our lives. We have to take good care of people, we have to ensure good flow of money PLUS there has to be much more to life. There is a house to be purchased, a car to be owned, retirement planning to be done, child education to be taken care of, life insurance to be addressed, health insurance to be bought, there is so much. There is a family, there are friends, there are relatives, there are peers, there are bosses, there is a society, there is quite a lot.

          The fun of life and the growing begins only once we can take care of ourselves, people and the money. It is important to have just the right combination of everything to ensure a smooth journey through our lives. If you don’t put the people and money first, rest assured you will have a bumpy ride – which again is not really bad, if you can achieve something which is worth it !!