In good old days three basic necessity was “Roti, Kapda aur Makan”. Though this three still hold true but I feel today there is addition to three basic demands and that is Nivesh (Investment ) so now it should be “Roti, Kapda , Makan and Nivesh” .

Let us understand that today we are not having the same way of living as what our earlier generation used to live. Infact why to go back so far even the world was much different some 10 years back. Earning was less, avenues of spending were few and more of routine type, saving pattern was there but more confined to conservative financial instruments. Now more earning, more spending and more enjoyment. The world is now full with choices and varieties in every aspect of life. Roti in today’s parlance means Pizza, Burger , Dining with family at restaurants etc. Kapda in today’s world means better and modern clothing of foreign brands from Malls and Makan is not a symbolic thing to mean a roof under head but a place with modern amenities, full of facilities, electronic items etc.

Why Nivesh ? Today we have moved more towards consumerism and in a bid to enjoy we need to ask are we overspending or in other words are we underinvesting. For most people money earned find itself at two route either spending or saving/ investment. So one needs to judge is their proper balance between spending and investment ? Spending is for today whereas Investment is for tomorrow. If today is known and we want it good so tomorrow which is not so known so have to be planned well to be equally good. And so importance of Nivesh ( Investment ) becomes all the more important.

There are some needs which will be there irrespective of the fact how good or bad we change our style of living and those needs are child’s education , child’s marriage , post retirement expenses, medical expenses. Some of the new generation needs are annual holidaying , changing car and luxury items on account of new additional features or due to fashion. Even some of the present day needs like car, refrigerator, AC was luxury a decade or two back. So in short old needs have been added with some new needs also. Inflation seems to be annual regular growth occurrence. So cost of tomorrow will be much more than cost of today . So if we just spend everything today are we left for anything for tomorrow ?

Nivesh is also important because if I am having good life today I will like to maintain that in future also and that all will happen if I have right quantum of money at right time. Today we find some changing trends than our earlier generation – Private job more in demand than govt job so stability factor not that much which in turn requires plan for if some instability comes ,  pension and PF missing in many jobs so need to save to build corpus for post retirement expenses , joint family giving way to single family , childrens preferring to stay separate than parents so again save for post retirement and old age expenses , On one side longevity has increased i.e. more years to live and on other side more and frequent health problem requires more time, attention and money to stay fit and healthy.

Earlier generation believed in providing good education to their children and today it is not only good education but preferring to send children for abroad studies and so more money required at disposal at right time, earlier generation hardly thought of vocation and if it was it was to native place , to grandma place or some relatives but now the whole world is open to tour and there are annual and biannual holidays and that also does not come free but require a good amount of money. Todays marriage are not just display of rituals and a normal affair as was yesteryears it is a display of one’s status, full of pomp and show and demands big amount of money.

One major change in behaviour of young citizens of India today I see is, enjoy your life in the best possible manner. It’s a very good shift in thinking but again just as we say “past”  is “yesterday’s present”. In the same way “future”  is “tomorrow’s present “ so though present is most important in our life but future has a thread joined with present and how stronger that thread is made all depends on what best done today.

Earn, save and invest are three logical flow in terms of anyone life once he graduates from student to work. You earn because you require money for livelihood. You save because you require money for tomorrow also. You invest because you require more money for tomorrow because of rising price (inflation) and also growing and new needs. If I go back to when I started earning way back in 1989 I had never thought at that time of some of the expenses I am going to meet in future but the reality is with changing world, consumerism those came and I had to go for it. So another very important learning is tomorrow expenses may or may not known but to be met by that days’ current earning or from today’s saving (investment ). So start investing, start investing early, start investing wisely and live a very happy, enjoyable life tomorrow.