Ever thought why your shirt pocket is
on the left side? That’s the side where your heart is! Take care of your
money like your heart…….
The world is full of people who have
an uncanny knack of generating ideas to lay their hands on our money. Often we
become victims of such schemes and our money soon becomes their money.
It is quite hard to earn money and
even harder to hold on to it. Once money is gone, it is gone for good! This is
why we need to be careful before spending our hard earned money. What we earn
isn’t important. It's what we save that counts.
If we are earning Rs. 12 lac a year
but are spending Rs. 15 lac during the same period, we can never be
millionaires. We will always be broke! There are several stories about people
who have earned a lot but who lost it all simply because they didn't know how
to hang on to their money.
We lose money due to several reasons:
· Companies produce several advertisements whose sole
aim is to move money out of our pockets into theirs. Car ads that boast of
incredible mileage, companies that offer ‘freebies’ to consumers, ads that
dismiss rival brands by putting out unscientific research studies, tutorial
classes that make dodgy claims of ‘best faculty’ and ‘most successful’ students,
detergent brands that claim to remove all sorts of stains without an authentic
study to support them are classic examples. The
Maharashtra Food & Drug Administration has taken Heinz India to court over
an advertisement for its health drink Complan. The advertisement claims the
drink can add two inches to a child's height. The FDA charge sheet calls it an
exaggerated advertisement.
· Peer pressure makes us think that we must have
certain things or live in a certain way to be seen as “successful”. This leads
us to buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we
don't like.
· Modern day advertisements are quite smart. Usually
what they don't say is more important than what they do say. Often we see a
product advertised as "buy one, get one free". Great deal, right?
Once we take a closer look we will find out that the deal is a losing
proposition. If a product actually costs one thousand rupees, and we can buy
two for three thousand rupees on a "buy one, get one free" offer, we
are actually paying a thousand rupees more than we would pay otherwise for the
same thing. In fact advertisements are like bikinis. What they reveal is
suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. Sometimes such deals could be good
but we need to check to avoid losing our money.
· This is just one example of thousands of advertising
gimmicks companies come up with to get more money out of our pockets. A bag of
chips appears to be the same size and same price as before, but the bag is only
3/4 full so we are getting less for our money.
· Quite often one sees statements on food labels such
as, 'helps maintain a healthy heart', or 'helps aid digestion’; or on cosmetic
products such as, ‘removes wrinkles’, ‘100% protection against sun’; these are
some examples of health claims that we need to be careful about before spending
our money on them.
· Claims that a supplement allows us to eat all we
want and lose weight effortlessly are false.
Thankfully there are ways to protect
ourselves from losing money to such schemes. The first thing we can do to
protect against various types of consumer fraud is to be alert. We must believe
that money is always better in our pocket than in somebody else's. Once we
believe in this we will be more cautious.
Here are some tips:
· There is always some new mobile, a new music
system, a car just launched, or new fashion clothes that a brand may be
offering. We may want these items, but we should think whether we really need
them. Most of these are items that are good to have rather than need to have.
If we stick to the basics, and think before we buy, we are more likely to save
money.
· We should do our homework. It usually takes less
than an hour of internet time to compare product costs and find out where we
can get the best deal.
· We must pay cash if possible. We must avoid using
the credit card unless we are certain that we can pay off the bill at the end
of the month. Otherwise interest charges could end up being more than the cost
of the product we originally purchased. If we can’t afford to pay cash, we
should not buy. It’s better to save and then buy.
· Every company wants us to believe that their
product is the best, or that by not buying their product, we are missing out on
something great. We should just ignore the advertisements. We should buy what
we need, when we need it and not let businesses manipulate us into spending too
much, buying the wrong product, or buying too soon.
· We must beware of advertisements that talk about
limited availability, advance payment requirements and promises of no-risk
"money-back guarantees." For example: "Hurry. This offer will
not last. Send us a cheque now to book your product." We just should
ignore such products.
· Negotiate. The price we see is not always the price
we should pay, even in a retail store setting. It is the Maximum Retail Price
(MRP). Businesses want to sell their products and often will lower the price
significantly if they think it will make or break the deal. We should not be
afraid to ask! Remember the great Tata Sky Advertisement telling us 'Poochne
Mein Kya Jaata Hai'.
Now that we understand that things are not always
what they seem to be, we have a better picture of the world of money in
general. By paying attention to the examples and tips in this article, we will
be able to keep more money in our pocket while still enjoying the things in
life that are important to us.
