When I first played Business as a kid, I discovered that not all wallets had the wisdom of remaining healthy and wealthy all the time.
But, life isn’t as easy as swinging two dice & hoping for luck to strike. When that bank statement beeps on my phone, I react with the same mask of innocence, ‘Shoot I spent it all, but where…?’
I clutched my purse & took my seat when Finance expert Gurleen Kaur revealed secrets to keep a tap on the money river that flows from my pocket.
And the hall at Grand Uniara heard footsteps & heels slapping against the floor. I was waiting for my pocket full of holes to be sewn shut. Enter, Gurleen.
“Let’s begin our workshop with an anthem. Well, I don’t mean national anthem, but the women’s anthem that all of us will sing along,” she said. Whoops, we were a bit red-faced as the anthem did not play. Lady boss Ana zoomed Photographer Pallav’s lens into the technician’s face. Was she going to shoot them?
Anyway, Gurleen had the right cord to keep it going. “When we talk about finance what comes to your mind?” She said. Someone in the audience said, ‘manage it’. Gurleen further enquired if it scared everyone? Yes. They all nodded.
She introduced to us an ideal purse that contained some reds, yellows and the greens. Reds were the medical, grocery, entertainment, fee-related expenses, while yellow were the savings that would turn into investments and become green.
She gave us a logical explanation of why we should’ve taken charge: women have longer life expectancy, folks!
Gurleen revealed the formula of the best way to manage your budgets, “It’s quite simple, ‘Budgeting=Awareness’ that is to balance income and expenses.”
To cheer up the budget-defaulters, snacks & coffee were served.
“Inflation is increasing that means expenses are increasing, so what should be done?” She asked. While I was still struggling with the question, someone in the audience answered, “We should increase our income because expenses will never go down.”
Gurleen, with the help of an example, explained how saving early in life comes handy.
She gave examples of Seeta and Geeta who saved Rupees 5,000 for 35 years and Rupees 10,000 for 20 years, respectively. In the end, Seeta could save 21,00,000 and Geeta 24,00,000. She then asked the homepreneurs to put their fingers to use. Of course, the fingers were not enough, and the calculation didn’t happen!
Someone came up with the right answer, “Seeta will be able to save 5.71 Cr. & Geeta will save 1.33 Cr.” Wow, I think I just had a Deja Vu of class 8, when my attempt at answers was interrupted by smart students.
“We are not that old, we are just 40. We can save maybe about 1 crore if we start now,” someone encouraged the women in-house.
Gurleen threw some light on the four kinds of effective investment plans:
“You should distribute your savings in these four parts depending on your risk appetites. It is a) Equity i.e. Shares and Mutual Funds, b) Debt i.e. Provident Fund, c) Bullion i.e. Gold and Silver, and d) Real Estate.”
Another question popped from the audience.
“What is more profitable, real estate or bullion?”
“Bullion is definitely not, so real estate. It is liquidatable because no one buys gold or silver to sell them out.” Gurleen replied.
Gurleen distributed colorful balloons amongst us and invited us not let those balloons hit the ground. While some pushed the balloons up to high, and couldn’t catch it, others were too scared of losing theirs, there was a bunch of smart ones who maintained their balloons at the perfect distance. And guess who were the better money managers?
Money has a word hidden in it: One. At that, Lady Boss Ana asked the participants to pen down their one dream, one passion and one mission in their lives. Money works the best when dedicated in ONE direction. Here are some of the interesting responses:
“My dream is to open a naturopathy center. My mission is to spread love and I dream to dance till the end of my life.”
“My dream is to buy my own house. I am a mother of an infant so my mission is to be a good mother and, I too, am passionate about dance. I too want to dance till the last day of my life.”
It was now time for us to know the secret of the mysteriously displayed jewelry that stared at us throughout the session.
Bela Badhalia, co-founder, Silgo, lifted the curtain off.
“I connected with an old friend from school a while ago to start Silgo as a joint venture and introduce 925 silver jewelry. To benefit the society, we invited women to sell our jewelry at a discounted price and earn through commissions, as a part of our Dyuti project.
This initiative is solely for women who need a push to take that first step towards entrepreneurship. They can choose from many kits/plans that allow them to further sell the designer Silgo jewelry. We call these women our Dyutis who are now determined to lighten up their world.
Dyuti is synonymous with goddess Laxmi. The name resonates with our belief that every woman is a Laxmi. Just as our motto suggests, ‘We want to provide wings to the women who want to fly’. She said.
As the event came to an end, the women in-house tried on Bela Badhalia’s silver jewelry collection as their first step of smart purse management.
