Wednesday, February 28, 2007

How much money is enough?

When I was in elementary school I used to accompany a classmate to his home during lunch hours so that he buys me a 10p candy. I never even heard that there was something called pocket money those days.

During high school I used to sneak a buck every few days from the place where change will be kept in our home and used it judicially. That was quite enough that time.

Then came the higher secondary. Still I was not allowed a pocket money. Started sneaking out a buck every other day from the same place. It was enough.

Then came the college. Every conceivable expenses were given a bill by the college. But no pocket money listed. Dad was good. He gave me quite an amount more than what the bill used to say. He asked me to open a savings a/c in the local SBI inside the college campus. I had the money to open an a/c but never did that in the four years of college. My pocket was my bank. Not only mine, with the measly money I had, I could even loan a few friends when they were in need. By always eating at the college mess (aptly it is named a mess) and artfully keeping away from the roadside restaurants I managed to save some money which can be used at the time of crisis. 100 bucks or a little more was more than enough for a month to live in college and I did live very well there.

Then came the life where I started earning, earning big money according to the standards I was in. Standard of living rose high and the expense started shooting up. With more money earned came more expenses, expenses which could have been easily cut off. But what the heck? What did I earn by saving those small amounts. Penny saved is not at all a penny earned but a penny's worth of pleasure lost. I started realizing that saving money at the cost of having fun and pleasure is no longer a worthy saving. Now whatever money I get is not enough :-(