Short Movie: Saving is not enough, invest your money

By
Hemant Beniwal
29

“To save must be a habit of childhood, but to invest must be the habit of adulthood” One survey conducted in the Indian urban class people revealed the fact that only 4% of the population was confident of the future financial security of self and family as they had generated enough wealth. More than 60% of the population has to work part-time even after retirement.

Saving Vs Investing

Read Budget for your savings & not investing

Story on Saving Habit

Once a grandmother gave her grandson Rs.100/- on his birthday. He happily told his mom that he will buy candies with this money. But his mother explained that candies will spoil your teeth and it is better you put in your piggy bank. Reluctantly, he agreed. A few months later, his piggy bank was over-loaded with coins and notes. Both son and mother counted them and were delighted that the total was beyond their expectations. Again this time as a responsible mother, she advised him to put this fund into a savings account. She taught him to fill up the deposit slip. The boy tried, but could not. So his mom filled the slip and he left for the bank along with an office help.

Short Movie: Saving is not enough, invest your money Click to Tweet

Years rolled by, and his mom is now proud of his saving habits. However, the amount is earning interest only in the bank. As a responsible mother, she did right in inculcating savings habit in her son but not beyond.

This is a common story for Indians. We are one of the biggest savers in the world and an average Indian family saves over 33% of their income. Despite huge savings, we are still counted in poor countries.

The reason is that we do not know how to convert our savings into good investment. Let us quote from Rich Dad Poor Dad “The poor and the middle-class work for money. The rich get the money to work for them”

 Movie on Saving, Investment & Growth

Youtube – Part 1

Youtube – Part 2

Learn how to convert our savings into a good investments which can later lead us to financial freedom.

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Hemant Beniwal
Hemant Beniwal is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER and his Company Ark Primary Advisors Pvt Ltd is registered as an Investment Adviser with SEBI. Hemant is also a member of the Financial Planning Association, U.S.A and registered as a life planner with Kinder Institute of Life Planning, U.S.A. He started his Financial Planning Practice & TFL Guide Blog in 2009. "The Financial Literates" is a dream & mission to make Indians Financial Literate.

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29 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Hemant
    You have rightly said that we Indians are good savers but poor investors.Most of the middle class Indians who are otherwise educated have very low levels of financial education.I am glad that people like you are trying their best to provide quality financial education to people of all age groups.The role of good financial planners is critical in this respect.All potential investors must be motivated to hire the services of good financial planners.I read one very interesting article by a financial planner today.The author says that though he advises other people on financial planning but as far as his own financial planning is concerned he relies on the services of a trusted financial planner.He further says that whatever independent investments he does in equity without the advice of his financial planner he treats that part only as hobby and not serious investment.

  2. Hi Hemant
    I found the story on Saving Habit quite interesting.I would like to share my experience in this regard.My daughter used to get a lot of cash as gift from my brother and sister who are American citizen during their visit to India.At that time she was in school.She used to keep all the money with her.Once she told me that she had around ten thousand rupees with her but she did not know what to buy with the money.I asked her why she is not putting the money in the bank if she is not going to buy anything immediately.I took her to a PNB branch very close to her school where I used to deposit her school fee. The manager told me that they have a special Vidyarthi A/C which can be opened in her name as I had an account in the same branch. This is a zero balance account which can be operated by the student. The child becomes eligible to get a Debit Card and Cheque Book immediately on becoming 18 years old.Although my daughter has gone to the college but she is still reluctant to deposit or withdraw money from the bank. I strongly feel that we can overcome these problems only when some sort of elementary financial education is imparted to the kids at the school. At least teenagers should know how to open and operate a savings account.

    • Dear Anil,
      Thanks for regularly sharing your views & also helping readers. I will request you to write one guest post for TFL – either choose a topic about which you have good knowledge or share your personal story. I think this will be really motivating for other readers.

      • that’s a nice suggestion …. offcource ,we are expecting one good article from Anil bhai and i think he is really capable for that …

        all the best

      • Hi Hemant
        Thanks! You must have noticed that I am regularly sharing my own experiences in my comments on your various posts.I will be too glad to share my personal story with TFL readers one day.My observation is that you have provided answers to most of the important questions on financial matters in your posts.However readers keep on asking same questions which you have already answered either in your posts or in your answers to comments of readers.The reason for this is that either the readers have not gone through your all posts or they tend to forget what they have already read.The only solution of this problem is editing and compiling of the information already available in the form of ebook. I know this is a massive job.But this will be useful if this job is undertaken one day.

  3. This is an amazing movie. I don’t know why there were only about 5000 odd hits on this. Probably this was not marketed properly or people just don’t care. But man, was this such a touching video. I agree with you Hemant, the second part was very moving. I am just a tight nut when it comes to personal finance and this instantly became my favorite :). Thanks for sharing buddy.

    • Hi Mansoor,
      You are right “people just don’t care” – they think its just waste of time. But they will realize it one day & that will be too late. Keep sharing TFL with ur friends.

    • Thanks Shamshad – someday even your friends will say thanks to you. (read ur message on TFL Bday Post)

      • yes sir…. i’am sure about it…i don’t need them to say thanks to me but i need to see them always happy…all credits goes to you Hemant bhai,your articles change me a lot and now i’am little bit financially literate. Now i have prepared some small notes regarding SIP and best performing funds for last few years.i will discuss it with my friends and at least i will make them to invest a amount monthly through SIP.

        Be with us always….

        Shamshad

  5. Dear Hemant ji,
    Thank you very much, I relate to this movie so much that it seams like my story, excepting my son is still 13 years old and few more years for him to graduate.
    I m not rich but I cannot call myself poor too, at one point of time I lost everything even my home when my son was born the same year, and I was not alone, I have a mother, a elder unmarried sister, a young brother, my wife and a new born son only 2 months old.
    I was virtually on the road without anything with so many family members to support.
    I rented a flat and left the whole family there and left India for working in the middle-east.
    Today I m a proud person with my own house though not very big but still it is mine, build with lots of love by my wife.
    Have a decent money saved in FD for my son’s education, A small amount in equity, a not so big amount in Mutual fund, and some emergency money left in
    my saving account for emergency use.
    Though I did not have someone to plan my finance, I m still reading article on finance and try to understand it to the best of my knowledge.
    Among all the site I have visited in the past 4 years
    I find your site not only informative but a site with a heart of a common middle class man, and his dreams and aspiration.
    Keep up the great work, hope one day all Indian middle class will be well to do people with happy family.
    Thanks a lot.
    Regards
    tony

    • Thanks Tony for sharing your story – its really inspiring.
      Rich or poor is just state of mind – more important is you & your family should be happy. Enjoy!!

  6. Hi Hemant
    I really liked the movie and the message. One thing that I do want to highlight for all the viewers is that the old adage of buying and holding stock market investments for ever is not the way forward. I am not expecting any on to be timing the market but stock markets after they reach a level do not always move up and up. Hence we should be prepared to take the profits from the market and reinvest them as SIPs. Look at this like a middle approach to bachat and nivesh done with a touch of sceptism about the ability of equity markets to always return a positive in the long term.

    • Hi RP
      I think the best approach for an average middle class investor is to remain away from the direct investment in equity market and invest only in mutual funds through SIP route.This way one can remain invested in the market for a longer time without bothering about short time swings.

  7. There is a difference between thinking and implementing…. and same is the difference between saving and investing…. the 1st part is useless without the 2nd….

  8. Dear Hemant,

    The article was simply outstanding.Saving play an important role in our life but investing saving to get better return is more important to have grt future ahead..!!!

    • Hi Mihir
      Repeating first line of article “To save must be a habit of childhood, but to invest must be the habit of adulthood” 😉

  9. Hi Hemant
    I hv just Subscribed ur Articles.The Article Was Outstanding and everyone can get inspired by it.
    I am 25 and i am just a starter in investment feild,so please help me to recognize between good and bad.what are the different types of investments and where should we start from and in which quantity.pls post some articles or links for the queries.

  10. Hi Jassi,

    Hemant has written many articles related Systematic investment plan in mutual funds, health insurance, Life insurance and many more. You can search these articles in this TFL website itself. I am not sure whether I am allowed to paste the links of the artciles here but you can just scroll around here and there, you will find the links. Best of Luck for your future.. 🙂

  11. Hi Hemant,

    This is just an awesome article. Although I understand the importance of investment but I have not been able to do so till now. I am married and I am blessed with a son who is just 6 months young. I have planned to buy a Smartkid (traditional plan not ULIP) offered by ICICI Pru which should give me a suitable life insurance and will also help me with some money back during different stages of child education. Moreover I have decided to start monthly SIP of Rs. 1000 with two different MFs.

    Although the articles read till now have clarified many aspects, still I need to understand that how much important it is to keep a track of the funds in which I will be doing SIP ? I have no knowledge of market. Even in one of the comments of Mr. Anil he has mentioned that if we are investing through SIP, we must keep a track of the fund’s performance. Could you please guide in this regard ?

    Thanks, Nishi

  12. It is NOT recommended to mix investment with insurance. You should read below articles: –
    https://www.retirewise.in/2010/05/term-plan-the-right-way-to-take-insurance.html
    https://www.retirewise.in/2011/07/child-future-plan.html

    You can look to invest in MFs and PPF for your child’s education.

    Regarding MFs investment [via SIP or otherwise] you should review performance of the funds at least once a year. Relocate money only if a fund is consistently underperforming over a period of 2-3 years when you are invested for long term.

  14. Thanks to guidance with simple language. As a lady it is very difficult to manage but now I can understand saving is good but investment make me confidence. I read your articles regularly and try to implement.

  15. Hi hemant … this was an excellent movie … I’m a us citizen with roots in India … how do I best invest in India … I’m 51 already … thanks

    • Hi Marie,
      If you are US citizen & just want to participate in Indian growth story – try some ETF in US.

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