I used to collect these Coins in my childhood.
We don't see these coins anymore
I had a piggy bank and I would save these coins. I would try for 50 paisa and 1 rupee coins too. If luck was good I would get some 1 Rs, 2 Rs currency notes as well. It would take a few months for the piggy bank to fill up.
After the piggy bank got full it would be party time. I could buy things from it. A full piggy bank was roughly INRs 50-100 depending on the coins & notes in it. It was a lot of money back then.
The piggy banks made of clay were fun to break. The plastic ones had to be cut & then could be reused. While reusing I would keep opening it every week to check how much I had collected. The joy of seeing the money growing was amazing.
I always hoped one day the piggy bank would have so much money that I could buy anything. My dream was to buy a bicycle from my own money.
This is how I learnt the art of saving.
I always had a few hundred rupees and people would come & borrow from me. I started to charge them for lending money. I saw the money growing. This is how I learnt the art of investment.
Using both saving & investment I grew my money to Rs 700 it was the maximum I had collected.
I went to a bicycle shop & bought my first cycle with the money. It was my life's happiest moment.
I valued the cycle more than my life because it had taken me very long time to collect the money.
I always valued money.
Many years later came a time when I did not have money in my pocket. I started to value money even more.
Slowly my relationship with money improved.
Money only came in & little went out & it started to grow. Now money started to value me
I was a miser I spent only little of what money I had. As a student I would save 50% of the money I earned through tuitions, teaching & jobs. I was able to pay my own college fees.
After I started working fulltime I would save 60% of what I earned. I had a simple principle to live 2 levels below what I could afford. If I could afford a 3bhk flat I would go for a 1bhk. When I could afford a car I would travel by bus.
I would also invest the money so that the money started to grow. This helped me retire early & become an entrepreneur.
I applied the same principles & bootstrapped my start-ups. Cashflows were the key. Money earned should always be more than money spent.
We bootstrapped 2 service start-ups, which were able to support several employees.
I was told that you cant bootstrap a product start-up. Happy to share our bootstrapped product start-up www.multimediastudio.net is self sustaining from day one. It is supporting several families as well.
No loans taken, no funds raised, salaries & bonuses always paid on time.
I owe my life to these coins I started collecting.
YES, SMALL THINGS MATTER !
What about you?
Are you saving well?
Are you investing well?
What is your relationship with money?
You can register for our next storytelling workshop at www.multimediastudio.net
