A Plan For Your Lifestyle

Change your mindset to fit your shifting financial needs, rather than trying to fit your lifestyle into rigid rules to realise your financial dreams

- Narayan Krishnamurthy

A few decades ago, a side hustle mostly meant one was saving up for a big expense like buying a car or that home theatre which was so appealing. Today, a side hustle is all about ending a month without going hungry or a delay in paying out rent. It was easy to save money from the salary, even if it was little, today if you ask someone from among the GenZ about saving money, they would stare in disbelief. It is not that they aren’t trying, money just doesn’t seem to be enough today. Rising living costs, economic uncertainty and jobs are all causes of concern when managing one’s finances.

Traditional personal finance advice—save 10 per cent of your income, don’t spend over 40-45 per cent of your income on rent and household expenses or don’t pay EMIs of over 25-30 per cent of your income—are all statements that sound good in theory, but the way we deal with money these days is different and complicated. Consumer spending is on the rise, unemployment is on the rise and income levels aren’t going up fast enough for financial goals to be easily achievable. Personal finance is changing and you need to adapt to knowing the old ways while factoring in the new.

It is appealing for one to go pick that new phone available on EMI rather than wait for months to save up for it. Chances are that the model you saved up for is being phased out and a newer one is more useful. For a youngster, it is more important to have the new gadget now than delay the decision to own it later. Their mindset is different and it is not always to keep up with others. As phones have become essential and their usage a lot more complex than using them for a voice call, they may have professional benefits forcing one to change the phone frequently.