The formula to become Richie Rich "$".....

I (we) had been riding under and over chaotic situations for quite sometime now. Not uncommon! Everybody does. In  fact I had been racking my brain as to how to plan for so many events, responsibilities and commitments in life so that I (we) do not end up crashing into pecuniary problems or demeaning situations. I was checking through all kinds of opportunities for earning, saving and investing etc. I am not a wise shopper. Nor am I a big spendthrift. I may perhaps figure-out somewhere in between these two. Despite having a decent job and a reasonably decent pecuniary footing, I still feel insecure. Comes naturally to females, I guess!
While engrossed in the interplay of such thoughts and regular office work during hot climes of April, my colleague brought me in the freshly arrived bunch of magazines for the month. As a regular practice I browsed through the magazines and chose Reader's Digest for a detailed reading. In that issue, an article by David Hochman particularly caught my attention - My Family's No Buy Experiment (read April issue of RD for full article) on how Hochman family cuts spending. He gives a detailed account of how they targeted a 30-day experiment of not spending an extra pie apart from the 'must-spends' viz., mortgages, loans, utilities, tuition fee etc. And they did it. At some instances he did sound impractical to me, yet, I owe them to the geographical, social and cultural differences. Though I may not be able to follow exactly what the Hochmans did, his experience did influence me. It is not that his concept is something new. Not at all, especially in an Indian setting. I grew up lending my ears and senses to such types of preachings and preachers as well as strict followers. Honestly, I did not relish them. But as a matter of fact, often, in times of adversities, we tend to either forget or overlook the obvious. Hochman's article touched and awoke my dormant intellect. I wondered why I did not think of taking simple yet promising measures to overcome the difficult times? Why not I take baby steps instead of thinking in terms of leaps and bounds, or wait for some miracle to happen? I, somehow, now liked the idea of cutting on my (our) spending and started thinking actively about different ways to conserve and curb my expenses. No sooner did I start pushing myself towards the pious deeds, I started smelling sweet success, step by step.
Ofcourse, I cautioned myself that I should not overdo. Almost about same time, Khushwant Singh's Eight Clues to Happiness caught my attention too. I'm taking his clues seriously and trying to work on them. But the highlight at the end of his this piece of wisdom is, he says, RICHNESS is not Earning More, Spending More Or Saving More, but … “RICHNESS IS WHEN YOU NEED NO MORE”. I am hopeful that I (we) will certainly say that WE NEED NO MORE, one day!