Schools - The spineless spine

Schools… This place is a lot of fun. We learn tons of necessary things, both academically and non-academically.

It’s time we talk about something technical. The Indian school system is based on three boards i.e; The ICSE board, The CBSE board, and the State boards. By possessing a great syllabus pattern, a wide range of activities, tests, and exams, it still fails in teaching an important aspect of everybody’s life. And that is… Financial management. 

Financial management essentially has 5 pillars under it to stand unshaken.

They are:

1. Multiple sources of income and it’s importance.

2. Savings management.

3. Spending allocation.

4. Wealth generation and management.

5. Financial freedom.

Let’s see what each one has got to tell us,

1. Multiple sources of income and its importance.

 Imagine our lives as a house built on one single pillar. Something comes and hits the pillar and the house crashes down. The End. That pillar was the only source of income we had and now it’s gone. World’s changing too much contemporarily as we’d never know if our job remains.

Now, imagine our life standing on 5 or 6 six pillars. Something comes and hits again, one of it is gone, nevertheless, the house stands.

Handling multiple sources of income is hard but think of handling the whole life with a single source of income. Schools must teach kids about future economic conditions in their life. Isn’t it very unfair to see an important part being left out from teaching? How do schools expect us to gain knowledge as important as these?

2. Savings management.

It often said that “Save money and money will save you”

This whole pandemic was the best example of the importance of saving money. People lost jobs, lives started trembling, worst case – people lost all their wealth.

Schools don’t provide us any knowledge on how important savings are. How will the younger generation know the importance of money and the process which we have to undergo in order to earn in without getting any exposure to it?

3. Spending allocation.

 Many students get scholarships, some get pocket money, some make earnings once they come out of their pre-university. But where will they use that resource when they don’t know the paths of efficient usage. They blindly tend to buy high-end products worth thousands and want to showcase themselves in a lavish manner. Only If they knew how to spend wisely, they’d serve some worth to the efforts they’ve put to earn it.

There are dozens of ways to spend wisely, provided, they must have sufficient knowledge about the various fields like stocks, mutual funds, marketing, and so on. And it’s a sad thing that our dear schools have been failing to educate students in these areas of knowledge.

 4. Wealth generation and management

What is wealth? A valuable possession or usually money and properties is called wealth. So now, what is this wealth generation? It’s a process in which a person manages to find single or multiple paths to create some wealth with less or no initial investment. On layman’s terms, it is finding and sticking to those ways which help us generate income.

Why is this important? One good reason, future hasn’t been kind to everyone. Wealth generation makes us lesser dependent on any third person. It’s the safest way to protect against upcoming unknown odds. There’s no doubt in schools helping us greatly in building better careers. But why aren’t they teaching us how to protect the same?

5. Financial freedom (Schools must teach this)

Are our lives limited just to make money, build passive income sources, manage our wealth?? No, In fact, there’s a huge reason for all this financial stuff. The FREEDOM. One day we feel we might want to go to Spain for a tour. Do we go? No. We check our balance, due works, holiday permissions, etc… things like these deflate our enthusiasm. And then, the plan is dropped. Most of us can relate this to that Goa tour we plan every year but never go.

Willingness, skills, knowledge, practice, expertise, guidance, support, and execution. All these are the steps that one has to climb up for achieving Freedom. Never let your financial situation ruin your life, instead, build a life that would set everything right. Have you heard the quote that goes, “One day?? Nah, it’s day one for me”? That must be the mentality.

Finally,

Why all these??Being students, it’s very necessary for us to understand the economic conditions of our home and support them. It’s a great time for students to focus on building skills in order to achieve something significant, something we’ve seen now. Plan things practically.

 But remember, the planning won’t work until it’s executed. The era of depending on parents is fading away. It’s time that we stand up for our needs and buttress all we can for our family because that’s the most precious thing on the planet.