In India in a middle class family when a marriage happens and the couple has a baby, as soon as the baby is born, the parents start putting a savings plan for them in order to meet the future expenses. Expenses like higher education and marriage are the ones which parents start to worry from the time the child is born. In the western culture, normally when children grow up, they manage their own expenses, but in the Indian culture it is a very different scene. Marriages take place just not between 2 people but between 2 families and there are a lot of give and take obligations. These expenses are huge. For a middle class family the money cannot come suddenly when the expense has to be made and hence the planning starts from a very early age. Specially if the child is a daughter then all the more the parents put efforts on investments.

My father was a average middle class earning person, and I would see that he would keep saving everything for us. Being a single earning member with 2 daughters to take care of, it was never easy for him. But I would see that he would do regular savings. Every month a part of his salary would directly get into savings and he would also teach me these things, about investments and banking work. When my Son was born, I almost followed the same footsteps. But the thing was that I had to keep withdrawing money in-between to meet up some unexpected expenses. I was not as dedicated and committed like my father.

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Some of the investment options that I rely on today to save up for meeting future expenses are investing in Mutual funds and gold. In the past few years now there is Crypto investments also which I am doing, but as we all know this is one space which I cannot guarantee when I will be able to liquidate. So while my Crypto folio builds up, I do not want to rely on it majorly to meet the expenses. Mutual funds and gold have been the best bet for me so far. Investing in Mutual funds under the systematic investment plans give very good returns in long run and they can be well relied on. Gold is also a good investment. I had started investing in gold some 20 years back when the price of 10 grams gold was 4400 INR, which is today more then 10 times. No other investment besides Crypto will give this type of returns. Sadly I did not have much that time, so my investment was also very small.

Bank Fixed deposits are the most poor investments to make, with the rate of interest falling there is hardly any returns that one gets. It does not even meet the inflation. The rate of interest fluctuates. If you have invested in a long term fixed deposit then you will be at a loss. Personally I have not even been a stock market investor, somehow it just does not work for me. I feel I am jinxed in that, so I have given up. Though people do make good money there, but it just does not work for me.

I have always believe that one needs to start planning with their investments to meet their future expenses from a very early stage. Not only to meet the expenses, but to also plan for retirement. There are no government benefits for old people in India and medical expenses are crazy so one needs to start saving for their old age as well right from the time they start earning.

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