“When does it end?”
“Oh my my my. Abhijit is getting philosophical now” remarked Ravi.
They were sitting at the poolside of Kadkani Resorts in Coorg, near Bangalore. Their batch mate and good friend Gopal Kulkarni was one of the owners of Kadkani Resorts. Nice cottages and a lovely golf course too. Gopal was worried whether they would pay for the rooms at all, they had asked for a 100% discount. The wives had gone to the main market to buy local coffee powder, Coorg’s speciality. It was late afternoon, there was a cool breeze blowing. The resort was tucked away about two km from the main highway and was in the lap of nature and luxury.
“At IIM Bangalore, none of us had any vehicles. To do projects, either we travelled by auto or had to borrow bikes from others. Then we joined companies. Within two years each of us had bought our first cars. One or two years back, you three have already sold off your first cars and bought C segment cars. I have wanted to buy a new car for a year now. One month I like a car, next month another car gets launched, then a new SUV comes into the market, it never ends” said Abhijit
“Why should it? I plan to change my car every two years. I can afford it” said Rajesh.
“Did you pay cash for it?”
“No of course not. Are there people in the world who pay cash for a car? I picked it up on a loan from a private sector bank”
“So what you mean is that you can afford to take a loan for it” clarified Abhijit.
“If you mean, can you afford to pay the EMIs, of course I can. I mean everything that we buy is on loan. My house is on loan. My TV is on loan. We took a loan and went on holiday to Europe last year. We can afford to pay the EMIs, we have not defaulted so far”
“Your wife Nalini also works, right. So this lifestyle and expenses you can afford because you are dinks?”
“Dinks?”
“Double income no kids”
“That’s a good one.”
“What happens when you guys decide to expand your family, have kids? Nalini will have to take a break. That means you will have to fund all this alone. Wouldn’t that put a little strain on the finances?” asked Abhijit
Rajesh kept looking at Abhijit for a long long time.
“What is the point you are making?”
“I am not so sure myself. All I am saying is that we spend with the assumption that the money will keep coming every year. Each of these expenses we make however only give temporary satisfaction. I think I was far happier when I was in college. Today I have a big house, a car, and every conceivable gadget in the house, we take holidays across the world and I am not exactly happy. And to top it all, I am increasingly getting dependent on my salary.” Said Abhijit
“Why will the money not keeping coming?”
Excerpt from Chapter two of the book "Young Leaders at Every Level". Click on link on top to buy this book NOW
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