I believe one of the biggest balancing acts one has to do as a married man is keeping both the wife and the mother happy!!
Fortunately or unfortunately I had the pleasure or displeasure of doing this for just a little shy of 20 years!! Not sure how many would even venture into one of the most complicated relationships that one has to nurture in a lifetime. Almost 90% break up as soon as they get married to avoid handling 2 women with diagonally opposite likes and dislikes but yet 2 women who have the biggest bearing in your life!!
On the other topic as a banking professional I can tell you that a credit card is an extremely powerful weapon as long as it is used wisely and appropriately. No other financial instrument gives you interest free money for almost 50 days. The trick is to spend our swipe as soon as the previous months bill is generated. What's more you get loads of reward points for just going through your usual expenditure which can be exchanged for vouchers or air miles. The trick again is to pay off whatever is outstanding in full as credit card companies charge almost 16% interest rates on balances and that is their way of making money. Remember its not easy for banks to maintain all those partnerships including lounge accesses, airline tie ups, fashion branding and even more. We have many customers called "revolvers" who have multiple credit cards and pay off the balances of one card with that of the other! It's an art which many of them have almost perfected.
Many congratulating on crossing 1k readers!! Sunday's are really enriching thanks to the FC publications!! Here's to many more readers and many more articles!!
I liked your statement “Chance is just an occurrence, but luck is how that chance plays out”. On marriage the statement you make of “The chance of meeting a girl precedes the luck of marrying her” is also indeed true. Of all the eligible girls in the world (at the time of your wedding), how many can you meet? A chance meeting with one could set of the bells within you leading to your marriage. And as for the girl being exactly the one that suits you best has to be luck. Yes of course there is an element of luck there.
Someone once said that though most of us don’t choose our name, religion and sect, even nationality, but we will defend the same all our life -something that we did not choose ourselves. To that extent, there is an element of chance there.
As far as my doubt of whether ‘up the creek without a paddle’ involved luck at all goes, I confess that I seemed to have not noticed the ‘ OR’ in the ‘bad OR unlucky situation’ in FC 30 and taken it as ‘and’. That’s an example of my bad luck I guess and chance omission of reading it right.
Life is of course a balancing act every which way we look at it. Even a successful marriage is a balancing act. Managing various expectations, often contradictory ones, also calls for a lot of balancing. In fact I would even go the extent of saying that to be successful in life, whether personal or at work, even business, one needs to be good at balancing things.
On the topic of using credit card for purchases, I’m with you. I wouldn’t risk using my debit card for purchases as I’m not sure about customer protection in case of disputes. I have never lost when it comes to disputes on wrong charges on my credit cards, and once even went to RBI ombudsman to win a fraudulent charge on my credit card. Of course, I clear the charges in full every month with no roll over..
I agree with you Mani. In fact, there's a card that I have which I use in not so dependable outlets but that card has a much lower limit and the chances of misuse are naturally mitigated.
You are underplaying your love for cricket. Still remember the Natwest final between India and England in 2002. On a weekend trip to Mysore you went and bought a new TV and cable connection @ Pati’s place as she didn’t have a TV, just to see the match. We all thought it was a wasted investment, till Ganguly did a Flintoff swinging his shirt at the end from the balcony.. :))
Congratulations on crossing 1,000 readers, Pras!
Thank You!!
I believe one of the biggest balancing acts one has to do as a married man is keeping both the wife and the mother happy!!
Fortunately or unfortunately I had the pleasure or displeasure of doing this for just a little shy of 20 years!! Not sure how many would even venture into one of the most complicated relationships that one has to nurture in a lifetime. Almost 90% break up as soon as they get married to avoid handling 2 women with diagonally opposite likes and dislikes but yet 2 women who have the biggest bearing in your life!!
On the other topic as a banking professional I can tell you that a credit card is an extremely powerful weapon as long as it is used wisely and appropriately. No other financial instrument gives you interest free money for almost 50 days. The trick is to spend our swipe as soon as the previous months bill is generated. What's more you get loads of reward points for just going through your usual expenditure which can be exchanged for vouchers or air miles. The trick again is to pay off whatever is outstanding in full as credit card companies charge almost 16% interest rates on balances and that is their way of making money. Remember its not easy for banks to maintain all those partnerships including lounge accesses, airline tie ups, fashion branding and even more. We have many customers called "revolvers" who have multiple credit cards and pay off the balances of one card with that of the other! It's an art which many of them have almost perfected.
Many congratulating on crossing 1k readers!! Sunday's are really enriching thanks to the FC publications!! Here's to many more readers and many more articles!!
Thank you very much for sharing your perspective on balancing and credit cards!
I liked your statement “Chance is just an occurrence, but luck is how that chance plays out”. On marriage the statement you make of “The chance of meeting a girl precedes the luck of marrying her” is also indeed true. Of all the eligible girls in the world (at the time of your wedding), how many can you meet? A chance meeting with one could set of the bells within you leading to your marriage. And as for the girl being exactly the one that suits you best has to be luck. Yes of course there is an element of luck there.
Someone once said that though most of us don’t choose our name, religion and sect, even nationality, but we will defend the same all our life -something that we did not choose ourselves. To that extent, there is an element of chance there.
As far as my doubt of whether ‘up the creek without a paddle’ involved luck at all goes, I confess that I seemed to have not noticed the ‘ OR’ in the ‘bad OR unlucky situation’ in FC 30 and taken it as ‘and’. That’s an example of my bad luck I guess and chance omission of reading it right.
Life is of course a balancing act every which way we look at it. Even a successful marriage is a balancing act. Managing various expectations, often contradictory ones, also calls for a lot of balancing. In fact I would even go the extent of saying that to be successful in life, whether personal or at work, even business, one needs to be good at balancing things.
Thank you Shahji. Your analytical comments are inspiring. I look forward eagerly for your comments every week.
On the topic of using credit card for purchases, I’m with you. I wouldn’t risk using my debit card for purchases as I’m not sure about customer protection in case of disputes. I have never lost when it comes to disputes on wrong charges on my credit cards, and once even went to RBI ombudsman to win a fraudulent charge on my credit card. Of course, I clear the charges in full every month with no roll over..
I agree with you Mani. In fact, there's a card that I have which I use in not so dependable outlets but that card has a much lower limit and the chances of misuse are naturally mitigated.
You are underplaying your love for cricket. Still remember the Natwest final between India and England in 2002. On a weekend trip to Mysore you went and bought a new TV and cable connection @ Pati’s place as she didn’t have a TV, just to see the match. We all thought it was a wasted investment, till Ganguly did a Flintoff swinging his shirt at the end from the balcony.. :))
Determination tilts balance act in one's favour. I think you have brought it out.
Yes, life is a balancing act between responsibility and pleasure. Having both is ideal.