How to get cool with your savings and spending

With each new generation, there is something that changes. This change touches all aspects of life. Today, we can see many changes happening around us, including the world of finance as well. There is a big difference between the previous generations and millennials in terms of how they deal with money. Right from a shift to online shopping as well as a preference for renting over buying, the new generation is cooler than their predecessors. 

Earlier, renting could be seen as a mark of being unsuccessful, a sign that you did not have the means to put a roof over your head. Millennials are so cool that they don't just rent houses, they are perfectly fine with renting furniture and cars as well. They may prefer to buy equities instead of properties and are interested in spending more on travel, experiences, and the latest gadgets, as compared to the previous generations. The online mode is generally more preferred in almost all aspects of life, right from shopping to investing. Everything is just a click away.

Keeping up with new trends and being cool is great, but there are always things one can learn from experience. The best of both worlds needs to be taken. If you are the captain of the Indian cricket team, what would you prefer, a team full of youngsters or a healthy mix of youngsters as well as experienced players? The combination can change on the basis of what you are looking for. Going only with experience or only with youth can prove fatal. The same goes for your investment as well, where you need to adapt to new age technological advancements while leveraging the experience of your parents.

Most people are aware of the basic principles of investing, but the challenge is in bringing those ideas and principles into practice. Today, the complexity of the world has increased. Any evolution is welcome. It makes life more exciting and interesting. At the same time, you need to make sure that your life is evolving as well, and not just revolving around these changes. Stock markets, Mutual Funds, EMIs are all concepts that were practically unknown to most people from the previous generations. Now, they are a part of everyday conversation. This has made managing finances far more difficult than it was before. The only way to make sure that you don't get carried away with these changes is by keeping the basic principles in mind. You need to make the best of both worlds and understand the various psychological aspects of investment driving your financial decisions. This will work wonders for your long-term wealth creation.

The writer is chief gardener at Money Plant Consultancy