Yes, that’s my Piggy Bank. You can see from the outdated coins and ancient currency I have been saving for ages. A numismatist would be envious of my collection. But I wonder if these old notes and coins have any financial value today. Or are they just of historic relevance?
As a boy, I saved some of my pocket money and the cash gifts I got for birthdays in the Piggy Bank. It has become a tidy little sum that today won’t buy me much. I didn’t need net banking and an OTP to see how much there was. The Piggy Bank willingly yielded its riches. Had I been 7 or 10, this would be a princely amount.
My parents – middle-class working people with savings in the Union Bank of India and the Post Office – had no idea how to invest money. As a result, I have turned out to be a financial duffer. I always sucked at Math and Bookkeeping in school. Now, I am a monetary ignoramus.
All my working life, I saved my earnings in bank accounts. I had no investments. Truth is, I had no head for this. Everybody is not good at everything. My weakness is finance. It suited me fine to check my passbook or an ATM statement, and see how much money I had. Even if it wasn’t growing.
Then, against my better judgment and with help, I invested in Fixed Deposits and Mutual Funds. My money grew. Yet I always wondered how safe it was. My worry was justified this April when the American fund house Franklin Templeton closed down six of its Debt Funds – which have 40% of my investments.
Beneath the Piggy Bank is a newspaper report of this. I didn’t understand it. So I had feared. What happens to my money? Is it safe? And, damn the interest, when will I get it back? Nobody has definite answers. Hopefully, if at all, I will get my money back over 5 years. That too in small installments.
What if I need the money now? To repay a house loan? For hospitalization and surgery? Or if, say, I lose my job or suffer a pay cut due to recession? I can go and eat cake, I’ve been told! But my money will lose its value coming to me staggered over 5 years in small installments. I want it as a lump sum. That’s not happening!
I reviewed my distress when scammed depositors of the Punjab Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC) whose savings are blocked threatened to immolate themselves in protest against government apathy – for which they face police action! Those scammed by Yes Bank remain similarly aggrieved.
They are not depositors but victims. Their life savings are at stake. Last year this time they wanted money to celebrate Diwali. Today they want money to survive. It’s their money. Now virtually written off. The stress of losing it has killed many. Over 60 have taken their lives in hopelessness.
The banks squandered their depositors’ savings in duplicitous financial deals. Will the guilty be punished? Don’t know. Will the depositors get their money? I hope. What’s the government doing? Chasing 16 crores that allegedly vanished from Sushant Singh Rajput’s account! I should have stuck to my Piggy Bank…
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