Small Savings

All of you must have heard about piggy banks. 

This is a small piece of toy which our parents gave to us to understand the concept of savings. 

Shaped like a small, beautiful pig - they had a small piece of opening at the top. If you would recollect, you could drop a a few coins, which you earned by selling old books or newspapers. Or a crisp new cash note, which you got as a gift on your birthday. 

And when you needed some money, say to buy a gift, your parents would help you open the piggy bank and get the money required to buy the stuff.

With this small piggy bank, millions of children across the world learned the concept of savings. They learned that a penny saved now would be a pound few days later. The excess money you have now can be used in a better way  at a time of need later.

As we are moving from an economy with focus on savings to an economy with a stress on spendings, modern day banks are playing the roles of a piggy bank.

Their customer are not children - but adults, like you and me. 

This small incident would highlight an incident reflecting this idea.

I was at a hair cutting saloon getting a hair cut. Midway though the cut, the guy stopped cutting the hair. A new man had come into the shop.

The shop owner proceeded to the drawer where he kept the day's earning. He took out two hundred rupees and gave it to the new man.

I thought the new man in the shop must be some representative of the local goon - who is collecting his daily or weekly bribe.

But I was left completely surprised when the guy printed a receipt - similar to what you get when you swipe a card at a shop - and handed it over the shop keeper. Now I was left impressed. Have the goons even started giving a receipt  for the bribe they collect?

After the new man left, I checked up with the shop keeper on what was this all about.

That's when he enlightened me by telling that the guy was a bank's agent.

The shop keeper had opened an account with a local bank. An agreement was drawn out to deposit a specific amount of money into the account every day. 

To make matters simpler for such shop keepers, a bank's agent did the rounds around the local shops every evening - collecting their daily deposits.

This way, after earning money every day, the shop keepers deposited a certain amount in the bank account. This ensured that a part of the earnings were always saved. 

No need to procrastinate and wait till the end of the month to deposit the money into the account. Every day, this small process ensured that certain amounts of saving were made - however small. 

And these small savings will go a long way in building a better future for these small shop keepers.

Also, a special credit needs to be given to the banks for providing such wonderful collection facility. Apart from encouraging small savings, they are also doing a huge service to the community.

All of this can be summarized in a single quote - Every drop in the ocean counts.