MANAGE CREDIT CARDS WELL

 

PRANAV SAKHADEO WRITES ON CREDIT CARDS

in Times of India 16June2026 

Money matters

First understand your income and expenses.
A credit card is not an income

It is not free money

It is not a tool

If there is no discipline credit cards are dangerous.

In the wrong hands it can become debt

In disciplined hands it can reduce the cost of everyday life

Making the most of every Rupee is just part of survival

You need buffers, planning and discipline.

Do not buy something simply because a card offer is available. 

Ask yourself whether you really need it.

Financial planning should become routine

Perhaps it may be a little boring

Never miss a credit card bill

Never pay interest for credit card purchases

Never withdraw cash from a credit card

Never spend beyond the avilable limit. 

You would be charged for going above the limit

Check your credit score intermittently

Keep your credit card utilisation low

This works only with discipline

Before a large purchase compare offline and online prices. 

Check bank offers and decide.

This is how the savings add up.

Not through a magical card, but through repeated small decisions

Choose cards according to your spending

Do not spend according to your cards

Review your cards whenever there a devaluation.

Credit Card devaluation happens when your card issuer reduces the value, perks, or rewards your card offers. It means you would receive fewer benefits than what was originally promised when you had signed up for the card, making it harder to obtain the same return on your spending. 

Do not accept all upgrade offers, if the card does not suit your spending pattern

Do not count fee waivers as savings. 

Treat them as cost control

Impulsive buyers, people who don't track bills, people who spend future income and expenses, people who use EMIs often, people who withdraw cash and people who shop just because an offer exists - these categories of people should not use credit cards at all.

If you wish to hold multiple credit cards, do not start with several at once.

At the beginning of every financial year, sit with your wife or your husband, if you are married and prepare a detailed expenses sheet. If you are not married please do it alone. Factor in inflation.

The annual planning takes about two hours.

After that daily spending mostly runs on autopilot.

Money matters

 

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MUSIC COMPOSER PRITAM

 

Music Composer Pritam

Shares a reflective note on his 55th birthday on 14June2026

"Today, I have decided to gift myself a few years to live life differently. To catch up on what I have missed.

Time to set off on new journeys, which have been kept on the back burner for long. 

Mainstream is a great ride.

But I've always been more curious about the roads unexplored."

.....................

In this mad world where people hedge and nudge to go ahead, to be always on the ascent, to put down everyone else and strive to grow materially and impose their own stamp of hegemony over rest of the world, Music Composer Pritam chooses an untreaded path  many do not dare to traverse to enliven the future years his life .

 He is putting at rest his pursuit of worldly gain. 

ECOLOGY SUNDAY AT CSI CHRIST CHURCH TRIVANDRUM

 

It was Ecology Sunday at CSI Christ Church, Trivandrum on 14 June 2026.

The message at the Worship was delivered by a special guest. He is the son of  a great friend of ours.

We could observe that the young boy we knew was not a boy anymore. Evident was  the wonderful transformation in him. The articulation was flawless.

Since I did not have the contact information on the speaker, a message commending him with an evaluation was sent to  his father  who had promply  forwarded it to his son.

It is placed here.

"We see our children as little children only. We see them as the toddlers who had hung on to us, who had rested their heads over our shoulders and whom  we had led on.

When they grow up, when they come into their own, we fail at times to see that. 

We are afraid they'd falter at each and every step, and it makes us walk with them exerting an extra effort to steady them. 

We don't acknowledge they have grown up, they are grown ups.

If parents assert they are far removed from these emotions, I can only define them as hypocrites.

The youngster was very good in his presentation yesterday. It needed courage to stand at the lectern. It needs superhuman effort to open  the mouth and deliver the address to literally  an august audience whose combined IQ level is unimaginable.

He touched all the parameters effectively. The diction was excellent.

The topic was wide. The boundaries keep on shifting even as you delberate. 

Eco disruption is so familiar to each and everyone as we are reminded of it through events that occur abruptly and discourses that are lively or dull and drab.

Congratulations to the young man for the effort he took to prepare and the courage he displayed to deliver.

A critique has to navigate the horizon. 

The message was long.

10 or 15 minutes is the maximum you can command the attention.

There was no need to read out the verses of the song beginning with "All things bright and beautiful."

The relegation of the presentation of the activities of the ecology forum to the conclusive phase was an error in judgement.  It made the interest of the audience wane.

When you mention you are concluding, you have to wind up in one or two sentences. Unfortunately the conclusion was prolonged beyond that. 

He ought to have modulated the delivery of the message. It was monotone.  Monotone lulls the listeners into deep slumber. To counter this effectively, you have to read out the material you have prepared loudly in the privacy of the four walls of your own room at least four or five times. It makes you present your presentation confidently.

Messages become lively when they are linked to life. Quoting verses from the Bible extensively can only lengthen the speech. It does not convey.

Speakers fail when they fail to convey. What you convey has to reach the audience. 

What normally happens is, we are happy with our own presentation. But we can see with a look at the eyes of the audience or their responses, we are not reaching them. 

The effort goes in vain.

Recently a medical representative, a non Christian, whom I met casually, learning I was from KUTS, told me he passes by that campus everyday. He added the view from the road was beautiful - scenic beauty, something out of the world.

Ecology opens such doors. We just have to observe them and link them to our message. 

It makes the audience to walk with us.

Regret, I have loaded you with a drab discourse. 

Please forgive me for that.

Grateful for  your patience to stay this far."

ADAM GRANT ON THE BEST WAY

 

The best way 

to learn is 

to teach

ADAM GRANT ON GRADES

 

Grades are never 

a strong predictor 

of job performance

ADAM GRANT ON EXTRAORDINARY EDUCATORS

 

Extraordinary educators

foster rethinking cycles 

by instilling intellectual humility. 

It disseminate  doubts 

and cultivate curiosity.

ADAM GRANT ON FOCUS OF LEARNING

 

Learning has to be focussed 

less on being right 

and more on building the skills 

to consider different views 

and argue productively about them.