Welcome to the eleventh episode of The One Percent Show with Vishal Khandelwal. This show is an open-ended exploration into the minds of the wisest people around to help us learn to think, invest, and live each day a little, even if as little as one percent, better.
In this episode, I talk to Monika Halan, one of the rare voices of sanity in the Indian personal finance space and author of the best-selling book Let’s Talk Money which provides us a smarter way to live our dream life, rather than stay worried about the ‘right’ investment or ‘perfect’ insurance.
Monika has a Masters in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a Masters in Journalism Studies from the University of Wales, United Kingdom. In a career spanning almost three decades, she has worked across several media organizations in India and has run many successful TV series around personal finance advice. She is a regular speaker on financial literacy, regulation, inclusion and consumer issues in retail finance. She has been a member of SEBI’s Mutual Fund Advisory committee for more than a decade and has served four Government of India committees.
While I was reading about Monika, I got to know that she considers Sri Aurobindo as her guru which led me to what he wrote in his book The Mother, and I quote – “Human life would be quite simple if the human mind did not extrapolate in it unnecessary complications.”
I see Monika’s work over the years a testimony to this lesson from Sri Aurobindo, in that she has brought so much simplicity to middle-class India on how we deal with our personal financial lives, without trying to add unnecessary complexity to it. I am sure there is a great deal of work that needs to be done on that front, and Monika is certainly leading the charge there, which makes me hopeful.
In this episode, Monika talks about –
- Key foundational lessons on money
- Women and money – what needs to change
- Kids and money – How to get your young ones to learn about money
- Key money mantras for a balanced financial life
- Sanity checks while dealing with financial advisors
- Simplifying asset allocation
- Biggest money regret people have
- Monika’s personal financial mistakes and fears
- How much money is ‘enough’
- Handling life’s real wealth well
- And more.
- The Mother by Sri Aurobindo
- Monika's Book - Let's Talk Money: You've Worked Hard for It, Now Make It Work for You, Baat Paise Ki: Mehnat ki Kamai se Karaye Mehnat
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With respect,
Vishal