Mutuals funds, section 80c of the Indian income tax act, emergency fund, tax planning, health & life insurance, investment portfolio, debt  - these terms held no interest for 22-year-old Abel. It's only once I had kids and began my IT job (that's 31-year-old Abel) that I realized I know very little about managing personal finances and worse, how severely under-prepared I  was for the future or for any emergency situation that would need me to shell out cash. This realization started me on a path to learn about how to manage my money smarter & eventually reframed my mindset when it came to personal finance. Despite having applied my learnings for only 3 years, I've seen a major difference in the way my family & I are better positioned, not just for the future, but to manage modest emergencies & make overall wiser daily living, money-related decisions. We're officially on the road to better money management & wealth building.
However one can't build a skyscraper on shaky foundations and neither can you be in control of your finances until you've clearly defined your relationship with money. I've been fortunate enough to have great mentors & advisors speak to my financial health, from well-to-do friends in my personal circles through to renowned personal finance gurus like Dave Ramsey. But I'm not an expert, just a practitioner. So I invited my friend instead who also is a certified financial planner & financial and wealth management expert to join me - Siddharth Menon. Sid helped me understand the opportunities available to me as I first began exploring personal finance & once I took action based on the knowledge he imparted, I was able to begin building towards my goals, which now features a small corpus for the future & a basic investment portfolio for myself, both of which I didn't even have 3 years ago. Over the course of the next 4 episodes, we're going to take you through the exact same baby steps he and I have personally taken to make a plan, get rid of debt, invest for the future & even spend money guilt-free. And for those aspiring to be billionaires quick, we also demystify cryptocurrency at a broad level. So if you're one who has considered putting all your money in there, wait! First, listen to this episode first and then decide. Overall the intent of this conversation is to help you put things in perspective & establish the right building blocks to develop a personal finance plan that works for you & will help you avoid the mistakes I made. Remember time is of the essence & compound interest works in favor of those who act early so listen now. If you didn't get the compound interest reference, don't worry, we explain that in Part 4 :)

This conversation took place on Zoom over the course of 2 hours so I've split it into parts for easy listening.
In Part 1, we talk about our respective backgrounds & the early experiences which shaped our personal views of money & relationship with it. And know this, mine wasn't healthy at all.