Expense gyan to the director :D

Yesterday I spent an hour with the director who wanted to know about the way I menage my expenses. A few hours after the session I bumped into her and she told me that she had downloaded the app, done the initial setup and recorded her first transaction in less than 15 minutes.

It was a satisfying outcome but what bought a smile was the thought that I could go on for an hour and keep a director engaged on something that was essentially a five minute job :D

But apart from that it was a very satisfying discussion for me too. I guess this for the first I had such a discussion on the topic. And in the process of explaining some of the things I ended up articulating the things I did in a very interesting way. Below is the modified one pager that I had given her.

One pager of my expense setup

Essentially the idea is that I record the transactions as soon as I incur them and using my setup I place these transactions into different buckets. The reporting capability of the app then enables me to do slice dice the data across different timeframes (Entry, Day, Week, Month etc). The tool thus provides an excellent visibility of my expenses.

Now the way I use it essentially involves:

• Monitor and control the routine expenses.
• There are some categories where I should be spending more (essentially personal development activities).
• As I mentioned in my previous post I got my wife to use it. This tool shows potential for becoming a tool for aligning our thoughts on the expense front.

Guess its enough of me & myself and what I did. Lets back to the Director who started using the expense app. Now what really amazing is that she didn’t duplicate my setup. Instead she decided to start small and her setup is perhaps a lot less sophisticated than mine, but something that is surely going to be more  relevant to her life. Her sense of ownership made me feel that what she started would be sustained. And that leaves me that the thought that a less than perfect system that you understand and feel for may end up giving better results than a perfect system that you don’t understand.

My expense adventures :)

A few days back a Lady who sits near me was filing her Expense Reports. And that was enough for me to show off my iPhones apps for managing my expenses. The lady liked what I did and she wanted to know more. And before I knew it, I realised that that the lady in question has a Admin assistant. And before I realised it, she asked her admin to fix up an appointment with me on how I use my expense app. And not long after I had an appointment request on my calendar for a 1 hour session on the subject :(( As if taking a 1 hour session on how to use an app wasn’t enough I realised that the lady with the admin assistant is a Director in the company :((

So here I am trying to figure what am I going to tell a Director about managing your expenses? And as a test case I am going to bug you guys before I torture the poor lady ;) The funny part about my experiences with managing my expenses is that I haven’t been all that great with it. In fact when I was in Coke I had foregone a fortune in unclaimed ERs :(( Despite the fact that my income had increased substantially from my pre-MBA days, my bank balance was quite negligible. And the funny thing was that I had no clue where the money was going.

So I created this beautiful excel template to record my expenses. The thought was that if you know what you spend you have a better chance of managing the same. I would use it as planned for a few months and then somehow with the passage of time the number of unrecorded entries would increase. There was a pattern to this behaviour. Usually I would rake up a lot of transactions over a weekend or a holiday and because I was away from my computer I would misplace a few bills or forget to record it. The 80-20 rule worked against me in this case as these weekend expense would be major in nature and they would often get missed out from my expense sheets.

Whenever you grapple with a problem long enough, the solution comes towards you. And in my case it appeared in form of my first Nokia Smartphone. I had gotten an app that could help me record expenses. The most useful aspect was that now you could record the expenses as soon as you incur them. And with time I got reasonably good with it. But as my savings increased I developed this itch to do something with it. And that’s when I started my doomed investments. Because my investments weren’t part of my expense tracking mechanism, it soon became a black hole for all my savings.

And during this period I shifted to an iPhone and the expense apps I tried weren’t a match to what I could do with my Nokia phone. In hindsight, I think I was too comfortable with what I did with my Nokia. And while I looked for replacement capabilities in the iPhone I was a bit resistant to looking for the new things that the iPhone was capable of. After some looking around I settled on an amazing app called CashTrails. This app finally enabled me to port my expense recording setup on to the iPhone. But the other aspects of my financials were still out of bounds from this setup.

And it was during this period that I had an interesting discussion with my Finance Geek friend Paggu Jain. He too does a good job of tracking these details. While I was more into recording the expense transactions, he had a setup for managing his cashflows. As he explained the fundamental concepts behind what he did I realized I can implement the same in my app with a tweaks. And I did it and I had a comprehensive cash flow tracking setup, that could even give me a snapshot of my assets including the cash in my wallet.

The funny thing with doing something good is that each time you solve a problem, ten more crop up. The setup I had created was beautifully simple in its architecture but exceptionally tricky to execute. The accuracy of the whole setup depended on my recording my transactions accurately. And there were a few very interesting challenges:

• All transactions had to be recorded and categorized in the correct way. So if paid with cash I need to record it as cash and not under credit card and record transactions like ATM withdrawals which I wouldn’t have done in the previous scheme of things.
• Exchange rate issues. If transfer money from one currency to another, there would be transaction fees that would make it different from the Fx rate that the system automatically generates.
• If you go out with a group and you paid the bill while your friends paid you their share in cash then recording the transactions in such a way to ensure consistency with your actual credit card dues and the cash in your wallet can become a bit tedious.
• Separating your transactions into various buckets like personal & official can get tricky esp when you may have situations where the transactions may overlap e.g. Because of some delays you paid your official credit card from your personal account.

Paggu Jain’s approach to such things is not to sweat on that last detail. Rightly I parked solving these issues for the future, but as I did more of the recordings I realized that there were unexplored capabilities within the app that could solve most of the issues stated above. And best part is that once the thing is setup it doesn’t take all that long. For eg in the month of December (A heavy expense month) I averaged about 4 transactions a day. And recording the transactions take about 15 seconds on an average and that’s a total of a minute a day.

The visibility that has come out of the effort has given me and Anju a very good idea of what we can and can’t afford. I guess some of these things positively enabled us to face some of the challenges we did in the last two years. And a key lesson I learnt from my entrepreneurial friends is that those who manage their cash flows have a much greater chance of success than those who don’t. And in that spirit, a significant achievement of this new year has been to get my wife to use the CashTrails app :D

An interesting talk :)

In my professional life I had the great fortune of hearing stories of some very capable men. In some cases I got to hear those men in person. There is something about these men which enabled them to reach the positions that they eventually did. You can call it their drive or energy or whatever but it did make them turn adversarial situations into great opportunities. Such situations may have overwhelmed a normal individual but not these guys.

Today during my induction I heard the talk of one such guy, who is a GM in the company. The GM, an Irishman did his MBA from Georgetown way back in the early 90s. At that time it cost him around $42000, I got this feeling that it was quite a sum for him but somehow he managed. As a student he stayed in Washington and among his neighbors was Katherine Graham, whose family owns “The Washington Post”. Imagine spending the formative years of your life in the company of such characters ;)

This guy started his work in the P&G as an intern where he got to go the Caribbean islands and worked on a deal to sign on an ex-Miss World as a brand ambassador for the company. Such assignments as intern surely would have been heady and perhaps influenced him to join P&G. The way he explained his first assignment as a brand manager for a product for urinary tract infection in rural Cincinnati was insightful. There was a hint of disappointment but there was also the message that he came out well and handled bigger and more exciting things in life.

Amongst his later successes was handling Head & Shoulders. Once upon a time that brand wasn’t all that big and it wasn’t one of the coveted assignments in the company. He shared the fascinating insight of how one individual recognized the potential of H&S and it was his conviction that made the company put its resources behind the brand and turn it into the world’s largest Shampoo brand.

His address to the newbies like myself included a fascinating presentation, which had some interesting videos and the best part was his interpretation of the videos. A brief summary of the things he shared:

1.       Passion & Belief

-          I missed the exact words of his Susan Boyle interpretation, but he was trying to emphasize the idea of Passion & Belief. He advised sustaining and deepening these two emotions in spite of your career.

-          The other point he made was that life will throw urinary tract products at you. And somehow you have to figure out what you really like and move towards it. Matching Passion with you really love will result in disproportionate success.

-          He also talked about success & leadership literature concepts like “Peak Performance” and quoted works like Strength Finder, Leadership Engine and so on.

2.       Simplicity:

-          He quoted the beauty of the Hans Gosling presentations on world Demographics to suggest that it make sense to keep things simple. While the intent is admirable I got the feeling that the organization wasn’t aligned to his thought.

-          Steve Jobs famously said that keeping things simple takes a lot more work. Take for example the Gosling presentation that people find so attractive. Just imagine for a moment the effort that went into creating that presentation. First collecting data from all that sovereign countries in a format that was comparable to each other. And then working on the analytical capability to simplify everything. In today’s times when the organizations encourages a scarcity mindset, executing such outputs may be quite challenging.

3.       Knowledge:

-          He emphasized the importance of knowledge and mastery. Further if you don’t have it then it will eventually show as was visible during the Sarah Palin interview :)

     As a newbie I came out pretty impressed. Having people to look up to is such a great thing and in the first month of being in the company, this is the second time I bumped into a guy who made me feel “WOW”!!

Yet again an awesome Diwali :)

I was never a great festivals guy. We did celebrate the X’mas, Diwali & the birthdays, though it was never quite a big deal. I mean I never quite looked forward to the celebrations that these events entailed.

Somewhere in my life I have started giving more importance to events and the routines behind them. Now that I think of it I don’t quite remember how this idea got into my mind. But surely it got solidified after my marriage. I guess we started with the small things and they evolved over time.

Diwali has been a big event with us. This is the third Diwali of my married life and each one has been a special memory. The first one was when Parag was here in Singapore. The Jains planned a Pooja at their place and we all decided to go traditional for the occasion. For Anjali, that was the first and the last time she attempted a Sari in Singapore. After about half an hour of effort, she called for help and promptly I googled up a Youtube video on how to wear a sari :D The video wasn’t very useful but we did managed to wrap Anjali into the six yards after about an hour’s effort :D

The other thing that I remember vividly was the Rangoli which over the years has become part of our Diwali rituals :) It so happened that we wanted to do something really small and thought that the easiest way would be to use powdered colour. Little did we realize that the coloured Rangoli required a backbreaking squatted effort of a few hours :( But despite the exhaustion the end result was worth every the effort :)

A Sari clad Anju ji and the first Rangoli of our married life :)

And as we rushed to Parag’s pooja our previous Landlord carried out a viewing of the place that we lived in. One of those who visited was an Indian family who were moving out to the Ireland. They loved the Rangoli so much that they bought the house straight away and even paid premium over the expected valuations to get hold of the house. The new owners completed the formalities and moved on to Ireland and we remained put at the same place.

Given the memories of our first Diwali we wanted to repeat our Rangoli adventures the second time around. My wife felt that making one with flowers would be a lot easier. It was indeed a lot easier, but only for her :( One day before the Diwali I travelled half way across Singapore to get fresh flowers. I wanted to make sure that we don’t fall short so I bought a little (Euphemism) extra ;) The next day I spend about 2 hours plucking the petals. By the time I was done my house was full of petals and my thumb nail had lifted off its nail bed :( But soon Anju took over and the result was quite a wow :)

The second rangoli of our married life :)

Given the effort involved in the last two events Anju was a wee bit hesitant this time around. And as usual I looked at things differently and wanted do something. So finally after much back & forth she suggested using coloured rice. Given our past results this seemed a little underwhelming. I was keen on getting some spectacular results but she was quite mindful of the effort involved. As we explored the options in Little India a week before the Diwali we came across a Stencil mechanism that used coloured rice grains. As we made our plans we got a invite to a Diwali lunch from a Senior at Coke. And for a moment it looked like a case of either lunch or the rangoli :(

A top view of this year's Rangoli :)

A closeup of the rice grains that made up the Rangoli

Now with the lamps at night :)

We somehow decided to give the rangoli a try before we went for the lunch. It seemed like a no win case but somehow after about two hours of effort we had a fabulous Rangoli. And Surprise!! Surprise!! we were ready before time for the lunch. The end result was an awesome day out with great company and an awesome Diwali Rangoli at home :) As I write these final words for this post the Diwali day is almost over, but the feeling is one of a Big High and the excitement of what will happen next year :D

Finally, Got my blood sucked!!

I used to be quite a regular blood donor back home in India and must have donated at least 10-12 times. After coming to Singapore I tried a few times to donate and each time I couldn’t due to some very minor procedural issues.

Yesterday I had to go to NUH for a medical appointment and after that was done I happened to be around the Blood bank. I decided that I should resume my donation. But Singapore procedures refused to make things easy for me :( Apparently I couldn’t donate because I had been to India in May. The friendly lady at the reception told me that the current regulations have become stringent due to cases of bird flu/ Malaria and if you have visited some of the bird flu/ Malaria affected countries in the last six months then you become ineligible for donation. India was a country on the list and I was rejected for visiting my homeland :(

I was keen on donating, so I persisted and the friendly lady at the reception directed me to Singapore General Hospital. Apparently the facility at SGH had more advanced screening capabilities and hence would be in a position to accept my donation. So off I went to SGH to infect some Singaporean with my blood. But apparently that Singaporean got lucky as the facility in SGH has a weekly holiday on Monday, ie yesterday :(

Now it was getting a bit irritating that despite such good intentions I couldn’t execute such a simple deed. So I crossed half of Singapore again today to reach SGH to attempt another shot at getting sucked :(

It wasn't easy, the initial paper work was quite irritating. Some of the questions were a tad rude and in fact the rules about UK and Europe at first glance didn’t quite seem very logical. However fortunately this time I survived the procedures and finally got my blood sucked for a good cause ;) Though the process occurred only with riders. I was told that due to my visit to India my blood will be quarantined and will be used only after a certain period. Whatever inconvenience I may have gone through the thing is that if I need any blood transfusion I would feel very safe if it originated from Singapore.

Resilience & The Shawshank Redemption

One of the most beautiful HBR articles I have read is called “How resilience works”. It was written by Diane L. Coutu and essentially involves three simple practices to cultivate the habit of Resilience. I quote from the article almost verbatim:

1. Face Down Reality
   Instead of slipping into denial, accepting reality can help you prepare yourself to act in ways that enable you to endure.
2.  Search for Meaning
   Instead of viewing yourself as a victim devise constructs about your suffering to create meaning for yourself. This meanings will help you visualize a better future and make the present manageable by removing the sense that it is overwhelming
3. Continually Improvise.
   When disaster hits, be inventive. Make the most of what you have, putting resources to unfamiliar uses and imaging possibilities others don’t see.

In the evening I was watching the movie, “The Shawshank Redemption”. It was as if they had implemented the HBR article verbatim. I saw TSR when I was in college and I fell in awe of the character of Andy Dufresne.

I remember I was channel surfing and happened to land on Star Movies at a very interesting juncture of the movie. The character of Andy seemed suicidal and as I was waiting for him to hang himself I experienced a truly amazing cinematic twist. For those who haven’t seen the movie let me not put in any spoilers here.

But the thing is that Andy was an amazing guy, and if there was in reality a guy like that he sure would have come out of terrible situation just like Andy did :)

The Miracle of Life

I happened to see two features on the Television today. The first one was the Tiger Man. It’s the story of 2 tiger couples mating and the birth of 7 cubs. And as luck would have it, the next program I saw was I didn’t know I was pregnant. And so I ended up with the Tiger & the Human perspective on the miracle of life :)

The thoughts I will try to articulate have been in the making for the last couple of years. At my age I have many peers who are adept at changing nappies, and in some cases handling PTA meetings in addition to the changing the nappies ;) The excess of free time at my disposal in the recent past meant that I had the chance to check out some of the literature on the subject. The net result is a certain wonder at the miracle of life and a much deeper appreciation for my own parents and what they did for me.

Before I add more of my own perspectives, let me recount what I saw on TV today. The program Tiger Man was very visual in depicting the birth of the cubs. This was the first time the featured Tigress was pregnant and its quite possible that she had no clue what was going on. The first few minutes of the cub’s life as documented in the program seemed to confirm this view. However within first fifteen minutes of the first cub's birth it was time for the second cub and this time she was better prepared and by now her motherly instinct had taken roots.

Its still quite premature for me to define what that motherly instinct is but I will give it a try after I talk about the next program I watched today. The series I didn’t know I was pregnant, described the stories of women who didn’t know that they were pregnant till very late. The tagline for the series: “How can a woman not know she’s pregnant?”, very beautifully captures my first impression about the series ;)

The stories were quite heart wrenching. One of the ladies had lost her Grandmother to cancer and was doing two jobs. She was planning her wedding and was under tremendous stress when she finally decided to go to the hospital for a checkup. Such stories are apparently not that uncommon, and in fact one friend told me about tribal women who deliver very late due to lack of support and low education levels. A common thread in all these cases is the tremendous stress that these women are subjected to. Perhaps these stresses made them less aware of the bodily changes they underwent and perhaps even ignore the discomfort till it was quite late.

In the series I didn’t know I was pregnant there are many instances when the women didn’t realize their pregnancies till the very end. In one of the instances the when the baby was coming out, the nurse wasn’t sure whether it was a tumor or a baby. But despite all the troubles there is invariably a smile when the mothers start talking about their offsprings. Given the challenges of their own lives displaying such emotions is kinda beautiful.

I talked to a few parents about their experiences and I got some interesting answers. I guess its only when you become a parent do you allow someone to be completely dependent on you. Just imagine this, a new born is nothing but a lump of life. In the initial days the baby struggles to do even basic things like breathing or eating. The baby doesn’t have the ability to focus his/her sight, and the underdeveloped spine means that you have to give that extra support even when you hold him/her. You suddenly realize that its only you who would take care of this lump of life that emerged from you own body. That feeling of responsibility perhaps develops a bond that is deeper than any other human relation.