From The Editor’s Desk

Revised Tax-Free Investments…
Profits Guaranteed!

Dear Readers,

The obvious hot topic of this week, the Union Budget, seems to be one that doesn’t change too much for most of us. Which is a good thing – we could do with the breather post the ‘demon’etization – a racist (anti-black) exercise in national exhorcism (pun intended)! Outside India too, racism is rife (no pun intended) – as the ‘Trump’eting deafens the world, with its ever-increasing bigoted decibels, and ostracizes a good part of it, with Donald’s own definition of ‘Swachh America’ – throwing out illegal immigrants without due procedure, and banning entry of people into the US from a number of Muslim nations. How putting ‘America First’ at the expense of ‘Humanity Last’ will work out, is beyond me.

Back home in India, most of us have been furiously whatsapp-forwarding all those ‘Budget Highlights’ and opinions of people remotely connected to Finance (I got a few from some of Bollywood’s choicest picks which left me confused for a while, trying to figure whether the forward was a joke or an opinion – not too much of a difference either way!) in an effort to come across looking like we understand the intricacies of the Budgeting ideology.

I’m no financial expert, but just like you, I love the words ‘tax-free’ and ‘profits’. Just like you, again, year after year, I’m left confused and disappointed in the Government taking a large share of my hard earned income as taxes and hardly ever delivering on the promise of civic welfare.

This time, in an attempt to break that depressing cycle, let’s opt for some tax-free investments that yield guaranteed profits, that can’t be measured by currency. I think the best investment we will ever make, and one which will never fail us, is the one we make in people – family, friends, colleagues, community members and all people – strangers even! When we invest our time, emotion and efforts in people, in return we reap the richest profits of love, friendship, respect, happiness and unity. And whereas these may not directly result in the growth of our financial wealth, it does wonders for our mental and spiritual wealth.

Likewise, we can also invest our time in activities which increase our intellectual wealth – like travel and reading and learning something new – be it a skill or a language; and very importantly, boost our physical wealth by investing in sports and other activities. But most important of all, to us Parsis – let’s increase our investments in good food, good fun and good times! After all, all the financial wealth in the world would amount to nothing if we were bankrupt in happiness and joie de vivre.

So the next time you find yourself or anyone grumbling about the budget and taxes, remember, we don’t need to wait for the government for our ‘Acche Din’ – we hold the key to our happiness because we are equipped with an inexhaustible source of investments, which profit us beyond currencies and economies and budgets!

-Anahita