As a financial planner I do spend a lot of time with 16-year-olds working in call centres, media companies, banks and so on. When I am with them and discussing their problems, the one question that often comes to my mind is: 'If these guys cannot make their monthly salary stretch one month, how will they be able to stretch their 'retirement nest egg' for 30 years?'

The normal problems are over-running their credit limits, paying partly for their cell phone bills, delaying the rent cheques, and all this, despite being paid well.

I try telling them the virtues of saving, starting early, investing, life insurance, mutual fund and all that. At my age I guess I sound like their dad/mom giving them advice, so like dutiful children they hear me patiently and ignore me nicely.

Whenever I run into them again, in the canteen or the corridor, they sheepishly tell me: "Sir, I was just looking for you. Will you be there till 4.30 pm?"

At 5.30 pm when I am leaving, there is no sign of them. But by now I know their game, so I shrug it off!

But surprise, surprise: one day a smart, young woman comes up to me and says: "Can I invest in a mutual fund or an insurance policy, or preferably both?"

I flipped. I had been chasing a lot of these people and only a couple of them had come voluntarily to invest. So I had to probe.

Then came out the secret, and I liked it. And since she was a media person, I asked her to write the story in her own words.

So here it is. . . in her own words:

'I was on my way to work and Murphy's Law had struck in the form of a traffic jam. In an attempt to dissuade my cab driver from blaring Himmesh Reshamiya's latest assault on music, I began to chat with him. In the course of my discussion, I asked him if the taxi he drove was his own or was he on a shift system like many others.

'His reply had me speechless. Not only was the taxi he was driving his own, but he also owned six other Fiat taxis, one Toyota [ Images ] Qualis [ Images ], which he hired out and was now debating between a truck and bus for his next acquisition. Wow!

'I asked him where he got the money from. . . slightly nervous that I was riding with a possible hitman for Dawood. And his answer was even more surprising.

'He said: "Madam, whenever you need to go some place you take a cab and go. When I have to go some place and I don't have a fare going in that direction, I park my taxi some place and hop into a bus."

'I listened as he spoke. "How much does it cost you to travel from your home to your office?" Rs 100, I said. "Well, Rs 200 for a round trip?" he continued. "Well, let's say you travel through the month by taxi. How much would that cost you?" Some quick math later, I came up with the answer: Rs 6,000!

'I was spending Rs 6,000 a month to travel. Then he said: "The bus ticket costs you Rs 10 and say another Rs 20 to get from your home to the bus stop. That's Rs 60 per day for a round trip. You are saving Rs 140 everyday. That's Rs 4,200 a month. . . nearly, Rs 50,000 a year. If you invested that in something, you'd be able to buy your own car!"

'What could I say? I now travel by bus. And am doing a Systematic Investment Plan in a mutual fund and paying a monthly premium in a Unit-linked insurance plan."

'What I could not do in 18 months, a taxi driver had done in 18 minutes.'

As told to PV Subramanyam. PV Subramanyam is a financial domain trainer and can be contacted at pvsubramanyam@gmail.com. 

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