Tag: Money

shopping, Travelling

5 Must Visit Street Shopping Destinations in Bangalore

Pihu

We all love street shopping. Street shopping is a great way to get an idea of the local market and the regional prices. Everybody should be in tune with their district market. 

I always make sure to see the marketplace of the city I am visiting. Obviously living in Bangalore for so many years, I know many fashion street destinations. Let me share them with you today:-

Jayanagar 5th Block

Located only 2 kms from the historical Lalbagh Garden, Jayanagar 5th block and 4th block  is a renowned shopping destination. One storeyed houses, and showrooms mark the neighborhood. 

One of the most interesting things about it is its diversity.  On the same road you can get jeans for 5000 rupees and another one for just 100 rupees.

 If you want to visit branded shops then 4th block has it all from H&M to Zinc London. But instead if you are in mood for some bargaining then Jayanagar Shopping Complex is a haven for everything from fake jewelry to casual clothing. 

Silk shops and jewelry stores are also a trademark of this place. 

Mahatma Gandhi Road 

Mahatma Gandhi Road; definitely one of the most developed areas in bangalore. It is a great destination for a day outing with your friends or family. Cafes, restaurants, pubs, cloth shops, vendors give this place its special appearance. If you are in Bangalore this is definitely a must visit.

Despite its posh appearance, MG road has many affordable clothes shops as well. The experienced shopper knows. Just take a left turn, into a small lane, sprinkled with pubs and female attire stores. Heads up; it’s only cheap if you are an expert at bargaining. 

So grab your best friend, dress up, and get down at MG road Metro Station, shop and take some cool photos!

Chickpete

Chickpete is basically a wholesale market of clothes and dress material, located near the city market. City market has other wholesale areas of utensils, electrical stuff, motor parts, etc. Though I recommend going there with an expert, since it requires a lot of bargaining. One should also be familiar with the shops. Though you can also go there to simply visit. It is a very interesting place. It also has junk jewelry and western wear shops. Plus many food stalls. 

Many of my friends go there at least once a month, to buy household stuff. Since it is available for really cheap there.

Jyoti Nivas College Market

Jyoti Nivas Is a girls degree and PU college in Koramangala. Outside it there are many Street style clothes shops, footwear shops, food stalls, etc. It is very centrally located. JNC is only 1km from Forum Mall. The entire area is very good to roam and walk. There are shops of all kinds, plus many cafes, pubs, and restaurants.

Commercial Street

Commercial Street is one of the oldest and busiest shopping destinations of bangalore. It is famous for clothes, footwear, food joints, and electronic items. Buy cosmetics, purses, bangles, dinner sets, household items, and much more at this place. Since it is very centrally located there are also many retail shops surrounding it. If you are tired of bargaining, you can always head over there for some rest and air conditioning. 

Some food items you can find there are Chaat, dosa, idli, sandwiches, etc. There is also an abundance of aesthetic and old cafes there. Some of them being 

MDP Coffee House

Lakeview Milkbar

Champaca

Cafe Azzure

There are many things to do there beside shopping also, like;

Cubbon Park

Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium

Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum

Mahatma Gandhi Road

So, these were some of the most famous and best shopping destinations in Bangalore. I have been to almost all of them. Though, I have to say since I have also seen the markets of Bombay, Delhi, and Ahmedabad, Bangalore doesn’t even compare with them. To name a few, Janpat, Sarojni Nagar, and Karol Bagh in Delhi, Rani no Hajiro, Law Garden, Ratan Pole In Ahmedabad, Hill Road, Causeway, Linking Road in Bombay.  

Street shopping is not only good for your budget but also your street smartness. Shopkeepers though not always but frequently do try to fool their customers. I have personally learned a lot from going to local markets. One should take their kids to markets like these because there is a lot to learn from there, plus it is also really fun!

Do you enjoy street shopping too? Tell me in the comment section below.

Money, Parenting, Personal

Unschooling Diaries #6: Life Lessons from Monopoly

Pihu

I have already stressed the importance of good economic education for children in my previous post. But since schools remain uninterested, here is a fun way to teach your kids (and yourself) about money. Getting teens or even ourselves to read books can be a challenge. More often than not we will be caught dozing off, so here is a fun, interactive, and simple way to grab a few financial guidelines.

MONOPOLY! Yesterday I was playing this amazing board game with my friends and I was surprised to notice how many ideas from the book Rich-dad Poor-dad it reflected. Property building, debt, financial planning, etc being a few. We all learn better from practical and experimental methods. In fact a recent study has concluded, board games are the best way to retain information. 

Have you played Monopoly, if yes, what are some lessons you took away from it? Or, do you know any board games which can be good teaching tools? Please tell me in the comment section.  

Personal

Homeschooling Diaries #1: Why I Blame Schools for Bad Financial Situations 

Pihu

“A person can be highly educated, professionally successful, and financially illiterate”– Robert T. Kiyosaki

Today as I was reading Lesson 2 of Rich-Dad Poor-dad. And I noticed how Robert kept saying repeatedly wealthy people mostly end up in debt or are always stuck in the rat race. This made me think who was responsible for this and the answer seemed pretty obvious: Educational institutions! i.e schools, colleges, etc. But how, Pihu? Well if schools gave proper financial education then people won’t end up making all these bad decisions. For example, appreciate creativity instead of exercising control, and give good economic knowledge in balance with academic knowledge. If every school follows this there will be a day when nobody is poor because most of the impoverishment is caused by bad economic decisions by the wealthy. So, does this make you question the education system? And do you believe it requires change? Tell me your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below. 

Today I was reading Chapter 2 of “Rich Dad-Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. Relatability: is one of the many reasons why I enjoy reading this book. 

This question has been bothering me lately: Why do people, after studying so much(more than ¼ of their lifetimes),  make financially wrong decisions their entire life? Robert answered it for me: the present day schooling system and financial education have no connection. We are not taught in schools about the stock market, investments, financial freedom, etc. This is why people end up with huge loans, or are stuck in the rat race their entire leaves. If good economic education was given in schools, the situation would be different at an individual level, for society, and even nationally. 

If you want to go deeper on this topic, I definitely recommend reading “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. Please tell me do you or do to you not blame schools for bad financial situations, in the comment section below. 

Writing

How to Earn your First 1000$ from Blogging

Pihu

:-Sitting at home and with minimal investment

Writing has always been a form of art. In ancient times it was used as a way of expression. But with the invention of the internet, it is not only great storytellers and poets that writing can support but also common people like you and me. Now there are many great options like ad copywriting, content writing, blogging, etc. to choose from. Today we are going to focus on blogging and how to earn from it. 

What is Blogging?

A blog is anything self-published on the internet by an individual. It can be anything like essays, photos, videos, etc. A text blog can be of many types like personal, professional, educational, etc. One can start his or her blog by first creating a website. The steps of starting a blog are listed below:-

  1. Create a website from tools like WordPress or blogger .com
  2. Design a beautiful layout, it might not be perfect at first but don’t worry.
  3. Choose a blog name, topic, and site tagline.
  4. Promote it on social media and social networks.
  5. Start writing: remember good content is the key. 

Now that we have cleared what is a blog and how you can start one let us move on to how you can earn from one.

How to earn from a blog?

  1. Increase viewership –

The most basic step to start getting paid is to increase traffic to your site. This is true because of the following 3 reasons:-

i) Get paid based on viewers on websites like medium.com

ii)Increases payment by advertisements

iii) Increase blog value

A few steps to increase viewership are 

i) Ace SEO

ii) Promote on social media 

iii) Write quality content

Once your viewers have increased, try the following step.

  1. Premium  posts 

So instead of publishing all the posts for free, one is publishing some posts in a hidden category. The viewer will have to pay a certain fee to unlock access to all posts.  This is a great way to increase revenue. 

  1. Advertising 

Advertising is the most paying option of all and the best part is it requires minimal effort. If used correctly, advertising can easily pay around 10,000$ per month.  But it also has some downsides like ads draw out the beauty and authenticity of your site. They are annoying and if one goes overboard he/she might irritate the readers resulting in loss of viewership. 

  1. Guest Blogging

   Guest blogging or guest posting is writing for another individual’s/company’s website.  The main aim is to a) get paid b) attract traffic back to our site. The average cost of an article is anything from 50-5000 dollars. But guest posting isn’t that easy it requires an insane amount of hard work. For example, sometimes only one out of 50 pitches you pitch get accepted. 

Bottom line 

Blogging is a slow and hard process. The money takes a lot of time to come in. But one thing is for sure: in the end, it is all worth it. The most important part is to just start. Learn from the mistakes and keep upgrading ourselves.