Everyone’s saying it these days: “It’s expensive,” “Let’s buy it later,” or “Not today.” The recession isn’t just hitting adults anymore; it’s felt by the youth as well.

So yeah, it’s hard on everybody right now. Which means it’s time to actually be smart about money, the way the world’s richest, tightest-fisted cartoon duck would be, Uncle Scrooge.

Most of you have probably never seen a single episode. But ask your parents, they’ll know him. Scrooge McDuck, the impossibly rich uncle of an even more famous duck, the one in the sailor hat, Donald Duck.

Uncle Scrooge, across his episodes, he ends up teaching his nephews how to save, again and again. Let’s take that advice and try to apply it to our own lives.

Save money

Nobody on earth has ever got excited by this phrase. No one takes the advice to save money seriously. They just listen and nod. Scrooge himself doesn’t save money for no reason; he saves it because every coin means something to him. That’s a completely different take on saving money.

Now think about the last time you actually had money. Eidi, a monthly allowance, part-time job pay, it doesn’t matter. You had it, an actual amount you could count. Three days later, you checked again. Probably lower, or none at all. And what’s really frustrating is that not every time can you point to things you bought with that money, whether it was shoes, bags, clothes or gadgets, and say, “That’s where the money went.”

And it’s not just you, it’s the same with me and everyone else. But do you know the difference between the duck and us? He knows where every coin went, and we don’t.

In one of the episodes, Uncle Scrooge’s three nephews walk into his office holding a piggy bank with their entire life savings: one dollar and ninety-five cents. They want him to keep it safe and help it grow.

Instead of just nodding and taking the cash, Uncle Scrooge makes them understand where money actually comes from and why it loses value over time. Spending less than you earn is the whole game. And at the end, once he has turned their one dollar and ninety-five cents into an actual investment, he charges them a fee for giving them his time.

Yes, he charged his own nephews a consulting fee for helping them save their own piggy-bank money.

Now, the whole point is that good things are never actually free. And to keep track of your money — your own or your parents’ hard-earned money — follow some simple, unique steps.

Make savings untouchable

This is the single biggest thing that changes everything else. The moment you get money, whether it’s eidi, allowance, gift money or anything else, move a chunk of it somewhere that isn’t your wallet or your easy-access account. It doesn’t have to be much. Even 10 per cent counts as a real start.

But why do this? Well, the money you can see and touch gets spent. Money that’s already been moved feels like it’s not yours to spend anymore, so your brain stops fighting you over it. This is the actual trick behind every savings account ever invented.

Give every rupee a job!

Don’t just save “money”. Save for something specific, and split it if you have more than one goal. The trip this summer goes in one place. The new phone goes in another. Even if it’s just two envelopes or two notes in your phone, keep them separate.

Money with a job attached is much harder to spend on random stuff than money without a purpose.

The feeling of “I can’t touch this, it’s for my phone” works on your brain far better than “This bracelet is so beautiful, I must have it!”

Save in percentage, not leftovers

We spend all month, and then if anything is left, it’s called “savings”. Money is never a leftover because something always comes up that you need to spend it on.

Say you get 1,000 rupees. Decide on a percentage first, let’s say 10 per cent. That’s 100 rupees. The moment you get the money, move those 100 rupees away into a separate envelope or anywhere else you won’t touch. The remaining Rs900 is yours to spend on whatever you like, with no guilt.

You’re not saving what’s left over; you’re spending what’s left over after saving.

Thirty days, two challenges

Challenge 1: Give yourself 30 days. Pick a saving percentage, even 10 per cent. Move it out of reach the day you get paid. Give it a name, the actual thing you’re saving for.

Check in on day 7, day 15 and day 30, just to see the number grow. By the 30th day, you won’t just know where your money went. You’ll have actual money saved.

Challenge 2: Write down every purchase, even the embarrassingly small ones. Nobody sees it but you. Buying fries, a burger, spending money on movies, etc.

Check in on the 30th day. You’ll be surprised to see how much money you waste or spend.

You don’t need a pool of gold coins like Uncle Scrooge to be good with money. All you need is a little thought and a plan for where it goes. And with this little advice, you’ve actually got a working system.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 28th, 2026