• Home
  • My Book on Investing
  • Updates for Book Readers
    • FDs & RDs
    • PPF
    • Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF)
    • NSCs, SCSS, POMIS
    • Gold
    • Stocks
    • Real Estate
    • Life Insurance
    • Health Insurance
  • Contact Me

InvestJunction

Investing made simpler

  • New Offers
  • Reviews
  • Real Life Stories
  • For Women
  • Self-Publishing

Conversations with Uber/Ola drivers on investing

June 2, 2017 By vinodpt 1 Comment

For the past many months, I’ve come to rely on Ola and Uber cabs for my commute within the city.  As all of you must have experienced, in the course of a long commute, we invariably end up talking with the cab drivers. You could talk to them about almost anything under the sun. All of them have an opinion to share and an interesting perspective of the world since they meet and converse with so many different types of people during their journeys.

The one difference I noticed between Ola/Uber car drivers and their yellow-black cab brethren was the overall optimism and positive vibe you got from these smart-cab drivers. This stood our for me almost every time I spoke to any of them. The Uber/Ola driver would always talk with hope about their future and the plans they have for their families and kids.

I could think  of  many reasons  of for this particular disposition they had: from having a more secure source of income to having the backing of cash-rich companies to dealing with mainly white-collared executives to being involved in a very digital, new-age set-up and so on. They also had a comparatively better experience with their passengers and owners.

Since I’m always curious about how people invest, I veer the conversation towards their investing habits. I found that although most of them were earning well and sounded savvy about money, they still had old-school habits about investing. A few still took loans from local money lenders at exorbitant rates; they couldn’t differentiate between monthly/annual interest rates; many hadn’t heard about PPF or mutual funds, and so on. The one positive part was that most of them were aware of life and medical insurance and many had even got their insurance done.

But for me, the surprising part of the conversations would happen when I suggest corrective measures on their investing habits. I would half expect them to ignore what I say, or not understand, since it would be something entirely new for them. But no, almost everyone I spoke to would want to know more about what they hear. Some of them would be so interested, they would immediately take notes  – sometimes even stopping a few extra seconds at the traffic lights to get it correct. They keep asking you the right questions and there is a huge desire in them to know more about the subject.

From my experiences, I feel there is a huge need for a financial literacy campaign that’s aimed at the labour class that includes drivers, maids, security guards, etc. Most of them are hard-working, honest people trying their best to give a better future to their families, especially their children. Either their owners – Uber/Ola and so on should take the initiative or an institution like SEBI, RBI or a private player should look into this need.  There’s an audience out there that is eager and waiting to learn. Someone has to just take the initiative.

Filed Under: Real Life Stories, Smart Investing

Comments

  1. vinodpt says

    June 11, 2017 at 12:01 pm

    Hi

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Available online and in stores!

Explains all popular investments along with concepts related to investing in simple English. Read about FDs, RDs, PPF, NSCs, EPF, Gold, Mutual Funds, Stocks, Life & Health Insurance, Writing a Will, and more! Click to buy the book!

Read Before You Buy!

Read reviews of the book

  1. Reviews on Goodreads (4.33 / 78 ratings)
  2. Reviews on Amazon (4.4 / 22 reviews)

Subscribe to Investjunction

Find us on

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Most Popular Posts

Reliance Mutual Fund Day – Putting the focus on “regular investing” in mutual funds

Reliance Mutual Fund Day – Putting the focus on “regular investing” in mutual funds

Conversations with Uber/Ola drivers on investing

Conversations with Uber/Ola drivers on investing

No more, Any Time Money?

No more, Any Time Money?

Will Your Investments GO WASTE?

Will Your Investments GO WASTE?

Making Investing Simpler

My name is Vinod Pottayil and I’m the author of the book “What Every Indian Should Know Before Investing”. The aim of this website is to update readers of my book with additional information. However, if you haven't purchased the book, you can still find useful information that can help you understand investments better. Both the book and the website cover a lot of areas related to investing for those investors who are about to or have just started their journey of investing. I’ve been through the pain of learning to invest without knowing where to begin and I hope this website will assist some of you who may be in a similar situation.

Disclaimer

Please do not consider any of the content on this site as advice to make an investment decision. Investment decisions have long-term financial consequences and is best done considering your personal situation and with the help of a financial advisor. Seeking information and knowledge about investing doesn’t mean that you never have to consult an expert. On the contrary, I believe, being better informed enables you to seek relevant and useful assistance from the huge range of services available. Explanations, reviews, discussions, etc. on this site are therefore not recommendations of any type; they are purely the first set of information that will help you understand investing better.

InvestJunction© 2019