Divide your earnings into three parts

Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan
22
Writing a personal blog for ten years, you tend to expose more than just your thoughts and emotions to the world. Slowly, in subtle ways and occasional nods, you reveal the life you live as well. Your work atmosphere, people at home, the land you live in and yes, even the food you eat, are all part of what makes up your story. And as I flip through the pages of old, it is nice to see the evolution too - from what the blog once was to what it is now.

One of the (relatively) recent things that popped up probably over the last two years only has been a new found love for traveling and meeting people across the country. You would be hard pressed to find anything other than my hometown and cities of education (Pune and Mangalore) in the first three-fourth of this blog. Life just had such a tight grip and kept squeezing month after month out of me until one day I looked back and suddenly, the blog that had started in 2005 in Mangalore was right there once more even in 2012! Seven years of my life had disappeared in the interim and I found myself a thirty plus man who had just spent a lifetime behind books or inside operation theatres. I had a passport at home which had expired without a single stamp on it!


I would perhaps not have done a lot about it had I not read (and drooled!) over the 2013 America Trip post of my dear blogger friend Nisha of Simmering Sunshine. She and I go way back and are part of the golden oldies circle of the Indian blogosphere. I love watching her travel and living a vicarious life through her holiday posts.


In this particular post, Nisha ends with these lines -
"After this vacation, all I want to say is... divide your earnings in three parts. One, for necessities. Two, save as much as you can for old age. Then use the rest to travel beyond your city. There is no better gift you can give yourself." 

Those words struck a chord in me. I knew she was absolutely right in what she was saying and I also knew it was something I had not been doing in my own life. I actually told her the same that very day in her blog and we would discuss it further on Facebook.

But the thing is I followed her advice. I stopped living as a 24/7 doctor simply because I knew that there would be no end to it. There would always be patients in hospitals. But there were other doctors. I could not keep bending over backwards and living inside hospitals endlessly just to watch my own life pass me by.

Book launches, car launches, off roading experiences, trying out exotic foods,
Meeting celebrities, meeting old friends, making new friends,
photobombing people, being photobombed, weddings & birthdays,
flying, driving, riding, trying out exotic food... All Done!
So instead, I decided to be the best darn doctor I could be while I was at work but make sure that when I was off work, I was OFF WORK! I started taking trips across the country and meeting up with people I knew from days gone by - schoolmates, college mates, doctors and most importantly, my new family of fellow bloggers whose thoughts I read everyday but had never met before.

I have traveled more in the last 2 years of my life than I have in the previous 20. And I want to thank my fellow blogger buddy, Nisha, for that. Her words made a lot of sense to me that day and I always encourage my colleagues and friends to do the same.

In your hurry to earn enough to live a successful life, don't forget to actually LIVE and see the beauty of the world around you. Travel while you are young and still able to enjoy it all.


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22Comments

Let me know what you think.

  1. Vinodini IyerJuly 03, 2018

    Thanks for this advice doc. Makes a lot of sense. I only wish I could save as much as is actually required for future...but what the heck?! You only live once, got to make the most of it!

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  2. Hugs Roshan! Excellent advice from Nisha - and I can totally endorse it. I love your photo with Usha Uthup! I am so glad you traveled - and that we got to meet! Wishing you all the best!

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  3. Shubha AthavaleJuly 03, 2018

    Hey Doc, great advice! Thanks! Going to pass on to my son....Shubha

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  4. Jayashree SrivatsanJuly 03, 2018

    Very very true Roshan ....Life goes on no matter what ...we need to stop and smell the flowers while there is time energy and feasibility .... Happy travelling .... Hope we get to meet somewhere someday :D

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  5. latasunilJuly 03, 2018

    Its such a simple advice. I wish I could follow it and had probably read this 5 years earlier. Great advice.

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  6. richasinghJuly 03, 2018

    This is such a bright post! Roshan I hope many more people read your post and get inspired to do same :)

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  7. shilpagargJuly 03, 2018

    That's such a fab advice! And I so agree with it! It's great that you are exploring the world and enjoying it too! Way to go!

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  8. Yes.. really a case of better late than never here!

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  9. Trust me.. start now. We will never get younger than we are today

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  10. Jayashree, I guess I really forgot to take a break for the whole of my twenties... I seem to be making up for it in my thirties! And yes, somewhere along the way, we will cross paths :)

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  11. Thanks Vidya... and Happy Birthdayyyy!!! (Cake please)

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  12. That column is pretty meagre for me too (we doctors start earning at 30, remember) but I realized I cant sit and wait till I am 50 to actually move around and see places.

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  13. Wow.. that's such a beautiful advice that you got and now you are giving it to your readers! It kind of is striking a chord with my heart as well! Mission will start soon on diving my savings in this manner..!

    10 years of blogging!! Man.. all you fellow bloggers are simply brilliant and I am just a naive hopping from one to another and seeking life advices from you all and learn from them as well!

    Enjoyed this one Doctor!

    Cheers

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  14. Danny_simonJuly 03, 2018

    I see food and food! Lol! Must admit you and food do go hand in hand every time we met! Great post! Travelling does make you learn so many new things!

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  15. Geets, in the earlier years, hardly anyone blogged. There were no contests and no Blogadda or Indiblogger to showcase your work anywhere... technically no Facebook and I doubt if Twitter was a big thing either. So rarely had niche blogs back then like travel, creative writing etc...


    We all started off naive... we still are in many ways. We get to explore the new opportunities provided to bloggers right beside you :)

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  16. Why is there any doubt in that :D
    In fact, I had to edit the pics to ensure less pics had food in them!
    Yes, traveling has shown me a world I just had not given time to in my life before this. Touch wood, more places will be visited in the years to come.

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  17. TweetsmomJuly 03, 2018

    That is amazing advice! Oh to travel! Just this last year I told my husband that it wasn't Ok to only work, pay bills, and forget to live. So this year we went camping numerous times, to the beach, to a children's museum, and to the fair having a completely magnificent time.

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  18. You don't know how happy this post makes me! I am so glad you took this advice.. traveling is the single most thing that keeps the fire burning in me; I hope it does the same for you.

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  19. I'm glad you did. I lost a lot of good years of my life studying and sacrificing. Now I decided that I would accomodate the above but ensure there was time for myself too.

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  20. It certainly has... and I intend to keep at it. Thanks... as you can see below, others too agree with your sagely words, Swamini Nishamayananda :D

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