Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Techies now learn the virtue of saving

K Giriprakash in Bangalore

For Indian techies, savings was a habit their parents practised. As far as they were concerned, they could splurge as much as they wanted and still have enough to splurge again.

Post downturn, some of these "facts of life" have changed irrevocably for software engineers. "Nobody knows what is going to happen next. The immediate fallout has been a definite trend towards savings," says Way2Wealth chief executive officer K R Mohan.

"They are doing what their parents did for years. They have suddenly discovered the virtues of saving," says Mohan, whose Way2Wealth is one of the leading investment consulting agencies. Way2Wealth is incidentally the new avatar of Sivan Securities, a VC fund that has invested in companies like Infosys, Kshema Technologies and incubated several others.

Ramesh Kurumbaya, who works at a software company, recounts how he repeatedly defaulted on repaying a housing loan because the company in which he was working earlier first slashed his salary and later laid him of. Kurumbaya now works as a consultant with another software firm and has cut down on all luxuries. "I recently went to an investment consultant to find out how I can start saving for a rainy day," says Kurumbaya.

Kshema Technologies recently invited Way2Wealth officials to make a presentation to their software engineers. "The presentation they made was an eye-opener to software engineers whose life revolves around coding," says an HR official from Kshema.

B Srinivasan, a director with Shree Sidvin, an investment consultancy agency, whose client list includes some of the biggest names in the IT world, says that software engineers were earlier willing to take long-term bets. "Not so any more. They don't want to be tied down to long-term commitments. They no longer feel confident that they will retain their jobs for long," says Srinivasan.

Akshata Rao, (not her real name), a software professional at Aztec says she is saving money to learn new software skills. "Life has changed completely for us. You need to reinvent yourself all the time. Be armed with newer skills just in case our existing skills become obsolete," says Rao.

According to one HR consultancy firm, companies like Infosys and Wipro look out for software engineers who have a high learnability quotient. "Post-30, companies believe that your learnability quotient decreases and we can already see techies panicking," says an official of the HR firm.

"Our first advice to them is that they should have a reserve of at least six months salary. Liquidity is extremely important for them now," says Mohan of Way2Wealth.

According to a Maruti dealer in Bangalore, software engineers are now willing to take a look at even Maruti 800s. "Big cars are no longer their first choice," says the dealer. However, software engineers still buy cars more than others.

Powered by

ALSO READ:
More Money Headlines