Kunal's Journey to Financial Savvy

I was a mischievous kid; a troublemaker.

When I was in school, everyone knew me as the kid who always made the teachers angry. I used to get into fights with the other kids. And for some reason, no one liked me when I arrived home carrying all the stuff *I* stole from other kids.

But I got worse when money came into my life.

My mother told me that she worked really hard to pay our bills and buy groceries for us. She said we had money problems and that I should help her by being good at school so she wouldn't have to work so hard. But I didn't care about all that because I had just gotten my first student loan check! Daddy told me it was an advance on my allowance but that didn't matter because now I could spend it however I wanted! So later that day, dressed in my best clothes, I went out shopping at the mall.

I bought a new jacket, some cool shoes, a new hat and a big bag of candies - everything on my list! When I got home my Mom saw the candy and gave me a funny look -- she took the candy away from me immediately and hid it up in her room.

I was angry about this of course but then I remembered that there was still another check waiting for me at school. So after dinner, before going to bed, I asked my Mom if we could go to the bank to deposit my check so we could pay our rent and electricity bills right away. She agreed right away -- this was great news since it meant she'd be able to afford more stuff for us!

So off we went very happily to the bank -- Mom driving the car while I sat next to her holding my new jacket in my lap while making sure not to get any chocolate stains on it. Since we were going out so late at night, Mom dropped me off outside the bank's main doors instead of waiting with me inside like she usually did when we went there during regular hours. As soon as she drove away, though, something strange happened -- two men suddenly came up behind me and grabbed hold of both of my arms so tight that they hurt! They tried to pull me across the parking lot toward their car but I wouldn't let them do that -- so several minutes later they finally managed to drag me into their car where another guy was sitting in the back seat waiting for us! He grabbed hold of my body and handed me over to his friend in the front passenger seat who gave me a punch in the stomach so hard that it hurt really badly! Bending over in pain from the punch, one of my shoes flew off and landed near his feet -- he kicked it away with anger while telling his friends they'd better teach me a lesson before they took off! By now tears were rolling down my cheeks as they sped away from the bank parking lot -- but as soon as they turned onto another street, they stopped their car suddenly causing all four of us inside to slam against our seats! The driver looked back at his friend in the back seat and said "Look man...I'm sorry 'bout this okay? But your wife is gonna find out what you been up to if you don't pay up soon!" Then he called someone on his cell phone saying "She's here now..."

That's when everything suddenly fell into place for me: these guys weren't trying to kidnap or hurt *me* -- they were trying to kidnap or hurt *my Mom*! This guy must have been connected with her boss somehow and now he was insisting that she repay money he'd loaned her last month for gambling debts! At first I thought about letting him take her but then remembering that Dad had given us permission to use money from our savings account this week (which didn't happen very often) made up my mind: no one was going to bully or steal from my Mom! So as soon as he hung up his phone, I charged towards him shouting "Let go of her you big bully!!" For a moment he looked shocked but then he screamed "Stop her!!!" which caused his two friends who had been sitting quietly next to each other up until then suddenly jump out of their seats ready to grab hold of me again -- but luckily this time their surprise allowed me enough time to push past them and reach over toward where Mom was sitting helplessly in the front passenger seat! "Let's go Mom!" I shouted at her while grabbing hold of her arm firmly--and together we ran full speed out of their car towards mine which Mom had left running with its doors open just moments before! Those guys never even tried chasing after us -- all four of them just sat there staring at us as we turned around and drove off with Mom driving quickly home through traffic lights which were turning yellow fast! We made it home without further incident but once we got there she sent Dad straight out again with her gun ready just in case those bullies showed up again -- turns out they never did though...