What goes into picking the perfect gift?
This wedding season - gift smart, gift FD
How good do you think you are at choosing gifts for others? And how much do you enjoy the decision process? If your answer to both questions was negative, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Most people, by their own admission, usually find themselves lost when they need to decide what to gift someone on special occasions, be it birthdays, anniversaries, or weddings.
In fact, Google’s search engine alone receives an average of over a million queries a day around “gift ideas”, all year round, and this number nearly triples during holiday season.
The Path of Least Resistance
Tired of the endless searching, many people resort to gift vouchers or even hard cash as alternative gifting options. While it seems impersonal, this practice has come to become socially acceptable to the point that it is almost the norm.
And it usually works out, the receiver of the gift is free to buy something of their choice with your monetary gift, and you don’t have to wrack your brains trying to think of the perfect gift; win-win.
But this is not a perfect solution for all situations. We can analyze the situation by breaking the people you know into segments. There are broadly 3 types of people in your life - Close relations, acquaintances, and those in the awkward middle-ground. You rarely need to gift acquaintances anything, and for close relations, you usually have some idea of what they’d like, and if not, gifting cash is not a problem.
The Problem
Problems only arise when you need to gift someone from the third group. You don’t know them well enough to gauge their needs or preferences and cash is seen as too impersonal for a wedding gift. So, we’re back to the endless hunt for suitable gifts.
Fortunately, this situation occurs almost exclusively during weddings; no other instance requires you to gift them anything. Westerners have created a solution to this with the concept of a wedding registry. But in India, with how close-knit communities tend to be, guests are expected to bring carefully selected gifts that show their love and respect for the couple. Wedding registries are also a foreign concept to most Indians and may even be seen as disrespectful to our culture.
So, what to gift the happy couple?
You don’t want to appear inconsiderate by gifting cash, but you also want to make sure your gift has some utility for the couple. So how do you pick a gift?
There’s a somewhat unconventional, but rather elegant solution to this - FDs.
Fixed deposits have a long history and cultural significance in India. They are seen as a symbol of financial stability, discipline, and responsibility. An FD as a wedding gift strikes the perfect balance between ease of selection for the giver and utility for the receiver, while still abiding by Indian cultural norms.
Wedding gifting is now live on Stable Money. You can now pick the perfect gift in just a few simple steps, along with a personalized gift card.
This wedding season, do something different. Show your support through a thoughtful gift that shows stability and commitment.
In today’s edition, we’ve shown you a simple, yet fitting alternative to conventional wedding gifts. At Stable Money, we’re going to keep you informed and ensure that you make the best financial decisions.
Best, Team Stable Money