How I Lived Completely Cashless for 50 Days (Comfortably)

A surprise trigger, of a mixed nature, was dropped on the Indian economy on 8^th November, 2016 when our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi banned the use of existing Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes. The most significant point to remember here is that these notes combined account for 86% of the total currency in circulation in India. As expected and as conveyed by the government as well, there was some short term pain for everyone after the announcement. Note that the word ‘short term’ in itself is subjective and varies from industry to industry as well as person to person.

Yes, trade across all facets of the economy was disrupted, and cash-centric sectors like agriculture, fishing, and the voluminous informal market were virtually shut down, with many businesses and livelihoods going under completely — not to mention the economic impact of millions of people standing in line for hours to exchange or deposit cancelled banknotes rather than working or doing business. All this happened, but with a higher goal in mind that will make itself apparent (despite the sceptics screaming otherwise) in the coming years. Remember, ‘short term’ is subjective.

Since I run a fin-tech venture, the whole economic machine is of keen interest to me. And I had been thinking for a long time about living a completely cashless life on a daily basis. Well, this seemed like the perfect time to begin my journey and leave cash behind altogether. Note that the real test here was to see 2 things for myself-

·         Whether living completely cashless is even possible in such a nation (albeit in some cities)

·         If yes, then how easy / comfortable life is after embracing the cashless era

Let us see what the test conditions of this real life experiment were –

·         A young individual (aged 26 years)

·         Building my own venture in NCR (frequently commuting across Delhi / Faridabad / Gurgaon)

·         Living in a shared flat with 2 flatmates

·         Hobbies – Gym, Sports & Music

And what was the result of a complete cashless life of 50 days? –

I didn’t touch a single note or coin from 10^th November 2016 to 30^th December 2016 and lived pretty conveniently the whole time.

But why should I have all the fun? Let me take you on a brief journey of all the touch points where I replaced cash with its digital and superior equivalent.

·         Weekly / monthly household services like maid, electricity, water supply & more

o   Even though this has been a predominantly cash dependent area (especially the maids), however we realized very soon that they are quite open to accepting money on their mobile (via the most common options like Paytm)

o   The interesting part being that some of the other flat tenants / owners had been giving money digitally to their maids (as well as the electricity supply and water supply departments) even before demonetization!

·         Commute, Parking & Car maintenance

o   This was one of the trickiest areas to work around. As not all gas stations and parking lots accepted money in digital form, hence I had to plan my way in advance which actually helped my journey to flow without any issues.

o   For parking lots, I chose to go for the one slightly farther away (to get digital acceptance) than the immediate one. Or in some cases, just parking in open areas where there are no charges (Trust me, there are a lot more places in all cities than people imagine)

o   Same goes for the gas stations. There are always more than one in the vicinity when required and most of them accept at least one option out of ‘credit / debit cards’ or ‘direct mobile transfer’

o   In the worst case scenario when the car is completely down and nothing has opened up yet, there is always a cab 5 minutes away from you.

·         Food, drinks & lifestyle

o   This was the easiest part, mostly because I have already been habituated to it in terms of ordering food as well as doing most of the shopping online (there are N number of food-tech and ecommerce apps in the market), paying by cards at restaurants and settling any daily / party bills (1-to-1 or group) instantly using Mypoolin of course

o   Even when we had to go to that odd dhaba / small restaurant once in a while, all of them were ready to accept at least one of the mobile wallets or a card as a last resort.

·         Rentals & small utility stuff (like medicines, stationery & furniture)

o   This has been another tricky domain, especially because it has a very fragmented distribution and the lack of uniformity makes it hard to follow a common payment method.

o   However, after some patience and web search coupled with recommendations from friends, I was finally able to find all relevant stores that were happy to go cashless just like me. (Example – netmeds.com, rentomojo.com)

Well, you may be wondering that why only till 30^th December? Actually, I went for the New Year’s vacation to Pondicherry and the flow got broken, but I am back now in the cashless mode since the city life has returned. I had the knowledge before starting the experiment that a cashless life in Delhi-NCR will of course be quite easier compared to a small city like the one where I was headed for the trip.

Notably, there have been a lot of ugly facets of the demonetization as well and the pain is visible on many faces in the long lines that we see, however, ultimately the long term benefits of such a society will far outweigh everything.  At least, that is the way I see it (P.S. I don’t support political parties just to clarify. And also since this change has worked for me in Delhi-NCR, I believe it should work for others too in similar metro cities).

Rohit Taneja

Guest Author Rohit Taneja is the Co-Founder of Mypoolin - India's only social payments app. An alumni of IIT - Delhi, Rohit specialises in User Experience and Front end design; Embedded Hardware Design; Consumer/Professional Robotics and Circuits/Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems Design