The Adventures of Debit & Credit - A Punny Accounting Story - Chapter - 1 - Let us go to Finance!

Chapter - 1 - Let us go to Finance!

Once upon a time, in a faraway galaxy there lived two twin brothers called Debit and Credit, on the planet named Accounting.  The curious case of Debit and Credit was even though they were very different like chalk and cheese, both of them really complemented each other. They finished each other and completed each other, without one the other couldn’t exist; such was their famed brotherhood.  

Now, everything said and done, they lived in the world of Accounting, and to be honest, the world of Accounting was dull and drab, it was chores and work all the time. However, their neighboring planet wasn’t so. It was rumored that the planet of Finance was glitzy and glamorous, charming, and scandalous.  The planet of Finance was the most powerful and well known throughout the entire galaxy for its showbiz! The planet of Finance arrogantly boasted, in fact quite often, that it was such an integral part of the system that without it the entire trade and business of the galaxy would be destroyed! 

Of course, the citizens of the Economics planet made their disgust very much known on the lofty claims of Finance, they claimed that they were the most powerful, Finance wasn’t even half of what Economics was, after all, they were indeed the biggest planet in the entire galaxy. 

Now Debit and Credit though very happy in their very own Accounting world, always felt that there was a strange sense of dissatisfaction in them.  They wanted to be travelers, explore what the world had to offer! They wanted to leave accounting and go to Finance! A perfect case of - the grass is greener on the other side. 

All that was fine, let us go travel, but their mother Journal and their father Ledger were in total disapproval of their plans. It would be such a massive change and change meant risks and honestly, it was scary because risk didn’t always mean reward.

“Now, my dears, the apple of my eyes, my Debit and my Credit, why aren’t you happy here, this place is so wonderful!” said Mama Journal trying to convince them. 

But Debit and Credit were stuck, they insisted persistently.

“No, this is boring, we want to explore the world, see how the world of Finance is, we heard that there are many happening things in Finance, did you see the makeover which BalanceSheet got once she went to Finance! We saw here when she came home for the holidays! Gone the old schedule three style, now she looks so lean and classy, and so very mystical and snazzy, like a financial model!! That is what happens on the planet of Finance!! Besides, she promised us she would help us find a place there!! Our plans are set and we are young and full of life, ready to pull the long hours and ready to ride!!”

The thing is reality is often a distorted figure. Most of us know it, but fail to acknowledge it.

Nor could Papa Ledger and Mama Journal could convince their two brats - Debit and Credit to change their minds and that is how a month later, Debit, Credit found themselves, staying over at their best friend Balance Sheet’s place on the planet of Finance! 

Now the world of Finance was oh, so nice…. There were so many cool places to hang out! There was the all-night investment banking club, the Stock Market - the biggest shopping mall of the galaxy, the eateries at the end of the Wall-Street which offered delicious fast foods, and the Central Bank Park which always offered a calm and peaceful atmosphere to relax in.  The next month was spent by Debit and Credit spending their days and nights roaming around, living the nomadic life! Pure bliss it was, a break from all that number-crunching world of Accounting! 

And the people of Finance were exceptional! Smart and quick and always in a hurry. “Work hard, party harder” was the vibe of the people and of course, ‘capitalism’ was the word to describe the planet in general!

Debit and Credit even met BalanceSheet’s boyfriend Profit&Loss and, Oh my god! He was so handsome and dreamy, his eyes shone with billions and he looked a trillion times hotter than anyone they had seen at their planet of Accounting! Profit&Loss even beat their Idol TrialBalance who was the sweetheart of the entire world of Accounting!

After a couple of days of fun and frolic, they soon realized they couldn’t live like that forever, especially not with their dwindling savings. So, both Debit and Credit decided to get themselves a job. Now a word of caution here, Debit and Credit were in here for a ride. The world of Accounting though rough on the month end’s was pretty much a routine apart from occasional changes in the standards and new requirements prepared by the government to follow, but Finance always demanded more. BalanceSheet, their best friend warned them, the investment banking club was open all night because the investment bankers have time to chill out only then, a pretty hard-knock life they have, but the pay was good and the biggest perk was that their lives were really instagramable! From fancy lunches at the eateries in Wall-Street to shopping for the expensive stuff at the Stock Market; all very aesthetically pleasing from the outside, but the reality was far from it!

After a lot of speculation and careful weighing of options, they finally decided to apply for a job in The Stock Market & Co. The work experience would look good in the CV, Profit&Loss had suggested. 

Now stock market, was basically a big market, in nicer terms - a shopping mall, but the most humongous mall in the entire galaxy. Their tagline was – “We sell everything. Literally everything.” They boasted of the ultimate buyer and seller paradise on the earth. Everything was automated, you could come to the market and buy, or buy in online, it would be delivered to you based on T+2 days. It was a very quick turnover time! In fact, soon, it was promised that the next thing would be ‘same-day’ settlement!   

Luckily for Debit and Credit, they got a job in The Stock Market & Co. (I mean these guys are really lucky as they got the first they applied to). “Make an impression, dress smartly”, BalanceSheet had suggested. The phrase on the street was, look smart and people assume you are, and that is pretty much how Ponzi schemes work and investors get duped, it looks way too good from the outside. So, both Debit and Credit dressed up smartly and showed up for their first day of work, the induction day! 

The induction day was always a grand affair so that the newcomers would feel at home. Mr. Broker, the chairman of The Stock Market & Co. had come to give a speech to all the new joiners. A pretty upbeat guy who was all on how amazing it was to work at the company and the company always gave opportunities for people to excel. It was an inclusive and dynamic environment to work in with great perks.  And then he started off with the history of The Stock market & Co., how it had formed when a couple of friends met at a cute little eatery on the Wall-Street and from there, they formed the idea of the largest market of the galaxy and how they built the business from the ground up and got it running. 

First, the company had forayed into the world of physical selling and now with innovation and technology, they were the galaxy’s only super-automated market!  Place a buy order, pay, and tada! You own it!! And what if you don’t want it anymore, place a sell order, the system matches you with the buyer and tada! You don’t own it anymore! Wonderful isn’t it! A harmonious platform for buyers and sellers to sell and buy! And that was if you wanted to buy things immediately. If you wanted to buy things in the future, you had the futures market, which was truly a futuristic concept! 

And in order to achieve price transparency, each item, purchased and sold, including volumes, prices, were displayed on real-time basis. You could look at the prices and then buy or wait for it to drop and then buy. The stock market’s pulse was called the Index. A measure to know how the market was doing. To measure its sentiment. The index was the average price formed by combining the price of a wide array of companies. And quite true to its tagline – “We sell everything. Literally everything.” – there were companies listed, there were products listed, there were commodities and futures listed.

Debit and Credit listened to it all, with wide starry eyes, this was mind-blowing stuff. Like legit, amazing! The stock market was an amazing concept. A billion-dollar company with an amazing foundation.

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Okay, I am sorry for ending this here, I plan to write more of this. So, stay tuned for the second part. Please subscribe to the blog, so that you get an email when I post the second part.  Honestly this was the most fun thing I have ever written! I hope you had the same amount of fun reading it! Please do share your reviews and feedback, it helps me a lot! Thanks for reading!

Edit - Link for chapter 2 - https://fintechandeverythingelse.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-adventures-of-debit-.html

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