There are some lessons our parents teach us so early in life that we don’t realize their importance until much later. For me, one of those lessons was saving.
Like many millennials, I grew up with a small savings box/piggy bank sitting somewhere in my room. Sometimes it was shaped like an animal. Sometimes it was covered in bright colors and cartoons. Mine wasn’t particularly fancy, but to me it felt like a vault containing endless possibilities and I was super fascinated! Every few days I would drop a coin into it and shake it vigorously to hear the growing collection inside. There was a strange sense of achievement in watching it fill up. Saving wasn’t just about money. It was about anticipation, now that I think about it… It was about imagining what those coins could eventually become. An unexpected gift to myself from myself? I still remember one of my earliest purchases. A Shakalaka Boom Boom pencil. Those who grew up in the late nineties and early 2000s will understand the obsession. Of course, the pencil didn’t magically bring my drawings to life like it did on television, but the experience taught me something equally magical. If I saved long enough, I could buy something I genuinely wanted.
I would like to believe that my parents took that lesson seriously lol. They belonged to a generation that understood the value of financial discipline. Not because they had access to sophisticated financial planning tools or investment portfolios, but because they knew what it meant to work hard for every rupee earned. When I turned thirteen, my father opened a Young Savers account for me. It felt like a significant milestone (and it was one!). Suddenly, I wasn’t just putting coins into a box. I had an actual bank account! Whenever I talked about withdrawing money for something unnecessary, Abba would gently remind me, “Hira, savings are meant for important purchases.” At the time, honestly, I thought he was being unnecessarily strict. But today, I understand exactly what he meant. Maybe because I am a grown up now and I do realize the importance of financial management in life.. The purpose of savings isn’t merely to accumulate money. It is to create security, options, and peace of mind. It is about giving your future self a little breathing room. Rainy days or not, one SHOULD have a backup right?
However, as I grew older and entered the workforce, another financial tradition entered my life. Committees. Now if you’re Pakistani, chances are you’ve either participated in one, heard about one, or had a relative who was running three different committees simultaneously.
Let’s dive briefly into the history of committees in Pakistan. The committee, known across Pakistan as a “committee” or in Urdu “kamaitiyan” or sometimes a “beesi,” is one of the oldest and most widely practiced informal savings systems in the country. The concept is straightforward and pretty simple – a group of trusted individuals, usually neighbors, colleagues, or family members, each contribute a fixed amount of money at regular intervals, and every cycle one member receives the entire pooled sum. No paperwork. No interest. Just collective trust and a shared understanding that everyone will show up and pay their turn. The practice has roots that stretch back generations from our Dadi and Nani times, cutting across class lines in a way few financial systems do. Women in particular made it their own, using committees not just as a savings tool but as a way to access a lump sum they could never have accumulated alone, whether to pay for a wedding, buy household appliances, or simply build a small financial cushion outside of anyone else’s control. It was, in many ways, one of the earliest forms of financial independence available to them.
My introduction came through my mother. Like most people hearing about committees for the first time, I was suspicious. You want me to hand over money every month to a group of people and trust that everything will work out? Who is managing this? How do I know my money is safe? What happens if someone disappears? These concerns weren’t entirely irrational. Over the years, Pakistan has witnessed numerous cases where committee organizers defaulted on payments, leaving participants financially stranded. One such case that gained significant public attention involved Sidra Humaid, a Karachi-based entrepreneur who allegedly failed to return committee funds to hundreds of contributors. Stories like these naturally create fear and hesitation. Yet despite those concerns, committees continue to survive because in a country like ours women, especially housewives like to save. For decades, committees have served as an informal financial system for millions of households, particularly women. They have helped people pay school fees, purchase household appliances, arrange weddings, manage emergencies, start businesses, and achieve goals that may have otherwise remained out of reach. In many ways, committees represent something larger than finance. They represent community and trust. They represent women creating financial solutions for one another in environments where formal financial systems often feel inaccessible or intimidating.
Eventually, I started participating in a committee within my mother’s social circle. Initially, everything seemed easy peasy. Then reality arrived. Some members forgot payment dates. Some transferred money late. Some needed constant reminders. Some weren’t comfortable using bank accounts. Others relied entirely on their husbands’ accounts and would often say, “I’ll transfer the money when his salary comes.” The problem, of course, was that nobody knew exactly when that salary would arrive. What should have been a simple savings mechanism often became an administrative headache. The actual saving wasn’t difficult but the coordination was. The follow-ups were. The constant tracking and repeated reminders were. As someone who values efficiency, I found the entire process exhausting. What fascinated me, however, was that the challenges weren’t really about money. The women ACTUALLY wanted to save and have financial discipline. But what they lacked were convenient systems designed around their realities.
And perhaps that is one of the biggest misconceptions we hold about women and finance in Pakistan. Many women continue to face barriers when it comes to opening bank accounts, accessing credit, understanding financial products, or independently managing their money. Financial exclusion remains a reality for millions despite significant progress in recent years.
The most powerful solutions are often the ones that take something familiar and simply make it work better. Women across Pakistan have always been saving. Through committees, through informal networks, through systems built entirely on trust and social ties. The practice was never the problem. The friction around it is always frustrating which sometimes also leads to women discontinuing committees. But zoom out and the larger conversation is about financial empowerment, a phrase that gets thrown around a lot in Pakistan, usually wrapped in grand language. Economic participation. Financial inclusion. Gender equality. These are real and important ideas, but they can feel distant from a woman sitting at home figuring out how to quietly set something aside every month.
Empowerment, in practice, rarely begins with a policy or a program. It begins much smaller. A coin in a piggy bank. A bank account a father opens to teach his daughter what saving means. A mother explaining committees to her child. A woman deciding to put something away despite everything else pulling at her. These moments don’t announce themselves as significant but together, they shape entire financial futures.
As I reflect on my own journey from piggy banks to savings accounts and then traditional committees, I realize that the underlying principle has never changed. Saving is an act of hope. It is a belief that tomorrow can be better than today. It is a promise to yourself that your goals matter enough to plan for them. And in a world where financial uncertainty often feels overwhelming, that promise is more powerful than ever.
So if you’ve been postponing your savings journey, waiting for the perfect time, or convincing yourself that you’ll start next month, perhaps now is the moment to begin. Not because someone told you to and you read my article because your algorithm led you here. Nor because it is trendy. But because every meaningful financial goal starts with a single decision. The same decision our parents tried to teach us when they handed us those tiny savings boxes years ago.
And if technology can make that journey easier, safer, and more accessible, then perhaps it is time we embrace that too!
