Category: Investors Behavior

I’ve heard the phrase “financial freedom” several times in the previous 3-4 years from the investors community.

Every time I speak with a customer or an investor on various forums, it appears that “financial independence” has become the new catchphrase. So I decided to talk about it more today.

What is Financial Freedom?

Simply said, Financial Freedom is the accumulation of sufficient wealth to cover your living expenditures for the rest of your life. You’ve saved enough money to cover all of your bills for the rest of your life. After that, you won’t have to worry about money.

How much money makes a person financially free is a deep question and there can be debate on this topic alone, but in the most simplest form, once a person acquires 35-40 times their yearly expenses requirement, they are said to be financially free. You can read more on this 30X rule for retirement here

Let me get to the point of this article and discuss the top 5 reasons why I believe most individuals should strive for financial independence early in life (strong>hint/strong>: by the time they are 45 or 50 years old).

5 benefits of pursuing Financially Freedom

Benefit #1 : To buy Freedom in Life

We all labour all hours of the day and night to make money. Money covers all of our costs. Rent, food, school fees for your children, and healthcare costs. Everything..

If money is not everything in life, it is certainly a very important factor!!

Many people do not feel FREE in their lives. They become money slaves because making money becomes their major aim in life.

• They cant say NO to their work
• They cant say NO to the schedules
• They can say NO to their bosses

All the times, money dictates their life and decisions.

Sufficient money in life can give you a lot of freedom.

• Freedom of when to work
• Freedom of with whom to work with
• Freedom of when to wake up
• Freedom to take long vacations ..

You name it and you can feel freedom in that area

If you want to experience a lot of freedom in life in various areas, you shall work towards financial freedom.

#Benefit 2 : To bring more power in your career

A lot of people have this myth that one shall achieve financial freedom, so that they can quit their job and retire from work.

Not TRUE!

One has to reach financial freedom so that they can bring more energy and power in their career or anything new which they want to truly do in life.

Most of the people have to do things in life with the primary motive of earning money and not because they wish to do it.

• You feel that the new project in your company is quite exciting, but does not pay enough? What do you do? Forget it!!
• You feel you really enjoy taking risks and do something challenging in your workplace, but wait.. what if it fails and you are fired or do not get promoted next year? You forget it and you focus back on things which are “SAFE” for your career.

We are continuously looking for ways to boost our compensation package, even if it means avoiding activities that we would like doing if money were not an issue!

When the money component is gone and you have to do things just for the love of working and reaching greatness, your job takes on a completely new vitality. You achieve more quickly, and your job happiness grows. This is the actual method of working, but it does not happen for most people since MONEY stands in the way of what you truly want to achieve in life.

#Benefit 3 : More flexibility to pursue other passions

Financial Freedom also gives you freedom to pursue any long due passion which you were not able to fulfil while in the regular job.

“What will you do once you are financially free?” I ask our workshop participants. I receive some unusual responses, such as

• I will become music teacher
• I would like to run a restaurant
• and even I would like to become a scuba diving instructor

Compulsion of “earning money” has crushed a lot of dreams and financial freedom is that point where one can explore those new careers or opportunities.

#Benefit 4 : Reduced stress and worry about money

This is a no brainer.

Ask the question to yourself right now. If you loose your job and are never getting another one again, how many years worth of expenses do you currently have?

• 3 yrs?
• 10 yrs?
• or 2 months?

And wait!..  What about repaying all your outstanding home loan, and funding the expensive education of your children on top of that?

Its quite scary right!

We are all concerned about the future since we do not have enough money.

Here is a quick 25 questions financial health checkup, if you wish to take

The day you have enough money to support everything and live comfortably is the day you feel really safe and at peace. Money does not solve all issues in life, but it does solve MONEY problems:)

#Benefit 5 : Pass a strong Legacy and build generational wealth

• Your grand-parents worked for money
• Your parents worked for money
• You now work for money

Where is your generational wealth? Do you have family legacy which takes care of atleast the basics of your family?

You will see various family where they work towards generational wealth. They have enough money which produces income for family, be it some business, equity wealth, real estate wealth or whatnot!

But lot of families are not able to create it because they dont have attitude like that. They earn and finish the money and at family level they always are in that never ending cycle.

If you achieve financial freedom early in life, there is a good chance that you may put seeds of generational wealth, but you also have to ensure that you teach right attitude towards money to your next generation.

Conclusion

I have kept a very simple version of financial freedom for this article. This topic is quite deep in reality.

Do let me know if you liked this article and if you can add any more benefits of financial freedom?

I have seen two kinds of people in my last 12 yrs of experience in the personal finance domain.

One is the Cashflow committed and another is Networth committed!

Do you know which one are you!?

What is a Cashflow vs Networth committed mindset?

Let’s talk about these two kinds of mindsets.

Cashflow committed Mindset

When you buy things and repay them back, you depend too much on your future cash flow, you are a cashflow-committed person. If you have to buy a car, a vacation, a training course, an expensive mobile, or anything for that matter, you say to yourself – “Let’s take a loan and I commit my future earnings (cashflow) for this purchase”.

You basically trust and rely on the future to consume TODAY.

You don’t think twice if you can afford something or not, because everything looks within your reach because everything is sorted IN FUTURE. The future is unlimited, the future is always amazing where you will EARN with no difficulty.

If this mindset has become 2nd nature of yours or at I shall say you are almost addicted to buying things on loans, then you are a cashflow-committed person.

Networth committed Mindset

On the other hand, there is another mindset at work!

If you want to buy anything, you are committed to first building the networth required for it and prefer to pay out of your networth. Your nature is to consume when you have the money, or else you don’t want to consume things or defer them in the future.

You are a bit uncomfortable to commit for your future cash flow to the purchase, your internal design is to first acquire wealth, and then out of that wealth you want to pay for things. Even if you get a chance to take the loan easily, you deny it because, in your world, you want to be fully in control of your future cash flow.

What if there is no income in the future? What if you don’t earn enough? Why have the headache of keeping track of how much loan is remaining? These are your conversations when you want to make any kind of purchase.

Which mindset is better than the other?

If you look closely, you will realize that the cashflow-committed lifestyle is becoming famous for the last 2 decades in India. Before 90s, the culture of buying things on loan and paying in the future was almost non-existent in the common man’s life. You first saved for things, built your wealth, and only if you could pay for it, you bought it. So everyone was forced to be a net-worth committed investor.

However, in the last 25-30 yrs, the culture of buying first and paying later has gained popularity and we are nudged to become a cashflow committed investor from all directions. Easy availability of loans on anything and everything and the peer pressure to match the lifestyle of friends circle along with rising aspirations and low control over one desire is the reason that most youngsters today are becoming cashflow committed investors.

When a person does not create their wealth creation on time and when their desires are more than what they can afford, it’s natural that one will turn out to become a cashflow-committed person.

Cashflow Mindset may lead to Debt Trap

However, you will also see that most of the cashflow-committed investors fall into a debt trap and then cashflow commitment is not just a choice but it becomes their internal nature or way of life.

On the other hand, I have observed that most of the people who create good wealth and are on the path to financial freedom are those who are of “networth committed mindset” as they keep their desires in check and are successful in postponing their wants to the point which makes sense and also balanced out things.

This is a vast topic and I want to limit myself to speak on this. I think you got my point and now you have to answer yourself on what is your internal design as an investor and do you think that design is helping you in life. What are the pros and cons of your design? Can you share in the comments section?

I am sure you must have seen the famous example of how Rs 10,000 invested in WIPRO turned out to be Rs 500 crore in 2019. That’s a massive wealth. But today I want to decode this story and let’s see what are some of the issues and problems. I have created a video on this topic, Do watch below

First of all, note that it’s not just WIPRO that has created massive wealth for its investors. There are many other examples as well, like

• CIPLA: Investments of Rs 10,000 in 1979 will fetch 95 crore
• INFOSYS: Investments of Rs 10,000 in 1992 will fetch Rs 1.5 crore
• RANBAXY: Investment of Rs 10,000 in 1980 will fetch Rs 19 crore
• HDFC BANK: Investment of Rs 1 lac in 1995 will fetch Rs 8 crore

While there are some examples of people who were able to hold the stock for 35-40 yrs and created massive wealth for themselves the one question which we shall ask ourselves is – Is it remotely possible for a common man to do it?

2 problem will WIPRO example

Problem #1: Survivorship bias

The Wipro example is a classic example of survivorship bias, where we pick the example which has worked already and survived for 40 yrs. It’s damn simple to look back and say easily that 10,000 become 500 cr if you waited for 40 yrs?

It’s nothing more than a data point. You are just looking at the statistics.

For every Wipro, Infosys, and Reliance example – there is a Reliance Capital, Unitech, and Cox&Kings example that has destroyed all the wealth in so many years.

How will you pick WIPRO in 1980 with so much confidence for the next 40 yrs? It is almost impossible.

Problem #2: How will you handle your emotions all these years?

“If you invest for 40 yrs” is the point.

• Who invests for 40 yrs?
• Who buys and holds for 40 yrs?

I will tell you, it’s mostly people who are dead or someone who really forgot about the investment made.

And then there are promotors of the company who hold for so long. And finally, there is a tiny minority of few people who might have done it successfully whose example we see on the net. But it’s never going to happen with most people because it’s almost impossible to control your emotions when you see the stock going up or down so much.

• When you invest Rs 10,000 and it becomes Rs 1 lac in 1 yr – Will you, not sell-off?
• If not, then what if that Rs 1 lac becomes Rs 5 lacs in the next 2 yrs? – Now will you not sell-off?
• If not, what if that 5 lacs now becomes 1 lacs and drops in value by 80%? – Will you still have “conviction”?
• What if that Rs 1 lacs comes back to 5 lacs? Now?

I think you got my point!

Only robots and machines can stay calm and not react. We are humans and we do.

Here people sell when prices go up by 10% and we are talking of keeping stocks for 40 yrs?

Note that I am not saying that there are people who don’t keep the stocks for 20-30 yrs, but it’s not as easy a game to play as it’s made to look.

If you had bought Wipro in 2000, you would get back your capital now (adjusted for dividends). 20 years of 0 return. Meanwhile the Revenue of the company increased by 26x and PAT by 40x. This is what happens when you buy growth at any price. pic.twitter.com/AByCccmd9V

— Equity Markets (@EquityMarkets_) December 30, 2020

Enjoy the journey of equity bull runs and keep using the money

Note that buy and hold for 40 yrs is not always practical. Even if you have a good stock and patience, it only makes sense to take out profits from time to time and use it for your life goals. Go on vacations, buy a house, travel, and use it to buy stuff. There is no point in dying with Rs 500 crore unless you want to exactly do that.

Another point is to have a well-diversified managed portfolio where you are betting on multiple stocks and not concentrated on few ones. So have realistic expectations from stock investing and take these examples with a pinch of salt.

Only use these examples to reassure yourself that equities have huge wealth creation potential and its an important part of your portfolio.

Do share your comments below

Today we will discuss how you can convince your parents (assuming senior citizen) into mutual funds to get better returns on their investments with lower risk.

I am not saying that every parent needs to invest in mutual funds. But I have seen many parents retiring with insufficient corpus and investing that money in a very manner. It’s not tax-optimized and also earns the least return possible – all in the same of “Safety”

I understand that not all senior citizens want high returns, but in most of the cases, I have seen that there is some allocation which can be made in mutual funds.

We come across many investors, who are investing in mutual funds and they have a good understanding of the product. They have full confidence in mutual funds investments, but their own parents are stuck in the old traditional way of investments. And these children are not able to convince their parents to invest their money in mutual funds or anything closely linked to stock markets, simply because parents come with the baggage of old beliefs about equity markets and poor understanding of the concept of Risk!

Old habits never go!

Most of the parents have all their life invested in Fixed Deposits, LIC policies, PPF, NSC and postal schemes which were simple and guaranteed return products. Their focus was always on “peace of mind” and “safety”. They were not obsessed with returns like we do today!

Parents outright reject the idea of investing in mutual funds or stocks the moment they come to know that its not a guaranteed returns product and there is RISK involved in these things.

To get some idea on this subject, I asked on our telegram group how their parents react for the investments in stocks and mutual funds, and here are 2-3 responses I got!

I know it’s going to be very very tough to convince them for investing in mutual funds, and most of the people will fail in this!. However, this is my small attempt to give some pointers to you on how you can start the conversation with your parents on this issue. Maybe it will work for you.

So here are simple things we can do.

#1 – Introduce them to Debt Mutual Funds

The first thing you can do is to not introduce the word “Mutual funds” directly to your parents. Tell them that there is one investment product which is similar to Fixed deposits, and the returns it has given over last many years have been a little better than Fixed deposits and has very less taxation (we see tax part in point #2 soon)

Tell them how this new “investment product” works very much like bank deposits. It also lends money to others and gets returns. But unlike bank fixed deposits, it does not give a lower but fixed return.

Instead, it keeps a small-fees and returns all the returns to its investors (which means that its a market-linked returns). There is its own share of risks which needs to be well understood and handled.

The next step is to show them how these debt funds have performed over the last few years like 5/10 yrs.

Start with Banking and PSU Category

You can start with a debt fund which comes from “Banking and PSU Fund” category because I have seen many senior citizens are very comfortable with the portfolio of that kind of debt fund/

Take for example SBI Banking and PSU Funds

Its a debt fund from SBI Mutual fund which invests a big portion of its money in bonds issued by various banks & PSU companies in India. The definition itself will be worth attention and parents may listen because of the word SBI (maybe!!)

That fund has given 8.89% returns in the last 5 yrs. The Journey for a fund has not been as a straight line, but it’s not wild like an equity fund. To a senior citizen who is struggling to get a 6% return in FD may be interested in looking at the past returns of this fund.

Apart from Banking and PSU category, you can also tell them about short term debt fund in case they want to invest their money for short term like a few months to a few years.

The stability of returns for short term debt funds category is quite strong as they invest in short term debt papers (incase this is technical for you, dont worry, you need to learn about debt funds)

Here is an example of HDFC Short term debt fund which has given quite stable returns over many years. Its return in the last 10 yrs is around 8.85% cagr! . No doubt that the fund is little volatile in short term, but over long periods you can see the line going up and up!

One more category is of Medium to Long term funds which are suitable for 3-5 yrs investment period and one can expect an 8-8.5% returns based on historical performance only (past returns are not a guarantee for future returns)

Here is a table showing what has happened in the last many years (Some funds with very low AUM is removed from the table and only bigger brands are taken)

So as the first step just show them these returns and low volatility of debt funds. This will be the foundation step.

Disclaimer: Debt funds are not as simple as what you are seeing above. There is credit risk and interest rates risk because of which the returns can be fluctuating. However, I am not going into the details of how debt fund works as it’s out of the scope of this article. If you are not clear on how debt fund works or chosen, its recommended to look for an advisor.

#2 – Show them the impact of taxation

One of the most overlooked aspects of investments is Taxation.

People do not think much about optimizing their tax-outgo while making investments. Investors still talk in terms of “Returns” and not “Post-tax Returns”.

When you invest in Fixed Deposits, Senior Citizen Saving Scheme, Saving Bank etc, you pay the tax on the slab rate. Which means that for very high amounts the tax will be at 30% rate for investors in the highest tax bracket. The worst is with FD, where you pay the tax on the entire year Fixed Deposits interest, not on how much you have redeemed!.

Can you believe that this tax can be lowered to 10% or 5% and sometimes even 2-3% for longer tenure investments (some cases). This is because the returns you get from debt funds are not categorised as “Interest Income”, but capital gains.

Let me show you a simple example of what happens when a Rs 50 lacs of money is invested for 10 yrs in a fixed deposit vs a debt fund. I have taken FD rate as 5.5% and debt fund returns at 8% as per the current situation and I have taken the last 10 yrs inflation numbers from CII Index.

You can clearly see that your FD becomes 85 lacs and Debt fund becomes 1.07 crores (indicative, but historical returns), Still, you pay 5 times more tax in FD than debt funds simply because of Indexation benefit.

The debt funds are surely not as predictable as a fixed deposit, but over 10 yr period, you can surely create a very strong portfolio and also diversify your investments across some quality debt funds. I think it’s worth taking that extra risk for the sake of making 31 lacs more!.

It’s not a small amount, it can mean 5 yrs extra money for retirement.

Most of the poorly designed portfolios lag on taxation. If you can just fix that part, that itself can mean alpha of 2-3% sometimes.

Here is a tweet I did a few weeks back where I was sharing how someone who retired with a big corpus (let’s say with 10 crores) will pay taxes in equity/debt fund/ FD

Power of deferring #taxes

Imagine 10 crores invested for 1 yr & withdrawal of 40 lacs in 1 yr (4% corpus)

Assume the last year returns as
~ Equity Fund: 10%
~ Debt Fund: 7%
~ Bank Fixed Deposit: 5.5%

Tax Paid

~ Equity Fund : 26,000
~ Debt Fund : 78,000
~ Bank FD: 15 Lacs pic.twitter.com/XkfOk0u34V

— jagoinvestor.com (@jagoinvestor_) January 20, 2021

However, note that a smaller corpus can be still divided between husband and wife and then the taxation may be NIL or less due to the income not reaching the taxable limits. What I am referring to is mainly for big corpus.

#3 – Educate them about mutual funds in general

In case you fail in the 1st and 2nd step mentioned above and if your parents are still adamant about not changing their mindset of sticking with Fixed deposits or LIC policies etc, I must say you can’t do much and you lost the game.

However, if you feel they are showing some interest and will hear more on this subject, then its time to sit with them and educate them first about mutual funds in general.

I think most of the people who just reject mutual funds dont have a good understanding of the product and how it works. Here are 33 myths about mutual funds incase you want to look at them. Is time to educate them a bit about mutual funds industry and how established it is.

I feel there has not been a good attempt to educate senior citizens about mutual funds in the right way. Tell them a few things like.

a) Mutual Funds does not always mean the stock market

Firstly, tell them that not all mutual funds invest in the stock market.

There exists something called “Debt mutual funds” which do not invest in stocks and only invests in the debt market (bonds of companies and govt securities). Use the word “Bond” and “Debentures” as they might have heard these words and can relate to these.

Tell them that there are GILT funds (which only invest in govt securities) and then there are Corporate Bond Funds (which invests in big corporates) and in a way, they are comparable to corporate fixed deposits

b) Tell them about mutual fund industry size

Do you yourself know that Indian Mutual fund industry is one-fourth size of the banking industry? Yes – we have around Rs 30 lakh crore of assets invested in mutual funds which is very very big in itself.

A lot of senior citizens still feel that mutual funds are some kind of scam or not a well-regulated product. It’s your job to tell them that it’s a 25 yr old industry (actually much older if you look in the US and other counties) and a very well designed and well-regulated industry. Crores of investors invest through mutual funds now in our country and its growing at a very good speed.

Over the next few decades, my guess is the mutual fund industry will be bigger than retain banking Industry.

Dont force your thoughts on them at this point and just hear them out. If they have any apprehensions or issues with any point, do find the answer and go back and share with them about it. It can take them a lot of time to digest all this. No rush!

#4 – Tell them their corpus may not be enough for future

Not many people are retiring with huge corpus these days. Most of the parents are retiring with a smaller corpus than what they actually need for their long retirement.  (Read why one needs 30 times their expenses as retirement corpus)

In your own way, you need to convey to them that their money may not be enough for future, and some part of their portfolio (if not all) has to be invested in equity too.

A lot of senior citizens are investing money in a way that it’s giving them terrible post-tax returns because of high taxes and low returns. All this in the name of “safety”. I know people who have put all their money in pension plans or just kept it in FD. They dont think about things like the liquidity of money or low-post-tax returns.

One issue is that in our country people think that once they cross 60 yrs, they have to just move every bit of their money into 100% safe products. This is not true for most of the cases.

A 60 yr old person can live up to 100 yrs also and that means they may have 30-40 yrs of life ahead. IF they make bad investments decisions which are not taxed optimized and do not create a positive real return, the wealth may get consumed pretty soon then they realise due to inflation.

So, if a retired person has Rs 30,000 expenses per month at age of 60 yrs, then by the time they turn 70 yrs, it will increase to 65,000 per month. However, a human mind is not able to access the impact of inflation over long periods of time.

In short, you need to convey that they need to generate a higher return on their investment and need to have a balance between safety and returns. Yes, some expenses may go down, but many other expenses may come up too. This is more true for those whose children do not live with them and they may end up living all by themselves.

A lot of senior citizens may not be thinking about these points.

#5 – Get them started with a very small amount

The next step is to get them started with a very small amount.

If they have 50 lacs of wealth, maybe you can invest just Rs 1-2 lacs in a short term debt fund and let them see how it’s moving in next 1-2 yrs. Show them the statements every 3-6 months to reinforce the thought that mutual funds are one of the options and they can diversify some part of their portfolio in debt mutual funds too.

I did the same thing when my mother in law wanted to invest a very small amount. She told me that she wants to put a small sum in Fixed Deposit and I told her that I will choose something better for her. I invested it in dynamic bond funds as the money to be put for the long term. Right now the fund CAGR in last 4 yrs have been around 8.8% CAGR.

Why Children should Educate their parents?

I also want to convey two points to you (the children) on why you should educate your parents about mutual funds.

1. Parents money may not be adequate

If your parent’s money is not enough and invested in a wrong manner, then the money will finish off sooner than they imagine and that would mean that you will be dipping into your own corpus to fund their retirement needs after 10-15 yrs.

Nothing wrong in that, as our parents have raised us and we are all successful because of their blessings, but when its possible to do better than what they are doing currently, there is no harm in pushing a bit into right retirement planning. A robust and tax-optimized portfolio shall be created which also generates better pension for them.

We at Jagoinvestor has been helping many retired or close to retirement clients (with corpus in range of 1-5 crores) to design and manage their retirement money. You can check out our retirement services brochure to know more

2. Legacy will come back to you

A lot of people do not get inheritance as the wealth is mismanaged by parents and is not put to the right use. If you make sure that your parent’s wealth is properly invested, that also means that a part of it may come back to you as an inheritance. And this may mean your own retirement corpus may get a bump.

If you are in your 30’s or 40’s right now, then your parent’s wealth will come to you as an inheritance after another 30-40 yrs and those many years of compounding can do wonders to your own retirement planning.

Conclusion – It’s not easy, but worth a try!

I know this is a tough nut to crack and many people may not be successful, but still, you can give it a try.

You never know if parents may be ok to invest some part in mutual funds. Just avoid asking them to shift all their investments to high-risk funds. As and when they get comfortable with mutual funds concept

Do let me know what are your thoughts on this and if you can share any tip on how to convince your parents to try out mutual funds investments?

In the last article – 10 benefits of being an employee vs an Entrepreneur, Manish has highlighted some amazing points with some interesting sharings from some real-life entrepreneurs. The article surely has struck a chord with many. After the article was published we decided to write a sequel to the article. We want to leave all you with a new possibility so that you can see your work or job with a fresh pair of eyes.

If you really want to become successful in life, I invite you to step beyond the job and business conversation. A lot of people debate on which is better – job or business?

In this article, we just want to add a fresh perspective to your work life. I have been into several jobs and businesses and I want to help you create a whole NEW relationship with your work.

Here are the 4 Empowering ways to look at your work

1. Job or Business is a SYSTEM you choose

Always look at a job or business as a system you choose to make a living.

At the end of the day, it is a system you choose in your life which helps you to earn money. Job or business both are different systems, now every system will have a different input and output attached to it. Our Business coach Mr Ravi Iyer is a system person. He sees life as a system. He finds a system in everything around him. Whatever system you have chosen, see that you respect and love your system.

Look at what is your relationship with your system (job or business). If you create an empowering relationship with your chosen system you always grow and shine in life, and if your relationship with your system (job or business) is weak it always leads to confusion and chaos.

Two different systems:

Job – This is a system that generates X amount every month for the person –  one has to produce X for the company from which the person gets the share. This system is more stable and growth is predictable by nature. The system is linked with the performance and efforts you bring inside the company.

Business- This is a system that can lead to profits or loss at the end of each financial year. Here you cant predict things and the growth can be non-linear by nature. The system is linked with risk vs reward. As a business person – every day you have to find a job for yourself and for your team.

2. Your work has to be your SELF-EXPRESSION

Let me share my relationship with my work or what is right now in front of me.

Let me share how to fall in love with your system (job or business) and how you can grow and shine in your career. I look at my work as my true self-expression.

• I love to write
• I love to lead sessions
• I love to train people
• I love to empower people

Most of the time I am addicted to helping people help themselves. Right now I am writing this article as part of my self-expression. Trust me it is not about doing a job or business, it is about expressing yourself fully out in the world through work.

Just try it out, the next 7 days you will fully allow your work to BE your self-expression. In your job or business let your expressions flow, don’t worry about the outcomes just keep on expressing yourself.

For example: If you are a software engineer, express yourself through the software you can create for the world. Your everyday focus has to be on what can you create out in the world using your skillset and knowledge. You go to the office not for the targets or for completing the task, but to express your true self out in the world. You literally fall in love with your work when the game shifts from getting the work done vs. expressing your true self.

Let me give one more example, if you are an architect, give the best designs to the world. Let your designs be your expression, let your work become your expression. You are expressing who you are to the world, you are sharing a part of you with the world through your designs and creativity. Let self-expression be the context of your work and not getting the work done or achieving targets or trying to please someone.

In any field of work you can shine if you chose a different path, you choose a path of self-expression. Sharing WHO I really am with the world.

3. Learn to Operate as an Intrapreneur

I did my master’s in business entrepreneurship. After completing my graduation, I wanted to do a program that helps me to become an entrepreneur.

I finally found an institute which was not just creating manager but entrepreneurs. I gave the entrance exam and got selected. On the first day of college, I created my company “Integration consultancy” and I also got some visiting cards printed. On the first day of college, everyone had to introduce themselves to the stage.

I got on the stage and made a declaration. I said “Here is my company and I am going to to use the college training in setting-up my company”, my professors were amazed and everyone in the class was taken aback by my announcement. I always wanted to be into business but I also did all kinds of jobs in my career. I have worked in the call centre, I have worked in a cyber cafe, I use to write articles in Indian express, I have been into multiple jobs and organizations but not as an employee, but as an intrapreneur.

An intrapreneur is someone who operates or runs a unit within a business created by someone else. We have people in our team who really operates like an intrapreneur, we have Sagar Maheswari and Kunal Purohit (our team members at Jagoinvestor) who have demonstrated several times being an intrapreneur. My professors taught me to always operate like an intrapreneur and I invite you all to start operating like an intrapreneur. Trust me Life is not about business or job when you operate like an intrapreneur

4. Always Work and Operate Like an Artist:

When you are in a job or business, you do think about retirement, But do artists ever retire?
The answer is maybe NO.

An artist is into a job or business? or maybe none. They operate in a different zone, which we should learn to be in. An artist looks at his or her work as their self-expression and nothing else, you take their art away from them and they start shrinking.

A painter will think of something in his or her imagination and will start working on making the painting a reality. It can take a few days or months for creating that one thought a reality. Artists love the game of creating a future in their mind and then converting the future into a reality. Once you learn to master this art of creating, you start to enjoy the process of creation. You master creating wealth, you master the game of self-expression and you live a fulfilled life.

Talking about wealth creation, you can create a vision of creating your first 1 crore in the next 5 years and literally live into that future day in and out. Your vision has to wake you up in the mornings, your vision keeps you to stay in action. You start to enjoy the process as the process is driven by your vision. Artists are driven by vision and we can apply the same to wealth creation or any other important area of our life.

Conclusion

Be it a job or business – it is about loving your system and let your work become your self-expression. When I get on a call with someone, I get totally engrossed with the other person, I will express myself fully and will allow my humanness to touch the other person’s humanness. I know this will sound a bit weird or new to you, but when you connect with people at a deeper level through your work everything shifts. Your sales, numbers, financial goals, business targets everything becomes like a by-product in life.

Your work has to become your self-expression that is the main point we want to leave you with as an end conversation for both the articles. Our blog is a place for our self-expression and will continue to express our heart and soul with all of you.

Thanks for reading the article to the end. Thank you for being our partner in spreading financial literacy. Do share your comments below and let me know your thoughts

This article was written by Nandish Desai!

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Online Workshops coming up in Jan,2021

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I (Nandish Desai) and Manish Chauhan recently did zoom call for our wealth creation clients and from the call I am sharing a few points with all of you.

The three words past, present and future have connection with our life, every area of life and also our wealth creation journey. We all have some past history; present moment and we are all walking towards a future. The stock market also has a past history, present condition and is moving forward.

The sharp correction in the stock market has made many investors think whether they should stay invested or quit the market- Kindly go through all my points in the article and also go through our zoom call recording to find out your own answer. I am not here to ask you to stay invested, I will also not advise you to quit. All I can do is share my experiences, share my thoughts which will help you to take your own call.

1. Past, Present, Future- what space are you in?

All the workshop or offline events we have done we see investors operating from three different spaces- Some are regretting about missing past investment opportunities or regretting about starting their investment journey late, some are shit scared about the future (they constantly worry about the future) and very few operate from the PRESENT space – The decisions and the actions you take today will shape your future.

In fact, NOW is the future, if you want to see your future check your present actions be it wealth creation or area of health or any other area of your life.

The current market correction, different investors have chosen a different path. Some have chosen to quit the game and some saw it as an opportunity to invest more, some have shown the courage to stay in the game- If you operate from a long-term vision, the vision will help you to shape your present actions. If you have an empowering future in front of you, you will always stay in action in the present moment- Let an empowering vision drive your financial journey and not the markets.

2. The biggest mistake advisor, Investor and companies have made

Making returns the hero of your financial life is one of the biggest mistakes.

When markets fall only those who have made returns the hero of their financial journey suffers and starts to panic- Why not make discipline the hero of your financial journey, who not make consistency the hero of your financial journey- Wealth creation is a game of discipline and not about what is happening in the stock market.

If I have to give an example a few years ago people use to go to the watch movie based on face value.

If Amitabh Bachchan is in the movie people go and watch the movie, the scenario has now changed, people look for good content and the hero of the movie is not just the actor but a good story or a good script- I think it is a time to get authentic about choosing the wrong hero – choosing Discipline will give you complete peace of mind and you will start to enjoy the overall game of wealth creation.

Let’s choose a new hero, let’s choose discipline.

3. You don’t think about leaving a legacy

Let’s say we are in 2055 and you are sitting with your grandkids – What is the greatest wisdom you will share with them about wealth creation? I am sure you will ask them to stay disciplined, start early, stay invested, don’t try to time the market, don’t panic when markets fall etc. etc.

Now, when markets fluctuate you have to remind yourself about the wisdom you are going to share in the year 2055 with your next generation.

Your financial life is one big story and at the end your financial journey has to inspire you and your next generation- A lot of people must have stopped their SIP or must have quit in the 2020 market fall, the decisions you take today will shape your future money story and so be careful and take actions which helps you to leave amazing legacy.

May be the money you invest into equity you are not able to enjoy the fruits but at the end you will have a great story to tell them. Think in terms of legacy and not just returns.

4. What you can learn from Sachin Tendulkar

Manish gives the following example in the offline events we do, ” He asks people what makes Sachin the greatest batsman in the realm of cricket?”-And we get answers like, because of his talent, because of his practice, because of his passion etc. from the audience. Now, he will agree to all the answers and will add a new dimension to the conversation.

He will say Sachin has played 37558 balls in his entire journey of cricket- Along with talent the real secret is about staying on the pitch and facing the balls- Investors also need to learn to stay on the pitch- Each day you stay invested in the market has to be seen as number of balls you have played – The investors who will face all kinds of balls will win the game of wealth creation.

You become Sachin in the world of investment.

Fund management, picking funds, designing portfolios, financial planning, and advisory are important but the most important aspect is staying invested (staying on the pitch) no matter what.

5. Heads or Tails

I started my investment journey in 2007, the person who asked me to start my SIP handed over a coin to me and asked me to get heads every time I toss the coin. I took some chances and it was a mix of heads and tails. I told him, “It is not possible to get heads every time”.

To that he said, ” Markets and tossing the coin are both the same, you will have risk and return both in the game of investment” I became very clear that there are two sides to the game of investment and I need to choose and embrace both- Risk and Return, Most investors only want returns, it’s like they only wants heads every time- It is just not possible.

6. Markets are non-linear

The person who helped me start my SIP also told me one more thing. He told me – “Nandish markets are non-linear by nature and they will always remain non-linear” Fixed Deposit is linear by nature; they are not volatile but markets are non-linear and volatile by nature.

Always remember, you make money only in non-linear products that is where all the opportunities reside. Now, when markets fluctuate, I always remind myself, ” Markets are non-linear and I got to love both ups and downs”

7. The nature of the market is growth

Market started from 100, then it became 1000 than 10000, 20000 and right now around 30000. Very soon it will become 50000 or 100000, Mark my words markets are a sum total of flats, dips and ups.

The nature of the market is expansion, it is here to expand and grow. it is up to you to stay in the game or not?- I have got many emails from clients and readers whether they should stay invested in the market or not- I just told them,” it is a choice you make, it is your wealth creation story and you are the writer of your money story”

8. Where the Equity train is headed?

One of the example I love giving is when people board a train which has open seats to occupy, some passengers will chose to sit on the left side of the train and some on the right side – Some think left side will show a better view and some think right side will show a better view- But the important thing is not left or right side of the train, the important point is where is the train headed, that is where the passenger has to focus on.

Right now, some are choosing to invest and some are choosing not to invest but focus has to be on where the equity train is headed. As an investor you are just a passenger, if you are clear where the train is headed you will start to enjoy both sides of the train.

9. Learn to take the pain in the start

Equity investment is always painful in the start- The first 3 years are always painful, after 7 years it stabilizes a bit and after 10 years things start to gain momentum.

The first 10 years creates a solid base for another 10-15 years of your investment journey. Without the first few years’ pain you won’t be able to create massive wealth. Pick any successful investor and you will find the pain element in their wealth creation journey. No pain – No gain (wealth creation).

Many of you if you are new to equity investment, learn to take the pain. Market dips are amazing, they build your immunity to create wealth.

10. Run your race

We ended the zoom call remembering Jim Thorpe, the runner, ” His shoes got stolen just before the race was about to begin, he found two different shoes from his garage, wore extra pairs of socks to fit in the shoes and won 2 gold medals” – He ran his race and did not get stopped by his circumstances. Below is his photo, where you will find him wearing different shoes and different pair of socks, it is not a fashion statement, it shows his commitment to complete his race, to win the race- No matter what

Now, apply his inner stance to your life

• If your gym is stolen how you will exercise?
• If your office is stolen, how will you work from home?
• If your routine is stolen, how will you spend your day?
• If your returns are stolen, how will you continue playing your game of wealth creation?

I exercise every day, evening 7 pm to 8 pm – No matter what.

My gym has closed (stolen like Thorpe’s shoes) but I have found a way to exercise. My health has in fact improved by staying at home, by following a strict diet. My team is working hard from their home. I am spending quality time with my kid and also doing household work to help my family.

Come on get in action, don’t think about what is happening in the market right now, focus on discipline. It is about your commitment and nothing else.

Conclusion

Go through all the 10 points once again and see how they can apply to your financial life and other areas of your life. Focus on having good health, focus on staying disciplined, stay away from all the negative noise outside and choose to stay on the pitch of wealth creation. If you have never experienced financial planning, we have the online course ready for you.

The first program of Jagoinvestor school is been launched and it is loved by many. Invest in the program and start planning your finances, choose to invest your time in your own financial future.

There are many investors who do not buy (or delay) term insurance plan, because they feel that nothing will happen to them.

• Some feel they can’t die due to illness, because they take care of their health.
• Some feel they will never die in an accident, because they drive their vehicles carefully.
• Some feel they will never die, because they eat healthy.
• Some feel they will not die because they keep an eye around them for all the risks.

I don’t know why people feel that they are “special” and bad things happen in only other’s life.

Do you think that those people who die suddenly because of some reason, were not confident that it will not happen to them in unexpected manner? “Accidents” are called accidents because they are unplanned and out of your control. So thinking that nothing will happen to you accidently itself is technically wrong thinking.

No one plans their death or any major accident. Life is so uncertain and external risks are so huge that statistically a certain percentage of people will die a sudden death due to various reasons.

That’s the sad truth of life.

Let me tell you two real life incidents where someone I knew personally died in an unexpected manner!

• 20 years back, we got a sad news one day that one of our relative died while taking bath. How? He suffered sudden brain hemorrhage and died. He was lying down on floor, when family broke the door. Do you think the guy in question ever thought that this can happen to him?
• 6 yrs back, someone I knew personally died because he got sucked into a daldal (mud puddle). He never realized that he is getting there as he was moving casually into that region and in no time he was stuck. He was there for taking a picture of his wife from distance & he got sucked in slowly while he was crying for help. Who can imagine or guess if something like that can ever happen?

At some point in our life, we all get casual and do things which have high risk. If we don’t do it, someone around us does not which can impact us. As humans, we have tendency to terribly under estimate the bad things which can happen to us. We feel that “accidents” and “unlucky incidents” happens in other lives.

If you really want to know how unexpected life can be, then I want you to watch out this following youtube video (just few seconds) before I start this article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxGBf6XsAio

Emotional and Financial Impact on Family

Death is not an issue for the person who dies because that person does not exist later to face the consequences. It’s the dependents, who face the heat – emotionally and financially.

Emotional suffering however huge, finally fades away over time slowly. Over years, life gets back on track. However financial impact is huge on the family, if a sufficient life insurance was not taken by the bread winner. Financial impact also completely changes the lives of family members and creates big issues.

It can leave the family with questions like

• How will we pay back the home loan?
• Will we have to sell the house?
• How will we send children to school?
• Who will give us money for many years?
• Will we have to sell house belongings?
• Will our children have to start working after their school?
• How will we take care of old parents?
• Who will earn now in family?

Think about this!

I have seen lots of investors not taking the decision of buying life insurance very seriously. They delay the decision, cut down on the sum assured feeling what’s the need to “waste” the premium and worst of all, close an existing term plan because now they feel “Nothing happened in last 6 yrs, I wasted so much of premium” ..

And then the most unexpected incidents happen ! … Sudden death due to a health issue or accident!

Rains in Pune in last 2 days

From last week, Pune is witnessing heavy rains and two days back there was an overflow in a lake within city which literally created havoc in one part of the city. One of the society wall fell and 5 people died because of that. I wonder if these 5 people ever wondered if they will die like this?

(Source : Hindustan Times)

Let me tell you another incident from Pune rains

One guy was returning late in night in his car when this over flow happened and while he was going through a tunnel, the water from the other side came because of the overflow (like you must have seen in a scene from titanic). The car got washed away and after few hours, the guy death body was recovered. He did not even get time to react and do anything as his seat belt was on and he could not do much in response of that terrible accident.

Imagine this guy, and ask yourself if he had ever thought that this could have happened to him?

We need to accept that shit happens! . Many things are beyond our control. We can only minimize the impact or risk, but can never eliminate it.

7 real life incidents which will lower your over-confidence !

Here is a small compilation of few real life incidents, where people have died because of various unexpected reasons which was beyond their control almost all the time. Please imagine yourself and ask if by any chance, it’s possible that you could have been at their place?

Pune man saw wife disappear in flooded stream (Link)

We all were trying to get out of the house when suddenly the heavy flow of water came and in that Jyotsana was washed away right in front of my eyes. I could not get hold of her or save her; afterwards, we found her body nearby.”

7 school children die in Kenya as school building collapses (link)

“We were in class reading and we heard pupils and teachers screaming, and the class started collapsing and then a stone hit me on the mouth,” 10-year-old survivor Tracy Oduor told the AP. “When we got out of the gate, we heard that pupils were dead. I feel so sad.”

Spine surgeon & driver killed in accident on Mumbai-Pune Expressway (Link)

The car had stopped on the roadside to get a punctured tyre changed. When the driver was changing the tyre of the car a speeding private bus coming from Mumbai rammed into the driver and Dr Khurjekar, killing them on the spot.

A person died while taking selfie with elephant (Link)

A 30-year-old man was trampled to death by an elephant at the Bannerghatta Biological Park on Tuesday, after he and his friends sneaked into the park to take selfies with the elephant.

14 dead, several injured in massive fire at Mumbai’s Kamala Mills (Link)

The fire broke out shortly after midnight on the third floor of the four-storied building on Senapati Bapat Marg. The majority of those killed were women attending a birthday party at a rooftop restaurant.

Illegal banner claims another life, 23-year-old dies after hoarding falls on her (Link)

An illegal banner which was installed by an AIADMK functionary for a family function fell on Subhashree, making her fall to the road. Meanwhile, a lorry which right behind her on the road ran over her.

28-yr-old engineer dies after sharp kite string slits his throat in Delhi (Link)

A 28-year-old civil engineer was killed and at least half a dozen others, including a retired defence forces officer, were injured after being allegedly hit by sharp kite strings (manjha) in separate incidents during Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan celebrations on Thursday.

Please take Life Insurance

So the point is clear!

In case your family members are financially dependent on you, and you do not have sufficient assets with you, please buy sufficient life insurance (only a term plan) as soon as possible and secure their future. Do not over estimate your ability to avoid accidents. You have far less control over these things than you think.

If you are confused on which term plan to buy, I can help you along with my team. We will connect you to right platform to buy the term plan which will also give your family claim support in future. Just email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you!

Do share any incident or real life story related to this topic in comments section below.