Tag: Financial Freedom

13 things every investor should experience at least once in their financial journey

Posted on by Nandish Desai

It has been around 8 years we as a team are working in the personal finance space. We have worked with a few hundred investors one on one and there is a lot we have learned from their sharing and life experiences.

investors experience

We see personal finance as a journey and any journey will always have experiences. In today’s article we have tried to highlight some experiences which every investor should experience at least once, there is no compulsion but there is something to learn from each one of them.

1. Experience a bull run

For the first time in the history of Indian stock market the sensex has crossed 30k mark. The market is currently riding on a high PE (Price per earnings ratio).

Current PE is around 22-23. In such situation existing or those who started investing 3-4+ years back experience a spike in their portfolio. It’s a moment for them to celebrate as they see their wealth growing.

At the same time on the other side new entrants get attracted to the equity market. It is important to experience a bull run because in a bull run you are able to experience the real power of equity as an asset class.

Once you taste the blood (returns) you fall in love with equities. Bull market expands your risk taking ability, you get a sense of winning.

2. Experience bear market

A friend of mine jokingly came and said “ I made a killing in the market bust of 2008. I shot my broker.”

Remember 2008 market crash; the markets came down substantially in a very short span of time.

You can watch below video

Bear market is one of the greatest teachers in the world of investment. It teaches you patience, discipline and many other elements.

There are some very important lessons a bear market teaches an investor. Those who did not apply asset allocation strategy to their portfolio’s there money got wiped out in front of them. People chase returns but it is also important to check the risk on your portfolio. As your portfolio grows your risk also expands.

3. Experience Zero Bank Balance

Imagine having no money in your pocket and having a zero bank balance. It is a time when you hit the bottom and feel resigned and cynical about the world.

I have experienced the same. Some 9-10 years ago there was a time in my life when I had no job or business and was also not in a position to ask money from my parents. I approached a friend and took Rs.5000/- from him.

bankrupt no money in bank

At that time I was in Mumbai I went to Juhu beach, I took a stick and drew one line in the sand. I jumped the line and made a commitment to myself that I will never ever ask money from anyone and will create financial stability.

That day was a turning point in my life, my relationship with money and my career shifted and things started to move in the positive direction. The zero money day taught me a lot.

4. Work with a financial mentor

I always feel if you want to enhance your performance in any area than work with a mentor. It is said that when the student is ready teacher appears. Find someone and become a student of wealth.

Currently in my life I have a fitness mentor, business mentor and a hobby mentor. I surrender to all three of them and they help me in taking my life and business to the next level.

As an investor get a money mentor, someone who will help you to improve your money management skills, someone who will give an honest feedback to you. Do not have a mindset of saving all the time, some investors try to do everything on their own and are not willing to pay for quality advice. Your mindset is your true wealth and see that you invest in right  mentors.

5. Experience and engage with Charity

I recently came to know about someone who visits India every year and does charity of 1 crore. Last year he came and donated money to build an Olympic size skating ring for kids. Hundreds of kids practice on the skating ring every day and creating champions. What a wonderful GIFT he has given to young kids. This is awesome, this is inspiring and creates real fulfillment.

Below is a picture of the actual place.

Charity example

I don’t know the exact thing but there is some magic in doing charity. Charity adds a special dimension to your financial journey, it helps you to break your over attachment to money and teaches you the real meaning of the word “sharing”.

Charity gets you closer to abundance and you are able to free yourself from the trap called “scarcity”

6. Teaching about money to kids

Sunday morning you should do something special for kids to learn about money. Not just for your kids but it can be your society kids. Teaching is powerful; share your experiences about and around money with young kids or teenagers.

Most people do not take out time to teach KIDS about money.

You don’t have to be an expert, it is about sharing your heart with kids or teenagers in the area of money. You can do a small book read session, if you want we will help you in doing such short sessions.

7. Experience inflation

For this you need to leave your wallet, credit cards and mobile at home and carry limited cash with you. Take a Rs. 500 or 1000/- with you and see how much and what you can buy with that amount. Start making list of how many things you can buy.

The game is not about spending the amount it is about utilizing the amount in the best possible way. Trust me it won’t be an easy exercise.

inflation in India

When it comes to investing and inflation, what matters most is not what you make, but what you keep. As an investor you will always be having war with inflation and the only way you can defeat inflation is by learning discipline and simplicity.

Many investors are not in touch with inflation, they talk about it but they are not present to inflation when they get into the shoes of a spender.

8. Building personal finance library

People spend on having a home theatre but very few have a library at home. As an investor it is important to build your personal finance library. You will have some amazing thoughts while reading about money management.

Money management is a skill and you can acquire the same from reading good books. We have written three powerful books on personal finance, you can start with them and slowly add more books to your library.

Always remember your bank balance is directly proportional to your thought balance.

9. Experience the inner wealth and abundance

Go to some meditation retreat and experience meditation. I highly recommend vipassana meditation course to each one of you. Money exits in the outer world but the thoughts about money resides in your inner world. Your outer world around money is mere a reflection of what is going on inside you.

Doing a SIP or buying a real estate or buying GOLD is fine but what about your inner wealth, see that you don’t go bankrupt in your inner world. Creating balance between your inner and outer world is extremely important.

10. Experience debt

I am not saying if you are debt free then create debt. I have worked one on one with many investors who were in a debt trap and I could see their life changing after overcoming debt. Debt puts you on a slow poison and very few investors are able to break free from debt trap.

Debt Trap

When you fall in a debt trap it is not about money, it means you have mastered the art of mismanaging your financial resources. You fall in a debt trap only when you stop respecting money.

I have seen people putting a lot of effort in becoming debt free, I also know some of our clients who not just finished their debt but have created positive net worth for themselves. One of our clients once shared, “Easy ( credit card ) money has made my life tough”

11. Spend time with someone who is financially free

Create network of people who are financially free. Take someone for a coffee or dinner and have an empowering conversation with them. One of person who I admire a lot owns a few thousand crore pharma company, I look for opportunities to spend time with that person.

I have learnt a lot from that person and every time I meet it leaves me with a new insight about my relationship with money.

meaning of financial freedom

The way they view money, life, world and their work is amazing. The one thing to learn from them is their inner stance, financial freedom is an inner stance and not just a place to reach.

12. Experience completion with your parents

I know I am getting into a sensitive zone with this point and we have never dealt with such things on our blog. Your biggest wealth are your parents and nothing else but somewhere we kind of forget about it. Having a loving and caring relationship with your parents is extremely important.

You may acquire 1000 crore but if your relationship with parents is incomplete you will never experience fulfillment. If you are right now alive and reading this article it means your parents did their job very well. Do not expect anything more from them.

Write a thank you letter to them, do not try to change them or find any faults in your parent’s personality. Even if they are not alive try to have a completion with them, completion is an inner process where there is peace and joy. I am very sure when you start to run behind money your relationship with your parents will experience a rough patch.

13. Experience power of compounding

Start a small SIP and stick to it for 10+ years.

This SIP is not to achieve any goal but it is for you to experience power of compounding.

You can also document your experience and pass it on to your next generation. Power of compounding is magical and as an investor it is important to experience it. You can have anything in life by adding the power of compounding to your actions.

Start your SIP in Mutual funds with Jagoinvestor Help

Conclusion

Your financial journey should not be about chasing returns and only making profits. See that you fill your financial journey with rich experiences and see experiences as your teacher.

During the journey nothing is happening to you ( so stop taking things personally), in fact everything is happening for you and so cherish every bit of your financial journey and continue to make a difference.

Do share in the comment section if you could relate to the experiences we have listed, you are free to share some other life changing lessons that life must have taught you. Feel free to share the articles that we write on jagoinvestor and if you want you can get in touch with us and we can jointly create the content.

11 investing Bias which impacts investors – An audio Podcast !

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Do you take all your decisions based on facts or emotions? Be it personal or financial life, it’s a well-known fact that 95% of our decision are based on emotions.

Today we are going to look at various kinds of behavioral biases in the area of money and in general. For this, I got in touch with Mr. Siddhartha K Garg who is an expert on this topic.

We had an hour-long conversation on various things and how investors make mistakes in their financial life because of various emotions. You can listen to a 1-hour long audio podcast below. Just make sure you listen to the full conversation as there are various points discussed.

If you do not want to listen to the audio podcast, you can go through the summary point of our talk below.

What are biases?

Simply put our brains give more attention to something but less attention to something else, despite there being no actual inherent reason to make such a distinction.

And hence it is a bias – that is making a distinction without any reason. A simplest example which you yourself can notice right now – how many positive stories from today’s news do you remember v how many negative stories? I am certain many more negative stories than positive ones.

This is because our brains are hardwired to pay more attention to negative stores than positive ones as the negative ones are more likely to harm us. Or why that pollution in Delhi only becomes an issue every winter, but not so much in summers. Because we are biased to give more attention to an issue when it is right in front of us as opposed to something in the future (this is called proximity bias and we will shortly discuss it).

Now, apart from small purchases like everyday items, these biases can wreak havoc on your long term wealth if you don’t take steps to check them! Want to know more? Let’s read on and think which ones of the following have you already fallen prey to?

Bias #1 – Anchoring effect

Definition – Rather than explaining what this bias is, allow me to illustrate how it originated – once a shopkeeper was trying to sell a mixer grinder and was having a very hard time trying to do so. He had priced it at 25US$ and was aggressively marketing it, yet the customers just wouldn’t buy it.

But one day suddenly his sales started shooting up. Perplexed as to what is the cause of this upward selling, he went to the aisle where the mixer-grinder was stocked and noticed that a shop employee had put another similar company mixer-grinder next to it and accidentally put a tag of $100 US on this 2nd model, despite there being barely any difference in the 2 models.

What the shopkeeper noticed was that the customers would anchor the price at the heaviest figure and then judge the models based on such price and not go into the features etc of the models at the display. As a result no one even touched the 100$ mixer-grinder but the sales of the 25$ shot up.

  • Example – Another similar example would be that of a famous café in Italy, that apart from the usual coffee and food items in the menu also have available for purchase a Vespa! (one of those hipster scooters) Now they obviously don’t expect anyone to buy it, but just by seeing that price tag of 800 Euros on the menu card makes the 30 Euro coffee seem not that expensive.
  • Solution – Now that you know about this bias, you will automatically notice yourself gravitating towards such an item, whose actual value is not worth the price or maybe you just don’t need it. Point being – decide on the purchase on the cost of the item relative to its own quality and your need and not to some item thrown in the menu to throw you off track

Bias #2 – Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Definition – Divestiture aversion or in simple we are averse to letting anything go which we already possess. In more common terms this is when we throw good money after bad.

  • Example – keep sticking with some stock despite consistent under-performance because we think it may improve
  • Solution – cut your losses – yes, a little bit of loss is better than huge loss and what you get back can be re-invested and earn to counter the loss made

Bias #3 – Confirmation Bias

Definition – we look for sources of information that confirm our beliefs rather than oppose our beliefs

  • Example – people who have a right-wing philosophy prefer Facebook pages that cater to that view or with left-wing philosophy will only follow pages that talk about their beliefs. Or in investment parlance – those who believe that FD is safest and surest will try and avoid news outlets or people who say that you must have equity exposure also.
  • Solution – get a mix of information sources and don’t just limit to one side. Hear everyone and have contrast exposure to all investment strategies.

Bias #4 – Halo effect

Definition – Halo is the golden circle you see above the heads of angels. Like in Tom and Jerry, whenever one died they showed the character in white robes in heaven with a golden circle above their head.

So in this bias, we get a halo above our head after we do something good (like not over-spending throughout the week or doing a financial review of all your insurances and investment on a weekend), that now you think that you are good boy and can get away with a little bit of unexpected spending.

  • Example – Sometimes people work out a lot in a gym and think that now they deserve it and come home and order Dominoes. Similarly, people can do in financial life, like for example after spending a weekend going through your finances, documents and portfolio status people think that they have done all the right financial habits that they go and splurge in the mall on Sunday evening.
  • Solution – notice that this is a common behavioral trap when you see yourself falling for it, back off and stick to your investment or budgetary plans.

Bias #5 – Bandwagon Effect

Definition – in simple words it is the herd mentality

  • Example – in your office everyone decides to invest in gold because the market is low and do so you. Or your relatives and uncles decide that life insurance is the best way to save tax, you also decide to follow. When clearly they are the wrong choice. One person example – in the SCBA (Supreme Court Bar Association) there is a tie-up with a particular company’s life insurance. And I see many people just buying that insurance because most of the other lawyers are also buying it. Now I am not saying that this particular company’s offering is bad but only saying that just because everyone else is purchasing it, makes it the right option. One should always purchase, not blindly following the herd, but after carefully analyzing the options.
  • Solution – Don’t just follow the crowd but analyze what are your requirements and then what are the best solutions based on your investment need. If you are a young salaried person then invest in equity and if about to retire and obviously can’t carry many risks then look for safer options – maybe debt funds. But don’t just follow the crowd and invest based on your requirements and financial situation.

Bias #6 – Proximity bias

Definition – we give more importance to things in our current than in the future.

  • Example – The study of people under F-MRI shows that for future they viewed themselves with the same regard as a stranger. In fact, doctors in the US, show the pictures of people on a computer screen that if they don’t exercise or take their medicine then in the future they will look so and so and this caused more compliance to the diet plan.
  • Solution – it might not seem important now but your future will be present soon. Days are long but years are short – so, start saving for retirement from the very first cheque and start your SIPs early to take advantage of cumulative interest.

Bias #7 – Recency Bias + Negativity bias

Definition – we pay more attention to negative and recent things

  • Example – stock market crashed – as opposed to a long string of bull runs or that many companies did farewell and decide to go for FD and not invest in mutual funds
  • Solution – Stick to a chosen investment strategy based on goals and not let blips change your mind

Bias #8 – Status Quo Bias

Definition – that we prefer to let things stay as they are and not rock the boat – it’s going fine then why shake things up

  • Example – simples would be not analyzing your portfolio – it’s going fine. Why apply mind and let it be
  • Solution – No! Get over the laziness and devote some good time like Sunday afternoon after lunch one hour once a month without phone calls or emails or any distractions and get things done.

Bias #9 – Information Overload and attention deficit

Definition – you are overloaded with information and you just get paralyzed. You stop taking any actions because you are over-analyzing things and not able to arrive at decision.

  • Example – let’s say you want to decide which mutual fund to invest in and get bombarded with options and decide that let’s just get the simple FD done. In fact, a study from the US shows that a company offered its mutual funds to invest in on the company’s expense. With 3 options, 75% of people selected a fund. But with 10 mutual funds options, the purchase rate dropped down to 25%.
  • Solution – get basic research done and then keep cutting out irrelevant information, get the main data and then decide with the help of an expert – hired or a family or friend. But just because lots of work doesn’t mean you should not do it at all.

Bias #10 – Snowflake fallacy

Definition – if you see snowflake under the microscope the you see that each snowflake is unique and so do we, think that we are special in the universe and that we know what we are doing is right or that our problem is unique and no solution to it out there, as result don’t look for the solution

  • Example – We think we know it all and can conquer the stock market. Stop – if you are an average person who wants full-time work in the field you are better with mutual funds. Which is basically a collection of stocks picked by experts.
  • Solution – remember that you are not unique and get your major decisions reviewed by someone knowledgeable in the field and don’t just ignore the basic rules of investment.
  • Main example – Even Sir Isaac Newton was not able to beat the stock market! In the 1720s had lost about 3 million US$ (in today’s term) when he tried to play the market on the stock of a company called “South Sea Company”.

Bias #11 – Lifestyle inflation

Definition – This is also called the “Hedonistic adaptation” – it basically means that once your salary etc starts increasing, subconsciously your spending also starts to increase. You won’t even notice it. And hedonism means the philosophy of seeking pleasure and when your salary increases you adapt your lifestyle for more pleasure, hence causing the hedonistic adaptation.

  • Example – You have a nice 50 inch LED. Your salary increases and you start thinking why not a 60 inch LED TV. Then after some time, you decide why not a 4k LED. Then you decide why not an Android enabled LED. Now even with the 50 inches LED you were fine. But slowly and creepingly there was inflation in your lifestyle. And to afford the same TV on EMI, you have to work more, the same time you could have just spent with your family enjoying the latest movies on the 50 inch LED! The problem that I am highlighting here is that I am not at all saying that don’t buy more as your income increases. Obviously, with more income, you would want more things but don’t go overboard and stick to your needs. And make sure that as your income increases so do your savings for retirement etc also increase because otherwise with more income and also more expenditure your savings rate will remain the same and maybe, if you don’t notice, it might even decline – as you save less even though are earning more!
  • Solution – be wary of your purchases. Keep strict logs and budget your discretionary spending. If you start going overboard then you know that you have become a victim of lifestyle inflation. In fact, a US study showed that people would be happiest at the income of 75,000 USD income and after that particular level of income, the happiness level remained the same and it meant only more stuff in the house.

Few general solutions to deal with biases

  1. Accept and acknowledge that you are not perfect and can make mistakes – Remember – that you are human and our minds are not in as much control as we think we are. Accept that our mind works in ways that we can’t even imagine and not all decisions are “rational” decisions. This acknowledgment and acceptance is important because then you will know that yes I can make mistakes and I must setup safeguards so that I do not commit these mistakes.
  2. Never buy major items on the spur of the moment
  3. Never make any investment decision when (a) sleepy, (b) hungry and (c) irritated
  4. Sleep over it! – Economists call this as a cool-off period – so you had the requirements with you and you got the various pitches. Now just take all the data and the pitches to your home, go through them once and just forget about it for one day. In a day or two automatically your brain will tell you which one to choose.
  5. Write it down and be accountable! – When going purchasing – be it a TV, or in the market for an equity mutual fund or new health insurance for greater coverage because you want separate insurance for your old parents away from your family floater policy – WRITE DOWN your requirements and your budget and give them to your partner/spouse/friend. And if you exceed or breach the budget then again write it down again and tell your partner/wife/friend to question such a breach. This will make you accountable for the decision you took. In fact, keep looking at your written note (paper, Google keep, iPhone notes whatever) when doing the purchasing so that any aggressive sales pitch doesn’t throw you off your goal.

We hope you liked this audio podcast and the article. Please share your personal experiences around this topic? Which bias do you feel you have gone through? Share in the comments section.

(This piece is authored by Siddhartha K Garg who is an Advocate in the Supreme Court of India and a former Junior Research Scholar in the Law and Economics Department of University of California, Berkeley. He also runs an NGO Angel Trust for Animal Care in Delhi and can be reached at [email protected])

6 simple reasons why you should get serious about Savings starting today?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Think for a moment that you have 3 yrs worth of your salary in your bank account.

How does it feel?

So if you earn Rs 10 lacs a year, you have Rs 30 lacs lying in your savings (other than real estate). If you earn 20 lacs per annum, its 60 lacs!

saving money for future

But in real life, most people do not take enough effort to save more money. It’s on their wish list to “start saving from next month”, but the motivations soon fizzles out. Most of the people are so busy and stuck with various problems in life that with each day, saving money for the future remains a distant dream for many.

Are you one of them?

Life has various dynamics.

Many people are stuck in a bad job, while some people are in a bad marriage which is draining all their energy and time. Some people are running around to arrange for a house down payment, while some are wondering if they should have a second kid or not!

Life keeps throwing so many things at us, that we forget where we are headed towards and we are not able to see how our actions today will shape our future.

We keep dealing with the NOW, only to realize many years later that our FUTURE is almost there waving at us. And then suddenly we realize that we have so much to catch up in life. More health, More money and more happiness!

We start our jobs in our 20’s, then settle by the end of the ’30s, move to next level in our lives while we are in our 40’s and then in this journey we realize we are approaching our 50’s and if we have not done a good job of saving enough money then we PANIC !

And we tell ourselves – “Oops .. I could have handled my life in a better way, if only …”

As per an HSBC report, around 47% of the Indians have not yet started saving for their retirement or have stopped it after starting.

 

6 reasons why you should save money and create wealth

Today I want to do a deep conversation regarding saving money. I know you might feel, is there a lot of it to talk about that?

Today I want to make sure that this is the last article, to get serious regarding saving & investing more money in your life (I will refer to “saving and investing” as “saving” in this article henceforth).

Almost all people feel that “saving money” is only related to securing your future. The equation for them is

Save money = Lead a better life tomorrow

But there is more to it!

[su_table responsive=”yes” alternate=”no”]

Reason #1 

To secure your future

 Reason #2 

To do what you love in life
Reason #3 

To spend and live a better lifestyle

 Reason #4 

To be financially independent
Reason #5 

Peace of mind

 Reason #6 

To pass your wealth to next generation

[/su_table]

There are various other angles you need to think about, and that’s what I want to discuss today. So read this article with all our eyes open!

Reason #1 – To secure your future

Let’s start with the most basic and core objective of saving money. You save money to accumulate the money and use it for your future requirements.

Let me give you a surprise – “One day, your salary will stop coming in your bank account”

There will come a time when you will be left with 40 more years of your life and there won’t be a regular salary coming into your account like it happens today. You need to create a big enough corpus, which helps you to lead a life you desire for the next few decades till you die.

You should not be worried about “death” in today’s world, It should be “living enough”.

Some people think they can avoid creating their wealth because their kids will take care of them. However, it’s up to you to decide if that’s the right approach towards life or not.

Savings and Investing definition by a 9 yrs old girl

Long back, Subra had asked a 9 yrs old kid to read a book on money and summarize what she learned about “saving and investing” and she gave a very crisp understanding about it. Please appreciate the simplicity of the girl’s thoughts.

Saving: Saving money is very important. We should save money because if one day suddenly we need money we will have it with us. If we just keep on spending all the money that we get and one day we need money we will not know what to do. I am also saving all my pocket money because I might need it in the future. I have kept it in a bank account and I get interested in that every year.

Investing: Investing makes our money grow. Just as a plant grows from a seed to a plant. When we keep our money in a savings bank we get interested but if we will invest our money in fixed deposits, shares, mutual funds, public provident funds, etc. our money will grow from a small amount to a big amount faster. Real money takes more time to grow whereas a plant grows within weeks.

Start saving some money for future

If you can’t manage to save enough money, at least start saving some money starting next month TODAY. Let me share with you some numbers on this. If a 30 yrs old person invests Rs 10,000 per month for the next 30 yrs consistently, then @12% average return over the long term, a total of approx Rs 4.4 crore can be accumulated.

How Rs 10,000 per month investment will create a big corpus of 4.4 cr in 30 yrs

I know a lot of people who can surely start with Rs 10,000 per month investment. Don’t worry if you can’t do that much?

What about Rs 5,000? Rs 2,000 ?

Anything is a good start! , upgrade later – but at least START.

Our team at Jagoinvestor helps our readers to start their SIP in mutual funds and track their goals on an ongoing basis. If you are interested to start your wealth creation journey with us, just leave your details here and a mentor from Jagoinvestor team will reach out to you in the next 24 hours

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Reason #2 – To do what you love in life

Do you love what you do?

No, I am not talking about pursuing your passion for living or doing a full-time job in the area which you love. All I am saying is do you have enough time and money to do things you love for a few hours each week? Something which you truly want to do other than your regular job work?

  • Do you love traveling to new places, but you are stuck because the EMI needs to be paid first?
  • Do you love photography, but those costly lenses seem to be out of your budget?
  • Do you want to socialize more by throwing a party for your friends, but worried about how you will afford to do it?
  • Are you afraid to tell your boss that you want to go on a month-long road trip, with your best friend which was planned years back?
  • Want to go on a weekend trip with your friends, but oops. it’s out of the budget!

It’s going to be very tough to achieve all the points mentioned above if your bank balance is very low. Less money means less power with you!

While you cannot afford a lot of things, you can’t also arrange for a lot of time to do all these things, because you can’t make some tough decisions because you are so dependent on monthly paychecks.

You need two things!

You need money or time to pursue your hobbies and both of these will come only when you focus on creating wealth.

money and hobbies

I understand that you will not be able to achieve all these things right now, but If you don’t start your wealth creation right now, you will NEVER be able to achieve the above. Enough wealth in your kitty gives you that power to do things you love.

If you are so much dependent on your monthly paychecks, it’s going to be very suffocating going forward. A lot of wonderful people are dying slowly inside because they have no wealth created.

Reason #3 – To spend and live a better lifestyle

A lot of things in life do not require money. A great nap, a conversation with a good friend, a simple meal with your loved ones.

But then there are things in life which require money.

Yes, I am talking about those materialistic things.

  • A better Car
  • A better house
  • Dining in a great restaurant
  • Partying with your friends
  • Buying that gadget
  • Going on that trip
  • Redesigning your house
  • That Ladakh road Trip
  • That DSLR Camera
  • Travelling to exotic places with your family

You will spend money on various experiences and possessions, only if you have the money in the first place (not always, but most of the times), and you be able to do it only if you have money saved at your end at the first place.

Your lifestyle will improve only if you have created enough money.

While you can always take a personal loan and upgrade your car or go on that vacation and earn all the facebook likes, I am not talking that!

I am talking about, the real upgrade in your lifestyle which does not increase your EMI or stress level and does not compromise your cash flows to a big extent.

wealth and freedom

It’s easy to upgrade your life from a bike to a car and a rented apartment to the first house, but then beyond that’s it’s not as simple as it was earlier. It takes a good amount of money and dedication because we get stuck with EMI’s and mid-level crisis in our 30’s

So see, what are your aspirations for yourself and your family? What kind of life are you looking forward to in the coming times? Is your wealth enough to lead you there? Are you doing enough for that?

Reason #4 – To be financially independent

Don’t confuse financial independence with retirement.

  • Retirement happens “when you don’t work anymore”
  • Financial Independence happens “when you don’t work for money anymore..”

While retirement is linked to age (which is generally around 60), financial independence is a function of wealth and not your age. Financial independence can happen even at the age of 35 (My best friend at age 32 is already financially independent)

Where do you stand in your financial independence?

Financial Independence is often referred to as financial freedom. Nandish likes to describe as “A situation where your passive income equals your desired lifestyle expenses”

For a normal investor, financial independence can happen only when you start your wealth creation journey well at the start of your life and are disciplined enough not to disturb it for a long time.

Do you always want to keep doing the same job you are doing? And wait desperately for that “salary credited” SMS at the end of the month? How dependent are you on that monthly inflow in your bank account? How will your life look like if that SMS that does not arrive (I mean the money) for the next 6 months?

Millions of people go to their jobs in the morning with different moods depending on the day. They are happiest on Friday and very sad on Sunday night. You need to seriously start investing for the goal of financial independence if this is the case with you.

Difference moods of people when they go to work on different days

You need to also reduce your dependence on your active income (salary) as you move from age 25/30 to age 45/50. You should have created enough wealth in the first 10-15 yrs of your life that some part of your expenses can be met by passive income your wealth can generate if things go wrong.

I am not saying that you should create wealth and then start the passive income right away, but you need to create that situation for yourself. It will bring peace of mind (which I am going to talk in detail next)

Reason #5 – Peace of mind

Not have enough money brings a lot of stress. If you need peace of mind, you need enough wealth on your side which can comfort you!

You will keep worrying about the future now and then and every small financial problem will give you goosebump and force you to think about your scary future.

Imagine a guy who is around 45 yrs of age, and has not to create any significant wealth to show. By this time, he should have ideally created a corpus of 1 crore, but he has just 2 lacs in an FD which might get broken if some financial emergency happens!

This is bound to cause a lot of stress.

Various thoughts will cross the mind …

  • How will I meet my financial goals?
  • What if I lose my job?
  • What if I suddenly need a lot of money?
  • What if I am not able to give my kids all the things they want?

A respectable amount of money saved at your end might not end your worries, but it will surely bring some peace of mind and lower the stress. You know you are not in that bad shape and have arrived somewhere in the middle at least.

We surveyed with as many as 2,440 investors and we found out that 40% of the investors in our survey reported that the money matters have taken away their peace of mind.

As a general rule of thumb, If you have worked for X yrs in your life, you should at least have X/2 years worth of basic expenses saved at your end. This I think is the minimum one should aim for.

Our team at Jagoinvestor helps our readers to start their SIP in mutual funds and track their goals on an ongoing basis. If you are interested to start your wealth creation journey with us, just leave your details here and a mentor from Jagoinvestor team will reach out to you in the next 24 hours

[su_button background=”#FFA52F” size=”6″ url=”https://www.jagoinvestor.com/mutual-funds” target=”blank”] Start your SIP in Mutual funds with Jagoinvestor Help [/su_button]

Reason #6 – To pass your wealth to the next generation

A lot of families struggle for money generation after generations. The grandfather worked for money all their life, then father and then the son is also doing the same.

Many people who struggle financially set a goal in life that their kids should not face the same. They want to teach them money lessons and make them responsible, but also want to leave them a house and some wealth which makes their start a little easier in life.

Is that the right approach?

It’s a debatable topic if that’s the right thing do to or not. Many people believe that they should not handover anything to kids and let them create their own life out of what they have learned. Let them see the struggles and only then they will appreciate what they earn in life.

While that’s the correct approach for many people. I am sure we have many others who will not agree with that thought process in the same way.

Anyways, coming to the point, if you create wealth in your life, you can leave some part of it for your kids so that they can pursue things they truly wanted to do and not work just for money to bring food on the table.

A lot of wonderful people are never able to do things in life which they truly want to do. They are not able to live their own life fully because of the money matters. You need to check for yourself, if passing wealth to your next generation is part of your plan or not?

What will happen if you don’t save enough money for future?

So to summarize this article, there is a great possibility that one or more things mentioned below will happen to you if you do not get serious about saving money in your life going forward.

  • You will have hard time maintaining a good standard of living
  • You will depend too much on others (your kids maybe) for money
  • You will be spending a lot of time worrying about the future and how will your life end
  • You will be too dependent on your active income and will be forced to keep working even when you don’t like it
  • It will be hard for you to focus on things you love to do because you don’t have enough money or time
  • You will find it tough to lead a better life compared to current lifestyle

Final words

If you have still not crossed the age of 45, You still have a good chance to create a respectable corpus by the time you retire, even though you have lost a lot of time for compounding. Our team can help you in getting your financial planning done if you are interested to do leave your details for a small chat!

Just make sure you do not reach your pre-retirement age of 50+ without doing anything because that’s the zone where it’s going to be very tough creating any sizable corpus.

6 proven ways of becoming RICH (are you one of them) ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Can you name a billionaire who didn’t start a company?

Or a $ millionaire for that case?

In this article, we are going to talk about various ways people become RICH. No, it’s not a tutorial on how to become rich, but just a conversation on are various ways using which people have become rich. Maybe you will get some idea of which path you want to take or try for yourself.

how to get rich

 

#1 – Starting a successful business

One of the ways, most people become rich is owning a successful business. Yes, think of any rich person and chances are that they own a business. It can be a tech company, a big store or some kind of traditional business, but it’s BUSINESS.

A job gives you linear income and growth. The business gives you exponential growth and income over time, along with the huge risk of losing the money. That’s the primary reason why most of the people are into jobs and not business.

My point is simple. If your goal is to be in the middle class or higher middle class, you can continue doing your job. However if your dream is to own that exotic villa, or to drive the most amazing cars and never worry about money all your life, you need to own a business, otherwise, it’s going to be really tough to get rich (apart from other 9 points)

You might want to read this article called Indian Entrepreneurs Success Stories – Who Started With Nothing to some inspiration.

#2 – Let someone else run business and get a share

A lot of people have become extremely wealthy by investing money in other business and just holding the shares for long. No, this is not stock investing.

I am talking about funding others’ businesses and keeping a share of ownership to cash on in the future. This is definitely not very common or an easy thing to do. The failure rate is very high, but many people have become very rich through this method.

Paytm Founder sold 40% equity for 8 lacs many years back

For example, you have heard about PAYTM. Right?

You know it’s now a multibillion company and its owner is already a billionaire. But did you know that years ago, there was a guy who helped paytm founder with Rs 8 lacs and in exchange took 40% of the company and exited the company with a couple of 100 crores?

Watch the interview with Paytm founder Vijay Shekar Sharma, where he shares about his journey and this incident (Just click the video and watch the next 1 min)

It’s not always the case that you have to start the business, the main point is to be part of a business and contribute in the journey of the business since the start when it was not successful.

Most of the people who joined large companies as employees got equity in the company (ESOP’s and stocks) and years later when the company becomes big, they all became rich.

Take Infosys for example, It was a business owned by a few people, but those who stayed with Infosys and contributed for its growth over years were rewarded and now they are quite RICH.

At Infosys, drivers, electricians are millionaires

The Infosys management has over the years rewarded selected staff belonging to the C, D and E grades with shares for faithful service and excellence in work. By the time Infy began skyrocketing in value, 67 of these people including eight drivers, owned enough stock to make them very rich men indeed. Kannan’s portfolio of 2,000 shares when multiplied by the latest share value makes for a huge value statement

#3 – By Inheritance

Another way a lot of people become rich is when they inherit a lot of money from their parents or some relative. As per this report, around 31% of ultra-rich people in India have inherited their wealth, which is quite a good number. Every 1 out of 3 people in an ultra-rich category is rich through inheritance.

inheritance rich India

However, this option is not applicable to most people like us.

#4 – Become a highly paid top executive

If you are very clear that you do want to own a business and will keep continuing doing the job, then your salary is the most important factor which can make you rich. No, we are not talking about packaged of Rs 10 lacs or 20 lacs here.

We are talking about packages which some top executives earn at important positions in the company. They are people like

  • CEO
  • Managing Directors
  • Vice Presidents
  • Top Managerial Positions
  • Top-Level Professionals (Doctors, Lawyers)

It comes only when you are really out of the class in what you do. If you have skills to manage the company or help a company excel at something, you can reach these top positions, but it takes quite an amount of hard work, smart moves and a bit of luck too. Many professionals earn very high salaries like examples below.

Top Salaries in India

Here is another example of a high salary –

top-salaries-india-Infosys

It’s not always the case that you own a business to earn high income. To run a company or business many skills are required and if you have that in you, you can help someone else to build and manage the company in exchange for your skills.

As per this report, around 42,800 have reported an income of Rs 1 crore per annum in India. You now have to set yourself to be in that club

#5 – Speculation or Gambling

This is not a recommendation, but a lot of people become rich by speculation or gambling. This has more to do with Luck and smart thinking at times, but not with hard work.

I do not want to label speculation as BAD, because speculation takes guts and courage and those who take that route also get lucky at times and make a lot of money. There are two kinds of speculation

  1. Blind Speculation – A speculation where you are just shooting in the dark. Things like buying lottery, horse race etc is pure speculation and unless you get lucky, you will lose your time and money. A lot of people are into these speculative and gambling activities
  2. Calculation Speculation – Then there are many situations where you have to take a very calculated risk, where the risk is still high, but then the return potential is huge and clear at times. These are high risk, high return situations where if you take a chance, you can get really lucky.

One can get lucky, only when you take a risk and speculate. Speculation is seen as a bad word, but one can’t deny that it also has a brighter side to it. If you want to innovate something, you need to speculate on the fact that it will become successful.

#6 – By Investing money regularly – the boring & long route

In the end, if you feel you are not made for the above 5 points, then the only way to get rich is to invest your surplus money on regular basis and that too in high return instruments like equity mutual funds or stocks and wait for a long time to become rich.

The big problem is that there is too much-delayed gratification here. If you start your investments today, you can’t expect to get rich in just a few years which is possible in other ways mentioned above.

You need to have time on your side and extreme discipline. On top of that, you need to invest a good amount of money. You can’t expect to become rich by doing just Rs 4,000 SIP in an equity fund. You need to invest a good amount like Rs 20,000 or Rs 50,000 per month (at times Rs 1 lacs per month too) to accumulate a good amount of wealth.

how to get rich by investing

So, the only option left for most of people to become rich (that too in future) is only by investing their money and that will happen only if you earn a good income because only then you will be able to invest a good chunk left out of it.

Let us know what do you think about the points mentioned above?

Apply compounding to your life – Secret of creating a great financial life

Posted on by Nandish Desai

To create wealth, you have to first get in touch with the power of compounding. I am not just talking about the mathematical concept here but making the “compounding” your way of life. You will understand what I am talking about as you move forward.

Today’s write-up is close to my heart.

It is not just an article, it is about someone experiencing a breakthrough in his overall life. I thought of sharing some of the conversations we exchanged with one of our clients because there is something important to learn from it and it has the power to strengthen your journey as an investor.

Power of Compounding in your life

What happens if you just improve by 1%?

Nothing!

Yes, nothing will happen to you if you improve your skills, attitude, salary, net worth, relationship by 1%, but when you improve it constantly by a small margin for a very long time? What happens if you do that for 365 days?

Then?

Here is what happens!

You bring a drastic change in any area because you are allowing the compounding to work there. See the image below …

Effect-of-compounding

Let me share an incident with a client where he emailed me about himself and how he wanted to improve. Below is the conversation. Please go through the full conversation until the end.

Here is the first email, which hit my mailbox

Dear Nandish,

I am one of your financial planning clients and I would like you to coach me in the area of money. I am a competent person, have a solid work experience and also earn decent money each month but still my financial life is a mess”. Can you please help me find the solution to my problem?

I tried hard to get the answer but failed to crack this issue.

Thanks

XXXXXXX

And here was my Reply

Dear Client,

Thanks for writing to me and for showing trust in me. I may not have a readymade solution for your problem but I can surely help you to see your situation under a different light.

Before I suggest you anything I have a simple question to ask:

Question: Tell me how many areas in your life you have you been consistent with from last 5-10 years time?

In Service,

Nandish

To this, the client replies back …

Dear Nandish,

I really can’t figure out any such area from my life where I have been consistent from last 5 – 7 years.

Let me know what I need to do now.

XXXXX

My Reply

Dear Client,

I invite you to look into your life and check for yourself, maybe what is missing in your life is the power of compounding, compounding as a way of life and not just mere as a concept. The majority of people know compounding only as a concept. There are very few who experience the real power of it.

The Situation you are into may sound like a mystery to you but in reality it is not.

Now, getting this insight is not enough and so I have an assignment for you for the Next 1 year.

Assignment:

If you really want to experience the power of compounding you will have to take-up 3 more areas along with the area of money. Compounding is all about expanding your capacity as a person and so it is important to pick some more areas. Pick any four areas in your life which are new to you and engaging with them will help you to practice the power of compounding for the Next 1 year.

I would like to hear back from your experience exactly after a year from now and not before that.

If you are game for this assignment let me know.

I want you to just not have amazing ideas but also focus on the action part and execute what you are thinking because only that action will bring the compounding into action, Check the image below and you will get what I am trying to say.

why-compunding-helps

Reply from client

Dear Nandish,

Thank you, coach. I am a game for this assignment.

My 4 areas

  1. Health: Will join gym and work with my trainer
  2. Music: I always wanted to learn Guitar but never started
  3. Quit Smoking: I would like to get rid of my smoking habit
  4. Money Management: Complete actions as per the plan and start my sip of 25k pm for next 1 year

Thanks, Nandish. Thanks for coaching me and for giving a sense of direction to my life. I will let you know my experience exactly after a year.

Thanks once again. Thanks a lot.

Excited Client

XXXXX

I then received his reply, exactly after a year.

Dear Nandish,

I am one of your most excited and enlightened Financial planning clients, remember you gave me an assignment 1 year back to practice the power of compounding.

Here is the assignment you gave me

Assignment:

If you really want to experience the power of compounding you will have to take-up 3 more areas along with the area of money. Compounding is all about expanding your capacity. Pick any four areas in your life which are new to you and engaging with them will help you to practice power of compounding for the Next 1 year

My Life has completely changed the day I started doing the assignment. I created a journal for all four areas and started to capture my experiences. Before I share about my assignment I just want to say I am extremely happy as an investor and in each and every area of my life.

Here are some of the highlights from each area:

  • Health: I joined the gym the very next day and the first thing I did was hired a personal trainer. I shared with him about my assignment and he chalked out a well designed 1-year exercise plan for me. We decided to exercise 5 Days a week along with a specific diet plan. The first month was tough to follow but I slowly daily exercise started to become an integral part of my life. My strength , stamina, and overall fitness have gone to a whole level in last 1 year. I would like to thank you and my personal trainer for getting me started.
  • Music: I joined the music school; again the first month was difficult. In the start, I could not even hold the guitar. I was not comfortable with the guitar and even the guitar was not comfortable with me. My Music sir always emphasizes on one word “PRACTICE”. My sir kept reminding me that practice leads to compounding and eventually it leads to mastery. I slowly started playing songs and now music really relaxes me from all the noise out in the world. I am so happy I got connected to music, it has taught me many things in last 1 year.
  • Quit Smoking: This was the hardest of the all. Initially, it looked impossible for me to quit smoking but I really wanted to get rid of my smoking habit and I started putting efforts. I decided not to hold the cigarette between my two fingers, no matter what. I also shared about my project with my friends and family members and they really supported me a lot in this area. My commitment to fitness and music also helped me a lot to get rid of my habit. I can now call myself a non-smoker. I am free, completely free from my habit of smoking and it feels great.
  • Personal finance: Happy to share all the personal finance actions that you suggested in the plan are complete. I took help of your team and completed all the required actions. I also started my sip as per the commitment I made. Today, my financial life is in sync with my dreams, goals, and aspirations. Thanks to you and your team for all the support and guidance. I realized that personal finance is all about actions; it is not about worrying about future or regretting about the past. I can say in this area things have shifted and things are moving in the right direction. I am happy in the area of money.

Thank you for assigning a wonderful project to me, I keep sharing with my team and other about the power of compounding and I keep getting people coming and sharing their results with me. Thank you for bringing the magic back into my life.

Conclusion

Can you see the real power that resides in the word “compounding”? It is not about how your money grows but how you grow as a person. Pick any 4 areas in your life and start engaging with them. The more you engage, the more you will grow in those areas. Don’t take only one area because one single area takes a back seat very easily.

Now tell me which area you want to improve and start working on improving it by 1% each day or even a week. Watch out this video below to get a more detailed idea on this

Many of you may be new to investing or equities do not get scared try out this assignment and see what happens after 1 year. Make the power of compounding your way of life and don’t just know it as a concept. Do share your views in the comment section; most importantly I would like to hear about your 1-year project which will help you to practice the power of compounding.

This article is written by Nandish Desai…

Register for Mega Jagoinvestor Workshop in Mumbai – 7th Aug (Sunday)

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Hello Mumbai Investors,

You have experienced your first rain and the weather is beautiful out there. It’s time to go on a date with YOUR financial life and to do so; we have an opportunity wrapped in this article for you.

Mark and block 7th of August (Sunday) on your calendar, our entire team will remain present in Mumbai to lead/organize an extraordinary one day workshop on personal finance. This time we are playing for a bigger event and for that we will need your support and full participation. (Watch Pune workshop Video & Testimonials from Participants)

If you are from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, or other nearby areas (even Pune), then book your seat and then share quickly about this event with your loved ones.

Our PROMISE – It is going to be a GAME CHANGER

The workshop will be a game changer for YOU because it will add a lot of value to your financial life. So far we have seen and observed that our workshop helps investors to add new and different dimensions to their financial world.

In the whole process you learn to slow down so that you can examine what’s going on in your INNER financial world. With our help and support, YOU will also define and adopt a new set of actions and strategies to create an amazing financial life.

Why we conduct workshops?

We do offline workshops so that we can connect with some of our readers at a deeper level, round the year we write articles, reply to thousands of comments and work with a few hundred investors one-on-one and in that process we learn, grow and expand as professionals.

Our Workshop gives us an opportunity to share outrageously all the knowledge and experiences that we acquire round the year. The program is an opportunity to get our readers more and more action-oriented.

Why you should come for this workshop?

  • You will learn how to improve your financial life with your current set of resources and income.
  • You will learn how to plan for your financial life goals
  • You will interact and learn from other’s people’s financial life
  • You will dedicate one full day to get better with money management
  • You will learn to add new dimensions to your financial life
  • To understand that personal finance can also be fun
  • To give a whole new direction to your financial life

It’s time at add jagoinvestor workshop to your financial journey:

It has been a few years now conducting “Design your financial life” workshop and the experience has been amazing. It is a wonderful space to be in, in which the group learns and starts to fall in love with the process of wealth creation.

We do not teach tricks and tips to build wealth in fact we help you to discover your own personal process of creating wealth.

This time we want more couples to participate so that they can get on same page when it comes to personal finance. It is extremely important that husband and wife both take equal interest when it comes to money management.

We are offering special discounts to those who want to come with their partner. (You can even come with your parents, siblings or friends and can claim the discount)

The workshop we conduct is highly interactive, it has lots of activities and fun exercises that help you to discover your relationship with money. The sessions are interactive and very easy to grasp for any kind of, beginner or advanced investor. In short, there is something for everyone in this workshop.

What will you get as a participant?

  • You get a FREE Financial Health check-up Report worth Rs 499 on sign-up
  • One day workshop with some personal finance tools like a budget sheet, Mutual fund tracker, etc
  • Invitation to join our inner circle

Register for Mumbai workshop on 7th Aug, 2016 (SUNDAY)

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  • Valid for 1 person
  • Ideal for Bachelors

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  • Valid for 2 People
  • Ideal for Couples, Siblings, Friends

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Other Details

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Program Name – Design Your Financial Life (Check Program Flow)

Program Presenters – Manish Chauhan & Nandish Desai

Timings & Date – 8:30 am – 6:00 pm, 7th Aug, 2016

Venue – Motilal Oswal Tower, Gokhale Road North, Prabhadevi, Mumbai – 400025 (Maps)

Contact Person – Abhi Kumar (09979922535)

Important Information

  • The venue is 2 km from Dadar/Lower Parel Station
  • Lunch and Tea/Coffee is included in the program fees
  • Please don’t bring kids to the program
  • We reserve the right to admission in this program
  • This program is not for financial advisors/agents/CFP

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Invitation to join and participate

From the bottom of our heart, we invite you to join and participate in our Mumbai workshop. Come alone or with your spouse or parents, siblings or friends but see that you do not miss this opportunity. Do not let time and money to get in your way and book your seat at the earliest because we will be taking 70 participants this time and registration will close after some days.

This workshop is strictly for investors and not for advisors or finance professionals. This workshop is strictly for investors and not for advisors or finance professionals. In case we find some financial advisor/planner or anyone from personal finance background registering for the program, we will refund the fees. We hold the right to admission to this program

If you have never participated in any personal finance workshop let this be your first workshop. If you have any questions you can write in the comments section.

You can also visit our Workshop Page to Register and Get more details.

We would like to extend special thanks for Motilal Oswal Mutual Funds for allowing us to use their venue for this workshop and helping with the logistics.

Jagoinvestor Workshop in Pune on 22nd May 2016 (Sunday)

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Our full day workshop is BACK in PUNE on 22nd May 2016 (Sunday).

We invite you to block 22nd May (just one Sunday) so that you can participate in our one day workshop. We are inviting you because our workshop will add a lot of value to your existing financial life. So far we have seen and observed that our workshop helps investors to add new and different dimensions to their financial world. In the whole process they learn to slow down so that they can examine what’s going on in their financial world. With our help and support they also define and adopt new set of actions and strategies to create an amazing financial life.

Our last workshop was done in the city of Hyderabad and it went very well. So now we are back in Pune this time.

jagoinvestor workshop

Why we conduct these workshops?

We do offline workshops so that we can connect with some of our readers at a deeper level, round the year we write articles, reply to thousands of comments and work with a few hundred investors one on one and in that process we learn, grow and expand as professionals. Our Workshop gives us an opportunity to share outrageously all the knowledge and experiences that we acquire round the year. The program is an opportunity to get our readers more and more action oriented.

Why you should come for this workshop?

  • You will learn how to improve your financial life with your current set of resources and income.
  • You will learn how to plan for your financial life goals
  • You will interact and learn from other’s people’s financial life
  • You will dedicate one full day to get better with money management
  • You will learn to add new dimensions to your financial life
  • To understand that personal finance can also be fun
  • To give a whole new direction to your financial life

It’s time at add jagoinvestor workshop to your financial journey

It has been a few years now conducting “Design your financial life” workshop and the experience has been amazing. It is a wonderful space to be in, in which the group learns and starts to fall in love with the process of wealth creation. We do not teach tricks and tips to build wealth in fact we help you to discover your own personal process of creating wealth.

This time we want more and more couples to participate so that they can get on same page when it comes to personal finance. It is extremely important that husband and wife both take equal interest when it comes to money management. We are offering special discount to those who want to come with their partner. (You can even come with your parents, siblings or friends and can claim the discount)

The workshop we conduct are highly interactive, it has lots of activities and fun exercises which helps you to discover your relationship with money. The sessions are interactive and very easy to grasp for any kind of investor, beginner or advanced. In short there is something for everyone in this workshop.

Listen to workshop Participants who attended in Past

 

 

 

Register for Pune workshop on 22nd May, 2016 (SUNDAY)

Single Ticket Rs 3,500 + Service tax @15% Buy Single Ticket
Couple Ticket Rs 6,500 + Service tax @15% Buy Couple Ticket
Venue and Timing Details

8:30 am - 6:00 pm , 22nd May (Sunday) , 2016
Ramee Grand Hotel, Apte Road
Shivaji Nagar, Pune
  • The hotel is very near to Santosh Bakery, on the main Apte Road
  • Lunch and Breakfast is included in the program fees

What you get as a participant?

  • You get a FREE Financial Health check-up Report worth Rs 499
  • One day workshop with some personal finance tools like budget sheet, Mutual fund tracker etc
  • Invitation to join our inner circle

Invitation to join and participate

From the bottom of our heart, we invite you to join and participate in pune workshop. Come alone or with your spouse or parents, siblings or friends but see that you do not miss this opportunity. Do not let time and money to get in your way and book your seat at the earliest because we will be taking only 35 participants this time and registration will close after some days.

This workshop is strictly for investors and not for advisors or finance professionals. This workshop is strictly for investors and not for advisors or finance professionals. Incase we find some financial advisor/planner or anyone from personal finance background registering for the program, we will refund the fees. We hold the right to admission to this program

If you have never participated in any personal finance workshop let this be your first workshop. If you have any questions you can write in the comments section.

You can also visit our Workshop Page to Register and Get more details

Why most investors struggle to save money every month & how to fix it?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Recently, I came across one interesting short story on quora, which I found interesting and worth sharing with all the readers. This story will help you understand why you are not able to save enough money by the end of the month. You will get to know why your hard-earned money is spent into useless things and you don’t have enough control over it.

Lady: Do you smoke?
Guy: Yes I do.
Lady: How many packs a day?
Guy: 3 packs.
Lady: How much per pack?
Guy: $10.00 per pack.
Lady: And how long have you been smoking?
Guy: 15 years
Lady: So 1 pack is $10.00 and you have been smoking 3 packs a day which puts your spending per month at $900. In 1 year, it would have been $10,800. Correct?
Guy: Correct.
Lady: If 1 year you spend $10,800, not accounting for inflation, the past 15 years puts your spending total at $162,000. Correct?
Guy: Correct.
Lady: Do you know if you hadn’t smoke, that money could have been put in a step-up interest savings account and after accounting for compound interest for the past 15 years, you could have by now bought a Ferrari?
Guy: Oh. Do you smoke?
Lady: No.
Guy: Then where’s your fucking Ferrari?

The story above sounds funny. The lady did not smoke, so that money must have got accumulated and she should have owned a Ferrari as per the logic. But that did not happen in reality.

Why?

The answer is – “Ferrari was never on her mind”

Her money was not put on the purpose of buying the Ferrari someday. She did not spend the money on a cigarette but then that same money kept getting consumed on some other things which came in small chunks.

Life kept throwing small and tempting desires and she fell for it without realizing it. And finally at the end, did neither have the money, nor the Ferrari.

You are the biggest enemy of your financial life

If you leave your money in the saving bank account without giving it a strong purpose. Then the lifestyle today is such that no amount of money is enough to meet your short term desires.

Life will throw all kinds of requirements and if your money is available right in front of you, you will keep trying to handle those requirements without much analysis.

Justifying the expenses becomes very easy when you have the money sitting in front of you, waiting to spend. Investors are generally over-confident about their saving abilities and there are tons of research to prove that.

Take out the manual mode of investing from your life

Here is the rule – “Lesser the money available in front of your eyes, higher the chances that you will restrict your useless spending.”.

You need to take out the manual mode of saving money out of your life and take the help of automation. There has to be some way, where some part of your salary leaves your bank account and gets invested on its own. Because the more you leave the decision making to yourself, it’s not going to happen on a consistent basis. Humans are designed to take the path of least resistance. Machines don’t make mistakes.

Let some automated way to save your money, and it will happen consistently, without fail. No one will

The best example of this is your EPF

Your employer deducts a part of your salary and that gets accumulated over months and years. That small deduction becomes a very big amount, if you leave it just like that and don’t disturb it. EPF does not earn very high interest, but still, it accumulates a decent amount.

Now just imagine this, Your employer tells you that they will not deduct that amount and you have to save money each month. It’s fully in your control now.

You should feel great that you have EPF and some form of automatic saving. If you were given the freedom to choose the EPF, it would be a bad thing. Because most investors won’t have chosen it. Here is a similar study from the US, where employees were asked to enroll for the 401K program (similar to EPF in India). However, the catch was that they had a choice to not opt.

When the enrollment was made a compulsory thing as a default choice, with an option to opt-out if one wants, the enrollments more than doubled. Why did it happen? Because enrollment happened automatic!

power of default saving

So coming back to EPF example, Will you save money equal to your EPF each month if it were not taken out of your salary automatically?

Are you really confident that you have the determination and commitment and control over yourself to save that money month after month, year after year without fail?

Are you understanding what I am trying to tell you here? The point is, YOU are your own enemy when it comes to saving. Take your manual judgment and your decision making out of saving each month. Let it happen on its own, automatic.

My personal Experience

Around 6 months back, my wife wanted to start a recurring deposit.

She started a recurring deposit of Rs 15,000 per month for 1 yr period. After 8 months, when she checked the bank accounts, she could see the 1.2 lacs in the deposit account. Suddenly she felt – “How this money did came there?”.

The point is – it was automatic saving. It all happened in the background and didn’t give her any scope of judging the decision again and again. She always saw her salary minus 15k in her bank account.

All her expenses, shoppings, indulges, bills had to happen out of the money which she saw in her account and it happened. The expenses fit themselves in the amount available. It’s the nature of money, and I will share more about it in some time.

Don’t trust yourself for saving money

Don’t trust yourself, when it comes to systematic saving. Your intelligence can be your big enemy. If you decided that each month you will carefully set aside some part of your money yourself, after all the expenses are done, then it’s going to be a tough time for you.

Do this simple exercise

Take a sheet of paper (or open an excel sheet). One the left side write down your income each month and one the right side, write down all the expenses per month.

Now subtract your expenses out of your income, and you get your monthly surplus. So each month after all your expenses are made, you should be saving that surplus amount. Correct?

Is that happening? Did I hear NO

do you really save enough

Why does it happen? Why are you not able to save the money equivalent to your surplus each month?

MONEY is like flowing WATER

Have you ever wondered why you are not able to save enough money, even though your salary has kept increasing in the last many years? Your expenses keep on matching with your expenses.

Even if you are saving some money, are you reaching your full potential? I guess NO

Why?

It’s because money is like flowing water. If you do not give it some direction, then it will find out its own direction.

When you do not automate saving money, then all the money will get consumed into “something”. Life will keep throwing various kind of expenses, desires and requirements, and if money is easily available in your bank account, then trust me, you will always come up with strong reasons why you can’t avoid those expenses.

money is like water

Some of our clients get shocked when they fill up the datasheet we send them. The most common complain is – “I am not saving anywhere close to what my income – expenses is showing up”, where is it all going?

The answer is – “Its getting consumed into things which looks important and urgent in short term, but in reality, they are not”

My friend real life case

Few months back, I was talking to one of my close friends. He told me how he is not able to save anything by the end of the month. He was very confident that it’s very tough for him to save anything. After all, if he had any surplus, why it’s not there at the end of the month?

I asked him a simple question – “If his income increases by Rs 1,000 per month. Will it remain in the bank account after all his expenses?”

This one single question was a game changer.

He told me that he is very sure that even if his income increases by Rs 1,000 per month. His life would be same, it will surely get consumed somewhere.

I told him – “In that case, if your income drops by Rs 1,000, your situation will be same”

So why not set aside that Rs 1,000 in the starting of the month itself, and see fewer months in the bank account. Trust me, your financial life will figure out something, it will adjust. It will surely try to fit it.

And that’s exactly what happened. I helped him in starting his first SIP of Rs 5,000 per month.

Just a few days back, the first auto debit happened. I can almost guarantee that by the end of the year, these Rs 60,000 which was getting consumed somewhere, will “automatically” get saved in mutual funds.

So what is the worst case?

Ok fine, your financial life is really in bad shape & you can’t save even a penny. Let’s say, you show some courage and start a recurring deposit of Rs 1,000 per month, even though you know you will need that 1k later.

What is the worst case?

You would need that money back in some time again? Right?

Solution – It that happens, then break the Recurring deposit and use the money …

Or you could start a SIP of Rs 1,000 and incase you needed it, you can always redeem it and take back your money.

But you know what, you will not take it back. You will not redeem it. Because like most of the investors, you are lazy when it comes to money. It’s easier to adjust rather than take that pain to go to the bank and sign that paper for redemption.

We humans take the path of least resistance. You don’t know how amazing human laziness can be for your financial life. Ask those who bought IT stocks and never cared to think about what to do with it. Its only their laziness, which has made them millionaires, because they still hold the stocks

Most of the people are living with this myth that they will not be able to save even a penny by the end of the month. It’s not true. For 95% of investors, it’s a self-created illusion.

They have just not tried enough in the right manner. Let me share with you this in detail

Income – Expenses = Saving

For most of the investors, the default equation each month is “Income – Expenses = Saving” . This equation looks very natural and logical. First, you take care of expenses because they need to be handled NOW, and then if something if left, you will save it. This is how any normal person will think like. But that’s the root of the problem.

If you are not able to save enough money each month, I am ready to bet that this is the equation that is destroying your financial life. Let me guess how it looks like.

Each month, you must be earning some money, then you take care of various expenses, some fixed and some random surprises and if you get lucky, you must be having some surplus money in a bank account each month.

But wait, The money is still in your bank account. It’s still “easily available”. You decide that you will do something about it very soon. You decide that once it becomes a big amount, you will create an FD out of it.

Next month, again you have some surplus and more money got accumulated in your saving bank account. Suddenly in the third month, your spouse tells you that she wants to upgrade the washing machine. After all, anyways its Diwali time and she deserves it.

And why not? After all, you have the money available in your bank account. What’s the problem then?

Your timing is also perfect, the thought of upgrading the washing machine has come up just when Flipkart sale is round the corner. I am sure it’s a coincidence.

How expenses take shape

No , it’s no coincidence.

The point is – the money found its own direction and that’s because you didn’t gave it any direction beforehand.

For a moment, think what would have happened if the additional surplus was not available easily. It was there in a recurring account or was into SIP in some mutual fund or ELSS (locked for 3 yrs). It’s hard to imagine that you would have said – “Let’s stop our RD or SIP in mutual funds and upgrade the Washing Machine”.

Can you see how everything changed in both the situation?

Or imagine you would have created an FD out of that money before hand for paying the school fees for your kid at the of the year. Would you break your kid’s related FD to upgrade the washing machine? Generally not.

I am not against the expenses

Trust me, In no way, I am judging the urgency of your needs or desires. They might be genuine and very much reasonable. Please go and upgrade your washing machine, if it’s really needed. I am not even against taking a loan for that, but just assure that your requirement is genuine and not a made up one.

Just 1 yr back, I bought a sports cycle out of impulse and you should have met me just before I purchased it. I would have convinced you that I need the cycle more than I need oxygen. Plus, I had the money with me at that time. Today I am not using it enough to justify my buying decision.

I can tell you – this false belief of “I need it so much” and the availability of money in your bank account is such a deadly combination.

So what do you do ?

Change the equation to “Income – Saving = Expenses”

Few changes in life give a new direction to life. Everything changes.

Trust me, this is one such change if you really understand it well. If you decide to change your saving equation to “Income – Saving = Expenses”, it can drastically impact your financial life in positive way.

Here is now you implement it.

  1. Find out what is the minimum amount you think can save each month. Is it 10%, 20% or 30%. Take a lower amount at the start, else it won’t be sustainable in the long run.
  2. If your salary arrives in your saving bank account on date X, then, setup a recurring deposit or a SIP in mutual funds on date X+2 or X+3
  3. Trust automation, it will do wonders for you
  4. And in the worst case, if you really need the money, you can redeem it back and use it or stop the RD or SIP.

If you can take this first step, then you have already won the big part of the battle. Other things like great returns, advice, controlling risk, finding the best financial product and all that will be taken care of later. But the first step it this – changing the equation

If you can spare 20 min, you should watch this amazing video by Shlomo Benartzi, on the topic of Saving for tomorrow, tomorrow. You will understand the impact of automatic saving in a better way in this video

And you don’t have to compromise

Don’t confuse automatic saving with compromising on your expenses and fun. We are not asking to stop eating out or cut on your entertainment in life. A lot of investors live in this myth that financial planning is all about compromising your desires and spendings. No, it’s not.

It’s all about giving a meaningful structure to your financial life and exploring various possibilities to make your financial life awesome. That all.

I would love to hear what you think about this idea of changing the equation. Do you think that this single thing is really a very important parameter to live a good financial life? Please share your own saving habit in the comments section

Financial Life of a cab driver & life of Mumbai

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

I recently visited Mumbai for some work and it was 7:15 pm in the evening. When I came out of a building in Andheri East, Mumbai.

I had booked a cab from Pune to Mumbai and I was now ready to be back. I called up the cab driver and here is the conversation…

ME – “Bhaiya, kidhar hain aap?”

Driver – “Bas sir, Yahi hun 200-meter piche, 20 min me aa jaunga, aap gate ke pass hi rahiye”

ME – “Main aa jata hun paidal chal kar, Aap bataiye kidhar hai exactly”

Driver – “Arre nahi sir, aap wahin rukiye jidhar hai, itni bhid me Mujhe nahi khoj payenge”

Finally, after a long 20-30 min, I saw a car near me, honking like hell and flashing lights on me. It was my cab driver and he was indicating – “Get inside the car asap” …

Finally, I was inside the cab and we were going back to Pune. It took us another 20 min to just get out of the lane. It was really frustrating to just see yourself in the middle of traffic and move nowhere.

The first half of the total time took us to come out of Mumbai and the second half took us to reach Pune. Finally, I reached Pune at 11:30 in night.

Story of the Cab Driver and his Financial life

In this article, I just want to share with you a conversation between myself and a cab driver I met recently. I asked him some questions about his life, a bit about his financial life and his work schedule. I know, it’s not directly related to personal finance, but I think, it’s a good idea to share it with you all as it has some good things to know about.

Tax driver

(The photo above is not the real cab driver in question)

The moment we were out of the lane we were stuck in at Andheri, the driver looked really irritated by the sheer amount of traffic. I asked him – “Bhaiya, Mumbai ki life Kaisi Lagti hai aapko?”

And his answer stunned me – “70 saal jeene waala insaan 50 ke khatam ho jayega, yahi hai Mumbai ki life”

While I knew he was a bit tired and his frustration was making him speak these words, there was surely some element of truth in his words. The way of life, the speed, the running around for everything. It’s really mind-boggling in Mumbai.

Anyways, One my way back to Pune, I had conversations with Driver and here are few things I came to know.

1. He drives 400 km EVERYDAY

Did I ask him if travels to Mumbai often? He said every day. YES – Everyday .. 30 days in a month… May be once in a while there is no pick or drop but in general every day. He said that he does close to 10,000-12,000 KM every month. His legs and Back pains a lot and sometimes it’s so bad, he can’t explain it. We reached Pune around 11:30 pm at night and he had to get back at 4 am again to take someone to Mumbai airport.

2. No family life

I think we felt by good talking to me, and he kept on going.

“Family life nahi hai Kuch Bhi Sir .. Ghar Jata hun, khana khata hun aur sidhe so jata hun”. He told how his life is tough and there is no energy left once he is back home. He has no motivation to talk to his kids, spouse or enjoy with them.

Even when he has to drop or pick someone, he has nothing to do and he just sits inside the car and it’s really tough to do that, day after day, month after month and year after year … It’s the height of boredom”

He was a calm person, but he said that when he is stuck in jams atleast he feels he want to throw away the car like HULK. It was a calm frustration coming out of him.

3. He had Life + Health insurance

I realized that his job is very risky. He has to drive each day and he is prone to accidents. His legs are so important for his job and to earn the money. I thought I will explain to him why he should think of covering these risks and I asked him – “Do have Insurance?”

  • “Yes Sir, I have life insurance and health insurance both from ICICI Lombard”

I was happy and a bit shocked to hear that because I didn’t expect him to have that. He told me that one of his agent friends had explained to him about these products and how it might help him. I congratulated him on that point and said that it’s a great thing that at least he has something. Thank god he did wait to find the “best product”

4. He saved Rs 4,000 per month in Recurring deposit

Though his earnings were limited and he was on a tight budget, he told that he managed to save Rs 4,000 per month. He gave it to his wife every month which is invested in Recurring deposit. I thought it was a great thing and didn’t say anything like “why don’t you invest in equity?”. I think it would have confused him a lot and it was not the right time for all that Gyan. He was doing well.

What do you learn from this?

Let me know what you feel after reading the story of this cab driver? I think that the cab driver did a few things correctly which even many with a lot of privilege fail to do. Like if you see this cab driver, he has a habit of saving some part of his income even though he does not earn as we all do. He had life insurance and health insurance which is really commendable. I know he does not represent an average cab driver from that angle, but still.

Please share your thoughts

5 reasons why Financial Life begins at 30 – A wake-up call for all YOUNG investors

Posted on by Nandish Desai

This article is to be seen as Financial life –  wake-up call. (Read it and share it with those whom you think needs a wake-up call)

When you are in your 20’s the areas that rules your mind are getting a good placement, partying, buying gadgets, finding right life partner or it can be setting-up your own business. There is very little space for money management (This is true for majority of people, there are always some exceptions).

I can say this because in my early 20’s, personal finance was an alien to me. In a way I was not ready to play role of an investor. I was totally casual and irresponsible with the money I had.

Financial life - wake-up call

Now, when you step into your 30’s the entire scene changes. Some kind of short circuit happens in your head and you suddenly become serious about your hard earned MONEY. You start to gather personal finance knowledge from different sources, look for information, advice on internet and you start to read about personal finance (even if you struggle to understand it)

The Student in YOU is STILL alive

When you were a student I am sure you never started studying on the very first day of your college. Like majority of students you would have waited for the exam dates to get announced and when the exams get extremely close you would have purchased or opened your books (got notes photo copied) and started to prepare for your exams.

The last 7-10 days were the most crucial days for you. In such situation passing or scoring good marks turns into a mission.

Now, this is exactly what most people are still doing in their financial life; they are waiting for the last moment to arrive. They are waiting for the right amount of pressure to get build.

In your 20’s the pressure is least, in your 30’s it starts to build and in your 40’s or 50’s it turns into a do or die situation. Most of you don’t start your investments with the first salary you receive and so I made the statement that the student in you is still alive (If you are an exception I congratulate you)

Top 5 Moments of Transformation that makes you serious about your hard earned money

1. When you experience Ants in Your Pants

In your 30’s when you get face to0 face with your net worth the question that hits your mind is, where did it all go?

You realize that you have been slogging 13 hours a day from last 7-10 years and your net worth is not satisfactory at all. This moment is extremely confronting and it makes you feel uncomfortable but at the same time this is the moment of transformation.

In such moment you become serious about your financial resources and your financial life. Some people start to write budget, some hire a financial planner and some write their situation to bloggers like Nandish and Manish. (Every day we get one such mail from some or the other investor and we start our rescue operation)

Hello Manish,

To start with I am one among very few people who practically is broke I must say.  I took things for granted as most of us do and realized what deep shit I have got into. I am 31 years and believe me I don’t have savings worth my age as well.

Your blog woke me up from that undisturbed sleep that made me feel everything is okay.  Swear to God it is not. Considering the things I have been to in the past. Lived the American way like there is no Tomorrow. Paid the biggest price ever Sir.

Not anymore, after reading you first book on personal finance I made a promise to myself that enough is enough. Not anymore and made couple of promises to myself that I am sure will keep.

Also would like to use your paid services sir, I never found a number that I can call on on the blog sir. Please provide with a number or advice how to start with considering I am in deep mess, I guess I need to recover all those years I’ve spent without savings.

Lost those early years sir and planning to recover them somehow.

Regards,

Stuck investor

Get this clear, it is not about this investor/person because many of you are sailing in the same boat in the area of personal finance

2. When Goals starts to Appear Scary

Most of the investors become serious about their finances when they do some calculations around their goals. Goals like buying house, children education, children marriage and retirement are considered to be the scariest amongst all other financial goals.

getting serious about money

If you want you can test it, do some calculations and then look at your current savings and bank balance. The thought that will strike your mind will be “It’s high time I start doing something about my finances”. This particular moment is again moment of transformation.

In this very moment you start to become serious about wealth creation and you start taking actions in your financial life. By the way in reality no financial goal is scary, if you mismanage money the goals starts to appear scary. (You are one who makes them scary)

3. When you Experience Personal Earth Quake

Imagine a strange situation in which you experience personal earth quake right under your chair (Others are fine only your chair is shaking). We can say this from our experience of working and interacting with investors that such situations make’s a person serious about their financial future.

In your world you think you have made all the right investment choices but on one fine day you land on a blog like jagoinvestor and you discover that you have made all wrong choices and you are a victim of mis selling.

This personal earth quake moment shakes you, wakes you and in a way shatters your financial world. In this very moment you start doing required home work in your financial life, before putting blind signatures you will take out time to read the brochures of different financial products. From this very day you stop trusting all the uncles and relatives who supplied you free dose of advice.

4. Real life experiences causes transformation

Reality is the best teacher you will ever encounter in your life. We have come across numerous cases which brought drastic change into people’s overall attitude towards money management. One of our clients lost his elder brother at a very young age and this event made him very serious about life protection and how important it is to keep things organized.

A lot of people after one of their family member gets hospitalized they become serious about health cover. My invitation is do not wait to take actions in your financial life. You don’t have to wait for some accident to take place before you start wearing helmet.

Look around you and learn from some real life experiences as they are of the biggest source of transformation you will ever find.

5. Breakdown in Career

It is said that “Man proposes and god disposes”. In my book “11 principles to achieve financial freedom” we have a chapter called “Your plan vs. God’s plan for you”. It is a fun and insightful chapter that helps you to think beyond making plans in your mind.

We have coached many investors who had some kind of career breakdown and we could see how it made them extremely serious about their finances. Somewhere you start to value money most in your bad times.

Most of people in their 30’s take major career decisions, they are clear that their idea is going to get them all the success that they are looking for. I am not saying doing business is risky or one should not experiment. All I am saying is such situation leads to personal transformation into an investor’s financial journey.

Some final wake-up words to engage with

Do not wait for a kick on your ass or for some unpleasant situation to occur before you get serious about money management. We wrote this article because majority of our clients for financial planning and financial coaching are in their 30’s. Something happens when you step into your 30’s and you need to acknowledge the moment or event that got you serious as an investor.

Whatever is your age right now just start taking actions in your financial life. Also, in the comments section share the moment that made you serious as an investor and what would you say to those who are yet not serious when it comes to money management?

This article is contributed by Nandish Desai. Let us know your thoughts about this article.