Browse Month: June 2017

Delaying investments? It can cost you DEARLY

Delaying investments can cost you DEARLY

When it comes to decision making about finances and investments, most of us like to postpone it to some other day. This stands true not only for decision making about investments but also for evaluating existing finances.

 

delaying your investments

Yes, I agree. Even I have not thought of investments as of now. Somehow I feel it is not my cup of tea and anyways my money is safe in bank, I can always invest it at a later date when I feel the time is right.


Unknowingly, you are ignoring an important fact that there is a REAL cost which is associated with the delay in investments. Most of us tend to get away with this as there are no immediate visible effects of these delays. Nor we proactively calculate the potential damage it can cause. 


Your money laying in savings account gives you 3%-4% returns whereas it can give you 12%-14% if invested in proper channels. Imagine the difference a 9% returns can make on INR10,00,000 over a period of 20 years. As per compound interest calculator – it comes to INR5,604,410


You realize this only when you need funds for a certain life goal. Then you realize that had you invested your money at the right place, you would have got much better returns. Be it while buying a car, buying a house or for kid’s higher education or a wedding in family. If you keep delaying, you need more amount as investment at a later stage to achieve desired funds. The early you realize this, better it is for you. You must know how to use the magic of compounding to your advantage.

 

What could be the possible ways to avoid this delay and properly set the investment cycle?


There could be many things responsible for the delay at your end. You first need to identify the problem which is withholding you. It could be

  • A large sum of money laying around in savings account
  • Multiple savings accounts you have opened over the years – each with certain minimum balance and other service charges
  • Some investments got matured, amount in savings account but no re-investment done
  • Your own belief that “this is not the right time to enter the markets”
  • Not taking any decision to exit from certain bad investment
  • Not nominating anyone for your accounts/ investments


Your reason for postponing investments can be many

  • You are too busy and you do not have time to build and manage your portfolio
  • You think that you do not have enough money to start investing
  • You are afraid of making some wrong investment decision and you fear losing money
  • If someone suggests some investment product and handover the brochure, you find it too technical to read and it seems decoding the product attributes is too complicated job for you
  • You are comfortable with what you know that is you have done some fixed deposits as they are simple and easy for you to understand. For this reason, you do not think beyond fixed deposits.


Rightly said, looks like I am also holding some of my investment decisions because of the points raised above. Now tell me how to break ice ad keep going strong on investment front?

 

You have to overcome your fear. To learn swimming, you need to enter the waters. You then need to test the depth of the water and then swim where you are comfortable. So

  • You think that you do not have enough money to start investing – Investments can be started with an amount as low as INR500 per month. If you keep thinking that you do not have enough money, you will never be able to start investments. Remember – “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

 

  • You are afraid of making some wrong investment decision and you fear losing moneyStart small. Start with products which gives you fixed returns and keep reading about investments. The only way to overcome your fear is knowledge about investment basics
  • If someone suggests an investment product and handover the brochure, you find it too technical to read and it seems decoding the product attributes is too difficult job for youDo not enter into complex investments. Start with basic and simple products which your bank offers over the counter like fixed deposits, recurring deposits etc.
  • You are comfortable with what you know To diversify and to make an optimized portfolio, you need to add different forms of investments at some point of time. Even if you are comfortable with fixed deposits only, you will still have to gradually add mutual funds, stocks, commodities etc in order to make your folio slightly more stable and to give you returns which are above the market inflation rate.

Do not delay your investments

 

You can take few small steps on how to start investments and be consistent with it

  • The key is planning – You must spend some time in evaluating your current status, identify the problems and plan the corrective actions based on your findings 
  • Study a little bit – Read finance blogs, magazines, read economic times and gain some basic knowledge about investing, mutual funds, equity markets, portfolio diversification etc.

 

  • BUDGET This is the most important step as it will tell you how much investible surplus you have for investments month on month. A simple budget can be made using this link

 

  • Automate investments – Do not wait till the month end to invest the leftover amount after expenses from your salary. Learn to pay yourself first. Your monthly investments should be done within the first week of the month. With the budget thing, you will know how much investible surplus you have for a month. Plan investments based on it and automate your investments. 
  • Review your investments every quarter – If possible, take stock of your investments every month. This will not only motivate you but also will keep you on top of your investments. You will have figures handy about your exact net worth, liabilities etc based on the monthly data you compile. 
  • IF NOTHING WORKS, hire a financial planner – Take professional help. But do involve yourself in planning and execution so that you can learn and you are aware of what is happening with your money. Afterall it’s your money. But make sure that you hire a good professional, not the local insurance agent who is always eager to sell you insurance policies.

 

We at wealth samurai always believe Your money is your money – it is you who has to take care of your money. None else is more interested in growing your money through investments than you. Whoever shows interest will have his/her personal interest attached in helping you. So take charge of your money, your financial investments, your budgeting and work towards achieving financial freedom

 

Happy Investing !!!

Do you often succumb to Financial Peer Pressure?

Financial Peer Pressure

What is Financial Peer Pressure? Do you often succumb to financial peer pressure?
If yes, here is a guide about how to fight financial peer pressure effectively.

 

financial peer pressure

 

What is financial peer pressure ?

Financial peer pressure refers to people developing new habits because of people they hang out with. For example, you start working and you get a new set of colleagues. You may not be regular with your evening coffee but since new colleagues regularly visit cafeteria for evening coffee dose, you also start visiting the tony coffee joint daily for the same.

Financial Peer Pressure in the longer run can suffocate your financial planing and it has capability to put you down morally too.

Looks like same thing happened to me too when I joined my company last year. Can you give some more examples of financial peer pressure so that it’s more clear to me?

 

In our day to day life we encounter many instances of financial peer pressure.

  • We often plan our summer vacations at exotic places with stay at signature hotels just to show off our relatives and friends.
  • Weddings are the place where people love to show their wealth – be it designer clothes, designer jewelry or lavish spending at the wedding functions.
  • People rush to buy latest gadgets just to show off them to their colleagues.

 

The typical financial peer pressure is visible everywhere around us. Knowingly or unknowingly we also succumb to this financial peer pressure.

  • At home

 

    • Financial peer pressure comes to us in the form of holiday trips. We get tempted by the trips made by our neighbors and relatives and try to go to the same places they visited so that we do not feel inferior to them.
    • We often plan a movie at the multiplex followed by the dinner at signature restaurants on the weekends so that we do not feel inferior to our friends and colleagues. And we have good masala updates for our Facebook timeline.
    • We make it a point to visit malls over the weekend to do some window shopping to satisfy the shopper in us. Do read this to know how supermarkets are a big trap.
    • We always look to buy new gadgets so that we can match the standard of our neighbors. If our neighbor buys a 60 inch LED TV, we try to better it by buying 75 inch LED TV.
    • We always look to buy / upgrade our automobile to show others that we have big car and we are no less than others.

We always buy latest toys for our kids, we send our kids to popular summer camps, we send them to expensive schools just to ensure that people see we are doing good financially and for the heck of not feeling inferior to others.

  • At work

 

    • You make it a habit to join end of the day coffee at coffee joint with your team members
    • Weekly lunch outing to expensive restaurants
    • Event celebrations at expensive lounges / resorts like birthdays / anniversaries etc
    • You join regular office parties and snack parties  
    • You keep updating your mobile phones just because your office colleagues have the latest models.

 

financial peer pressure - workplace

Oh my God, the list is long and well diversified. Unknowingly I am also spending a lot of money just to show off others – which is not required. Can you help me out on how to tackle financial peer pressure in day to day life?

The solution to this menace is not that complicated. Below are few points I am mentioning which will help you out in tackling financial peer pressure.

 

 

  • Stop trying to keep up with others

 

      • You do not have to plan your vacations based on your neighbor’s vacation plans or your friends vacation plans. Plan your holidays based on your likes and more importantly based on your budget. Intelligently planned vacations can save tons of money from going into the drain
      • For kids – stop buying expensive toys just because your neighbor buys them for their kids. Kids are more happy when you spend time with them and they are more happy with activity based games.
      • Say a clear no or fix the frequency of the parties your colleagues arrange. You need not to attend every single party. Right?
      • Don’t follow your friends and neighbors and go for shopping sprees. Whenever you go for shopping make it a point to have written shopping list as frequent window shopping can make a big dent in your budget.
      • It doesn’t make any sense to visit multiplexes every weekend to watch the latest movie and have food in expensive restaurants. You can have a movie night at home. Now with Netflix and host of other service providers it’s possible to have movie watching a less expensive affair. Also food tastes much better if prepared at home with entire family pitching in as helping hand.
      • Stop getting into FOMO – Fear of Missing Out. This will make you feel inner happiness in a better way and you can enjoy life more.

 

  • Take experience – Create memories instead of buying stuff

 

    • Kids would love to go out and have a match of football instead of going to the mall for watching movies every weekend.
    • Take kids to museums, parks, forests, outdoors – help them to see beauty of nature, identify plants, birds, insects. This will make them more happy than sitting in VR room playing video games.
    • Plan vacations such that you see places of natural beauty, historical importance in and around your town. No need to go to maldives to experience beaches when you can have same experience in Goa for less than half the cost.
    • Instead of having theme based parties for kids birthday, you can have activity based party wherein all the kids do some activity which interests them. Kids always love doing activities together.
  • Focus on your monthly budget
    Keep track of your expenses. This link will help you out on how to budget for expenses. Make sure you keep an eye on useless expenses like subscriptions, eating junk, mall visits etc and cut them down.
  • Do not get influenced by Social media
    If your neighbor is visiting Switzerland for summer vacations, you need not to visit the same place just to show that you are no less than your neighbor.
  • Learn to draw a line – Learn to say NO
    This is very important. If you master the art of saying no to the things which harms you, you can overcome the financial peer pressure to a good extent.

 

Some good insights and some practical steps which I can take to counter Financial peer pressure. Thank you for elaborating these for me.

Yes, and one final thing – Your life should be driven by you NOT by the likes of others. This will not only make your life better but will improve your finances in long run. Also this can be considered a positive step towards wealth creation.

 

Happy investing !!!

Stay Fit and be WEALTHY

Stay HEALTHY and be WEALTHY

 

Across the nations and across the cultures there is one very old saying “Health is Wealth”. This stands true even today as it was a thousand of years ago.

 

stay-healthy-stay-wealthy

 

 

Yes, i have read it multiple times since childhood – Health is wealth. But how come health is related to your finances?

If you are fit & healthy, you will have less health related issues. If you try to stay fit till old age, you will save a fortune by NOT spending money on health related issues and remember Hospital visits cost a bomb these days.

Hmm…yes true. It makes sense. Can you brief me on how someone can become wealthy by staying healthy?

You can save a fortune by staying healthy. If you are fit & healthy, you will have less health related issues. If you try to stay fit till old age, you will save a fortune by NOT spending money on health related issues and remember Hospital visits costs a bomb these days.

The very first thing that comes to mind while discussing about health is to eat healthy. This means

  • No Junk food
  • Diet comprising fresh fruits / poultry (you must have heard – an apple a day keeps the doctor away )
  • Balanced diet comprising of all micro-nutrients

The benefits of eating healthy are

  • You have improved physical health
  • You have improved mental health
  • You can avoid being overweight
  • You can have a longer disease free life

Then comes Avoiding drugs/ addiction / alcohol. Drugs abuse can cause

  • Cardiovascular diseases
  • Stroke
  • Cancer
  • HIV AIDS
  • Hepatitis B & C
  • Lung diseases

If you are drug addiction free then

  • You can stay healthy
  • You can have a longer life  

Ok ok, yes it’s clear now that by eating healthy and by staying away from drug abuse, one can stay healthy and can have a long life. Anything else that can make a person healthy ?

One very important aspect of healthy life is doing moderate exercise – and that too regularly.Doing regular exercise can do wonders to your body

  • It prevents chronic conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer etc
  • It improves strength so that one can stay more independent in old age
  • It promotes healthy growth in kids when they see you exercising regularly
  • It makes you look and feel good

Doing regular exercise also

  • Makes it easy for you to concentrate on work
  • Sharpens your memory
  • Let you stay focussed for longer durations
  • Boosts creativityReduce stress levels
  • Makes a person happy

In addition to all mentioned above, one more key is not to miss your regular medical checkup. This will preempt treatment for any disease you catch in early stage.

And to make sure that your health does not affect your finances, you must insure yourself to cover cost of medical treatments and have adequate life cover.

Thank you for explaining in such a simple language how health affects finances and one must stay healthy in order to create & preserve wealth.

Yes, and the bottom-line is by staying healthy you can save your finances which otherwise would go waste in taking rounds of hospitals and paying consultants/practitioners to cure your chronic diseases. This can cause you and your family a big mental trauma in addition to the financial losses.

 

So, Stay HEALTHY and be WEALTHY. Happy investing !!!