Browse Tag: asset

Wealth Mantra: Buy assets and avoid liabilities

Wealth Mantra: Buy assets and avoid liabilities

 

Is there any formula which can make me or someone like me wealthy?

Keep on accumulating assets and keep on avoiding liabilities – This is a fool proof mantra to become wealthy.

 

Asset and liability

OK, but can you elaborate as I can not understand this? The terms liabilities and assets are too technical for me.

Don’t go into too much technical details about ASSETS and LIABILITIES. To keep things simple and easy to understand let’s consider asset as something that generates a positive cash flow regularly. This is something that was explained by Robert Kiyoski in his famous book Rich Dad & Poor Dad. Also, we will consider anything that takes money out of your pocket as liability.

The above assumptions are quite simple as you have a very clear demarcation between assets and liabilities. Let’s scan through some of the common items and check if they add up as your ASSET or qualify as LIABILITY to you.

HOUSE:
I am sure like everyone you also must be having a strong belief that your house is your biggest asset.

Yes, I have a big house with a big monthly payment going out against the home loan/ mortgage I took out to purchase it. It is indeed the biggest asset I have till date.

Keep our initial definition of ASSET and LIABILITY in mind. Let’s go through the expenses associated with a house.

  • You take out home loan/mortgage to buy a house. You pay processing fees, lawyers fee and several other charges while purchasing
  • You pay monthly maintenance charges to Association/Society for the upkeep of the common area and housekeeping charges for the common area
  • You pay sinking fund
  • You pay annual property taxes
  • You dole out money to keep the house in proper shape – maintaining cleanliness inside the house, make sure all taps, fittings, fixtures etc are in proper working condition.
  • You pay money for the repainting job every couple of years


The list can be pretty long. If you see, every single head mentioned above results in money going out of your pocket. Now if we go back to our original definition – it says anything that gives you regular return or puts money back into your pocket qualifies as an ASSET.

Now here we have our house which is not fitting in the definition of ASSET.

Sure, you can say that house price will appreciate in due course. But the appreciation can not match the kind of money that goes out of your pocket month on month to maintain the house.

So the house is a kind of liability. To counter the liability factor, one must buy the house which is of right size. The house which fits your need in terms of space and pricing. The moment you buy a bigger house than you need, money starts going into drain. Here I would like to add that if you have a rental property, then it is your ASSET not LIABILITY.

Oh, I was under the impression that I have a big house and it’s a big asset for me. Your arguments seems to be logical.

Let’s take CAR now:

It is said that the moment a car comes out of a showroom, it loses about 15% of its value.

On top of this, your car consumes money in

  • Fuel
  • Regular maintenance, oil changes, servicing etc.
  • Car depreciate with the passage of time
  • Wear and tear of tyres, other parts
  • Annual insurance premiums
  • Road tax

Here again we see that the car is consuming your money regularly. Hence your Car is also your LIABILITY. The takeaway here is unless you are super rich, don’t buy a bigger, expensive car. Remember a car is a mere tool to take you from point A to point B. So here again buy what you need, not what your neighbor drives. More details can be found here – Your car is not your asset

 

Hmmm sounds right. What about the items I owe like my belongings etc?

Now list down all your belongings. They are your LIABILITIES as they lose value over time. Be it your furniture, appliances, gadgets, books, DVDs, gaming devices etc. All depreciate. We have seen it earlier too here 

liability is bad

You have listed down almost all my possessions under LIABILITY column. I am now curious to know what qualifies as ASSET?

  • Your assets include your investments (FD/RD/ULIPs/Mutual funds, shares, ETF, Bonds)
  • Any commodity (Gold/ ornaments)
  • Collectible items
  • Art (paintings etc)
  • Rental properties
  • Cash you are holding

All the line items listed above generate income over a period of time. They put money into your pocket regularly so they all classify as your ASSET

The key here in accumulating assets is to make financial goals, stay focused and never crib about your income but keep investing regularly.

Now, let’s see something interesting based on the classification of ASSET and LIABILITIES. Let’s see what poor, middle class and wealthy people do.

Poor: They mostly own liabilities and keep spending on feeding their liabilities.

Middle class: They have some assets but they keep on buying liabilities and spend their chunk of income in feeding their liabilities. They avoid investments and usually spend money to buy and maintain things they don’t need.

Wealthy:They generate a lot of income from investments and keep reinvesting. They accumulate good amount of wealth which can be passed to their next generation.

Now financially independent class: This particular class has plenty of good assets and income from investments is enough to take care of all their expenses. They constantly look for investment opportunities and never averse of buying good assets.

Bottom-line is one must keep buying good income generating ASSETS and avoid LIABILITIES like plague. If you stick to this, none can stop you from becoming WEALTHY. As you go on accumulating good assets, you get more freedom to take calculated risk in order to go for higher gains.

 

Happy investing !!!

Your Car is not your ASSET !

Your Car is not your ASSET !

Yes, you read it right. Your car is not your asset. Or as a matter of fact, none of your vehicle is your asset unless you are into transport business. If you ask any literate human being about “what is an asset?” you will get a spontaneous reply as “It is something that has value and the value appreciates over a period of time / or it generates some regular income”.

 

Car is not asset

 

But if you ask same person to list down his assets, he will most likely to write car as one of the line item. Cars are no ASSET. A fact which is hard to digest?

Car does not appreciate
• Car does not give you income, unless you are a taxi operator
• Car does not keep your principal safe (what you chipped in to purchase it)

When you are writing line items in your asset lists, cars are definitely no-no. They are money drain and are more status symbol in today’s world.

They depreciate quickly, they drain your money quickly –

  • You need to pay insurance,
  • You need to pay fuel costs,
  • You need to pay maintenance costs,
  • You need to pay registration and
  • You need to pay emission related expenses to keep them road worthy
  • You need to pay for wear & tear costs

Imagine, one fine day when you do not have a monthly income coming in, you are retired from your day job. Even though you have a big car parked in porch, it will not give you good or money to buy food. My point is this – a car cannot generate a regular income for you hence it is not an asset. An asset is something which generates monthly income for you like your real estate property given on rent, a fixed cash deposit with your bank, a commercial shop you owe generating monthly rentals for you, gold coins appreciating over the years.

Here I am not saying that Car is bad. I am aware of the convenience it brings when you are moving from point A to point B. My statement is just to make it clear to you so that you do not consider your car as an asset. I want to de-link you from the thinking that you are really doing well in your life by driving a big nice car which is taken on monthly payment. It is absolutely absurd to think that you look wealthy by owing a big car.

Bigger the car – bigger the money drain it is.

  •  You incur more expense on monthly payment,
  •  You incur more expense on insurance payment,
  •  You incur more expense on periodic maintenance, and
  •  You lose more money when you dispose it off

Cars are means to carry you from one place to other. They should not become status symbol in your life. Buy what you need, a decent piece not a luxury metal object.

Bottom-line is that if you keep buying expensive cars on payment and think your car as your asset, you are moving away from financial independence. An expensive car is never a good investment decision and is a hindrance in early retirement plan.

 

CHOICE is yours as MONEY is yours !!!