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If you cannot see the Quiz above, open this post on Safal Niveshak’s website and then participate.
Don’t worry if you score low, for a truly humble acknowledgment of ignorance is the first step to wisdom. š
All the best!
I often receive emails from readers asking how I can help them change their financial lives, change how they manage their money, change how they make their investment decisionsā¦basically change how they behave with money.
Then, someone recently wrote to meā¦
I donāt believe what you write makes sense for people, as there is nothing called as long term investing. You can only make money in the stock market in the short term because, as Keynes said, in the long term everyone is dead.
So your effort of changing how I, or anyone else, invest seems an exercise in futility.
You see, when people ask me how I can help āchangeā them, or when this gentlemen wrote how my efforts to āchangeā people is futile, I assume they are talking about modifying their thinking, attitudes, habits, beliefs, behaviours and thus outcomes.
———- Art of Investing Workshop in Bangalore & Chennai ———
Safal Niveshak’s Investing Workshop travels to Bangalore (18th Jan. 2014) and Chennai (19th Jan.). If you are interested to attend, please register here.
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As I have realized over the years, from my experience and that of others, trying to change another person is generally an exercise in futility and frustration.
So while I disagree to what this gentleman who sent me the above mail says about long term investing, I agree to him when he says that the idea of āchangingā people is futile.
But I have known this fact ever since I started the Safal Niveshak initiative.
āOkay, so despite all my requests to stay over for some more time, you have finally decided to call it quits?ā
āWhat do I do, my dear Vishal, I was longing to live a life much more peaceful than I had done all these years, and thus I had to go.ā
āYes, yes, I understand thatā¦but you see, I canāt say how easy or difficult it would be for me to live with the thought that you are not anymore by my side.
āBut you see, Iāve come to terms with the fact that I will never see you again. You have been an inspiration for me, one of the greatest teachers I ever had, and now it would be incredibly difficult to reconcile my desire to see you again, living and speaking, hale and hearty.ā
āI do not feel happy leaving this place as well, but you see dear Vishal, thereās no other path I could have chosen.
āAnd by the way, I am already leaving with you a lot of my memories and thoughts that would stand by your side whenever you need them.ā
āYeah, I know that. I know how you have inspired me to make a difference in othersā lives, and stand up to the challenges.
I was in Ahmedabad last week for my Art of Investing Workshop (here’s the proof), and met a few young executives – in their mid 30s – who had questions about how I have managed my own financial life so well so far.
A couple of them were, in fact, amazed to hear my story and told me that I have been an exception.
“That’s not true!” I told them. “I have not done anything special in my financial life that anyone else cannot do.”
In fact, whatever I have done to bring myself to a stage of financial nirvana – if I may use that term – I have done with the help of some simple rules on how I treated my money over the years.
Now, while I am too young to dispel any life-changing advice on “how to be a financial rockstar” or “how to remove all financial worries from you life”, I am happy to share below 10 rules that have changed my life for the better over the past few years, and how these can also benefit anyone who practices them with discipline and integrity.
Here are those 10 rules.
[Read more…] about 10 Simple Rules that Brought Me Financial Nirvana
āNice to meet you. Just hold on for a second. I need to send an SMS to my husband.ā
My cousin and I stood there waiting. The girl, a manager with a private sector bank, busily tapped out a text message on her new iPhone.
She was pretty slow with the typing, but we knew what was going on.
She was just showing off her new Rs 30,000 iPhone ā hot stuff for Alwar, a small town in Rajasthan where I grew up and which has a relatively middle class population.
We had seen her arrive to the bank with her husband who drove a shiny black and modified SUV.
She and her husband were youngā¦ probably in their early thirties. As I came to know from her, he was a real estate broker in the town. Even though their income must be down in a weak housing and job market, their spending didnāt reflect the crisis.
āWhat’s going on here?ā I asked my cousin who was a local.
We live and we learn to take
One step at a time
There’s no need to rush
It’s like learning to fly
Or falling in love
It’s gonna happen when it’s
Supposed to happen and we
Find the reasons why
One step at a time
When you can’t wait any longer
But there’s no end in sight
when you need to find the strength
It’s your faith that makes you stronger
The only way you get there
Is one step at a time.
~ One Step at a Time (Jordin Sparks)
Every path to success has been littered with doubt, fear, and uncertainty, as well as persistence, calculated risks and repeated action.
The difference between someone who fails and someone who succeeds is the courage to act, repeatedly.
In an interview with Warren Buffett in 1993, Adam Smith, author of Supermoney, asked how the small investor can find good investment ideas.
Warren Buffett: I’d tell him to do exactly what I did 40-odd years ago, which is to learn about every company in the United States that has publicly traded securities, and that bank of knowledge will do him or her terrific good over time.
Adam Smith: But there are 27,000 public companies.
Warren Buffett: Well, start with the Aās.
Everybody knows that Warren Buffett gets his investment ideas largely from annual reports.
Of course, now he has become so influential that companies call him to share their own ideas. But, fifty years ago, Buffett was not the go-to guy if you wanted to sell your company or raise capital for your failing bank.
He was a small investor who was clawing his way up the investing street by reading whatever annual report came his way, and then finding his investment ideas that worked wonders in the subsequent years.
You are probably at the same stage Buffett was fifty years ago. But thereās a big advantage you have over the early day Buffett.
I am back from my Kerala holidays, and can say with great belief that it truly is God’s Own Country. Here are a couple of proofs…
In the meanwhile, did you know thereās a Safal Niveshak Facebook page where I share varied content, even when Iām on a holiday?
If you havenāt done it as yet, and if you enjoy what I do here at Safal Niveshak, Iād appreciate it if you gave me a ālikeā on Facebook. Just click here, log in to your Facebook account, and then click the āLikeā button at the top of the page.
As examples of concise content I share on Facebook that I donāt on the Safal Niveshak website, here are a few…
Disclaimer: Some ideas discussed in this post may not be applicable to the author. š
As I complete 10 years of my marriage, I can say that a marriage, no matter how good, can be made better.
My experience also tells me that a good marriage has some basic qualities. One, for instance, is that both partners are fully devoted to the relationship. They are willing to invest time and energy to make it grow and flourish.
They also communicate effectively with each other and know how to resolve their differences.
And they learn to be flexible with each otherās behaviour and choices.
You see, there is no right way to be married. Many marriages just work out great. However, there is a wrong way to be married. And it is when you don’t invest in the relationship.
Anyways, a happy marriage can serve a very good example for an investor in stock markets.
[Read more…] about 7 Life-Saving Lessons on Investing from a Happy Marriage
