Safal Niveshak

Wit. Wisdom. Value Investing.

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Avoid Multiplying by Zero

The Sketchbook of Wisdom: The first print of my new book – The Sketchbook of Wisdom – is almost 90% over, and has already been bought across 30+ countries within 2 months of its launch. Click here to get your copy today. Send me an email at vishal@safalniveshak.com if you wish to place bulk orders.

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Peter Bevelin, in his wonderful book “All I Want To Know…” tells the story of Napoleon’s mother, Letizia. She couldn’t understand why Napoleon should take on the British since things were going so well. So, she sold all her French holdings and exchanged them for British pounds.

Why? She reasoned, if her son won, she should have a good life in the victorious nation. But if Napoleon lost, she would not be wiped out but still be ok since she had the pounds. She hedged against the possibility of facing a zero.

Letizia’s story is the perfect example of how to arrange our affairs in life to protect against the downside.

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The Last Things on My Mind

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions,” wrote Haruki Murakami in Kafka on the Shore –

You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

It is no news that we are currently in the midst of a “storm” that has changed our lives beyond recognition.

Millions of people are fighting for their lives, struggling at home, in intensive care units, separated from their loved ones in their hours of need. Billions are in lockdown, unable to visit one another, or go to work, or attend school.

The virus has hit hard not just at our bodies and minds, but at our most instinctive desire of being close to our family and friends, to express and receive love and care in the face of this existential threat – for even that could bring illness and death. We have, as humanity, never been so vulnerable like we are now (I may be suffering from recency bias here, but that is the way it is).

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The Power of Visual Thinking

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Here is your latest Saturday newsletter, where I share the latest updates from the site, an idea worth thinking about, few stories you shouldn’t miss, and a question for you. Let’s get started.

Safal Niveshak Updates
Just in case you missed, here are a couple of recent posts on the site –

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A 2000-Year-Old Technique for Weathering Life’s Storms

In ancient Greece and Rome, many prominent thinkers subscribed to a philosophy called Stoicism. As part of this philosophy, they practiced a thought exercise called premeditatio malorum, which means premeditation of evils.

It simply means taking a moment to think through everything that could go wrong with a particular plan. It means visualizing a bad future.

The idea behind premeditatio malorum is that by contemplating calamity, we rob future hardships of their bite and appreciate what we have now. In other words, anticipating adversity is likely to diminish its power on us when it actually strikes.

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Fundamentals Vs Expectations

Safal Niveshak is now on Telegram, where I share byte-sized ideas, insights, and stuff I am reading and thinking about on the subjects of investing, personal finance, human behaviour, and the pursuit of a happy life. Basically, stuff that may be too short for a blog post and too long for a tweet. Click here or here to join my channel.

Here is your weekly Saturday newsletter, where I share the latest updates from the site, an idea worth thinking about, few stories you shouldn’t miss, and a question for you. Let’s get started.

On SN This Week

[Read more…] about Fundamentals Vs Expectations

Beware the Excel Spreadsheet

Safal Niveshak is now on Telegram, where I plan to share byte-sized ideas, insights, and stuff I am reading and thinking about on the subjects of investing, personal finance, human behaviour, and the pursuit of a happy life. Basically, stuff that may be too short for a blog post and too long for a tweet. Click here or here to join my channel.

Here is your weekly Saturday newsletter, where I share the latest updates from the site, a new idea worth thinking about, few stories you shouldn’t miss, and a question for you. Let’s get started.

On SN This Week

[Read more…] about Beware the Excel Spreadsheet