Vishal Khandelwal

Why I Stopped Trying to Change Others

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 decisions…basically change how they behave with money.

Then, someone recently wrote to me…

I don’t 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 ‘change’ them, or when this gentlemen wrote how my efforts to ‘change’ 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.
———————————————————————————————–

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 ‘changing’ people is futile.

But I have known this fact ever since I started the Safal Niveshak initiative.

My Ode to A Great Teacher

“Okay, so despite all my requests to stay over for some more time, you have finally decided to call it quits?”

“What 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.”

“Yes, yes, I understand that…but you see, I can’t say how easy or difficult it would be for me to live with the thought that you are not anymore by my side.

“But you see, I’ve 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.”

“I do not feel happy leaving this place as well, but you see dear Vishal, there’s no other path I could have chosen.

“And 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.”

“Yeah, I know that. I know how you have inspired me to make a difference in others’ lives, and stand up to the challenges.

10 Simple Rules that Brought Me Financial Nirvana

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.

The Value of Saving and Investing Money

“Nice to meet you. Just hold on for a second. I need to send an SMS to my husband.”

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 – 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 young… 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 didn’t reflect the crisis.

“What’s going on here?” I asked my cousin who was a local.

One Small Step Can Change Your Life

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.

How to Generate Stock Ideas

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 A’s.

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 there’s a big advantage you have over the early day Buffett.

Do You Like Safal Niveshak?

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…

Anyways, after experiencing nature’s beauty so closely, it’s tough to get back into thinking and writing about the stock market right away…so please excuse me for a couple of more days.

In the meanwhile, did you know there’s a Safal Niveshak Facebook page where I share varied content, even when I’m on a holiday?

If you haven’t done it as yet, and if you enjoy what I do here at Safal Niveshak, I’d appreciate it if you gave me a “like” on Facebook. Just click here, log in to your Facebook account, and then click the “Like” button at the top of the page.

As examples of concise content I share on Facebook that I don’t on the Safal Niveshak website, here are a few…

7 Life-Saving Lessons on Investing from a Happy Marriage

Happy marriage Disclaimer: Some ideas discussed in this post may not be applicable to the author. 🙂

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 other’s 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.

I Invest, So That I Live Like a Man…Not a Donkey, Dog or Monkey

In my collection of short stories that I have found on the Internet or in books and magazines, here is one that I believe carries a deep meaning, and a harsh truth, for our lives.

Here it goes.

God created the donkey and said to him:
“You will be a donkey. You will work un-tiringly
From sunrise to sunset carrying burdens on your back
You will eat grass, you will have no intelligence
And you will live 50 years.”
The donkey answered:
“I will be a donkey, but to live 50 years is much. Give me only 20 years.”
God granted his wish.

Why I Don’t Watch CNBC, and Why Even You Shouldn’t

“Hey why don’t you switch on CNBC?” asked a friend who was visiting me after several years.

“I don’t have CNBC as part of my channel package!” I replied.

“What? You don’t have CNBC? You are a stock market analyst and you don’t watch CNBC?”

“Apart from this stock analyst thing, give me one reason I should watch that channel,” I retorted.

“Boss, it helps you make money. As simple as that!” he replied with vengeance, as if he was paid to speak ‘for’ the channel.

“The goal of CNBC or any other business channel is not to make you money, dear friend, but to sell advertising,” I said.

Image Source: politicalhumor.about.com
The conversation ended there and then. But thankfully, our friendship has survived.