Financial Planning

How to Save an Extra Rs 25 Lac

A three-bedroom apartment. Two cars. Enough flying miles to send an airline into losses (well almost!). Job with a foreign consulting company. Annual salary of Rs 30 lac…or around 45-times India’s average per capita income.

Yet my friend Rohan is not happy.

Whenever I meet him, he is, as I put it, caught on the “work-spend treadmill.”

So, last week when he was showing off his latest purchase, a third mobile, and one costing in excess of Rs 45,000, I told him, “Spend less money, my friend.”

“But spending money is what makes me happy,” he replied.

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“You don’t have to feel deprived when you spend less money,” I said. “In fact, if you keep spending and spending even as your income rises, you’ll keep running and running and never get anywhere.”

How to Identify Winning Mutual Funds (Free E-Book)

One of the oft-asked questions in my Art of Investing Workshops is – “How to identify the right equity mutual fund schemes from among the thousands available?”

Well, here’s an e-book that tries to answer the question – How to Identify Winning Mutual Funds.

This e-book explains the key attributes you need to identify the best equity mutual funds from among the thousands available. It also helps understand the pitfalls while selecting the right equity funds for your portfolio.

Let me know your feedback on the e-book in the Comments section below.

If you like it, I would be happy if you can share this with your friends and colleagues who might be interested in the subject.

How to Live Prosperously Without the Paycheque (A Personal Experiment)

It’s been exactly two years since I quit my job to start on my own. A lot of people I meet now think I am lucky to be living a life of my own choice – following my passion…doing what I love doing.

But it hasn’t been hunky dory all the way. Living without an “almost certain” paycheque has been a difficult transition for me. But then, it’s a choice that I made, and thus have no regrets.

In fact, I find myself blessed and very lucky to be able to see this day, when I am writing to you about how I have been living happily, prosperously, and without a paycheque.

Nah, it’s no secret! It’s just the way I have started to define prosperity.

Satyameva Jayate in Financial Services: When Victim is also a Criminal

I am a big fan of Aamir Khan and his ideas, so I make it a point to watch Satyamev Jayate every Sunday morning.

Over the past five weeks of watching the show, I’ve realized that there are three types of people who relate to Satyamev Jayate…

People who suffer from the crime – the victims
People who create the crime – the criminals
People (like you and me) who aren’t criminals but love/hate to hear about the crime between 11 am and 12.30 pm on Sundays

I feel sorry (and pathetic) for the first type – the victims. They really deserve huge moral support from their families and friends.

70 Reasons to Stop Complaining about Rising Inflation (Plus 1 More)

Emergency Post I know…I know how much you cursed the government last night for raising petrol prices by Rs 7.5 per litre!

I know how much you’ve started loving all those ‘revolutionaries’ who are calling for a nationwide protest against these hikes!

It’s funny to see all those queues outside petrol pumps with people waiting to get their vehicles pumped up with as much fuel as possible…as if that is the only fuel they will need for the next several years. (They must’ve burnt more fuel waiting to get their tanks filled up!)

Safal Niveshak Radio: How to Invest When Fear Runs High

Here is an email I received from a reader of The Safal Niveshak Post last week…

Dear Vishal,

I have been an investor in Indian stock markets for the past 10 years, but no other time in the past have I felt the fear of investing as I’m fearing now. With so much global uncertainty, problems in India, and the way markets are behaving these days, I am not sure how to conduct myself with respect to my investments.

Can you help me in this regard?

I thought of writing a post as a reply to this email, but then worked on this short radio show (podcast).

Just click on the ‘play’ button below to listen to the podcast (and let me know your view on this medium of communication in the Comments section below).
[audio:https://www.safalniveshak.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/fear.mp3]

If you can’t see the button above, click here to listen to the podcast.

Some Advice for the Young…and Broke

Young and Broke I generally don’t like offering advice on this platform – Safal Niveshak is all about sharing my experiences and learning as an investor and manager of my own money. So the headline of this post seems a bit awkward to me.

But then, what follows is my response to some common claims that I’ve heard from a lot of well-educated and confident (yet broke) young people…and I was one of them a few year back. (I’m still educated and confident, but have taken care of that ‘broke’ part :-))

Here are some things I’ve been hearing all around from the young with respect to their careers and finances, and my thoughts on their thoughts…

Real Life Story: How to Increase Your Savings by 9200%

Most queries I’ve received on Safal Niveshak over the past ten months have been from young men, either newly married, or already with one child. And most of their questions have revolved around…

How do I start saving and investing money?
How do I plan for a well-structured financial life?
How do I meet my life goals?

While I have responded to these queries, here is the real life story of a close friend (let’s call him Ravi) who was in the same fix almost 9 years ago, how he has been progressing well towards his financial goals (at least what it seems as of now), and how he has grown his savings by a massive 9200% over four stages of his life.

Start Worrying about Your Personal Finances. Seriously!

Last Saturday, I was amongst a group of young architects (age-group of 25 to 35), lecturing on the art of managing one’s own personal finances, and the need to start saving and investing as early as possible.

Lecture on Personal Financial Planning at DesignWorks

At the end of it, I asked them, “So are you worried after listening to what I said?”

Some were surprised to hear this. “Worried? Why?” one of them asked.

“Indeed, I am very worried!” said another.

“Worried, and excited,” said the third.

Investor, Do You Know Where You Are Going?

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cheshire Cat.

“I don’t much care where…” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“…just so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

This discussion from Alice in Wonderland says a lot about how we keep trying (keep walking) when we are aiming to get somewhere, or achieve something, in life (like financial freedom).

But then, let me ask, when it comes to your financial and investing life – “Do you know where you are going?”