Monday, July 07, 2008

Rich Dad Poor Dad - Which one you want to be ?



Once you start earning money begin to consider ways of leveraging money. This is the art of taking
small sums of money to move larger amounts. Many young people waste their 20's getting into debt
buying flashy products. This is the decade when you usually don't yet have a family and is the best
time to lay the foundation for future riches.

Also live well below what you are earning say 10-20% below. Use the excess money to save and
invest. Learn to get value for money in the products and services you buy.

Ninety percent of people are hypnotized by advertising into becoming consumers. They lazily buy products and services many of which are mere toys to make them feel happy. Advertisement is the biggest source of creating artificial competition, the bigger the better. A bigger TV gives you more happiness, a bigger car brings your family closer …. And you want to be happy. Isn’t? So you keep chasing these products, which are mere ephemeral illusion of happiness.

Ten percent use their imagination and creativity to generate wealth usually by doing something they genuinely love.
We all hear, India is growing, and is soon becoming the largest economy in the world, but what’s in for us? We still get the same paltry hike in our pay-checks, at the end of every year that too, based not on our country’s growth but on the Dollar pricing, the US economy etc. Tomorrow, US can go into deep recession, and may affect the pay packages of many of us , but even if India is growing, can we become the part of India’s growth story?

Yes, we can, but all we need is acumen, a wise thinking, a financially smart mind. When a country grows, all the investment options of that country become lucrative. The Stock market, the real estate, the retail chains, the mutual funds etc, they all become avenue to make money and become a part of India’s growth curve.

The most important thing to remember is, “Don’t work for money, let the money work for you”.
If you keep working and use the money to buy useless flashy products, you will keep working for the rest of your life. But if you curtail your spending and keep the genuine ones on the buy list, and using rest of your money in investment across different Portfolio, you can actually do an early-retirement and live the life on your own terms doing things you like, rather than doing a job for rest of your life.

We all have wishes, hobbies which we would have wanted to pursue like travelling, writing, playing some sports, starting some business or just relaxing in a farm , getting closer to the nature. But we keep chasing ourselves in this rat-race, trying to be better than our peers, working harder and harder but spending our hard-earned money on the gizmos and products which have little use in our daily life, and we keep working, telling ourselves that when we are X amount richer we will do something we really wish to do, and keep on running in this rat-race.

The only way out of this vicious circle is to keep a tab on our spending and start investing smarter.

The financial advisors divide the investment and age criterion into there class:

Below the age of 32: High risk , high returns : You are in your youth and have a whole life ahead of you to make money, so invest aggressively and reap higher benefit

Between 35 and 45: Medium risk : Invest, 40-60 % of your money into safe portfolios like, Government bonds, NSC, bank deposits, long term FD etc.

Above 45 : 80% safe investment


The different portfolios available:

1) Stock Market: --- High Risk
Small Caps - High risk, high return
Medium Cap:
Large Cap – Much safer, low yield

If you like the stock market, begin to notice trends. Look for stocks just staring out. Those in the 50-100 Rs range. Learn all you can about the company, the sector and its products. Use both your intellect and intuition. Ride them to the top.

2) Mutual Funds – Low Risk
SIP: Much Safer, low yield
Bulk buy - Decide when the time is right and what is the mutual fund’s area of growth (Blue chips, Real Estate, infrastructure)
ULIP - Along with investment, you save tax on your investment.

3) Real Estates – High Return, Low Risk
India is starting 43 new townships. Townships are like, Gurgoan, Greater Nodia etc. Each township holds great potential to expand, to provide new businesses and residential opportunities and act as growth enabler for India’s emerging story. Recently a new township in New Rohtak has come up, which is complete with infrastructure facilities and is ready for investment.

So keep reading about the real estate stories and pick something good and more reliable one.


Make yourself financially smarter, this is the way to happy living.

Reading : Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki

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