There is a saint in Jain community, who is known for “Kadwey Pravachan” which means bitter sermons. Basically instead of a discussion or polite talks the speaker uses direct actionable language without any politeness or explanation. Well, I am also going to be direct today. Yes, life is short and in this limited lifetime one has to change his circumstances. It is understandable that you were born with less money but a life is enough to change your monetary conditions. What’s stopping you from being rich? Successful?
We all want to be rich and want to have enough money bags to fulfill our responsibilities and wants. But still why it is not enough? Why still people struggle to make money? Why richness denies them? What’s stopping them from being rich?
We as a financial planner see, lot of line crossing. Can you believe a person selling financial products still does not have a SIP? One of my known in the financial field, forged documents to hike his entitlement for the home loan. All these behavior is deterrent between you and the goal to achieve financial freedom. It is very much the behavior that makes all the difference. When it comes to being rich we read a lot, we listen a lot but hardly implement.
Following is a checklist that is between you and financial freedom. One cannot predict future but these pointers will put you in the right direction.
- You are just interested in savings and not increasing earnings. Savings is not bad but channelising it is a challenge. People develop phobias against investing. They think idle cash will help them but the truth is, inflation and taxes will eat all this money. You need to take a bit of risk and increase your earnings either by building a second income or by generation income by investing.
- You are happy with your present earnings as you have developed comfort with present job. You don’t want to step out of your comfort zone. Redundancy is what you are calling for. Just getting marginal increments and to contend with this is a huge mistake. It is like living in denial and not realizing the true worth of yourself. It’s always better to make the plunge, shrug off the extra layer of laziness.
- You are still waiting to invest. You have fear of losing as you know you are bad at making decisions so you are still looking for a safe bet to invest. It’s ok that you don’t understand much of finance and products but you have to start investments as a regular and disciplined investment is the key to building substantial Take help of a Financial Advisor but you have to start now.
- You are earning for someone else and you ignore yourself. Your earnings are not for you as someone pushed you in this job and you are fulfilling someone else’s dreams or obligations. If it is not for you will gradually loose interest and bound to just do what is required. You should have the motivation to earn and invest. You should love what you do. That is why goal planning is a must.
- You regularly buy things you don’t require. You constantly dig your savings. You are constantly over pressured by payments to be made on your credit card and loans. You are spendthrift and you don’t plan what you buy. These are behavioral problems which will always keep worries over you. Be a planner. explore ways to become the minimalistic person and change yourself.
- You don’t have any goals or have not realized your goals. You think you do not have goals but you do. The problem is you have not identified them and put a number for yourself. You have a family to support, their well-being, education, home, vacation, vehicle every 10 years, the business you have always wanted to start or a decent retirement. Goals are there but you need to put them in black and white. You need to find the cost of these goals and savings required for these goals.
- You have lost it. That’s the unfortunate part of life. Few people have lost hope. Mat be its because of mid-year crises, a bad job, a family issue (losing a loved one or a separation) or lost confidence. Some people also think that being rich is a privilege. You need to overcome your grief and low- morale. Start working again and aim the first million. Opportunities are everywhere, you just need to create value for others and yourself.
You may or may not agree with me. Share with me your thoughts on this write up in the comments section.
