Money can work

Photo by  rawpixel  on Unsplash It doesn't matter whether you make a return of 2 percent, 10 percent or even 100 percent on your investments if you have nothing to invest! So the first logical step is to start saving money to invest. This might sound as dumb, but many people including myself had to go through a phase where we spend a lot of time thinking, reading books, blogs, watching videos about investing techniques, tips, and tricks. While we have very little to no funds to start investing with. As there's a saying which goes, Little by little you can safely stock up a small reserve of money, but not until you start. Let's say you wanna retire after 30 years and what matters at end of 30 years is NOT what returns you got, what matters is the net worth of your portfolio. It doesn't matter if you put that money from your pocket or the market rewarded, end of the day what are you left with! That's what matters when you want to retire or achie...

Ever thought of how money can work for you, instead of you working hard for money?? Today, we are going to cover just that! In fact, we will show you a simple trick for your retirement savings! Imagine you invest 1 Lac Rupees in a mutual fund which typically grows at 15% interest per annum. Take a look at below table and be surprised how fast your money grows: Year 0: 100000.00  (+0%) Year 1: 115000.00  (+15%) Year 2: 132250.00  (+32%) Year 3: 152087.50  (+52%) Year 4: 174900.62  (+74%) Year 5: 201135.72  (+101%) Yes, you "DOUBLE"  your money in 5 years! If you are still in doubt, you can double or triple check the above math!! Imagine you stay invested for 5 more years, can you guess what will be your returns? Year 6: 231306.08  (+131%) Year 7: 266001.99  (+161%) Year 8: 305902.29  (+205%) Year 9: 351787.63  (+251%) Year 10: 404555.77  (+304%) Yes, your 1 Lac...

Well, everyone wants to make tons of money in stock market, nobody comes to do charity! 😜 While everyone is trying to figure out different ways and techniques to make profits, there are two approaches to which you can broadly classify all of them into. They are - Trading and Investing. There are millions of traders who have made lots of money and who believe trading is better than Investing and of course vice versa. So which one is the right approach? The answer is both! In cricketing terms, it is like asking the coach if straight drive better or off drive better?? Again, the answer is both! you need to know how to play the right shot the way for the right ball! The trick is to understand the underlying mechanics and first practice before you can play for real!! Trading: In trading, typically one either buys and sells the stock within a day or maybe holds it for a few weeks max! Traders generally look at the charts to identify certain patterns, trends and ma...

Risk comes from the fact that you are speculating without knowing the fundamentals. I have heard people saying a million times, "Stock market is very risky, many people have lost all their hard earned money!". But, the fact is, Saving in a bank account is more riskier than investing in stock market! Yes, you heard it right! People think they are smart enough to save money in their savings account/fixed deposits/recurring deposits, pile up cash every month and in long-term, they would have a huge cash for a rainy day. But, as I said risk comes from the fact that you are speculating without knowing the fundamentals. Many people just forget about inflation! That's a secret wealth destroying machine! Take a look at the inflation of the last 10 years in India Averaging it comes close to 7.97% Now take a look at the savings account, fixed deposits, and recurring deposit interest rates - averages around 6% to 8%. Now add to this taxes, additional ...

There are several investment options out there, but investing in stocks is perhaps the best option and here are five reasons why. 1. Start Small You can start investing in stocks even with small amount of money, as little as 500 INR ($7.75) per month. On contrast, If you want to invest in real estate you would need huge capital to start with which many of us cannot afford to. Hence, investing in stocks is a great way to get started! 2. Liquidity You can cash-out and exit stock investments anytime . If the circumstance arises such as any emergency you can easily exit all your stock holdings and take the money out with just a few clicks. On contrast, it is very difficult to sell any real estate property etc. 3. High Growth Stock market is the best way to build your wealth. If you look at some of the richest people in the world, they all had more than 90% of their wealth made in stocks . Legends like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mukesh Ambani, Benjamin Graham etc. all of ...

Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash Many people find it difficult to analyse their personal finances at a macro level. They just live all their life sleepwalking without knowing where they are headed in terms of building their financial wealth. But, it is really not that complex to get a birds eye view of your financial future. One can easily tell if a person is going to be rich or not just by looking at their " cash-flow statement " ! A cash-flow statement is a very simple tool anyone can use to keep track of their personal finances. It has two parts - Income Statement and a Balance Sheet. Below is an example of a simple cash-flow statement. Profit/Loss Statement "Profit/Loss Statement" helps you keep track of your income and expenses. Here you can write down your earnings like salary, savings account interest earned, etc. You can also write down your expenses like food, rent, shopping, etc. Balance Sheet "Balance Sheet" helps...

Thoughts are the most powerful assets one can have. As buddha once said "What you think, you become!" is very much true and relevant even today! The way rich and middle class people think are very different. Rich believe money is not evil Money can't buy everything in life. But remember without money the world doesn't move! To get access to good healthcare, food, shelter, one needs money ! Money gives you the freedom to live the life you want to lead.  There is nothing wrong in wanting money.  Rich focus on the needs Most of them get attracted to the new gadgets/products announced almost every week, be it phones, cars, etc. Many get addicted to shopping online, where you can shop from a catalog of millions of items with just a few clicks. But, thinking rich means focussing on essentials, buying what you need instead of what you want ! Rich acquire assets Middle class people always have their job salary as their only source of income ! While ri...

More than 95% of the people work in a day job as of today. They get their paychecks by end of the month, spend almost everything and maybe save a little for the rainy day! This goes on and on for many years to come. They work harder and harder every single day, hoping to please their bosses, getting a good salary hike or maybe move to different company for a better salary! Most people think that they are racing to the richness, instead they are in a rat-race and it is never ending! Getting a bigger salary will only make you grow your expenses to lead a "better lifestyle". Even if you were conservative enough to lead a simple lifestyle no matter how much you earn, "Inflation" is going to kill the value of your hard earned money. Breakfast which used to cost 5 Rs about 10 years ago cost 40 Rs today! Whether you like it or not inflation keeps killing value of money. Money is an illusion; Bigger salary is not going to solve your problems! As Rob...