(The author is the Founder and CEO of Money Avenues, a Wealth Management firm based in Chennai. Feedback can be sent to mailfpc@ yahoo.com)
YOU 2.0 and Financial Kai-zen
Mankind never moves forward or progresses without reinventing itself in all possible ways. Reinventing in all the spheres of our life and getting to the Kai-zen way will take us to a meaningful progress.
Personal financial Kai-zen becomes a key component to one's overall success. We generally inherit lots of ideas on various issues from our parents/elders, and personal finance is no different from this. Remember, status quo never takes us anywhere. We need to fine tune our thought processes and adapt to the changing times and needs. And now, times are changing quite fast and furious... In our work, in our personal lifestyles, in our external environment and in every possible aspect. Life, which was like playing a test match in our parents' generation, has come a long way and for us life has now become like playing a T20 match. Very limited time to achieve lot many goals and aspirations.
For all of us, it's become an "F" life...
It's going to be increasingly difficult and a great challenge to manage so many priorities in our life given our F life... But unfortunately we don't have many choices; we need to manage them side by side and parallely.
As we approach 2012, it's time for a reinvention, it's time to reinvent you to become YOU 2.0, the Version 2.0 for your better financial life. What else, other than the new year can be inspiring for such reinventions. Year 2012 is going to be exciting and glorious for all of us, with so many excitements on the cards... Summer Olympics in London is one such excitement for me....
Checklist of 7 points for you to become YOU 2.0, your second version for better financial life...
Have enough life insurance cover:
Stakes are high for all of us; our family is dependent on us increasingly, the dreams are soaring, the aspirations are growing, priorities are changing fast. Having adequate life insurance to the fullest possible extent gives the financial security to the family in case of a misfortune. In simple terms, in one's absence, life insurance becomes a tool for financial security for the family. So have good life insurance cover which can make you a better YOU 2.0
@ any point of time, one should have atleast a life cover of 10 times of the annual income. If one's annual income is 10 lacs, the cover should be 1 crore. And this proportion should be maintained as one grows up in the income levels. The rationale is, on one's absence, the family will have money equivalent to the next ten years of current income. Check if you have enough life insurance cover for your and your family's benefit. And it doesn't cost much. For eg., for a healthy male of 35 years, for a 50 lac life cover, one needs to pay approx Rs 13,125 per year. Which means Rs 36/day, which am sure is affordable for all of us. Break fast these days cost nothing less than Rs 50.
S.M.A.R.T goals:
Our goals drive us in our lives. Goals on our career, family, children etc., It's going to be complicated if we try to lead a goal less life.. Life becomes an anchor-less ship when we do not have financial goals. We are in a T20 kinda situation, wherein the changes are quite rapid; only proper planning can lead us to our goals in a reasonably faster way. As we are on the move, it's difficult for us to manage so many priorities affecting our life. Having SMART goals help us measure our success and gives scope for reinventing. SMART goals can be assisted by a good financial planner like Money Avenues. Go ahead, formulate your financial goals to become YOU 2.0.
Work on your financial priorities:
Our leaders have given lots of tools to manage us more effectively. Prioritizing our financial needs is very important for having a better financial life. We need to figure out which are the financial tasks which are important and urgent to execute and plan accordingly.
Work on your financial priorities to become a better You 2.0
Make your money work really hard:
We all work really hard for our money... Same should be the case with our money, our money should work really hard for us. And if your money is going to be in the bank, its going to be extremely lazy. Inflation is catching up fast and we need to catch up with even faster. Explore attractive investment options and be smart in making your money work hard for you. After all, its your hard earned money.
Create long term wealth:
Wealth is created not just by earning, but by investing smartly. Wealth creation should be like that of our hobbies; we don't collect stamps/coins overnight, but over a long term we amass a huge collection. Same is the case with wealth creation. Attempting to create wealth over the short term can lead to peril. Try to simplify the outflow on a regular basis and create wealth over the long run by investing smartly. 10-20 years of hard work of wealthy people appear overnight success for many of us. But that's not the case. Billionaires have created wealth with just pennies in their wallets. Wealth creation is not rocket science, but just plain smart effort.
Procrastination is a major sin in life and more so in our money life. Tendency to postpone your actions will be a peril for your future. Now consider this:
Lets look @ the case of three friends who are aged 50 now and see who won in the race of investing. The friends are Mr. Cautious, Mr. Responsible, Mr. Fun.
Mr. Fun started investing only @ his age 40 by putting Rs 1 lac but @ a return of 18% PA. After 10 years, @ the age of 50 his money would have grown to
# Mr. Fun who started very late in his life and could not be a winner despite earning very high 18% returns on his investment. He finished third despite earning very high returns compared to the other two. The reason being he had little time compared to the other.
Act now and Start early...
Have a financial plan:
Whatever was discussed above would not make any meaningful progress unless you have a proper financial plan in place. But, with our given constraints in career and personal lives, it is better to outsource this job to a financial planner like Money Avenues, which does this function day in and day out. Because, mere planning is not sufficient; it has be backed by constant reviews and monitoring. After all our lives are fast changing, so as our financial priorities.
So have a financial plan done by your financial planner for a better YOU 2.0 with financial Kai-zen...
Wishing all my readers a very happy and prosperous 2012 and a fruitful financial planning...
(The author is the Founder and CEO of Money Avenues, a Wealth Management firm based in Chennai. Feedback can be sent to mailfpc@ yahoo.com)
YOU 2.0 and Financial Kai-zen
Personal financial Kai-zen becomes a key component to one's overall success. We generally inherit lots of ideas on various issues from our parents/elders, and personal finance is no different from this. Remember, status quo never takes us anywhere. We need to fine tune our thought processes and adapt to the changing times and needs. And now, times are changing quite fast and furious... In our work, in our personal lifestyles, in our external environment and in every possible aspect. Life, which was like playing a test match in our parents' generation, has come a long way and for us life has now become like playing a T20 match. Very limited time to achieve lot many goals and aspirations.
For all of us, it's become an "F" life...
FAST Life...
It's going to be increasingly difficult and a great challenge to manage so many priorities in our life given our F life... But unfortunately we don't have many choices; we need to manage them side by side and parallely.
As we approach 2012, it's time for a reinvention, it's time to reinvent you to become YOU 2.0, the Version 2.0 for your better financial life. What else, other than the new year can be inspiring for such reinventions. Year 2012 is going to be exciting and glorious for all of us, with so many excitements on the cards... Summer Olympics in London is one such excitement for me....
Checklist of 7 points for you to become YOU 2.0, your second version for better financial life...
Have enough life insurance cover:
Stakes are high for all of us; our family is dependent on us increasingly, the dreams are soaring, the aspirations are growing, priorities are changing fast. Having adequate life insurance to the fullest possible extent gives the financial security to the family in case of a misfortune. In simple terms, in one's absence, life insurance becomes a tool for financial security for the family. So have good life insurance cover which can make you a better YOU 2.0
@ any point of time, one should have atleast a life cover of 10 times of the annual income. If one's annual income is 10 lacs, the cover should be 1 crore. And this proportion should be maintained as one grows up in the income levels. The rationale is, on one's absence, the family will have money equivalent to the next ten years of current income. Check if you have enough life insurance cover for your and your family's benefit. And it doesn't cost much. For eg., for a healthy male of 35 years, for a 50 lac life cover, one needs to pay approx Rs 13,125 per year. Which means Rs 36/day, which am sure is affordable for all of us. Break fast these days cost nothing less than Rs 50.
S.M.A.R.T goals:
Our goals drive us in our lives. Goals on our career, family, children etc., It's going to be complicated if we try to lead a goal less life.. Life becomes an anchor-less ship when we do not have financial goals. We are in a T20 kinda situation, wherein the changes are quite rapid; only proper planning can lead us to our goals in a reasonably faster way. As we are on the move, it's difficult for us to manage so many priorities affecting our life. Having SMART goals help us measure our success and gives scope for reinventing. SMART goals can be assisted by a good financial planner like Money Avenues. Go ahead, formulate your financial goals to become YOU 2.0.
Work on your financial priorities:
Make your money work really hard:
We all work really hard for our money... Same should be the case with our money, our money should work really hard for us. And if your money is going to be in the bank, its going to be extremely lazy. Inflation is catching up fast and we need to catch up with even faster. Explore attractive investment options and be smart in making your money work hard for you. After all, its your hard earned money.
Create long term wealth:
Wealth is created not just by earning, but by investing smartly. Wealth creation should be like that of our hobbies; we don't collect stamps/coins overnight, but over a long term we amass a huge collection. Same is the case with wealth creation. Attempting to create wealth over the short term can lead to peril. Try to simplify the outflow on a regular basis and create wealth over the long run by investing smartly. 10-20 years of hard work of wealthy people appear overnight success for many of us. But that's not the case. Billionaires have created wealth with just pennies in their wallets. Wealth creation is not rocket science, but just plain smart effort.
Act Now:
Lets look @ the case of three friends who are aged 50 now and see who won in the race of investing. The friends are Mr. Cautious, Mr. Responsible, Mr. Fun.
Mr. Cautious started investing @ his age 30 by putting Rs 1 lac @ a return of 12% PA. After 20 years, @ the age of 50 his money would have grown to
Rs. 9,65,000
Mr. Responsible started investing @ his age 35 by putting Rs 1 lac @ a return of 15% PA. After 15 years, @ the age of 50 his money would have grown to
Rs. 8,14,000
Mr. Fun started investing only @ his age 40 by putting Rs 1 lac but @ a return of 18% PA. After 10 years, @ the age of 50 his money would have grown to
Rs. 5,23,500
The results are there to be seen.
# Mr. Cautious who earned 12%, lowest among the three still made good money because he started quite early in life and became a winner @ the end. Time ripened his money.
Act now and Start early...
Have a financial plan:
Whatever was discussed above would not make any meaningful progress unless you have a proper financial plan in place. But, with our given constraints in career and personal lives, it is better to outsource this job to a financial planner like Money Avenues, which does this function day in and day out. Because, mere planning is not sufficient; it has be backed by constant reviews and monitoring. After all our lives are fast changing, so as our financial priorities.
So have a financial plan done by your financial planner for a better YOU 2.0 with financial Kai-zen...
Wishing all my readers a very happy and prosperous 2012 and a fruitful financial planning...
(The author is the Founder and CEO of Money Avenues, a Wealth Management firm based in Chennai. Feedback can be sent to mailfpc@ yahoo.com)
