Last Updated on January 2, 2018 at 9:58 am
To me, personal finance is nothing more than common sense. Commonsense is simply nothing but mathematics expressed in a spoken language.
Before I started the blog, I knew nothing about investor behaviour and aspects of behavioural finance. It was irrelevant to me. Now I find myself learning about the different ways in which people handle their finances and how different ‘attitude towards money’ can be.
Please find below some of my findings listed in the form of resolutions.
- I will list my financial goals first, plan a strategy and then worry about investments
- I will recognise the returns I need for my financial goals and invest accordingly. I will not madly chase after returns.
- I will ensure all my tax-planning is perfectly aligned with my goals. I do not care whether it is April or November; my tax-planning depends only on my goals, and I, invest for my goals all through the year.
- I will not search for a ‘good pension plan’ or a ‘good child plan’, for I recognise they do not exist.
- I will not worry about my mutual fund holdings each time the market slumps.
- I will learn to analyse investments on my own …. using tools available at freefincal 😉
- I will not be swayed by posts/comments/news that predicts market movements, suggests stocks, gold, real estate, bonds, anything. I don’t give a rat’s fart.
- I will not ask for an opinion about an investment option and wait for someone to agree with me!
- I will not hold a lump sum in my SB account and wait for the next set of bonds or the next big investment opportunity.
- I will recognise that I can die anytime (even before I finish reading this post! Perhaps because of it!) and take a term insurance policy and write a will (thanks to Bharat Shah for pointing this out).
- I will recognise that there are a million diseases that can make me sick anytime. If I rely only on my company health benefits and wait until I retire to get my own policy, I may not be able to get one. So, off I go to get one for all my dependents right now!
- I will recognise the importance of inflation and stop obsessing about ‘regular income’.
- I resolve to streamline my personal financial life as quickly as possible so that I don’t have to read blogs, follow FB groups on money, watch TV shows, etc. anymore.
- I will understand what conflict of interest means and recognise how deep-rooted this is in the financial services. This will help me with resolution no. 13.
- In any case, I resolve to stop reading the one written by a pretentious idiot named ‘pattu’.
To me, that is the best way of becoming financial literate:
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- Imbibe the basis, asap
- Implement the basis, asap
- Ignore the bull shit, asap
I do hope you agree with this list. Would you like to add (or subtract) to this list?
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About The Author
Dr M. Pattabiraman(PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over ten years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter(X), Linkedin, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You can be rich too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY investors. (2) Gamechanger for young earners. (3) Chinchu Gets a Superpower! for kids. He has also written seven other free e-books on various money management topics. He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation promoting unbiased, commission-free investment advice.Our flagship course! Learn to manage your portfolio like a pro to achieve your goals regardless of market conditions! ⇐ More than 3,000 investors and advisors are part of our exclusive community! Get clarity on how to plan for your goals and achieve the necessary corpus no matter the market condition is!! Watch the first lecture for free! One-time payment! No recurring fees! Life-long access to videos! Reduce fear, uncertainty and doubt while investing! Learn how to plan for your goals before and after retirement with confidence.
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