Five Napkin Drawings About Money, Risk and Behaviour

Published: January 13, 2017 at 8:50 am

Last Updated on October 8, 2023 at 5:18 pm

A napkin drawing is a rough sketch drawn to effectively communicate an idea. It is called a napkin drawing or a back-of-the-envelope sketch because it can be done anywhere. Carl Richard’s napkin drawings are famous and he is an inspiration for me to attempt the same.

A visual representation of a complex fact can be quite convincing. The ideal napkin drawing requires zero context. Unfortunately, mine is nowhere near that good. So permit to offer a sentence or two in explanation. This is my third attempt.

Market Volatility vs Time

Supporting evidence:

Understanding the Nature of Stock Market Returns

Will long-term equity investing always be successful?

Reading patterns of “DIY” Investors?

Visible Wealth vs Invisible Wealth

Visible Wealth = Real Estate, Cars, Watches, Jewels, Expensive Holidays etc.

Invisible Wealth = liquid net worth = stocks, bonds, etc.

Statistics and the Investor

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”
Harlan Ellison

Asan Ideas for Risk

Here are my previous two attempts

Visualising the growth of an equity portfolio as a tilted pendulum

Assorted infographics on personal finance

Would you like to share your own napkin drawings?

If you like napkin drawings and have ideas to make some, you can either share the idea or the drawing with me for publication here with due credit.

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Pattabiraman editor freefincalDr 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.
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