Five Napkin Drawings About Money, Risk and Behaviour

Published on / By M. Pattabiraman Twitter: @pattufreefincal

Published: January 13, 2017 at 8:50 am

Last Updated on December 19, 2021

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:

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    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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      About The Author

      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 nine years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter or 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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      Our new book for kids: “Chinchu gets a superpower!” is now available!
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      Most investor problems can be traced to a lack of informed decision-making. We have all made bad decisions and money mistakes when we started earning and spent years undoing these mistakes. Why should our children go through the same pain? What is this book about? As parents, what would it be if we had to groom one ability in our children that is key not only to money management and investing but to any aspect of life? My answer: Sound Decision Making. So in this book, we meet Chinchu, who is about to turn 10. What he wants for his birthday and how his parents plan for it and teach him several key ideas of decision making and money management is the narrative. What readers say!
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