It does not matter how much you earn; what matters is, how much you are worth?
Apologies to my readers if this sounds like a line straight from Gordon Gekko’s hall of fame. Take a look around you; who and what do you find? Is there an option to struggling, striving, trying hard, working 15 hours daily, fighting office politics, guarding your career moves or only dreaming about one aspiration and then the other? Is there an option to money or let’s say a substantial amount of it? It does not matter how good or bad the political situation is or the situation that exists in Europe or America or whether Greece will default first or whether it will be Italy or the price of crude oil or gold? While everything is happening around you one thing is for sure happening. That feeling of shrinking in size! That house that you were planning to buy is getting more expensive. That EMI you are servicing is rising. That money which was enough to run the home budget just a year back is now just not enough. You are striving hard but things are just not fitting in. Things as they are almost seem to have a mind of their own and it feels like we are losing our grip and control over prevailing situation.
I say therefore that prosperity or a reasonable level of prosperity is a key essential for survival and thus a fair level of “the greed for prosperity” is not evil, considering the world and circumstances we live in.
But will you have the prosperity you need?
A million dollar question and sadly the answer is “no” in my view for most people. That is the current experience…based on what people keep doing all the time. People sometimes take unrealistic risks of investing into futures & options to make some quick rapid gains and when that fails they squirrel away to safe fixed deposits. Is there nothing in the middle? Often things are not so complicated. I understand that it might be a real challenge to find a really good financial advisor whom you can trust; but then is it such a big challenge to understand that you should not invest in something that pays 4% when you have options of 8% or more? Then why put your money in traditional life insurance policies for example? Buy term insurance and that’s the end of life insurance shopping for you. Get onto real investments then. Real investments create wealth and prosperity. Real investments have the potential to generate returns higher that inflation and help you grow your wealth. Real investments are investments in equity stocks, equity mutual funds, all types of real estate, funding new business ventures, stakes in existing businesses, many more and the investment here need not be in crores, just a few lacs will also suffice. Treat your money well. Putting your money into conservative investments like fixed deposits, PPF, NSC, gold, bonds etc will keep your money safe and it is surely a wise thing to do; but you do this when you have about 10 crores or 100 million to think about. If you are someone, who is in the process of building your millions, then think about real investments and nothing else.
Virtues of prosperity
When prosperity comes, do not use all of it, said Confucius many centuries ago.
These days we tend to understand prosperity as money coming into the household and over time the more the money comes in we equate that to higher and higher level of financial prosperity. It is actually the money (after expenses) that finds its way into long term investment and the increase of such quantum year after year which is a measure of prosperity in my view. To add to this; Having the financial capability to survive without a direct income from your occupation or business for many years ahead, without compromising on your lifestyle in anyway is a measure of abundance of prosperity. In reality we all aim to be in this situation but by using the wrong vehicles, methods & strategies. Here’s an illustration for you to see the power of a prosperity oriented strategy.
Rs. 10,000 invested per month for 25 years will give you approximately;
- Rs. 50 lacs – if you use traditional life insurance policy yielding about 4%
- Rs. 1 crore – if you use conservative investments yielding about 8%
- Rs. 2 crore – if you use reasonably safe real investments yielding about 12%
- Rs. 3 crore plus – if you use reasonably safe strategies for high risk real investments yielding about 15% or more
In the times we live in we need prosperity far more than our father or forefathers ever needed. All other parameters of our living are likely to remain as they are. Unfortunately we are not in a position to expect much from our government machinery as well. Now in light of this if you do not take charge of your own matters, who else will? I rest my case here.
