Take care of money, as it will take care of you

Why do we lose money? Why are we generally not happy with our financial decisions? Why did it have to happen to me? Why did it happen when I invested my money? The answer is really simple but it is going to be very hard to digest.

Either we are complacent or just that we do not want to take the effort. This is a plain cold fact. If I had to put a number to this, reasonable estimate would be 10 per cent Vs 90 per cent, ie 10 per cent people are just complacent, while 90 per cent just do not want to take the effort. What makes things worse is that these 90 per cent people want short-cuts. Just quickly give me an investment tip, what's the best investment, what's new these days, where can I get the maximum returns, what is safe but can give very high returns,

I have got so and so investment, what are the prospects, what is the future? These are normally the questions most people want to ask. Everyone wants a quick fix and no one is really interested in spending time or effort. What makes matters worse is manufacturers exploiting this and launching new products regularly.

Ironical that the manufacture now says things like, this product is better than ever before which in other words means what they were selling till now was not so good.

Remember there are no short-cuts and nothing worthwhile in life is ever free. The next time you get something for free, just pause to think if there is really much value, commitment and credibility if you were to act upon that piece of information. Rarely this is true; remember free information in financial matters can be grave. In my view if you want something, you have to work hard for it. Then you have to spend time and money. There is no other way.

Life will continue to be more ever so busy and just like your children, your parents, your money also needs due attention. Irrespective of whether you are the do-it-yourself person or the lets-get-help person, the dire need of the hour is a serious investment of time.

So if you are the do-it-yourself person then is a lot to learn first. Educate yourself thoroughly. Spend money for educational books, courses, software, magazines, subscriptions etc. Learn the basics. Move over to advanced knowledge then. Whichever stream you choose, be it day trading, options, futures, currency, stocks, bullion, mutual funds, insurance, fixed income, there is an ocean of information to digest. This is a lot of hard work. On the other extreme you could simply bypass all this and invest in a bank fixed deposit.

But if you are keen to make wealth then get involved in the process and don't depend on friendly neighbourhood advice or the advice of your friend's friend who is a broker/ agent. Just think if you had to buy vegetables for 50 rupees you would check prices with three vendors. But you would not blink to invest Rs 50,000 on a hot tip.

So do you see why we lose money or are not happy with our financial decisions? For something that we want the most in our lives we spend the least amount of effort and time. We want to enjoy spending money but do not do enough to ensure that we have enough of it forever. We are not prepared to work hard; we are not prepared to seek the right advice. These days information is easily available and geography is irrelevant. All one needs to do is take the first small step, ie, to decide to invest time and effort for personal financial matters. If you don't take care of money, money will never take care of you. It's that simple.

On the other hand if you do not have the time and patience to do things yourself, the least you can do is invest time in searching and hiring a financial advisor.

Basically, if you can hire lawyers, chartered accountants, doctors etc for their service why do you want to risk your hard earned money? Invest time to talk to 3 or 4 or 5 experts if you want but finally choose the one you like and you feel most satisfied and

comfortable to work with.Don't waste your time with agents and brokers who are merely product distributors. But to do this is also a lot of hard work and it will be worth all the time spent. Is that too much to do for a lifetime of peace and financial control? Just invest this time once. Finding a good advisor is one short-cut you can afford to take. 

By Kartik Jhaveri, Director - Transcend Consulting 

Courtesy: The Financial Express, August 13, 2012