Retirement Planning

Most of us work round the clock for happy life and to take good care of our family. Indeed we wish to have a stress free, wealthy and healthy retirement life. While marching towards that achievement, many of the time we forget our actual goal. Also we end up taking more stress and depression in life. To live a better and happy life and save the most for our retirement, I have identified and observed few ways which might suit most people to achieve happy retirement with minimum effort over time.

There are 2 pre-requisite which need to be identified before planning for the retirement

• At what age are we planning for retirement: Some may plan to get retire at the age of 30 and spend the rest of their life working towards their passion. Few many plan to get retired at 50. Those are entirely fine but this needs a clear fix in mind on what age are we planning for retirement

• How much money are we expecting to save for the retirement: This can defer from person to person. However, there needs a clear picture on how much we need to have for our retirement. You can consider below expenses as your reference (all the below to be planned considering the inflation Year-on-Year by 7%)
• Monthly expenses including rent / EMI, groceries / household, gas, electricity, internet, mobile, transport, shopping & entertainment
• Hospital Expenses
• Tour & Travel Expenses
• Term Insurance Premium
• Miscellaneous - 5% of all monthly expenses joined together

After we finalize the above 2 pre-requisite, below processes to be followed with high level of discipline to achieve the retirement peacefully. The processes are 

• Earn - This is the first and priority step to achieve the happy retirement. Earning can be done either by working for a company or it can be through a business. This depends on the specialization on our capabilities. We should consider to increase our earning on a periodic basis. Probably this can be monthly or it can be yearly. This is because to beat the inflation and to control our expenses.

• Control Expenses - The second and most important step is to control our expenses. This is advised by many financial experts for many centuries to achieve richness and to acquire huge wealth. A person can earn in millions but there is no use on those earning if he / she spends more than the earnings. So, controlling the expenses and keeping it as less than it can be is the second step to achieve happy retirement. In other words procrastinating the expenses is other way to reduce it. This gives time to think if this expense is really needed and there can be a way to avoid it.

• Save - After earning and controlling the expenses, we should save the money earned. We should not give access to the hard earned money to those who will try to destroy it. So, save the money from those people / events that will destroy the capital. For example, the hard earned money can be deposited in banks though we get less interest instead of putting that in a false returns giving scheme by unauthorized companies / person. These days people destroy their hard earned money through online gambling. So, we should protect our capital and save those.

• Invest - The final and most important process to achieve a wealthy retirement is through investing our hard earned money to multiply. There are various investment options like investing in real estates, investing in stockmarket by acquiring quality stocks, investing in gold and much more. It is better to consult a qualified and reputed financial expert before investing to get better returns. Whatever may be the investing way we choose, give it enough time to mature / compound and provide abundance wealth.

I wish everyone plan this as early in life and achieve happy, healthy and wealthy retirement.

B G Nareshkumar.

Manappuram Finance Limited

Manappuram Finance Limited was incorporated in the year 1949 by V. C. Padmanabhan in the coastal village of Valapad in Thrissur District, Kerala. The company's main business was pawn broking and money lending. Mr. Nandakumar took over the business after his father in the year 1986. Today Manappuram Finance Limited has around 5,200 branched across 28 states / union territories across the country. The assets under management (AUM) stands at Rs.420.69 billion with employees more than 50,000.

Services offered by Manappuram Finance Limited does not stops with just Gold loans. They also provide 

• Vehicle Loans
• 
  Two Wheeler Finance
• Personal Loan
• Micro Home Finance
• Business Loan
• Forex & Money Transfer
• Healthcare Industry Loan
• Small Scale Industries Finance
• Restaurant Finance
• School Finance
• Corporate Finance
• Demat Account Services

PB ratio of the company stands at 1.34, which says the company is not trading at an expensive price. PE ration of the company stands at 7.13, this is also under the permissible range to buy and hold for long term. The share price is around Rs.183. A normal middle class person in India can invest systematically at this price. When we consider the past 5 years growth of the company, it was around 30% as of October 2024. From investor point of view, stock with good business background is trading with less price.

Revenue of the company consistently increased every year and it stands at 8,848 crores as of 2024. Net profit of the company also increased to 2,197 crores as of 2024. EPS (Earning per share) was 17.72 in 2023 and it is 25.96 in 2024. The Book value of the company stands at 136.77 in 2024, it was 114.19 in 2023. Foreign investors holding increased from 28.95% in December 2023 to 33.00% in June 2024. Debt to equity of the company considerably reduced from 3.82 in 2020 to 2.91 in 2024. 

Manappuram Finance Limited mainly deals with gold loan and finances. Considering the gold price in India, which is expected to grow exponentially in coming years. When the gold price increases, the lending amount increases for the company by having the enough security. Hence the interest collected on those can be higher as well. As the loan is provided by collecting the gold as collateral, the companies will not have the concept of NPA. If any borrower defaults the loan amount, the company can auction the gold as per the procedure and recover the amount.

Person who are interested in long-term wealth generation can consider investing in this company slowly and steadily. Hope this blog brings you more information about Manappuram Finance Limited.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

6 Tips to Save Money & Invest

Below are 6 Tips to save Money and Invest to generate long term wealth. Apart from all the below, it is important that we follow the budgeting system and track our expenses to save and invest.

Automate your savings - As soon as we receive the salary or any other income from business, we need to make sure, a part of the income should directly go to the investment. We can make this automated with the bank and we should make sure it is consistent.

Meal Planning - These days many people spend more money eating outside or spending more on the meal budget. It is better to prepare the meal at home, which can be less expensive and can save lit more on that budget. This can increase the savings and trigger more investments. Obviously, we can plan to eat out but it is better to reduce as much as possible.

Cancel unused OTT subscriptions - Many of us would have subscriptions for many OTT platforms to see various webseries, movies or any other shows. However, we would not be using certain OTT platforms on a regular basis or it would be auto subscribed automatically. We need to identify those and unsubscribe to save bit more money and invest it wisely and consistently.

Consider Carpooling or use public transport - Instead of using a separate vehicle to commute to office, if there is a possibility, it is better to do carpooling or use public transport and save some more extra money on that. This way we can invest further more money to generate wealth.

Use Cash - Google Pay, Paytm and many more apps are easily accessible these days to pay a vendor or do any financial transactions. Because of this, we lose control over our finance and intent to spend more. When we pay using cash, we realize how much we spend and it could reduce the amount of spending. This way we can save and invest bit more.

Have no spend day or weekend - We need to discipline ourselves that we won't spend any money on a specific day or over a weekend. So that we can procrastinate our spending and that could sometime save our expenses. Better to have a weekend in a month as no spending weekend to save and invest.

Hope this blog give you some idea on how to save money and invest to generate long term wealth.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Emotion Management - Thoughts, Words, Optimism & Breadth Control

In Life and Stockmarket, most important thing to conquer or control is our emotions. People live a happy life by controlling their emotions and by holding their anger. People make money in stockmarket by controlling their emotions and not reacting to all the market moves. New position / stock always look better and attractive than the one we hold. If we change our positions frequently, then we will be the big time loser. Compounding doesn't work there.

Let's say when the market is down by 5%, our portfolio might be in red. If we close our existing positions because of this correction, we will lose money. That is exactly what operators are looking for from retail investors. Similarly, if we don't control our emotions in our work space, we might even lose our job or business opportunity.

To control our emotions, we should control our thoughts and control the words we speak. If we are not controlling our thoughts and repeating the negative thoughts again and again in our mind, our emotions will direct us in a wrong way. This will lead to negative actions. Similarly, the words we use have a great impact to our behavior and actions. So, control your thoughts and choose your words to have control over your emotions.

Being optimistic is one of the easiest way to have the positive thoughts and live a happy life. Better to observe and intake the good things in all we see. This will enhance the positive character in us. It was also said, when we control our breath we feel much better and have a controlled emotions. Let's say when we are unhappy and all the negative thoughts run in our mind, and when we breath in and out slowly, we will receive a better feel. It also reduced the stress, depression and anxiety.

A story below for not controlling emotions - Impact

There were 2 departments, operations and administration in a big automobile company. Head of operations team and head of administration were not in good terms. In the company progress meeting, it was noticed the progress of the company was not so good and need for improvement. When debugging the issue, employees complaining that the production was not good enough because the water purifier was not working properly for many days.

After this issue was reported, head of administration was very unhappy that how can a water purifier is linked to the companies production. This was a false acquisition. Moreover, head of operations words against this concern was triggering him to get out of control emotionally. Because of this, the head of administration lost his words, behaved inappropriately in the board meeting, lost his reputation in the company. Because of his action, the head of administration lost his job and the company looked for a replacement.

The head of administration did not lose his job because the water purifier was not working and the productivity reduced because of that. He lost his job because not controlling his emotions. So, this story clearly proves how important is that to control ones emotion. Hope this blog helps you. 

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Yutori

There was a famous concept called Yutori in Japan. This means consciously slowing down everything and observing the world around us. No rushing, No Pressure. Just create a space for your mind to feel the beauty of nature and life.

Having a dream and visualizing it everyday to achieve those are good habits. However, many time we forget what is happening around us and fail to live at the present. When we start to live at the present, we will understand how beautiful the world is. It also helps us to realize what is very close to us and value the things we have and own.

When we see this in financial means, we might own few stocks, real estate or any other investments but we always think of the stock or land which we want to buy in the future. There is no wrong in that but we are failing to enjoy the stock or real estate we own now. When we understand and realize what we have now and start to appraise those, we will get the idea on how to build / grow that in a much better way.

In our personal life, when we understand the value of what and who we have now with us, we will make a beautiful relationships, happy life and long-lasting peace of mind. Hope this blog helps you to admire the present and appreciate what we have now.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Controlling Emotions - Fix your Entry, Exit and Time

"The more we feel, we don't have much time, we fail to control our emotions"

These days we live in fast paced environment. We need everything to happen quickly. Our thoughts are build in a way that we want things faster / sooner in life to enjoy it. Emotion towards physical things / money needs to be controlled to get those in a better fashion. Everyone including me wants to make money to be financially free but are we controlling our emotions, greed and accepting the reality to get those ?

When we fix a target and run behind certain things desperately we fail to re-collect what exactly we need and want in life. The same is applicable in making money. Most people don't have any control over their emotions in stockmarket investing and trading and lose money instead of making money.

"Fix your Entry, Exit and Time to control your Emotions"

When we take a position, it is very important we buy the business at the right price and we also should know at what price we should exit the position / holdings and at what time. Let's say I plan to buy a stock at Rs.100, I should fix my mind, I will exit this position when it reaches Rs.150 in 1 or 2 years. It might take some more time to reach that price, not an issue. However, when we enter the position, we should fix the exit price and time frame to control our emotions.

There should never be any emotion towards our holding positions. In the art of making money, we should only consider the profitable in business and capability of the business to take the price to our exit levels at the speculated time.

If we do not fix the exit price and time to the holding position we will keep looking at the stock price movement and forget the capability of the business / stock we are holding and in some point of time, we will exit the position much sooner with less money or might exit in lose.

If there is no plan on exit price and time given to the stock while buying it, we plan not to control our emotion. This will lead to uncontrolled mind and create unnecessary noise in our brain to make unwanted decisions.

Hope this blog gives you information on controlling our emotions in making money.

Have a Great Day
B G Nareshkumar

How to Improve the quality of your Sleep

In recent days we see many people face emotional, physical and psychological problems. Due to these, they get into high stress levels and depression. It is very important to overcome this to have a happy and healthy life. One of the solutions is to have good sleep.

A study says, people these days get into high stress and depression due to lack of sleep. People sleep less than 6 hours a day fall victim for this.

How to improve the quality of our sleep?

Follow the below 5 points sincerely for next few weeks to see the change in your way of thinking and productivity.

• Make sure your bedroom is pitch dark
• Avoid using electronic devices before sleep
• Relax your mind
• Avoid drinking too much water within 2 hours of going to bed
• Have an evening ritual - Fix your time of sleep

I believe this blog would bring some light to your lifestyle.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Control Your Expenses

Many of us focus more on earning money these days. The real secret to achieve financial freedom or to save more money for happy life is to reduce the expenses. A small control on our expenses can lead to a better living. If we need to spend Rs.1,000 today and if we are able to control that under Rs.800 and investing that in a better place will lead to a great heights financially in future.

In many businesses, promotors spend certain amount of money to reduce the tax. As we know the business can pay tax only on the income made after deducting the expenses. Many medium size companies does this to have a tax saving. I personally have a different view on this. Any business should reduce their expenses on whatever the concern it may be. Only by doing so, they can travel to the next level on their business.

When a person controls his/her expenses, it shows the disciple he/she has towards his/her personal finance. It also gives the better image on their future. As Dave Ramsey said in his famous book "The Total Money Makeover" - If you will live like no one else, Later you can live like no one else. 

These lines gives the indication on how one should control their expenses for the betterment of future well-being. Thiruvalluvar said in his 478 kural about controlling the expenses as below:

This means "Incomings may be scant; but yet, no failure there, if in expenditure you rightly learn to spare". No matter how big / small the income is, if one knows how to control his expenses. Else, even if it was a king, he will face the consequences.

How to control expenses and start saving and investing ? Is there a way ?

There is a way as said in the book "The Richest Man in Babylon". This would be tough initially but when practiced, it will make anyone richer than they wished for. What ever you earn as an income from any source, first step is to take 10% aside and start saving or investing it for the future. This can compound and make anyone richer in future.

I wish all the readers of this blog to take control of their expenses and invest in a better way to gain more wealth.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Personal Finance - Budgeting

Many of us are good at managing our finances but few have the habit of monitoring their personal finance through budget system. It is the reality to understand one can achieve financial freedom at the earliest by maintaining the budget process for daily finance. Now-a-days we have many apps and systems to maintain and monitor our budgeting system. This not only allow us to enter the income and expense and see the data, it allows us to plan for the future.

Once a person starts maintaining the budgeting process in their personal finance, he/she will notice the discipline in their spending nature and will ask themselves before spending or buying anything. Budgeting system allows them to keep their requirement and needs shorter as possible. By following this, the investment and saving process becomes very effective. When investing process becomes effective, the compounding plays its role to make them richer and financially free at the earliest.

Budget should be made for all expenses including loan repayment to daily expenses. Few can be Rent / Home Loan EMI, Car Loan EMI, Business / Personal Loan EMI, Groceries, Eating Out, Entertainment, Travel, Fuel Expenses, Shopping, Miscellaneous and so on.

When we have expenses maintained, the most important part is to include the income in our budgeting. Once we start maintaining the income source, we will push ourselves to have more stream of income. Few of the income sources can be Salary, Business Income, Capital Gains (it can be land, stocks or gold sale), Dividend Income, Income from Rent and so on.

Once we start maintaining the income and expenses part on a daily basis, we will automatically push ourself to control our personal finance. Later, this will lead to happier and controlled financial structure.

These days people use UPI payment process for most of the purchases. This easy way of payment process makes people to spend more. This can only be monitored and reduced through budgeting process. Our hard earned money should be kept in a place where it is not easily accessible to spend. UPI is a place where spending is easy. We can follow the below 3 ways to reduce or avoid over spending through UPI.

• It is better if we can avoid UPI payments wherever it is possible and use cash as payment mode

• We can keep a rule to ourself that we will use UPI payment only 2 times a day with a limit to payment

• We link the UPI payment gateway to a bank where we have limited amount maintained and restriction given to the particular bank on spending per day / month

I am not against the easy processing system on payments. However, this should not control us and push us to over spend. These days UPI payments can be done overseas as well. Hence one should be very careful on charges and spending.

Hope this helps the reader of the blog follow the budgeting process on their personal finance and enjoy the investing process and generate huge wealth.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Capital Gain, Tax & Pledge

When we are speaking about stock market and investing, we cannot forget the term capital gain & capital gain tax. There are 2 types of capital gains, Shot term and Long term. Short term capital gain is defined as profit generated by selling a stock or group of stocks which were held and sold with in a year. Whereas, Long term capital gain is stocks sold which were held over a year. The long term gains from equity above Rs. 1 lakh annually are taxed at 10% while short term gains are taxed at 15% as of July 2024.

I invest on selected stocks, which I feel would give great returns on long term. However, initially when I started my investing journey, I own few stocks and sold with in a year. These comes under short term capital gain tax of 15%. This was very huge and revisited my portfolio and spend time in identifying the quality stocks which I would keep at least for 10 years and invested on those. Buying and selling of stocks not only attract capital gain taxes, we should also consider brokerage, security transaction charges, exchange charges, GST and stamp duty. So, holding a stock more than 10 years would reduce our taxation and also increase the profit earned over time.

Let us keep aside this capital gain tax aside. When we hold a quality stock, we also has the option to pledge those and get the collateral margin to perform trading (this is advisable only when a person gets enough knowledge and practice with small money). This collateral margin received could be somewhere between 80% to 90% of the current value of the stock. So over time, when the stock price increases we will also get higher collateral money to trade on futures and options. This could give us some additional profit, if done carefully with patience.

So, this gives the clear understanding that when a quality stock was held for a longer period of time, it will give us higher capital gain / profit, it attracts lesser tax percentage on capital gain and enough margin to trade on futures and options. I would not recommend readers of this blog to do any trading on futures (as I don't believe one can make money in futures). However one can sell far "out of the money" option to gain some premium.

Hope this blog helps in understanding the concept of capital gains and taxes.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Financial Knowledge, Learning, Experience & Spirituality

I would like to share my life's learning & experience through this blog with a small comparison of driving a luxury car. Let's assume we wish to drive a luxury car to get the pleasure and comfort of travelling from one place to another. In order to achieve this, we first need to have the financial knowledge.

Only then we will understand the power of saving, investing and compounding wealth. Once we get this financial knowledge and generate decent money without debt, we will own the car we wish to drive. Let's not get into the topic of asset and liability. Some may argue owning a luxury car is a liability. Let's not get into that. Our purpose here is to own a luxury car and have a pleasant and comfortable ride.

Once we own that beautiful and comfortable car. Without learning how to drive we will not be able to actually drive the car. We will only be able to clean and wash the car daily. So, the second important thing is to learn the process. Here, we need to learn how to drive the car. OK, now we own the vehicle and we learned how to drive the vehicle. Third, without fuel we will not be able to drive the car. Experience is like fuel. We need to gain experience to drive the car comfortably. Our hands and legs should operate in an auto pilot mode while driving to enjoy the ride. This can be achieved with experience.

Now, we have the financial knowledge, learning and experience. This is like we own the car, we learned how to drive and we got the fuel filled. Without a proper road, where will we drive the car ?. So, the road is nothing but spirituality or spiritual knowledge. This will keep us away from greed and help us to have a smooth drive. For example, when we have a luxury car, we will try to ride that at high speed. This thinking or action can be avoided when we have the spiritual knowledge. Spirituality has the power to kill the greed and fear. Spirituality will help us to keep ourself calm all the time when practiced appropriately.

So, the 4 important things to maintain and practice in our life to have a smooth ride are Acquiring Financial Knowledge, Continuous Learning, Gaining Experience and Understanding Spirituality.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Over thinking & Fear → Wrong Decisions

Most of the time, we do courageous activity but success is postponed due to lack of patience. Lack of patience is derived from Fear and the fear is the cause of over thinking. This is explained in the picture attached clearly.

Yes, many times we would have observed in our past that what we desired would have been achieved just by having some extra patience. When we deep dive into the negative reaction showed by us, it will give the answer that we thought many unnecessary things in our mind which would have never happened.

I made many mistakes in life when coming to financial decisions due to Over thinking. Decision fatigue ( getting tired of making too many decisions ) is another big criteria which will keep us away from success. How to over come this ?

Taking less decisions as possible and stop over thinking will lead to success. This is said easily but when we are trying to implement this in our life, it is not that easy. This can be achieved by having a clear conviction by analyzing the facts before entering into any activity. By having the proper conviction in mind, that will give us the confidence and will keep us away from over thinking.

Let's say, I'm taking a position in stock market. I have the conviction that in near term, the market is going to fall. How I made this conviction ?, just by analyzing the fact that foreign institutions are selling heavily in the Indian market for past few months and the budget for 2023 is around the corner and new investments will be delayed. By having this conviction I would have sorted the market. For my surprise the market would have gained 200 points or little more than 1% after I have sorted. What to do in this situation ?

Will I book the huge loss and exit the market ? or will hold the position till the expiry and wait for my conviction to come true ?. Due to this 200 points upward movement, there could be many thoughts running in our mind. The only way to gain profit or success in our activity is to have patience and avoid over thinking. It is not wise to change the decision frequently, which will result in decision fatigue and will eventually end up in losses most of the time.

Financial markets across the globe is defined in a way to deal with traders and investors emotions. When we know how to deal with our emotions, that's when we see profits in financial world. The same is applicable in most of the happenings in our life. Let's not over think and make wrong decisions. By avoiding over thinking, fear is destroyed by itself. When the fear is destroyed, we will have great amount of patience and this will lead to success.

Have a Great Day
B G Nareshkumar

The Money Language

I would like to share my personal experience before speaking about the Money Language. I went to Shanghai, China in January 2016. Landed in shanghai airport by late evening and managed to check-in to the hotel room around 8pm. I went to a road side fruit shop to buy some banana's. I tried to communicate him that I need banana's through a sign language. It was a great success. Now, the challenge is I don't have Chinese Yuan, I had only US dollars.

The rate conversion for this business looks like a great challenge for both of us. I got an idea. I took the calculator lying on the table and went near him and we both agreed to the numbers which calculator told us. I gave him the US dollars to buy banana's and the shop owner gave me the balance in Chinese Yuan. From this I understood that the calculator (numbers) are the alphabets of the money Language and that is the universal language that everyone understands.

Calculators & School Students:

Calculators are available everywhere. Still at schools, students are not allowed to use calculators while exams and classes. I always wonder why can't a student use a calculator which is available everywhere in all sizes and formats. Once students start using the calculators at earlier ages, they will start liking the numbers. Mathematics will be their friend. Numbers are the alphabets of money language. That's the only reason schools don't want students to use calculators. I wish all students from Grade 1 onwards should carry a calculator in their school bag. Instead of giving Ipad's and Laptops to your kids, give them calculators. Let them play around the numbers for an hour per day. They will make numbers their friend (alphabets of money language). 

Compounding & College Students:

For college going students (most students), money is an instrument to spend and get what they want. Most Indian students (including me) do not read the money language even at collages. College going students should definitely be aware of what is compounding and how that will generate wealth over time. Students here should also learn about how consistent investment and compounding that money can bring wonders to their life.

If above 2 things were given to students at appropriate age, they will make wonders at life. Why don't we try this. This is not going to cost much. I wish every reader of this blog get the importance of learning numbers at early age and get the benefits of compounding for a happy life.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar.

The Mantra - If Computers can Think

While i was reading various books, i understand and believe that our way of thinking makes us. What we think all day long is what we become sooner or in future. Many big shots even have their Think Week as a break from their normal routine. This is just to think and come up with new ideas and refresh themselves. While successful and wise people give so much importance to their thinking, focus and actions, what will happen is computers are programmed in our brain to think only positive ideas and behaviors. 

That should be great moment and people will stop overthinking / negative thinking and become productive all the time. It also will keep people away from worries, fear, stress and anxiety. Do we need a computer to do this?. why don't we frame our own computer now inside our brain?. I believe if we use a computer to think, it will keep telling something to our brain. Right?. If we tell something to our brain consistently and continuously. It is nothing but a Mantra. One should identify the mantra he/she needed. This is nothing but what he/she wants to achieve in life.

Let us take an example, Floyd Mayweather. He is one of the famous boxer as we all know. We should understand his record of 50-0. Yes, he has a great historical record of not losing even a single time. How many people have this kind of record on the rings?. Definitely a successful person will have failures. May be, Floyd Mayweather would have met failures but not on the rings. This is because he keeps repeating his mantra's all the time. When he walk, when he exercise, when we eat, when he wake-up and all the time. Yes, that's what make him this successful. Can you imagine what is his mantra?.  Hard work, Dedication. He repeats this all the time. This was his mantra all the time. 

It is important for everyone to have their own mantra. We should keep telling to ourself everytime and all the time like a computer can repeat it, if we program it. When we keep telling our mantra all the time, our brain will only think about that all the time. It will hit our sub conscious mind and that will become very powerful. When this first step is achieved, then nothing can stop us from reaching our goal.

Just try this simple step. Think of what you want to become in next 20 years and write it down in a piece of paper in simple words. Try to make it very simple and in easy language. Then, keep telling that to yourself all the time. No matter whatever you are doing. When you eat, when you take bath, when you work out and almost everytime. Do this for 2 months consistently. If you can make note of your progress in this 2 months, you will be surprised to see your growth. This does not cost you anything. This is like defining your computer to think only in a certain way which you want. 

I wish every reader of this blog try this and achieve greater and happier life.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Productivity

Many of us think of being productive all the time but it is not possible to be productive all the time. Inorder to have the maximum productiveness there are simple 9 steps or we can call them as behaviors which can help. Before we get into these steps, let us understand why should we be productive ?. Is it really important ?. Yes, definitely, many people get into stress and worries these days due to lack in productiveness. They might be working most of the time infact around 20 hours a day but still they will not be productive and fall into unnecessary worrying, fear, stress. Being high productive in less time will keep us away from worries, fear, stress.

Don't work too much

I understand many people will argue with me on this topic. Yes, it is really necessary to understand how much effort is needed to perform a specific job. If we put more and more effort unnecessarily, it will lead to less productiveness and cause huge depression. We should understand the purpose of any job and it is more important to understand how much effort required in performing any job. More and more time spend than needed is a form of unproductiveness and will cause depression.

Don't worry too much

Worrying is not a new thing, it was there since humans have been in existence. If a person stops worrying, it itself shows the path to high productivity and success. Worrying too much will end in over thinking and over behaving in any job than it is required. When we keep ourself busy in learning new concepts and strategies, it can stop us from worrying too much. This will definitely be a cause for high productivity. 

Don't be stubborn

When we are dealing with people, most of us would have thought what does he know that i don't know. This is a form of stubbornness. World is very big and definitely one cannot have all the knowledge in this world. Life is a learning process. So, it is important to understand that any person would know something or many thing which we don't know. Avoiding our stubbornness and being open to learn from any person we see in our daily life is very important. This will definitely be a cause for high productivity. 

Don't check things always

How many times you check your Mail, Phone, Facebook, Twitter everyday?. I would recommend to ask yourself if that is really necessary to check frequently. It is ok if we are able to reply a person a bit late or if we are able to reply them within next 24 hours. It is not necessary to reply immediately when we receive an email. Many people are obsessed with checking their phones, computer and ipad's all the time and fall pray for less productivity. Stop this, this will definitely be a cause for high productivity. 

Don't say YES always

Many of us are very bad in saying NO. We are good at saying YES but not with NO. There is nothing wrong in saying NO. Infact, many people who achieved big in their career are good at saying NO. If we say YES, we will be committed to certain things which we might not be required to do. Sometime which will stop our productivity. To increase productivity it is important to say NO, where it is really not mandatory. Make a rating from 1 to 100. If the importance of any work is more than 90, then accept it and say YES. Else say NO, nothing wrong in that. This will definitely be a cause for high productivity. 

Write things down

Many of us will plan things in advance and will perform that very well too but we won't write those down at the end of the day or week. It is really important to write things down and have a look at those every quarter or every month to understand how that specific thing can be don't more effectively. This will also save us more time and increase our productivity.

Don't be hard to yourself

When certain things go wrong, don't be hard to yourself. There is no one in this world called perfect. People learn from their mistakes. It is ok to do some mistakes but with a calculated risk. Instead of being hard to ourself, it is much better to learn from our mistakes and rise again. This will make our work more productive as we learn from our own mistakes.

Don't neglect your personal education

Success is a journey. It needs learning and updating knowledge all the time. Most people think their formal school education is enough to lead a successful life till they live. No, it is not the case, one should learn all the time to be productive. If we need to shine in our work, we should be able to perform the work at ease with less effort and high comfort. This can be achieved with continuous learning and constantly gaining knowledge. This will definitely be a cause for high productivity. 

Don't hate rules

Our system has made us to hate rules since we are born. Rules are very important to perform any action in a sequential manner effectively. Without rules we would still be monkeys. It is very important to understand we are what we are now just because of rules. Inorder to do any work high productively, it is important to follow certain rules it requires. We need to understand those and work accordingly for high productivity.

I hope and believe the reader of this blog will be highly productive, add more value to their job and a happy and healthy life. 

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Travel with the Spot Price

Current market price of the stock or the current trading price of the index is called as Spot Price. Many traders and investors are busy in identifying where will the market go the next day. People will always spend more time in analyzing whether the market is bull or bear. Infact, the important thing to identifying is not the bull or bear market. It is important to travel with the spot. Yes, many hedge and fund managers are aware of this concept and they always keep their position unbiased all the time to win the market. Travelling with the spot is nothing but having the unbiased view. Even if the market moves up or down the next day, we should be able to book some profit and come out of it and stay with the spot again for the next day.

There are many hedging concepts like Straddle, Strangle, Strategies like butterfly spread and many more to say. But the important thing is to travel with the spot. If the spot price goes down or up, our positions should be around that price, we should never hold a position far away from the spot price. This adjustment will always help a trader (specially option sellers) to be in profit. I personally feel the best strategy with the automatic hedging is the short straddle. It is also important to be with the spot on short straddle. If the market makes a violent move, there are options to book certain profit and some loss and still stay with spot.

Let's take an example of a stock which is trading around 400. It is wise to have a short straddle at the strike 400 on the nearest expiry. If the trader is wise enough, he can take a short straddle at 390, 400 and 410 on the nearest expiry. This will help to book profit most of the time and to have less adjustments. There can be 3 scenarios on the market

The market moving higher, lower or stable

In the scenario of market moving higher, the 410 & 400 short straddle will be in profit and the PE on 390 straddle will also be on profit. The only position which needs to be looked into will be CE on 390. As an immediately effect, the CE on 400 can be at neutral with no loss / profit or it can be in a minor loss. As the time pass by, this position can also be on profit (provided with no much violent moves).

To stay with the spot in this scenario, when the market moving higher. It is wise to close the 390 strike (both PE and CE) and take the 420 short straddle when the market nears to 410. In an advance level, if we have multiple lots in 390 strike, it is wise to close all the CE positions and hold the PE positions as it will decay further.

When the market is moving lower, the exact opposite of the above can be performed to stay with the spot price. When the market is stable and do not move much, it is better to hold our positions as all the premiums will decay over time. A move of 0.75% or lower either up or down can be considered as stable market and let us not disturb our positions during these times. This will help us to take control over time & premium decay on short straddle. It is always important to have our positions hedged all the time. Short straddle is the best strategy to work on hedged positions.

I hope this blog brings information and importance of trading with hedge and short straddle. There are various strategies and i suggest to learn continuously and understand what will work for every individual and trade on those.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Expenditure Tax

People of India are more used to Income Tax process and major population is used to escape from income tax payments by showing their high expenses. Most of the big companies, show their high expenses and the remaining income is considered for the Income tax payments. Amount spend as an expense is not touched by the income tax department on the business class people. On the other hand, the working class people do not have any escape in paying the income tax. The tax is collected as TDS when the salary is processed, they pay the tax first and spend the remaining.

Now, before the budget 2022, the debate is on, will the expenditure tax be imposed completely eliminating the income tax ?. If that is so, what will happen to the income tax department ?. What is the benefit of bringing expenditure tax ?. Who will be benefited through this Expenditure tax ?. Will people spend more after this ?. Will the savings of people increase ?.

• If this Expenditure Tax process is brought into action, no one need to pay anymore income tax - Many will be feeling good right ?. Yes, most of the working class people (salaried people earning more than exceptional tax slabs) will feel happy. This is because they don't need to pay any TDS in advance and they will pay only on what they spend

• Most of the big companies will try to find a way to reduce their expenses if this expenditure tax is brought into action. This will be a complete game reversal for them. All these days they were playing the game of showing high expenses

• 
  Government may also project that people will try to reduce their expenses and start high saving. Do you think any government will think of their people saving more ?. No, government wants people to spend less to keep the money rotation in place. This will help the economy to grow higher. So, if the government is telling due to this expenditure tax the people saving will be higher, don't believe them. They might have other big plans

• The income tax collection these days are very low as many are not showing their income properly, specially the business class people. But the expenses cannot be hidden. If a person wants to buy a TV, Motorcycle, Fridge, Car, Washing Machine, Grocery, Shoes, Clothes, Toothbrush, Petrol etc. etc... they will need to pay this expenditure tax without escaping. I don't think any person can escape from spending in this world. This will definitely increase the tax collection compared to the income tax

• As per our Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 2020, only 1.46 Crore individuals are liable to pay income tax, which is less than 1% of the population. By imposing this Expenditure Tax, will this number not be increased ?

• There are several countries such as UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Cayman Islands, Bahrain, Bermuda, Saudi Arabia and Brunei where there are no income tax but people pay towards the social security, which is used for the government's budget. These countries are not poor countries by eliminating income tax. May be India can join this. Definitely not my personal wish, because India has very high population that these countries cannot be compared with

• 
  Let's think in a different angle. Will the people of India avoid spending or reduce spending because of this Expenditure tax ? I don't believe this. If the income tax is eliminated, people will have more cash compared to earlier case and they will end up in spending more (except few future millionaires who plan their budget properly). This will increase the tax collection to the government comparatively

• Price of petrol will increase due to this expenditure tax and definitely that will impact on all the raw materials. This will behave like a chain and the inflation will grow higher. Pair of shoes or slipper which costs around Rs. 500 in 2010 now costs more than Rs. 2000. This is almost the increase in price by 4 times in 10 years. Look at the inflation. We are already living in the highly inflated country. This expenditure tax will again make us to pay more on our spending

How can i be benefited on this expenditure tax ?

By imposing this expenditure tax, we know we need to pay tax on all our expenses. Hence we need to avoid spending more or avoid spending unnecessarily. If we are not controlling this earlier, we should start doing it now. It is wise to invest slowly and steadily with patience. Then we need to increase ways of higher income. Whatever we will earn through investing will not attract any tax. This is a good move for investors. This will definitely help to beat the inflation. Investing in a quality stock will help to save tax as well if this expenditure tax is imposed.

The only mantra is, Earn, Spend Less, Save and Invest.

Will the government be benefited on this expenditure tax, definitely yes. How can the common man be happy with this new way of taxes ?. What are the benefits ?. Working class people might think this might be a big relief for them, but they should think. Definitely paying tax on expense will be higher than paying tax on income. This is my personal opinion. Let us wait for the budget and see how this goes.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

The Job

I would like to share a real story of a boy named Phil. This boy's father own a laundry in America. The business was doing well. He gave a job to the boy so that he can learn the business and take care of it in future for a happy living. But Phil hated the laundry business. He did not come to the job regularly and he used to be absent many days. The boy's father was much worried about his carelessness and ambitionless on the business. 

One day Phil told his father that he wanted to be a mechanic. He wish to work in a mechanic shop. The boy's father was so shocked and was very restless about the boy's decision. But Phil had is way to work on the mechanic shop. He was very happy and worked very long hours. As he choose the job and he was very passionate about it, he worked very happily. He did not stop there, he took up engineering and learned more about engines. He died at 1944. This man was none but Phil Johnson, when he died he was the president of Boeing Aircraft Company. He was making the flying fortresses that helped the government to win the war. What would have happened if Phil Johnson was taking care of his father's laundry business ?.

It is very important to have a happy life. The job we do will decide that. Our job will also decide the stress level and how long we can live in this beautiful world. Many of us spend so much time in selecting the dress we are going to wear, we spend more time in selecting the car we are going to drive, we spend more time in analyzing various designs on the interiors at our home but we spend very less time in selecting the job which we are going to do. This is very important to decide the job and prepare us well in advance to perform the job effectively with love. This is a simple secret to build happy and successful life.

For the young boys and girls, i have a suggestion. Before you choose your course of study after your 12th grade or high school, fix an appointment with the successful person in that particular field in your town which you are planning to pursue. Ask them few question like how they feel after so many years of experience in their field ?. What are the drawbacks and success mantras ?. How much we can earn in 5 years ?. what is the growth rate in this field ? and so on. This will definitely give you a clarity on what you are planning. This will help you in taking a decision.

Definitely a successful person will give you an appointment and will be available to speak with you when you show enough interest. Infact, you don't even need an appointment. You can directly walk-in and ask for his suggestions. They will feel more priviliged and happy to help you than anyone. Even if you are not successful in getting an idea from one or two person, there will be many to give you their years of experience as suggestions. All you need to find them and get their point of view. In a way, it is a easy process to get a job before getting a degree, How ?.

Yes, when you impress that person by taking his suggestion and being in touch with him, after your degree he can give you a job. Why not you try this. This is a way to get a job you like even before getting a degree. People get less sleep and suffer from various diseases that occur due to lack of sleep these days. The main and foremost reason is worrying and the job which they do might bring more worries if they don't like it. Any person is fit for multiple jobs. He can be good at many areas and he can be bad at certain areas. The important thing is to find out what will work for them and what they are interested about. Choose the job you like and start learning continuously for a happy living.

Don't approach a company and ask "Can i have a job in your company ?"

Instead, tell them you are good at certain field and ask for a job in that field to grow the company and yourself.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

No one will kick a Dead Dog

No one will kick a Dead Dog. Edward VIII, when he was the prince of wales during his age fourteen attended Dartmouth College in Devonshire. The college corresponds to the Naval academy at Annapolis. One day, one of the naval officers found him crying. The Naval officer asked him what was wrong. He was so concerned that the prince was crying. At first Edward VIII refused to say, later he admitted the truth he was being kicked by the Naval Cadets. The commodore of the college called all the boys and asked what was the reason that the prince was singled out and for this rough treatment ?.

After lot of hesitation among the boys, at last they confessed, when they become commanders and captains in the King's Navy, they wanted to be able to say that they had kicked the King. So, No one will kick a Dead Dog. They felt proud that they kicked the prince for no reason. This is just because they knew Edward is far above them all. When people around us join together to demotivate us and put us down, that is the sign they are giving us indirectly that we are far above them in all means. When we have the determination to achieve something and work towards it everyday sincerely, it will definitely be noticed by people around us. The very next step will be to demotivate us or they will feel pleasant & privileged by embarrassing us.

When we keep ourself busy in what we are doing and moving atleast a single step forward everyday, none of these actions will harm us. It will harm us only when we take these inside our brain and think about it. Infact these situations will give us information on whom to be ignored while reaching our goal. When starting a journey in stock market, specially in country like India, there will be many criticism which investors might come across. We might even feel that we are doing some kind of crime in entering into the stock market and investing world. This is how our system is designed. This is what many people want us to feel & think. This world will try to break that belief.

Inspite of all these criticism, when a person start to invest in stock market, if he / she found a minor loss in the trades during their initial stages, that will lead to further more criticism. Now, it will be further more heavier than the early one. If someone is trying on something new which they can't do or afford, then people will start criticizing and embarrassing. The abundance wealth will be delivered only when a person cross this initial stage. This is a stage where the emotions will be heavily tested. This will create an inner fear without our concern. We need to build the soft skills to overcome all these to achieve great in stock market.

No one will kick the Dead Dog. Avoiding all the noise in stock market is very important. I don't mean only the unnecessary news in the news channels and social medias to be avoided. I also mean the people around us. It is wise to get into a discussion but nothing should touch our emotion and that should not result in taking any position in stocks or indices. If people knew you are bit ahead of them in stock market, they will try all ways to demotivate you and make you feel embarrassed. This is because stock market deals with money and no one hates it. Everyone needs it and more than everything they don't want you to have more than them. This is a real fact on my personal opinion.

It also does not meant that everyone in stock market makes money. More than 90% of people in stock market who trades very actively lose money. It is very important to gain enough knowledge before entering the stock market else there are many people waiting to laugh at the failures. Stock market is not the platform to make easy money. It is a source to make decent money over time.

I wish every reader of this blog understand that No one will kick the Dead Dog. When you are kicked, feel that you are very active and superior to the one who is trying to kick you and move ahead. Let our results speak. Controlling emotions and overcoming fear is the first step to success in stock market, which is followed by continuous learning and patience.

In Financial World, our conviction can be highly rewarded
before which our patience will be heavily tested.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

Why Grass is Green & Sun is Hot ?

Why grass is green ? I read in a book, If we knew how grass is able to transform sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into food sugar, we can transform civilization. When i was trying to find an answer for the above question in my mind, i also understand and read a statement by Santayana, "Man is not made to understand life, but to live it".

Oh yes, that's exactly true. Trying to understand everything, which is exactly not possible in our small life span. General motors research laboratories have spent years of time and millions of dollars trying to find out how and why a spark in cylinders sets off an explosion that makes your car run; and they don't know the answer. Thought they are not able to find out the answer after spending so much money and time, they are one of the biggest companies in the world. So, it is really not necessary to understand everything in life, it is necessary to accept it.

Why Sun so hot ? If we try to understand this, we need to reach sun. Which is considered as the atmost impossible activity in this whole world. This is even understood and accepted by top scientists in this entire globe. May be in future if humans found a solution to reach sun and try to understand why it is so hot (i doubt if it is possible), it might give an simple answer, it is so called nature and it is defined & designed that way. So, spending so much time and energy in understanding everything is merely not necessary but we need to accept and live to it.

Similarly, there are many things and relations in this world are meant to live it and not necessary to understand it. Everything is designed in a way for human to have a comfortable and happy life. The actual problem arises when man tries to understand everything. Taking life as it comes without worries and learning continuously to improve us is the only solution for a happy life. 

This is applicable to financial world as well. Let's take it very simple, can anyone in this world explain exactly why stock market fell or gain today ?. I bet this is not possible by anyone to get all the facts and describe in detail. Even if they try to do so, there will be a controversial facts which will rise to offend their solution. In the due course, stock market will go to the next day and work in its own style. The answer to this question is, stock market is a combined result of all activities in the financial world. That can be a profit / loss by companies, or it can be a manipulation activities by big institutions, or it can be any big government wish to bring the stock market down or up.

So, our aim should not be to understand what happened in the stock market or financial world to bring the price down or up. Instead, our priority is to make money in stock market either the market moves up or down. I have seen many people search in YouTube, why market gained today or why it declined today. Very less will search on, how to make decent profits in all kinds of situation. So the key is to live life not to understand everything in life. 

I believed this small blog will bring more light to your approach on stock market and life on what to concentrate. Let us not try to understand why sun is hot or grass is green. Let us enjoy the warmth given by sun and the green beauty of grass. 

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar

The Star & Mud - Mojave Desert

People these days get into frustration so quickly, lose their patience sooner and make bad decisions. These bad decision taken will get them lot of trouble. It is always better to take a deep breath and understand the situation fully before coming to a conclusion. I would like to bring you a true story of a married women during the war. This lady's husband was working in army. During the war, he was posted in Mojave desert to assist the army. This lady was not able to live without her husband. Hence she decided to move to the small town near the mojave desert. 

Soon after going to the desert, she understood this was the worst place to live on this planet. She did not like the locals and resists herself to mingle with people around there. As it was a desert, she could not have the proper food as everything had certain amount of sand mixed with it. The wind was so heavy that she could breath only sand everywhere. She can't bare that atmosphere anymore. So, she wrote to her father saying, she could not stay there even a minute and she is planning to come back home. Soon after she send the letter, she receives a letter back from her father with only the below 2 lines.

Two men looked out from prison bars,
One saw the mud, the other saw stars.

soon after reading these lines she understood how stupid she was as she did not try to mingle with the local and not able to look at the positive side of life and situation. Immediately, she changed her perception and started to speak with local people who were very friendly with her and even gifted her some art works which they made. This motivated her to look at the positive side of life and she lived there happily with her husband. 

This was a real incident wrote by a women describing all her efforts and lifestyle she faced during her stay in mojave desert. It described how she looked at life at an entirely different angle just by changing her mindset. Nothing changed physically when she just changed her mind but her perception changed, her approach changed. This gave her positive thinking and happy life. 

Similarly, many people in financial world think stock market is a gamble. It is their perception. It is up to everyone what they look at standing behind the prison bars. If they look at the stars, they will see a bright future in investing and trading. Rather if they look at the mud, they will see this as a gamble. Later may be after 20 years, they would think if they would have invested in 2022, they would have been a billionaire by 2042. I wish everyone not to look at things as mud which they don't know anything about. Once we build the knowledge on certain things specially in stock market we will see it as a star. 

I wish everyone invest a small amount everyday in a quality business and leave it to grow in its own style and time. Do not think stock market as gamble and do not think everyone who invest in stock market will lose money one day. If we see around this globe, many people achieved the height of abundance wealth through investing. I wish the reader of this blog to invest wisely to gain abundance wealth through patience and continuous learning.

Look at the stars not the mud.

Have a Great Day

B G Nareshkumar