Financial Fitness

Indian movies did create a strong awareness amongst people about looking fit while Baba Ramdev (A reputed Yoga guru) should be credited for making us aware about actually being fit. But unfortunately the same can’t be said about the financial fitness of us, Indians. The most vocal in this matter are apparently not the most famous, disallowing them from creating awareness. We prefer reading the Page 3 instead of business articles in a newspaper. We prefer watching daily soaps and reality shows instead of watching the business news or listening to investors. Why do we do so? Everybody wants money, right? Still, we refuse to invest our time in understanding how things work. Warren Buffet was seven years old when he first invested in the share market and today he is worth a whopping 80 billion dollars.

A great thinker once said, ‘Every big problem can be traced down to its roots, where the problem began’. Your mentality on money says a lot about your money making potential. A lot can be said from your response on a Porsche standing outside your house. If your response is, ‘He must have done something wrong to get this rich’, then you are too negative about money but if you instead say, ‘What a beautiful car’, that means you sincerely believe that money can be minted through good work too and you start seeking answers to get there. I recall a scene from one of my favorite movies ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’. It stars Will Smith who plays a man who is on the verge of financial bankruptcy. But he believes he can become as rich as the stockbroker he sees parking his Ferrari. So, the problem lies in our mentality. When I was twelve years old, I asked my dad what the stock market was. He told me that I was too young to know about it. There. You have it, the problem. We have been brainwashed into thinking that too much money is bad, that one can’t earn huge money without doing anything wrong.

‘Fear’ is for financial fitness what ‘tiredness’ is for physical fitness. It prevents you from stepping out of your comfort zone. The larger your comfort zone, the larger your income zone gets. It is often easier to take the precedented path but being an engineer or a doctor does not necessarily mean you reach your financial potential.

This is basically the financial model of the three classes in the society –

The poor

All of their income is focused on paying the bills.

The Middle class 

All of their income is spent on paying bills and what remains is spent on luxury i.e. creating liabilities. Liability is something that takes money from your pockets.

The Rich 

Here is where things get interesting. They create assets from their income which pay for the expenditures. Assets are something that puts money in your pockets.

The state at which one does not need to actually work in order to pay his bills is called as Total Financial Freedom i.e. the returns from his investments are now greater than his total expenditure. We can call these returns as passive income. Whatever we focus on gets bigger and clearer. So, inculcate good habits because they keep your mind occupied and give you the right mentality. This will allow you to step out of your comfort zone and increase your income zone. Find your passion and weave it with a sustainable financial plan. Invest your time in improving your skills be it in photography, writing, dancing or anything else and invest your money in increasing your passive income.