inscriptions 9
TRANSCRIPT
INSCRIPTIONS 9WALL 3 PANEL 1
HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS ISSUE:1) FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF FINANCIAL PLANNING PRINCI-
PLE NUMBER 4 “GOLD AND GREED NEVER STAY TOGETHER”2) LONG TERM CARE.
AND THE SCULPTOR INSCRIBES TALKS ABOUT HOW WE HAVE EM-POWERED OTHERS TO DISTURB US OR MAKE US HAPPY, AND HOW WE CAN RESTORE POWER BACK TO WITHIN OURSELVES.
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TITLES SPACE FOR P.NO
Sculptor Inscribes RG 2
Gurus speak Faculty Members’ space 15
Caterpillar Space Students and Trainees 24
News Channel Happenings at Gopast 27
Inscriptions 9
INTERNALISING THE POWER WITHIN OUR-
SELVES
POWER AT WRONG PLACESPOWER AT WRONG PLACES
(This article is not about politics, it is about our mindset)
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POWER OUSIDE OF US EMPOWERED SELF
There are people who achieve great heights in their professions. Such heights which are unimaginable and unbelievable. We are forced to believe it, only because it really happened. Their achievements are unprecedented. You will see this happening in every field. Ma-hatma Gandhi in Politics, Edison in Science, Ramanujam in Mathematics, Pele in Football, Sachin Tendulkar in Cricket, Warren Buffet as an investor, Gregor Mallory in scaling peaks. Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, JRD Tata, Anita Rod-dick in Businesses, Carl lewis in Track and Field, Michael Schumacher in Racing.
One of the basic qualities of the great achiev-ers is, their willingness to take initiatives.
They are the first to move. They jump into the fray and then the others follow. They stay a step ahead. They appear like an engine draw-ing the bogies behind in its go. They are un-plugged. They are not held back by others criticisms. They don't stop at others negative comments, they pursue their path.
They are not afraid of failing, but they are scared of not trying. They don't get tired los-ing again and again, but they feel tired when they are not playing. They are not afraid of be-ing heckled. They don't think about “What others might think of them”. They don't bind themselves with assumptions about com-ments other people will make about their venture.
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This does not mean they are insensitive or that they are thick skinned. It is just that they have taken full responsibility for their lives and their missions. They have internalised their power in themselves.
But look at the common-man, he has out-sourced his power, he has empowered things, people and circumstances. His power centre is outside of him. To talk about him in an in-clusive term read ahead.
We have empowered others to upset us, to make us feel small, to make us feel defeated.
We have empowered some chemicals to make us feel better or to feel important.
We have empowered blasting loud music to make us feel energetic.
We have empowered things to make us happy or make us unhappy.
We have empowered circumstances to belit-tle us or to humiliate us.
We have empowered others to make us feel important and proud, or otherwise.
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Somebody’s comment can easily upset us. Somebody’s behaviour can make us angry. An-other car overtaking us can make us feel in-sulted. We feel like teaching him (car?) a les-son. Somebody’s dress can make us feel that we are ugly or improper.
By themselves these things or circumstances or others have no power to play with us, or our emotions. We have only empowered them to do so. We need to take back the power and restore to power to ourselves. Nobody can upset us or makes us feel angry or make us feel depressed, unless we allow them to do that.
How did we then empower them?
Let us discuss a case where a car is speeding by our side and quickly overtakes us. We shout at that driver or curse him. Why did we do that? We thought that person is rough, rude to drive like that. So we pick up speed to teach him a lesson. What have we done? We have allowed him to change our speed limits.
By asking a wrong question. “Why did he do that?”
I have during my counselling sessions come across people who have had bad colleagues, they complain that they are selfish, or that they are discourteous or that they are a big
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hinderance in performing their duties. The situation is so worse that at times these peo-ple have quit their jobs to find newer work situations. What have these people done? They have allowed their colleagues to govern their career paths.
How did they empower them?
By asking a wrong question. “Why are these people like this?”
In fact the correct question should have been.
“What should I do now?
What else can I do now?
How should I respond?
What are the options available to me?
How do I change them?
How can I change the situation?”
If you look closely at these questions you will observe that “I” or “me” is the central object here.
In the previous set of questions “They” or “those” were the central objects. By asking those questions we have shifted the power to “them”.
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We can not control the current of the river water while we are swimming, but we can pace up or pace down our strokes. When the reservoir opens the sluices, the level of water in the river rises and current gains more power to drag us. We can pace-up, or hold on to some logs and get out of it fast. But if we were blame the rising water for the loss of our momentum, we will only em-power the current to scare us. When we are scared, we can hardly think. The options are extinguished. And the water does the remain-ing job.
When the stock market index slides down, we ask why is the happening to me. We at times even feel that the universe is sabotag-
ing. We blame somebody is fixing the prices. We blame the regulator who can not control this downfall. By doing this we are empower-ing the market to depress us. We shift the power to the “incompetent” regulator. The only way now left is to pray that somebody does something to arrest this fall. Market is moving in its own course, sometimes on the upside and sometimes on the downside. The correct question should be “What should i do now?” Should i get out with this small loss or should i hold on till things improve?
When we take charge of the situation, our re-flexes are functional. When we empower the situation to take charge (of us) then we only submit to its pull.
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Look at the way people pursue their career. There are people who feel that it is the duty of the organisation to provide them with ca-reer growth. Whereas there are a few others who find out what they can do for organisa-tion’s growth. These people get spotted eas-ily, by the heads of the departments, by the initiatives they take.
We have given the power to others and other things. Now let us, get back and re-store it to ourselves.
There are 4 capacities endowed in each of us, which help us to change our lives.
1) The capacity to work
2) The capacity to learn
3) The capacity to communicate
4) The capacity to think.
Before a farmer starts working on the soil, it is tough, unyielding and appears brownish. But through his work, he makes is soft, yield-ing tons of grains, turning the wh ole field green in colour as it appears from the sky.
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Before a potter stars working on mud, it is just a sticky, shapeless piece of Earth. But through his work, he makes it into a vessel, solid and stubborn, container so artistic in de-sign, that people love possessing it.
Before an athlete starts running, it is just a vast ground with some white lines drawn on it. But the athlete sets it on fire sprinting on it and then people crave to take a handful of that earth as a souvenir of their hero.
These are a very few examples of the results of the Capacity to work.
The capacity to learn is a great power in it-self. We can learn anything. We can learn
Farming, Science, Maths, Astronomy, Astrol-ogy, Baking, Weaving, Spinning, Mining, Manu-facturing, Shipping, Swimming, Walking, Psy-chology, Cardiology, ………………………………….
We do not have to envy anyone, we can learn that which makes them great. We can model them. We can read, understand and use the findings of other great men. By learn-ing we can bridge the gap between us and the experts in our field. This capacity to learn
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is a multiplying factor to our capacity to work. Meaning instead of working blindfold, we can learn the details and by do so we can multiply the product of our work.
The capacity to communicate, is what binds people together. We get the support of team members because of this capacity. We get the support of our customers by communicating with them. This capacity to communicate
raises our productivity exponentially.
It is with his communication ability that Ma-hatma Gandhi was able to bring 300 million people to believe in the power of Ahimsa (Non violence) and join the movement of in-dependence. Martin Luther King expressed his “I have a dream”. Leaders convince their teams the importance of the task. They moti-vate them to join hands.
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The basic capacity which makes all the above capacities operational is our capacity to Think.
This thinking capacity alone will decide, how much of the above three capacities we will be putting to use. Negative thoughts diminish the capacities. Inspiring and motivating thoughts enhance these capacities multifold. It is with this capacity that we either em-
power others to decide our destiny or we empower ourselves to write our destiny.
If our thoughts are predominantly negative in nature then we are arresting all the above 3 capacities, reducing its strength to that of a caged lion.
When we think that others or the circum-
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stances are responsible for what we are to-day, we can not unleash those capacities. If we have place the power of changing our lives outside of us then the massive power of those lions (above mentioned capacities) are caged and chained.
But if we restore the power unto ourselves then the cage is broken and the lion roams out.
While concluding this article I urge upon all of us place the power to decide our future at the right place : That is within “Ourself”. If we had empowered thus far others or situa-tions to decide our destiny, it means that we have put the power at the wrong place. To re-store the power to ourselves, we need to
ask the right questions. A few samples of the correct questions are:
“What should I do now?
What else can I do now?
How should I respond?
What are the options available to me?
How do I change them?
How can I change the situation?”
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Internalise the power in
ourselves.
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CHAPTER 2
GURUS SPEAK
WEALTH THAT LASTS FOREVERPART 4
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8 Governing principles:
1) If a person adopts the formula “Income - Expenses = Savings” then he can never become wealthy. The correct formula is “Income - Savings = Expenses.
2) Regularity is the key to wealth. (The key to wealth is not the ROI, IRR, CAGR etc)3) Start early and reach safely.4) Gold and greed can never stay together.5) Purpose must decide the choice.6) Financial Pyramid7) Draw the map before you start the journey.8) Professional support helps.
WEALTH THAT GROWS AND LASTS FOREVER
PRINCIPLE NO: 4
“GOLD AND GREED CAN NEVER STAY TOGETHER”
We have seen in the previous issues the first three principles in financial planning and wealth management which will make wealth grow and last forever. The fourth principle that governs personal financial planning is “Gold and greed can never stay together”. There are so many sto-ries of greed destroying the wealth of rich people and as many stories of how poor people threw away their wealth that suddenly came to them through blessings and boons, just because they became greedy.
A man prayed God, and when He appeared before him and asked him, “What would you need, son?” he said God make that all that i touch turn into Gold. God blessed him and said, “So, be it son”. He made all his utensils, furnitures, fixtures into gold. But alas, even the food he
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touched turned into gold and in the end even his own daughter turned into a golden statue as he touched her.
What happened to the man who got blessed with a duck that lays one golden egg a day?
Greed blunts all the sense of caution. Greed defies intelligence. Greed ignores risk. Greed di-lutes discipline. Financial markets punish greedy people with swift, and deadly blows.
Daniel Kahneman is an Israeli-American psychologist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, as well as behavioral economics, for which he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Daniel Kahneman said that the financial markets are a classic case of an activity that refuses to distinguish the particular from the general. "Investors think, ‘No one can beat the market —
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but I can,'" he said. "People in that business believe that the markets are almost perfect — not perfect enough for others, but perfect enough for them."
He also says, “People trade way more than they should and they loose disastrously. As they say in psychology that the Emotional tail wags the rational dog.”
In financial planning and wealth management, we need to stick to the basic principles and not get swayed by the temptations that markets offer, particularly during a bull run. Greed does not allow this to be done. For example Let us take the example of Mr. Atul. He got into a SIP targeting `20 L fund for the goal which is 20 years from the starting point, it is likely that the in-vestment he has selected in SIP has already grossed `20L (or almost close to that figure) in the 15th year itself that is 5 years before the goal itself, now he must be advised to shift a major proportion of this investments into low yielding but safer instruments. Normally in that situa-tion, during a bull run to shift the investments to less attractive products requires the emo-tional strength of a willingness to forgo the present happiness for a future happiness. See Fig-ure 2
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Even though the need is only `20 lakhs, the present bull run makes this person wait a little longer to make more than the need itself, so that goal can be better celebrated. So Mr Atul throws caution to the wind and says that he will continue with the equity so that he can have more money than required. If the market takes a down trend then he will end up with just `10lakhs, that is half the money required for the goal.
Investors including traders many times ignore the stop-loss levels that they had set for them-selves. A sense of overconfidence develops. They believe that they have now mastered the mar-kets and they are in command. The brain picks only such signals that reinforce their belief in
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their skills to negotiate or manoeuvre the corners. The underlying emotion behind this is the greed for more than the requirement itself.
Proper risk management strategies are required to sustain wealth. Every big company main-tains an appropriate Debt:Equity ratios. This is one of the risk management strategies. But you will find individuals during a bull run in any assets, group all their assets into that category only. You will find this profound in equity markets. (It is also true with metals, real estate as well).
Risk ignorance is not risk management. To get prepared for the risk is not “Negative thinking”. It is not pessimism to foresee risk and getting prepared to manage it. But greed as an emotion will not permit this. Because it will reduce the quantum of gain. Investing in debt instruments is a very good risk management strategy. But when the markets are booming, the mind will not agree to it. Even the advisors and the media often tend to play on this greed factor and would discourage investments which are safe but are yielding single digit returns.
The justification of ignoring a debt instrument that yields around 6.5% on an average (CAGR) is that if the inflation is 8% on an average you end-up with negative returns on your investment in real terms, and some group of advisors say, “Therefore the best is to surrender or pre-close all that you have invested in Debt instruments like Life insurance cash policies, Postoffice saving or Government backed debts and invest all that in MFs or equities or high yielding equity as-sets”.
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They also produce charts, tables and data to support that recommendations. So far so good. The advice to Beat inflation is a very “Noble idea”. The intentions are genuine. But then they cross the line at a time when they show 15 years or 20 years rolling returns and historical data and make a picture that MFs and equites are also safe investments and at the same time can yield 20% CAGR in 20 years time.
If beating inflation is the only purpose then the same can be achieved by a portfolio like this:
80% investment in debts yielding CAGR 6.5% = 5.2% and 20% in equities/ MFs indicating a re-turn of (CAGR) 20% - 4% the total of both is 9.2% that is more than the estimated inflation of 8%. But then the 20% CAGR on investment make a person feel that he must have more of it (100% of it). That can provide him with luxuries.
Even though i will NOT recommend this portfolio as a standard advice to all investors, i have just used it to show, how greed ignores risk management. Individual advice will depend on so many factors like the distance to the goal, other assets held etc.
This aspect of greed you will find in many aspects of life. A driver races on a highway, jumping lanes ignoring the speed limits. He is confident that he can negotiate the car well. He is over-confident on his driving skills and the engine capacity of his machine. This stems from the un-derlying emotion of greed to reach early, or may be to prove a point.
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Traders wait a shade longer, in their options, than required to make the kill, that proves disas-trous. Why did they linger there? when they know the basics do not permit them. Their train-ings have repeatedly told them about the danger ahead. But then the present trend makes them greedy.
What happens in casinos? It starts as a small limit stake (affordable loss) just for the sake of fun. But then a small win triggers the greed to get more of it and it ignores the limits set for the self.
Investment is not gambling or rash driving. Investment is a science. It operates on certain proven principles. But when principles are ignored, then investment is akin to gambling or rash driving.
People loose money in the market not because of market behaviour but be-cause of their behaviour in the market.
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CHAPTER 3
CATERPILLAR SPACE
THIS SPACE IS MEANT FOR THE STUDENTS OF GOPAST
LONG TERM CARE INSURANCE
MR. NAYAN BHOWMICK
Retirement plan is not complete without a plan for long term care. For many seniors it is the only thing they have not planned for that could completely wipe out their entire life's work and savings. If our house burned to the ground, it would be an emotional loss and our insurance would compensate to rebuild. If we make accident our car, we may have some physical injuries, but the insurance company would protect us from law-suits and compensate the loss. But what would happen if we needed full time, around the clock care to help us to live our life? What would the cost? How long would our savings last? What would happen to our spouse and family?
The odds that we shall need long term care insurance
odds of having a fire is 3% -5%. The odds of our home burning down between now and the day I shall die are about 3 to 5 out of 100, but nearly every home owner is having house insurance.
Odds of a car accident is about 18% to 24%, yet every car owners carries car insurance.
Odds of needing long term care insurance about 80 %. However probably non of us over the age of 45 years have purchased long-term care insurance, nor we really have a planning for it.
What is long-term care (LTC) Insurance?
Coverage that provides nursing-home care, home-health care, personal or adult day care for individual (gener-ally) above the age of 60-65 or with chronic or disabling condition that need constant supervision.
It is the type of care given when someone need assistance with the "Activities of Daily Living" (ADL) due to an ill-ness, accident or old age.
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The Financial and Emotional Costs
Cost of chronic care are high and they continue to rise. Round-the-clock care at home is even more expensive. When ageing parents need long-term care, the emotional and financial repercussions are likely to span three generations. Grown children may suddenly find themselves having to sacrifice key goals for their own children, such as education savings, to look after their parents.
According to the Canadian Council On Ageing, two out of every three Canadian couples over 65 will require long-term care for at-least one spouse. If this were to happen to one of our parents, could they cover the costs? Or would we and our siblings have to carry the financial burden? Emotionally, we shall ready to face this challenge but financially or in reality it is a burning problem.
Long-term care can be very expensive, and not just in financial terms. It can literally tear families apart; it can ruin health of the care giver in the family and of course, it can wipe out savings.
Now, the burning question is that how we can protect ourselves from financial problem like long-term care re-quirements.
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CHAPTER 4
NEWS CHANNEL
PALM LEAF HAS NEW ADDITIONS NOW
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PALM LEAF NEXT RENEW-ALS ACCEPTED ONLINE
WITH 3 OPTIONS:
1) ONE YEAR RENEWAL
2) THREE YEARS OPTION
3) FIVE YEAR OPTION
NEW ADDITIONS TO PALM LEAF:
1) A/ H WILL NOW SHOW PIE CHART ALSO.
2) EPM TOOL WILL NOW SHOW FUTURE CONTRIBU-TION REQUIRED IF THE CLIENT SHOWS PRESENT VALUE OF HIS ASSETS DEDICATED FOR THIS OR EVEN IF HE SHOWS LUMPSUM AMOUNT TO BE RE-CEIVED ON RETIREMENT.
3) FINANCIAL PYRAMID WILL NOW SHOW REAL ES-TATE INDEX IN A BEAUTIFUL TABULAR FORMAT
4) Y/Z TOOL WILL GET UPLOADED THIS WEEK FOR SHOWING CLASSIFICATIONS OF INCOME.
5) NEW RESOURCE MATERIALS ADDED INCLUDING THE AMENDED INSURANCE BILL 2015.
MEMBERS OF TEAM OF MR ANIL JHA WORKING ON A GAME TO DEMONSTRATE RISK MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AND OPTIONS
AND STRATEGIES OF RISK MANAGEMENT
MISSION COT AND TOT BATCH AT THANE
LEADING LIGHTS COURSE FOR DEVELOP-MENT OFFICERS AT THANE
“SPEAKUP” COURSE FOR AGENTS TO HELP THEM CONVERSE FLUENTLY IN ENGLISH, CONFIDENTLY AD-DRESS A GROUP MEETING IN ENGLISH - INNAGURA-TION FUNCTION ON 02.02.2015.
THE COURSE DEALS WITH SIMPLE GRAMMAR, SEN-TENCES FORMATION IN ENGLISH AND ALSO IN COMMUNICATION SKILLS.
PARTICIPANTS ARE PER-FORMING THE OPENING CEREMONY BY FILLING THE SQUARES OF SPEAKUP
MS. PRIYA AND MR MANOJ THE MEMBERS OF THE EDU-CATION BOARD OF GO-PAST GETTING THE PAR-TICIPANTS TO ENGAGE IN GROUP DISCUSSIONS ON VARIOUS TOPICS LIKE TRAF-FIC RULES, CIVIC SENSE ETC.,
PARTICIPANTS SHED THEIR INHIBITIONS AND GAIN CONFIDENCE DURING SUCH ROLE PLAYS AND GDs.
MS PRIYA AND MR MANOJ ARE THE FACILITATORS FOR THE COURSE “SPEAKUP”