A bull market creates a happy mind set and a bear market (Ok, Ok, I am not saying we are in one) – whether for a short term or a longer term makes people anxious. Are you financially anxious? How does one deal with financial anxiety?

Well there are many things to do. Your life is a sum total of your family, friends, colleagues, likes, your readings, your job…and of course your money. The bear market only dents a small portion of the total – it affects your money. In fact if you have a simple portfolio of 25% in equities, a 20% fall in the market reduces your networth by about 5%. That is not too much is it? Also if you believe that this is a temporary setback, you can be sure that all these monies will come back!

Look at your total worth – which is what you feel you are worth as a human being + your net worth in money terms.

If your financial planner asks you to re-visit your “risk-profile” questionnaire, ask him to go for a walk. I am yet to meet a client who knows how to fill up a “risk-profile” questionnaire – or a planner who understands how to interpret it. Especially when the market goes from Bear to Bull or vice-versa. (OK, OK, I am not saying we are in a bear market – why am I denying it so hard? Because the market likes to shoot the messanger of bear news, and far, far more importantly I am not sure). At the budget I predicted a 2k point fall, and repeated it again at 16k…now I am not sure. What i did is already documented – I moved from some high p/e shares (Tata Power, L&T) to lower p/e shares….