Let me explain. Rakesh Jhunjhuwala and Vallabh Bhansali are the more famous names so I am naming them. Both are Chartered Accountants – Vallabh a rank holder at that. Both put in hours of hard work on company balance sheets at the start of their career. It is not just the hard work, but also the talent to understand numbers. Their success was not attained by sudden flight, but they while their competitors slept, where poring over the numbers. You could add Ramdeo Agarwal to that list. Of course there are many others.

Sure they have their own methods. One may only go long. One may not leverage. One may trade and do a disciplined leveraging. The METHODS do not matter UNLESS you can FULLY understand this (i have been screaming about UNDERSTANDING BUFFET, NOT just reading Buffet).

However people who only see the success of these people (or even a Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Aamir Khan or Vishwanathan Anand for that matter) should realise that reading a little bit about ‘Technical Analysis’, or ‘Fundamental Analysis’ , subscribing to a few websites (even the brilliant ones like www.motleyfool.com, www.wsj.com, www.investopedia.com is JUST A BEGINNING. Or the more relevant Indian ones like www.myiris.com, www.valueresearchonline.com, www.moneycontrol.com, www.moneylife.in,….you still need to be at a particular level to understand what they are saying.

Websites are here to inform, lead you to better sources, get you in touch with sensible people, BUT CANNOT BE A SUBSTITUTE for research. When we did equity research (2 reports were for one of the Gods mentioned above!) – the detailing was great. The discipline and detailing that we did for a Singapore based VC would put the CBI and FBI to shame. To me this was all learning – and humbling experience. The CA degree helped in learning things faster that is all.

So just because you have stumbled on a website whose owner knows 179 words about Fundamental Analysis (or Technical analysis, Asset allocation, retirement withdrawal techniques, or what have you) do not think you have reached the destination. You have perhaps started on your journey. And there are miles to go.

Getting rich is easy (a booming economy with a 9% growth where every donkey gets a horse’s job ensures that). Making that step to getting Wealthy is the challenge. Surely you know the difference between being Rich and Wealthy

I like to say Amuse, Excite, Entertain, Horrify,  - and perhaps Educate is what this blog can do. If I think that there are blogs which can do more than this, sorry I have not found them.

Even though there are books (Saraswati), we need teachers (Guru – Hanuman) who will ensure that we DO what we know (Wisdom does not come from libraries, you need the blessings of Uma the Goddess of Wisdom).

So do not confuse a map with the destination!

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The resolution no. 1 was: I will write down my financial goals.

I am sure, you are thinking Oh My God, this is boring. Sure. Success is not about knowing (Saraswati), but finding a Guru (Hanuman) to make you wise enough to do (Parvati). Robin Sharma (yes the famous one!) says the advantage of setting Goals is it gives you Focus, Growth, Measurement, Alignment, and Inspiration. His article on Goal setting is surely worth reading – and is google able – if you do not get it try “dna india goal setting robin sharma” you will surely get it.

Most people have financial dreams. In fact all of us have dreams. Dreams are like this:

1. I want to lose weight

2. I want more money

3. I want a bigger house

4. I want to travel more.

Are these goals? The answer is no. These are dreams. A dream becomes a goal when it is SMART – i.e. it is specific, measurable (with regard to the amount and time), actionable BY YOU (not dependant on millions of other things), Realistic and it is TRACKED.

Writing down the dream (thus making it a goal) allows you to live the goal – rather than dream the desired asset. Typically if you want a car saying things like “I wish to own a Black Jaguar car, costing Rs. 75 lakhs, for which I will do a SIP of Rs. 150,000 a month for 4 years in Hdfc Prudence fund, accumulate this money and buy this car as soon as the fund value reaches Rs. 65 lakhs, borrowing the balance”.

This is a SMART GOAL – in our case a SMART FINANCIAL GOAL. You can set such similar goals for many things in life. Like saying “I wish to reduce 9 kgs. in the next ONE year, and for this I will join (and go to!!) a Gym near my house, stop snacking on fried foods, eat home meals as much as possible, use a food tracking diary and monitor my weight in an excel sheet”.

If you write down the pleasures of reaching the goal in a seperate sheet, take pictures of a black Jaguar and paste it all over the place – bathroom, bedroom, office, etc. the whole thing will work on you. And as they say “nature conspires to make it happen”.

So viola if you did both these mentioned here you would have a black Jaguar in 4 years time and you will weigh 9 kg less in one year. Oops I forgot, these examples are not important, your GOALS are!! So best of luck.

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Many people know that Hanuman is the Guru according to Hindu mythology (for the very philosophically minded, Hanuman caused the Atma (Sita) to join the Parmatma (Ram) – and that is the essence of Ramayana. So you need a Guru to teach you from the learnings of all the great people mentioned above. However is that enough?

Many people know – and many others may not know – that Parvati (Uma) is the Hindu Goddess of Wisdom. Wisdom is about doing what you know. This is the crucial link. Training, Learning is all fine – but for it to translate into action, you need wisdom. That is the crux.

So knowing that compounding creates wealth, living a simple life gives peace, tobacco free, alcohol free, stress free living gives peace is not enough.

Seeking a simple life, doing a simple sip (and sitting tight during turbulent times), having a term insurance, one credit card, IS ABOUT DOING all that you know. That will give you nirvana. So as Nike says, Just Do it.

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