1338- dilbert's9 point financial plan -will it work for india?

Adam Scott’s secret nine point formula is here and many people have said it deserves the Nobel prize.
Ha! simplicity is in. However all the people who want simplicity in THEORY actually LOVE to make their lives more COMPLEX. Given a choice between Idli and Aloo Parathan if you choose A.P, remember you are choosing craving over hunger and nutrition. Nothing wrong, but you will live with the consequences. That is all.
Notice its simple brilliance in the exact reproduction of his formula:
1. Make a will:- I have said this enough number of times on Subramoney. com, however results are a consequence of action, NOT GOOD INTENTIONS. How many of you actually got down to do it – that is the question.
2. Pay off your credit cards:- More an American problem, but yes pay off all your credit cards, cut up all your credit cards, except one, and hey learn to live within your income.  
3. Get term life insurance:- (approx.10times annual income) if you have a family to support. Even if you are in business – say you are a partner you will need business insurance. Make sure that the firm pays the premium and insures the partners. So that in case of a partners demise the firm does not suffer.
 4. Fund your 401k to the maximum:- In the Indian context this can mean the PPF or the NPS. I fully agree with the PPF, but hate to say that I do not like the NPS.  
5. Fund your IRA to the maximum:- If this is your personal pension plan, yes fund it to the fullest -but remember if by paying this and PPF if all your investment surplus is exhausted, you will have to make alterations.
6. Buy a house:- if you want to live in a house and can afford it Absolutely brilliant. To me affordable house is when you pay 50% downpayment for the house, not 10% contribution and a 90% loan and a 10% personal loan to pay for the stamp duty and party for friends.
7. Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account:- A combination of SB account, M M Fund, and bank FD could also work.
8. Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement.

If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio.

Ok these are all NICE TO DO. Let us say what happens in real life. People go to a planner and have a nice ‘MUST DO LIST’ then they go and do what ever they want! No point in telling the dietician that you are going to have idli…..and then saying ‘Oh my friends forced me…so I had butter chicken’ . Just Do It. But do remember 3 of Nikes heroes are now in trouble!
(- See more at: http://www.subramoney.com/2013/02/dilberts-9-point-financial-plan-will-it-work-for-india/#sthash.3pf8UPRg.dpuf)
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1337- జననం,మరణం:

జననం- నేలమీద నడక!
మరణం- నేలకింద పడక!!
(జి.ఎస్.ఎస్.ఆర్, స్వాతి వార పత్రిక)
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1336- Jest a minute!

I stayed in a hotel where the towels were so thick, I could hardly close my suitcase.

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Lalu Prasad was filling a slam book. He did not know the meaning of Zodiac sign. He turned the previous page and saw some one had written 'Cancer', so he wrote PILES!

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TV Mania

 

1335- ECHO... What goes, comes back!

1334- What’s possibility thinking?

(T.T.Srinath, Metroplus, The Hidu, 3:02:2014)

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The famous preacher Robert Schuller often talked about possibility thinking as opposed to probability thinking. He said, if one resorts to possibility thinking, the individual will tend to gauge the outcome in terms of ‘what can be’; while one who is pre-occupied with a probability approach will compel himself/herself to anticipate outcome as ‘what may be’.

The two approaches differ in that possibility thinking equips the individual by infusing his attempt at a task or deed with positivity, while the probability approach resorts to mathematical chance.

In the latter the individual is propelled by logic, while in the former freewill and choice dominate.

When we allow ourselves to look at possibilities, we are enthused by hope, faith and positive anticipation; probability thinking tells us that outcome follows a cause and effect trajectory, so we might as well reconcile ourselves to ‘what might happen’ and await outcome. That we have choice to cause change in attitude and thinking is absent.

Possibility thinking also encourages one to believe that the outcome will be desirable.

The father of two young boys, one who the father felt tended to see the downside only and the other son who always celebrated possibilities, decided to gift each son a present. To the less positive he gave a bicycle and to the one who seemed to be positive he gifted a basket of horse dung. Said the less positive son, “Only this, now I will not get the motor-cycle I so much wanted for Papa has spent his money on getting me a cycle”.

By contrast, said the son who had received the horse dung, “If my father has given me a basketful of horse dung, then surely there must be a horse to follow”.

Possibility thinking returns cheer to our lives.