Before Investing In Stock Market, Listen First To Those Who Suffered Losses!

Since last two years, people across world are investing like crazy in stock markets, especially in India. Everybody is thinking that they are experts as markets are going up and when it is going up then Who Cares…

Important thing to note is as per one report, out of all people who invest in market, only 5% make money. Hardly anybody knows this fact but when entire environment around you is floating around stories such as Mr X is millionaire by investing in ABC stock etc and on every business channel so called analyst are screaming Buy, Buy, Buy then one ends up thinking he/she has got a Hen that is going to give Golden egg everyday and they start thinking themselves as a great investor but only till the time reality bites.

In stock market, probability of people making losses is way higher than people who make money so better listen to those first who have suffered losses in markets. By listening to them, by understanding mistakes done by them one realises things not to do and that is most important thing while investing as most of the so called analyst are telling you only what to do and that is Buy, Buy, Buy!

First better understand what not to do and that will lead you to making lesser and lesser mistakes and will take you towards higher chances of making money. Many people do courses on how to invest in stock markets but I tell people first learn how not to invest as many people burn their fingers and lose hard earned money and one such example is myself.

I still remember, it was year of 2007 and I had newly joined TCS and at that time I was reading in business papers that sub prime crisis was brewing in US but I couldn’t understand it fully and after few days those news disappeared. Suddenly stock markets across world started going up, I think from Sep 2007. In India it was crazy, you put your money in any stock and that stock was going up. Whatever stocks I bought they were going up. Initially I was investing carefully but when crazy run started, all around hot tips were floating and reaching every other guy, I think I lost my track. In IT companies no body used to work from 9:30 AM till 3:30 PM (duration when markets were open) as everybody was busy trading. Right from top management till bottom layer employees everybody was busy in markets. After 3:30, during coffee break, everybody used to discuss with each other and tell how big money they made and how better they are than Warren Buffet!

In this frenzy environment, I lost my habit of looking at companies – who they are, what they do and started following other’s advises, following hot tips and at that time it was working also. Everyday my stocks were going up, my portfolio was going up everyday by 10,000 rupees which was lot of money for me. This whole setup was working with everybody as at that time horses, donkeys, pigs (all types of stocks) were running very fast. Everybody was thinking that he/she is sitting on good Arabi horse but unfortunately when Sub-Prime crisis broke out people realised that the horse on which they were sitting was not horse but donkey or pig.

In Jan 2008, ‘NIFTY’ – India’s stock index had hit two consecutive days lower circuits and whole world changed for investors. My stocks were hitting lower circuits everyday and forget about profits, I was not even able to sell stocks as there were no buyers. All my profits were wiped out and on top I suffered good amount of losses. Almost everybody suffered huge losses but nobody used to speak about it. Nobody used to open trading portal or even utter a word called ‘Stock Market’. During chats of Coffee breaks all such losers used to tell each other how Smart they were and how they sold before crash but truth was everybody was bleeding!

I refused to give up and decided to dig deeper and find out what actually happened. Later on what I found was when we all retail investors were buying, all big sharks were selling and all of us were stuck in nonsense stocks. I looked back at the events of last 12 months and found out complete madness in which many of us were stuck. I realised how foolish I was. I learned my lessons and few of the learnings are below,

1. Value your money – Know that money you are investing is very hard earned money, You have worked many hours, handling work pressures, meeting deadlines and deliverables, surviving all types of politics, so pls value your money as when one starts investing blindly in stock market then he/she loses awareness of how much they are putting in and that too so casually. First thing is know how much you want to put in. Come what may do not cross that limit, whatever amount of profits you foresee and whatever your greed compels you to put more, Stop!, know that its your hard earned money!
2. Listen to people who incurred losses – First talk to as many people possible who have suffered losses. Understand what not to do, and note down all the things and see if such patterns exists in you and markets. Avoid all such mistakes and you will be better placed.
3. Stay away from hot tips – When any bubble is created, hot tips float around. They reach you and you start thinking that you got something that nobody else knows and you end up putting lot of money in it. Know that when you are putting money, some big shark must be selling as for every buyer there has to be sellers. Fix one thing in your mind that you are at the bottom layer of this structure of Stock Market. If some hot tip has reached you means it has crossed all layers and it is not at all hot tip, it has been ensured that it reaches you to fool you. If at all it is hot tip then it will never reach you, big sharks would have already made money out of it.
4. Understand P&L and Balance Sheet– Understanding basic Profit & Loss statement and Balance Sheet of any company is basic criteria and if you don’t understand it then pls do not put a single penny! Stay away from stock market, its not for you!
5. Switch off all Business News Channels – Many people follow advises of puppets giving advises on nonsense business channels, pls switch off those. If they knew so much with accuracy then they would have invested that way and long back they would have become billionaires. One true incident that I saw – In India on one such channel, one show comes where in retail investors call them and 3-4 so called analyst guide them on television. It was year of 2008, one investor dialled in and asked one analyst saying I have bought ABC share for 1000 rupees with so and so quantity what shall I do now? On that Analyst replied – Ohh, such a wrong price, you bought it at very high price, very wrong. Hearing this investor told him, 3-4 weeks back on the same show you had advised all people to buy this stock with so and so price target. So called Analyst got red faced and then quickly said ‘Sell Now’ and they quickly switched to next caller. So stay away from these nonsense analyst.
6. Nobody is sitting to make money for others – In stock market, no body is sitting to make money for others. Infact everybody is looking at their own portfolio and how can they make more money, so do come out of mirage that Mutual funds and SIPs are there for you. Sorry to say but through these products, people are giving constant flow of money in the hands of fund managers to whom they have never seen or met. People are not ready to give money to their friends, neighbour, relatives or own brother/sister but they give thousands easily to unknown guy because he has promised some good returns! This is absolute nonsense!
7. Sellers Make Money – Fix in your mind – Only sellers make money in stock market. If you don’t sell then all your grown up valuation of stocks is on paper and when markets crash then all those profits evaporate and stocks go in negative.  People can’t handle this pain and sell in losses and sway from virtual profits to real losses. If you observe so called analysts, business channels etc are 95% of time giving recommendation of only BUY! If you see somebody saying SELL this stock then you start feeling negative about stock and feel something is not good. Know that selling stock doesn’t mean you are doing anything wrong, that means you are making money or reducing your risk.
8. Everybody cannot be Warren Buffet – New investors read lot about big investors such as Warren Buffett and start devising various strategies. My simple advise is to stop this madness. All these Multi billionaires operate at very high level, they are well connected with politicians, various Chairmans/CEOs/Directors and know beforehand what is going to happen. They are better placed to make money so come out of mirage that by reading some book you will be billionaire!
9.  Learn to value things – In India 1 kg rice costs anywhere between 40-100 rupees kg (depending on its quality) but if I offer people same rice at 2000 rupees KG then will anybody buy? Of course no, infact people will make fun of me and ask me to get lost! They can do it because they know value of it. Believe it or not, in stock market people buy such rice (stocks) for 2000 rupees and big sharks end up laughing at them. Learn how to value stocks. How many shares company has issued, per share how much profits company is making, compared to those profits at what price that share price is, what is PE ratio (Price to earnings ratio), how much is debt on the company, how much is book value, is company making profits since last 4-5 years, is annual report showing good prospect about future etc. If you can’t do this then stay away from stock market else you will end up buying rice for 2000 rupees KG. When TESLA was trading at PE ratio of more than 300 (which is absolute madness), retailers were buying and Elon Musk was selling! All such retailers are sitting on good amount of losses.
10. Note down your success strategy – Whenever you make money, note down your strategy, what you did right, what went well. Who knows you might have found new way of investing. Better keep track of things that went well.
11. Avoid subscribing to IPOs – I avoid subscribing to IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) as most of the IPOs are so overpriced that most of the investors suffer losses. When any company issues its IPO, it ensures that it is priced at very high price as then only they can collect max money from market and all investment bankers help them in doing so as they get huge fees and commissions out of this. When markets are in bubble, maximum IPOs come and even loss making companies collect billions of dollars, currently many such examples are there in India.
12. High Risk, High Losses – In stock market, many people will tell you that if you take high risk then there is high return. I tell you this is 100% false. I have seen if one takes high risk then he/she has suffered high losses. Infact if one observes all the big investors, they are hardly taking any risk, infact they always look for cheap valuations and guaranteed returns. No such investor is taking risk, as word ‘Risk’ itself conveys some kind of loss is there. Instead of taking risk, invest judiciously.
13. Stay away from futures market – I have seen many people get into it and go bankrupt. It is extremely risky as one can lose huge money in one single bet. Stay away from this
14. Stay away from Herd and Herd Mentality – This is the last and most important aspect. Inconfident, less courageous people always follow herd. Such people find safety and security in herd but I tell you if you follow herd in stock market for sure you will incur heavy losses. In this herd, stampede will happen and you will get crushed! Study independently which will boost your confidence and stand firm ignoring herd and you will make money!

HAPPY INVESTING!

—PRITAM—

ARE WE IN TECH BUBBLE AND IS IT ABOUT TO BURST?

It looks like massive Technology bubble which was created in last 10-15 years may burst in coming months. I feel it is much much bigger than 2000 .com bubble.

I don’t know, how many even recollect those .com times or seen those times, I was doing engineering and still remember mass firings in bigger organisations, hiring freeze, so many e-Commerce & .com companies bankruptcies and so many people were packed back from US to their respective countries.

Tech bubble right now is higher by many times than 2000’s .com bubble. Compared to 2000, right now lakhs and lakhs of employees are in IT. If you sum up employee count of only TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, L&T Infotech, Accenture, IBM then it is ~1500000. Overall almost 50 lakh (5 million) people in India are working in IT-BPO industry. This number must be almost 50 times bigger than 2000.

Just imagine, now if Tech bubble bursts then what happens. It is going to be unmanageable for all. This sector has massive potential to affect each and every sector of economy. World is in so much debt that you will not find such debt laden scenario in entire known human history. Now interest rates are going up across world and people/corporations in debt are going to have hard times. On another end Europe has been systematically pushed into War by few powerful people of America & Russia. Europe is already in massive debt & high inflation. In Asia, Japanese yen is collapsing, China is deliberately destroying its own economy by putting unnecessary harsh lockdowns which is going to affect every other region of world, India’s domestic industry is already in trouble and massive brewing inflation is hitting every industry. Countries like Turkey, Argentina are already destroyed. Africa is bleeding under violence and debt of IMF & World bank. In various wars, half of middle east is already destroyed in last 2 decades. Most important of all, so called superpower America is literally bankrupt (printing presses & manipulation is not showing this).

Supply chains across world are broken, water bodies are vanishing very fast, farmers are leaving farming on massive scale and input costs of all farming related products are continuously going up. Food shortages are going to be everywhere across world. I don’t think since World War II, world has been in so much mess.

If one looks at this entire scenario, I doubt this much Technology will be needed in the world. I feel we are in massive Tech bubble and once it pops up it will create havoc in the lives of millions of techies who know nothing outside their own so called Tech world. Many of the Mechanical engineers like me, Chemical engineers, Civil Engineers, Design engineers are recruited by IT companies and we do not have our core field knowledge now. What we do if we lose our jobs as we have no other skills.

Basically if crisis comes then people in Tech industry are going to have very hard times. IT & Tech industry is not among must have things to survive, it falls under good to have things to live better life. One can survive without IT upgradation or software or hardware. We need to remember, we can not eat and drink Softwares & Hardwares, what we actually eat and drink is evaporating from this planet.

I hope future proves me wrong and if crisis comes then these IT companies turn around things!

BAN LIQUOR – ECONOMY, GDP, GDH, PER CAPITA INCOME WILL BOOM IN INDIA/NATIONS!

Just 25 years back, if somebody used to drink liquor in India then it was very bad thing, people used to talk about that person in derogatory way and feel pity on him as that person was walking the wrong path. Today situation has turned around so much that if somebody is not drinking then he is considered as kid and drinking alcohol is associated with somebody’s manhood, some daring act & enjoyment.

What happened in this period and how come nobody is even noticing what is happening with people’s lives and economy of nation. If one observes how liquor got its position in Indian civilization then one finds Television, Cinema, bad politicians and greedy global businessmen have systematically done this.

If one observes movies of last 30-40 years in India, one can easily find one common thing in every movie & that is liquor glass, bottle in the hands of hero. Whether it is occasion of celebration or deep distress he will drink liquor. People always like to associate themselves to hero and they copy what hero is doing. This is exactly the point which liquor companies understood and targeted hero. Even if you see many TV commercials one can see many liquor ads in which liquor associated with Valor, bravery, celebration of the person who is drinking it. Again many famous cinema and sports personalities do these advertisements which are aired every few minutes on each channel which have huge impact on youngster’s minds. If you observe carefully, religious people do not drink liquor or get involved into any immoral act as their religiosity stops them, these days many movies are targeting this religiosity and trying to break people from that. Infact these days even television serials have many liquor scenes which are introduced in very subtler or blatant way. In India, % of men drinking liquor has gone up drastically and liquor companies are making huge money out of it but hunger for money is not satiated as they want more money. If one observes carefully then one can see women are being targeted now as if women start drinking, then it is again huge market and things are going in that direction. If you see many recent movies, liquor glass, bottle is in the hands of lead actress. Recently I was watching one TV serial along with family in which party is going on in one Punjabi family, suddenly one girl takes another girl (returned from Australia) into corner and asks her “Have you started drinking or not? or have you drowned name of Punjabis?”. I was stunned after seeing this. Punjabis are associated with liquor. Children of Guru Nanakji & Guru Gobind Singji who saved this nation is being associated with Liquor! This is shameful. Today if one visits de addiction centres then one can find many girls/women as well and this was not the scenario few years ago.

Another important aspect in liquor consumption is its availability and politicians have played major role here. If one recounts number of liquor shop or bar before 25 years and current numbers of bars and such shops then there is drastic difference. Number has gone up multifold and governments have given licenses to thousands of people. Many say there is huge corruption in that as well. One can easily find liquor shops on every road, you may not find milk dairy easily but you may find liquor shop easily. In one of the drought prone district of Maharashtra, there is no water for irrigation or drinking but there are 700 liquor shops/bars in entire district!

Another aspect which is playing out is free liquor! Whenever there are elections, politicians are giving free liquor for almost 1 or 2 weeks and youngsters drink it lot as it is free but then get hooked to it. Not only politicians but big corporate houses are doing same. You take IT companies, under the garb of project budget they allowed liquor in project parties which is free and young employees (even old ones as well) started drinking it heavily. One more route through which liquor is entering in people’s lives is social drinking. People think they are drinking little bit and that is fine and it is cool as well but soon this little bit turns to be major part of people’s lives and they don’t even realise.

If we look at the statistics of liquor in India alone then one must get concerned and stunned. More than 1/5^th of the alcohol produced in the world is consumed by Indians. According to one study liquor market in India is growing at 30%. In 2015 alone ~ 20 billion liters of liquor was sold. Value of whisky, wine, beer etc sold in a year amounts to near about 2 lakh crore (~30 billion dollars). All other types of liquors (toddy & country liquors) are not even considered in this. It is estimated that many people spend 50 to 60% of their income in alcohol. This means billions of dollars are flowing into the very few pockets (owners of these liquor companies).

Other dangerous aspects of high liquor consumption are domestic violence & abuse, fatal accidents (drink & drive), addictions, health hazards (lever getting damaged, brain damage, stomach related issues, depression etc), extra police efforts needed for tackling of crimes arising after alcohol consumption, untimely deaths, costs of putting people into deaddiction centers, loss of productivity, It is estimated that every day in India ~15 people die from alcohol and to me this number appears very small from what is the reality…These are the costs arising due to alcohol consumption and further billions of dollars go into this (several lakh crore). Just imagine how much money these liquor companies must be making across globe as many of them have presence across globe!

If costs and effects of alcohol are so big then what will happen if we ban it! It will be big boon to humanity and economy. Lakhs of crores that are going into pockets of handful of people will remain in the pockets of millions of people. Savings rate of people will increase. Many people will get out of poverty in few months. Once people have money in their pocket and they are in their consciousness & alert then only they will be able to buy other necessary things for their family Ex- Good cloths for children, toys for them, saree for wife, building good house, good utensils in kitchen, good quality of groceries, holiday with family. Just imagine how much economy will boom due to growing demand for various products and services. Money in circulation will increase and so tax collection of government as well! Right now money that goes into few pockets and gets locked will start circulating in market resulting into booming economy which will further create millions of jobs. Imagine money that will get saved in healthcare, increase in productivity, lesser burden to police means they will be able to dedicate their time to other more important issues. If one thinks carefully then Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Per capita Income will improve drastically due to booming economy.

Most important factor which will improve is GDH – Gross Domestic Happiness index. There will not be so many domestic violence or abuse incidents, there will not be untimely deaths after which small children and mothers struggle for their survival, more savings, more time for family, more jobs etc will result into happier families which is most important goal of any government or nation. Looking at all these factors first thing any sensible society should demand is ‘Ban On Liquor’ and any sensible government should first put this ban in place!

HOW AEROPLANE MANUFACTURERS MAKING HUMONGOUS MONEY FROM INDIANS/NATIONS…

If you remember, just few years back if somebody wanted to travel by air then it was big thing because air tickets were very expensive and only very rich people could afford those. Now in today’s times we see that any Tom/Harry is travelling by planes. What happened suddenly? How is this happening? Who is real gainer and who is real loser?

What I have understood is only beneficiary of more people travelling by planes are aero plane manufacturers (there are 2 to 3 companies only). Countries like India have little good rail network and people used this mode of transport for years as it is cheaper and long-distance trains are available. On the other hand, flight tickets were very expensive which only rich could afford.

Simple rule of business says If you want to sell anything then there must be demand in the market for that product and to sell more and more planes, manufacturer need its demand, means more and more people must travel by flights then only more and more airlines will give orders for more and more planes. Why will people travel by planes if they have cheaper train options? There are various ways how it is achieved.

First thing is move away people who are travelling in trains in higher classes (by paying little more money than ordinary classes) towards flights. Its done by increasing its fare constantly and making flight fares cheaper at the same time. If one sees now, fares of first class in trains are equal to or expensive than flight ticket. After 2014 infact all types of AC coach fares have almost doubled and on few trains dynamic pricing has been introduced which is further expensive. At the same time over the years absolutely no investment has been made in upgrading trains and rail infra whereas huge taxpayer money has been put in developing and modernizing airports. If one goes to airport and train station in India then can immediately make out the difference.

While travelling in long journey anybody would like to save time and high-speed trains and flights are the best option for this. If one sees, there is hardly any long distance high speed train in India then if one wants to save time then only option left is flight. Now government is trying to build one high speed train but that to for short distance and that too by spending humongous money.

Question comes how come flight tickets have become so cheaper? Simple answer is airlines are selling those at extremely cheaper prices. Next question comes, planes are very expensive, they have limited seats (can’t carry 700-800 people like trains), their maintenance is very expensive, airports fees are higher, aviation fuel is expensive then how come they are selling at such low price? Are they making any profits? Answer is No. Most of the airways in India are making good amount of losses. Then question comes if they are making losses then how come they are running business because you need money to run it. Answer is loans, yes they are getting loans from banks for most of their operations, right from plane purchase to day to day working capital most of it is coming through banks. Then one must think how come banks are lending them if they are making losses and what the hell is mortgage? This is the question where each one of us must tumble after deep diving into it. At least I don’t think that loans are given after security and depositor’s money is not at all safe. Recently one of the airline’s owner went bankrupt and he ran away to some other country and did not pay any loans of banks. Those loans are NPAs for banks. Banks are giving loans from depositor’s money which is of Indians.

Under such scenario, why will people travel by trains when they have equally priced flight option available where people can save time and experience great infrastructure of airports. As increasingly more people travel by Air, airlines need more and more planes. In order to purchase those they need more and more money which is given by banks from people’s very own deposits! More and more they give orders to aero plane manufacturers, more and more money is made by these manufacturers. Basically, these manufacturers are making money through Indians pocket which is coming to them in the form unsecured loans.

Not only this, now these guys are not satisfied by this, now they want more demand of planes, so in India government is developing airports almost at every city and government is asking all airlines to fly people at cheaper prices. This will result in furthermore demand and that is how one of the airline’s spokesperson was recently informing that India needs almost 2100 planes in near future! Imagine amount of money which will flow towards them!

Now what will happen if airlines go bankrupt and unable to pay back loans? Bankers will have huge NPAs, in such scenario either government will bail out banks/private airlines (from taxpayers money) or bankers will not return people’s money and banks will go bankrupt!

Question comes to mind is, Do so many people running these things have hand in hand – Aero plane manufacturers, airlines, bankers, politicians? Looking at the history and current situation at least my mind says Yes to this. We as Indians must ask many questions to government and keep our money safe!

ONE OF THE REASON WHY FEAR ARISES…. GET RID OF IT….

I don’t think there is anyone who do not want to live fearless life. Fearlessness is the basic quality if one wants to live like true hero. Despite of this, rarely there is any one who have not feared of something in his/her life. Sometime or other fear pops up in our lives and many times we are not even aware that fear is taking over us and ruining our lives.

Swami Vivekananda says

“ It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment”

“The earth is enjoyed by heroes. This is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear”. Tell this to everybody “Have no fear”.

 

Everybody wants to live like hero. When we watch movies many of us are on the side of hero only and later on copy/mimic what hero did in that movie but one thing ruins our heroism and that is fear. Why this fear haunts so much that people even forget their lives to live?

One of the main reason I have found is selfishness. It is one of the biggest reasons fear pops in people’s lives and many of the times people are not even aware that they are being selfish. When our thoughts, our lives, our motives revolve only around ourselves this thing called fear keeps chasing us!

Just do this experiment with yourselves – whenever you are fearing something, someone or some situation ,central figure about whom you are thinking is yourself. This “I” or “My” is predominant there. We are always thinking about my life, my money, my wife, my children, I may get hurt, they may kill me, I may lose, I may get beaten up etc. Our central thought revolves around only ourselves. If you ask somebody to raise his/her voice against corruption or bad elements, many will say “I have family, children and I do not want to get involved into this”. They accept this injustice out of their fear and out of selfishness their thoughts are evolving only around themselves and which is leading to fear.

If somebody has fear of water then central thought is “I may get drowned”. If somebody has fear of exams then central thought is “I may fail”. Even few students do not attend exams out of fear. Fear takes over them and then they start feigning illness or something else. Ask someone to join Army and if he is fearful then he will say “I do not want to die so early”. Again this “I” takes over. Ask someone to stand up and address audience of 1000 people and out of fear and ego he /she may not be even able to stand up properly. Hands & legs may shake. Central thought of the person could be “Will they laugh at me? Will they accept me? Will I speak properly?” etc etc. People get drowned in thoughts of future where they are the only central figure.

It is out of fear, selfishness that people do not raise their voice against bad elements, corruption and wrong in society and this is biggest reason why many countries are in bad shape.

To overcome this fear, solution is very simple. One must broaden his/her vision. Start thinking about others, have higher and broader aim/vision. If you are thinking then think big, why to think about only about our one family, think about entire society, think about entire nation ,think about entire planet. More and more vision is broader, more and more responsibility is taken then this fear will disappear. When this selfishness will disappear then this fear will also stop popping up. When we start working towards bigger goal which will benefit for entire society then many of fears will disappear. Look at all the freedom fighters, look at all the soldiers they have no fear as they lived/ are living for bigger cause.

One needs to remember that there is difference between being fearlessness and being stupid. One cannot say that I am fearless so I will go and stand infront of train or one cannot say that I will go and stand up infront of roaring tiger as I am fearless, then that person is being stupid.

Once we overcome this fear then we can move in the right path and that too with speed and right now need of the time is people overcome this fear with broader vision!

“If you are really my children, you will fear nothing, stop at nothing. You will be like lions. No cowardice. Do you understand? Be true unto death!” – Swami Vivekananda.

WHAT CAN YOU DO IF YOU LOSE YOUR JOB?

In today’s world when most of us have moved away from farming and dairy which are basics of any economy and we are doing jobs given by somebody else may be in Banking, IT, Automobile, Manufacturing, Shopping Malls, Hotels, Restaurants etc, have you ever thought “what if I lose this job? What if I am fired?”. Somebody may tell you rather than this think positive or be positive but I always feel one must be positive and practical as well.

In today’s world, economy is driven by paper currency which in turn controlled by central bankers and their associated banks. As per their allocation of money businesses may thrive or collapse, economies may expand or shrink. There is too much dependency on such external factors and nobody knows what is cooking up at higher level but for sure many economies in the world are crumbling. What to do when you are financial dependent on somebody else? Always remember slavery begins first with financial dependence on somebody else and then it becomes mental habit. In today’s world most of the people are doing jobs offered by somebody else and not only that, most of them are having huge loans on them – home loans, car loans, personal loans, loans for businesses etc. This is double pressure – one from your employer and one from your banker as not only you need to secure your job but you need to repay your loan as well.

One more interesting factor is not only we are dependent for money on others but in reality we are dependent for many things on others. For Ex – Groceries, milk, vegetables, medicines etc. None of us is growing anything on our own. Everything we are just buying by paying money in malls or retail shops. What if such scenario happens that everybody has money but supply of groceries, milk etc is less. Just imagine under current circumstances when people store lesser and lesser groceries at home what chaos it may lead to. One cannot be independent in every aspect of life as life is interdependent but one must become independent in as many things as possible.

In such world it is always better to give a thought to the possibility “ what if I lose my job, what if economy crashes?”. Have you ever wondered what skillset we have and apart from our regular job what else we can do? Then it is better to do small exercise and see where we stand by asking one question to ourselves “What else can I do?”

• Can I start my own retail shop?
• Can I cook/prepare nice food/snacks and sell?
• Can I start my own automobile workshop?
• Will I be able to do farming?
• Will I be able to start my own dairy farm by procuring few cattle?
• Can I produce some beautiful wooden products/furniture?
• Can I do any painting work?
• Can I professionally sing?
• Can I professionally act in drama etc?
• Will I be able to teach any subject in School/College?
• Will I be able to stitch/weave any cloth?
• Will I be able to prepare any beautiful product from wool?
• Will I be able to do something in tourism industry? ………………….
• Can I prepare 100% natural (no chemicals &) Shampoo/soaps/detergents (made from natural ingredients) and sell?
• Will I be able to do any electrical/plumbing work?

This is small list and there are many such options for which one must see if he/she can do it or not. I feel one must prepare and gauge themselves on this and if more the answers of these questions are ‘NO’ then it is not a good scenario and it is better to learn and acquire9 more and more skills and be ready for any tougher times!

 

TIGERS are extremely important!

Today the way population of tigers is reducing with high speed is extremely alarming and not good for all of us. Our national animal is on the verge of extinction and most of us are not even aware that once upon a time we were called as land of tigers!

Tigers not only maintain ecology of Jungle but they are protectors of whole Jungle. If in a jungle there are sufficient no of tigers then nobody will dare to just enter like that and cut the jungle. Today our nation is losing forest land at very faster pace and so with it we are losing amount of rains. Wealth which jungle provides is much more than what we see. On top of this tigers always increase tourism and we are losing on this. Our nation is so huge but we have very less no of dedicated tiger reserves. Tigers of these reserves generate so much money through tourism. Recently one tigress of Ranthambore named ‘Machli’ died at the age of 19 years. She was the most photographed and she generated huge no of revenue though tourism. These beautiful animals are not only living for themselves but doing so much for others!

There is one more important fact which we don’t know about them. In nature every species signifies particular energy. In Hinduism one finds that every God is associated with particular animal. Every animal carries particular energy with it and spreads it. Every creature is absorbing & spreading energies. Happy people spread happiness, unhappy people spread sorrow, cribbers spread similar thing. That is why with few people we feel good and with few people we never want to be. They are emitting such vibes that we do not like it. Tigers are nature’s fearless, active, powerful, aggressive energy. This symbolizes mother goddess. She is fearless, powerful, active, and aggressive. That is why with her Moorthy (statue) tiger is always there. Tigers are carriers of nature’s highest pure energy. They spread similar thing in environment. You will never ever see a Tiger with his tail inside, they may go 2 steps back only to bounce back! One may say, lions are more powerful than them but know that Lions are Lazy as well & live in groups,  whereas Tigers are always active & hunt on their own. If fight is arranged between Lion & Tiger then don’t get surprised if Tiger wins. There are examples in history how Bengal Tigers have even defeated African Lions! It is extremely difficult to beat the energy of this beautiful animal called TIGER. If one has seen Tiger from close distance then only one realizes its beauty & strength. One ends up having only one feeling for this animal and that thing is Respect!

Today on one end we are losing the animal which spreads energy of valor & activism and on another end fear psychosis is gripping people mainly created by media. Every bad news is news. This is mantra of media. At any cost we need to protect Tigers. There are multiple reasons they are diminishing & there numbers will rise if action is taken at this every step.

• Madness of creating personal zoos in countries like US (cubs are smuggles for these)
• Madness of wearing cloths made of Tiger Skin – especially among rich people of countries like China
• Poaching
• Shortage of their food, recently 200 Nilgais were killed in Bihar (reason given was they damage crops of farmers), instead those could have used to increase their habitat in tiger reserves
• Territorial fight among themselves as year by year their territories are decreasing

Our nation had not only tigers but tiger like people/warriors. Today one may wonder what has happened to this giant nation & its people. From every side they are under attack but do not raise their voice much. Now time has come up that these tigers are protected & real tigers gets awakened!

WHAT WE FOCUS ON, GROWS IN OUR BODY & LIFE

In our day to day life rarely we notice or become aware of our mind, consciousness. We keep on passing each day without noticing on which things we are focusing or our mind is getting hooked on to which things, on which things we are spending our energies, what is the effect of those and how it is affecting us.

Henceforth start observing and you will notice that things on which we are focusing are growing in our life, energies on which we focus, start growing in our body!

If one focuses only on problem then soon that problem will become so big that we will not be able to do anything about it and we get easily defeated by it. If a student focuses only on the difficulty of a subject then soon he will be bogged down by it & for sure he will do bad in exams or even flunk in it. If a student focuses on various solutions to tackle difficulty then such solutions will grow & difficulty evaporates.

If a soldier/king keeps on only focusing on the mighty size of its enemy then soon he will get bogged down by this & he/she will either surrender or run away. Mighty enemy will further appear mightier. If one focuses on various ways to tackle his enemy then soon he will find many solutions which will result in his/her victory. King Shivaji is right example who amid so many enemies, began with so little resources but built empire for his people!

When people are in love, they see only good in their partner. Their relationship blossoms and they are very happy at that time. This goodness grows tremendously as consciousness of both is hooked on good of each other. People whose relationships are in trouble, you will observe that they are focusing on negative qualities or some mistakes of other person. Once consciousness shifts focus from goodness to mistakes, negativity then it grows tremendously. People don’t feel like talking with each other, staying with each other and finally they separate. Person around whom one was roaming saying ‘Honey, honey, honey….’ soon becomes bitter and leads to divorce.

If somebody criticizes us, uses bad words then people who get hurt more are the ones whose focus is on this criticism, that bad word. Soon it becomes so big that it fills people with anger, hatred, few lose confidence and even few are unable to sleep as the thing on which they focused has grown up so big. On another hand people who ignore bad words or take good criticism in positive way and improve then it do not affect them infact they start improving themselves & always moving forward.

Few people, out of their ego & jealousy focus only on negative qualities of others. They are always pinpointing others mistakes or what they lack or what is lacking in their qualities and soon these qualities grow in them as well. Their consciousness is always focused on wrong things and soon they become like those people with same qualities. When we focus on good qualities of others, their skills, praise them, at that time focus of our consciousness is on this goodness and not only we feel good and positive, soon we also start absorbing those good qualities. This is the reason, in Maharashtra many people who are followers of saint Dnyaneshwara, call each other as ‘Mauli’ (means saintly qualities in others or only good part of others). Seeing good in others doesn’t mean when thief has entered in our house start seeing goodness in him, if we do that he will take away everything! We must catch him & handover to police.

If we focus on what we do not have, if we focus on what we lack in life then this lack increases. Many times people who keep on crying about money, health, small house etc  you will find soon they land up in further mess or they lose further whatever they have. People who are unhappy and say lines like ‘I don’t have money’ , ‘I am very small guy but you guys are really big & rich’, ‘ I am poor guy’, ‘I am not healthy like you’, ‘my job is not good’ etc then know that such people never ever progress in their life. Every time lack increases in their life along with increase in their cries. On another hand people who are content and happy in whatever they have are always growing in their life. Their focus in on whatever they have with them and if they are content with that then they get showered with further more abundance. This is the reason people who have, content will be given more and people who crib, cry & complain that they do not have then whatever they have also will be snatched away!

INCREASE YOUR SAVINGS RATE…SMALL HOLES CAN SINK BIG SHIP…

These days many a times we hear people saying that “My savings are almost nil”, “My salary evaporates in first 10 days of month”, “I don’t know where my money is going”.

I think right now in current times we have lowest savings rates and we don’t know what to do or many times we even don’t realise that we are saving absolutely nothing. In current world of jobs where we are financially dependent on our employers and our no of years of employment are also fixed then it is very important that we have good savings with us to meet any crisis & our post retirement life which gets affected by rising inflation as well.

To begin with, best thing to do is to document our expenses. If you can’t do daily then its fine but do monthly. Atleast figure out which are the fixed expenses that you incur monthly these are the ones which whether you earn or not you will have to Pay. Figure out which are the expenses that are variable, costs of these expenses vary. Note down all such expenses with monthly cost incurred on them. Then extrapolate that cost as annually, 5 yearly & 10 yearly. I am sure you will get stunned looking at the huge amount we are spending on these items over 5 to 10 years.

Remember Saving happens over the period of time, you cannot have huge money in short period of time (unless lottery or some wrong business). Figure it out which are the avoidable expenses, which expenses you can reduce & take action on those. I have prepared one table with expenses extrapolated for 10 years. You can also prepare such table with relevant items & see the amount over period of time.

Now observe, out of your list, how many you can easily avoid, how many you are incurring because of your lethargy/ignorance. If you see whatever we are incurring as routine, is actually eating out lot of our money over the period of 5 to 10 years. Also notice that how many of these items were relevant before 10 to 15 years, how many newly got added. If we observe such items are increasing with every passing year. I have left few rows blank as values could be too variable & depends individual habits.

Even for our groceries, food, for so many things we just go to market and buy ready-made items. Our ancestors used to prepare most of the things at home. Still in rural India people prepare lot many things at home Ex- Pickle, papad, chutneys, masalas, chips, various snacks etc. So many things are prepared at home & it saves good money.

Can’t we wash our own car? Can’t we wash our own utensils? How many phones we need, how many gadgets. If you see these companies will keep bringing on newer versions of electronic goods, how much money we can spend on it. These companies are so big today mainly due to our lethargy/bad habits/succumbing to euphoria to own these gadgets.

If we see, we are living like kings/queens but we need to remember that we are common people and every common person cannot afford to live like king. When common people start living like King for sure they are going to go Bankrupt!

YOU CAN’T AVOID POLITICS…LEARN IT…

‘Politics’…As soon as people hear this word, many of them distort their faces. Many say Politics is bad, it is dirty world. Many of them stay away from it and many of them fear of it thinking it is extremely bad.

Whatever efforts one puts to stay away from politics, one cannot stay away from it. Whoever you are, where ever you are it is going to confront you and if you run away from it then slowly it will start haunting you.

Politics is not only there in political parties but it is there in our day to day lives. See some of the examples…You go to office and you hear many people saying ‘our office is filled with bad politics’. There are lobbies, boss favors particular people etc. It affects you…

If you are in some business then also you are going to face it. Your competitors will be playing all sorts of tricks and games to outsmart you to gain more and more business. You will have to face this politics.

If you are in government job then politics is at unimaginable level. Just look into police department. You will be horrified to see internal politics there and how much those people are under pressure. Same goes with any other departments. Right postings, promotions or holidays they face politics in everything.

If you are sportsman then also you will face it. Right from selection to leading your team everywhere people will try to outsmart you or by hook or crook gain prominent position. People play politics to control various sports organizations as well.

If you join some NGO or religious or spiritual organization then you may face politics there as well! In desire to achieve fame, to gain some power people try to outsmart each other.

If you are student then also there is politics. Out of competition or jealousy you will have to face it. If various companies are interviewing students for jobs from same college then one must see how suddenly friends become competitors and one can see politics there as well!

Look into the lives of these movie actors or TV actors. For getting good roles, a good movie there is politics. There are lobbies and if you go like very straight forward person there, you will be soon fried up! (Many of these actors/actress are already leading horrible lives but that is different story!).

Not only your enemies but you may get amazed to see that some of your friends also might be playing politics with you. Some of them will be with you only till the time there is some benefit from you. They leave you as soon as there job is done or there are no more benefits from you. They may leave you if they find someone else is more powerful or useful. They may cheat you out of their jealousy towards you.

Not only friends but your own relatives also might be playing politics with you. Just see around and you may notice that there could be politics going on in your family.

Basically it confronts us at so many places and in so many different roles. If one ignores it every time then soon he/she will be ignored as well. Today middle class is the biggest class on the planet and most of them stay away from politics and in return they are totally ignored by politicians. They take care of ultra-rich (out of favors) or poor (for votes).

Basically politics is art of taking care of people and ensuring welfare for all. It has very broad perspective. There is difference between politics and conspiracies. These days conspiracies are being called as politics. Politics is seeing & building the way of welfare for all. One needs to see opportunities for this, various innovative ideas, apply all strength and sacrifice whatever one can! Among all the difficult circumstances find out the good way and do good for all. If you need to do acting then do it, if you need to show little bit of anger then show it, be shrewd but bring good to all. Final aim must be to bring good for all. To forbid good people from joining mainstream politics various print & electronics media portray that it is the world of bad people and only goons enter and rule this world. Watch movies and see what kind of politicians are shown.

More and more you stay away from it, you will observe that more and more you are ending up towards losing side. Soon incapable undeserving people will start ruling you. Soon donkeys will start riding horses. Nations where youth don’t look into politics are in dilapidated condition. If you are running away from this politics then stop doing that right from this moment. First thing is face it. Observe it. Observe what people do, why they do, what people say & why do they say that. Check the intention of people (little bit). This observation can teach you many things and you will be aware of who is doing what. Who may harm you and who may support you. Who is good and who is not. To learn swimming one needs to enter water and then only one can learn. Similar way face politics and whatever situations come your way and keep learning your lessons. Remember straight trees are cut first and similar way very goodie goodie simple people also will land up in trouble. Be innocent & humble but at the same time remain firm and invulnerable. So do not run away from Politics but learn it!