Category: General

10 ideas to create Passive Income or alternative Source of Income – (Part 4/5)

Posted on by Nandish Desai

In the last article of “Increasing income” series you read Anupam’s real life sharing about how he created his second income (we thank him for sharing his experience with our readers). Today let’s go a little deeper and learn ways by which YOU can also create passive income stream, which means ways of income where you do not work actively and still the income is generated.

ideas to create passive income
We can see that a lot of you are interested in creating passive income but you don’t know from where to start, so after reading today’s article take at least one committed step to create second source of income in your life. After you complete reading today’ article, in comments section share at least one new idea for creating passive income.

We are a community of 50k+ people at jagoinvestor, if we all share one good idea for creating passive income, imagine what kind of passive income idea bank we will be able to create.

The rich get richer. Not only because they have surpluses with which to invest, but because of the overriding emotional release they experience from having wealth

– Stuart Wilde

I really want you to take a day off from your routine life and name the day as “PI day” of your life. On this day, you won’t touch upon any other area of your life,you will only think about creating passive income and nothing else. As next step create a special kind of account in your life called “P I income account”, in this account you will accumulate passive income, it should not come from real work or from active job. Passive income is the kind of income where either your money works for you or your people work for you.

10 ways to create passive income

(Do not discard ideas instead start thinking how the ideas can get into your life)

1. Rental Income from Real Estate

You can create rental income with the help of real estate. If you have more than two properties, the rent you get from one can help you to pay the EMI of other property you own. You can give your office space on rent or your second house on rent. You can also create either boys or girls hostel, if you have more than 1 flat on the same floor. Some even create small office units in one big commercial space and they give it on rent to people who do not have frequent visitors.

Make sure that you are selecting right people and legal aspect is taken care of. If someone (only if you are the owner) has good office space in Pune, we would like to touch base with you. (In 2015 we would like to establish jagoinvestor office in the city of Pune).

2. Buying Space for ATM Centre

This is one of the best ways to create passive income. Generally in a building, the space which is below the stairs gets sold at lower rate as compared to other offices and it is ideal place for ATM Centre. Banks can even pay upto 25k-50k per month to ATM centre owners in big cities, but again it depends on the location and the area where you own your space. There is a detailed discussion on this topic here

3. Buy extra Parking lots and renting it later

Parking is one of the biggest problem that everyone is facing today. One of our clients created passive income from the parking space that he owns in his building. Also I know someone who owns open plot next to a multiplex; he gave his space on rent to multiplex for parking purpose. This may not be possible for all but as I said do not discard ideas from your life.

4. Create Websites & Blogs

The machine age is over and we now leave and breathe inside information age, where no one cares where your office is or how many people staff you have, with the help of internet from a remote place you can create a lot of money. Creating a blog or a website is almost free (or I can say it is not very expensive) and is one of the best ways to create passive income.

You can do this as a part time activity and start creating second income in your life. This may be a slow process and it calls for good content for you to attract people to your blog or website. Jagoinvestor as a blog started very small and with the love and trust of our readers it has now created a special space in investor’s community.

5. Advertisement hoarding on your building and terrace

If your building is on main road with proper visibility you can put some banners or hoarding on the terrace of your building or even in garden or open space of your building. If you own terrace rights the money will come to you otherwise, it goes to society kitty as passive income. Some permission & authorization is required to take this step.

6. Interest income from your investments

This is one of the simplest ways to create passive income, which is in everyone’s reach. You can either create interest income through Bank Deposit products or by offering loans to people at attractive interest rate. For this your need cash on hand or pool of money from which you intend to create interest income.

7. Dividends from Stocks and Mutual Funds

You can either receive dividends through Stocks or from different mutual fund schemes. This income depends on the performance of stock and mutual fund which is linked with market conditions. There are many people, I know who create good dividend income from stocks and mutual funds.

8. Royalty Income

Your talent can help you to create passive. You can put something in a book on Amazon Kindle and it can be shared with the world, your book can help you get royalty income. Most people are disconnected with their true talent which is not good for creating second income. You really do not need a publisher you can either self-publish it or get in touch with websites who promote new writers.

We started with one book and now we have four books which are written for investors and advisors, our publisher has already assigned us two more writing assignments.

9. Referral business model

If you are into business you can create a strong referral business model by which your overall business strength increases. Here with the help of referral model not only does your business expands but you also get an opportunity to create passive income as an entrepreneur.

10. Buy cars and give on rent to companies

Many BPO’s and companies hire vehicles on contract. Some people buy vehicles and they offer their vehicles to the company they work with. This helps them to create passive income out of it. Here you need to be careful about the terms and conditions and choosing right driver who will be handling your vehicle on daily basis.

Project called “Passive Income”

If you do not have passive income it means you have yet not created “passive income” as a project.  In our book “11 principles to achieve financial freedom” you can learn more about creating passive income and how you can convert your dream of creating passive income into a project.

Just place your hand on your heart and ask yourself, “How many attempts in the past I made and I failed at creating passive income? (may be zero attempts). You are unable to create passive income because you are glued to the idea of only creating active income in your life. You haven’t failed much because you haven’t yet started fully playing for creating passive income.

Come on, make list of possibilities, make list of people who can help you, see what leverage you can get in creating passive income, see what best you can do with the resources you already have, what talents you have in you that can help you create passive income or take professional help, if required. In the last article of increasing income series we will have a strong completion and for what we invite you to share your key insights in the comments section.

This week action

Take a day off from your routine and name is as “PI day” (Passive income day)

Do some brainstorming and come up with ideas for creating passive or residual income. Do share one idea in comments section for creating passive income

Interview with Anupam on creating 2nd income source along with his regular job – part 3/5

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Do you want to know how someone created his 2nd income other than the regular 9-5 job ? In this 3rd article for “increasing income” series (part 1 and 2 here), we present an interview with Anupam Mehra from Bangalore, who is one of our blog readers and has agreed to share his story of creating second income in his life. I was very impressed with him because he has done something which most of the people only imagine and never make it a reality by taking extra efforts for whatever reason.

Having Second Income in India

So I mailed Anupam 7-8 questions to answer, so that it can be shared with you all. I am sure you will get some great ideas from him, a lot of motivation to something similar in your own life and at the end, lets start a new kind of culture on this blog where we share our knowledge with others so that it can enrich others life in some way.

Here is the interview ..

1. Can you share very quickly about yourself and what you do right now in job ?

I have post-graduate degree and have about 8 years of experience. My education and profession are in the same field, Electronics. I have broad range of experience in all aspects of product design. I was lucky in a way that in both the two companies that I worked for, there were no set job definitions. For example, some companies have set roles like development, testing, documentation, verification etc. But, for me I had to do all of this at some point of time. This helped me gain good experience overall. I think for all new graduates, embrace this sort of opportunities since it will give you a good idea on what interests you. You can choose to specialize in something that really interests you as you gain more experience.

For me alternate source of income did not mean alternate field of profession. I am really passionate about my area of work. Initially for earning 2nd income, I completed a few projects on freelancer websites like Elance and others. Some of the projects were not related to Electronics, for Ex: Visual Basic Automation, but for most part I did projects in my field of interest only. Some of the projects I quoted a very low price to ensure I got the project. For the past one year, I have been consulting with a US-based company. I am guiding a group of engineers in verifying a very complex design. I have provided a lot of automation tools that I developed, which is helping the engineers improve their productivity.

2. How does it feel to have another source of Income apart from your professional active job income?

To begin with, I wanted more control in my career. I did not want to worry about layoffs, appraisals, not getting onsite etc. I also wanted to see if I can get better at what I do. Of course making more money feels really great. I feel content professionally which makes be feel relaxed at home and I spend more “quality” time with my family. It just means I can save more (and of course my wife thinks she can spend more…).

3. Was it tough to start earning alternate income ? Because most of the time everyone has this complain of “not having enough time” ?

Not having enough time is the first thought that will come to our mind. To being with, I evaluated how much time that I spend on unnecessary activity. One of the first things that I did when I started freelancing was make a commitment not login to facebook, gmail, whatsapp etc while at my work. I am required to spend X amount of hours at work. I was determined to use all this time efficiently such that I would not have to spend extra time in the office. Of course, sometimes I would have to work 14-16 hours a day to meet some deadlines. But mostly I wanted to be disciplined and not spend extra time in the office unnecessarily.

And the good thing about freelancing is you can do it in your own time. After I come home “early” from work, I would spend time with my family, do all the regular stuff, put my 2yr old son to bed and login to work. This sometimes would work well, since my clients would be in the US or UK and the time works out perfectly. I would also wake up at 5.30 a.m. instead of the usual 7.00 a.m. on weekends just to get some work done before my family wakes up. At any point I have not worked for more than 15 billable hours a week. I had made this clear to all my clients as well.

4. How did you identify that you can earn alternate income – Because most of the people complain – “I have no idea what can I do other than my job ?”

The starting point for me was, identifying my strengths. What it is that I can offer better than most? How much time can I spare comfortably on a weekly basis? I explored teaching options that are available, both offline and online. I started off with this initially. As I mentioned before, Visual Basic programming was a hobby for some time which I used to generate some income. Basically once I had an open mind, I was not hung up with the type of work. I was more interested on the service that I can provide and its quality. I offered real value for money initially as I built my reputation on the freelancing websites and then slowly picked and chose which projects to bid/work on. So the question is “what skills do you possess that you can leverage to generate an income?”

5. What is one single thing you consider as most important thing one should have in them if they want to create second income source of income ?

Attitude – “Go-Do”

What I mean is I lot of people including me used to have these great ideas when having lunch/tea with colleagues and friends. Some of us have this frustration that “I am wasting my time”,” I should be doing a lot more”, “common guys, let’s start a company on our own”.

But somewhere in the daily grind, we remain in inertia… mostly because we want that comfort zone. You are the CEO, CFO and CTO of your one-person enterprise, be it being employed in a company or working for an alternate source of income. Having the great attitude of believing that you can do it and offer outstanding service to your clients will surely help you succeed.

6. Do you think now when you have a 2nd income source, you have higher confidence to start a 3rd alternate income source too ?

Absolutely! The possibilities and opportunities are limitless. I have just started. I intend to continue this. Some of my ideas require me to invest some capital. I have earmarked a percentage of my Additional Income to fund these. Multiple sources of income -> that’s the long term goal.

7. How has your financial life changed after you have started getting an alternate source of income ? Have your savings gone up ? Has your quality of life improved ?

I have to mention this here. My following of Jago Investor started when trying to correct my mistake of investing in endowment plans. So in the past two years I have corrected my initial mistakes (with the help of Jago Investor blog, Pattu Sir’s Blog etc) as well as started generating my additional income. So, both of these two factors have definitely improved my financial life. My wife and I made a combined decision on what percentage of regular income and additional income we will save. Rest is for spending. By doing this, we are living and saving comfortably.

We save most of our additional income by the way. We do not want to get used spending away this income as it might cause lifestyle inflation which might be difficult to recover from.

Since I am spending my personal time with generating additional income, I am more conscious on spending time with my family. I try to make it “quality” time. I regularly take casual days off where I am completely cutoff from both regular and additional work. I must say I have a supportive wife as well.

This additional income helps me in not worrying about the small stuff. Instead of worrying about the expense most of which is not in my control, I “worry” about increasing my income. This has led to a smoother family life.

8. Do you think having an alternate source of income is some kind of luxury or something which everyone should mandatorily have ?

Different folks, different strokes Manish!

It would be nice to have. I also recognize that some people will not be able to do it. Some folks might genuinely not have the time or would love to spend every free minute with their family or would be really happy with what they earn. My suggestion is people should evaluate if they really want to and can work additionally to generate an income.

Second source of income builds in some security in case of loss of regular job for whatever reason. It could also be a way for a person to transition from a regular job to full-time entrepreneurship.

Sometimes I also wonder if hours of research while choosing a mutual fund which can generate additional 0.5%-1% returns is worthwhile. Can this time be better utilized in updating skills and working for additional source of income?

Thanks

I would like to thank Anupam to accept my invitation to share his answers for my questions and share it with everyone else. I am sure you must have learned few things from this interview. You might have also got some validation from this interview about your own imagination and thinking. You can also see that someone has really done it and it works and now you will do it in your own financial life

Next week in the 4th part of this series, we will be talking about passive and active income and some ideas around it.

Now the question for you is – Are you working on creating alternative income source somehow ? Have you tried it ever ? and failed ? or succeeded ? Please share whatever you want in comments section below and lets have more conversation around this topic !

6 Empowering Dimensions that can help you to grow your income- (Part 2/5)

Posted on by Nandish Desai

You are reading second article of “Increasing your income” series. The overall response to increasing income series is very encouraging. We got some interesting sharing in comments section and we also received personal emails from many of our readers. A lot of people are serious about increasing their income and we are happy our article series is helping them in moving forward. You can read the 1st part of the series – 8 reasons why your income level remains STAGNANT

Grow your Income

You are 100% responsible for the income you generate.

In today’s article we will change gears; we say that “You are 100% responsible for the income you generate – totally. The only question is – Will you acknowledge that or not?”.  We will explore some very important dimensions which are important to understand for you to increase your income. Your monthly bank balance or income is a reflection of how you express yourself or in other words how you show-up in the world.

Here is an inspiring video , which I must have seen  for over 60 times, it taught me several things and today’s article come’s straight from the notes I took while I repeatedly watched this man speaking and expressing himself. You may have already seen the video, this time I invite you to see this video with fresh pair of eyes and from the context of how you can change your conversation around increasing your income.

6 extremely powerful dimensions that can help you to grow your income

Reflection #1: Your bank balance is a mere reflection of your thought balance

If you want to increase your yearly income or your bank balance you will have to first expand your thought balance. Make a conscious effort each day to fill yourself with richer thoughts. Human being is a thought making machine and you always have a choice to be responsible for your thoughts that you give shape to. Good and bad thoughts will always strike you, but which thoughts you choose to give life to is always in your hands. Because it all starts at the thought level and then it (the thought) slowly starts to shape your reality.

What are our articles on jagoinvestor all about ? They are simply our (ie mine and Manish’s) thoughts, that we give language to. Your thought around money and income generation has to be empowering and inspiring. And so give life and energy to only those thoughts, which helps you to grow your thought balance, and this will eventually reflect in your bank balance. Check your thoughts around your boss (majority of people hate their boss or has some or other complaints with their management). Go have a conversation but do not let your thoughts get corrupted. Your organization is the source of your income and you cant afford to nurture dis-empowering thoughts.

Reflection #2: Income is reflection of your personal creativity

If you want to increase your income, then bring the ingredient of creativity to the dish called “your work”. Your work is the ultimate source of your income and your work assignment always gives you an opportunity to express the magic that you hold in you.

Income is a reflection of how much value you create for people/clients and for the organization you work for. You are never paid for spending a few hours in your cabin or company or to warm your chair or to check articles on different blogs or to find the best online deals.

Every day invest some time to figure out ways by which you can bring the creative force inside your work. The way there are more than 10 ways to draw a cat, there are many creative ways by which you can get the same job done. I personally feel that income generation is not a formula, but it is your personal creative process which you discover for yourself.

Reflection #3: Income is reflection of how innovative you get

I love reading books and biographies that are written on the life journey of Steve jobs. His overall body of work and innovative designs will continue to inspire people for years to come. A lot of times I address Manish as “Steve jobs of personal finance” not to flatter him but because he brings element of innovation inside our organization and in his articles and books. Out of working with him I have learnt that income is a function of how innovative you are as a professional?

Inside your current work or job profile check ways to innovate. There are always some or the other hidden ways by which you can enhance your performance or effectiveness. Innovation is an important dimension to ponder, if you are really serious about increasing your income. Innovative people always experience and see income as a byproduct. Their work speaks for itself and money/income simply flows into their life.

Reflection #4: Income is a reflection of how big difference maker you are

Finally, Let me teach you how you can actually increase your income. Let’s say, your current pay package is 10 lakh and you want your annual income to become 1 crore. The solution is simple but may not be easy for you. If you want your pay package to become 1 Crore all you have to do is first contribute inside your field worth 1 Crore. I and Manish care very little about our income or annual business turnover, our focus is always on how much contribution we can make in peoples’ financial world.

We take on new writing projects and constantly design our services by which we can make more and more difference. If you want to increase your income simply create or design your contribution plan for next 5 years inside your respective field. The more you will contribute the more your income will grow and expand.

Reflection #5: Income is reflection of outrageously sharing your GIFTS

There is always one thing in YOU which only you can share with the world. If you are good at singing, give more of that to the world. If you are good at writing, give more of that to the world and if you are good at painting – then share that GIFT with the world.

Whatever you are good at in life, they are your gifts and you have to share your gifts with more and more people.  The more you share them, the more it will reflect in your bank balance. Don’t be stingy in sharing your gifts, outrageously share your gifts. Income is a reflection of how big heartedly you are willing to share your gifts. A lot of advisors come-up to us or mail us saying, “If you will teach everything to investors who will become your client”. Well, in fact it increases flow of inquiries and we have seen our client list expanding year on year. We want to share our gifts and we ask our colleagues to do the same. In your field just continue to share your gifts, just STOP stopping.

Reflection #6: Income is a token of appreciation

Your Income is not a symbol of security, power or just a commercial transaction; it is also not a measure of how successful or unsuccessful you are in this world. Your income is a reflection, it is a mirror that shows you how you show-up in the world, it is a reflection of how much value you are adding into people’s life and how much contribution you make in your respective field.

Salary or fee is ONLY a token of appreciation that you receive when you share your magic and gifts with the world. When you start to see your work as a medium to express your love AND  in return people or organizations express their love by writing a cheque in your favor.

Work on increasing your income this week

In this week we want you to add new and empowering dimensions, which will help you to increase your income and of other people who surround you. We would love to have more and more sharing in the comments section. Lastly, we wish each one of you a very happy and exciting new year. We will continue to share our gifts with you for years to come. Stay tuned for remaining parts of increasing income series.

Let us know which new dimensions you think can help you best to increase your income !

“How can I ask my Parents to write a WILL ?” – Are you dealing with this uncomfortable issue ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Enough has been written about the importance of WILL and why Estate Planning is important and how not writing a WILL can cause trouble to their family if some unfortunate event occurs. However I do not see enough conversation around how kids of today can communicate this hard fact to their own parents and inform them about the consequences of them not writing a WILL .

I know this sounds a bit crazy and if you “dare” to even think of asking your parents about their WILL, the world around you will label you as the greedy son/daughter, who is behind his/her parents wealth who has shown their true colors :).

But calm down, I know its not the case. If you want your parents to write a proper WILL, that does not mean that you are greedy and want your parents wealth (though there are some cases like that). You might just want them to not leave the confusion around or any unneccessary legal complications

The Awkward Moment while talking to parents for writing WILL

Every week, I see atleast 2-3 comments from our blog readers, where there is some property issue and clash between family members because its not clear who gets what part of the pie ? In almost all the comments, I can see that there is no WILL written, everyone in family is clueless on what happens next and what is the first step, everyone has their own reasons of why they deserve more than the other and its gets real messy !

The Uncomfortable Situation

The young generation is facing this as a challenge these days. They can very clearly visualize the future confusion they are going to encounter if their parents do not write their WILL and plan for their assets to be distributed properly, however its nearly impossible to talk to their loved one’s about writing their WILL because they will be labeled as “the greedy son/daughter” .

If children even give a slightest hint that they want their parents to write a WILL, its often taken in a wrong sense. Parents might think that you now want “your share of the pie” . The feeling of guilt in children is so high that they prefer to keep quiet and just be with the flow and face all the issues in coming future.

What can be the issues if WILL is not written ?

Before we move forward, I wanted to share with you what kind of issues a family can face incase of missing WILL

  • They are not aware about the wealth of the family and where its kept
  • They have to hire a lawyer and complete lots of legal formalities incase some dispute arise between family members
  • The “blame game” starts in family and higher chances of strained relations
  • Lengthy procedures of transferring assets in other names

3 Real examples of real life issues faced by Children

Example 1

Hi Manish

My father died in 1999 and he left no will. I have one sister elder to me and she is married since 1980 and living with her husband. Now i want to sell the house in which we are living since last 30 years. The house is still on name of my father. When i told my sister to sign on papers as i want to sell this house, she became greedy and started asking for her share.

Throughout my life I have kept my parents and spent lot of money on their health and livelihood. She did nothing. Even i have spent lot of money on renovation of this house.

Do i need to give any share to my sister. Should I fight a case. Please guide me

Example 2

Hi Manish,

My father in law purchase a land but there is no will, in my family there are my father in law, mother in law, my younger brother in law & his wife & my husband. I know that after his death this land will divided in equally 3 parts – between his wife (mother in law) & his two sons. But I want to know that can my mother in law gives her portion of land to her younger son, because she prefer & loves to younger son, no elder son.

But where my husband wants to take the land equally between he & his brother in future after death his mother (my mother in law). Please give advise what to do in this future problem, so that my husband & his brother not to fight for land in future,

Example 3

Dear Manish

I want your opinion. My father bought a plot in 1996 an died in year 2000 leaving no will survived by me (married daughter) my brother and my mother . My mother constructed a house on the same plot with the help of my brother. the registry of the plot is still on the name of my father but house is on my mothers name.

Now my brother wants to sell the house without my mothers consent who is very old. Can i stop the sale as heir.

In the above examples, can you see the confusion the family has to go through. If there was a WILL written, I am sure the confusion would have been much lower.

How to Encourage your Parents to write a WILL without asking them directly ?

I know its tough to talk about this directly with parents or even in-laws (your spouse also faces the same issue with her/his parents) . So here are some alternatives which can be chosen

1. Make your Own WILL and consult your Parents on it

Most of the parents to some extent understand the importance of estate planning and why they should write the WILL . But somewhere they do not take the final action and feel that still its not the ‘right time’ .

The best thing children can do is, start working on your own WILL and let your parents learn about it as an example . (We can connect you to the right company who can help you write a WILL , fill the form here if you are interested in that)

Even if you have very less networth (couple of policies, and some money in the bank) , still its worthwhile exercise, because you can involve you parents in the process and help them understand what kind of issues arise when WILL is not written. Share with them the process, registration, how one can change the WILL later and other related things. I think some of the parents are aware about it already, just that they never initiate the process of writing WILL and there is no specific reason for it, they feel they will do it “someday” .

2. Educate them using some one else example

Another thing you can do is, as an when the right moment comes, you can tell them about “someone else” and how they are suffering because of absence of the written WILL and the legal consequences they have to face.

You can surely find someone in your friends circle or some one in your relatives who is the right example for this. You can initiate the casual conversation with parents about what they are going through and help them understand that the central issue is absence of written WILL and missing estate planning component. This can put the right food for thought into their mind on estate planning using these examples.

Parents Insecurity and why they do not write the WILL

Almost everyone of us have old hindi movies where parents gave away the property in their children early in their life in the hope that they will treat them well , but their children do not care for them later and parents are in a fix now, because they cant take back their property from them.

A very similar kind of unconscious insecurity is there in every parent’s mind. I am not saying they doubt their children, but somewhere they do not want to take the risk and want to be 100% sure on how they should pass on their wealth to their children and they keep on waiting for that right moment. Not directly related to this topic, but here is an example of what kind of issues old parents are facing.

Show your Parents you are there for them

It might happen that even in your case this insecurity is coming in between. Its important to have the positive atmosphere at home and parents should be confident enough that they are secure and should have high confidence in children. Only then estate planning will become an integral part of every parents financial life and they will do it much before in their life.

I hope everyone who is reading this article, understand that this article is just raising this topic to make sure it helps parents as well as children and they both understand this important step in financial life and its positive and negative effects. Wanting your parents to write a WILL does not always mean that children are greedy, all it means is that they want to make sure the future complications are avoided by completing the right formalities.

I would love to hear what kind of views you have and what you think about this topic ?

The shortest guide for a 22 yr old to start investing his money ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

I was on Quora some days back when I came across an answer by Yuvraj Wadhwani on a thread called “How should a 22-year-old in India invest his/her money?” . It was such a beautiful answer and loaded with awesome advice to someone young to start their financial journey in life.

I instantly contacted Yuvraj, if he would like to guest post his answer on Jagoinvestor and He replied back saying he would be glad to do so. So I am putting up his answer to that question here on this blog for everyone . Read it from start till end. Its a bit different in style, but really worth .

Note : I have realigned some lines and combined them together to make proper paragraphs.

yuvraj wadhwani

 

 

 

OK let’s begin with wise words I learned a while back.

The principle of “Divide Investing in 3 plans”

It took me a while to get this, but it is really empowering to understand this principle. It is wise to divide investing in 3 plans.

  • Plan to be secure
  • Plan to be comfortable
  • Plan to be rich

Let’s take each of these in detail.

1. Plan to be secure

Buy a big term insurance policy and don’t look at market linked insurance plans (ULIPs). Set aside some money and trust that your financial planner will do a good job with it. Also, set aside some money (~3 month’s salary) as an emergency fund. Once you set this up, this should be an automatic plan that doesn’t require your time or effort.

I think everyone should have a plan to be secure. Now, before going to the second or third plans, ask yourself this question..

“Do I want to be comfortable or do I want to be rich??”

This is a very important question as it will probably determine what you do while following your plan. It’s similar to setting up your goal before buying a gym membership. You may choose to have a light jog on the treadmill, or work out heavily with weights. You choose what you do.

Now read on, I hope after reading you will make a more informed decision about which plan is right for you.

2. Plan to be comfortable

The plan to be comfortable should be pretty straightforward for everyone. If you are a salaried personnel, then you save a portion of your income. You use 80cc to minimize your taxes, invest in diversified mutual funds, SIPs, or recently infrastructure bonds, or specific stocks if you have a good education.

You also have a financial planner who can give you advice for specific funds, or who can tell you to rupee cost average your investment. You also make some money of “hot tips”. If you follow this plan, you should live and retire comfortably. There is nothing bad/wrong about choosing this plan, just as there is nothing wrong with going to the gym for a mild jog. It’s an individual choice. Most individuals would find themselves in the comfortable zone. I encourage all of those people to read further as well.

3. Plan to be rich

Extracted from a book

Q: “What’s your advice for the average investor??”

A:  “Don’t be average”

Why? Because the average investor is a slave to the market.

Average investors make money when the market goes up and lose it when the market goes down. Average stock traders don’t make money. (They don’t lose, but don’t make it either). When the market crashes, the average investor loses the maximum.

Successful investing is not about the investment, it’s about the investor.

This is perhaps the least understood concept of investing. This is the reason why people ask questions like “Where should I invest my money?” and the most accurate answer to the question is the question..

“I don’t know, are you a good investor?”

Let me give you an example – “What happened during 2008-2010 in stocks worldwide? Everyone knows they crashed right? Everyone who was invested in stocks lost money right??”

WRONG!

John Paulson’s , a hedge fund manager  , made more than 15 Billion $ for his company in 2007. (That’s a billion with a B). That money is almost equal to 80,000 crores.

Many claim that he made around 4-5 Billion Dollars of personal money during (2007-2010). That’s more than 20,000 crore rupees. While this was claimed the greatest trade ever, the point I am making is that it is entirely possible to make money when the market is going up and down.

So what are the differences between average and rich (above average) investors?

Simply stating, successful investors have 3 E’s that average investors don’t have.

  • Education
  • Experience
  • Excessive Cash

1. Education

A successful education starts with a good mindset. A successful investor has much more education than the average investor. A successful investor is committed to getting better and better with their education. How do you define commitment?

Do you know that friend of yours who plays the guitar? Do you know who else plays the guitar?

Got it ?

One of the differences between them is their commitment to playing. So how is the mindset of a successful investor different from an average investor? Let me draw a diagram to better explain. In the world of business, there are 4 kinds of people

  • Employees
  • Self Employed
  • Business Owners
  • Investors

cashflow quadrant jagoinvestor

Simply put, average investors think from the left side on the diagram and rich investors think from the right side of the diagram. Does that make a lot of difference, you may ask?

The answer is YES.

Let me put forward a few myth busters to put it in perspective.

(Avg Investor): My house is my biggest investment.
(Rich Investor): A house is a liability

(Avg Investor): Diversification reduces risk
(Rich Investor): Diversification is de-worsify-cation (Warren Buffett quotes)

(Avg Investor): Stock market is risky
(Rich Investor): Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing

(Avg Investor): Avoid risk
(Rich Investor): Take more control and manage risk

(Avg Investor): Real estate never comes down (extremely popular in India)
(Rich Investor): All markets go up and down

(Avg Investor): Saving money is good
(Rich Investor): Saving money pays maximum ~8% before tax, inflation is ~10%, so saving money is a guaranteed loss.

I could go on, but hopefully you get the point.

I am not saying what the average investor is saying above is bad advice, but it is average advice. As I mentioned, average investors make money when the market goes up and lose it when the market goes down. And if you have been reading till here, then you might be interested in making money whether the market goes up, down or sideways.

Also, if you find yourself arguing against the Rich Investor statements, that means you too are thinking from the left side of the quadrant.

So, how do I educate myself for being a rich investor?

  • Books
  • Tapes
  • Workshops
  • Mentors

Remember, successful people have coaches, amateurs don’t. Sachin Tendulkar may be the best batsman in the world, but he still has a coach. In case you are wondering, then investing is a subject that you may never be perfect in. Just like there is no perfect batsmen in cricket (everybody gets out), there is no perfect investor. But the more education you have, the better your chances are.

2. Experience

This should be a no-brainer. How do you get experience? By applying what you learn. Start small as mistakes will happen. If you stay on track it will become easier and easier. It might feel like trying to eat with your opposite hand. In the beginning, you will spill your food, you will be frustrated and probably won’t be satisfied, but in time you will learn it eventually.

3. Excessive Cash

This is the tricky part, but if you have educated yourself well, and have gained good experience, then excessive cash (or some cash) should already be rolling.

A note on the ultra rich

The rich investors invest in assets (stocks, bonds), but what do the ultra rich invest in?

The ultra rich don’t buy assets, they create assets. This is the secret how the richest people in the world created their wealth. They created an asset which millions and millions of people want to buy. Bill Gates created Microsoft, Larry Ellison created Oracle, Warren Buffet created Berkshire Hathaway.

Final Words

Q: “How should a 22 year old Indian graduate invest money?”

A: “I don’t know, are you a good investor?”

All right, you have my attention, now how do I get started?

Cool, this is what I would recommend.

Knowledge begins with words.

What does that mean? Let’s take an example. Many times when you travel, you meet people or are around strangers and you hear them talk. Most of the time you can guess their professions. Have you wondered how?

It’s by the words they choose and say.

I evaluated the students and the grades are good.
(Teacher)

My boss is not a good person.
(employee)

I shorted that stock as the P/E ratio was high.
(stock market trader)

That patient had to be given a muscle relaxant.
(Doctor or medical professional)

So the lesson here is that if you want to excel in any field, you must learn (hopefully master) their words. And you know what, words are free! (yeeiiiii)

So tell me if you understand any of these words.

  • P/E ratio
  • Volatility
  • Bull Market
  • Bear Market
  • CAGR
  • Y-o-Y growth

If not, then this is your first step, to learn and understand these words.

How?

  • Read your business newspaper.
  • Listen to the market news.
  • Use google.

Let me tell you a secret

Most of these complex sounding words are actually simple concepts. Really???

Let me tell you the job I had previously. I was Production support analyst for a retail POS application for a telecommunication company which sold products in multiple verticals. Only the job title is complex. So why do all these finance companies and news channels use these fancy titles and words? Because they want to sound smart, and want to sell you stuff.

So when you start learning words, you’ll understand the bullshit most TV channels and financial advisers preach as “investment advice” is really sugarcoated salesmanship.

So when the next time you read an investment advice column and say, “That’s nonsense”, Congratulations, you are making progress. If you are reading this, that means you don’t want to be average. So I encourage you to take the next step in your education and start learning words. I’ll try to help as much as I can.

Thanks Yuvraj Wadhwani for giving permission to publish his quora answer on this blog and share his knowledge

Does your Income tax website account have your CA phone number ? You can now claim it back

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Let me start by sharing with you what was the situation of millions of tax payers in India till now.

If they wanted to do e-filing and went to income tax website and tried to login to their account, they failed at it, because they did not have the password, because it was created by their CA’s or someone else who assisted them once in filing their tax.

And the person could not even use the “forget password” option, because it asked for some information like Phone/Email to send the OTP pin or authentication link and obviously their phone and email was not used while creating the account.

And this meant depending on the CA for this. However recently Income Tax Department has taken strict action on this. Income Tax department has sent an email to all the income tax payers to update their emails and phone numbers if they want to do that.

Now as per new rule, A person can use his phone/email on maximum 10 accounts (now CA’s wont be able to update their personal phone/emails on all their clients, which is also a bit big issue for most of the CA’s , because a lot of their clients are not net savvy and its very convenient for CA’s to manage their accounts)

Anyways, Here is a an email snapshot of the email which was sent by income tax department.

email from income tax website

More details on this page below

https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/eFiling/Portal/StaticPDF/Update_Contact_Details.pdf

How to update your Phone Number and Email on income tax website

If you are a new user, then its very simple and you can just go to their website and create a fresh login/password. Now its mandatory to give phone and email id. There will be one time password (OTP) sent and authenticated.

Now if you are a registered user (your PAN is your User id) and if you want to make sure that the full control of your login is with you, then make sure you update your email and phone on the website.

Here is what you need to do to update your phone and email on their website

1. Go to https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ and try to login
2. Click on “Forgot Password” link and put your User id (your PAN) and move ahead
3. One the next pages you will get an option to update your email and phone.
4. Choose that and follow the steps.

Below is an image snapshot of how it looks like

Change your Email and Phone on Income Tax website

Note that there is also an issue with this new move, because now any person who has information about your details can create a new email and phone and can use that to claim an account (assuming he also has information about the bank details which was used by the person) .

A lot of CA’s are also not liking this change by the income tax department, because now their clients will go away as they are not under control of their CA’s .

Would like to know what you do you think about this move by IT department.

How this Lady paid Rs 25,000 in pay-order charges for claiming her PPF maturity amount

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Is your PPF account going to mature very soon ? You are excited to finally redeem your years of saved money in PPF account.

But do you know that some banks are playing with some investors ignorance and charging them hefty amount in the name of DD charges or Pay-order charges to give bank the Public Provident Fund account matured amount.

Let me unearth this no so known or talked about thing today.

bank charges

Read this incident below to understand what I am talking about

My neighbor (a very old working woman) had a PPF A/c in SBI, on 31st of March 2010 it completed its 15 year term and hence the same was eligible for withdrawl, she duly filled up the redemption form and asked the bank to redeem the amount.

On 14th of April 2010, the bank issued a pay order but deducted bank charges (as the savings account is with another bank), SBI has nearly deducted bank charges of about 25000/- from her.

My neighbor didnt have a bank account in SBI, her account is in IDBI and SBI has deducted the charges for preparing a pay order. Here no service is being rendered but rather its bank obligation to make the payment.

Please help. It would be good if we can help her.

(Source)

Some Banks not allowing PPF Maturity Redemption directly to saving bank account

When your PPF account matures, and you want to redeem the money, there are several options you can get the money. You can either take it directly in your saving bank account, or get a DD created or a pay-order.

However a lot of banks fool customers and never share with them that the money can be directly credited to the saving bank account and force them to make the Demand Draft or Payorder, because that involves charges and it adds to the bank revenues.

And most of the times, the helpless customers fall for it because the charges at times are in range of few hundred and they do not want to pursue the matter and complicate it.

In the example above, you can clearly see that the person was forced to get the money through pay-order and such a heavy charges for that was applied.

This whole mis-guiding worsens, when the person does not have the saving bank account in the same bank, the officials in-charge tell that its mandatory to have a saving bank account in the bank if you want to get the redemption amount in your saving bank account, else you will have to get it through DD or payorder, which is completely wrong.

There is no rule like that. One should be able to get the money through NEFT or RTGS or direct bank transfer if they wish to and the PPF redemption form gives that option clearly. Have a look

sbi ppf widthdrawal form after maturity form C

You can clearly see that there is an option of crediting your PPF maturity amount to any saving bank account.

Some real life Incidents of Banks Asking for heavy charges at the time of PPF maturity payment

Mr. Naresh was asked by Bank of Maharashtra for DD Charges for PPF maturity Payments

Bank of Maharashtra charged me DD charges of Rs 5050/ while making maturity payment of my Public Provident Fund account money. I had asked them to transfer money by cheque or NEFT, but they refused and issued me DD. Is there anything I can do?

Mr. Premji was charged payorder charges of Rs 900 by State bank of Hydrabad

State bank of Hyderabad recovered about Rs.900/- for issuing their banker’s cheque (pay order) for PPF part withdrawal. I am told that as per the PPF rules, the bank cannot recover any charges for issue of Banker’s cheque or pay order for PPF withdrawals. However I am unable to find out such rule in print.

What is the correct status regarding the above issue? Which authority will give a authenticated clarification?

Where to complain for these kind of issues?

A lot of people are not even aware that banks are taking them for granted and trying to levy charges which are unethical. Customers do not resist at times, because they dont want to get into the mess and waste their time for small charges (like Rs 500-Rs 1000).

At times they are excited to receive the big amount from their Public Provident Fund account and cant wait for it. At times there are emergency situations which dont allow them to fight back. But incase you want to fight back. Make sure you follow these following steps

  • Make sure you meet the Bank Manager and tell him clearly that you know the rules and there is no such rule that you have to pay DD or Payorder charges to get back your own money
  • Ask them in writing for charges and also insist that they show you the rule book.
  • If nothing works, file an RTI to RBI asking about the bank action and if there is any such rule. You can also file a RTI to Post Office (which handles PPF finally) about this rule.

Have you ever come across this situation in life ? If not , great ! .. you are now informed what to do when you face this situation

Meet this 15 yr old youngest participant from our Mumbai Investor Workshop + Some Pictures

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

We completed our Mumbai workshop just 2 days back on Sunday and it was a great experience overall to connect with our readers . However there were 2 most amazing experience which I want everybody else to know about.

Youngest participant was just 15 yrs old

Yes, you read it right .. One of the participants had booked a couple ticket and he choose to bring his young son who was just in school to make sure that he put the right seeds in his son’s mind about money and personal finance. We were really amazed seeing this and congratulated him on his attitude towards money and his commitment for this son future. The best part was that his son participated well and also shared what all he has learned from the session at the end.

investor-workshop-jagoinvestor-1

One of the best things about the workshop was that a lot of couples attended the session together, one person came along with his mother, another guy came along with his best friend and many participants also came along with their siblings . It was an environment filled with learning and dedicated to do something for their financial life. We also had fun doing some group exercises, which everybody loved and had a great message.

There were conversations about Financial Freedom , Passive Income and many other amazing topics – which all the participants liked a lot. Here are some more pictures

DSC01771

DSC01786

DSC01806

DSC01763

DSC01814

Bangalore and Pune Workshop

We still have few seats left for the workshop in Bangalore and Pune. For those who always wanted to attend this workshop should come over, because mostly this will happen only once in year. The workshop will have some very deep conversations about various topics like Financial Freedom, Passive Income, your mindset about your financial life and how you can focus on next 5-10 yrs in designing your financial life.

Are you suffering from “I don’t have time to read Policy Document” Syndrome ?

Posted on by Nandish Desai

As an investor, I am sure you have done something with your money. You have put your money in some or the other financial product – assuming it is going to help you in creating wealth or it is going to help you in some way or the other.

The way some movies have flashback, you will have to go back in the past to get full value from today’ article.  We just want to make you responsible in the area of money, because taking responsibility is the first step towards bringing any kind of change or transformation.

policy document

Lets go back in the past (Flashback)

Lets say five years back some agent or adviser or relationship manager approached you with the new financial product in market, the product features and benefits were explained, you trusted your adviser’s advice and bought the financial product.

Now, before you purchased the product – Did you read the product brochure (completely) at the time of buying or even after that ?

Most investors do not invest their time in reading product brochure or policy documents and this is a major mistake most investors are not even present to.

4 reasons, why Investors do not read Policy Documents

Reason #1 – They find it boring to read Policy Documents

A lot of investors think, that reading personal finance document is extremely boring thing (its just their assumption). Some investors start yawning the moment any policy document is placed in front of them. If you ask them for a movie, they are filled with enthusiasm – but if you ask them to read policy document or mutual fund scheme document they start avoiding the same.

In this process, you may miss out on some important information which you are suppose to know about some particular financial product and it will save you from disappointment later in future.

We come across so many investors who don’t know whether the money they have been investing from last 5 years is an endowment plan or a money back, the mutual fund they have been investing is an equity fund or debt fund. You carry boredom in your thoughts and it has nothing to do with any personal finance document.

Come on – Its a one time job, which takes not more than 1 hour, that’s all !

Reason #2 – “It’s not my cup of tea” Syndrome

A lot of investors think – “Personal finance is not my cup of tea” and they feel they have licence to NOT read policy documents. You may be into medical profession, Software or any other profession.

You can’t escape from managing your financial life and reading your policy document is one core activity you need to complete.

Reason #3 – They over-trust their Adviser and prefer playing Blind Game

Some people trust their adviser much more than they trust their spouse or parents. They trust their adviser blindly. Their adviser will make cross marks on documents and then give investor the bulk offer to give their signatures, as if they are giving autograph to the crowd. And then this kind of fraud happens with investors.

These investors are playing blind game, they are taking risk with their financial future. Even when the policy document or any other financial product is purchased, they do not bother to read where they have invested their money.

All they do is call their agent and take a monthly or quarterly report which gives them a fake feeling that they are serious about their financial life. You are getting reports, but for all wrong financial products which does not serve you as an investor. You can trust your adviser – but do not skip the homework that you are suppose to do from your side.

Reason #4 – They entertain the story called “Lack of time”

When we ask a lot of investors that why they did not read policy documents or product brochures the most standard reason that pops up is “Lack of time”. From morning till night, they slog for money, which they put into a financial product and then they do not have time to read about the financial products itself, where they have invested their money.

Now how strange it that !

These people are found very active on social media platforms. By the way – I am not against use of social media, but the point I am trying to make is that, you should give time to your financial life and break the “lack of time” story.

Conclusion – Never skip reading Policy Document

This insight or tip might look very simple, but it is applicable to majority of investors. As an investor you will make money only in those products – where you have the understanding. Your primary job as an investor is to understand basic mechanism of any financial product in which you are going to put your hard earned money.

My invitation to all investors is read product brochure and make list of questions that arise in your mind and get 100% clarity on them.

So, dust all your laziness and read the product brochure, before buying any financial product and if you have already made any purchase make sure you read the policy document in detail.

So, this weekend do the following

  • Place 2 hours on your calendar, in which you will read policy documents (put the reminder in your mobile at this moment itself.
  • While you read policy documents if you are not clear, make a note of them and discuss with your advisor or customer care
  • Share with us what was your experience in the comments section

NOTE:  We want to meet more and more investors during our 6 city tour. The minimum investment to participate in our workshop starts at Rs.3500/-. Come be a part of Design your financial life 2.0 ( You will have the most amazing time as an investor)

Design your financial life 2.0 Registration Opens  – Mumbai , Bangalore, Pune

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Day before yesterday we released video of our Design your financial life 2.0 and we had influx of mails from all over asking for more details about the program. We are so touched by the excitement level that some of you hold in your heart. Below is the video which explains what this program is all about

Why we conduct Design your financial life Program?

We did our first Design your financial life 1.0 workshop in Pune. It took a lot of effort for us to design the overall design of the program as we were doing it for the first time. I wanted my wife to participate and so I asked her to participate in the program and Manish did the same at his end. I still remember the first reaction I got from my wife, she said, “What will I do in your boring personal finance program?”.

I told my wife I promise the program will be fun and I extended my heartfelt invitation to her. Finally my wife said yes to me. I told her be a good participant and asked her to really work on her financial life. On the other end, Manish was struggling to enroll his wife into the program and somehow he also managed to convince his wife. This was MOMENT of joy for us, we still feel it is the best thing we ever did.

Finally we got both of them into the program and they enjoyed each and every part of the event. They were happy to see how much our readers love us and how fun personal finance can be. I can never forget my wife taking notes during her participation and after we returned back she got a lot more committed with her money. Same was with Manish, his wife made a commitment to start her own venture and her vision is still alive and she is working on it.

We really want investor to dedicate some committed time for their financial life so that they can work on their financial life. We want individuals and couples to get on same page when it comes to money management, we really want to make personal finance interesting and fun and there are very few who give dedicated time to their financial life.

Why this transition from Design your financial life 1.0 to 2.0

We started with one day workshop but now after working with a few hundred investors we realized that the one day event needs something more to it. Our intention is not to get fee from investors, we want their full commitment and we want them to produce some amazing results in their financial life. To produce tangible results we are moving from 1.0 to 2.0. It is no more a workshop, it is now a 12 weeks program that will help all kind of investors in designing their financial life.

Some Special Criteria to join this program

(Put your hand on your heart and get honest with yourself)

  • If you find personal finance boring (like my wife)
  • If you convince others and yourself that personal finance is not your cup of tea
  • You hate numbers and are a big time avoider when it comes to money management
  • You are PhD when it comes to procrastination
  • You want to get into action but you don’t know from where to start
  • You are confused with what to do and what not to do because of the overall bombardment of information on you on the name of investor education
  • You really want to move beyond planning and want to learn how to design your financial life.
  • You want to make 2014 your BEST FINANCIAL YEAR

If you fit into above criteria we would love to have you in our new avatar of design your financial life program. The program is happening in 3 cities, which are

  • Mumbai
  • Bangalore
  • Pune

Invitation to Join Design your financial life 2.0

From the bottom of our heart we would love to invite you to be a part of this program. Your financial life is right now going in some direction; it will take some shape after 5, 10 or 15 years from now. Now, you can allow your reasons/circumstances to lead your financial life or you can design your financial future. This program is a wonderful structure for action takers. Looking at our schedule we will only be able to do such event once in a year and so make sure you don’t miss it. Also, it is always fun to get away from the computer screen and meeting offline at deeper level.

If you have any questions or queries feel free to either ask in comments section or mail us.