Planning just before retiring

There is a silent fear when we are near the magic age.. on how the next many years will be .. how the lifestyle will be and how to continue to be engaged in a good way

Retirement is not only about ensuring you have the right level of money to ensure a good lifestyle, it is also about how to be engaged in a fruitful way so as to not degenerate away. 

In our working world we are very very highly engaged.. Our life is our work. I know I work 15 to 16 hrs a day, with weekends also being mostly engaged. 

Unfortunately from such a hectic lifestyle, once a person retires, he/she has plenty of time in their hands with mostly no idea of how to fill it.

Here's what I am thinking of doing as I retire over the next decade.. 

1. Do some consulting work with large companies

2. Write a book

3. Join an NGO and help out to expand 

4. Maybe participate in the local politics

5. Be healthy with an active lifestyle

What about you.. What's your mantra

How to make 100 crores

Yes, that was the post I saw on a youtube short by renowned investor Mr Ramdeo Agarwal.

He basically used the power of compounding.. Doubling your money every 3 yrs... A 23% cagr over a period of 30 yrs. 

If you start young and focus on the consistent return the outcome will be amazing. 

So if you start at 25 by investing 10l Rs, by the time you are 55 you will have an humongous wealth number of Rs 100 cr. 

There is one basic thing that comes to your mind.. The doubling every 3 yrs concept. This is not something very common and is extremely difficult to do. 

I don't think I have even one ( apart from the sbi small cap fund that I have invested in) giving me such high returns. 

I have scoured the mf pages in the magazines, there also it is difficult to get to any large number of funds which have delivered such returns. 

Maybe the idea is to use PMS to help drive these kinds of returns... That I need to check on the level of returns

Sometimes the concepts are simple.. But to implement is not simplefinancialsense! 

What does it mean to "be" rich

Today , I listened to a Ramit Sethi . He was in a podcast of a FIRE enthusiast. It was an eye opener..or a brain starter.

The FIRE enthusiast was talking about how Ramit focused on the 360 view of what it means to be rich...that life wasn't about just making more money ..but about living life fully.

There was a point about how the age of 40 to 60 is the time to be spending money..because while you may have more money at the age of 70 ..but you will not have the energy to be able to live life 

Of course no one is saying that one should spend with no care..but to spend money which enables experiences to be built..something that will build memories. 

Life is about living and using money to enable it..it's not about living to make money. 

It's simplefinancialsense

Planning for transfer of wealth at death

Ok. This is not a great topic that everyone wants to read, but a critical one that we all need to address in our lives.

No one lives forever..but the wealth that we generate can be passed on to our family and its next generation in the right manner 

Here is an interesting podcast from capital minds that I think is critical for everyone to listen to. podcast.

Here are a few critical points that I got which you can follow 

1. Ensure the right visibility to your family members on the investments you have made.. Or liabilities.

2. Make a will.. Without which your family members will have significant issues in accessing the funds. The podcast talks about some examples where spouse had significant issues.

3. Ensure the right access to the will. 

4. Create a plan on how to use the money basis your understanding.. Eg which fund to be sold if there is a requirement.

5. Nominations. One cannot emphasize this more. Get the nomination right in each and everyone of your assets. 

This as I said is not a comfortable topic.. But critical one for your family. 

To focus on this.. Its simplefinancialsense! 

rationalizing the digital content at home-cancelling tata sky

In the new digital age, we have lots of gadgets and ways to get content, and our box of gadgets continues to rise without ever looking at any level of rationalization. This year we should look at how we clean up the old unused stuff and optimize

Let's take a simple example which I had an experience yesterday. I cancelled my Tata sky subscription.... I would use it only once a week when I would get access to watch  the TV. 

At my house we have a fire stick which obviously we added on Netflix, hotstar and prime video.

Hotstar is critical to watch the cricket matches since usually when there is a critical match, Tata sky doesn't work if there is bad weather outside.

Netflix and prime.. To watch the latest movies 

YouTube.. One can watch all the live news from cnbc to et now to India today to CNN ibn.. Basically all. 

Last night, I got access to my television and put on tata sky, but it wasn't working. There was no rains outside! I tried re starting and found that it still did not work.

I had to do the onerous task of calling them up and they said they will send a technician and " they will charge me for it".

I was absolutely unhappy about them charging me a min of 1 month of fees for a visit. I was also sure that they would charge me for a new set top box ( which I had to change just before covid last year)... And had changed one two years earlier also.

So it felt like a scam. A cheap way to get its customers to pay more and fill its coffers.

I cancelled the plan.... Saving around 6000 rs a year plus 2000 rs every alternate yrs for changing their set top boxes. 

Of course when they refund the money is another battle which i am sure i will face. 

Their bad service giving me the push to make the change. 

I can use this money to support my favourite charity and add onto the little help I provide.

What do you think? I am sure you have multiple such programs which you are paying for which is really not required.

Identify these and rationalize.. Its simplefinancialsense

One step at a time.. in the right direction

INERTIA is what is the key message of Newtons first law... " A body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion unless an external force acts on it."

Inertia can be positive or negative. Positive when Good work has happened and one feels the  benefits until the momentum becomes zero... Negative when the change is not seen until quite some time and lots of people abandon the change because of no visible outcome.

Small steps make huge difference. It was Arnold shwazeneggar who said " I always smiled in the gym because  each rep took me closer to my goal of being an Olympian champion"

Each step that we take consistently enables us to be better than what we were before and as this happens visible results start to show up exponentially.

Recently I was coming back from the airport and was in a cab. The cab driver started talking about paytm shares flopping 40% down in two days time and we got onto to a discussion about trading. I told him that trading is very risky and he shouldn't be doing things like this.

We got talking about mutual funds and how it can help build a lot of wealth and I got to explaining the rule of 72 and how he can calculate how much he could make over a period of time. I started showing him that if he spent 30 yrs in the market.. He could easily convert 5lakhs into 1crore.

It was an exciting moment for him to realize this... And we got to discussing how this can create so much wealth for the next generation.

It was a small step.. In the right direction for the cab driver.. He was not in inertia.. But the motion was towards trading and in the wrong direction

I don't know if he will follow the advice... But maybe it is a step.. In the right direction 

Its simplefinancialsense