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95% of everything that you think, feel, do and achieve is the result of habit. Thoughts lead to purposes; purposes l3ad to action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny. *Five Steps To A New Habit* How do you develop a new habit? Over the years, a simple, powerful, proven seven-step methodology has been determined for new habit development. It is very much like a recipe for preparing a dish in the kitchen. You can use it to develop any habit that you desire. With practice, you will find it easier to develop the habits that you want to incorporate into your personality. *1. First, make a decision.* Deciding what habit will make the biggest impact on your success is crucial. Don’t confuse urgent tasks with important ones. Your inbox will always be full, so schedule time for the items that truly will take you to the next level so they don’t get overlooked by daily email or “kitchen fires.” We will discuss specific habits that lead to su...

*Warning: this post may put you on the defensive.* And that’s fine. I don’t pull any punches here. Right now is the time for honesty. And if you feel frustrated after reading it then it’s likely you are the one who needs to hear it the most. It is very clear that we all LOVE referrals. Nothing controversial there. Because referrals, on average, convert 30% better and have a 25% higher lifetime value than leads generated from other marketing channels. And over the years I’ve found that there are SEVEN reasons that you are likely not getting more referrals... *One: You figured, if you do good work, people will just send you referrals.* I probably don’t have to tell you this but this is wrong. Even if you knock it out of the park for your clients there is no guarantee that they will refer you. That’s because they are focused on their business. Not yours. There’s a good chance that they would be happy to send referrals your way. They just never think about it. Simply h...

Successful people have a few common characteristics that make them great. Not every successful person can be a master of all these but awareness of them can help in increasing these qualities in ourselves. Following are the 11 common traits exhibited by successful people that I have observed across various fields including sports, business, and arts. 1. Self-Discipline I put this at the top of the list simply because without self-discipline nothing is possible. Self-discipline is a quality that can be developed by having a clear idea on what we want and then ensuring the desire to succeed is greater than the consequences of not doing it. If we want to exercise 5 times a week then we can imagine the enormous benefits of exercise and visualize that while trying to keep the end goal in mind. If we want to achieve all the things we want then self-discipline is the best place to start and we have 100% control on this. It is resolving to do what we have set out to accomplish in both o...

Inside every one of us is that tiny seed of the "you" that you were meant to become. Unfortunately, you may have buried this seed in response to your parents, teachers, coaches, and other adult role models as you were growing up. You started out as a baby knowing exactly what you wanted. You knew when you were hungry. You spit out the foods you did not like and avidly devoured the ones you did. You had no trouble expressing your needs and wants. You simply cried loudly - with no inhibitions or holding back - until you got what you wanted. You had everything inside you, that you needed to get fed, changed, held and rocked. As you got older, you crawled around and moved toward whatever held the most interest for you. You were clear about what you wanted, and you headed straight toward it with no fear. So what happened? Somewhere along the way, someone said: Don’t touch that. Stay away from there. Keep your hands off that. Eat everything on your plate whether you like it...

Just because investing in real estate may be an unfamiliar investment vehicle, doesn’t mean it should be avoided. If approached correctly, a real estate investment can be a profitable and reliable investment opportunity to generate substantial returns. It can create a regular income flow while supplementing your portfolio with exceptional benefits such as tax advantage, diversification, and a less risky investment choice. On the other side, there are numerous reasons why people, especially Indians, prefer gold as an investment vehicle. Many families in India treasure gold for ages passing it from one generation to other as a mean of an asset. The top benefit of investing in gold is that your investment is very flexible. You can purchase 1 gram, 5 grams, 10 grams or any amount of gold depending upon the amount of money you have to invest. So basically, the gold investment can start from a few thousand of rupees to lakhs and crores depending on your investment appetite. Difference ...

Non-convertible debentures ( NCD ) are fixed-income instruments, usually issued by high-rated companies. They offer relatively higher interest rates when compared to convertible debentures. *1. What are Non Convertible Debentures (NCDs)?* As an investor, you are always on the lookout for improved and more sustainable schemes. Even traditional and trusted investments lose their sheen due to market volatility. In such cases, Non-Convertible Debenture or NCD has proven to be a dark horse by delivering smaller but steady returns over time. In the same line as traditional corporate FDs, NCD is also a fixed-income investment with a specific term and interest income. They are generally issued by companies to raise funds, and evidently, you cannot convert it to equities. To make up for this limitation, investors can enjoy supreme returns, liquidity, low risk and tax benefits when compared to convertible debentures. *2. Features of NCDs* *a. Issuance* Companies provide NCDs throug...

*1. "Act As If"* In order to achieve a goal, you must become the kind of person who is capable of achieving that goal. And one of the best ways to do that is to act "as if" you are ALREADY that person. Think about it like this: How will achieving that goal impact you on a personal and professional level? What important knowledge, skills, and experience will you have gained? What will your mindset and behavior be like? What new habits will you have formed in order to achieve your goal, and How will you act? Get clear on these answers and then show up in the world as if you already are that person - and the universe will respond to you in kind, giving you the opportunities and resources you need to make your vision a reality. *2. "Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable"* Everything you've ever wanted is just beyond your comfort zone. It's true - in order to become who you need to be to achieve your goals,...

*Four Wrong Retirement Assumptions* Most of us work hard so that we can retire in a financially comfortable position. But interestingly, once we retire, it requires a tremendous shift in mindset, to move from aggressive saving, to eventually shift from savings to spending. Having said that, the entire exercise is based on a number of assumptions. Let's look at a few common ones. *Assumption 1: Retirement is a destination*.: All along retirement has been viewed as a destination, as an end-of-the-road milestone. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The road could be long and winding as the journey keeps unfolding. Rather than a destination, it should be viewed as a transition. We should realize that the concept of retirement is undergoing a fundamental change. Seldom do people just stop work and start drawing a pension. Earlier, it was the case of being shoved off the demographic cliff and being forced to leave the company, saying goodbye to the 9-to-5 lifestyle. Today, ...

Many stock market investors are like Abhimanyu. They know how to enter a stock, but fail miserably when it comes to exiting, says Sunil Damania. In the Mahabharata, Abhimanyu, son of Arjun, knew how to enter the chakravyuha but was not aware of how to exit it. This cost him his life. *Many stock market investors are like Abhimanyu.* They know how to enter a stock, but fail miserably when it comes to exiting. Unless investors get both their entry and exit strategies right, even if they buy a scrip at the right level, chances are they will not make money from it. Ask investors who bought Vakrangee, P C Jewellers, or Manpasand Beverages. All these stocks had moved up substantially, but investors who did not sell at the appropriate time are sitting on huge losses today. Investors live in the hope that the company they hold will be a mega performer. They think that a stock that has fallen will bounce back soon. Often, this hope is belied. A scrip may take more than a decade to re...

*1. LEAD CALLS* Don’t call someone more than twice continuously. If he does not respond, it simply means that he is doing something more important. *2. PUNCTUALITY* Let us understand that we are into Life Insurance business where competition is highest. PUNCTUALITY plays a very important role in image building which is essential ingredient of this business. If you have made a commitment to a prospect, honour it at any cost. For certain unavoidable reason if you are unable to honour the commitment, inform the prospect well in advance. Don't keep the prospect waiting. *3. MANNERISM* PERSONALITY SPEAKS ABOUT THE STYLES WE DISPLAY, BUT CHARACTER IS THE SUBSTANCE WITHIN. IN THE LONG RUN SUBSTANCE WILL ALWAYS OUTLAST STYLE. *4. CAUSING EMBARASSMENT* Don’t ask questions which will embarass the prospect. Avoid questions which are personal in nature like his marital status, owning a house etc. "why are you not married? Why don’t you have your own house? etc. For god’s s...

On June 25, 2020, Dev Ashish, a SEBI registered investment adviser, tweeted: Many DIY investors are DIY not because they are capable, but because they want to avoid paying any fee. The responses to that were very interesting. One said that he burnt his fingers and so became a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) investor. Another said that he did not get sufficient value from his financial planner. Others suggested that the integrity and competence of the IFAs should also be considered. The perception around money is fascinating. And advisers should never downplay the emotional element of money. It is experiences that shape a client’s perception, and the financial adviser will have to combat that to earn someone’s trust and confidence. If you are an adviser, ask your potential client these questions. You should even try it with existing clients who are difficult, who question you needlessly or never listen to what you say. Their answers will help you tackle the emotion and cloudy reasoning that i...

Picture this. You are on a surgical table, your insides open and the one performing the surgery on you is you! When you have woken from that nightmare, let's talk about doing something less scary, yet daunting no doubt -- investing your money. You have been working for some time now. The end of a financial year always reminds you that you can save taxes by making investments. So do banks and other financial institutions who nudge you to invest for a better tomorrow. You want to get better at managing and growing your money, you've probably even researched a bit about investing. You are at a crossroads and are wondering: *should I invest by myself or seek an advisor?* Here are factors to weigh in for each choice: *Do-It-Yourself* There is a lot to know. Let's face it. What we should do with our money is everybody's top concern. There is a lot of information out there on the Internet -- on blogs, videos and mobile apps -- about money management and investing. B...

William Bernstein is fascinating in more ways than one. He began his career as a neurologist and then transitioned to being a financial theorist and money manager. Add the dozen-odd books he has authored, and you get an extremely prolific writer. One analogy that he presented during an interview stuck. Investing is like losing weight. To lose weight, you have to exercise more, eat less and eat right. Simple, but not easy. To become wealthy, you have to save more, spend less, and invest right. Simple, but not easy. His thoughts and writings have a place in any serious conversation about investing. Yet, they are elegant in their simplicity. One of them being the four pillars of investing. According to him, mastery of them can result in a coherent strategy that will enable individuals to accomplish investing’s primary aims: achieving and maintaining financial independence and sleeping well at night. A deficiency in any of them will torpedo your investment plan. The below has been e...

There are no market geniuses. Just those savvy in controlling their emotions. You can never get wealthy if you let emotion get the better of you. But if you rein in your impulses, you have a very good shot to accumulate wealth. When the market is bullish, everyone is on an investing spree. Along comes the inevitable correction, and those very funds are kicked to the curb. What has changed? Just sentiment. If the market falls on a certain day, fear dominates and investors are reluctant to invest. Once the market bounces back, greed takes over. Ironically is, investors perceive an investment to be more risky when nobody is buying and the price (NAV) is low, and less risky when everyone is buying and the price (NAV) is high. Laughable isn't it? How does one counter the impulse to act? Give thought to your Investment. Value investing is about buying a stock or fund quoting less than its intrinsic value. If you make a purchase higher than its intrinsic value, you are looking at the...

*What Are Alpha And Beta In Investing?* As their names would imply, alpha and beta are fundamental terms in the investing world. In its most popular understanding, alpha represents the excess return on a particular investment—a stock, mutual fund or exchange-traded fund—over a relevant index. In other words, if an investor has managed to outperform a certain index, such as the S&P 500, it is said he or she has achieved "alpha." Beta, by contrast, measures an asset's historic volatility relative to a market benchmark, such as the S&P 500, which has an alpha and a beta of 1.0 because it is considered to be a proxy for the overall stock market. If a stock or fund's beta is 2, for example, that means that it has historically been twice as volatile as the benchmark index, while a beta below 1.0 would indicate that is less volatile than the market. The simplest way to differentiate between alpha and beta is to remember that alpha measures relative ...

*Every Financial Services Intermediary should read this and practice to be successful.* Here’s a list I use now on a daily basis as a reminder to increase my happiness: *1. Give yourself permission.* Permission to be who you are. Permission to laugh big, to cry when you need to, to fail brilliantly, to make stuff. Permission to fall apart, breakdown, and get back up again. Permission to be different and unique. Permission to go too far and reach your dreams. *2. Don’t take yourself so seriously.* Hold yourself with a “light hand.” Laugh at your foibles with amusement. When things get tough or stress arises, lift your shoulders with an “oh well…” Know that it’s never as big or life devastating as your mind thinks. Happy people trust that whatever glitch happens will work itself out. Happy people give a “Ha! Ha!” and a “So what? Who cares? Big Deal! Why not?” when meet with resistances. *3. Don’t self-ruminate*. I remember a friend of mine...