One of my first blogs was titled” joys of being an individual investor.” This blog is however the flip side of the story when as an Individual, you’re left to fend for yourself and end up miserable and bewildered.
So most of my retail friends have put in 1-5l or some more into stocks they know next to nothing about, basically as tips from friends or colleagues and are either happy the price has gone up or are lost as to why this sure staircase to heaven has nosedived to hell. If you’re one of them, you’re not alone.
The problems are aplenty. 5000 stocks to choose from, multiple ways to make money, hundreds of mutual funds and all of them stuck at jobs which makes their lives miserable. They don’t know if there is a way to get rich and if there is, it’s not for them they have been made to believe. Leaving the rat race called career is not for them, they have learnt it in school. Now all they want is some extra cash to buy a flat, a car, put kids in good schools and die at 80. Unfortunately, this is true for many of us who think we are financially independent. We aren’t.
There’s a huge difference between being financially secure and being independent. Your salary makes you secure to pay bills, it doesn’t buy you freedom.
Wealth is freedom, to do what you want, with whom you want, for howsoever long you want and at what place you want.
Unless one strive to be financially independent, she’s destined to be middle class, fighting for that extra increment or promotion to somehow buy that duplex people call Villa.
Now why do so many of us don’t get rich? This is where the power of vision comes into play. In markets, you get whatever you truly wish for. You want an iPhone, you’ll get it. You need a car, you’ll make enough to buy one. You want a vacation, it will be done. However, less than 1% of those in the markets are here for bigger stakes. You don’t get rich buying ten shares of Tata motors and seeing it rally upwards. You don’t get rich partime. It’s a full time passion and demands the dedication of a fanatic.
Most people are either too afraid to put in large sums of money or believe it’s a casino and are punting around. One big problem I’ve observed is that most people truly believe that you don’t make money in the markets. It’s all for big operators, not for us. Hence they stay away or stake too little to begin with. A growing percentage are the ones who believe it’s a get rich slam dunk machine and can buy them an iPhone or a vacation but not serious money. And somehow they’re convinced that the money they made here is to splurge and not to reinvest. Since they had not toiled hard for it, this money is somehow less powerful than their hard earned salary. This has been covered in my earlier blog https://zerotomillion.business.blog/2021/11/07/all-money-is-equal/
The biggest money myth people have is that you have to work hard to earn money. This is like saying since Elon Musk didn’t go door to door selling cars, his $300Billion networth is a myth. Stop living in the prehistoric age when your labor equalled your output. We’re in an age where if your mind can come up with one idea, you can make millions, if not billions. However, we salaried persons have been fed this deep within that any money you make easily is bad, evil almost. So if you made 1l in stocks, either splurge it or convert it safely to FD or gold.
Unless you begin to take money seriously, you’ll forever be short of it. Learn to make money work for you and not the other way round. Financial independence is possible and there are millions of humans who are already up there.
So in this new year, if you’re entering the stock markets, commit yourself to work hard doing research, learning basics of markets and finance and listen to the big ones who have done this for decades. Making money is simple, not easy. Once you put in the work, and begin to believe you can make a million dollars, you will find a way to surprise yourself.
Life is all about Compounding! 