Retirement 10

Fortunately or unfortunately there are no short cuts to sucess. This is coming from a man who in most of my friends and peers eyes was very successfull at a young age. But I never considered myself worthy of the success as I believed it was a stroke of luck as I was at the right place at the right time. So I continued to look for success that I can call the result of my own hard work working like every body else. Alas it is still eluding me. The only good thing is that I enjoy my work fairly well othewise i would have quit long ago.

As I mentioned earlier I have no magic mantra. Let me give some of my goals below:

I would like to retire in next 10 years, preferably in 7 years. Let me also give my concept of reitrement.

1. I do not report to any body except to my family.
2. I do not have to wear a tie or a suit if I do not want to. ( I actually enjoy wearing them but I know given a choice I would not like to)
3. I do not have to wait for a paycheck to arrive at the end of the month to pay for the bills.
4. My house/s have ZERO mortgage. That is right the house/s should be completely paid off with nothing to own to any bank.
5. My monthly income should be more than the monthly income of an IAS officer with about 20 years work experience. This income should come from investments or businesses that i own where i go only because i enjoy working there not because i have to work. I will explain in a future blog the reason for choosing this benchmark.
   
6. I should have adequate medical coverage for me and my family beside life insurance.
   Amounts to be decided after studying data.
   
7. No outstanding loan of any kind-- e.g personal loans, Credit Card loan, car loan etc.
8. I should be able to give a minimum of 10% of my income to things I believe make a difference. I currently am not able to do more than 1.5%. Some of these activities would be things like giving for the cause of girl child, environment, micro finance etc.
9. Travel at least 3 times a year with family to places we want to see together both in our Incredible India and beyond.
10. Give values to my kids that my parents gave to me and my siblings.

Now that I have listed my agenda and criteria for retirement we will go in detail in future. And what I am doing to achieve the same.

In the begining there were dreams

Dreams are what drive us. Dreams are what that begin the journey of a thousand miles. Like the great Walt Disney once said " If you can dream it you can do it"

We all can have different dreams. Some of us want to own things which is a continuation of the hunter gatherer instinct that we are carrying from our forefathers from the Stone age. Then it was berries and bones and stones now it is the latest Plazma TV or the hottest wheels in town. For some it is the penthouse looking for that most basic of the needs in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Some others are looking to travel the world be it trekking in himalyas or going on the Inca trail to Machu Pichu on top of the world in the southern hemisphere. Some of us want the very best of education for our children.

But my dear friend have we ever wondered that all these dreams can only be full filled by money. Yes money, maya, paisa, green bucks, $, pounds etc. whatever name you may call it but if you do not have money your dreams will just remain dreams. So inorder to full fill our dreams we need money. Not just a little but a lots of money.

I can already hear a few of you saying --but money is the root of all evil.. my friend that is the old saying by the people who do not distinguish between the cause and effect. Money in itself is intert. It alone can not lead you to evil unless you want to . Let us not forget that some of the biggest philanthrophist on the 3rd rock are people with money starting from home we have Tata Trusts started by the Tata family which actually owns most of the companies in the TATA empire and most of the profit going back to the society. Or take the example of Bill and Melinda Gates who have donated more than most of us.
So now that we hopefully agree that money in itself is inert let us move forward to a few painfull questions that are haunting us nowadays.

1. The stock market is down
2. The oil price is doing zig zaw a few months ago it was around 150$/barrel and now it is around 50$/barrel
3. Our mutual funds are giving negative returns
4. Bank FDs do not even cover inflation
5. Taxes are increasing every year
6. The investmenet properties that we bought are now less than the loan amount on those properties and if we sell then we will be loosing more money.
7. And you are reading blog from a person who himself is down in this market.

So now the question arises why you should be reading this blog what promise do I hold to help you?

The answer is plain and simple--None. Yes my friend I do not have any magic potion to give to you, other wise I would have had a few sips myself and instead of blogging i would have been sunbathing on the beaches of GOA, one of my favorite places on the earth. ( The favorite is ofcourse my home sweet home).
So why should you or any body listen to me or rather read this blog. Actually you do not have to that is the beauty of this medium. Except for time you do not have to spend any time on the same and I do not intend to give any advise. I am only going to record my experiences and what I plan to do or would like to do. Since I am as much a layman as you are maybe we will learn a few things together. I do not have a daily NAV to post and no board of directors or investors to impress with the ROCE and RONE and PEG ratio or the growth in the EPS. I only have to worry that the decisions i will take to put my money to use will decide if I retire in next 10 years or work till the last day of my life. My decisions will decide wether my wife will be able to hire a maid in her old age or she and I would be doing the household work once my income from salary stops.

I am a simple guy next door no fancy education in finance ( infact I can not even balance a balance sheet).

Although there is a downfall in my portfolio to a major extent it is donw from say a 105 Rs to only 34 Rs. Which by any standard is a great fall just like Humpty Dumpty, and as they say"

"Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and all the kings men and kings horses could not put together humpty dumpty" So I do not expect that any kings men will come to my rescue I believe they will come to rescue fo the big corporates but not for the little guys like you and me.