I am sure you must have heard this as a child many a times. That the best way to get rid of your financial troubles and bring prosperity in your lives is to worship Goddess Lakshmi on Fridays. There is even a name for this Goddess - VAIBHAV Lakshmi. Though I do not believe in this superstition, I didn't want to take chances. So I decided to talk about my experiences related to finances on a Friday with #flirtyFridays. Maybe that's my way of worshipping the Goddess.
For all those KoolKanyas out there, whether you are a student, a working professional or an industry expert, this is about what I went through before I took the plunge into investing. Every one might have a different reason, a different story and even a different goal. But what binds us is that we are in this together as women. If you have read my earlier posts, you already know how, when and why I started saving. Today, how about I share a few myths and how I banged them before I started investing? Read on.
#MYTH 1: I know nothing about investing.
#BANGER 1: We were not born Einsteins. We were taught to learn things as we grew up and that's what helped us come this far. Imagine how you were on the first day of your school (You can always check with your parents if you can't remember) and see where you are now. If you can see a clear difference, my point has been made.
After graduating in HR and Finance, when I set foot to start working I realised it is going to be the same as my first day at school. And today, though I am not a know-it-all, I take pride in the fact that I have come this far owing to my learning and experiences. Investing is no different.
#MYTH 2: It is complicated.
#BANGER 2: This actually is not a myth. I would rather say it can be considered more of a phobia. Let's say you love cooking and you have been cooking all your life, mostly Indian. And suddenly you are asked to cook Thai / Mexican cuisine because of someone special. The first thing that comes to your mind is "It is complicated."
I had always been investing in buying shoes, dresses and stuff to keep me happy. And all of a sudden I realised I had to invest in my future. The first thing that came to my mind was "It is complicated." It has been 4 years that I have been investing in my future now.
#MYTH 3: It involves a lot of knowledge gaining.
#BANGER 3: Of course it does. I will be kidding if I said otherwise. But that does not mean we will have to read, know everything, attend exams and wait for the results to start investing. Heard this? 'A for Apple.' Imagine, if we were taught all about Apple, its Scientific name, its origin, its various varieties, its uses and everything about Apple in the nursery itself, we would have all been Apple intellectuals today. Pity, all we were taught back then was how to spell, look, feel and taste it.
As a curious soul, everything that I read or found out about, I tried to practice by look, feel and taste method. So when I first started reading about investments, I actually started investing with a minimum amount and then tried all my experiments with it. I don't know if it is the perfect way, but it definitely taught me a lot.
#MYTH 4: We have to read a lot of material which we might not understand.
#BANGER 4: This one is serious now. Everything related to investments comes with a huge instruction manual, going through which needs a lot of time. It would also reflect on the fact that there is so little that we know and so much more that we need to know. But that should not deter us in any way. There are experts who can help you with this. All we need to do is reach out to them.
I remember it was 2004 that I got my first phone. The Nokia 1100. It was the current trending piece back then. With it came a 25 page booklet explaining about it. I still have it with me. The booklet. I decided to chuck reading it. Instead I checked with a few friends who were already using it and learnt most of how to use it by using it myself.
#MYTH 5: There is a lot of fluctuation and volatility involved.
#BANGER 5: As a 1st grader, we learnt about a number 2, as a 3rd grader we learnt about 2+2 = 4 and as we graduated we had learnt that '2' is an integral part of addition, multiplication, binary system, linear equations, exponents, derivatives and much more. Needless to say the value of the number '2' kept fluctuating and became more volatile depending on what level you were using it as. The same goes with Investments.
As a recruiter, I always gave a certain credit to the Profile of a candidate. During 11 years of my experience, I have witnessed many fluctuations in a candidate's Profile being considered as a metric of assessing the candidate. But that does not scare me away from doing so. In fact, I have learnt to understand how to assess a profile as per our requirement. Investment is no rocket science.
#MYTH 6: You need to put in a lot of time in getting results.
#BANGER 6: I know you are wishing secretly that there is a box which you can invest in and forget about for 10 - 15 years. And after that when you open the box, Viola! You see the amount grown 5 or 6 times more than the actual amount. Halwa hai kya?
If Amma would have put me in school and then decided that she will look at me after 20 years and find a ready made Post Graduate, what do you think she would have found then? Halwa. Hell ya. Like we treat our children as our future and nurture them by giving our love, time and efforts, so is it with Investing.
Let me know if you have any other myths about Investing, I a'int no expert but we can together bang them. If you have been investing, do share snippets of your investment story. If you have not yet started investing, hell no! You have already. By reading this post you have invested 3 minutes in finding out a little about investing. Don't stop now. Take the plunge.
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