Find Shrikrushna as a consultant
A Financial Consultant can make investor sail smoothly in Ups and Downs
(The way Lord Krishna consulted Arjun to emerge as winner among all Challenges like Chakravyuh )
We must have come across the popular phrase of ‘Listen to all but do what your mind asks you to’. This phrase is ideally perfect for our typical middle class fraternity of people. They stay with a kind of misunderstanding that they know everything. This exactly leads them to taking decisions on their own. Now, what happens is, they might not be correct every time but they don’t find it necessary to re-think about their moves or consult an expert. They are pretty firm on their decisions. They want to prove themselves as RIGHT while putting it this way – I am taking my own decisions. And if this issue is related to money matters then you have no scope left to make the person understand. ‘I have great management skills and that I have managed my life very well’ is generally reflected from their persona.
We frequently come across various stereotype conversations like – ‘i know what to do about my finances’. ‘My hairs have turned grey managing such stuffs’ or ‘I have more experiences of handling money matters’. You would be surprised to know that when it comes to investment 99% people take their own decisions without consulting the experts. ‘I am a good manager of my funds’ is what everyone feels.
Further explaining I would like to quote an example. We all know that Arjun was a great warrior and ideal personality in Mahabharata. The historic war between Kaurav and Pandav was about to start and Arjun lost his patience. His emotions overpowered and he forgot his (Kshtriya Dharm) motive and course of actions to be taken to win war. He simply took decision to not participate in war. He started asserting his decision and kept on explaining that how his decision to NOT to go for a battle is correct. But Lord of Lords Shri Krishna was his Charioteer. The enlightening message given in the battlefield by Lord Krshna to Arjun is popularly known as ‘Shrimad Bhagwat Gita’
Here, Arjun is a common man and Shri Krishna plays the role of his consultant. Presently every person is more or less like an Arjun. He is in dilemma for various reasons. He needs proper guidance and consultations. People pretend to have a lot of knowledge about investments but internally they are not sure about their financial decisions.
Every person needs guidance, a direction to move on right track. Some people have mentors or seniors or those people around whom they call their true consultants or guides. But when it comes to management of finances and investment planning, suddenly people want to keep it secret and low key. People generally don’t seek consultations in money matter. Every field has its own set of experts, we seek their help. For instance we go to Doctor when we are un-well, we appoint architect / engineer while building a house and we go to advocate / legal matter consultants for legal issues. It is seen that financial consultant have got immense importance across world, but unfortunately it is not so in our country. A certain negative attitude is seen towards financial consultants.
It is a frequently observed fact that people buy LIC policies from certain agents without even having enough knowledge about the actual benefits of policy. We don’t even bother to discuss or consult someone regarding such policies. The agent specifically tells us about tax saving benefits and we simply buy the scheme without thinking whether it suits or meets our financial equations or not. I would suggest that one should ask this question to themselves and I am very sure maximum people will agree with my opinion.
We Indians are very sentimental people. We make our decision based on our emotional inclination. I could make you count numerous incidents wherein the investment is done just because the agent is either family friend or relative. The primary motive of investment is trust on agent and a helping hand for his/her new venture. The secondary motive is benefit out of sensible investment options. Investment should not be connected to emotions rather it should ONLY focus on our needs and practicalities.
Do we search Google when we are ill or in pain. Or do we really look for legal advice on Google? For illness we go to experts, doctors and specialists while in case of legal matters we knock doors of advocates. What I want to underline is that financial management and investment are exceptions to this and should be done with the help of consultants only. Everything related to finance is open and true. Everything is available on google to cross check. Thus, it could be said that complete dependency on google regarding financial planning or being sentimental while financial planning will take you to the ‘Chakravyuh’ (difficult challenges) of finance.
We all know the design of Chakavyuh, it is easy to enter but you face a lot of difficulties in coming out of it. If you have the right consultant, then and then only can successfully come out on a winning note. Arjun and Abhimanyu both were great warriors. Arjun was stuck in the emotional chakravyuha while Abhimanyu got stuck in actual chakravyuha on the battlefield. Arjun could emerge as a winner because he got the right guidance from Shri Krishna. Abhimanyu could not make it as he had no support of right guidance. Also he chose the path of emotions and not intellect. Thus he lost the fight and his life as well. Abhimanyu knew to enter the Chakravyuha but he didnt know how to crack it from coming out safely. It shows that half information is dangerous. It may cause immense losses to you. Finally one has to decide whether you have to be Arjun or Abhimanyu ? Arjun symbolises win while Abhimanyu symbolises defeat. You need a consultant like Shri Krishna to crack the Chakravyuh and that is for sure!
Financial planning is changing with time. It is developing as science. Our culture has illustrated various stages in life. Financial planning too is based on those stages. One should do the financial planning as per needs and financial goals. Financial planning comprises six types of stages classified as financial security, own house, responsibility of family, better retirements, dream richness and will or testament. Our needs fall into the above categories. For which we have to decide what is our financial goal? How much time do i have to meet the goal? we can enlist all such points. The financial planning should be based on current income,present expenses, futuristic needs, education of children, marriages, inflation etc.
Jot down everything on a piece of paper and decide your financial goal. Separate arrangement needs to be made to meet every requirement and various plannings needs to be amalgamated to make one concrete plan work. We will have to leave the traditional ways and incorporate several new schemes that are available. you may come across various new provisions which you are not aware of. So go for a professional financial consultant. Think well, get consulted so that you don’t end up getting stuck in chakravyuh and emerge as a winner like Arjun.