(This is the first part in a series on the need for Customized Financial Planning)
Often times we feel helpless about the state of affairs that govern our lives – market slowdown leading to uncertain incomes, multitude of financial service providers each with a holier-than-thou attitude….the list simply does not end.
Come to think of it…..actually we don’t want to because of the remembrance of the pain & misery that we experienced the last time we faced such a situation…..de-ja vu seems overtly simplistic to describe the feeling.
The meltdown in the financial markets have left savers & investors in such a quandary (try recollecting 1992 or 2001) that they are left licking their wounds like “never before” with resolutions ranging from the “never again with stocks or mutual funds” to “this time when I invest I will exit the moment I get my 20% appreciation”.
I did not hear anyone say the same about ULIPs or property or gold or LIC endowment policies! Did you? Transparency never made anyone or anything popular! The bigger the myth, greater is the following.
Perplexed about what I am trying to get at? Come on, give it a shot……individually we are all reasonably intelligent people, right? You bet! (Honestly, I am not being sarcastic.) But then before you get carried away by a bit of self-adulation…..try remembering, when was the last time you had a serious, path-breaking conversation with a group of buddies over a couple of beers? Or, even better, do you seriously think or expect the leaders of G-20 nations to come out with some miracle pill that will act like a panacea to the ills facing the global economy……don’t get me wrong, I am never for a moment suggesting that there is something wrong with the abilities of these people……the problem is that try doing path-breaking thinking as a group and you will know what I am getting at.
The problem is that whenever we are in a group and we agree to a single path of action, the probability of compromises being chosen just for the sake of arriving at a consensus, surely enough kills whatever ingenuity each person is capable of. What is ingenuous to one is surely going to “challenge the status-quo for another with damaging consequences” and mark you this is void ab-initio for the ‘consensus seeking mindset”.
Given this, we need to ask the all important question – Is consensus such a bad thing after all? I can’t seem to make up my mind whether it is bad always, but, at the same time the experience of economic booms (and the inevitable bust ups that follow it) is rarely ever seen without its fuel in the form of consensus on most matters which initially lay the seeds of the boom but eventually turns out to be a highly inflammable potion which ensures that the boom is ensnared in its flames.
Alternately, replace the word “group” in the afore-said piece with the not so respectable “herd” and “boom” with “bubble” and you will get an altogether different feeling. If I have managed to provoke you to think, do so silently, while sitting all by yourself, choose your poison (wisely) but do remember to let me know your thoughts……..that will be the source of my intoxication and my next ‘wave’!
These days it is not un-natural to have stray thoughts, sample this – Do we have enough gray matter? If yes, then, what do we do with it?
Often times we feel helpless about the state of affairs that govern our lives – market slowdown leading to uncertain incomes, multitude of financial service providers each with a holier-than-thou attitude….the list simply does not end.
Come to think of it…..actually we don’t want to because of the remembrance of the pain & misery that we experienced the last time we faced such a situation…..de-ja vu seems overtly simplistic to describe the feeling.
The meltdown in the financial markets have left savers & investors in such a quandary (try recollecting 1992 or 2001) that they are left licking their wounds like “never before” with resolutions ranging from the “never again with stocks or mutual funds” to “this time when I invest I will exit the moment I get my 20% appreciation”.
I did not hear anyone say the same about ULIPs or property or gold or LIC endowment policies! Did you? Transparency never made anyone or anything popular! The bigger the myth, greater is the following.
Perplexed about what I am trying to get at? Come on, give it a shot……individually we are all reasonably intelligent people, right? You bet! (Honestly, I am not being sarcastic.) But then before you get carried away by a bit of self-adulation…..try remembering, when was the last time you had a serious, path-breaking conversation with a group of buddies over a couple of beers? Or, even better, do you seriously think or expect the leaders of G-20 nations to come out with some miracle pill that will act like a panacea to the ills facing the global economy……don’t get me wrong, I am never for a moment suggesting that there is something wrong with the abilities of these people……the problem is that try doing path-breaking thinking as a group and you will know what I am getting at.
The problem is that whenever we are in a group and we agree to a single path of action, the probability of compromises being chosen just for the sake of arriving at a consensus, surely enough kills whatever ingenuity each person is capable of. What is ingenuous to one is surely going to “challenge the status-quo for another with damaging consequences” and mark you this is void ab-initio for the ‘consensus seeking mindset”.
Given this, we need to ask the all important question – Is consensus such a bad thing after all? I can’t seem to make up my mind whether it is bad always, but, at the same time the experience of economic booms (and the inevitable bust ups that follow it) is rarely ever seen without its fuel in the form of consensus on most matters which initially lay the seeds of the boom but eventually turns out to be a highly inflammable potion which ensures that the boom is ensnared in its flames.
Alternately, replace the word “group” in the afore-said piece with the not so respectable “herd” and “boom” with “bubble” and you will get an altogether different feeling. If I have managed to provoke you to think, do so silently, while sitting all by yourself, choose your poison (wisely) but do remember to let me know your thoughts……..that will be the source of my intoxication and my next ‘wave’!
These days it is not un-natural to have stray thoughts, sample this – Do we have enough gray matter? If yes, then, what do we do with it?
(This is the first part in a series on the need for Customized Financial Planning)
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