Health insurance gives you the confidence to plan for such situations. It can help cover treatment costs, reduce financial stress, and make healthcare decisions easier during important moments.

In this article, we explore the key benefits of having health insurance in India.

Protection Against High Medical Costs

Medical care can become expensive when hospitalization, surgery, diagnostic tests, medicines, and follow-up visits are involved. Without health insurance, many families may have to use savings or arrange funds quickly. A suitable policy may reduce this burden by covering eligible expenses under the plan’s terms.

This benefit matters because:

• It may protect your savings during medical emergencies
• It can reduce sudden financial pressure on the family
• It may support planned treatments without disturbing other goals
• It provides a defined coverage amount for eligible healthcare expenses

Cashless Treatment Facility

Cashless treatment is one of the most helpful features of health insurance. When treatment is taken at a network hospital, eligible bills may be settled directly between the insurer and the hospital after approval. This can be useful when immediate payment at the time of admission or discharge is difficult.

A cashless facility may offer:

• Less pressure to arrange a large amount immediately
• A smoother claim process at network hospitals
• More convenience for the patient and family
• Better focus on treatment instead of payment arrangements

Coverage for Critical Illnesses

Some health conditions may need long-term treatment, specialized care, or extended recovery. Critical illness coverage may provide benefits if a listed serious illness is diagnosed, subject to the policy’s terms and conditions. This can be especially useful when treatment affects both medical expenses and regular income.

It may be helpful because:

• It may support treatment for specified serious illnesses
• It can reduce financial stress during recovery
• It may be useful when the patient needs time away from work
• It can support families facing ongoing medical and household expenses

Family Protection Under One Plan

A family floater plan can cover multiple members under one policy. Depending on the plan, it may include the policyholder, spouse, children, and sometimes parents. When looking for the best health insurance in India for your needs, compare the cover amount, family size, age of members, hospital network, waiting periods, and claim process before making a decision.

A family plan may be useful because:

• It maintains coverage for eligible members under a single policy
• It can simplify renewal and document management
• It may offer shared protection for the household
• It allows families to plan medical security in an organized way

Tax Benefits

Health insurance can also offer tax benefits under applicable income tax rules. Premiums paid for eligible policies may qualify for deductions under current law, tax regime, payment method, and other conditions.

This can add value because:

• It encourages people to plan for healthcare expenses
• It may reduce taxable income under eligible conditions
• It can apply to cover purchases for self, family, or parents, as permitted by law
• It connects health protection with financial planning

Access to Better Healthcare

Health insurance may give policyholders access to a wider hospital network and a more structured treatment process. When a person has adequate coverage, they may feel more prepared to seek medical attention, rather than delaying care due to cost concerns.

It may support better healthcare access through:

• Treatment options at network hospitals
• More confidence during hospital admission
• Reduced hesitation in seeking timely medical care
• Support for eligible procedures under the policy

Coverage Beyond Hospitalization

Health insurance today may cover more than just inpatient hospital stays. Depending on the plan, it may include day care procedures, pre-hospitalization expenses, post-hospitalization expenses, ambulance cover, domiciliary treatment, and preventive health benefits.

This broader coverage can be useful because:

• Some treatments may not require long hospital stays
• Medical expenses may begin before admission
• Follow-up care after discharge can increase total expenses
• Additional benefits may enhance the policy’s overall usefulness

Conclusion

Health insurance in India can be an important part of responsible financial planning. It may protect savings, support timely treatment, cover eligible family members, and offer tax benefits under applicable rules.

The key is to choose a policy after understanding its coverage, hospital network, waiting periods, claim process, and terms. A carefully selected plan can better prepare you for health-related expenses.

The post What Are the Benefits of Having Health Insurance in India? appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

This article explains how to choose insurance plans for your family when you live away from your hometown, so admissions and claims stay smooth and stress-free.

Decide on Your Cover Structure Before Comparing Plans

Many people start by comparing premiums. For a split-city family, it is smarter first to decide how you want to organize cover across generations.

Keep One Plan for Your Household in the Rented City

A family plan is designed to safeguard multiple members under one policy and typically covers hospitalization, medical emergencies, diagnostics, and preventive care.

For couples and children living together in a rented city, this structure is usually easier to manage because renewals, documents, and claims stay centralized.

This achieves something simple: one policy that follows your day-to-day life where you currently live, without needing multiple renewals and multiple sets of paperwork.

Consider Separate Parents Health Insurance

Parents usually have different medical needs and may prefer specific hospitals near home. A parents health insurance policy is designed to cover medical expenses from illness, injury, or hospitalization. It commonly includes features such as cashless hospitalization, day care treatments, diagnostic tests, ambulance cover, and pre- and post-hospitalization expenses.

Keeping parents on a separate policy can also prevent a large claim from consuming the cover meant for your spouse and children. It is often a cleaner way to align hospitals, usage patterns, and claims support when parents live elsewhere.

Choose Hospitals First, Then Shortlist Health Insurance Plans

When you are new to a city, you do not want to discover network limitations during an emergency. Before you finalize health insurance plans for family, look at where you can actually get treatment. Start by mapping out the hospitals nearest to where you currently live.

Prioritize Network Access in Your Rented City

Many policies support hospitalization expenses such as room rent, ICU charges, investigations, surgery, and doctor consultations.

But the experience can feel very different depending on whether the hospital is part of the insurer’s network and whether cashless admission is available.

A strong hospital network in your rented city matters because it reduces the need to arrange large payments quickly and helps you focus on treatment.

Understand What Happens in a Non-Network Hospital

The difference between network and non-network treatment is essential. In a non-network hospital, you may have to pay first and then apply for reimbursement.

If you live away from your hometown, this matters even more because arranging funds and collecting documents can be harder when you’re coordinating remotely.

Plan for the Expenses That Sit Outside the Hospital

Many families assume insurance is only about inpatient bills. In reality, a large part of spending can come from consultations, tests, and medicines that happen before admission and after discharge. Health insurance may include pre- and post-hospitalization expenses for a defined period around a hospital event.

For renters, this is especially useful because follow-up appointments often take place near your current home, even if the hospitalization occurred elsewhere.

Build a Claim-Ready Routine That Works From Anywhere

When family members live in different cities, small habits can make claims far smoother.

Know the Basics of Cashless and Documentation

Cashless hospitalization is a feature commonly highlighted in plans, especially for parents and families, because it reduces the immediate financial burden during treatment. Even then, approvals and paperwork still matter.

It helps to know who in the family will coordinate with the hospital, what documents are typically requested, and how you will share them fast if you are not physically present.

Renewal Time is Your Annual Opportunity to Fix Gaps

A rented life changes quickly. You may move homes, add a child, or start supporting parents more actively. Use renewal as a deliberate review:

• Confirm that your key hospitals are still part of the network.
• Update communication details so you do not miss claim or renewal messages.
• Reassess whether your cover still matches your current needs.

This keeps your health insurance aligned with how your family actually lives.

Summing Up

When you live in a rented city away from your hometown, choose health insurance for a family that works smoothly across locations. Keep cover aligned with your household in the rented city, and consider separate parents health insurance if they live back home. Prioritize nearby network hospitals, understand cashless and reimbursement claims, and check for benefits like day care treatments and pre- and post-hospitalization cover.

Related reading » 18 Ways to Cope With Long-Term Hospital Stay

The post Health Insurance for Family Living in Different Cities: A Practical Guide appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Your health insurance plan is more than just a safety net for medical emergencies. When used strategically, it becomes a powerful tool for maintaining your health, preventing illness, and managing ongoing conditions. The right plan can connect you with preventive care, wellness programs, and specialized treatments that keep you healthy year-round. Understanding how to leverage these benefits can transform your approach to healthcare and significantly improve your quality of life.

Why Preventive Care Through Health Insurance Matters

Preventive care catches health problems before they become serious. Most insurance plans cover annual check-ups, screenings, and vaccinations at no extra cost because insurers know that preventing illness costs far less than treating advanced disease.

Regular visits to your doctor can detect high blood pressure, diabetes, or even early-stage cancers when they’re most treatable. These routine appointments also give you a chance to discuss any concerns with your healthcare provider and stay current on recommended screenings based on your age and risk factors.

How to Select the Best Health Insurance Plan for Your Needs

Finding the right health insurance plan requires honest assessment of your current health status and anticipated needs. Consider whether you need frequent specialist visits, have ongoing prescriptions, or prefer lower monthly premiums with higher deductibles.

Start by reviewing each plan’s provider network to ensure your preferred doctors and hospitals are included. Compare prescription drug coverage, especially if you take regular medications. Look at the costs for common services like office visits, lab work, and emergency care.

An insurance guide on digital platforms can help you understand the different options available and how they align with your specific requirements. But don’t rely solely on price. The cheapest plan might cost more in the long run if it doesn’t cover the services you actually use.

Health Insurance Wellness Programs That Actually Work

Many insurers offer wellness programs that go beyond basic medical coverage. These might include gym membership discounts, nutrition counseling, or health coaching programs. Some plans provide cash incentives for completing health assessments or participating in fitness challenges.

Many plans offer employee assistance programs, stress management workshops, or meditation apps at no additional cost. Smoking cessation programs often include both counseling and prescription medications to help you quit. These programs exist because healthier members cost insurers less money, so they’re genuinely invested in helping you succeed. Take advantage of what’s available—these benefits are already built into your premium.

Managing Chronic Conditions with Insurance Coverage

If you have diabetes, heart disease, asthma, or another chronic condition, your insurance plan becomes even more crucial. Look for plans that cover your specific medications and specialists without requiring lengthy prior authorization processes.

Many plans offer disease management programs that provide additional support beyond regular doctor visits. These might include regular check-ins with nurses, educational materials, or even home monitoring equipment for conditions like diabetes or heart failure.

Stay organized with your care by keeping track of your medications, appointment schedules, and test results. This helps you make the most of your visits and ensures you’re following your treatment plan consistently.

Mental Health Insurance Coverage and Benefits

Mental health coverage has improved significantly in recent years, with most plans now covering therapy, psychiatric consultations, and prescription medications for mental health conditions. Many plans treat mental health visits the same as physical health appointments in terms of copays and deductibles.

If you’re dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, or other mental health challenges, check what services your plan covers. Some offer online therapy options or mental health apps that complement traditional treatment.

Don’t wait until you’re in crisis to explore these benefits. Mental health care works best when you start early, and many people find that regular therapy helps them manage stress and improve their overall well-being.

Telemedicine Benefits and Health Insurance Coverage

Virtual doctor visits have become a standard part of healthcare, and most insurance plans now cover telemedicine appointments. This is particularly valuable for routine consultations, prescription refills, or follow-up visits after procedures.

Telemedicine works well for many common conditions and can save you time and money compared to in-person visits. It’s especially helpful if you live in a rural area, have transportation challenges, or simply prefer the convenience of meeting with your doctor from home.

Check whether your plan offers telemedicine through specific platforms or providers, as coverage rules can vary. Some plans even offer 24/7 virtual urgent care for non-emergency situations.

Prescription Drug Coverage and Cost-Saving Strategies

Prescription medications can be expensive, but understanding your plan’s drug coverage can help you save money. Every plan has a formulary, which is a list of covered medications organized into tiers with different copay amounts.

Generic medications typically cost less than brand-name drugs, and many plans encourage generic substitutions. If you need a brand-name medication, ask your doctor if there are covered alternatives or if they can provide documentation for a prior authorization.

Mail-order pharmacies often offer lower prices for maintenance medications you take regularly. Some plans also offer 90-day supplies at reduced costs compared to monthly refills.

Health Screenings Covered by Insurance Plans

Regular health screenings are one of the most valuable benefits your insurance provides. Most plans cover age-appropriate screenings like mammograms, colonoscopies, blood pressure checks, and cholesterol tests at no cost to you.

These screenings follow evidence-based guidelines from medical organizations and are designed to catch problems early when treatment is most effective. For example, regular mammograms can detect breast cancer before you or your doctor can feel a lump.

Don’t skip these appointments, even if you feel healthy. Many serious conditions, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol, have no symptoms in their early stages. Staying current with recommended screenings gives you the best chance of catching and treating problems before they become serious.

Conclusion

Making the most of your health insurance requires more than just paying your premiums and hoping for the best. The plans that deliver real value are the ones you actively use for preventive care, wellness programs, and ongoing health management.

Take time to understand what your plan covers and schedule those routine screenings and check-ups. Explore the wellness benefits you’re already paying for, whether that’s gym discounts, mental health resources, or disease management programs. And remember that small investments in your health today can prevent much larger medical expenses down the road.

Your insurance plan is designed to keep you healthy, not just treat you when you’re sick. Use it that way, and you’ll likely find yourself feeling better while spending less on healthcare overall.

The post How to Use Your Health Insurance to Stay Healthy and Save Money appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

That money elicits strong emotions in us is a fact of life. That it shapes our behavior, including our short- and long-term goals, speaks of its overarching power. That it can monopolize our attention and control our thoughts suggests that our relationship with money is deeply psychological.

Just as money has a hold on our thoughts and behavior, a lack of it also exerts a strong influence on us. Thus, poverty can cause people to behave in seemingly irrational ways, especially to those who haven’t experienced severe deprivation. However, from the perspective of the needy, their actions do indeed make sense. So, development researchers, policy makers and planners need to view problems and policies through the lens of those they wish to help.

Scarcity Overpowers the Mind

Behavioural economists Senthil Mullainathan and Eldar Sharif describe an interesting study in their book, Scarcity: The True Cost of Not Having Enough, that they performed with farmers in India along with economist, Anandi Mani. Unlike paid laborers, farmers tend to get most of their income in one shot during harvest season. Small farmers tend to be flush with cash soon after harvest but are often indigent in the months leading up to harvest.

The authors picked sugar cane farmers because the crop is harvested year-round in some regions. Typically, sugar cane is harvested “during a four-to-five month-window.” As a result, different farmers in an area can be on different harvest cycles. The researchers administered tests of “executive control and fluid intelligence” on the same farmers, both when they were affluent and penurious.

Soon after harvest, when their pockets are full, farmers performed better on both the cognitive tests compared to when they were short on cash. Further, these farmers were not the most impoverished. Even before harvest, when they were strapped for funds, they did have enough to eat. In cases of more extreme poverty, this result is likely to be exacerbated.

The authors conclude that “poverty reduced fluid intelligence and executive control,” not because poor people lacked these capacities but because scarcity simply overpowers the mind. And this could be one reason why the needy indulge in what seems like ‘irrational’ behavior.

Related » 9 Ideas to Help You Change Your Relationship With Money

Poverty May Affect Decision-Making and Emotional States

In an article in Science, Johannes Haushofer and Ernst Fehr aver that poverty induces cognitive and affective stress in individuals, which, in turn, leads to myopic and compromised decision-making. This creates a “feedback loop” wherein poverty perpetuates itself. This does not imply that deficient decision-making skills is a trait of the poor; rather, anyone of us, under conditions of extreme stress that poverty imposes, are also likely to make similar, short-sighted choices.

Researchers have, in fact, found a link between poverty and the amount of cortisol, a biochemical marker of stress, in the body, observe Nobel laureates, Abhijit Banerji and Ester Duflo, in their book, Poor Economics: Rethinking Poverty & Ways to End It.

Interestingly, a study in Mexico revealed that when impoverished mothers receive aid, the cortisol levels of their children went down. A similar decrease in cortisol levels was not observed in a control group of children whose mothers weren’t part of the aid program.

In Harvard Magazine, Christy DeSmith reports that anxiety and depression is more common among children from low-income homes. Further, children in poor homes also exhibit smaller hippocampal volumes. The hippocampus is a brain structure involved in memory and learning and a smaller hippocampus usually portends lower academic achievement. However, DeSmith also describes new research by psychologist Katie McLaughlin and colleagues that indicates that children from poor families receiving aid show smaller disparities in both brain structure and mental health.

The Poor Tend to Spend on Hopes and Dreams

Author, Morgan Housel, writes in The Psychology of Money, that the poorest households in the United States spend $412 a year on lotto tickets. Compared to the highest earners, the low-income group spends four times as much on lottery tickets in a year. To many people who are comfortably off, this behavior of the penurious group seems irrational. Given that the poor households would struggle to quaff up $400 for an emergency, yet they fritter away the same amount on lottery tickets, where their chances of winning are so slim.

But before we dismiss their behavior as irresponsible, Housel exhorts us to view their situation from their perspective. Saving isn’t a possibility in their hand-to-mouth existence. Many things we take for granted, like nice vacations, new cars, health insurance, or homes in safe neighborhoods, are beyond their means. The only time they get to dream of these things is when a lottery ticket imbues them with hope. As Housel writes, they are “paying for a dream.”

In a similar vein, Banerji and Duflo also report on a seemingly illogical behavior pattern noticed among poor people. According to the authors, the poor spend as much money as well-to-do people on temporary ailments by visiting doctors. However, when it comes to chronic diseases, the needy seem to prefer consulting traditional healers who drive away evil spirits.

While this seems absurd from the perspective of a rational thinker, it makes perfect sense. Because they can’t afford treatments for chronic ailments, which are long-term and more expensive, poor people turn to the only source who may provide them with some succor. As Banerji and Duflo write, “When there is little else they can do, hope becomes essential.”

Another puzzling behavior exhibited by poor farmers in Kenya is their failure to use fertilizers. Though they understand that their yield will be more fruitful and profitable if they use fertilizers, many of them still don’t end up doing so, note Banerji and Duflo. The reason behind this conundrum is that when planting season arrives, farmers have depleted all the cash they have earned during harvest. And, when farmers are awash with cash, soon after harvest, the fertilizer shops don’t necessarily stock fertilizers till planting season.

Given their hand-to-mouth existence, some expenditure or the other eats away at their money between harvesting and planting seasons. When researchers understood the dilemma of the Kenyan farmers, they gave them the option of buying vouchers for fertilizers, right after harvest. This small intervention increased the percentage of farmers using fertilizers by around 50%.

Related » Unlearning and Relearning How Money Works

Conclusion

Thus, when development economists study poor and marginalized communities, it’s important to factor in psychological, social and cultural forces as well. When we see a beggar on the road, rather than being indifferent or dismissive, perhaps, we may remind ourselves that had circumstances been different, that person could have been us and we could have been them. After all, as Banerji and Duflo aptly put it, poverty is more than a lack of money — it can also erode the ability to realize one’s full potential as a human being.

The post Poverty Effect: The Psychology of Having Too Little appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Re-address your spending

Catherine, a 30-year-old professional woman who is one of my clients,told me she couldn’t afford to buy a property. We discussed how much she spent on clothes, alcohol, going out, impulse purchases, magazines, unused hair and make-up products, and came to the conclusion that it amounted to a lot of wasted money. I then worked with her to change the negative spending habits in her mind. Within a couple of months of making changes to her spending, Catherine had paid off some of her credit card debts. Within a year, she had saved enough for a deposit and, by being realistic about the areas she could afford to buy in, was able to buy a property.

My advice

By looking at the financial facts, you can see where you are going wrong. Different choices and decisions will make your dreams come true.

Money can come from unexpected sources

A client called Trisha told me that she had to move to another part of the country temporarily, for six months, and didn’t need her furniture at the new place. She was stressed because she didn’t have the money to put her furniture into storage until she returned to the area and she couldn’t leave it in the flat, which she was only renting. After working to release the negative stress, I told her to imagine the move had all worked out amazingly well and that it was financially amazing too. She was skeptical, but said she would give it a go. Two weeks later, Trisha came back for another session and told me the most amazing story. A man who was a potential new tenant came to view the flat she was moving out of. As he was leaving, he popped his head back around the door and said, ‘You wouldn’t be interested in letting me rent your furniture for six months if I take the flat, would you?’ So, on the day Trisha moved out, she packed her food, clothes and toiletries into her car and drove away. In exchange for being able to leave all her furniture and general household belongings in the flat, she was being paid £400 a month. Instead of having to pay storage fees, she had an income.

My advice

Work to release the negative beliefs by following the techniques in this book and then presume things will work out amazingly well. If you do have to store your belongings have a good clear out so you don’t pay to store things you don’t need.

Amazing things can happen

A client called Nigel told me he couldn’t continue struggling to pay all the costs of having children and general living expenses and that, as he only had enough money to pay the interest on his mortgage, the amount he owed was never going to reduce. After working in the session to release his negative fears, I told him, “Things can happen. Things change. Think amazing.” Less than a week later, Nigel’s father-in -law decided to give his daughter and her husband £100,000 to reduce their mortgage. Nigel was amazed at how the amazing had worked!

My advice

You may not have a rich relative, but you don’t need to know what the amazing, unexpected things will be. Just know that they will be amazing. Be open to paying off your mortgage early. Say to yourself, ‘We’ve paid off the mortgage in an amazing way.

Even a bad situation can turn into the best thing

A self-employed client lost his best customer, which meant that his income stopped almost overnight. I helped him to believe that it was amazing for him. A few days after his appointment with me, he woke up with the idea of pushing into other markets. The old client had made him so busy he had overlooked more lucrative areas of work. He kept the amazing feeling going, which led him to find new and better clients.

My advice

By releasing the negative beliefs and keeping in the amazing zone, you can make even better things happen.

Get the job you want with the salary you want

Sarah, a freelance journalist, was offered a dream job working for a magazine. But she didn’t want to accept it because it involved a significant reduction in her salary. I did some hypnotherapy sessions with her. I explained to her, “It isn’t your dream job unless you have the salary you want. You’ll make amazing things happen when you let go of old, limiting habits in your subconscious mind. After the session, Sarah’s new confidence and positive self-belief enabled her to tell her prospective employer that she would only accept the job if the salary was the figure she wanted. The company agreed to pay her what she asked for. So she got her dream job and dream salary, and over the next couple of months she used the money that was still owed to her to clear her credit cards, putting her totally on top of her finances. The amazing thing about this story is that the magazine that gave Sarah her dream job and salary was the same one that had originally commissioned her as a freelance journalist to write an article about how my hypnotherapy services could make one wealthier!

My advice

Think through how amazing you are and why you deserve a better salary. Then have the confidence to ask for Think amazing outcome. Say, ‘I can do it. I am doing it. It is done. I have an amazing job and amazing salary.” If you don’t get that job, your new positivity will already be creating an opportunity for something better to come our way.

Increase your sales

Mark was a salesman who had had a run of a few months with low sales. He began to feel bad about selling and found that he couldn’t tell prospective customers about all the products because it sounded as though he was trying to get lots of money from them. So, to avoid the anxiety he felt when he told them about all the items in the range, he limited himself to mentioning just a few. After I worked to release the recent negative program that had built up in his mind, he felt relief. A few weeks later, he called to say that he had been responsible for the biggest sale the company had ever had!

My advice

If you are having a bad run of sales, be aware that it is just a habit that has developed in your subconscious mind and that can be easily rectified. Think of selling as informing the client of all the options. They will ultimately do what is right for them and knowing all the options available will be helpful to them. Hypnotherapy sessions and recordings are perfect for keeping in the positive sales zone. In fact, every sales person I have ever worked with as a hypnotherapist has gone on to increase their sales figures. Try hypnotherapy to increase your wealth Sam bought my hypnotherapy recording Money – Increase your Wealth, which she listened to in order to help her change bad money beliefs and get out of a financial rut. After listening to it over a period of two months, she doubled her annual income from £18,000 to £36,000 because she had the confidence to apply for a much better paid job and – to her surprise – she got it.

My advice

Be open to hypnotherapy.

Be your own boss

Steve, an experienced builder and senior executive in a building firm, had the idea of starting up a new building business but, due to the recession, he thought it might be too risky. After some appointments with me, he decided to leave his old job. Then, by using the amazing zone feeling, he self-talked himself into success and used other techniques described in this book to keep himself positive. He did some freelance work to help pay his bills before his own building projects were up and running. ‘I had the self-belief to go after my dream despite the recession; he told me. ‘Because I had a new inner confidence, I packed in my job and have begun to create my own destiny:With hard work and believing in the amazing, his turnover in the first year was one million pounds! By the third year, he was turning over five million pounds.

My advice

Remember, Steve was starting a business with skills he had built up over many years, which is very different from starting a new business that you know nothing about. So, while you build a new business and new skills, be aware that you may need to keep doing your old job to support yourself until you start earning money. Being self-employed is hard work, so be prepared to put in the hours to set things up. Treat every customer with respect, as they could lead you to more customers. Keep expenses down, and be careful – it could be a while before you build up a good reputation and create a good income. Sometimes in life, you just have to go for things because they feel right. Your determination and good feelings will make you successful. Focus determines your reality. Believe amazing things will happen, but be grounded too.

The post Try this amazing method to attract money into your life appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Let me make this point as clear as possible: This article is called How to Ruin Your Financial Life for a reason: If you follow the rules in it, you will ruin your financial life. If you do the opposite, sunny days lie ahead.

Without further ado, here are the rules. I’m positive that I’ve probably missed some ways in which you can ruin your financial life—maybe even some important ones—but let’s just get on with it. My motto, borrowed from the genius editor Jim Bellows, applies here in spades: “Begin at once, and do the best you can.”

20 Financial Pitfalls to Avoid (or How to Ruin Your Financial Life)

1. Forget about tomorrow

That’s right. It’s always today. Tomorrow will never come at all, so don’t make any plans for the future. Making plans is a lot of work, and thinking about the future is frightening. It’s a lot easier to just think about today.

Plans for the future involve calculations and variables and may require some form of self-discipline—yuck. Plus, there’s so much uncertainty about the future that sometimes you don’t really feel good when you think about it. So why think about it at all? It’s just a way to get prematurely gray. Instead, think about what fun you can have now, and how much enjoyment and spending you can cram into one day.

2. Know with certainty that there will never be any rainy days in your life

There’s a lot of talk among old people about saving for a rainy day. There could be a recession, or a new inflation or deflation, or a real-estate collapse, they’ll say. You could lose your job. It happened to them after all. That’s why, they’ll tell you, you need to put aside money for a “rainy day.”

The only problem with this admonition is that it doesn’t apply to you. There will be no rainy days in your life. And if you plan for them, then you will have penalized yourself by saving money, and not splurging on that vacation or new car you wanted.

Just go on with your life knowing that all is fundamentally well, and that the bad things that happened to other people in other eras will simply never happen to you. It’s that basic. You don’t need to make any plans for economic security because your life will never have any downs, only ups.

3. Don’t bother to learn anything at all about investing

Life is short—far too short to spend your free time reading some dusty old tome on investing your money. Who does that kind of thing anyway? Nerds and worrywarts, and goofy guys with Coke-bottle glasses and pens in their pockets. You’re far too cool to even think of poring over books with charts and graphs and explanations of why stocks are sometimes better than bonds, and bonds are sometimes better than stocks. Who needs that kind of stuff?

4. Don’t balance your checkbook or keep track of what you spend

Why should you? The bank will send you a little form if you’re overdrawn, won’t they? In the meantime, you’ll want to avoid that uncomfortable feeling of being hemmed in by lots of numbers and columns of figures, and instead, just do what’s fun and easy.

After all, you’re not a machine.You can’t be programmed to function like a human calculator. You need to be your own sweet, carefree self. Besides, if you keep track of how much you spend, it might depress you.

So please don’t do it.

5. Forget to pay your taxes

Why does the government need the money anyway? They already have trillions. And they have legions of employees and office buildings, and lots of aircraft carriers and submarines. They do not need your few measly pennies. They don’t care about you.
If the tax guys somehow track you down, demanding the money you owe them, then borrow a line from the immortal Steve Martin and say, “Hey, I forgot.” What can they do? It’s not like you’re an ax murderer. You simply “forgot” [wink, wink] to pay your taxes. If you have your taxes deducted from your pay check, take the maximum number of deductions you can. Then, when it comes close to April 15, just don’t file your income taxes at all, period. That way you get to keep all of that extra money that wasn’t withheld from your pay check. It’ll take years, maybe decades for the tax guys to catch up with you. And when they do, at most they’ll just smack your hand and give you a big frown.

An added bonus: If you do get involved with litigating against the government over back taxes, you’ll be amazed by how little tax lawyers charge. These attorneys will practically give away their services to you, and the fees and expenses can be comically low.

Try it. You’ll see. The tax guys really just want to be loved, same as you and me.

6. Truly believe that you’re only as valuable as what you own

Look, this is between you and me, right? It’s not as if anyone can read your mind and know what you’re thinking. So, just between us, even though you’re overweight, have a lousy job, and are miserable in your relationship, you know how to make yourself feel empowered, don’t you? You know how to build your self-esteem. You know that the way to feel like a superhero is to buy the right things so you can feel great about yourself.

You may have heard that happiness is an inside job. Baloney! Happiness comes from getting and spending. Happiness comes from piling up boxes and boxes of things you’ll never use. Tommy Hilfiger, Von Dutch, Kate Spade, Armani, Gucci, Hermès, Mercedes-Benz, Ritz Carlton—brands and labels are what matter, not self-esteem and a hard day’s work or having loyal friends.

You’re a nobody—in your own eyes and in the eyes of others—unless you buy and own every cool product and service out there…and don’t you forget it.

7. Repeat after me: “I am not responsible for my financial wellbeing”

Well, why should you take on that responsibility? That would involve [again] a good deal of self-restraint, self-discipline, and abstinence when it comes to buying everything you’ve always wanted. If you were responsible for your own finances, then you’d have to sit down with a calculator and a pad of paper and figure out what you could no longer afford. And that means that you might have to deny yourself on occasion.

Well, that’s just plain wrong and shouldn’t happen!

It’s never your fault what happens to you, and you shouldn’t have to discipline yourself—not now or ever. What kind of life would that be? A “fun” life? A life like you see in Vogue or Esquire? I don’t think so, do you?

Responsibility about money is for nerds and geeks. You’re a hippie, a free spirit, not an accountant. So do whatever you feel like doing, and let someone else worry about it.

8. If getting your finances together seems too difficult at any given time, turn everything over to a financial/ business manager who will have total control over your money

My advice is to find some trustworthy person who claims to be well versed in money management, go to her office with your check book and a power of attorney, and turn everything over to her. In this world, you can only trust a few select people with your money, but you’ll unerringly find the right one. A suggestion? Go for the one who charges the most. Don’t be happy with anyone who charges you less than 5 percent. Maybe even pay a few percentage points more for quality service.

Then, just send all your bills to her and have her pay them, let her withdraw money from your accounts for investments, and generally allow her to do everything but the heavy lifting. And don’t feel lazy for doing it. Many busy, important people like you have better things to do than worry about stuffy old money matters.

You may have heard those horror stories about financial managers who looted their clients mainly because these folks were too lazy to pay any attention to their financial statements. Pay no attention to any of this at all. It will never happen to you. There will never be a day of reckoning for trusting your future to someone whose interests might totally differ from yours and who might have the ethics of a snake.

9. Don’t think about retirement—it’s a l-o-o-n-n-g way off

The truth is [and you really need to remember this], that you’re young and vibrant no matter how old you might happen to be right now. You might be 20 or you might be 40 or you might be 60, but you’re still light years away from retirement. In fact, it’s so far down the road that you can’t even see it. And you know what? You never will be able to see it!

First, you won’t ever get old. Second, you won’t ever have to worry about money. And third, someone else will always take care of you. It’s all too boring to even think about it, so don’t. Plus, it’s really fun to be old and not have any money. It gives you the opportunity for fantasy and invention and trying new things…like poverty.

Retirement? Yawn. It just takes care of itself.

But what if someone has talked you into worrying about money? What if some fool has made you believe that you should invest in stocks or bonds? But let me give you a few words of advice if you’ve actually started to begin some kind of investment plan. This is important, so listen up…

10. Choose a broker based on his [or her] good looks, fashion sense, and gift of gab

That’s the way to choose a stockbroker! If your broker’s a looker, is nattily attired, and is in the finance business, he’s obviously made a ton of money for himself…and probably for his clients, too. That means he’ll make a lot of money for you as well, and then you’ll also find yourself hobnobbing at The Polo Club and The Yacht Club and those other places where he hangs out.

The world of finance is a tricky, complex world, so what you want is someone who’s smooth-talking and confident. Your broker has to be able to convince you that he can do great things with your money by putting it in junk bonds and other areas too arcane for you to know about personally.

But please don’t make the mistake of asking your broker [or potential broker]—just what kind of education he has. Similarly, it would be rude and tasteless to ask him to give you references from satisfied clients. All you need to see is that he’s wearing an Armani suit, a Rolex, and Gucci shoes—and then you can breathe a sigh of relief because you know that your hard-earned money will be in good hands.

11. Convince yourself that you can beat the market without knowing anything about it

What, after all, does someone like you even have to know about the market? The nerds and geeks may have graduate degrees. Some money managers may have decades of experience. Some pundits like Warren Buffett may have an abundance of both. But you have your innate gambler’s luck and feel—the only cards you’ll ever need. You can tell just by the way you get out of bed in the morning in which direction the market is headed. You don’t need a system or education or information gleaned from late hours of study—you have that feeling in your fingertips. Call it instinct, call it luck, or call it by its rightful name: genius. You can forecast the market by just the feeling in your bones.

Economics? Marketing? Research on business cycles or specific industries? Nonsense! Just by hearing a company’s name you can tell if it’s a winner or a loser.

Don’t be a slave to some musty old library or some ponderous old computer. Just plunk down your money right this minute based on pure intuition.

This is definitely the way to play the market, and your way is the best way.

12. Don’t keep records

No record keeping for you! That’s for librarians and bookkeepers and hermits. And anyway, since you’re never going to have a financial plan and are never going to need money for retirement, why would you need to keep records?

When that time comes when the tax guys ask for your records for the last five years, just tell them that you’re not a clerk and you don’t have no wicked records, man! They’ll understand.

Plus, if your broker makes a mistake and you don’t have the records to prove she’s wrong, so what? The tax guys will just take your word for it. Just have another cocktail and another buffalo chicken wing and soon you won’t even remember that it’s almost tax time—oh, but that’s right, you don’t pay taxes. Ah, life is good!

13. Don’t worry about buying stocks when there’s a bubble going on—you’ll always know when to sell out just before the bubble bursts

There are a lot of old-fashioned measurements that tell old fogeys when stocks are cheap and when they’re expensive by historic measurements. These are ways to calculate the ratio of the stock’s price with respect to its earnings and dividends. When these get really, really high—when stocks are flying—those measurements are really high, too, and some curmudgeons call those times “bubbles” and tell you to stay away from buying stocks then.

What nonsense that is! When stocks are high-flyin’, that’s when it’s most fun to be in the stock market! How much fun is it to invest when stocks barely move at all, or at most, a few percent a year? It’s BO-RING.

So, why listen to the old creeps who tell you to beware when the stock market is at those levels? Why even pay a moment’s attention? If, in fact, the bubble is bound to burst, you’ll know about it and get out in plenty of time.

Uh, how will you know? Well, hasn’t Warren Buffett said that in a bubble, everyone says they’ll leave the party at midnight, only there are no clocks in the room? Yes, but so what? You don’t invest based on clocks and old fuddy-duddy rules. You invest by the intuitive feelings in your fingertips, and those feelings will also tell you when—exactly when—to sell, take your profits, and go hand out at Cap d’ Antibes.

14. Make sure you never hold your financial adviser or broker accountable—you want him to be your friend

There are measurements that come out regularly in Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, and many other fine financial publications about how well the stock market has done in the past six months, the past year, or the past five years. They track broad market indexes like the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones 30 Industrials.

Please don’t make your financial adviser’s life difficult by comparing his picks and suggestions with this broad gauge. You only need to know that he’s your pal, that he takes your calls promptly, and basically, that’s it. If he’s a friend to you, talks to you, reassures you, and maybe occasionally takes you to lunch and picks up the tab, you know he’s your kind of guy. Don’t make him feel bad if other measurements are going up faster than your investments. He’s a nice family man with a good personality. That’s enough.

15. Start a business with inadequate capital—in a difficult field and in a difficult location—and expect to prosper

This essay could just as well be called “Open a Restaurant,” which is surely one of the best ways on earth to lose a ton of money, your spouse, and your peace of mind. But don’t let that thought worry you. No, forget what I just wrote. I was just kidding.

But, seriously, why don’t you open a restaurant in an area where millions of other people have started eateries that went out of business. Go ahead. It’ll be fine. Where everyone else—even people with experience—went down the tubes, you’ll succeed just because of your innate charisma.

So, start a restaurant—or any business where the failure rate is 90 percent or more—and you’ll be amazed to see how easy and fun it is and how much money you make. You won’t need to worry about burning through all your cash in a few months and being overwhelmed by debt. Nope, not you—‘cause you won’t make the same mistakes others made. You know better.

16. If taking charge of your financial life seems overwhelming now, just put it off for a few more years

There’s this old myth that says you should get movin’ right now on accomplishing your goals, because the more time you have to work on them, the more likely you are to attain them. And then there’s some old saw about how a journey is more likely to get finished if you start early in the morning.

What a load of bull! Didn’t the idiots who came up with those maxims realize how much fun it is to sleep late?

It takes a lot of mental effort to take charge of your finances. If it seems a bit burdensome right now, just wait a while until it seems like it would be less of a bother. Only when you’re really and truly up to it should you get yourself in gear to make plans for your financial future. Don’t worry about the time that passed while you were getting yourself organized. I’m sure it was good for something—if only for sleeping late, you movie star, you!

17. Believe that you can get rich quick—that you can get something for nothing

There are such things as free lunches! This one is so obvious that I don’t think I need to say much about it. It’s simply a statement of truth that a smart guy or gal like you was born knowing.

Basically, real riches appear overnight just by luck or chance or a bolt of inspiration. You don’t need to trade experience or labor or investments for wealth. If you’re on the right track, you’ll reap the financial rewards overnight…money will rain down on your house in torrents. Let me explain this a little further…

18. Know without a doubt that you don’t have to work hard—you only need to find an angle

Hard work gets you nowhere slowly. It’s for those without imagination. But you are different. You have that creative spark. You have that special magic that’s going to make you wake up one morning at 4 A.M., shout out, “Eureka!” and have the brainstorm that will bring you staggering wealth.

So don’t bother to work hard. Just take a lot of naps and wait for that flash of lightning to explode in your brain. The world is waiting breathlessly for you to come down from the mountaintop with your two tablets and your inspiration that will make the Ten Commandments seem comically insignificant.

Go for it. You just need that one clever angle.

19. Feel confident that you can borrow your way out of any problem

You know how I’ve been telling you over and over that you don’t need to save money? Well, some of you [who haven’t been listening very well] may have had a sneaking little thought enter your minds: What if I suddenly need money? How will I handle it if I don’t have any money saved up?

Good question, and it has a good answer: You borrow the money when you need it by getting a cash advance on your credit cards. Or go to a finance company and get a signature loan. And here’s a sneaky little tip: There are also special friends out there who will want to lend you money. Don’t even think about being too embarrassed to ask for a loan—or worrying about your buddies’ discomfort over being asked. Just ask for it—in fact, even demand it! What are friends for? They’ve probably been boring and practical enough to save, so what’s the point of saving if not to do nice things for other people? So, go for it.

And here’s another word of advice: When you get that borrowed money, don’t repay it. Think about it for a moment. How are you any better if you borrow a thousand bucks and then a few weeks later repay a thousand bucks? You’re in exactly the same position you were before. But if you borrow the thousand and then don’t repay it, or only repay a little of it, you’ve made a profit! It’s like it was a gift. So, borrow, allow your pals to feel good about helping you out, and then go on your merry way.

20. Don’t bother to provide for your spouse or your children

Don’t bother sacrificing one single thing for your kids or your spouse so that they’ll be better off or well provided for when you die. What will it mean to you? You’ll be dead anyway. Why should you have to sacrifice a trip or a new boat to buy insurance for your family? It’s all about you, you, you, anyway, and once you’re gone, the world ends, too. What possible concern could it be of yours that your spouse or kids might have to scrimp and save when you’re gone? They’re only your flesh and blood.

What about setting up accounts for your kids so they can pay for college or make a down payment on a home? No way. There are scholarships. There are student loans and jobs. Or they can go without college. It might do them good to go out and work right after high school. Why coddle them with money when you could have so much more fun coddling yourself?

So basically, just devote your life to thinking about your own wants and needs, and let the chips fall where they may.

Well, all right then. If you’ve read this far, it’s just possible that you have some idea what you’re doing wrong. Let me assure you that if you just keep on doing what you’re doing, things will only get worse. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “If nothing changes, nothing changes.”

The post 20 Financial Pitfalls to Avoid appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

1. Too many expenses and loans

Banking is a booming business in India as more and more people are continuously borrowing. At the same time, recovery agencies are also a booming business as more and more people default on their loans. Although India has traditionally had one of the best savings rates as compared to western nations, the same cannot be said of the next generation. Although most people today have a high and stable income as compared to the earlier generations, their expenses are equally high. One of the key reasons is that they have many expenses and loans. There are too many temptations today and all one needs to do is call a bank or financial institution for a personal loan. In this process of keeping up with the next iPad, gadget or car, many young people end up paying a substantial amount of their income towards EMIs.

Besides EMIs, insurance premiums and personal expenses eat into earnings quite quickly. I am sometimes surprised to see people with a seven-figure monthly salary finding it difficult to save. This is because they have major expenses such as penthouses, bungalows, yachts and so on. Since these are big-ticket items, servicing debt and maintaining these often result in a liquidity crunch even for affluent families with very high incomes.

Some people, especially business owners and professionals, take on loans because their accountants advise them to do so from a tax planning perspective. This is primarily to harness the advantages of depreciation and interest deduction. However, if taken ad-hoc without taking a holistic view of the family’s liquidity, present needs and future requirements, such decisions often put a family in cash flow problems.

2. Over-concentration in real estate

Although it sounds stereotypical, most people hoard real estate like there is no tomorrow. One reason is our love for real estate. Besides, there is an abundance of black money in the system and a lot of income in cash that can be comfortably cushioned in real estate investments. Additionally, people believe that not only is real estate insulated from market vagaries, but that it also gives stellar returns along with tax benefits. As a result, many people even borrow to invest in real estate and are leveraged [which means they take on debt].

Most Indians have completely forgotten the great Indian real estate crash of 1995 and the subsequent lull for several years until 2003 – 2004. This is a very dangerous strategy to adopt as it can prove to be lethal during real estate crashes, especially since real estate is an illiquid investment.

3. Inadequate insurance against death, disability, professional liability and loss of income

Most people buy life insurance as an investment. This is because there is a lot of emphasis on life insurance as a great tax saving tool and many people are enamoured with tax saving instruments. Besides most people are so busy with day-to-day activities, they often wake up between January and March every year to do something to save tax. Due to such ad-hoc purchases, they end up with a plethora of irrelevant policies.

What’s worse is that many pay high premiums for a very low cover. Despite paying high premiums, most people are under-insured when it comes to life insurance. There is no assessment of the actual financial risk their family will face, in case of their premature death, and most liabilities are not covered. At the same time, they have negligible or no critical illness cover, negligible disability cover, no income protection and no social security benefits. This area must be adequately addressed to ensure lifestyle maintenance, wealth creation and wealth protection.

4. Investments done in an ad-hoc fashion, due to time constraints

The portfolio of most people would probably look like this: more than 50 – 60 per cent in real estate investments, 30 – 40 per cent in debt [PPF, insurance policies, fixed deposits, bonds and post office], 5 – 10 per cent in cash [savings account, short term fixed deposits and cash], gold [primarily bought as jewellery] and very negligible equity.

Most people have just these investments: Real Estate, PPF, EPF [for employed people], gold and insurance policies.

Considering that people are getting busier by the day, financial planning takes a backseat. This is when people end up taking decisions based on advice of different sets of people [chartered accountant, colleagues, banks, real estate agents, family members, insurance agents and financial advisors]. There is no co-ordination between all the advice sought from these different sets of people and hence their actions are extremely haphazard in nature. Hence if you take a look at the finances of most people [even the most sophisticated], you will clearly see that it is a hodgepodge of products accumulated over time.

5. Lack of goal-setting and planning

“I take life as it comes. I don’t plan for it,” said a leading Bollywood actress. It’s very easy to say this but nothing meaningful can be achieved in life without setting goals and planning. Yes, life will happen as you plan and sometimes you will need to course-correct, but there are certainties in life that will happen. For e.g. death, retirement [everyone will grow old and will stop working or slow down at some point of time], paying taxes and so on.

I am appalled when people spend several months planning for their vacations or discuss as a family on the next car to be bought, but when it comes to financial planning and goal setting they say, “I will do it after a few months” or “I don’t have time right now.”

6. No written financial plan

Since there is no formal education in personal finance, most people do not understand the concepts of financial goal setting, cash-flow and debt management, insurance planning, asset allocation, maximisation of post-tax income, retirement and estate planning .

Their realisation of the importance of a financial plan is reactive rather than proactive, in that it is only when an event happens that they realise the need for a financial plan or the need to take a holistic view of their financial situation.

7. Myopic view of tax planning

Most people generally believe that the objective of tax planning is to minimise taxes and often do things that are not in their best interest. They take several loans, buy real estate and life insurance in an unplanned fashion and indulge in tricks to fool the taxmen such as showing limited income or a weak balance sheet with the only objective of not paying tax. However, the right goal of tax planning is to maximise post tax-income.

The post 7 common money mistakes that Indians make appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

When you combine these two factors, it means that women must save more of their take-home salary than men. So for men if the rule of thumb is that they must save at least 30 per cent of their take-home salary, for women this figure should be 50 per cent.

Women [by and large, according to experienced financial planners] also tend to be conservative in their investment approach. However, if they are to meet their retirement savings goal, then they must eschew the conservative approach and invest a large portion of their retirement corpus in equities [which are known to give higher returns over the long term]. In view of their longer life span, even after retirement women should not shift their entire corpus to debt. Some portion of their corpus must remain in equities so that it is able to fight inflation over 25 years or more of their retired lives.

If you anticipate an investment horizon of seven years, you could invest in balanced funds that invest 65 – 80 per cent of their corpus in equities

Before you begin investing

Prior to any savings to meet your long-term financial goals, you must pay off all your high-cost debts, such as personal loans and credit card debts. Having paid off your debts, get into the habit of paying credit card bills at the end of each month, instead of paying interest on revolving credit.

Establish a contingency fund. This should equal 3 – 6 months of your living expenses, including child’s education fee and cost of insurance premium. This fund is meant to take care of temporary layoffs, prolonged illness or an accident that leads to temporary disability. Keep the contingency money in a savings account or a liquid fund [from a mutual fund house] where it is easily accessible. Next, let us discuss how you can go about meeting some of your most important financial goals:

Starting a family

Now suppose that from the day a woman starts working, she starts saving for the time when she will take a break from her job to start a family. She believes that she has an investment horizon of five years. A risk-averse individual should put her savings for this goal in fixed deposits while a non-conservative investor might consider putting her money in debt mutual funds.

A woman who anticipates that she has an investment horizon of seven years could invest in balanced funds that invest 65 – 80 per cent of their corpus in equities. It has been seen that the probability of negative returns from equity declines dramatically if the investment horizon is at least seven years.

Avoid branded children’s products either from insurance companies or mutual funds

Investing for child’s education

Working women, especially single parents, should begin planning for their child’s future by buying term insurance. This will ensure that even in case of the parent’s untimely demise, the child’s education doesn’t suffer. Women, as mentioned earlier, at times tend to be over-cautious in their investments. Many of them invest 100 per cent in debt even for long-term goals such as child’s education [where the typical investment horizon is 18 – 21 years]. Remember that the cost of education in India has historically grown at a faster pace than a broad measure of inflation such as the Wholesale Price Index [WPI]. The only hope you have of meeting this goal is if you have a considerable portion of the education corpus invested in equities [75 – 80 per cent].

Conservative investors may opt for balanced funds with 65 per cent equity allocation. Remember that liquidity becomes a very important factor at the time your child starts college education: you will need money at the time of admission and then continuously for the next few years. It will not help if your money is locked up in illiquid instruments that will mature at a later date. Do keep this very important factor in mind when saving for your child’s education.

Avoid branded children’s products either from insurance companies or mutual funds. Instead invest in high-quality diversified equity funds from mutual fund houses [these typically get more attention from the fund manager than child plans because they have a larger corpus and hence earn the fund house more money].

Three years before you approach your goal, start shifting your savings from equities to debt, so that a sudden downturn in the markets does not affect your child’s prospects.

Investing for retirement

Investing for retirement is also a long-term goal where the investment horizon is of 25 years or more. Only by investing in equities will your portfolio be able to counter the ravages of inflation. Women who have an appetite for risk may opt for a 100 per cent equity portfolio. Those who are risk averse may opt for a mix of 75 per cent equities, 20 per cent debt and 5 per cent gold.

Active or passive funds

Those who use the services of a financial planner or know how to choose the right mutual funds may opt for active funds in their retirement portfolio. If you invest in them, monitor their performance. If a fund’s performance falters, switch to another with a sound long-term track record. If you don’t want the hassle of monitoring the performance of active funds, opt for an index fund which will give you returns in line with that of the benchmark index upon which it is based.

Allocation by market cap

Of the total equity portion of your retirement portfolio, allocate 70 – 75 per cent to large-cap or large- and mid-cap funds. 25 – 30 per cent may be allocated to mid- and small-cap funds.

Allocation to debt

In a long-term portfolio, such as for retirement, meet your debt allocation by investing in Employee Provident Fund [if you are employed] or Public Provident Fund [PPF, if you are self-employed] or both.

Allocation to gold

In a retirement portfolio 5 – 8 per cent may be allocated to gold. This will give greater stability to your portfolio and also enable it to fight inflation.

As your retirement approaches, shift your corpus from equity to debt, especially if the corpus is small-sized and a decline in the market will affect retirement income. Very large corpuses can weather market volatility [in the sense that if the corpus size declines from 80 crore to 60 crore, it will not affect the retiree’s lifestyle]. Even after retirement have at least 20 – 25 per cent of your retirement corpus in equities so that it can continue to fight inflation over the quarter century of your retired life.

The post Financial planning tips every Indian woman should know appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

The specifics are always unique. But this thread of shame shows up in stories and beliefs we all tell ourselves:

• “I’m just not good with money.”
• “I totally screwed up, made a mess, and now I can’t go back.”
• “I still feel strong sadness/guilt/anger/anxiety around such
  and such money experience or memory or pattern and I can’t move on.”
• “I should be better at this by now!”
• “I used to be so good with money, what happened?!”

How money shame surfaces

Money shame can surface in many ways, at different times in our lives. Here are some of the ways in which we can experience it:

• as old stories that are still tangled, waiting to be understood and honoured and forgiven
• in your lineage, perhaps kept alive through a family dynamic of guilt, painful silence, or twisted communication
• hidden in lost memories, triggered by sudden remembering or ah-ha’s or a gradual waking up
• right here and now in your money relationship, as you play out familiar patterns that feel “off” or unconscious or un-aligned
• in little [or big!] moments where you feel unsettled with how you’re showing up in your relationship to money—perhaps you feel queasy or headachy or sleepy, as your body is telling you that something’s not quite right here.

Your money shame could be hidden in lost memories, triggered by sudden remembering or ah-ha’s or a gradual waking up

Why does money shame exist?

While growing up, most of us were not taught skills and tools for understanding and relating to money. We simply were not instructed how to manage money or how to talk about it. The concept of money is a huge territory, where so much is happening: emotionally, psychologically, practically, spiritually and inter-personally. And, whether we admit it or not, whether we love it or loathe it, we all live in this territory, every single day: earning, spending, giving, receiving, losing, borrowing, lending, investing and exchanging money. But we simply weren’t taught how to make sense of any of this in a conscious, healing way.

It’s time to give ourselves the permission, tools, and support we need to bring money back from the taboo-lands and heal our money shame.

There’s a conscious money movement afoot, working to bring money out of the shadows and into the light. It’s bringing awareness, forgiveness, alignment and practical tools to the money conversation. And it’s growing every day.

Gather the courage to face the shame

We all have unique strengths and challenges and growing edges with money. Each of us has places to grow, steps to take, healing that’s ready to happen.

While growing up, we were not taught the skills and tools for understanding and relating to money

In my work, I have asked people what they’re currently working on in their money relationship, and their answers have ranged from healing old wounds to setting up accounting software to having conversations with their children. At a certain point, we wake up and realise that it’s time to face the shame, the unhealthy habits, and have those tough conversations. Many of us avoid this for a long, long time. Money tends to be the last frontier, even for the personal growth aficionados. But after the whispers, or the call, or the giant red flag screaming for attention, one day we decide it’s time to open. It’s time to be brave. It’s time roll up our sleeves and take a real look at our money relationships.

The good news is that once you face the shame, you may realise that it is not that big, hairy monster you imagined it was. You may realise that you’re more on top of things than you thought. Remember that we all have aspects of our money relationship that need ongoing growth and continued exploration. Want to hear some of mine?

• Each year I update my systems or add a new person to my money support team.
• Each year I understand more and forgive more.
• Each year I take new baby steps on this money journey.

When you make the decision to start working with your money shame, soon [sometimes immediately] you will start to see a teeny glimmer of possibility, a path into the other side of money shame.

Money tends to be the last frontier, even for the personal growth aficionados

Be gentle

Words to the wise: we need to add big doses of gentleness here. “Tough love” is not the mode of operation for healing emotional wounds. Shaming ourselves is an old pattern. Telling ourselves, again and again, that we are not doing it right, that we’re not good enough, and that we’re unforgivable is self-directed violence. It’s unhelpful. And, actually it’s flat-out inaccurate. We all make mistakes sometimes in life and in money.

Let’s be gentle with ourselves, especially in these tough moments. Let’s learn some creative ways to respond differently, more lovingly.

How can you attend to your money shame?

Let’s begin with a technique I consider my “trusty tool”, the Body Check In. It’s a simple, fast, and elegant way to work with money shame [or any challenging emotion] when it arises. Here’s the short run down of how to do a Body Check In:

• Pause. Listen. Notice body sensations, emotions, the state of your breath, and
  any thoughts that are passing through your mind.
• Gather data. Info. Clues. These are the keys that open your access deeper into your money relationship.
• Be open and curious. Let yourself get in there, into your body, into your Money Shame. Pull it apart.
• Name some of its tentacles.
• Add more doses of compassion and
  curiosity.
• Move it to the side. See it next to you: “Hello money story/money pattern/money shame. Who are you? What do you have to say?”
• Breathe. Add another dollop of compassion, and two more teaspoons of curiosity. Breathe.

Telling ourselves that we are not doing it right, that we’re not good enough, and that we’re unforgivable is self-directed violence

What to do next

Repeat, repeat, repeat. Do this exercise as many times as you can throughout the day. Do it when you find yourself in tough times or stressed out, or simply feeling “off.” You can do the Body Check In at the grocery store, in the parking lot, getting the mail, reviewing your income and expenses, or even when you are about to have a money conversation with someone.

The Body Check In is extraordinarily simple and extraordinarily difficult. It’s my favourite tool because of its simplicity, elegance, and profound power to uncover your money story and open you into so, so much more. And, it is utterly life changing plus supportive.

Finally, remember always that money shame is big and beautiful, tender and taboo, personal and universal—and bursting with potential. Everyone experiences it. However, you do not have to remain trapped inside these negative emotions or feelings about money. Through understanding and practice, you can break-free from the shame, and grow to have a meaningful relationship with money.

This was first published in the August 2015 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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Here are a few traits of Dhoni that investors would do well to emulate.

Captain Cool

Dhoni is famously known as Captain Cool. There is an imperturbable quality about him. He doesn’t get worked up in tense match situations. These qualities of grace under pressure and not buckling under the weight of expectations have helped him achieve great heights in his career.

A calm temperament is a great asset in the field of investment as well. When the markets tank, most investors lose sleep as they see the value of their portfolios shrink. Warren Buffett has said that you should be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy. In a bear market, investors should be able to coolly evaluate which high-quality stocks have become available at a bargain and snap them up. Instead, most of them are either unable to invest more in equities, or worse still, sell their equity holdings altogether.

A calm temperament is a great asset in the field of investment as well

Persistence

The game of investment requires similar tenacity. If most of your investments are in equities—as they need to be if you wish to build wealth over the long term for goals like retirement, children’s education and marriage—then the ride is not going to be smooth. Equities typically do well for one spell and then underperform thereafter. Sometimes the bear market can be prolonged. But the long-term course of equities is upward. Only investors who have the strength of character to stick to their asset allocation and persist with their systematic investment plans [SIPs] when the markets are doing badly will build wealth over the long term.

On the other hand, those who hop from one asset class to another, i.e., from the one that is doing badly to the one that is doing well, will always end up buying assets when they are expensive and selling them when they are cheap. This is the exact antithesis of the approach you need to adopt to build wealth.

Not buckling under the weight of expectations has helped dhoni achieve great achieve heights in his career

Calculated bets

Dhoni does take risks but they are well-calculated ones. He does not have a reckless, all-or-nothing approach. This is reflected in the composition of the teams that he fields. Depending on the sort of pitch that the team will play on, he may take an extra spinner or an extra pace bowler. But he rarely goes with an all-pace or all-spin attack.

An investor too should make calculated bets. Warren Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger often give the analogy that they have mastered the art of vaulting over small obstacles rather than very high ones. Mohnish Pabrai of Pabrai Funds also says that investors should make bets only when the odds are overwhelmingly in their favour.

As for an investor who follows the asset allocation approach, the strategic allocation of his portfolio should be determined by the nature of his goals. Within that he may make some tactical variations. For instance, a typical investor may have an 8 – 12 per cent or 5 – 10 per cent strategic allocation to gold in a long-term portfolio. He may tactically shift his weightage depending on the performance of the asset class, moving to the upper end of that range when the asset class is performing badly [buy low] and to the lower end when it is performing well [sell high].

Dhoni does take risks but they are well-calculated ones. He does not have a reckless, all-or-nothing approach

The Finisher

Dhoni is known to be one of the finest finishers in one-day cricket. Given his position lower down the batting order, he often comes in to bat in the wake of a collapse in the middle order. He has the art of being able to pace his innings well. For the greater part of his innings, he will steal singles and twos and hit the odd boundary. But he rarely goes for fireworks at the start of his innings. It’s only towards the end that he breaks the shackles and accelerates with towering hits.

The ordinary investor, too, needs to pace his investments well. But here things work in the opposite manner. When you are young and are many years away from your goal, you have the liberty to take higher risks. You can put a larger part of your corpus in risky assets like equities. The reason: even if the markets fall and stay down for a long time, you don’t need to worry as time is your ally. In a year or two, the equity market will recover and resume its upward journey.

As you get closer to your goal—say when you are five years away from retirement—you need to reduce the risk in your investment and move a larger portion to fixed-income assets, so that a downturn in the equity market does not affect your retirement plans.

When you are young and are many years away from your goal, you have the liberty to take higher risks

Know your limitations

Dhoni has stuck to his primary role of wicket—keeping throughout his career. Despite being regarded as a good batsman—he has an average of above 50 in his one—day career and nearly 40 in his Test career—he has stuck to the lower middle order and has not promoted himself up the order. This is the sign of a man who knows his strengths and weaknesses and works well within his limitations.

Investments too require you to have an acute awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses. Buffett advises all stock market investors to invest within their circle of competence. He says that they should not invest in sectors or industries that they know very little about.

Often, investors over-estimate their abilities, oversimplify the investing process and adopt a do-it-yourself [DIY] approach. Investing is difficult and they would do well by having a competent financial advisor. Remember, it’s for a reason that even the best sportspersons have coaches.

A version of this article was first published in the November 2015 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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