Serenity Prayer

 #SerenityPrayer #Peace #MentalHealth #Acceptance #Courage #Intelligence #Empathy

कोण आहे मी?

आयुष्यात भेटलेल्या व्यक्तिंच प्रतिबिंब आहे,
आणि घेतलेल्या अनुभवांचा साठा आहे मी,

मित्रांसोबतचा ब्रम्हानंदाची ओहोळ आहे,
लोकांसोबतच वादांची आठवण आहे,
चिमुकल्यांचा चिवचिवाट आहे,
आणि अनोळख्या व्यक्तींनी अनपेक्षित केलेलं प्रेम आहे,

हजार  जखमा झ्हालेलं एक मन आहे,
भांडणांमधला काडुवारपणा आहे,
आयुष्य वाहून न्हेणारं संगीत आहे,
आणि न सांगितलेल्या भावना आहे मी.

मी, फक्त जगात भेटलेल्या लोकांचा - अनुभवलेल्या क्षणांचा साठा आहे,
मी, म्हणजे फक्त इतकाच आहे?

भर रसत्यात सोडून गेलेल्या लोकांचा आसरा आहे,
ना सांगितलेल्या भावना समजून घेणारा सहारा आहे,
उंच झेप घेऊ पाहणारा पक्षी आहे,
मी एकांत विचार करणारा एक सज्जन आहे,

अंधाऱ्या रात्रीत अडकलेल्यांना दिसणारा एक आशेचा किरण आहे,
भर पुरात फसलेल्या लोकांना मी एक लाकडाचा सहारा आहे,
मी फक्त एक मानसिक आधार आहे,
की मी फक्त एक दुसरा अहंकारी मानव आहे?
कोण आहे मी?

कदाचित, फक्त जगाला फसवत राहणारा,
एक हरवलेला साधारण मध्यमवर्गीय माणूस आहे मी.

Based on Ming D. Liu's "Who am I, you ask?"

An introduction to personal finance!

The audience expected: People with no previous knowledge of personal finance.

What does this post contain?: Very preliminary knowledge of investment, term insurance, and health insurance.

What does this post doesn't contain?: In-depth knowledge to make financial decisions and recommendations of which policies or SIPs should be bought.



Personal finance is largely ignored in middle-class families. A typical middle-class family puts their money in very conservative ways, with close to zero risks.


The normal conservative investments used by middle-class families are Public Provident Fund (PPF), endowment policies by Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), fixed deposits (FD), recurring deposits (RD), etc. The issue with these mediums is that money doesn't grow here! WELCOME TO REALITY! Endowment insurance isn't a good way to insure yourself. By the way, endowment insurance means a policy wherein you get an insurance (someone gets money after you die), and you pay a premium for the insurance, and once the policy matures, you start getting money while you are alive.

Typically, an endowment policy by LIC might give you 6-7% returns in the long term. Ya! You've been cheated by those LIC agents who earn a hell lot of money than you can imagine. Let us reason this. LIC policies declare bonus, based on the sum assured and the term for which you get the policy. The bonus is not based on how much money is already put-in in the policy. I won't use the word invested, because this is not an investment. So, you don't get any interest. You are given a bonus! If you want to exit the policy, you don't even get the principal amount back if your policy is not close to the maturity date. Further, if you calculate how much you are going to earn, based on the previous performance of some policies, you understand that the returns are lower than 8% definitely. This means, there are times when the inflation exceeds returns from the LIC policy. The same is true for FD, PPF, RD etc.

Where should we begin?

• Ideally, we should start with term insurance. Why? If your family is dependent on you, if you have financial responsibilities, then, in case of your death, everyone dependent on you will face trouble. Hence, in the worst case scenario of your death, you need to make sure that the family lives peacefully even if you die. The followup question would be which term insurance should I buy, for what period, with what facilities (riders), of what amount, etc. The answer to all these questions is "IT DEPENDS"! It isn't a diplomatic answer. It really depends. Typically, if you are young, say, below 30, you can get insured upto about 25 times of annual income. If you are relatively old, you can get insured to about 15 to 20 times of your annual income. You can decide for yourself if you need the term plan even after your retirement to make your kid rich after your death or because your kid's education will continue after your retirement, and hence the liability after your retirement. Term insurances are compulsory with home loans these days! (That means your husband/wife won't have the tension of home loan if you die.) Whether to buy a suicide cover or not is your choice. There are several add-ons like terminal illness benefit, wherein, if you are diagnosed with something that's going to kill you, you get a part of your insurance money for yourself before you die. That's why what to buy is your choice, and I can't make a decision for you. You can compare policies on different sites. eg. policybazaar.com. (I do not endorse this, but yes, I used it, and it gives good comparison and support. I did not explore other sites.). Note that once you buy this term insurance, the premium remains for the entire term, so earlier you buy, cheaper you get it. The premium is based on your age. I don't recommend endowment insurance, because it is too costly, and gives very low returns. Don't mix insurance with returns, keep the two things separate.

• Now, even before you proceed to the next step, just remember that you shouldn't start all these things in a month. Because all premiums will have to be paid in the same month each year! Yes you can opt for bi-annual or quarterly installments, but you'll still have to pay multiple installments in the same month.

• The second thing you need to buy is health insurance. Now, most employers offer health insurance. But the thing is, we all keep switching jobs, and the next employer may not provide it. What cover will you get if you are unemployed for a while, or between jobs, and you meet with an accident? And do all companies cover your family? What about your kids? How much do they cover? Relying on someone else for your own health is a risky affair. So better take control over it. A small surgery might cost lakhs! Healthcare is a costly affair and you can't avoid expenses when you visit a doctor. Health insurance again comes with a lot of things. Typically, sum assured here is the money your insurance company will pay in case you are hospitalized. If you need a special room in the hospital, obviously your premium will be higher compared to a general ward. If you need a second or a third opinion covered under insurance, you need to pay more. Ideally, your health insurance should cover you, your wife/husband, and your kids. Most insurances allow you to add wife/husband and kids whenever you want to add, obviously at some extra premium. See that the riders here don't overlap with riders in the term insurance so that you don't pay for same things twice. One thing you need to check is, whether the hospitals in your area support cashless facilities with the insurance you are buying! Else you will have to pay for your health issues and get reimbursements later. So, again, it depends what should you buy, and I can't decide for you. You need to check it for yourself. Policybazaar.com is a good place to compare insurances. I haven't used other sites because this site offers good support and info. You can always tell them to mail you the details.

• Once you have insured your life and health with a term and health insurance respectively, then you need to think of how you are going to make your money grow money for yourself. Poor people trade time for money (employment) and rich people use their money to earn money. The question is, how should you start investing? In what places? What's the ideal way? The answer again is, it depends.

• Ideally, you should have at least 3-4 months of your salary in liquid assets. Let us say - fixed deposit. So that if you are terminated from your employment, or if there's an emergency, you get time to figure things out. So, the third thing you do in your professional life is starting the creation of liquid assets for yourself.

• Only when the above things are done, let us move to business! Employees can't get rich! Because they trade time for money. When you own a business and the business flourishes, you become rich. So, you either need to get into a business or invest in businesses of others. Investing in someone else's business is equity! Because businesses are inherently risky, investing in equity is inherently risky. If the business grows, your money grows. If it enters a downward spiral, your money sinks. No pain - no gain. Nothing's for free. Life is always a risk vs reward thing.

• Should all the money go into equity? "It depends". If you are too young, let us say, below 20 or 25, why not take a huge risk? High risk implies the gains might be high as well. As your age increases or you plan to retire, you need to decrease the risk and move towards low risk-no risk options. When you are young, you want your money to grow, when you are old, you want your money to stay safe.

• Does equity really grow money? YES! If you have a look at companies which are giants today, say, Infosys, Reliance, Wipro, etc., and look at how many times the money grew in 25 years, for most such successful companies, the money grew over 1000 times in 25 years. If you compare this with the returns from FD/RD, the FD/RD will seem stupid investments (money grew in these mediums by about 15-16 times in 25 years). 1000 times is too large compared to 16 times. Why do elders always say that someone in your relatives lost money in the share market, and no one can ever earn money from equity? Why are most people skeptical about equity? That's because everyone who lost money in equity was TRADING and not investing. Trading and investing are different philosophies. If you buy 10 kg tomatoes and want to earn the profit on the same day, that's trading. A piece of land which your grandfather bought 50 yrs back and is now worth several times, is an investment. Money doesn't grow overnight. If you plan to do that, that's pretty tough and you need to learn a lot so you earn money from the loss which newbies in equity are booking. Why not invest in land now? Because it isn't possible to invest Rs. 100 in the land. Because you can't sell it in a week if you want. Because the money might not appreciate hereon. And a lot of other reasons. So, the only way to you becoming rich, or you achieving financial freedom, is investing in equity.

• How do you start investing in equity? I recommend that you open a demat account on zerodha.com. When you signup, select that you only want to trade in equity (not a commodity). Believe me, it is the cheapest platform available. It takes 3-4 days to process your documents at Zerodha. You only need an active net banking account, aadhar card, mobile linked to aadhar card, and PAN card. But why do I recommend Zerodha? Because it has the least AMC and offers a wide range of direct SIPs. Basically, cheapest and doesn't take any commission for your SIPs.

• What is a MF and what is SIP? Mutual funds are acronymed as MF. SIP is an acronym for systematic investment plan. What SIP does is, takes money from you, and buys you a unit of a MF scheme. A unit of the scheme is comprised of a shares of different companies. Basically, diversification. Instead of investing in one company, we should invest in different companies. So, MFs help us in investing in different companies. For eg. L&T emerging businesses fund, is a mutual fund which invests in small companies. Further, it invests in different sectors - engineering, chemicals, cement, banking, etc. Have a look at this page (regular growth). You can see that the money gets invested in different companies of different sectors. Also, you can see the returns the fund gave in 1 month, 3 months, .....3 years. Now, have a look at the name: L&T emerging businesses fund - regular plan (G). Have a look at this page now (direct growth). If you see properly, the second page you opened is named as L&T emerging businesses fund - direct plan (G). Have a look at this page now (regular dividend). Open this page as well (direct dividend). You now have 4 pages for the scheme L&T emerging businesses fund - 1. regular growth, 2. direct growth, 3. regular dividend, 4. direct dividend. What do the words regular and direct mean? Regular implies that there is an intermediary whom you are paying commission. The commission is charged for advice they give (which you aren't really taking anyway) and for the documentation they do for you (which isn't really required now, because we are doing it online - demat mode, not hardcopy). Direct implies, you will do your own documentation (not really, it is done automatically by zerodha) and that you can't ask for an advice, your investment is your own decision. What do the words growth and dividend mean? When a company generates profit, the profit is distributed to the owners - shareholders - you own shares, so you are shareholder, so you get the profit. Now, if you want the profit to be reinvested in MF, that is called growth fund. If you want to withdraw the profit, it is called a dividend fund. Basically, what is distributed as profit, is called dividend. If you withdraw dividend, it is dividend fund. If you invest dividend, it is a growth fund. Which type should you buy? I recommend direct (not regular). Why? Compare the percentage profit of regular and direct. One percent difference makes a huge difference for long term investments. And anyway you don't really need to do any documentation now, and the advice they give is not what you take. You need to take advice from someone else (we'll look into that later). Should you buy dividend or should you buy growth? I recommend growth, because the dividend you get back, will reflect in your annual income, and is taxable. Why withdraw money when you want to invest it for growing it further? If you are investing crores, and you want to retire based on the huge dividend you get, then obviously you need to buy dividend. But if you are investing to grow money, invest in direct growth. Remember this - DIRECT GROWTH. Irrespective of which fund you buy, you buy direct growth.

• There is still a question, should I buy L&T emerging businesses fund direct growth, or should I buy something else? Again, my answer is, "It depends!". MFs are broadly classified as large cap, mid cap, small cap, implying whether the money is invested in large capital companies, medium capital companies, or small capital companies. If a company is already large, it might not grow a lot. But then, it is stable and can give you growth as much as/or more than your FD/RD and without much risk. A mid-cap company will give you more returns than large cap, but the risk will be higher. Small-cap will give even better returns than mid-cap, but with considerably larger risk. Wait, what's risk? We didn't define risk!

• Due to geopolitical reasons, due to climatic conditions, due to local politics, due to millions of reasons, the market fluctuates. You might have heard the terms NIFTY & SENSEX. Aaj upar gaya, aaj niche aya! So, things keep fluctuating. Risk implies if your Rs. 10k become Rs. 8k, they might need time to come to Rs.10k level and then grow to Rs.12k. That's a risk. If you need to withdraw money for an emergency when your 10k have become 8k, then you need to withdraw at loss. That's why we need averaging. We need discipline. If you invest on a fixed date each month, averaging occurs. That's why you should start a SIP and you shouldn't be doing bulk investments (unless you are a professional stuntman). 

• Wait, not all MFs save your taxes. All health insurances save your taxes. The premium is deductible from your taxable annual income. There are selected MF schemes, called ELSS - equity-linked savings schemes, in which, if you invest, the invested amount is deductible from your taxable annual income. So, you can invest in ELSS to grow you money, at the same time save income tax too!

This brings us to an end of the beginning! Have a happy life!

A PhD dropout's words!

I dropped out of PhD thrice! And I am still thinking of joining for a Ph.D. in some institute again, but after a decade.

A considerable number of Ph.D. supervisors say that the P-H-D is a test of patience, hard work, and dedication. However, my opinion differs. For me, P-H-D is passion, humility, and detachment. Consider a child passionate for learning a musical instrument. For the child, learning that instrument isn't at all about patience, hard work, and dedication! He fails several times to play the way he has imagined but doesn't think of it as a failure. He thinks about it as a process of learning. He doesn't think that he needs patience. He doesn't look at the efforts required to learn as efforts at all! He just puts in his time and feels happy about learning something new! He never considers it as hard work.  He indeed is dedicated/determined to learn, but he doesn't put in all the time for learning the instrument only. He has a balanced life. He has a regular school schedule, homework, playing, and learning a musical instrument is just a small part of his schedule, which he is happy about. Failure doesn't affect him because of his detached nature as well. Detachment prevents him from getting frustrated in the learning process. A passionate person would put in quality time, that's dedication. A passionate person doesn't think about patience but indirectly has it already.

A humble person is open to learning from every source available. He doesn't reject suggestions just because of his or his supervisor's bias toward someone or something. A detached person puts in quality time for the task at hand and is detached from the results. Even a million failures don't affect, and the person doesn't have to think of dedication or his supervisor pointing at lack of dedication, as he himself doesn't lose the motivation to pursue his work.

Patience, hard work and dedication/determination are a by-product or rather a subset of passion, humility, and detachment. So, if your supervisor thinks that P-H-D is something different, he indeed has suffered a lot in his Ph.D. - sacrificed his personal life, been tortured by his supervisors, misguided and made to work prolonged hours, just to see if the candidate has patience, hardworking capability, and determination to do Ph.D. Just dump him/her! They'll try their best to get the passion out of you! Move over to a person and a place where people understand what passion is, and how enjoyable learning something new is!

Your Ph.D. isn't just about a subject, it is about learning a lot of things. And the industry is going to hire you because of your learning capabilities than your specific domain knowledge restricted to your Ph.D. research area. Than killing your time under a frustrated govt servant, living his life to get a pension after retirement, show off his class 1 job or a fancy tag-degree, move over to a happy humble person who can give more independence and learning opportunities! Leave the egoist! And if you are trapped with an egoist, the only way to get your Ph.D. is his way, not yours! You'll have to embrace slavery until you graduate! And with your Ph.D., as a bonus, you'll lose self-esteem and forever live like a hypocrite! 

पुर्वीचे मित्र आठवेना......

अचानक हाक ऐकली.

वळून पहिलं.

तशी अनोळखी व्यक्ति,

पण हाक तर मलाच मारली होती.

मी म्हटलं आपणास ओळखले नाही,

तर तो म्हणाला एरवी भेट होत नाही आपली, तुम्ही कामात व्यस्त असता.

तरीही मला कळलं नाही की नक्की हा कोण आहे.

साधारण माझाच वयाचा असेल. एव्हाना अरे-तुरे करून बोलावं म्हटलं.

अरे मी खरंच नाही ओळखलं तुला, आपण पुर्वी भेटलोय का कधी?

असं बोलुनही त्याला अजिबात राग आला नाही हे पाहून मलाच माझी थोडी लाज वाटली.

दिसायला तसा सामान्य, फार हुशार नसेल, पण तेज होते थोडे वेगळे.

गोरापान नाही, पण सावळाही न्हवता.

चला चहा पिउन येऊ, आठवेल कदाचित तुम्हाला, असं म्हणत त्याने खांद्यावर हाथ ठेवला पण कॅन्टीन कढे न वळता उलट्या

दिशेने वळवले...

शिक्षक झाल्यास खांद्यावर हाथ टाकून फिरायचं बंदच झालेलं.

कदाचित खरंच चांगला मित्र असावा लहानपणीचा, मी विसरलो.

एक दशक बाराव्वी, सिइटी, इंजिनीअरिंग, एमटेक, आणि दोनदा पिएचडी मध्ये अपयश येण्यात आणि काही नोकऱ्या तत्वात न बसल्यामुळे त्या सोडून पुन्हा पुन्हा नवीन नोकऱ्या शोधण्यात गेलं होतं. एक दशक, ज्या वयात मज्जा करणं अपेक्षित होतं ते फार जास्ती चिंते मध्ये गेलेलं. आणि चिंता करुनही हाती काहीच न्हवत. त्या सर्व गोष्टींचा नादात मित्र, मैत्रीण, नातेवाईक, अगदी भावाची बायको - माझी वहिनी ही कोण हे ही विसरल्या सारखंच झालेलं. घरचांनीही तसं सोडुन दिलेलं, की काहितरी अभ्यासात गुंतलाय, उच्च शिक्षण घ्यायचं म्हणतोय, तसं मार्ग दाखवायला कोणिही नसलं तरी कागदावर मार्क तर चांगले दिसतायत. त्याच त्याचा पैशात भागात, फक्त लग्न उशिरा करायचं म्हणतोय इतकंच.

तंत्र शिक्षण यात हरवुन, हाती काहीच नाही, तरिही अजून प्रयत्न सोडले न्हवते. खंत याची न्हवती की बरंच काही सोडलं, पण याची होती की आजची मी कोणीच नाहीये. माझा मताला, माझा विचारांना, माझा इच्छेला काहीच किंमत नाहीये. बहुतेक सोबतचे लोक तसे फार पुढे निघून गेले, पण त्यांचे मार्ग फारच वेगळे होते, आणि मला मात्र नावा आधी डॉक्टर लावायचं होतच. वेळ लागणार गृहीत धरलेलं.

मी अजुनही अशाच विचारात हरवलेलो होतो, आणि तो काहीतरी पुटपुटला. अं, असा आवाज काढताच तो म्हणाला, एक चक्कर जुन्या कॅन्टीन काढे मारून येऊ, आठवेल तुला सगळं. एव्हाना आम्ही कुलसचीव यांचा कार्यालयापुढे पोचलो होतो.

उजव्या बाजुला पाण्याचा फिल्टरवर माझे प्रतिबिंभ दिसले. मला माझी चूक कळाली, आणि त्या जुन्या कॅन्टीन मध्ये पोचताच तो म्हणाला, "आठवलो ना मी आता तरी? २००९ ला भेटलेलो इंजिनिअरिंगला आल्या आल्या. शेवटचा चहा सोबत इथेच प्यायलो होतो. आणि इतके वर्ष स्वतःलाच विसरलास? थोडा वेळ स्वतःसाठी नाही का काढता आला?"