ESIC |

ESIC– these are the four wheels of your wealth vehicle- Earnings, Savings, Investment and Conservation. The last wheel is very often neglected. Remember even if one tyre is punctured, your vehicle cannot run.

What is Conservation? It is providing a ring of protection to your wealth. Protecting your wealth from various hazards is as important as creating wealth. You can lose what took years to create, in a single day, if you don’t know how to protect your wealth.

So let us examine the hazards/ enemies of your wealth.

The first enemy is the tax man! He wants his share of your wealth. You need to protect your wealth by proper tax planning. You need to know the fundamental rules of personal taxation including the various tax breaks that are available. You can learn these fundamentals in maximum 25 hours. There is no excuse – you have to overcome your lethargy and spend this time educating yourself. This could be the best ROTI (Return on Time Invested).

Then you need to be prepared for acts of God! For this there is Insurance- for your life, for your health, for your assets. You need to understand the basics of insurance. You cannot afford to be ignorant about this. Unfortunately I find that we depend purely upon our Insurance agent when it comes to such a critical area of our life. We fail to understand that most of the agents are more interested in their commission and not your welfare.

Inflation is a very big enemy which can erode the value of your money without you even realizing it. Are you protecting your wealth from Inflation?

Who is your biggest enemy? You! Your greed! You have to guard yourself against your greed. Many people lose their wealth by falling prey to tricks of con-men who take away your money by promising the moon.

Your negligence or your greed also prompts you to steal from your own future. Your earnings do not belong entirely to your present; a portion of your current earning belongs to your future. You have no right to consume that portion today. However, knowingly or unknowingly you steal from your future and then you pay a very heavy price for this.

Many times your negligence in paper work or lethargy to take action in proper time leads to financial losses. E.g. not paying your insurance premium on time leading to lapse of policy and huge loss.

One has to be aware of all these enemies of your health and wealth and create a ring of protection to safeguard your wealth. This is your duty. You work so hard for creating wealth and then you risk losing it by not creating the ring of protection.

Remember the 4^th wheel is as important as the first wheel. Please share your horror stories and the lessons learnt – you might be doing a great service to others by sharing your stories – do write in.

I have mentioned that PF (Personal frame of mind) plays a big role in your success. I am not a professor of psychology; but I have a magic formula about PF, a capsule which can be easily digested by everybody. I have shared this capsule with many people at various live forums and have received a positive confirmation about its efficacy. So here’s sharing this magic capsule with you.

Your entire PF can be compressed into a capsule which I call as ABCD capsule. Let’s see how it works. It is called ABCD capsule, but it works in reverse order. Why? You will soon come to know.

Your journey to success in any venture starts with D- Desire! You need to define very clearly what you want in life. A couple was celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary. They had been an ideal couple so God himself came down and granted them one wish each. The husband said he wanted his wife to be 25 years younger to him. The wife said let my husband’s wish be fulfilled. God granted both of them their wishes – the husband turned 20 years older. This is our problem. We have vague desires. God wants you to define your desire meticulously!

On a serious note, I feel that many of us are not even clear about what we desire. I conduct many Career Counselling sessions. During these sessions, sometimes I play the role of God and ask the participants that if I were to grant them their desire, what they will ask. The answers I get are as somewhat like “I want to be successful”, “I want to do something creative”, “I don’t want to be doing routine work”, etc. I am left confused- I was only playing God. If God really gets such requests, even he will get mighty confused!

Second ingredient C – Commitment. It is not enough to have a desire. One has to back it with commitment. So what is this animal called commitment which is slowly becoming extinct. I remember the dialogue of Salman Khan in the movie “Wanted”. Here it goes “Ek baar jo meine commitment kar di, uske baad toh mein apne aap ki bhi nahin suntah”. Come on, close your eyes and say this dialogue aloud in true Salman Khan style. I am serious, do it. You will feel like Salman! Commitment means “I will do it- come what may”, not “I will try to do it” or “I will do it if it is convenient”. Do you always back your Desire with Commitment? Simply Desire, without Commitment will not work.

Third ingredient B – what are my Beliefs. If I believe that I will attain Financial Freedom, if I am lucky, then you are right. If you believe that you will attain Financial Freedom, irrespective of luck, then too you are right. Belief is not a fact – it is what you believe to be true. Its your faith. Some people believe that problems are not good and they are to be avoided – like plague. Some people believe that problems are actually opportunities coming in disguise. You know who is more likely to succeed in life.

Finally, the last ingredient A – your Attitudes. Do you love challenges or do you run away from it. Do you feel the glass is half empty or do you think it is half full? Do you feel positive or are you always grump. Do you create happiness ‘wherever’ you go or ‘whenever’ you go. Your Attitude, will decide your Altitude.

Please write in with your ABCD for some great sharing.