Personal

1. A thought for today in Gujarati.

ન હોય જો કશું તો અભાવ નડે છે, મળે જો બધું તો સ્વભાવ નડે છે.

Na hoy jo kashu to abhaav nade chhe, maLe jo badhu to swabhaav nade chhe.

If you don't have a thing, then you feel the need for it; if you have everything your nature prevents you from enjoying it.

Make all the money you want to in life, but see to it that you don't change your nature such that you're unable to enjoy all that you have.

Thanks for sharing the thought, Sonal. Hope I've got the translation in the right context.

What this saying suggests is that money is after all a means to achieve the goals that you may have in mind. Money is a means and never a goal.

2. Apurva and I had an interesting discussion last Sunday and he asked me, "What would you do if money was not the reason for you to work? or to put it the other way round, "What would you do if you had the money in the world to do it?"

I would like to visit Brazil; be part of a caravan that travels across the Sahara desert on camel/on foot. If I have the money that I want, then I would like to undertake these two activities.

I would also like to challenge myself to run a 42-km full marathon.

Now, that's being too conservative. Would these be the only things that I would like to do if I had all the money in the world? No. There may be many more, but these are the ones that come to mind now.

Apurva, thanks for the advice on Systematic Investment Planning (SIP)* and the information on the power of compounding, and the thoughts on investing in ELSS and other mutual funds. I appreciate your suggestions. I wish you good luck with your new assignment.

2a. * SIP - Systematic Investment Planning. If I save Rs. 5000/- per month in Public Providend Fund (PPF), and I continue to save Rs. 60K per year for 30 years, then the value of my investment after 30 years at a conservative estimate of 8% rate of return per annum would be Rs.7.42 million. That's one way of saving for retirement.

2b. The other is to make a product that tries to change the world, and in the process make your millions in five years of work. What if that fails? Then one needs a plan B and that plan B is this SIP. Thanks for the advice, Apurva. I appreciate it.

2c. These are simple things of life, but unless you do it, you don't do it. So I have decided to save Rs. 5K per month in PPF. I used to invest in PPF, but it wasn't regular, like this financial year I had not invested any amount except this month. I plan to do so regularly from now on.

2d. I am happy when I blog. I don't care what's happening with the world, or what crap the news channels are showing, or whether the Indian cricket team has yet again flattered to deceive, or whether why people aren't in office at 9:30am on any day of the working week, or whatever else.

I feel happy and that's why I blog.

3. Books on Sahara desert.