Three Problems

The second problem is that you have money that you want to invest, and there is a range of products that you can choose from. It’s not immediately clear which option deserves  your money and you need to do a lot of research to get to the right decision.

The good news is that the information that you need to evaluate these options is freely available on the internet, and more importantly, you have the inclination and smarts to access this information, patience to go through it, evaluate it and take a well informed decision.

The bad news is that all this is hard work, and you need to spend hours to make the right decision. Unfortunately, most people don’t like spending hours doing this type of research and end up making bad decisions.

The third problem is that you have money that you want to invest, and there is a range of products you can choose from, but unfortunately you don’t have access to the information you need to evaluate these options. You don’t have anyone financially savvy in your circle who can advise you on these things, perhaps you don’t have access to the internet, and aren’t aware how you could find this information in pink papers and business magazines. This is a bad problem to face, but better than the first problem.

The first problem is the worst, you don’t make enough money, and probably never will. You don’t even have a bank account, and know only to write your name. How can you ever be okay with money in this situation? This is the worst problem to have.

In the last week or so I’ve encountered people with all three problems and it felt comforting to know that people struggle with the same things that I do, and it also felt nice to assist someone with something that they had very little clue about and needed some help on.

I’m sure you know people with one or more of these problems and I’m sure you can think of at least one way to reach out to them and help them with something. This is as good a time as any to do it — it gets lonely to have to tackle these things on your own, and a little help goes a long way.

14 thoughts on “Three Problems”

  1. Having enormous money than required is also a problem.

    Just reproducing some content from The Speaking Tree,Times Of india:

    **** “What you are accumulating appears like wealth to you,but actually its not so.You come to know after accumulating that trouble have also increased.

    The real wealth would bring contentment ,the real wealth would bring peace,relaxation and fearlessness, and would resonate a paradise in your life.It would bring the relief of reaching the destination, of reaching home; a perfume of relaxation would arise in your life

    But there is no such thing in you.With increase of wealth your life stinks more.It becomes more unhappy and fearful.The amassing of wealth creates thousands of worries..Why are people so mad about accumulating? “*****.

    Don’t know how many agree with it…

    1. JBy enormous wealth, points to peoples who have black money abroad or another places and earned in that way…don’t mean above lines for peoples who have earned money through hard work…

  2. Very different flavor of post today!
    Money is such a complex topic , if you have money it is a problem and if you don’t that’s still a problem. Earning money is a problem, Spending is (so many choices and limited money), Investing …the list goes long.
    And we have some half-cooked information about money – something we picked up as we grew. And people don’t discuss about their financial investments/fears/feelings- success maybe but losses, mistakes very less.
    There are also the case of mis-selling or misbuying.
    And we are like that monkey who has a sword in his hand and cut king’s nose on trying to remove the fly. he had seen king cutting fruit with the sword. I try not to forget Fool and money are soon parted

    1. Through the medium of this blog, I’ve been able to interact with so many different people and sometimes when you come across three or four people struggling with different things, and then see that pattern repeat it makes you take notice.

  3. Nice post. I thinnk all three are alike as having money and due to bad decision one loses it, then it is similar to not having money at all to invest.

    1. Similar but I feel that people at one stage envy the other and for good reason. Someone who can spare very little would want to be in a position where his problem is not that he has nothing to invest but that he doesn’t know where to invest and someone who burned their hands in their past and want to invest again envies those who have some idea to research and avoid big losses.

    1. Thanks, I’m sure you come across hundreds of such cases in the course of your work, what do you make of it? Any big pattern you see repeating in the people who approach you?

      1. Manshu,

        I do come accross so many cases. The most common is second problem, where lot of information is available but people end up making wrong decisions. Inspite of knowing that they do not have enough time to research, they take their financial decisions by themselves.Most of clients i meet are in the same basket.

        1. I feel the reason is conflicts of interests in different forms and each one promotes their avenue as the best. There are those who tout for gold, MFs, direct equity investing and debt funds; not to ignore the LIC and ULIP agents. I was a victim of one of this and I should take the full responsibility myself – ultimately I can’t blame anyone else to be interested in making money for himself. I should know what is best for me. But this forum is very good to share our insights and to learn from one another. I decided to learn about investing after this bitter experience and I am learning more now, wetting my feet in the water. Hope to use the learning and experience somewhere!

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