Me and my Gym trainer…
My Gym trainer is also my client for advisory services and this is the dialogue that we have had:
My Gym trainer: I have been coming to you for the past 4 years and I do not feel rich
Me: Are you earning as much as you said you are?
GT: Yes of course – my salary and training fees is increasing. Last month it was Rs. 54,000
Me: Not bad.
GT: But my net-worth as you asked me to calculate is not increasing at all.
Me: Are you maintaining the excel sheet that I gave you to record your income and expenses?
GT: No…but I know where I am spending and I do not spend much, I KNOW that.
Me: Did you start the SIP plans in Hdfc top 200, Prudence, Franklin Prima plus and Icici Prudential Discovery funds?
GT: Not all. You asked me to do 5000 * 4 SIPs. I did 2. My father in law asked me to do a bank Recurring deposit.
Me: So you do not put your money in equities, do not maintain accounts of your income and expenditure, listen to a Mining Engineer who does not know his A from his E. Of course he will not cheat you but he does not know investments. And yesterday you had the audacity to call me dumb, because I did not maintain a food diary.
Subra’s Note: How come doctors do not maintain proper patient records? How come Gym trainers who keep meticulous records of their clients work outs cannot keep their own financial records? How come financial planners who can understand the importance of accounting cannot keep a food diary?
Answer: We do what our ‘jobs or careers’ demand. We cannot carry (will not carry) learning from one discipline to another.
Joke: I have a friend who reports to a guy with a huge net-worth. He is a brilliant stock picker, does disciplined leveraging, and can analyse a balance sheet bare. However he is 5’9″ weighs 110kgs, smokes, drinks, eats pan parag, keeps late nights. My friend says ‘Our friend takes a 10 year view on his portfolio and a 3 year view on life’. L O L.
Jai
Did not get the correlation you are taking in last two para?
Salil
Hi,
Since you do selective stock analysis I would like your opinion on some Holding Cos like Bajaj Holdings, Tata Inv Corp, UB Holdings etc. They qoute at 30-50% disc to NAV yet there is no fancy in these stocks. What do you think is the issue or do they deserve this discount and hence are rightly priced?? Please take your time but do reply. Would like to hear your comments…
BTW great blog so wish you all the best.
KalpK
Gym trainer ko sood ke saath wapas kiya words ko!
Ranjan
Oh, I’m getting a few selling points for my RupeeManager! 🙂
subra
Jai
life is all about moderation and learning from each discipline. Eating, exercising, dieting, investing – all are fine. All are simple..doing is more imp than analysing. If you will live for 3 years, taking a 20 year call on your portfolio makes no sense does it? Of course those who are wealthy need to do it…
Salil,
these shares get a bad discount because they WILL NEVER do what is good for the shareholder. For example if Tata Inv Corp has 20 lakh shares of HUL it is an investment, but if it has 20 lakh shares of Tata Steel they may never sell it. So one portion works like a mutual fund and one portion works like a holding company. So it is difficult to value. Market likes certainty, and that is not available in these scrips…so….
Vishal Doshi
This is a brilliant observation! Perhaps people have only a finite amount of long-term perspective? The more they spend it in one area, the less they have for other areas in their life? I think there was some study suggesting that this is the case with self-control. i.e if you “use up” a lot of self-control in one area you will have less left over for other areas. Like if you spend all day trying to control cravings for food/nicotine/whatever, you will be impatient in some other area of your life..since there is only so much “self-control” available at any point of time.