You will not even believe if I tell you that these are real life MISTAKES that I have seen people make. I then realized that many of us make these mistakes, but were just damned lucky! Here is a partial list:

• Giving bank guarantees for friend’s business loans and home loans
• Marrying without checking the background of the potential spouse (Guilty! got lucky, so looking smart)
• Women staying on in an abusive marriage for far too long
• Parents urging girls to stay on in a bad marriage
• Parents giving house ownership papers to children for their ‘short term borrowing needs’ and finding house being takenover
• Parents selling flat to combine resources with son / daughter to buy a ‘joint’ ownership house
• People refusing to even calculate how their funds are performing
• Doing investment themselves, doing equity investing themselves and not keeping records
• Justifying lower returns saying ‘but my needs are few’ – then why not a simple debt fund growth plan?
• Taking too much risk
• Taking too much risk by thinking that they are not taking any risk – bank FD ONLY kinda portfolio
• Thinking PPF, NPS, etc. are ZERO risk products
• Being extremely trusting, and not even verifying.
• Being too dependent on spouse, sibling, parent, children, agent or RM.
• Buying unnecessary and complicated products to please the salesman
• Thinking complicated products = better returns
• Thinking Fund manager = financial planner
• Thinking financial planner = fund manager
• Incomplete documentation especially in life insurance and real estate
• Getting into areas like film industry without understanding the downside -financially, physically, and emotionally
• Using media as the financial planner

• HAPPY IF YOU WISH TO ADD MORE – MUCH MORE – i am sure to have missed many….