I have been saying that there is a huge young generation which is Young, Fabulous, Broke and if it has some savings it is in PPF, ULIP, LIC, etc. They are in the age group of 29-35 and these peter pans are not growing up at all. Some are evolved, some are not. This series is to help you create a corpus – if you have no clue why to create a corpus use it for your retirement. So first let us see from where to find the money.

Let us see what are the impediments (I toyed with hurdles) for this generation to find the investing money:

1. They have expensive education loans:  We were lucky to escape this. We got cheap education from good government institutions and did not have to pay a kings ransom for that. So neither we nor our parents took those crippling loans.
2. They are not confident of retaining their jobs as long as their parents kept it.
3. They are under too much peer pressure to spend money: When you meet these kids you realize that they are under pressure to spend on the latest phone, a bigger car, foreign honeymoon is now a given, big house – on rent or worse on ownership, leaving them with very little to save or invest. The thing is these habits are not so dangerous looking when seen as a one time activity – a Starbucks Coffee for Rs. 169/-, an Ola ride for Rs. 340, a roomie who gets you into some other habit, a Diesel jeans for Rs. 18000. The car emi, the Long Drive to Lonavala on a Monsoon evening – almost everything looks innocent if seen as a ONE TIME activity. Sadly it is NOT a one time activity, it depletes the money, reduces will power and the ability to start investing or saving.
4. Not making much of an attempt to learn about basic finance: Immaterial of whether you are a doctor, lawyer, CA or engineer, our school / college curriculum does not teach personal finance. Parents find it awkward to talk about money with their children. So the child is clueless about money till the time that the kid wants to borrow or invest to save taxes – when HR calls them!! Subramoney is a good resource but the topics are not very scientifically arranged, but please make a start. Start learning personal finance – you do not need a PhD in finance, but believe me you need to remove the cobwebs from your head.
5. Not learning enough about Financial History of mankind: Knowing how man has behaved in the past and how it impacted him is very important to know. Psychology of finance and philosophy of finance both are important. The Psychology is about behavioral finance, philosophy and economics will tell you about scams and frauds that happened in the past. History may not repeat, but it surely rhymes with the past.
6. NOT Staying away from the new parasite: the guy who feeds off you for a living. Some of them sound genuine, but many finance professionals do not add value to the transaction that they do for you. Some of them can connect with you intellectually, hand hold you during a recession, make you invest more, nudge you in the right direction. Show how on a portfolio of Rs. 50 lakhs, you should not be too keen to do a lump sum investment of Rs. 5L.
7. Listening to their parents who have led a life of financial disaster. They introduce these kids to a LIC AGENT who sucks out a lot blood. When it comes to money, the blind lead the blind.

Let me be very clear – nobody can teach you everything about personal finance. Ideally I should do a workshop where at the end of the day I get you to invest your money safely and sensibly. Somehow I feel even it a few people move from ULIP to mutual funds I would have achieved my mental piece. I know many SIPs got started last week when I addressed a bunch of first time investor. The benefiting fund houses were Franklin Templeton and Icici Prudential I presume…