Adult life

Adult life involves taking full responsibility of life. As young adults grow older, relationships grow more serious. Relationships will only work till the end if you are fit, rich and everything. The girlfriend  or a boyfriend, you are hanging with, may leave you one day if you are out of shape. Adult life is all about priorities. Being an adult is not only about having choice, it is also about understanding the consequences your choices have and seeking help when you can not make good choices. We do not have to live our adult lives according to our parents' wishes. You are fully responsible and can do whatever you want to do, within your means. The behavior of friends, colleagues and competitors would neither be entirely right nor entirely wrong. Never judge a person too early. Getting smart about money is crucial. Learning to budget, save, and invest is key to hitting the financial goals. Life throws curveballs. No matter how well you plan, something unexpected can always come up. Adulting sucks. Everyone is struggling with something. Earning money is good and liberating. You can afford to do things and buy things that you never could before, your access and relationship to money changes totally as an adult. The problem comes if you are undisciplined with it. Being an adult with healthy life skills takes several years, a couple of kids, life changing relationships, a great career, lots of mistakes, and wonderful friends. Being a happy adult is rewarding and spiritually educational.    

Winners are grinners, but how much competition is too much?

Competition is great. We all have been brought up hearing mantras like ‘survival of the fittest’, ‘winner are grinners’ and ‘may the best man win’.

• In the workplace and on the sporting field winners are rewarded, whether it is with money, a medal, a promotion, or even just praise. Winners are celebrated. In recent years, there has been some backlash against this ‘win at all costs’ attitude.
• There are times when we need to be more conventional and to follow orders without question. There are times when it is more productive to be relentlessly focused on moving forward, even to the point of being unforgiving of mistakes.
• Competitiveness comes under the cluster of aggressive defensive behaviour. At the extreme end of this scale, individuals don’t just desire to win, they feel a compulsion to win at all costs. These are the people who are willing to risk everything in order to be right. They will put themselves, their teams and their families in precarious situations to avoid failure or the possibility of losing.
• Many of the successful people we admire are driven and unrelenting, single-mindedly focused on reaching the top, sometimes to the point of forgetting the people around them. These people set the bar high and don’t let anyone take advantage of them. They can always be relied upon to be 100% focused on getting the job done.
• If being competitive got us to where we are, is there such a thing as too much competition? And if so, how much is too much?
• Competitiveness and the relentless need to win, to do better, to be better is causing us stress and is ultimately killing us. This need to win and be better is also not making us happy.
• Stress puts strain on our health, our families, our children, our marriages and even our careers. Stress, a leading contributor to heart disease, is an inevitable result of continuously pushing ourselves to outdo each other in work and in life generally. With one Australian dying of cardiovascular disease every 12 minutes, removing stress from our lives is more important than ever.
• Our children are pressured to be better students, to look more attractive, to get more likes, retweets and followers, to go viral. Much of the time, they are competing against people they have never even met. Plastic surgery is increasingly popular. For women alone, the rates of plastic surgery have grown 538% since 1997. This is directly related to the competitive desire to be skinnier, younger and prettier.
• Divorce rates are also increasing because our spouses aren’t sexy, romantic, sensitive or fun enough. Social media suggests that everyone else has these amazing relationships, so we should too.
• In the workplace, employee satisfaction is decreasing, in part because it has become less acceptable to be content with simply doing a good job. Instead we are supposed to be continually focused on the next promotion, the next role or that next big bonus.
• This competitiveness means that we can’t be happy when a colleague does well; instead, we turn a critical eye on ourselves to work out why we aren’t doing as well, or we look outwards to others we might blame for our lack of success.
• Employee tenure is dropping as all of us strive to be better than one another. More of us are looking for the next best thing. The grass is always greener, there is always someone to surpass, another promotion to get, another business to start or to buy.
• Bigger cars, buffer bodies, more money… This non-stop drive to be and to have the best in everything is simply unsustainable. Something has to give.
• How do we find the right balance? How much competition is enough and how much is too much? Now I know that what I saw as a strength – competitive nature – becomes a weakness when it is taken to its extreme. It causes stress, physical exhaustion and an inability to be proud of what I have achieved. I am always chasing the next milestone, the next challenge.
• I also know that when I manage to balance my competitive drive it becomes the key to my success. Finding the balance isn’t easy but I recognize that it’s essential in order to be successful over the long-term, at the same time as maintaining my physical, emotional and mental health.

Each of us needs to find our own answer to how this necessary balance might look for us. So, how much competition is too much for you?

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Wealth

Wealth is a lot of things. It is much more than just money.

• Merriam-Webster defines 'wealth' as abundance of valuable material possessions or resources.
• The United Nations definition of inclusive wealth is a monetary measure which includes the sum of natural, human, and physical assets. Natural capital includes land, forests, energy resources, and minerals. Human capital is the population's education and skills. Physical capital includes such things as machinery, buildings, and infrastructure.
• Wealth means different things to different people. Wealth has a meaning that varies from person to person as well as family to family.
• Wealth is what you accumulate — not what you make. If you were to stop working tomorrow, how long could you support your current lifestyle? That is what makes you wealthy.
• A community, region or country that possesses an abundance of such possessions or resources to the benefit of the common good is known as wealthy.
• The wealth of households in the world amounts to USD 280 trillion (2017).
• The net worth of a person, household, or nation – is the value of all assets owned net of all liabilities owed at a point in time.
• Wealth is created through using labor and/or capital to make things, or provide/perform services, that other people find valuable. In the modern information economy, computer programmers often create wealth too, so it isn't necessary to create a tangible product in order to create wealth.
• Wealth means being able to be financially free to do the things you love, to live the way you want to live. But it also means being healthy, and to know that your family and the ones you care about are healthy and spiritually whole, and that they’re contributing.
• Wealth provides access to more. While money doesn’t make you happy, it does give you freedom to not worry about those financial stresses
• Having excess income allows you to be more involved with family and community.
• If you’re a healthy person, you are already wealthy. If you have your health, if you have your life, you can accomplish pretty much anything if you get the right mind-set.
• Material aspect of wealth is very important, because everything else is much easier to plan around if you are financially stable.
• For the poor it is always survival mode. The transition from scarce resources to financial security will be a challenge. It’s always about choices.
• Spending and taking care of money is a skill — not everybody has that skill.
• On the business side, wealth creates opportunities. On the personal side, wealth is about having more security and giving more to those you love.
• Wealth means you have the luxury of being able to provide for your family and determine how much work you want to do.

Rich is having abundant financial assets: money, real estate, investments, material possessions, etc. Wealth has four categories of assets:

1. Core Assets: your family, values, faith, health and the individual well-being of each family member;
2. Experience Assets: good and bad experiences, education, reputation, networks, knowledge and the wisdom of each family member;
3. Contribution Assets: contributions made to the well-being of others;
4. Financial Assets: money, real estate, investments, material possessions.

Functions of money

Anything which is declared by the state as money is money. Anything which is generally accepted in payment for the goods and services or the repayment of debts is money. Money is often defined in terms of the three functions or services that it provides. Money serves as a medium of exchange, as a store of value, and as a unit of account.

Medium of exchange:

Money's most important function is as a medium of exchange to facilitate transactions. Money effectively eliminates the double coincidence of wants problem by serving as a medium of exchange that is accepted in all transactions, by all parties, regardless of whether they desire each others' goods and services.

Store of value:

In order to be a medium of exchange, money must hold its value over time; that is, it must be a store of value. As a store of value, money is not unique; many other stores of value exist, such as land, works of art, and stamps. Money may not even be the best store of value because it depreciates with inflation. However, money is more liquid than most other stores of value because as a medium of exchange, it is readily accepted everywhere. Money is an easily transported store of value that is available in a number of convenient denominations.

Unit of account: 

Money also functions as a unit of account, providing a common measure of the value of goods and services being exchanged. Knowing the value or price of a good, in terms of money, enables both the supplier and the purchaser of the good to make decisions about how much of the good to supply and how much of the good to purchase.

An ideal market economy is one where all goods and services are voluntarily exchanged for money at market prices. Such a system squeezes the maximum benefits out a society’s available resources without government intervention. 

Money vs Wealth conundrum

Everyone seems to be running after money and still not being able to be satisfied with what one has got. Money is defined as the cash flow you need to maintain the lifestyle you have. Wealth is defined as the money accumulated over time or the money that will last a lifetime. Therefore, we must focus on wealth creation and not running after money. Remember, money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There are 4 kinds of people with respect to their attributes on money and time. 

1. People having lot of money, but no time.
   We see rich businessman, company's CEO's and other top notch officials who are arriving in chauffeur driven cars and are always busy in meetings and events. They seem to have a lot of money in their pockets but no time to enjoy it.
2. People having lots of time, but no money.
   We come across a lot of people who just laze around or just enjoying their hookah, with no work to do and no money to have.
3. People having no money and no time.
   Most of the salaried class and businessman lie in this class (over 97% of the world's population is here). Everyone seems to be working their day and night for money to be used to pay bills and EMI's. Growing in the corporate ladder will only take you from the quadrant 3 to quadrant 1. The corporate mindset is aligned towards attaining a level wherein you reside in the first quadrant.
4. People having both money and time.
   This is where one must aim for and attain a mindset for so that one has the time to earn and spend on himself/herself. Less than 1% of the world's population lies here.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants ... Epictetus

Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant ...  P.T. Barnum

Too many people spend money they earned, to buy things they don't want and, 

to impress people that they don't like ... Will Rogers

The conundrum of wealth

The real matrix of happiness is not linked to material wealth. Every one gets lot of joy by gathering huge amount of material wealth. Money is the oxygen of life. One must have sufficient means to live a comfortable and contented life.

• The contentment quotient of life cannot be measured with material wealth gathered through means fair and foul, that one may have stashed away. 
• The bliss of a contented life is the sum total of human relationships and humane virtues. 
• A palatial mansion that offers the greatest of luxuries will be nothing short of a veritable hell if there is no love among the family members living in that opulent bungalow. Restful sleep eludes the denizens of such a plush house who are consequently the poorest of the poor, judged on the real matrix of happiness.
• Modern man is addicted to desire to amass heaps of wealth, which has rendered him completely bankrupt in the absence of the virtue of real love. 
• Loving others unconditionally softens our hearts and makes us truly compassionate towards fellow human beings. Love is the staple diet of the human soul; it infuses positive energy into our mind and body. This energy is manifested in our attitudinal change, and we begin to empathize with the entire creation of god. 
• The feelings of hatred, jealousy, revenge and ill-will begin to die a natural death.
• The inner joy for which man is ready to pay any exorbitant price, is not a costly affair. One can even derive a sense of deep contentment within one’s soul with even a small act of compassion and courtesy. The mantra of happiness, you don’t need to shell out any money.
• Small acts of kindness & generosity should not be just restricted to the human world. It lends an equal amount of peace and tranquility to the heart of the giver even when it is lavished on the members of the animal kingdom. Being merely kind to men and ruthless to animals will deprive us of that sense of complete joy.

A little house well filled, a little field well tilled, 
and a little wife well willed are great riches ... Benjamin Franklin
Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point ... Bill Gates

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Justice and its delivery

Corruption is hampering the delivery of justice globally. People perceive the judiciary as the second most corrupt public service, after the police. We in India, have been living with less than efficient judicial remedy system. Some reasons are restraint of contempt notice threat, corruption prevailing in courts, incompetent level of delivery pattern of our judiciary and lack of awareness even after 70 years of self rule. 

• A transparent and accountable judiciary to deliver justice for all. The integrity, independence, and impartiality of the judiciary are preconditions for fair and effective access to justice and for the protection of human rights. Discrimination and corrupt practices often prevent citizens, especially the poor and marginalized, from equitable opportunities and protection of their rights.
• More than 75% of the Indians have never visited courts while near 100% have visited doctors  and huge majority have visited schools or temples / churches / mosques and little lesser to colleges and employment offices.
• Vast majority have never tested the efficacy of the judicial system. Our judges and judicial officers are crying for help as the work seems piling and becoming unmanageable, what will then be the case if litigation intensity rises?
• The bitter truth is that our courts are court of law and not a court of justice. Some may disagree because it is the law and order that justice is incidental to. If you get proof beyond reasonable doubt, about your innocence, the court shall provide you with justice.
• To achieve justice, to prove the truth, it takes time. The judge doesn’t know what has happened. He or she has to learn, listen to both sides, and with the corroboration of evidence beyond reasonable doubt, make a decision. Extreme justice is often injustice.
• Even though the power is in the hands of the bench, its members cannot unplug the Constitution.
• The truism, justice delayed is justice denied, is easy to cite. But to be in that chair surrounded by thousands of provisions and arguments, and eyes looking for justice, it is not easy to make decisions that are not just in favour of what is right, but also in the interest of the public at large.
• What if, in haste, an innocent person is punished — it would be the most horrendous crime. Instead, let the crime of the guilty go unpunished, than an innocent person being condemned.
• Our judicial system is so opaque and money centered. Even a simple bail and case settlement is often decided and determined based on the person's capacity in financial terms and political poweress.
• It is not a coincidence that all criminal and politically sensitive cases of those in power are always in the back burner and this happen without fail.

Corruption undermines justice in many parts of the world with the poor and vulnerable suffering most. We need justice delivery system that works round-the-year, speedy and free - like public hospitals. To achieve this the judiciary infrastructure must be modernized and upgraded. Judge-to-people ratio should be increased from the present 18 to at least 50 per million people. With the states failing to spend adequately on providing the required infrastructure and adequate number of trained personnel by way of judges and staff, the judiciary can hardly be blamed from the enormous backlog of cases that has been built up to whopping 28 million pending cases. The justice delivery system failure has led to mafia, musclemen, politicians and policemen settling the disputes and collecting hefty amounts from all the aggrieved parties.

The miser's edge

• Prudent habits and practices could see you through even when your means are limited.
• Being careful with money, a euphemism, you may be called by the world as 'miser'. A miser is defined as a person who is reluctant to spend, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions.
• Not only money, one should be careful with all resources, including water, food and electricity. Not to waste, not to overuse and minimum use with maximum benefit. That is frugal living. 
• Whether miserliness is an acquired habit or a hereditary trait is not clear.
• Money is not everything.
• Misers are blessed. They generally do not smoke or spend money on alcohol. They do not eat out. They do not go to theatres. No paid darshan in the temple. 
• When young they save for children. Later they save for their future.
• They generally walk to the temple, the market, the railway station, bank and post office.
• They are usually content with what what they have. They are not avaricious. Nor they envy others. With parsimony as their personal philosophy they ensure peaceful old age.
• They don't not run after money. They spend carefully and save the rest. This prudence may burden their children. They save for the unknown tomorrow and dark exigencies. They may not enjoy the fruits of labour and may leave entire savings to family. But that is a better option.
• Being called a 'miser', they take it as a compliment.
• Frugality is an intelligent and efficient use of time, energy and resources whereas stinginess is a form of fear of not having enough. 
• Stinginess arises out of one's perceived feeling of financial insecurity. Even though a person may have lots of money, he may still feel insecure deep inside and thus behave in a stingy manner.

A miser grows rich by seeming poor. 

An extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich ... William Shenstone

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A lot of rich people aren't exceptionally talented at what they do. They just have quirks and habits that let them think differently about money than the rest of us. The price of being rich is simple -  live below your means. That is hard. Most rich people try to impress others by spending money, which is the surest way to have less of it. When aspirations, desires, and wants grow faster than incomes, you are in the express lane to disappointment. Most rich people are more impressed with retiring early.

Life and its goals

• There are things to chase and achieve, but you also need to find exuberance in little things.
• Every child’s wish is to experience adulthood. Waiting for the time when you can buy your own stuff with your money, travel alone etc.
• Until then you accomplish your short-term goal, do well in the examinations in school or college. You had to do what you had to do. 
• Then starts real life, the real thing you earned, after all these years of hard work and lassitude... freedom!
• Then you find a job, get settled. Not so easy, not about settling down. You earn your own money, shop whenever you feel like, eat whatever you want, pay your own bills, live your own life, the way you wanted it. You’re now independent, you’ve become an adult now.
• Is that all you wanted, to grow old? 
• A human being’s needs change impulsively and is all ephemeral. If you have a bicycle, you'll want a bike; have a bike, want a car; have a car, want an apartment! So it’s time to find your next big goal, higher studies or highly paid jobs or extravagant marriages. The choice is yours. 
• And then the new struggle begins. Finding your new goal changes everything. Either you relent and start leading the so-called machine life, or as most people wish, miracle happens! Does it?
• Your life is perfect like a ceiling fan: as it keeps running everything is fine, the moment you stop it you'll know the mess you made all these years of running. Running behind money, fame, beauty, until you start realising that you are losing yourself in this. You always have the choice of stopping the fan and cleaning it, as and when you feel like its dusty, or in other words to keep it clean.
• Resilience of exasperation, finding exuberance in little things, let it be playing with a kid, helping the poor, shopping, meeting an old friend, a simple phone call to your dearest, going on a vacation, reading a book of your choice, eating your comfort food, a power nap, etc. Self-pampering. That is all it takes to enjoy the adulthood. Find your passion and keep working on it till you master it.
• It's not easy achieving goals in life. To achieve any goal in life set them the right way, plan and execute their actions in accordance with achieving those dreams over time. 
• Plan your next action carefully and that will plan your life trajectory.
• Wealth should never be the goal in life. Words may be eloquent but they are mere words. True wealth is of the heart. 
• When money becomes the purpose, stress and depression becomes the path.

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The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, 

but in finding something to live for ... Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Be grateful for what you already have 
while you pursue your goals ... Roy Bennett

Leaders and Managers

Managers and leaders are both important. People follow managers because they must. People follow leaders by choice. And, it’s ideal for one person to have both qualities. You can hit a professional jackpot by being great at both. 

QUALITIES OF A GREAT LEADER

1. Being humble 
   A leader is someone who usually shares the spotlight and credits followers for the work that they have done as a team. It takes more confidence to be humble than in basking in the glory of accomplishment. Clients and employees appreciate humility, and leaders who give credit where credit’s due!
2. Lead by example
   Leaders lead by example. They are not hypocrites. If a leader wants subordinates to be punctual, they themselves will establish the habit of being punctual first. Leaders need to set the tone and the followers will be inspired to follow, automatically.
3. Communicate effectively
   Leaders will be able to effectively communicate on and off the job. Along with being heard and understood, great leaders also know the importance of listening. Leaders understand that communication is a two-way street.
4. Know your limits
   Leaders set limits for themselves. Leaders know what and how much they can tolerate, saving the entire office loads of frustration. Keeping clear boundaries helps prevent any sort of confusion.
5. Keep meetings productive
   Time is money! They avoid tangential discussions and other sources of unproductivity during meetings. Leaders trust their team to do their job right, with no need for micromanagement.
6. Be emotionally aware
   They keep all kinds of emotions out of the office. Business is more about the relationships between people. And to build and nurture lasting relationships a good leader has to be emotionally intelligent.
7. Never stop improving
   Great leaders are constantly learning and updating their knowledge. They never stop. They continually work to improve themselves and be better. There is always a new skill to master or a new project to work on. Great leaders keep their mind open for new possibilities and fresh ideas.

QUALITIES OF A GREAT MANAGER

1. Expect excellence
   It is important for a manager to set high yet realistic standards, and expect employees to meet them. Ultimately, the best managers are not those who are the nicest or the toughest, but those who get things done and demonstrate tangible results. Once employees understand that a manager expects excellence—not only their own, but that of others—they will likely begin to up their game and perform better.
2. Communicate regularly by providing meaningful feedback in real time
   At first, communicating effectively may sound a bit trite, but it is fundamental to sound management. The best and strongest managers are those who are excellent communicators. The ability to provide both positive and negative feedback is a core skill and competency for managers.
3. Don’t avoid conflict, but deal with it directly and fairly
   Every professional knows that the workplace is a breeding ground for conflict. Issues like compensation, interpersonal problems, cost-cutting, recognition, management-employee relations, layoffs, and many other points of conflict are bound to arise. There is never a shortage of molehills to create mountains out of.
   Though it is tempting to turn a deaf ear, the best managers do not avoid conflict and instead address any issues that arise fairly. Employees observe takes responsibility and who doesn’t.
   They are likely to show more respect to those managers who resolve issues immediately than those who ignore the problem or don’t act quickly.
4. Be open to new ways of looking at things
   Adaptability, flexibility, and being attuned to their environment are some of the qualities of a good manager. They always look for new opportunities by listening to what others have to say. It is important to be a good listener, no matter your role. That said, it’s quite common for, the best process improvement ideas come from employees who are relatively low in the organizational hierarchy. A good manager is never afraid to shift from the usual “This is the way we’ve always done it here.”
5. Accept that you still have a lot to learn
   Once they have attained a management position, managers sometimes forget that they are in the process of learning, too. You may have expertise in their field with years of experience, but keeping your mind open to new ideas is important. Professional advancement is fueled by a constant learning process—and once a manager accepts this and sets continuous improvement as a standard, they become a better manager than before.
6. Set a good example
   If a manager has an insular mentality, they may struggle to understand subordinates and face difficulty in making them abide by the rules. The same professionalism, commitment, and dedication that the manager demands from his juniors need to be upheld by him, as well.
7. Be decisive
   It is important for a manager to make decisions and stick to them. Employees are generally not comfortable with someone who constantly changes their mind on issues. A confident manager is one who does not fear being wrong. The best managers use bad situations as learning curves and as examples of what not to do. Employees are generally repelled by those employers who are in denial of the repercussions of the decisions that have been made by them.
8. Be patient with yourself
   Being able to develop strong skills leading and managing takes time. Keep in mind all of the above tips. Talk to more people who have been in the role, and learn from them. This will improve your skills as a manager.

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To gain success, a person will need high EQ;

If you don't want to lose quickly, you will need a high IQ;

If you want to be respected, you will need high LQ (of love) ... Jack Ma, Founder, Alibaba

Personal luxury

Luxury is not about money. It is about living a truly authentic life. Luxury products were created to help people live a more comfortable life. Comfort is readily available to anyone not through buying more, but by just slowing down and enjoying the beauty that exists in a life simply lived.

• Luxury is not the opposite of poverty. It is the opposite of vulgarity.
• True luxury is about authenticity, and cannot be created by buying more. 
• Luxury is not a matter of having more or less. 
• Luxury is about creating an environment that liberates your aspirations.
• Luxury is about removing the distractions and living life the way you want to live.
• It is not living a spartan life or the life of an ascetic. It is not about reducing for the sake of reducing. 
• It is not about an idea of giving away everything you own in order to be happy.
• The journey of life is about discovering the right balance between work and play, people and things to help you create a life that is authentically yours.
• True luxury is not about being the first to have whatever the latest marketing campaign is pitching. True luxury is a very personal idea. 
• True luxury is about being able to liberate your aspirations in your own personal way. 
• True luxury is about creating the right balance in your life so that you have time for the things that matter most.
• Those watches, cars, jets and McMansions all cost time to amass them, but also the time it takes to maintain them and to dote over them. They demand your time as you cherish them and adore them.
• There is only so much time in the world. More cannot be created. It cannot be sold or traded. It can only be drawn upon, and the less you waste on the distractions of life, the more you have to spend creating a life that is truly yours and that is a true luxury.
• Regardless of how much money you have or how many baubles you might cherish, learn to simplify your life and you will learn the value of a minute.
• Invest your time not just in managing money and things but in relationships that supports, nurtures and helps you grow.
• In the end, success and affluence and luxury is not about showing off the latest gadget. It is not about having a bigger car or larger house. It is about being able to manage your time and your life, your way.

Take the time to evaluate what is important in your life and let that be the guideline, not just for happiness, but for living a rewarding, successful, and luxurious life.

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Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy ... Robert A. Heinlein

Luxury is the enemy of growth. Abundance is neither good nor healthy 
for the growth of a child’s mind ...  Abhijit Naskar

The economy of debt

• Economies work best, generally speaking, when people are making decisions based on economic fundamentals, not on tax considerations.
• Debt magnifies risk. If companies or individuals rely on large amounts of leverage, it’s much easier for bad decisions to lead to insolvency, with significant ripple effects in the wider economy. 
• A debt-ridden economy is inherently more fragile and more volatile. Encouraging people to take on debt qualifies as a genuinely bad idea.
• Subsidizing debt seems harmless simply because we’ve always done it. But the fact that you’ve had a bad habit for a long time doesn’t make it less dangerous. 
• All of the debt-created money has to be spent into the economy so it will be available for paying off debt. If that doesn’t happen then there will be a scarcity of money even if enough new loans are made to keep recreating the money that disappears when debt is paid off.
• Money saved is money held out of the working economy. Savings that earn interest, compound the problem because not only is the saved money held out of the economy, it’s acting as a magnet to draw additional money out of the system. The accumulated interest money is generally added to the savings rather than spent, compounding the interest and drawing more money from the system.
• What is real in the real economy is the people, talent, knowledge, technology, infrastructure, resources, etc., and most importantly the good will, industriousness, and positive intentions of the people.
• The working economy is trying to pay huge debt out of those tiny blocks of money. To avoid default, it pays the interest, and borrows more money. The producing economy is suffering from a severe scarcity of money, and it’s working under a system where the only way to get more money into the system is to borrow it. So we have a vicious circle where the necessity to pay the existing debt creates scarcity of money, and the only way to relieve the scarcity is to borrow more money, which aggravates the scarcity, which is only relieved by borrowing more money.
• Essentially it’s operating like a pyramid scheme. In order to stay alive it has to grow, and the only way it can grow is to cannibalize and destabilize itself further. The more it grows the more and faster it has to grow, and the more unstable it becomes. 
• Exponential growth is when something grows by multiplying itself. If something grows by a percentage, eventually it will double. The numbers are becoming completely disconnected from the real world.
• Debt isn’t the only thing forced to grow in the economic model. To feed the expanding debt, the whole economy has to grow. It has to expand whether the people in it need it to or not. Manufacturing must increase, sales must increase, and consumption must increase. Businesses have to expand to stay afloat. Their marketing departments convince more and more people that they need to buy more and more stuff. Stuff that uses valuable resources to produce and then often gets sent to landfills a few years later.
• Since the money scarcity and debt pressure keeps increasing, economic growth becomes more and more of a squeeze play. Businesses in the working economy must grow, but overall they have less and less money to do it with, so they’re continually trying to get more from less. The trend is to cut the work force, cut wages, cut benefits, cut the quality of the product or service, and of course, outsource the labor to foreign countries with low wages and poor labor protection -- anything that can be done to get more out of less.
• In the process of creating more debt we are also creating more money, yet the scarcity of money gets worse and worse. 

WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING?

• Economy ends up with a two-class society—interest payers and interest receivers. The interest payers would be working hard and scrambling to stay afloat. The general trend would be that they work harder and longer and receive comparatively less and less for it. 
• The interest receivers would be accumulating more and more resources, living more and more lavishly, and inventing new games to play with money.
• Financiers and investors of all sorts are essentially interest receivers. That includes pension funds, insurance funds, charitable trusts, and various institutions in many areas of society. 
• People who are paying on mortgages, student loans, auto loans, and credit cards are obviously payers, but many people in the modern world are both payers and receivers.
• Financial progress in the middle class has generally been to work your way from payer to receiver. You start out buying a house and putting money into a retirement fund. You work your mortgage down and your retirement fund and investments up, and eventually you can retire as a receiver.
• Then there are the people who fall out the bottom of the payer class. Sometimes they become a different type of receiver—receivers of charity or receivers of welfare.
• If you yourself have made the transition from payer to receiver, you might hope that your children and grandchildren will be able to do the same. With relentless exponential debt growth, the transition becomes less and less possible.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem 

brings us face to face with another problem ... Martin Luther King, Jr.

Read the source article

While debt is unavoidable, it is wise to keep to as minimum as possible. While we all have debts, debt ridden entities must take extra care in prioritizing spending, avoiding extravagance and wastage. Under all circumstances frugal living is best and that generates lasting happiness. Economic progress at the expense of ecology in reality is destructive.

Health is wealth

Health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. Just because your body is free of disease doesn’t mean you are healthy! Health is as important to a person as is wealth. Only a healthy person can work with efficiency to earn wealth.

Earning more money is good, however forgetting our responsibility towards health is not right. To earn more, one needs to work more. But bad health reduces our body and mind capacity to work more. An unhealthy body gets tired very easily. And a tired body easily loses motivation and self-confidence. If the youth doesn’t acquire healthy habits the nation can’t become strong.

Maintaining good health requires regular good habits and a disciplined life to be healthy. Good habits like regular exercise, balanced diet, positive thoughts, cleanliness and fresh environment help to maintain a healthy body.

Physical exercises are planned repetitive bodily activities that are done to gain good health and maintain physical and mental fitness. Physical exercises repair the body or a part of the body. It strengthens the body and makes the body muscles stronger. It helps to lose excess body weight and prevent obesity. Also, it helps to delay the process of aging and keeps a person healthy and young for a longer time.

Balanced diet helps to maintain or improve overall health. Proper nutrition is required for the organs and tissues of the body to work effectively. A healthy diet provides all the essential nutrients to the body. A balanced diet provides an adequate amount of fluid, protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and calories to the body.

Personality traits such as optimism and pessimism can affect many areas of your health and well-being. The positive thinking that usually comes with optimism is a key part of effective stress management which is associated with many health benefits. An unhealthy mind results in an unhealthy body. Good mental health helps you to make the most of life and enjoy it.

For attaining a healthy and disease free body cleanliness is very important. A fresh environment leads to a fresh and healthy body. It reduces the risk of catching communicable diseases. A disease free environment is called a healthy environment. And to obtain a fresh environment it is the responsibility of the people to inculcate healthy habits.

Now is the right time to start working on one’s physical and mental fitness. It is never late anytime. Whenever a person realizes the importance of good habits, it is the right time to start working on it.  One should keep this in mind and take healthy steps for a better tomorrow.

Who lives medically, lives miserably ... a Latin proverb

Hard work is not the path to well-being. 

Feeling good is the path to well-being ... Abraham Hicks

Lending money is no good idea

• Lending money to a friend is not a very good idea. 
• Creditors definitely have better memories than Debtors. People tend to remember the loans they give, but forget the loans they take.
• Your borrower conveniently forgets that he or she owes money and you are less likely to get your money back.
• You neither have to be nervous nor have to make the person feel bad for asking money. Just be polite when you decline the request as the person has shown some confidence in you. 
• If someone puts pressure on you and you feel trapped, ask for time to decide. Tell the person that you will get back to him within a day. Go home, fortify yourself, and then get back to the person. Never put yourself in a position where it's even harder to say no.
• If a close friend or family member approaches you for a loan, and you can't help but wish you could, you could suggest ways they could raise money. At least you are trying to show that you care.
• If you want to avoid pressure and requests for loans, your best bet is to avoid sharing financial details. Never over share details about what you plan to buy in future.
• Nothing sours a relationship or friendship faster, has the ability to change even the healthiest relationship dynamics or can cause mistrust and bad blood between people like a money “deal” gone wrong.
• If someone isn’t financially responsible with their own money, you have no business lending them yours. People who don’t know how to handle their own money will never respect and value yours or understand how hard you’ve worked or the sacrifices you’ve made to earn it.
• Never, ever trust anyone who promises to pay back a loan with money they expect to receive from their tax return, a lawsuit settlement, bingo winnings or anything of that nature; this rarely happens.
• Tracking down someone who owes you money to get in touch is very hard. You really don’t know what it’s like to be avoided until you realize they have changed their phone number and avoiding you.

The only way to ensure money doesn’t ruin relationship(s), is to gift the borrower whatever money they are borrowing, if you can. As long as you don’t expect to receive the money back, you will be free of any hang-ups that might result were they to fail to re-pay the loan. The dividing line between money and hate is very thin, just like with love and hate.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses 

both itself and friend  ...  William Shakespeare

Life of riches, is not a rich life

• Poverty is deprivation. Deprivation of food, water, shelter makes you realize the importance of life and teaches you ways to survive, means to exist. Deprivation of opportunity teaches you that lives are unfair, you've got to accept it, you've got to fight against it, and you have to fight to find a place to stand and mark your presence. Deprivation of power teaches to take a different route, which is full of hard work and struggle. Deprivation of riches makes you fearless.
• Poverty and deprivation makes you appreciate the smaller things in life that many take for granted. 
• Money helps you achieve your goals, provide for your future, and make life more enjoyable, but merely having the stuff doesn’t guarantee fulfillment.
• There is a danger that increased income can actually make you miserable. Your desire to spend grows with it. The key is finding a balance between having too little and having too much, and that’s no easy task. Money can’t make you happy if your increased wealth brings increased expectations.
• The so called riches that money can buy actually leaves you poorer in happiness, health, and relationships.
• Rich life is purely personal. It is how you spend your time, not with the things you own. Whatever it is that makes you happy while you’re doing it, do it. A rich life is about spending time on whatever is valuable to you. 
• Letting go of anger or hurt rewards one with peace of mind, a priceless freedom. The act of forgiveness is a true testament to your inner strength.
• Gentleness is one of the greatest virtues. The ability to be strong without being abrupt or harsh is a rare and valuable quality.
• Patience isn’t easy in this age of instant gratification. With patience, you can achieve things over time that may seem impossible.
• Gratitude develops out of humility. With gratitude and humility, right actions come naturally. Gratitude ought to be a way of life. Be grateful but don't expect gratitude.
• Generosity is a sign of emotional maturity. Being generous is being thoughtful and considerate without being asked. Generous people experience the richness of life which a selfish person cannot even dream of. Selfishness brings its own revenge. Be sensitive to other's feelings.
• Kindness brings its own rich rewards—inner peace, happiness, and the knowledge that you are making a real difference in the world. It is better to treat a friend with kindness while he is living than display flowers on his grave when he is dead. Kind words never hurt the tongue.
• Compassion is to understand and feel another’s pain is a truly selfless act. It allows you to appreciate the areas of ease and plenty in your own life. What good is intellectual education without understanding human dignity and compassion? 
• Love is making emotional connection with others, whether it’s your partner, family, or friend, brings an abundance into your life that money can never hope to match.
• Vulnerability is letting down your defenses and showing your weaknesses allows others to see the full picture, not just a silhouette. Being vulnerable builds trust in relationships. By consciously letting others in, initially unremarkable relationships could blossom into great friendships.
• Contentment is realizing you already have abundance in your life brings serenity and contentment. Achieving this in a materialistic world takes a special skill.

Be a better person: Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and wrong. Because some time in our lives we would have been all of these ourselves.

The fortunate man is he who, born poor, or nobody, works gradually up to 

wealth and consideration, and, having got them, dies before he finds 

they were not worth so much trouble ... Charles Reade

Read Kalyana Sundaram - Man of the Millineum

Read Charles Francis Feeney - James Bond of philanthropy

My View:

We all get enlightenment of life, usually in later years. The winner is who gets it early. There is nothing wrong in sensual pleasures and enjoying them within the framework of social norms and laws of the land. Renunciation is not running away from life's responsibilities but changing our attitude towards life. It is important we lead our lives in such a way that at the end we leave this earth a better place than we found it. We must maintain consumption and emissions to minimum. Leading life of austerity and contentment enables us enjoy richness of life. We should thrive to fulfill our responsibilities towards nature, society, work, family and self - in the same order.

Money is important in life. But how much?

• We need money to make a living. 
• Between life and death the only inevitable thing which makes you keep running all your life to fulfill your wishes, your dreams, desires is money.
• But as you move higher up the pyramid, money plays a lesser and lesser role in satisfying one's needs.
• Money is important in person’s life but money can’t buy you the most precious things like happiness, love, family etc.
• We live in a society where money is honored most. We are tend to believe that all daily struggles will be solved by higher financial status.
• Money is important as long as it helps you survive and grow. Besides that, what is important is how you manage to be happy.
• Money can make your life better by providing you comforts only.
• Some amount of money to fulfill our basic needs is absolutely essential. But beyond a point it does not add any value if the other aspects in life like emotional support, family and friends are in disarray.
• How much is the "need" and how much do we actually "want"?
• Money is important but it is just a means of living not the life itself!
• Wealth is a personality multiplier. If you're cruel and unkind, then being wealthy will make you even more cruel and unkind and vice versa.
• Learn to be happy before becoming wealthy. Learn the skills that lead to inner peace, inner joy and compassion. These skills which made you happy when you're middle class, and will make you even happier when you get rich. Without these skills, the most likely outcome of wealth is misery.

Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point .... Bill Gates

Money is difficult to earn; Money is difficult to safeguard; 
Money is difficult to invest; Money is difficult to spend; 
Money is troublesome all the way.

What money can't buy?

Some of the things that money can't buy:

1. Respect
2. Work-life balance
3. Manners
4. Common sense
5. Integrity
6. Good friends
7. A worry-free day
8. Trust
9. An honest politician
10. Peace of mind
11. Patience
12. Luck
13. Time to relax
14. A strong work ethic
15. A positive attitude
16. A happy home
17. True love
18. Talent
19. Wisdom
20. Happiness
21. Humility
22. A good reputation
23. Relationship with your kids
24. Justice
25. Selflessness

.... and many more.

There are many people who aren’t well-off but yet they are honest, trustworthy and happy. They are respected for what they are & not for what they have.

It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, 

but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that 

you haven't lost the things that money can't buy ... George Lorimer

Why does good things to happen to wicked people?

This question is similar to its opposite: Why does bad things to happen to good people? Both questions refer to what seems to be the perplexing injustice we witness every day. Evil people live by their own rules, enjoying all the wealth and pleasures of the world and collecting riches. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. Then we witness the wicked people around us getting new possessions, luxurious homes, promotions, and beautiful clothes, while good people struggle financially. 

Neighbor's prosperity is no concern of ours. In the end it doesn't matter! Our neighbors' fortunes are completely out of our hands. What is under our control is how we respond to it and, far more importantly how we handle what we have. Rather than gaze enviously at our neighbors' wealth, we should strive to be content. Having food, clothing, shelter and health, we should be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

The pursuit of wealth is a path that is likely to end in trouble, unhappiness and destruction. In the sanctuary of God, wicked people find it slippery and swept away. Those who have temporary riches on earth are in reality spiritual beggars because they do not have true riches, eternal life. If we keep God's way, the blessings will come automatically, as God sees fit. Whether we prosper financially or not, we know that God has our best interests at heart. God will give us all that we could ever need if we keep our focus on righteousness. There we will find truth, contentment, spiritual riches, and eternal joy.

It is that simple. Do good, trust God and don't worry! 

Money is difficult to earn; Money is difficult to save; Money is difficult to preserve; 
Money is difficult to invest; Money is troublesome all the way!

He who wishes become millionaire in a year will get hanged in two years.

My View:

Money is not that difficult to earn. Look at the people who earn money effortlessly by connections and manipulations. Money is only difficult to earn ethically, morally & legally. Compromise in all these three, then money will flood you. God seldom gives riches to good people. Morality is generally incompatible with amassing wealth.

Managing money wisely

• Inflation, taxes, government policies, geo-political situations and economic cycles affect all investments. 
• The day you part with your money, you have taken a risk. Bigger the risk the greater scope for higher returns.
• Holding cash is worst form of investment, which depreciates with time in an inflationary economy like India.
• Understanding risk and managing prudently helps protect wealth and generate higher returns. Saving at the beginning of career alone is not enough. What you do with savings that will help staying ahead is more important.
• Bank fixed deposits are fairly safer but its interest rates falls short of inflation rate.
• Debt mutual funds that invest in bonds for short-term goals returns increase as bank FD interest rates fall. The average returns of such funds over a period of five years are around 12-17%. While FD interest is taxable, debt mutual funds held for three years or longer, you can adjust your gains against inflation, with indexation. Any capital loss can also be offset against capital gains on other investments, like shares or properties sold. 
• Debt is not a bad thing, if used correctly. While education or home loans are good debts, credit card debt or a personal loan, to buy something you could live without, is a bad debt.
• Staying debt free is important because debts carry much higher interest burden than what you earn on your investments. As retirement approaches one must become completely debt free to have peaceful retired life.
• Stocks carries considerable risk although liquidity is good. Hence invest that much money which you can afford to lose. Stock or commodities trading, while returns could be high, risks are also higher if traded without research & strategy.
• It is always good to buy blue chip stocks when the markets are down, at a time when nobody is buying and everybody's selling, for long term holding. Investing in long-term equity mutual funds (MFs) is an option. The risk is higher if your holding them is for few weeks or months.
• Overall, the Indian stock markets have returned a good 10-11% compounded annually over a 10-year period, despite the ups and downs.
• Opting for a systematic investment plan (SIP) where you invest a fixed amount of money every month regardless of market fluctuations suits for investing salary surplus amounts.
• The basic principle of investing is to reduce your risk as you get older. A common thumb rule is that individuals should hold a percentage of stocks equal to their age in bonds, government debt and other safe assets and rest in equities. For a 30-year-old, 30% of the portfolio should be in bonds, government debt and other safe assets and rest 70% in equities.
• If you are in your 20s, 30s or even 40s and have years before you retire then "take some risks and opt for more volatile investment that will potentially give you more returns in the long term". However, if you are retiring in the next few years, depending on your circumstances, invest in a conservative manner.
• Always look at big-ticket expenses (child's education or marriage, retirement) that you could incur over the years. Keep aside money for contingencies and have a plan for a fixed monthly income after retirement (through pension, post office or mutual funds monthly income plans, senior citizen savings schemes, FDs and bonds). Not everything will go as per plans, but planning is imperative.
• Insurance is a premium for someone to pay your family a big sum of money, if you die. That premium is just a cost. For peace of mind, it is important to take insurance that covers health, disability, accident, life and property, you should only buy the cover you really need. The life insurance cover's simple thumb rule is to multiply monthly expenses by 300. You may not need life insurance if no one is dependent on you.
• Remember insurance payments are not investments. Insurance is good. Investment is good. Combined into a single product, they make you poorer.
• Real estate, with low risk over long term, is great investment usually with very high returns but with very poor liquidity. Therefore invest into real estate that much money which you may never need it. 
• Investing in rentable properties is a good idea to get some monthly income.
• Spread the Risk. Research carefully and diversify your investments, placing pre-decided amounts in different asset classes: equity, mutual funds, bonds, FDs and property. Rebalancing and realigning your portfolio at definite intervals, according to your goals and risk appetite, is a good idea.
• Invest in tax saving instruments like PPF, ELSS etc for minimizing tax outgo.
• Spend wisely. Overspending is a bad habit. Before you buy anything ask yourself: Am I buying this because I want it or do I really need it? Can I live without it? And, can I really afford it?
  Remember the words of Warren Buffett: "If you buy things you don't need, soon you will have to sell things you need."
• As lifespans lengthen, the need for money between the ages 70 and 85 increases because of medical expenses, medical insurance premium etc increases. At this age, people need house help and insurance doesn't cover everything. The costs involved in maintaining an older person, who is not fit, is much higher than the expenses of an average person.
• Beware of credit cards which are good, if used judiciously. Otherwise small print terms and service charges are bound to make you poorer, in case of reckless spending using card.

Whatever you decide to invest in, do it regularly. Do not watch your investment too often. Do not speculate. Stay invested for the long term. Your money will not only be safe, it will grow many times over. 

Neither a borrower nor a lender be,

for loan often loses both itself and friend ... Polonius

What is money?

Money is such a multi-faceted and all-pervasive element of our system, that our capability to obsess about one aspect of it prevents us developing a proper appreciation of what it actually is.

Our monetary system is based on fraud. Can you and I write checks “drawn on ourselves”? Of course not. We have to back them up with value. The Fed does not. So, the mighty US dollar is not backed by gold or silver or anything at all; it’s simply an accounting trick ... Paul Rosenberg

How does a monetary economy differ from one in which trade occurs by barter? This ruled out gold being money, since gold is a commodity that anyone can produce for themselves with a bit of mining (and a lot of luck). So even though gold is really special and incredibly rare, it is in the end, a commodity: an economy using gold for trade is really a barter economy, not a monetary one.

A true monetary economy is inconsistent with the presence of a commodity money. A commodity money is by definition a kind of money that any producer can produce for himself. But an economy using as money a commodity coming out of a regular process of production, cannot be distinguished from a barter economy. A true monetary economy must therefore be using a token money, which is nowadays a paper currency ...  Augusto Graziani

In a credit economy at the end of the period some agents still owe money to other ones, a final payment is needed, which means that no money has been used. So to be money, the token given in exchange for a good must be accepted as a final payment, but this carried the danger that whoever produced the token might be able to “get something for nothing”.

Graziani's three basic conditions that had to be met for something to be called “money”:

1. money has to be a token currency (otherwise it would give rise to barter and not to monetary exchanges);
2. money has to be accepted as a means of final settlement of the transaction (otherwise it would be credit and not money);
3. money must not grant privileges of seignorage to any agent making a payment.

The only way to satisfy those three conditions is to have payments made by means of promises of a third agent, the typical third agent being nowadays a bank.

So money is fundamentally the promise of a bank to its customer, and a monetary payment is the transfer of that promise from one customer to another. 

Monetary payment must therefore be a triangular transaction, involving at least three agents, the payer, the payee, and the bank.

Firms are present in the market as sellers or buyers of commodities and make recourse to banks in order to perform their payments; banks on the other hand produce means of payment, and act as clearing houses among firms. In any model of a monetary economy, banks and firms cannot be aggregated into one single sector.

In reality it is simply the nature of a monetary economy: money is simply a third party’s promise to pay which we accept as full payment in exchange for goods. The two main third parties whose promises we accept are the government and the banks.