Contributing to the world

In whatever form you can contribute, you should give back to the world. Its not only good Karma but it also gives instant gratification with no side effects. Most other things, like sugar or drugs that give you a high, also come with massive downsides, but giving always makes you feel good instantly without any kind of side effects.

You can contribute with money and it does help a lot especially if you are giving to a charity with a clearly defined ration of overhead expenses and usage of the money for causes. You can also contribute in kind as in food products, clothes or whatever else depending on the charity. You can also contribute with your time. If you carry an abundance mindset, then whatever way you contribute, the universe will return it with a much larger positive return.

One of the reasons I write this blog post is that it helps me feel good that I have shared some of my knowledge with people. If you find anything that you like please take it and prosper from it. I am a massive work in progress, so even my thoughts are evolving as I grow, but one thing that has remained constant is the idea of giving back to society in whatever way I can. If you can profit from something that I have written here, I will be extremely happy to know about it.

And trust me, each time I am feeling really low, by donating something, I come out of my negative thought process immediately. It’s pure human nature to help, to contribute to improve other people’s lives. Was a society inspite of all the negatives we have and see everyday, we have survived because, inherently most of us are good people and want to do good.

Till next time then…..keep contributing

Carpe Diem!!!

Financial Freedom – keep counting the gains – live your life

Abundance, Financial Independence, life

A lot of times we get obsessed with saving for investing because we are unsure of the actual amount we could need for the future. It becomes a moving target. If you get to 100K you think you need 500K to survive. When you hit 500K you think you 1M to survive. This way you are never happy with what you have. You never learn to live your life in the moment and value what you have.

Something which I have mentioned earlier also, which I learnt from reading Dan Sullivan’s books and watching his videos, is the concept of counting gains.

So I started writing the blog posts on financial independence and freedom not because I had become wealthy but because I saw that I could find systems of investment which can help me grow. As these investments started growing I could take up activities which enhanced and expanded my life. And I wanted to share these learnings with everyone , so that others need not go through the same challenges which I went through.

From a stage where I had zero investments and zero financial backup, I kept clawing upwards. Now I can decide to feel sad that my investments have still not made a dollar denominated millionaire or I can feel happy that I was at zero and today I have hit some value while also living through lovely experiences along the way. This gives me the feeling of abundance.

When you are driving down from Washington DC to NewYork City you see the milestones for the amount of distance pending to reach NYC. Since the destination is fixed, it makes sense to know how much time and distance is left to reach it. However if you were to change the destination en-route from NYC to Rochester, then to Albany, then to Toronto, you will go crazy trying to figure out when you will eventually hit your destination. It then makes sense to think in terms of how much distance you have already gained towards your destination rather than how much is pending.

With your finances also you need to keep counting your gains and feel happy that you have been able to achieve some intermediate targets. Tony Robbins also had this concept of creating buckets and making investments according to the buckets. Once the bucket is full you need to use it. Like if there’s a bucket for vacations, then once the bucket gets full based on the target you need to go out and have a vacation. This way you will actually live your life.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Financial freedom – expand your mind

Abundance, experiences, Financial Independence, Happiness

I have always had this opinion that you need to get new experiences and expand your mind. Once your mind expands, it does not go back to its old state.

Do you even remember that you used to crawl once upon a time. Today you will actually find it very difficult to crawl. But there was a time when walking was a dream, but when you learnt how to balance on your two feet, you quickly forgot what it was to be on your knees and hands crawling. That was because once your brain gets new experiences it expands its ability and tends to forget the old ones.

I got this ability to think for getting new experiences from my father. He was of the view that saving money for itself had no significance if you didn’t get new experiences. New experiences also make you happier and give you a feeling of abundance.

While some experiences you can get without spending too much money, for most of them you need to have the financial backing. That’s where investing helps. After a certain period of time, when the magic of compounding starts to come into play, you need to take out money to sponsor these experiences.

Once the mind starts expanding it also gets the ability to think better. Then you are also in a position to think how you can increase your income further and invest more to earn even more and expand your mind even further. This becomes a virtuous cycle.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Living abundantly

Abundance, compounding, dreams, Financial Independence, Human Brain, mindset

I keep talking about getting financial freedom or financial independence and how you utilise the magic of compounding to help you get financially free. However compounding is a very very long term game.

While you should be investing, it does not mean that you stop living your life Today. It does not mean scrimping through life. I was telling one of my relatives today, on this same philosphy, that you should learn to live abundantly . What is the point of having money which you save all through your life, but you yourself never enjoy it.

If you’re scrimping to save everything, so that you have something in the future that you will enjoy, then by the time you reach the age when you think you can enjoy, you will be too old to enjoy.

That’s why I mention, that you need to save also for your dreams and tick of the things on your bucket list while you are saving money. I have a huge bucket list of my own, which keeps growing. So while there’s some amount you are investing for the long term, you also need to have a fund to achieve various dreams that you have. And when you hit that target you need to actually go out and do that activity to achieve your dream.

At the moment because of the Covid restrictions, we cannot travel out of India, I am right now active every weekend exploring different countries on YouTube and listing out what I will do when restrictions get removed. Not sure in what shape and form travel will be allowed but I am still putting things on my bucket list.

Now your dreams could be making a boat, or weaving a carpet or going on a hike, take your time to do these activities. Because when you achieve your dreams, it helps improve the performance of your brain. If the brain performs better you actually achieve more and you get more abundance overall. You trick your brain by living abundantly and therefore get more abundance. Its a mindset issue. I am not taking about taking loans and living out of your means. However I am definitely asking you to invest money for your short term dreams, mid-term aspirations and long term goals, instead of only long term goals.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!