Buying confidence with insurance

confidence, Fear, Insurance, Leverage, Risks

FEAR is generally caused by the unknown. What you are not sure off causes you to be uncertain. When you are uncertain you get fearful about the outcome.

Earlier I always used to talk about how investments would lead you to have the confidence to take the risks of life without being fearful .

However I have recently started analysing different kinds of risks that I face – so as we grow older, medical costs is a big issue. Next I have only one house in which I presently live – so there’s always the risk of a catastrophe that can hit.

I actually listed at least 5 or 6 different things which are high risks, that can suddenly wipe out my savings and investments.

Based on the ideas given by Garrett Gunderson, in his book Killing Sacred Cows, I have gone about figuring out if there’s insurance available to me to cover each of those risks.

While I knew about health insurance, I didn’t know about the concept of top-up that can add a quantum leap in your coverage at a very small premium. The caveat is that you should have the base medical insurance in place. Since I identified the risk and put a value to it, I was able to identify a product which would give me coverage to that risk.

Once you can list out all your risks and start putting a monetary value to them, chances are that you may also get a company who will be willing to cover the risk for you at a price. Once you have covered the monetary value of the possible risk, then its no longer a risk.

Insurance is a different kind of leverage, you are covering a large monetary risk by paying a small premium.

Once there is no risk, the fear reduces. Once fear reduces, you get the confidence to look at bigger things and aim for them. Insurance helps you get that confidence.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Debt versus Liability- Part 2 – Happiness

Happiness, Liabilities, travel

In my post yesterday I wrote about how the book Killing Sacred Cows…. by Garrett Gunderson had got me thinking about how I can borrow money for productive use. The issue is that anything can be constituted as productive use

I have been thinking about this as to what could be easily classified as productive usage. So any borrowing for creating an asset that appreciates should be okay. Any borrowing which creates an appreciating asset and also does cash generation should be even better.

If the asset is depreciating but you generate cash many times over then also borrowing should be okay as long as the liabilities you are creating are less than the assets needed to service the liabilities.

Now happiness does not have a direct relationship with creating assets.

But if you are to look at yourself as the million dollar person who creates assets because of your ideas, then a happy million dollar person should be able to create even better assets. So creating liabilities to ensure that you get happy – like going on a cruise to Alaska – which can rejuvenate you and make you even more productive for a long period of time should be worth it.

As Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach says, you need to put in free time into your calendar well in advance, ever so often , so that you’re operating at your best.

On the other hand a depreciating asset like a designer watch which aids your ego and is purchased by taking high cost credit card borrowing is not ok. This may give you momentary happiness , but soon you will be eyeing the next possession.

For me , I also get happy when I am surrounded by people who are thinking bigger ideas, different ideas or are just plain better than me in marketing or strategy.

Till now I used to wonder how I would finance these meetings and master – minds. This idea of debt versus liability, gives me an ability to do that. Once I am happy and my mind has also been expanded then I can be an even better and more productive asset.

I would think this can open up a whole new way to leverage growth,

Would love to hear your views if you think this makes sense.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Debt versus liability

Debt, Leverage, Liabilities

I have written earlier that I have been reading this book, Killing Sacred Cows…… by Garrett Gunderson.

Based on my own life experiences , where I was in so much debt from all sides , I have come to a conclusion that I will not take any debt for consumption items, especially credit card debt. Wherever I do have to use my credit card, because of “single shot” payments, I ensure that I pay it out within the period of free credit.

Otherwise I am absolutely against borrowing money and taking leverage of any kind.

Garrett on the other hand has come up with a very interesting take between liability and debt.

He says you will always have to take a liability to get an asset. One cannot exist without the other. If the liabilities exceed the assets you have then its debt. You should get rid of this debt at the earliest.

On the other hand if you can service the liabilities with your cash flow and it helps increase your assets then you should borrow. Effectively if you are buying a productive asset rather than a consumption asset, then you should borrow. As per him if you have to leverage your ability to add more assets then you should borrow.

Now in some situations there can be a thin line between consumption and production.

I am right now thinking about how do you go about classifying expenses as being done for productive reasons. Some could be clearly identified such as having one car to improve mobility versus three cars for lifestyle. Even that could be debated by some though.

But how should I look at taking a holiday to get new experiences. The experiences help me de-stress and therefore make me more productive in the long run. Should I be willing to borrow to fund the experiences rather than directly fund with cash and liquidating some assets.

I need to get a wrap around this idea. It could actually be a game changer.

Will keep you posted.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Diversification is admission of ignorance

B2B, ideal customer, Marketing, messaging, prioritizing, Product Management, segmentation, single target market

A few posts back I had written a post on how giving too many choices actually reduces the chance of success.

I used to hear a lot of gurus in the stock market talk about being focused with not more than 10-15 stocks to get the best returns. If you read the Wealth Creation studies by Raamdeo Aggarwal, he gives a lot of examples of how being focused can give much higher returns. If you want average returns then you can just take an Index ETF.

The other day I was listening to an interview of Garrett Gunderson with Joe Polish on YouTube. And he happened to mention this term in passing and it kind of stuck with me. Garrett has written a very nice book Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying your Prosperity.

Even in marketing if you try to do too many things trying to see which will succeed is because you are not sure of yourself either on your offering or on your market or a whole lot of other things. Most of the time we try to do multiple things at the testing stage to see what sticks and what falls. But once you start seeing what sticks you need to start improving on that. You can’t be testing multiple variables simultaneously. It never works.

You cannot be testing multiple offerings in different markets and also seeing which message works. I have done this at different times and flopped badly. Sometimes these were done because I fell in love with multiple brands and thought I could get them launched at the same time but then eventually realized I could not do justice to all of them. It was definitely my ignorance then. At other times I was in a tight spot and had to somehow get something moving and thought at least if a try so many things simultaneously, I will be able to get success somewhere.

Eventually I have come down to some very specific things for B2B marketing. I need to identify only one target market and niche it as much as possible when I am launching a new product / service. If your segmentation is done well and then you get your database / list based on that you have already come a long way. After that you test your messaging.

The 80/20 that I have been talking about in the last few posts is exactly the opposite of diversification. Its about focus and the knowledge which comes from focus. Like the image above, a few colors in a pattern can give a good look but putting too many colors on the same rug, assuming some one will like some color is ignorance.

Whether its finance or marketing or even other areas of your life you can spread your self, diversify and be shallow and ignorant or go deep, focus and be knowledgeable and get great results.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!