My Money-control is in my own hands!

I still remember the time when my first salary aka Vitamin M was credited into my new bank account!! My eyes lit with glitter…..there you are finally!! I wanted to share this ‘joy’ with everyone….i bought fancy gifts for my folks…gifts for my then girl friend…took my friends out for a drink!! The moments of joy and celebrations!!

A couple of weeks after the first sights of Vitamin M, my dad asked me how much have I ‘saved’ and ‘invested’ of what I had received!!?? It was as if the Accounts Prof back in the B-school asking me to read out the balance sheet I had created for the company called I. It took me a moment to ‘read’ the Asset side of the balance sheet whereas it took me a while to ‘read’ the Liability side ‘cause this side was the one with multiple entries vis-a-vis the Asset side which had a single line item – Vitamin M.

After a brief introduction to the world of investing and its benefits from my dad I started exploring the world around me with things with tags “Best Returns”, “ Safe Havens” and the likes. I then sat on my computer to unleash the power of the Internet.

I could understand the stocks lingo (thanks to the fin inclined partners in the school)….what I was looking for some gyan on the mutual funds and other avenues of investments. The sheer volume of websites/blogs/articles on the internet made me fee that every one was into it but me. All of them were singing the same tune – x and y will go up so invest in a, or, p & q are below average so invest in b; it was like they new the trade like the back of their hands. And if that was the case then India should have had the highest number of millionaires / billionaires but the reality was something else.

Question I still ask myself is – is it right to listen to these guys and invest my hard earned money? I should be doing my own analysis and investing money….i should know the business model of whom ever Im giving my money to and expecting good returns. I know I don’t have the time to sit and do just that so do I just rely on these marketing stunts/advertisements of these asset management companies?

Over time I have also learnt that my individual analysis brought in relatively better returns on the prinicipal. I also lost some money but then I did learn a lesson from that. I lost because I treated the money the way I wanted to and not the way someone else wanted to. The money-control was in my own hands.

The point im trying to make here is that be do your own home-work before you look up to someone else. Ideas are always welcomed but they should help form in informed opinion. My money-control is in my hands.

Cheers!