Part 4 of 4 is finally here and this is the final step in what financial planning expert Dave Ramsey calls "the Baby Steps to financial freedom" - INVESTING! Now you get to start focusing on the future & building wealth be it building for that retirement fund or putting aside money for kids' college or philanthropy or a business or whatever long term goals you may have. This episode is about what moves you can make as a beginner when you start out investing and no, investing in cryptocurrency (BITCOIN, ETHEREUM etc.) is NOT the starting point! A baby can't walk let alone run, without learning to sit up at first { spoken like a father of a young kids :) }. There is a mental approach even to investing that one must adopt & we talk about that as well.
I'm excited to have you check this out! In case you're just tuning in, then my recommendation would be to listen to parts 2 - 4 to understand how to structure a personal finance roadmap that works for you. While Part 1 tells you the story of Sid's & my own backgrounds & what led us to taking some of the actions with respect to our finances. My hope is that is this conversation helps someone out and if you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out @abelmathewsentertainment on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube & LinkedIn & @abelmathewsentm on Twitter.
Also, if you're a video kind of person, then you could subscribe to my YouTube channel (@abelmathewsentertainment) and catch the full 2 hour video version of this same conversation. Happy listening!
In part 3 of this 4-part conversation, Sid & I talk about what's next after you've got your basics covered. This is where we really sink our teeth into different aspects of personal finance planning - emergency funds, tax planning, insurance, the approach to adopt when attacking debt & more. This episode builds on some foundational principles laid out in part 2 of episode 4 - principles that one must have in place if one is to win with money; so if you haven't heard it yet, be sure to check out part 2 first before you listen to this one.
NOTE: A lot of what we share in part 3 when it comes to tax planning is pertinent to Indian residents only, but the principles shared can still be applied to your personal context even if you're based elsewhere.
As always, I do hope you find this conversation insightful. Please do share it on your social media feeds if it helped you and leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what y'all think, good, bad, whatever. And of course, in case you have any questions, please feel free to direct them my way on @abelmathewsentertainment on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube & LinkedIn & @abelmathewsentm on Twitter.
Also, you could subscribe to my YouTube channel @abelmathewsentertainment and catch the full 2-hour video version of this same conversation. Happy listening!
Continuing our conversation from where we left off in Part 1 of this 4 part series, Sid & I dive into the goals & mindset one should adopt as one embarks on the road to better personal finances and money management & we also talk about what the crucial first steps are. Hint: We demystify the dreaded word "budget" and also have some advice for non-salaried professionals.
For more on why we're talking about personal finances & our respective upbringing with regards to money, check out Part 1. The description of that episode also sets context quite succinctly, yet thoroughly. I do hope you find this conversation insightful. Please do share it on your social media feeds and leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what y'all think, good, bad, whatever. And of course, in case you have any questions, please feel free to direct them my way on @abelmathewsentertainment on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube & LinkedIn & @abelmathewsentm on Twitter.
Also, you could subscribe to my YouTube channel and catch the video version of this same conversation. Happy listening!
Mutuals funds, section 80c of the Indian income tax act, emergency fund, tax planning, health & life insurance, investment portfolio, debt - these terms held no interest for 22-year-old Abel. It's only once I had kids and began my IT job (that's 31-year-old Abel) that I realized I know very little about managing personal finances and worse, how severely under-prepared I was for the future or for any emergency situation that would need me to shell out cash. This realization started me on a path to learn about how to manage my money smarter & eventually reframed my mindset when it came to personal finance. Despite having applied my learnings for only 3 years, I've seen a major difference in the way my family & I are better positioned, not just for the future, but to manage modest emergencies & make overall wiser daily living, money-related decisions. We're officially on the road to better money management & wealth building.
However one can't build a skyscraper on shaky foundations and neither can you be in control of your finances until you've clearly defined your relationship with money. I've been fortunate enough to have great mentors & advisors speak to my financial health, from well-to-do friends in my personal circles through to renowned personal finance gurus like Dave Ramsey. But I'm not an expert, just a practitioner. So I invited my friend instead who also is a certified financial planner & financial and wealth management expert to join me - Siddharth Menon. Sid helped me understand the opportunities available to me as I first began exploring personal finance & once I took action based on the knowledge he imparted, I was able to begin building towards my goals, which now features a small corpus for the future & a basic investment portfolio for myself, both of which I didn't even have 3 years ago. Over the course of the next 4 episodes, we're going to take you through the exact same baby steps he and I have personally taken to make a plan, get rid of debt, invest for the future & even spend money guilt-free. And for those aspiring to be billionaires quick, we also demystify cryptocurrency at a broad level. So if you're one who has considered putting all your money in there, wait! First, listen to this episode first and then decide. Overall the intent of this conversation is to help you put things in perspective & establish the right building blocks to develop a personal finance plan that works for you & will help you avoid the mistakes I made. Remember time is of the essence & compound interest works in favor of those who act early so listen now. If you didn't get the compound interest reference, don't worry, we explain that in Part 4 :)
This conversation took place on Zoom over the course of 2 hours so I've split it into parts for easy listening.
In Part 1, we talk about our respective backgrounds & the early experiences which shaped our personal views of money & relationship with it. And know this, mine wasn't healthy at all.