5 Simple Mantras To Achieve Financial Freedom

Who doesn’t like to be free of financial burdens? How will my family manage in case of a job loss? How to handle the finances for my daughter’s marriage? Is it possible to plan a long holiday this year without straining my budget? Oh, how do I handle this sudden medical emergency at home! The questions and uncertainties that life throws up are plenty, and they are not in our control. They will keep occurring in our lives from time to time. The only thing in our control is to work out plans to mitigate these risks, and insulate our financial position as much as possible from unforeseen circumstances.

So let’s discuss 5 money management mantras that are applicable to anybody. Young adult with your first job, senior citizen looking to secure your post retirement life, home maker saving from your household budget, business owner looking to stabilize and expand your business enterprise. You could be any of these people. Follow these mantras to get going on the road to your financial freedom.

1. Buy Now, Pay Later – Sounds cool, but it’s not good for you

The coolest financial instruments in town are called BNPL payments, popularized by the new Fintech Companies. Simply means Buy Now, Pay Later. Sounds awesome, right? Want a new phone – no problem. Pick up the latest iPhone on zero or minimal down payment. Pay the rest in easy installments. Earn attractive cashbacks in the bargain !?!?

How is it even possible for a commercial enterprise to sell something without any payment recovery from the customer? It’s obvious there are some hidden dangers. These dangers include exorbitant interest rates for EMIs, hefty penalties on non-payment, embarrassing and stressful dealings with recovery agents if not paid on time. The mental stress that you will have to bear in these situations is endless. People often regret making that impulsive purchase in the first place, which led to such a stressful situation.

Instead, save for a few months keeping exactly that iPhone in mind. Once you have a reasonable kitty, go and get your phone with zero hassles. No debt, no headache, pure joy! If you do the math, you will realize that at the end of the bargain, you are paying much less by paying upfront.

2. Preparing a budget – don’t skip it, it’s critical

For those who tend to spend freely in the first weeks of their salary credit, but their account balance begins to dwindle towards the end of the month – what you need is a budget.

To read more and to learn all about budgeting, read

Beginners guide to budgeting and saving

3. Conservative in spending, diligent in saving

There is a frivolous tendency among the youth today to treat a saving or emergency fund as idle money, going waste. They would rather argue – using that money to meet any unplanned expense that occurs is not a bad idea. 

Once we get into the habit of withdrawing from our surplus funds or savings for trivial reasons, it will cease to remain intact, it will just get frittered away. 

God forbid, when a real crisis strikes, there will be nothing in our emergency kitty to fall back on. We wouldn’t have the time or ability to arrange for funds after an emergency occurs. So it’s important to set aside some contingency funds for such emergencies which are available for immediate use.

4. Investments – Think short term, but think long term too

Investments must be goal oriented and properly timed. Short term investments must have high liquidity and may yield only moderate returns. Medium to long term investments can focus on growth and consolidation. Specific milestones such as a daughter’s higher education, a business expansion plan can be mapped out with clearly identified investment choices. Investing in an ad hoc manner, without clearly working out our goals, final returns expectations, tax implications, security, liquidity, fluctuations, investment tenure etc is a recipe for trouble.

What investment route works for you may not necessarily work for me. Make your own informed choices, do not fall for hype or mass frenzy. There are many investment Gurus who may appear on TV or on online platforms and give recommendations and tips. Take any such advice only after thoroughly verifying it. Investment planning is not a guessing game or a gut feeling. It involves discipline, loads of research and homework. 

5. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

The world around us is a very dynamic and fast changing environment. Since it is hard to predict which financial instrument will thrive at what time, we must be flexible and broad based in our investment strategies. This will minimize our risk of failure. Investors must continuously evaluate their investment options and rearrange their investment portfolios to suit the present financial climate. Keeping all your money in one instrument is sure recipe for failure.

Most of the safe investment routes in India are known to yield between 5-12% returns year on year, based on historical data. Bank deposits, Mutual Funds, Gold, Chit funds, property are some of the common options. Of course there will be exceptions in these categories too, but by and large they are safe and reliable instruments with moderate returns. However, some investors fall for dubious and high risk instruments in the hope of getting extraordinarily high returns. Fraudulent ponzi schemes, speculative crypto currencies, online betting are some such dangerous examples. While unregulated ponzi schemes may offer as high as 18-25% annual returns, they are the ones which cause large scale losses to investors when they go bust. In contrast, a safe and approved Chit Fund house like Shanthala Chits is registered with the Government of Karnataka. We clearly inform our investors that our chit schemes have been yielding 7-10% returns historically. So there is absolute trust and security for the investor’s money.

ABOUT US

Shanthala Chits has been in the business of chit funds for over 2 decades now. We are a Government approved chit fund company with a 25 year successful track record and thousands of satisfied customers. Shanthala Chits is registered under the Chit Fund Act of 1982, Government of Karnataka. We are one of the most popular chit fund houses based out of Bengaluru, known for our customer satisfaction and secure investments.

Our Chit schemes range from a monthly contribution of Rs 6000 to Rs 1,00,000 to suit every budget. You can pick a chit scheme with an appropriate monthly installment for meeting several of your short-term financial needs. Our chit schemes are for a tenure of 25 Months.

Get in touch with us and start with an investment scheme. We will be glad to help you out with the right scheme that matches your needs.