Deemed as the one of the most auspicious occasions in India, Diwali is all about lights, new clothes, celebration and crackles. This time of the year is supposed to be full of happiness and optimism all around the country. The tradition of Diwali is actually originated from the holy book of ‘Ramayana’ when Lord Ram defeated the evil Raavana and brought home devi Sita from the evil’s clutches. After Lord Ram’s victory, people of Ayodhya (native of Lord Ram) celebrated the home coming of their hero by bursting cracker and lighting Diya.
The Diya is symbol of light in darkness or hope in distress. Similar to that Diwali brings a lot of lessons for every financial planner to adopt and begin their journey to financial independence or wealth creation. Let us check out top 5 financial lessons to learn this Diwali.
1. Think, plan and achieve:
Diwali planning starts at least a month before its arrival. Cleaning the house, noting shopping list, preparing sweets and lots more. Imagine beginning your Diwali preparation right before the first day, it would be chaotic let alone impossible to achieve. All of us have certain financial goals, be it child education, marriage, buying a house or simply financial independence; retirement planning. The corpus needed for above is huge, and thinking of it may make us loose our sleep. However, if you plan precisely and act early you will be enroute to your objectives just like a blissful Diwali.
2. Planning without action is futile:
If you just keep noting down the shopping list without actually buying anything, it will not be a successful planning. In Diwali every single one of us contributes through the task given to us. Completion of these tasks is the responsibility given to each one us and if not completed within time, you may face unnecessary family anger and jeopardize the mood of the entire family. These tasks are similar to our financial objectives, and if do not act in line for their achievement, we shall not only fail in achieving our financial objective but also fail to cater the responsibility of the family.
3. Light the Diya of learning everyday:
Diya or lamps have special significance in Diwali, where every evening people light the clay Diya and ensure it is lit at least until midnight. In every financial decision making one cannot remain rigid or adamant with regards to decision making process. With ever changing economic scenarios, tax regimes and human needs every one of us needs to have student approach in the decision-making process. Catastrophically learners are always better prepared than non-flexible persons. Therefore just like without fail we lit the diyas in Diwali, we should also keep the Diya of learning always alive.
4. Never settle for anything less except the best:
Each and every item in the shopping list of Diwali is deeply researched, tired, tested and most importantly loved before we choose to buy it. In simple sense in Diwali, people rarely go for sub-standard or average products. In financial planning, we ought to follow the same principle because just like Diwali, anything below par to achieve our financial objective is directly jeopardizing it. Never go for hear-say investment method, even if it is being advised by the financial planner. It is always recommended to do through research, understand the financial product and if possible compare the same with the product which you think is the best. As you say no adjustment in Diwali, apply the same to your financial decision.
5. Maintain the holiness of Wealth:
Laxmi Puja is one the most prominent day in Diwali as the entire wealth (in symbolical manner) of all householders is worshipped along with goddess Laxmi, who is the God of wealth and prosperity. This day hold special significance as the tradition says worship Goddess Laxmi to be remain always wealthy. At Laxmi Puja all the Goddess Laxmi’s favourite meals are prepared, each and every lights in the house are lit and house is at its cleanest on this day. All of this is done to praise the Goddess and avail her blessing for the upcoming year. In similar phase in financial planning, our wealth is the ultimate God, therefore any actions delaying its achievement, shall result in failure of the planning. Therefore in order to gain blessing of Goddess Laxmi, stay invested, use budgeting, limit your unnecessary expense and most importantly save first spend later.
Diwali teaches us many such financial lessons every year, however it may make no sense until we understand the true meaning of it by actually following them. We always wish current Diwali to be the best Diwali as compared to the previous one, then why can’t we think in the same way for our financial objectives in order to achieve them faster or earlier.
So let us come together and celebrate a wealthy, financially precise and auspicious Diwali.
(The author is the founder of financial website www.moneymantra.info)
