Lehman Crisis and Lessons learnt

I got this e-mail by one of my friend. It is quite interesting. I just don’t agree with point 3. 🙂

 

LATELY, I have been thinking a lot about the Lehman crisis. Spending  money that they didn’t have and going beyond their means is one of the main reasons for their situation today. In fact that is the cause for the current economic crisis in the US.

When I see all this happening, I can only remember the good old days. Then, karz was bad. People looked down upon those who took loans. Parents would not give their daughter’s hand in marriage to a man with loans.

But of course, the times have changed now. Everyone I know has a loan. The buzz word is EMI (equated monthly installment). Today, you can buy every thing on EMI – a house, a television, an i-Pod. In fact I know of some one who just bought a fancy BMW 3 series on EMI, instead of buying a cheaper car outright with cash. I mostly prefer to take public transport, but then I am an old man with old thoughts!

Anyway, coming back to what caused the crisis. Imagine having Rs 2 lakh in your bank account, no regular income, yet buying a house worth Rs 65 lakh, in the hope of selling it for a higher price. Even if the price of the house fell by just 5 per cent (that is Rs 3 lakh), you will go bankrupt.

This is what Lehman Brothers did; with around USD 20 billion they went and bought assets worth over USD 600 billion. Isn’t it suicidal and simply foolish?

I am sure things would have been different, had I been the head of Lehman brothers. But who wants an old conservative man like me to head a complex financial institution.

But there are a few lessons that we can learn:

1.Live a balanced life and avoid overspending.

2. Don’t buy things we don’t need.

3. Don’t buy Branded good’s.

4. Don’t buy excess Food, Clothes, Cosmetics, Footwear, electronics and Fashion accuracies just think before you buy.

Tip: World still has a lot of growth ahead and the future holds immense opportunities for us. Let us make the most of it and save and invest it wisely instead of wasting our precious little on things we don’t need.

5. Try to balance life with work (No one is happy to work in their professions).

6. Don’t stress out your self, after work try to do some extra activities like swimming, yoga, walking, running where you can divert your mind from stress. A thumb rule: Health is more important than money.

7. Try to understand each other (Wife and Husband) in financial matter’s and help each other.

Tip: As soon as you get your monthly salary, set aside a fixed amount, usually 35 per cent, for insurance, savings and investments. You can then spend the rest.

8. Not all loans are bad. Loans that are ‘need based’ (home loans, education loans) can always find a place in your finances against those that are largely ‘want based’ (Credit cards, personal loans, car loans).

9. Borrow only if repayment is financially comfortable. A thumb rule: Keep EMIs within 35 to 45 per cent of your monthly income

In that respect, there is one American who I really respect – Warren Buffet. He has lived in the same ordinary house for over three decades, drives his own medium sized car and leads an extremely regular ‘middle class’ life. If that’s all it takes for the richest person on earth to be  happy, why do all of us need to take extra stress just so that we can get things which aren’t even essential?

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Does time really matter?

We generally hear these words from the people ” I don’t have time” . I really don’t understand how can one pass these kind of statement. Everybody has same amount of time and that is 24 hrs in a day. It is up to each individual to manage it. For me time  =  care. If you spend time with somebody or you give time to somebody, it means you really care for him/her. I don’t mean that one has to shoot emails or give calls like we get for credit cards ( 🙂 ) . But i certainly believe this ..

Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.

We all have a measured amount of time. Nobody knows (to the day/minute/second) how much time they have left to live. So the amount of time you spend with an individual (or doing something for that individual) determines how much you actually care for them. I mean seriously, face it! You won’t give your enemy more than a few seconds (if even that) but more than likely you will give your family and friends hours or days. You will take the time — even amid a crazy schedule — to spend time with people you truly love.

I wish, for whom i am writing this will understand. Just remember: words aren’t everything! Give the person your time and show them with actions that the words aren’t just empty. You actually mean what you say! Prove it!

So does time really matter? ………

Cheers….

🙂

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When heart and mind not in Sync….

Let me clarify… i always think positively .. But sometimes my heart and mind doesn’t sync.. that time these thoughts come into my mind….

Yes. I am a woman. I am smart, brilliant, popular and friendly. I am very successful in my career….

In fact; I have a lot of friends who care for me a lot!!

Do I really have true friends?

I don’t know…. May be i don’t feel comfortable to share my feelings and thoughts with them….May be my ego doesn’t allow me to share my thoughts with them… i always think not to cry or cribbing in front of others as it is just waste of time for others.

Everyone likes my presence, everyone loves my company,  but no one actually knows me, strange isn’t?

I try hard to laugh when people surrounding me begin to laugh aloud rather than bursting into tears behind closed doors for my emotional trauma and finally ending up suffering in silence. But why does it always happen to me?

The truth is – I really don’t know.

At home, I have sacrificed my personal happiness to play the role of an obedient daughter and an understanding sister expecting nothing in return. I don’t mean that i have sacrificed my career. Sometimes i feel that i am living as a stranger in my own family; I wish to keep myself happy by an artificial smile;  All fingers pointing at me; for every decision I take.

Sometimes; I wish to run away.

As a woman, I too have dreams – dancing in rain, being surrounded by flowers and valued for my worth. I do not wish to be a puppet in society anymore and crave to control my lost strings of freedom.

With my cherished dream still remaining unfulfilled – Accepting me as I am.

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