Regular Investing – The Friend We All Need

What do we all look for in a good friend? We look for people who are consistent in our lives, who have our best interests at heart, who constantly remind us of our true worth, whose company will help us grow into the best versions of ourselves and who will always have our back, amongst many other attributes. When we do find people who fit this description, we befriend them and nurture this friendship by giving our time and love to them in return. It is rare to find this connect, but when we do, we hold on to these friends for our entire lives. 

What if we decide to befriend a good habit just like we befriend a good person? If habits were people, then Regular Investing would be most people’s best friend. We could befriend Regular Investing by starting a SIP and inculcating the habit of setting aside some of our income and letting it grow to its full potential. But what kind of a friend would Regular Investing be? Let’s break this down. 

The Consistent Friend

Money decisions are a constant part of everyone’s life. How much we earn, spend, save and invest, are decisions that we make on a daily basis. We want to ensure that we maximize our income, so we always have enough to fuel our desires. But if Regular Investing was our friend, we would know that it is not about maximizing our income, but about optimizing our savings that will ensure we create enough wealth to meet our goals. Regular Investing would consistently remind us that we need to save about 15-20% of our income before we allocate funds to spend on our fixed and other expenses. While this may not seem much at the start of our career, every rupee saved and investedwill add up to a larger corpus in the future. 

The Compassionate Friend

When we begin our investment journey, the idea is to work towards achieving our goal. We prioritize our needs and desires, such as buying a home, buying a car, planning a trip, planning our children’s education, our retirement, etc. Once this is set, we determine our risk appetite and invest in a manner that would help us achieve every goal we have set for ourselves. With our friend, RegularInvesting, who has our best interests at heart, we know that we will be able to accomplish all the goals we have set for ourselves.Even if that mean starting small and increasing our investments as we go. 

The Constant Friend

Regular Investing would always be there to remind us that we are worthy of great things and capable of achieving all our desires, with just some planning and a little discipline. We need to constantly take stock of not just our investments but even of our goals. With time and changing needs, our goals will evolve. Once we review them, we can re-plan our investments to account for these changes and stay on track. 

The Best Friend

Regular Investing acts as our best friend as it always has our back. When our goals are aligned with our best interests, Regular Investing can aid us in avoiding money crunches. It helps us plan for emergencies, expansion, both personal and professional, and retirement.

Through every stage of our life, Regular Investing keeps us on the straight and narrow. It disciplines us and our spending, it grows with us, and it allows us to live the life that we otherwise would only dream of. Everyone should have a friend like this in their lives!