That "Early Sunday Morning" is what I am Waiting For !

Have u ever felt tears rolling down your eyes and you heart sinking with every word you typed..
that’s how I feel since Abhi left for his week long business trip after a gap of 2 long months …

it was diappointing… seeing his itenary in my mailbox…
then watching him pack up while I just made sure hez carried his thermal wear … a book to read and whatever else I can think of at that sad point of time…

I just detest the feeling I have when we climb down the stairs and I walk slowly behind him wishing so much that he doesn’t go…
but just as I get to the gate I see the car waiting and walk up reluctantly to leave his bags and hug him in the hope that these 8 days fly by within no time …
finally I see him wave me good bye … and the moment I turn my back my step feels so heavy and my heart bleeds in loneliness...

Teary Eyed i am but i keep myself from crying and tell myself to get on with life…
Afterall its just a matter of a few days instead of thinking it’s a long week …
Sunddenly the entire house seems so empty … nothing makes sense ..

and you wish so much that you could tread along with him .. even inspite of knowing you too have a job to do and cannot be accompanying your husband whose itenary reads like 7 cities 3 countries in 8 days …

I thought I had enough of trying to play a brave heart when I am actually not one …
but I still try to picture the morning when Abhi would be here.. just to lift my spirits…

when his flight lands at the Mumbai airport and he makes his 1st brief call to say “ I am back !!“ :) then I wait for him to get out of the plane, finish collecting his luggage and take to the expressway …he stops by to grab a bite and calls me to inform me of the time he would be home..

I am still half asleep … and then therez that noise of those wheels when he drags his luggage and holds a bag of chocolates … as I instantly jump out of bed to look down from the window … :)
then proceed to switch on the geyser for a hot shower he has …just in time to hear my mobile ring again and then my heart starts racing when he says “I am here” … :)

I rush to the door to hug him tight after a gap of a long 8 days that seemed like weeks on end …
he stands there leaving aside his luggage to hold me in his arms smiling and kissing me on the forehead …as if trying to tell me “I am here … never to go back leaving you alone .. ”
that is the “Early Sunday Morning” I am waiting for …

- sayli..

A Maniac Monday Massacre

Call it “A Blood Bath on Dalal Street” or ‘Financial Wipeout’.. Every Black Day on Dalal Street had lessons to teach us – the sooner we forgot the more intense the pain has been.

It is now that you realize, that just as you had Career Goals / Personal Goals it is equally important to have financial goals.

And if the word “Goal” just made you feel sick then lets call it “identifying a purpose for earning money”. Very obviously we all earn to: get married, support a family, maybe retire early, go on a vacation abroad etc etc

But when you write down and set aside an explicit amount and associate it with an appropriate investment vehicle for that purpose, you would never wear an expression as horrifying as those outside the BSE did, on yesterday’s Maniac Monday Massacre when the markets world over fell and all the Stocks in Sensex and Nifty closed in Red.

For those who may be completely unaware of the term “Investments”, here are some pointers that worked for me since Year 2004!

1: Keep a Track of your Spendings: you can record your spendings religiously just for a month to analyse where you could cut expenses. Expenses have to be realistic and not exhorbitant since what you may be affording now you may not necessarily be able to afford it 25 yrs down the line. So it always made sense to be wise early on to enjoy similar status for as long as you lived.


2: Never Take on a Debt that is more than 40 % of your take home Salary: Your EMI’s towards Home Loan, Car Loan, Personal Loans etc should never be more than 40% of your earnings – else you are sure to loose sleep over your Financial Standing. If it is, then it makes sense to consider liquidating some of your savings/investments to get rid of that debt.

3: Diversify your Portfolio: Never put all of your savings in just one instrument eg: only Equities or only Debt or only Real Estate or only Gold.
There are online Risk Analyzers that determine your apetite for Risk and suggest you a Percentage Portfolio Allocation in each of the above which you can adhere to. But a thumb rule for equity works well: exposure to equities = 100 – your age. 100 – 26 = 74 % So early on in life you could do well with having a major portion of your savings in VALUE Stocks and give them a time frame of 10-15 years to grow and eventually reduce your investment in markets as the older you grow the lesser your apetite for losses.

4: Benefit from the Power of Compounding: Investing regularly in MF’s through the SIP route is the best way to benefit from this. Also if you invest for eg: 30K in PPF, make sure you park this 30K in the beginning of the Financial Year into a Liquid Scheme [Debt] and then liquidate this amount to deposit it in the PPF account in Feb. This way you make your money work harder and stay away from volatility that you would otherwise be exposed to had you set aside this amount in stocks – also liquidating would be difficult since timings the markets is impossible.


5: Don’t Invest Just to Save TAX but to create Wealth for the Long Term: Investments in Section 80C right from PPF, ELSS, Insurance Premiums can each be linked to more than one of your Financial Goals of Providing for retirement, preparing for your Child’s Education, Protection for your Loved Ones etc etc

6: Medical Insurance is Extremely Important: It comes at rock bottom prices but could save you from the biggest financial drain in the event of a tragedy god forbid. Yes the company does provide for one but if you were in between jobs or rendered jobless tomorrow and had health problems then this is the vehicle that sees you through. A cover of a 1 Lakh for a Year comes for as cheap as 999 which by any standards isn’t a huge amount at all.

7: Do not time the Markets and Allow your Investments sufficient time to Grow: If you have identified sectors that look promising for the long term, identified just 2-3 best companies within these sectors that look optimistic in their growth & developments, invested in them at the right price, accumulated stocks of these on dips and waited for a feasible horizon of 3-5 years and even more you are sure to look like a contended investor and not like an apprehensive trader who looses sleep on every downturn.

As an expert rightly said “Such is the way of Financial Markets that a few Participants will go down under and never be able to get back to the market again, but most will survive. The pain will linger for many months, maybe years, but lessons have to be learnt.”

With an optimistic outlook for the teary eyed, the weak at heart - the financially wiped out families…

Signing off,
~ a long term investor in value stocks.

An Action Packed 2007!!

Composed On December 11th 2007

It's been one helluva year, and I have been on both sides of the fence… 1st to have made a self decided transition from an IT services [Satyam] to a Telecom company [Hutch in April 2007]. Then to have witnessed the Merger & Acquisition Deal of Hutch by the worlds biggest telecom company - Vodafone [September 2007] and now I would be on the payrolls of IBM starting JAN 1st 2008 as a result of the Strategic IT Outsourcing Deal between Vodafone & IBM India !! [the offer letters were issued to us by IBM today morning]

Satyam Hutch Vodafone IBM – All Brands in themselves… and I feel truly proud of having been associated with them however brief my period … only to realize that as companies start out they strive to be self sufficient by owning all the processes that are key to achieving the conviction of their clients. As a result of which they develop practices, applications, and models that grow in-house.

However, once a company is on the fast track there is always this pressure to innovate, the pressure to surpass your competition, to forecast the most crucial problems that may be prove to be roadblocks to growth a few years from now..

That's why there arises a need to identify specialists that have an edge over you in carrying out certain functions of the organization that may in turn help your business to be profitable… It then starts scouting for the probable candidates who have proven expertise in respective operations … and then the IT, call centre, telecom network setups, infrastructure, etc are outsourced to leading players… That's how the company maintains its attention on its core business – of acquiring and retaining subscribers in its network.

Well u are probably thinking that you don't have to go through the psychological ordeal nor financial pleasure of being migrated to organizations to understand this simple logic…dint u ?? :)

But I thought how about applying this practice back home as well ..

Delegate, distribute, outsource work and focus on enriching quality relationships to live a stress free life ! Sounds like magic truly ! But it aint easy, especially when responsibilities are on a rise and the time to fulfill them just doesn't seem to extend.. Every time the quarter ends and companies announce results and talk to the press proudly about YoY growth, Profits, PE ratios, Valuations etc.. I think to myself why we as individuals can't have certain north stars for ourselves… something as simple as maybe a visit to a wildlife sanctuary or learning to jive ! or something as complex as building a physical asset for yourselves !

Why is it that KPA's, KPI's, sales targets, deadlines, corporate presentations, quarterly circle meets, annual organizational events are taken very seriously.. whereas procrastination is always the practice when it comes to tasks back home… you always think maybe next Monday would be a good day to start exercising… maybe next month is ideal for a picnic … I would probably learn to bake great cakes before our next anniversary… !!

"Delay" is the word when it comes to personal interests…

So while I sit pretty thinking and being pleased about having remembered bdays/anniversaries of near n dear ones, completed a certification, improved on my culinary skills in the kitchen, learnt to take time off to read the newspapers, made time to take care of my skin n nails, spent countless pleasurable moments with abhi, met expectations of my in laws parents n relatives, kept in touch with friends …

I realize I have a bigger & a brighter North Star to meet in every quarter of 2008 - Personally & Professionally!!

– signing off [a Vodafoner now an IBMer next]
~ sayli :)