Spending Vs Investing

What do we spend and what do we invest? The question came to my mind last week and I had to think more on it. The arena where this thought had to play was not just the financial grounds, but in our entire life. To hit the dart straightaway, ‘spending’ usefully towards a long standing benefit to you or others is ‘investing’!

Let’s go to a different dimension now by relating this to our life. How much of our time we spend and how much of our time do we invest? I keep 'time' as the baseline here, as this drives our age and lifetime.

If you put in your effort on something that is not useful to you the next moment, I call it spending. Say you getup late in the morning, catch an auto/taxi to reach on time to office, you might have reached office on time and could be perfectly ok with your official works. But, you have spent your energy, money and that travelling time in the wrong direction. A perfect start of the day is very important and you failed investing in that!

Devoting your time for your children is an investment on their growth. Investing time on music might make you feel pleasant. Investing time on meditation might make you feel inspired and strong. Interest varies between individual.

Another dimension here could be this! Whatever is against ones interest, he considers it a spending and the vice versa is investing. Putting your money to buy a big TV might be a spending for some. But, for some others they have invested their money towards entertainment. The few minutes they watch in that TV might still give them great happiness, energizes them and might fulfill their fantasies.

But, there are some universally accepted things which are investments for all of us. Think deep in your conscience and it will reveal you what is a real investment. Investments are more than just quenching your fantasies. It has to be something that gives you long standing benefits.

By analyzing on how much time in a day you 'spend' and think about how to convert that into an 'investment', one can improve his art of living. Iteratively doing this, the time we spend diminish and gives way to investments. I strictly believe that we should start investing in our life.

I consider blogging this, an investment. Not sure what you felt reading it :-)

Cheers!
Mani

February - The month of Love!

The month of February was the first of its kind for me. I read a lot after a long time. Thanks to one of my friends, who was the main reason behind me doing a non-techie read, after a long time :-) But, writing here about something which is not from the book I read ... This thought kept on bothering me for a long time. I felt only if I push this out I will get space for the next one ...

What is life without love? I can't imagine. When a new acquaintance bloom its way into a great relationship, the feel is inexplicable. Everyone in life should build great relationships. I read in one of Chetan Bhagat's words that small sparks will keep the vehicle of life moving. Small excitements are required to keep life moving. Very true! Begin life in iota of acquaintances and build great relationships there on ...

The month of February makes me reminded of two things, My mom's birthday [13-Feb] and the Valentine’s Day. Both streamline to Love for me. The feel of motherhood is something great! She doesn't know how the baby will look like, color or looks, what he will become in life, good or bad. What an unconditional love ... amazing! A woman can be wrong but 99.99% a mother cannot be wrong! Great metaphor for love, right? Also, it is the first love we see in our life! A salute to the motherhood in this 'month’ dedicated for love.

How great it is to feel that we have people around us, who care for us. To be choosy on relationships is great. You are the happiest and blessed in this world when the one you choose to be a friend with, acknowledge it and reciprocate it. Some words are coined after a great thought, I would say. The word horizon is one such word, I like the most. You see it but you can't experience it in reality. But you can imagine and feel it the way you want. You can enjoy it to any extent you want. The feel of love is the same I feel. It’s an utopia and I have my own gestures towards it and my own reverence for it. I like to show it to all who like me. I wish God gives me that time and space for that!

You will be surprised to hear, I developed a good friendship for a lizard at my home in chennai. I was staying alone for 2 weeks with no one to speak. The disturbance on the first day was that lizard but as days went on, when I didn’t see it for 3 or 4 days and it appeared suddenly on one day, I felt so happy :-) I kept on looking for it on all the other days!

Robhin Sharma said this ... "When a baby is born, it cries while people surrounding the new-born are in gay! When a person dies it should be the reverse, where he/she lies down in peace with all-smiles and people around cry for the demise”. Build great relationships.

Stopping it here ... Feel like experiencing Love in all forms, all through my life ... Love is something great. isn't it?

Yours Lovingly,

_Mani

How to look at life? – Letter to the soul!

The question keeps troubling me quite often. In fact, it haunts me. Sometimes going by strict guidelines and containing our life within those borders puts us to boredom. But, the way I feel like looking at it today, is to fight it brave! Yes ... It is a big battle that is given to us and we need to put in a relentless effort to sustain here.

Don’t bother much! There are ways to handle whatever that troubles you. It is not that you need to fight against the trouble always. Nor, we need to trouble the trouble before it troubles you. We can't be so proactive in life at all times. Sometimes, getting rid of [bypassing] the trouble is better than facing it. See, if you can do better without addressing it. That could be a wise decision rather than spending years to fight against it.

Everybody will commit mistakes in life. It can be a small one or a big one. Could stop there or might create a chain of mistakes. But yeah, the fact is life is too long to live it fully right. Always have this in mind. A small 2-D 8x8 chess board has so many tricks in it to master and so many knots to unravel. Life has many dimensions and many puzzles to solve. Lets not look life complex thinking of this. The intent is to say, life is big enough to spend it fully right.

The thing we will have to have in mind is not the cause of the mistake. But it’s effect. If you are able to correct the bad effects of your mistake and see things peaceful and serene, don’t bother about that again. The history of the mistake should be forgotten there. The lesson has to be taken. That mistake was one game given to you in your life where you didn't play well but you were able to come out of that debacle and the story ends there. Don't connect it to anything else in your life that happens in future.

See the God in you! Be kind to people. Love mankind. Enjoy and imbibe the nature. Who ever may console you when you are depressed, it’s you who should be willing to come out of it. Don’t rely fully on external sources to be consoled. It is mostly within you! Get to speak with those whom you like to ignite the engine and then on run the engine by your internal motivation force.

Play life like a bravo! It’s all about patching up the gaps and downs to make life smooth and even. Every mistake is corrigible when realized and acted upon at the right time. If not corrigible, at least its effect becomes negligible when you act fast upon it.

You will be fine and will rock the way you want[ed] to! Life is too short to spend worrying! On a practical note I remember this saying: "It's not wrong in life to expect to walk on a path full of roses; But its greedy to expect not even one thorn should prick your feet"

_Mani

Great Sayings!

Hey,

A Very Happy New Year to you! This time I didn't want to write a message by myself. Rather, I wanted to take help from others to message you as well :-) Here are those ...

Inspirational Messages

"You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event - it is a habit."- Aristotle

Keep your face to the sunshine and you can never see the shadow."- Helen Keller

"Fear does not have any special power unless you empower it by submitting to it."- Les Brown

'A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking aquestion he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannotachieve.'- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Give yourself an even greater challenge than the one you are trying to master and you will develop the powers necessary to overcome the original difficulty." - William J. Bennett

"One of the tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today."- Dale Carnegie

"Most great men and women are not perfectly rounded in their personalities, but are instead people whose one driving enthusiasm is so great it makes their faults seem insignificant."- Charles A. Cerami

Kindness and Love

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."- Plato

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost."- G.K. Chesterton

"Life is short. Be swift to love! Make haste to be kind!"- Henri F. Amiel

A Nice Prayer!

'God, grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change; the courage to change the one I can; And the wisdom to know the person in me.'

Cheers!

_Mani

Tough Times - Way to look at it!

Challenging Situations, Muddled minds and confused murmurs are the ones I see these days among people. Yes, we are circled by tough times these days both inside and outside. But, it is all in our perception and how we look at this scene. I felt like giving you a different dimension or a consolation to feel comfortable in this crisis!

We have been facing challenges in life. Some we faced unknowingly, some as part of our commitments/predicaments and some after hibernation into our comfort zones.

• Unknowingly as a little toddler, we learnt to walk. As a child we slowly prattled to get our speaking ability. These are the main and major things one should have in life. I mean the ability to walk and speak. Right? Luckily, as a child we never had the fear or thinking as to what will happen if I can’t walk? [or] what will happen if I cant speak? Without that fear/tension we were able to tackle it easily!
• As part of commitments: We struggled to get settled in life. No other go we got to do it. Else, life becomes a trouble. We had to clear our exams and there was no other option. So we did it!
• After getting settled in life we entered into a routine and got comforts. We were into a hibernation mode, out of troubles. And suddenly now, when a crisis or a challenge comes we panic or get confused!

Do you see the difference in all the above phases of life? Challenges were there always, they were unique but its our attitude towards it that made the difference.

Lets face it. Only tough times unravel the strengths of a man. Success is not about winning always. It’s also about how quickly we can raise out of debacles! Even the smallest of the grass has to put its new root into the ground firmly, even if it sees a new stone on its way. Only when you keep rocking yourself strong against the obstacles, you get deeply firmly rooted. Mind it!

Think of your surroundings, ambience and dependents. You cannot stumble so easily and also collapse your dependents. The struggle of a seed inside the ground is two-fold. In one direction, it has to stretch and push out of the soil to help the world with its fruits, flowers, shade et al. On the other direction, it has to root itself deeply/firmly so that it can stand strong to support the world and sustain its fruitfulness. Can you evaluate which direction is important? We can't be partial to one of this, obviously. Both are crucial dimensions to concentrate on! How many trees we see daily? But, do we realize this fact? Let’s be strong and keep others and our ambience lively and strong as well! Growing on both sides is very important and these tough times help us do that!

Its time, I leave your mind free to ponder on this. To end with a cliché, "Tough times never last; but, tough men do!!!"

Yours inspiringly,
Mani

Life - Being Accountable, Yet Keeping it Lite!

Hi,

It has been a long time ... How are you? Yesterday when I was heading back home, I thought a few things which I felt sharing with you.

Life is a gift or a pain? Have we ever counted how many moments in a day we were happy or sad? Is that happiness or sorrow because of our mistake or the other? There are definite answers to everything in the world. But, it depends on whether you want to accept it or not. If you ask me, for all the 'effects', the 'cause' is you. You started something which gave that 'effect'. But does that always mean you are the one who did that mistake? Not actually!

Certain things have to start. When I say 'Certain Things', it can be any work, a conversation, an acquaintance, a project, your own vision, a desire or anything. Who starts it is not of concern. But once started, how you attribute yourself to the series of events that happens around it, makes you accountable for the happiness/sorrow that you got.

To be simple, A desire to buy a car is bound to happen for anyone. If you buy as per your plan you are happy else, you are sad. But the desire by itself is not the cause for your sadness. How did you approach towards accomplishing your desire, makes you accountable for the happiness/sorrow the desire caused. If you had put all your efforts towards buying the car and your mind is convinced of your efforts, you need not worry about it at all. Start finding the external factors which caused your desire to fail and try approaching/complaining that factor rather than blaming you. More than complaining, we will have to actually think of circumventing that factor the next time, when you aim to approach that desire again.

Keep life simple. Do your best and leave the rest on God. I bet it is simple. 'Life is a gift or a pain' should not be our debate. Keep it aside. What you want to do today to be happy is what that pays in a long run. Think like your whole life is just today, is a usual cliché to be happy in life. But that doesn't mean no planning is required for future :-)... Be cool and do your best.

Spend time with your family and friends, everyday. It’s very hard to get people who love your presence. A small mail or a minute of chat will not digress you out of your vision. A smile exchanged daily is worth millions of talk. See life as a piano [or any musical instrument] and think of how to bring beautiful melodies out of it. Remember, it’s the person who plays the piano brings in it a cacophony or euphony. Learn that art! As they say 'A lazy man always blames his tools', there is no point in blaming the piano [life], for what you played on it.

Blame yourself and make you accountable for the RIGHT mistakes only. Keep life as light as possible. Stop debating on 'life - a gift or pain'. If you still keep doing the debate, you will forget to live it.

Yours lively,
_Mani

Taxation as explained by an economics professor

I got this as a forward from one of my friends. Worth and Interesting, a read!

===

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I!" "That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen,
Ph.D. Professor of Economics
University of Georgia