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Friday, February 27, 2015

Ask Sergey Bubka about competing with others

If you haven't heard about Sergey Bubka, then you haven't learnt enough about competition. And here is how you can apply one of the learning from his life to lead an extraordinary life yourself...read on...

"Why are you so upset today?" I asked my elder daughter, holding her hand.

"Nothing Dad." She handed over the bag to me as she entered home after a tiring day at school.

"But there has to be something, because that is not your usual self."

"Forget it Dad, I will manage."

"Oh C'mon. May be I have gone through this situation before, and I can help you someway."

"See, My best friend in school Neha - I always used to be ahead of her in studies though the competition was always close."

"OK, so?"

"This year, she has been ahead of me, and I am not used to being in second place Dad."

"But I saw your Maths score. You did much better than what you did last year."

"Yes Dad...See that's why I told you that you won't understand. Yes, I did better than last year. But its not about me. I came first last year, but now since Neha has scored better than me, I will be relegated to 2nd position in the class, and I don't really like this."

"Well, first I must appreciate your competitive spirit. The spirit, the fire inside - itself is very important to achieve extraordinary results in life. But at the same time, you need to learn how to orient this spirit in the right direction."

"What direction? Who should I learn it from?"

"Learn it from Sergey Bubka."

"Who is Sergey Bubka?" asked my teenage fairy.

"Sergey Bubka was a pole vault player and let me read some of his sporting achievements statistics from Wikipedia"

"He started competing on the international athletics scene in 1981 when he participated in the European Junior Championship finishing seventh. But the 1983 World Championship held in Helsinki was his actual entry point to the world athletics, where a relatively unknown Bubka snatched the gold, clearing 5.70 meters (18 feet 8 inches). The years that followed witnessed the unparalleled dominance of Bubka, with him setting new records and standards in pole vaulting.

He set his first world record of 5.85m on 26 May 1984 which he improved to 5.88 m a week later, and then to 5.90 m a month later. He cleared 6.00 meters for the first time on 13 July 1985 in Paris. This height had long been considered unattainable. With virtually no opponents, Bubka improved his own record over the next 10 years until he reached his career best and the then world record of 6.14 m in 1994.

He became the first athlete ever to jump over 6.10 meters, in Spain in 1991. Until January 2014, no other athlete had cleared 6.07, indoors or outdoors. He set the currently listed world record of 6.14 meters in 1994 after some commentators had already predicted the decline of the great sportsman. Bubka increased the world record by 21 centimeters in the period from 1984 to 1988, more than other pole vaulters had achieved in the previous 12 years. He cleared 6.00 meters or better on 45 occasions, more than all other athletes in history combined."

"Wow, but what has this to do with my problem."

"Everything. If Sergey Bubka would have been competing with anyone else in the world, he would have been satisfied the moment he created the first world record till it was broken. But he went on to create record after record for 12 long years - with no external competition, and became one of the greatest ever in his craft. You know what was driving him?"

"What?"

"His competition with himself."

"He had learnt that masters compete with themselves and not with anyone else - they focus on daily incremental progress - they are not concerned with any outside competition. They do not want to limit their capability by comparing it with any one external to them."

"Hmmm... I am getting it. And perhaps you are right Dad."

"Dear, do not let anyone in the world decide what you are capable of. You are your own competitor. Keep improving. Keep defeating yourself, every time."

"Let me come back in a minute, Dad."

[After a minute]

"Where were you?"

"I had gone to congratulate Neha on her success."

Both of us smiled and hugged each other as we made determined efforts to improve ourselves against ourselves - that's the competition we must strive for.

The book Happiness Unlimited shows you many such lessons to lead a happier, contended life.

Cheers


Sunday, February 22, 2015

Meet another Freedom Seeker - Mr. Pallav Sarmah - a regional manager from Assam

Last time, we met a young and dynamic CEO from Hyderabad, India : Ms Kamini Gupta who are already on the journey towards financial freedom now. The response to such posts has been overwhelming. You can read more about her journey and experience till now by clicking here.

In continuation with our effort to interlock you with some common men and women who have been seeking financial freedom, today, it is a chance to meet another young and dynamic Deputy Regional Manager from Guwahati, Assam - Mr. Pallav Sarmah

We have mentored Mr. Pallav Sarmah and helped him to build a financial freedom plan of his life. This monthly track-able plan, once executed, has the potential to bring him and his family out of the rat race and allow him to chase the true dreams of his life. This plan can make him experience "true freedom" in life.

And as we all know "Freedom can buy you what money cannot !!"

So, lets meet Mr. Pallav Sarmah to know who he is, what his dreams and goals are, why is he chasing financial freedom, and how has been his experience since he has set himself on this journey towards financial freedom. So, here we go, lets meet with our next freedom seeker : Mr. Pallav Sarmah.



Pallav is passionate about contributing to the society. He needs time for himself and his family. He has realised that time is the biggest asset of his life, and he needs to earn it back. Pallav wants to pursue his own venture and also finish his doctorate.

Life need not be an either-or. Pallav has started this journey while being in a corporate job. He has kick started his journey towards financial freedom with a target of Oct 2028 to be free from rat race and start living the life of his dreams.

We will be together monitoring his journey. We will also tune his portfolio during the course of this journey, so that his journey stays on track. Our regular mentoring with Pallav would include maximizing his returns from his existing investments, tuning the portfolio, tuning the plan depending on how life shapes up for him and his family.

We wish Pallav all the best for his life and wish that he can go on to chase his true dreams and calling in life.

Pallav is just one among all of you. He is no different, except the fact that he took a step to connect with us, was open to accept our advise, and then worked on that advise. He took the first step. He came out of his comfort zone and will surely be rewarded for the same, in times to come.

Do you think it is wise to have a financial plan in place for your life, instead of randomly doing investments with no target in mind? 
Do you think life should be much more than just earning money?
Do you exactly know how much money you need to get financially free? 
Do you exactly know how much time you need to accumulate that kind of corpus which can fund your and your family's expenses for the rest of your life? 
Do you know how can you maximise your returns on your net worth?

If you have any of the above questions pondering in your mind, or you have any genuine financial query, or you have strong dreams on which you are yet to start working, do write to us at help@ratrace2freedom.com OR at help@manoj-arora.com and we will be happy to share our experiences with you, so that we can work together and plan your future better.

There are no charges, no constraints ... only freedom !!


Related Posts:

Cheers

Manoj Arora
Freedom can buy you.... what money cannot !!

More on "From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom"

    Friday, February 20, 2015

    The worlds largest living organism also needs support

    The Giant Sequoia tree is the largest living organism on earth, reaching into the heavens nearly 300 feet.  One of them can produce enough lumber to build thirty-five five-room homes, and you can drive an automobile through the trunk of one. Though this is a trait of the Giant Sequoia tree, the question is whether it can do it alone? and can we achieve anything of our own?

    Friday, February 13, 2015

    Working in private sector? Your pension (EPS) is getting accumulated.


    [Last Update : 01-Dec-2017]
    In a recent survey by a leading financial magazine, it came out that almost 60% of the respondents were unaware that private-sector employees covered by the employee Provident Fund (EPF), are also eligible for lifelong pension. More than 30% of these unaware respondents had already contributed Rs. 65,000-1 lakh of their hard earned money to the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) till now. Want to understand about this EPS pension scheme?...read on...

    Wednesday, February 11, 2015

    The uprooted plant and my judgment

     
    We judge more than 100 situations in a day, every day. Worse, the amount of energy and that we could have saved, and the extent of our happiness that we could have conserved, if we just start accepting these situations is enormous.
    A little uprooted plant  taught me so much....Read on..

    Thursday, February 05, 2015

    How much Life Insurance Cover do you actually need?

    Life is unpredictable. Therefore, Life Insurance is necessary to mitigate the financial risk to your family if something happens to you. Most people do not understand how much cover do they actually need, and that's why they are either under insured (too big a risk to take) or over insured (wasting their money). 
    Let us find out how much life insurance cover do we "actually" need...Read on...

    The thumb rule
    The most intelligent of the people who know how to deal with this subject use a thumb rule to calculate the total insurance need of the earning member. While this is a good starting point to give you a very high level idea of the coverage need, but this can be blatantly far from truth.
    The general thumb rule used in the industry is to cover yourself for about 8-10 times your annual income.
    So, if you earn Rs. 1 Lacs a month, then you must get insured for 1 Lacs * 12 * 10 = Rs. 1.2 Crores.
    This calculation is a good beginning to get an idea about the cover need, but if you are actually going to get insured, don't fall for this trap. 
    Because the fact is that your life insurance cover has nothing to do with your income :), simple because the purpose of an insurance cover it to make sure that your 'expenses' and 'liabilities' are taken care of, in case something happens to you...not your 'income'

    What all should we include in our calculations:
    You better include the following before you actually go in to buy your insurance cover:

    (1) Your family's living expenses
    You need to make sure that your family is able to survive through the life, while meeting all the living expenses for the remainder of their lives or at least till the children become self independent.
    So, if your family expenses are Rs. 30,000/- per month and you are 40 years of age, then you can assume a life span of another 35 years and calculate the total expenses that you would be incurring in the next 35 years. The approximate amount needed to cover your family expenses in this case would be 30,000 * 12 * 35 = 1.26 Crores.

    (2) Liabilities / Debts
    All your Home Loan, Vehicle Loan, Personal Loan, any credit card outstanding, any loan to be paid back to your relatives or friends - all of these need to be handled by your family via this insurance cover, in your absence. So, if you have a pending home loan outstanding of 40 Lacs and vehicle loan outstanding of 10 Lacs, then you need to take care of another 50 Lacs in your cover.

    (3) Special Future Events
    Over and above your regular monthly expenses, you will likely have some special future events like your child's marriage, higher studies etc..which needs to be paid via this cover. Lets say you have 2 children, and all the special future events are likely to cost you around 50 Lacs. Include this in your cover need over and above your expenses and liabilities.

    (4) Minus existing Assets
    Now, also look at your assets and if you have built good enough assets, then you may actually require very less cover. So, total up the current value of all your Public Provident Fund (PPF), Employee Provident Fund (EPF), Fixed Deposits (FDs), Recurring Deposits (RDs), Gold, Stocks, Mutual Funds etc...and subtract this amount from the total of (1) + (2) + (3) above. The reason we are subtracting the assets are simple. The money derived from your assets should anyways be accessible for your family to meet the expenses and debts, assuming you have nominated your family members on each of your assets.
    A financially free person like me, actually does not need any insurance cover...another positive of achieving financial freedom :)

    Conclusion
    While thumb rule does give you a good starting point, Life insurance is a much more serious risk mitigation strategy, which deserves a comprehensive calculation of the need. And the need is very individual for every person, and keeps changing with time.

    Do the right calculation, save your money and get the right coverage...



    Related Posts:

    Cheers

    Manoj Arora
    Freedom can buy you.... what money cannot !!

    More on "From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom"