Some of the soundest investing advice ever given to me came from my father. One day, when I had just gotten my very first salary, he took me aside, looked deep into my eyes and told me in gravelly tones, “Son, never spend more than you earn.”
Some of the soundest investing advice ever given to me came from my father. One day, when I had just gotten my very first salary, he took me aside, looked deep into my eyes and told me in gravelly tones, “Son, never spend more than you earn.” At that time I was flush with the joy of having earned my first salary and his statement never made any sense to me. But later on, when life had run its course with me, I realized that it was the best investing advice I ever had.
Those simple words with all their seeming simplicity couched within them the essence of what man has been trying so hard to figure out. Investing advice it seems is not all that difficult as it is made out to be. Nor is it rocket science, understandable by some of the finest and most erudite brains of our era. Effective investing advice is really as simple as don’t ever spend more than you can earn!
This point was driven home once again when I went to my son’s parents teachers meeting. I reached there a little early and happened to witness a class on investing advice for kids. I stopped by to watch, fascinated that kids nowadays had such concepts explained to them at such an early age. And I stood wonderstruck as the instructor delivered her final punch. That’s right! It was the same phrase dad had told me all those years ago. Professing her bit of investing advice the instructor told the little wonders never to spend more than they earned.
You might not think this is great investing advice. But think again. How many of us make the mistake of spending more than we earn? Before you get all self righteous and answer me, tell me if you have a credit card. There you go. Now, can you confidently say that you have never overspent? That you have always paid your credit card bills the very next month? That you never buy anything on credit? Come on now. If that is really you, you need to be the one doling out investing advice!
All of us know a great deal about sound investing advice, but most of us just refuse to follow it in our daily lives. But that needs to change. There is no point in knowing the theory without applying it in practice. After all, sound investing advice is not meant to be something that you can merely pass on like a family heirloom. In order for it to be effective, your heirs would much rather appreciate the money that accrued from the investing advice!
