Old Lady

An old lady had a hearing-aid fitted, hidden underneath her hair.

A week later she returned to the doctor for her check-up.

"It's wonderful - I can hear everything now," she reported very happily to the doctor.

"And is your family pleased too?" asked the doctor.

"Oh I haven't told them yet," said the old lady, "And I've changed my will twice already..."

The blind man and advertising

An old blind man was sitting on a busy street corner in the rush-hour begging for money. 

On a cardboard sign, next to an empty tin cup, he had written: 

'Blind - Please help'.

No-one was giving him any money.

A young advertising writer walked past and saw the blind man with his sign and empty cup, and also saw the many people passing by completely unmoved, let alone stopping to give money.

The advertising writer took a thick marker-pen from her pocket, turned the cardboard sheet back-to-front, and re-wrote the sign, then went on her way.

Immediately, people began putting money into the tin cup.

After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said.

"It says," said the stranger, 

" 'It's a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.' "

How will you measure your life?

Dream as if you will live forever, live as if you’ll die today.

Our life can be as long as we can make it to be and as short as we can wish.

Life is all about developing various relationships with family, relatives, friends, fellows, work, money, objects, hobbies, and last but not least with yourself.

We all want to love, be loved, learn, teach, mentor, take on responsibilities, acquire various assets, contribute, create, get recognized, be powerful and off course be wealthy.

Now developing any relationship involves giving and taking and if the end result is to be happy we must give more and never expect to get something back. But that’s where unhappiness comes in because all we expect is something back from any/all relationship.

Life becomes complicated because of this give and take game whereas the goal is to make it simple. So you need a strategy to define your life to ensure enduring happiness in any relationship situation.

You are the director of your life but more than often life goes into an endless spiral of uncontrolled spin and there is very little you can do to control it. In such a situation all you have to do is to hold on to it till you get a hang of it. Much of our pain is self-chosen. Just remember there is always an end to any beginning and a new beginning after each end.

We all generally take risks not out of bravado but out of ignorance and blindness to probability and this happens with all of us in almost all life situations.

But that’s the way we all learn the lessons of life isn’t it.

Life is all about making mistakes and the more mistakes you make the more wise you become. Life teaches you by testing you before you learn your lesson, quite opposite to school where you are taught a lesson before test. The good thing about life is that it will give as many chances to anyone who is willing to get up and start again.

Even if you fail all the times, you can still take a new start. At the end of the day you will feel satisfied that you have taken all the chances you could and have played the card well.

It is also true that we cannot go back in life and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

The idea is that later in your life if you have a chance to measure your life; you should be able to feel good about it on any scale.

To have a purpose in life can be a good beginning point to help you give direction to your life.

The idea of selection and pursuing a profession to your satisfaction can be one way to achieve the purpose of your life.

For a successful and satisfactory professional pursuit you must decide on the right mix of resources allocation to shape your life’s strategy. People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to under invest in their families and over-invest in their careers—even though intimate and loving relationships with their families are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.  

If your purpose in life is as simple as to be happy then all you have to do is simply be realistic and lower your expectations from the world around you.

There was and will never be something like a perfect life.

Another important fact of life is that it does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh. The point to remember is the life goes on, with you, without you, so while you are there enjoy the ride.

If we try to group the world around us we can group them in two ways, one where we can do something to change the outcome, second where we cannot do anything to change the outcome. Most of us try to fiddle with the second and spend our energy to change something which cannot be changed.

It all depends which door you open and which door you leave closed. Take a close look because more than often the most important things in life are not things to even bother about.

More time in our life is spent in waiting for any action than the action itself, so why not learn to have fun while standing in a queue, that way we can have more happiness in our life.

Lastly do not worry about life; as we all are not going to survive it anyway.

Plan for an early Retirement

The idea of an early retirement is as exciting as it sounds, but the party ends there. To achieve an early retirement you need more than luck and by luck it is never meant that you have to live that long. The good news is most of us are going to live long, but that also is bad news.

Retirement planning will help you manage your funds pre and post retirement keeping in view your life style and retirement goals. Retirement planning is not a simple things its very long and hard work but then at the end of day it will give you the Golden years you and you only deserve, remember  “It's the hottest fire that make's the hardest steel.”

The demographic dividend over the next few decades is expected to spur India’s economic growth. But they are going to get older, living longer and paying for it. Early retirement may be a distance dream for most who fail to take certain simple steps as discussed below.

So let’s get set and get started for a step by step analysis of the factors that are most important in the success of a plan to retire early.

1.       The first and most important thing is the realization of the impact of a plan and no plan for retirement. The retirement period can be as long as 25-40 years. Today retirement or retired doesn’t mean what it used to. To retire in style is getting harder than ever. You may have to plan not only the expense but also what you will do with the time you have at your disposal. If not planned with the help of a professional planner it is possible there won’t be any retirement at all. Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today.

2.       The second most important thing to consider after the realization for a need to get a retirement plan in place is underestimating how long you will leave. The advance in medicine will make you live as long as you can, so to plan for retirement you must plan for a reasonably long period of retirement.

3.       The third important thing is underestimating the effect of inflation. Inflation is the biggest risk to any retirement saving. Inflation is the sustained increase in the price of goods and services over time. It will affect your expenses on food and health care beyond imagination, so the failure to consider it may result in the risk of lasting savings before you last. Related to this factor is the decision to position investments for growth, a too conservative investment strategy can be just as dangerous as a too aggressive one.

4.       Then most often we commit the mistake of starting to plan for retirement too late. Not saving enough and not saving early enough can derail the best of retirement plans. The best way is very simple, save early, save often and save consistently.

5.       Then the most common of all mistakes that most of us do is to do it yourself. Going alone on a plan for retirement will expose you to missed investment opportunities, sloppy planning and lax saving schedules. Retirement planning is a serious business and the assistance of a professional retirement adviser is going to make the plan and the process of executing the plan more efficient and manageable.

6.       Some other things that will help you in better retirement planning and which your retirement adviser will take care are, making a portfolio with right asset allocation according to your risk profile and goals, taking advantage of free money, power of compounding, bucket investing, diversification and using enforcement tools.

More than 80% people in our country fail to plan and for most of the other 20% the plan fails because of not taking assistance of a professional retirement adviser. One out of every 3 elderly Indian is already living below poverty line. It’s high time we take this issue seriously and take right decision in time to take care of retirement period right at the start of our career, because we may have to cater for a period longer than our earning period and that is a real challenge. It's better to do the right things wrong, than the wrong things right.

I wish to end this article with, “The person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry—his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing. So think big...start small...move fast.”

Once, a professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it. He held it up for all to see and asked the students, 'How much do you think this glass weighs?'
1 pound! ....2 pounds! .....3 pounds! ......the students answered.
I really don't know unless I weigh it, said the professor, 'but, my question is: What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?' 
Nothing the students said.
OK what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?' the professor asked. 
Your arm would begin to ache' said one of the students.
You're right, now what would happen if I held it for a day? 
Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress & paralysis; have to go to hospital for sure ventured another student. 
All the students laughed.
Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change? Asked the professor. 
No, replied the students. 
Then what caused the arm ache; the muscle stress?
Instead, what should I do? 
The students were puzzled. 
Put the glass down' said one of the students. 
Exactly! said the professor. 
Life's problems are something like this. Hold them for a few minutes in your head; they seem OK. Think of them for a long time; they begin to ache. Hold them even longer; they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to do anything.
It is important to think of the challenges in your life, but EVEN MORE IMPORTANT to 'put them down' at the end of every day before you go to sleep. That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh, strong, can handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!
Remember friends- PUT THE GLASS DOWN TODAY!

The trick is to shake it off...

One day a farmer's donkey fell into a well. The farmer frantically thought what to do as the stricken animal cried out to be rescued. With no obvious solution, the farmer regretfully concluded that as the donkey was old, and as the well needed to be filled in anyway, he should give up the idea of rescuing the beast, and simply fill in the well. Hopefully the poor animal would not suffer too much, he tried to persuade himself.

The farmer asked his neighbours help, and before long they all began to shovel earth quickly into the well. When the donkey realised what was happening he wailed and struggled, but then, to everyone's relief, the noise stopped.

After a while the farmer looked down into the well and was astonished by what he saw. The donkey was still alive, and progressing towards the top of the well. The donkey had discovered that by shaking off the dirt instead of letting it cover him, he could keep stepping on top of the earth as the level rose. Soon the donkey was able to step up over the edge of the well, and he happily trotted off.

Life tends to shovel dirt on top of each of us from time to time. The trick is to shake it off and take a step up.

The story goes that sometime, close to a battlefield over 200 years ago, a man in civilian clothes rode past a small group of exhausted battle-weary soldiers digging an obviously important defensive position. The section leader, making no effort to help, was shouting orders, threatening punishment if the work was not completed within the hour.

"Why are you are not helping?" asked the stranger on horseback.

"I am in charge. The men do as I tell them," said the section leader, adding, "Help them yourself if you feel strongly about it."

To the section leader's surprise the stranger dismounted and helped the men until the job was finished.

Before leaving the stranger congratulated the men for their work, and approached the puzzled section leader.

"You should notify top command next time your rank prevents you from supporting your men - and I will provide a more permanent solution," said the stranger.

Up close, the section leader now recognized General Washington, and also the lesson he'd just been taught.