A Phase in the Life of an Indian ...Guy - Part 1

There is a phase in life of many ( Not so Hep ) Indian guy's life where

1. Bryan Adams songs makes him romantic .

One would Lip Sync his song and when he screams "In Heaven " the romantic-o-meter's mercury will be at its peak.

2. Chicks flicks are very funny

About Chick Flicks my buddy kartik once said "Only way I could watch a Chick flick is to drop my b&%*ls in a ziplock leave it out side the movie hall and watch the movie peacefully ".

3. You would say nice things to your Guy friends Like

"Man I missed you when you were at home"
"Hey I have been waiting for you so long ?? Where have you been "

4. In a family function's you would find yourself discussing family politics with your aunts and girl cousins.

5. A phase when you would wear a "Capri" aka 3/4th pant and consider yourself kool

6. Where you would go to Gym few days and buy one of those tight sleeve less tshirts to display your muscle.

7. Where the center page of regional magazines was your source of inspiration .

8. Where he would buy Greeting Cards and give it to his Guy Friends on birthdays.


There are many interesting things that an Indian Guy does during his early teen .If you have read the above bullets and if you think you cannot relate to it , be happy for yourself that you were one of those confused wanna be dudes.For those who can relate , you have nothing to be proud of either.

Are you financially Smart ??

I landed my first job last year . I led a cost conscious life in Grad School with a $600 income to pay for rent ,utilities and groceries . A full time job encouraged me to spend more .Few months into my job I was unable to track my expenditure and had huge credit card debts.

When my finance went messy, I had to come up with a strategy to combat my impulsive shopping nature .First of the few things I needed to do was

Track my expenses
Budget
Reduce expenditure one category at a time.

I cancelled all additional credit cards and stuck to one major card for all my expenses bought Microsoft Money and linked my credit card and checking account to it and tracked my monthly expenses . I budgeted all categories of my expenditure and decided to monitor my expenses Vs Budget every month.

This leads us to the first step towards investment.

Rule 1 :Save as much as you spend ( If you earn $3000 a month say $1000 goes towards your Rent + Car loan + Insurance , the remaining 2000$ needs to be split for expenditure and savings $1000 a piece).

2. Aggressively transferring money to a savings account (ING Direct 3.4% APR ) helps you save money.

The next few basic steps for investing are
3. Contribute the amount that your company matches into 401K every year .

4.If your company offers ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase plan ) use the full limit of this plan.

5.Every Investment plan should have a long term goal and a short term goal .Typical Short term goals are Investing money in the order of 5k -10k in mutual funds . Long term goal is to buy a house in 2-3 years with around 15% down payment.

Stocks , Mutual funds are good investments but one needs to collect a lot of data on those before attempting to buy .Investing Bible is a good book to get a heads start.Create a portfolio online and monitor it constantly , try to understand the factors that affect a stock price.

My friend Ashok has a website PROCUE which has lot of information in the finance section.He happens to be the source of all information that I provided in this post.

Lok Paritran (Alas Serious Indeed)...

Lok Paritran party know to all as "Former IITians forming a political party".The party is contesting elections this May .It is looking for candidates to contest.

Any social cause needs finance and support and I hope the Indian diaspora that has been talking , complaining about the state of affairs back home will take steps to donate generously.I have emailed requesting the folks at the helm of affairs to create a Web Based method of sending money, facilitating the IT savy crowd to donate .

Till then spread the word about the party and encourage your folks to VOTE for them .


Jay Hindh

Lok Paritran

Trust , influence ,positive energy , inspiration and belief

Ashok , a good friend of mine handed me a copy of "Wings of Fire "which is Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's autobiography .A man who is admired in the Global Community .One Chapter of the book has inspired me to write this post and I am sure remaining portions of this book will motivate me more .

Every person born into a family acquires its Socio Economical Values , he is taught a few good things by his parents. Teachers mould his thought , make him ready to accept challenges ,and to deal with uncertainties that life has in store .Friends , mentors , elders influence your thinking. After obtaining inspiration from many sources we draft a plan on our own and set to achieve it .Religious feeling aka spirituality which ever way we choose, tends to have an influence to on our thinking too .

I have always performed better when my parents encouraged me , my teachers motivated me and my friends trusted me .I take responsibilities for my actions and thank god for the great things he has done to me in my life , the good friends and mentors who he has sent to guide me .

I believe every one can be a positive influence in some ones life , creating positive energy in others is reciprocative .Let us be the source of inspiration for a few people whom we cross as we travel the journey of life.