We all have dreams and aspirations, especially when we are young. Be it an early retirement or palatial home or a big car. Unfortunately, most of us find it difficult to reach these dreams and have to either give up on grand dreams and set realistic ones or wait till we become too old to afford them. There are only two ways to ensure that you change this. First, earn enough money which may or may not be possible for everyone. Second, walk the easier but longer path of saving & investing.

One of the important pillars of financial wellbeing is proper financial planning. Financial wellbeing is simply where you have more than what you need, and the extra is invested for an even better future. Often, we complicate wealth creation much more than needed. At risk of repetition, we dare say again that we have to go back to the same age-old principles of investing and wealth creation. They are timeless, simple and yet, very easily forgotten. There are still people out there who have dreams and aspirations but do not follow these critical and life changing rules for wealth creation. In this article, we present the seven rules of wealth creation.

1. Time is of essence:

Starting early is half work done. The best time to start investing was when you got your first pay cheque. The next best time was not today, but yesterday! There is no tomorrow, you have got to do it today if you are serious. We all know about the power of time and the power of compounding which can do wonders. But unless you don't start early or asap, the end date for the wonder to unfold will be too late. We have to get time on our side, else we would have to work doubly hard to make up for the lost time.

2. Saving aggressively matters:

Give a 5-year-old child her favourite ice-cream and ask her if she wants to eat it now or give it back and have two next month. What will she do? Often, we are no less than that 5-year-old kid when it comes to choosing between instant vs delayed gratification. We cut corners here and there to buy things we don’t need to show off before people whom we don't like. Frugality and minimalism and the in words today. Instead of spending on riches & luxury, it's always better to spend on upgrading yourself, learning, setting up side-business and save /invest in appreciating assets at the very least. The more focussed and aggressive you are today and the more you enjoy the journey, the sooner you will reach your destination.

3. Asset Allocation, is the key:

We often cannot see the forest for the trees. We lose sight of the big picture and spend more of our time in knowing which fund will perform the best, which is the next big multi-bagger, how my funds have performed, and so on. How does it matter even if your fund level performance is plus or minus a few percentages when it occupies only a fraction of your portfolio? Shouldn’t we really see the big picture? A typical household in India today has huge exposure to real estate and gold, occupying almost half of all the wealth. The other half is in financial assets where again bank deposits, government small saving plans, insurance investments, etc garner a large share. The lowest exposures are to equities and mutual funds - the products which are crucial to exponential wealth creation over the long term. What we are only suggesting is that everyone should have a well-balanced portfolio with the right exposure to the equity asset class as per the risk profile & returns expectations. This will have to be revisited, and the portfolio rebalanced from time to time, periodically and market event driven.

4. Emotions need to be tamed:

Many studies have found that equity markets have delivered very attractive returns over the long term, outperforming other asset classes. This is in spite of all wars, events, crises, pandemics, etc, etc. However, investors have rarely made those kinds of returns. And the reason is exactly these temporary aberrations which tested the conviction of investors and most investors unfortunately failed. Warren Buffett once said, “If you cannot control your emotions, you cannot control your money.” Our emotions and our behavioural biases often cloud our decisions and instead of acting rationally and against the herd mentality, we become part of the herd. We enter markets when it is late and exit early. With all the noise around us and all the easy information available, we try to time markets and make ‘smart’ decisions, when perhaps, even getting stranded on a lonely island without a mobile network would have proved to be financially more profitable! Remember, even refusing to do anything is doing something.

5. Diversification helps, but only to that extent:

We all know that diversification reduces the overall risk of your portfolio. The guiding principle is that not all assets will behave the same at the same time as they would carry different sets of risks and return factors. Diversification at the broad level is required also so that you can play that asset allocation game properly and as per a set strategy which can be executed on an ongoing, periodic basis. However, too much diversification into too many asset classes, products, etc would also mean that a lot of under performing assets sneak into your portfolio. You can’t really make good money betting on all horses in a race. Some experts are also of the extreme view that you diversify if you don't really know what you are doing. So it is a matter of the optimum balance, the right mix of a few important things. One may zero it down to say equity, debt and physical asset classes and have exposure to select financial products /securities within these asset classes and again some limited diversification w.r.t. fund categories, AMC, market-cap, sectors, duration /time to maturity, underlying instruments, etc within these products.

6. Don't miss out on wealth preservation /protection:

All it takes to wipe out your wealth is one unfortunate moment, or event in a lifetime. We have seen many cases around us where families have been pushed back on years of progress in life by a tragedy, business losses, court cases, crimes, accidents and so on. We can't control what can happen in life, although we can be careful. However, we can certainly control the financial repercussions originating from such events such that our financial well-being is not compromised and we are not left at the mercy of fate. Having proper insurance is one sure-shot way of minimizing financial losses and suffering. There are many products out there, both personal and non-personal out there can protect us financially. Explore products related to life, health, personal accident, critical illness, home, motor, fire, travel, shopkeepers, professional indemnity, etc to minimize your financial suffering. The other way to minimize financial risks in life is to not take unnecessary risks (avoidance) and huge bets.

7. Build on yourself. Build multiple sources of income:

One thing very common in all self-made millionaires is that they take themselves seriously. They are clear on what they want, they are focused and passionate, have built good habits, have strong character and display behaviour in line with their image and goals in life. They invest in people, in learning, developing their knowledge and skills, and building networks. Often, they don’t risk everything on one product alone, even though they may be committed to one idea. They would have multiple sources of income, diversifying to things which interest them. They would try to automate /outsource /partner with or hire people in such a way that these different sources of income take very little time of their own. For them, money is not the destination or end goal but its journey, the game that excites them. This is what sets up apart from all of us on the wealth creation journey. Picture yourself what you want to become and be that today.

Have you wondered why your fund seems to have delivered fantastic returns and yet your returns have been on the lower side? Well you are not alone. Any market investment can be said to give two types of returns or performance - first its actual market returns /performance and second, the returns /performance of the investor holding the investment. Most of us would think that the two should be similar, in the same range. However, often the reality is quite different, especially in the long run.

Investor behaviour has been identified as one factor with the highest impact on long-term outcomes. In fact, there is a complete field of studies dedicated to this aspect called as ‘behavioural finance’. The field of behavioural finance deals with investor behaviour in the real world as opposed to the mainstream market assumptions that the market is efficient, and all players act rationally to make optimum decisions to maximise their gains. However, behavioural finance studies have countered this and has shown that there are social, emotional and cognitive factors impacting our investment decisions and we do not really end up investing rationally, which is what we think we do. These behavioural biases undermine our decision-making and impact the investor performance or long-term success in investing. This is much more common than we think and results in the ‘behavioural gap’ that we are alluding to. 

Behavioural Gap:  

Facts and historical evidence across different markets and multiple studies have proven that the market performance has been much higher than the investor performance in the same market /investment across different countries and spanning over many decades. The results are often the same, irrespective of even investment horizon. This difference between the return an investment organically produces over a fixed time frame, and the return an investor in that very investment actually earns, is coined as ‘behaviour gap’.

There is a popular research report published every year by DALBAR on ‘Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior’ for past 22 years. Here are the brief extracts from the report for the period ending on 31st December 2022:

As can be clearly seen, the broad stock market in the US has outperformed the average equity fund investor by a huge margin, almost 50%, over the 30-year period. Interestingly, the out performance is seen across all holding periods. Similar results were seen in almost all the past studies carried by DALBAR. Results have been on similar lines by many more studies. 

Closer home too, a recent study done by one domestic fund house for the period from 2003 to 2022 showed that the equity funds delivered impressive returns of 19.1%, but the investor returns were just at 13.8%. The out performance of nearly 38%, compounded, over nearly 20 years of investment is very alarming to say the least. 

The verdict is simple - even though the Indian equity investor has created wealth, outperforming all other asset classes over the past two decades, he has clearly missed creating many more multiples of wealth creation due to his behaviour. 

What should investors do?

As witnessed, one of the biggest roadblocks to investing success is investor behaviour, often driven by biases and emotions. Investors let their biases and emotions dictate their investment decisions. We have often spoken of the cycle of ‘Fear - Greed - Hope’ seen in the markets. Investors typically panic and sell when markets correct and become greedy and buy when markets have moved up. However, avoiding our personal biases, and emotions and making rational decisions in real life is a tough task. 

On the positive side, there are many famous and successful investors whom we know by names and still many who are silently enjoying their success around us. These are investors who have overcome the factors we spoke about above, made fewer mistakes, corrected themselves in time and then played the game well in the long term. So what would distinguish these successful investors and the average equity fund investor? 

Successful investors have been found to portray certain characteristics, unlike average investors. They are more rational, they do not let personal biases impact investment decisions, they are more patient and do not let emotions cloud their judgement, are more focused on the wealth creation journey rather than the money, are research and data-oriented, and they keep the big, long-term picture in mind. As common investors, this can be a lot to digest and copy at one go but we surely can learn and dig deeper into each aspect of our investment journey. 

The true role of mutual fund distributors /investment advisors:

There is an interesting thing. Investors who are guided by qualified experts say, experienced mutual fund (MF) distributors or investment advisors, are likely to have outperformed the average investor. The true role of your MF distributor is not to find the top-performing fund or service your queries. The true role is of managing and even controlling investor behaviour - making sure that factors like personal biases, emotions, ill information, lack of knowledge, etc, do not impact your investment decisions. They would make sure to push you to save and invest more, motivate you to see the big picture and at times, even disagree with you, see the big picture which you do not see and give you conviction and confidence when you need it the most. That’s the true, invaluable role that your mutual fund distributor plays and one cannot really put a price on this or quantify this in terms of the value it can bring to your financial journey. What we can assume though is that if we do follow and seek guidance from our MF distributors /advisors, we would be able to bridge the investor’s behavioural gap by a large extent. With just a couple of percentage differences, there can be life-changing for you when compounded over the long term. 

Conclusion: 

The behaviour gap is the reason we often feel that we have failed to create wealth as much as we could have, given the impressive historical performance of the equity markets. More than timing the markets or product /fund selection, it is how we behave and make decisions at the overall portfolio level that truly matters. It is time for us to also acknowledge this fact, focus inwards and find ways of becoming better investors with time, knowledge and experience. Surely, we are supported and guided by our MF distributors /advisors in this journey. What is also needed is that we listen to them more, make decisions and take action. And let deep, meaningful conversations take place.

As investors most of us feel that creating wealth requires an active approach on our part. Frequent portfolio churning, be it stocks or mutual funds, multiple trading and demat a/cs and at the end of the year, managing the capital gains tax component. While some of us may feel that active management is the way to create wealth, let us understand how we can create wealth by just being passive investors.

LIQUID FUNDS:
This is one of the most underrated mutual fund product categories in the Indian MF space. Why? As investors, we tend to leave a lot of money lying around in our savings and current a/cs for liquidity or emergency reasons. We may have also come across investors for whom having a large bank balance is a matter of prestige and topic of discussion and comparison in their friends' circles. This fantasy is further fueled by the big private banks who provide goodies like high value credit cards with free add-on cards, international debit cards with high daily withdrawal limits, stylish looking cheque books with Platinum or Gold customer mentioned on the cheque leaves and a dedicated relationship manager to take care of all your needs. The only person who benefits in this whole game is the bank and of course, the relationship manager. The poor investor is worse off as over a period of time the money lying in the savings and current a/cs has actually de-grown if we consider the impact of taxes and inflation.

Solution:
Open a liquid MF a/c through NJ E-Wealth A/c which provides online buy / sell facilities through the mobile device of your choice. The entire process is paperless and also helps save the environment. You get your money back in 1 working day and the returns, depending on the option selected, can be either tax free dividends or capital gains. Some MFs also provide you with an ATM card which can be used at the bank of your choice for withdrawing upto 50% of your liquid fund balance. The card can also be used to pay for your groceries at supermarkets.

EQUITY LINKED TAX SAVING SCHEMES (ELSS):
This is a favourite with tax payers who want to take risk in their portfolio. The scheme has a lock in of 3 calendar years after which you are free to withdraw the money whenever you choose to do so. The money invested in year 1 can be redeemed in year 4 and reinvested to claim tax benefits for that year. Similarly, the money invested in year 2 can be redeemed and reinvested in year 5. This cycle can go on endlessly. The benefits to you are two-fold, namely: Tax benefits u/s 80C and market-linked capital appreciation. As an investor, you need to invest for only 3 years after which it becomes a self-generating investment.

PROPERTY:
Investors who are matured and have a large surplus can look at investing in property. The benefits to you are multi-fold. To start with, you can claim tax benefits if you buy the property on loan. Secondly, if you put the property on rent, you can generate a monthly income for yourself. Thirdly, this monthly income can increase over time. Finally, the property will also appreciate in value. If we were to do a survey of people who have taken a housing loan for a period ranging from 15 – 25 years, the interesting fact that will emerge is that majority of the borrowers tend to pay off the loan much before maturity. Thereby, saving on the interest component. Therefore, it makes immense sense to buy a house on borrowed funds and try to pay off the loan before maturity. You may then look at taking another property on loan and repeating the same process. The monthly EMIs can be funded from the income being generated from the earlier property. The result can be a chain of properties earning regular passive monthly income.

All the options mentioned above are applicable to salaried as well as self employed investors. The options are simple and easy to execute and, hopefully will not take much of your time. If the passive options are well executed, you may end up as a wealthy investor at the end of the day thanks to passive income. A word of caution: none of this will happen over night. It will require time and patience from you. The power of compounding requires time to work in your favour and help you create wealth. The legendary investor Warren Buffett once said:

"No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant."