Tenth anniversary musings

 Tenth anniversary musings

… And so today I complete 10 years of exiting my career and sole means of livelihood and maybe to others what may seem as the only identity that a person bears.

I have tried to write something about my life into self-imposed retirement, almost on every anniversary, but nothing ever made any sense; and that may have been it is a point in life, which maybe , has no bearing to anyone else.

…And why should it be?

A person is born as a piece of statistics every second and is only important to his mother or his immediate family. Slowly as he keeps growing he keeps finding out that he’s actually of no importance to others and his life actually makes no difference to this vast World.

Like every other human being, capable of doing something… he keeps doing something for himself to grow his small feathers which can make him capable of flying in this world. The process keeps on till he further gives birth to another human being and imposes his will on that entity by giving his selected name, religion, nationality, and further subdivisions that Society can recognize him with.

Very soon with the passage of time he finds that his agile body does not remains so anymore and his spine, which could at one time help him stand in the face of this world … now starts getting a little bent, but not flexible.

This inflexibility does not remain restricted to his body, but becomes a part of his beliefs and psyche, and it refuses to change but expects that everyone should adjust to his ways of thinking… how comical is that?

As a male and probably some female too, all that remains of its identity and entity is the profession that he has been known with. Even in the modern world, he is no different than the other menial task carriers of century old underprivileged people who were known by the profession that they carried out . Just like people were known with the surname of leather workers or pottery workers or jewelers, etc. even in the higher economic group their only identity was that of engineer, Dr , chartered, accountant, politician, etc..

He never tried to show to this world, his other facet of his personality, which actually make up one’s character.

It is this conventional image that I wished to shake up and shake off. Having taken up the profession of an engineer, rather very reluctantly I did feel very proud of it as long as I practiced it because it helped me keep my brain working and the fire in the hearth burning.

However , all through my career and life I was very sure that I had to only work as much as it could provide the means to sustain my future life and no more.

Even in my childhood, I could see thousands and thousands of people getting up in the morning and rush into the jobs coming back in the evening and at the end or beginning of the month getting some paltry money which just about kept them alive. Of course, this was not applicable to those who did the conventional jobs which could sustain the society, but even to those of the creative and artistic Creed, like writers, poets, musicians, singers, actors, etc. Almost everyone had very sporadic bursts of financial means which somehow could not sustain him or his family for life and do some good manage to keep their head above water. Most of them died in abject penury and tuberculosis.

I knew I had to change this. I also knew that I had to change it not only for myself, but those who worked with me and those worked like me and around me. 

What I did and I am doing in that direction is known many and there is absolutely no need of going into that but I did realize one thing that be it artistic independence or search of spirituality it did not come to a hungry stomach and it was absolutely no romance in being poor.

Certainly , having too much of financial muscle and too much affluence did make one arrogant insensitive, and disconnected from the society but it also goes without saying that the absence of financial means made one weaker.

Now 10 years into that unknown world of getting up on the morning of 17th November, and not being answerable to anyone was quite a heady feeling and certainly not scary.

My career at see certainly did allow me to feel arrogant and humble (at the same time ) Apna about two things.

Firstly, that once we were outside the port limits of any country, we were beyond the laws and rules of any entity and any political power of this world . Your survival at sea was not dependent upon the political laws laid down by any constitution, but by your own good behavior amongst your comrades and colleagues. There were many who flouted this cardinal rule and ended up at the bottom of the sea.

Second aspect that I realized almost in the first week at sea was that we are almost like paper boats in the hands of the five elements that we saw around us. When I used to read the news about countries and individuals fighting against each other I used to and still do feel pity and compassion at them and their small thinking. Nobody even realizes that they are nothing but small specs , lesser than the dust, in the hands of nature and it takes less time to extinguish them than the flame of burning candle.

However, the morning of 16th November, when I disembarked last time from my last vessel at Amsterdam I was certainly emotional, but very determined and upbeat about my future life and was telling almost everyone from the boat driver to the immigration that it was the last time that they saw me as a sailor.The past decade has mercifully seen me putting on so many caps and masks and trying out every activity that could satisfy various urges of my physical and mental existence on this planet. I succeeded with all of them to varying degrees because when you have set your own goals, you can never fail. 

A Sailor’s career prepares himself for one thing and that is immense faith  in himself. When at sea he knows one thing that except the five elements and his interaction with them , there is nothing and nobody who can come to his Assistance and Rescue. A similar parallel could not be extended to his personal and family life. it was this that I wanted to work on.

At the end of these 10 years of retired life, I have moderately succeeded up  in bringing independence to the financial life of a sailor and make him strong enough to stand on his own without the support of any government or his employer or society.

I have absorbed in a few cases that where a mariner has financial independence, he could still be troubled with various mental phobia and agony because of low self esteem. I am working on this by creating various interactive groups, specially for people who are in the age group where they have to prepare to quit sea .

Members of my brethren did not see me as a person teaching the tenants of financial independence to them, but give me the rare privilege of looking into their most intimate and private life, and help them with various traumas that they were facing .

All this did make me more tender and receptive, but it certainly did not slow down the process of my aging . The physical activity through regular regimen could not still keep the same level of agility as it was on board. Within a short time, I developed various issues because of long driving that I enjoyed and extended period of sitting in meditation..

Now, when I look at the decaying body in the mirror it does not sadden me because I feel that I have gone beyond the body by utilizing every day and every moment to live; and living or enjoying not in the conventional or hedonistic way, but beyond that by utilizing every unit of time and every cell of the body for others. 

My practice of the Vipassana oriented meditation taught me objectivity and not torturous methods of organized faiths.

And know when I looked towards the seventh decade of my physical existence, I wish to do it without any significant change or variation without any grandiose plans .

I do not wish to change the world. I do not wish to make it a better place to Live. Because I know, and I realize that it will change as itwishes to do.

I want no remembrances of it, and I do not wish the world to remember me either .

I do not wish to be known as a person who made any mark in this world or leave any indelible signs. 

I know better than that than to expect all this.

A person on this planet is only capable of just being there How important he may seem to himself he will be forgotten, almost as soon as he exits.

So all that one should aspire for is discovering peaceful way of going into the deep slumber from which no one rises again. If it can be done painlessly, he has succeeded if not, then he should Try better in the next world.

Children and their Foundations

 Today’s ET Wealth had an article about teaching equity investment to teenagers, and there was a case study shown of a 16-year-old who had been using the trading account of his father.
For the first time I felt cheated that such a great publication can actually misguide the youngsters
Instead of actually teaching children about the basic concepts of economics and how it helps to build up national and personal wealth, the publishing articles which will actually detrack and distract the youngsters.
As it is a large number of youngsters have lost phenomenal wealth by doing trading after the lockdown because they got into the habit of it during the Covid lockdown.
Now by doing this, they are targeting the younger age group, which should actually be learning about fundamental subjects to build a great edifice of their life on it.
Or simply teach the children how an individual or a company or any organized entity helps in building the nation that should be good enough .
Simply teaching those children the basics of Bank and banking should also be good enough .
What we need to teach children is that our WANTS are unlimited, but MEANS are always limited .
What we need to teach children is that they have choices to make, and what other factors which can help them in making those choices .
Please do not get swayed by such articles and misguide your children. There are so many things that your children need to learn along with their sciences and other aspects of life.
Please do not be shortsighted by teaching them about simply trying to make money by the stock market instead of concentrating on their profession .
Even I am of the opinion that finance as a subject should be taught in schools, but that does not mean that we start teaching children how to play with fire when it is hardly required .
Please be careful.

The glorious past and us

Ref: a YouTube video was posted as a conspiracy theory questioning why Mount Everest was not named after an Indian.

You can’t take away the fact that Sir George Everest surveyed not only India or the Indian subcontinent but even as far as New Zealand.

Event today in India, the milestones are the ones that were laid down by the British with the help of the Gurkha Regiment. I am surprised that they are not demarcated in miles but rather kilometers and meters. How many of you have seen the subclass stones which are laid out every 200 m.

The office where Radhanath Sikdar calculate the height of Mount Everest and rushed to the surveyor generals office is 3 km from my home.

We must give the credit to the British that they did not name the peak in the name of any Emperor or Empress of the time, but in the name of the employee .

I don’t know why do we get excited every time you see a video indicating the glorious past of India? 

We must not forget that it was some enlightened people of the British and the French colonies, who made us realize our own great scriptures, and are great past .

Our forefathers and ancestors may have made discoveries but they were all lost to us and we were making precious little use of it if you make the exception of  Sawai Jaisingh who made 5 Jantar Mantars.

We keep harping upon Charak , Sushrut , Patanjali and the like.

But why in 3000 years, we could not set up a strong healthcare system with organized clinics and hospitals .

Surely the diseases were not that new that they did not find mention in the scriptures.

It is also a fallacy that our ancient discovery and inventions were not recorded they are very much documented and are found, but only in English publications discovered and translated by the British.

The great Indus valley ,various buildings, Buddha viharas all were discovered by the British French or Portuguese.

We keep saying that Turks and mongols attacked us.

But why did they attack us and how did they manage to get a strong hold? 

How is it possible for someone to come and fight effectively with the resident army? 

All over the world there is a clear proof that the aggressor has never won a war In the land of the defender, then how was it that in India after the other foreigners had a foothOld but we never learnt any lessons.

We kept ourselves divided like the European countries before the first world war and for amongst ourselves exactly like the two world wars were fought.

Hell even the Kamasutra had to be discovered by someone and translated to us to

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Check the above Google coordinate 

Do you see that road called NainSingh Road?

All the blue part is actually within the campus of survey of India and the 150 m part connecting up to Canal Road is the one that is open to the public .

I have yet to meet a single person in Dehradun who either knows the name of this road or the importance of  Nain Singh.

The above video shows the importance of one man called Ramanath Sikdar.

Why no one knows about Nainsingh who was a spy of the survey of India and is the single person who has mapped the entire forbidden city of Lhasa. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nain_Singh

No one in the entire history of mankind before him was ever allowed to walk the streets of Lhasa .

He discovered and recorded the topography of entire Lasa with the help of a single compass and a thermometer which he used to Calc ululate the altitude of Lhasa because he did not have an altimeter.

Our glorious past has everything to do with the annihilation of Buddha and his teachings and his followers whom we threw out and decimated within 500 years of his existence.

Had his teachings not been retained by a small country called Burma- he was lost till the world

We all know that the martial arts were developed by the Buddhist monks, but nobody ever tried to find out why they did it.

After all what things of material importance would this monk have that could be looted by the thieves as they were flying to Japan, China, and other countries why would their life be at risk? 

We ourselves don’t like to ask questions .

After reading the above wiki article on Nain Singh Rawat would you even for a second not call him a Risshi or a researcher.

His knowledge was simple and pure- nothing about British or ancient , it was just knowledge.

The British never disapproved of our astronomical knowledge ( pun intended) or our discovery of zero. 

They probably built modern edifices on our ancient knowledge.

I am not an Anglophile but I do like to mention quite often that when we were fighting was with each other, Shakespeare was penning masterpieces that we torture our children with now.

So we don’t know if the war was more dangerous or Shakespeare 😊

Compounding of Businesses - A practical case study

 Compounding of Businesses 

There are plethora of articles on the net and quotes regarding compounding and how it works magically or like wonder of the world. 

Just like compounding works organically for an individual. It works for a business also, and the process gets magnified and expedited if the processes and business practices are ethical and dependable.

I will relate once such business and the owner to you.

On 6 of June 2002 a youngster came for an appointment with me as a mutual fund advisor or distributor as an employee of a not a very well known brokerage firm. He arrived half an hour late by when I had decided to leave for some other place .

We met the next day and I told him that the first step of credibility is being punctual. He never gave me another chance to repeat myself.

I had already been investing in mutual funds for some years after my extended interaction with Mr. Shanbhag. But having found a new person closer home, I started challenging his intellect and observing his business practices.

It’s not that we would agree upon every fund that I invested in, but he always had a reason of suggesting a particular fund to me.

In a span of five years, he won my heart and mind so much so that I persuaded him to resign from his company and set up his own advisory plus distribution business.

In 2007 shortly after he went solo, the entry load on mutual fund was scrapped, which was a direct loss of about 2.25% for any distributor and soon after the brokerages for distributors were also reduced greatly to them below 0.3%. 

The very next year, there was a global meltdown because of American banking system, causing almost 0 inflows in equity.

In 2013 the Direct mode of MF purchase also affected business for distributors 

At times I felt guilty at suggesting him to go independent and offered to share his business and personal expenses, but he was not to be affected and he marched on.

It took roughly 11years to accumulate AUM of One hundred crores. The next hundred crores came in just 3 1/2 years. … and last week going on the reverse he was giving party to the mutual fund industry for reaching 300 crores in just two years.

At this point, it is important to note that a very small amount may have come by way of new and fresh investments from his clients and roughly 30% must have come by the incremental wealth of his clients. And that precisely is his tagline . He does not believe in churning funds for his clients but says that ,“The only way I can benefit is by increasing your own wealth”

His reliability is such that people would trust their WILLS with him rather than their own family members. While working on board, I would leave the entire checkbooks and transaction slips signed with him for regular bulk purchases in case the market went down.

Against my strong advice during the Covid lockdown, he would regularly take his aging clients to AIIMS and other hospitals. 

Not only my friends, colleagues and relatives he has helped me generate meaningful wealth, for my domestic helps and many other people from the economically challenged background.

One thing that he started very late for himself was investing for his and his own family, and I am very proud to say that I cajole , monitor and reprimand him for various of his choices.

He must be the only distributor and financial advisor who listens to his client for his own investments.

Now putting a name to this compounding, wonder- ladies and gentlemen, let me present Pankaj Jaiswal , a profile in moral courage , patience and credibility .

 

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THE STORY OF COMMISSIONS AND OMISSIONS

One of my hobbies is to collect, collate and interpret data to get some sort of a story or trend into which humanity is moving on short and long term basis.
Today after reading a news item in which the employers of banks, insurance companies and wealth management companies (but not mutual fund companies) are incentivizing the exclusive foreign travels of their distribution network and employees promoted me to extract the data of aum under each industry.

The article that I want to write was in fact about the commissions but I am also going to give you some eye openers about crores of people like you who are called retail investors in common parlance.

Size of Indian Budget that finances the entire country--- ₹47,65,768 cr

AUM of MF industry-                 ₹58,91,160 crore. (Of which 58.1% is in equity mutual funds).

AUM of ENTIRE Insurance sector. -         ₹54,63,414 cr

Total deposits in Indian Bank s- 201,00,000. Cr
( AS FRONT RUNNERS OF FUTURE INDIA YOU MUST GET INTO THE HABIT OF USING THE TERM TRILLION FOR ONE LAKH CRORE)

(Source: PRSIndia.org ; business- standard.com, RBI.org.in)

Did you know that 88% of the equity investments in mutual funds is done by retail investor which includes small individual investors like me and the HNIs like you.
This is as opposed to only 16% of institutional investment ( domestic and Foreign )in the equity mutual funds.
Now furthering the discussion... 58% of the mutual fund outlay means 34.16 lakh crores OR ₹Tr are in equity MFs.
Taking a median expense ratio of 1.0% between regular and direct investments 0.34Tr₹ is the size of expense ratio that the AMCs collectively charge and distribute about 0.15- 0.30% to its distributors (depending upon the Tier cities) .
Now consider 35% of first premium and  5-10% of successive( of 54.163₹Tr) that insurance companies charge you , what do they do with that?
You guessed it right!!! That is the reason your insurance broker has a bigger car than you while insuring your life!!!
The lure is so strong that there are Insurance companies which have doctors, teachers, bankers ,tailors and even petrol pump attendants on private basis on their payroll.
A Seafarer from another WhatsApp group  is so convinced with Ulips that he takes one policy every time he comes back from ship.
His insurance company has placed so much of trust in him that they have made him an insurance advisor. Now of course he is compensated handsomely for the premium that he pays for himself.
Now that you have understood about the insurance let us move over to banking which has almost double the amount of deposits then either insurance or MF sector.

We have been need to understand that our bank deposits and money from saving account goes to nation building And in return we get taxable and below inflation returns. The gratitude that the government shows to the depositors is so great that it even deducts the tax at source above the gigantic limit of rupees 2500.

What the bank does with this deposit of yours... I have already discussed this in my book And you can go over it again to refresh your information.

The whole idea of this small exercise of mine this morning is to make you understand how each and every person out there( and that may include mutual fund companies as well) Is out to lighten your weight of your hard earned money.

I don't think the article will have any convincing effect on most hardliners but at least I have done my job.

Before I leave I would like to mention that I have intentionally left out the topic of real estate and other government aided schemes which punish you equally for the money that you give to them for safe keeping.
 

The intoxication of Merchant Navy : The life within

The intoxication of merchant Navy: the life within

Somewhere in 1975 sitting on the wooden tiles of Fraser assembly hall of my school and watching some English movie on a 17 MM projector, I saw the vast expanse of the sea on the screen and somewhere from the back I heard the word Merchant Navy.

That was my first introduction to the world of Shipping. It was certainly not a career that I desired at any time during my school ,on the contrary I used to dislike it.

But destiny plays with us, and God does not gamble with us, but also throws the dice in the dark as Einstein said… I landed on a ship through the college.

From the very first moment when I saw the vast ocean from the tiny moving island that I was on, I could feel the freedom in form of the cool breeze on my face. It was a freedom bordering on liberation Which soon was to become my second nature.

It is almost unimaginable for a person who has not spent more than a week at sea that what this freedom means.It is not the freedom away from worry and responsibility of the world, but it is certainly the freedom from any laws of any country.

Even though technically, we follow the laws of the country that we arrive in , but practically we’re governed by the laws of the flag of the country that we fly, which is mostly in a nondescript country of West African Coast Also called Flag of convenience.

But as most would know that 90% of the time when we are out in the open sea, a sailor is governed by the laws of nature alone, and his survival depends on the cooperation and compassion of his fellow mates.As I have often said that having million dollars in cash at this point on ship would not even get you one square meal.

Your worry is not the world food problem or the Indian GDP but how much food do you have in the refrigerator rooms below the deck.

Apart from food and fuel for the ship, the Sailor is not worried about anything. He is beyond the executive order of even the most powerful man on earth, and probably at par with the richest man in the world as far as basic necessity of life goes.

This freedom or independence give him a certain amount of self dependence or Atmaram-nirbharta as the buzzword is going around in the country. Soon our friendly sailor realizes that the only thing that can happen is what he will do on his own, and the only helping hand is at the end of his own shoulder.

But to me early on in my career it dawned that not only in matter of philosophy, but also in matter of economics and finances, the Mariner is largely left to fend for himself.

His employer does not worry about his future , his health or his life.He has no pension or retirement benefits.His family thousands of miles away is left equally to the mercy of God and relatives both of whom seem to disappear at crucial moments. It is all this that continues to weigh on his mind and preventing him from becoming the enlightened one.

Due to lack of any guidance, he continues to put away his money or his savings in land or other avenues, which he cannot liquidate when needed. In Earlier times, his salary was certainly superior to the cost of living of India, and so the land that he could buy was not what other people on land could.

All these things used to bother me in no uncertain terms and continue to do today because not everyone has become financially savvy. Even today I find people being distracted and diverted from their core competence and delving in businesses which are not capable of giving them returns that simple investment in equity could with almost zero risk .

Coming back to the initial topic of the intoxication of  freedom … it is important that this quality be channelized creatively in restructuring their finances  , personal matters, expressing themselves as writers , artists, motivators and leaders.

What sea gives us is not easy to replicate but easy to distribute. 

Jai Varun Devta !!!

The New Problem- Problem of Plenty

 

The New Problem- Problem of Plenty

Before I start this article I must clarify at the outset that though all people have started seeking me for assistance in planning their finances, my specialisation or rather focus remains for Mariners .

It is not because there is any difference in the numbers or the kind of money being handled but because I understand (or at least SELF-claim to understand) the psychology of my junior colleagues, their life and challenges.

It is without unfailing regularity that at least one or two senior officers are reporting achieving their retirement corpus every month. This is become certainly faster than what was happening earlier and the credit that I give to is the aspect of time or duration of the investment . They have been investing for and have remained invested.

Most of these people are young Masters and Chief Engineers who have just got their promotion and in many cases they have not even reached that top rank.

The reason why they phone and I come to know that they have reached their corpus is because after having reached their milestone their next step is automatically in the form of the question,  "can I take up the shore job in the office of my company".

Last week itself there were three people within a span of 24 hours who phoned for this reason but I would consider that a coincidence or a one off thing.

This is certainly a very beautiful problem where the person has achieved to accumulate what is required to spend a comfortable life and from this stage onwards if he does not touch this amount and let it grow it is going to reach some dizzying heights.

Now to deal with the question of plenty...

Whether the person should take up a shore job or not?

I have already made a video on this for Merchant Navy Decoded (you tube channel) But let me deal with this in readable words.

Mostly my advice to them s to evaluate for themselves that do they need that job for a reason or are they considering it the next step in their professional career.

Is it because they feel that they will get more time with their family or is it because they have seen their contemporaries doing so. The sailing life has certainly become a lot more challenging (read as TOUGH) than before and almost certainly risky too with the fast changing Geo-political conditions.

But leaving a career or changing stream only for this cannot be a smart move. By moving to the shore management you will not be able to escape the ship visits even though the duration on ship may reduce but number of visits maybe more than before- taking the travelling time to be higher than before.

Another important aspect that one must consider ( and this is based on the first hand experience of my other contemporaries) that the nature of job ashore will not change with the new designations in form of promotions that you will get.

In line with the above statement my advice to those trying to change their career graph are two:

1. If you stay in shipping career (even though ashore)- Keep your licenses and documents valid and not let them expire.
2. Use your time ashore by gaining extra qualification - preferably in non shipping stream. You may gain the qualification within the shipping stream but try to get the best higher education.

Now suppose after reading above you decide that you do not wish to leave shipping to settle for a shore based career for whatever reason it may be. Then please do not suddenly go off track and lose control on yourself and start splurging your resources, and by this I don't only mean spending on expensive things but also by starting a business in unrelated areas simply on the behest of your good friends or gooder relatives.

The risk that I have pointed out in " The Seafarer's Story " in the begining of my book - still lurks stronger now because you have the resources now which act like honey for the bees.

You maybe inclined to try your hand at business- but it maybe a good idea to do it without your own money or learning about it by working for someone in that field. Entrepreneurship certainly does not mean burning your on money. In fact as I understand- it is all about finding ​***atic who can lend it to you for burning.

These are things that I have warned you against not doing but it will be unfair if I quit without pointing out where you should or could find your bearings.

You can certainly start by doing the things which you could not because you did not have sufficient time or maybe not resources to buy the necessary equipment. You could start by writing that book or making that long travelogue.

Discovering yourself by looking inwards Through various meditation techniques could certainly help you in focusing or other than spreading yourself very thin.

You could certainly start studying for a different courier all together as a lot of people have done earlier. Engineers have become lawyers and navigators have become company owners and educationists. There is certainly no limit today and the limit can only be because of your imagination.

So please solve your problem of plenty in a holistic way which can benefit you , your family and certainly the society which has helped you become what you are.