OF YOU AND ME...

 Few Observations and lessons
The human mind and the body must never remain idle.
Last week I underwent what could be called as a culmination of a long delayed medical condition into a surgery.
Though it was what the doctors call a minor surgery but since it involved anesthesia it actually can have some serious connotations.
As soon as I knew about it before going to the hospital I made a few preparations and also during my stay in the hospital I realised some very important points that I would like to share with you. These points have nothing to do really with your financial independence or medical insurance as you may think, but they are definitely a big part of it.

First thing that I realised is that, during such times however your family may be whatever be the size and however well placed the relatives maybe only people who come helpful are your immediate friends near your house and your neighbours. Whether you are a Mariner or not, it is very important to develop good healthy circle and tolerate your neighbours even if they are not so kind in normal Times.
Having a good social circle and regular touch with friends is your blessing.
Next is the fact that do not hesitate to ask for help from your friends or neighbours.

Secondly what ever be your financial position, however big be your investment portfolio, however fantastic maybe your insurance plans, they mean nothing  if you have not familiarised your family with the procedures to be followed for getting that money.
Even if you have made the best arrangements your post survival but all that information is in your laptop or the cloud it means nothing. Ensure that all the login passwords for email accounts apps net banking are written down in a small diary and kept safely with the person who will look after you in case of an emergency.
Ensure that however young you may be  write out a will and have it attested by two witnesses who are known to your family . (As suggested by a friend of mine one of these witnesses should be a doctor.)
A simple hand written will in simple language without any ambiguity ,clearly mentioning the person or persons as your legal heir is sufficient, there is no need for it to be written on a stamp paper or be registered even though doing so it's desirable.
Thirdly ,I felt that one should make out one's survival kit having the necessary medication ,toothbrush ,spectacles, undergarments ,a spare charger, for such emergencies.a small amount of cash can also be kept with this emergency kit.
Fourthly, the diary that I mentioned above can be kept in this emergency survival kit and the first pages must have the entire information about yourself.
Fifthly: if you your spouse or family member is a diabetic ,or allergic to anything then this fact must be displayed in a small card and kept in the wallet or displayed on the emergency kit. you can have a small card printed out and laminated and stuck to the survival kit for the entire family if it helps.
Apart from these few things
you can add to this list which includes the card for cashless hospitalization or numbers that need to be informed in case the person is admitted in a different city.

Apart from this I realised the fact that I had been ignoring the medical insurance that we seek and take for ourselves is actually very minuscule.
Earlier I used to suggest super top up policies but having utilised my time in the hospital to search for better products I feel that the high sum insured products should be considered as they do not really  hike the premium.
I will wait for your feedback to update this article.

Journal 21st March 2020

This weekend presents itself with a unique opportunity!

Two days  of complete introspection;  two days when you can actually and officially cut yourself off from everyone around the world and dwell into your self.

You can check what and how things in your life are actually beyond your control.

You can also check your Financial preparedness and the effect that past 1 month has had on your reserves. When the market or any event is in action one is not able to think objectively.

Not able to plan for future.

The Friday that was yesterday was starkly different from the previous Friday the 13th.

If you like to make any inferences out of it and draw lessons out of it, it would be hugely rewarding in future.

Point 1 : when you see the market going up you normally only check the broad-based sensex or Nifty and declare when the market is up.

 However for broad based and an all encompassing rally or rise in the market you must check the other indices also like the mid Cap and small cap indices; Nifty 100, Nifty 200 and of course the Nifty 500.

If you will check yesterday's induce, all across the board there was a 5% + increment. This is actually very heartening. Because it shows that even in the face of such adversity there was an all round interest in the market.

 

Point 2: These incidents in the past month or even the past week give you an opportunity to to check the beta of your portfolio against the  market conditions. Beta means that  that for one unit of rise in the market how much did our portfolio rise or fall.

Point 3:

This is also the time to check the individual funds that you hold as to how the rise and fall on daily basis against the benchmark index that they follow. Mutual funds houses may adopt a benchmark which is more suitable to their results but from your point of view you have to see where you are getting better returns or are losing more money than others.

If you will check the various funds and how they gained yesterday you will find that index funds and the index ETFs did better than most of the funds.

Finally of course if you wish to interact with me  and other members of the group then this weekend is a better time to do it.

We can even hold video conferencing on WhatsApp for upto 4 people at a time.

Have a happy weekend and productive isolation.